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"The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice."

-- Robert H. Jackson

News and Opinion

Minnesota Law Enforcement Agency Blocks Release of Public Records About Surveilling Pipeline Opponents

Following critical stories about the policing of anti-pipeline activists, a Minnesota law enforcement agency barred a federally affiliated body from releasing documents through the state’s public records laws, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The Minnesota Fusion Center, a police intelligence-sharing partnership affiliated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is sidestepping the state’s freedom of information law by citing security concerns, though it had in the past released records related to its policing of pipeline opponents. The fusion center is refusing to release any public records pertaining to activities, including surveillance, against opponents of the energy firm Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline until after it is constructed, according to one of the documents.

The unusual policy came after The Intercept and other media outlets published stories documenting law enforcement surveillance and coordination with private security during protests against Line 3, part of a trend in which aggressive policing against pipeline opponents across the U.S. was reported by media. Many of the news stories concerning Minnesota police activities were based on records provided under the Minnesota Data Practices Act and reporting on anti-pipeline struggles in other states has relied on similar public transparency laws. “It is a little unprecedented for a police agency to refuse to disclose records concerning its activities like this with respect to one specific construction project,” said Freddy Martinez, a transparency law expert and policy analyst for the group Open the Government. “I’ve never seen something quite like this.”

Big Wind, a Northern Arapaho tribal member opposing the pipeline said police are attempting to cover up their activities because freedom of information requests have exposed damaging and embarrassing information about them that has helped further the struggle against the pipeline. “Freedom of information requests are how lots of things came to light about the police working with private mercenaries during Standing Rock, and also about how Enbridge is paying the police here in Minnesota,” said Big Wind, who is affiliated with the anti-pipeline Namewag Camp. “We know there is still a lot of information about what Enbridge and the police are doing to us here that they don’t want to be revealed.”

The policy enacted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which oversees the fusion center, asserts that it is withholding Line 3-related records to prevent “terrorists,” “criminals,” and “those who would create public safety hazards” from having access to them, according to a document obtained by The Intercept through a public records request.

Senate Infrastructure Bill Would Invest $500 Million in “Smart City” Surveillance Technology

Buried in the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill is a grant program that would distribute $500 million to cities to experiment with sensors, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other technologies intended to improve urban living standards.

Under the $1.2 trillion Senate infrastructure bill’s “Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation” initiative, state and urban planners would test how data-gathering devices and new vehicles can improve “transportation efficiency and safety.” The bill’s sponsors are especially interested in reducing traffic, enhancing access to jobs and health care, lowering pollution, and incentivizing private sector investments by working with communication service providers.

But some are worried these technologies will only enable more government surveillance.

“This is a form of surveillance, often involving police, that invades privacy, deters protest in public places, and all-too-often disparately burdens people of color,” said Adam Schwartz, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization. “It is unfortunate that the bipartisan infrastructure bill would invest a half billion federal dollars in these troubling surveillance technologies, without adequate privacy safeguards.”

The infrastructure bill — which is currently stalled amid debate over cryptocurrency regulation — doesn’t mention police involvement, but Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said law enforcement often tries to get its hands on data collected by transportation departments. ... The proposal does include some safety mechanisms, such as prohibiting license plate readers, but Schwartz and Marlow agreed the protections don’t go far enough to prevent law and immigration enforcement from accessing collected data. “When you’re talking about transportation data, movement of people, that is information that is very, very hard to de-identify and prevent reidentification,” Schwartz said.

Israel ‘would ultimately like to see regime change in Iran’

Israel’s Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan said that Jerusalem would ultimately like to see Iran’s ayatollahs overthrown, in one of the most far-reaching comments by an Israeli official in favor of regime change in Tehran.

“In the end, we would ultimately like to see [the government] overthrown and [for there to be] regime change and Iran,” Erdan told Army Radio on Thursday, when asked about Israel’s strategy vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on whether Erdan’s remarks represent the official position of the Israeli government. ...

