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This evening's music features r&b and jump blues musician Peppermint Harris. Enjoy!

The Middle Class, a popular figure in American folklore, died this week after a long battle with capitalism. Its passing has been expected since the recent death of its partner, The American Dream.

-- Hamilton Nolan

News and Opinion

States throw money at military bases to keep them open

States with large military bases are filling what is traditionally the federal government's role by picking up the tab for construction and repairs, saying they can't afford not to.

The number of states willing to spend taxpayer money to fix infrastructure in military facilities, and the scale of the projects, has increased steadily in the past five years. State officials argue that the Pentagon keeps asking for base closings, and they want to protect their bases and the revenue they bring in.

Essentially, states are treating their bases like large corporations they want to keep within their borders, and at least one high-ranking Navy official says it's a good idea. Connecticut has been a leader, setting aside $40 million to improve aging infrastructure at the naval submarine base there, much like it's also spending hundreds of millions of dollars to keep companies in Connecticut and create jobs.

"We are changing the ways we think about military bases," said Bob Ross, executive director of Connecticut's Office of Military Affairs. "These are big commercial enterprises. They are publicly financed, but there is so much commercial activity that goes on at these bases, you have to look at them the same way you look at a corporation." ...

Of the nearly two dozen states where the military has a major presence, slightly more than half have spent state money to fix infrastructure on military installations, the Association of Defense Communities has found. ... Of the states with a major military presence that aren't investing within a base, most have paid for improvements to the schools, roads or housing just outside, the Association of Defense Communities found.

Servicemen Contradict Military's Account Of Attack On MSF Hospital In Afghanistan

Two servicemen have told Congress that American special forces called in an air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan because they believed the Taliban were using it as a command center, contradicting the military's explanation that the attack was meant for a different building.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, quoted the servicemen without naming them in a letter he sent Tuesday to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The letter highlights gaps in the military's explanation of an October air strike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that killed 31 civilians.

Hunter said the accounts provided to him raise the possibility that the U.S. was manipulated by its Afghan partners into attacking the hospital. If true, that would be a setback in the U.S. effort to work with and train a local force capable of securing that country.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said the secretary had received the letter but the Defense Department would not comment. Hunter declined to identify the servicemen because he said they feared disciplinary action. ...

Hunter's letter questioned how the military could misidentify an internationally run hospital that had been operating for years, given the billions of dollars that have been spent on technology designed to help commanders understand their battlespace.

'Perpetrators Can't Also Be Judges': War Crime Probe Demanded at White House Gate

Wearing white lab coats, workers with the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders and their supporters on Wednesday delivered boxes and boxes of petitions to the White House gates bearing the signatures of more than half a million people who are reiterating the call: "Even war has rules."

In the more than two months since the U.S. military bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the Obama administration has thus far refused to respond to the medical charity's demand for an independent investigation.

Now, more than 540,000 people from across the globe have added their voice to that call. "With the delivery of this petition to the gates of White House, we continue to fight back for the respect of the Geneva Conventions," Jason Cone, executive director of MSF-USA, declared during a rally in Washington, D.C.'s Lafeyette Park on Wednesday.

Will Congress Use Trump's Racist Rhetoric to Create Second Class Americans?

If you thought Donald Trump's divisive, bigoted and blatantly racist rhetoric was just a reflection of the silliness we always face during primary campaigns, think again. This bigotry is not only dominating the news cycle and winning Trump Republican primary votes. It's directly trickling into to new legislation that Congress is currently considering -- legislation that will effectively create two classes of Americans. Americans with Middle Eastern or Muslim background, and Americans without that background.

Here's how: Congresswoman Candice Miller (R-MI) introduced a bill (H.R.158), set for a House vote today, that revises the Visa Waiver Program. That program enables citizens to travel within 38 countries including the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea, without a visa. Miller's bill changes the program by excluding dual-nationals from Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Sudan or anyone who has travelled to those countries in the past five years from the program. So if you are an Iranian-Brit or Syrian-Brit who grew up in the UK and haven't set foot in Iran or Syrian for the past 30 years, you would be barred from the program simply because of your country of origin.

But it gets worse.

Precisely because the visa waiver program is based on reciprocity, it will very likely trigger reciprocal restrictions from Europe and participating countries. So if the US, for instance excludes Iraqi-Europeans from the program, Europe would likely exclude Iraqi-Americans from the program in turn.

And then suddenly, Congress's actions will have led to the creation of two-classes of American passport holders. ...

America knows, of course, all too well what it means when Americans are legislated to be unequal in the eyes of the law. This is discriminatory, it is draconian, and it is a dangerous slippery slope.

Cruz Threatens to Nuke ISIS Targets

As Republican presidential candidates lined up to one-up each other about how they would fight Islamic terrorism, many mainstream pundits questioned the hysteria and took particular aim at billionaire Donald Trump for seeking a moratorium on admitting Muslims to the United States, but Trump’s proposal was far from the most outrageous.

Getting much less attention was a statement by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is considered by many a more likely GOP nominee than Trump. Cruz suggested that the United States should nuke the territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by Islamic State militants.

“I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out,” Cruz told a Tea Party rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In reference to Cruz’s comment, a New York Times editorial added, “whatever that means.” But the phrase “glow in the dark” popularly refers to the aftermath of a nuclear bomb detonation.

In other words, Cruz was making it clear to his audience that he would be prepared to drop a nuclear bomb on Islamic State targets. While the bombastic senator from Texas was probably engaging in hyperbole – as he also vowed to “carpet bomb them into oblivion” – the notion of a major candidate for President cavalierly suggesting a nuclear strike would normally be viewed as disqualifying, except perhaps in this election cycle.

Pentagon Blasts Ted Cruz’s Proposals That Would Lead to ‘Apocalyptic War’

Testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva rejected Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R – TX) recent calls to “carpet bomb” ISIS into oblivion.

Sen. Cruz made the comments at a weekend campaign visit to Iowa, vowing to find out “if sand can glow in the dark.” ...

This is the second time in as many days the Pentagon has faulted a presidential candidate’s policy suggestions, though in this case it was prompted by questions from Sen. McCaskill. Yesterday, the Pentagon criticized Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from the United States on similar grounds, warning it played into ISIS’ recruitment message of the US being at war with Islam as a whole.

Defense Secretary: ISIS Would Love Large US Ground Presence

Facing growing calls from Congressional hawks to escalate the war against ISIS with a dramatic increase in the number of ground troops, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter defended the current strategy of sending primarily special forces, insisting the US can’t “substitute” for a local force fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Carter added that ISIS “would love nothing more than a large presence of US forces,” saying it would not only greatly help ISIS recruitment, but that the US “could well turn those fighting ISIS or inclined to resist their rule into fighting us instead.”

Why is it only the Russian reporter that is willing to ask the Obama administration some of the questions that need to be asked about it war policies?

US go on sending troops to Iraq & Syria

Erdogan: Turkish troops in Iraq at Iraqi PM's request since 2014

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish troops had been stationed at a military base in northern Iraq at the request of Iraq's leader since 2014, but Iraq had not made it an issue until this week, al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday. ...

On Saturday, Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to demand that Turkey immediately withdraw hundreds of troops deployed in recent days to northern Iraq, near the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul.

The Iraqi ministry said in a statement the Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of the central government in Baghdad, and that Iraq considered such presence "a hostile act".

Iraq Downplays Dispute, But Militias Threaten to Confront Turkish Forces

Iraq has approached the UN Security Council and NATO over last Friday’s incursion of Turkish troops into the Nineveh Province, but officials tried to downplay the dispute, saying they believe bilateral talks with Turkey will ultimately resolve the situation.

Shi’ite militias backing the Iraqi government don’t seem to be on the same page, however, with some threatening direct attacks on the Turkish troops, and the largest, the Badr Brigade, vowing the unwelcome forces “will pay dearly because of Turkish arrogance.”

