The Evening Blues - 9-16-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues singer, songwriter and guitarist heavily influenced by Chuck Berry, Eddy Clearwater. Enjoy!
Eddy Clearwater - Too Old To Get Married
“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
-- Plato
News and Opinion
The FBI’s Own Watchdog Signs Off on Agents Impersonating Journalists
A new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general concludes that FBI agents can go undercover and impersonate journalists, as long as they sufficiently consult FBI headquarters.
The inspector general’s office investigated a case from 2007 where undercover FBI agents impersonated a journalist from the Associated Press. FBI regulations at the time “did not prohibit agents from impersonating journalists or from posing as a member of a news organization,” the report concluded. ...
The tactic came to light in 2014, based on FBI documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It generated an outcry from journalists who argued that having government agents pose as reporters undermined the credibility of journalists looking to protect their sources. ...
[The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press] made clear on Thursday that they strongly objected to such a permissive policy.
“Such a policy can seriously damage both the public’s trust in its free press and the ability of journalists to hold government accountable,” said Dan Boardman, chairman of the steering committee for the Reporters Committee, in a statement. “We urge the Justice Department to take seriously the need for reform and the importance of protecting the integrity of the newsgathering process.”
Ex-Gitmo Prisoner Dhiab Awakes from Coma in Uruguay
House Votes to Ban Any More Guantanamo Releases
In a 244-174 vote split almost perfectly along party lines, the House of Representatives has voted today in favor of a bill that would ban all transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, which if it became law would effectively end the remote chances of the facility being closed by President Obama.
That is seen as unlikely, however, with House members conceding that there is almost no chance that the Senate will follow suit and approve the measure. Even if it does, the White House has threatened a veto, and his appears to have no real override chance.
US to pay €1m to family of Italian aid worker killed in drone strike
The Obama administration has agreed to pay €1m to the family of an Italian aid worker who was killed in a US drone strike in 2015.
Giovanni Lo Porto, 37, was being held hostage by al-Qaida at the time of his death and his family had been led to believe a month before the strike that he was close to being released.
Last year, the US president, Barack Obama, acknowledged that Lo Porto and an American named Warren Weinstein, 73, had accidentally been killed in a secret counter-terrorism mission.
The payment was confirmed by the US embassy in Rome and Lo Porto’s brother, Daniele. Details of the agreement were first reported by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. ...
The agreement includes this stipulation: “This does not imply the consent by the United States of America to the exercise of the jurisdiction of the Italian courts in disputes, if any, directly or indirectly connected with this instrument. Nothing in this instrument implies a waiver to sovereign or personal immunity.” ...
The White House acknowledged the US killed Lo Porto and Weinstein last April, four months after the drone strike in January against an al-Qaida compound in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. The admission was made only days after the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, visited the White House.
Syria: Army says it begun withdrawal from Castello Road, a crucial passage for aid to Aleppo
Assad regime told to allow aid into Aleppo, Moscow says
Kremlin demands that US press Syrian opposition groups to abide by their side of ceasefire agreement
Russia has given fresh assurances it has impressed on the Syrian government it must allow aid into rebel-held east Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, but added it needed reassurances that the US was also putting pressure on Syrian opposition groups to abide by their side of the bargain.
The demands came as aid convoys remained stuck on the Syrian side of the Turkish border, unable to enter Syria’s second city where as many as 250,000 citizens are in dire need of help.
The lack of progress on aid, nearly a week after the ceasefire agreement was sealed between Russia and the US in Geneva, is placing pressure on the fragile ceasefire with more reports of clashes, some inside the ceasefire area. Government-held areas were shelled in the eastern Damascus neighbourhood of Qaboun, wounding three people, Syrian state media said.
The aid impasse came as Russia put pressure on the US to release the detailed text of the agreement reached last week, and urged the US to allow the agreement to form the basis of a UN security council resolution next week. The US says it is inadvisable to release the wording, but the French government is pressing for seeing the agreement, arguing it would be impossible for the UN security council to endorse an agreement without knowing its details.
Syria and the refugee crisis will dominate the annual UN general assembly when it begins next week in New York.
Well now, there's gratitude for ya! I hope those troops told the terrorists that the US is backing that they are indispensable and exceptional as they ran off.
US-Backed Rebels Threaten to Kill US Soldiers
US special forces soldiers were reportedly forced to flee a town in northern Syria after Free Syrian Army fighters threatened to "slaughter" them for their "invasion", according to videos and reports posted on social media on Friday.
About 25 US soldiers were reportedly working with Turkish forces as they advanced on al-Rai, Aleppo, in preparation for an offensive against nearby al-Bab, which is controlled by the Islamic State group.
The FSA is allied with Turkish forces and ostensibly supported by the US as a "moderate" rebel group fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad.
However, Friday's confrontation highlights the complex nature of the war in Syria.
In the video, fighters from the FSA chant that US forces are "pigs", "crusaders" and "infidels".
"Dogs, agents of America," one man can be heard to say in Arabic, while others chant "They are crusaders and infidels", "Down with America", "'Get out you pigs" and "They are coming to Syria to occupy it".
A voice on a megaphone can be heard to say there will be a "slaughter". The US forces were reportedly forced to leave the town after the protests.
