Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features one of New Orleans' great piano players, James Booker. Enjoy!

"We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It’s overrun with sheep and conformists."

-- Bill Maher

News and Opinion

Leon Panetta shouted down by anti-war protesters at Democratic convention

The former defense secretary and CIA director was met with chants of ‘no more war’ as he extolled Hillary Clinton’s qualities to be commander-in-chief

Democratic delegates drowned out the former defense secretary Leon Panetta with a chant of “no more war” on Wednesday night, prompting convention organisers to turn the lights out in their section of the Wells Fargo arena and the protesters to light it themselves using cellphones.

DNC shuts off lights over Bernie protestors chanting "no more war" during former defence secretary Panetta's speech. pic.twitter.com/hHRHMGDYdX

— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) July 28, 2016

The former CIA director was on stage to show his support for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “In this election, there is only one candidate for president who has the experience, temperament and judgment to be commander-in-chief, and that is Hillary Clinton,” he said. ...

But when Panetta referred to Trump’s call for a Russian hack on Clinton’s emails, he was interrupted by the chants, which were temporarily drowned out when Panetta said: “Donald Trump cannot become commander-in-chief.”

On Top of Emails, Leaked DNC Voicemails Show Money Buying Access

'Messages highlight the relationships between donors looking for favors and goodies, and the party officials trying to bring in money to their coffers'

Just before President Barack Obama delivered his speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, new reporting on the so-called "DNC Leak" by WikiLeaks unearthed a large batch of voicemails contained in the files which give additional texture to a scandal that has loomed large at this week's event in Philadelphia.

Though many of the voicemails (see the complete list of audio files here) are rather innocuous in their content, CNN reports how other "messages highlight the relationships between donors looking for favors and goodies, and the party officials trying to bring in money to their coffers." ...

But as this news segment on ABC News from Wednesday helps show, the leaked emails—coupled with some of the more telling voicemails—reveal how big money and political favors help capture influence within the Democratic Party:

The Democrats just fell for Trump's Russian email-hack bait

Grand Theft Convention.

No, that's not a new video game. But it is what we just saw Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump do to the Democrats and Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats and Hillary Clinton are helping him do it!

During about an hour-long news conference earlier Wednesday, Trump was asked repeatedly about allegations that the Russian government is behind the hacked and leaked Democratic National Committee's emails that embarrassed the party on the eve of their national convention in Philadelphia. Trump quickly pivoted to also discussing Clinton's private email-server controversy and the 30,000-plus emails the former Secretary of State had deleted from her private server under questionable explanations and circumstances.

Advantage Trump.

Then came the money quote, or the bait, when he said: "Russia, if you're listening,I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing; I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

That comment was sure to grab headlines all on its own, but then the Clinton campaign incredibly took the bait and had a top policy advisor respond with this statement: "This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent."

Advantage Trump.

Trump's ability to steal headlines with outrageous comments and survive the process is well-documented, but no one seems to have come up with an antidote for it. ... And guess what no one is talking about right now? All those "historic" stories about Clinton being the first woman to win a major party nomination are off the news sites now. Major lead-up stories to President Obama's big speech at the convention on Wednesday night are almost non-existent now. And no one is talking about Clinton running mate Tim Kaine's speech tonight at all. ...

So again, what we're witnessing here is a presidential candidate stealing the other party's thunder just when it needs your attention the most.

Donald Trump asks for Russia's help in locating Hillary Clinton's e-mails

Donald Trump to Russia: hack and publish Hillary Clinton's 'missing' emails

Donald Trump appeared to incite Russia to hack into and publish Hillary Clinton’s private emails, as her campaign sounded “alarm” at growing evidence of a foreign power “interfering in an American election”.

In the strongest US response yet to an alleged hacking of Democratic party computers, the Clinton campaign confirmed on Wednesday that she had been briefed by US intelligence officials who believe there is now a “weight of opinion” pointing to Moscow as the original source.

“She does not view this as a political issue; she views this as a national security issue,” Clinton’s foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said. “She believes that it is obviously something new to see them interfering in an American election, but this is part of a pattern of Russia interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

Trump, meanwhile, speaking at a press conference in Florida, raised the stakes again, as he urged Russia to hack into and release Clinton’s emails from the personal server she used while she was secretary of state.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said.

Blame It on the Russians

If there is any shock at the level of corruption within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as revealed in recently released emails attributed to Wikileaks and the DNC’s automatic response to blame Russia, the fact that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and her staff effectively sabotaged the Bernie Sanders campaign may seem secondary compared with how the Obama Administration has been constructing a false narrative to justify NATO preparations for war with Russia.

