<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 14, 2018, at 1:38 PM, Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" class="">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
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Counterpunch authors (Cockburn, Cohen, Goodman in recent articles) seem to have bought into the US-UK-France-…
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<div class="">tale that Syria (and Russia) used chemical weapons in Syria (and England).
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<div class="">Watch, instead arevealing interview from England: <a href="https://youtu.be/F0ds2TUpB4M" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">https://youtu.be/<wbr class="">F0ds2TUpB4M</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(12, 52, 61); color: rgb(12, 52, 61); font-size: large;" class=""> </span></div>
</div></div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div>From the editor of Counterpunch:</div><div><br class=""></div><div><div class="">+ I have no idea who was behind the ghastly chemical weapons attack
in Douma. But I do know that prolonged wars make these kinds of
atrocities almost inevitable, even by armies which are on the verge of
victory: Wounded Knee, Dresden, Nagasaki, Grozny, Fallujah. So what is
the response of the foreign policy elites, both Republican and Democrat?
More war, more massacres…</div><p class="">+ Here’s an idea, Donald. Boast all you want about how smart your
bombs are. How powerful they are. And when you’re going to launch them
and how big the craters will be …. then <em class="">don’t</em> do it. Millions will back your crafty deception.</p><p class="">+ Before testifying at his Senate confirmation hearings, Mike Pompeo Maximus <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/10/pompeo-hearing-state-clinton-512155" class="">consulted with Hillary Clinton</a>
on how to handle himself as Secretary of State. HRC to Pompeo: “First
bomb the hell out of Syria, launch a few cruise missiles at Tehran and
then send NATO into Crimea. Pick up the phone by at least the second
ring whenever Bibi calls. Never send emails to anyone dating Anthony
Weiner…”</p><p class="">+ Pompeo Maximus promptly announced that the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-04-11/top-state-dept-nominee-soft-policy-toward-russia-over" class="">“soft” approach</a> to Russia was over, then bragged about the US killing 400 Russian mercenaries in Syria. Diplomacy by predator drone.</p><p class="">+ Pompeo Maximus at Thursday’s hearing:</p>
<blockquote class=""><p class="">Q. Did Trump ever ask you to do anything improper in regard to the Russia probe?</p><p class="">A. No.</p><p class="">Q. What did Trump ask you to do?</p><p class="">A. I don’t recall.</p></blockquote><p class="">+ Pompeo’s bombastic performance convinced at least one mouthpiece of the Washington elite, the Bezos Post, which gave him its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/confirm-mike-pompeo/2018/04/12/64735280-3e6e-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html?utm_term=.3ee9db2eaa9e" class="">editorial blessing</a>.</p><p class="">+ Washington is throbbing with talk about the tragedy of Paul Ryan.
But Ryan started out wanting to starve the poor, keep the sick from
getting health care and kick elderly people out of their homes and onto
the streets. Is it possible to have a tragic fall from the depths of
those beginnings?</p><p class="">+ As he often does, Steve Bannon described Ryan more bluntly: “A
limp-dick motherfucker who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage
Foundation.” [From Joshua Green’s revealing chronicle of Bannon’s role
as Trump’s political Svengali, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735225044/counterpunchmaga" class="">Devil’s Bargain</a>.]</p><p class="">+ Rarely has a Congress been so eager to give up the little power
that it still retains. Paul Ryan announced his view that Congress has <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/382892-ryan-no-need-for-congress-to-authorize-syria-strikes" class="">no need to authorize</a>
or even debate military action against the Assad regime. James Madison
would surely object, pointing the Speaker to Article I, Section 8,
Clause 11…Read it again, Ryan. Once upon a time you & your gang
pledged to uphold it. All those Federalist Society junkets these
congressional hucksters went on from Key Biscayne to Jackson Hole and
none of them ever took the time to read the Federalist Papers.</p><p class="">+ If Trump launches cruise missiles on Syria to distract from the
Stormy/Cohen saga, he will once again be following the template of the
president he most resembles, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/12/the-missiles-of-august" class="">Bill Clinton</a>…</p><p class="">+ The French claim they’ve <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-france-has-proof-bashar-al-assad-used-chemical-weapons-syria/" class="">unearthed proof</a>
that Assad was responsible for the Douma chemical weapons attack. If
so, there’s still no international or constitutional authority for a
