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This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player, Willie Mabon. Enjoy!

"I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong."

-- President George Washington

News and Opinion

'There Is No Migrant Crisis'

In fact, the world is facing a crisis of global injustice caused by war, poverty, and inequality

Search the Internet for articles on the so-called "migrant crisis," and half a million results pop up in a matter of seconds.

There's just one problem: There is no such crisis.

"What we call a 'migrant crisis,' is actually a crisis of global injustice caused by war, poverty, and inequality," said Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden, introducing a new briefing that draws attention to the multiple crises that are actually forcing people to relocate and calls for "free movement for everyone."

Published Monday, the briefing—Migrant Crisis or Poverty Crisis? Why Free Movement is Vital in the Battle for Global Justice (pdf)—lays blame at the feet of overlapping root causes including:

• Poverty and economic inequality;
• War and conflict;
• Climate change;
• Unfair trade deals; and
• Colonialism, "or at least the long term legacy of it."

"Framing the increased flow of people fleeing war and poverty as a 'migrant crisis' misses the point," the document reads. "It assumes that it is the arrival of these people, rather than the situations they are trying to escape, that is the problem."

In turn, cracking down on the migrants themselves is "not the solution," Global Justice Now declares.

"Rich countries, with the help of the highly profitable security industry, have tried their best to use cruel migration controls, fences, walls and even guns to force people to accept lives of violence and destitution," the briefing says. "This is not the solution. No matter how high the walls of Fortress Europe become, the only way to solve this problem is to deal with its root causes."

"One of the Great Revolutionaries": Daniel Berrigan Remembered as Hundreds Gather for Funeral

U.S. struggles to convince Iraqis it doesn't support ISIS

For nearly two years, U.S. airstrikes, military advisers and weapons shipments have helped Iraqi forces roll back the Islamic State group. The U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 5,000 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq at a total cost of $7 billion since August 2014, including operations in Syria. On Tuesday a U.S. Navy SEAL was the third serviceman to die fighting ISIS in Iraq.

But many Iraqis still aren't convinced the Americans are on their side.

Government-allied Shiite militiamen on the front-lines post videos of U.S. supplies purportedly seized from ISIS militants or found in areas liberated from the extremist group. Newspapers and TV networks repeat conspiracy theories that the U.S. created the jihadi group to sow chaos in the region in order to seize its oil.

Skepticism about U.S. motives is deeply rooted in Iraq, where many still blame the chaos after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein on American malice rather than incompetence. ... An unscientific survey by the State Department of Iraqi residents last year found that 40 percent believe that U.S. policy is working to "destabilize Iraq and control its natural resources," and a third believe America "supports terrorism in general and (ISIS) specifically."

Former U.S. Diplomats Decry the U.S.-Backed Saudi War in Yemen

The United States has forcefully backed the Saudi-led war. In addition to sharing intelligence, the U.S. has sold tens of billions of dollars in munitions to the Saudis since the war began. The kingdom has used U.S.-produced aircraft, laser-guided bombs, and internationally-banned cluster bombs to target and destroy schools, markets, power plants, and a hospital, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths.

Despite all that, U.S. officials have done little to explain this support, have failed to explain the U.S. interests in the campaign, and have made scant mention of the humanitarian toll. In the absence of an official response, The Intercept raised those concerns with half a dozen former senior diplomatic officials, including U.S. ambassadors to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. ...

“I don’t think you can restore a government, especially an unpopular one, from the air, and I don’t think the use of force in this matter does anything but create long-term enmity,” said Chas Freeman, who served as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia between 1989 and 1992. He noted that former President Hadi’s unpopularity was partly due to his deep ties to Saudi Arabia and the United States. ...

“It’s just been pushed over the edge,” Barbara Bodine, who served as ambassador to Yemen between 1997 and 2001, [said on the Zogby Show]. “It’s been declared a level 3 humanitarian crisis, there’s only four of those in the world. … The devastation of the physical damage, infrastructure damage, … the water system to the extent it has existed has been completely destroyed.” ...