In the Army Radio interview, Erdan acknowledged that it is not an Israeli interest for the country to be seen as the only one acting against Iran. He said his role as ambassador is to build the legitimacy for imposing ever-toughening sanctions against Iran in addition to wielding a military threat against the regime.

Hezbollah Fires Rockets in Response to Israeli Airstrikes

Hezbollah responded Friday to recent Israeli shelling and airstrikes in southern Lebanon by firing rockets into Israel. The incident marks the first time the Shia group fired into Israel since the 2006 war.

Israel said 19 rockets were launched from Lebanon and that it fired back with artillery after the barrage. The back and forth is the most significant escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in years, but no casualties were reported on either side. ...

In warning Hezbollah against further rocket attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel could make Lebanon’s crisis even worse. “We do not intend to let Hezbollah toy with us and Hezbollah knows this. Lebanon’s situation is shaky. We can make it even shakier,” he said.

Taliban seize sixth provincial capital in blitz across northern Afghanistan

Major coup for Taliban as fighters take Afghan city of Kunduz

The Taliban have claimed a huge symbolic victory after their fighters seized a large city for the first time in northern Afghanistan as part of a seemingly unstoppable offensive in which they have captured five provincial capitals in just three days.

Armed men swept into Kunduz on Sunday, a strategic city close to the border with Tajikistan and an important political and military hub. By mid-morning they controlled the city centre while pro-government forces retreated to the nearby airport. Residents fled as smoke from the city’s burning market engulfed the sky.

Videos posted by Taliban fighters showed the city’s abandoned police compound, complete with cars and its main security and intelligence buildings intact. “The enemy left behind vehicles, weapons and equipment,” tweeted the Taliban’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, promising further advances. ...

The Taliban have seized control of much of rural Afghanistan since international forces began the last stage of their withdrawal in early May. The Taliban are now besieging more than a dozen more provincial capitals.

Release Details of Saudi Involvement or Stay Away From Memorials, 9/11 Families Tell Biden

Nearly 1,800 family members, survivors, and first responders who were affected by the September 11 attacks are intensifying pressure on the federal government to declassify information that they believe points to Saudi leaders' involvement in or support for the attacks, with the group calling on President Joe Biden to stay away from next month's 20th anniversary memorial events unless he releases the documents first.

The family members and survivors say PENTTBOM, the FBI's investigation that wrapped up in 2016, uncovered support provided by Saudi officials for the attackers. The Obama and Trump administrations both declined to declassify documents from the probe, citing national security concerns.

As a 2020 presidential candidate, Biden expressed support for the 9/11 families' search for "full truth and accountability" regarding the attacks and said he would direct his attorney general "to personally examine the merits of all cases where the invocation of privilege is recommended, and to err on the side of disclosure in cases where, as here, the events in question occurred two decades or longer ago."

"Twenty years later, there is simply no reason—unmerited claims of 'national security' or otherwise—to keep this information secret," the families wrote in a statement released Friday. "But if President Biden reneges on his commitment and sides with the Saudi government, we would be compelled to publicly stand in objection to any participation by his administration in any memorial ceremony of 9/11." ...

Since the commission ended its investigation, the families said, "much investigative evidence has been uncovered implicating Saudi government officials in supporting the attacks."

"Through multiple administrations, the Department of Justice and the FBI have actively sought to keep this information secret and prevent the American people from learning the full truth about the 9/11 attacks," they said.

Fears as more children falling ill in latest US Covid surge and school approaches

Amid increased fears that children are now both victims and vectors of the latest Covid-19 variant surge, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins signaled on Sunday that increasing numbers of children are falling ill in the US. His comments also came as one of America’s largest teachers unions appeared to shift its position on mandatory vaccinations for teachers.

With around 90 million adult Americans remaining unvaccinated, and vaccines remaining unauthorized for 12 years and under, Collins told ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos that “the largest number of children so far in the whole pandemic right now are in the hospital, 1,450 kids in the hospital from Covid-19.”

Collins acknowledged that data on pediatric infections was incomplete but he said that he was “hearing from pediatricians that they’re concerned that, this time, the kids who are in the hospital are both more numerous and more seriously ill”. Collins’s comments came as new Covid-19 cases in the US have rebounded to more than 100,000 a day on average, returning to the levels of the winter surge six months ago. But health officials focus on children adds urgency to the situation as the US education system approaches the start of the school year. ...

Dr Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, also weighed in on the concerns, saying that schools are not “inherently safe” from the Delta variant and that society “can’t expect the same outcome that we saw earlier with respect to the schools where we were largely able to control large outbreaks in the schools with a different set of behaviors.”

“The challenge right now is that the infection is going to start to collide with the opening of school. And we have seen that the schools can become sources of community transmission when you’re dealing with more transmissible strains,” Gottleib told CBS’s Face the Nation.

School Mask Mandates BANNED, For The Good Of Florida Children Or Fundraising Ploy?

‘I don’t see how it can be safe’: Florida schools on frontlines of state’s mask war

In a statement earlier this week, the Miami-Dade public schools superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, said the district is re-evaluating its decision to implement a mask-optional policy in light of updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending any children age two and up, as well as all school staff, wear masks indoors. Carvalho is leaning on the advice of a taskforce of medical and public health experts, which is expected to make its recommendation in the coming week before the 23 August start of the school year.

Except, Florida’s hard-right Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, looms large over any decisions the state’s school districts make about requiring students to wear masks inside educational buildings. In recent weeks, DeSantis has veered further to the right by reiterating his disdain for Covid-19 restriction measures. He held a secret meeting with anti-mask medical professionals, signed an executive order that gives parents the final decision on whether their children will wear masks in school and promised to cut off state funding to any school district that forces children to put on face coverings.

DeSantis, who’s soared to the top of 2024 Republican national contenders list by carrying on the legacy of former president Donald Trump, even earned a sharp rebuke from Joe Biden, who on Wednesday said governors pushing anti-mask policies should “get out of the way of the people trying to do the right thing”. The following day, DeSantis fired back at a news conference. “Well, let me tell you this: if you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way,” DeSantis said. “Well, I can tell you in Florida, the parents are going to make that decision.”

“Band-Aid Over a Bullet Wound”: Housing Advocates Say CDC's Eviction Moratorium Is Not Enough

The media has given significantly more coverage to Obama's birthday party than to the upcoming expiration of unemployment benefits for millions of people.

— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) August 8, 2021

7.5 Million Set to Lose Jobless Benefits on Labor Day

Unless Congress and the Biden administration act quickly, more than seven million people across the United States will soon completely lose unemployment benefits that were approved as part of the federal government's emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic—which is nowhere near over.

An analysis released Thursday by the Century Foundation estimates that 7.5 million people are set to lose unemployment insurance (UI) aid on Labor Day, the official nationwide expiration date of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

"UI benefits expiring on Labor Day is a cruel joke that only wealthy politicians could come up with," said Mark Paul, an assistant professor of economics and environmental studies at the New College.

The Century Foundation's Andrew Stettner described the looming UI expiration as "the largest cutoff of unemployment benefits in history, many times larger than previous cutoffs of 1.3 million workers in 2013 and 800,000 in 2003."

In addition to the 7.5 million people who will see their jobless aid end entirely come September 6, another three million unemployed workers will lose the $300-per-week federal boost provided through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program. Twenty-six states—all of which are led by Republicans except Louisiana—ended federal pandemic benefits early, heightening the economic desperation of millions of people.

Biden & Pelosi's Student Debt LIES Exposed

Progressives Demand More as Infrastructure Bill Clears Key Senate Hurdle

As the United States Senate on Saturday voted to advance a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, progressive lawmakers warned that they will not vote for the proposed legislation if lawmakers don't also adequately fund human needs such as healthcare, housing, and climate action.

