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"Our history illustrates that unless very narrowly constrained, the power to restrict the advocacy of violence is an invitation to punish political dissent. A. Mitchell Palmer, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joseph McCarthy all used the advocacy of violence as a justification to punish people who associated with Communists, socialists, or civil rights groups."

-- David Cole

News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald has an important article worth a full read up at The Intercept:

In Europe, Hate Speech Laws are Often Used to Suppress and Punish Left-Wing Viewpoints

Terrorist attacks, and the emotions they spawn, almost always prompt calls for fundamental legal rights to be curtailed in the name of preventing future attacks. The formula by now is routine: The victims of the horrific violence are held up as proof that there must be restrictions on advocating whatever ideology motivated the killer to act. ... The white nationalist violence at Charlottesville has led to similar arguments. While polling data and anecdotal evidence have long shown an erosion in the belief in free speech among younger Americans, including those who identify as liberals or leftists, Charlottesville has prompted a full-scale debate about the merits of preserving the right to express “hate speech,” however that might be defined.

An excellent Guardian article on Monday by Julia Carrie Wong examines the implications of the growing liberal/left desire for “hate speech” to be restricted — either by the state wielding the power of “hate speech” laws or by private tech executives prohibiting the use of their platforms to disseminate what they regard as “hateful ideas.” As Wong correctly notes, “Many Americans increasingly favor European-style limitations on hate speech.” Numerous op-eds and blogposts have been published recently explicitly calling for such restrictions. As a result, it is well worth examining how those “European-style limitations” operate in practice, and against whom they are applied. ... Hate speech restrictions are used in those countries to suppress, outlaw, and punish more than far-right bigotry. Those laws have frequently been used to constrain and sanction a wide range of political views that many left-wing censorship advocates would never dream could be deemed “hateful,” and even against opinions which many of them likely share.

In 2015, France’s highest court upheld the criminal conviction of 12 pro-Palestinian activists for violating restrictions against hate speech. Their crime? Wearing T-shirts that advocated a boycott of Israel — “Long live Palestine, boycott Israel,” the shirts read — which, the court ruled, violated French law that “prescribes imprisonment or a fine of up to $50,000 for parties that ‘provoke discrimination, hatred or violence toward a person or group of people on grounds of their origin, their belonging or their not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a certain religion.'” ... In May of last year, Canada’s then-conservative government threatened to use the nation’s rigorous hate speech laws to prosecute Israel boycott advocates on the ground that such activism is “the new face of anti-Semitism.”

There can be little question that if the power to ban “hate speech” were vested in the hands of U.S. officials or courts, the same thing would happen. It is a virtually unquestioned bipartisan consensus that advocating a boycott of Israel constitutes hatred and anti-Semitism. In her 2016 AIPAC speech, Hillary Clinton cited the boycott movement as evidence that “anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world.” A group of bipartisan U.S. legislators are currently sponsoring legislation to make it illegal for businesses to participate in any international boycott of Israel, a bill that the American Civil Liberties Union says can be used to criminalize advocacy of boycotts.

Does anyone doubt that high on the list of “hate speech” for many U.S. officials, judges, and functionaries would be groups, such as Black Lives Matter and antifa, far-left groups that fight against white supremacists? Some GOP-controlled state legislatures are already arguing that BLM should be officially classified as a “hate group.” Beyond what many officials say is the group’s hatred for police officers, they also “point to its platform that accuses Israel of carrying out genocide against the Palestinians.”

Free speech or hate speech: Tensions rise as right-wing rallies cancelled in US

The U.N. just condemned Trump’s “dangerous” attacks on the media

The United Nations just condemned Donald Trump for his “demonization” of the media.

In a press conference at the international ruling body’s office in Geneva on Wednesday, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the president’s behavior could result in dangerous consequences for journalists.

“It’s really quite amazing when you think that freedom of the press, not only sort of a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution but very much something that the United States defended over the years, is now itself under attack from the president,” al-Hussein said. “It’s sort of a stunning turnaround. And ultimately the sequence is a dangerous one.”

“I have to ask the question, ‘Is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists?” the high commissioner added.

North Korea Missile Crisis: US President Trump tweets "Talking is not the answer!"

