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News and Opinion

“Russian Talking Points” Look An Awful Lot Like Well-Documented Facts

Things aren’t looking great for the Democratic establishment, which recently admitted that it stacks its primaries against progressive candidates and is currently engaged in a desperate, hail Mary lawsuit against WikiLeaks for its factual publications about the party. So of course you know what that means. That’s right! It’s time for Democratic pundits to begin down-punching Jill Stein.

“Jill Stein is on @NewDay right now repeating Russian talking points on its interference in the 2016 election and on US foreign policy,” tweeted CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto today, without shame or self-reflection. Sciutto was referring to comments Stein made on a CNN interview today about America’s undeniable, entirely factual and well-documented history of meddling in other countries’ elections, including a citation of an ex-CIA Director’s recent admission that the US has interfered in foreign electoral processes and continues to do so to this day. Because that’s what constitutes a “Russian talking point” these days: raw, easily verifiable facts.

Stein’s interviewer, Chris “It’s illegal to read WikiLeaks” Cuomo, echoed a similar sentiment in response to her points, in essence arguing that only Russians should be stating these blatantly obvious and extremely relevant facts. “You know, that would be the case for Russia to make, not from the American perspective,” Cuomo said. “Of course, there’s hypocrisy involved, lots of different big state actors do lots of things that they may not want people to know about. But let Russia say that the United States did it to us, and here’s how they did it, so this is fair play. From the American perspective and you running for president, more than once of this country, shouldn’t your position have been, this was bad what they did, they’re trying to do it right now and we have to stop it?” Right. Because you have so many Russians on your show making that case, do you Chris?

This is absolute lunacy. The implication here is that it isn’t ever okay for Americans to talk about Russia in any other context than how awful and evil its government is; that nobody can speak about how America’s behavior factors into the equation in a very real and significant way. Not because it’s not factual, not because it’s not relevant, but because it’s a “Russian talking point”, and only Russians should be saying it. And this sentiment being promulgated by these establishment pundits is being swallowed hook, line and sinker by the rank-and-file citizenry who consume such media.

Robert Mueller: Gone Fishing

After a year of investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has, in effect, admitted that he has hit a dry well. He is under strong pressure to keep the charade going until the November elections, however, so he and his high-priced legal brain-trust have devised a new tactic. One would think they could come up with something less transparent. After all, Mueller was FBI Director from 2001 to 2013 and knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak. But it does not appear likely that he is going to get his man this time. So, rather than throw in the towel, he is making a college try at cajoling President Donald Trump into helping him out.

Today’s New York Times print-edition lede by Michael S. Schmidt, “Questions for President Show Depth of Inquiry Into Russian Meddling,” bespeaks an embarrassingly desperate attempt to get President Donald Trump to incriminate himself.  And, given Trump’s temperament and his dismissive attitude toward his legal advisers, the President might just rise to the bait.

Mueller knows better than anyone, where and how to find the dirt on the Trump campaign, collusion with Russia, or anything else. That he has been able to come up with so little — and is trying to get some help from the President himself — speaks volumes.

Mueller does not need to send his team off on a “broad quest” with “open-ended” queries on an “exhaustive array of subjects.” If there were any tangible evidence of Trump campaign-Russia collusion, Mueller would almost certainly have known where to look and, in today’s world of blanket surveillance, would have found it by now. It beggars belief that he would have failed, in the course of his year-old investigation, to use all the levers at his disposal — the levers Edward Snowden called “turnkey tyranny” — to “get the goods” on Trump. ... In a 2011 interview by Barton Gellman for Time magazine, Mueller made it clear his FBI had been using the “Stellar Wind” program since late 2001. This is the program by which the NSA has been collecting and storing domestic data on virtually all US citizens.

Thanks Obama!

New Bipartisan Bill Could Give Any President the Power to Imprison U.S. Citizens in Military Detention Forever

One of the most outrageous acts of Barack Obama’s presidency was his failure to veto the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012. The fiscal year 2012 NDAA included provisions that appeared to both codify and expand a power the executive branch had previously claimed to possess — namely, the power to hold individuals, including U.S. citizens, in military detention indefinitely — based on the Authorization to Use Military Force passed by Congress three days after 9/11.

The New York Times warned that the bill could “give future presidents the authority to throw American citizens into prison for life without charges or a trial.” ... However, the NDAA did provide some weak restraints on the executive branch’s ability to use this power. In theory, the NDAA’s provisions only apply to someone involved with the 9/11 attacks or who “substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces.”