Saturday's 67-27 Senate cloture vote on the 2,700-page Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (pdf) overcame a major barrier to the measure's passage, although it was unclear when the Senate would hold a final vote on the bill.

"We can get this done the easy way or the hard way," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor before the vote. "In either case, the Senate will stay in session until we finish our work. It's up to my Republican colleagues how long it takes."

The deal—which falls short of the $2.25 trillion originally proposed in President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan, and is far less than the $10 trillion that progressives say should be spent—includes $550 billion in new infrastructure funding, including for roads and bridges, public transport, railways, broadband internet, port and airport upgrades, power and water system improvements, and environmental remediation.

Notably absent from the deal are progressive agenda items including a 7% corporate tax hike, Medicaid expansion, workforce development, and, critically, measures to address the climate crisis. ...

Progressive lawmakers and advocates have lamented what they say are the bipartisan deal's many inadequacies, with the Congressional Progressive Caucus vowing Saturday to oppose any bill that does not include funding for climate and social agenda items.

As Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said earlier this week, "If the bipartisan bill isn't passed with a reconciliation package that has our popular priorities, we're not voting for it."

What Nina Turner's Loss Means

Aide who accused Cuomo of groping says: ‘What he did to me was a crime’

A former executive assistant who filed a criminal complaint against New York governor Andrew Cuomo last week for allegedly groping her has said he “needs to be held accountable”.

Brittany Commisso is one of 11 women Cuomo is accused of sexually harassing, according to a devastating investigative report released by the state attorney general’s office last week.

The former aide identified herself publicly in an interview with CBS which is set to be broadcast in full on Monday morning.

“What he did to me was a crime. He broke the law,” Commisso said in an excerpt released ahead of its broadcast. Coming forward, she said, was “the right thing to do. The governor needs to be held accountable.”

Krystal Ball: Top Liberal Orgs in DISARRAY After Cuomo Coverup Unmasked

Texas Democrats still absent as Republicans make third bid to pass vote laws

Texas Democrats have refused to return to the state Capitol as governor Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a months-long standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, DC. “A quorum is not present,” said Republican house speaker Dade Phelan on Saturday, who then adjourned the chamber until Monday.

More than 50 Democrats last month bolted to the nation’s capital, but the precise whereabouts of each of them is unclear. In a joint statement on Saturday, Democrats said 26 of them would remain “part of an active presence in Washington maintained for as long as Congress is working”.

But there were also signs the stalemate may be thawing. Two of the Democrats who decamped last month returned to Austin on Saturday, and one of them said enough of his colleagues may also begin trickling back to secure a quorum next week.

Notably, Republicans did not invoke a procedural move that would give Phelan the authority to sign arrest warrants for missing lawmakers, as they did when the Democrats left town.

Democratic state representative Eddie Lucio III said those who might return were feeling the pull of personal and professional demands. “I was encouraged that the baton would be carried by my Washington colleagues at the federal level, that there would be sweeping reform nationwide,” Lucio III said.

“A Code Red for Humanity”: Major U.N. Report Warns of Climate Catastrophe If Urgent Action Not Taken

World’s climate scientists to issue stark warning over global heating threat

The fires, floods and extreme weather seen around the world in recent months are just a foretaste of what can be expected if global heating takes hold, scientists say, as the world’s leading authority on climate change prepares to warn of an imminent and dire risk to the global climate system.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will on Monday publish a landmark report, the most comprehensive assessment yet, less than three months before vital UN talks that will determine the future course of life on Earth. Policymakers have already previewed the findings, finalised on Saturday night, which have been the subject of an intense two weeks of online discussion by experts around the world, and represent eight years of work by leading scientists.

Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said governments must take heed of the warnings. “Practical, funded and deliverable plans [by governments] to keep us below the supposedly safe limits [of heating] are almost non-existent. Urgent climate action was needed decades ago – now we’re almost out of time. The UK government has a huge responsibility as host of the UN climate talks to ensure world leaders sign up to policies that not just put the brakes on the climate crisis, but slam it into reverse.” ...

Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, said this would be the last IPCC assessment that can make a real difference in policy terms, before we exceed 1.5C and the ambitions of the Paris agreement. “Climate change is now causing amplified weather extremes of the sort we’ve been witnessing this summer – droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, floods, superstorms,” he said. “The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. We see them playing out in real time in the form of these unprecedented extreme weather disasters.”

From Fires to Floods to Sea Level Rise, Human-Induced Climate Crisis Is Severely Disrupting Earth

IPCC to Say Drastic Methane Cuts Necessary to Avert Climate Hell

Slashing carbon dioxide emissions will not be sufficient to avert climate disaster unless the international community also acts boldly to stop releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is playing an increasingly significant role in intensifying planetary heating and extreme weather.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue that warning on Monday in the first of three reports that together will constitute the United Nations' sixth climate assessment since 1990, The Guardian reported Friday. According to the British newspaper, part one of the IPCC's forthcoming report, which covers physical science, "will show in detail how close the world is to irreversible change."

Although carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere far longer, methane is up to 87 times more potent over a 20-year period, making it a key driver of global warming in the near term. Despite the pandemic-driven shutdowns in 2020, emissions of both heat-trapping gases reached record highs last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found.

Key sources of methane pollution include industrialized animal farming, landfills, and fossil fuel extraction and leaks. Research published last year showed that coal mining, oil drilling, and hydraulic fracturing for so-called "natural" gas may be emitting up to 40% more methane than previously thought. One climate scientist said that while the study was alarming, it "shows us where we can act on climate change" right away.

In May, the U.N. Environment Programme released a report highlighting the "absolutely critical" necessity of quickly cutting global methane emissions, which researchers said "is one of the most cost-effective strategies to rapidly reduce the rate of warming and contribute significantly to global efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C."

Climate-Linked Drought Leads to First Ever Shutdown of California Hydropower Plant

California officials blamed the climate crisis-fueled drought and earlier lack of snowmelt in announcing Thursday that, for the first time ever, historic low water levels forced the hydropower plant at Lake Oroville to be taken offline.

The development comes amid a massive drought gripping the western United States, with entire state of California experiencing some level of drought.

Water levels at Lake Oroville, the state's second largest reservoir, have been dropping for months, prompting it to be called "the shocking face of California's drought."

The lake's depletion led to the long anticipated shutdown of the Hyatt plant—completed in 1967 and able to power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity.

The Chico Enterprise-Record reported that the lake on Tuesday hit its lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level—a level that threatens the plant's ability to turn turbines. "The lake level has dropped a stunning 250 feet in the past two years," noted the San Jose Mercury News.

Also of Interest

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

The Murder of the U.S. Middle Class Began 40 Years Ago This Week

Incrementalism For All Who Can Survive It

The CIA’s Outsourced Torture Is Lost To History

Thomas Frank: US liberals’ hysteria outlives Trump

Advocates Challenge Mysterious Justice Department Statement That Undercuts Forensic Science Reform

Biden Moves to Protect the Tongass, North America’s Largest Rainforest, from Logging and Road Building

Study reveals effects of extreme heat on tens of millions of Americans

Dixie fire: cool weather slows raging California blaze as attention shifts to PG&E role

Kim Kelly: Union Leader's Shocking Death, Media FINALLY Covers Miner's Strike

Jimmy Dore: Heiress Tries To Shut Down Independent Media & Loses!

A Little Night Music

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Money Honey

The Drifters Feat. Clyde McPhatter - Honey Love

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - What Ya' Gonna Do

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Such a Night

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Warm Your Heart

Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters - Bip Bam

Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters - Lucille

Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters - Three Thirty Three

Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters - Let the Boogie Woogie Roll