Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago bluesman Jimmy Reed. Enjoy!

"You can't say civilization don't advance ... in every war they kill you in a new way."

-- Will Rogers

News and Opinion

War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing: The Literal Truth When It Comes to War, US-Style

It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song "War," sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a sensation. Even so many years later, who could forget its famed chorus? "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing." Not me. And yet heartfelt as the song was then - "War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker. War, it's got one friend, that's the undertaker..." - it has little resonance in America today.

But here's the strange thing: in a way its authors and singer could hardly have imagined, in a way we still can't quite absorb, that chorus has proven eerily prophetic - in fact, accurate beyond measure in the most literal possible sense. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. You could think of American war in the twenty-first century as an ongoing experiment in proving just that point. ...

Unless, of course, you consider an expanding series of failed states, spreading terror movements, wrecked cities, countries hemorrhaging refugees, and the like as accomplishments. In these years, no goal of Washington - not a single one - has been accomplished by war.

Has War Outlived Its Usefulness?

Relatively early in the post-9/11 presidency of George W. Bush, it became apparent that his top officials had confused military power with power itself. They had come to venerate force and its possible uses in a way that only men who had never been to war possibly could. (Secretary of State Colin Powell was the sole exception to this rule of thumb.) On the US military, they were fundamentalists and true believers, convinced that unleashing its uniquely destructive capabilities would open the royal road to control of the Greater Middle East and possibly the planet as well. ...

Ever since then, no small thanks to the military-industrial complex, military power has remained the option of choice even when it became clear that it could not produce a minimalist version of what the Bush crew hoped for. Consider it something of an irony, then, that the US may still be the lone superpower on the planet. In a period when military power of the first order doesn't seem to translate into a thing of value, American economic (and cultural) power still does. The realm of the dollar, not the F-35, still rules the planet.

People Die (from Drone Strikes) While Hayden Lies

In a New York Times op-ed published on February 21, former CIA director, Air Force general, and “Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror” author Michael Hayden advocated for the continuing use of drone warfare. He urges the public and implicitly, the next U.S. president, to “embrace” this policy for the desired result of “keeping America safe.” After over a decade of the CIA’s and USAF’s unilateral use of this sinister weapons system, a well-documented record of their unintended consequences confronts us, if we have the courage to face it.

Killer drones have been and continue to be sold to the American people on the basis of lies, including these that Hayden, who has directed drone strikes and personally seen the killing of civilians, repeats in his advocacy piece.

Lie #1: That the policy of using drones to kill people in other countries is “warfare” and serves as a legitimate means to protect the United States.

It’s not, and it doesn’t. Warfare is reciprocal violence, or at least contains the possibility of defensive action (such as anti-aircraft guns) against violence such as that caused by either the Hellfire missiles or GBU-12 bombs named in Hayden’s novelistic portrayal of a pre-strike conversation between an operator and his commander. The U.S. government uses Reaper and Predator drones, loaded with these devastating munitions, as its remotely piloted, high-tech tools in a policy of assassination in at least 7 countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.   ...

Lie #2: “Critics assert that a high percentage of the people killed in drone strikes are civilians — a claim totally at odds with the intelligence I have reviewed…”

The high percentage of civilians killed by drone strikes is not just the assertion of (unnamed) critics. It comes out of statistical analysis and anecdotal reports of drone strikes based on:

--studies by the human rights group Reprieve and other organizations
--mainstream news accounts - including by Fox News and the New York Times
--on-the-ground interviews with survivors
--testimony by Pakistani child survivors to members of Congress
--military documents from 2011-2013 leaked by a military whistleblower to The Intercept.  ...

Lie #3: Hayden defends signature strikes. “Critics said these so-called signature strikes were indiscriminate. They were not. Intelligence for signature strikes always had multiple threads and deep history. The data was near encyclopedic.”

This “encyclopedic” data did/does not even contain the names of those targeted. The targeting locks onto “military-age males” (from approximately 16 - 45 or 50) and is often based on tracking cell phone SIM cards for geolocation, so that those who know they are being tracked mix up their SIM cards with others’, or simply trade cell phones with friends and family members. 

