Some of the world's most profound melting of glaciers is happening in the Antarctic; and is invisible from above.

According to a study recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the underwater melting of Antarctic glaciers is now occurring at a rate that is doubling every 20 years. This means that melting in the ice continent of Antarctica could soon outpace that occurring across Greenland, which would make Antarctica the single largest source of sea level rise.

The new study was the first complete underwater mapping of Antarctica, by far the world's largest body of ice.

The study shows that warming ocean waters have caused the base of the ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 kilometers from 2010 to 2016. This development will likely force worst-case projections of sea level rise to be revised upwards.

The current worst-case scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is just over 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of sea level rise by 2100.

The new data, however, confirms a study from nearly five years ago, in which 90 sea level rise experts were surveyed and confirmed that sea level rise this century will exceed IPCC projections.

Meanwhile, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's worst-case scenario is 2.5 meters (8.5 feet) by the same year. This worst-case scenario does not factor in the new data from the recent Antarctica study.

Glaciers Coming Unplugged

The study, based on an analysis of satellite data, found dramatic changes happening across eight of the major glaciers in Antarctica due to the warmer ocean water underneath them.

The water is melting the glacier ice away from the seafloor, which was acting as a sort of plug, keeping the ice attached to the bedrock. The study showed that the ice, which has been receding by nearly 200 meters per year, is causing the land-based ice to speed up its shift toward the sea, hence increasing sea level rise projections.

The study also warned that this phenomenon suggests a widespread pattern of rapidly increasing melting all the way around Antarctica.

"We're seeing this all across the ice sheet," University of Leeds climate researcher Hannes Konrad, lead author of the analysis, told Inside Climate News. "As the grounding line of the ice shelves moves back, the inland glaciers accelerate and raise global sea level."

The rate of retreat of Antarctica's eight major glaciers has now accelerated to five times the historical average, according to the study.

Sea level rise projections of more than three meters are currently being openly discussed.

A 2017 study by Cornell University showed that rising seas could result in two billion refugees by 2100. That is one-fifth of the total projected global population of humans, which would be 11 billion by then. Moreover, that data is based on the current, lower sea level rise projections; predictions may well increase in the near future.
(c) 2018 Dahr Jamail, a Truthout staff reporter, is the author of The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan (Haymarket Books, 2009), and Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007). Jamail reported from Iraq for more than a year, as well as from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last 10 years, and has won the Martha Gellhorn Award for Investigative Journalism, among other awards.

A FRIEND from overseas sent me the recording of a song. An Arab song, with a soft Arab melody, sung by an Arab girls' choir, accompanied by a flute.

It goes like this:

Ahed /
You are the promise and the glory /
Standing as high as an olive tree /
From the cradle to the present /
Your honor will not be violated /
Palestine has been planted in us /
As a dock for every ship /
We are the land and you are the water /

You are covered with blond hair /
You are as pure as Jerusalem /
You taught our generation how the forgotten people should revolt /
They thought the Palestinians are afraid of them because they are wearing armor and holding a weapon? /
Palestine has been planted in us /
As a dock for every ship /
Our nation must be united and resist for the freedom of Palestine and the prisoners /

Your blue eyes are a lighthouse /
For a country that has every religion /
You united the people far away and close /
You ignited the spark in all our hearts /
Your head is raised up high encouraging us /
You ignited the light in our darkness /

Despite the softness of your hands /
Your hands have shaken the world /
Your hands returned the slap to the occupier /
And returned esteem to the nation /
Palestine has been planted in us /
As a dock for every ship /
We are the land and you are the water.

IF I were an adherent of the occupation, this song would frightened me very much.

Because the force of songs is much stronger than the force of weapons. A gun wears out, but a song lasts forever.

In the early days of the Israeli army, there was a slogan hanging in our mess: "An army that is singing is an army of victory!"

The present Palestinian generation has decided to lower its head and wait until the storm has passed. The coming Palestinian generation may act in a completely different way.

On the eve of my 15th birthday, I joined an underground (or "terrorist") group that fought against the British colonial regime. Almost eighty years later I remember just about every song of that time, word for word. Songs like "We are unknown soldiers without uniforms..." and many more. Afterwards I wrote an anthem for my company.

I am not a poet. Far from it. But I have written some songs in my time, including "Samson's Foxes", an anthem for my commando unit in the Israeli army. So I know the force of a song. Especially a song about the heroism of a 16 year old girl.