strike on the Syrian regime. Any military strike will constitute a de
facto war crime, at least as grievous as the one they are allegedly
responding to…</p><p class="">+ Hundreds of thousands of Resisters© have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/mueller-firing-rallies-trnd/index.html" class="">signed a pledge</a>
to take to the streets if Trump fires Robert Mueller, but where are the
people signing up to stop Trump from firing another 60 cruise missiles
into Syria? The firing of Mueller may or may not happen. In fact, it’s
increasingly unlikely, because Republicans are freaking out that the
sacking of Mueller might cost them both the Senate and the House in the
upcoming midterm elections. There’s a moral danger to the nation when
the Constitution and international law are flouted to commit murder in
our name. Trump has vowed to strike Syria in brazen violation of
international law. The streets should fill with protesters intent on
stopping it.</p><p class="">It is, of course, possible, even obligatory, to protest both.</p><p class="">+ Number of Syrian refugees: 5 million, more or less.</p><p class="">Number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States:</p>
<blockquote class=""><p class="">2016: 15,479<br class="">
2017: 3,024<br class="">
2018: 11</p></blockquote><p class="">+ Fresh from a dinner with Trump at the White House, where he says he advised the President on <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/4/11/dershowitz-trump-meeting/" class="">Middle East policy</a>
(heads up Syria, look out Iran), Alan Dershowitz, who seems to be
angling for a position on Trump’s defense team, denounced Robert Mueller
in the friendly confines of the <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/media/382811-dershowitz-to-hannity-a-special-counsel-can-manufacture-crimes-against-anybody" class="">Sean Hannity Show</a>, charging that special prosecutors can “manipulate crimes against anybody.”</p><p class="">+ In fact, the batting average for Special Counsels is really pretty
paltry. Archibald Cox was fired, Nixon resigned and was pardoned before
Leon Jaworski could indictment or issue a report, Ken Starr flopped,
Patrick Fitzgerald failed to indict Karl Rove and saw Scooter Libby’s
sentence commuted. Lawrence Walsh prepared iron-tight cases against the
Iran/contra cabal and had the convictions of Oliver North and John
Poindexter overturned and Cap Weinberger pardoned by George HW Bush.</p><p class="">The original Left, of course, germinated under the protective cover of a special prosecutor named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Quentin_Fouquier-Tinville" class="">Antoine Fouquier de Tinville</a>, from whose immaculate judgments there was no appeal…</p><p class="">+ Speaking of Scooter Libby, Trump is preparing to pardon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/politics/trump-pardon-scooter-libby.html" class="">the neocon martyr</a>
just as he prepares to commit fresh war crimes in the Middle East.
Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, who won Libby’s conviction
on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame
affair, was appointed by…<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/us/special-counsel-is-named-to-head-inquiry-on-leak.html" class="">James Comey</a>. (A not-so-covert signal to Trump’s co-conspirators to hang tough and they will be saved?)</p><p class="">+ Despair no more, Tiffany, you may not be the only neglected <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/12/17230498/donald-trump-national-enquirer-child-30000-doorman-joe-mika-payoff-hush-money-scandal-housekeeper" class="">Trump offsprin</a>g…</p><p class="">+ IDF: Israel’s Depraved Forces…After a sniper shot an unarmed Palestinian protester in Gaza, another soldier praised his “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/10/video-shows-israeli-snipers-cheering-direct-hit-on-palestinian-protester/?utm_term=.33369173d329" class="">legendary clip</a>.”</p><p class="">+ Gazans and born poor, born occupied, born targets, and, according to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/no-innocent-people-gaza-says-israeli-defence-minister-1155018849" class="">born guilty</a>…</p><p class="">+ How rancid has MSDNC become? On the day North Korea re-committed to
putting de-nuclearization on the table, the “prime time bomber” network
runs this…</p><p class=""><img class="wp-image-101290 size-large alignnone" src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/msdncnuke-510x382.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/msdncnuke.jpg 510w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/msdncnuke-300x225.jpg 300w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/msdncnuke-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" height="382" width="510"></p><p class="">+ Cruelty as Policy: In a matter of days, Trump signed an executive order requiring <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382557-trump-signs-order-calling-for-work-requirements-in-welfare-programs" class="">burdensome work requirements</a> for mothers on welfare and announced his plans to make food stamp recipients undergo <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382731-trump-considering-mandatory-drug-testing-for-food-stamps" class="">drug screening</a>. (Trump once licensed his name to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whatever-happened-to-trump-ties-theyre-over-so-is-most-of-trumps-merchandising-empire/2018/04/13/2c32378a-369c-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html?utm_term=.fd31922510fb" class="">urine testing company</a>.)</p><p class="">+ There’s never been a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/poverty-is-moving-to-the-suburbs-the-war-on-poverty-isnt-keeping-up/2018/04/05/cd4bc770-3823-11e8-9c0a-85d477d9a226_story.html?utm_term=.1d8eedbdd556" class="">war on poverty</a>,” just “war on the poor” by other means….</p><p class="">+ It turns out that most of the brunt from NAFTA was borne by <a href="https://qz.com/1238504/nafta-hurt-wages-the-most-for-blue-collar-married-women/" class="">working-class married women</a>, whose wage growth was 33 percent less than men doing similar work.</p><p class="">+ Trump is considering rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
pact which he withdrew from with great fanfare on his first day in
office, proving once again that while the president might not be as
smart as a photon, he can often be found in two places at once…If he
actually moves forward with this plan, Trump will have undone his
greatest achievement as president.</p><p class="">+ The president was enraged by the FBI’s raid on Michael Cohen’s
offices and apartment, but hasn’t Trump been one of the biggest
champions of No-Knock Raids? Well, how do you like it now, Donald? If
the Cohen raid has you uptight, wait until the FBI starts
Stopping-and-Frisking White House staffers & cabinet members on
their nightly migrations to Le Diplomate…</p><p class="">+ Where were the rightwing defenders of attorney-client privilege when the Bush administration jailed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/nyregion/lynne-stewart-dead-radical-leftist-lawyer.html" class="">Lynne Stewart</a>?</p><p class="">+ Stop infantilizing Mark Zuckerberg as a mere boy, <a href="https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/mark-zuckerberg-is-a-grown-ass-white-man-so-stop-tal-1825178220" class="">they say</a>, but he did require <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/04/10/mark-zuckerbergs-chair-capitol-hill-nice-big-extra-cushion/" class="">a booster cushion</a> for his senate testimony.</p><p class="">+ The following Senate Judiciary Committee members who grilled
Zuckerberg on privacy also voted to expand NSA spying on Americans…</p>
<blockquote class=""><p class="">-Chuck Grassley<br class="">
-Dianne Feinstein<br class="">
-Orrin Hatch<br class="">
-Sheldon Whitehouse<span class="text_exposed_show"><br class="">
-Lindsey Graham<br class="">
-John Cornyn<br class="">
-Ted Cruz<br class="">
-Ben Sasse<br class="">
-Jeff Flake<br class="">
-Thom Tillis<br class="">
-John Kennedy<br class="">
-Amy Klobuchar</span></p></blockquote><p class="">+ They’ll call you…</p><p class=""><img class="wp-image-101289 size-large alignnone" src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/DaLK_LyW4AAuK5U-510x503.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/DaLK_LyW4AAuK5U.jpg 510w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/DaLK_LyW4AAuK5U-300x296.jpg 300w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/DaLK_LyW4AAuK5U-768x757.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" height="503" width="510"></p><p class="">+ As one of his “reforms,” Zuckerberg is planning to turn over academic research on FaceBook data usage to the….<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/09/facebook-social-medias-impact-on-democracy-508776" class="">Charles Koch Foundation</a>. Feel better now, Facebookers?</p><p class="">+ The Republicans sure have come a long way since John Ashcroft
draped two statues of Lady Justice under black cloth because he got
uptight about her breasts…</p><p class="">+ In the latest betrayal from the man Ishmael Reed dubbed the Boho Gov (in his great book on Oakland, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400045401/counterpunchmaga" class="">Blues City</a>), Jerry Brown is bowing to Trump and sending <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/11/california-gov-brown-national-guard-mexico-border/" class="">400 National Guard</a> troops to the border. Meanwhile, in Oregon, Kate Brown is holding firm…</p><p class="">+ The <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/382490-california-gov-jerry-brown-endorses-sen-feinstein" class="">Jerry & DiFi Show</a> rolls on…</p><p class="">+ The biggest threat to Scott Pruitt’s (job) security is apparently
the EPA staffer who revealed there were no known threats to Scott