Full video of #FSA chasing #US #SOF of #AlRai #Aleppo
"We're going to slaughter u. Ur coming to invade #Syria" pic.twitter.com/qy7fIVeG8x— Riam Dalati (@Dalatrm) September 16, 2016
No Signs of Syria Rebels Cutting Ties With Nusra Front
The February ceasefire in Syria suffered greatly from the Nusra Front not being a party to the truce but being embedded with almost every rebel group that was a party. This led to constant claims Syria was “violating” the ceasefire by targeting Nusra, even though they were supposed to be able to, and left Nusra with a lot of extra territory when the truce collapsed.
This new truce, while again excluding Nusra, is supposed to be different, with the US demanding all of its rebel allies to totally cut ties with Nusra immediately. Sources within the Syrian military, however, say that so far there is no sign of that happening.
Throughout the Syrian Civil War, the rebels have often relied on Nusra to do the heavy lifting in joint offenses, and have long resisted the idea of splitting with them, insisting it amounts to a Russo-Syrian plot to divide the rebellion.
Syria ceasefire holds during first day - but balance lies with armed opposition groups
The armed opposition have the biggest motive for seeing the US-Russian agreement fail because it offers them little and envisages a joint US-Russian campaign against Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, the former affiliate of al-Qaeda that has renamed itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. The latter is by far the most effective fighting force of the opposition. An observer in Damascus said that “without Nusra the other non-Isis rebel groups would amount to very little militarily.” More moderate armed opposition are supposed to separate themselves from Nusra under the agreement, but this is easier said than done and Nusra is likely to move its units around quickly to avoid attack from the air.
Clinton says success of Syria agreement rests with Russia
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Thursday the success of the Syrian ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia depends on whether Moscow decides it is in its interest to follow through with the agreement.
Yemen's Rebels Say They Captured Post Inside Saudi Arabia
Yemen's Houthi rebels and allied troops have captured a Saudi military post in the border region of Jizan, according to military officials from the Shiite movement.
They said the Houthi rebels and their allies attacked the post with artillery, rockets and light arms before taking it over in a Sept. 11 battle.
A Saudi military spokesman has denied the Houthi claim as "lies," but a 15-minute video clip posted on social media networks and aired late Wednesday by the Houthis' al-Masirah TV purportedly shows the shelling of the hilltop post and the attacking force examining weapons and ammunition left behind by the Saudi soldiers who fled.
Record US Military Aid to Israel Not About Security, But Prolonging the Occupation
Powell Email: Israel Has 200 Nukes, All Aimed at Tehran
A newly leaked Colin Powell email, dated from 2015, offers new insight into Israel’s always nebulous nuclear weapons arsenal, referring to the nation as having 200 nuclear weapons, “all targeted on Tehran.” The comments were made addressing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech against the Iran nuclear deal back in March of 2015.
Netanyahu railed against the deal, insisting it wouldn’t stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, prompting a dismissive response from Powell, who noted, “negotiators can’t get what he (Netanyahu) wants. Anyway, the Iranians can’t use one if they finally make one. The boys in Tehran know Israel has 200, all targeted on Tehran, and we have thousands.” ...
Powell went on to insist Netanyahu’s claims that Iran was “a year” away from a nuclear weapon were nonsense, and that it would take many years, adding that Iran has “every right to enrich for energy.”
Worth a full read:
Frustrating the war lobby
By trying to block a $1.15 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a bipartisan group of US senators is challenging one of the key forces that shape American foreign policy: the arms industry. Their campaign shines a light on the role that this industry plays in whipping up fears of danger in the world. How do Americans know that Saudi Arabia is a peace-loving country dedicated to fighting terrorism? The same way we know that Russia is a snarling enemy on a rampage of conquest: The arms industry tells us so.
“We must respond to the rise of ISIS terrorism, Russian aggression on NATO’s doorstep, provocative moves by Iran and North Korea, and an increasingly powerful China,” the Aerospace Industry Association recently declared. Issuing warnings through its own mouthpieces, though, is not enough to shape public opinion. The industry also sponsors “think tanks” that obligingly issue alarming reports warning of increasing peril everywhere. Many are run by former diplomats or military commanders. Their scary warnings, which seem realistic given the warners’ personal prestige and the innocent-sounding names of their think tanks, are aimed at persuading Americans and foreign governments to spend more billions of dollars on weaponry. ...
Since taking office in 2009, Obama has made 42 arms deals with Saudi Arabia, worth a staggering $115 billion. For some members of Congress, the latest deal is a breaking point. They are reluctant to send weapons that will be used first in Yemen and then in other ways that support Saudi interests — which are not necessarily those of the United States. ... Not surprisingly, the arms industry has mobilized its considerable power on Capitol Hill to block this Senate resolution. “We are fighting General Dynamics,” one supporter of the resolution said last week. A vote could come soon. Blocking this arms sale would be a rebellion against one of Washington’s richest lobbies. That would send welcome chills through the corridors of power in the Pentagon, the war industry, and Saudi Arabia.