But now, incredibly enough, a bipartisan group of six lawmakers, led by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., is proposing a new AUMF that would greatly expand who the president can place in indefinite military detention, all in the name of restricting presidential power. If the Corker-Kaine bill becomes law as currently written, any president, including Donald Trump, could plausibly claim extraordinarily broad power to order the military to imprison any U.S. citizen, captured in America or not, and hold them without charges essentially forever.

UN nuclear agency: ‘No credible indications’ of Iran nuclear activity after 2009

The United Nations's nuclear agency on Tuesday rejected claims from Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran's government is conducting nuclear weapons research in secret. In an assessment released Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote that there is "no credible indications" to support claims that Iran was continuing its "coordinated" nuclear weapons program after 2009, The Associated Press reports.

Netanyahu made the claims Monday in a speech in Tel Aviv as part of his effort to urge President Trump to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, signed in 2015 under the Obama administration, which was meant to ensure Iran does not complete development of a nuclear weapon.

Fmr IAEA Inspector: Netanyahu's Cartoons About Iran's Nuclear Program are 'Baseless and Childish'

Bibi’s Iran Speech Was a Bust

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued the lamest critique of the Iran nuclear deal that one might imagine. Though his avowed aim was to convince President Trump to back out of the deal, he in fact unwittingly made a strong case to stay in. In his Monday broadcast, which he recited in English and Hebrew, Netanyahu did publicize a remarkable heist by Israeli intelligence agencies — if his claims are true — of 55,000 pages of “files” and “archives” showing that 15 years ago, Iran did have a plan with an avowed intent to build nuclear weapons.

But did the prime minister think his viewers, at home and abroad, would glide over those key words — em>files and archive — or that they wouldn’t notice that the quotations from some of those files were dated 2003?
He said and showed nothing to suggest that the Iranians ever put their plan into motion or that they are violating the deal’s restrictions on nuclear activities now. In fact, at one point in his telecast, he acknowledged that Iran stopped the program—supporting the conclusion of a U.S National Intelligence Estimate, published in 2007, that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003.
...
However, the larger message of the archive — and Netanyahu’s briefing — is that the Iran nuclear deal, now more than ever, is worth preserving. Netanyahu pointed to documents suggesting that Iran had plans—he talked of secret documents, charts, presentations, and blueprints—for every aspect of designing, building, and testing nuclear weapons. What he neglected to point out is that the deal gives international inspectors highly intrusive powers to verify whether Iran is taking any steps to pursue those plans.

Detained and Then Deported: U.S. Human Rights Lawyers Barred from Entry into Israel

Arms Embargo on Israel Is Needed as Military Unlawfully Kills and Maims Gaza Protesters

Amnesty International has renewed its call on governments worldwide to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel following the country’s disproportionate response to mass demonstrations along the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel.

“For four weeks the world has watched in horror as Israeli snipers and other soldiers, in full-protective gear and behind the fence, have attacked Palestinian protesters with live ammunition and tear gas. Despite wide international condemnation, the Israeli army has not reversed its illegal orders to shoot unarmed protesters,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“The time for symbolic statements of condemnation is now over. The international community must act concretely and stop the delivery of arms and military equipment to Israel. A failure to do so will continue to fuel serious human rights abuses against thousands of men, women and children suffering the consequences of life under Israel’s cruel blockade of Gaza. These people are merely protesting their unbearable conditions and demanding the right to return to their homes and towns in what is now Israel.”

The USA is by far Israel’s main supplier of military equipment and technology, with a commitment to provide $38 billion in military aid over the next 10 years. But other countries, including EU member states such as France, Germany, the UK and Italy, have licensed large volumes of military equipment for Israel.

In most of the fatal cases analysed by Amnesty International victims were shot in the upper body, including the head and the chest, some from behind. Eyewitness testimonies, video and photographic evidence suggest that many were deliberately killed or injured while posing no immediate threat to the Israeli soldiers.

US Secretary of State Pompeo endorses Israeli murder of Gaza protesters

Recently confirmed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo capped off his four-day trip to the Middle East on Monday by declaring the administration’s total support for the Israeli military’s ongoing murder of unarmed protesters in Gaza. Pompeo made his remarks at a news conference alongside Jordan’s Foreign Minister Aydan Safadi. Asked by a reporter whether he believed Israeli troops had used “excessive force” in response to the “March of Return” protests that have occurred at Gaza border fences each Friday over the past month, Pompeo responded briefly: “We do believe the Israelis have the right to defend themselves, and we’re fully supportive of that.” ...