While the accusation that Russia is at the root of its email scandal adds titillating fodder for how Clinton defrauded Sanders out of the Democratic nomination, the US continues to pursue every opportunity to identify Russia as the culprit in a myriad of complaints is now using the DNC hacks as part of its geopolitical agenda to discredit Putin while its own house is less than pure. ...

For the US mainstream media, to use every insignificant, irrelevant piece of trivia to destroy Putin’s reputation so as to make it easier for the American public to accept future military action against Russia, proves that no amount of obfuscation, no distortion of the facts, nothing is beyond the pale. ...

Watching the Presidential nominating roll call vote on Tuesday afternoon raised the question of how many Democratic delegates had any awareness that the votes they cast for Hillary Clinton were tainted; the product of a flawed and discredited political process.

And so on Tuesday evening, Bernie, being the good soldier, sucked it up and took the DNC’s betrayal on the chin and delivered his votes to Clinton. Suppressing whatever was left of his self esteem, he reiterated his support for the very objectionable woman he opposed in the Democratic primaries and who had to have some level of knowledge, some awareness of what the DNC was doing on her behalf. Never answering the question of why he entered the primary in the first place if Hillary Clinton “must become President of the United States,” Bernie’s performances on Monday and Tuesday evenings, in effect, sanctioned DNC efforts to discredit his candidacy. So much for the ‘revolution’.

Russia beefs up military on southwestern flank as NATO approaches

Russia has strengthened its southwestern flank as NATO builds up its military presence and Ukraine remains unstable, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday in remarks the United States called contrary to efforts to lower tensions.

Moscow has deployed more air defense systems in the southwest and has also deployed a "self-sufficient" contingent of troops in Crimea, Shoigu told a meeting at the Defence Ministry broadcast on state television.

"Since 2013 ... we have formed four divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments," he said. "They include two missile brigades armed with Iskander missile complexes, which has allowed to boost fire power to destroy the potential adversary."

FBI Chief: Defeating ISIS Would Lead to ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ in West

Speaking at a conference today, FBI Director James Comey warned that the “eventual defeat” of ISIS would be causing a major problem in and of itself, creating a large “terrorist diaspora” throughout the West because “not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield.”

This is a somewhat different presentation of a long-standing problem, and the term “diaspora” is a bit of a misnomer, since the ISIS fighters in question are in great measure from the West in the first place, which is why going back to their countries of origin is not just possible, but comparatively simple.

With Western recruits joining ISIS by the thousands, there has always been concern of what happens when those fighters return home with a bunch of new skills and ties to international terror. The trickle-back would be greatly accelerated, of course, by ISIS being defeated outright.

US board declines to release alleged '20th hijacker' from Guantanamo

Lawyers for prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani asked the Periodic Review Board last month to send the prisoner to a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe mental illness. The board, made up of representatives of six government agencies, turned down the request in a statement released Wednesday.

The board cited several reasons for its decision, including the fact that al-Qahtani "almost certainly" had been chosen by senior al-Qaida members to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot and his "refusal to respond to questions" about his past activities. ...

Al-Qahtani was captured in Afghanistan and in February 2002 taken to the U.S. base in Cuba, where he was subjected to brutal interrogation that a senior Pentagon legal official later said amounted to torture.

The U.S. charged al-Qahtani before a military tribunal along with five other prisoners with war crimes for the Sept. 11 attack. But the charges against him were withdrawn because of his treatment at Guantanamo. The case against the others has been proceeding slowly at the base but no trial date has been set.

Turkey's post-coup crackdown widens

Turkish generals resign as government prepares to overhaul armed forces

Two of Turkey’s highest-ranked generals resigned on Thursday as the prime minister prepared to meet military commanders over one of the most radical shake-ups in the armed forces’ history in the wake of a failed coup.

Generals İhsan Uyar and Kamil Başoğlu, who both orgeneral - Turkey’s highest rank for a general - stepped down ahead of the meeting, the private Dogan news agency reported. Their resignations follow the dishonourable discharge of 149 generals over the coup, which the Turkish government claims was masterminded by an exiled cleric.

The hastily convened meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) in Ankara will bring together the prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, and the land, sea and air force commanders, still in post.

In a symbol of the military’s waning power, the meeting will be symbolically held at the Çankaya palace of the prime minister in Ankara and not, as is customary, at military headquarters.

