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Trump tortures migrant children:

It sounds like Abu Ghraib. But in America. And exclusively for children. A report in Mother Jones magazine says migrant kids in federal custody were punished by being hooded, tied to chairs for hours at a time, isolated, and stripped naked.

The Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Virginia is one of only two companies employed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to detain migrant children who have been separated from their parents -- and are deemed to be QUOTE threatening ENDQUOTE.

A group of prosecutors from around the US have filed a court brief expressing alarm about Shenandoah’s treatment of migrant teens. The torturous punishments were delivered for infractions such as QUOTE not participating in class, complaining about a headache, or accidentally hitting the ceiling with the ball while playing soccer ENDQUOTE. Some young refugees became suicidal as a result.

A lawsuit over the abuse is ongoing. However, as Mother Jones reports, the other facility contracted to hold those so-called threatening minors will stop doing so next month. Which means the Shenandoah child abuse complex will be the only destination for many new migrant kids. They are the first clear victims of Donald Trump’s genocide against Americans who were born on the wrong side of a river.

Let me just say, fuck Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, secessionist paramilitary leader exposed:

The man has multiple aliases and almost no internet presence, yet he owns land and several companies. He went to a Catholic prep school in New Jersey, but also claimed residence in Russia. A soldier for hire, he is reported to have served in Afghanistan – and now the United States. Before the Guardian pieced together his identity, he was organizing paramilitary training camps in the remote Pacific Northwest.

The mysterious mercenary, Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, led The Base, a neo-Nazi terrorist group that was recently raided by the FBI. Under aliases including Norman Spear and Roman Wolf, he attempted to raise an army to create a whites-only ethno-state covering Western Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State.

It was a full-blown secessionist plot. But the Guardian also identified one of Nazzaro’s aliases as a purported CIA field intelligence officer. And it confirmed one of Nazzaro’s companies as a registered US government contractor.

It’s unclear who Nazzaro was ultimately working for and to what end, but the Guardian’s story confirms one thing: Trump’s America is a covert battleground.

And lastly, Bernie Sanders gains in the polls before Iowa:

The Bernie Sanders surge is real. As the Iowa Caucuses draw near, new polls show Sanders senator expanding his lead over competing Democrats in the party primary.

A new poll from WBUR, the Boston NPR affiliate, put Sanders far ahead of the rest of the field in the early primary state of New Hampshire, with 29 percent favorability. Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in a distant second with 17 percent, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, with 14 and 13 percent respectively.

New national polls by CNN and others also put Sanders in the lead albeit by closer margins.

This explains why competing candidates and party factions – not to mention media outlets staffed heavily by rich white people, whose owners hate his anti-corporate message -- have also stepped up their attacks on the socialist Senator from Vermont.

CNN endured criticism for its handling of the last Democratic debate, where Sanders supporters say it handicapped their candidate on a matter of fact in an argument with Senator Elizabeth Warren. Now it seems the network, owned by telecom giant AT&T, is ducking out of a prior deal to host the debates next week ahead of the Iowa Caucuses. CNN blamed Trump’s impeachment for creating a scheduling conflict.

Meanwhile, a Fox Business channel employee published an anonymously sourced story claiming former President Barack Obama would soon make a strong statement against Sanders. They would say that, though, wouldn’t they?

Until it’s on Obama’s Netflix show, it didn’t happen.

QUICKER QUICKIES

The failing president of the United States is a dangerous racist psychopath. As his impeachment trial continues, President Trump threatened violence against protesters. On Thursday, Trump posted a photo snowplow emblazoned with the words Trump 2020 – Pushing Snowflakes Aside. The president added a caption of his own:

"That is a real fan. Thank you!"

Not subtle, Don.

For those living under rocks, snowflake is a fascist nickname for liberals and leftists. A snowplow – well, you know what a snowplow does. Over the past two years, Republicans in several states have tried to de-criminalize vehicular homicide against protesters. Activist Heather Heyer was killed by a fascist behind the wheel in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Trump’s new threat came about a week after he promoted an armed white nationalist at the Virginia state capitol -- on MLK Day.

Achoo! The World Health Organization announced that it was not YET declaring an emergency over a deadly new respiratory disease. Wuhan coronavirus has infected hundreds and killed at least 17 people since its discovery in China. Roads into and out of the city where it was discovered have been closed. The WHO says it’s tracking the disease closely. Migrant workers and the poor are expected to face the worst. As usual.

At last, inbox zero. Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate and purported madame, the heiress Ghislaine Maxwell, is the latest unfortunate victim of cybercrime. Maxwell has been in hiding since before Epstein died in federal custody last year – that is, assuming she is in fact still alive.

Maxwell’s personal emails, held on a private server, were reportedly hacked by unknown parties. This is according to documents filed by her lawyers in a defamation suit filed by one of the victims of Epstein’s industrial-scale multinational child sex trafficking ring.

This means the potentially explosive contents of Maxwell’s correspondence are in the hands of – well, who knows? If you may have come across these documents, please, return them to the lost and found desk at your nearest public library. It’s only right.

#AMQuickie: Thursday, January 24, 2020

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn