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“The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”

-― Henry A. Wallace

News and Opinion

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that there are lobbyists, thinly disguised as think-tank experts providing biased, donor-driven reports and quotes to the mainstream media who are as pure as the driven snow.

NYT Reveals Center for Strategic and International Studies - A Think Tank It’s Cited for Years to Be Corrupt

A recent New York Times article (8/7/16) detailed, in often scathing terms, what many media critics already knew: that think tanks are frequently not objective, neutral arbiters of information, but corporate- and government-funded agenda-promoters with an academic veneer to give the appearance of impartiality.

One of the two think tanks the Times’ Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams raked over the coals was the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which published a report advocating the expansion of drone sales while being funded by drone makers, namely General Atomics. ...

As the Times also notes, CSIS is funded largely by Western and Gulf monarchy governments, arms dealers and oil companies, such as Raytheon, Boeing, Shell, the United Arab Emirates, US Department of Defense, UK Home Office, General Dynamics, Exxon Mobil, Northrop Grumman, Chevron and others.

Anyone with a seven-year-old’s understanding of causality can conclude that CSIS would, in the aggregate, promote the expansion of the military and surveillance state, since that’s who pays their bills; what the Times did was reveal a specific, rather direct example, using heretofore secret documents.

[See article for lengthy listing and discussion of op-eds and cites of CSIS in the Times promoting MIC. -js]

These “media hits” would not be possible if the corporate agenda wasn’t laundered through the pseudo-academic credibility of a think tank, whether it’s a giant bank trying to improved its image via Brookings or an arms manufacturers trying to promote the war industry via CSIS.

“John Smith, funded by Raytheon, the Department of Defense and Chevron, says Russian aggression is unprecedented” sounds far less credible than “John Smith, senior fellow at CSIS, says Russian aggression is unprecedented”—even though they are, in effect, the same thing. In light of the New York Times report, perhaps it’s time for media to start spelling out what’s happening for readers.

This is an excellent article, well worth your time.

How ‘Think Tanks’ Generate Endless War

The New York Times took notice recently of the role that so-called “think tanks” play in corrupting U.S. government policy. Their review of think tanks “identified dozens of examples of scholars conducting research at think tanks while corporations were paying them to help shape government policy.”

Unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, while the Times investigation demonstrates well that the U.S. is even more corrupt – albeit the corruption is better disguised – than the many foreign countries which we routinely accuse of corruption, the Times failed to identify the most egregious form of corruption in our system. That is, those think tanks are constantly engaged in the sort of activities which the Defense Department identifies as “Information War” when conducted by foreign countries that are designated by the U.S. as an enemy at any given moment.

Information warfare uses disinformation and propaganda to condition a population to hate a foreign nation or population with the intent to foment a war, which is the routine “business” of the best known U.S. think tanks.

There are two levels to this information war. The first level is by the primary provocateur, such as the Rand Corporation, the American Enterprise Institute and the smaller war instigators found wherever a Kagan family member lurks. They use psychological “suggestiveness” to create a false narrative of danger from some foreign entity with the objective being to create paranoia within the U.S. population that it is under imminent threat of attack or takeover.

Once that fear and paranoia is instilled in much of the population, it can then be manipulated to foment a readiness or eagerness for war, in the manner that Joseph Goebbels understood well.

The measure of success from such a disinformation and propaganda effort can be seen when the narrative is adopted by secondary communicators who are perhaps the most important target audience. That is because they are “key communicators” in PsyOp terms, who in turn become provocateurs in propagating the false narrative even more broadly and to its own audiences, and becoming “combat multipliers” in military terms.

It is readily apparent now that Russia has taken its place as the primary target within U.S. sights. One doesn’t have to see the U.S. military buildup on Russia’s borders to understand that but only see the propaganda themes of our “think tanks.”

Ten Times Worse Than Hell: A Syrian Doctor on the Humanitarian Catastrophe in Aleppo

Biden Offers ‘Condolences’ for Civilians Killed in 1999 US Bombing of Serbia

During a visit to Belgrade today, Vice president Joe Biden offered “condolences” for the Serbian civilians killed in the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Serbia, a war which resulted in the US-backed secession of Kosovo from Serbia.