Pompeo was speaking only three days after the most recent bloodletting on April 27, when Israeli troops stationed in heavily-fortified positions opened fire on crowds of thousands of protesters, killing four. ...

The killing and maiming of protesters is part of a deliberate strategy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud government to terrorize the Palestinian population in the occupied territories and suppress mass opposition among the 1.9 million men, women and children confined in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, in inhumane conditions. ...

Pompeo’s statements on Monday underscore the unanimous support within the American corporate elite, its military-intelligence apparatus and both its parties, Democrat and Republican, for the policies of the key US ally in the Middle East. In particular, they expose once again the hollow and fundamentally pro-war character of the Democratic Party’s opposition to the Trump administration, which centers on claims that he is “soft” on Moscow and demands for stepped-up confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. Last week, the Democrats provided the crucial vote in the Senate to ensure the confirmation of Pompeo, a war hawk, defender of torture and advocate for unlimited spying on the American population, who has publicly called for the execution of Edward Snowden and advocated war against both North Korea and Iran.

Syrians Are Returning to Homes in Raqqa Littered with Land Mines, but the U.S. May Cut Funds for Clearing the City

It has been a mere six months since a U.S.-led coalition drove the Islamic State from its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria. As the offensive drew to a close in October 2017, news cycles around the world ran triumphant reports of the Islamic State’s humiliation, touting the victory as a final blow to the waning, would-be caliphate. The five-month campaign for Raqqa’s liberation had cost the city dearly: As the dust settled, over 11,000 buildings and much of the city’s infrastructure — including its electricity and water — lay in ruin. Even so, for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced during the three-plus years that ISIS occupied Raqqa, the news brought the welcome hope of returning home, at last.

Yet the fall of ISIS was not the end of terror in the war-ravaged city. Waves of displaced residents flocked back to their neighborhoods and re-entered their homes — only to fall victim to hidden explosives, left behind by retreating ISIS fighters. Emergency medical staff began to receive dozens of patients who were mutilated by shrapnel and heat, their families bringing reports of mines hidden inside refrigerators, teddy bears, kitchen cabinets, and even under Qurans. ... As the casualties climbed into the hundreds, the reality of post-ISIS Raqqa quickly became clear: The retreating caliphate had rendered the city a death trap.

While post-conflict zones often require some level of de-mining, the scale of Raqqa’s contamination is virtually unheard-of, said Stewart Wight, a State Department spokesperson working on the Syria Transition Assistance Response Team, in an interview with The Intercept. Recovery teams have not yet conducted a full-scale survey of the level of explosives, said Wight, but, “anecdotally, we can tell you it is bad — amongst the worst contamination in the world that our [U.S. government]-funded program has come across in over two decades.”

The United States has spent about $60 million on stabilization and recovery in Raqqa and the surrounding region, including some support for the de-mining effort, but has focused resources exclusively on “critical infrastructure” such as roads, sanitation facilities, and schools. The task of securing private homes is left to the Raqqa Civilian Council, or RCC, a group of Kurdish and Arab leaders supported by the Syrian Democratic Forces. Civilians in need of de-mining can place themselves on the RCC’s growing list for inspection, but according to a recent Human Rights Watch survey, the RCC is only able to respond to about 10 requests per week. “The stabilization effort is a herculean task,” said Wight. “The RCC is striving to meet the critical needs of returning Syrians, but it could take many years to fully clear Raqqa from explosive hazards.” ...

Now, even the modest recovery measures underway in Raqqa are threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to freeze a promised $200 million fund for Syrian stabilization efforts. He’s also nodded toward pulling out the 2,000 troops currently on the ground in Raqqa, many of whom are involved in the reconstruction process. The U.S. is, by far, the largest governmental actor in the city, supplying humanitarian goods and capacity-building, security, and de-mining services. ... “The city is far from recovered, and the aid is already far less than what is needed,” said the European NGO source, who added that Trump’s “flip-flopping” on Syria, as well as the recent firing of his former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has created a toxic sense of uncertainty.

The guy who threw his shoes at George W. Bush is running for office in Iraq

The journalist who bared his sole to President George W. Bush a decade ago has decided to run for office in his home country of Iraq. Muntazar al-Zaidi infamously threw both of his shoes at Bush during a 2008 press conference, and now he wants to sit in Iraq’s parliament, BuzzFeed News confirmed. While his platform and party remain unclear, we at least know where he stands on the American occupation of Iraq.

