Daily Archives: August 10, 2020

2020-08-10: News Headlines

John Hawkins (2020-08-10). Assange: "Send Him Back" to Australia. dissidentvoice.org Australia's the kind of place where, after twenty years here, you can wake up one morning to a sucker-punch epiphany — wow! This is what it would be like if the South had won the Civil War. No slavery, but a mindset, sometimes an arrogance that comes at you like Dylan's twisty freight train. Not …

WSWS (2020-08-10). US Supreme Court defends deadly jail conditions in California. wsws.org The high court decision denies inmates their right to safety during a deadly pandemic and at the same time shows contempt for the lives of the poor.

Russell Pearce (2020-08-10). Not Just a Bad President, Trump is a "Holmesian Bad Man." Act Accordingly. aclu.org "If you want to know the law, you must look at it as a bad man does, who cares only for the material consequences," wrote legendary Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience." , , Donald Trump is a Holmesian bad man, and an even worse president, pushing the bounds of corruption and authoritarianism, unbound by norms, the rule of law, a sense of shame, or even care for others. To deal with such a bad man and bad president — one who truckles to adversaries like Russian P…

Rev. William Alberts (2020-08-10). Cognitive Without Conscience. counterpunch.org President Trump took a cognitive test, and touted his performance as "amazing." The test: he repeated "Person, Woman, Man, Camera and TV" in that order. It is a dementia test that measures memory, not morality, the capacity to recall, not intelligence. Seventy-four-year-old Trump proposed that his 2020 presidential opponent, seventy-seven-year-old Joe Biden take the test

Yanis Iqbal (2020-08-09). The Attack on Indigenous Rights in Brazil. globalresearch.ca On 5 August, 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court

Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-09). The United States, Diego Garcia, and International Law. dissidentvoice.org There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People's Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo released a statement putting any uncertain minds at ease on where Washington stood on the matter. "We are making clear: Beijing's claims to offshore …

RT (2020-08-09). NYT digs up more unnamed sources for 'Trump-Russia' narrative as media resurrects hysteria ahead of 2020 election. rt.com The New York Times has once again broadcast the musings of anonymous officials to insinuate Donald Trump is somehow in cahoots with Russia, amid a growing resurgence in debunked Russiagate theories ahead of the November election. | The paper ran an exclusive report purportedly detailing the US president's battle with intelligence agencies over allegations that Moscow had interfered with the 2016 presidential contest. According to unnamed sources cited by the NYT, Trump was unresponsive and dismissive of an intelligence assessment which claimed that he is Russia's "favored" candidate in the 2020 race. One anony…

_____ (2020-08-09). Federal Judge Calls On Supreme Court To Overturn 'Qualified Immunity'. popularresistance.org Handing down a ruling to dismiss a civil lawsuit which alleged a police officer violated a Black man's Fourth Amendment rights during a traffic stop in 2013, a federal judge in Mississippi made clear that he sided with the plaintiff—and demanded the U.S. Supreme Court overturn legal precedent that makes it nearly impossible for the judicial system to hold officers accountable for rights violations. | Calling for an end to qualified immunity, which dates back to a 1982 ruling and shields police from civil liability in most cases, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves turned his ruling into a plea for just…

Shane Quinn (2020-08-09). The Rapid Postwar Increase of America's Nuclear Arsenal. globalresearch.ca Hitler had, as early as June 1942, decided against the development of an atomic bomb — on both racial and pragmatic grounds. By the summer of 1944, Allied intelligence accounts were flowing in that a Nazi atomic bomb was non-existent.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-09). Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law. globalresearch.ca There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People's Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo

Eds. (2020-08-08). The filthy hypocrisy of America's "clean" China-free internet. mronline.org The Trump administration wants to keep other countries from weaponizing technology the way the U.S. and its allies already have.

Julia Conley, Common Dreams (2020-08-08). Supreme Court Rules Jail Does Not Have to Provide Basic Protections to Inmates. indybay.org Even as prisons across the US report a surge in Covid-19 cases, the Supreme Court ruled on August 5th that prisons do not have to provide basic protections to inmates.