THE MOMENT I saw the scene of Ahed al-Tamimi boxing the face of an Israeli army captain, I knew that something important had happened.

The British politician Lord Acton famously wrote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I would add: "Occupying another people tends to make you stupid, and a long occupation makes you utterly stupid."

In my youth, when I was already a member of the anti-British underground, I was working in the office of a British lawyer, many of whose clients were officials of the British administration. I often asked myself: "How can it be that such intelligent people can behave so stupidly?" They were nice people, who treated even a lowly clerk like me politely. But they had no alternative: the occupation compels the occupier to behave stupidly.

It works like this: in order to uphold an occupation regime for any length of time, the occupier must believe in the superiority of his race and in the inferiority of his subjects, who are seen as primitive creatures. Otherwise, what gives them him the right to subject another people? That is exactly what has happened to us now.

THE MOMENT I saw the face-boxing scene on TV, I knew that something momentous had happened. The Palestinian people now have a national heroine. The Palestinian youth now has a model to emulate.

The Israeli public has got used to the occupation. They believe that this is a normal situation, that the occupation can go on forever. But the occupation is not a natural situation, and some day it will come to an end.

Ten thousand British ruled hundreds of millions of Indians, until a skinny man called Gandhi went to produce salt on the seashore, contrary to the law. The Indian youth arose, and British rule fell away like a leaf from a tree in autumn.

The same stupidity took hold of all the occupation enforcers who dealt with Ahed al-Tamimi. Army officers. Prosecutors, military judges.

If we were wise occupiers - an oxymoron - we would have sent Ahed home long ago. Expelled her by force from the prison. But we are still keeping her locked up. Her and her mother.

True, some days ago the army realized its own stupidity. With the help of Ahed's devoted (Jewish) advocate, Gabi Lasky, a "compromise" was worked out. Several charges were dropped and Ahed was sentenced to "only" eight months in prison.

She will be released in three more months. But that is too late: the picture of Ahed is already engraved in the mind of every Palestinian boy or girl. Ahed, the girl covered with blond hair, her blue eyes shining like a lighthouse. Ahed the saint. Ahed the savior.

The Palestinian Jeanne d'Arc, the national symbol.

THE STORY of Ahed al-Tamimi happened in the West Bank. But it resounded in the Gaza Strip, too.

For most Israelis, the Gaza Strip is something else. It is not occupied territory. It does not concern us.

But the situation of the Gaza Strip is even worse than straight occupation. The strip is completely surrounded. North and east is Israel, west is the sea, where the Israeli navy shoots at everything except for fishing boats close to the shore. The south belongs to Egypt, which behaves even worse than the Israelis and in close cooperation with them.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is as close to hell as one can get. Food at subsistence level, electricity for two to four hours a day, the water is polluted. Work is extremely scarce. Only the most severely ill are let out.

Why? It has to do with the demon that plagues the Israeli government: the demographic devil.

In historical Palestine, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river, there now live about 13 million people, roughly half Jewish and half Arab, with a slight edge in favor of the Arabs. Numbers are uncertain, but roughly there are 3 million Arabs in the West Bank, 2 million in the Gaza Strip and 1.5 million Arab citizens in Israel. The Arab birthrate is higher than the Jewish average.

These numbers disturb the sleep of many Israeli officials, especially politicians. They look for means to change the balance. They once had the illusion that if the situation in Gaza got unbearable, people from Gaza would emigrate. But it did not happen. Palestinians have become very tenacious.

Then a new fashion came up: just ignore the bastards. Just imagine that the Gaza Strip has sunk into the sea, as one Israeli politician once prayed. No Strip. Two million Palestinian less.

But the Strip is there. True, Gaza is ruled by the Islamic Hamas party, while the West Bank is ruled by Abu Mazen's PLO, and the enmity between the two is vicious. But that happened in almost all liberation movements in history. In our case, the underground split between the Haganah ("Defense"), which belonged to the official Zionist leadership, and the Irgun ("Organization", short for National Military Organization). Then the Irgun split, and the even more extreme LEHI ("Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", called the "Stern Gang" by the British) was born. They all hated each other.

But among the people, there is no difference at all. They are all Palestinians. Ahed is the heroine of all of them. Perhaps her model played a role in what happened last week.