17 years after the campaign, Biden’s visit was aimed at getting Serbia to normalize relations with Kosovo, and marks the first time a high-ranking US official has made any offer of condolences for the substantial civilian death caused in the air war.

Though the exact figure remains hotly disputed, Human Rights Watch reported 90 confirmed incidents of civilian deaths, amounting to between 489-528 Serbian civilians. Three Chinese journalists were also killed in the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. There were also huge numbers of people wounded in the bombing campaign, with estimates in excess of 10,000. ...

This war has played a big role in keeping Serbia neutral at a time when the rest of the region has been scrambling to join NATO. Polls have regularly shown very little interest among Serbians in joining NATO, and this might be driving the sudden interest among officials toward a rapprochement.

Complicit in Civilian Carnage, US Support for War in Yemen Called 'Indefensible'

Amid an escalation of violence, increasing numbers of civilian casualties, and a nearly unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the New York Times editorial board on Wednesday called the United States "complicit in the carnage" and demanded the Obama administration end its support for the Saudi-led coalition which has repeatedly been accused of war crimes by critics.

The editorial reads:

A hospital associated with Doctors Without Borders. A school. A potato chip factory. Under international law, those facilities in Yemen are not legitimate military targets. Yet all were bombed in recent days by warplanes belonging to a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, killing more than 40 civilians. 

The United States is complicit in this carnage. It has enabled the coalition in many ways, including selling arms to the Saudis to mollify them after the nuclear deal with Iran. Congress should put the arms sales on hold and President Obama should quietly inform Riyadh that the United States will withdraw crucial assistance if the Saudis do not stop targeting civilians and agree to negotiate peace.

As Common Dreams has reported since the Saudi-led and U.S.-backed assault began early in 2015, the civilian population has faced devastating violence and, already one of the poorest countries on earth, an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis threatening tens of millions.

This spring, a report by Human Rights Watch cataloged how American weapons supplied to the Saudis were used in many attacks that resulted in civilian deaths and injuries.

"One of the deadliest strikes against civilians in Yemen’s year-long war involved US-supplied weapons, illustrating tragically why countries should stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia," said Priyanka Motaparthy, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, at the time.

Despite such warnings, the U.S. has continued to back Saudi Arabia in its military campaign. As the Times notes, "Although many experts believe the threat to be overstated, Mr. Obama agreed to support the Yemen intervention — without formal authorization from Congress — and sell the Saudis even more weapons in part to appease Riyadh’s anger over the Iran nuclear deal. All told, since taking office, Mr. Obama has sold the Saudis $110 billion in arms, including Apache helicopters and missiles."

Saudi Airstrikes Destroy Yemen House, Kill 17 Civilians

For the third straight day, Saudi Arabia’s warplanes are caught up in a high-profile incident of civilian deaths in Yemen, this time attacking a house in the Nehm District near the capital of Sanaa. The attacks destroyed a house, and killed 17 civilians.

The large toll for a single home was the result of a “double-tap” incident, with the first strike collapsing the house on top of the family, and relatives from the neighborhood scrambling to try to rescue them, only for the rescuers themselves to be targeted in subsequent strikes.

This comes after a Sunday incident in which Saudi warplanes attacked a school, killing 10 children, and a Monday incident in which they destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing 15 more civilians. Throughout the war the Saudis have been criticized for the huge civilian toll of their airstrikes, but the number of incidents seems to be growing dramatically in recent weeks.

Snowden Calls 'Shadow Brokers' Hack of NSA Hackers 'Significant' Turn in Spy Wars

The National Security Administration (NSA) was allegedly hacked by a mysterious group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers," and the "most powerful espionage tools" of the NSA's elite hacker team, as the Washington Post put it, were leaked to the internet this weekend.

The Post reported late Tuesday:

A cache of hacking tools with code names such as Epicbanana, Buzzdirection, and Egregiousblunder appeared mysteriously online over the weekend, setting the security world abuzz with speculation over whether the material was legitimate.

The file appeared to be real, according to former NSA personnel who worked in the agency's hacking division, known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO).

"Without a doubt, they're the keys to the kingdom," said one former TAO employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal operations. "The stuff you're talking about would undermine the security of a lot of major government and corporate networks both here and abroad.”

Said a second former TAO hacker who saw the file: "From what I saw, there was no doubt in my mind that it was legitimate."

