Good morning 99percenters!
Sunday morning news dump and music by one of the bands I cut my bluegrass teeth on, Country Gazette.

Historic Climate Deal Reached, But Campaigners say the Work is Just Beginning
'This deal puts the fossil fuel industry on the wrong side of history.'—Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International

The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal (pdf).  But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning.

While Reuters described the deal's adoption as "setting the course for a 'historic' transformation of the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming," commentator George Monbiot writes Saturday of the draft agreement, "By comparison to what it could have been, it’s a miracle. By comparison to what it should have been, it’s a disaster." 

How Rainforest Action Network viewed the deal—"with both hope and disappointment"—captures the takeaway from Monbiot as well as many groups.

Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo's take at the end of the talks was that the agreement marks "only one step on long a road, and there are parts of it that frustrate and disappoint me, but it is progress. This deal alone won’t dig us out the hole we’re in, but it makes the sides less steep."

The DuPont and Dow Chemical Merger: Bad Deal for People and the Planet
Groups are calling on the Department of Justice to reject the deal to protect food supply

Watchdog groups are sounding the alarm after two of the oldest and largest corporations in the United States—DuPont and Dow Chemical—announced Friday plans to merge into a $130 billion giant, thereby establishing the world's biggest seed and pesticide conglomerate.

The new behemoth, named DowDuPont, would then be split into "three independent, publicly traded companies through tax-free spin-offs," according to a joint corporate statement marking one of the the largest deals of 2015.

These companies would focus on agriculture, material science, and "technology and innovation-driven Specialty Products company," the statement continues. Together, they would form the second-largest chemical company world-wide.

The merger, if it goes through, is expected to slash numerous jobs.

We’re officially a country of haves and have nots: The middle class is now less than half the population
Their numbers have been dipping for decades. Now the Pew Research Center confirms we've reached a tipping point

Even without hard and fast numbers in front of them, most Americans are keenly—and more than ever, personally—aware of the erosion of the middle class. It has become a popular talking point in our news media, an issue every politician has to at least pretend to care about. A new study from Pew Research Center makes it official: after four decades as the largest portion of the American populace, the country’s middle class has dipped to less than half, or 49.9 percent, of the population. Researchers, noting that the numbers have been slowly dwindling over decades, suggest this latest finding likely indicates a tipping point in the disappearance of the middle class.

Households of three with incomes between $42,000 and $126,000 were identified as middle-income earners under the terms of the study. As of 2015, that definition fit 120.8 million adult Americans, while a total of 121.3 million adults qualified as low or upper income. The proportion of middle-class Americans has tumbled to where it now stands from 61 percent in 1971. And even that figure seems slightly shaky considering middle class means different things to different people. Even casting aside uber-expensive cities like New York and San Francisco, supporting a family of three on $42,000 a year would present challenges even in the most affordable parts of the country.

If there is good news to be found—and Pew somehow located it, presumably with a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers—it is that some of the middle class dropoff has transferred to upper-income households. Researchers observed that while just 14 percent of American adults were upper-income in 1971, that bloc now represents 21 percent of the population. That outpaced the number of Americans who slipped downward, which grew by only four points, from 25 percent in 1971 to 29 percent in 2015. But this strikes me as almost irrationally optimistic thinking: In a country where the wealth gap between the middle class and the upper class is the widest it has been since the numbers were tracked (another finding from Pew), there’s not exactly cause to celebrate the promise of economic mobility.

We are addicted to war: The simple statistics that help explain how the world views America
Americans like to call themselves a "peace-loving nation." The numbers show that's not actually the case

A 2011 survey, “The Frequency of War,” based on the Correlates of War dataset, from 1870 to 2001, found the U.S. in second place with 161 conflicts, compared to 219 for Russia/USSR and 151 for China.

But today, we clearly stand alone as No. 1: In early 2014, Nick Turse reported in The Nation that “In 2013, elite U.S. forces were deployed in 134 countries around the globe, according to Maj. Matthew Robert Bockholt of SOCOM Public Affairs.” This represented a “123 percent increase during the Obama years.” No one else is even remotely close. But it’s been a long time coming.

Wikipedia’s “Timeline of United States military operations,” based on a 2004 Congressional Research Service report, does not include covert actions like those we wage so freely now. But it’s a useful reference nonetheless, and conveniently divided into decades. The 1800s were the most peaceful, with just three conflicts, followed by the 1930s, with just four. Clearly, we have it in our power to be a much more peaceful, less bellicose nation, since we have been so for whole decades at a time.

Russia Losing Its Battle Against Jihadists in Syria

According to Russia’s Defense Minister on Friday December 11th, Russia had underestimated the jihadist forces in Syria when it entered the war against them on September 30th. Whereas at that time the estimated number of jihadists fighting there was 30,000, the current estimate is 60,000. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu says, “The Islamic State area of influence is expanding. Militants have seized about 70% of the Syrian territory. The number of terrorists amounts to about 60,000 people.” 