“The humanitarian situation is as bad as it is in Syria,” said Bill Rugh, who was ambassador to Yemen between 1984 and 1987. “The American press hasn’t paid that much attention to it. But it’s been a disaster particularly as a result of the bombing and … the lack of outside humanitarian assistance as a result of the fighting. It’s really been tragic for the Yemeni people. The country’s always been very poor but to have your hospitals and your schools and your civilian population bombed and killed and injured on a large scale has added to their tragedy.”

Rebel Advance in Aleppo Countryside Sparks Fierce Fighting, Airstrikes

Syrian warplanes attacked Islamist militants near the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, both sides said, as the government tried to push back an insurgent advance in the area.

Dozens of air strikes hit near the town of Khan Touman, which rebels took from forces loyal to the government and its ally Iran late on Thursday, insurgents and state media reported.

Aleppo is one of the biggest strategic prizes in a war now in its sixth year. Through much of the conflict, it has been divided into government and rebel-held zones. Aleppo's surrounding area is also strategically important because it encompasses valuable supply routes into neighboring Turkey.

The Syrian army reported on Sunday that it had hit hard what it described as terrorist groups, but did not give further details about territorial gains.

Bashar Assad’s Brutality in Syria Is Matched by U.S. Devastation Across the Region

Growing numbers of people worldwide are turning their Facebook profile pictures into solid red squares in an attempt to call attention to a new, deadly phase of the Syria war. The latest round of violence was marked by the bombing of a refugee camp near the Syrian border with Turkey, which resulted in 28 deaths. That attack was probably the work of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad or its ally Russia.

Only days earlier, a horrific bombing took place in the rebel-controlled city of Aleppo, targeting Al-Quds Hospital, which was supported by the Nobel Prize-winning organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. That airstrike, which came in the form of multiple barrel bombs (the Assad government’s signature bomb), killed dozens of civilians, including one of the city’s last remaining pediatricians.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the strike, saying, “We are outraged” at what “appears to have been a deliberate strike on a known medical facility and follows the Assad regime’s appalling record of striking such facilities and first responders.”

Kerry’s statement reeked of hypocrisy. ... Almost at the same time that Kerry was chastising the Assad regime in Syria, the Pentagon’s internal investigation into the Kunduz hospital strike absolved the U.S. military of war crimes, saying only that minor violations had taken place.

It is not far-fetched to compare the impunity of the U.S. government to that of the Syrian government. The Syrian government has been bombing and destroying its own country. The U.S. government has been bombing, occupying and destroying other countries—chief among them Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. For the Obama administration to attempt to set itself apart from Assad’s government is laughable.

After the recent battles in Syria and Iraq, how close is Isis to losing the war?

In northern Syria carnage alternates with ceasefires as the Syrian air force pounds the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo in a bid to drive out the remaining civilians. ... The purpose of the Syrian government’s air and artillery attacks has remained the same over the last five years and is to separate opposition fighters from the civilian population. “This is the same classic counter-insurgency strategy that was used by the French in Algeria and the US in Vietnam,” says Fabrice Balanche, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ...

The US and the coalition have carried out 8,067 air strikes in Iraq and 3,809 in Syria which have inflicted heavy casualties on Isis and interrupted their communications. But strict rules of engagement, intended to avoid civilian casualties, mean that Isis and al-Nusra fighters can stay safe by taking over one floor in a five storey building and leaving the other four floors occupied by ordinary families. While the term “human shield” is much abused, the armed opposition in places like Mosul, Raqqa and Eastern Ghouta forbid civilians from leaving, so terrified people must balance the possibility of being killed by air strikes against that of being murdered or detained by salafi-jihadi checkpoints.

Bombs and drones weaken Islamic State, but probably not as much as is hoped in Washington and European capitals. ... Isis is battered and on the retreat, but is unlikely to be defeated this year. It is losing territory but it is important to keep in mind that much of this is desert or semi-desert. More important is its progressive loss of access to the Turkish border which has been largely sealed off by the advance of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia assisted by a US air umbrella. The increasingly narrow corridor between Aleppo and the Euphrates that links the self-declared Caliphate to Turkey is under threat from the YPG and their Arab proxies in the east and the Syrian army in the west. If this gap is closed then Isis will have great difficulty receiving foreign volunteers or dispatching terrorists to carry out attacks abroad.