"The exploits are not run-of-the-mill tools to target everyday individuals," the Post added. "They are expensive software used to take over firewalls, such as Cisco and Fortinet, that are used 'in the largest and most critical commercial, educational and government agencies around the world,' said Blake Darche, another former TAO operator and now head of security research at Area 1 Security."

In a series of tweets, noted NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden posited that Russia was behind the breach.

Snowden suggests Russia behind NSA code hack

National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden is backing a theory that Russia — not money-seeking hackers — is behind the release of possible NSA source code.

The Shadow Brokers, a previously unknown hacking entity, and WikiLeaks have both announced they have copies of the source code used by a vaunted cyber espionage operation called the Equation Group. The Equation Group is widely believed to be connected to the NSA.

The Shadow Brokers are auctioning off the code, and WikLeaks says it will release it for free.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Snowden said he believed the effort to expose the source code was a shot from Russian intelligence operatives meant to warn the NSA against publicly attributing recent cyberattacks on the Democratic Party to President Vladimir Putin.

“This leak is likely a warning that someone can prove US responsibility for any attacks that originated from [a specific] malware server,” Snowden tweeted.

Turkey: 2000 policemen, hundreds of military members dismissed by decree

Turkey to free 38,000 people from prisons to make space for alleged coup plotters

Turkey has issued a decree paving the way for the conditional release of 38,000 prisoners in an apparent move to make jail space for thousands of people who have been arrested after last month’s failed coup.

The decree allows the release of inmates who have two years or less to serve of their prison terms and makes convicts who have served half of their term eligible for parole. Some prisoners are excluded: people convicted of murder, domestic violence, sexual abuse or terrorism and other crimes against the state.

The measures would not apply for crimes committed after 1 July.

The justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said the move would lead to the release of 38,000 people, adding it was not a pardon or an amnesty but a conditional release of prisoners.

German officials say Erdogan supports militants

Citing a classified document from the Interior Ministry to representatives of the Left party on Tuesday the German public broadcaster ARD reported, that members of the government consider Turkey's regime a supporter of militant groups in the Middle East.

German officials appear to have publicly acknowledged, if in a classified document, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's weapons support for militants fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which Turkish journalists
have reported in the past. "Especially since the year 2011 as a result of its incrementally Islamized internal and foreign policy, Turkey has become a central platform for action for Islamist groups in the Middle East," the German officials said, according to ARD.

Univision is set to buy Gawker Media out of bankruptcy for $135 million

Gawker Media has a new home. The company's bankruptcy auction has ended, and the winning bidder is reportedly Univision.

The price tag, according to a source familiar with the situation, is $135 million. Details of the auction's result were first reported by Recode and the New York Times.

The previously independent digital media company filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year in order to avoid paying $140 million in damages to Hulk Hogan the ex-pro wrestler — his real name is Terry G. Bollea — whose sex tape Gawker published in 2013. In May, it was revealed that Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker (among others) was financed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel has held a decade-long vendetta against the company, which he claims outed him as gay in 2007. ...

For now, it remains unclear how Gawker Media will fit within Univision's corporate structure, and how Gawker's seven different websites — including technology-focused Gizmodo, sports blog Deadspin, and women's interest site Jezebel — will be affected by the deal.

Trade Unions and the Fate of the American Left

Cisco Systems to lose fifth of global workforce, says report

Cisco Systems is reportedly planning to cut about 14,000 jobs, representing nearly 20% of the US technology company’s global workforce.

San Jose, California-based Cisco was expected to announce the cuts within the next few weeks as part of a transition from its hardware roots into a software-centric business, technology news site CRN reported, citing sources close to the company.

Cisco, which had more than 70,000 employees as of 30 April, declined to comment. ...

Cisco has been investing in new products such as data analytics software and cloud-based tools for data centres to offset the impact of sluggish spending by telecom carriers and enterprises on its main business of making network switches and routers.

Police chiefs want new law that would compel people to reveal passwords

Canada's police chiefs want a new law that would force people to hand over their electronic passwords with a judge's consent.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has passed a resolution calling for the legal measure to unlock digital evidence, saying criminals increasingly use encryption to hide illicit activities.

