Meeting with megadonors, Obama warns candidates not to go too far left, Bernie and AOC push back as Buttigieg tops Iowa poll…--using hyperbole, Obama says lefties want to “tear down the system” and AOC responds “we are bringing the party home”
--Buttigieg jumps 9% in Iowa poll to 25%, leading the field, as Warren waters down her plan for Medicare for All
--newbies: Bloomberg apologizes for “stop and frisk” and Deval Patrick gets weak reception from California Dem convention
--gatekeepers at the NY Times approve of the moderates
--70% of Americans think Trump did something wrong with Ukraine, 51% now support his removal
--based on Roger Stone’s conviction, impeachment investigators look at probable lies in Trump’s written answers to Mueller
--responding to Pelosi dare, Trump says he may submit written comments to impeachment investigation
--in August, John Bolton met with Trump and failed to convince him to release the aid to Ukraine
--former New Yorker reporter and Watergate expert Elizabeth Drew says Ukraine as impeachment target is “too small”
--at CounterPunch, Rob Urie argues that impeachment is brought to you by the CIA
--new report by UN torture envoy Nils Melzer excoriates Sweden for framing Julian Assange for rape, but the US media hasn’t covered it, except for pesky socialists
--in a rare reprieve in Texas, execution is delayed for Rodney Reed amid new evidence of innocence
--in obscene reprieves, Trump pardons 3 soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes
--in fresh podcast at WhoWhatWhy, small biz advocate Jim Doyle says Trump is bad for small business
--and recent interview of Brett Chamberlin regarding documentary The Story of Plastic is posted today at peterbcollins.com
--lost and abandoned fishing gear makes up 10% of plastic pollution but is very dangerous to sea life
--Italy has proposed tax on plastics, but the industry is fighting back
--The Intercept posted this report recently, on how plastic pollution is making some Central American communities unliveable
--US sanctions lead Iran to triple fuel prices, triggering protests and crackdown
--Hong Kong protesters occupy university campus, and repel police attack
--on first anniversary of Yellow Vest protests in France, small crowds showed up
--outspoken Israeli columnist Gideon Levy slams IDF for attack last week that only killed civilians, based on stale target info
--even the NY Times serves up a critical report
--Reuters investigation shows that Venezuela’s special police unit killed over 5,000 people in 2018 in extrajudicial killings
--inspired by right-wing coup in Bolivia, wannabe president Guaido leads protests aimed at reviving regime change efforts
--Bolivia’s Guaido, self-proclaimed president Jeanine Añez aligns with US policy as she moves to crack down on Indigenous protests and promote white supremacy
--PG&E warns northern California customers of possible blackout on Wednesday and Thursday, as report shows multiple fires caused by home generators during last outage
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