For some time, the Gaza Strip was quiet. Some kind of modus vivendi had even come into being between the Hamas government and the Israeli one. The Israelis congratulated themselves on their cleverness. And then it happened.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the population of Gaza stood up. Hamas organized them to assemble on Friday near the border fence, unarmed. A prolonged campaign of passive resistance was to start.

When I was asked what would happen, I said that the Israeli army would shoot to kill. Simple: Israelis don't know how to deal with passive resistance. They shoot in order to turn it into violent resistance. With that they know how to deal. With more violence.

AND THAT is exactly what happened last Friday, the first day of the campaign: snipers were posted along the line, with orders to shoot the "ringleaders" - anyone who stood out. 18 unarmed demonstrators were killed, almost a thousand were shot and wounded.

If anyone thought that the democratic world would stand up and condemn Israel, they were sadly wrong. Reactions were feeble, at most. What was revealed was the incredible hold the Israeli government and its Zionist organization has over the world's political establishments and communication outlets. With few exceptions the atrocious news was not published at all, or as minor items.

But this cannot go on for long. The Gaza protests will continue, especially on Fridays (the Muslim holy day), until May 15, the Naqba ("Catastrophe") Day, which commemorates the mass flight / expulsion of half the Palestinian people from their homes. Palestinian flags will fill screens around the globe.

The only good thing I can think to say about the Obama presidency is really kind of negative too, a monstrous crime he almost committed, but backed away from at the last minute. It was the only time in Obama's political career that I've seen him take what might remotely be described as a risk. It was the the aftermath of the August 2013 chemical weapons attack on Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus which killed 1,300 people. While all the TV talking heads and publicly visible admirals and generals blamed the nerve gas attack on the Syrian government, Obama bucked the warmongering tide which he himself had helped raise, opting NOT to escalate the US war in Syria with carpet bombings of its infrastructure and a no-fly zone, the prelude to an inevitable invasion.

According to Seymour Hersh, the reporter who revealed the My Lai massacre to the world four decades earlier, Obama was hemmed in by his own dedication to America's historically belligerent anti-Iran and pro-Israel policies in the Middle East on the one hand, and some of his spooks and generals on the other who realized that if the Syrian regime was overthrown, it would be replaced by Kurdish militias controlling some areas, by US and Saudi backed jihadis who want to make the 10th century great again in charge of others, by remnants and factions of the Syrian army in a few more places, by Israeli and Turkish annexation of areas near their borders, and direct intervention by neighboring Iran – in short a chaotic regional bloodbath, the uncertain outcome of which would dwarf the mess Obama made in Libya.

So Obama blinked. He accepted a Russian proposal for the handover of Syrian chemical assets, and more talks. While the bloody US-Israeli-Saudi-Turkish and NATO instigated civil war in Syria dragged on and on, it did not mushroom into the much larger disaster that might have been, and might still become.

That was a good thing. At the end of 2013 and in early 2014 Seymour Hersh revealed that Obama almost certainly knew that Ghouta was a false flag attack. Chemical weapons are extremely volatile. They degrade and destroy the rockets and delivery systems used to deploy them within hours, and emit trace chemicals that are easily detectable at moderate distances by rings of remote sensors US and Israeli intelligence agencies have placed near all the Syrian army's bases and staging depots. None of those sensors picked up any chemical weapons activity. Jihadi extremists armed and funded by the US and the Saudis were known to include personnel experienced in the manufacture, arming and deployment of chemical agents. Some had even been busted by Turkish police attempting to buy and transport sarin, its manufacturing equipment and precursor chemicals across Turkey's border with Syria.

Beginning in 2012 after the fall of Libya, Hillary Clinton and President Obama arranged for the shipment of weapons which included surface to air missiles out of Libya and into the hands of their favorite Syrian rebels including ISIL, al Nusra and Al Qaeda, various factions of which were backed by Qatar, Israel, the Saudis and Turkey. But despite lavish funding, epic brutality, more military hardware than they could wield and the unstinting media and diplomatic support of the West, their bloodthirsty puppets were losing the Syrian civil war. So they staged a chemical attack against an area they controlled with the intent of blaming it on the Syrian government. Their aim was to provoke the US into knocking over al Assad so they can fight with the Kurds, Turks, Iranians Saudis, Israelis and Syrians maybe backed by Russian and/or Iran over the possibly radioactive remains of that unhappy country. It almost worked.