There is nothing currently in Canadian law that would compel someone to provide a password to police during an investigation, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Joe Oliver told a news conference Tuesday. ...

The chiefs' proposed password scheme is "wildly disproportionate," because in the case of a laptop computer it would mean handing over the "key to your whole personal life," said David Christopher, a spokesman for OpenMedia, a group that works to keep the Internet surveillance-free.

"On the face of it, this seems like it's clearly unconstitutional."

The police chiefs' resolution comes as the federal government begins a consultation on cybersecurity that will look at issues including the best way to balance online freedoms with the needs of police. The consultation runs until Oct. 15.

Obama Admin Paid Private Prisons $1 Billion to Detain Asylum Seekers

Aetna CEO: If you reject our Humana merger we'll bail on Obamacare

A letter from the CEO of Aetna sent to the Department of Justice in July warned that the government's opposition to an attempted merger would cause Aetna to pull out of Obamacare.

The threat went something like: Aetna's merger with fellow healthcare giant Humana is necessary for its sustainable growth, and its sustainable growth is necessary to participate in the Obamacare state exchanges. In other words: Nice healthcare exchange you got there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it. ...

"[I]f the DOJ sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint," CEO Mark Bertolini wrote. "[I]nstead of expanding to 20 states next year, we would reduce our presence to no more than 10 states."

"[I]t is very likely that we would need to leave the public exchange business entirely and plan for additional business efficiencies should our deal ultimately be blocked," he went on. "By contrast, if the deal proceeds without the diverted time and energy associated with litigation, we would explore how to devote a portion of the additional synergies ... to supporting even more public exchange coverage over the next few years."

CEO Tim Cook Decides Apple Doesn’t Have to Pay Corporate Tax Rate Because It’s “Unfair”

Apple is currently holding $181 billion overseas, largely thanks to arbitrarily deciding that its most valuable intellectual property seems to live exclusively in low tax countries. For instance, at one time Apple’s subsidiaries in Ireland — a country with 4.6 million people — “earned” over one-third of all Apple’s worldwide revenue.

And due to a very business-friendly quirk in U.S. tax law, Apple doesn’t have to pay any U.S. taxes on its overseas profits until it “brings them back” to America.

Here’s what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say about it in a long interview published this weekend in the Washington Post:

We’ve said at 40 percent, we’re not going to bring it back until there’s a fair rate. There’s no debate about it. Is that legal to do or not legal to do? It is legal to do. It is the current tax law. It’s not a matter of being patriotic or not patriotic. It doesn’t go that the more you pay, the more patriotic you are.

Cook simultaneously wants us to know he is not a bad “traditional CEO” who just cares about money. No, to the contrary, he feels an “incredible responsibility” to “the communities and the countries that the company operates in” and “the whole ecosystem of the company.”

Therefore, because Cook cares so little about money and so much about communities, Apple won’t be paying its taxes. That’s just fair.

Hillary Clinton Picks TPP and Fracking Advocate To Set Up Her White House

Two big issues dogged Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary: the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP) and fracking. She had a long history of supporting both.

Under fire from Bernie Sanders, she came out against the TPP and took a more critical position on fracking. But critics wondered if this was a sincere conversion or simply campaign rhetoric.

Now, in two of the most significant personnel moves she will ever make, she has signaled a lack of sincerity.

She chose as her vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine, who voted to authorize fast-track powers for the TPP and praised the agreement just two days before he was chosen.

And now she has named former Colorado Democratic Senator and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to be the chair of her presidential transition team — the group tasked with helping set up the new administration should she win in November. That includes identifying, selecting, and vetting candidates for over 4,000 presidential appointments.

As a senator, Salazar was widely considered a reliable friend to the oil, gas, ranching and mining industries. As interior secretary, he opened the Arctic Ocean for oil drilling, and oversaw the botched response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Since returning to the private sector, he has been an ardent supporter of the TPP, while pushing back against curbs on fracking.

Why Did Clinton Just Tap a Pro-TPP, Pro-KXL, Pro-Fracking Politician to Head Her Transition Team?

Michael Moore: Trump does not want to be president

Documentary film-maker Michael Moore has said he knows “for a fact” that Donald Trump does not want to be president of the United States and claims the Republican nominee is now sabotaging his own campaign in order to avoid the Oval Office.