“This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” Zaidi yelled in Arabic as he chucked his both of his size 10 shoes at Bush during the president’s swansong press conference with Iraq’s prime minister in 2008. “This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq.” ...

Zaidi ... became a hero of sorts in Iraq. Pictures of Bush ducking were painted onto walls and printed onto T-shirts across the Middle East. And after nine months in prison, Zaidi was released to a new house and car, the Guardian reported at the time.

Now, Zaidi is running for Iraq’s Council of Representatives, comparable to the U.S. House of Representatives. Elections are scheduled for May 12.

Puerto Rico Needs Help: Unelected Fiscal Board Pushes Austerity as Island Continues Slow Recovery

Stephon Clark: official autopsy of man shot by police differs from private one

An official autopsy released on Tuesday says an unarmed black man was shot seven times, not eight as concluded by an independent doctor hired by the man’s family. A pathologist retained by the Sacramento county coroner says that is a crucial distinction because it shows the pathologist hired by the family of 22-year-old Stephon Clark mistook an exit wound for an eighth entry wound, creating an impression that police first shot Clark from the side or back.

Clark was most likely shot as he approached police, a conclusion that is consistent with the officers’ story of the fatal encounter, Dr Gregory Reiber wrote after reviewing the official autopsy along with video taken by the two officers’ body-worn cameras and a sheriff’s helicopter circling overhead. The autopsy also says Clark was legally drunk and had traces of marijuana, cocaine and codeine in his system when was shot, but the report said the toxicology findings are not directly relevant to the fatal shooting.

The officers shot Clark after chasing him into his grandparents’ backyard. They were responding to a report of someone breaking car windows, and said they shot Clark because they thought he was approaching them while pointing a handgun. Investigators found only a cellphone. ...

The pathologist hired by the family, Dr Bennet Omalu, told the Sacramento Bee he found it strange that the coroner’s office brought in its own independent pathologist to review the official autopsy. Omalu found that Clark was hit by six bullets in the back, one in the neck and one in the thigh, and took three to 10 minutes to die. Police waited about five minutes before rendering medical aid.

Black men arrested in Starbucks settle for $1 each and $200,000 program for young people

Two black men arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything settled with the city Wednesday for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The men’s lawyer and Mayor Jim Kenney outlined the agreement to the Associated Press.

“I am pleased to have resolved the potential claims against the city in this productive manner,” Kenney said. “This was an incident that evoked a lot of pain in our city and put us under a national spotlight for unwanted reasons.” ...

The mayor said Nelson and Robinson approached the city about working together to “make something positive come of this”. The entrepreneur program will be for Philadelphia public high school students.

“We thought long and hard about it and we feel like this is the best way to see that change that we want to see,” Robinson said. “It’s not a right-now thing that’s good for right now, but I feel like we will see the true change over time."

Thanks to Trump Tax Cuts, Major Corporations Set to Spend 'Obscene' $1 Trillion Rewarding Investors Instead of Workers

As even one member of the Republican Party was forced to admit earlier this week, President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut has done virtually nothing for the vast majority of American workers—but evidence continues to roll in that it has been a massive boon for the largest corporations. According to new data compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices, America's biggest and most profitable companies are on track to hand "a record $1 trillion to investors through dividend increases and stock buybacks."

A major example of companies using their tax savings to buy their own stock instead of boosting investment or giving workers raises came on Tuesday, when Apple announced it would be spending $100 billion on buybacks, which the New York Times reports is "by far the largest increase in its already historic record of returning capital to investors." ...

Apple's announcement comes on the heels of a slew of giddy profit reports by Wall Street banks, which have already raked in billions thanks to the Trump-GOP tax cuts.

Contrary to repeated promises from Republicans and the Trump administration that the tax law would spur a wave of new investment, the Times reported on Monday that "hard evidence" of a massive investment boost has yet to appear, while there is plenty of evidence that companies are following Apple's lead and dumping their tax savings into the pockets of ultra-wealthy executives.

Arizona Joins Red State Revolt: Teachers’ Strike Reaches Day Five

Arizona strike enters second week as teacher union president opposes calls for nationwide strike

On Monday, nearly 50,000 Arizona educators and supporters continued their walkout against underfunded schools and low pay for a third day. Although the teacher unions have done everything to isolate the teachers and wear them down with fruitless appeals to hostile politicians, educators came out to the state capitol in Phoenix en masse Monday to demonstrate their determination as the strike began its second week. Several of the largest districts announced they would remain closed on Tuesday as the Arizona Education Association and the national teacher unions scramble to come up with some justification to end the strike without meeting teachers’ demands, as the unions did in West Virginia and Oklahoma. ...

