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This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player and singer, Sunnyland Slim. Enjoy!

“Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

-- Mark Twain

News and Opinion

The Absurd Timing of Michael Hayden’s Drone Campaign

Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA and the NSA, has been making the media rounds over the last few days, discussing and defending some of the most emblematic policies of the post-9/11 era in an effort to promote his new book. ...
Last weekend, Hayden spent some 2,000 words defending one example of a policy taken to the edge: the Obama administration’s embrace of drone warfare and so-called targeted killing (what many describe as a euphemism for assassination). In an article for the New York Times op-ed page, Hayden strived to present the role drones play in U.S. counterterrorism missions as inherently fallible, but on the whole, effective, careful, and necessary. ...

The op-ed was met with pointed criticism. Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a noted expert on the role of drones in U.S. counterterrorism operations, published a thorough point-by-point analysis of Hayden’s specific claims the following day.

Citing averages from three NGOs that track U.S. drone strikes, Zenko noted that “as director of the CIA Hayden personally authorized an estimated 48 drone strikes, which killed 532 people, 144 of whom were civilians.” He also observed that the online version of Hayden’s piece omitted the fact that his current employers in the defense and intelligence support industry have vested interests in the program he was describing. ...

“The timing and content of Michael Hayden’s op-ed are strikingly absurd,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in an email to The Intercept. “Two days before it was published online, Mr. Hayden’s former employer, the Central Intelligence Agency, was in court arguing against the kinds of disclosures he makes.”

“The CIA’s lawyer told the court that basic information such as the dates, location, and identity of those killed in lethal strikes, and the legal and factual justification for killing, cannot be disclosed without harming national security,” Shamsi added. “Yet the CIA apparently approved Mr. Hayden’s public relations campaign promoting drones and minimizing criticism of their consequences, especially for civilians killed and maimed.”

Obama's Plan to Close Guantanamo Too Little, Too Late

Syrian Rebels Backtrack on Endorsement of Ceasefire

Yesterday, the Syrian rebel faction the “High Negotiations Council” (HNC) announced that it intended to abide by the ceasefire deal announced by the US and Russia. Today, they have backed off of that, saying they support the idea in theory, but haven’t committed to it.

Instead, the group says that they are willing to accept a separate two-week ceasefire as opposed to this open-ended one, to see if everyone is “serious.” They also rejected the idea of Russia being one of the nations negotiating the ceasefire.

The Syrian government has confirmed they are going to abide by the ceasefire, and today the Kurdish YPG also affirmed their intention to go along with the deal.

Afghanistan: Are Minerals the Driving Force Behind the War?

Last December 13th, the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the vice-president of India met in Turkmenistan; a table with four buttons was set up so each leader could press a button, simultaneously initiating the construction of the TAPI natural gas pipeline. TAPI is the acronym for the four countries involved in the pipeline construction. ...

Many peace advocates have suspected from the beginning that this natural gas pipeline is one of the ways that the coalition of the greedy expected to profit from this war. But the story that the media promoted continuously after September 11, 2001 was that Afghanistan was just a worthless pile of rocks that had no economic value; therefore, the goal of the war must be to deprive terrorists of a base and, as a bonus, to spread democracy, protect women, and rebuild the country. ...

Since the 1960s, it was reported by the Minerals Yearbook of the US Geological Survey that Afghanistan is rich in natural gas, copper, iron ore, gold, silver, and precious gems. ...

Aside from the TAPI pipeline there are many opportunities for the coalition of the greedy to make a killing, so to speak. Selling weapons to both sides, opium smuggling, and overcharging for shoddy construction and useless consulting fees are just a few examples, but stealing minerals may be the driving force that makes the war continue. ...

The October 2015 report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction shows that over 99% of our tax spending in Afghanistan has gone to military spending or supporting a corrupt government. Less than 1% has gone tor food, clothing, and shelter for some of the poorest people on earth, the Afghans, now suffering through their 38th year of war. What better way to steal the mineral wealth of Afghanistan than to create a weakened government and a starving people?

‘Secret war’: France reportedly engaged in military ops against ISIS in Libya

Report: French Troops Engaged in ‘Secret War’ in Libya

A major new report broken by France’s newspaper Le Monde today revealed that the nation has been engaged in a secret war in Libya, in which French special forces have been carrying out “covert action” strikes against ISIS and other factions with the backing of Britain and the United States.

French President Francois Hollande is said to have authorized an “unofficial military action” in Libya at some point after the November ISIS attacks in Paris. France also established a military base in northern Niger, along the Libyan border, to facilitate the offensive. Le Monde confirmed that the troops have been in Libya at least since mid-February. ...

US, French, and British officials have been holding meetings too talking up the idea that they’re planning an operation in Libya, though it seems they didn’t want to wait until they were done selling the narrative to start the war, and decided to just go ahead in secret.

U.S. Journalist Detained Covering Bahrain Protests Gives 1st Interview Since Release

Clinton Defends Ongoing Anarchy In Libya: We Are Still In Korea, We Are Still In Germany

Hillary Clinton answers a question about her support for the 2011 war which toppled Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi and has led to five years of anarchy in the oil-rich country:

You know, the United States was in Korea, and still is, for many years. We are still in Germany. We are still in Japan. We have a presence in a lot of places in the world that started out as a result of conflict. And if you think about South Korea, there were coups, there were assassinations, there was a lot of problems for the Koreans to build their economy, to create their democracy.

Greece recalls ambassador from Austria over EU refugees row

Greece has recalled its ambassador to Vienna in a row with Austria over the handling of Europe’s refugee crisis.

The foreign ministry said initiatives “rooted in the 19th century” were being used to address the crisis and said the recall was designed to “safeguard friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria”.

The numerous splits in Europe over immigration policy were evident on Wednesday when Austria unilaterally organised a meeting of interior and foreign ministers of several Balkan states in Vienna. The Austrians snubbed the Germans and did not invite the Greeks, provoking a furious reaction from Athens.

Athens is seething over a series of border restrictions along the migrant trail that has caused a bottleneck in Greece, and accuses Austria of undermining efforts to reach a joint European response by siding with hardline EU members who refuse to take any refugees. ...

Speaking before a crucial meeting in Brussels on Thursday, the Greek migration minister, Yannis Mouzalas, earlier said Greece would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the “Lebanon of Europe” by hosting millions of migrants and refugees. ...

EU members opposed to German-backed refugee quotas and the Turkey pact instead want to quarantine Greece and seal the country’s northern border with Macedonia, effectively shifting the border-free Schengen zone’s external frontier from the Aegean to central Europe. Eastern Europe, Austria and Slovenia want to help Macedonia close the Greek border.

Amnesty International Annual Report - "Europe failed to ensure asylum rights to migrants"

US defence department funded Carnegie Mellon research to break Tor

The US government funded research into breaking the online anonymity service Tor, court documents have revealed.

Carnegie Mellon University carried out the research, funded by the US Department of Defense, which attempted to deanonymise users of the service.

Once the researchers reported success, some of the information, including the IP address of a user alleged to be on the staff of an online black market called Silk Road 2, was then subpoenaed by the FBI for use in an investigation into the market.

Adding a further wrinkle to the case is the fact that Tor is itself funded by the US government. The service, which works by encrypting communications and then relaying them between multiple users in its network in order to baffle outside surveillance and hide the identity of the two ends of the connection from the other, was initially developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and still receives money from the US Department of State and National Science Foundation.

That funding goes to ensuring the security of the service, even as the Department of Defense funds research aimed at undermining it.

Former CIA Agent Says Edward Snowden Revelations Emboldened Apple to Push Back Against FBI

Apple CEO Tim Cook: FBI asked us to make software 'equivalent of cancer'

Apple chief executive Tim Cook accused the US government of asking his firm to engineer the “software equivalent of cancer” to help investigators unlock a terrorist’s iPhone. ... Much to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s chagrin, Apple can’t extract data from locked new iPhones anymore.

But it can install a software update that would make it easier for the FBI to guess or crack Farook’s passcode. The government is arguing it should do this under a 227-old law called the All Writs Act, which gives courts broad authority to enforce orders.

