INTREPID REPORT: Week of April 19, 2021

 

We cannot keep publishing without your help. We have no paywalls or ads. Nor do we receive corporate or foundation funding. All we have is you to keep us publishing. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday   U.S. joins past empires in Afghanistan graveyard President Biden announced a removal of all U.S. troops by September 11, but he failed to include some important details. By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies An Afghan taxi-driver in Vancouver told one of us a decade ago that this day would come. “We defeated the Persian Empire in the eighteenth century, the British in the nineteenth, the Soviets in the twentieth. Now, with NATO, we’re fighting twenty-eight countries, but we’ll defeat them, too,” said the taxi-driver, surely not a member of the Taliban, but quietly proud of his country’s empire-killing credentials.   Home invasions: All the ways the government can lay siege to your property By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead Americans are not safe in their homes.   Freedom Rider: Vaccine passports in a failed state By Margaret Kimberley The non-vaccinated can be smeared and equated with MAGA hat wearing Trumpers, regardless of their religious or political affiliations.   The secret wars of Africa’s Sahel: What is behind Mali’s ongoing strife By Ramzy Baroud In a recent report, the United Nations Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, concluded that, on January 3, French warplanes had struck a crowd attending a wedding in the remote village of Bounti, killing 22 of the guests.   Contrary to what Biden said, US warfare in Afghanistan is set to continue No matter what the White House and the headlines say, U.S. taxpayers won’t stop subsidizing the killing in Afghanistan until there is an end to the bombing and "special operations" that remain shrouded in secrecy. By Norman Solomon When I met a seven-year-old girl named Guljumma at a refugee camp in Kabul a dozen years ago, she told me that bombs fell early one morning while she slept at home in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Valley. With a soft, matter-of-fact voice, Guljumma described what happened. Some people in her family died. She lost an arm.   Tuesday   The dirty campaign underlying Ecuador’s “free and fair” election By Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores Ecuador’s April 11 election that led to a 5-point victory by conservative banker Guillermo Lasso over progressive candidate Andrés Arauz was not what it appeared to be. On the surface, it was a surprisingly clean and professional election, as our CODEPINK official observer delegation witnessed. But a fraud-free process for casting and counting ballots does not mean that the election was free and fair. Behind the scenes was a monumentally unequal playing field and dirty campaign designed to quash an Arauz win.   A school for spooks: The London university department churning out NATO spies By Alan MacLeod Last week, MintPress exposed how the supposedly independent investigative collective Bellingcat is, in fact, funded by a CIA cutout organization and filled with former spies and state intelligence operatives. However, one part of the story that has remained untold until now is Bellingcat’s close ties to the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, an institution with deep links to the British security state and one that trains a large number of British, American and European agents and defense analysts.   DeSantis signs ‘outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional’ anti-protest bill into law "Every single Floridian should be outraged by this blatant attempt to erode our First Amendment right to peacefully assemble." By Jake Johnson Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed into law a bill that civil rights groups warn is designed to crack down on peaceful demonstrations and criminalize dissent by redefining “rioting” in an overbroad way and creating draconian new felonies for protest-related offenses.   Amazon union vote shows why we need the PRO Act In the face of intimidation by one of the largest companies in the world, Alabama workers bravely spoke out about the need for greater labor protections. By Rebekah Entralgo Following one of the most high-profile union votes in history, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama—led by Black organizers—ultimately rejected efforts to form a union by 71 percent, according to the National Labor Relations Board.   Biden’s industrial policy By Robert Reich America is about to revive an idea that was left for dead decades ago. It’s called industrial policy, and it’s at the heart of Joe Biden’s plans to restructure the U.S. economy.   Wednesday   Washington sanctions Cuba. Why not Saudi Arabia? Cuba will remain one of Washington’s chosen enemies, while relations with the murderous autocratic Saudi regime will be “recalibrated.” By Brian Cloughley According to the geopolitical analysis site STRATFOR, sanctions are “a coercive tool to compel a targeted entity to adjust its behaviour” and can be effected in a number of ways and, indeed, applied for very different reasons. An intriguing aspect of sanctions’ imposition is that some of these reasons are not intended primarily to alter the target’s behaviour but rather to penalise it for failing to follow the policies of the punisher.   Escalate to deescalate… then Biden takes escalator sideways By Finian Cunningham President Joe Biden wasn’t expecting Russia’s rapid slap back. He assumed, wrongly, that he could hit Moscow with a new round of sanctions (based on slanderous claims) and look as if he were chewing gum and acting the hard man.   Democratic lawmakers urge Barrett to recuse herself from Koch dark money case The members of Congress note that Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded advocacy group, mounted a "full-scale campaign" in support of the justice's confirmation. By Jake Johnson Three Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday urged U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from a pending case revolving around the nonprofit arm of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded political advocacy group that spent heavily to ensure Barrett’s confirmation to the bench last October.   The basic deal between Corporate America and the GOP is alive and well By Robert Reich For four decades, the basic deal between big American corporations and politicians has been simple. Corporations provide campaign funds. Politicians reciprocate by lowering corporate taxes and doing whatever else corporations need to boost profits.   Biden’s jobs plan will help seniors get care at home By supporting quality home care, the plan will help seniors avoid dangerous, for-profit nursing facilities. By Rebekah Entralgo As the nation’s population ages, the need for more care workers and safer, more affordable care options is urgent.   Thursday   Russia increases its defense while U.S. backs down from provoking WWIII The stooge-president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, appears to be trapped between what he has promised to do — which is for Ukraine to retake both Donbas and Crimea — and what will be within his power to do. By Eric Zuesse Ever since Joe Biden became America’s President in January, America’s hostile and threatening actions and rhetoric against (as Biden refers to him) the ‘killer’ Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President, have made clear to Putin that the U.S. government’s determination to impose regime-change upon Russia will continue undiminished. This hostility from Biden has dashed Putin’s hope that the string of sanctions which the U.S. Government has constantly been adding to ever since President Obama started the anti-Russian sanctions in 2012, would end, or at least not continue to be added to, under Biden.   In closed-door event with corporate lobbyists, Manchin vows $15 wage ‘not going to happen’ A top restaurant industry lobbyist reportedly "couldn't contain his excitement" at the West Virginia Democrat's remarks. By Jake Johnson Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Tuesday reportedly mocked the popular push for a $15 federal minimum wage during a private event with restaurant industry lobbyists, telling attendees he prefers an hourly wage floor of $11 and nothing “above half of that” for tipped workers.   Freedom Rider: Gun violence starts at the top By Margaret Kimberley If the state reserves the right to commit mass murder no one should be surprised that the people follow suit.   How to live in wonder By Caitlin Johnstone It’s so easy, as the years wind on, to sink into adult-mind. To get crusty and stagnant in our knowing. To lose our sense of wonder.   A must read for any seeker of answers to the mysteries of life By William T. Hathaway Posted on April 22, 2021 by William T. Hathaway In his new book, One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness, Dr. Tony Nader has attempted something very difficult and achieved it very well. He overcomes the conceptual gap separating matter from mind, science from spirituality, the human from the divine and takes us beneath these superficial dualities into a fundamental synthesis establishing the wholeness of life. He conveys the unity underlying all diversity, and he deftly and convincingly resolves the apparent contradiction between free will and determinism. Nader writes in a clear, step-by-step manner that makes this knowledge understandable and shows how it can benefit us as individuals.   Friday   The United States’ extensive knowledge of the 1976 planned military coup in Argentina While the released documents portray the U.S. as having knowledge of the coup as opposed to intervening overtly or covertly, the aftermath shows U.S. involvement was considerable. By Ramona Wadi Last March, on the 45th anniversary of Argentina’s descent into dictatorship, the National Security Archive posted a selection of declassified documents revealing the U.S. knowledge of the military coup in the country in 1976. A month before the government of Isabel Peron was toppled by the military, the U.S. had already informed the coup plotters that it would recognise the new government. Indications of a possible coup in Argentina had reached the U.S. as early as 1975.   Comply or die: The only truly compliant person in a police state is a dead one By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead Americans aren’t dying at the hands of police because of racism.   ‘If you want to save the USPS,’ says watchdog, ‘fire Louis DeJoy’ "The entire board and then Mr. DeJoy should be handed their walking papers," said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). "Their unquestioning support for this postmaster general is unacceptable." By Julia Conley Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on Thursday reiterated its call for the ouster of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Republican megadonor accused of attempting to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service last year as millions of Americans relied on the agency to participate in the presidential election.   A Palestinian prayer for Ramadan: May the voices of the oppressed be heard By Ramzy Baroud COVID-19 cases in Palestine, especially in Gaza, have reached record highs, largely due to the arrival of a greatly contagious coronavirus variant which was first identified in Britain.   How “representative” is US democracy? By Thomas L. Knapp American politicians love to boast of their nation’s status as the world’s premier “representative democracy,” and to lecture other, presumably less enlightened, countries on the importance of representative political institutions. Going by the numbers (which admittedly don’t tell the whole story), there’s good reason to question whether such preening is justified.

INTREPID REPORT: Week of April 6, 2020

We cannot keep publishing without your help. We have no paywalls or ads. Nor do we receive corporate or foundation funding. All we have is you to keep us publishing. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Was the Fed just nationalized? Did Congress just nationalize the Fed? No. But the door has been cracked open for that possibility. By Ellen Brown Mainstream politicians have long insisted that Medicare for All, a universal basic income, student debt relief and a slew of other much-needed public programs are off the table because the federal government cannot afford them. But that was before Wall Street and the stock market were driven onto life-support by a virus. Congress has now suddenly discovered the magic money tree. It took only a few days for Congress to unanimously pass the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which will be doling out $2.2 trillion in crisis relief, most of it going to Corporate America with few strings attached. Beyond that, the Federal Reserve is making over $4 trillion available to banks, hedge funds and other financial entities of all stripes; it has dropped the fed funds rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) effectively to zero; and it has made $1.5 trillion available to the repo market. Medicare for each of us in the age of the coronavirus The U.S. public—and increasingly the business community—are becoming acutely aware of the rising costs and inadequacies of our current for-profit system, particularly as the current epidemic unfolds. There is no other choice but Medicare for All. By Peter S. Arno and Philip Caper Over the past two weeks, the explosive growth of the coronavirus pandemic has forced nearly 10 million Americans to file for unemployment benefits. Along with their jobs, many have lost their health insurance, if they had any to begin with. Aside from possibly spelling disaster for these newly unemployed workers and their families, this situation puts both the public health and economic wellbeing of our country at great risk. A clearer rationale for universal, affordable, lifetime health coverage as exemplified under a Medicare For All framework would be hard to find. US prevents adoption of UN resolution to lift illegal sanctions to combat COVID-19 By Stephen Lendman A UN General Assembly resolution introduced by Russia to lift illegally imposed US sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, and other nations was rejected by the Trump regime. Coronavirus failures show Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States Seven ‘pro-contagion activities’ by Trump increased the coronavirus death toll in the United States. By Ralph Nader Trump ridiculed, then minimized, then delayed the federal government’s response to the coronavirus for weeks. Then finally he wrapped his boastful, confused ego around reality. But Trump is actively pushing programs that will endanger more Americans. COVID: Invasion of the Wealth-Snatchers By Jane Stillwater Hold on to your piggy banks, guys! Financial vampires are coming to steal them as well. Tuesday Healthcare know-nothings running Trump regime’s COVID-19 crisis response By Stephen Lendman In late February, Trump bungled by putting evangelical Christian fascist/science denier Pence in charge of one of two COVID-19 task forces. ‘A really chilling moment’: Trump refuses to allow Dr. Fauci to answer question on dangers of hydroxychloroquine ‘This is unacceptable. Dr. Fauci, one of the world's top infectious disease scientists, was just censored live at a White House press conference.’ By Jake Johnson During a press briefing Sunday night purportedly aimed at providing the U.S. public with crucial information amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump refused to allow the nation’s top infectious disease expert to answer a reporter’s question about the efficacy of an anti-malaria drug that the president has recklessly touted as a possible COVID-19 treatment despite warnings from medical professionals. Why COVID-19 is not the ‘Great Leveller’ The poor are at the mercy of authorities that may or may not have treatment resources By Linda S. Heard I frequently hear news anchors refer to this current planetary scourge as “a great leveller” that does not discriminate in terms of social status and is not deterred by borders. While I can understand the reasoning behind that conclusion it is open to challenge. Efficiency vs. resilience This crisis is pulling back the curtain on unfettered capitalism, showing that we are actually interconnected. By Jill Richardson Many years ago, bestselling author Michael Pollan explained there’s a trade-off between efficiency and resilience. What it means to be ‘safe’ By Prakash Kona I am beginning to be slightly wary of the word “safe.” What does it mean anyway? In times of crisis why do people fall back on clichés of the worst kind? Why are we at a loss of words that accurately reflect our feelings in times of disaster? Why do people who are on a public platform such as government spokespersons, medical experts and journalists keep repeating the same thing as if the set of words that they memorized have an inner meaning which we are supposed to decode in isolation? Wednesday Kushner’s Grand Theft Ventilator scheme By Wayne Madsen The government of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley was shocked when the Trump administration seized over 150 ventilators ordered and pre-purchased by Barbados from five different foreign sources. Although Barbados Health and Wellness Minister Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic said there are no shortage of ventilators in the country to deal with its current level of Covid-19 cases, the seizure by the U.S. has resulted in icy relations between Barbados and the United States. Oversight of $4.5 trillion corporate bailout in ‘grave jeopardy’ as Trump fires independent watchdog ‘A direct insult to the American taxpayers—of all political stripes—who want to make sure that their tax dollars are not squandered on wasteful boondoggles, incompetence, or political favors.’ By Jake Johnson In a move that critics warned could put independent oversight of a multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus package “in grave jeopardy,” President Donald Trump on Monday fired the official in charge of monitoring the federal government’s implementation of the business-friendly new law. The EPA just gave polluters a license to kill Using the pandemic as cover, the agency is suspending environmental regulations. I’ve seen firsthand what happens next—people die. By Lois Gibbs Our government just told polluters they are free to pump deadly chemicals into our air and water. That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has suspended all enforcement indefinitely, until the COVID-19 crisis is over. Lost in the mail The pandemic threatens letter carriers, their customers, the US Postal Service itself—and even the November election. By Michael Winship We finally got the mail on Thursday. None had arrived for a week, except for some packages. Our main local post office downtown, at the southern end of Manhattan’s West Village, has been hit hard by COVID-19. Trump’s COVID-19 power grab By Robert Reich The utter chaos in America’s response to the pandemic—shortages of equipment to protect hospital workers, dwindling supplies of ventilators and critical medications, and jaw-dropping confusion over how the $2.2 trillion of aid in the recent coronavirus law will be distributed—was perhaps predictable in a nation that prides itself on competitive individualism and hates centralized power. Thursday Libertarian leaders: a recipe for lethal government incompetence and criminality By Wayne Madsen Throughout the world in countries that elected right-wing anti-government libertarian leaders—from the United States and Brazil to the United Kingdom and Australia—incompetence and lack of preparedness for the Covid-19 pandemic will directly lead to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. The political rhetoric of those leaders who practice “barbarian laissez-faire” policies have been exposed by Covid-19 as worthless pablum designed to enthrall their unthinking supporters. Trump: Postal workers don’t deserve a financial lifeline No one else can deliver essential goods to every home in America. But the president is dismissing dire warnings of an imminent USPS collapse, falsely claiming that postal financial woes are self-inflicted. By Sarah Anderson The financially strapped United States Postal Service wound up with crumbs in the $2.2 trillion stimulus deal, despite playing a vital role in our nation’s public health and economic stability at this time of crisis. Exposing ‘folly of tying health coverage to jobs,’ new study estimates 7.3 million more uninsured in US by June Employer-based health insurance during the current coronavirus outbreak, said one researcher behind the study, ‘is like an umbrella that melts in the rain.’ By Jon Queally A new study out Tuesday estimates that worker layoffs unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic in the United States have already caused more than 1.5 million people to lose their employer-provided health insurance in recent weeks, with another 5.7 million likely to become uninsured by the end of June. Wisconsin’s unconscionable sham The state’s election was a danger to public health and a democratic travesty—all to help Republicans suppress more votes. By Jill Richardson Wisconsin might have just decided the November election for Trump at the expense of its own citizens’ lives. Freedom Rider: Standing with Venezuela and Iran By Margaret Kimberley The Trump administration wants a hot war with Iran or Venezuela, or both, and those of us claiming to be antiwar must be on our guard and ready for action. Friday It’s now the very ugly American pandemic By Wayne Madsen The world will not soon forget the despicable nature of the Trump administration during the worst global pandemic since the 1918 flu. Trump, aided and abetted by a rogues’ gallery of misfits, hyper-xenophobes, and egotistical homosexuals, has all but ruined any good will the United States still maintained in the world prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Will Trump’s GOP finally kill American democracy? By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman For Donald Trump’s GOP followers, the real issue in the 2020 election is democracy itself. COVID-19’s challenge to the Christian Church: What would Jesus do? By John W. Whitehead In every age, we find ourselves wrestling with the question of how Jesus Christ—the itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist who died challenging the police state of his time, namely, the Roman Empire—would respond to the moral questions of our day. Will Covid-19 spur a peoples’ bailout for the world’s poorest? The question is whether Covid-19 will awaken us to the stark inequalities of our world, or does it simply represent a new cause of impoverishment for the vast swathes of humanity who have long been disregarded by the public’s conscience? By Adam Parsons Since the beginning of 2020, we’ve entered an extraordinary new era. There is still a great deal of fear and uncertainty about what lies ahead, and most countries are undergoing a kind of social and political revolution that is unprecedented in the post-war period. But amidst the tragedy and suffering of those affected by Covid-19, there is also a reawakening of hope about the future possibilities of this epochal moment. Political campaigners of every type are rolling out their progressive agendas, envisioning the crisis as an inflection point that could potentially kickstart a more just and sustainable economy. Stop the pandemic profiteers It’s time for indignant citizens today to confront a new breed of shameful greed merchants: pandemic profiteers. By Jim Hightower Wartime profiteering has been as common in our country as war itself.

Week of March 9, 2020

We cannot keep publishing without your help.           We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Bernie bashing By Stephen Lendman In a free, fair and open process, Bernie Sanders would be odds on favorite to become Dem standard bearer against Trump in November. According to polls, he’d likely defeat DJT and become the 46th US president. Trump vs. Sanders: A concise comparison for voters (and why Bernie wins hands down) When there is a conflict between big business and the public good, on labor rights, consumer rights, small taxpayer respect, and environmental protections, Bernie has stood with the people. By Ralph Nader It isn’t un-American for voters to do some homework before voting. Here’s a “concise guide” for the voter with limited time who might want more information. America’s two-headed one party system By Caitlin Johnstone There’s a scene from John Steinbeck’s The Pearl that’s been coming back to me over and over again ever since I started writing about US politics. I find it amazing that this scene hasn’t become a political meme yet, given Steinbeck’s fame and given its perfect illustration of the fake two-party system that we see in western so-called democracies. Why does Generation Z require so many workplace accommodations? By Martha Rosenberg Recently the Wall Street Journal reported on how many young people are now seeking “accommodations” at work for their anxiety, PTSD, depression, and other mental conditions. Continue reading ? All men are mortal By Dr T P Wilkinson My deceased mother-in-law, not a pious person but one of utterly conventional morals, used to say when someone over 70 —she died of heart failure somewhere in the mid-70s after our divorce—was diagnosed with some serious illness, “well at least they can’t die young.” I say she was conventional because she certainly had all the usual ideas about what to do and say among polite people. Maybe having lived through the Second World War—on the losing side—and knowing enough people who did die young just gave her a certain sobriety in matters of life and death. I mention this because in our age of exhibitionism and euphemism it is very difficult to conduct a sober, let alone rational discussion about the circumstances by which individual human beings die. Tuesday Joe Biden in 2020 duplicates Hillary Clinton in 2016 By Eric Zuesse Hillary Clinton, of course, received the Democratic Party nomination in 2016 and was widely expected to beat Trump but she lost to him (though she won California by 4,269,978 in the popular vote, and so beat Trump by 2,864,974 in the nationwide popular vote, while she lost all other states by 1,405,002 votes, and so she would have been California’s president if she had won, but the rest of the nation wouldn’t have been happy). The greatest threat to the radical left is the radical left By Dave Alpert The political left in the US is a political minority that is constantly misrepresented and abused. While the capitalist has captured the media and the political arena, flooding the country with its messages about the wonders of capitalism and the “American Dream” and the dangers of socialism and communism, the left has struggled to get its message out to the American people. I have an issue with how exit polls treat issues Polling questions that isolate ‘inequality’ do no justice to the social ills that ail us. By Sam Pizzigati We can’t seem to have an election these days without “exit polls.” News organizations—on every big ballot-box day—now routinely stop voters exiting polling places to ask who they voted for. How to respond to the national emergency By Robert Reich CEOs of the major Wall Street banks have been summoned to the White House to discuss the coronavirus its economic fallout. I’m told Trump administration is considering more corporate tax cuts, tax cuts targeted to the airlines and hospitality industries, and a temporary payroll tax cut. Final Israeli election results By Stephen Lendman Tabulating March 2 election results took time to include absentee ballots. Wednesday The president as political hit man Donald Trump attempts to take out his electoral adversaries one by one, Mafia-style. By John Feffer Donald Trump filed his paperwork to run for reelection only hours after his inauguration in January 2017, setting a presidential record, the first of his many dubious achievements. For a man who relished the adulation and bombast of campaigning, it should have surprised no one that he charged out of the starting gate so quickly for 2020 as well. After all, he’d already spent much of the December before his inauguration on a ”thank you” tour of the swing states that had unexpectedly supported him on Election Day—Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin—and visited Florida for a rally only a couple of weeks after he took the oath of office. In much the same way that Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once embraced “permanent revolution,” Donald Trump embarked on a “permanent campaign.”

Dems rigging things for establishment figure Biden? By Stephen Lendman The myth of moderate Joe belies his hardline agenda throughout a near-half century of public life as US senator and vice president. ‘Stealth attack on Social Security’: Trump condemned for exploiting coronavirus crisis to push payroll tax cut ‘This is a Trojan Horse attack on our Social Security system.’ By Jake Johnson Economists and progressive advocacy groups are warning that President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut or temporarily suspend the payroll tax in an effort to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus is “a Trojan Horse attack on our Social Security system” that will do little to help most U.S. households. The end of the Age of Enlightenment By Wayne Madsen The Age of Enlightenment had a pretty good run from the 17th to 19th centuries. It led to the Industrial Age and, in concurrence, the Space and Information Ages. These historical epochs advanced humanity to crowning breakthroughs in science, medicine, information exchange, and quality of life. Today, all of humankind’s advancements are being threatened by those who would have society return to an age marked by superstition, belief in magic and miracles, ignorance, racial and religious intolerance, and abject sexism. ‘People are being hunted down’—ICE launches rights-busting onslaught against sanctuary cities Rights are routinely being violated as hundreds of ICE agents storm New York City and other sanctuary cities in a fresh attempt to round up undocumented immigrants. By Alan MacLeod Operation Palladium has begun. Hundreds of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have