The report from Tass says that, “Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov earlier said that from 25,000 to 30,000 foreigners, including from Russia, were fighting in the ranks of Islamic State. The CIA estimated the number of militants at about 30,000 people.”

The jihadist problem is thus now twice what it was estimated to have been on September 30th. On 2 October 2015, Reuters bannered “Russian air strikes in Syria to last three-four months: Putin ally,” but now this timetable seems almost certain to be pushed way back.

Crimea Loses Power Temporarily, Ukraine Loses Crimea Forever

In an under-reported incident in which Russian Crimea's power lines were severed from Ukraine, leaving the peninsula and over 2 million residents in darkness for over a week, it has become clear to the world the tenuous grip Kiev and its NATO backers actually have over the "Ukraine" they claim they preside over.

It would be Russia through an underwater cable that would begin restoring power to Crimea. While rhetoric regarding Crimea is still strong on both sides, it is the actions of both Ukraine and its NATO backers versus Russia that appear to finally be answering the "Crimea question" if there even was such a question.

Russia Restores Power, Asserts Sovereignty 

In the first week of December, the International Business Times would report in their article, "Vladimir Putin inaugurates Crimea energy bridge during surprise visit," that:

President Vladimir Putin has inaugurated the first leg of a power line between the Russian mainland and Crimea in a surprise visit to the peninsula. His visit to the strategically important territory comes after the region plunged into darkness over widespread power outage. 

Crimea, which Moscow claims to have been hit by Ukraine's energy blockade, will start receiving power supply from Russia once the "electricity bridge" is completed. The undersea cable project was scheduled to have been completed by the end of December but it has been brought forward after Crimean power supply was knocked off.

Blocking Democracy as Syria’s Solution

By Robert Parry

The solution to the crisis in Syria could be democracy – letting the people of Syria decide who they want as their leaders – but it is the Obama administration and its regional Sunni “allies,” including U.S.-armed militants and jihadists, that don’t want to risk a democratic solution because it might not achieve the long-held goal of “regime change.”

Some Syrian opposition forces, which were brought together under the auspices of the Saudi monarchy in Riyadh this past week, didn’t even want the word “democracy” included in their joint statement. The New York Times reported on Friday, “Islamist delegates objected to using the word ‘democracy’ in the final statement, so the term ‘democratic mechanism’ was used instead, according to a member of one such group who attended the meeting.”

Even that was too much for Ahrar al-Sham, one of the principal jihadist groups fighting side-by-side with Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, the two key elements inside the Saudi-created Army of Conquest, which uses sophisticated U.S.-supplied TOW missiles to kill Syrian government troops.

The Monstrous Foreign-Policy Lie That Goes Unreported by the Mainstream Media
Obama, Hillary, Cheney and others pretend Trump has gone too far, while themselves guiding murderous policies.

Here is a good thought experiment: Would you rather a country bar you from entry or have that country bomb your house?

This question has not occurred to President Obama, Hillary Clinton, the mainstream media, or bleeding heart liberals like Dick Cheney and Paul Ryan. The nation’s most powerful political leaders, and most influential commentators, seem to find great gratification by puffing out their chests, furrowing their brows, and condemning Donald Trump’s latest exhibition of stupidity – the idea of issuing an immigration ban on Muslims. Ryan was particularly indignant as he attempted to save his party’s already scarred and disfigured face from the ever escalating public relations nightmare that is the Trump candidacy. “What was proposed yesterday,” Ryan referred to Trump’s idea to ban Muslims while pointing his finger in the mode of a disciplinary school teacher, “is not what this country stands for.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney also questioned that Americanism of the proposal with his own variation on the familiar turn of phrase, claiming that such a ban would “go against everything we stand for.” President Obama, eager to join the fun, denounced Trump’s plan as “bigotry,” and encouraged Americans to “hold fast to our values.”

Have We Hit Peak Inequality?

When should we be alarmed about so much wealth in so few hands?

The Great Recession and its anemic recovery only deepened the economic inequality that’s drawn so much attention in its wake. Nearly all wealth and income gains since then have flowed to the top one-tenth of America’s richest 1 percent.

The very wealthiest 400 Americans command dizzying fortunes. Their combined net worth, as catalogued in the 2015 Forbes 400 list, is $2.34 trillion. You can’t make this list unless you’re worth a cool $1.7 billion.

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These 400 rich people — including Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune — have roughly as much wealth as the bottom 60 percent of the population, or over 190 million people added together, according to a new report I co-authored.

Top 10 Signs the U.S. Is the Most Corrupt Country in the World

Those   ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt.

While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, in many key ways America’s political and financial practices make it in absolute terms far more corrupt than the usual global South suspects.  After all, the US economy is worth over $16 trillion a year, so in our corruption a lot more money changes hands.

1.  The rich are well placed to bribe our politicians to reduce taxes on the rich.  A nonentity like Donald Trump got filthy rich via tax loopholes, and is now trying to buy the presidency. The way the Supreme Court got rid of campaign finance reform and allowed open, unlimited buying of elections is the height of corruption.  Note that despite his supposed “populism,” Trump never talks about the unfairness of our current tax system, instead dividing and ruling working and middle class Americans by stirring racial and religious hatreds.  As it stands, 400 American billionaires are worth $2 trillion, as much as the bottom 150 million Americans. That kind of wealth inequality hasn’t been seen in the US since the age of the robber barons in the nineteenth century.  Both eras are marked by extreme corruption.