The teacher unions above all want to prevent the strike from spreading across the United States and coalescing into a movement for a nationwide strike. This was made clear by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten who was questioned by a World Socialist Web Site reporter during a press conference in Phoenix Monday. Asked for her response to the growing demands by teachers for a nationwide strike, Weingarten insisted that “education is a statewide issue.” She added, “We want to make sure that these walkouts become walk-ins to the voting booth in November.”

The claim that education is a state-by-state issue is absurd on the face of this. Since the early 1980s, the federal government, whether led by Democrats or Republicans, has waged an unending war against schoolteachers and public education. The Obama administration, with the assistance of the AFT and the National Education Association (NEA) sharply expanded for-profit charter schools, and used standardized tests to scapegoat teachers, cut their pay and fire them. Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, a billionaire enemy of public education, are escalating the attack. ...

Weingarten’s reference to transforming teacher walkouts into “walk-ins to the voting booth in November” describes precisely how the unions are trying to crush the wave of teacher rebellions and divert it into a campaign for Democrats. Weingarten, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee, would like educators to forget about Obama’s anti-teacher Race to the Top program and the attack on education in New York, California, Colorado and other states run by the Democrats.

Unions, Democrats promote deal to suppress struggle by Colorado teachers

The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is collaborating with the Democratic-controlled state government to suppress the resistance of teachers in the state and prevent them from uniting with striking educators in neighboring Arizona. Last week, rolling sickouts and protests led to the shutdown of dozens of school districts, including the 10 largest, and rallies by thousands of educators at the state capitol in Denver. Like their counterparts in other states, Colorado teachers are demanding higher pay, improved pensions and the restoration of school funding cuts.

Unlike West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, where teachers confront Republican-controlled state governments, in Colorado the Democratic Party is spearheading the assault on public education. Colorado teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation and the cost of living is driving many of teachers and other workers to seek less expensive places to live and work. ...

During the protests in Denver the CEA paraded several Democrats before teachers echoing their false claims to be defenders of public education. This included current governor John Hickenlooper—a multimillionaire proponent of charter schools—along with Cary Kennedy, another supporter of charter schools who is the union-endorsed candidate to succeed Hickenlooper. Outgoing CEA President Kerrie Dallman urged teachers to volunteer to campaign for Kennedy. Jenny, a teacher in the Jefferson County system, derided the spectacle in a Facebook post. “The superintendent of our district cancelled school today, so all of our teachers could attend a campaign rally! Pathetic. So here we have it—The 4/27 teacher walkout / Capitol rally is a Cary Kennedy for Governor campaign rally. It was never intended to be anything more. The two pro-charter Democrats are the enemy of the protestors. Why?” ...

The teacher unions and mouthpieces for the Democratic Party such as the New York Times have tried to portray the teachers’ rebellion over the last two months as a revolt against Republicans in the so-called “Red States.” In reality, these struggles have erupted in these states chiefly because the unions have a far weaker grip and therefore have been incapable of suppressing the resistance of teachers to the decades-long bipartisan assault on public education.

Trump threatens to intervene in House Republicans' fight with Rod Rosenstein

Donald Trump appeared to threaten to get involved in an ongoing dispute between the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, and Republicans in Congress on Wednesday.

A Rigged System - They don’t want to turn over Documents to Congress. What are they afraid of? Why so much redacting? Why such unequal “justice?” At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018

They seemed to refer to Rosenstein, who said in public remarks on Tuesday that “the Department of Justice will not be extorted” after being asked about articles of impeachment reportedly being prepared against him by some congressional Republicans. The threat of impeachment is being used as leverage for Republican to get more information about the federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Earlier in April, the justice department handed over a redacted document about the origins of the Russia investigation to the House intelligence committee after its chair, Devin Nunes, publicly mused about holding law enforcement officials in contempt of Congress or even impeaching them for not cooperating.

The Struggle to Wrest Back Control of Our Democracy with Frances Moore Lappé

Everglades under threat as Florida's mangroves face death by rising sea level

Florida’s mangroves have been forced into a hasty retreat by sea level rise and now face being drowned, imperiling coastal communities and the prized Everglades wetlands, researchers have found. Mangroves in south-east Florida in an area studied by the researchers have been on a “death march” inland as they edge away from the swelling ocean but have now hit a manmade levee and are likely to be submerged by water within 30 years, according to the Florida International University analysis.