If Isis and al-Nusra are defeated, what will be the impact on the political geography of this part of the Middle East? Sunni Arabs in Iraq make up 20 per cent and in Syria 60 per cent of the population but there is really only one battlefield, so, if the salafi-jihadis lose, so too will the Sunni Arabs as a whole in the band of territory between the Iranian border and the Mediterranean. ...

A state of permanent war has suited both the government in Damascus and its extreme fundamentalist enemies, because many Syrians who do not like Assad feel that the only alternative to his regime, as the French Algerians used to say, is “the suitcase or the coffin.” Anti-Assad Syrians are likewise faced with a black-or-white choice between a murderous government and murderous Islamists. Only a de-militarisation of Syrian politics might open the way to other alternatives and a distant prospect of permanent peace.

Israeli Defense Ministry Plans New Settlement in Northern West Bank

In recent years, the Israeli government has tended to resolve complaints about blatantly illegal settler outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land by retroactively legalizing the seizure of the land. This has been virtually obligatory for the far-right government, which depends heavily on settler votes for its narrow majority.

In the case of Amona, however, settler demands don’t seem to be working, with the Israeli High Court demanded the outpost be leveled by the end of 2012. You’ll notice, of course, that it is now 2016, but officials say it’ll probably have to happen by year’s end, and the court ruling makes retroactive legalization all but impossible.

Still, placating the settlers is job one, and despite expressions of outrage by them, the Israeli Defense Ministry is working on building a new, much larger settlement in the northern West Bank, which house the Amona residents plus a bunch of new settlers.

France to set up a dozen deradicalisation centres

France is to set up a dozen deradicalisation centres across the country to identify would-be extremists and prevent them from joining jihadi groups.

“Reinsertion and citizenship centres” in each region are part of an 80-point plan to combat home-grown terrorism, unveiled by the socialist government on Monday.

The two-year plan includes a raft of anti-terrorism measures aimed at combatting the increasing number of young people in France drawn to jihadi groups, and at establishing an early warning system to pick up those tempted to join. An anonymous and free phone number for members of the public to report extremist suspects to the police and help for families of those who have been radicalised, both set up in 2014 under a previous “de-radicalisation plan” are to be extended. ...

A scientific committee to research the reasons for radicalisation and terrorism is also being established, with university grants for related studies. France’s intelligence and security services are to be given more staff and money.

The deradicalisation centres will house young people who “could have repented and who we will test the sincerity and willingness to be reintegrated back into society for the long term”, prime minister Manuel Valls said.

Report: 2008 Bank Bailouts Are Still Alive

The U.S. is now in its eighth year since the Wall Street bank collapse of 2008 and most members of the general public believe the bailouts are long finished. That’s a fallacy. Last Friday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report showing that there are 16 banks still involved in the original bailout program. ...

Then there is the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet which pre-crisis stood in the neighborhood of $800 billion and today stands at $4.5 trillion. Making up the bulk of the assets on the Federal Reserve’s books are the U.S. Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae that the Fed sopped up from markets choking on the stuff during the crash. According to the Fed’s March 2016 balance sheet report, it currently holds $2.46 trillion of Treasuries and $1.76 trillion in agency MBS.

And let’s not forget that the Federal Reserve’s Zero-Interest Rate Policy or ZIRP (which fueled a stock market surge while depriving seniors of interest income to buy groceries) remained in place from December 16, 2008 through December 16, 2015 – an incredibly long seven years. The Fed hiked its Fed Funds rate on December 16, 2015 to a meager 0.25-0.50 percent and immediately ushered in a freefall in stocks. ... The Fed has put further rate hikes on hold ever since. Which raises the question – is the U.S. locked in a perpetual twilight zone of the Wall Street crash of 2008? Or, is all we have to do is face the reality that we have to restore the Glass-Steagall Act, which would separate the insured deposits from the derivative casinos and let the casinos then fail if that’s what they are inclined to do. Holding the rest of the country hostage to make Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein happy can only, inevitably, usher in the next crash and bailout and permanent loss of confidence in the U.S. financial system.

