24 August 20
We Feel the Love But We Badly Need Funding
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23 August 20
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Reader Supported News
Charles Pierce | The Postmaster General Stonewalled His Way Through a Senate Hearing
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "You may have missed it, having lives and all, but the administration* launched its first rebuttal on Friday to the charges leveled against it at the Democratic National Whatever this past week."
Louis DeJoy was not convincing when it came to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's role in all this.
It was delivered by Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, before a Senate committee, and it can be fairly well summarized as, “Yeah? You and what army?” For example, he was asked if he would turn over transcripts of conversations he’d had with various governors and/or documents relating to the new work rules that seem designed for ratfckng purposes.
I don’t know, I don’t have the authority to do some of those things. And that is something that I would need to discuss with counsel and the board’s counsel, so I can’t commit to that.
Under questioning from committee Democrats, DeJoy ducked and stonewalled through most of the hearing. Asked about discussing the new rules with Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, here was DeJoy’s answer:
During the discussion and negotiating the note, I told him that I'm working on a plan, but I never discussed the changes to improve service.
I’m certainly convinced.
And next week, he gets to meet the House of representatives. You could sell tickets to Congresswoman Katie Porter’s question time.
Weekly WWoZ Pick To Click: “Shreveport Stomp” (Wilbur DeParis): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.
Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here’s the opening of the 1924 Republican National Convention. Yes, a silent film for Silent Cal. “Keep Cool With Coolidge” was the slogan. Of course, had the president he’d been elected with in 1920 not kicked in office, the slogan would’ve been, “Stay Hard with Harding,” which would’ve occasioned hilarity. History, like Cal, is so cool.
Is it a good day for dinosaur news, CNN? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!
A team of paleontologists, mechanical and biomedical engineers examined the upper and lower leg bones of duck-billed hadrosaurs and sauropods, long-necked and big-bodied plant eaters, whose fossils have been found on every continent. "The structure of the trabecular, or spongy bone that forms in the interior of (the) bones we studied is unique within dinosaurs," said Anthony Fiorillo, a Southern Methodist University paleontologist and one of the authors of the study that published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One...
"Unlike in mammals and birds, the trabecular bone does not increase in thickness as the body size of dinosaurs increase," he said. "Instead it increases in density of the occurrence of spongy bone. Without this weight-saving adaptation, the skeletal structure needed to support the duck-billed, plant-eating hadrosaurs would be so heavy, the dinosaurs would have had great difficulty moving.”
There seems to be little that nature did to keep the dinosaurs alive, one way or the other. At least it left them in the ground for us to find so they could make us happy now.
I’ll be back Monday to preview American Carnage II: The Carnaging. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, and wear the damn mask.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) removes his face mask July 1 as he begins a news conference in Nashville. (photo: Mark Humphrey/AP)
Tennessee Adopts New Law That Could Strip Some Protesters of Voting Rights
Colby Itkowitz and Amy Gardner, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Tennessee protesters could now lose their right to vote under a new law Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed with little fanfare Thursday."
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Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge and the sister of Donald J. Trump, during the president's election night rally in New York in 2016. (photo: Julie Jacobson/AP)
'Donald Is Cruel': In Bombshell Secret Tapes, Trump's Sister Says He Has 'No Principles'
Amanda Holpuch, Guardian UK
Holpuch writes: "Donald Trump's older sister, a former federal judge, can be heard sharply criticizing her brother in a series of recordings released on Saturday, at one point saying of the president: 'He has no principles.'"
Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly recorded by her niece, Mary Trump, who in July released a book denouncing the president, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.
Mary Trump said on Saturday she made the recordings, which are legal under New York law, in 2018 and 2019. In the acknowledgements for her book, she thanks her aunt for “all of the enlightening information”.
In one conversation, Barry, now 83, says she had heard a 2018 interview with her brother on Fox News in which he suggested he would put her on the southern border to oversee immigration cases, while his government was separating children from their parents.