Nothing could be more indiscriminate than condemning to death without due process, and then assassinating people based on their proximity to members of a targeted group, their age, their traditional dress, or other “guilt by association” factors. A 2012 New York Times article explored the (lack of) ethics of the killing-by-profile policy: “It bothers me when they say there were seven guys, so they must all be militants,” the [anonymous] official said. “They count the corpses and they’re not really sure who they are.”

Reprieve Comment on Obama's Gitmo Closure Plan

Commenting on President Obama's statement today and written plan to close the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Reprieve attorney for Gitmo detainees Cori Crider said: 

For most of this Presidency, ‘work with Congress’ has been code for ‘ain’t gonna happen,’ so it’s far from plain whether President Obama really aims to force this plan through. If he does, while he is right to try to close Guantánamo, the plan has various problems.

Guantánamo Bay is a stain on U.S. history—and it is time we consigned it to history. Today's plan won’t finish the job.

The President’s plan leaves the door open to hold cleared men on U.S. soil without charge or trial, which is contrary to everything that we stand for.

Center for Constitutional Rights Criticizes Obama Plan to Change Guantánamo's Zip Code

This is not a plan to close Guantánamo. It lays out several obvious steps that the Center for Constitutional Rights has long called for, and that the Obama administration has long reneged on – finally releasing the men who have been cleared for transfer, most for years, and strengthening and speeding up the Periodic Review Board process – but talk is cheap. Unless the Obama administration shows real will and dramatically steps up its efforts on these basic fronts, men whose detentions the administration itself has determined are unnecessary, who have already been imprisoned for 14 years, will continue to languish long after President Obama has left the White House. This is senseless and cruel. The 35 men currently approved for transfer must be transferred without delay – we would expect by mid-summer. And the administration must ensure that every man still waiting for a PRB – unbelievably, as many as 33 – is reviewed in time to have an actual chance at being transferred this year. We need to be clear: any detainees not reviewed before President Obama leaves office are not those the administration believes “too dangerous to release,” but men whose status it hasn’t reviewed for over six years, since 2009, whom it simply didn’t get to in the PRB line.

Meanwhile, the centerpiece of the plan – moving those detainees who have not been and will never be charged with any crime to a prison in the U.S. – does not “close Guantánamo,” it merely relocates it to a new ZIP Code. The infamy of Guantánamo has never been just its location, but rather its immoral and illegal regime of indefinite detention. Closing Guantánamo in any meaningful sense means putting an end to that practice.

John Kerry is delusional. I hope that the Cubans ask him when he is going to do something about the awful human rights abuses that the US is performing at Guantanamo.

Kerry To Visit Cuba To Insist On Human Rights Issues

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to travel to Cuba in the "next week or two" in order “to have a human rights dialogue, specifically," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

"The president hopes to press forward on the agenda of speaking to the people of Cuba about the future and obviously he is anxious to press on the rights of people to be able to demonstrate, to have democracy, to be free, to be able to speak and hang a sign in their window without being put in jail for several years," Kerry said.

Mixed Messages: Kerry, top US generals have different opinions on Russia

Syrian rebel factions say they will respect two-week truce

The main umbrella organisation for Syrian opposition groups backed by the west and Saudi Arabia has said armed groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad will respect a two-week truce beginning at midnight local time (10pm GMT).

The high negotiations committee (HNC) said nearly 100 rebel factions had agreed to the ceasefire, adding that the Syrian government and its allies must not launch attacks on the pretext of fighting terrorism. ...

Under the terms of the deal, armed groups had to confirm their commitment to the US or Russia no later than midday Damascus time. It was not immediately clear how manyx factions had refused to join the ceasefire or their military significance.

Fighting was continuing across much of western Syria on Friday morning, with heavy airstrikes reported on rebel-held areas to the east of Damascus. ...

The cessation of hostilities excludes Islamic State (Isis), the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and any other terrorist groups named by the security council. The intermingling of al-Nusra Front with less extreme opposition factions makes the monitoring of the ceasefire highly complex, and open to abuse. ...

The US and Russia are working together to produce a map setting out the physical areas that are excluded from the ceasefire, so in effect setting out territory that Russia and the Syrian government army would be permitted to continue bombing with the de facto approval of the UN.

On Eve of Syria Ceasefire, US and Russia Prepare to Blame One Another for Failure

Just days ahead of the latest Syrian ceasefire, brokered by the US and Russia, both the US and Russia seem to be laying the groundwork for its quick collapse, and getting ready to blame one another for the pact not working.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the US of redefining the terms of the ceasefire after the deal was already made, suggesting this was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the process by shifting expectations on what would happen on Saturday morning. Russia noted that the deal excludes ISIS and al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, and insists strikes against both will continue.

US allegations were a bit more strange, with officials complaining Russia had been backing an offensive for the past three weeks, a period of time which is not part of the ceasefire and includes considerable time before the deal was even reached. It seems particularly unreasonable for the US to have expected Russia to comply with the ceasefire before it was negotiated, but they insist this raises “general suspicion” about whether Russia will comply when the ceasefire does exist.

Some good news from Turkey at last:

Turkish journalists freed: High court rules jailed journalists' rights were violated

Turkey says Syria ceasefire is not binding if it threatens security

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey would not be bound by the Syrian ceasefire plan if its security was threatened, and would take "necessary measures" against the Syrian Kurdish YPG and Islamic State if needed.

The ceasefire process, initiated by Russia and the United States, could be complicated by NATO member Turkey's deep distrust of the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which controls territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group and fears it will further stoke unrest among its own Kurdish population.

"The ceasefire is not binding for us when there is a situation that threatens Turkey's security; we will take necessary measures against both the YPG and Daesh when we feel the need to," Davutoglu said in comments broadcast live on CNN Turk television.

Newly-Translated WikiLeaks Saudi Cable: Overthrow the Syrian Regime, but Play Nice with Russia

A WikiLeaks cable released as part of “The Saudi Cables” in the summer of 2015 ... reveals what the Saudis feared most in the early years of the war: Russian military intervention and Syrian retaliation. These fears were such that the kingdom directed its media “not to oppose Russian figures and to avoid insulting them” at the time.

Saudi Arabia had further miscalculated that the “Russian position” of preserving the Assad government “will not persist in force.” In Saudi thinking, reflected in the leaked memo, Assad’s violent ouster (“by all means available”) could be pursued so long as Russia stayed on the sidelines. ...

Over the past weeks Saudi Arabia has ratcheted up its rhetoric on Syria, threatening direct military escalation and the insertion of special forces on the ground, ostensibly for humanitarian and stabilizing purposes as a willing partner in the “war on terror.” As many pundits are now observing, in reality the kingdom’s saber rattling stems not from confidence, but utter desperation as its proxy anti-Assad fighters face defeat by overwhelming Russian air power and Syrian ground forces, and as the Saudi military itself is increasingly bogged down in Yemen.

Even as the Saudi regime dresses its bellicose rhetoric in humanitarian terms, it ultimately desires to protect the flow of foreign fighters into Northern Syria, which is its still hoped-for “available means” of toppling the Syrian government (or at least, at this point, permanent sectarian partition of Syria).

Son of Executed Saudi Cleric to Defy Saudi Regime By Attending Upcoming Human Rights Summit

EU Resolution Calls for Saudi Arms Embargo in 'Appeal to End Bloodshed'

The EU parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly called for an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia over its bombing of Yemen which has "led to thousands of deaths" and "further destabilized" the war-torn country.

"This is a clear humanitarian appeal to end the bloodshed in Yemen, and call on Saudi Arabia to pursue a political rather than a military solution to the conflict," stated Richard Howitt, who proposed the motion.

Despite lobbying by Saudi Arabia, the non-binding resolution passed 449 to 36, with 78 abstentions. "The vote does not compel EU member states to act but it does increase pressure on Riyadh, in the wake of criticism from the UN and growing international alarm over civilian casualties in Yemen," the Guardian reports.

I wonder how much an ICBM costs. I bet it costs a lot. Apparently, the military thinks that these expensive dick-waving displays are very important and engages in them a lot. 15 big dick-waves since January 2011. How many homeless people would that feed, clothe and house?

U.S. test-fires ICBMs to stress its power to Russia, North Korea

The U.S. military test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a week on Thursday night, seeking to demonstrate its nuclear arms capacity at a time of rising strategic tensions with Russia and North Korea.

The unarmed Minuteman III missile roared out of a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California late at night, raced across the sky at speeds of up to 15,000 mph (24,000 kph) and landed a half hour later in a target area 4,200 miles (6,500 km) away near Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who witnessed the launch, said the U.S. tests, conducted at least 15 times since January 2011, send a message to strategic rivals like Russia, China and North Korea that Washington has an effective nuclear arsenal.

"That’s exactly why we do this," Work told reporters before the launch.

"We and the Russians and the Chinese routinely do test shots to prove that the operational missiles that we have are reliable. And that is a signal ... that we are prepared to use nuclear weapons in defense of our country if necessary."

ACLU Sounds Alarm as Obama Administration Plans Quiet NSA Expansion

Civil liberties advocates slammed reports on Friday that the Obama administration is poised to authorize the National Security Agency (NSA) to share more of its private intercepted communications with other U.S. intelligence agencies without expanding privacy protections.

"Before we allow them to spread that information further in the government, we need to have a serious conversation about how to protect Americans' information," Alex Abdo, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told the New York Times.

The change would loosen restrictions on access to the communications that are collected in mass data sweeps, including emails and phone calls, the Times reported, citing "officials familiar with the deliberations."

European Companies Sold Spy Tech to a Secret Egyptian Intelligence Unit Amid Brutal Repression

When pro-democracy Egyptian protestors succeeded in ending the authoritarian rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they would soon reap an unexpected double-coup. The following month reports claimed that the much-feared Egypt's State Security Investigations Service (SSI) had been shuttered. A powerful symbol of state repression was no longer. Or so it seemed.

Amid the flux of revolution, one Egyptian intelligence body not only survived intact but massively increased its surveillance capacity, throughout a period of worsening repression.

According to a new report by Privacy International, European companies supplied the euphemistically-named Technical Research Department (TRD) with intrusive surveillance equipment, enabling them to target human rights activists and journalists. ...

The report implicates two European companies in the sale of surveillance technology to TRD. At the time of mass protests in Egypt between 2010-11, it claims Nokia Siemens Networks provided the TRD mass surveillance capabilities including an interception management system and a monitoring center.

Moreover, according to Privacy International, leaked emails from Italian surveillance equipment seller Hacking Team dated from last year show that it expected to earn a million euros from the sale of intrusive surveillance technologies to the unit. The technology would allow TRD complete access to the computers and smart phones of targeted individuals.

Based on conversations with industry sources, experts, and leaked documents, the report describes how former President Hosni Mubarak used the unit to keep political opponents in check through surveillance of their communications.

This article has an excellent exposition of the arguments and counterarguments in the Citizens of the World vs. Sneaky Intrusive Spooks (Apple vs. FBI) filings. It's worth a full read.

Apple accuses FBI of violating constitutional rights in iPhone battle

The tech firm’s attorneys argue the government seeks “a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe.”

Facebook and Twitter will join a supporting brief; Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told the house judiciary committee on Thursday that his company would do the same, indicating that tech companies were coalescing around support for Apple despite extensive outreach by senior Obama administration officials earlier this year. “The industry is aligned and working on a joint submission to the court,” said an industry representative.

Apple’s legal team, led by George W Bush’s former solicitor general Theodore Olson, portrayed the government not only as indifferent to privacy concerns, but placing the security of its customers’ digital lives at risk of attack, suggesting that the US was unwittingly conducting a cyberattack on millions of Apple users.

Apple says the court order violates American free speech law under the first amendment and due process protections under the fifth amendment, and that it leans too heavily on the so-called All Writs Act, a statute dating back to 1789 that gives courts broad authority to ensure orders are fulfilled.

Another statute at issue is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which Apple says the government ignores, but which the government says does not apply in this case. In 1996, a federal court ruled that computer code is protected speech under the first amendment. In an illustration of the cyclical nature of debates over technology and society, the plaintiff in that case was a University of California Berkeley graduate student who had developed an encryption algorithm.

FBI Director Admits Apple Case Could Be a Game Changer

FBI Director James Comey reversed himself on Thursday when he acknowledged that the outcome of a California court order compelling Apple to write new code to unlock a terrorist’s phone could “be instructive for other courts” when interpreting how far third parties have to go in helping the government hack their products.

Just as recently as Sunday, Comey wrote that “the San Bernardino litigation isn’t about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice.”

Comey was really just admitting the obvious. Law enforcement agencies are already lining up to exploit what they consider a possible new tool.

Gosh, do you suppose that Comey is running the crocodile tear generator to appear concerned about bludgeoning Apple into a precedent-setting action for the destruction of American's privacy?

FBI Director James Comey, Who Signed Off on Waterboarding, Is Now Losing Sleep Over an iPhone

FBI Director James Comey said his agency’s ongoing dispute with Apple raises “the hardest question I’ve seen in government.” Comey was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday about the government’s attempt to force Apple to write software than undoes its own security protocols.

But Comey has faced considerably tougher questions in his career. Before becoming FBI director, he was the deputy assistant attorney general in George W. Bush’s Justice Department, where he pushed back on certain elements of the Bush-Cheney torture and surveillance programs — but ended up signing off on both. ...

Comey had twice signed off on waterboarding, but drew the line at combining it with other methods of torture.

Mercedes-Benz swaps robots for people on its assembly lines

Bucking modern manufacturing trends, Mercedes-Benz has been forced to trade in some of its assembly line robots for more capable humans.

The robots cannot handle the pace of change and the complexity of the key customisation options available for the company’s S-Class saloon at the 101-year-old Sindelfingen plant, which produces 400, 000 vehicles a year from 1,500 tons of steel a day.

The dizzying number of options for the cars – from heated or cooled cup holders, various wheels, carbon-fibre trims and decals, and even four types of caps for tire valves – demand adaptability and flexibility, two traits where humans currently outperform robots.

Markus Schaefer, Mercedes-Benz’ head of production told Bloomberg: “Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualisation and the many variants that we have today. We’re saving money and safeguarding our future by employing more people.” ...

Skilled humans can change a production line in a weekend, where robots take weeks to reprogram and realign.

Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis is Focus of 2 Congressional Hearings as Dems Propose a "Super-Bankruptcy"

Move along, Johnny, move along... go fade into the background somewhere else and don't bother the rich people...

Homeless ordered to vacate camp they were pressured into before Super Bowl

Residents have been ordered to vacate the San Francisco homeless encampment under a highway overpass after police and public workers pressured the city’s homeless to relocate there from areas of the city slated for Super Bowl 50 festivities.

The 21st-century Hooverville became a symbol of the city’s gaping inequality in the run-up to and throughout the week of star-studded Super Bowl festivities in February, rekindling long-running controversies over how the city should address the needs of its nearly 7,000 homeless residents.

Then on 23 February, less than three weeks after the championship game, the San Francisco department of public health declared the encampments on several blocks of Division Street a public health hazard due to “accumulation of garbage, human feces, hypodermic needles, urine odors and other insanitary conditions”. Homeless residents were ordered to leave within 72 hours.

“Conditions where multiple tents are congregated have become unsafe,” director of health Barbara Garcia said in a statement. “People are living without access to running water, bathrooms, trash disposal or safe heating or cooking facilities.”

L.A. is seizing tiny homes from the homeless

Escalating their battle to stamp out an unprecedented spread of street encampments, city officials have begun seizing tiny houses from homeless people in South Los Angeles.

Elvis Summers, who built and donated the structures, removed seven of the gaily painted wooden houses — which come with solar-powered lights and American flags — on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of a scheduled city sweep.

Summers, an L.A. resident who says he was once homeless, had placed them within encampments on overpasses along the 110 Freeway, for homeless people to use instead of tents.

But three structures impounded earlier this month remain in a city storage lot, a Bureau of Sanitation spokeswoman said, and the city notified occupants they would be “discarded.” ...

Mayor Eric Garcetti's spokeswoman, Connie Llanos, said he is committed to getting homeless people into permanent housing and services.

"Unfortunately, these structures can be hazardous to the individuals living in them and to the community at large," Llanos said in a statement.

"When the city took the houses, they didn't offer housing, they straight kicked them out," Summers said. ...

The city passed a tough new sweeps ordinance that identified tiny houses as “bulky items” subject to immediate confiscation. More than 30,000 people sleep on the streets in Los Angeles County.

#WhichHillary? #BlackLivesMatter Activist Demands Apology from Clinton for "Superpredator" Comments

Black Lives Matter Activists Interrupt Hillary Clinton At Private Event In South Carolina

Youth activist Ashley Williams demanded that the Democratic presidential candidate account for inconsistencies in her record on race, specifically around comments she made about crime in 1996. ...

As Clinton spoke to the crowd, Williams stood to her side and held a sign quoting controversial statements Clinton made in 1996 in reference to at-risk youth, when she said "we have to bring them to heel."

Williams said when Clinton paused and looked at her sign, she asked the former secretary of state to apologize to black people for mass incarceration. The mostly white audience yelled at Williams and told her she was being rude, she said. ...

Williams, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina, said she was motivated to protest because policies during President Bill Clinton's administration led to an increase in mass incarceration that mostly affected black communities. She pointed to three-strike federal sentencing laws, the elimination of rehabilitative programs for drug abuse and an emphasis on prison construction as part of the destructive Clinton legacy on crime. ...

“Hillary Clinton has a pattern of throwing the Black community under the bus when it serves her politically," Williams said in a statement before the event. "She called our boys ‘super-predators’ in ’96, then she race-baited when running against Obama in ‘08, now she’s a lifelong civil rights activist. ..."

#WhichHillary The one who can't see who the real super-predators are pic.twitter.com/LE9eHihlLt

— Honest Hillary (@Honest_Hillary) February 25, 2016

Hillary Clinton offers explanation but no apology about why she called young black kids ‘superpredators’

The crowd, which was almost exclusively white, literally hissed and booed and yelled that Ashley was trespassing. Another person could be heard repeatedly saying, "this is not appropriate."

What is most telling, though, is something that Hillary said while the Secret Service was grabbing Williams and throwing her out of the event. Williams again asked Clinton to explain why she called black children superpredators.

"You know what, nobody's ever asked me before,” Clinton responded. “You're the first person to ask me and I'm happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me." ...

Her comments 20 years ago calling young black children "superpredators" have been widely discussed, publicly, among progressive thought leaders and activists throughout this entire campaign and indeed for years among criminal justice reformers.

The notion that any children were superpredators without conscience was a dangerous lie designed to justify the mass incarceration complex. ...

Could it also be that because Clinton has failed to take a single question from her traveling press crew for months on end that questions like this never get a chance to be addressed?

Statement from Ashley Williams on @HillaryClinton's "apology." #WhichHillary pic.twitter.com/SrHscR4sxV

— mervyn marcano (@britrican) February 26, 2016

Lee Fang at The Intercept documents the slime. There's far more than can be fairly abstracted at the link.

TV Pundits Praise Hillary Clinton On Air, Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Her Campaign

Tune into television coverage of the presidential campaign and undoubtedly you will hear from various pundits described as “former campaign strategists” and “political contributors” explaining the latest developments of the race. But in many cases, these pundits — though introduced as neutral experts on campaigns or party politics — in fact have financial ties to the candidates they praise on the air. ...

“Journalism 101 teaches that reporters and TV news hosts must properly identify their sources and analysts,” says Jeff Cohen, an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College. We reached out to NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC News, but did not hear back.

Stephanie Cutter, for example, has appeared on multiple networks to discuss Clinton, and is typically introduced as a former campaign official for President Barack Obama. What hasn’t been disclosed in any of her appearances reviewed by The Intercept, however, is that the boutique consulting firm she co-founded, Precision Strategies, has been retained by the Clinton campaign for “digital consulting,” according to Federal Election Commission records. Precision Strategies has been paid at least $120,049 from the Clinton campaign since June of last year. ...

Maria Cardona, a CNN contributor, has appeared on a regular basis over the course the presidential campaign as a reliable voice in support of Clinton. She is also a longtime partner at the Dewey Square Group, a lobbying firm with extensive ties to the Clinton campaign ... Cardona, a DNC “superdelegate” who pledged support for Clinton last year, before any of the primary elections, also contributed the maximum donation to Clinton’s campaign. Those ties, however, were not revealed to CNN viewers even as Cardona defended Clinton’s use of a private email server, touted Clinton’s support from young voters, praised Clinton’s record on criminal justice reform, and — on two separate occasions — declared that Clinton will “fight for middle-class families.”

Hari Sevugan is a principal at 270 Strategies, which was co-founded by Lynda Tran, a CBS News political contributor. 270 Strategies boasts on the homepage of its website of its extensive work for the Clinton campaign. ... That relationship, however, seems to have gone unmentioned as Sevugan and Tran regularly appeared on MSNBC and CBS News to comment on the Democratic primary.

Lee Fang: TV Pundits Praise Hillary Clinton On Air, Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Her Campaign

More Corporate Media Bias: MSNBC Cuts Bernie Sanders’ Feed After He Mentions TPP

On Monday, MSNBC was in the midst of broadcasting a speech from Senator Bernie Sanders. Things were going well as he railed against the low minimum wage and state of labor in the United States, but when he turned his attention to criticizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the network suddenly cut the feed. They claimed that it was for some “Breaking News” of Ted Cruz firing his communications director – but is that really breaking news?

No, more likely, MSNBC has a vested interest in protecting the TPP and they would like that pesky Bernie Sanders to let sleeping trade deals lie.

Lindsey Graham jokes about killing Ted Cruz in roast of 'batshit crazy' Republican field

Michigan governor's advisers warned about Flint water crisis months before disclosure

Nearly a year before Michigan governor Rick Snyder publicly admitted his knowledge of the city of Flint’s lead-contaminated water crisis, advisers in his office had advocated moving Flint back to its prior drinking water source “before this thing gets too far out of control”, newly released emails reveal.

And nearly seven months before Snyder’s announcement in October 2015, his former chief of staff had internally proposed purchasing bottled water for Flint’s residents – even as the governor’s administration publicly rebuffed any characterization that Flint’s water wasn’t safe to drink.

Those are some of the revelations in a batch of 550 emails newly released by Snyder’s office to the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, a small slice of 8,000-10,000 emails expected to be released on Friday. Flint’s water became contaminated in April 2014 after the city, run by a governor-appointed emergency manager, switched its drinking water source to a corrosive local river. The city wasn’t required by Michigan’s environmental agency to treat the water with anti-corrosion agents that would have prevented lead from leaching off pipes and flowing into households. ...

The release of emails from Snyder’s executive staff was portrayed by the governor as a move of transparency, as Michigan is one of only two states that exempts the state legislature and governor from the freedom of information act. ... Despite thousands of emails being released to date through multiple public records requests, the emails were not unearthed until Snyder released them on Friday, partly because Valerie Brader, deputy legal counsel and senior policy adviser to Snyder, it appears, specifically took steps to circumvent Michigan’s FOIA law.

“PS Note: I have not copied DEQ on this message for FOIA reasons,” she wrote of the state department of environmental quality, which is subject to public records requests.

One of the World's Last Remaining Whaling Companies Is Hanging Up Its Harpoons

One of the world's last whaling companies has announced that it won't be manning the harpoons this summer, deciding it's too hard to market the meat.

Iceland's Hvalur company caught and slaughtered 155 fin whales in the waters of the far North in 2015 — but CEO Kristján Loftsson told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid that Japan, where its catch is sold, has put up "endless obstacles" to its markets. ...

The news brought cheers from conservationists who have long fought the world's few remaining commercial whalers.

"This is incredible news and a significant blow to the future of the outdated and unnecessary slaughter of whales for profit," Greenpeace Senior Oceans Campaigner Phil Kline said in a statement Thursday afternoon. Fin whales are supposed to be under international protection, and both Iceland and Japan have surpluses of whale meat, he said.

"It's clear that there is simply no place today for commercial whaling," Kline added.

Fewer Sea Lion Pups Are Stranded This Year in California — Because So Many Died Last Year

Sea lion pup strandings are down significantly from this time last year — but that's actually bad news. The pups aren't striking out on their own to wash up hungry, cold, and disoriented along California shores in great numbers yet this year because most of them are already dead, according to scientists who study the animals.

The deteriorating pup situation is an ominous new sign of the havoc created by a warming Pacific Ocean on the mighty sea lion population and the fish the animals need to survive.

The Channel Islands off southern California where the animals are born have been littered with thousands of pup corpses.

"There are a lot more dead. We haven't ever seen anything like this," said Sharon Melin, wildlife biologist of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) in Seattle, which has tracked the pups on their island rookeries since 1979. ...

The pups, which stay with their mothers and nurse for 10 months to wean in April, haven't gained any weight since they were three months old in September — when they already weighed in well below average.

Birth rates were already down to begin with because in many cases hungry adult females were unable to sustain their pregnancies.

Melin estimates the survival rate for the pups will be 20 percent, though NOAA won't have mortality and birth rate statistics until later in the year.

Will the Great Salt Lake be reduced to dust?

Blame it on the pioneers and the historical diversions from a trio of rivers.

The waters of the Great Salt Lake have shrunk by 48 percent and its levels diminished by 11 feet since pioneers first arrived in 1847.

A white paper exploring the impacts of water development on the Great Salt Lake and Wasatch Front was released late Wednesday, providing a cautionary message on further development that warrants a strong examination of the benefits, and the costs.

"There’s no doubt about it, Great Salt Lake is shrinking,” said Wayne Wurtsbaugh, lead author of the paper and a professor in Utah State University's Department of Watershed Resources and the USU's Ecology Center.

"Though we’ve witnessed droughts and floods in recent decades, impacts of water diversions have decreased the lake’s level by 11 feet." ...

With net river inflows already reduced by 39 percent since the 19th century, the paper warns of a "dry" Great Salt Lake that could occur, similar to California's Lake Owens in 1926 that dried up following excessive diversions on the Owens River.

Speaking of delusional government officials...

Oil industry must thwart 'misguided' divestment campaign, says Saudi minister

Fossil fuel industry must show it is a ‘force for good’ in face of campaign to blacklist polluting assets, Ali Al-Naimi tells oilmen.

Big Oil must thwart the movement to leave fossil fuels in the ground, the world’s most powerful oilman said on Tuesday.

Addressing executives in Texas, Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the industry had to shed its “Dark Side” image and show it was a “force for good”.

“As an industry, we should be celebrating that fact, and better explaining the vital importance of these precious natural resources,” he said, according to a transcript from an event in Houston.

“We should not be apologising. And we must not ignore the misguided campaign to ‘keep it in the ground’ and hope it will go away. For too long the oil industry has been portrayed as the Dark Side, but it is not. It is a force, yes, but a force for good.” ...

Fossil fuels were not the problem, but their “harmful emissions,” said Al-Naimi, who represents the hydrocarbon-rich Middle Eastern kingdom at UN climate talks and stepped down as chairman of national oil company Aramco in 2015.

The world must scale up technologies that capture carbon dioxide, instead of replacing the polluting fuels with renewable sources, he added.

Also of Interest

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

NYT Editorial Board: Mrs. Clinton, Show Voters Those Transcripts

Clinton Promises 'Absolutely, Absolutely' Nothing to Worry About in Wall Street Speeches

If Sanders Loses, Bernie Believers Will Take the DNC Down

Can the government force you to unlock your own phone?

US Treasury pushes Congress to pass Puerto Rico bankruptcy plan

18 elephants to be flown to US zoos as drought puts pressure on Swaziland wildlife

Illinois Illegally Seizes Bees Resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup; Kills Remaining Queens

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Reed - When I Woke Up This Morning

Jimmy Reed - Boogie in the Dark

Jimmy Reed - I'm the Man Down There

Jimmy Reed - I Ain't Got You

Jimmy Reed - The Sun Is Shining

Jimmy Reed - High and Lonesome

Jimmy Reed - Down In Virginia