I speculated that the acquittal of Scott Warren for giving aid to the people crossing the desert regions on the US southern border was possibly a case of jury nullification, the process by which juries acquit someone who is guilty on the facts because they feel that the law is unjust or should not have been applied in that case. Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept says that what happened with Warren was not jury nullification but the government being unable to make the case.

To put this another way: there is no indication that this was a case of jury nullification. The government lost all on its own by putting on a case that was unconvincing to the jurors.

— Ryan Devereaux (@rdevro) November 21, 2019

[Read more…]

In reading and listening to the commentary in US media about the killing of Qassem Suleimani by the US government, even those who disapprove of the action do so largely on strategic and tactical grounds and claim that the US was morally right to do what it did. The argument they give is that Suleimani was the operational head of the Iranian government’s elite Quds force who oversaw a terrorist network in many countries that the US has invaded or otherwise has troops in and thus deserved to die because he was behind the deaths of many Americans. (Murtaza Hussain provides some background on Suleimani and how he was viewed in both Iran and Iraq.)

Whenever I hear people saying these things, my reaction is “Really?” Suleimani was small potatoes compared to what the US government and the CIA have been doing around the globe for decades.
[Read more…]

Companies often try to gouge tax breaks and other incentives from local governments by creating a bidding war among them, by promising to build a large new facilities that would create many high-paying jobs, even though the company has likely already decided on the best site even before the process starts. These promises by the company are rarely realized in practice and the net result is that the companies get the tax breaks they were promised while not upholding their end of the bargain, creating fewer jobs and lower paying ones at that. The latest glaring example of this is Foxconn in Wisconsin, a company that richly deserves the ‘con’ in its name.
[Read more…]

There is no question that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has excited the base of the Democratic party, especially the younger generation. She, along with Bernie Sanders and others, are working hard to expand the base of voters by attracting the many people who have been disillusioned with the party and with politics in general because their interests and needs were ignored.

This of course is upsetting to the party establishment that seeks to maintain their control because these new voters are less likely to go along with the tired old policies. The party establishment, as represented by people like Joe Biden, still cling to the myth that they can attract back white working class voters who have defected to Donald Trump. Biden keeps talking about building bridges with the Republican party (he even talks of possibly having a Republican vice president!) despite the fact that they treat him with utter scorn.

These people hate AOC because she threatens the establishment but she is also very popular with her constituents. So what to do? They think they see an importunity because it is predicted that after the next census, the state of New York will lose one congressional seat. This means that the boundaries will have to be drawn. So party leaders are salivating at the prospect of redrawing her seat so that she will be running in a district that is less favorable to her.

AOC is a savvy politicians and knows this and is already taking steps to counter this move. But it is very revealing that a priority of party leaders is to seek to get rid of a person who has so excited the party base. It shows their true colors.

It is customary for underlings who do the hard work of analysis of any situation to condense them into a series of options to present to the boss. In the case of the US president and his advisors, they tend to give him a wide range of options that include extreme measures that are included for completeness but are not really seen as desirable. The problem with Trump is that his ignorance and reckless impulsivity make that kind of advice-giving dangerous. He will seize on any option that catches his fancy and that he thinks will make him look good in the moment, irrespective of the long-term damage.
[Read more…]

The killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in an airstrike ordered by Donald Trump is one of those things that make any sane observer wonder what the hell Trump was thinking and what the hell those around him were doing in allowing him to do it.

The strike came at a time when Iraq was already on the brink of an all-out proxy war, and hours after a two-day siege of the US embassy in Baghdad by a mob of PMF militants and their supporters. The Pentagon accused Suleimani of having masterminded the mob attack.

That siege followed US airstrikes on camps run by a PMF-affiliated militia particularly closely aligned with Tehran, which in turn was a reprisal for that militia’s killing of a US contractor in an attack on an Iraqi army base on Friday.

This action is only going to inflame anti-US feelings of both Iraqis and Iranians. The Iraqi government is already under some pressure to ask the US to withdraw its troops and this will likely increase the volume of such calls.
[Read more…]

The US has killed a high profile Iranian military leader in a missile strike near the Baghdad airport.

The White House said Donald Trump ordered an air strike that killed powerful Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad in the early hours of Friday, in a dramatic escalation of an already bloody struggle between Washington and Tehran for influence across the region.

Suleimani, who ran Iranian military operations in Iraq and Syria, was targeted while being driven from Baghdad airport by local allies from the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU). The deputy head of the PMU, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, a close Suleimani associate, was also killed in the attack.
…

Iran confirmed Suleimani’s death, saying the US would be responsible for the consequences.

“The US’ act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation,” the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Twitter. “The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”

This is a major, major provocation by Trump. I cannot tell what this will lead to but it is not going to be good.

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has just announced impressive fundraising results. Sam Finkelstein has taken a close look at the people who have endorsed, funded, and supported Buttigieg’s presidential candidacy and does not like what he finds.

Two questions continue to loom large over the 2020 Democratic primary field: Who is Pete Buttigieg? And what is he doing there?

Seemingly overnight, the once obscure mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city was vaulted to national prominence, pockets stuffed with big checks from billionaire benefactors.

The publication of a list of 218 endorsements from “foreign policy and national security professionals” by Buttigieg’s campaign deepened the mystery.

Some observers have raised questions about Pete Buttigieg’s intimate relationship with the national security state, after it was revealed that his campaign had paid nearly $600,000 for “security” to a Blackwater-style military contractor.
[Read more…]