Moore, writing on The Huffington Post, says that Trump ran for president as a negotiating tactic, hoping to leverage a higher pay packet from NBC. The broadcaster had formerly employed Trump as the star of the reality TV show The Apprentice, but fired him after he called Mexican immigrants “drug dealers” and “rapists” at his campaign launch.

According to Moore, who does not name his source, Trump continued his campaign only to increase his stock with other television networks.

“And then something happened,” Moore writes. “And to be honest, if it happened to you, you might have reacted the same way. Trump, to his own surprise, ignited the country, especially among people who were the opposite of billionaires.” ...

“Maybe the meltdown of the past three weeks was no accident,” writes Moore. “Maybe it’s all part of his new strategy to get the hell out of a race he never intended to see through to its end anyway.”

Donald Trump appoints Breitbart chief Stephen Bannon to lead campaign

Donald Trump shook free the last vestiges of political supervision on Wednesday with the appointment of a maverick new campaign chief likely to favour his freewheeling style.

Steve Bannon, a Breitbart News executive once described by Bloomberg as the “most dangerous political operative in America”, will wrestle day-to-day control of the campaign from current chairman Paul Manafort. ...

Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs banker who made part of his fortune through a stake in Seinfeld, has been a key figure in the anti-establishment revolt that has swept through the Republican party, and is likely to favour the “Let Trump be Trump” approach of Manafort’s pugnacious predecessor Corey Lewandowski. ...

Trump’s changes to his team, made just 82 days before the November election, give little indication that he is seeking to broaden his appeal and steer clear of controversy. ...

Additional senior hires are expected in the next few days and there have been multiple reports – denied by Trump – that the disgraced Fox News creator Roger Ailes has been brought in to help him face Clinton on the debate stage next month.

Atauro Island: scientists discover the most biodiverse waters in the world

A small island, a short boat trip from Timor-Leste’s capital, Dili, appears to have the most biodiverse waters anywhere in the world. There is a push for the site to be protected with a view to developing an ecotourism industry for the country’s struggling economy.

Atauro Island sits just 24km north of Dili, is 23km long and is home to about 8,000 people. According to a new biological survey, it sits in waters that have more species of reef fish per site than any other place on the planet.

Examining 10 sites around the island, a Conservation International team, with 50 years of combined experience surveying thousands of reefs around the world, found an average of 253 reef fish species at each site. That surpassed the previous record for a reef in West Papua, which had an average of 216 species at each site. ...

The site is inside an area known as the Coral Triangle, which has the highest biodiversity of any marine environment in the world. But, despite that, the researchers were surprised by the record-breaking biodiversity at Atauro Island. ...

But Mark Erdmann from Conservation International says, despite the exceptional biodiversity, some of the reefs around Atauro are not in the best health.

“Some sites have stunning hard coral gardens and breathtaking vistas full of schools of reef fish, while other sites sadly show the scars of legacy blast fishing, as well as past crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.

“Moreover, large predatory fishes including groupers and sharks and the iconic Napoleon wrasse were all exceptionally rare – a clear sign of overfishing.” ...

“Without question, our strong recommendation is that the whole of Atauro be designated a marine protected area, with active local management and enforcement,” Erdmann says.

Alaskan village votes on whether to relocate because of climate change

The residents of an Alaskan coastal village have begun voting on whether to relocate because of rising sea levels.

If they vote to move, the village of Shishmaref, just north of the Bering Strait, and its population of 650 people, could be the first in the US to do so because of climate change.

The village would be relocated at an estimated cost of $180m to a new location less threatened by rising waters and melting sea ice. Where it would move would be decided later in a town meeting, according to the city clerk’s office.

The results of the vote will be announced on Wednesday, the city clerk said.

The sea ice used to protect Shishmaref, which is built on a barrier island and largely inhabited by members of the Inupiat Inuit tribe. But now that the ice is melting, the village is in peril from encroaching waves, especially as the permafrost on which it is built is thawing, and crumbling beneath the mostly prefabricated houses. Barricades and sea walls have had little effect.

US finds evidence Volkswagen acted criminally in emissions scandal

The US justice department is reported to have found evidence of Volkswagen acting criminally in connection with the emissions cheating scandal that plunged the German company into crisis.