Driscoll's Workers Call for Global Boycott over Alleged Abuses at World's Biggest Berry Distributor

Retired Teamsters Duck Pension Cuts – For Now

The Treasury Department on Friday rejected a bid by the Central States Pension Fund to cut current retiree benefits for 270,000 Teamster truckers by as much as 50 percent.

Kenneth Feinberg, the special master to the Treasury tasked with handling proposals by pension funds to cut benefits, said he was not persuaded that the plan would solve Central States’s solvency problems because of faulty assumptions.

Feinberg also noted that the proposed cuts were not “equitably distributed” to all beneficiaries, and that notices to employees announcing the cuts were too confusing.

As I wrote last month, the 2014 “CRomnibus” budget bill contained a provision allowing multi-employer pension plans to apply to the Treasury to make cuts to current retirees, in order to stretch dwindling resources and prevent insolvency. This repealed a 40-year ban on cuts to earned pension benefits, enacted with the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). President Obama supported the 2014 bill that made these changes and whipped for its passage.

Had the Treasury approved the plan, the average benefit cut for current retirees would have been around 23 percent. But some retirees would have seen much larger cuts, up to 50 percent.

Inequality Soars as Retirement Benefits Dwindle for All But the Rich

A report released Thursday from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) offers more evidence that the shift away from traditional pensions to 401(k)-like plans contributes to inequality.

As Bloomberg reported Friday, "The U.S. retirement landscape is starting to look like a Charles Dickens novel."

These "defined contribution (DC)" plans, the report notes, "have become the dominant form of retirement plan for U.S. workers," but 60 percent of all U.S. households in 2013 had no retirement savings in one. Further noting the wealth divide, GAO found:

• While 81 percent of working, high-income households had savings in a DC plan, only about 25 percent of working, low-income households had any savings in one.
• From 2007 to 2013, the average balance in such accounts held by white working households didn't significantly change, but for black working households, the average balance in plans dropped significantly—from $31,100 in 2007 to $16,400 in 2013.

...

Economist Dean Baker also noted in December that "Your retirement prospects are bleaker than ever," attributing it to "the disappearance of traditional defined benefit pensions and the failure of 401(k)-type plans to fill the gap."

"The vast majority of Americans who expect to retire in the next decade can count on little income other than their Social Security. This is true not only for low-income workers, who have struggled most of their lives, but also for millions of middle-income workers," Baker wrote. "Although Social Security is a tremendously important program, and provides a solid base that retirees can depend upon, its $16,000 average annual benefit doesn't go very far. Many if not most can expect to see sharp reductions in living standards."

Greek pension cuts and austerity measures in German media:

Greece passes fresh set of reforms

Greek pension cuts and austerity measures as seen by French media:

Greece: Lawmakers pass painful reforms to reach fiscal targets

Panama Papers Source Wants Whistleblower Immunity to Aid Law Enforcement

The anonymous source responsible for leaking the vast document trove known as the Panama Papers said in a manifesto published on Friday that she or he “would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement” to ensure the prosecution of wrongdoing revealed by the paper trail — but only once “governments codify legal protections for whistleblowers into law.”

The source wrote that the leaked files on offshore business dealings and shell companies organized by Mossack Fonseca, a law firm based in Panama, revealed “the scandal of what is legal and allowed.”

But the source, who took the name “John Doe,” argued that since “the law firm, its founders, and employees actually did knowingly violate myriad laws worldwide, repeatedly,” the wrongdoers there should now be prosecuted.

Doe added that prosecutors require access to the original documents, noting that media outlets “have rightly stated that they will not provide them to law enforcement agencies. I, however, would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able.”

“That being said,” Doe continued, “I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing.”

$12 Trillion Looted from Developing Countries and Hidden Offshore

Obama: TTIP Necessary So As to Protect Megabanks From Prosecution

On May 7th, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or German Economic News, headlined, “USA planen mit TTIP Frontal-Angriff auf Gerichte in Europa” or “U.S. Plans Frontal Attack on Europe’s Courts via TTIP,” and reported that, “America’s urgency to sign TTIP with Europe has solid reason: Megabanks must protect themselves from claims by European investors who allege that they were cheated during the debt crisis. … The U.S. Ambassador to Italy has now let the cat out of the bag on this — probably unintentionally.”