In 2014, the Syrian government handed over all or nearly all its chemical weapons arsenal to international authorities including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for destruction. There were minor charges in 2015 and 2016 that chlorine gas was used in a few places, but they were small scale affairs and chlorine is so ineffective as a military tool it's hard to make a case that any government with a minimally competent army would use it.

The next major allegation of chemical warfare in Syria was in 2017, when 19 people died near Khan Sheikhoun, a rebel held town in northwest Syria. The Americans and their stooges as usual blamed it on the Syrian government. The Russians offered a different explanation, suggesting that government forces had bombed a place where sarin had been stored. Either way, the timing of the incident made no military sense from the standpoint of the Syrian government. They continued to slowly and surely win the war, shrinking the rebel held areas each month, and had no reason to jeopardize their gains by provoking the US. In recent weeks, Trump Secretary of War Defense admitted that previous allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons were false, a fact barely reported on at all by US corporate news sources.

While US presidents come go, there is a permanent layer of cops, spooks, fixers, military types, intelligence professionals, think tankers we can call the deep state, all beholden to the lords of capital, especially the energy industry and America's galaxy of military contractors. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats, and for all we know some might be nonpartisan. Among them are the people who helped prevent Barack Obama from launching a war in which a dozen nations would have fought and millions might have died, which could easily have escalated into a nuclear conflict between the US, Israel and NATO on the one hand and Russia on the other.

We can hope that some of these forces, none of whom are friends of peace or justice, will restrain Donald Trump, as they did Obama. The odds don't look good. Hersh's January 2016 article in the London Review of Books identifies General Michale Flynn as one of thoe who opposed some of the most drastic war plans for Syria, and he's gone. Hope is nothing we can count on. Hope is, as Derrick Jensen says, a longing for a future condition over which we have no agency. Hope might lead some of us to the Democrats, who regularly pretend to be the party of peace when Republicans are in power, and some leftists pretend to believe them. That's acting out of hope because we have no agency over the Democratic party. A three part investigative series by the World Socialist Web Site identifies 57 CIA, military, Homeland Security and other intelligence professionals running as Democrats for seats in Congress this year, nearly all backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, except in the couple of cases where two of these are running against each other. We have to grow up and admit to each other that Democrats never have and never will be a peace party.

Donald Trump's personal lawyer needs a lawyer. That lawyer will also need a lawyer, who in turn will also need a lawyer. If this keeps up, a friend noted, we'll have to change "MAGA" to "My Attorney Got Arrested."

Michael D. Cohen, Trump's long-time consigliere and Man Who Knows All Secrets had his world turned inside out like a laundered sock on Monday morning when the FBI basically raided every place he's ever spent more than five minutes. Cohen's home, office and hotel all got the no-knock treatment courtesy of the office of the United States attorney for the southern district of New York, operating off a tip from special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigative team.

Saying "no" was not an option. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger asking for Cohen's clothes, boots and motorcycle, they took everything. According to the Washington Post on Tuesday, the searches are part of a "federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations." A goodly slice of the records seized pertain to adult film star Stormy Daniels and the 2016 payment Cohen made to her in order to buy her silence about an alleged sexual dalliance with Trump. Attorney-client communications between Cohen and Trump himself were also seized.

Possible collusion with Russia, election interference, obstruction of justice ... so of course it's all going to come down to Stormy. This boulder started rolling down the mountain for real a few days ago on Air Force One when Trump finally broke his silence on the Daniels matter and threw Cohen under the bus with the speed of a startled cheetah. I know nothing, said Trump. Ask the lawyer.

Cohen was left holding the bag on the $130,000 hush payment to Daniels, a fact that could make those charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations all too real. Even Cohen's admission that he paid Daniels himself without Trump's knowledge, and Trump's professed ignorance of the transaction, carries legal peril for Cohen: Acting on behalf of your client in legal matters without the client's knowledge and consent is grounds for disbarment in the state of New York.

Merriam-Webster defines "Schadenfreude" as "Enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others." When word got out that Cohen's inner sanctums had been de-doored by the FBI, the schaden met the freude in the rye and danced the night away. Why? Michael Cohen has moved through the world like a mouthy wheat thresher, "fixing" and intimidating people who make trouble for Trump. He has few friends, and fewer admirers. Today, he has empty filing cabinets in his office and a ball of ice in his gut to show for his years spent as a wanna-be menace on behalf of the pretend-billionaire set. From Manhattan to DC on Monday, many people smiled into their martinis and waited for the latest update.

