Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues piano player and singer Curtis Jones. Enjoy!

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

-- Haile Selassie

News and Opinion

Sean Spicer is Honored Because, as Bush Officials Showed, DC Elites Always Thrive

Sean Spicer's playful, glamorous appearance at last night’s Emmy Awards, and his being honored as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School (the honorific which the CIA vetoed for Chelsea Manning), has prompted a mix of shock and indignation. Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau wrote: “Harvard fellowships, Emmy appearances, huge speaking fees: there’s just gonna be no penalty for working in Trump’s White House, huh?” Slate’s Jamelle Bouie added: “The degree to which Sean Spicer has faced no consequences is a glimpse into the post-Trump future.”

There should be nothing whatsoever surprising about any of this, as it is the logical and necessary outcome of the self-serving template of immunity which DC elites have erected for themselves. The Bush administration was filled with high-level officials who did not just lie from podiums but did so in service of actual war crimes. They invaded and destroyed a country of 26 million people based on blatant falsehoods and relentless propaganda. They instituted a worldwide torture regime by issuing decrees that purported to re-define what that term meant. They spied on the communications of American citizens without the warrants required by law. They kidnapped innocent people from foreign soil and sent them to be tortured in the dungeons of the world’s worst regimes, and rounded up Muslims on domestic soil with no charges. They imprisoned Muslim journalists for years without a whiff of due process. And they generally embraced and implemented the fundamental tenets of authoritarianism by explicitly positioning the President and his White House as above the law.

We’re supposed to all forget about that, or at least agree to minimize it, in service of this revisionist conceit that the United States has long been governed by noble, honorable and decent people until Donald Trump defaced the sanctity of the Oval Office with his band of gauche miscreants and evil clowns. Many of the same people who, just a decade ago, were depicting Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz – remember them? – as monsters of historic proportions are today propagating the mythology that Trump is desecrating what had always been sacred and benevolent American civic space.

Photo of Hillary Clinton hugging George W. Bush at Nancy Reagan's funeral goes viral: https://t.co/iLZisIlaJZ pic.twitter.com/wJZEkYjxIj

— The Hill (@thehill) March 14, 2016

Not only were all Bush officials fully immunized from the legal consequences of their crimes – in DC, that’s a given – but they were also fully welcomed back into decent elite society with breakneck speed, lavished with honors, rewards, lucrative jobs and praise. Those same Bush officials responsible for the most horrific crimes are now beloved by many of the same circles which, today, are expressing such righteous rage that Sean Spicer is allowed onto the Emmy stage and a classroom at Harvard.

Harvard’s Cowardice on Chelsea Manning

Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government has shown that it is no profile in courage by withdrawing a visiting fellowship that had been awarded to Chelsea Manning, who served seven years in prison for revealing U.S. war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Kennedy School caved in to pressure from people who shared in responsibility for those and other crimes, including former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who resigned his own fellowship in protest and denounced Manning as “a convicted felon and leaker of classified information.”

Of course, it is also true that Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed for criminal violations pertaining to his protests against “legal” injustices — as was South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Manning represented perhaps America’s quintessential prisoner of conscience of this decade, someone who was severely punished for exposing wrongdoing.

After serving in Iraq as an Army intelligence analyst and witnessing the often-cavalier attitude toward killing Afghans and Iraqis, Manning decided to release thousands of classified documents, including what WikiLeaks labeled the “Collateral Murder” video of a U.S. helicopter gunship mowing down Iraqis and two Reuters journalists on a Baghdad street. Manning’s decision was an act of moral courage at a time when American Officialdom was violating a host of international laws with impunity.

Indeed, what was almost as troubling as the war crimes themselves was that virtually no one from the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama was punished for their criminal actions, especially for committing what the Nuremberg Tribunals deemed the “supreme international crime,” the crime of “aggressive war.” Bush was allowed to retire to a quiet life as an artist; many of his senior national security officials have gone on to comfy jobs in the corporate and academic worlds; and Obama has already begun to hit the lucrative lecture circuit. But Manning served seven hard years in prison and has now been further humiliated by Harvard’s cowardice.

By “honoring” the likes of Michael Morell and “dishonoring” the likes of Manning, Harvard’s Kennedy School has sent a clear message regarding how it sees the role of the U.S. government in the world. The school is signaling that it embraces the moral hypocrisy at the core of this attitude and is demonstrating that it can be trusted to train future U.S. government leaders in how to operate outside the norms of civilized behavior.

'I did the best I could': Chelsea Manning hits back at traitor accusations

Chelsea Manning told a conference on Sunday that she is not an “American traitor”, as her critics have claimed, and that she did what she thought was the right thing to do. “I believe I did the best I could in my circumstances to make an ethical decision,” she told the crowd when asked by the moderator if she was a traitor. Harvard University reversed its decision to name Manning a visiting fellow on Friday after CIA director Mike Pompeo scrapped a planned appearance in protest and called Manning an “American traitor”.

Manning made the comments at an annual conference in Massachusetts called the Nantucket Project, a venture founded to bring together creative thinkers. Organisers said about 600 people attended. ... This was one of Manning’s first public appearances since being released from a military prison in May.

After Harvard rescinded its offer, Manning said the decision signalled to her it was a “police state” and it was not possible to engage in actual political discourse in academic institutions. “I’m not ashamed of being disinvited,” she said. “I view that just as much of an honoured distinction as the fellowship itself.” ... Manning said she took a risk to contribute to political and public discourse and “change the tone of the conversation”, but that it hadn’t changed, and if anything, “things have gotten worse”.

Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Understand Why the Corporate Media Is So Bad

In an interview Tuesday, [Hillary Clinton] said, “I don’t think the press did their job in this election, with very few exceptions.” She believes the problem is something new, and the fault of bad individuals.

Clinton’s problem is obvious: At 69 years old and after a lifetime in politics, she somehow doesn’t understand what the corporate media’s job is. Generally speaking, when people fail to do their jobs in a spectacular way, they get fired. When they do their jobs, they’re not. Who exactly in the corporate media has been fired for failing to provide the United States with in-depth, sober, fair-minded coverage of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and the minutia of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

No one.

Which suggests that the media did do its job. Moreover, I think the media performed incredibly well. The New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, et al., are gigantic corporations — in most cases owned by even larger ones. And the job of giant corporations is not to inform American citizens about reality. It’s not to play a hallowed role in the history of a self-governing republic. It’s to make as much profit as possible. ...

From that perspective, the media’s performance in 2016 was a shining, glorious success. As Les Moonves effused just as the primaries were starting, Trump’s campaign was “good for us economically. … Go Donald! Keep getting out there!” The entire Hieronymus Bosch-like nightmare, said Moonves, “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” CNN made $1 billion in profits during the election year, far more than ever before.

'Rocket Man' and Trump's right-hand gal at the UN

North Korea crisis tops Trump’s agenda at UN meeting

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday that the Security Council had “exhausted” all options to curtail North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and warned that the problem could be now be handed over to the U.S. military, which would see the rogue regime “destroyed.”

The threat comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s first UN speech Tuesday with the issue of North Korea expected to dominate his address. On Sunday, members of the White House team offered previews of what the General Assembly will likely hear.

Speaking on CNN, Haley said: “We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the Security Council at this point.”

“If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed,” she added. ...

In the latest round of war games in the region, China and Russia commenced a joint naval exercise close to the Korean Peninsula Monday.

Trump's 'rocket man' tweet claims Korea sanctions biting, but experts unsure

I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017

New international sanctions against North Korea have led to a spike in petrol prices, but there is little evidence for US claims that the country is being “economically strangled” or that motorists are panic-buying petrol.

On Sunday, Donald Trump combined a taunt aimed at the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with the assertion that the country’s citizens were queuing for petrol before the latest round of sanctions hits supplies. ...

A week after the United Nations security council voted to reduce gasoline exports and cap crude oil supplies to North Korea in response to its sixth nuclear test, Washington insisted the regime was starting to “feel the pinch”.

The comments came from the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who said recent sanctions had caused the country to be “cut off from the world”. But experts have challenged claims that the oil sanctions will exert sufficient pressure on the North Korean economy to convince the regime to change course.

And while some Chinese traders along the border with North Korea complained that reduced access to fuel and the sanctions had hit cross-border trade, Trump’s vision of long queues at petrol stations seems far-fetched in a country where car ownership is very low and largely confined to military and government officials.

Big convoy of Turkish troops masses at Syria border

Under strict security cover, a convoy of around 18 Turkish army vehicles has arrived in an area close to the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border.

According to Al Jazeera, eyewitnesses have confirmed the arrival of the vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, at the Rihaniyah area on the Turkish-Syrian border on Sunday. Syrian opposition officials and activists said they expected the troops would continue towards Syria as per the terms reached in the Astana agreement.

The treaty requires the entry of Turkish forces in areas controlled by the Syrian opposition in the province of Idlib. Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to set up de-escalation zones in Syria for six months during the sixth round of talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, last week. ... The plan calls for the cessation of hostilities between anti-government groups and forces fighting on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in four so-called de-escalation zones in mainly opposition-held areas of the country, with Russia, Turkey and Iran to act as guarantors.

al Qaeda vows to fight on in Syria, denounces de-escalation deal

The former al Qaeda branch in Syria has pledged to keep fighting government forces and their Russian and Iranian allies, and denounced ceasefire talks in Kazakhstan.

The ex-Nusra Front said the Astana process amounted to the surrender of rebel-held pockets, and what had started with a ceasefire would “end with restoring Bashar’s rule to the areas”.

Trump and Netanyahu ready united assault against Iran nuclear deal

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in New York on Monday, at the start of a week in which they intend to launch a concerted assault at the United Nations against the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The US and Israeli leaders are expected to use their speeches to the UN general assembly on Tuesday to highlight the threat to Middle East stability and security represented by Tehran. While anxiety about Iran’s expansive role in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon is widely shared, Trump and Netanyahu’s antipathy to the multilateral deal agreed in Vienna two years ago binds them together, even as it sets them apart from the overwhelming majority of other world leaders attending the annual UN summit.

Western allies in Europe – most notably the UK, France and Germany, co-signatories of the 2015 deal – remain committed to the agreement and have signalled they are willing to disagree sharply and openly with Trump on the issue. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN who made herself the principal channel for the president’s critique of the deal, has been a lonely voice against it on the security council.

The stance taken by Netanyahu and Trump has also set them apart from their most senior national security advisers. ... Netanyahu is supported in [his] position by his defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and the US ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer. But he is reportedly not backed by the Israeli defence and intelligence establishment, which believes Iran is abiding by the agreement and its strict limits on nuclear activities and stockpiles of fissile material. ... [Trump] is known to be opposed by both the secretaries of defense and state, James Mattis and Rex Tillerson. Both are generally hawkish on Iran but argue that the US should not provoke a new crisis – and possibly a nuclear arms race – in the Middle East in the midst of a tense nuclear and missile stand-off with North Korea.

Hamas says ready to hand Gaza to a Palestinian unity government

Hamas has agreed to dissolve the administration that runs Gaza, it said on Sunday, a major step towards handing control of the enclave to a Palestinian unity government after a decade of bitter rivalry with President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Islamist group, which has ruled Gaza since a brief Palestinian civil war in 2007, said it had taken “a courageous, serious and patriotic decision to dissolve the administrative committee” that runs the territory of 2 million people, and hand power to some form of unity government.

Reunification a decade after Hamas and Abbas’s secular Fatah movement battled for control of Gaza may hinge on whether complex issues related to power-sharing - which stymied reconciliation bids in the past - can be resolved.

Abbas welcomed Hamas’ move - a result of talks mediated by Egypt - and said he would convene the Palestinian leadership for discussions upon his return from New York where he was attending the U.N. General Assembly.

Cyprus 'selling' EU citizenship to super rich of Russia and Ukraine

Billionaire Russian oligarchs and Ukrainian elites accused of corruption are among hundreds of people who have acquired EU passports under controversial “golden visa” schemes, the Guardian has learnt.

The government of Cyprus has raised more than €4bn since 2013 by providing citizenship to the super rich, granting them the right to live and work throughout Europe in exchange for cash investment. More than 400 passports are understood to have been issued through this scheme last year alone.

Prior to 2013, Cypriot citizenship was granted on a discretionary basis by ministers, in a less formal version of the current arrangement.

A leaked list of the names of hundreds of those who have benefited from these schemes, seen by the Guardian, includes prominent businesspeople and individuals with considerable political influence.

The leak marks the first time a list of the super rich granted Cypriot citizenship has been revealed. A former member of Russia’s parliament, the founders of Ukraine’s largest commercial bank and a gambling billionaire are among the new names.

Juggalos march on Washington

Juggalos just want to be able to listen to their favorite band in peace. Fans of the Detroit horror hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse gathered on the National Mall Saturday to reiterate that message amid a yearslong struggle with the FBI, which has labeled the fanbase a gang.

They baptized newbies in Faygo soda, the official drink of the Juggalo, painted their faces, and high-fived and hugged old friends ahead of a planned march and concert.

It was as jubilant as one imagines a crowd of clowns can be.

Their purpose for coming together, however, was serious. A contested 2011 FBI report claimed Juggalos engage in “gang-like behavior and criminal activity and violence.” For proof, the bureau cited theft, drugs and assault committed by ICP fans. ...

It’s true that people who identify as Juggalos have committed crimes. But as the ACLU of Michigan noted on its website, “We believe this gang designation violates the fundamental free speech and due process rights of the hundreds of thousands of Juggalos.” The statement continued, “Branding the Juggalos, as a group, as a criminal gang, based on the isolated acts of a few, is similarly unconstitutional.”

My day with the Juggalos: 'We are the outcasts'

St. Louis Police are feeling cocky after another one of their murderers-in-blue gets acquitted.

Police officers in St Louis chant after breaking up protests

Police officers in riot gear gathered alongside a St Louis boulevard late on Sunday night, chanting “whose street, our street”, a common refrain used by those protesting the acquittal of a white former officer in the death of a black man, after successfully clearing the street of demonstrators and onlookers.

Hundreds of officers had mobilized after another day of peaceful protests over the acquittal of Jason Stockley in the death of Anthony Lamar Smith. After nightfall there reports of property damage and vandalism in the streets. Authorities said police made more than 80 arrests, after people ignored orders to disperse after the peaceful protests. The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Mayor Lyda Krewson told reporters early on Monday “the days have been calm and the nights have been destructive”. Krewson said that was “unacceptable” and that “destruction cannot be tolerated”. ...

On Sunday, hundreds of people marched through downtown streets, the posh Central West End and the trendy Delmar Loop area of nearby University City. Protesters also marched through two shopping malls in a wealthy area of St Louis County. The protest began at the police headquarters downtown.

Following the same pattern of the previous days, more than 1,000 people marched peacefully for several hours. By nightfall, most had gone home. The 100 or so demonstrators who remained grew increasingly agitated as they marched towards the core of downtown. Along the way, they knocked over planters, broke windows at a few shops and hotels and scattered plastic chairs at an outdoor venue. ...

Soon afterwards, buses brought in additional officers in riot gear, and police scoured the downtown area deep into the night, making arrests. Later, officers in riot gear gathered alongside a city boulevard chanting “whose street, our street”, a common refrain used by the protesters, after successfully clearing the street of demonstrators and onlookers.

Dennis Bernstein interviews RUssell Mokhiber (founder of SinglePayerAction.org) - here's an excerpt from the interview:

The Push for a Medicare-for-All Plan

Dennis Bernstein: Please give us your initial reaction. Bernie has a number of senators who say they believe in single-payer. Several presidential hopefuls are among those who jumped on the Sanders Single-Payer bandwagon. You think their playing early presidential politics with single-payer, or are they true believers? Do they support Sander’s vision?

Russell Mokhiber: That is what they are saying, and it is obviously because of the grassroots prairie fire that has been lit by single-payer activists over the years. It is truly out of our hands now. Usually when you go to these meetings with your member of congress, the single-payer activists would be the only ones raising the issue. Now we are standing in line screaming at our congress people, demanding it, because the situation on the ground has become so bad.

Nine years ago, when the insurance industry-written Obamacare was introduced, there were 23 people testifying. They refused to listen to any of us who wanted to put single-payer on the table. In fact, they had us arrested. Six months ago, Bernie’s healthcare person told us that there wasn’t going to be a single-payer bill because they didn’t want to risk a Democratic Senate in 2018 and they thought that single-payer would hurt them. But once they saw the grassroots pressure, they totally flipped. Just a month ago, Bernie had in this bill co-pays and deductibles.

So this is all about the grassroots pressure. Obviously it has now become a hot political issue. Someone like Kamala Harris would never have touched this just a couple weeks ago. Senator Richard Blumenthal from the insurance state of Connecticut has signed on! Do we believe that they will push single-payer if we take our foot off the gas? No. We believe the Democratic Party is structurally incapable of being a people’s party. The only way they are going to respond is if the people keep their foot on the gas. This seems very similar to California in 2006 when the Democrats passed single-payer in California knowing that Governor Schwarzenegger was going to veto it.

We are very encouraged by this response but we really want to see this happen, not just political posturing. We are concerned that the Democrats will use this to gain power and then push it aside for something like a public option or to secure the position of the insurance industry in the current system.

Just in case the Democrats were unsure of what position on MFA the Washington money-spigot favors, the health insurance industry and their fellow travellers have helpfully indicated that MFA doesn't work for them.

Well That Settles It! Insurance and Drug Lobbyists Say Medicare for All “Cannot Work”

The for-profit health care industry and its political surrogates were quick to criticize the sweeping universal Medicare legislation unveiled this week by Sen. Bernie Sanders and more than a dozen Senate Democrats. “Whether it’s called single-payer or Medicare for All, government-controlled health care cannot work,” David Merritt, vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group for health insurance companies, said in a statement to reporters.

The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, another insurance lobby group, released a statement declaring that it “adamantly opposes the creation of a single-payer regime, and our guard is up on these efforts.” The release cited the rising popularity of single-payer proposals in California, New York, and Color ado, and now Sanders’s effort in Congress. ...

Private health insurers hate the plan because it would largely replace them. Drugmakers fear single payer because the Sanders bill calls for price negotiation on pharmaceutical products, a policy now barred by a provision created by drug lobbyists and their allies in Congress. Other providers are worried that an empowered single health provider will be able to use its collective bargaining power to cut waste and investigate price gouging.

The unrivaled political power of health care industries — health interests are routinely near the top of rankings for lobby spending and campaign donations — have made controlling costs incredibly difficult. ... The aforementioned lobby group America’s Health Insurance Plans secretly spent $86 million on dark money efforts in 2009 to derail the Affordable Care Act, with a special focus on eliminating the public option provision.

Thomas Frank: Prisoners of Hope

Obama Has the Same Retirement Plan as the Clintons: Lavish Speaking Fees from Wall Street

The “Wall Street Democrats” is the wing of the party created by the Clintons and nurtured further by Barack Obama. It takes money hand over fist from Wall Street for political campaigns, wags a warning finger at Wall Street from the public podium while stuffing its administrations with Wall Street execs, then its leadership reaps millions of dollars in personal speaking fees from the robber barons after leaving office. As of this morning, there’s no longer any debate that Obama is firmly entrenched in this cozy world of money.

Bloomberg News is reporting that former President Obama has accepted upwards of $400,000 a clip to speak before Wall Street firms Northern Trust Corp. and Cantor Fitzgerald and an unspecified sum from Carlyle Group LP. The speeches at Northern Trust and Carlyle Group occurred over the past month and a half. The Cantor Fitzgerald speech is scheduled for next week. ...

It’s not like the Obamas need the money. According to multiple reports early this year by major media, the couple will receive upwards of $65 million from Penguin Random House to publish their respective memoirs.

After Failing to Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall Street Speeches

Less than a year has passed since he departed from the White House, and former President Barack Obama has already joined the "well trod and well paid" Wall Street speaking circuit, a decision many argued will negatively impact the Democratic Party's credibility as it attempts to fashion a message around taking on corporate monopolies, tackling income inequality, and loosening the insurance industry's control over the American healthcare system. ...

Obama, however, doesn't appear to harbor any concerns about the political impact his speeches may have—a fact that could be problematic for the Democratic Party, Bloomberg's Max Abelson notes. "While he can't run for president, he continues to be an influential voice in a party torn between celebrating and vilifying corporate power," Abelson writes. "His new work with banks might suggest which side of the debate he'll be on."

News of Obama's decision to "cash in" following his eight-year presidency drew significant ire, particularly given his administration's failure to enact sufficient structural changes to the financial system following the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. As Abelson observes, Obama's "Justice Department prosecuted no major bankers for their roles in the financial crisis, and he resisted calls to break up the biggest banks, signing a regulatory overhaul that annoyed them with new rules but didn't stop them from pulling in record profits."