In this particular case, the megabank that’s being sued isn’t American but German, Deutsche Bank, which the U.S. Ambassador to Italy has cited as his example to defend, perhaps so as to appeal to Germans to protect their megabanks against lawsuits from foreign investors (such as Italians) who complain. ...

Reuters headlined on May 6th, “Italian prosecutor investigates Deutsche Bank over 2011 bond sale”, and reported that, “An Italian prosecutor is investigating Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) over its sale of 7 billion euros ($8 billion) of Italian government bonds five years ago, an investigative source told Reuters. A prosecutor in Trani, a town in southern Italy, is investigating because Deutsche Bank allegedly told clients in a research note in early 2011 that Italy’s public debt was no cause for concern, and then sold almost 90 percent of its own holding of the country’s bonds.” The U.S. bond-rating agencies are also subjects in this suit, because Trani had relied upon their ratings of those bonds.

The Obama Administration (through its Italian Ambassador) seems thus to be saying, in effect, that unless TTIP is passed into law, Europe’s megabanks (and the U.S. bond-rating agencies, S&P, Moody’s and Fitch) will be able successfully to be sued by cheated investors, just as has been happening with such American banks as JPMorgan/Chase and Goldman Sachs in the United States, which — since TTIP hasn’t yet been in force anywhere, including in the U.S. — were forced to pay billions to cheated investors. ... DWN alleges that under the TTIP such a court-issue would probably not even have been raised but would simply have ended before an arbitration panel, in which the aggrieved investors exert no influence and where it would be almost impossible for these investors’ rights to be protected.

Atlanta Mayor’s Column Ripping Bernie Sanders Drafted by Lobbyist, Emails Show

A few days before the Georgia primary, influential Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed published a column on CNN.com praising Hillary Clinton and ripping her opponent, Bernie Sanders. Reed attacked Sanders as being out of step with Democrats on gun policy, and accused him of elevating a “one-issue platform” that ignores the plight of the “single mother riding two buses to her second job.”

But emails released from Reed’s office indicate that the column, which pilloried Sanders as out of touch with the poor, was primarily written by a corporate lobbyist, and was edited by Correct the Record, one of several pro-Clinton Super PACs.

Anne Torres, the mayor’s director of communications, told The Intercept this week that the column was not written by the mayor, but by Tharon Johnson, a former Reed adviser who now works as a lobbyist for UnitedHealth, Honda, and MGM Resorts, among other clients. The column’s revisions by staffers from Correct the Record are documented in the emails. ...

Correct the Record is the Super PAC founded by David Brock, a Republican-turned-Democratic strategist who controls a number of pro-Clinton campaign entities and websites.

How One State Ended its 'Rigged' Superdelegate System Once and For All

Frustrated by what they describe as a "rigged" electoral system in the face of Bernie Sanders' overwhelming majority win, Democrats in Maine on Saturday voted to adopt a rule change that will essentially eliminate the power of superdelegates to pick a candidate of their choosing.

Though Sanders won 64 percent of the Maine vote, he has only received one of the state's five superdelegates. Three have endorsed Hillary Clinton, who only secured 35 percent of the popular vote, while one remains undeclared.

The amendment to the state convention includes language that strongly encourages superdelegates to vote in proportion to caucus results, which reports say could prompt a "fight" on the Democratic convention floor in July.

As of 2020, however, the legislation "has teeth," AP reports, as the party chair will then be required to "account for superdelegates' preferences to ensure the overall delegate makeup matches the outcome of the caucus or primary."

Corbyn and Sanders Reigniting Democratic Socialism

Sanders Vows to Fight DNC for Progressive Agenda that Voters Want

The ongoing rift between Democratic elites and Bernie Sanders may come to a head at the convention in July, as the presidential hopeful has promised a "fight" if the party refuses to include "bold" progressive initiatives on the Democratic platform. ...

In a letter sent to Democratic Party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) on Friday, Sanders expressed concern that the the key committees charged with laying out the party rules and platform would be "stacked" with "Clinton loyalists."