This is going to become about more than Stormy Daniels, and Trump knows it. His panic on Monday was palpable, and justly so. Michael Cohen is in deep trouble, and Donald is right there with him. Cohen knows where all the bodies are buried, having buried many of them himself. As Rick Wilson points out in The Daily Beast, Cohen "realizes how deep this hole can become if he doesn't roll over. He doesn't have the resources to defend himself, and Trump isn't exactly known for paying his bills in the first place. Cohen is scared, and he's not alone."

What do you call a leader without followers? Just a guy taking a walk.

One jagged nugget of irony to be found in all this is the fact that the warrants came from the offices of New York's southern district US attorney, now headed by a Trump appointee named Geoffrey Berman. As far as Trump is concerned, the rain started falling last year when his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from the Russia probe. It will give Trump no joy to learn that Berman has also recused himself from the matter now consuming Michael Cohen, and that the warrants were approved by one of Berman's underlings.

The tastiest bit of bitter history here is the office itself. Before Berman, the southern district US attorney was a world-class investigator and prosecutor named Preet Bharara. Among his many cases, Bharara was sniffing heavily around shady real estate dealings between Trump and some Russian oligarchs, many of whom have since played starring roles in Mueller's ongoing investigation.

Very early in his presidency, Trump fired or demanded resignations from every serving US attorney in the country, including Bharara. All of Bharara's cases, including those involving Trump and the Russians, came to a screeching halt. This was no accident: A Trump lawyer named Marc Kasowitz bragged about convincing Trump to fire Bharara because, as Kasowitz reportedly told Trump, "This guy is going to get you."

It appears the southern district isn't quite finished with "The Donald" just yet. Trump could complain to the boss, but the boss has recused himself. Lather, rinse, repeat. At last, then, comes the simple astonishment of it all. Obtaining a valid search warrant for an attorney's office is incredibly difficult given the strictures of the attorney-client privilege. Obtaining a search warrant for the offices, home and hotel of the personal attorney to the president of the United States is just slightly less difficult than dropping a warrant on God.

According to the US Attorneys' Manual, obtaining these warrants required investigators to first try and acquire the evidence through other means like a subpoena. The US Attorney or a deputy had to approve the warrants. Approval from the criminal division of the Department of Justice was required, which means Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein also had to approve them. Firewalls and a "privilege team" had to be deployed to protect from infringement of the attorney-client privilege. Finally, the whole thing had to be signed off on by a US District Court judge. They got it all. Damned if they didn't. Even Richard Nixon's lawyers didn't see their offices and homes raided. In an administration without precedent, this was yet another Whole New Thing.

US political history is replete with needle-off-the-record moments when everything just stops with a screech. The firing of Archibald Cox, the testimony of John Dean, Joe Welch asking Joe McCarthy if, at long last, he had any sense of decency ... those moments come, and every moment after is marked forever. This was one of those moments.

There is a certain eerie symmetry to the fact that Cohen was served with these warrants on the anniversary of the surrender at the Appomattox courthouse. If this were a Game of Thrones episode, it would be time to retreat to Maegor's Holdfast with the Tears of Lys and a goblet of good wine. The Main Enemy has splintered the gate, and unfriendly footfalls can be heard on the stairs.

For the record, this is why so many of us were so strident in our belief that Donald Trump should never be allowed anywhere near the power of the presidency. The man is as crooked as a rhombus and has the temperament of a pit viper on a good day, and this is not a good day.

Trump is fit to be tied, frantic in his rage and fear, and as of this writing trembles on the verge of unleashing even more war upon the rubble in Syria ... with John Bolton whispering in his ear all the while. No one in Washington is more eager than Bolton to take advantage of an unstable president's lust to punish. This could be a big moment for the new national security adviser.

I wish I understood why Republican voters cheer this behavior:

The Trump administration took additional steps to weaken Obamacare on Monday, allowing U.S. states to relax the rules on what insurers must cover and giving states more power to regulate their individual insurance markets.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a final rule that allows states to select essential health benefits that must be covered by individual insurance plans sold under former President Barack Obama's healthcare law. The 2010 Affordable Care Act requires coverage of 10 benefits, including maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs. Under the new rule, states can select from a much larger list which benefits insurers must cover.

That could lead to less generous coverage in some states, according to Avalere Health, a research and consulting firm.