entered New York and other sanctuary cities in a fresh attempt to round up undocumented immigrants. The directive, according to officials, is simple: arrest as many undocumented immigrants as possible and “flood the streets” with officers. Beginning a 24/7 surveillance and detention program, ICE leadership has requested over 500 special agents who normally work fighting trafficking and organized crime to bolster the agency’s numbers. This follows an earlier decision to deploy immigration SWAT teams to round up undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities. Thursday Dirty system triumphs on mini-Super Tuesday By Stephen Lendman Tuesday results in six states for Dems largely replicated Biden’s pre-scripted week ago Super Tuesday triumph over Sanders. ‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see’: The 2020 Bernie campaign represents a fight that must continue Corporate media and corporate Democrats want the Bernie 2020 campaign—and the grassroots energy behind it—to melt away. That's not going to happen. By Norman Solomon “In a dark time,” poet Theodore Roethke wrote, “the eye begins to see.” Freedom Rider: Coronavirus and the failed American state China built two coronavirus hospitals in just over one week. By Margaret Kimberley The United States has none of the systems or infrastructure that would allow it to accomplish what China has done to fight mass infection. Markets, viruses, petroleum,1% rule = democracy? By Frank Scott Reactions to the incredibly debt-ridden Ponzi Scheme that passes for thriving global capitalism range from joy over its positive nature in the cartoon version of reality presented by corporate media, to near panic over its pending doom from the best informed sources of the financial community. The sudden intrusion of a global health emergency beyond the normal one of people unable to afford health care has led to a sooner than expected market crisis with Wall Street fluctuations making president Trump’s intellectual state seem almost normal. The market drops a thousand points one day, rises two thousand the next, with sales of psychiatric drugs showing tremendous growth though only a few can afford to buy them. ‘Prejudential’ is a must-read to understand current presidential election debacle By Danny Haiphong Every four years, ruling elites aligned on either side of the two-party duopoly choose their most important political official, the president, to defend and protect their interests. Ordinary Americans are taught that the electoral process is a shining example of democracy at work. No other elected politician in the United States is more mythologized than the American president. George Washington couldn’t tell a lie. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Historians, educators, and the mass corporate media have for centuries portrayed presidents as heroes of the people and the most powerful representatives of the “land of the free” and “home of the brave.” Friday The Fed’s baffling response to the coronavirus explained By Ellen Brown When the World Health Organization announced on February 24 that it was time to prepare for a global pandemic, the stock market plummeted. Over the following week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by more than 3,500 points or over 10%. In an attempt to contain the damage, on March 3 the Federal Reserve slashed the fed funds rate from 1.5% to 1.0%, in their first emergency rate move and biggest one-time cut since the 2008 financial crisis. But rather than reassuring investors, the move fueled another panic sell-off. Trump’s brand is chaos ‘Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.’ By Michael Winship Back in 1992, while running for re-election, President George H.W. Bush was speaking at a New Hampshire town hall and accidentally read aloud some stage directions handed to him by his staff: “Message: I care.” 20 top economists endorse Medicare for All as best plan to cut costs, save tens of thousands of lives each year ‘By eliminating insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, and lowering overall healthcare costs, Medicare for All will result in enormous savings for almost all households, all except the richest households who will pay more in taxes.’ By Jake Johnson Rejecting “loose talk” from corporate Democrats, the media, and insurance industry that a single-payer system would be unaffordable, twenty leading U.S. economists on Tuesday released an open letter endorsing Medicare for All as the best way to reduce soaring national healthcare costs, significantly cut expenses for most U.S. households, and save countless lives. This is a test: How will the Constitution fare during a nationwide lockdown? By John W. Whitehead This is a test Freedom: Don’t let politicians tell you to EARN IT By Thomas L. Knapp The Wile E. Coyotes of the Internet—US Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)—are sure that THIS time they’ve finally found a made-to-order tool that can take out the Roadrunn … er, those meddling ki … er, the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.