Whatever happened to Google's corporate motto, "Don't be evil?" Whether or not Google's intentions are good, it appears to be using all of the tools in the corporate-influence toolchest that other big, nasty industries (like big oil, big tobacco, etc.) employ to mount a sub-rosa campaign fueled by vast quantities of corporate cash to influence public policy.
Tech Money Lurks Behind Government Privacy Conference
In January, academic-turned-regulator Lorrie Cranor gave a presentation and provided the closing remarks at PrivacyCon, a Federal Trade Commission event intended to “inform policymaking with research,” as she put it. Cranor, the FTC’s chief technologist, neglected to mention that over half of the researchers who presented that day had received financial support from Google — hardly a neutral figure in the debate over privacy. Cranor herself got an “unrestricted gift” of roughly $350,000 from the company, according to her CV.
Virtually none of these ties were disclosed, so Google’s entanglements at PrivacyCon were not just extensive, they were also invisible. The internet powerhouse is keenly interested in influencing a lot of government activity, including antitrust regulation, telecommunications policy, copyright enforcement, online security, and trade pacts, and to advance that goal, has thrown around a lot of money in the nation’s capital. Ties to academia let Google attempt to sway power less directly, by giving money to university and graduate researchers whose work remains largely within academic circles — until it gains the audience of federal policymakers, as at PrivacyCon. ...
The problem with Google’s hidden links to the event is not that they should place researchers under automatic suspicion, but rather that the motives of corporate academic benefactors ought to always be suspect. Without prominent disclosure of corporate money in academia, it becomes hard for the consumers of research to raise important questions about its origins and framing.
"Because Scott Walker Asked": Leaked Docs Suggest Wisconsin Gov Illegally Raised Corporate Donations
Computer activist Lauri Love loses appeal against US extradition
The computer activist Lauri Love has lost his appeal against extradition to the US, where he could face up to 99 years in prison for hacking into American missile defence centres and financial institutions.
The 31-year-old, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has been granted leave to appeal against the ruling, which was handed down at Westminster magistrates court by Judge Nina Tempia on Friday afternoon. ...
Outside the court, Karen Todner, Love’s solicitor, said she was very disappointed by the district judge’s ruling. She pledged to appeal against the decision, initially at the high court and, if necessary, to the supreme court and eventually the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. ...
Ahead of Friday’s hearing, Love said he held little hope of justice if he was extradited, and suggested a jail term in the US could cause his health to deteriorate and would lead to a mental breakdown or suicide.
He and his family want him to face justice in the UK rather than the US, which he said “coerces” people into pleading guilty to get reduced sentences.
Swedish court upholds Julian Assange arrest warrant
Julian Assange has had another setback in his legal stand-off with Sweden after a request to lift an arrest warrant for the WikiLeaks founder over a 2010 rape accusation was rejected.
The Stockholm appeals court upheld a district court’s ruling to maintain the European arrest warrant, and rejected Assange’s request to hold a hearing over the matter on Friday.
Assange, who denies the rape accusation, “is still detained in absentia”, the court said, and it “shares the assessment of the [lower] district court that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape … and that there is a risk that he will evade legal proceedings or a penalty”.
Assange’s lawyer Per Samuelson told Agence France-Presse he would appeal against the ruling.
Suspension of controversial Palestine class at UC Berkeley sparks debate
The University of California, Berkeley has suspended a course dedicated to studying Palestine “through the lens of settler colonialism”, sparking international debate about academic freedom.
The course at UC Berkeley – entitled Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis – faced intense backlash this week from Jewish organizations, which argued that the class was “anti-Israel and antisemitic” and “intended to indoctrinate students to hate the Jewish state”.
After a stream of negative news stories and editorials, the northern California school, considered the top public university in the US, announced that it was suspending the class because it “did not receive a sufficient degree of scrutiny to ensure that the syllabus met Berkeley’s academic standards”. ...
At UC Berkeley, where student activists launched the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s, a group of Jewish professors have called on administrators to reinstate the course. They argued that critics are misrepresenting the class and that the university was stifling academic freedom in response to demands from Israel advocacy groups. ...
Michael Burawoy, a sociology professor who signed the letter, said it was obvious that the university was concerned about losing funding in the wake of the backlash: “This was an arbitrary administrative intervention brought about by pressure.”
The Largest Prison Strike in U.S. History Enters Its Second Week
The largest prison strike in U.S. history has been going on for nearly a week, but there’s a good chance you haven’t heard about it. [Heh, unless you pay attention to The Evening Blues. - js] For months, inmates at dozens of prisons across the country have been organizing through a network of smuggled cellphones, social media pages, and the support of allies on the outside. The effort culminated in a mass refusal to report to prison jobs on September 9, the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison uprising.
“This is a call to action against slavery in America,” organizers wrote in an announcement that for weeks circulated inside and outside prisons nationwide, and that sums up the strikers’ primary demand: an end to free prison labor. ...
Prisoners in 24 states and 40 to 50 prisons pledged to join the strike, and as of Tuesday prisoners in at least 11 states and 20 prisons continued the protest, according to outside supporters in Alabama. Tactics and specific demands varied locally, with some prisoners reportedly staging hunger strikes, and detainees in Florida protesting and destroying prison property ahead of the planned strike date.
“There are probably 20,000 prisoners on strike right now, at least, which is the biggest prison strike in history, but the information is really sketchy and spotty,” said Ben Turk, who works on “in-reach” to prisons for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a chapter of the International Workers of the World union helping to coordinate the inmate-led initiative from the outside.
Small rallies and demonstrations in support of the strikers were staged in dozens of U.S. cities and a couple foreign countries, but so far the coordinated strike remains largely ignored on the outside.
Cops killed a 13-year-old boy in Ohio because he had a BB gun
A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by police in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday night. Officers said in a statement they reacted when the young teen, Tyree King, started to pull what looked like a gun from his waistband. They later determined that the weapon was a BB gun. ...
One officer shot King "multiple times." The 13-year-old was taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital, and by around 8.22 pm, he was pronounced dead. The officers and the other suspect were not injured. The firearm that King was supposedly packing was later determined to be a BB gun with a laser sight attached.
The officer who fired the shots is reportedly a nine-year veteran of the Columbus police force who was recently transferred into the neighborhood where the shooting took place, according to a local NBC station.
Ohio is an open carry state. Still, they keep killing black kids with BB guns.#TamirRice, and now, #TyreeKing
— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) September 15, 2016
According to The Guardian's The Counted, which tracks police killings, King was the 762nd person to be killed by police in 2016.
Sandra Bland's family settles wrongful death lawsuit against Texas for $1.9m
The attorney for Sandra Bland’s mother has said that a $1.9m settlement has been reached in the family’s lawsuit against Texas authorities.
Bland died in the Waller County jail in July last year, three days after being arrested on suspicion of assault after a state trooped pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change. Her family questioned the official account, in a rural county with a long history of racism, that she had hanged herself.
Cannon Lambert, attorney for Geneva Reed-Veal, told multiple media outlets on Thursday there is an agreement with the Texas department of public safety and Waller County to bring an end to the federal civil rights action, which had been scheduled for trial in January.
However, an attorney for Waller County said the settlement agreement was still only provisional.
“A potential settlement agreement has been reached, but is not yet final,” Larry J Simmons said. “The parties are still working through a few details. In addition, the potential settlement must be approved by the Waller County commissioner’s court, which has not yet occurred.”
Virginia city to pay $1m to avert lawsuit in William Chapman police shooting
The city of Portsmouth, Virginia, has agreed to pay the family of William Chapman $1m to avert a civil lawsuit over the unarmed black 18-year-old’s fatal shooting by a police officer.
Two sources closely familiar with the negotiations, who were not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the settlement had been agreed by both sides in principle but had not yet been formally signed.
Officer Stephen Rankin shot Chapman dead in the parking lot of a Walmart superstore in the city in April last year during a confrontation over an alleged shoplifting. It was Rankin’s second deadly shooting of an unarmed man.
Rankin, 36, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the shooting last month. He had been charged with murder. A jury recommended a sentence of 2.5 years in prison. Judge Johnny Morrison will formally sentence Rankin on 12 October. Rankin’s attorneys have said he will appeal against his conviction.
Corporate Executives Are Making Way More Money Than Anybody Reports
On its website, the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, has a page called Executive Paywatch that is meant to demonstrate just how much corporate executives’ pay dwarfs the compensation of the average worker. On this page, the AFL-CIO reports that the total pay of the CEOs of America’s largest corporations was, on average, 373 times larger than the earnings of an average American worker in 2014, and 335 times larger in 2015. These are striking ratios that are meant to bolster the AFL-CIO’s message: The top executives of America’s corporations are vastly overpaid, and most American workers are woefully underpaid.
For that reason, it may come as a surprise that the AFL-CIO’s calculations grossly understate just how much money executives make. While the AFL-CIO’s calculations are for CEOs at S&P 500 companies, our analysis of data for the 500 highest-paid senior executives (not all of whom are CEOs) from the ExecuComp database, which is maintained by Standard & Poor’s, suggests that the Executive Paywatch ratios are far too low. Data on these executives’ actual take-home pay, which is published, as required by law, in companies’ annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), show that in 2014, senior executives made 949 times as much money as the average worker, far higher than the AFL-CIO’s ratio of 373:1.
What accounts for this huge discrepancy? The SEC is to blame. The AFL-CIO—as well as most economists and reporters—relies on the SEC-sanctioned estimates of senior-executive stock-based pay that each company reports in the Summary Compensation Table of the proxy statement that it files annually with the SEC, the federal agency whose mission is to protect investors. Curiously, that figure, the “estimated fair value” of executives’ stock-based pay, or EFV, is featured much more prominently in companies’ SEC filings than the figure indicating their actual realized gains, or ARG, on stock-based pay. ARG is a figure that permits the calculation of senior executives’ actual take-home pay—the number they report in their personal-income tax filings with the Internal Revenue Service. ...
As we document in detail in a report issued late last month, total ARG compensation was greater than total EFV compensation in every year from 2006 to 2014, with the largest differences occurring when prices on the stock market were on the rise.
So, are they lying and hiding something, or are they so obsessed with keeping the press from getting access to anything that they will withhold even totally innocuous emails? Who knows? They are such a bunch of prevaricating shitweasels, it's nigh unto impossible to tell.
