The Erickson Report, Page 8: Iraq

The Erickson Report, Page 8: Iraq

In early October, protests erupted in Iraq, including in Baghdad and several Shiite provinces in the south over unemployment, government corruption, and the lack of basic services such as electricity and clean water.

The initial six-day wave of protests was met with brutal repression that left at least 157 dead, most of them protesters shot dead by security forces in Baghdad.

After a lull, protests resumed on October 24 with even greater energy. Again, they have been met with lethal violence. The deaths have doubled to over 300; the number of injured has neared 15,000.

On October 31, in the face of protesters' demands for new elections, Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi agreed to resign - but only on the condition that a successor is agreed to replace him. There still hasn't been; instead, at the end of the first week of November, competing political blocs rallied around him, as populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who initially sided with the protesters, has turned to supporting Mahdi.

The result has been an agreement to end the protests by "any means necessary," according to a high government official quoted by AFP, leading to a brutal crackdown beginning on November 9 as security forces cleared protest sites in Baghdad, Basra, and Karbala using live ammunition, tear gas - including firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters and encampment tents - and sound bombs, aka stun grenades. Among those targeted: medics volunteering to help with the wounded.

Officials are now promising to move on a series of reforms, including hiring drives, welfare plans, a revamp of the electoral law, and constitutional amendments, but it remains to be seen if they have crushed the protests and, perhaps more importantly, if these new promises prove to be any less empty than the string of promises which preceded them.

Oil-rich Iraq is OPEC's second biggest producer, but according to the World Bank, 20% of its people live in poverty and youth unemployment is 25 percent. It is ranked the 12th most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International.

The Erickson Report, Page 7: Germany

The Erickson Report, Page 7: Germany

Germany is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - a celebration tempered by a bout of self-reflection driven by a resurgence of right-wing extremism in the country over the past few years, including a 71% rise in violent anti-Semitic crimes in 2018 as compared to 2017.

Perhaps the clearest political example of that resurgence is the electoral rise of the far-right extremist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party. In October’s regional elections in the eastern state of Thuringia, AfD gained 23% of the vote, including a majority of voters under age 30, and finished ahead of Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union.

location of Thuringia

AfD is stridently anti-foreigner, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, and Euro-skeptic, riding a tide of nationalist isolationism and xenophobia that embraces the "Great Replacement" mythology, the paranoid notion also seen in the US right that the government is trying to replace native-born citizens with refugees and foreigners.

It's likely significant that AfD has seen its greatest success in the eastern part of Germany, exploiting the lingering divisions between East Germans and West Germans. Thirty years after the wall fell, 29 years after reunification, there are still significant gaps in wages, pensions, and levels of accumulated wealth between East and West Germany - and voting patterns are considerably different.

That's why a poll by the Dimap institute found 52% of East Germans believe they have been unfairly treated, 64% believe the two Germanys have not fully grown back together, and another 15% say they haven’t grown back together at all. A significant number of people in East Germany feel they have been left behind, with economic stress leading to a sense of social disruption which, unhappily, is too-easily turned into consuming fear of "the other."

Some cities in Germany and some federal agencies are facing up to this resurgence, insisting it must be opposed. The question is, with they as part of that realization also face up to their own failures which helped create it.

The Erickson Report, Page 6: New Zealand

The Erickson Report, Page 6: New Zealand

On November 7, New Zealand lawmakers approved a bill that commits the country to being carbon neutral by the year 2050. The measure, which passed 119 votes to 1, demonstrates the cross-party support that climate protection has in the Pacific island nation.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was grateful that in the past 10 years, Parliament had progressed from debating whether global warming is real to discussing what to do about it.

The Zero Carbon bill aims to provide a framework to implement climate change policies. It's in line with an international effort under the Paris Agreement to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius above preindustrial levels.

New Zealand's bill sets an ambitious target: to reduce all greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050.

The country is well-positioned to do it. It already generates 80% of its electricity from renewables, and that portion will be higher by 2035 as offshore oil and gas are phased out. The government is shifting its fleet to electric vehicles and is working to transition other vehicles to electric, too. The government also has restarted a program to subsidize home insulation and is putting $14.5 billion over the next 10 years into transit, biking and walking infrastructure. In addition, New Zealand has already committed to planting 1 billion trees by 2028.

All of which is to the good - but when officials say "all greenhouse gases," they don't actually mean "all." The bill creates an exemption for biogenic methane, which is emitted by plant and animal sources. That loophole is actually a big deal.

Methane does not persist in the atmosphere as long as CO2 - decades as opposed to centuries - but it's far more potent, trapping about 30 times as much heat as CO2 does.

Ruminant animals such as sheep and cattle release methane as they digest grass and other leaves. Such animals made up 34% of New Zealand's total emissions of greenhouse gases. Overall, agriculture is the largest single source of greenhouse emissions in New Zealand, accounting for a whopping 48% of the total.

So in the case of biogenic methane, New Zealand isn't aiming for net zero but just to reduce emissions by 24-47% over the next 30 years. Which means that if those targets are met, in 2050 New Zealand overall still will be emitting about a quarter to over a third of what it does today. Which would be a dramatic achievement - but it ain't net zero. And it's legitimate to ask how far short of net zero we can go before it's simply not good enough.

Dozens of countries have declared a goal of net zero. Costa Rica, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany and the UK have all said they intend to achieve net zero emissions by 2050; Sweden has gone them one better by aiming to do it by 2045.

Meanwhile, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters - China, the United States and India - have not made any zero-carbon national commitments, although a number of US states, including California, Washington, and New Mexico, along with a large number of US cities, have pledged net zero on their own.

The New Zealand nature advocacy organization Forest and Bird called the bill's passage an important first step but says the work is far from over, which is particularly true since the main conservative opposition party, despite supporting the bill, nevertheless promised changes if it wins the next election.

The left giveth and the right taketh away.

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Brazil

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Brazil

Brazil's radical right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro is facing mounting opposition less than a year into his term. Among other causes are Brazil's teetering on the edge of recession, serious accusations of mounting violence against the indigenous population, a bungled speech opening the UN General Assembly, and international condemnation of his lackadaisical attitude towards fires burning the Amazon rainforest.

Now he has a new problem. 

On November 7, Brazil's Supreme Court overturned a three-year old law requiring convicted criminals to go to jail after losing their first appeal even as appeals continue, finding that the law violated the country's constitutional provision that no one can be imprisoned without due process.

Jair Bolsonaro

Among those benefiting from the decision was former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, often known as "Lula." He had been serving an almost nine-year sentence on corruption charges seen by supporters as purely political.

That was a claim given credence in June by documents provided to The Intercept, which revealed that just days before filing the indictment, the chief prosecutor expressed what were described as "increasing doubts" over the central elements of the prosecution's case and then worked with the chief judge in the case, Sérgio Moro, on the best way to frame the case against Lula. Moro became Justice Minister in Bolsonaro's cabinet.

Those documents also showed that just 10 days before the 2018 presidential election, a Supreme Court justice granted a petition from the country’s largest newspaper to interview Lula in prison - prompting the prosecutors who handled Lula’s case to spend hours discussing how to block or undermine that decision based on an explicitly stated concern that such an interview could help Lula's party win the election. It seems hard to deny that political bias has a real impact on Lula's prosecution.

In the wake of the November 7 Supreme Court decision, Lula appealed for release from prison and was set free the next day. He is still convicted and could potentially wind up back in prison after his appeals are exhausted, but that could take a couple of years.

Lula da Silva

In the meantime, while he can't run for political office before 2025, he can participate in politics. As someone who left office in 2010 with what has been described as "sky high" approval ratings because of having, among other things, pursued policies that lifted millions out of poverty, he proposes to be a real thorn in Boloanaro's side.

The day after his release, Lula, the first-ever working class president of Brazil, spoke to a rally of supporters, focusing on defeating Bolsonaro and improving the economic conditions of the working class, who he accused Bolsonaro of impoverishing. As one analyst put it, Lula does not have to run for office to take center stage, making him a rallying point for a re-energized left.

Bolsonaro responded by telling reporters to "not give space to compromise with a convict" and calling on his own supporters to rally around his government's agenda, which has included exactly the severe tightening of public spending of which Lula accused him.

Watch this space.

The Erickson Report, Page 4: Burkina Faso

The Erickson Report, Page 4: Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country, a little larger than Colorado, in west Africa. It is also a country facing multiple challenges, not all of its own making.

For one thing, it is one of the world's poorest countries according to the UN's World Food Programme, with 45% of its roughly 20 million people living on the equivalent of less than $1.25 a day. Food insecurity and undernutrition are chronic problems, with over 10% of children acutely malnourished.

That threatens to get worse as climate change accelerates land degradation: Rising temperatures and increasing drought mean that in just five to 10 years of cultivation, soil is no longer able to ensure the mineral and water supply for food crops, leading to yields collapse. One-third of Burkina Faso's total territory is degraded. Half of the farmland has essentially turned to sand.

That in turn has lead to persistent conflicts over land use and massive, climate-driven migrations. Nearly half a million people were forced from their homes.

But fleeing not just food insecurity, but physical insecurity. Over the past few years there has been an increase in armed conflict and terrorism in the country, including an attack on a mosque in the northern town of Salmossi on October 11 that killed at least 15 and a November 6 attack on workers at a gold mine near Boungou that killed at least 47. Nearly 600 civilians have been killed, and scores more wounded, in recent years.

As climate change increases droughts increases land degradation increases hunger increases migration increases fanaticism increases conflict it is to be hoped that Burkina Faso can find a way out - because we could be looking at a hint of the future.

The Erickson Report, Page 3: Kenya and Somalia

The Erickson Report, Page 3: Kenya and Somalia

An on-going dispute over maritime territory between Kenya and Somalia has sent diplomatic relations between the two countries on a steep decline since early 2019.

The disputed territory is 100,000 square kilometrers, or about 40,000 square miles, in the Indian Ocean, an area which offers prospects of vast oil and natural gas deposits - in other words, lots and lots of bucks.

The predictable result has been major western countries lining up behind one or the other of the two countries, depending on which of the two best serves their oil interests.

The dispute dates back some years, but became sharper in 2014, when Somalia sued Kenya at the International Court of Justice, asking the court to order a redrawing of the sea boundary in Somalia’s favor. The hearings were scheduled to start on September 3, but Kenya successfully petitioned the court to adjourn the case until this next June.

Things got even tenser in February, when Kenya accused Somalia of putting Kenya’s blocks up for auction during the February Somalia Oil and Gas conference in London.

Somalia half-rebutted Kenya’s claims: It hadn't put the blocks up for auction, but it had submitted bidding rules and procedures and displayed a map of oil and gas blocks it intended to auction in future.

Following the London oil conference, Kenya recalled its ambassador to Somalia and asked the Somali ambassador in Kenya to “depart for consultations.” In other words, "Get out."

Different western nations are supporting different sides in the dispute.

The UK, for example, has shown support for Somalia, both because UK-Kenya relations have been sour for several years and because Britain has a longer relationship with Somalia in terms of onshore and offshore oil explorations.

Norway is also backing Somalia, perhaps partly because Somalia’s Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre is a Norwegian citizen and partly because Kenya expelled a Norwegian oil company.

The US, on the other hand, is siding with Kenya because the two are supposedly partners in the “war on terror” and the fact that the Kenyan government has recently gravitated towards America and China as relations with the UK declined.

And France is on Kenya’s side because the French oil company Total Oil has already contracted with Kenya over an area in the disputed maritime zone.

Writing at The Conversation, Patrick Muthengi Maluki of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi said that Kenya and Somalia need to cooperate for their mutual benefit.

Unfortunately, what Kenya and Somalia want may not have a lot to do with what ultimately happens.

The Erickson Report, Page 2: Israel

The Erickson Report, Page 2: Israel

In what has to be seen as a last-ditch attempt to keep himself in power - and, potentially, out of prison - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Naftali Bennett, leader of a small right-wing party, as defense minister.

It comes as the prime minister's Likud Party announced on November 8 that Bennett's party, Hayamin Hehadash, is joining Likud's coalition. Hayamin Hehadash is headed by Bennett and Ayelet Shaked.

The move comes as a surprise because for the last five years Bennett, a former education minister Netanyoyo fired from his post has been one of the PM's main political rivals and a sharp critic on national security issues - and Shaked was Justice Minister until Netanyoyo fired her in the wake of parliamentary elections in April.

This is a purely political move arising out of Netanyoyo's inability to form a government after parliamentary elections in October, the second elections this year.

Benjamin Netanyahu

That meant the task fell to Benny Gantz, leader of the Kahol Lavan party, who has until November 18 to form a government.

