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SAVING FOR A VERY RAINY DAY by Eric Margolis The really wealthy, vexed by tax collectors, pesky relatives, ex-wives and just plain thieves, long ago learned the wisdom of hiding their money and property. This is twice true for politicians. An investigation by an international consortium of journalists just examined a massive leak of 11.9 million records of offshore financial firms that have been evading taxes and financial disclosure for their many clients. The result of what is known as The Pandora Papers has been a cascade of scandals. This column has long maintained that the US has been deeply involved in massive international corruption. Chief tawdry examples are the largest recipients of US ‘aid,’ Israel, Afghanistan and Jordan. Washington spent over two trillion dollars on the now lost, 20-year Afghan conflict. All that money has vanished. Among the largest recipients was the Afghan Communist Party and the drug mafias that made US-run Afghanistan the world’s largest producer of illegal heroin and morphine. SAVING FOR A VERY RAINY DAY « Eric Margolis

A New Confederacy: Trump and the Republicans have already seceded. Now they’re preparing to fight a new civil war. In fact, they're already doing it in all but name You know which ones they are: Nineteen states have enacted 33 laws that make it harder for people to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Fifteen states made it harder to apply for a mail-in ballot. Four states limited mail-in ballot drop boxes. Four states imposed stricter mail-in ballot signature requirements. Eight states imposed harder voter ID requirements. Seven states made it easier to purge voters from the rolls. Three states reduced the number of polling places and voting hours. Three more states reduced the number of days or hours of early voting. Five states made it harder to vote for people with disabilities and two states made it a crime to hand out water or snacks to voters waiting in long lines to vote. Nineteen states have enacted a total of 106 new laws restricting a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Twelve states enacted outright abortion bans, and Texas enacted a law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is effectively a ban on abortion since most women don't even know they are pregnant at six weeks. Twenty-five states require a waiting period, usually 24 hours, before an abortion can be performed. Twelve of those states effectively mandate that women must return to a clinic twice over a two-day period before obtaining an abortion. Eighteen states require "counseling" before abortions, including notices of a purported link between abortion and breast cancer, the alleged ability of a fetus to feel pain, and the unproven long-term mental health consequences of abortion. One of those countries-within-a-country, in the words of the esteemed lawyer and Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, "has no set of constraints, no belief in the norms, no commitment to the Constitution or the rule of law, while the other side is trying to observe the rules." He said this on Wednesday night on "All in With Chris Hayes" on MSNBC, while discussing the challenges we face going into the 2022 and 2024 elections. Even the subject of that show seems quaint at this point, because I don't think we are able to hold what we have always thought of as "elections" in this country anymore. If politics in the United States were a basketball game, the rules of the game along with fouls and penalties would apply to one team, the Democrats, and not to the other, the Republicans. The game, in the immortal words of Donald Trump, has been "rigged." It's not possible for the Democratic Party to win elections, because the Republican Party has decided it won't recognize Democratic victories. The only "wins" that are "legitimate" are Republican wins. A New Confederacy: Trump and the Republicans have already seceded | Salon.com

'Unconscionable' and 'insane': Black children in Tennessee were jailed for a crime that doesn't even exist Chapter 1: “What in the World?" Friday, April 15, 2016: Hobgood Elementary School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee Three police officers were crowded into the assistant principal's office at Hobgood Elementary School, and Tammy Garrett, the school's principal, had no idea what to do. One officer, wearing a tactical vest, was telling her: Go get the kids. A second officer was telling her: Don't go get the kids. The third officer wasn't saying anything. Garrett knew the police had been sent to arrest some children, although exactly which children, it would turn out, was unclear to everyone, even to these officers. The names police had given the principal included four girls, now sitting in classrooms throughout the school. All four girls were Black. There was a sixth grader, two fourth graders and a third grader. The youngest was 8. On this sunny Friday afternoon in spring, she wore her hair in pigtails. A few weeks before, a video had appeared on YouTube. It showed two small boys, 5 and 6 years old, throwing feeble punches at a larger boy as he walked away, while other kids tagged along, some yelling. The scuffle took place off school grounds, after a game of pickup basketball. One kid insulted another kid's mother, is what started it all. The police were at Hobgood because of that video. But they hadn't come for the boys who threw punches. They were here for the children who looked on. The police in Murfreesboro, a fast-growing city about 30 miles southeast of Nashville, had secured juvenile petitions for 10 children in all who were accused of failing to stop the fight. Officers were now rounding up kids, even though the department couldn't identify a single one in the video, which was posted with a filter that made faces fuzzy. What was clear were the voices, including that of one girl trying to break up the fight, saying: “Stop, Tay-Tay. Stop, Tay-Tay. Stop, Tay-Tay." She was a fourth grader at Hobgood. Her initials were E.J. 'Unconscionable' and 'insane': Black children in Tennessee were jailed for a crime that doesn't even exist - Alternet.org

Hansen may not be with the Bombers for a long while, but he will have some really great memories.

I hate sloppy games, even if the Bombers win- It can lead to complacency, and I hope O'Shea hammers that point home by telling Mourtada to clean out his locker .

Elks are very happy to hear the game-ending whistle.

Thiadric Hansen actually got a sack tonight.

Its a short season, so Sunderland and Elizondo are both probably safe for now.

Saw McKnight blocking on Harris' TD run, so maybe there is hope for him

Okay, I think we got this game in the bag.

Mr. Flexomatic is awfully quiet so far. Harris deked an Elk (Ceresna?) right out of his jock.

Love Bighill's football smarts.

Apparently. But it does not look good on Kongbo.

Kongbo was outrun by Cornelius. WTF?

No point to him doing that. He's done like dinner. The most incompetent kicker in the CFL.

Good lord! We are now getting sloppy on kick coverage, and Mourtada should be sent mid-game to clear out his locked before the real pro players get there.

Fixed it for you

Agreed, but I am starting to think it won't happen tonight.

FWIW: Jets still down by 2 at end of second period.

Good pressure that time.

wasn't even challengeable.

Willie J. has been not very noticeable tonight or even last game.

That return could have turned the whole game around. Bombers better wake up, and soon.

This can engender sloppy attitude that they can win anyways, so why push yourself to dominate?

This is turning into a infuriating game to watch. Sloppy, sloppy sloppy.