This is what Hillary Clinton's 18 private emails to President Obama were about
While she was Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton exchanged 18 emails with President Barack Obama from her private email account. But the State Department declined to release the emails when it was forced by a VICE News Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to disclose 30,000 of Clinton's communications over the course of a year.
"As the White House has previously stated, Secretary Clinton and the president did on occasion exchange emails," State Department spokesperson John Kirby explained at a press briefing last January. "As they have also said previously, such presidential records shall remain confidential to protect the president's ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel, but will ultimately be released in accordance with the Presidential Records Act."
On Thursday, the State Department turned over an index to VICE News and the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch describing the subject matter of the emails Clinton and Obama discussed via email — and it doesn't appear to rise to the level of "unvarnished advice."
According to the State Department, they were thank-you notes, words of encouragement, a "note of appreciation," a holiday message, a "personal pleasantry," and so on. ...
All of the emails were withheld under presidential privilege and privacy act and deliberative process exemptions to the FOIA.
Dear Bernie Sanders,
You bought a really nice-looking vacation home. It's time to spend a lot more time with it.
Bernie Sanders continues to court utter irrelevance
Reiterating why he thinks it is crucial for the future of the country, as well as the planet, that Republican nominee Donald Trump not be elected U.S. president, former Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders called on his supporters Friday to "think hard" before casting a protest vote. ...
The remarks were made one day after new polling found that roughly a third of likely voters aged 18-29 are considering voting for a third party candidate. Sanders said that he understands that voters are "not enamored" with their choices, but emphasized the importance of looking "at the issues." ...
"The day after Hillary Clinton, as I hope, is elected president," he vowed, "I will do everything I can to sit down with her and say, President-elect Clinton, this is what the Democratic platform is about. We worked together. Let's start implementing. Raising the minimum wage. Public colleges and universities tuition free. Transforming our energy, creating millions of jobs rebuilding our infrastructure. Taking on Wall Street. Let's get to work representing working families."
Ha ha! The Democrats are getting increasingly desperate. Check your email, it's probably full of despairing notes from Democrats and related organizations.
'President Donald Trump': Latest Polls Indicate Clinton Could Actually Lose This Thing
Two new polls released on Thursday highlight a disturbing reality: In a race between two unpopular candidates, an excited base could mean everything. And in the case of the current presidential contest—a race that observers say is "hers to lose"—the failure of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to inspire voters could prove her ultimate downfall.
The latest update of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times national tracking poll found that Donald Trump's advantage over Clinton "grew to nearly six percentage points on Thursday, his largest advantage since his post-convention bounce in July."
According to the LA Times, the biggest reason for the bump "appears to be an increase in the likelihood of Trump supporters who say they plan to vote, combined with a drop among Clinton supporters on that question. The nominees are now roughly equal in the voting commitment of their supporters, erasing an advantage previously held by Clinton."
Similarly, the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that in a four-way race, the two leading party candidates are tied at 42 percent while Libertarian Gary Johnson wins eight percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein takes four.
According to RealClearPolitics' national polling average, in a two-way race, Clinton's lead over her Republican rival has dropped to less than two points from eight points in early August.
Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level ever recorded
‘Tremendous loss’ of ice reinforces clear downward trend towards ice-free summers due to effects of climate change
Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level since scientists started to monitor it by satellite, with scientists saying it is another ominous signal of global warming.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado said the sea ice reached its summer low point on Saturday, extending 4.14m sq km (1.6m sq miles). That’s behind only the mark set in 2012, 3.39m sq km.
Center director Mark Serreze said this year’s level technically was 10,000 sq km less than 2007, but that’s so close the two years are essentially tied.
Even though this year didn’t set a record, “we have reinforced the overall downward trend. There is no evidence of recovery here,” Serreze said. “We’ve always known that the Arctic is going to be the early warning system for climate change. What we’ve seen this year is reinforcing that.”
13 Protestors Removed from Dept. of Interior in Latest Pipeline Protest
Arrests After #KeepItInTheGround Activists Occupy Interior Department
More than 40 Indigenous activists, Gulf Coast residents, and other climate leaders have reportedly occupied the U.S. Department of the Interior, demanding no new fossil fuel leases on public lands and waters. Several arrests have also been reported. The protesters entered the lobby of the department chanting, "Keep it in the ground!"
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that is taking part in the events, said the action represented an escalation of the Keep It In The Ground campaign and continues the message of a demonstration last month in which four people were arrested while protesting fossil fuel lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is also a gesture of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux in their resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Peaceful Dakota Access Protesters Face Felony Charges, Escalating Police Action
Law enforcement appears to act on behalf of private industry with crackdown on peaceful water protectors in North Dakota
Water protectors battling the notorious Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota are now facing felony charges for peaceful direct actions that halted construction at two sites on Tuesday and Wednesday—a sign that law enforcement appears to be escalating its response to the water protectors.
"They came at us from our backside, armed with semi-automatic weapons," one water protecter reported as he was arrested Tuesday.
After two water protectors attached themselves to equipment outside of Mandan, North Dakota, Tuesday, putting a halt to construction, 20 people were arrested by police brandishing machine guns and in riot gear—including medics, journalists, and legal advisors. And an additional 22 people were reportedly arrested on Wednesday after three people repeated the same peaceful action at a second site west of Bismarck.