By taking in Bennett, who had also been negotiating with Gantz, looking to extract the maximum benefit from the three Knesset seats held by his party, Netanyoyo still can't form a government - but he has made it significantly harder for Gantz to. And that is the point.

In response, Gantz has talked about a "unity" government of Kahol Lavan and Likud - but without Netanyoyo and with a break-up of Likud's parliamentary coalition with a number of small, right-wing, and religious fundamentalist parties. Failing that, he has also talked about forming a minority government, which would mean that the coalition he formed didn't have a majority of seats in the Knesset but would be sworn in for the sake of having a government, but one that would have to rely on support for legislation from parties not part of the government.

Benny Gantz

If Gantz fails to form a government, the would mean yet another parliamentary election, the third in less than a year, with Netanyoyo likely again remaining in office as interim PM.

Which raises the real reason Netanyoyo is pulling these maneuvers, and it's one that goes beyond simply staying in power. As long as he keeps others from forming a government, he can hope to stay on through round after round of parliamentary elections until Likud can form a ruling majority.

Consider that following Likud's announcement about Bennett, Kahol Lavan co-leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyoyo of trying to "strengthen his immunity base." He was referring to right-wing parties such as Bennett's, many of whose leaders have declared in the past that they would endorse a law giving Netanyoyo immunity from prosecution in the multiple corruption cases against him. A decision on whether to indict Netanyoyo on any of those charges is due by mid-November. He's not just looking to stay in office, he's looking to stay out of prison.

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Panama

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Panama

I talked about this last time. We Americans are rather parochial in our view of the world: We tend to ignore events outside our borders unless they affect us directly. We need to realize we are not alone on this planet. So this show will be all international news. Because, again, we are not alone.

I'm starting with this one because it helps illustrate the point I wanted to make this time out. I learned about this from a report from Human Rights Watch. I then looked for other sources and could find for all practical purposes nothing about it in the English-language press. There was some in the Spanish-language press, but my Spanish is not nearly good enough to take advantage of that.

I don't have a lot of subscriptions to various newspapers, but I do use a couple of news scrapers, there are a couple of news sites I can check out, and I am rather adept at internet searches. And pretty much the only thing I came up with was a link in one scraper to the Human Right Watch report that started it all.

So bear that in mind as you consider if it might have been nice to have heard about this.

Nearly two years ago, in January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark advisory ruling that recognized same-sex marriage and transgender rights and called on the nations in its jurisdiction to take steps towards marriage equality.

At that time, the government of Panama signaled it would comply with the ruling. But in 2019, that same government has been looking to institute constitutional changes that run directly contrary to that same ruling.

There are actually a number of proposals on various constitutional issues being considered in Panama which have received preliminary support by the legislature. Some of those involve modifying the national budget and even appointing a special prosecutor who could pursue charges against state attorneys that investigate legislators - meaning the only person who could pursue charges against legislators without fear of reprisals is the person they control. Can you say "corruption?"

There were already street protests against those proposals as well as one to restrict LGBTQ rights. Those rights became front and center when on October 29 legislator Jairo “Bolota” Salazar barred a group of protesters from entering the National Assembly building, saying “They are gay and they cannot enter.”

Salazar's rant drew extra attention to the fact that one of the proposals would amend the constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Panama already excludes same-sex couples from marriage under Article 26 of its Family Code, but this would write that discriminatory law into the nation's constitution, effectively barring LGBTQ folks from being equal members of Panamanian society.

This comes in the face of a wave of regional progress on marriage equality. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, and many Mexican states already perform same-sex marriages, with Costa Rica slated to start in 2020. But not Panama if the legislature has its way.

Salazar tried to walk back his homophobic remarks, but he and fellow members of his Democratic Revolutionary Party said they had no intention of scrapping the bigoted proposal.

What followed was a week of street protests. Police responded with arbitrary detentions and excessive force - but ultimately to no avail as despite the police, despite Salazar, despite the legislature, the protests were too strong and the government had to stand down.

On November 8, President Laurentino Cortizo recommended that many of the controversial constitutional amendments be scrapped, including the one banning marriage equality, putting off any further discussion of constitutional reforms until the next legislative session in 2020.

So while this still can come again, I call this a win for our side.

A PS just to give you an idea of what kind of guy Salazar is.

Police were called to break up a rowdy party in Colon in the early hours of November 10. Police were reportedly assaulted with bottles while they attempted to restore order.

Salazar came out in defense of one of the accused attackers and went to the local police headquarters where he threatened to break the head of one of the cops and invited him to take off his uniform and fight.

Can't say I'm surprised.

The Erickson Report for November 13-26

The Erickson Report for November 13-26

This episode:

Panama
https://pridesource.com/article/panama-signals-it-will-comply-with-landmark-lgbt-rights-ruling/
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/06/panamanians-protest-proposed-ban-marriage-equality
https://menafn.com/1099253094/Lawmaker-challenges-cop-to-fight-after-rowdy-party?src=Rss

Israel
https://www.axios.com/netanyahu-naftali-bennett-defense-minister-benny-gantz-1d9ec73d-14cb-43d1-b7ed-26182bbfd9fa.html
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-netanyahu-s-likud-merges-with-hayamin-hehadash-bennett-to-be-defense-minister-1.8096675

Kenya - Somalia
https://theconversation.com/western-countries-take-sides-in-kenyas-maritime-row-with-somalia-124745
https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-or-somalia-who-owns-the-sea-and-what-lies-beneath/a-19557277

Burkina Faso
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html
https://www.wfp.org/countries/burkina-faso
http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/11/burkina-faso-climate-change-triggers-rural-exodus/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50028315
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDjRzQCCf2A

Brazil
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/19/bolsonaro-helping-fuel-explosion-violence-against-indigenous-peoples-brazil
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/24/brazilians-blast-bolsonaros-un-speech-denying-amazon-devastation-total-scam
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/brazil-top-court-ruling-free-jailed-president-lula-191108051743354.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/brazil-lula-convicted-2018-election-report-190610055731589.html
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-car-wash-prosecutors-workers-party-lula/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/08/extraordinary-day-brazilian-leftist-leader-lula-freed-prison
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lula-bolsonaro-brazil_n_5dc792b1e4b00927b2346352

New Zealand
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777259573/new-zealand-commits-to-being-carbon-neutral-by-2050-with-a-big-loophole
https://nypost.com/2019/11/07/new-zealand-passes-law-to-help-combat-climate-change/

Germany
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-11-09/pompeo-attends-30th-anniversary-of-fall-of-berlin-wall
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-domestic-intellience-chief-on-hate-crimes-like-halle-a-1292535.html#ref=nl-international
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wing-protests-fueled-anti-immigrant-sentiment-continue-germany/story?id=57545743
https://abcnews.go.com/International/30-years-fall-berlin-wall-wing-extremism-rise/story?id=66670250

Iraq
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/09/middleeast/iraq-protest-death-toll-intl/index.html
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1790834/iraq-forces-clear-protest-sites-as-leaders-reach-deal-to-end-rallies
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/778051618/6-killed-and-100-injured-in-latest-security-forces-crackdown-in-baghdad-protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzstNCuXP18
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/08/iraq-teargas-cartridges-killing-protesters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNUqwbI_hA
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1791804/three-killed-as-iraqis-keep-up-protests-amid-fears-of-bloodbath

India
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/08/775487863/as-delhi-chokes-on-smog-indias-health-minister-advises-eat-more-carrots
https://www.polygraph.info/a/india-pollution-pakistan-poison-fact-check/30260054.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-pollution-map-graphic/worlds-worst-air-indias-pollution-crisis-in-perspective-idUSKBN1XI19Y
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pakistan-may-have-released-poisonous-gas-to-pollute-air-in-india-bjp-leader-vineet-agarwal-sharda-1616080-2019-11-06

The Erickson Report, Page 6: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Outrages]

The Erickson Report, Page 6: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Outrages]

Now we turn to our Outrages.

Here's an outrage for you: American hero Chelsea Manning is still in prison.

She's the former Army intelligence analyst-turned-whistleblower who was court-martialed and sentenced to 35 years in prison for telling the truth about the Iraq War and US foreign policy by leaking documents to Wikileaks. She was in prison for seven years, mored than a year of it in what amounted to solitary confinement and under continuing mental duress designed to break her and force her to testify against - and thus justify charges against - Julian Assange with the goal of destroying Wikileaks. Her sentence was commuted in January 2017.

The goal of destroying Wikileaks has not changed. On March 8 of this year she was arrested for contempt of court after she refused to testify before a grand jury about her association with WikiLeaks, testimony demanded even though it's unclear what it's imagined she could tell about Assange and Wikileaks that is not already known.

Manning says she refuses because of ethical and legal objections to the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, arguing, as many other activists have and do, that such proceedings are designed to be tools for prosecutors to engage in fishing expeditions against peaceful activists. Whether or not grand juries are inherently illegal can be argued, but that they have been used in that oppressive way can't be and yes I know from experience of cases in which I have been involved.

She was released on May 9, when the grand jury's term expired. She was immediately served with another subpoena to appear before a new grand jury on May 16. She again refused to testify and was immediately sent back to jail for what could be 18 months, the term of a grand jury. In addition, a fine was imposed of $500 for each day she spends in jail over 30 days and $1,000 for each day she spends in jail over 60 days, which could ultimately total $441,000.

On August 5, a federal judge denied a motion for a hearing to press the court to reconsider its sanctions, declaring she can just sit in jail until she cooperates.

Chelsea Manning

But not only should they be reconsidered because of their harshness but because they are improper and should not be imposed at all.

Y'see, imprisonment for refusal to testify is, in legal terms, non-punitive. That is, it's not for something she has done but to compel her to do something. Put simply, it's legalized coercion. Which also means that if the sanctions have proven to be ineffective, they should no longer be in place.

Chelsea Manning should be freed.

Chelsea Manning was in prison for seven years and the government didn't break her. They put her in jail for another three months this spring and she didn't back down. They've put her back in prison again for - so far - five more months and she still stands on her principles. What makes them think that some more months will do what the nearly eight years have not?

This is no longer if indeed it ever was about compelling her to testify. This is about making her grovel before the power of the state about proving that they can make her do what they want.

Chelsea Manning is still in prison - and it is an Outrage.

=

You may well have heard about this other one, maybe more than you wanted to, but it can't be allowed to slip away without getting the denunciation it deserves.

On October 17, in a conversation about the 2020 election with David Plouffe on his podcast, Hillary "It Wasn't My Fault" Clinton said this:

I think they've got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. She's the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that's assuming Jill Stein will give it up. Which she might not, 'cause she's also a Russian asset. I mean, totally.

Hillary Clinton

Okay. It was immediately clear to everyone that the candidate in question, the "favorite of the Russians" who is being "groomed" to be a third-party candidate, is Tulsi Gabbard. Ties to Russia have not been suggested about any other woman running. Indeed, when Clinton shill Nick Merrill was asked if Gabbard was the candidate Clinton was referring to, he said, "If the nesting doll fits."

That was in a Tweet at 11:58 am on October 18, shortly after the podcast was released that morning.

At 5:13 pm, over five hours later and after the negative reactions had started coming in from folks like Noah Schachtman, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, Krystal Ball of Hill.TV, Aaron Blake, a senior political reporter for the Washington Post, Van Jones of CNN, and journalist Glenn Greenwald, Merrill replied by going after the single point that some media had reported that Clinton had said it was the Russians who were "grooming" Gabbard, when in fact, he insisted, she meant the Republicans - the GOPpers.

After a few days of what I'm sure were a long string of furious phone calls from the Clinton people and the DNC to the owners and editors of various media outlets, those outlets started issuing "corrections" that, "yeah, okay, she was talking about the GOPpers there" and media bosses - and Clinton's people - happily dropped the whole thing.

Dropped it, that is, without addressing the fact, the central fact, the main fact, that while she may have been talking about the GOPpers as the ones "grooming" Gabbard, by focusing on that, they avoided having to address the real point, the "this is what matters"point, that she had called Tulsi Gabbard, and whatever you may think about her politics she is still a member of Congress, she had called her a Russian asset! Period. There is no disputing that. Doesn't make a damn bit of difference who is "grooming" her except to the extent it says that Clinton regards the GOPper presidential campaign and Russian propaganda as being the same thing.

Tulsi Gabbard

Do not give me any crap about "she didn't say that!" Of course she did! Note that she said Jill Stein is - quoting - "also a Russian asset." The only conceivable antecedent for that "also," both logically and grammatically, is Gabbard. So yes, she called Tulsi Gabbard "a Russian asset" and she called Jill Stein "totally" a "Russian asset."

Supposedly, US intelligence services make a distinction between the terms "asset" and "agent" in regard to foreign intelligence but that's a distinction that people in normal conversation do not.