“His base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people,” Barry says. “Not do this.”
At another point, she decries “the phoniness of it all … the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”
Barry also guesses that her brother has never read her opinions on immigration cases because he doesn’t read at all.
“What has he read?” Mary Trump asks. Barry responds: “No. He doesn’t read.”
She also says: “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God.”
She adds: “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
After the recordings were reported by the Washington Post, Donald Trump said in a statement: “Every day it’s something else, who cares.” On Sunday, the White House continued to push back, chief of staff Mark Meadows decrying “politics as usual”.
“The president that I have the privilege of serving is not the one that’s being described on a 15-hour ... secret tape,” Meadows said. “I mean, what family member tapes another family member for 15 hours secretly?
“This is politics as usual by a niece that was written out of a will that … just has an axe to grind because she wants Joe Biden to be president.”
Mary Trump and her brother settled with their uncles and aunts in 2001, after a dispute over the will of Fred Trump Sr, the family patriarch. That settlement was the basis of a family attempt to stop publication of Too Much and Never Enough.
“Mary realized members of her family had lied in prior depositions,” said Chris Bastardi, a spokesman, adding: “Anticipating litigation, she felt it prudent to tape conversations in order to protect herself.”
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, dismissed Barry’s quotes as a “sibling rivalry”. After NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pointed out that the president’s sister may have more credibility because she is a retired federal judge, Miller said: “I can tell you my conversations with the president over the years, I’ve only heard him say positive things about his sister, as someone who’s a very accomplished judge.”
Meadows took a shot at Barry for not attending a White House funeral on Friday for Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother who died last week at the age of 71.
“I can tell you that I’ve never met the judge,” Meadows said. “I was at the funeral the other day. I was hoping to meet her there. She didn’t show up for her brother’s funeral.”
In her book, a searing account which also describes how the author helped the New York Times expose the family’s tax affairs, Mary Trump writes about how her father, Fred Trump Jr, died of problems relating to alcoholism in 1981, at the age of 42.
“As my father lay dying alone,” she writes, “Donald went to the movies.”
In his statement on Saturday, Donald Trump said: “I miss my brother [Robert], and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before.”
The president has frequently spoken highly of his sister and the recordings are the first time a family member, other than Mary Trump, has been critical of him.
Mary Trump’s book includes the assertion – denied by Trump – that he paid someone to take exams for him as he sought to transfer into the University of Pennsylvania.
In one recording, the federal judge says a Joe Shapiro took the SAT for Trump. The president was friends with a person at Penn named Joe Shapiro, who is deceased. Shapiro’s widow and sister have said he never took a test for anybody.
Bastardi said Mary Trump “never expected to learn much of what she heard, including the president’s sister, federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, state that Donald Trump had paid someone to take an SAT exam for him”.
On ABC, Meadows was asked if the president had evidence to prove the test story was not true.
“Well, he does,” Meadows said, though he did not provide any such evidence before pivoting to Barry’s claim that her brother does not read.
“There’s a cardboard box that is brought on Marine One,” Meadows said, referring to the presidential helicopter. “What’s in there are clippings and clippings, each and everyday, he reads probably more than anybody I know, which causes me to have to read more because every morning he’s giving me a to-do list. Every evening he’s giving me a to-do list.”
'Save the Post Office' rally. (photo: The Morning Call)
ALSO SEE: Democrats Push for $25 Billion for the Postal Service.
The White House Says It Will Reject It.
USPS Delays 'Far Worse Than We Were Told,' Internal Docs Show
Jason Koebler, VICE
Koebler writes: "You're not just imagining it: The mail really is experiencing widespread delays, according to new internal United States Postal Service documents."
Across the board, “on-time” scores have fallen sharply since early July, the presentations show.
ou’re not just imagining it: The mail really is experiencing widespread delays, according to new internal United States Postal Service documents.