The Morton County Sheriff Department on Wednesday announced (pdf) the felony charges and increased misdemeanor charges for several of the 20 protecters arrested this week. The felony charges were for "reckless endangerment," and were handed down to the two people who attached themselves to construction equipment on Tuesday.
The same county has also issued arrest warrants for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, for partaking in the protests, and to Democracy Now's Amy Goodman for reporting on them. ...
This week's escalating arrests and felony charges demonstrates that public law enforcement are perhaps no less on the side of industry than the pipeline company's own private security firm, which made headlines when it used attack dogs against peaceful water protecters last week, observers argue.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Getting Fooled on Iraq, Libya, Now Russia
Powell Acknowledges Israeli Nukes
Safe spaces are not the only threat to free speech
Scott Walker Leaks Could Force Supreme Court to Confront Dark Money
The Revenge of the Deplorables
Concern Over Colin Powell’s Hacked Emails Becomes a Fear of Being Next
Russian-Iranian bank may ditch the US dollar
A Little Night Music
Eddy Clearwater - Blues Hang Out
Eddy Clearwater - Came Up The Hard Way
Eddie Clearwater - A Real Good Time
Eddy Clearwater - Messed Up World
Eddy Clearwater - Cool Blues Walk
Eddy Clearwater - All Your Love
Eddy Clearwater - A Darned Good Leavin' Alone
Eddy Clearwater - The Love I Have for You
Eddy Clearwater - I Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down
Comments
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
Plato's comment is exactly why when a volunteer is asked to lead a project I'm on, I always volunteer to be the lead. It's my personality because I don't like being led by dumbasses.
A co-worker let me know that donations are being taken here in NM for people in the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest. They plan to stay through the winter and are seeking warm clothing, canned food, water, etc. Some folks here will be leaving on Tuesday with the donations, so I'll be gathering items this weekend to send up. Wish I could be there!
WHEW! The world is all topsy turvey these days and getting topsier and turvier by the moment! So, on that note:
Have a beautiful weekend everyone!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Wasn't it Naomi Wolfe that wrote about the 10 signs of fascism?
One of them was when they start arresting journalists for doing their jobs. Amy Goodman was also arrested at the RNC convention a few years ago when all she did was asked why her reporter and camera man were arrested. She stepped over the tape to talk with a cop and he arrested her so hard that she had a separated shoulder.
Now she's being arrested again for reporting on the pipeline while the security forces that let dogs bite people including kids and pepper spray the protesters off?
Yeah I would say that the world is topsy turvey.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
main stream journalists
Read this morning that no main stream journalist have spoken out against the arrest of Amy Goodman in North Dakota. Not good news at all and now read in the Blues that FBI can impersonate a journalist!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
over at fair.org they had a piece about it:
My journalist will be covering it tomorrow over at TOP;
I'll cross-post here. Sad when a pootie out-journals the professional journalists.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Is this the article you saw?
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Global Analysis points out that Fascism is underway in the US.
Fascism came with the advent of monopoly capitalism — US style capitalism — which is the essence of contemporary fascism. Contemporary fascism rides on the back of Neoliberalism.
There is only one candidate representing fascism in the US. She must be defeated. And that merely begins the work of ending the fascism within which Americans live.
Fascist rule is fairly obvious in the US, if you think about it. It's certainly obvious to international observers who eye the US in much the same way they did Germany, back in the day.
Great action Raggedy Ann !
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening ra...
glad to hear that people are organizing to assist the standing rock sioux in protecting their water.
heh, the world's in a tangle:
have a great weekend!
Greetings
Thanks for the compendium. Sen-Say-Shun-Al!
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Hi NCTim, thanks for the song!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening tim...
dig the hyphens.
That thar's some guitaring!
I would tell Bernie it's not a "protest vote"
I saw him this morning on MSNBC. My vote for Jill Stein will be a vote to get the Green Party to 5 percent so they can be a "real" political party. It's not a "protest vote."
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
rmwarnick that is what we are doing as well.
Not the for the first time though, voted for her last time as well.
Here's a little fun for Friday night. That's me in the 11% down with Jill.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Good grief! What group was this so overwhelmingly for
Trump? And Jill Stein second??
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evening rmw...
bernie can put a sock in it as far as i'm concerned. my vote for jill stein in 2012 and the one that she will get in 2016 are my votes for the candidate that best represents my issues.
have a great weekend.
Syria and the Middle East is even more complicated
The political revolution continues
evening shockwave...
yep, the colonial powers have been messing with middle east so long that i'm not sure that it can be put back together at all.
I pretty much never read non-scientific academic research.
My experience was in molecular biology, all funding sources for the work were always listed at the end of the report. In my case, I can recall a charity (March of Dimes) and a Vet Pharma for a bit in one, otherwise, non-targeted funding like NIH, NSF. I would assume funding statements are required elsewhere. So it should be an easy paper trail to see who paid for a result they like. I suggest writers go to original sources, I guess good writers do.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
evening riverlover...
apparently, federal regulators and policy makers do not always require stringent reporting standards and/or are willing to accept highly manipulated work from biased sources.
edited - erased stuff that is unacceptable to swallow
for US readers. Sorry.