Trump suggests direct negotiations with North Korea are off the table

President Donald Trump says the time for talking to North Korea is over, after its leader Kim Jong Un warned that Tuesday’s missile launch was just the beginning of more military operations that will target the U.S. territory of Guam.

The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2017

Trump’s tweet comes as the international community is still struggling to respond to the continued threat from Pyongyang, after its latest test saw a missile fly over the Japanese island of Hokkaido, triggering warning sirens and alert messages. The hermit kingdom has conducted dozens of missile tests over the years but recently ramped up the pace and appears to have advanced its nuclear capabilities, threatening to strike Guam.

Following a hastily convened meeting of the U.N. Security Council, all 15 members approved a U.S.-drafted statement that called the test “outrageous,” adding that North Korea is “deliberately undermining regional peace and stability.” But the statement appears to have fallen on deaf ears in Pyongyang.

In a statement released by the state-run news agency KCNA, North Korean leader Kim said Tuesday’s launch was “the first step of the military operation in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam,” describing the U.S. territory as an “advanced base of invasion.”

U.S. Military Battles Syrian Rebels Once Supported by CIA, Now Backed by Turkey

Soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition tasked with battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) engaged in a firefight in northern Syria Tuesday with Syrian rebels whose movement was once supported by the CIA.

Ryan Dillon, a spokesperson for the Kuwait-based Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said the insurgents opened fire first near the city of Manbij, prompting coalition forces to shoot back before taking cover elsewhere. The belligerent Syrian fighters were not identified, but they were believed to have been part of a Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army group opposed to ISIS, the Syrian military and the mostly Kurdish forces supported by the Pentagon, all of which are vying for control in northern Syria.

“Our forces did receive fire and return fire and then moved to a secure location,” Dillon told Reuters, adding that the coalition has admonished Turkey and told it to tell its allies that such an incident “is not acceptable.”

Dillon went on to say that coalition forces trying to defuse tensions between Syrian Arab rebels and the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces “received fire multiple times over the course of the last two weeks,” even though the U.S. and Turkey are NATO allies. Turkey has criticized U.S. support for Kurdish militias such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), because it considers them connected to an insurgent Kurdish nationalist movement at home.

Why Pakistanis are terrified Trump will bring back drone strikes

The return of US drone strikes in Pakistan would be a disaster. That’s what I’ve been told time and time again by the people who lived for years in constant fear in the remote parts of my country. These same people can now hear the faint buzz in the distance growing louder as Donald Trump used his speech last week to threaten the Pakistani government, adding fuel to the simmering reports of the imminent return of regular drone strikes. If he pushes ahead with his plans he will really only be punishing innocent men, women and children who are being used as diplomatic bargaining chips in this mythical game of targeted killing.

Why do I say it’s a myth? Human rights NGOs have analysed the Obama-era “targeted” killing programme and found that on average it takes the US three attempts to kill the intended target of a drone strike. Just think about that: for every strike that hits the right target, two bombs are dropped in the wrong place, killing the wrong people. In some cases it is much worse than that. The current head of al-Qaida, Ayman al Zawahiri, is still alive, but the attempts to take him out have killed 76 children and 29 adults.

If you need any more convincing that the return of US drones to Pakistan would be a mistake, just look at what the 450 strikes in more than a decade have achieved. Al-Qaida fighters still operate in the mountains north of Pakistan; the Taliban still control large areas of Afghanistan; and 16 years after they first arrived in the region, thousands more American troops are once again in the air on their way to fight. No one thinks there isn’t a problem; those of us who have looked at the evidence simply know drones aren’t the solution.

“When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” said candidate Trump before he won the election last year. We were told not to worry. That the rhetoric of the campaign would be toned down by the influence of reason. That no future president would intentionally take civilian lives. All the signs are now telling us that was wrong. If Trump sends his drones back to Pakistan, he will be condemning thousands to daily terror and hundreds to death, without even knowing their names. The people of Pakistan should not be used as bargaining chips in a diplomatic game against Islamabad being played in the West Wing.

Tribesmen Rally Against Trump for Accusing Pakistan of Harboring ‘Agents of Chaos’

Allegations from President Trump that Pakistan is harboring “agents of chaos,” and that this is why the Afghan War hasn’t been won yet, are fueling growing annoyance from Pakistani officials, and now a major backlash from the Pakistani public.

Thousands of demonstrators [rallied] nationwide, but particularly in and around the northern tribal areas, holding Pakistani flags and chanting anti-US slogans, while complaining that Trump is holding Pakistan responsible for America’s own military failures.

Yemen conflict: human rights groups urge inquiry into Saudi coalition abuses

Human rights groups have urged the UN to establish an independent inquiry into abuses during the Yemen conflict, which has spiralled into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN human rights council has verified the deaths of more than 5,000 civilians since the outbreak of war in March 2015, although the actual number is likely to be significantly higher. The conflict has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure and economy, leaving at least 8,719 people wounded, 7 million on the brink of famine, and an estimated 540,000 suffering from cholera.

In a letter addressed to the UN human rights council, a coalition of 62 NGOs warned that serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are being committed with impunity.

“The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has conducted scores of unlawful airstrikes … that have killed thousands of civilians and hit schools, hospitals, markets, and homes. The Houthi armed group and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have fired weapons indiscriminately into populated areas in Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia and used explosive weapons with wide-scale effects,” wrote the signatories to the letter.

Parties to the conflict are also recruiting child soldiers, preventing the delivery of aid and harassing activists and journalists, said the NGOs.

This article the play-by-play (of what the public is allowed to know) of the latest round of the eternally-running Gitmo 9/11 trial. At this rate, the defendants will simply die of old age while the lawyers go back and forth and the government stonewalls the release of any exculpatory material. Here's an excerpt for flavor:

At Guantánamo, Men Accused in 9/11 Attacks Faced Their 24th Round of Pretrial Hearings

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his nephew Ammar al-Baluchi donned new Baluchi hats last week for the 24th round of pretrial hearings in the military commission case against the five men accused in the 9/11 attacks.

A small group of media representatives and non-governmental observers, family members of five people who died at the World Trade Center, and a survivor of the Ground Zero recovery cleanup were witnesses to the week-long proceedings, as prosecution and defense argued over procedural issues involving document declassification and weighty issues involving legality of the death penalty charges against the defendants, and the destruction, most likely between July 2014 and December 2015, of a CIA black site where at least one of the men was tortured.

That site, location unknown (to defense and observers, at least), was described as “crucial, exculpatory evidence” by the defense attorneys Friday — at a hearing the 9/11 defendants declined to attend — in arguments demanding that the military judge and prosecution be recused and the case abated (i.e. stopped). The issue at hand was that the defense did not receive the notice of the impending destruction of the black site in time to argue against it, due to mishandling and confusion over the filing of the redacted order by the court in July 2014. While the defense continued to seek the judge’s order throughout 2015 while pursuing motions requesting access to the black site, they did not receive it until February 2016. Instead of a visit to the original site, the defense was given an edited version of a “video representation” made of the site before its destruction.

David Nevin, attorney for Mohammed, said: “This substitution is pretty close to a joke. It gives us almost nothing of what we need to really present the impact of this crucial evidence,” in the death penalty case. Nevin and James Connell, attorney for Baluchi, argued that the prosecution team realized the defense had not received the order and acted in bad faith. “I suggest the military commission made a mistake and the prosecution exploited that mistake,” Connell said. ...

The next session — the 25th round of pretrial hearings — is scheduled to begin October 16.

Aw. Poor little neocon. He must be afraid that Trump isn't destroying civilization quickly enough.

Bolton says he's no longer allowed to see Trump

A hawkish ally of Donald Trump claims he cannot see the President due to "staff changes" at the White House.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN who at one point was a candidate to lead the State Department, claimed in a National Review op-ed published Monday that his plan for the US to exit the Iran nuclear deal had to be presented publicly, because staff changes at the White House have made "presenting it to President Trump impossible." ...

In a memo drawn up after a July directive from Steve Bannon, the recently ousted White House chief strategist, Bolton pushes for selling the idea of leaving the Iran deal to the public in a "white paper" and lays out a strategy for the "campaign" and its "execution."

Bolton has been frustrated at the rise of more traditional foreign policy thinkers within the White House, such as Mattis and Tillerson, who have favored remaining in the deal. The agreement curbs Iran's nuclear weapons program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Iran remains under multiple sanctions for terrorism-related activities.

Google Accused of Pushing Think Tank to Squash Critic of Corporate Power

In what critics are calling a "deeply troubling" indication of the power massive corporations have over ostensibly independent policy shops, New America—an influential Washington-based think tank—reportedly decided to oust a prominent anti-monopoly voice after he praised the European Union's June decision to fine Google for "abus[ing] its market dominance."

Barry Lynn, then the head of New America's Open Markets initiative, penned a statement applauding the $2.7 billion penalty against Google shortly after the EU's decision was made public.

According to Lynn, this raised the ire of Eric Schmidt—executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet—who is also a major benefactor of New America. In addition, as the New York Times notes, New America has received over $20 million in donations from Google. Shortly following Schmidt's complaints about the statement, New America CEO Anne Marie-Slaughter told Lynn in an email that "the time has come for Open Markets and New America to part ways."

"We are in the process of trying to expand our relationship with Google on some absolutely key points," Slaughter wrote in a separate email to Lynn, imploring him to "just THINK about how you are imperiling funding for others."

In an interview with the Times, Lynn charged that New America's decision to cut ties with the Open Markets program—which included a staff of ten full-time employees—was a direct result of Google pressure. "Google is very aggressive in throwing its money around Washington and Brussels, and then pulling the strings," Lynn told the Times. "People are so afraid of Google now."

FCC flooded with comments before critical net neutrality vote

A sweeping plan to roll back Obama-era rules intended to ensure an open internet has drawn a record number of comments before a critical vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

With hours left before the window for public feedback closes on Wednesday, the agency has received nearly nearly 22m comments on “Restoring Internet Freedom”, which could dismantle net neutrality rules put in place in 2015. Though many of the comments appear to be from spambots, the effort to ease regulations on internet service providers (ISPs) has drawn widespread criticism from Democrats, consumer advocates and internet companies.

The FCC, led by Republican chairman Ajit Pai, voted in May to start the formal process of unwinding the 2015 rules. Those rules treat regulation of internet more like that of a public utility such as water or electricity and prohibit broadband providers such as Verizon and Comcast from creating a tiered system of access.

Under the current net neutrality rules, it is illegal for companies to offer a high-speed lane to corporations able to pay more or to effectively slow a rival service.

‘This is our sacred land’: Native American tribe sets up Brown University encampment

Trump's corporate tax plan will add trillions to US debt, report finds

Donald Trump’s plans to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% will result in a revenue loss of $3tn to $7tn for the federal government over a decade and are unlikely to create the promised boom in jobs, according to a new report from the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Trump and Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, have been pushing hard for the plan. The president travels to Missouri on Wednesday to promote the plan and Ryan has taken to the road to venues including Boeing’s headquarters, where Ryan pledged to make the cuts by the end of the year.

But the Washington thinktank found that the cuts were unnecessary as well as exorbitantly costly. The study looked at 92 publicly-traded corporations that reported consistent profitability between 2008 and 2015, and found that they already benefitted from low effective tax rates, paying less than 20% of that net income to the federal government in tax.

Ryan and Trump have argued that a lower tax burden will help create more jobs, but the study argues that these companies are already paying the lower level of taxes and have not created more jobs. In fact, while the total rate of job creation among the US private sector as a whole was 6%, these 92 companies saw a 1% decline in employment. They are creating jobs at a slower rate than the economy, in spite of having precisely this “Goldilocks” tax rate.

Televangelist Jim Bakker: Christians will start a civil war if Trump is impeached

Televangelist Jim Bakker is predicting that Christians would begin a second civil war in the U.S. if President Trump were impeached.

"If it happens, there will be a civil war in the United States of America. The Christians will finally come out of the shadows, because we are going to be shut up permanently if we're not careful," he said on "The Jim Bakker Show" in a clip highlighted by Right Wing Watch.

Seattle Cops Who Shot Che Taylor Sue Kshama Sawant for Calling It ‘Murder’

The pair of Seattle police officers who shot Che Taylor to death in 2016 have filed a defamation lawsuit against Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant for calling the shooting “murder.” ...

Spaulding and Miller shot Taylor to death under suspicious circumstances last year. As our own Rick Anderson put it, “The officers, fearing for their lives, fired at Taylor from point-blank range after not seeing a gun in his hand. They nonetheless assumed he was about to shoot them.” A police review board cleared the shooting and a jury inquest later concluded that both officers feared for their lives, which in Washington State is sufficient legal justification for a police killing. Both are still officers with SPD.

The slaying was one more in a long pattern of police officers killing unarmed black men (and others) that Americans have seen with increasing frequency since smartphones became ubiquitous. It inspired protests and marches where thousands decried police violence, in Seattle and across the country. Sawant—a “socialist folk hero,” according to the suit—was among them. “Approximately five days after the shooting, Sawant appeared before a crowd and media in front of the police department,” reads the complaint. “She went on to pronounce Che Taylor’s death a ‘brutal murder’ and a product of ‘racial profiling.’”

Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller

The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes. Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.

The steam roller Lord Jericho at @steamfair proving modern technology is no match for the might of the Industrial Revolution @terryandrob pic.twitter.com/iLZjuRZnnD

— Richard Henry (@Wiltshire_flo) August 29, 2017

Pratchett, famous for his colourful and satirical Discworld series, died in March 2015 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

After his death, fellow fantasy author Neil Gaiman, Pratchett’s close friend and collaborator , told the Times that Pratchett had wanted “whatever he was working on at the time of his death to be taken out along with his computers, to be put in the middle of a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all”.

The author of over 70 novels, Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2007.

Bernie’s dilemma: He has to work with Democrats to get anything done

Bernie Sanders has a problem. He won seat at the table of the Democratic Party by galvanizing a movement, but now he has to work with the party he criticized if he wants to get anything done.

His “Medicare for All” push is a prime example. Universal healthcare is popular enough with progressives to keep his grassroots followers engaged, but it’s not an issue the Democratic establishment is likely to embrace anytime soon.

Asked later whether he’d go as far as mounting primary challenges to Democratic incumbents who don’t back Medicare for All, Sanders dodged the question. “That’s political gossip, in which I’m not particularly interested,” he said.

Sanders’ willingness to be a team player reflects an understanding that whatever he hopes to accomplish in his political future — whether he does in fact run for president in 2020, as many speculate he will, or whether he simply wants to see his progressive priorities become law — he’ll need the Democratic establishment on his side.

But he can’t play too nice with the party. Many in his base still feel burned by the DNC after the divisive Democratic presidential primary.

Rightwing alliance plots assault to 'defund and defang' America's unions

Rightwing activists across the US have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine progressive politicians by depriving them of a major source of support and funding – public sector unions.

A network of conservative thinktanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a “breakthrough” campaign designed to strike a “mortal blow” against the American left. The aim is to “defund and defang” unions representing government employees as the first step towards ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics.

The campaign carries a powerful echo of the populist creed espoused by Donald Trump. The president was propelled into the White House last November after unexpected victories in several previously Democratic rust belt states including Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which have endured withering attacks on trade unions in recent years.

The new assault is being spearheaded by the State Policy Network (SPN), an alliance of 66 state-based thinktanks, or “ideas factories” as it calls them, with a combined annual budget of $80m. As suggested by its slogan – “State solutions. National impact” – the group outlines an aim to construct a rightwing hegemony throughout the US, working from the bottom up.

To do that, it first has to sweep aside the public sector unions and their historic ties to Democratic and progressive politicians. In a 10-page fundraising letter, part of a set of documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and published by the Guardian today for the first time, SPN sets out its mission in frank language that does not disguise its partisan ambitions.

Environmental Crisis Unfolding in Houston as Oil & Chemical Industry Spew Toxic Pollutants into Air

Conservative groups shrug off link between tropical storm Harvey and climate change

Conservative groups with close links to the Trump administration have sought to ridicule the link between climate change and events such as tropical storm Harvey, amid warnings from scientists that storms are being exacerbated by warming temperatures.

Harvey, which smashed into the Texas coast on Friday, rapidly developed into a Category 4 hurricane and has drenched parts of Houston with around 50in of rain in less than a week, more than the city typically receives in a year. So much rain fell that the National Weather Service had to add new colours to its maps. ...

Conservative groups, however, have mobilized to downplay or mock any association between the storm and climate change. Myron Ebell, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team when Donald Trump became president, said the last decade has been a “period of low hurricane activity” and pointed out that previous hurricanes occurred when emissions were lower.