Apple counters that if the government can use this law to force it to write such software, it would open the floodgates to constantly writing spy tools for law enforcement. For instance, Cook suggested Apple someday could be forced to write and install a program on a suspect’s phone that would help police turn on the iPhone’s video camera.

“I don’t know where this stops,” he said.

That appears to be why Apple, for now, is exploring ways it could redesign its iPhone software in such a way that it would close off this security loophole in the future, the people familiar with the matter said.

Another great reason to keep backups of any data that you'd like to keep:

Thieves Are Using Ransomware Programs to 'Kidnap' People's Data Until They Pay

Around for years but now widespread enough that it's likely already caused chaos at a local hospital, police department, or school district, so-called "ransomware" is fast becoming the tool of choice among hackers seeking to extort a quick buck.

The February 5 attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in California shined a light on ransomware, a type of computer virus that encrypts a targeted system's data and then demands money in exchange for the key to decrypt the information.

On one hand, the technology uses state-of-the-art encryption to boggle its victims. On the other, it's among the most tried-and-true scams in history. ...

The Hollywood hospital paid 40 bitcoins worth around $17,000 in exchange for its data back. The owners of bitcoins are nearly impossible to track.

"The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key," said hospital President Allen Stefanek in a statement.

But the medical center episode was just one of multitudes in recent years.

An October study by Cisco Systems' Talos security unit estimated that unnamed hackers using Angler Exploit — just one of a handful of commonly used ransomware bugs — netted $60 million annually. In December, a Kaspersky Lab report found that ransomware infections doubled last year compared to 2014. The lab found ransomware on 50,000 corporate machines. And researchers at Britain's University of Kent found that 41 percent of victims of ransomware software CryptoLocker paid to recover files.

Gosh, what a surprise, a neoliberal stooge considering appointing another neoliberal stooge to the Supreme Court under the cover of "pragmatic" partisan politics. What a transparent tool Obama is.

Obama Vetting Anti-Labor, Republican Nevada Governor for SCOTUS Nomination

Liberal activists have condemned reports that Barack Obama is considering a Republican politician to fill the contentious vacancy on the supreme court, saying such a move would be “downright absurd”.

Brian Sandoval, the governor of Nevada and a former district court judge, is being vetted by the White House as a potential nominee to succeed the late Antonin Scalia, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Naming Sandoval could be seen as a canny manoeuvre to call the bluff of Republicans who have vowed to neither confirm nor even hold hearings for Obama’s nominee, contending that the decision should rest with the next president.

But Democracy for America, a grassroots political organisation founded by prominent Democrat Howard Dean, said Sandoval’s rightwing record might oblige it to call on Senate Democrats to block his appointment.

Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, said: “It’s downright absurd that President Obama would risk his legacy by appointing another anti-labour Republican like Governor Brian Sandoval to an already overwhelmingly pro-big business supreme court.

Beijing Overtakes New York to Become Billionaire Capital of the World

China now has more billionaires than the United States, according to a new global rich list, and Beijing has overtaken New York as the billionaire capital of the world.

Hurun, a firm which tracks wealth in China and India, said the number of Chinese billionaires had risen 80 percent since 2013. Beijing now has 100 billionaires living in it, up 32 from last year, pushing it past New York which is in second place with 95.

Overall the US had dropped its number of billionaires by two while China had increased its number by 90 — accounting for almost all the 99 new billionaires created in 2015. India also had a good year, home to an extra 14 billionaires in 2015, putting it at third place.

Russia fared very badly, with a fall in 14 billionaires. Hurun found that Russian billionaires had lost $130bn over the year due to a fall in value of the ruble and poor returns in mining, metals, and energy.

The country ranking reflected this drop, with Russia falling to sixth place with 80 billionaires in total, just below the UK and Germany with 82 each.

China and USA are the big two countries on the list with 568 and 535 respectively, amounting to almost half the billionaires on the planet. India is in third place with 111.

Biggest Wave Yet of U.S. Oil Defaults Looms as Bust Intensifies

In less than a month, the U.S. oil bust could claim two of its biggest victims yet.

Energy XXI Ltd. and SandRidge Energy Inc., oil and gas drillers with a combined $7.6 billion of debt, didn’t pay interest on their bonds last week. They have until the middle of next month to either pay the interest, work out a deal with their creditors or face a default that could tip them into bankruptcy. ...