“There’s nowhere left for them to go,” said Dr Randall Parkinson, a coastal geologist at FIU. “They are done. The sea will continue to rise and the question now is whether they will be replaced by open water. I think they will. The outlook is pretty grim. What’s mind boggling is that we are facing the inundation of south Florida this century.”

Mangroves are made up of coastal vegetation that grows in salty or brackish water. They are considered crucial buffers to storms and salt water intrusion, as well as key habitats for certain marine creatures. ... Previous research has suggested the same phenomenon has happened in other parts of south Florida, making the region more vulnerable to storms, such as Hurricane Irma, which swept up Florida last year, and land loss as the sea rises further. Of particular concern is the future of the Everglades, the vast marsh, mangrove and pine flatwoods wilderness that provides a home to threatened species such as the manatee, American crocodile and Florida panther.

The Everglades, known as the “river of grass”, was long nourished by fresh water flowing slowly from marshes, lakes and rivers to the north. However, the ecosystem has shrunk by around half since a network of canals and dams were built over the past century to divert water for agriculture and to build homes.

Temp hit 122F, 50C in Pakistan on Monday, the highest April temperature ever recorded on this planet. Old record was set...last year https://t.co/4o5rXMbWyv

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) May 2, 2018

EPA chief Scott Pruitt: two top aides depart amid ethics investigations

Two top aides have resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amid a growing series of federal ethics investigations, Scott Pruitt, the agency chief, announced on Tuesday. In response, Don Beyer, a Democratic congressman from Virginia who has pushed for investigations of ethical problems under Pruitt, said the administrator “should be the next to go”.

In statements, Pruitt gave no immediate reasons why the security chief, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, and Superfund manager, Albert Kelly, were leaving. EPA spokespeople Jahan Wilcox and Liz Bowman did not immediately respond to questions about whether the departures were related to federal investigations.

Pruitt’s spending on security, and some of the security contracts with Perrotta, are among the subjects of more than a dozen federal investigations involving the EPA under Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general.

Pruitt said Perrotta was retiring, and praised what he described as Perrotta’s hard work and dedication. He thanked Kelly for what he said was his “tremendous impact” in a year overseeing the nation’s Superfund program, charged with handling the cleanup of toxic waste sites.

The 10 cities with the worst air pollution all have one thing in common

Nine out of 10 people around the world breathe polluted air, the study found, and that dirty air kills 7 million of us every year. Things appear to be getting better in the most polluted cities, if only marginally, with particulate matter concentrations dropping in the ten most polluted places fractionally since the last set of WHO data was released in 2016. And air in the U.S. is relatively clean, but under EPA chief Scott Pruitt, the regulations that keep it that way are being eroded.

Every city in the World Health Organization’s top 10 most polluted cities is in India, if measured by the smallest and deadliest type of particulate matter air pollution. This type of pollution is generated primarily by exhaust from cars and smokestacks, as well as fires. ... Cities in the U.S. look very good compared to cities like Delhi. Even the dirtiest city in the U.S., Bakersfield, California — where oil refineries, agriculture, car emissions, and rail freight together create a smoggy horizon — still ranks way down the WHO’s list, at 814th.

“Political leaders at all levels of government, including city mayors, are now starting to pay attention and take action,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said in a statement. That may be true in most places, but it’s not true of EPA chief Pruitt. The well-documented friend of fossil fuels has appointed a researcher to his science advisory board who thinks “modern air is a little too clean for optimal health” and surrounded himself with people — including Steve Milloy, who served on the EPA’s transition team and has remained close to the agency — who don’t believe that air pollution is nearly as harmful as the scientific community would have us believe.

The EPA announced in April that it would roll back tailpipe emissions standards, aimed on reducing smog and carbon pollution, and sought to limit the types of studies that can be used in their policymaking.

Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: War Games

Netanyahu Makes a Case for the JCPOA

Netanyahoo's "Iran Files" are Well Known, Old and Purloined from Vienna

Fatal encounters: 97 deaths point to pattern of border agent violence across America

A Little Night Music

Professor Longhair - Tipitina

Professor Longhair and the Clippers - Willie The Prince

Professor Longhair - Jambalaya

Professor Longhair - Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand

Professor Longhair - In The Night

Professor Longhair - Looka' No Hair

Professor Longhair - Misery

Professor Longhair - Ball The Wall

Professor Longhair - Oh Well

Professor Longhair and The Clippers - Third House From The Corner

Professor Longhair - Cuttin' Out

Professor Longhair Philadelphia Folk Festival 1975