Unfortunately I don't get Bernie Sanders anymor.
Thanks for the EB and good evening to all.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
damn, and i missed it! poop!
have a great weekend!
I feared you wouldn't miss it and got scared
and full of "I am a
bitchinghating woman" guilt feelings.https://www.euronews.com/live
Hola, Joe & Bluesters! Quick (friendly) drive-by
to say, 'hi,' before 'the B' and I take a stroll. Thanks for tonight's excellent EB--I'll be swinging back later to read and listen to the rest of it.
Saw a ho-hum movie called The Edge last week. (Decent actors, though--Anthony Hopkins and Alex Baldwin.)
The best actor of all might have been 'Bart the Bear'--a male Kodiak Brown Bear who weighed in at 1500 lbs. Of course, we saw more than a few of these critters--dead and alive, during our years in Alaska. (We weren't hunters--the dead ones that we saw were in exhibits, etc.)
Boy, I have to take my hat off to actors who had the nerve to act with him--and, apparently, the list is quite long.
Here's a photo with his trainer/owner/'Daddy.'
He passed away in Utah at the age of 23 years. BTW, Joe, he was born in the Baltimore Zoo.
Hope Everyone has a wonderful weekend--remember, only 6 more days until Fall!
[Edit: 'Alec' not Alex--second time in a week, ugh! Added promotional photo from the movie, 'The Edge.' Added italics.]
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Update: Misty May has been adopted. Yeah!
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Happy Feline Friday!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Beautiful. Is this every Friday (feline friday) or
a special occasion?
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
That was my question the other day, EC. I'm thinking
that he may be 'tagging' his photos--which is a great idea, IMO.
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening do...
looks like somebody is feline groovy.
i hope that you guys are having a great time, though i'm surprised that wanderlust hasn't struck you by now.
:) We are thoroughly enjoying being homebodies for a change.
We have been back in Santa Fe a month and have yet to go out at night to hear any music!
We have been kayaking several times in fact I got us into trouble Monday going out when a thunderstorm was in sight. Afraid the intrepid Jakkalbessie was up in the front of our tandem inflatable Sea Eagle uttering a string of not too flattering adjectives to describe my assurances that the storm was moving slow and we would be okay. We clung to a rocky overhang up a finger of Abiquiu Lake which protected us from most of the high winds and watched the lightning show in the rain. The paddle back after the rain passed through some large waves next to the shore was 'exciting' to say the least, but we came through okay.
Some friends from Austin surprised us and called saying they were in NM and invited us out to join them camping out in the Jemez Mountains so we cranked up the Global Warmer truck camper and had a great time hiking, laughing, and telling lies. Good stuff.
Will be taking some Swiss friends camping and kayaking in Utah in October but for now we are really glad here wit you to read and enjoy the EB. Thanks for the work!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening mollie...
that bart the bear is an impressive creature! he's about the right age that i might have seen his parents when the kids were younger on a trip to the zoo. i always felt badly for the northern bears and especially the polar bears having to live through the hot and humid summers in baltimore.
Thanks joe for the Blues
I know a way to stop this
Quit inviting countries into NATO that are on Russia's doorsteps. Doesn't that make more sense?
This is not a number to be proud of. 762 Americans have been killed by our police force and what has Obama's DOJ done about it?
After Tamir was killed (and the cops lied when they said that they had told him 3 times in less than 2 seconds to put his gun down and his hands up) I learned that the DOJ had told Cleveland 10 years ago that they needed to clean up their act. When they investigated Cleveland's police forces again, they found that it hadn't done a damned thing to clean up its act.
So what good does it do to investigate, tell them to make changes and then not follow up to make sure that they are doing so?
And why is it that only white people get to carry a gun in open carry states? Never mind.
Have a good weekend joe, thanks for the Blues this week.
And thanks again for the extra links. Especially the one by RFK Jr. yesterday.
It sure explains the reason why Assad is being attacked. The same reason that other country's leaders are attached or removed.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
what, you want the powers-that-be to stop playing the global domination game?
i have a plan that i've been working on for years to fix this.
first, we find an island, quite remote but a pretty good size with pleasant weather, something that might be viewed as a tropical paradise.
then we name it "winners island," and install an assortment of villas, beach houses and recreation facilities. next, install lots of video cameras.
then we announce that we will be moving all of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people there, the world's winners. we collect all of the dictators, wall street tycoons, politicians and other ne'er do wells and ship them to the island.
every two weeks we ship them food, booze, cocaine, world-class chefs and hookers (all genders). we resurrect robin leach (the aptly-named host of "lifestyles of the rich and famous") and have him produce a show about what a wonderful time all these people are having on winners island.
we send them letters telling them how jealous we all are of their success and how we all one day hope to join them on the island. we send them occasional reports that suggest that the world is running pretty much the same way that it was when they were shipped to the island.
then, with the greedy, power-mad bastards gone, we set to making a decent world for regular folks.
oh, I know that island ... they just still hide the truth
to come out over there and still need their servers, serfs and "hard workers" who collect their trash. It's complex, you know.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Hello Bluesters, last night i wished you all Happy Friday. Heh.