The U.S. shale boom was fueled by junk debt. Companies spent more on drilling than they earned selling oil and gas, plugging the difference with other peoples’ money. Drillers piled up a staggering $237 billion of borrowings at the end of September, according to data compiled on the 61 companies in the Bloomberg Intelligence index of North American independent oil and gas producers. U.S. crude production soared to its highest in more than three decades.

Oil prices have now fallen more than 70 percent from a 2014 peak, and banks and bondholders are fighting for scraps. Bond prices reflect investors’ fears. U.S. high yield energy debt lost 24 percent last year, the biggest fall since 2008, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Indexes. Investors are now demanding a yield of 19.6 percent to hold U.S. junk-rated energy bonds, after borrowing costs for these companies exceeded 20 percent for the first time ever this month, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ...

The number of U.S. companies that have the highest risk of defaulting on their debt is nearing a peak not seen since the height of the financial crisis, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service earlier this month. The oil and gas sector took up the biggest share, accounting for 28 percent, or 74 borrowers.

Most of the shale industry’s debt is in the form of bonds, according to data compiled for the Bloomberg Intelligence index. Of those $197 billion of securities, $101 billion is junk-rated.

How much did the Oregon standoff cost taxpayers? Millions, say early estimates

The Oregon militia standoff cost taxpayers more than $3m, burdening local sheriffs’ offices and government agencies across the state and leaving officials uncertain how they are going to recover the significant losses.

The armed occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, which began 2 January and ended 11 February after a dramatic standoff with the FBI, forced police agencies throughout Oregon to devote resources to the response, while also requiring schools and multiple federal departments to halt their work in rural Harney County for more than a month.

The estimated more than $3m, which officials say is significantly lower than the total costs, covers the activities of the Oregon state police, more than 35 local police and sheriffs’ agencies and the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which had to keep paying the more than 100 workers unable to work as the 41-day standoff dragged on.

The figure does not includes the expenses of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the refuge, nor the very significant costs of the FBI, which had a consistent presence at the standoff and is continuing now with its investigation.

Justice Scalia spent his last hours with members of this secretive society of elite hunters

When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died 12 days ago at a West Texas ranch, he was among high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian society that dates back to the 1600s.

After Scalia’s death Feb. 13, the names of the 35 other guests at the remote resort, along with details about Scalia’s connection to the hunters, have remained largely unknown. A review of public records shows that some of the men who were with Scalia at the ranch are connected through the International Order of St. Hubertus, whose members gathered at least once before at the same ranch for a celebratory weekend.

Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto “Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes,” which means “Honoring God by honoring His creatures,” according to the group’s website. Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Order’s name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen. ...

The International Order of St. Hubertus, according to its website, is a “true knightly order in the historical tradition.” In 1695, Count Franz Anton von Sporck founded the society in Bohemia, which is in modern-day Czech Republic. ...

The society’s U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove — one of the most well-known secret societies in the country.

MLK associate tells Memphis Baptist group he’s backing Bernie Sanders

A front-line soldier of the civil rights movement was in Memphis on Tuesday promoting the advantages of a Bernie Sanders presidency to members of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association.

Knoxville minister Rev. Harold Middlebrook, a Memphis native and former lieutenant of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., told the gathering of more than 50 black preachers at Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in South Memphis that Sanders represented everything he had struggled for over the last 50 years, detailing the Vermont senator's plans to offer free college, reform the criminal justice system, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide universal health care for all Americans.

"We've got to be concerned not just about popularity and names, but we've got to look at the issues and see who is going to really speak on our behalf," Middlebrook said. "And if we make a solid impression in Memphis, if Memphis wants to, Memphis can carry any election in this state."

Bernie Sanders received his third endorsement from a black South Carolina legislator in two weeks

Rep. Joe Neal, a Richland County Democrat, endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in a press conference at the State House.

Sanders received the endorsements of Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-Charleston) and Rep. Justin Bamberg (D-Barnwell) last week. Barnwell had previously endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but rescinded that endorsement and gave it to Sanders. Neal, a pastor from Hopkins, is the fourth longest-serving member of the S.C. House of Representatives.

