Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rocker Jimi Hendrix. Enjoy!

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

-- John F. Kennedy

News and Opinion

Five police officers dead, seven wounded during attack at Dallas protest

A protest on Thursday night in downtown Dallas over the recent police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota descended into chaos when at least one gunman opened fire, killing and wounding multiple police officers.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Friday that 12 officers were shot, five fatally. Eight of the injured cops worked with Dallas police and the remaining four were members of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) police department. The seven injured officers have been released from the hospital. At least two civilians were also wounded.

Dallas police chief David Brown said the officers were shot "ambush style" in the attack, which occurred just a few blocks from where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Initially, authorities reported that at least two "snipers" had shot at the cops from elevated positions, but Mayor Rawlings and Chief Brown said Friday morning that they would not be providing any further detail on potential suspects or individuals they have questioned.

Dallas: Five Police Officers Shot Dead; Obama Condemns "Vicious, Calculated and Despicable Attack"

AMY GOODMAN: ... Graham Weatherspoon, let’s begin with you. Your reaction to the horror that unfolded last night, carrying on for hours in Dallas, just as this peaceful anti-police brutality protest was wrapping up, snipers opening fire on Dallas police.

GRAHAM WEATHERSPOON: Yeah, the last three days have been numbing in this country, and we are at a very pivotal apex right now in terms of where this country is heading or where it will wind up very shortly. I’ve carried the caskets during my tenure. I have stood over people that I knew laying on the ground. My partner was shot in the face and I’ve had people try to kill me numerous times. But what we saw last night, and I didn’t know this until I woke up this morning around 6:00 — it took me back to a conversation I had with Ray Kelly a few years ago, and I asked him, I said, do you want urban warfare in the city of New York? Because people had come to me years ago after Amadou had been killed — and these were ex-military personnel — and they said they were tired of it. And they said, we’re going to start killing these cops. And I said, that’s not a good thing to discuss or even recommend. But it is a reality. There are people out here who — and we’ve seen it just in the political spectrum over the last few months with comments that people have made and just the fanning of the flames. We now know that whoever these individuals were, and I had said this to Ray Kelly, a bullet-proof vest is not going to protect the police officer, not from someone who is using a high-powered weapon.

So, unfortunately, it has come to pass, not here in New York but in Dallas, and I pray it never happens here, but there are people out there who are not operating on all cylinders, who have weapons.

Dallas shooting suspect identified as reservist who served in Afghanistan

Before being killed by police early Friday, one of the suspects told a hostage negotiator that he was upset about recent police shootings and angry at white people, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said. ...

Several media outlets identified the killed suspect as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, possibly of Mesquite. ... The Army says Johnson served in the Army Reserve and did one tour of duty in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.

The Army says he was a private first class, and his military occupational specialty was carpentry and masonry.

His service dates, as provided by the Army, are March 2009 to April 2015.

The Army says Johnson deployed to Afghanistan in November 2013 and returned in July 2014.

Dallas shooting suspect stated he wanted to 'kill white officers'

The gunman who opened fire on police in Dallas said he wanted to kill white police officers and expressed anger at a recent spate of shootings by police before he was killed, it was revealed on Friday.

The suspect, who has not been named, was cornered for several hours by officers and was killed by an explosive device deployed by a police robot after extensive negotiations failed, said Dallas police chief David Brown.

Brown told reporters at an early morning news conference: “The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” during negotiations. “He said he was upset about the recent shootings, he was upset at white people. The suspect said he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.

“The suspect said that he was not affiliated with any groups and he stated that he did this alone,” Brown said.

This episode is going to take a long time to wind down and, given the extreme levels of stupid even in high levels of public office, it may yet get quite ugly.

Texas lieutenant governor says protestors were ‘hypocrites’ for running away from Dallas shooting

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick criticized demonstrators who fled the Dallas shooting in an Fox News interview Friday, calling them “hypocrites” for running when gunfire broke out that claimed five law enforcement officers’ lives.

“All those protesters last night, they ran the other way, expecting the men and women in blue to turn around and protect them,” he said angrily. “What hypocrites.” ...

Patrick, the second-highest ranking elected official in Texas, blamed the attack on Black Lives Matter protestors and “people on social media, with their hatred toward police.”

“Too many in the general public, who aren't criminals but have a big mouth, are creating situations like we saw last night,” Patrick said. “This was going to happen at some point. These men were going to use a trigger moment.”