President Donald Trump's administration has used its regulatory power to undermine Obamacare after the Republican-controlled Congress last year failed to repeal and replace the law. About 20 million people have received health insurance coverage through the program.

The new CMS rule also allows states the possibility of modifying the medical loss ratio (MLR) formula, the amount an insurer spends on medical claims compared with income from premiums that is also a key performance metric. A state can request "reasonable adjustments" to the medical loss ratio standard if it shows that it could help stabilize its individual market.

Insurers could also have an easier time raising their rates under the new rule. Obamacare mandated that premium rate increases of 10 percent or more in the individual market be scrutinized by state regulators to ensure that they are necessary and reasonable. The new CMS rule raises that threshold to 15 percent.

I guess GOP voters might believe this will result in lower prices and better care. Or, more pertinently, will end up denying health care to people they hate which I suspect is the real motivation for their bizarre and frankly, sadistic hatred of the ACA.

Trump wasn't able to completely repeal the program. But they're doing everything they can to kill it with a death by a thousand cuts. It's just another reason for decent Americans to organize and vote in 2018 and 2020. There will be tremendous pressure to cut everything because of the GOP tax cuts. It's going to take a strong Democratic majority with a mandate and a president to fix this damage. It will be a very heavy lift.

At this writing, President Trump is considering "the possibility of retaliation in Syria in response to a suspected chemical attack on young children and families in the Syrian city of Douma," reported CBS News. "If it's the Russians, if it's Syria, if it's Iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out," Trump said. "Nothing's off the table," including a military attack by the United States.

Whether that possibility involves a cruise missile strike, drone attacks or conventional bombing raids by fighter jets, this is deadly serious business. People, mostly innocent civilians and Syrian grunts who had nothing to do with the "suspected" chemical attack, will die. People will be injured. Survivors will be traumatized. An attack could escalate and expand the current conflict, leading to more death and destruction.

The stakes are high, but U.S. policymakers are as glibly insouciant as if they were choosing between Hulu and Netflix. This is not new or Trumpian. It's always been like this. American leaders don't take these life-and-death decisions seriously.

If the United States were a sane country populated by rational, civically-engaged citizens, Americans would pour derision and ridicule on anyone who seriously considered raining bombs over a "suspected" anything. And the skepticism in this case ought to be exponentially greater considering that this is Syria. ,P. We've already been down this "Syria's Assad regime used chemical weapons against their own people so we should bomb his forces" road. It happened under Obama. What is certain here is uncertainty: maybe it's true, maybe it's not. As legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh pointed out in 2014, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) believed that at least one major faction of the Syrian opposition, the al-Nusra Front, possessed significant manufacturing facilities and stockpiles of sarin nerve agent and other proscribed toxic chemicals.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Since when is "maybe they did it, maybe they didn't, oh well" sufficient?

American political culture has devolved from the Vietnam era, when pacifists were marginalized, to a kneejerk bellicosity in which they don't exist as part of the debate.

To its credit, The New York Times - still with blood on its hands from its unwholesome publishing of Judith Miller's pro-Iraq War screeds - has printed statements by those who oppose rushing into war with Syria. "We would prefer to start with a proper investigation," the newspaper quoted Britain's ambassador to the United Nations. It also ran letters to the editor that expressed doubts about Syria's motivations and Trump's trustworthiness.

Nowhere to be found was a pacifist: someone who opposes war, all war, no matter what. Nor were there any anti-interventionists: people who say Syria is not our business and should be left to sort out its own affairs.

It's the same at The Washington Post. Some writers there wonder aloud whether Trump's sabre-rattling is more "Wag the Dog" than "Doctor Strangelove": if he bombs Syria, will it be to take our minds off the Russia stuff? Also, weirdly, this headline: "Something for Trump to keep in mind on Syria: His strikes last year were pretty popular." How does Amber Phillips sleep at night? Again: no pacifists. No anti-interventionists.

It's not like they're not out there in Real America. The nativist America Firsters who formed the core of Team Trump in 2016 included a lot of isolationists - and Trump ran on a no-more-nation-building platform. They're disgusted more by the cost of the bombs we drop on Muslim countries than the lives they destroy; if there's any nation-building to be done, they ask quite reasonably, why not start with America's own rusted-out, broken-down infrastructure?

No knock.

Who's there?

FB.

FB who?

FBI, motherfcker.

