2019-10-05: News Headlines

Photos and Text (2019-10-05). San Francisco ICE Deportation Hearings Tear Families Apart. indybay.org Cambodian refugees protest immigration raids…

DXE (2019-10-05). Day After Mass Arrests, Animal Activists Swarm SF City Hall to Ask for \"Right to Rescue\" indybay.org Activists face multiple felony charges after exposing alleged criminal animal cruelty at Amazon-suppyling factory farms…

DXE (2019-10-05). Whole Foods Files Restraining Order to Ban Animal Rights Activists From All California Locations. indybay.org Following Monday\'s protests in San Francisco, activists say Whole Foods\' parent-company Amazon continually seeks to silence animal cruelty and transparency concerns with heavy-handed legal action…

WSWS (2019-10-05). Hong Kong\'s chief executive invokes emergency law against protest movement. wsws.org The use of this British colonial era law is a warning that the ruling class in the Hong Kong and Beijing are preparing to suppress the months-long demonstrations for basic democratic rights.

WSWS (2019-10-05). Iraq in flames. wsws.org Iraqi security forces opened fire on unarmed civilians for the fourth day in a row Friday as protesters poured into the streets once again in defiance of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi\'s declaration of a round-the-clock curfew.

WSWS (2019-10-05). Tolkien: Biopic of author J.R.R. Tolkien rings false. wsws.org The film about the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings oversimplifies the impact of World War I on the author.

WSWS (2019-10-05). GM strike in danger of union-enforced defeat as UAW announces \'good progress\' on temps, health care. wsws.org The United Auto Workers (UAW) and General Motors are making \"good progress\" towards an agreement, UAW Vice President for GM Terry Dittes said in a letter published Friday evening.

Edward Curtin (2019-10-05). The Deep State Goes Shallow. \"Reality-TV Coup d\'etat in Prime Time\" globalresearch.ca This article was first published on February 21, 2017, one month after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, more than two-and-a half years ago. What was true then is even truer now, and so I am reprinting it with …

WSWS (2019-10-05). Trump continues to defy Democrats\' impeachment inquiry. wsws.org On Friday, President Donald Trump stepped up his defiance of the impeachment inquiry launched by the Democrats with the support of the intelligence agencies.

Eugene E Ruyle (2019-10-05). ‚Ä®Support the Embassy Protectors Collective. U.S. Hands off Venezuela. indybay.org NPML, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland (just North of Alcatraz Ave.)…

WSWS (2019-10-05). Illinois steelworker killed on the job, police launch investigation. wsws.org Police and government officials are investigating the death Adrian Gomez, 26, husband and father of two, who was killed when he became trapped in machinery.

ALETH (2019-10-05). twin hoaxes : paris and trieste. indybay.org the bilderberg fakes terror attacks to take away our freedoms…

Mat Ward (2019-10-05). Day 2: What the #WaterForRivers bus tour was really like. greenleft.org.au Aboriginal rights Mat WardIssue 1240 Australia Aboriginal culture Murray Darling River crisis Save Our Rivers

Jake Johnson, staff writer (2019-10-05). Second Intel Whistleblower Reportedly Considering Coming Forward With \'More Direct Information\' on Trump-Ukraine Talks. commondreams.org www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/whistleblower.jpg

Joseph OMahoney (2019-10-04). Nuclear powers once shared their technology openly — how Iran\'s program fell on the wrong side of history. nationofchange.org As tensions remain at fever pitch between Tehran and Washington, Iran continues to breach limits agreed in the 2015 Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Since Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in May 2018, its future has become more and more uncertain. Iran has enriched uranium beyond the level agreed …

John Kendall Hawkins (2019-10-04). Edward Snowden, You Legend! counterpunch.org \"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster; when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.\" — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil \"Are you sure that you can skin griz? — line from film Jeremiah Johnson Edward Snowden\'s newly-released memoir, More

Joseph Natoli (2019-10-04). The Battles Now. counterpunch.org \"Now we are engaged….\" — Lincoln, Gettysburg Address One real battle we are in now — human caused global warming — is a battle we realized very belatedly we are in. The other — the political one — is, in a President Trump retweet, heading toward \"a Civil War like fracture in this nation\" and More

Mark Weisbrot (2019-10-04). Trump\'s Trade War With China: Is It About to End? counterpunch.org The latest de-escalation of the trade war with China — with exemptions from some tariffs on both sides — has left markets uncertain as to whether it will end before there is serious escalation. But if I were managing a hedge fund, I would bet on it. To see why, we must start with Trump More

The Canary (2019-10-04). Cleric warns Iraqi leaders as protest death toll soars. thecanary.co Iraq\'s top Shiite cleric has sharply criticised the government over deadly violence gripping the country, urging political leaders and protesters to pull back \"before it is too late\".The comments by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani came as the death toll in this week\'s anti-government demonstrations climbed to 42.His sermon came hours after Iraq\'s prime minister called on protesters to go home, comparing security measures to \"bitter medicine\" that needs to be swallowed.Anti-government protesters burn an armoured vehicle (Hadi Mizban/AP)Since 1 October, security forces have fired live rounds and tear gas every day t…

Rob Urie (2019-10-04). Impeachment, Brought to You by the CIA. counterpunch.org For the first time in half a century, the political left in the U.S. is ascendant. Bernie Sanders is holding his own in the primaries. A group of well-considered programs to save the environment and provide good jobs and health care for all is gaining political traction. And the need is dire. The climate is warming, the seas are polluted and fished out and industrial agriculture threatens to end life on the planet. So, it\'s time to change the subject? More

David Rosen (2019-10-04). How the U.S. Military Undermines the American Economy. counterpunch.org On January 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his now-famous farewell address, warning the nation: In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let More

Steve Sweeney (2019-10-04). European Parliament launches anti-communist crusade. peoplesworld.org Communists and left organizations have hit out at a reactionary \"ahistorical\" motion passed by the European Parliament last month which equates communism with \"the monster of fascism.\" The European Communist Initiative condemned the \"outrageous\" resolution tabled by the right-wing European People\'s Party group and warned of the escalating anti-communism of the European Union (EU). The …

Paul Street (2019-10-04). We Meddle Too: Trump, Empire, and \"The National Interest\" counterpunch.org Never underestimate the power of the United States\' American Exeptionalist and imperial doctrine. Look at the recent Washington Post revelation regarding wannabe fascist strongman Donald Trump\'s meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Lavrov in the White House in 2017. Trump told Lavrov and another high-ranking Russian official that he wasn\'t concerned about Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election because the United States does the same thing in other countries. More

Nyla Ali Khan (2019-10-04). No Development Without the Politics of Mass Mobilization and Demilitarization in Kashmir. counterpunch.org Amidst that pandemonium of 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was the first state in the newly freed Indian subcontinent to have its own written constitutional plan. The constitution guaranteed enfranchisement of all adult citizens, men and women, and took particular care to protect the dignity and religious freedoms of minorities. The admirable egalitarian and democratic quality More

Staff (2019-10-04). Trump\'s Anti-Immigration Policies Are a Deepening of Previous Admin Policies. therealnews.com Although Trump\'s rhetoric on immigration is shocking, suggesting border patrol should shoot border crossing immigrants in the legs, his policies are an intensification of policies that began under Obama, not a dramatic departure, says Aviva Chomsky.

Alex Emmons (2019-10-04). Text Messages Show the Trump-Zelensky Call Had Just One Goal — And It Was Anything but Routine. theintercept.com A summary of the infamous conversation could lead to Donald Trump\'s impeachment, but these text messages reveal for the first time how the call came about.

RT (2019-10-04). The Ukraine affair is damning, all right — just not in the way you\'re being told to think. rt.com Democrats say texts and transcripts involving US officials dealing with Ukraine prove President Donald Trump should be impeached. What they actually confirm, however, is the extent to which the US treats Ukraine as a vassal. | At the heart of the latest media firestorm are the text messages between US diplomats and Trump\'s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. House Democrats seeking to impeach Trump have already sent a subpoena to the White House seeking more documents, and their allies in the media have proclaimed the texts to be \"damning.\" | Much of the brouhaha centers on messages from Bill Taylor, charge d\'af…

RT (2019-10-04). As impeachment fever grips Washington, Ukraine reopens Biden probe following Trump\'s demands. rt.com As Democrats clamor to impeach President Donald Trump for allegedly pressuring Ukraine into probing the Biden family, Kiev\'s top prosecutor announced that he will reopen the investigation. | Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka announced on Friday that he will review 15 high-profile corruption cases. Among them is an investigation into the owner of energy firm Burisma, which paid former vice president Joe Biden\'s son Hunter $50,000 per month to sit on its board for five years, despite his lack of qualifications in the field. | President Trump believes that Joe Biden wielded his political influence t…

RT (2019-10-04). Shot down? Testimony by Trump\'s Ukraine envoy seems to skewer Democrats\' impeachment narrative. rt.com Another transcript has poked a hole in the narrative of House Democrats trying to impeach President Donald Trump, as former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified he never pushed Kiev for \'dirt\' on former VP Joe Biden. | Volker was grilled for nine hours in a closed-doors session of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees on Thursday. Democrats on the committees claimed that he was instrumental in pushing the Ukrainian government to reopen a corruption investigation into Joe Biden\'s son Hunter\'s business dealings in Ukraine. | House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff (D-Califor…

The Canary (2019-10-04). Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who\'s jailed in Iran, to \'send daughter home to UK\'. thecanary.co A British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran is to send her daughter home to the UK to start school, it has been reported.Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been visited in prison by five-year-old Gabriella at least once a week for the past three years.The youngster will be back in London before Christmas, according to the Times.Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 and sentenced to five years in jail after being accused of spying, which she vehemently denies.Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, outside the Iranian Embassy (Jonathan Brady/PA)Her fight for freedom has seen her endure hunger strikes…

Saul Foster (2019-10-04). Bolsonaro\'s highway project targets heart of Amazon region. mronline.org Amazon researchers said the repaved road would trigger an explosion of deforestation in Amazonas, currently Brazil\'s best preserved rainforest state precisely because it has few good roads. | Source

T.J. Coles (2019-10-04). Robot Trolls on Amazon: How Fake Reviews Could Undermine Progressive Politics. counterpunch.org Every big personality or corporation uses algorithmic robots (\"bots\") to boost themselves and their products. Until recently, US President Donald Trump had a Twitter following of around 59 million. But nearly half of those \"followers\" were fake, spam, and/or dormant accounts. Twitter\'s purge of \"Trump supporters\" was actually a purge of fake accounts. (The real More

Michelle Zacarias (2019-10-04). Former Dallas police officer gets 10 years after shooting neighbor in his home. peoplesworld.org A former Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, was sentenced to serve ten years in prison on Wednesday afternoon. Guyger was arrested in September 2018 after she shot and killed Botham Jean, 26. Jean lived in the unit directly below Guyger\'s apartment, which she alleged led her to believe that an intruder had entered \"her\" home. …

Greg Palast (2019-10-04). The Las Vegas Shooter, Two Years Later. truthdig.com Why Steve Paddock killed dozens of innocent Las Vegas revelers two years ago isn\'t as much of a mystery when you consider his roots.

The Canary (2019-10-04). Grenfell Tower probe into how fatal blaze started to be published within weeks. thecanary.co A report investigating how the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people started will be published before the end of the month after the prime minister approved its release.The first stage of the inquiry into the fire has been completed and Boris Johnson has asked the chairman to make it public before October 30 — more than two years after the fatal west London blaze took place.The paper will look at how the fire started, the reason it spread as it did and the reaction from the emergency services.In a letter to inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick, Johnson said: \"I invite you to publish the phase 1 report…

Julie Y. Chu (2019-10-04). Cruel Optimism and the Settler-Colonial Roots of White Grievance. counterpunch.org This past summer I was camping in rural Wisconsin with my partner and son when a huge thunderstorm forced us to seek out the closest local pub for dinner one evening. Our four-year old had been going through some kind of cranky asshole phase all summer and our options for feeding him in the middle More

Louis Proyect (2019-10-04). The Politics of Trolling. counterpunch.org Back in the mid-90s, when the Internet was first taking off, spurred by AOL\'s making the web available to the masses, it was easy to become a cyber-utopian. Manuel Castells, a Spanish sociologist, became one of its prophets. In books like the 2001 \"The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society\", Castells recognized More

Pete Dolack (2019-10-04). Capitalism\'s Triumph: Labor Rights Violated in Every Country on Earth. counterpunch.org In what country are labor rights fully respected? The sad answer is: none. Labor rights are routinely violated around the world, and the trend is only getting worse. The International Trade Union Confederation has again issued its annual Global Rights Index and the result is no better than in past years. It\'s worse. For example, the number of More

Eric Mann (2019-10-04). Bernie: Keep Fighting On. counterpunch.org Senator Sanders. Sorry to hear about your heart surgery but it will make you stronger. We can\'t let your opponents seize on this and imply that it proves something about your age or your heart. You have more heart than most of the dead-people-walking Democratic pretenders. A stent is a commonly used procedure to open More

Namita Waikar (2019-10-04). Counting Sheep as Grasslands Shrink in Gujarat. counterpunch.org \"Is there rain in your village?\" It was Karabhai Aal on the phone from Banaskantha district in North Gujarat. \"There is none here.\" That was in the last week of July this year. \"If it rains, we will go home,\" he had declared with half a hope. That he was speaking to a non-farmer in More

Eve Ottenberg (2019-10-04). The Lies of Capitalism. counterpunch.org Neoliberals love to quote the World Bank\'s rosy statistics about capitalism lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. Unfortunately, those statistics are skewed and manipulated to the point of outright prevarication, as Seth Donnelly demonstrates in his new book, \"The Lie of Global Prosperity.\" He quotes a breathless World Bank press release, \"soon 90 percent More

Minnie Bruce Pratt (2019-10-04). Workers march to end climate crisis. workers.org That climate crisis is a workers\' issue was emphatically affirmed by the IndustriALL Global Union when it called on all affiliates to take part in the September worldwide Climate Strike actions. IndustriALL represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors, giving it the power . . . | Continue reading Workers march to end climate crisis at Workers.org

Mohamad Bazzi (2019-10-04). Jamal Khashoggi\'s Murder Shook Everyone—Except Trump. thenation.com For Trump, outrage over the slaying of the journalist was just the cost of doing business with Saudi Arabia.

Staff (2019-10-04). US Supreme Court to Decide Fate Of Baltimore v. Big Oil Suit. therealnews.com The city sued 26 oil and gas companies over their role in the climate crisis, but the companies have appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the case from proceeding at the state level.

Robert Scheer (2019-10-04). The Refugee Crisis Unlike You\'ve Ever Seen It Before. truthdig.com As conflicts spread and climate change worsens, the refugee crisis worldwide is breaking astounding records. There currently are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people around the globe, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Each of these individuals has a tale to tell about overcoming immense obstacles and dangers as he or she sought safety and stability away from homes they were forced to leave. One such story is told in the documentary \" Midnight Traveler,\" filmed by Afghan director…

Judy Greenspan (2019-10-04). Scapegoating the homeless for climate crisis. workers.org Two weeks ago, when President Donald Trump flew to California for two days to fundraise for his election campaign, his trip was shrouded in secret. No one knew until the last minute where he was going to be. Yet in that short amount of time, Trump was able to attack . . . | Continue reading Scapegoating the homeless for climate crisis at Workers.org

David Klein (2019-10-04). Think or Swim. thenation.com Climate change activists demand action from our leaders.

RT (2019-10-04). \'Save the planet, eat the babies\': AOC trolled over climate change panic by pro-Trump prankster. rt.com Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a fan of radical climate change solutions, but one \"modest proposal\" caught her off guard. A woman she thought had a \"mental condition\" suggested eating babies for the good of the earth. | Speaking about her proposed \'Green New Deal\' at a town hall event on Thursday, AOC was interrupted by an apparently distressed woman who felt the Green New Deal\'s zero-carbon goal just wouldn\'t cut it. Claiming that \"we only have a few months left\" to fight climate change, the woman went on to suggest that humanity begin eating its own children to save the world from ecological apoca…

teleSUR (2019-10-04). Trump Suspends Entry of Immigrants Who Cannot Pay for Healthcare. telesurenglish.net On Friday United State President Donald Trump signed a proclamation suspending the entry of immigrants into the country who will not be covered by health insurance within 30 days, or do not have the means to pay for their own healthcare costs. | RELATED: | Ilhan Omar Says Her Intersectionality \"Terrifies\" Donald Trump | The White House said the measure won\'t affect any individual\'s eligibility for asylum or refugee status. The provision will go into effect Nov. 3. | Just days ag…

Amy Goodman (2019-10-04). As man dies in ICE custody, California moves to ban for-profit prisons, including immigrant jails. nationofchange.org A Cameroonian immigrant died this week in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California. The man, identified as 37-year-old Nebane Abienwi, died on Tuesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage. This comes as California lawmakers passed a bill last month that would ban private prisons statewide, a major blow to the for-profit prison …