Patrick added that police might not continue to protect civilians if if such attacks persisted.

Marc Lamont Hill & Mychal Denzel Smith React to Police Killings of Alton Sterling & Philando Castile

One Simple Change to the Law Could Make Prosecuting Killer Cops Easier

Currently, police abuse is subject largely to one federal statute enacted in 1866: Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 242, which punishes anyone who “willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

The problem is that the statute “has nothing to do on its face with police officers or police violence,”  said former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights William Yeomans. “It’s about deprivation of rights. So what you’re actually proving in these cases is that the officer acted with the intent to [deny the victim rights.]” ...

He suggested a solution. Congress could lower the intent standard to “something like if the officer acted with reckless disregard.” That way, “you don’t have to actually show that the officer intended to use more force than was necessary…if the officer recklessly used more force than was necessary, he could then be prosecuted.”

Many in Congress have expressed their regret over cases of police abuse and police killings, but this simple change from willfulness to recklessness would make it easier for the federal government to actually prosecute it.

In Alton Sterling’s Baton Rouge, “Blue Lives Matter”

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called for a federal civil rights investigation on Tuesday into what was at that point the latest fatal police shooting of a black man in the United States.

But in May, Edwards signed a bill into law that makes targeting a police officer a hate crime. Passage of such bills at the state level is a top priority for a national organization called Blue Lives Matter, which was formed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. ...

The new law places police officers, firefighters, and EMTs under protection from hate crimes — an umbrella term that spans beyond direct assault. Aviva Shen writes at ThinkProgress:

Now that police are a protected class, this language [meant to enhance penalties for attacks against houses of worship] could be used to target any damage done to squad cars or protests on police property, like the sit-in at the Minneapolis Police Department over the death of Jamar Clark, or the Black Lives Matter blockade of the Oakland Police headquarters in California.

Laws similar to the one in Louisiana have been proposed in Kentucky, Tennessee and Chicago. Last year in Coon Rapids,Minnesota — just north of Minneapolis, where Castile was killed Wednesday — hundreds of supporters held a Police Lives Matter rally.

lynchings were public to keep a class system based on race intact in the Jim Crow south. Public Executions by Police 2day do the same.

— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) July 7, 2016

Remembering Philando Castile: 'Everything Mr Phil did was for the kids'

Less than 24 hours after police fatally shot Philando Castile in St Paul, Minnesota, during a traffic stop, thousands of activists, friends and residents convened at the school where the 32-year-old was affectionately known as “Mr Phil”.

As the cafeteria supervisor of JJ Hill Montessori Magnet school, Castile had a reputation as a gentle man who ensured the school’s 400 pupils were well fed. While children ran about the school playground, people swapped stories about Castile.

“Everything Mr Phil did in this school was for the kids,” said Tony Fragnito, former chairman of the JJ Hill parent teacher organisation. ...

Castile’s mother, Valerie, also spoke at the vigil. She thanked the massive crowd for their presence, saying her son would be proud to see “how many people are supporting him under these unfortunate circumstances”.

She added: “He was my one and only son, and he was executed by the police. It was my son today, but it could be yours tomorrow.” ...

On Thursday, Minnesota’s governor, Mark Dayton, a Democrat, spoke out against the police officers’ conduct and blamed the death of Castile on racial bias. “Would this have happened if the driver and passenger were white?” Dayton said at a press conference.

Um, hey NRA, I see you got right up on your hind legs and made a statement about the gun violence in Dallas against cops, but for some crazy reason I can't seem to find your statement demanding that the rights of Sterling and Castile to carry a gun be respected by police and not be an excuse to perform a summary, extra-judicial execution. You probably ought to get a statement out before people catch on that you're a bunch of racist yahoos.

Do black people have second amendment rights?

Within less than 24 hours, social media was gripped with not one, but two incidents of police shooting and killing armed black men in states where all citizens have the right to carry guns. It seems that, in places in America where carrying is ostensibly allowed, second amendment rights remain out of reach for black people.

On Tuesday night, Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was shot by police responding to a 911 call alleging that a man matching Sterling’s description had threatened the caller with a gun outside a convenience store. The bystander video of the incident showed police holding him to the ground and firing rounds into his body before pulling a gun out of his pocket.

The next evening, Philando Castile was riding in a vehicle with his girlfriend and daughter when an officer pulled them over in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Castile, who has a permit to carry, according to his family, was shot four to five times after he informed an officer during the traffic stop he was legally armed. ...

Any sane person would assume that groups like the National Rifle Association would jump into action, condemning police for infringing on the constitutional right to bear arms that was apparently violated in both cases. Seven states have open-carry restrictions, and most states require, but do issue, concealed carry permits. And the NRA has pumped significant amounts of money into preserving these rights as mostly democratic lawmakers fight to tighten gun control laws in the wake of repeated mass shootings.

But the NRA has so far remained mum on the deaths of the two black men who appear to be gunned down just because they carried weapons while black.

From Cops to Clinton: Impunity Corrupts

Wednesday, two shocking videos of police officers fatally shooting civilians (Alton Sterling and Philando Castile) surfaced. The day before, many were appalled to hear the Director of the FBI announce that Hillary Clinton would not be charged for mishandling classified information. The two events may seem unrelated, but at bottom, they concern the same fundamental problem: impunity.

Impunity is the essence of power. What, after all, is power? Is it simply the capacity to exert unjust force? The ability to impress one’s will upon the flesh or belongings of another? No, it’s more than that.

Most anyone can wield unjust force. Anyone could walk out onto the street right now and exert their will on somebody weaker: say, pushing over an old lady or stealing candy from a baby. And the toughest, or most heavily-armed guy in town can strong-arm just about any other single person.

But isolated incidents of aggression do not constitute power. The “reign” of the rogue rampager is generally short-lived. It only lasts until the community recognizes him as the menace to society that he is and neutralizes him.

Power isn’t simply about the exertion of unjust force. It is about what happens next, after the exertion. Does the perpetrator generally get away with, or not? Systematically getting away with it – or impunity – is where power truly lies. And that is what makes agents of the State different from any other bully. State agents can violate rights with reliable impunity because a critical mass of the public considers the aggression of state agents to be exceptionally legitimate. Impunity is power, and as Lord Acton said, power corrupts.

Marine’s defense for disseminating classified information will cite Hillary Clinton’s case

A Marine Corps officer who has been locked in a legal battle with his service after self-reporting that he improperly disseminated classified information will use Hillary Clinton’s email case to fight his involuntary separation from the service, his lawyer said.

Maj. Jason Brezler’s case has been tied up in federal court since he sued the service in December 2014. He became a cause celebre among some members of Congress, Marine generals and military veterans after he sent a classified message using an unclassified Yahoo email account to warn fellow Marines in southern Afghanistan about a potentially corrupt Afghan police chief. A servant of that police official killed three Marines and severely wounded a fourth 17 days later, on Aug. 10, 2012, opening fire with a Kalashnikov rifle in an insider attack.

An attorney for Brezler, Michael J. Bowe, said that he intends to cite the treatment of Clinton “as one of the many, and most egregious examples” of how severely Brezler was punished. ... Bowe said it is impossible to reconcile President Obama’s statement that Clinton’s intentional act of setting up a secret, unsecured email server did not detract “from her excellent ability to carry out her duties” while Brezler received a “completely opposite finding… involving infinitely less sensitive and limited information.” ...

The board of inquiry recommended removing Brezler from the service in December 2013 after prosecutors argued that he knowingly kept classified information in order to help him write a book about his experiences in Afghanistan. He appealed, but both the Marine Corps and the Navy Department, which were overseeing it, have upheld the decision.

Is the Real Scandal the Clinton Foundation?

CIA's first captive after 9/11 describes his years of torture

Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi national who was the CIA's first captive following the 9/11 attacks, served as the guinea pig for what the CIA euphemistically referred to as its "enhanced interrogation" program. The details about Abu Zubaydah's treatment were revealed in a sworn, eight-page declaration [PDF at bottom of story, click link -js] he provided to his attorney in 2009 that was filed under seal in US District Court in Washington, DC seven years ago in his habeas corpus case.

That declaration was unsealed one week ago, prepared for public release in response to a motion filed earlier this year by investigative journalist Raymond Bonner, who convinced the federal judge presiding over Abu Zubaydah's case to unseal dozens of court filings that have been shrouded in secrecy since 2008.

The judge who previously oversaw the case, Richard Roberts, failed to rule on a single motion Abu Zubaydah's attorneys have filed over the past seven years. He abruptly retired from the bench as chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 16, the same day a woman filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago when she was 16 years old.

The partially redacted declaration, reported here for the first time, was attached as an exhibit to a 21-page motion his attorneys filed on September 21, 2009 asking the court to impose sanctions against the government for destroying "material evidence" — nearly 100 interrogation videotapes, at least one of which showed Abu Zubaydah being waterboarded.

Rep. Lynch: 28 Pages on 9/11 May Reveal “Terrible, Terrible Errors” by U.S. Intelligence Community

Congressman Stephen Lynch, who has read 28 classified pages said to describe links between Saudi officials and the 9/11 hijackers, today suggested that information in the pages may embarrass the U.S. intelligence community.

Speaking at a press conference promoting a new resolution that calls for Congress to bypass the president and release the 28 pages to the public on its own, Lynch said, “There may be some very embarrassing facts, some very embarrassing moments, and some criticisms on our own intelligence service because of what happened, if all the facts come out.”

“I think that those individuals (in the intelligence community) don’t want this to come out,” continued Lynch. “They don’t want the facts to come out because it may reveal terrible, terrible errors on their part and they may bear part of the blame” for failing to prevent the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. ...

Today’s press conference was called to promote House Resolution 779, which urges the chair and ranking member of the House intelligence committee to publish the 28 pages into the Congressional Record, relying on the protection from prosecution afforded by the Speech or Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution. ... A separate resolution—H.Res.14—urges the president to declassify the 28 pages and has attracted a bipartisan mix of 70 cosponsors.

US Jets Diverted to Iraq, Abandoning Syrian Rebels

Routed last week by ISIS, the defeat of the US-backed New Syrian Army at al-Bukamal was an embarrassing setback for US attempts to prop up factions to fight ISIS along the Syrian border with Iraq. The Pentagon is already making excuses. ...

Officials were eager to brag about the Fallujah strikes last week, claiming hundreds of ISIS fighters killed, though that has been somewhat tempered by reports of civilian family members of ISIS being among the slain. It also came at the cost of bailing on the New Syrian Army, and getting them slaughtered by ISIS. ...

Pentagon officials confirmed evidence that the fleeing New Syrian Army left behind a lot of US-provided weapons and equipment, and that gear is now believed to be in the hands of ISIS, yet more US-made gear for an ISIS force already awash in it from years of war.

The Empire Files: NYT's James Risen on Fighting Censorship & War

Hacked Former NATO General Defends Plotting to Push Obama to Escalate Tensions With Russia

Former NATO commander Philip Breedlove defended himself on Saturday after The Intercept reported on leaked emails that showed him plotting to push President Obama to escalate tensions with Russia.  “I think what you see is a commander doing what commanders ought to do,” Breedlove told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. ...

Phillip Carter, a former Pentagon official who is now a director at the Center for a New American Security, tweeted in response to The Intercept article that Breedlove’s dissent and backchannel lobbying “far exceeds what is appropriate for a US general.”

Federal Court Hears Long Overdue Arguments Over 2008 Surveillance Law

More than seven years after President George W. Bush signed a law authorizing warrantless surveillance of international communications, a federal appellate court heard arguments challenging the 2008 law for the first time. ...

Lawyers for the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation argued as “friends of the court” before an appellate court in Oregon, challenging NSA surveillance in the case of Mohamed Mohamud. Mohamud, a Somali-born, naturalized American citizen, was convicted in 2012 for trying to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland in 2010.

The FBI had used the NSA’s databases to monitor Mohamud, but despite repeated requests from the defense, the government withheld information about warrantless surveillance during discovery. The Department of Justice only provided notice of special surveillance after Mohamud was convicted. ...

Lawyers from the ACLU argued on Wednesday that the government was using NSA surveillance to circumvent the defendant’s right to privacy, and failing to provide notice in order to prevent the defense from challenging its constitutionality.

“The government is using FAA surveillance to bypass the Fourth Amendment rights of communications, while amassing a huge database of their private communications,” said Patrick Toomey, a lawyer for the ACLU’s National Security Project.

“In justifying the surveillance, the government is saying, ‘Look, we’re targeting foreigners,’ while at the same time FBI agents around the country are querying this database for the communications of specific Americans, just as the FBI has done in this case,” said Toomey.

US investigating allegations Honduran military had hitlist of activists to target

State department review of Guardian allegations comes as a group of Congress members renew call to suspend all US aid to Honduran police and military

The US government is investigating allegations that a hitlist of activists was circulated to special forces units of the Honduran military with instructions to eliminate the targets, including Berta Cáceres, the celebrated environmental campaigner who was later gunned down in her home. ...

The state department review of the Guardian allegations comes as a group of prominent Congress members renew their call for the Obama administration to suspend all US aid to Honduran police and military units. Writing in the Guardian, the representatives, led by Hank Johnson of Georgia and John Conyers of Michigan, argue that the human rights record of the Honduran government is so woeful that there should be no funding by any US agency.

“As long as the US funds Honduran security forces without demanding justice for those threatened, tortured, and killed, we have blood on our hands. It’s time to suspend all police and military aid to Honduras,” they write. The authors are prominent sponsors of the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, which was introduced to the House of Representatives last month, calling for the suspension of aid pending a full investigation into the campaigner’s death and other abuses. ...

But the US government continues to come under fire for maintaining too close a relationship with Honduran military units implicated in human rights abuses. In their Guardian article, the five Congress members point out that the US has allocated at least $18m this year for Honduran police and military, supplemented by a $60m loan to the police from the Inter-American Development Bank backed by the US. That figure does not include additional funding from the US department of defense, which is estimated to bring the total to $200m since 2010.

Tweeted Photo Exposes Secret Islamaphobic Plans of British PM Finalist

The race to be the next leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, and hence prime minister of the United Kingdom, was whittled down to two candidates on Thursday: Theresa May, the home secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, deputy energy minister. ...

Some clues about the kind of campaign Leadsom might run appear to have been accidentally made public on Thursday by a supporter who was spotted on the London underground studying what looked like notes laying out her strategy. Ben Hart, a digital content manager who supports the Green Party, photographed and shared images of the notes in the hands of a man he stood next to in a Central Line carriage. ...

The leaked list of a dozen ideas for Leadsom’s campaign begins with a strange one. It seems to be a pledge to bar U.K. courts from considering the rulings of Muslim clerics, and includes a link to a 2009 report from a think tank, which recommended that “Sharia courts should not be recognised under Britain’s 1996 Arbitration Act.” ... Leadsom’s strategy could be to appeal to the far-right of her party by tapping into the panic about “creeping Sharia.” ...

The notes also contain what looks like a promise from Leadsom to begin Britain’s formal withdrawal from the EU immediately after taking power, triggering Article 50 of the union’s treaty in September, which starts the clock ticking on a two-year deadline for completing the process. May has said that she would move more slowly, not sending the formal notice to withdraw described in Article 50 until next year at the earliest.

Green party's Jill Stein invites Bernie Sanders to take over ticket

Bernie Sanders has been invited to continue his underdog bid for the White House by the Green party’s probable presidential candidate, who has offered to step aside to let him run.

Jill Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party’s August convention in Houston, told Guardian US that “overwhelming” numbers of Sanders supporters are flocking to the Greens rather than Hillary Clinton.

Stein insisted that her presidential bid has a viable “near term goal” of reaching 15% in national polling, which would enable her to stand alongside presumptive nominees Clinton and Donald Trump in televised election debates.

But in a potentially destabilising move for the Democratic party, and an exciting one for Sanders’ supporters, the Green party candidate said she was willing to stand aside for Sanders.

“I’ve invited Bernie to sit down explore collaboration – everything is on the table,” she said. “If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green party. He could lead the ticket and build a political movement,” she said.

State Department reopens Hillary Clinton email scandal

State department reopens its own investigation into Hillary Clinton emails

The state department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.

Spokesman John Kirby says the emails probe is restarting now that the Department of Justice isn’t pursuing a criminal prosecution. The Department of State suspended its review in April to avoid interfering with the FBI’s inquiry. ...

Kirby said this week former officials can still face “administrative sanctions”. The most serious is loss of security clearances, which could complicate Clinton’s naming of a national security team if she becomes president.

FBI director: charging Hillary Clinton in email case would be 'celebrity hunting'

FBI director James Comey angrily defended his impartiality before lawmakers on Thursday after explaining why he chose not to prosecute an “unsophisticated” Hillary Clinton.

During nearly five hours of nonstop grilling by the oversight committee of the House of Representatives, Comey insisted that recommending charges in the case would have been “celebrity hunting” because normally prosecutors require evidence of intent in such cases, despite what was possibly unlawful handling of classified emails.