Encryption vs. Surveillance in the New Civil Rights Movement

What if in 1960, instead of performing an act of civil disobedience at the Woolworth lunch counter, the Greensboro Four had been arrested for "attempted disorderly conduct" on their way downtown?

Even if the charge were bogus and had no chance in court, its effect on the movement would have been real. Instead of engaging in a high-profile confrontation with the state that highlighted the cruelty of the United States' racist laws, four young Black people would have been arrested on minor charges - hardly a noteworthy occurrence.

Law enforcement and the intelligence complex are paving the way to preempt activism in this way with their current talk of banning strong encryption while perpetuating an ever-growing system of mass data collection and surveillance. Don't be fooled by their calls of "terrorism." Actual terrorists such as al-Qaeda have known about and subverted electronic eavesdropping for decades and will continue to do so. The current efforts at subverting digital security will not stop the Bin Ladens and al-Qaedas of the world. Rather, they will disrupt this generation's Martin Luther King Jrs., Black Panthers and Greensboro Fours.

For Most People in the World, Retirement Is Not an Option

Pensionable retirement ages and government pension programs have been established for men and women in countries around the world. Nevertheless, retirement remains an unlikely option for most people.

Nearly half – 48 percent – of all people above pensionable age do not receive a pension, according to the International Labour Organization. And for many who do, the pension levels are inadequate. Consequently, the majority of world's elderly, especially women who more often work outside the formal labor force, lack income security, have to work as long as they can and in many instances are obliged to rely on family for support and assistance.

Old age pensionable retirement is a relatively recent social institution. Throughout most of the past workers by and large continued to work until death or major disability. They were obliged to continue working to due to the absence of pension systems, little accumulated personal savings and low life expectancies.

Dozens of Nations Back Regenerative Farming Initiative That Can Help Solve Global Warming
The U.S.—a primary driver of the climate crisis—still isn't on board with this historic climate agreement.

France, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the U.K., Germany and Mexico are among more than two dozen countries that have signed on to an agreement that one day may be recognized as the most significant climate initiative in history.

France’s 4/1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate puts regenerative food and farming front and center in the climate solutions conversation. This is why the Organic Consumers Association, its Mexico affiliate Via Organica, IFOAM Organics International and more than 50 other activist allies across the globe have signed on in support of the Initiative.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government is not yet on board with the plan, even though our country’s toxic, fossil fuel-based, heavily subsidized (with taxpayer money), degenerative industrial agriculture system is a primary driver of global warming.

After the COP21 Paris Climate Accord, What We Need Is an International Climate Court

The climate pact forged at Paris lacks real teeth and so in and of itself will not solve our carbon dioxide and methane problem.  But it is still important, as a clear signal of a sea change in world public opinion.  You can’t address a problem unless you recognize it exists.

The argument for moral suasion in international affairs should not be discounted.  The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 began as no more that a set of aspirations for human dignity.  But it has been incorporated into international treaties and instruments, and is the background for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which has prosecuted war criminals such as Chad’s Hissen Habre. Many of its principles have also been incorporated into European Union human rights law.  It has had a steady practical effect over the decades on positive law, despite starting as ideal law.

That is the way COP21 will work.  The United Nations needs now to establish by treaty an International Climate Court where torts can be decided.

Thank Climate Justice Activists for Doing All They Can to Curb Warming

As climate negotiators at the COP21 summit in Paris celebrated a global accord on greenhouse gas emissions, tens of thousands of activists from all over the world gathered on the city’s streets, having obtained a last-minute permit despite a ban on assembly. A disconnect between the official view on climate change and the popular desire for climate justice remains wide.

During the summit, there were three broad sticking points between wealthy nations and developing nations. First was “differentiation,” which is how rich versus poor nations, or former colonizers versus former colonies, ought to be treated. On that, developing economies like India seem to have scored a victory. The second point was finance, which encompasses the real dollar amounts for what wealthy nations ought to pay to developing countries to mitigate climate change and adapt to it. Wealthy nations won on that score, only aspiring to a $100-billion-a-year fund without making an actual commitment. The third issue was ambition—how deep a cut in greenhouse gas emissions that countries were willing to commit to. For a long time, a 2-degree Celsius rise in temperature was the goal of choice, but island nations and poor nations with weak infrastructures pushed hard for a commitment to 1.5 degrees, saying that any greater rise than that would lead to disastrous consequences. On that point also, wealthier, more powerful nations won out, agreeing to the 2-degree limit while merely aspiring to 1.5 degrees.

A fourth sticking point, which was not raised inside the halls of COP21 simply because it is a non-starter for countries like the United States, was legal accountability regarding any agreement that is signed. The closest the Paris agreement comes to that is a unified accounting system that enables countries to report on their emissions every five years.