In practice, the Shi’ite militias are nowhere near the Turkish troops, so near-term clashes are unlikely.

Kim Jong-un Says North Korea Has an H-Bomb — But No One Believes Him

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un made a rare appearance on Thursday to claim his country has successfully developed a hydrogen bomb — but outside experts were skeptical.

Kim made the comments as he toured the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, which is dedicated to his father Kim Jung-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the official KCNA news agency said.

The work of Il-sung "turned the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name] into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," KCNA quoted Jong-un as saying.

A hydrogen bomb, also known as a thermonuclear bomb, uses more advanced technology to produce a significantly more powerful blast than an atomic attack.

But pretty much no one outside the hermit kingdom was convinced that North Korea had actually acquired the technology. An official at South Korea's intelligence agency told Yonhap news agency there was no evidence that the North had hydrogen bomb capacity, and believed Kim was speaking rhetorically.

Argentina: Cristina Fernández exits stage left, but for how long?

With a massive turnout of teary-eyed crowds who filled the wide Plaza de Mayo square and overflowed down its adjoining avenues, Argentina bid farewell on Wednesday evening to its outgoing president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, perhaps the country’s best-loved leader since the return of democracy 32 years ago.

But as Argentina prepared to complete a tetchy handover on Thursday to the former Buenos Aires mayor, Mauricio Macri, supporters were already calling for her to come back and anticipating the political battles to follow succession.

“We will return, we will return,” chanted the tightly packed wall of supporters outside the Casa Rosada presidential palace. Many of them carried placards reading “Cristina 2019”, expressing the hope that Fernández might compete for a third term.

Having already served twice, the leftwing leader was constitutionally barred from running in this year’s contest, which was won by Macri of the centre-right Cambiemos alliance.

The pro-business politician is expected to steer Argentina away from the populist economics of Fernández and the alliances she wove with countries such as Russia, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. He has said he will seek to restore former close ties with the US and Europe.

South America hacker team targets dissidents, journalists

A shadowy cyber-espionage group that sent malware to the prosecutor whose mysterious death transfixed Argentina early this year has been hitting targets in left-leaning nations across South America, the Internet watchdog group Citizen Lab reported Wednesday.

The breadth and brazenness of the hackers' activity bear the hallmarks of state sponsorship. So do its targets.

The group has been attacking opposition figures and independent journalists in Ecuador with spyware. It also ran dummy websites. The most elaborate, geared toward Venezuela, is a constantly updated news site featuring dubiously sourced "scoops" on purported corruption among the ruling socialists. In Ecuador, a similarly faux site seemed tailored to attract disgruntled police officers.

The researchers launched the three-month probe after determining that spyware found on the smartphone of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was written to send pilfered data to the same command-and-control structure as malware sent to targets infected in Ecuador. They said the hackers had a "keen and systematic interest in the political opposition and the independent press" in the three nations, all run by allied left-wing governments. That suggests it may have operated on behalf of one or more of those governments, the 60-page report said. ...

The group has used the same Internet domains for years despite some exposure, a technical convenience that would be shunned by garden-variety cybercriminals wary of being caught by law enforcement agencies.

Security or Surveillance: Privacy vs anti-terror security in digital age

Feinstein proposes social media rules as FBI says shooters talked jihad in 2013

FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the husband and wife team that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last week were talking to each other as far back as 2013 about committing violence, before they were engaged and she received a visa allowing her into the United States.

The revelation raises questions about how Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik was able to obtain a K-1 fiancée visa to enter the United States in July of 2014 and then a green card giving her permanent residency after she married Syed Rizwan Farook, an American citizen, a month later.

The fact the pair were discussing “jihad and martyrdom” online before they apparently even met also raises questions about the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance program, which was in full force at the time and supported by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and whether the government should do more in the cyber-hunt for potential terrorists.