The documents were published by Rep. Carolyn Maloney ahead of a Monday hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Motherboard previously reported that a mix of the coronavirus pandemic, more restrictive overtime policies, and a restriction on the amount of time that mail can be sorted and loaded onto mail trucks before they go out has led to delays in mail delivery. Maloney said that "these new documents show that the delays are far worse than we were told” by DeJoy.
The new documents, a Postmaster General “Service Performance Measurement” briefing prepared for DeJoy on August 12, seemingly show the actual impact of those policies. Across the board, “on-time” scores have fallen sharply since early July. Presorted first-class mail is getting delivered late 8.1 percent more often than baseline, marketing mail (8.42 percent), periodicals (9.57 percent), and even Priority Mail (7.97 percent) have seen similar drops.
“A marked decline in service performance observed for Priority Mail starting week 7/11/2020,” the document reads.
USPS has faced an incredible amount of scrutiny in recent weeks as president Donald Trump has tried to sow discord and discourage people from voting by mail in the upcoming election. The Post Office has also decommissioned and dismantled a series of mail sorting machines across the country.
“After being confronted on Friday with first-hand reports of delays across the country, the Postmaster General finally acknowledged a ‘dip’ in service, but he has never publicly disclosed the full extent of the alarming nationwide delays caused by his actions and described in these new documents,” Maloney said in a statement. “To those who still claim there are ‘no delays’ and that these reports are just ‘conspiracy theories,’ I hope this new data causes them to re-think their position and support our urgent legislation today. We have all seen the headlines from every corner of our country, we have read the stories and seen pictures, we have heard directly from our constituents, and these new documents show that the delays are far worse than we were told.”
Boulder Creek, CA. (photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters)
California Seeks Help as Wildfires Threaten Communities
Sharon Bernstein, Reuters
Bernstein writes: "Nearly two dozen massive wildfires continued to ravage parts of California on Saturday, fueled by high temperatures and ongoing lightning strikes, including 100 that hit on Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said."
READ MORE
Ukrainian prosecutors display $6m they say was offered as a bribe to drop their long-running investigation into Mykola Zlochevsky and Burisma. (photo: Al Jazeera)
Cyprus Sold Passports to Criminals and Fugitives
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "The Cyprus Papers is a leak of more than 1,400 passport applications approved by the government of the island nation between 2017 and 2019, and it raises serious questions about the Cyprus Investment Programme."
A leak of government documents reveals Cyprus sold citizenship to dozens of foreigners linked to crime and corruption.
onvicted fraudsters, money launderers and political figures accused of corruption are among dozens of people from more than 70 countries who have bought so-called "golden passports" from Cyprus, according to a large cache of official documents obtained by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit.
The Cyprus Papers is a leak of more than 1,400 passport applications approved by the government of the island nation between 2017 and 2019, and it raises serious questions about the Cyprus Investment Programme.
Passports from the Republic of Cyprus can be important for individuals from countries that have restricted access to Europe, as Cyprus is a member of the European Union (EU) and a passport offers its holder access to free travel, work and banking in all 27 member states.
In the coming days, Al Jazeera will reveal the identities of dozens of people who acquired Cypriot citizenship who, according to the country's own rules, in many cases should not have received a passport.
Security risk
To apply for a Cypriot passport, applicants must invest at least 2.15m euros ($2.5m) in the Cypriot economy, usually by buying real estate, and have a clean criminal record.
However, applicants provide their own proof of eligibility, and although Cyprus claimed to check applicants' backgrounds, the documents obtained by Al Jazeera prove that this did not always happen.
Since its inception in 2013, the programme has received repeated criticism from the EU, which has called for it to be closed down.
Do you have more info about golden passport sales or want to share another tip? Find out how to get in touch with us on our Tips page.
"It's high value for everyone who comes from a country where there's a lot of dirty money involved", German MEP Sven Giegold, a strong critic of the programme, told Al Jazeera.
"You open a bank account, a business relationship and less questions asked, no visa requirements, easier to get access to get everywhere to travel than if you are from Russia, China or even more doubtful countries."