Lower-ranking officers are expected to be fast-tracked to fill the gaps in the top positions.

In the wake of the coup the military has already lost control of the coastguard and gendarmerie, which will now be dependent on the interior ministry.

3 news agencies inc Cihan,16 TVs inc STV & Kanaltürk,23 radios,45 newspapers inc Zaman & Taraf,15 journals shut down pic.twitter.com/7enl06xNLS

— CNN Türk ENG (@CNNTURK_ENG) July 27, 2016

Turkey coup attempt: arrest warrants issued for former newspaper staff

Turkey’s prime minister has warned that the crackdown following a failed coup was not over, as authorities issued arrest warrants for dozens of former newspaper staff.

More than 15,000 people have been detained for suspected links to the coup and at least 8,000 remain in custody, according to the interior ministry. ...

The Turkish government has also issued arrest warrants for 47 former staff of the Zaman newspaper, which supported Gülen and is suspected of links to the cleric. One official said the swoop covered “executives and some staff, including columnists”, describing Zaman as the “flagship media organisation” of the Gülen-led movement.

The official said the arrest warrants were not related to what individual columnists had previously said or written. However, “prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gülen network and as such could benefit the investigation”, he added.

Earlier this week Turkey issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists – 16 of whom have been detained, according to Anadolu.

Turkey Shutters Over 100 Media Outlets

Turkish authorities on Wednesday announced the dismissal of more than 1,700 military personnel and the closure of more than 100 media outlets, official sources said Wednesday, in a widening crackdown following this month's failed coup attempt.

A total of 1,684 military personnel have been dishonorably discharged, a Turkish government official said, citing their role in the July 15-16 abortive putsch, where a faction of the military attempted to topple the government. In addition, three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 daily newspapers, 15 journals and 23 radio stations have been ordered to be shut down, it said.

Among the newspapers ordered to shut down is the Zaman newspaper, Turkey's largest-circulated media outlet, which was seized by the government and reopened under the charge of government-appointed trustees in March.

In Secret Battle, Surveillance Court Reined in FBI Use of Information Obtained From Phone Calls

Beginning over a decade ago, the country’s surveillance court intervened to limit the FBI’s ability to act on some sensitive information that it collected while monitoring phone calls.

The wrangling between the FBI and the secret court is contained in previously undisclosed documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC. The documents, part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, were shared with The Intercept.

The documents reveal that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) told the FBI several times between 2005 and 2007 that using some incidental information it collected while monitoring communications in an investigation — specifically, numbers people punch into their phones after they’ve placed a call — would require an explicit authorization from the court, even in an emergency. ...

The numbers people punch into the phone after making a call can reveal financial or personal information — like a credit card number, a social security number, a PIN, a prescription number, or any other type of response via automated telephone prompts. The “term of art” for this information is “post-cut-through dialed digits.” ...

“The newly obtained summaries are significant because they show the power that the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] has to limit expansive FBI surveillance practices,” Alan Butler, an attorney for EPIC, wrote in an email to The Intercept.

Playing Pokemon while black...

Police body camera shows Pokemon Go player mistaken for bank robber

An Iowa State University football player was playing Pokemon Go in the park near his home when he turned around to see four police officers pointing their guns at him. The Iowa City Police Department released the body camera footage Wednesday, showing another case of a phenomenon that is not uncommon: Pokemon Go players having run-ins with police.

Faith Ekakitie, like millions of others, is pursuing the humble goal of catching them all. Unfortunately, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, fitting the exact description of a bank robbery suspect police believed was in the vicinity. In a period where police violence against black people is on the rise, Ekakitie, who is black, said in a Facebook post he was thankful the situation did not end with him getting hurt.

"I am thankful to be alive, and I do now realize, that it very well could have been me, a friend of mine, my brother, your cousin, your nephew etc," Ekakitie wrote. "Misunderstandings happen all the time and just like that things can go south very quickly."

The Freddie Gray decision signals black people are to blame for their own deaths

Last night, I stood in a jam-packed arena as a multiracial crowd chanted “Black Lives Matter,” following an on-stage appearance by Mothers of the Movement at the Democratic national convention. Irrespective of political affiliation, no one can deny the power of these women, all mothers to the fallen sons and daughters who founded this movement for black lives and human dignity. To witness tens of thousands, from across the country, chant a phrase that unequivocally declares our humanity is a sight I can’t imagine having witnessed even a year ago.

