Skidmarks Vance. A drag on the ticket. Doubt it? Kathleen Culliton reports:
Purdue Pharma profited off the pain of Ohioans while OxyContin flooded our state. Thanks to companies like Purdue, the AP reports, “Ohio remains one of the hardest-hit states for deadly drug overdoses, with about 14 people dying each day, according to the most recent statistics.” But instead of helping, J.D. Vance hired an apologist who downplayed the deadly cost of this crisis.
Fetterman this week formally reported 30 corporate bond transactions and one stock sale made on behalf of his dependent children during 2023 — with the oldest transaction reported about 17 months after a federally mandated deadline.
An unidentified dependent child made a partial sale of stock in petroleum company Marathon Oil on Jan. 24, 2023, valued between $1,001 and $15,000. (Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, have three school-aged children.)
The 30 corporate bonds include investments in a variety of companies, including multinational conglomerate General Electric, electric services company Florida Power and Light, petroleum company Phillips 66 Partners, steel producer Steel Dynamics and multinational financial services company, Bank of America.
“Sen. Fetterman filed an amendment to his financial disclosures that included investments for his children that were created by generous grandparents who were unaware of the reporting requirements,” said a spokesperson for Fetterman’s campaign, who declined to be named. “Once Sen. Fetterman was made aware of the investments, he immediately filed the appropriate disclosures.”
VFW National Commander Al Lipphardt responds to Trump's remarks on the Medal of Honor:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 17, 2024
"These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation's highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and…
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, August 16, 2024. Iraq will not be asking for US troops to leave, Joe Biden continues to supply the Israeli government with the weapons needed for genocide, Jill Stein prepares to have her useless vanity stroked yet again, and much more.
Let's start with constant failure Jill Stein. She's run for office repeatedly and never won. She's run for the presidency twice already and never won. On Saturday, she's expected to be named the Green Party's presidential nominee -- no despite claims for TRT as well as multiple idiots on YOUTUBE, she is not yet the nominee.
At 74, she's only four years younger than Donald Trump -- and Boomer's supposed to speak to young voters and a young party/ Maybe that's why she sounds so stupid in her MIDDLE EAST EYE interview saying things like "zombie candidates." THE WALKING DEAD started airing 14 years ago, Granny, you don't look up to date and your references aren't fresh, you come off like the seriously out of person you are prompting nothing so much as eye rolls.
The old whore gets off this in the interview:
The Democrats have just coronated Kamala after having essentially circled the wagons around a truly impaired president whose problems eventually became perfectly clear, such that the power elites inside the Democratic Party had to switch gears and move to a Plan B. And then suddenly, there she was, Kamala Harris, coronated, without ever a single vote having been cast for her, other than among the Democratic party elites.
This is really a crisis of democracy in our own country.
Did your Green elites -- including Margaret Kimberley -- not crown you? Did Cornel West -- the man who you endorsed for this year's Green Party's presidential nomination -- not walk away from your party? I know YOUTUBERS plot and scheme during the political circle jerks but we're not as stupid as they wish we were. And we know what we down and we know that every criticism that you're leveling goes to yourself, Queen of Projection.
You're the tired failed face of the 2012 Green Party and the 2016 Green Party.
The only thing more hilarious is watching the press with headlines about the Democratic Party trying to "block" Jill from the Wisconsin ballot. No, that's not an accurate heading. The accurate heading is that the Democrats are trying to make sure Jill abides by the rules like everyone else.
At another point, she insists "Candidates for president are completely out of step, out of touch," apparently not anticipating the obvious reply of "You certainly are, Jill!"
And it's easy for people to forget but they don't a thing about Jill Stein. Her estimated net worth is $7 million. Hey, Steiners, how'd your gal make that money? She's not like you. You're not sitting on millions. And a lot of people don't even know she's married. Or has children. It's a detail that even her own campaign site scrubs
Go to "Meet Jill Stein" on her campaign site and you'll find a laughable 511 words 'about her' but none of the words are Richard Rohrer (her husband) or Noah and Ben (her children).
Of all the laughable things at "Meet Jill Stein," I think this is my personal favorite:
She is the co-author of two widely-praised reports, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, published in 2000, and Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging, published in 2009. The first of these has been translated into four languages and is used worldwide as a community tool in the fight for health and environmental justice.