[Oops, I guess "collecting the whole haystack" is not as effective as touted. Surprise! - js]

Feinstein is introducing a bill that would require social media companies to report “knowledge of any terrorist activity” – a proposal that Silicon Valley worries could lead to the violation of privacy of innocent users.

[Because social media companies breathlessly read each and every posting that individuals make on their sites and know when somebody is proposing terrorism as opposed to telling their friends, "you da bomb!" - js]

... Facebook said in a statement that it “has zero tolerance for terrorists, terror propaganda, or the praising of terror activity and we work aggressively to remove it as soon as we become aware of it. If we become aware of a threat of imminent harm or a planned terror attack, our terms permit us to provide that information to law enforcement and we do.”

Comey Calls on Tech Companies Offering End-to-End Encryption to Reconsider “Their Business Model”

FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday called for tech companies currently offering end-to-end encryption to reconsider their business model, and instead adopt encryption techniques that allow them to intercept and turn over communications to law enforcement when necessary.

End-to-end encryption, which is the state of the art in providing secure communications on the internet, has become increasingly common and desirable in the wake of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance by the government.

Comey had previously argued that tech companies could somehow come up with a “solution” that allowed for government access but didn’t weaken security. Tech experts called this a “magic pony” and mocked him for his naivete.

Now, Comey said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, extensive conversations with tech companies have persuaded him that “it’s not a technical issue.” ...

“There are plenty of companies today that provide secure services to their customers and still comply with court orders,” he said. “There are plenty of folks who make good phones who are able to unlock them in response to a court order. In fact, the makers of phones that today can’t be unlocked, a year ago they could be unlocked.”

Weak encryption won't defeat terrorists – but it will enable hackers

After months and months of telling the American public that cybersecurity was the nation’s number one priority and that it’s “impossible to overstate” the threat from hackers, the FBI director and many senators spent Wednesday calling for a law that would indisputably weaken online security for everyone.

In the name of fighting terrorism, and emboldened by the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, the FBI director Jim Comey was in front of Congress again trying to scare Americans about the supposed dangers of encrypted messaging apps that are used by billions of people. ...

Virtually all of the senators fawned all over his remarks and pledged to go even farther than the FBI director wanted. Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member on the powerful Intelligence committee, said she was working on a bill to outlaw such encryption tools. She recently called encryption - the bedrock for not only privacy and security, but e-commerce and the entire web infrastructure – the “internet’s achilles heel”. Are these the type of technological illiterates we want crafting sweeping laws that will affect our technology for years?

Even Comey admitted this type of law wouldn’t stop terrorists from using encryption. After all, they’ve been using encryption for decades, and even now, the top five encrypted applications Isis supposedly recommends to their followers are either open-source (meaning the code is already all over the internet), made by companies in other countries, or both. ... So basically what the FBI director is proposing is that we lower everyone’s security for the applications that are popular with hundreds of millions of people – even if terrorists will still be able to use encryption unimpeded. Is this really what we want to do, all in the name of “keeping us safe”?

This is what "Justice" in America looks like:

Justice Scalia: minority students may be better off going to 'lesser schools'

A US supreme court justice has suggested that black students may benefit from the end of affirmative action admissions policies in US universities because many are “pushed ahead too fast” and should go to “lesser schools” instead.

The comments by Antonin Scalia came as conservatives on the court gave a sympathetic hearing to a white student who claims she was deprived of a place at the University of Texas due to her race.

Abigail Fisher graduated two years ago from Louisiana State University instead, but the court was warned that the number of minority students on US college campuses could “plummet” if her appeal against UT is successful – something Scalia suggested could be no bad thing.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school, where they do well,” he said.

“One of the [legal] briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.”

Justice Scalia made clear he shared this view and also suggested these “lesser schools” suffered by having minority students admitted to unsuitable elite institutions.