Since 2013, when the passport programme started, the country has made more than 7 billion euros ($8bn), used to keep afloat the nation's failing economy.
Burisma and Gazprom officials
Between 2017 and 2019, the countries with the highest number of people applying were Russia, China and Ukraine.
Among the approved applications seen by Al Jazeera was Ukrainian tycoon Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the giant Burisma energy company.
When Zlochevsky bought his Cypriot passport in 2017, he was already under investigation for corruption in his home country.
In June 2020 Ukrainian prosecutors said they were offered $6m in cash to drop the investigation.
Zlochevsky and Burisma deny any knowledge of the bribe.
Like many on wanted lists in their home country, Zlochevsky's Cypriot passport allows him to live beyond the reach of Ukrainian law enforcement.
A similar application came from Russian national Nikolay Gornovskiy, former boss of the state-owned energy giant Gazprom.
Gornovskiy was already on Russia's wanted list for abuse of power when Cyprus approved his passport in 2019 and has so far thwarted all attempts to extradite him.
Other applications were approved even after the applicant had been arrested and sometimes even served their time in prison.
Ali Beglov, a Russian national, bought his passport despite serving a prison sentence for extortion, which should not have been possible according to Cyprus's rules.
Chinese businessman Zhang Keqiang also received a Cypriot passport, despite having spent time in prison for a fraudulent share deal.
Vietnamese businessman Pham Nhat Vu's passport was approved a month after he was charged with giving millions of dollars in bribes in a telecoms deal.
He is now serving three years in jail.
According to Laure Brillaud, Senior Policy Officer with Transparency International, an NGO focused on combatting international corruption, these results are worrying but not surprising.
"These programmes bear inherent risks of money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. They were designed to attract people just looking for a fast track to the EU," she told Al Jazeera.
Stricter rules
In May 2019, Cyprus introduced tougher rules on who was eligible for citizenship, which banned anyone under investigation, wanted, convicted or under international sanctions from buying a passport.
Cypriot parliamentarians in July finally passed a law that gave the country the power to remove citizenship after several scandals involving notorious golden passport investors, but politicians voted against any move to publish the names of those who buy Cypriot citizenship.
The new stricter law applies to anyone who commits a serious crime, is wanted by Interpol or subject to sanctions in the 10 years after they bought their passport.
Cyprus is reviewing all past applications and announced about 30 unnamed people face losing citizenship, but The Cyprus Papers reveal many more may fall foul of the new law.
They include people such as Venezuelan Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan, an ex-banker, who was sanctioned by the United States for laundering millions in illegal currency deals for the Venezuelan government.
Another person who could lose his passport is Oleg Bakhmatiuk, under investigation in Ukraine for embezzlement and money laundering relating to his giant agricultural firm.
He called the charges "a complete fabrication and politically motivated".
Although Bakhmatiuk told Al Jazeera the proceedings against him had ended with the charges dropped, the country’s official prosecutor confirmed he is still on Ukraine's wanted list.
Embezzlement and money laundering
Some other examples of passport holders facing serious charges are Russian brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev, who bought citizenship in 2017.
They are accused in Russia of embezzling from the bank they once owned.
Another person who received Cypriot citizenship is Chinese national Li Jiadong, who was sanctioned by the US for laundering $100m in cryptocurrency related to North Korean hackers.
Lastly, there are Maleksabet Ebrahimi and his son Mehdi, who are both on Interpol's most-wanted list for money laundering and fraud in Iran and facing similar charges in Canada.
Maleksabet Ebrahimi denies the charges against him and says he complied at all times with Iranian and Cypriot laws.
Joe Biden. (photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)
Sunrise Movement: Dems Must Address Climate Crisis as DNC Drops Pledge to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "The U.S. spends roughly tens of billions of dollars each year essentially propping up the fossil fuel industry so it can continue its dangerous burning of the coal, oil and gas that is threatening our future."
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