Linking Clinton Policies to Poverty, Sanders Lays Out Plan to Help Nation's Poor

In a speech linking policies supported by Hillary Clinton to economic hardships of U.S. children, families, and workers, Bernie Sanders on Wednesday laid out his anti-poverty agenda in Columbia, South Carolina.

Noting that the U.S. "today has the highest poverty rate of nearly any major country on earth because almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the people on top," Sanders lambasted the 1996 welfare reform bill signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.

"What welfare reform did in my view was to go after some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in this country," Sanders said, before highlighting Hillary Clinton's support (pdf) for the legislation as First Lady.

"During that period, I spoke out against so-called 'welfare reform' because I thought it was scapegoating people who were helpless, people who were very, very vulnerable," he continued. "Secretary Clinton at that time had a very different position on welfare reform. She strongly supported it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage."

In her 2003 book, Clinton said of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that she "agreed that [Bill Clinton] should sign it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage."

Hillary supported cutting welfare as first lady, senator, and 2008 presidential candidate. Has she evolved?

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) February 24, 2016

The Liberal Redbaiting of Bernie

The Sanders campaign has certainly sharpened the contradictions, hasn’t it? It’s been very clarifying to see Hillary Clinton and her surrogates running against single-payer and free college, with intellectual cover coming from Paul Krugman and Vox. Expectations, having been systematically beaten down for 35 years, must be beaten down further, whether it’s Hillary saying that to go to college one needs some “skin in the game,” or Rep. John Lewis reminding us that nothing is free in America. A challenge from the left has forced centrist Democrats to reveal themselves as proud capitalist tools.

Latest to step up is Paul Starr, co-founder of The American Prospect. Normally the dull embodiment of tepid liberalism, Starr has unleashed a redbaiting philippic— a frothing one, even, by his usual standards—aimed at Bernie Sanders. Sanders is no liberal, Starr reveals—he’s a socialist. He may call himself a democratic socialist to assure us that he’s no Bolshevik—Starr actually says this—but that doesn’t stop Starr from stoking fears of state ownership and central planning. Thankfully the word “gulag” doesn’t appear, but that was probably an oversight. ...

Starr also finds the style of Sanders’ politics in bad taste:

Sanders is also doing what populists on both sides of the political spectrum do so well: the mobilization of resentment. The attacks on billionaires and Wall Street are a way of eliciting a roar of approval from angry audiences without necessarily having good solutions for the problems that caused that anger in the first place.

But people have a lot to resent—why shouldn’t it be mobilized politically? And free tuition and single-payer are pretty good solutions for some of those problems. Starr just doesn’t like them. Best leave the tuition issue to some vague, incomprehensible scheme (that apparently involves lots of work–study and online learning) and health care to a lightly regulated and generously subsidized insurance industry. Establishment Democrats haven’t merely gone post-hope—they’ve declared war on it.

Some great advice that Bernie is unlikely to take:

Sanders the ‘Realist’; Hillary the ‘Neocon’

Hillary Clinton has scored points against Bernie Sanders by tagging him as a “single-issue candidate” who harps again and again on income inequality. Though the “single-issue” charge is false– the Vermont Senator actually addresses a wide range of topics from global warming to health care to college costs – Clinton’s attack line has been effective nonetheless

It works, in part, because Sanders shies away from thorough discussions about his views on foreign policy while Clinton can tout her résumé as a globetrotter both as First Lady and Secretary of State.

Sanders also has left himself open to attacks from neoconservatives and liberal interventionists that he is a “closet realist.” For instance, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote recently: “Is Bernie Sanders a closet foreign policy ‘realist’? Reading his few pronouncements on foreign policy, you sense that he embraces the realists’ deep skepticism about U.S. military intervention.”

But what if Sanders came out of the closet and “confessed” to being a “realist” while posing the alternative question: Is Hillary Clinton a “closet neocon” who is seen by key neocons as “the vessel” in which they have placed their hopes for extending their power and expanding their policies? Might that question reenergize Sanders’s suddenly flagging campaign and force Clinton to venture beyond a few talking points on foreign policy?