Under the 1917 Espionage Act there is a provision for bringing charges for gross negligence without evidence of an intentional breach of the law, he said, but only one much more serious case has ever been brought using it.

House Delivers Clinton a Day from Hell: State Department Reopens Investigation

Just 18 days before the Democratic National Convention is set to convene in Philadelphia, where delegates and superdelegates will select the presidential candidate in one of the most critical elections in U.S. history ... the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee delivered Hillary Clinton’s campaign a day from hell yesterday. ...

Here’s a cursory rundown of statements from the hearing that you are likely to see very shortly popping up in PAC ads for Donald Trump: FBI Director Comey added the word “negligent” to his previous assessment of “extremely careless” in describing how Clinton handled Top Secret material. Comey also revealed that two to ten people with no security clearance at all were given access by Clinton to her private basement server in her New York home that stored the Top Secret material in a non secure manner. ...

Inspector General McCullough dropped his own bombshell during the hearing. McCullough revealed that Clinton or one of her aides placed tens of thousands of emails, some containing Top Secret material, on a thumb drive and handed it to Clinton’s attorneys to decide what emails should be turned over to the State Department. (Clinton left the State Department without turning over the government records for more than a year, in violation of the Federal Records Act and potentially obstructing Freedom of Information Act requests from being filled.) The tiny thumb drive, called that because it’s about the size of one’s thumb and thus easily stolen or lost, was then housed in Clinton’s attorneys’ office – which lacked government security features for holding classified material according to McCullough. ...

House Speaker Paul Ryan has sent a formal letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, asking that he “refrain from providing any classified information to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the duration of her candidacy for President.” There are significant grounds for this action. On June 8 the Associated Press reported that when the State Department released portions of Clinton’s emails to the public with bracketed notes to explain why some material was redacted, “at least 47 of the emails contain the notation ‘B3 CIA PERS/ORG,’ indicating that the material referred to CIA personnel or matters related to the agency.” The designation overtly suggests that Clinton may have revealed CIA assets and identities over a non-secure server.

Will Democrats Get It Right on Climate Before It's Too Late?

Democrats need to get serious about climate change—and time is running out for them to do so.

Environmentalists see the upcoming full Democratic Platform Committee meeting in Orlando as a final opportunity to ensure the party takes meaningful action on climate change over the next four years.

"The Democrats are not just in a race with Donald Trump," notes an email on Thursday from grassroots environmental group 350 Action, "they're in a race against time to save our communities from catastrophic climate change. If they allow big oil to frack our communities, or drill for more oil in the Gulf, or to sue governments to wreck the planet—they are not serious about climate science."

As it stands in its final draft form, the platform falls short in several key ways, according to the group:

• It does not take a stand against fracking.
• It does not ask that new fossil fuel projects receive the same climate test that Keystone XL did.
• It does not take a stand against the Trans Pacific Partnership.
• It allows new and expanded oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, despite calling for a ban off other coasts.

US Scientific Societies Urge Congress to Act on Climate Change

Florida reports biggest single-day jump in Zika cases to date

Florida health officials reported a record number of new Zika virus cases in the state on Wednesday: 11 in a single day.

They're travel-related cases, meaning people caught the virus elsewhere and were diagnosed in Florida. The virus is not yet spreading through infected mosquitoes in the continental United States.

"The number of cases daily goes up and down," said Mara Gambineri, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health. "However, we expect cases to increase more rapidly with the change in CDC case definition, the advent of commercial testing, increased awareness and a general uptick in travel during the summer." The CDC, or Centers for Disease Control, is the US federal entity that monitors and fights diseases such as Zika.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Two More Black Victims of Police Violence Become Hashtags #PhilandoCastile #AltonSterling

NATO Has a Very Peculiar Way of Showing It Doesn't Want New Cold War

China Destabilizes Global Economy by Exporting Deflation Through Currency Devaluation

As Police Killings of Minorities Mount, Attacks on Police Like the One in Dallas, While Awful, Are Also Sadly Predictable

Hillary Clinton’s Libyan Fingerprints

A Little Night Music

Jimi Hendrix - I'm a Man (Mannish Boy)

Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train a Comin'

Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary

Jimi Hendrix - Sunshine of Your Love

Jimi Hendrix - Fire

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe

Jimi Hendrix - Hound Dog