(2018-09-03). Iran's Oil Exports Slump to 2 1/2 Year Low Before U.S. Sanctions. iranian.com Iran's oil exports are tumbling again as the country's key buyers in Asia take fewer cargoes in the weeks before U.S. sanctions take full effect. The Persian Gulf nation shipped just under 2.1 million barrels a day of crude and condensates in August, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. That's the lowest since March 2016. […]
(2018-09-03). Economic Update: Capitalism's Problems Provoke Opposition. therealnews.com 
This week: Updates on Missouri vote for union position; the irrationality of student debt; economic sanction of Iran isolates and costs U.S. for Trump political gains; Monsanto puts profits over cancer risks; Louisiana legislature punishes big banks for lending to assault rifle producers; special guest: Troy Walcott, a Spectrum Cable technician on strike in New…
(2018-09-02). Desperate for collusion proof, FBI 'tried & failed to recruit Russian oligarchs' — report. rt.com 
FBI agents tried to turn Russia's once-richest man into a US mole, according to an explosive NYT report. It claims that Oleg Deripaska was one of six oligarchs targeted for information in a Russiagate-related intelligence flop.
(2018-09-01). An Online Vigil in Defense of Julian Assange With Daniel Ellsberg, Craig Murray, Bill Binney and Ray McGovern. consortiumnews.com Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on Saturday helped moderate a daylong chain of interviews in defense of WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange, including a discussion with Daniel Ellsberg. A #Unity4J online vigil was held on Saturday to defend the WikiLeaks… Read more →
(2018-09-01). Is the Mueller investigation preparing to indict WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange? wsws.org The claim that Assange was part of a conspiracy to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election is based on amalgams, distortions and outright lies.
(2018-09-01). Elissa Slotkin: A CIA Democrat runs for Congress in Michigan. wsws.org Slotkin puts herself forward not as a representative of a party, let alone an advocate for any specific program, but as a representative of the military-intelligence apparatus.
(2018-08-31). Verdi's Mass for the Dead: 90 Minutes of Heavenly and Infernal Glory. counterpunch.org 
Verdi's Requiem lasts just under ninety minutes—the length of a soccer match. Yet the mighty choral work packs so much terror and serenity into its hour-and-a-half that the comparison with the beautiful game shows that the flashes of elation and despair offered up even by a World Cup final are mere pinpricks of sensation compared to More
(2018-08-31). US has already drafted list of targets for potential strike in Syria — report. rt.com 
The US military and intelligence have already compiled a list of preliminary targets they would strike in response to another chemical-weapons incident in Syria, CNN reported, citing US administration officials. |
(2018-08-31). Trump legal team to challenge Mueller probe legitimacy in counter-report. rt.com 
US President Donald Trump's legal team, led by his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is working on a comprehensive report intended as a response to the conclusions of the "Russia collusion" probe, which are yet to be released.
(2018-08-31). Widespread opposition to Australian government ban on Chelsea Manning. wsws.org The attempt to prevent Manning visiting Australia followed a high-level meeting of the Five Eyes spying network, which called for a campaign against those who "sow discord."
(2018-08-30). With Reality Winner Sentenced, Does The Intercept Owe Answers? therealnews.com 
Reality Winner has been sentenced to five years for leaking an NSA document to The Intercept alleging a Russian cyber-operation targeting the U.S. voting system. Shadowproof's Kevin Gosztola joins Aaron Maté to discuss major questions surrounding The Intercept's handling of Reality Winner's document.
(2018-08-29). Trump adviser who President 'allowed to cooperate' with Mueller to step down. rt.com 
White House Counsel Don McGahn is to step down this fall, President Trump has announced. News of McGahn's departure comes after it was revealed he was questioned by Robert Mueller's 'Russiagate' investigation. |
(2018-08-28). Media Continues Writing Premature Obituaries for the Democratic Left. fair.org 
US News ( 8/8/18): "A band of far-left candidates have suffered a string of defeats in Democratic primaries this year." | The insurgent left wing of the Democratic Party, sometimes self-identified as democratic socialists and exemplified by rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and associated with groups like Bernie Sanders' Our Revolution, the Justice Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), took some losses in primaries on August 7. These included high-profile candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Michigan governor and Brent Welder in Kansas's 2nd district, along with losses by Cori Bush in Missouri's 1st district. Following the losses, corporate media outlets were quick to declare the Democratic left wing dead in the water: | "Bernie and His Army Are Losing 2018" (Politico, 8/8/18) | "Down Goes Socialism" (Politico, 8/8/18) | "Democratic Party's Liberal Insurgency Hits…
(2018-08-28). Headlines for August 28, 2018. democracynow.org U.N. Accuses U.S.-Backed, Saudi-led Coalition of Possible War Crimes in Yemen, North Korea Warns Denuclearization Talks in Jeopardy, Federal Court Strikes Down North Carolina's Gerrymandered Voting Map, U.S. Student Loan Watchdog Accuses Trump Administration of Siding with Predatory Lenders, Facebook Bans Burmese Army Commander-in-Chief After U.N. Genocide Report, U.S. and Mexico Reach Agreement to Revise Portions of NAFTA | , Trump Breaks Near-Silence on Death of Sen. John McCain, Study Links Air Pollution to Reduction in Intelligence, Bloomberg Reassigns Journalist Who Exposed Wells Fargo's Ties to Gun Industry…
(2018-08-28). How the Department of Homeland Security Created a Deceptive Tale of Russia Hacking US Voter Sites. consortiumnews.com The narrative about Russian cyberattacks on American election infrastructure is a self-interested abuse of power by DHS based on distortion of evidence, writes Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter Special to Consortium News The narrative of Russian intelligence attacking state and… Read more →
(2018-08-28). 'Appalling politics' & 'phony science' is why Monsanto is still afloat — lawyer suing chemical giant. rt.com 
Monsanto has suppressed the facts about its 'probably carcinogenic' weed killer for years, pouring vast sums of money towards complicit 'democratic regimes', a lawyer suing the chemical giant in 16 cancer cases has told RT.
(2018-08-27). The Transatlantic Alliance Will Survive Trump. thenation.com The Transatlantic Alliance Will Survive Trump appeared first on The Nation.
(2018-08-27). Kansas residents drank contaminated water for six years while state sat on damning chemical tests. rt.com 
The state of Kansas failed to act on tests showing that groundwater in a Wichita suburb had been contaminated, allowing hundreds of residents to use tainted water wells for more than six years, before taking action. |
(2018-08-24). James Risen: Reality Winner's Sentence Is One of the Worst Miscarriages of Justice in Recent History. democracynow.org 
NSA whistleblower Reality Winner was handed the longest sentence ever imposed in federal court for leaking government information to the media Thursday. She is the first person to be sentenced under the Espionage Act since President Trump took office. Winner was arrested by FBI agents at her home in Augusta, Georgia, on June 3, 2017, two days before The Intercept published an exposé revealing Russian military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software company just days before the U.S. presidential election. The exposé was based on a classified NSA report from May 5, 2017, that shows…
(2018-08-24). Mother of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner: My Daughter Was "Nailed to the Door" by the Trump Admin. democracynow.org 
NSA whistleblower Reality Winner has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison—the longest sentence ever imposed in federal court for leaking government information to the media. Twenty-six-year-old Reality Winner is the first person to be sentenced under the Espionage Act since President Trump took office. Her sentencing Thursday came after she pleaded guilty in June to transmitting a top-secret document to a news organization. She had faced up to 10 years in prison. We speak with her mother, Billie Winner-Davis.
(2018-08-24). Headlines for August 24, 2018. democracynow.org Yemen: 31 Reportedly Killed in U.S.-Backed Airstrikes, Including 22 Children, National Enquirer Executives Had Safe Containing Dirt on Trump, New York City Prosecutor Opens Criminal Probe into Trump Organization, GOP Senators Give Trump Green Light to Fire AG Jeff Sessions, Rep. Duncan Hunter and His Wife Plead Not Guilty to Looting Campaign Funds, Prison Strike Against "Modern-Day Slavery" Spreads Nationwide, NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Sentenced to 63 Months in Prison, Hawaii: Flooding and Landslides Reported as Hurricane Lane Strikes, South Africa Rejects Trump Claim of "Large Scale Killing" of Farmers, A…
(2018-08-24). Distorting Past and Present: Reuters on Nicaragua's Armed Uprising. fair.org 
From April 18 until late July 2018, an armed insurrection in Nicaragua left hundreds of people dead. The uprising, backed enthusiastically by private media outlets in Nicaragua (in particular one of its largest circulating newspapers, La Prensa, and the TV network 100%Noticias), was also supported by local NGOs funded by the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Trump administration and others (the EU parliament, UN officials) publicly backed the opposition's version of events, as did Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his supporters were held responsible for the vast majority of the "protest"-related deaths, and Ortega (who had been re-elected in 2016) was pressured at first to resign outright, and later to hold "early elections." | I examined 45 Reuters news articles
(2018-08-20). Headlines for August 20, 2018. democracynow.org CNN: Bomb That Killed 40 Yemeni School Children Was Made by U.S. | , California: ICE Arrests Man Driving His Wife to the Hospital to Give Birth, ICE Agents Forcibly Reseparate Fathers from Sons at Karnes Detention Center | , Ex-CIA Director John Brennan May Sue Trump over Stripped Security Clearances | , NYT: White House Counsel Donald McGahn Cooperating with Mueller Probe | , Israeli Troops Kill 2 Palestinians and Injure Hundreds More During Friday's Protests, Longtime Israeli Peace Activist Uri Avnery Dies at 94 | , Afghan President Offers Conditional Ceasefire with Taliban | , U.N.: Brazil Can't Bar Lula from…