Rather than largely ceding the field to Clinton – except in noting her Iraq War vote while he opposed that disastrous war of choice – Sanders could say, “yes, I’m a realist when it comes to foreign policy. I’m in line with early presidents – Washington, Adams, Jefferson – who warned about the dangers of foreign entanglements. While I believe America should lead in the world, it should not go ‘abroad in search of monsters to destroy,’ as John Quincy Adams wisely noted.

With Donald Trump Looming, Should Dems Take a Huge Electability Gamble by Nominating Hillary Clinton?

Many Democrats will tell you that there has rarely, if ever, been a more menacing or evil presidential candidate than Donald Trump. “Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory,” pronounced Vox‘s Ezra Klein two weeks ago. With a consensus now emerging that the real estate mogul is the likely GOP nominee, it would stand to reason that the most important factor for many Democrats in choosing their own nominee is electability: meaning, who has the best chance of defeating the GOP Satan in the general election? In light of that, can Democrats really afford to take such a risky gamble by nominating Hillary Clinton?

In virtually every poll, her rival, Bernie Sanders, does better, often much better, in head-to-head match-ups against every possible GOP candidate. ...

Then there’s the data about how each candidate is perceived. Put simply, Hillary Clinton is an extremely unpopular political figure. By contrast, even after enduring months of attacks from the Clinton camp and its large number of media surrogates, Sanders remains a popular figure. ... In fact, the more the public gets to see of both candidates, the more popular Sanders becomes, and the more unpopular Clinton becomes. ...

It’s possible to argue that electability should not be the primary factor. That’s certainly reasonable: elections often are and should be about aspirations, ideology, and opinion-changing leaders. But given the lurking possibility of a Trump presidency, is now really the time to gamble on such a risky General Election candidate as Hillary Clinton?

Spy agencies say Clinton emails closely matched top secret documents

U.S. spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton's home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as "top secret" because their wording matched sections of some of the government's most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said.

The two reports are the first formal declarations by U.S. spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server.

The State Department has already acknowledged that the emails contained top secret intelligence, though it says they were not marked that way. It has not previously been clear if the emails contained full classified documents or only some information from them.

The agencies did not find any top secret documents that passed through Clinton's server in their full version, the sources from Congress and the government's executive branch said. ...

Under the law and government rules, U.S. officials and contractors may not transmit any classified information - not only documents - outside secure, government-controlled channels. Such information should not be sent even through the government's .gov email network.

Top GOP Pollster: Young Americans Are Terrifyingly Liberal

According to new polling by right-wing political consultant Frank Luntz, Americans 18 to 26 are extremely liberal —  so liberal that “the hostility of young Americans to the underpinnings of the American economy and the American government” should “frighten every business and political leader” and “excite activists for Sanders and, to a lesser degree, Clinton activists.”

Luntz’s poll found that young Americans are optimistic about both the country’s future and their own: 61% say the best days of the United States are still ahead of us rather than behind us, and 88% are somewhat, very or extremely optimistic about their economic prospects. But they have concerns, too. Their biggest, in order, are “corruption,” “greed” and “inequality.”

President Obama is not their favorite political figure — Bernie Sanders is. Indeed, 31 percent said Bernie Sanders is the major political figure they “like and respect the most” — more than Obama (18 percent) and Hillary Clinton (11 percent). Many fewer young people like and respect Republican politicians, with just 9 percent choosing Donald Trump, 5 percent George W. Bush and 5 percent Ted Cruz. Bill Clinton has been nearly forgotten, with only 3 percent choosing him. Elizabeth Warren also has low visibility, chosen by just 2 percent. All in all, 66 percent of young Americans chose a Democratic political figure.

Wall Street's Message to Young Adults: 'You Are Clueless'

Wall Street CEOs are very upset with young adults. They believe you are "clueless" and "voting against [your] own interests" when you support Bernie Sanders. A Wall Street CEO took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to decry the fact that, "Millennials are flocking to Sanders." It would be cruel to note that one has to be clueless to believe that writing an op-ed in the WSJ was a good way to reach millennials supporting Bernie. But at least we can gain an insight into Wall Street's theory of why Bernie is bad for young adults. It turns out that Wall Street is worried that Bernie is pushing Hillary Clinton to take inequality seriously because younger Americans take inequality seriously. Wall Street, of course, loves and exists to produce staggering inequality. ...