Pruitt’s security. He has been dealt with in <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382529-epa-removes-staffer-whose-report-questioned-pruitts-security-needs" class="">customary fashion</a>…</p><p class="">+ The spoils of big oil…<a href="https://apnews.com/11cffd9a303c4b56a9f1fa6680c59b8c/APNewsBreak:-California-oil-firms-had-nearly-400-violations?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APWestRegion" class="">400 violations</a> by the oil & gas industry in only three years by rigs off the California coast.</p><p class="">+ New Study: Cancer risks are <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b05983" class="">8 times higher</a> for people living near oil & gas rigs…</p><p class="">+ The snowpack in the Colorado Rockies is only <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/04/05/colorado-mountain-snowpack-drought/" class="">66 percent of normal</a>, presaging region-wide water shortages and new drought. Meanwhile, the National Park Service has stripped any mention of <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382138-national-park-service-officials-delete-references-to-humans-role-in" class="">human responsibility</a> for climate change from all of its publications.</p><p class="">+ Arizona is running out of water. The state is entering its
twentieth year of drought and the conditions are intensifying. Much of
the state is now experiencing extreme drought conditions, with minimal
rainfall and meager snowpacks. The winter of 2018 has been the <a href="https://new.azwater.gov/news/articles/2018-06-04#.WskOSENRSdd.twitter" class="">driest ever recorded</a>
recorded in Arizona. Two major reservoirs in Central Arizona, Cragin
and Horseshoe Lake, are nearly empty at a time of year when they should
be nearly full. Meanwhile, Lake Foul continues to shrink, ceding back a
bit of Glen Canyon with each declining acre foot. The spring-summer
runoff into the reservoir is expected to be only <a href="http://tucson.com/news/local/dismal-forecast-for-lake-powell-runoff-heightens-future-cap-shortage/article_f030a637-16fe-5108-a108-ac2f2ccd5aed.html" class="">43 percent of normal</a>,
making it the sixth worst water year in the infamous lake’s history.
It’s quaint that Trump believes the worst problem confronting the
southwest are a few thousand desperate people crossing the border.</p><p class=""><img class="wp-image-101312 size-large alignnone" src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/arizonadrought.image_-510x394.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/arizonadrought.image_.jpg 510w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/arizonadrought.image_-300x232.jpg 300w, https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2018/04/arizonadrought.image_-768x593.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px" height="394" width="510"></p><p class="">+ Donny Youngblood, who has served as sheriff of Kern County,
California since 2006, was caught on tape explaining his theory of <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/better-financially-kill-suspects-wound-sheriff-article-1.3925449" class="">cost-conscious policing</a>: “When
a deputy shoots somebody, which way is better financially? To cripple
them or kill them for the county? Because if you cripple them you have
to take care of them for life and that cost goes way up.” In 2015, Kern
County police killed 13 people, four more than were killed by the NYPD
in the same year.</p><p class="">+ Serious question: Does the NYT pay David Brooks to write columns like this (“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/opinion/renaissance-right-gop.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region" class="">Renaissance on the Right</a>“) or does Brooks pay the NYT to run them?</p><p class="">+ I have to spend 8 hours on a plane zigzagging across the continent
to Indiana this weekend and there’s no good political smut to read.
Where’s Kitty Kelley when you really need her? Comey’s pious revenge
saga sounds like a bore. I want Kelley digging through Trump’s dirty
linens. Most people don’t remember that she exposed Ronald Reagan as a
rapist. In 1952, when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild (and
ratting out screenwriters, actors & directors to Hoover and Joe
McCarthy), Reagan showed up at the house of Selene Walters, a young
actress, at 3 AM, threw her down on a couch and raped her. And they
still named National Airport after him…</p><p class="">+ Speaking of airports, those <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/04/12/hand-dryers-feces-bacteria-study/" class="">bathroom hand-driers</a>
are actually vacuuming up fecal particles from traveler’s hands and
spraying them back on yours, thus lending weight to Alexander Cockburn’s
once quaint, now prescient, notion that an unwashed hand is a healthy
hand…</p><p class="">Alexander Cockburn: “People on the left spend a lot more time than
they should complaining about the mainstream papers, most particularly
the New York Times. They fume at the breakfast table, and often in
print, or on the airwaves, bitterly decrying falsities in the ‘paper of
record.’ What do they expect? In fact, they should rejoice when the
Times gets things wrong, which it mostly does, and take it as a singular
event when it blunders into accuracy.”</p><div class="">###</div></div><br class=""></body></html>