-New Variation On Traditional New York Humor

Michael Cohen, capo di tutti tuff-guy in the president*'s entourage, got a visit from those nice young folks at the Bureau on Monday. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that pure, uncut schadenfreude has descended on any number of people in New York and Washington. From the NYT:Blockquote> Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen's lawyer, who called the search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary." The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller's investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York. And, because it's 2018, there is a Stormy angle.

Mr. Cohen plays a role in aspects of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also recently said he paid $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Ms. Clifford is known as Stormy Daniels. Mr. Ryan said Mr. Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian election meddling. The payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the economy is definitely booming. But outside of the Bay Area? Not so much.

I'm currently in Reno at a book convention, trying to flog my latest detective novel -- and I am also detecting something else here as well. From what I can tell after just a few days' stakeout, many residents in the "Biggest Little City in the World" are clearly hurting for money and jobs -- just like so many other folks in America today.

But how can this be? How can the richest country in the world have fallen so low?

The answer is simple. "Judas in the White House" -- or three of them, to be exact.

When all the votes were counted (or not) after the 2000 presidential election, American voters had given a clear mandate that we wanted to go in a people-friendly direction and away from all this nonsense about "war". People voted for Gore. People voted for Nader. We shoulda gotten ecology and a fat peace dividend back in 2000. Instead we got George W. Bush shoved down our throats. And 9-11. And all its shabby results. Judas in the White House.

And then along came Obama. We voters gave him a clear mandate too -- we wanted it our way, jobs and peace. Instead we got even more merciless slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan shoved down our throats. Plus the horrors of additional "wars" and proxy wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Ukraine too. Pathetic.

At the Reno convention this week, a handwriting analyst, Sheila Lowe, gave a very interesting talk. She said, "Obama's handwriting shows that he was a great leader -- but was under intense pressure to do things against his will."0 But, all the same, he still did them anyway. Humph. Judas in the White House.

And then there's Trump. "Make America great again," he told his naive voters. And then he sold America out for 30 pieces of Wall Street and War Street. America now has more gun-toting Special Ops units in more countries worldwide than it has ambassadors. That's just cray-cray. Not to mention Trump's new BFFs, the slaughtering Saudis and infamous Israelis. Judas in the White House. It makes sense that Reno is hurting. It makes sense that America is hurting too. We've been sold out.

PS: Bush, Obama and Trump aren't the only presidents who sold Americans out in order to keep the military-industrial complex happily lining their pockets with silver to the severe detriment for the rest of us. This has been an ongoing trend that only presidents Kennedy and Carter have even tried to buck.

President Wilson: Got us involved in grim European military-industrial battles that were none of our business.

President Roosevelt: World War II was allegedly fought to preserve democracy against fascism [Fascism defined as governments and corporations working together to screw the rest of us] but actually it was fought because Hitler and Tojo got too greedy and started horning in on America's and Britain's military-industrial complex swag.

President Truman: Proof is only just now surfacing that Korea was originally attacked by America because the Korean government was apparently becoming too nice to its own people and too representational -- a very bad example to set. So Truman authorized dropping 1.5 million bombs on Korea, tearing the country apart and installing a cruel dictator in the south instead.

President Eisenhower: Allowed covert operations against Iran, Congo and various Central American countries because their leaders were becoming a bit too democratic and actually setting up unions, hospitals and schools. Clapped his hands in glee that a brutal dictator was our ally in Taiwan.

President Johnson: Had a good thing going with the Great Society but lied us into the "war" on Vietnam instead because Uncle Ho was becoming too democratic. Johnson also conspicuously looked the other way when Israeli neo-cons murdered 34 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty.

President Nixon: Lied to us in order to continue the "war" on Vietnam just because he could -- and to help the US military-industrial complex continue to gut our treasury too.

Reagan: Mr. Judas himself. All it took was 30 pieces of silver to get him to murder thousands of Mayans, crucify Central America -- and destroy the American economy as well. Trickle down? More like Trickle Up.

President Bush the First: Invented that phony Gulf "War" in order to steal Iraq's oil for himself and his cronies. Hey, his plan worked. Nothing in it for the rest of us except Gulf War Syndrome however.

President Clinton: Chit-chatted a lot about our "peace dividend" but then went out of his way to destroy Yugoslavia and turn it into a hellhole. Why? Because Tito had been treating his people too kindly. Stuff like that just had to be stopped! And boy was it.