In an amazing admission, the Wall Street CEO predicts that what Wall Street is about to bring America and Europe is a massive destruction of employment and a staggering surge in inequality that will destroy the American dream. His "solution" is be among the tiny number of winners at the peak of the towering inequality.

[The economy soon] will be displacing service professionals and Ph.Ds just as they have factory workers. The Bank of England projects that 45% of jobs done by people in the U.K. will eventually be performed by robots. ArkInvest expects the U.S. to shed 75 million jobs in the next two decades.

Yep, I can't think of any reason why a young adult American would not embrace the prospect of shedding 75 million, often-good jobs and flushing those 75 million Americans into a desperate struggle against each other in the emerging "gig" economy to secure enough scraps to survive. Wall Street CEOs aren't "clueless" -- they plan to get rich by getting paid huge fees to destroy those 75 million American jobs. Wall Street CEOs think that the prospect of them becoming even wealthier by destroying those 75 million jobs should cause "Millennials" to praise them because Wall Street exists "to effectively allocate and manage capital in the micro-economy." It is, after all, all about "capital," not people. The Wall Street CEOs think the young should cheer Wall Street's "effective[ness]" in destroying the middle and working classes in America.

Winning His Race: Is Trump the Poster Child for the Rise of U.S. Hate Groups?

How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable

President Donald Trump.

A thousand ridiculous accidents needed to happen in the unlikeliest of sequences for it to be possible, but absent a dramatic turn of events – an early primary catastrophe, Mike Bloomberg ego-crashing the race, etc. – this boorish, monosyllabic TV tyrant with the attention span of an Xbox-playing 11-year-old really is set to lay waste to the most impenetrable oligarchy the Western world ever devised. ...

But, in an insane twist of fate, this bloated billionaire scion has hobbies that have given him insight into the presidential electoral process. He likes women, which got him into beauty pageants. And he likes being famous, which got him into reality TV. He knows show business.

That put him in position to understand that the presidential election campaign is really just a badly acted, billion-dollar TV show whose production costs ludicrously include the political disenfranchisement of its audience. Trump is making a mockery of the show, and the Wolf Blitzers and Anderson Coopers of the world seem appalled. How dare he demean the presidency with his antics?

But they've all got it backward. The presidency is serious. The presidential electoral process, however, is a sick joke, in which everyone loses except the people behind the rope line. And every time some pundit or party spokesman tries to deny it, Trump picks up another vote.

Refusing to Settle, Dimock Families Take Fracking Giant to Court

Fracking is on trial in Pennsylvania this week as two families, who refused to settle in their pursuit of justice, have launched a court battle against Cabot Oil & Gas Corp.

Neighbors Scott Ely and his wife, Monica Marta-Ely, and Ray and Victoria Hubert are accusing the fossil fuel giant of groundwater contamination, resulting in the loss of their drinking water supply.

Both families live in the town of Dimock, which has become the cornerstone in the fight against fracking and was featured in the 2010 documentary Gasland. The film is credited with exposing the toxic impacts of the drilling process, spurring the national anti-fracking movement.

During opening arguments on Tuesday, attorney Leslie Lewis told the jury that Cabot had shown "reckless disregard" for the health and safety of her clients and other members of the community.

As NPR's State Impact notes, "The region surrounding Dimock is what’s known as the 'sweet spot,' breaking records with gushing shale gas wells and spurring an upswing in interstate pipeline construction."

However, since 2008, Dimock families have reported problems with their drinking water, and experienced rashes, nausea, headaches, and dizziness, according to Energy Justice, which is providing legal support for the plaintiffs.

WTO: India May Not Have Climate-Friendly Solar Program Unless US Makes Profit

The World Trade Organization delivered a blow to India’s ambitious solar power program on Wednesday at the behest of the United States. So much for all that nice chatter about international climate cooperation back in December.

Responding to a U.S. complaint, a WTO dispute panel ruled that several provisions of India’s National Solar Mission were “inconsistent” with international trade norms. The point of contention? India’s solar plan, which seeks to install 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022, requires a certain percentage of cells and panels to be manufactured locally.

These types of provisions, called domestic content requirements, are prohibited under most international trade agreements. Want to be part of the WTO? You gotta be open to trade — every time — or you’re guilty of the dreaded protectionism.

An estimated 300 million Indians don’t have access to electricity. The country’s solar plan, launched in 2010, aims to change that — while simultaneously combating poverty via job creation. And while India has indeed made strides in adding solar capacity, the U.S. argues that the Solar Mission’s domestic content requirements have led to a 90 percent decrease in its solar exports to India since 2011. The export losses led the U.S. to file a WTO complaint, which has been staunchly opposed by several U.S. environmental groups. In August of last year, the WTO panel released a preliminary ruling against the Indian domestic content requirements, and Wednesday’s ruling finalized that decision.

Seattle-Area Salmon Are Loaded With Anti-Depressants and Other Drugs Thanks to Human Waste

The everyday chemicals that humans ingest to relieve pain, fight depression and diabetes, or treat infection are winding up in the tissue of fish in Washington's Puget Sound. 

A study in the journal Environmental Pollution detected unusually high levels of drugs like Advil, Benadryl, Prozac, and even birth control pills, in the tissue of salmon.

The culprit, according to the study, is human waste.

"About 45 of the 150 chemicals we examined were found in the fish," said James Meador, the lead author of the study and an aquatic toxicologist working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Some of them were at high concentrations. That's the kind of information that raises eyebrows."

Over 4,000 pharmaceuticals are currently in use or in development in the United States. Many of them are finding their way into rivers, streams, and lakes, raising concerns about how exposure could impact wildlife, or even humans who consume fish. ...

Hundreds of chemicals can be found in the waters of Puget Sound, but only a handful are regularly monitored by wastewater facilities, which require permits from Washington's Department of Ecology to operate. Chemical levels from pesticides, for example, must remain below a certain threshold before the water can be dumped into the sound. But pharmaceuticals, now ubiquitous in society, aren't monitored.

House Republicans seek to open up national forests to mining and logging

Congress is to consider two bills that would allow states to hand over vast tracts of federal land for mining, logging or other commercial activities – just weeks after the arrest of an armed militia that took over a wildlife refuge in Oregon in protest at federal oversight of public land.

The legislation, which will be presented to the House committee on natural resources on Thursday, would loosen federal authority over parts of the 600m acres (240m hectares), nearly one-third of the land mass of the US, it administers.

A bill put forward by Republican Don Young would allow any state to assume control of up to 2m acres of the national forest system to be “managed primarily for timber production” in order to address what Young claims is a decline in national logging rates.

A further bill, written by Republican Raúl Labrador, would allow state governors to assign up to 4m acres of land as “forest demonstration areas”, which would allow logging free from any federal water, air or endangered species restrictions.

Also of Interest

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

Apple v the FBI: why the 1789 All Writs Act is the wrong tool

From Fines To Jail Time: How Apple Could Be Punished For Defying FBI

FBI v Apple spat latest: Bill Gates is really upset that you all thought he was on the Feds' side

The U.S. Extends Its Drone War Deeper Into Africa With Secretive Base

eBay for jihadis: Al-Qaeda fighters using Facebook to buy and sell 'CIA weapons'

Did Clinton Help Kill the Public Option? Which Reporter Has the Wall Street Speeches?

Hillary’s State Department Pressured Haiti Not To Raise Minimum Wage to $.61 An Hour

Nevada Residents Fight Energy Monopoly's Attempts to Control Solar Power

Bernie Sanders is the Worst Presidential Candidate in History, and You and All Your Friends are Idiots

A Little Night Music

Sunnyland Slim - It's You Baby

Sunnyland Slim - City Of New Orleans

Sunnyland Slim - Everytime I Get To Drinkin'

Sunnyland Slim - She's Got A Thing Going On

Sunnyland Slim - The Devil Is A Busy Man

Sunnyland Slim - Going Back To Memphis

Sunnyland Slim - Be Careful How You Vote

Sunnyland Slim with Mike Bloomfield - Sunnyland's Jump