So don't give me the crap nitpicking about the precise meaning of "asset," such as Merrill whining on Twitter that "we never said she" - that is, Gabbard - "is a spy." No, what you said - since you now apparently are wrapping youself and Ms. "Dont blame me" into a single package - what you said is that Gabbard is, as Glenn Greenwald put it, someone "who will act to serve the Kremlin's interest," someone who acts with the intent of being of benefit to Vladimir Putin. And you said the same thing - with the exclamation point of "totally" - about Jill Stein.

Jill Stein

That is at best sleazy, cowardly, innuendo and it's more accurately scummy, despicable, and McCarthyism in its purest form.

Worse than that in fact, because by talking about the whole thing in the context of a third-party candidacy, Clinton - along with those now spewing out nausea-inducing defenses of her - has smeared the very idea of a left third party campaign as one being run and operated for the benefit of, to advance the interests of, a foreign government, whoever the candidate might be.

This is beyond scummy, beyond despicable, beyond contemptible, so far beyond being an Outrage I won't even call it one.

Hill'o'crap Clinton, still desperately trying to weasel her way out of responsibility for incompetently losing an election to - as far as we know - the least popular major party presidential candidate in US history and now trying to connive her way back into the top ranks of the Democratic Party, should do two things, neither of which she will: One, apologize publicly and abjectly to Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein and two, immediately after that shut up and go away and take her sycophants with her.

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

The Erickson Report, Page 5: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages [the Clowns]

Now for our regular feature, Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages.

Turning first to the Clowns as we usually do, we start with a repeat winner: Sen. Lindsey Grahamcracker, who so frightened himself by coming perilously close to breaking with Tweetie-pie over the latter's abandonment of the Kurds in Syria, that within a couple of days he was in awe at The Great Orange One's leadership and wisdom.

Grahamcracker said Tweetie-pie plans to use US air power over a demilitarized zone occupied by international forces - after, that is, Turkey had completed its ethnic cleansing in northern Syria, creating a Turkish "safe zone," because we must "protect Turkey from elements of the Kurds that they consider to be terrorists," said the man who a couple of days earlier was calling for sanctions against Turkey.

What's more - oh yes, there's more -

You've heard how we are "protecting" the Syrian oil fields in the eastern part of the country, because of course we get to decide what happens to and with them. Grahamcracker says "we are on the verge of a joint venture between us and the Syrian democratic forces" - the very people we just betrayed - "to modernize the oil fields" and give the revenue from them to the Kurds.

"I'm increasingly optimistic," he said to laughter from the circus crowd. "This can turn out very well."

Meanwhile journalist and author Chris Hedges notes that "The withdrawal of Iraq from the northern Kurdish areas following the 1991 Gulf War created a de facto Kurdish state, the third this century. But Turkey remains determined to destroy it. If history is any guide, the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will be as short-lived as the other autonomous enclaves briefly carved out by the Kurds over the last century."

Oh and as a footnote: The Pentagon is planning to send tanks and armored vehicles into eastern Syria as part of "protecting" those oil fields, which will require troops to operate and maintain the vehicles, as well as more troops to protect the bases from which they operate. At least we have our priorities straight.

=

Next up and standing as a symbol of many others, we have James Bagnell of Edmonton, Alberta.

A painted portrait of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg appeared on a section of a downtown "free wall" in the city, an area where people are encouraged to do art or make comments.

Bagnell's "comment" was to deface the portrait by spray painting the message "Stop the Lies. This is Oil Country!!!" over the teen's face.

He was seen by a CBC reporter, who asked him why. "We don't need foreigners coming in and telling us" what to do, was the answer.

Showing that he's up to date with his rightwing memes, Bagnell said climate activists are "intolerant" because they are calling for change and Thunberg is a child who is just "doing what she's told," and doesn't know better but who at the same time "should go back to her country and try to make her country better," where apparently she is a fully mature, informed, and independent agent.

Bagnell, who insisted that of course he's concerned about the environment - I bet some of his best friends are environmentalists - said Thunberg should "Just shut up until you have solutions."

Of course, we do have solutions, primary among which is stopping the use of fossil fuels. It's just that clowns like Bagnell don't want to hear about them.

=

Speaking of clowns, here's a collection of them: the Christian Right. That's an oxymoron if ever there was one and with the death of Elijah Cummings, some of them proved that the emphasis clearly should be on moron.

"Christian" fundamentalist Stacey Shiftlett insisted that Trump was sent by God himself to govern the US and that Cummings helped lead a “demonic attempt” to remove Trump from office. "I believe that God had had enough," Shiftlett said, "and God moved.”

Yeah, just like with Ananias and Sapphira.

Meanwhile, "Christian" fundamentalist Dave Daubenmire denounced Cummings as an “enemy of the cross” and went on to say, “I’m glad he’s gone. I bet he’s not pro-choice now. I bet he’s not pro-homo now.”

Radio host Jesse Lee Peterson declared “if you notice, John McCain, he dead. Charles Krauthammer, he dead. And Elijah Cummings, now he dead. They all didn’t like The Great White Hope" - which is how he refers to Tweetie-pie, no joke - "they went against him, they talked about him. Now, they all dead. That’s amazing.”

“Don’t mess with The Great White Hope," Peterson intoned. "You see what happens. Don’t mess with God’s children.”

I swear these people are genuinely sick. Clowns, but sick.

=

Mike Pence

I should be outraged by this but the image of it is just too comical.

On October 21, Vice President Mike Not-Worth-a-Farthing addressed the opening ceremony of the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington, DC.

He made no announcements about national space policy or international cooperation in his remarks, but he did say this:

Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, America is leading in space once again. He believes, as I do, that’s it’s America’s destiny to be the leader amongst nations in our adventure into the great unknown.

Graciously, as befits someone speaking from such a high perch, Not-worth-a-farthing added that our Glorious Leader of Great and Unmatched Wisdom would condescend to allow other "freedom-loving" nations to assist us - "freedom-loving" being defined as sufficiently pro-corporate.

He was reported to have gotten "a lukewarm reaction" from the diverse international audience.

The Erickson Report, Page 4: Ya Just Gotta Laugh

The Erickson Report, Page 4: Ya Just Gotta Laugh

Okay, so much of the news is so bad that sometimes, well, sometimes ya just gotta laugh. There's nothing else you can do.