It's "used worldwide"! And it's "been translated into four languages"! Worldwide. It's the sort of thing a person might read and then shake their heads saying, "White people." There are over 7,000 spoken languages in the world but Jill wants to claim 'her' report is read worldwide . . . in four languages.
The laughs and the lies never stop with Jill. Sadly for her, I have the 'report' in question. And the cover does not have Jill as the author. No, the cover has the title and then it has "A Report By Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility."
The second page lists authors: Ted Schettler MD, MPH, Jill Stein MD, Fay Reich PsyD, Maria Valenti and David Wallinga MD -- with a foreword by Philip Landrigan MD. But, hey, co-author! She hides her kids and she hides co-authors. She probably wishes she could hide the book because this is actually from her anti-vaccine period that she now pretends does not exist.
Not just a glory hog, please note, but a failed glory hog. And this is who the Green Party appears to be about to name their party's presidential candidate. It'll happen tomorrow evening, the naming of the candidate. And then she'll name her running mate.
See, she's struggled there too. Right now, it's rumored to be Noura Erakat. However, Abdullah H. Hammoud is the man she tried to make her running mate but that didn't work out because he wasn't old enough, as THE WASHINGTON POST noted.
These are not secrets, these are not arcane tidbits.
She has run twice before for US president and she's not aware of the age requirements?
Again, Democrats aren't trying to "block" her from Wisconsin or anywhere else. They're trying to ensure that she plays be the rules already in place.
Tomorrow is her big day! And they're noting her on Twitter.
The 2024 presidential election is 80 days away so let's note this from DEMOCRACY NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
The United Auto Workers has filed federal labor charges against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The union accuses the men of illegally attempting to threaten and intimidate workers who go on strike. The UAW’s complaint with the National Labor Relations Board comes in response to these comments made by Trump during a discussion with Musk Monday on the social media platform X, which Musk owns.
DONALD TRUMP: You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, and you just say, “You want to quit?”
ELON MUSK: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike. And you say, “That’s OK. You’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.” And you are the greatest. You would be very good. Oh, you would love it.
AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, UAW President Shawn Fain spoke to CBS about why the union filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk.
SHAWN FAIN: This is the problem in America right now. The rich keep getting richer at the expense of the working class. And people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, they sneer at labor law, but they don’t care about labor law, because they don’t care about working-class people. You know, they believe in buying off the system and buying off politicians and being able to have their way with people.
And, you know, look, employers need to be held accountable in this country when they break the law. It is a federal right of workers to go on strike, and they cannot be fired for that. But, you know, people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, they laugh about firing people, because they can care less about people and about their jobs and what they do to their careers. All they care about is their billionaire buddies and taking more wealth.
And so, this is a which-side-are-you-on election, and that’s why working-class people will vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because they’re one of us, and Donald Trump and Elon Musk represent everything that this nation stands against.
AMY GOODMAN: While the UAW has endorsed Kamala Harris, Elon Musk is funding a new political action committee to help elect Donald Trump. There have been reports Musk was planning to spend $45 million a month to help elect Trump, but Musk has disputed that figure.
We’re joined now in Boston by Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli. She recently co-wrote an article headlined “Inside Elon Musk’s Hands-On Push to Win 800,000 Voters for Trump.” She’s the author of the new book The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power.
We’re going to talk about that in a minute, but let’s start with Elon Musk and your latest reporting, Dana. Before we talk about the UAW filing a complaint with the NLRB, let’s talk about what Elon Musk’s role is in Donald Trump’s campaign for president.
DANA MATTIOLI: It’s really fascinating. As early as a few months ago, Elon Musk said he would not be contributing any money to either presidential candidate. And what we’ve seen is a complete 180. Not only did he start this super PAC with lots of money to help Donald Trump win, he is really taking on the get-out-the-vote aspect of the Trump campaign. He also had a big endorsement for Donald Trump after the assassination attempt. So he’s become like a very big political player this presidential cycle, in addition to running six companies that he’s involved in. This is a person with a very big microphone.