Top Trump officials signal US could stay in Paris climate agreement

Senior Trump administration officials on Sunday signalled a further softening of America’s resolve to leave the Paris climate accord, amid signs that the issue will be discussed at the United Nations general assembly in New York this week.

Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster both indicated that the US is open to negotiations on staying in the landmark international agreement to limit mankind’s role in global warming.

Donald Trump announced the withdrawal from the deal in June, leaving the US with only Syria and Nicaragua for company outside the global agreement. A US withdrawal from a deal made under the Obama administration was a Trump campaign pledge. The rules of the pact do not, however, allow the US to physically pull out until 2020.

On Saturday the White House denied reports that it planned to remain in the agreement, saying its position on leaving was unchanged and that it would only stay in if it got more “favourable” terms.

Hurricane Maria: storm strengthens as it heads towards battered Caribbean

Another powerful storm was bearing down on a string of battered Caribbean islands on Sunday, with forecasters saying that Maria had strengthened into a hurricane and would intensify before hitting the Leeward Islands on Monday night. Maria was about 275 miles (445km) east-southeast of the Leeward island of Dominica with maximum sustained winds of 75mph (100km/h) at 4pm (8pm GMT), the US National Hurricane Center said.

The forecaster said: “Maria ... could be near major hurricane intensity when it affects portions of the Leeward Islands over the next few days, bringing dangerous wind, storm surge and rainfall hazards.” Maximum sustained winds were expected to accelerate to 120mph within 72 hours, by which time the hurricane could reach the British and US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, a US territory with a weakened economy and fragile power grid.

The government of Puerto Rico has already begun preparations for Maria, which is expected to make landfall there on Tuesday, officials said.

EU Watchdog Under Fire for Monsanto Analysis Copy/Pasted into Roundup Safety Report

Europe's food safety agency reportedly relied on a review that lifted language from a Monsanto report when concluding that the possible cancer-causing ingredient in the company's popular weed-killer Roundup is safe, raising concerns that the agency failed to properly analyze the pesticide's potential dangers.

"If regulators rely on the industry's evaluation of the science without doing their own assessment, the decision whether pesticides are deemed safe or not is effectively in the industry's hands," said Greenpeace's European Union (EU) food policy director, Franziska Achterberg, who added that this discovery "calls into question the entire EU pesticide approval process."

The European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) official stance on glyphosate—Roundup's key ingredient that the World Health Organization determined is "probably carcinogenic to humans"—is likely to influence an upcoming, hotly contested vote by the 28 EU member states over whether to approve a 10-year renewal of the pesticide's license.

According to an exclusive Guardian report published on Thursday night, EFSA based its conclusion that "glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential" on a 2015 renewal assessment report prepared by Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, or BfR, at the EFSA's behest.

"Dozens of pages" of that renewal assessment report, writes Arthur Nelsen for the Guardian, "are identical to passages in an application submitted by Monsanto on behalf of the Glyphosate Task Force (GTF), an industry body led by the company."

Also of Interest

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

Gary Cohn Is Giving Goldman Sachs Everything It Ever Wanted From the Trump Administration

Shaun King on Donald Trump, Colin Kaepernick, and White Supremacy

Climate Change Enabling US Military to Play Greatly Enlarged Domestic Role

Remembering the Sabra and Shatila massacre 35 years on

Italy Imprisons Refugees Who Were Forced to Pilot Smuggling Boats At Gunpoint

In Catalonia: A Spanish Tiananmen Square?

Pop Culture is Far Ahead of Washington When it Comes to Monopoly Politics

When Wall Street Owns Main Street — Literally

Meet the woman fighting Wall Street's Flash Boys

A Little Night Music

Curtis Jones - Down Town Blues

Curtis Jones - Lonesome Bedroom Blues

Curtis Jones - You Got Good Business

Curtis Jones - Down In The Slums

Curtis Jones with Lillie Mae Kirkman - Hop Head Blues

Curtis Jones - Highway 51 Blues

Curtis Jones - Black Gypsy Blues

Curtis Jones - Cool Playing Blues

Curtis Jones - Black Magic Blues

Curtis Jones - My Baby's Getting Buggish

Curtis Jones - Wrong Blues

Curtis Jones - Good Time Special