It's well-known that Ambassador William Taylor testified before the House committees looking into impeachment that Tweetie-pie did withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to secure an "investigation" of Joe and Hunter Biden, that this was clearly conveyed to Ukraine, and the Ukrainian government understood what was being demand.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board jumped to The Great Orange One's defense, including among the usual talking points this intriguing argument: Quoting:

Mr. Taylor says in his statement that many people in the Administration opposed the Giuliani effort, including some in senior positions at the White House. This matters because it may turn out that while Mr. Trump wanted a quid-pro-quo policy ultimatum toward Ukraine, he was too inept to execute it. Impeachment for incompetence would disqualify most of the government, and most Presidents at some point or another in office.

That is, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is saying that there may be no quid pro quo - and thus, they argue, no basis for impeachment - because Tweetie-pie was too incompetent to pull it off!

This is how you know that they know that they are in deep do-do. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh.

The Erickson Report, Page 3: We Are Not Alone

The Erickson Report, Page 3: We Are Not Alone

I'm going to go through a list of items very quickly. They are arranged in alphabetical order by location. At the end, I am going to ask you a question, so pay attention.

First: In Chile, a protest that began over a 3% hike in subway fares soon broadened to encompass the economic inequality in the country. After days of violent protests, tanks in the streets of Santiago, and a million people protesting in the capital, on October 27 President Sebastian Piñera announced a major reshuffle of his cabinet in an attempt to calm things down.

=

Second: On October 3, protests by indigenous groups broke out in Ecuador over President Lenin Moreno's plan to impose IMF-pushed austerity measures, including a significant cut in fuel subsidies. After a week of protests which saw seven killed by security forces, hundreds injured, and over 1,000 arrested, Moreno withdrew the plan and opened talks with indigenous leaders - who have now suspended them, accusing Moreno of using the end of violent protests as an opening to go after the movement's leaders.

=

Third: On October 9, a shooter in Halle, Germany, attempted to attack a synagogue with the idea of, quoting him, "Kill as many anti-Whites as possible, Jews preferred." He couldn't get into the synagogue, so he killed two bystanders instead. It was the second lethal far-right attack of the year.

=

Fourth: Hong Kong has seen 21 weeks of protests as a struggle against a now-withdrawn bill to allow extradition to mainland China has expanded into a broader pro-democracy movement that is facing increasing and increasingly violent repression from authorities.

=

Fifth: Since early October, Iraq has seen protests driven by economic desperation and the failure of the central government to act. Over 190 protesters have been killed by police and the military.

=

Sixth: Israel, in a technical sense, is lacking a government. On October 21, Benjamin Netanyahu gave up trying to form a coalition big enough to make up a majority of the Iraeli parliament, the Knesset. The task now falls to his principal rival, Benny Gantz, but it remains to be seen if he'll have any better luck than Netanyoyo did.

=

Seventh: In Lebanon, in what has been described a a joyous revolution, an anti-corruption movement has seen over a million people take to the streets in demonstrations against the government.

=

Eighth: On October 25, legislation went into effect in Northern Ireland decriminalizing abortion and legalizing same-sex marriages. The government has until April to establish the same sort of abortion services available in the rest of the UK and same-sex marriages can begin in February. Activists are preparing for the next round, which is getting the new laws enforced.

=

Okay, the question: How many of those things did you know about? I'm sure you heard of a couple, at least Hong Kong, But even of those, how much did you know?

Americans, even those of us on the left, tend to act as if we were alone in the world, as if nothing beyond our borders has any importance except - maybe - in how it affects us. We need to get over that sort of chauvinism.

So - unless some truly important domestic news breaks between now and then, the next show in two weeks is going to be all international news. We need to remember: We are not alone.

The Erickson Report, Page 2: On Privacy

The Erickson Report, Page 2: On Privacy

I used to talk a lot about privacy issues, about personal privacy and government and corporate intrusions into our personal space. I haven't done so recently. Consider this re-introducing the topic.

On October 21, a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from four US citizens’ for a fair process to get their names off the government’s No Fly List.

The No Fly List is a secret government database of people - many of whom have not been charged with a crime - that the government has barred from flying in or over the US. As of June 2016, there were about 81,000 people on the List, including about 1,000 American citizens or legal residents. The No Fly List is a subset of a larger terrorism watchlist, which as of 2017 had about 1.2 million people, of whom about 5,000 are American citizens or legal residents.

None of the four men in this particular case, Kashem v. Barr, have ever been charged with a crime; nonetheless, each has been barred from flying for more than nine years.

In an earlier ruling in the case, in 2014, the government’s procedures for someone to challenge their placement on the No Fly List were “wholly ineffective” and violated due process. The government had to revise those procedures, as a result of which several of the original plaintiffs were cleared to fly, which itself should give you an idea of how reliable the list is.

The four remaining plaintiffs, still barred from flying, argued that the changed procedures are still constitutionally inadequate, saying their ban was based on second-hand assertions and secret evidence they could not meaningfully contest and that the government’s criteria for placing people on the list are unconstitutionally vague.

Citing the "national security concerns at issue" - silly me, I thought it was Constitutional rights that were at issue - the court said, in effect, "better safe than sorry" and dismissed the challenge.

I didn't read the whole opinion (it was over 50 pages), but I did read the court's summary and was particularly struck by this passage:

The panel determined that the No Fly List criteria are not impermissibly vague merely because they require a prediction of future criminal conduct, or because they do not delineate what factors are relevant to that determination.

That is, the standards for declaring you too dangerous to be allowed on an airplane are based in part on predictions of your future behavior without even being able to lay out what lead to that prediction.

We are headed for "The Minority Report" territory.

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Five Things Noted in Passing

The Erickson Report, Page 1: Five Things Noted in Passing

We start this time with Five Things Noted in Passing. Every time I pull out five items I think worth noting but which aren’t going to get a lot of time. So let’s go.

A survey released in September by the Commonwealth Fund found that 58 percent of US small business owners, "small" being defined as fewer than 500 employees, support Medicare for All.

As the Commonwealth Fund pointed out in its overview, small businesses, which make up 99 percent of US employers and create 66 percent of new private-sector jobs, have been harder hit by rising health care costs than large corporations, because they don't have the same economic clout in negotiating with the private insurance industry. Which is likely why, when the survey asked small business owners which of eight issues was the biggest challenge facing their business, "Cost of providing health care coverage to employees" came out on top.

So despite the claims of the nanny-nanny naysayers, small businesses have much to gain from a single-payer system - and many of those owners know it.