Well let's try this again. Happy Friday!
Hey joe, thanks for the articles. One of the people we know and respect in Santa Fe was among those arrested. This is not his usual mo, but increasingly many are turning to civil disobedience to resist crimes against the climate.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=wildearth%20guardians
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
happy saturday!
i was really glad to see peaceful civil disobedience starting to happen in government offices. this administration needs to be pestered repeatedly and be called out in the media in order to make it act.
Evening joe and bluesters
Thanks for the news, but especially for tonight's blues. What a dynamic and soulful musician, with great warmth and humour.
[video:https://youtu.be/3FWjBV6Zkbo?list=PLREq7nx31CAss24vlUv1aAKFTlOTfEk_o]
evening janis...
eddy is one of those guys who should be better known. he's an excellent songwriter and a fine musician.
heh, he's also harmonica player carey bell's cousin:
a little history ...
http://www.eddyclearwater.com/bio.html
My take on Sanders is that he is doing what he can to stave
off the inevitable blame that will fall crashing onto his head as soon as she loses.
Here's a taste of what's to come:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
What a sad predicament.
Sanders will be blamed, and probably as a result have less of a voice in the political arena. In addition he'll lose some of the respect that he rightfully gained over the past year. It's hard to believe that things could possibly get worse, but they still do ; (
'Focus on the good, on peace, be soft... ' that's sort of
what the nice yoga lady teacher with all the amazing tats told us this am.
Good evening to you.
Wonder if anyone saw this interesting trivia found when I was trolling through twitter just now:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I do try,
and it does help ; )
Have a good evening, you both.
Some times its harder than others, even though to some
extent I buy into the 'thoughts are things' and 'we create our own reality' and try to live that.
Have a great weekend!
Namaste.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
i suppose there was no avoiding that...
even if he had run as an indie.
of course, since he ran as a democrat, the first thing that ran through my mind reading your comment was the old saw, "lay down with dogs and you get fleas."
Evening Joe and the Bluesters! I just received an email from
DWS-PAC!
I had tremendous satisfaction sending that sucker unopened to Spam, then telling them to unsubscribe me.
I kinda hope they don't, so I can troll them repeatedly!
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
evening ec...
i have to say, i am quite enjoying reading all the despairing emails that michelle, barack and nancy pelosi (among others) are sending.
I don't know how I managed that, but I get those
begging love letters only in my junk mail folder. (yeah including dailykos') I don't know who I have to thank for that, Google or Microsoft, but I have to admit I am in approval of their preselection.
https://www.euronews.com/live
OFFS! I can't believe the desperation in those emails
Isn't Wall Street, AIPAC, Saben Buffet and the Podesta sup pacs and other pac raising enough money for Hillary?
What about all those superstar fundraisers that Bill, Hillary and Obama have been doing?
If they think my $1 donation is going to help put the Clintons in the WH, I have a bridge for sale.
But I do like how desperate they are about Trump winning.
Imagine if they had backed the candidate that polls showed him winning over Trump by a large margin.
Idiots!
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
they don't need the money at all...
clinton is awash in cash and the 1% will keep her swaddled in the stuff. she is their candidate.
they are begging for $1 donations on the theory that people that "invest" in a candidate are more likely to get out and vote for them.
the dems have an enormous problem with voter motivation. for some reason hillary just doesn't excite voters, except for those that hate her guts. it's probably going to have a big effect down-ballot as well, kind of a reverse-coattails effect.
You nailed, it--including the 'reverse-coattails effect.' EOM
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I admit, mine sit unopened. They're confused? This isn't what
they expected? Gee, maybe they should have listened to us throughout the primaries, when we were telling them to pick Bernie. When the polls showed Bern winning over Trump by wide margins. When any schmoe (sp?) from flyover country could have told them that the "populist" "non-establishment" candidates would win. A little late for them to realize now how pissed off middle America is. At any rate, I agree with Snoopy. Let the Clintons get their wealthy buddies to support the down-ticket campaigns. Dem all-stars Obama, Biden and Pelosi? Puhleez. Where are George Clooney, Beyoncé, and Ben Affleck?
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Wow!
That makes me cringe with embarrassment and pity.
They're speaking from way out in right field
Where someone invents this shpiel for them "We thought the progressive community would give everything ..."
Haha got to find our fun where we can !
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
A Basket Full Of Racists
I take a couple of days off and what happens? joeshickspack drops some clickbait on me. Course I gotta bite. From also of interest:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/16/the-revenge-of-the-deplorables/
And The Pasadena Journal replies:
http://pasadenajournal.com/a-basket-full-of-deplorables-tell-it-like-it-is/
Okay! I'm glad we got that cleared up. Or did we? Wait a minute. According to Revenge of The Deplorables from Counterpunch:
Well it's hard to disagree with the editorial position of a "locally owned and operated African American Newspaper" that Trump has openly racist supporters. So I guess Joe Hopkins, the Pasadena Journal publisher, doesn't know Hillary is more racist than Trump when measured by deeds rather than words. Or something.
Is this a great country or what?. It's the or what? part that has me worried.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn