The Evening Blues - 2-3-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Louisiana piano player Marcia Ball. Enjoy!
Marcia Ball - That's How It Goes
“The intelligence officers who were held accountable in the Inspector General’s report on the 9/11 intelligence failure ultimately received promotions and rewards from the agency. The intelligence officers who participated in the politicization of intelligence in the 1980s similarly received promotions and rewards. And now we have another example of the “worst of the worst” at the CIA becoming the second most important official of our leading civilian intelligence agency. There is no better way to create cynicism within the intelligence community and the larger political community than to reward the very people who tarnish the moral compass of the CIA. ...
Once again, the CIA is being led by officials who have never accepted or understood the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that declared CIA’s torture program a violation of Geneva Conventions. This decision should have made those who conducted torture subject to the federal War Crimes Act. Perhaps if former president Barack Obama had sought accountability and responsibility for the crimes of torture, then we would not be witness to the return of war criminals to positions of responsibility.”
-- Melvin A. Goodman
News and Opinion
Thanks Obama, for your highly refined sense of justice, which resulted in the persecution of whistleblowers and the promotion of war criminals to cushy corner offices.
The CIA’s New Deputy Director Ran a Black Site for Torture
In May 2013, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported that the head of the CIA’s clandestine service was being shifted out of that position as a result of “a management shake-up” by then-Director John Brennan. As Miller documented, this official – whom the paper did not name because she was a covert agent at the time – was centrally involved in the worst abuses of the CIA’s Bush-era torture regime.
As Miller put it, she was “directly involved in its controversial interrogation program” and had an “extensive role” in torturing detainees. Even more troubling, she “had run a secret prison in Thailand” – part of the CIA’s network of “black sites” – “where two detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh techniques.” The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture also detailed the central role she played in the particularly gruesome torture of detainee Abu Zubaydah.
Beyond all that, she played a vital role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and other secret agency locations. The concealment of those interrogation tapes, which violated both multiple court orders as well the demands of the 9/11 Commission and the advice of White House lawyers, was condemned as “obstruction” by Commission Chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane. A special prosecutor and Grand Jury investigated those actions but ultimately chose not to prosecute.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo today announced that President Trump has selected Gina Haspel to be the new Deputy Director of CIA.
— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) February 2, 2017
CIA deputy director linked to torture at Thailand black site
Gina Haspel, selected by Trump and appointed by CIA director Mike Pompeo on Thursday, reportedly had a leading role in the intelligence agency’s covert post-9/11 programme in which simulated drowning and other painful interrogation techniques were used on detainees overseas.
She briefly ran a black site in Thailand where suspected al-Qaida members Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri were tortured in 2002, and Haspel later helped carry out an order that the CIA destroy its waterboarding videos, US officials told Reuters and Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
CIA cables on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah at the site, codenamed Cat’s Eye, were declassified last month. They revealed he was waterboarded 83 times in a month and had his head repeatedly slammed into walls. Interrogators also used sleep deprivation and kept Abu Zubaydah in a “large box”, the documents said. His captors later decided he held no useful intelligence. ...
Christopher Anders, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington office, said he was “gravely concerned” about Haspel’s appointment.
“Pompeo must explain to the American people how his promotion of someone allegedly involved in running a torture site squares with his own sworn promises to Congress that he will reject all forms of torture and abuse.”
Yemen: Jeremy Scahill & Advocates Question "Success" of Trump Raid That Killed 24 Civilians
Press Secretary Sean Spicer Falsely Accuses Iran of Attacking U.S. Navy Vessel, an Act of War
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted at Thursday’s press briefing that Iran had attacked a U.S. naval vessel, as part of his argument defending the administration’s bellicose announcement that Iran is “on notice.”
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday said he was “officially putting Iran on notice” following the country’s ballistic missile test and an attack on a Saudi naval vessel by Houthi rebels in Yemen (the Houthis are tenuously aligned with Iran’s government but are distinct from it).
The White House press corps wanted to know what being put “on notice” entailed, and Spicer responded by claiming that Iran’s government took actions against a U.S. naval vessel, which would be an act of war. “I think General Flynn was really clear yesterday that Iran has violated the Joint Resolution, that Iran’s additional hostile actions that it took against our Navy vessel are ones that we are very clear are not going to sit by and take,” he said. “I think that we will have further updates for you on those additional actions.”
Major Garrett of CBS News quietly corrected him, saying “a Saudi vessel,” and Spicer then responded almost inaudibly: “Sorry, thank you, yes a Saudi vessel. Yes, that’s right.” He did not in any way address his false claim that it was an Iranian attack, however.
Iran is rapidly taking over more and more of Iraq even after the U.S. has squandered three trillion dollars there. Obvious long ago!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
U.S. unveils sanctions a day after Trump puts the country “on notice”
The Trump Administration announced a new wave of sanctions against Iran, a day after Trump tweeted that the country has officially been “put on notice” for firing a ballistic missile test on Sunday.
The sanctions are coming via the Treasury Department and are similar to the measures that existed under former president Obama. The sanctions come in retaliation for the missile test and in response an attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen against a Saudi ship.
Iran is playing with fire - they don't appreciate how "kind" President Obama was to them. Not me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017
Iran Brushes Off Trump’s ‘Empty Threats’ Over Missile Tests
A top aide to Iran's supreme leader blamed the "inexperienced" Trump administration for apparent U.S. threats and vowed his country would continue testing ballistic missiles.
Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on foreign affairs, said that Iran had not breached a nuclear deal reached with six major powers in 2015 or a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the accord. The White House has accused Tehran of acting "in defiance" of a separate U.N. Security Council resolution on ballistic missiles, as opposed to the nuclear agreement.
"This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran," Velayati said. "Iran is the strongest power in the region and has a lot of political, economic and military power ... America should be careful about making empty threats to Iran."
He added: "Iran will continue to test its capabilities in ballistic missiles and Iran will not ask any country for permission in defending itself."
US: Israeli settlements no impediment to peace but may not be helpful
The Trump administration has broken with longstanding US policy by saying Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are not “an impediment to peace” but cautioned that a further expansion “may not be helpful” to ending the conflict.
The comments came after the new US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Donald Trump is due to meet Netanyahu on 15 February.
The White House said in a statement: “The American desire for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians has remained unchanged for 50 years. While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal.”
Although the statement laid down what appeared to be a new approach, outlining what was and was not acceptable to Washington, it also went on to insist that the “Trump administration has not taken an official position on settlement activity”.
Its precise intent has split observers, with some in Israel and the US seeing it as accepting all building within existing settlement boundaries. Others believed it was aimed at reining in Netanyahu’s government, which in January announced plans for the first new settlement in two decades. Settlement construction since 1991 has been within existing blocs.
U.S. Ambassador to U.N. blames Russia for new violence in eastern Ukraine
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley blamed Russia on Thursday for the recent surge of violence in eastern Ukraine and warned Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia will not be lifted until Moscow returns Crimea to Kiev.
"I consider it unfortunate on the occasion of my first appearance here I must condemn the aggressive actions of Russia," Haley said, making her first public remarks inside the Security Council since being sworn in as the United States' representative to the United Nations last month.
"It shouldn't happen, or be that way. We do want to better our relations with Russia. However, the dire situation in eastern Ukraine is one that demands clear and strong condemnation of Russian actions." ...
Haley made clear that tensions over the Ukraine would not end soon, including the matter of sanctions slapped on Russia related to the annexation of Crimea three years ago.
Is Donald Trump gaslighting us?
Shouting match over Russia erupts at House hearing
A routine House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday turned into a shouting match between the Republican chairman and the ranking Democrat over Russian interference in the presidential election.
In a fight that exposed bitter frustration amongst Democrats that Republicans have kept the issue locked in a single committee — the Intelligence Committee in both chambers — lawmakers sparred over whether Oversight should conduct a public investigation into last year's cyberattack that stole information from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). ...
House Democrats have pushed to expand investigations into a widespread influence campaign intelligence officials say Russia launched as an attempt to help install President Trump in the White House.
Republicans have insisted that any probe into the matter be limited to the two Intelligence committees. Both of those investigations are ongoing, but the move has been seen as an attempt to sweep the issue under the rug by keeping it sequestered in the two notoriously-secretive panels.
Another war for oil developing in South East Asia. Lots more interesting detail at the link.
Rex Tillerson Backs Aggressive Policy in Disputed South China Sea as Exxon, Russia Eye Region’s Oil and Gas
President Donald Trump‘s newly sworn-in Secretary of State, recently retired ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, turned heads when he expressed support for an aggressive military stance against China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea during his Senate committee hearing and in response to questions from Democratic Party Committee members. ...
Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary and Communications Director, echoed this in a recent press briefing, stating that, “The U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there.”
A DeSmog investigation shows that “our interests” (to quote Spicer) overlap suspiciously often with those of ExxonMobil, Gazprom, and Rosneft.
Exxon’s offshore oil and gas ties in the region circle the South China Sea from Vietnam and the Philippines to Indonesia and Malaysia. Gazprom also maintains business ties with Vietnam. While most western oil majors have veered away from tapping into this oil and gas, Exxon has not shied away.
“Unlike other Western oil majors, which have usually taken a wait-and-see approach when drilling in the disputed waters, ExxonMobil appeared unfazed by the political uncertainty in the region and maintained extensive business links with almost every Southeast Asian country,” wrote the South China Morning Post.
A leaked 2006 U.S. State Department cable published by Wikileaks shows that “China began to warn oil majors against conducting oil exploration activities in the disputed South China Sea in 2006, the year Tillerson became ExxonMobil’s chairman and chief executive,” the Morning Post further detailed.
According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data from 2013, the South China Sea contains 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
As Lee Fang and I recently revealed for The Intercept, while Tillerson served as CEO of Exxon, the U.S. Department of State directly intervened on the company’s behalf to help the company win favorable financial terms to tap into that offshore oil and gas in countries which own offshore oil and gas in the South China Sea in both Vietnam and Indonesia.
Secretary of defense tells North Korea that any nuclear threat faces an “overwhelming” response
In his first overseas trip as defense secretary, James Mattis has warned North Korea that any attack on the U.S. or any of its allies would be “overwhelmingly” defeated, following reports that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is ready to start testing a missile capable of reach U.S. soil.
Speaking in Seoul on Thursday, Mattis sought to reassure South Korea that it will be protected should North Korea follow through on its threat to launch nuclear missiles. Mattis also made clear to China that a controversial missile defence system being put in place is not a threat to it. ...
North Korea has recently claimed that it is almost ready to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could threaten the western seaboard of the U.S. Addressing this, Mattis said: “North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons program, and engage in threatening rhetoric and behavior,” adding that U.S. commitments to defending its allies “remain ironclad.” ...
In January, U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to suggest that the U.S. may be prepared to carry out some sort of military action to prevent North Korea’s weapons development. Trump tweeted, “It won’t happen!” — though he didn’t explain exactly how the administration would prevent it.
Former Norway PM held at Washington airport over 2014 visit to Iran
A former prime minister of Norway has spoken of his shock after he was held and questioned at Washington Dulles airport because of a visit to Iran three years ago.
Kjell Magne Bondevik, who served as prime minister of Norway from 1997-2000 and 2001-05, flew into the US from Europe on Tuesday afternoon to attend this week’s National Prayer Breakfast.
He was held for an hour after customs agents saw in his diplomatic passport that he had been to Iran in 2014. Bondevik said his passport also clearly indicated that he was the former PM of Norway.
“Of course I fully understand the fear of letting terrorists come into this country,” he told ABC7. “It should be enough when they found that I have a diplomatic passport, [that I’m a] former prime minister.
“That should be enough for them to understand that I don’t represent any problem or threat to this country and [to] let me go immediately, but they didn’t.”
François Hollande leads attacks on Donald Trump at EU summit
François Hollande has led a series of damning attacks on Donald Trump by EU leaders arriving at a summit in Malta to discuss the future of the union.
The French president described recent comments by the US president as unacceptable and warned there would be no future for Europe’s relations with the US “if this future isn’t defined in common”.
The Austrian chancellor, Christian Kern, said Trump’s ban on travellers from some Muslim-majority countries was “highly problematic”.
Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Lithuanian president, offered a withering verdict on the recent meeting between Trump and Theresa May. “I don’t think there is a necessity for a bridge. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter,” she said. ...
Hollande was scornful of Trump’s first days in the Oval office, and warned him to stay out of the EU’s internal affairs. “It cannot be accepted that there is, through a certain number of statements by the president of the United States, pressure on what Europe ought to be or what it should not be,” he said.
I ran across this excellent essay discussing the banning of immigrants. It's worth reading in full for its extensive documentation.
To my Jewish, Irish, Asian and Italian friends
To my Jewish, Irish, Asian and Italian friends, let’s remember:
Your ancestors were lower than dirt when they arrived here.
Italians were referred to – openly – as a subhuman race of rats and criminals.
Irishmen were apes and monkeys.
Laws were passed to keep Chinese women out of the country, so that the Chinese males who were brought over for menial labor couldn’t produce offspring.
Jews were spat upon in the streets and routinely excluded from polite society.
Unhire-able. Undesirable. Laws were passed to allow for the mass discrimination and segregation of your great grandparents, not much more than a century ago.
It’s nice that you now view yourselves as “Real Americans.” Just yesterday, your kind were anything but. And I don’t mean in the deep south or in obscure corners of the country. Your forebears were considered human garbage on the streets of New York, Philadelphia and Boston. It wasn’t all that long ago when mainstream politicians were actively seeking ways to get rid of you too. ...
I work on Wall Street and live on Long Island. I am surrounded by people who can’t recognize how recently their own ancestry and ethnicity would have been a problem for them. Are you one of them?
If so, I hope this hits close enough to home so as to awaken you from your contented slumber.
More Than 100,000 Visas Revoked in Wake of Trump Travel Ban
Belying the government's claim that only 109 legal immigrants were "inconvenienced" by President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, news outlets reported Friday that more than 100,000 visas have been revoked in the wake of the recent travel ban.
According to the Washington Post, which reported the figure citing a government attorney at a federal court hearing in Virginia:
The number came out during a hearing in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for two Yemeni brothers who arrived at Dulles International Airport last Saturday. They were coerced into giving up their legal resident visas, they argue, and quickly put on a return flight to Ethiopia.
"The number 100,000 sucked the air out of my lungs," said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center, who represents the brothers.
Indeed, Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff said, "there was an audible gasp in the...courtroom" when attorney Erez Reuveni, from the Department of Justice's Office of Immigration Litigation, announced the number.
'Spectacular Betrayal' as Trump Hands Economy 'Back Over to Wall Street'
President Donald Trump is handing the U.S. economy "back over to Wall Street" on Friday, with a regulatory rollback that critics say could put consumers and the financial system at risk.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump signed executive orders Friday "establish[ing] a framework for scaling back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law" and rolling back an Obama-era regulation requiring advisers on retirement accounts to work in the best interests of their clients. That rule was set to go into effect in April.
Trump signed the orders after meeting with bank CEOs.
"The Wall Street bankers against whom Trump ran are making policy now," said Robert Weissman, president of watchdog group Public Citizen.
"The worst job-destroying economic crisis since the Great Depression was directly caused by deregulation and regulatory failure," he said. "Now the president who ran on a jobs-creation platform announces that he aims to slash the modest measures put in place to prevent a recurrence of the crisis. If Trump succeeds in rolling back Dodd-Frank rules he will rush the country straightforward into another job-killing financial crisis. This may be the most spectacular betrayal yet by the president of his voters, as he shunts aside their concerns and pushes forward the agenda of his cronies and the well-connected."
Uber boss buckles under pressure, quits Trump's business advisory panel
Uber CEO quits Trump adviser role as #DeleteUber has “significant impact” on business
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is stepping down from his role on President Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum of business leaders, citing outside pressure on the company for appearing to support the Trump administration’s executive order banning refugees and certain immigrants. ...
Though it was revealed that Kalanick was joining Trump’s informal business advisory council in December, along with Tesla founder Elon Musk, the pressure ramped up dramatically on Kalanick and Uber over the past week. On Saturday, as protesters swarmed John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to demonstrate against Trump’s refugee ban, Uber tweeted that it would eliminate surge pricing in the area — giving the impression to some that it was breaking with a strike organized by New York taxi drivers.
Very quickly, the hashtag #DeleteUber started trending as thousands of people posted on social media that they were deleting the ride-hailing app from their phones. According to a source inside Uber, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the fracas had a “significant impact” on the company’s U.S. business.
Dan O’Sullivan, a freelance writer credited by the New York Times with helping #DeleteUber go viral, told VICE News that the blowback from Uber users is a warning for other companies that aim to work with the Trump administration.
Does Donald Trump Think Frederick Douglass is Alive? Douglass's Great-Great-Great Grandson Clarifies
Trump Seeks to Take Wrecking Ball to Division Between Church and State
President Donald Trump appears intent on demolishing the wall between church and state, telling an audience on Thursday that he will "totally destroy" an amendment that bars religious tax-exempt organizations from engaging in political activity—while his administration reportedly circulates a far-reaching draft executive order on "religious freedom" that effectively legalizes discrimination.
Trump told attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday that he "will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution."
The amendment, passed in 1954, prohibits churches and other tax-exempt organizations from endorsing political candidates; repealing it—which Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also vowed to do on the 2016 campaign trail—"would theoretically allow houses of worship and religious leaders to openly advocate for political candidates while retaining their tax-exempt status, while also allowing them to funnel religious donations into explicitly political efforts," according to Emma Green at The Atlantic.
Draft of Trump executive order allows firing based on religion
The Trump administration would allow religious organizations receiving federal dollars to hire and fire employees based on their beliefs, according to a draft executive order obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
If enacted, the plan could allow employers to deny health care benefits for birth control. In addition, federally funded groups could prevent married same-sex couples from adopting.
Under the draft order, federal employees could refuse to do their jobs if work duties violate their beliefs. It would create a section or group within the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the order.
The order states that the U.S. Constitution “ensures that Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience.”
Federal Judge Has Blocked Texas Rule Requiring Women to Cremate And Bury Their Aborted Fetuses
In a ruling highly critical of the state of Texas, federal district Judge Sam Sparks last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from implementing new health department rules that would require the cremation and burial of aborted fetal tissue.
In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would immediately appeal the ruling to the notoriously conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals instead of waiting for a full trial and final ruling from Sparks on whether the rules would be permanently blocked.
The new rule, Sparks wrote in the January 27 order, reads more like a “pretext for restricting abortion access” and less like a reasonable measure designed to “protect the dignity of the unborn,” as state officials have professed is their goal.
It was the first test in Texas of the strength of a June 2016 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court reiterating the right to abortion and further defining the level of scrutiny with which regulations restricting that right should be judged by the courts – though it certainly won’t be the last test, in Texas or elsewhere.
DemExit? DemEnter? Why Not Both?
A progressive takeover of the Democratic party doesn’t conflict with the buildup of a progressive third party; in fact the two strategies complement each other. ...
DemEnter needs DemExit. Without a strong and threatening progressive third party, a progressive insurgency has no leverage over the Democratic establishment. The corporate Dems would be able to simply shut down grassroots uprisings whenever it likes and rig as many primary challenges as it wants to, and if the progressive base objects they’ll be able to do their classic abuser schtick and say, “What are you gonna do? There’s nowhere you can go. You’re mine.” With a surging and aggressive third party, progressives will be able to point and say, “Okay, we’ll just go over there then.” They’ll have an escape car waiting just outside, with the engine running and ready to go.
To the same extent, DemExit needs DemEnter. All this disgust with the Democratic party didn’t come from nowhere, it came as a direct result of Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign against Hillary Clinton’s coronation. Yes, many of my readers were well aware of how corrupt and diseased the Democratic establishment had become, but most Americans weren’t. This newfound awareness is the direct result of Sanders shoving hard against establishment cronyism and corruption, causing it to become exposed when it shoved back. With a large band of DemEnterers doing that same sort of shoving all at once, in all areas of government all over America, more and more corruption and corporate cronyism will be exposed, and if the establishment refuses to either bow out or rectify it, there will be a tremendous influx of votes for third party candidates wherever this exposure happened.
It’s not like the two sides are even in direct competition; third parties aren’t competing for Democratic primary votes, and if a primary challenge fails then progressives have a third party candidate to fall back on in the generals. By providing progressives with both options, the DemEnter and DemExit strategies are arming progressives with a powerful one-two punch combo that they can throw at the establishment’s ugly face whenever it rears its evil head.
South Park creators to back off Trump jokes: 'Satire has become reality'
South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone have said they will refrain from “mocking everybody in government” in future episodes. ...
“It’s tricky and it’s really tricky now as satire has become reality,” Parker said. “We were really trying to make fun of what was going on [last season] but we couldn’t keep up. What was actually happening was way funnier than anything we could come up with. ... Parker has previously referred to Trump and Clinton as “the giant douche and the turd sandwich”.
“People say to us all the time, ‘Oh, you guys are getting all this good material,’ like we’re happy about some of this stuff that’s happening,” Stone said. “But I don’t know if that’s true. It doesn’t feel that way.”
Republicans back off bill to sell 3.3m acres of public land after outcry
In the small hours of Thursday morning, US congressman Jason Chaffetz announced that he would withdraw a bill he introduced last week that would have ordered the incoming secretary of the interior to immediately sell off 3.3m acres of national land.
Chaffetz, a representative from Utah, wrote on Instagram that he had a change of heart in the face of strong opposition from “groups I support and care about” who, he said, “fear it sends the wrong message”.
House bill 621 had ignited a firestorm of indignation from conservationists but also from hunters and fishermen, who contribute to the $646bn generated by outdoor recreation across the US each year.
“Once that bill was introduced, the hornet’s nest was kicked,” said Land Tawney, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a group that supported public land rallies in opposition. “What happened last week was just a small fraction of the ire the sportsman community has been feeling.” ...
In his statement, Chaffetz did not mention a second piece of legislation he introduced last week, the Local Enforcement for Local Lands Act (HR 622), which would strip the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service of its law enforcement capacity. These two federal agencies have been criticized by supporters of Cliven Bundy and some Republican politicians for enforcing federal grazing laws.
Tawney said that Backcountry Hunters and Anglers would fight HR 622 as well.
Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation at highest level since 2011 meltdown
Radiation levels inside a damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station are at their highest since the plant suffered a triple meltdown almost six years ago.
The facility’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said atmospheric readings as high as 530 sieverts an hour had been recorded inside the containment vessel of reactor No 2, one of three reactors that experienced a meltdown when the plant was crippled by a huge tsunami that struck the north-east coast of Japan in March 2011.
The extraordinary radiation readings highlight the scale of the task confronting thousands of workers, as pressure builds on Tepco to begin decommissioning the plant – a process that is expected to take about four decades.
The recent reading, described by some experts as “unimaginable”, is far higher than the previous record of 73 sieverts an hour in that part of the reactor.
A single dose of one sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness and nausea; 5 sieverts would kill half those exposed to it within a month, and a single dose of 10 sieverts would prove fatal within weeks.
Just in Time for Trump, Jury Says Defense of Planet Is No Crime
Offering some hope that "reality" will prevail in a political climate seemingly bent on climate destruction, a Washington state jury on Wednesday failed to convict activist Ken Ward on two felony counts stemming from an act of civil disobedience against the fossil fuel industry.
The Climate Disobedience Center, which Ward co-founded, declared the mistrial "a resounding recognition of the threat of climate change," noting that one or more jurors refused to convict Ward on charges of sabotage and burglary for breaking into and shutting down a Kinder Morgan pipeline near Anacortes, Washington last year. Alternately, they were persuaded by his argument that he had acted out of necessity, in defense of the planet.
According to the center,
Ward's defense consisted exclusively of his motivation to confront the threat of climate change, and the defense did not contest a single piece of evidence brought by the prosecution. Several exhibits demonstrating climate science and impacts and the role of civil disobedience in societal change were permitted as evidence. Ward himself was the only witness called by the defense. The jury deliberated while looking at charts demonstrating the dramatic increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the impacts of sea-level rise to Skagit County.
"This trial was about climate change," said Emily Johnston, who also took part in the October 2016 coordinated action that shut down tar sands pipelines along the U.S.-Canada border. "The prosecution presented only information about what Ken did on October 11, and Ken and the defense presented only information about climate change, so the only decision that the jury was making was which story mattered more. And the story of the climate crisis won."
Activist Leonard Higgins, who faces trial for shutting off Spectra Energy's Express tar sands pipeline in Montana as part of the same action, said he's "excited to see that the jury recognized the integrity, honor, and patriotism of Ken Ward, and recognized that what he did was done for all of us."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Unspeakable: the Black Book of Imperial Terrorism
My dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it's not Orwell, he warned, it's Brave New World
Return of the Torturers: Back to the Crime Scenes of the Past
Trump Denounced “Broken System” of Big Money Politics. Neil Gorsuch Could Make It Worse.
Roaming Charges: Toxic Mom: the Short, Terrible Career of Ann Gorsuch
What Happens When All We Have Left Is The Pentagon?
“Putting Iran on Notice”—Stop Acting Like A Sovereign Country?
Pentagon Again Dramatically Undercounts Civilians Killed in Iraq, Syria Strikes
Yemeni-Americans Rally in Brooklyn to Protest Trump’s Muslim Ban
The Irony of Trump’s Immigration Ban
Trump Bends to Neocon Pressures
‘Superstar’ Companies Are Eating Into Workers’ Wealth, Study Finds
House Just Used 'Dirty Trick' to Reward Big Oil, Batter Climate Efforts
A Little Night Music
Marcia Ball - That's Enough of That Stuff
Marcia Ball - Eugene
Marcia Ball - Like There's No Tomorrow
Marcia Ball - Never Make Your Move Too Soon
Marcia Ball & Stevie Ray Vaughan - Soulful Dress
Marcia Ball & Pat Boyack - Give It Up
Marcia Ball - Find Another Fool
Marcia Ball - Play with your Poodle
Honey Piazza & Marcia Ball - Four Hand Boogie
Comments
Great post!
Today is a good day. Yes, I know the world is going to hell, but my little corner of it is peaceful today and I plan to enjoy it.
Here's hoping you have peaceful days, too.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
evening featheredsprite...
heh, my days are generally peaceful. i'm a pretty quiet person, so most of the time things are pretty copacetic in my personal space. it's the world outside my door that seems to have the problem.
glad to hear that you had a peaceful day, too. have a great weekend!
Hello joe! Ah, Marcia Ball, those were the days.
We didn't know her personally but did live across the street from her for a time in Austin, and heard her perform a couple of times.
Heh. You guys have really let things get out of control since we left to Costa Rica the day after Inauguration. /s
Great to see the news in EB that pushback has created some at least temporary results! Sorry we are not there to help out,will do what can from afar. Posted impeachment petition on Facebook and one of my RW former students who supports Trump really no like.
Have been kayaking, hiking, enjoying the tropical scenery, and, well, drinking. The number of 'Disaster Capitalism' actions highlighted in the EB are stunning.
Guess we will just adopt a 'don't worry, be happy' attitude, and keep focusing on nature and living one day at a time. Somebody gotta do it ! :)O
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
@divineorder when I was on the river
when I was on the river at that park, we saw 10 bats in perfect alignment, resting on a tree trunk. They were thumb-sized. Just amazing. I hope as I age and become blind as a bat, I hope I can navigate like those bats!
Any sloth sightings?
Uh, things are a tidge out of whack here in Amurikkka.
Meanwhile, music is good.
So is Costa Rican Imperial Beer. Is there any left? I tried to cut into the overstock of it last Christmas.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Tiny bats, wow!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Thanks for the anteater, a wonderful creature
What a beautiful coat!
To thine own self be true.
Agree M W , really cool to see. Last year was
the first time ever we got to observe them, but this was the best. Two other hikers alerted us to it and by the time we got to where they said it was it was pretty much hidden from view at the top of a palm at the edge of the forest by the beach on the Atlantic. There was a National Park covered building by the trail with places to sit back inland a ways and we went over to rest. Before we left about 15 minute later I decided to walk back out and look in case he was still around. We were treated to quite a show, watched him for about 10 minutes happily eating ants or termites up and down and around!
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...
marcia ball was a friend of a friend of mine who was a concert promoter. marcia stayed at her house when she was in town and the piano that she used to play there has come to reside in my living room now that my friend has passed on. i wish that that piano could talk because a lot of pretty interesting people have played it.
glad to hear that you are having a good time and to see that you are hanging out with some very interesting critters. (thanks for the photo!)
sorry about the mess that happened when you left the states. we'll try to have it cleaned up asap.
I suffer under Trumperitis,
one day I say this, the next day the opposite, dependent which side of the expert commentators on the fringe margins are better in blowing ... the right way, err that was the wrong way of saying it.
But I found something today that made me laugh. The difficulties of Presidents with the left margins of executive orders.
Trump Muslim Ban Executive Order Violated Executive Order About Executive Orders
This is all kabuki ... the true reason why they worry about the width of the left margin is that they all want more width for the right hand margin. And they thought they can fool us... heh.
Now I suffer under Trumperitis Sinistram Marginalis.
Have a good evening and thanks for the EB.
https://www.euronews.com/
It's okay Mimi, it's not fatal and in fact it is quite easily
cured. I'm getting treatment for it right now. I no longer check Trump's tweets first thing in the am.
To thine own self be true.
evening mimi...
interesting, i wonder if the classified eo's go through omb and justice before being routed to the prez. i suspect that there might be a shorter paper trail arranged for some eo's.
i am glad to hear that there are standards for these things, though.
have a great weekend!
Good Evening, Joe and MarilynW and all
Trumperitis is a very dangerous condition. See, I think, Germans are all infected. This panel discussion with Jeremy Scahill is a must listening to, because Jeremy is someone who talks tacheles about Germany's role in aiding and co-operating with the US to facilitate the US to be the war criminals they are. I can't find any argument to counter him.
[video:https://youtu.be/TQtVmhG6Nms]
(Jeremy Scahill on the Military Industrial Complex, Donald Trump, Ramstein & Anti-War Movements)
He starts to talk about Germany's role in the US military industrial complex war on terror with drones and the role of Ramstein specifically at TC 11:55 - 15:24, but I think the whole interview is worth listening to.
I can't see anything that is harmless, it's just that I have no other way of reaction than joking and mocking about it. BTW, I rode the metro underground in Hamburg today, they have airplane style TV monitors hanging from the ceiling and get you the latest news scrolling over the screen. There was a poll about how much Germans find the US still trustworthy. It was 25 percent. Now put that side by side with what our politicans support and how they think about their own role towards the US and it is really very hard to swallow it without feeling very sick.
He had also an interview on Amy's show a couple of days ago, which just reinforces how dangerous this government has become.
[video:https://youtu.be/7j7PUEVvo0A]
https://www.euronews.com/
thank you for the vids, mimi...
yes, this government is quite dangerous. not that our last one wasn't, but, if this one takes up where obama left off and moves the country even further into authoritarianism, we and the world are in for a wild ride.
i am working on keeping a sense of humor about it, too.
Iran
[I hope I can be forgiven for sullying TEB with a bit of CNN]
evening olinda...
sully away! it will be interesting to see if one of the countries that trump is banning finds a means of leverage over trump. for instance, iraq could kick out all us persons, nationalize its oil industry and refuse to sell oil to the us. that might be interesting.
"To my Jewish, Irish, Asian and Italian friends, let’s remember"
A friend posted this piece by Peter Beinart on his blog.
It asks the perfect question.
I forgot to say "good evening blusters, and thank you"
So I'll say it now, and wish you all an enjoyable evening.
have a good one!
evening janis...
wow, beinart really didn't hold back in that piece. it looks like trump may become more of a polarizing figure in the jewish community that i might have initially thought.
Maybe ...
despite having Jarred Kushner on his team.
It's definitely a spiked and persuasive commentary.
Here's some irony
There are numerous passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that command Jews to treat foreigners and outsiders with compassion, and also that command Jews to treat workers and the poor fairly and with compassion. All of these commandments are appended with the phrase, "for remember when you were slaves in the land of Egypt," or something to that effect. Unfortunately, it seems that a number of Jews (and Christians, for that matter) have forgotten these commandments.
Another interesting thing is that Judaism has a liturgical year in which passages from the Torah are read on a regular schedule. The liturgical year begins, appropriately enough, with the first passage from Genesis. The ending of the liturgical year, however, is even more interesting. In this passage, Moses is near the end of his life, the Hebrews are approaching the Promised Land, and God gives a final prophecy to Moses: that the Hebrews will seize the Promised Land and set up a kingdom there, and that eventually they will lose their way and break faith with God, and their kingdom will fall to ruin and they will be scattered to the winds. That has already happened twice throughout history, first with the conquest of the Land of Israel by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and then with the return of the Jews, the establishment of the Hasmonaean dynasty, and the conquest and subjugation of the Land of Israel once again by the Romans. We are now witnessing the third repetition of this cycle, with the return of Jews to Israel and the current Israeli governments seeming desire to repeat against the Palestinians the brutality inflicted on the Canaanites by Joshua and his followers. I do not know when the new Israel will fall to ruin and its people will be scattered to the winds, but given what is already being done in Israel now and given that the Jewish state has come to ruin and its people driven away twice before, it seems not unlikely that it could happen again.
It is very curious indeed that the Jewish liturgical year follows such an obviously cyclical pattern, ending with God prophesying that His chosen people will abandon their covenant, and then beginning again with a formless and empty darkness. This seems like a very significant sequence, and I would hope that most Jews pay attention to it.
Are we destined to perpetually repeat the same tragic mistakes?
How many crushing cycles must we endure?
Thank you for your thoughtful and solemn comment.
[video:https://youtu.be/G58XWF6B3AA]
Hey Joe, Tks for Toxic Momsey, Ann Gorsuch
At every turn, Climate takes hit after hit. Wait for the backlash and it will happen. What Trump has done is arouse those greens who were on the sidelines, who cared but not that much, into activism. Gorsuch is only 50 so he could be SCOTUS judge for a long time.
To thine own self be true.
evenign marilyn...
the fact is, trump and the people he is appointing are radicals, extremists - though the press can't bring itself to apply the correct language to them.
a trump administration will enact radical change to the degree that the republicans in the legislature and state governments allow and approve of it.
to recover from the mess that the trump extremists make will also require radical change.
I once naively thought that if women ran the world
then there wouldn't be any wars and we would live in peace and prosperity. Seriously, I did believe that.
Then Thatcher came into my view and then after her there came the Hillarys, Rice, Powers, Albright and a lot more warmongering women who had no second thought about the number of innocent people who would be killed because of their powers. Now I see another woman Gina Haspel was one of the worst people involved in the CIA's torture program. I can't wrap my mind around the number of people who have not one ounce of empathy for the people that they send to their wars or the people in those countries. And they do these things so they can become richer.
Hillary changed the game for what a secretary of state could do in office when she intervened on behalf of many people and corporations who had business before the state department and then both Bill and their foundation were compensated for their actions.
Now we have cut out the middle man with Tillerson being the SOS. He can just bully country's leaders to open up their lands to Exxon.
Saw this comment on the article about him asking Hillary's state department to run interference with countries to make them allow Exxon to be able drill in them
It's sad to hear that the CGI has been closed down because Hillary didn't become the president and the donations have dried up. I am very curious to know what will happen to the millions that were donated to it. Is anyone or any organization going to check to see what they do with the money? Maybe Bueller will be in charge of this.
Have a great weekend joe and thanks for another wonderful week of EBs.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
heh, yeah, i remember back in the 70's people used to say that if women ran the world it would be a peaceful, green place. i used to point out golda meir and indira ghandi back then.
From wikipedia:
sadly, it seems to me that the sort of human beings that want to rule others are generally precisely the wrong people to vest with that sort of power - their gender doesn't really seem to matter.
Indira Gandhi is strange
I don't understand why Indira Gandhi still had Sikhs on her protective detail after having ordered the Amritsar Massacre. She was either suicidally brave, or she was really dumb.
There are a number of reasons to dislike Indira Gandhi. As president of the Indian National Congress, she had an important role in 1959 of dissolving the Communist-led government of the state of Kerala and imposing President's Rule. I am happy to say that the Communists eventually made a comeback, and they have left their mark on Kerala in a good way; the unionization rate is nearly 100%, there are immediate work stoppages and strikes whenever there is an on-the-job death (in other parts of India, such incidents are shrugged off), the literacy rate is the envy of all India, and the life expectancy is over 70 years -- higher than the Indian national average, and far better than the national and local life expectancy at the time of independence (29.5 years). Kerala has managed to achieve universal education and universal health care on a per capita income that is one tenth that of Brazil's, proving quite conclusively that you can build socialism anywhere if you just put in the effort.
members of Congress threaten war with Iran
A bill has been introduced to authorize use of force against Iran.
Granted that it went nowhere when the same bill was introduced last session, but apparently Paul Ryan is talking about this now, and it is possible that Iran's testing of a mid-range ballistic missile will be used as a pretext to pass this, even though I am given to understand that Iran has conducted several missile tests over the last few years, and the UN resolution that the War Party is referring to is a suggestions, not a prohibition.
evening km...
oh great, that's just what is needed, another opportunity for trump to bomb people aside from the many festering wars that obama left him. just great.
one of the articles upstairs explains the un resolution:
It's calm outside, tonight
Inside though ....
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2FAGaP3kY4]
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
evening steven...
i hope that the storm passes quickly. have a great weekend!
This reply from jakkalbessie.
This reply from jakkalbessie....today did two hour kayak trip from Bisaenz beach in Manuel Antonio. Às we left the beach were treated to a mother sloth and young! A real treat.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Thank you joe
[video:https://youtu.be/r89TulklJyQ]
Dan Rather delivers epic takedown of Donald Trump and 'Twilight Zone' presidency
The political revolution continues
This is odd.
"There is no better way to create cynicism within the intelligence community and the larger political community than to reward the very people who tarnish the moral compass of the CIA. ..."
I was not aware that the CIA had a moral compass.
native