The super PAC is looking to get 800,000 low-propensity voters in swing states to the polls for Donald Trump. Elon also wants his workers in those states to register new voters to get them for the polls. But it’s had a bit of disruption in the last few weeks because he signed off on firing a lot of their vendors.
AMY GOODMAN: Firing the vendors, which, of course, firing was what Donald Trump was praising his ability to do in that conversation he had with Elon Musk on X. But talk more about why he broke with the Democrats and joined Donald Trump in his effort to become president.
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah, it’s sort of this remarkable political transformation. You know, as of a few years ago, Musk has said that he exclusively voted for Democrats. He voted for Obama. He was pretty close to President Obama. And he voted for Democrats up and down the ticket.
What has happened is, during the Biden administration, there was a break between Elon and the Democrats. He felt like he was almost pushed out of his party. It related to Tesla primarily. You know, the Biden administration, because he has said he wants to be the most pro-union president in history, Biden is very reliant on the United Auto Workers union. And the United Auto Workers union does not love Tesla, because Tesla’s factories are not unionized. So, whenever Biden held electric vehicle summits or would praise other companies for moving to the transition away from fossil fuels, Elon Musk and Tesla were not invited or name-checked. And this really grated on the billionaire, because, you know, his company has primarily the biggest market share in the EV space. It felt like these personal slights.
In addition to that, as Elon Musk’s wealth grew — you know, he’s the richest man in the world — the progressive wing of the party started villainizing him for wealth, for taxes, for income disparity in the country. And, you know, he started to move more to the right the last few years, culminating in this historic PAC that he helped form.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his staff, when he was running for president, has to do with the new super PAC that Elon Musk is behind but doesn’t want to be seen as behind?
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah. So, when Elon started this super PAC in April, he started meeting with vendors in Austin, Texas, and he told them that he wanted to create this red wave of voters. And he started relying on these Texas-based advisers for this. More recently, just a few weeks ago, he brought in some of the team from Ron DeSantis’s failed presidential bid. These are people from the campaign but also run DeSantis’s super PAC. He brought them in, and then, right after he brought them in, we saw the vendors change at Elon’s super PAC, called the America PAC.
And that’s caused really big disruptions, because the people that were hired to knock on doors in all these swing states were fired. The people that were hired to maintain the super PAC’s website, to get forms out to prospective voters who wanted to register to vote, were fired, so those forms never went out. And there were other disruptions along the way, 90 days before the election starts. And some of the political operatives we’ve spoken to on the Republican side have worried that because this is such a big part of the GOP’s efforts on get out the vote, where, you know, they think that the Democrats have historically been stronger, that this could cause some speed bumps along the way very close to the election.
AMY GOODMAN: So, people who thought they were signing up to get ballots, they haven’t gotten them?
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah, that’s right. People from swing states that put all of their information into the America PAC’s website were supposed to be mailed documents that they could then sign and send to their elected officials to register. What happened is, the America PAC fired the vendor that was mailing out those forms a few days before they were about to send them, so those have not been mailed out yet. There’s 8,500 of them.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the two investigations into America PAC, Dana?
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah. So, that very issue has raised some alarm bells at some of the swing states. And they were worried that the America PAC was just collecting voter information under the guise of registering them to vote. But the full picture is a little bit more complicated. Had the vendors been able to stay on, you know, the 8,500 people who put in their personal information would have received those forms. But it was really because the new people, leadership of the PAC came in, and there was this disruption, that that last part of the cycle was not completed. Interestingly enough, the super PAC has had to rehire the vendor that it fired to complete that task.
AMY GOODMAN: How is Elon Musk hiding his name in the various PACs that he’s supporting?
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah, what we’ve learned is really interesting. While Musk formed this PAC with a lot of his friends and cohort, he did not want to be the face of it, and he took pains to hide his involvement. You know, he has been on weekly one-hour phone calls with the vendors to get progress reports from them. He’s very hands-on. He has asked them to show him the training materials for the door knockers. He has asked them to videotape what they say at the doors when they’re knocking, right? So he’s really keeping a very close look at how the progress of the PAC is. But he didn’t want to be the face.
So, what he did was he assembled the PAC, and he assembled other donors to give checks of $500,000 or a million dollars for the first quarter of expenses that appeared in July 15th federal campaign filings, with the intent of not donating himself the majority of the money for the PAC until July 1st or after, so that it wouldn’t show up until the October 15th filings. What happened was, we were able to get to the bottom of his involvement, and we reported these big stories about his involvement. And then there was a witch hunt within the PAC to see where the leaks came from. He was not very happy about that.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can address, Dana Mattioli, what Elon Musk said about, well, you, The Wall Street Journal, denying that he’s putting in $45 million a month? I think at the time it was four months; it would be about $200 million into electing Donald Trump. He directly named The Wall Street Journal in saying it wasn’t true.
DANA MATTIOLI: He did. What we understand is he was really upset about the report coming out. Interestingly enough, before he denied it, he responded to someone on Twitter who said — who made the point that Elon went from voting for Obama to giving $180 million to Donald Trump and that the Democrats must have screwed up pretty badly. And Elon confirmed that and said, “Yeah.” And then, after, he started to deny the reports and walk back how much money he’s giving.
We have, you know, really stood by our reporting. He has told people around him that he would give around $45 million a month. You know, he obviously has the option to change his mind. Nothing is said and done until he writes those checks. But our understanding is, at the outset of this, he told them that he would fund the majority of the costs that were associated with the PAC, and that he has said that he would give $45 million a month.
AMY GOODMAN: And how is this all legal?
DANA MATTIOLI: You know, this is the world of super political action committees. You know, this happens on both sides, I should say. There are super PACs on the Democratic side, as well. And it’s a way for billionaires to really pool their resources in major ways that are not allowed if you’re just giving individual contributions to campaigns. And this is how a lot of the big money is funded when it gets to presidential elections.
AMY GOODMAN: And Trump, who has been attacking EVs, electric cars, for quite some time now, has flipped, hasn’t he?
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah, he’s definitely softened his stance since Elon has come out in full support of him. You know, Trump had been pretty critical of the EV sector. He’s been known to be very close to Big Fossil Fuel and the oil companies. And he’s even come out and said that he has to be more supportive of electric vehicles because Elon has come out with such support of him. So, that’s like a really fascinating thing here, as well. And they even spoke about it during the live stream, their differing opinions on fossil fuels, global warming, EVs. And, you know, there’s definitely differing opinions there. But fascinating enough, even if you think about that, you know, Tesla, SpaceX, which Elon also owns and runs, these are both mission-based companies that would historically align more with Democratic causes.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, when Donald Trump called for UAW President Shawn Fain to be fired.
DONALD TRUMP: The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen, and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately. And every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump, because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing, and we’re going to bring it back fast.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Dana Mattioli, that was Donald Trump in his acceptance speech in Milwaukee talking about Shawn Fain, repeatedly saying his name, saying he should be fired. Now you have UAW President Shawn Fain filing a labor relations complaint against Musk and Trump for saying that they were firing striking workers or celebrating firing striking workers, which is illegal. Talk about Elon Musk and his relationship with UAW, and Donald Trump and his relationship with UAW and Shawn Fain.
DANA MATTIOLI: Yeah, I mean, Elon Musk has had a very, very contentious relationship with the United Auto Workers union. Elon has been famously anti-union for Tesla. His Fremont factory, where these cars are assembled, is not unionized. And Elon has got into some hot water over the years about his comments about union activity at Tesla. And it’s also the reason that he was on the outs or is on the outs with the Biden administration. You know, he’s one of the only U.S. automakers that isn’t a unionized shop, and he was ostracized because of that decision. So, this is, you know, par for the course with friction between the union and Elon.
What’s interesting is, the Republican Party has been trying to court union workers and is trying to make themselves look more pro-union. So we’re seeing this confluence happening with what each party stands for and, like, some blurred lines there, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s stay at the Republican convention, where we were broadcasting from in Milwaukee. Next week, of course, we’re headed to the Democratic convention, and we’ll be broadcasting from Chicago.
