Reading List: December 9, 2016
Workweek’s over. For some of us, anyway.
Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, is a war criminal: that’s what Dahr Jamail says at Truthout. Jamail says he experienced Mattis’ brutal assault of Fallujah”firsthand.”
Another car skipped over the curb outside and a man who was burned from head to toe was carried in on a stretcher. He surely died shortly, as there was no way this clinic could treat massive burns. Maki, frustrated and in shock, said, “They say there is a cease-fire. They said 12 o’clock, so people went out to do some shopping. Everybody who went out was shot and this place was full, and half of them were dead.”
More than 20 dead bodies had been brought to this clinic during the last 24 hours of the “cease-fire.” Shortly after this, another car skidded to a stop, and a man hit with cluster bombs was unloaded. “The Americans have been using cluster bombs often here,” Maki tells me somberly. “And of course they love their DU [depleted uranium].”
Mattis has the support of Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Gabbard defended Trump’s selection of so many military men to Jake Tapper, using the kind of manufactured outrage the right is well known for.
“As a veteran and as somebody who’s still serving in the Army National Guard, I find it pretty offensive for people to outright discriminate against veterans.”
Donald Trump receives one intelligence briefing a week, well short of what is considered normal for an incoming president. From Reuters:
Although they are not required to, presidents-elect have in the past generally welcomed the opportunity to receive the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), the most highly classified and closely held document in the government, on a regular basis.
It was not immediately clear why Trump has decided not to receive the intelligence briefings available to President Barack Obama more frequently, or whether that has made any difference in his presidential preparations.
Joe Allen reports at Paste that Dr. John Galtung, who predicted the fall of the USSR, doesn’t give the US more than another four years.
“The collapse has two faces,” Dr. Galtung explained. “Other countries refuse to be good allies and the USA has to do the killing themselves, by bombing from high altitudes, drones steered by computer from an office, special forces killing all over the place. Both are happening today, except for Northern Europe, which supports these wars, for now. That will probably not continue beyond 2020, so I stand by that deadline.”
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, has died. From The Washington Post’s obituary:
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union made a bold advance on the Cold War chessboard by launching Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth. In response, the U.S. government formed NASA in 1958 amid widespread fear that the country was falling behind the Soviets in technology and military strength……
The flight plan called for seven orbits, but after the first, the capsule began to wobble. Mr. Glenn overrode the automatic navigation system and piloted Friendship 7 with manual controls for two more orbits, reaching a height of 162 miles above the Earth’s surface.