Federal prosecutors are weighing up whether to criminally charge VW and its employees or accept a multibillion-dollar settlement, according to the Wall Street Journal. The justice department and VW declined to comment on the discussions, which are said to have a soft deadline of Christmas 2016.

VW has admitted to deliberately cheating on US diesel emissions tests for several years and this summer agreed to pay $15.3bn (£11.8bn) to its customers and regulators.

However, the settlement did not preclude criminal charges, and at the time, deputy attorney general Sally Yates sought to reassure consumers that “our criminal investigation remains active and ongoing”. ...

It is unusual for US authorities to seek a criminal prosecution of companies or executives, with prosecutors tending to accept an admittance of guilt, an apology from the chief executive and multimillion-dollar fines.

Blue Cut fire scorches 9,000 acres and forces evacuation of 80,000 in California

A wildfire fanned by strong winds and 100F (37C) temperatures has ripped through rural communities outside Los Angeles, unleashing fire tornados and triggering evacuation orders for more than 80,000 people.

The so-called Blue Cut fire flared 60 miles east of Los Angeles on Tuesday and swiftly scorched 9,000 acres, sending walls of flame down the Cajon Pass and surrounding areas and prompting chaotic scenes as families scrambled to flee.

Television footage captured a fire tornado, more accurately known as a fire whirl, a phenomenon in which flames and gusts combine to form whirling eddies.

Incredible video from @ABC7 of a fire tornado. #BlueCutFire #abc7eyewitness pic.twitter.com/rM8l73o2Tj

— David Sleight (@sl8ty) August 17, 2016

California’s governor, Jerry Brown, declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County on Tuesday. The Red Cross set up emergency shelters for evacuees, including one for animals.

“There is imminent threat to public safety, rail traffic and structures. Please follow the evacuation instructions, as this is a very quickly growing wildfire,” said the state incident information system. “An estimated 34,500 homes and 82,640 people are being affected by the evacuation warnings.”

'Nobody's looking': why US Zika outbreak could be bigger than we know

If you were bitten by a mosquito, and within two weeks had a fever, bloodshot eyes, a rash and felt generally achy, you would have four classic symptoms of Zika. But if you or your sexual partner didn’t travel to Latin America, you might also have a hard time getting tested.

That’s because Zika tests are complicated, time-consuming, sometimes inaccurate and expensive. These obstacles have led some scientists to believe that several states at risk for spread of the disease may already have Zika outbreaks, without even knowing it.

“There is not active surveillance going on in the at-risk states in the United States,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. “I think there’s not just Zika transmission going on in Miami, it’s going on all up and down the Gulf Coast and in Arizona, it’s just that nobody’s looking.”

The only confirmed cases of Zika caused by local mosquitoes in the continental US are in Miami, Florida. ... Other Gulf coast states are also considered to to be at high risk for local transmission of Zika virus. That is because Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are endemic, and multiple travelers have returned with the infection. But with laboratory limitations, even states with disease-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquitoes may not be able to surveil non-travelers for the virus. ...

Louisiana, long known to be a haven for mosquitoes, is considered a state at-risk of Zika transmission. There, 22 cases of travel-related Zika has been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The big fear, of course, is we’ll figure this out seven, eight, nine months from now, in the spring of 2017, when we start seeing babies show up with microcephaly,” said Hotez.

Also of Interest

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

America’s Journalistic Hypocrites

Washington’s Outrage and Excuses

Wildfires Are Getting Worse: Time to Rehydrate Our Landscapes

Tribal Activists Defy Lawsuit, Vow Continued Resistance Against Dakota Pipeline

18 Years of Data Links Neonics to Bee Decline

The coral die-off crisis is a climate crime and Exxon fired the gun

Lost cities #8: mystery of Cahokia – why did North America's largest city vanish?

A Little Night Music

Matt Guitar Murphy - Strut Your Stuff

Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Born Under A Bad Sign + Going Down

Matt Guitar Murphy - Way Down South

Matt 'Guitar' Murphy - What's Up With You, Baby

The Blues Brothers - Shotgun Blues

James Cotton + Matt Guitar Murphy - Stormy Monday & Georgia Swing

The Blues Brothers - The Blues Don't Bother Me

Billy Branch, Matt Guitar Murphy, Joe Louis Walker - Jazz Vienne 99