Freedom of Press Launches Fundraiser to Aid Heroic Journalists in Police Brutality Investigations

A major scandal is currently engulfing the Chicago Police Department and the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel. It was all triggered by disclosure of a horrific video showing what appears to be the cold-blooded murder by a police officer of 17-year-old African-American Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times. ... For more than a year, the city fought to suppress that video, ensuring Emanuel’s re-election could proceed without knowledge of what happened. ...

That this video is now public is largely due to the heroic, relentless work of a young independent journalist in Chicago, Brandon Smith. Numerous large media outlets filed requests for that video under the state’s FOIA laws, and simply took “no” for an answer when the city claimed its release would jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Smith, however, regarded the city’s claims with skepticism rather than blind reverence, retained his own lawyers, and sued the city in court. He won, and a Chicago judge ordered release of the video. ...

Today, Freedom of the Press Foundation is announcing a new crowd-sourced fundraising campaign called the Transparency for Police Fund, which “will fund local journalists around the United States to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other transparency lawsuits aimed at uncovering police misconduct and video evidence of brutality against unarmed men and women.” The first two recipients are Smith as well as Invisible Institute, a journalism and transparency group in the South Side of Chicago that was also instrumental in forcing release of the McDonald tape.

Future recipients of the fund will be named in 2016 based on feedback from local communities and their work in exposing police brutality. Police brutality is a massive, out-of-control, and woefully under-reported pathology in the U.S., overwhelmingly affecting the poorest and most marginalized communities, with racially disparate harm. Few factions need greater accountability and journalistic scrutiny than the nation’s police departments.

Protesters Flood Downtown Chicago After Mayor Apologizes for Laquan McDonald Case

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, under heavy criticism for his handling of the fatal police shooting of a black teen, gave an emotional apology on Wednesday but angry crowds closed city streets to demand his resignation hours later.

In a special address to the City Council, the mayor said "I'm sorry," and promised "complete and total reform of the system."

Emanuel's speech was met with applause from the City Council, but protesters said the city's actions do not go far enough. Hundreds of mostly young demonstrators filled downtown on Wednesday, temporarily shutting down some streets and chanting "no more killer cops," and "Rahm must go."

The crowd of protesters outside City Hall on Wednesday chanted "16 shots and a cover-up," and also called for the resignation of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who has been criticized for taking more than a year to charge Van Dyke. The protesters were mostly in their teens and twenties — and three teenagers were arrested on unknown charges.

South Africans sue drinks giant for exploiting 'black empowerment' policies

A South African company is being sued by 150 of its former employees who say they were exploited under the guise of “black economic empowerment” policies.

The drivers allege that a business owned by the world’s largest brewer, SABMiller, exploited a flagship affirmative action programme to cut costs.

The drivers are now seeking 6.3bn rand (£270m) in compensation from Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI), claiming they were pressured to switch from being employees into “owner-drivers” to make it look as if the company had “empowered” them.

But the drivers claim that restrictive conditions and unfair contracts meant they spiralled into debt as independent small business owners, while SABMiller and ABI avoided liability under South Africa’s labour laws.

Eventually, many drivers say their contracts with ABI were summarily terminated when they could no longer make their payments to the company for stock and vehicles.

The “owner-driver” scheme is a major component of SABMiller’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, and it has ensured compliance with the government’s Black Economic Empowerment policy, South Africa’s version of affirmative action.

No budget deal in sight as deadline looms

Right now, there's no deal in sight to fund the federal government.

House leaders are bracing for a long week, a potential weekend session and more negotiations next week as Republicans and Democrats have failed to come to an agreement on how to fund federal agencies until October 2016.

In all likelihood, the House will vote Friday on a short-term government funding measure to avoid a shutdown, giving Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi more time to negotiate.

Still at issue are policy riders covering environmental issues, Western land concerns and how to address Syrian refugees seeking to come to the United States. One deal discussed included Democrats agreeing to lift a U.S. oil-export ban in exchange for Republicans dropping many of their environmental policy demands. ...