According to the letter, Wasserman Schultz chose a scant 3 out of forty people that Sanders had recommended for the standing committees, while not one was chosen for the "very important" Rules Committee.

"If we are to have a unified party in the fall, no matter who wins the nomination, we cannot have a Democratic National Convention in which the views of millions of people who participated in the Democratic nominating process are unrepresented in the committee membership appointed by you, the Chair," Sanders wrote.

"That sends the very real message that the Democratic Party is not open to the millions of new people that our campaign has brought into the political process, does not want to hear new voices, and is unwilling to respect the broader base of people that this party needs to win over in November and beyond," he continued. ...

In the letter, Sanders points out that the individuals tapped to lead the Platform and Rules Committees, respectively Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, have served as "aggressive attack surrogates" for Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign.

Doubting that either will "conduct committee proceeding in an even-handed manner," Sanders said that their appointment "suggests the standing committees are being established in an overtly partisan way meant to exclude the input of the voters who have supported my candidacy."

Clinton Campaign to Republican Donors: Hillary Shares Your Values

Late last week, Politico reported that Clinton operatives have initiated efforts to "peel off establishment Republicans who might otherwise grudgingly support Trump," demonstrating their eagerness to win over big money donors previously wedded to the conservative establishment.

Specifically, Clinton supporters have been targeting the donor base of Jeb Bush, whose main super PAC raised a striking $121 million, much of it before the race for the Republican nomination began to heat up. We know how that ended. ...

Jeb Bush, along his father and brother, have vowed not to back the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Assuming no third party candidate emerges to soak up the fundraising dollars of former Bush backers, Clinton is positioning herself as the deserving recipient.

In doing so, her campaign is signaling to Republican donors that, as Ben White puts it, Hillary "represents your values better than Trump."

This is a striking admission — one that comes in the midst of an ongoing contest with an opponent, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has questioned Clinton's commitment to progressive causes and has criticized her for caving under the temptations of corporate cash.

Wall Street Donors Flocking to Clinton

Democratic frontrunner has seen a surge in financial sector donations since business-friendly Republican candidates have dropped out of the race.

A Wall Street Journal analysis published late Sunday found that the former secretary of state "has raised $4.2 million in total from Wall Street, $344,000 of which was contributed in March alone."

In fact, Clinton has seen a surge in financial sector donations since business-friendly Republican candidates—namely former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio—dropped out of the race. According to the newspaper's reporting on fundraising data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, "the former secretary of state received 53 percent of the donations from Wall Street in March, up from 32 percent last year and 33 percent in January through February, as the nominating contests began."

WSJ notes that "Trump, by contrast, hasn’t garnered more than 1 percent of Wall Street contributions in any month through March," although the New York billionaire is expected to be much more active in soliciting donations for the general election.

The report further cites an analysis by the nonpartisan crowdfunding resource Crowdpac, which found that "more than 500 donors, including many Wall Street executives, who gave more than $200 to a Republican who later dropped out, including Messrs. Bush and Rubio, have since given to Mrs. Clinton," WSJ wrote.

The numbers represent a significant shift from the conventional wisdom that the GOP is beholden to big business while Democrats are supposed to represent the concerns of the people.

In response to the Politico report, Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver sent an email to supporters on Saturday chiding Clinton for soliciting those funds, writing: "you cannot change a corrupt system by taking its money."

#StopTrump Protesters Lock Themselves to Ladders to Block Traffic Outside Trump Rally in Washington

Donald Trump: I don't need Republican unity to win

Facing rebellion from within his own party, Donald Trump has dismissed unity as a prerequisite for winning the White House in November.

“I think it would be better if it were unified,” said the presumptive Republican nominee in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press broadcast on Sunday. “And I think there would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be.” ...

Trump’s lack of support within the Republican party, especially from elected officials who will also facing voters in November, has come as a striking rebuke to his candidacy.

Many expected Trump to be more effusive in his efforts to court party elders. Instead, he has indicated he considers it their obligation to come to him. Neither side is yet willing to give ground.

Still, the billionaire has consistently predicted that a Trump presidency would unite both the Republican party and the nation.