“Instead of wasting colossal sums of money on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, much smaller amounts should be spent on improving the infrastructure that protects the Gulf and Atlantic costs,” said Ebell, who is director of environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian thinktank that has received donations from fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil.

Thomas Pyle, who led Trump’s transition team for the department of energy, said: “It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that the left is exploiting Hurricane Harvey to try and advance their political agenda, but it won’t work. “When everything is a problem related to climate change, the solutions no longer become attainable. That is their fundamental problem.” Pyle is president of the Institute of Energy Research, which was founded in Houston but is now based in Washington DC. The nonprofit organization has consistently questioned the science of climate change and has close ties to the Koch family.

Ex-NASA Scientist James Hansen: There is a Clear Link Between Climate Change & Stronger Hurricanes

Worries about a Galveston Bio-Lab

Concern is rising for the safety of a biological lab containing deadly diseases on Galveston island, which has been hit by the massive storm devastating southeast Texas. The Galveston National Laboratory on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch contains samples of hundreds of viruses, insects and microbes, which could spread extreme danger if they were to escape. There are several Bio-safety Level 4 labs at Galveston. BSL-4 is the highest level precaution taken for work with agents that can be transmitted through the air and cause fatal diseases in humans for which there are no known cures.

According to its website, the high security national bio-containment lab’s mission is to develop “therapies, vaccines, and diagnostic tests for naturally occurring emerging diseases such as SARS, West Nile encephalitis and avian influenza – as well as for microbes that might be employed by terrorists.” There has been almost no news from Galveston as journalists have reported being blocked from reaching the island because of severe flooding. There has been no reporting at all on the condition of the lab. A call to the laboratory on Tuesday immediately went to voicemail.

The lab’s website says “plans are in place to shut down and secure all laboratory operations if a hurricane landfall is predicted near Galveston.” It says that “this shut-down and decontamination can be done quickly, with all work in the facility ceasing, the lab locked down, and all infectious agents and biological and chemical material placed into safe and secure storage.” A 2008 article in The New York Times about the laboratory said, “Each time a hurricane approaches the island, scientists will have to stop their experiments and exterminate many of the viruses and bacteria they are studying.” ... When the Laboratory was built many people questioned the wisdom of putting BSL-4 labs in the path of hurricanes. “The University of Texas should consider locating its biohazards lab away from Galveston Island and out of harm’s way,” Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, told the Times a month before the lab opened in November 2008. “As destructive as it was, Hurricane Ike was only a Category 2 storm. A more powerful storm would pose an even greater threat of a biohazards release,” Kramer said.

“It’s crazy, in my mind,” Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston, told the Times. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.”

The Red Cross Won't Save Houston. Texas Residents Are Launching Community Relief Efforts Instead

Also of Interest

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

What’s Wrong with Chris Hedges view that ‘Antifa’ Mirrors the ‘Alt-Right’

AntiFa’s Moral Superiority and the Potential for Left-Wing Unity

The Most Shortsighted Attack on Free Speech in Modern U.S. History

How Pentagon Officials May Have Encouraged a 2009 Coup in Honduras

Houston Is Drowning—In Its Freedom From Regulations

Herr Donald, Sheriff Joe, Hurricane Harvey, and the Fate of the Republic

Why Are Progressives Stupid? It’s Not Too Late to Get Smart

A Houston megachurch shut out flood victims. A Twitter storm opened it

Bias in Arizona’s Reaction to Immigrants

Venezuela has larger proven oil reserves than #2 Saudi Arabia. Could that be why America is so interested in exporting "democracy" to Venezuela? Pfffftttt!!!

Top 10 Countries With The World’s Biggest Oil Reserves

A Little Night Music

Jimmy McCracklin - No Good

Jimmy McCracklin & his Blues Blasters - It's Alright

Jimmy McCracklin - She Felt Too Good

Jimmy McCracklin - Rockin' All Day

Jimmy McCracklin - That's No Big Thing

Jimmy McCracklin - The Swingin' Thing

Jimmy McCracklin - Street Loafin' Woman

Jimmy McCracklin - Club Savoy

Jimmy McCracklin - The Wobble