A high-profile tax extenders package is hung up amid partisan bickering over the cost and scope of provisions related to middle-class families, which Democrats want to expand. Republican tax-writers, however, want to ensure that there is not fraud or abuse in these programs and are insisting on more "program integrity" checks.

Deepening Inequality Driving US Middle Class into Oblivion

For the first time in more than four decades, middle-income households have lost their majority status in the U.S., according to new findings, and are now outnumbered by their counterparts on opposite ends of the income spectrum.

Based on the definition used in the Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, the share of American adults living in middle-income households—that is, with an income that is two-thirds to double that of the overall median household income, or $42,000 to $126,000 annually in 2014—has fallen from a high of 61 percent in 1971 to 50 percent in 2015.

At the same time, the share living in the upper-income tier jumped from 14 percent to 21 percent over the same period, and the share in the lower-income tier rose from 25 percent to 29 percent.

"The hollowing of the middle has proceeded steadily for four decades, and it may have reached a tipping point," the Pew study suggests. Furthermore, a "closer look at the shift out of the middle reveals that a deeper polarization is underway in the American economy."

Donald Trump’s Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Amplified on Local Talk Radio

Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigrants is being amplified by media programs millions of Americans listen to every day: talk radio.

“My only problem with Trump’s comments is that they don’t go far enough,” Dale Jackson of 1070WAPI said during his morning talk radio program in Birmingham and Huntsville on Tuesday. Jackson called for an end to all immigration. “We are not the world’s garbage can.”

Nick Reed, a talk radio host with Missouri’s KSGF, spent much of his morning program Tuesday praising Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration. “What is there not to like about Donald Trump’s plan?” he asked.

As Buzzfeed reported Tuesday, the biggest names in talk radio — Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin — “showed different levels of sympathy for Trump’s idea.”

Making the US a Petro-State: White House Keeps Alive GOP Hopes for Lifting the Oil Export Ban

Short and brutally ugly. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. The White House is reportedly the chief negotiator on behalf of Big Oil's attempt to lift the crude oil export ban. As part of the government shutdown negotiation, the White House, in collusion with Democrats in the Senate, is willing to lift the crude oil export ban in exchange for "renewable energy ... conservation benefits ... and other party priorities"

To be clear, lifting the four-decades-old crude oil export ban would be a disaster. In particular, it would:

• ... Throw a lifeline to struggling U.S. oil producers, many of whom are terribly over-leveraged and would otherwise default on their debt. (This is one reason API wants the ban lifted so badly.)
• Bail out the industry's debt-holders (banks and other entities), whose money is at risk should these oil producers fail (yes, another bank bailout).
• Add a great deal to the carbon that enters the atmosphere by removing a choke-point for bringing extracted U.S. carbon to the global market. (Think of this as offsetting the Keystone pipeline rejection. Instead of preventing carbon from coming to the market, this would enable it.) ...

Bottom line, President "good on carbon" Obama and the White House are the driving force behind a Big Oil top priority, if it can traded for "other party priorities." For perspective, realize we have to strangle fossil fuel production and consumption, not enable it, to have a hope in hell of surviving the chaos that's about to be locked in. Obama, the Republicans, and every Democrat in Congress who votes Yes to lifting this ban is voting to end your children's future, not preserve it.

Obama Accused of Giving Poor Nations a "Poison Chalice" by Skirting U.S. Climate Responsibility

In Paris, Banks Pledge Cuts in Coal as Oil Financing Flows

The looming Grand Palais in the center of Paris this week plays host to a climate “solutions” exhibition. Pass through the expo’s three layers of security and under the palace’s cherub-studded entry and you’ll see that just about anything can be spun as climate-change prevention. Take Coca-Cola: Did you realize that Coke is a product local to France? Or think about Bic pens: Did you know that their long writing life is actually a carbon emissions reduction strategy?