_____ (2020-08-08). Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Under House Arrest. popularresistance.org The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice has ordered the preventive home detention of Senator and former President Alvaro Uribe for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery. The Latin American right-wing leader became the first former president to receive this type of arrest order, suspected of trying to manipulate the statement of a defendant who linked him to the creation of paramilitary groups. "The deprivation of my freedom causes me deep sadness for my wife, for my family and for the Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the country," lamented Uribe…

_____ (2020-08-08). 'Russiagate' Hoax Unravels, but Their Anti-Russia Sanctions Don't. strategic-culture.org Eric ZUESSE | It was reported only on 'fringe' media (such as "Disobedient Media" now gone from the Web) until recently. However, the evidence that the entire "Russiagate" charge — that Russia's Government had "hacked" the Democratic National Committee in 2016 — is an Obama Administration hoax (which was continued into Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report), is now starting to come out into public view and be endorsed publicly by retired U.S. intelligence professionals who can't be fired. It's not yet published in any mainstream U.S. news media, however. So, in this place will be chronologically pre…

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-08-07). 'Enraging and Inexcusable': Louisiana Supreme Court Rules Black Man Convicted of Garden Tool Theft 20 Years Ago Should Die in Prison. commondreams.org A 62-year-old Black man is expected to spend the rest of his life in Louisiana's largest maximum-security prison after the state Supreme Court denied his request to overturn his life sentence, 23 years after his conviction for attempting to steal a pair of hedge clippers. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/3936550016_1cac4a9184_o_1.jpg

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-08-07). Prohibited From Holding Police Officer to Account, Federal Judge Calls on Supreme Court to Overturn 'Qualified Immunity'. commondreams.org Handing down a ruling dismissing a civil lawsuit which alleged a police officer violated a Black man's Fourth Amendment rights during a traffic stop in 2013, a federal judge in Mississippi made clear that he sided with the plaintiff—and demanded the U.S. Supreme Court overturn qualified immunity. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1224873269.png

sputniknews (2020-08-07). Pompeo Warned Moscow in July Call Against Alleged Bounties on US Soldiers – Report. sputniknews.com Unnamed US officials told the New York Times on Friday that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a vague warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month that Russia should refrain from offering bounties to Taliban fighters to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, as the Times has claimed was happening.

_____ (2020-08-07). The Smartest Guy in His West Point Class. strategic-culture.org The imaginary inner world of a fool is a dangerous place, especially if he happens to be the Secretary of State of the United States of America. | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's July 23 speech on U.S. policy with China exposes the vast empty realm between his two ears. This man, who also served as a veteran congressman and ran the CIA for a year and a half reveals himself as so ignorant of diplomacy, history, competence and commonsense that in assessing his comments and their dire consequences it is difficult to know where to start. | First, Pompeo imagines that the United States, guided of course by him can "c…

teleSUR (2020-08-06). No Extradition: New Documentary On Julian Assange. telesurenglish.net On the eve of the premiere of his documentary about the founder of WikiLeaks, British-Chilean filmmaker Pablo Navarrete said Thursday in London: "I want people to have an idea of the injustice being done to Julian Assange." | RELATED: | The filmmaker and journalist followed John Shipton, Assange's father, over several months as he campaigned to prevent his son from being extradited to the United States (U.S.) and secure his…

Talli Nauman (2020-08-06). Native Americans Win Historic Victories in U.S. High Court Rulings. counterpunch.org Heat on the U.S. Presidential election campaign thermometer reached new highs during the dog days of summer 2020, with the final rulings of the Supreme Court calendar year favoring indigenous causes diametrically opposed to those of incumbent candidate Donald Trump. The highest court in the land ruled in favor of the exercise of Native American

RT (2020-08-06). Blade Runner & HAL 9000 racist? 'Whiteness' of artificial intelligence 'exacerbates racial inequality,' new study suggests. rt.com A University of Cambridge study examining the depiction of artificial intelligence in film, television, Google searches, images, and voices, suggests it is yet another area that showcases racism. | While most would likely assume a machine cannot have a race, the researchers said that they do indeed have "racial identities" influenced by "real world" stereotypes. | These "racial identities" can be found in both the fact that AIs and depictions of AIs have caucasion features and also typically talk in "standard white middle-class English," including voices given to smartphone technology. The study suggests "blac…

Muhammed Shabeer (2020-08-06). Post-communism to barbarism: The Law and Justice Party's bid for absolute power in Poland. peoplesdispatch.org Poland's Supreme Court has upheld the election of president Andrzej Duda. His victory is another step in the consolidation of the ruling Law and Justice Party's hegemony over the country…

Robin Valenzuela (2020-08-06). Dreamers' Children: Up to 200,000 American Kids Could be Left Parentless. commondreams.org Immigration rights activists take part in a rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on November 12, 2019. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/gettyimages-11818855831_0.jpg