And then, we awoke this morning to the news that another of those fallen sons, Freddie Gray, would receive no justice after losing his life in the back of a Baltimore police van. Following multiple acquittals, Baltimore prosecutors decided to drop all remaining charges against the officers. ...

In the wake of acquittal after acquittal, the message continues to be clear: not only do black lives, hearts and spines not matter to a system that continually kills us, but the only people who seem to be guilty of our deaths are ourselves.

As the conjecture about this case continues, the only thing I can hear is the resounding cry that we, as black people, are nearly always responsible for our own demise. It can’t possibly be the danger of black skin – no. When we die, our homicides are ruled suicides. When we die, there must have been some act, some moment, some single bad decision that caused it. When we die, we must have done something to deserve it.

I see this sentiment everywhere. In the victim-blaming that often follows the killing of one of our own. In the demand to know what happened before and after the video starts and stops because there must have been some action to inspire the officer’s ire. In the otherwise reasonable people on our social media feeds, who refuse to believe what stories and statistics continue to show true. In the courts who rarely charge, convict or punish our killers when they are in uniform.

Beyond #BlackLivesMatter: police reform must be bolstered by legal action

Something is missing from the debate over police reform. Though police killings of black men have sparked a nationwide movement to stop police violence, the police can fairly ask whether they deserve all of the blame.

That’s not because current levels of police violence are warranted (they aren’t), or because policing is race neutral (it isn’t). It’s because the chief architects of American policing are not police departments; they’re courts. The movement for police reform should be joined by an equally ambitious movement for court reform.

Courts have shaped American policing by defanging the fourth amendment’s prohibition on “unreasonable searches and seizures”. Because the term “unreasonable” is unclear, courts have had to decide which police intrusions, beyond the blatantly arbitrary, go too far. And the US supreme court’s consistent answer has been that scarcely anything goes too far.

[See article for analysis of case law that degrades the 4th amendment. -js]

So when a traffic stop results in tragedy, like the recent death of Philando Castile, court rulings lurk behind it like code in The Matrix. The https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/517/806/Whren case helps to explain why the police stopped Castile 46 times. The Garner case helps to explain why, when Mr. Castile reached for his wallet, an officer reached for his gun. It is no exaggeration to say that, but for regrettable Fourth Amendment case law, Philando Castile might still be alive. ...

This is why we must seek to tear down existing fourth amendment architecture and replace it with cases more capable of deterring police violence.

US and Mexico's mass deportations have fueled humanitarian crisis, report says

Mass deportations and inadequate asylum procedures in Mexico and the US have fueled a humanitarian crisis where desperate Central Americans seeking refuge from rampant violence are routinely preyed upon by criminal gangs and corrupt officials, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The tide of people fleeing Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – three of the five most dangerous countries in the world – continues apace despite beefed-up border control measures implemented after Barack Obama declared the 2014 surge in undocumented migrants a humanitarian crisis. Last year, Mexico deported 165,000 Central Americans, while the US expelled 75,000.

In order to avoid detection, vulnerable people – who include increasing numbers of women and unaccompanied children – are forced to pay higher fees to smugglers, crooked officials, and kidnappers, and use riskier, more isolated routes through Mexico, according to the Easy Prey: Criminal Violence and Central American Migration. Once deported, many simply try again rather than face hunger and violence at home, creating a revolving door of vulnerable migrants and refugees.

The report comes after the US, for the first time, recognised that the surge in people currently fleeing Central America includes potential refugees, not just economic migrants. The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a new scheme whereby Costa Rica will offer temporary protection to 200 eligible Central American refugees at a time before they are settled in the US or another country.

[200 at a time! It's just a drop in the bucket. -js]

Drug Industry Will Make Hospitals Obsolete, Biotech CEO Says on DNC Panel

The CEO of the world’s largest biotechnology trade group, Jim Greenwood, said at a panel discussion at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday that Americans need to take more drugs “instead of going to the hospital.” ...

Speaking at an event put on by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation — a think tank funded by Google, IBM, Cisco, eBay, and other corporate underwriters — Greenwood argued that high prescription-drug prices are a boon to the economy and public health.

The U.S. already has the highest prices for drugs in the industrialized world, but Greenwood argued that prescription drugs, regardless of their price, lower overall health care costs.

“I hear that drugs are 15 percent of all health care spending,” Greenwood said. “I’d like it to be 100 percent. That would mean you could take a drug when you’re sick instead of going to the hospital.”

Bernie Sanders Delegates Complain of “Disrespect” on Democratic Convention Floor

On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee. On Tuesday, it was made official during the roll call vote, when Sanders himself stood among his Vermont delegation and moved that Clinton be nominated by acclamation.