Banks are on board too, divesting from big bad coal (or at least investing less) just in time for the international climate conference known as COP21, which is in its second and final week. ... Amsterdam-based ING Bank made one of the most straightforward commitments: It won’t invest in any more coal power plants, coal mines, or companies for which coal makes up more than half their business. But that doesn’t mean it’s going fossil free. I approached ING’s head of sustainability, Léon Wijnands, after a climate conference panel on sustainable finance to ask him what conditions would lead ING to divest from oil. He replied that ING “would not walk away from oil, because there is no alternative to oil.” ...

In a nutshell, there is no oil industry without the banks. The industry is practically an appendage of the finance sector and would wither and rot away without the flow of cash pumping out of investors like ING. And although oil prices have plummeted lately, it’s not likely banks will soon wash their hands of oil the way they are of coal.

So while coal divestment by banks can be seen as a promising sign that political pressure can wield surprising actions from the architects of global climate change, to believe these banks are “going green” is akin to believing Coca-Cola’s newest diet brand Life won’t rot your teeth. ...

What can be said about the Paris talks without any hedging is that they’re an incredible rebranding opportunity for any conceivable product. And for banks and governments alike, divestment from politically unpopular coal can serve as a shiny distraction from deeper entrenchments in the oil sector.

Why is Saudi Arabia Undermining COP21 When Climate Change Could Make the Gulf Uninhabitable?

Climate change could leave Chesapeake Bay island uninhabitable in 50 years

You don’t have to travel to a balmy Pacific island to hear the anguish of people whose land and culture is under threat from climate change. In Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay, the idiosyncratic, and historic, community of Tangier Island is facing an uncertain future as the sea gnaws away at the land beneath them.

A bird’s eye view of the island, just three miles long and one mile wide, would once have taken in a hook-shaped piece of land jutting out from the middle of the bay. The shape is more a teardrop these days, with erosion occurring at a bewildering rate.

A new report by the US army corps of engineers, published in Scientific Reports, shows that just 33% of Tangier Island’s landmass in 1850 now remains. The main town of Tangier will be uninhabitable within 50 years if the current rate of sea level rise continues.

The western portion of the island is crumbling into the sea like a wet cake. Around 14ft a year is lost to the sea. The eastern half is being eaten away too, albeit at a slower rate. The creeks that twist their way throughout the island are set to swell and break up the island into fragments, engineers warn.

Schulte says Tangier is being swamped by a “perfect storm” that is pushing the sea level increase to almost double the global average of a 3.5mm rise each year. An unhappy confluence of changing Atlantic currents, glacial retreat and sinking soils due to groundwater extraction risks turning this slice of American heritage into washed-out husk.

Also of Interest

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

For the State Blowback Is a Feature, Not a Bug

CBS Chief Cheers Trump: “Go Donald! Keep Getting Out There!”

We Mexicans welcome Muslims as the new Public Enemy Number One

Thanks to Republicans, Nearly a Quarter of Florida’s Black Citizens Can’t Vote

What Next for Venezuela?

George Washington University Allows Flags to Fly From Dorm Rooms — Unless They’re Palestinian

The 'New Democrats' Meet the New Reality

A Little Night Music

Peppermint Harris - I Got Loaded

Peppermint Harris - Raining In My Heart

Peppermint Harris - Maggie's Boogie

Peppermint Harris - There's A Dead Cat On The Line

Peppermint Harris - Bye Bye Fare Thee Well

Peppermint Harris - Fat Girl Boogie

Peppermint Harris - Middle Of Winter

Peppermint Harris - Cadillac Funeral

Peppermint Harris - Goodbye Blues

Peppermint Harris - I Don't Care

Peppermint Harris - Ain't No Business

Peppermint Harris - Angel Child

Peppermint Harris - I've Often Wondered

Peppermint Harris - Bad Bad Whiskey + Lonesome as can be

Peppermint Harris - It's You Yes It's You

Peppermint Harris - Black Cat Bone

Peppermint Harris - Come on let's ride

Peppermint Harris - Mama Mama

Peppermint Harris - My Blues Have Rolled Away

Peppermint Harris - Blues Pick on Me