Turning to Iraq, there was hope among some Iraqis that next month's official trip to the US would lead to US troops departing Iraq. From Wednesday's snapshot:
Over the weekend, APA noted, "The foreign minister of Iraq will travel to Washington next month to make a formal announcement about the withdrawal of American military forces from the Arab country, informed sources said, APA reports citing TASNIM." Officially, 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq. The number is actually much higher. Last month, someone at the US Embassy in Baghdad shot a woman in an apartment across the way leaving her hospitalized which has increased the calls for US troops to leave Iraq. As noted in this snapshot, the wife of Dr Abdul Amir al-Hazali was praying in her apartment when she was shot. As we noted then, the shooting resulted in another push to expel US troops from Iraq:
Abdul Amir Al-Ghazali spoke with ALSUMARIA and explained to them that the shooting took place on Friday while his wife was praying. The Badr Organization accuses the US government of converting the US Embassy in Baghdad into a "military base," condemns the action citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, and, citing the Iraqi Constitution (Articles 1, 15, 50 and 109) calls for Iraq's legislative and executive branches to expel the US military from Iraq.
The Badr Organization is part of the alliance that controls the Parliament. Over the weekend, another group began echoing the call. SABA reports, "State of Law Coalition member Ahmed Al-Sudani on Sunday said that Washington is procrastinating in determining the withdrawal paragraph from Iraq, stressing that the withdrawal of US forces is necessary to achieve national security. State of Law is former prime minster and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki's coalition. Arabic social media is showing some excitement about the upcoming September trip to DC with the hope that an announcement will be made that US troops are leaving.
Love to see that happen but don't see it happening.
Yesterday afternoon, CNN's longterm Iraq correspondent Mohammed Tawfeeq reported:
Iraq has postponed announcing an end-date for the US-led military coalition’s presence in the country due to “recent developments,” raising questions about the future of US military presence in the Gulf state amid heightened tension in the region.
Iraq’s Higher Military Commission had aimed to propose an end date for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military operation combatting terror group ISIS.
“We were very close to announcing this agreement, but due to recent developments, the announcement of the end of the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq was postponed,” a statement by Iraq’s foreign ministry said Thursday, without giving further details on what the “recent developments.”
Meanwhile at COMMON DREAMS, Brett Wilkins writes:
As the Palestinian death toll from Israel's 314-day assault on Gaza passed 40,000—a figure experts say is likely a vast undercount—human rights groups this week decried the Biden administration's approval of $20 billion worth of new weapons for Israel and renewed pleas for Congress to block further arms transfers to the nation on trial for genocide at the World Court.
On Tuesday—just days after Israeli forces used at least one U.S.-supplied bomb in an airstrike on a Gaza City school that killed scores of forcibly displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering there—the Biden administration notified Congress of the pending sale of a new weapons package that includes dozens of F-15 fighter jets, tens of thousands of 120mm mortar shells, over 32,700 tank shells, and 30 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles.
Since October, Congress and the Biden administration have approved more than $14 billion in unconditional military aid to Israel. President Joe Biden has signed off on more than 100 arms transfers to Israel during that period. This, atop the $3.8 billion in annual armed aid the U.S. already gives to the key Middle Eastern ally.
"Israel used U.S.-made weapons in May when it slaughtered Palestinian families sheltering in tent camps in Rafah," Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said Wednesday. "Israel used U.S.-made weapons when it bombed the al-Mutanabbi school in Khan Younis in early July, killing over two dozen displaced Palestinians seeking refuge there. And it used U.S.-made weapons on Saturday to murder over 100 Palestinians while they prayed."
"Biden continues to send weapons to Israel, and both political parties—Republicans and Democrats—have cheered on the Israeli government's slaughter and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza," JVP continued. "This is a U.S.-perpetrated genocide as much as it is an Israeli one."
"But the Democratic voting base is calling for something different, and we have seen the progressive and increasingly mainstream wing of the party begin to echo this need," the group said. "We are playing a critical role in driving the Democratic Party to finally catch up to the demands of its own base."
"Right now, we have an opportunity to re-center Gaza in the national conversation and continue building pressure on the Biden administration, on [Vice President] Kamala Harris, and on Democratic members of Congress to support an immediate arms embargo," JVP added.
While Harris has expressed sympathy for Palestinians suffering what she called a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza, the vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, like Biden, has proclaimed her "unwavering" support for Israel. One aide said last week that Harris does not support an arms embargo.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 315 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,005 with 92,401 woundedd." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
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