“This country, which is divided in so many ways, is going to become one beautiful, loving country,” he said after winning in Indiana this week, his long string of controversial remarks about Muslims, Hispanic people and women notwithstanding.

From Philly to Australia, People Rise Up Against 'Fossil Fuel Dinosaur Economy'

The climate movement was out in force on Saturday as demonstrators from Australia to Philadelphia laid their bodies down and raised their voices up to demand a just transition to renewable energy.

In Newcastle, Australia, over 1,000 kayaktivists and other protesters shut down operations at the nation's largest coal export port. ...

Kicking off the wave of resistance in the United States, hundreds of residents and climate activists rallied outside the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery in South Philadelphia to protest a proposed oil refinery expansion and import/ export facility.

The charge forward for the #RightToBreathe in #Philly - #Resistance #FossilFuels #BreakFree2016 #StopPES #StopSunoco pic.twitter.com/BkAUXAYYBD

— BeyondExtremeEnergy (@BXEAction) May 8, 2016

The Right to Breathe Mobilization amplified the voices of community members whose health is already impacted by the presence of the fossil fuel industry.

Over the next week, large demonstrations are planned across the United States, including in Washington state, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, upstate New York, and Washington, D.C..

Lakota Lead the Fight Against the Dakota Access Pipeline

As the start of 2016 shatters last year's record as the hottest year on record, the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation) once again find themselves on the front lines of the battle against the fossil fuel industry.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have established a Spirit Camp at the mouth of the Cannonball River in North Dakota as a means of bringing attention and awareness to a proposed pipeline and act as an enduring symbol of resistance against its construction.

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is set to cut through several US states, delivering hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil from the Bakken and Three Forks oil fields in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois.

The Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners pipeline will cross the Ogallala Aquifer—a million-year-old shallow water table spanning eight US states, which provides fresh water for drinking and agriculture—while twice crossing the Missouri River and running alongside the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

A spill could contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the worlds largest, which is already in crisis and under threat of running dry in the coming decades.

Canadian officials hope to put 'death grip' on raging Fort McMurray fire

Cooler weather and light rains left Canadian officials hopeful that they could put a “death grip” on the blazing wildfire that has raged through northern Alberta, engulfing neighbourhoods and forcing the evacuation of an entire city. ...

The fire had grown to around 161,000 hectares (398,000 acres), a significantly smaller size than the up to 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) predicted one day earlier. ...

Temperatures in the region dropped to around 18C (64F) on Sunday and brought a slight sprinkling of rain, eliciting cheers from staff in the municipality’s emergency centre. Forecasts showed a 30% chance of showers on Sunday evening and overnight.

Such conditions were great news, said Chad Morrison, Alberta’s manager of wildfire prevention. ...

Despite Saturday’s extreme conditions, firefighters were able to hold areas in Fort McMurray and the nearby community of Anzac, and keep the fire away from the Suncor Energy oil sands facility. ...

The wildfire will likely still take months to put out, said Morrison, particularly if the region sees one or two more weeks of hot weather.

“This fire has had such extreme wildfire behaviour,” he said, including creating its own meteorological conditions, igniting four lightning fires and jumping across a mile-wide river at one point. Officials hope the fire will remain contained to the province’s forested areas, far from communities.

Also of Interest

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

Daniel Berrigan, a Leader of Peaceful Opposition to Vietnam War, Inspired a Generation of Activists

The Political Revolution Will Continue Long After Bernie Sanders’ Campaign. Here’s How.

Hillary Clinton Hints Her Husband, Ardent Advocate of Trade Pacts, Might Be Her Jobs Czar

Over decade after release, Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Vanunu faces new charges

Here's what happened when some famous writers went to visit some hardcore Jewish settlers

Fifty years on, one of Mao’s ‘little generals’ exposes horror of the Cultural Revolution

A Little Night Music

Willie Mabon - Just Got Some

Willie Mabon - Would You Baby?

Willie Mabon - I'm Hungry

Willie Mabon - Cruisin'

Willie Mabon - I'm Mad!

Willie Mabon + Odie Payne - It's A Shame

Willie Mabon w/The Aces - Route 66