Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Patriotism vs. nationalism:
• Trump regime makes clear it plans to fight on in the Afghanistan abyss:
In October, as that new mini-escalation was ramping up, the CIA leaked to the New York Times news of a complementary covert surge with lethal drone strikes and “highly experienced” Agency paramilitary teams being dispatched to “hunt and kill” Taliban guerrillas, both ordinary fighters and top officials. “This is unforgiving, relentless,” intoned CIA Director Mike Pompeo, promising a wave of extrajudicial killings reminiscent of the Agency’s notorious Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War. CIA paramilitary officers, reported the Times, will lead Special Forces operatives, both Afghan and American, in expanded counterterrorism operations that, in the past, “have been accused of indiscriminately killing Afghan civilians.” In short, it’s game on in Afghanistan.
After 16 years of continuous war in that country, the obvious question is: Does this new campaign have any realistic chance of success, no less victory? To answer that, another question must be asked: How has the Taliban managed to expand in recent years despite intensive U.S. operations and a massive air campaign, as well as the endless and endlessly expensive training of Afghan security forces?
• Spokesman for Philippine president contradicts press secretary S.H. Sanders’ version of talks with Trump: The spokesman said President Rodrigo Duterte and Trump did not discuss human rights at their bilateral meeting, which focused on the Philippines drug war. Sanders had said that “human rights briefly came up.” But Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said he was surprised that she said what she did. “It was not Trump who raised it. Trump never raised it, honestly,” Roque said:
Roque, in the interview, said he believes Sanders was interested in making it appear that Trump had raised human rights in a bid to placate Trump’s “domestic constituency.” He said he decided not to challenge Sanders’s statement immediately after it was distributed to reporters in an email as a way of compromising with her. He said a charitable reading of the meeting would be that Duterte was alluding to human rights issues when he said the drug war was important as an issue of “human development.”
• Simmons College honors the late journalist Gwen Ifill: The college in Boston announced Tuesday that it will name one of its schools the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and Humanities. Ifill, the long-time print and broadcast journalist, graduated from the private college with a communications degree in 1977. Ifill, who died of cancer last year at age 61, reported for The New York Times and The Washington Post. In the 1990s, she moved to television, covering politics and Congress for NBC News. In 1999, she became the host of "Washington Week" and worked for the nightly "NewsHour" program. She and Judy Woodruff were named co-hosts in 2013.
• Judge in Menendez bribery trial tells deadlocked jurors to try again and take their time: The jury in the case informed U.S. District Judge William Walls on Monday that they were deadlocked. He told them to sleep on it and try again to come to a unanimous agreement. “Take as much time as you need,” he said. “This is not reality TV. This is real life.”
The trial is in its 11th week. Menendez and Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen are charged with running a bribery scheme between 2006 and 2013 in which Menendez lobbied government officials on Melgen’s behalf in exchange for luxury vacations and flights on Melgen’s private plane.
• AFL-CIO fights GOP tax plan: The union leadership opposes the $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich “because it would reward outsourcing, slow down economic growth and overburden the middle class. It’s time for Congress to tax Wall Street and CEOs to create jobs, build vital infrastructure and prepare our people for the work ahead.”
• More than a third of American Indians in majority Indian areas report fear of calling cops because of discrimination:
According to a new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 36 percent of Native Americans living in majority-Native areas say they avoid calling the police because of a fear of discrimination. And nearly half say they or a family member feels he or she has been treated unfairly by the courts. But thanks to a recent law, a small number of tribes are creating their own court systems in hopes they will process cases faster and restore trust.
• At energy conference, EPA’s Pruitt praises Heartland Institute, which has more than a decade under its belt lying about about climate change: The America First Energy Conference attracted a number of U.S. officials as well as academics and professional climate science deniers:
Pruitt, who while head of the EPA has repeatedly questioned the link between human activity and global warming, also didn’t mention it in his video address. “So I want to say to you at the Heartland Institute, thanks for what you are doing to advance energy,” Pruitt said. “Thank you for what you are doing to advance natural resources. We’ve been blessed immensely as a country to whom much is given, much is acquired.” [...]
Pruitt’s team, according to [Heartland spokesperson Jim] Lakely, has reached out to the Heartland Institute for a list of scientists and policy experts who are skeptical of catastrophic man-made global warming. Some of those names ended up on the list of the agency’s new science advisers released earlier this month.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: There’s still more on Moore, that moron. Banned from the local mall! Banned from the local YMCA! So, can he be banned from the Senate? Let’s talk about how. Oh, and there’s also plenty Moron Trump, Jr., and even Moron Flynn, Sr.
YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Keep us on the air! Donate via Patreon or Square Cash