So. Here's my one obvious question. "Have we Americans ever learned anything after all these decades of being betrayed again and again by our presidents in favor of warmongers and corporate carpetbaggers?" Apparently not.

A Poor People's Campaign Against War By David Swanson Movements that are serious about human survival, economic justice, environmental protection, the creation of a good society, or all of the above, address the problem of militarism. Movements that claim to be comprehensive yet run screaming from any mention of the problem of war are not serious.

Toward the not-serious end of the spectrum sit most activist efforts devoted to political parties in a corrupt political system. The Women's March, the Climate March (which we had to work very hard to squeeze the slightest mention of peace out of), and the March for Our Lives are not especially serious. While the March for Our Lives is a single-issue "march," its issue is gun violence, and its leaders promote military and police violence while shunning any recognition of the fact that the U.S. Army trained their classmate to kill.

It's certainly encouraging that some "Indivisible" groups have been opposing Trump's latest disastrous nominations in part on anti-militarist grounds. But one should hesitate to look to partisan groups for a revaluation of moral values.

Toward the more serious end of the spectrum are Black Lives Matter, which includes a serious analysis of militarism and the relationships among supposedly separate "issues" throughout its platform, and the Poor People's Campaign, which on Tuesday published a report by the Institute for Policy Studies that takes on the interlocking evils of militarism, racism, extreme materialism, and environmental destruction.

"Few recall," the report says, "that the war in Vietnam drained away many of the resources for the War on Poverty, which did much but could have done much more. 'Bombs dropped in Vietnam explode at home,' Dr. King said. Fewer still recall the prophetic voice of the Poor People's Campaign and that Dr. King died organizing a nonviolent revolution to push America toward a social ethos grounded in love. . . . [T]he new Poor People's Campaign will bring together people from all walks of life to the National Mall in Washington and to state capitols across the nation from May 13th to June 23rd, 2018, just over forty days to demand that our country see the poor in our streets, confront the damage to our natural environment, and ponder the ailments of a nation that year after year spends more money on endless war than on human need."

The new Poor People's Campaign knows where the money is.

"The current annual military budget, at $668 billion, dwarfs the $190 billion allocated for education, jobs, housing, and other basic services and infrastructure. Out of every dollar in federal discretionary spending, 53 cents goes towards the military, with just 15 cents on anti-poverty programs."

"Unlike President Dwight Eisenhower, who warned against the 'military-industrial complex,' no contemporary political leader is putting the dangers of militarism and the war economy at the center of public debate."

"As reported in a 2008 study on race, class, immigration status, and military service, 'an important predictor to military service in the general population is family income. Those with lower family income are more likely to join the military than those with higher family income. . . ."

"[A]s women's participation in the military increased, so did the number of women victimized by their fellow soldiers. According to recent Veterans Administration (VA) data, one in every five women veterans has told their VA healthcare provider that they have experienced military sexual trauma, defined as sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment. . . . Just four years before 2001, when the extremist anti-women Taliban ruled Afghanistan, UNOCAL oil adviser Zalmay Khalilzad had welcomed the Taliban to the United States to discuss potential deals. Little or no concern was expressed about women's rights or women's lives. In December 2001 President George W. Bush appointed Khalilzad special representative, and later U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, there was a sudden onslaught of expressed concern about the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women. . . . But the U.S.-installed government that replaced the Taliban included many warlords and others whose extreme antagonism to women's rights was hardly distinguishable from that of the Taliban."

Dear Fuhrer Anwalt Cohen,

Congratulations, you have just been awarded the "Vidkun Quisling Award!" Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, George Stephanopoulos, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Prescott Bush, Sam Bush, Fredo Bush, Kate Bush, Kyle Busch, Anheuser Busch, Vidkun Quisling, and last year's winner Volksjudge John (the enforcer) Roberts.

Without your lock step calling for the repeal of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, your ability of covering up all the Fuhrer's acts of treason, Yemen, Syria, Iran and those many other profitable oil wars to come would have been impossible! With the help of our mutual friends, the other "Rethuglican Whores" you have made it possible for all of us to goose-step off to a brave new bank account!

Along with this award you will be given the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds presented by our glorious Fuhrer, Herr Trump at a gala celebration at "der Fuhrer Bunker," formally the "White House," on 04-28-2018. We salute you Herr Cohen Sieg Heil!

Signed by,
Vice Fuhrer Pence