But on Wednesday, some delegates in the Sanders camp complained that Democratic Party officials who manage the convention had treated them as something less than their Clinton-pledged counterparts.

Michael Wilson, a Sanders-pledged delegate from California, told me that floor officials attempted to confiscate his delegation’s anti-TPP signs, and that he returned from a walkout by Sanders supporters on Tuesday evening to find that his seat had been taken by a nondelegate who refused to give it up.

“It’s a disrespect not to us, but to the people who voted for us, and that we’re representing. They want to have their voices heard. But apparently there are certain subjects that are not palatable to the party authorities.”

Former VT Delegate Who Joined Sanders at Roll Call: "How Do We Move Forward Without Compromise?"

Hillary Clinton needs to wake up. Trump is stealing the voters she takes for granted

The Republican party wants my liberal vote. This was the most shocking wave to wash over my brain last week as I sat in the convention center in Cleveland. It was more startling in its way than the storm of hate that I saw descend on former GOP hero Ted Cruz, stranger than the absence of almost all the party’s recent standard-bearers, weirder than the police-state atmosphere that hovered over the streets of the city.

The Republicans were trying to win the support of people like me! Not tactfully or convincingly or successfully, of course: they don’t know the language of liberalism and wouldn’t speak it if they did; and most of the liberals I know will never be swayed anyway. But they were trying nevertheless. ...

For years, Republican orthodoxy on trade made possible endless Democratic sell-outs of working people, with the two-party consensus protecting the D’s from any consequences. They could ram Nafta through Congress, they could do trade deals with China, they could negotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership, they could attend their conferences at Davos and congratulate themselves for being so global and so enlightened, secure in the belief that the people whose livelihoods they had just ruined had “nowhere else to go”.

In other words, it was only possible for our liberal leaders to be what they are – a tribe of sunny believers in globalization and its favored classes – as long as the Republicans held down their left flank for them. Democrats could only celebrate globalization’s winners and scold its uneducated losers so long as there was no possibility that they might face a serious challenge on the matter from the other party in the system.

Well, today all that has changed. The free-trade consensus lies in shards on the floor. The old Republican party has been smashed by this man Trump. It is a new political world out there. How will Democrats react to this altered state of affairs?

[It looks like the answer to this last question is that they will respond by joining with the neocons and the media spin machine in creating a red scare about Trump the likes of which haven't been seen since the days of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy. -js]

... Let’s see: trade agreements, outreach to hawks, “bipartisanship”, Wall Street. All that’s missing is a “Grand Bargain” otherwise it’s the exact same game plan as last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. Democrats seem to be endlessly beguiled by the prospect of campaign of national unity, a coming-together of all the quality people and all the affluent people and all the right-thinking, credentialed, high-achieving people. The middle class is crumbling, the country is seething with anger, and Hillary Clinton wants to chair a meeting of the executive committee of the righteous.

Protesters clash with police outside DNC as Obama praises Clinton as ‘most qualified’ candidate

As Clinton Readies for Nomination, Unions Hope It's Zero Hour for TPP

As Hillary Clinton prepares to accept the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday night, labor unions are ready to demand that she put an end to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a longstanding point of contention for her campaign.

Publicly shutting down the controversial 12-nation trade deal could keep lawmakers from introducing it to U.S. Congress in the lame duck session, which Clinton has said she opposes and which her former rival Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has said would be "going against the will of the people." Moreover, it would require breaking with President Barack Obama, who supports it.

And that's exactly what union leaders are looking for.

"I would like for her to finish this whole debate about TPP, that would be very important for us. I would like for her to articulate who she will be as president as the United States," Dennis Williams, president of United Auto Workers, told The Hill on Thursday.

The final push in the labor movement's anti-TPP campaign comes amid a week of controversy over Clinton's position on the trade deal. Although the former secretary of state has said she opposes the deal, her longtime ally Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe indicated several times that Clinton would support it if certain changes were made.

Danny Glover: Democratic Party Leadership in Damage Control

Jeffrey St. Clair sums up last night at the DNC convention

This was a night dominated by the hollow men of the Democratic Party: Panetta, Kaine, Biden and Obama. Men who knew better, but did worse. The theme was liberal virility, strength, and managerial efficiency. Missing was any empathy for the homeless and the hungry, the poor and the downtrodden. It was a frontal embrace of the neoliberal order, a demonstration that the Democrats have the competency and toughness to manage the imperial order in a time of severe internal and external stress.