=

Fun fact, from a calculation someone did: If you came to America in 1619 and made $1 million every day for the next 400 years, and put it in a chest in your backyard, today you would have a few hundred million dollars less than Jeff Bezos.

=

Here's something to brighten your day.

The UK's first Chick-fil-A is going to close just six months after it opened.

The Oracle, a shopping center located in Reading, England, decided not to extend Chick-fil-A’s lease beyond a six-month pilot period. A spokesperson for the mall said management had decided it was "the right thing to do," following community backlash against the fast food chain’s history of support of anti-LGBTQ bigotry.

Chick-fil-A tried some CYA, insisting that the company never intended for the Reading location to be open for more than a limited time and trying to imply the non-renewal was a mutual decision. The company claimed that having "pop-up locations" was part of a "long term strategy" to "expand our international presence" - but could not provide any plans for any future such "pop-up" sites.

=

In the wake of Tweetie-pie's abandonment of the Kurds in northern Syria, Frontier Alliance International, a nonprofit Christian organization that provides medical aid in the Middle East, planned to hold an event titled "A Night of Prayer for the Kurds."
However, the event was abruptly canceled by the hotel where it was scheduled to be held.

The administrator of Frontier Alliance International, Charlene Struebing, said hotel staff had said "they’ve gotten a lot of security concerns and they couldn’t accommodate enough security. I think it’s more related to people protesting our event than it was anything we were doing."

Considering that a DC police spokeswoman said that it had not "received any information regarding potential security threats or concerns with this event" and that who the hell would be protesting a prayer event makes me suspect there was another factor at play: the fact that the event to pray for the Kurds was to be at Tweetie-pie's DC hotel.

=

A bit late but still definitely worth noting. According to the US Energy Information Administration, in April, for the first time ever, utility-scale renewable energy generated more power than coal. Renewables - hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass - provided 23% of total generation, with coal at 20%.
That may not persist month after month because coal power generation varies seasonally, but the clear trend can't be denied.

The Erickson Report for October 30-November 12

The Erickson Report for October 30 - November 12

This time:
Five Things Noted in Passing
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/faced-with-soaring-costs-of-private-insurance-poll-shows-58-of-small-business-owners-support-medicare-for-all/
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2019/sep/small-business-owners-views-health-coverage-costs
=
(no source given)
=
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/england-chick-fil-a-lgbtq-protest_n_5dad0bafe4b0422422c751bf
=
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/467039-trump-hotel-cancels-christian-aid-groups-event-a-night-of-prayer-for-the
=
https://thinkprogress.org/renewables-overpower-coal-for-first-time-ever-in-us-c79bca2a510f/

Privacy
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/10/21/aclu-comment-appeals-court-ruling-no-fly-list-challenge
https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/kashem-et-al-v-barr-et-al-opinion

We Are Not Alone
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/27/773884890/chiles-president-promises-to-reshuffle-cabinet-after-massive-protests-in-santiag
https://www.voanews.com/americas/ecuadors-moreno-scraps-fuel-subsidy-cuts-big-win-indigenous-groups
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/far-right-terrorism-in-germany-shooting-exposes-lapses-in-security-apparatus-a-1291075.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/27/beijing-hong-kong-china-police-violence
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/special-forces-baghdad-protest-death-toll-reaches-60-191027083312026.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/benjamin-netanyahu-passes-up-mandate-to-form-a-new-government_n_5daded97e4b08cfcc3205d14
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/24/northern-ireland-strikes-victory-equality
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/22/revolution-lit-jubilant-lebanon-uprising-fueled-music-dancing-and-baby-shark

Ya Gotta Laugh
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/24/1894828/-Wall-Street-Journal-editorial-board-Trump-is-too-inept-and-incompetent-to-do-crimes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/schiffs-secret-bombshells-11571872974

Two Weeks of Stupid: the Clowns
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/20/1893903/-Lindsey-Graham-says-he-s-optimistic-as-Kurds-flee-Turkish-military-This-can-turn-out-very-well
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-turkey-usa-graham/syria-critic-lindsey-graham-reverses-stance-says-trumps-policy-could-succeed-idUSKBN1WZ0I3
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/21/pity-kurds
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/24/pentagon-planning-send-tanks-armor-syria-protect-oil-fields/4089195002/
=
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/canadian-mural-of-greta-thunberg-vandalized-this-is-oil-country_n_5dae00c8e4b08cfcc32077c7
=
https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/these-unhinged-far-right-christian-fundamentalists-believe-god-killed-elijah-cummings-for-opposing-trump-dont-mess-with-the-great-white-hope/
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ACTS+5:1-11
=
https://spacenews.com/pence-calls-for-american-led-cooperation-in-space-exploration/

Two Weeks of Stupid: the Outrages
https://gizmodo.com/why-chelsea-manning-decided-to-go-to-jail-in-protest-1833164311
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
https://gizmodo.com/chelsea-manning-can-remain-in-jail-for-another-year-ju-1837022114?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email
=
https://whoviating.blogspot.com/2017/05/221-good-news-chelsea-manning-is-out-of.html
https://hoax-alert.leadstories.com/3471005-fake-news-hillary-clinton-did-not-claim-russians%20-grooming%E2%80%99-tulsi-gabbard-as-3rd-party-candidate.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/hillary-clinton-says-russia-grooming-3rd-party-candidate-u-s-n1068786
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/if-the-nesting-doll-fits-hillary-clinton-aide-defiant-on-tulsi-gabbard-russian-asset-claim
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/18/jill-stein-challenges-hillary-clinton-debate-after-russian-asset-smear
https://twitter.com/krystalball/status/1185244585137790977
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1185196559941722113
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/van-jones-hillary-clinton-tulsi-gabbard-russia_n_5dab2311e4b0422422c5998b
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1185198706016112640
https://theoutline.com/post/8144/tulsi-gabbard-hillary-clinton-russian-asset?zd=1&zi=me7t7awj

The Erickson Report, Page 4: A Longer Look at the US and the Kurds

The Erickson Report, Page 4: A Longer Look at the US and the Kurds

Last for this time out, we take A Longer Look at the US and the Kurds.

The big news of the week, of course, has been the Turkish invasion of northern Syria with the goal of genocide against the Kurds there, an invasion green-lighted by Tweetie-pie who told Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the US would get out his way.

Turkey wasted no time, attacking soon thereafter. Hundreds are dead, well over 100,000 have fled, and the carnage continues at this moment despite Tweetie-pie's risible proposal that he mediate a cease-fire.

But what we need to know now is that this is pretty much business as usual - not for Tweetie-pie but for the US. And I want you to know that in what follows I am very heavily indebted to John Schwartz at The Intercept, a news site I strongly encourage you to check out.

Okay. The morning after His High Orangeness said in effect "the Kurds? Who cares?" New York Times columnist Paul Krugman asked on Twitter why Tweetie-pie made this decision:

So did Trump just betray the Kurds because
(a) He has business interests in Turkey
(b) Erdogan, being a brutal autocrat, is his kind of guy
(c) His boss Vladimir Putin told him to
Remarkable that all three stories are perfectly plausible.

What Krugman left out, however, is the most likely explanation: (d)Trump is president of the United States. It is a repetition of an old and established pattern - because this is not the first time we betrayed the Kurds. In fact it is at least the eighth time since World War I.

The Kurds are an ethnic group of about 30 million people ranged across Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. They have lived in the region for over 1000 years and have long aspired to their own state. On a few occasions over the centuries there have been short-lived Kurdistans, but they have always been brutally repressed. Still, the desire for an independent state persists, something that the countries in which they live do not want to happen.

Which means that on the one hand, the Kurds are a perfect tool for US foreign policy because we can arm the Kurds in whichever of these countries is currently our enemy, to make trouble for that country’s government or for some other objective. But on the other hand, we don’t want the Kurds we’re exploiting to get too powerful. If that happens, the other Kurds - the ones living across the border in whichever of these countries are currently an ally - might get ideas about pursuing their own freedom and independence.

Here’s how that dynamic has played out, over and over and over again since World War I.

One: Like many other nationalisms, Kurdish nationalism blossomed during the late 1800s. At this point, all of the Kurdish homeland was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, centered in present day-Turkey. But the Ottoman Empire collapsed after fighting on the losing side of World War I. This, the Kurds understandably believed, was their moment.

The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres dismembered the Ottoman Empire, including most of what’s now Turkey, and allocated a section for a possible Kurdistan. But the Turks fought back, wanting as much as they could get, and making enough trouble that the US gave in and supported a new treaty in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne. The Treaty of Lausanne allowed the British and French to carve off present-day Iraq and Syria, respectively, for themselves: Iraq for the UK, Syria for France. But it made no provision for the Kurds.

This was America’s first betrayal of the Kurds. However, at this point, the main Kurdish betrayals were handled by the British, who crushed the short-lived Kingdom of Kurdistan in Iraq during the early 1920s. A few years later, the British were happy to see the establishment of a Kurdish “Republic of Ararat,” because it was on Turkish territory. But it turned out that the Turks were more important to the British than the Kurds were, so the United Kingdom eventually let Turkey go ahead and extinguish the new country.

Two: After World War II, the U.S. gradually assumed the British role as main colonial power in the Mideast. We armed Iraqi Kurds during the rule of Abdel Karim Kassem, who governed Iraq from 1958 to 1963, because Kassem was failing to follow our orders.

We then supported a 1963 military coup that removed Kassem from power. We immediately cut off our aid to the Kurds and, in fact, provided the new Iraqi government with napalm to use against them.

Where the Kurds live

Three: By the 1970s, the Iraqi government had drifted into the orbit of the Soviet Union. The Nixon administration, led by war criminal Henry Kissinger, hatched a plan with Iran (then our ally, remember, ruled by the Shah) to arm Iraqi Kurds and urge them to rise up against Saddam.

The plan wasn’t for the Kurds in Iraq to win, since that might encourage the Kurds in Iran to rise up themselves. It was just to bleed the Iraqi government. But that's not what the Kurds were told; they were encouraged to continue fighting.

Then the US signed off on agreements between the Shah and Saddam that included the US severing aid to the Kurds. The Iraqi military moved north and slaughtered thousands, as the US stood by. When questioned, a blasé Kissinger said “covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”

Four: During the 1980s, the Iraqi government moved on to actual genocide against the Kurds, including the use of chemical weapons. The Reagan administration was well aware of Saddam’s use of nerve gas, but because they liked the damage Saddam was doing to Iran during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), it opposed congressional efforts to impose sanctions on Iraq.

Five: As the U.S. bombed Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991, George H.W. Bush famously called on “the Iraqi military and Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands, to force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside.” Both Iraqi Shias in southern Iraq and Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq heard this and tried to do exactly that.

It turned out that Bush was - of  course - lying. Bush never supported the Kurdish and Shiite rebellions or for that matter any democracy movement in Iraq. Saddam’s “iron fist" held Iraq together, much to the satisfaction of Turkey and Saudi Arabia. What the US wanted was for the Iraqi military, not regular people, to take charge. Then Washington would have what it regarded as the best of all worlds: the Saddam Hussein regime, just without Saddam Hussein. So having called on them to rise up, the US military stood down as Iraq massacred the rebels across the country.

Nevertheless, the dying Iraqi Kurds looked so bad on international television that the Bush administration was forced to do something. The US eventually supported what was started as a British effort to protect Kurds in northern Iraq.

Six: During the Clinton administration in the 1990s, these Kurds, the Iraqi Kurds, were the good Kurds. Because they were persecuted by Iraq, our enemy, they were worthy of US sympathy. But the Kurds a few miles north in Turkey had been getting uppity too, and since they were annoying our ally, they were the baaad Kurds. The US sent Turkey huge amounts of weaponry, which it used - with US knowledge - to murder tens of thousands of Kurds and destroy thousands of villages.

It's worth noting here that the Turkish constitution does not even acknowledge the existence of the Kurds, who make up 20% of the population, and from 1924 until 1991 it was illegal in Turkey to speak Kurdish and until 2012 it was illegal to teach it in schools. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the group that Turkey and the US claim is "terrorist," did not spring out of nowhere.

Seven: Before the Iraq War in 2003, right-wing pundits were saying we had to do it, had to got to war, to help the Kurds. But post-war, Kruds in northern Iraq gained some regional autonomy, which disturbed Turkey, so in 2007, the US allowed Turkey to carry out a heavy bombing campaign against Iraqi Kurds inside Iraq. By which time, the right wing was declaring that this betrayal was exactly what America should be doing.

With Trump’s thumbs-up for another slaughter of the Kurds, America is now on betrayal number eight. We are nothing if not consistent.

The Kurds have an old, famous adage that they “have no friends but the mountains.” Now more than ever, it’s hard to argue that that’s wrong.