The last three hours weren’t a full-throated repudiation of Sanderism, so much as a casual dismissal, as if the core concerns Bernie’s movement gave voice to regarding the ravages of economic inequality didn’t even merit their attention. And Bernie sat passively in the imperial box seats with Jane squirming at his side, watching it all unfold.

Oil and gas industry events 'polluting' Democratic convention, say activists

Environmentalists say panels sponsored by the main fossil fuel lobby group undermine the party platform’s stance on energy and climate change

A series of events sponsored by the oil and gas industry are “polluting” the Democratic national convention with climate denialism and should be boycotted by leading Democrats, according to environmentalists.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has underwritten five events hosted in Philadelphia during the convention by media organizations Politico and the Atlantic.

The events, which promote API’s Vote4Energy campaign, provide delegates and other attendees with literature and signage extolling the benefits of oil and gas drilling.

While both Politico and the Atlantic said that API, the US’s leading fossil fuel lobby group, does not hold any sway over the content of the panel discussions, green groups claimed the events have allowed the denial of climate science to seep into the Democratic gathering.

“These polluting events have a complete disrespect for the scientific facts and we are very concerned about the influence that fossil fuels have here,” said Brad Johnson, executive director of Climate Hawks Vote, a political action group which has a 10,000-strong petition urging Democrats to boycott the events. ...

Several leading Democrats have agreed to appear at the API-sponsored events, with Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, appearing at an Atlantic event called Striking a Balance. On Wednesday, a Politico event featured Trevor Houser, Clinton’s top energy adviser, alongside John Hickenlooper and Jay Inslee, Democratic governors of Colorado and Washington, respectively.

Flint's mayor will bring the water crisis to prime time at the DNC

It's been six months since Hillary Clinton took a moment during a televised Democratic primary debate to highlight a growing public health crisis that was only just starting to grab national attention — the citywide lead contamination of the water system in Flint, Michigan.

Since then, public attention has shifted away from the crisis, which was sparked by the city's decision to switch away from Detroit's water system to use the Flint River instead. But Flint's mayor Karen Weaver will aim to bring her city back into the national spotlight on Wednesday, when she speaks at the Democratic National Convention as part of a prime-time lineup of speakers that includes President Barack Obama. She will use her time, she said, to remind Americans that the crisis in her city is not over.

"One of the things we want people to know is that we still have a water crisis going on in the city of Flint. Things are better but we're not where we need to be," she told VICE News ahead of her speech. "We're still on bottled and filtered water, and we're on year three."

Landmark Human Rights Complaint Lodged Against World's Worst Polluters

The world's 47 largest producers of greenhouse gases must respond within 45 days to an unprecedented legal complaint filed Wednesday by the Philippines, which alleges the fossil fuel behemoths have deprived millions of residents of the island nation of their human rights through catastrophic global warming.

The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR), a governmental body, sent the multinational "carbon majors" a 60-page letter (pdf) accusing them of "breaching people"s fundamental rights to 'life, food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and to self determination,'" the Guardian reports.

"The commission's actions are unprecedented. For the first time, a national human rights body is officially taking steps to address the impacts of climate change on human rights and the responsibility of private actors," Zelda Soriano, legal and political adviser for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, one of the groups that brought the complaint to the CHR, told the newspaper.

"This is an important building block in establishing the moral and legal 'precedent' that big polluters can be held responsible for current and threatened human rights infringements resulting from fossil fuel products," Soriano added.

The Philippines has been one of the countries hardest hit by the effects of climate change.

Also of Interest

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

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: Potential Partners – Not Allies or Even Friends

Attacking Trump for the Few Sensible Things He Says is Both Bad Politics and Bad Strategy

Can We Even Know Who Hacked the DNC Emails?

Corporate Democrats Have Always Hated the Left — Now They're Shocked to Learn That We Hate Them Back

Moving Beyond the Sanders Campaign

Elizabeth Warren Gets It Dead Wrong on Corporate Profits in Convention Speech

Pink Floyd to release rarity-packed 27-disc set of their early years

A Little Night Music

James Booker - Junco Partner

James Booker - Medley: Slow Down/Bony Maronie/Knock On Wood/Grapevine/Classified

James Booker - Ain't Nobody's Business

James Booker - Rockin' Pneumonia, Baby Won't You Please Come Home

James Booker - So Swell When You're Well

James Booker - Medley: Tico Tico/Papa Was A Rascal

James Booker @ Maple Leaf Bar 1983