The Evening Blues - 5-17-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features early blues singer Beulah "Sippie" Wallace. Enjoy!
Sippie Wallace - Suitcase Blues
“In my judgment, this new paradigm [the “war on terror”] renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
-- Alberto Gonzales
News and Opinion
NSA Closely Involved in Guantánamo Interrogations, Documents Show
Entries from an internal NSA publication, which were among the documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, described staffers’ deployments to Guantánamo Bay during a time period when prisoners were subjected to brutal questioning and mistreatment. An NSA employee also described participation in a rendition, when U.S. forces seized six men in Bosnia and secreted them off to Cuba.
In October 2003, a post in SIDtoday, the online newsletter of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, or SID, advertised the “chance to get to GITMO for 90 days!”
The NSA’s liaison, or NSA LNO, would “coordinate” with interrogators “to collect information of value to the NSA Enterprise and Extended Enterprise” and be “responsible for interfacing with the DoD, CIA, and FBI interrogators on a daily basis in order to assess and exploit information sourced from detainees.” In some instances, the relationship would go the other way, with the NSA providing “sensitive NSA-collected technical data and products to assist JTF-GTMO [Joint Task Force Guantánamo] interrogation efforts.” ...
Two months later, in another post, an NSA liaison reported back on his trip. “On a given week,” he wrote, he would “pull together intelligence to support an upcoming interrogation, formulate questions and strategies for the interrogation, and observe or participate in the interrogation.”
Outside work, “fun awaits,” he enthused. “Water sports are outstanding: boating, paddling, fishing, water skiing and boarding, sailing, swimming, snorkeling, and SCUBA.” If water sports were “not your cup of tea,” there were also movies, pottery, paintball, and outings to the Tiki Bar. “Relaxing is easy,” he concluded.
NSA involved in Gitmo interrogations – new Snowden leak
A major announcement today from The Intercept about opening up parts of the Snowden archive:
The Intercept Is Broadening Access to the Snowden Archive.
Today, The Intercept is announcing two innovations in how we report on and publish [the archive of materials provided by Edward Snowden]. ...
The first measure involves the publication of large batches of documents. We are, beginning today, publishing in installments the NSA’s internal SIDtoday newsletters, which span more than a decade beginning after 9/11. We are starting with the oldest SIDtoday articles, from 2003, and working our way through the most recent in our archive, from 2012. Our first release today contains 166 documents, all from 2003, and we will periodically release batches until we have made public the entire set. The documents are available on a special section of The Intercept.
The SIDtoday documents run a wide gamut: from serious, detailed reports on top secret NSA surveillance programs to breezy, trivial meanderings of analysts’ trips and vacations, with much in between. Many are self-serving and boastful, designed to justify budgets or impress supervisors. Others contain obvious errors or mindless parroting of public source material. But some SIDtoday articles have been the basis of significant revelations from the archive.
The other innovation is our ability to invite outside journalists, including from foreign media outlets, to work with us to explore the full Snowden archive. ...
We have begun to provide archive access to journalists from Le Monde and other media outlets in collaboration with The Intercept’s editorial, research, legal, and technology teams. We are excited by the reporting this new arrangement will generate.
Senate report on CIA torture is one step closer to disappearing
The CIA inspector general’s office — the spy agency’s internal watchdog — has acknowledged it “mistakenly” destroyed its only copy of a mammoth Senate torture report at the same time lawyers for the Justice Department were assuring a federal judge that copies of the document were being preserved, Yahoo News has learned. ...
The deletion of the document has been portrayed by agency officials to Senate investigators as an “inadvertent” foul-up by the inspector general. In what one intelligence community source described as a series of errors straight “out of the Keystone Cops,” CIA inspector general officials deleted an uploaded computer file with the report and then accidentally destroyed a disk that also contained the document, filled with thousands of secret files about the CIA’s use of “enhanced” interrogation methods.
“It’s breathtaking that this could have happened, especially in the inspector general’s office — they’re the ones that are supposed to be providing accountability within the agency itself,” said Douglas Cox, a City University of New York School of Law professor who specializes in tracking the preservation of federal records. “It makes you wonder what was going on over there?”
The incident was privately disclosed to the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Justice Department last summer, the sources said. But the destruction of a copy of the sensitive report has never been made public. Nor was it reported to the federal judge who, at the time, was overseeing a lawsuit seeking access to the still classified document under the Freedom of Information Act, according to a review of court files in the case. ...
Ironically in light of the inspector general’s actions, the intelligence committee’s investigation was triggered by the CIA’s admission in 2007 that it had destroyed another key piece of evidence — hours of videotapes of the waterboarding of two “high value” detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
Obama is bullish on war, no matter how you spin it
Barack Obama has now been at war longer than any president in United States history, as the New York Times pointed out on Sunday. Barring some sort of peace miracle in the next six months, he will be the only president who ever served two full terms in office while constantly being at war. ...
Gone are the battalions of tens of thousands of soldiers, torching everything in their paths. Obama’s wars are fought with special forces, drones and other high-tech weaponry that, he argues, lead to fewer American deaths. But they pose the same dangers to world peace that the wars in Vietnam and Iraq once did, while making them far easier to fight. ...
Instead of being straightforward with the public, his administration hides behind secrecy and word gymnastics in all facets of its war policy, keeping the number of exact number of troops in the Middle East hidden from the public, and re-defining words like “combat” and “boots on the ground” and “civilians” to mask how much killing is really going on.
Even the word “end” has lost all meaning.. Obama declared the “end” of the Iraq war in 2011 only to start sending troops back. In Afghanistan, he didn’t even go through that formality. While he declared the Afghanistan war over in 2014, thousands troops continue to fight, and sometimes die, inside the country to this day. There is no definite timetable for when they will leave, if ever. ...
Rather than being remembered as the reluctant warrior, pushed into war by circumstance, there is far more likelihood Obama will be remembered as the opposite: the president who cemented the forever war mentality and architecture that has continually expanded, and that tragically shows no signs of slowing.
Chomsky on Obama's Visit to Hiroshima & Presidential Legacy: "Nothing to Rave About"
Hey, decades in the US is still winning in Iraq!
As ISIS Steps Up Attacks, US Claims Militants Are ‘On the Defensive’
115 people killed and a major gas factory blown up in Iraq makes for a busy week for ISIS, but to hear US officials talk, it’s a “sign of weakness” and proves that ISIS is “on the defensive,” even though that is literally the opposite of defensive operations.
US special envoy Brett McGurk is leading the rhetoric on bragging about how bad ISIS is doing, reiterating false claims of ISIS having shrunk “50%” over the past year, and insisting that the bombings are all the group can do.
US, Allies to Start Arming Libya’s ‘Unity Govt’
Kerry Insists They Are 'The Only Legitimate One'
US and other Western nations are reportedly planning to begin arming Libya’s “unity government,” one of three extent governments in Libya, and the one with by far both the smallest territory and the fewest military forces.
Secretary of State John Kerry met with the prime minister of this government, again, one of three, insisting the US has to start backing the unity government because it is “the only legitimate one in Libya” and has to “start to work.” ...
The initial UN plan was for the “unity government” to bring together the Tobruk and Tripoli parliaments, but instead it seems now the plan is to just anoint them as the “only” government and work to destroy the existing parliaments.
Britain, France Push UN for Naval Blockade of Libya
In 2011, the UN imposed an arms embargo on Libya, aimed primarily at now long-dead dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Diplomats say French and British officials are keen to really start enforcing that with a new UN Security Council measure authorizing a naval blockade of the Mediterranean nation.
The plan, such as it is, would be for the European Union to send warships to the Libyan coast to intercept any ships “suspected of carrying weapons” that might dock in Libya. The plan comes amid both France and Britain preparing to participate in an Italy-led invasion of Libya,and both nations already have some ground troops inside Libya to that end. ...
It’s not clear how many weapons are being sent to Libya at any rate, as the Gadhafi government had massive stockpiles looted after NATO imposed regime change, and the country is still awash in arms from that. Indeed, most reports on arms smuggling in Libya relate to the arms coming out of the nation, not going in.
Major World Powers Are Attempting to Rescue the Syrian Peace Talks
Discussions aimed at restoring a ceasefire, getting rebel groups back to the negotiation table, and getting aid into besieged areas of Syria are set to resume in Vienna on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will co-chair a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, comprising 17 of more than 20 member organizations and countries. Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are seeking the overthrow of the current Syrian regime, and Iran, a key ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, will take part.
The UK, France, the Arab League, and the European Union will be represented, while United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura is expected to attempt to secure support for another round of indirect peace talks in a greater attempt to end the conflict. A third round took place in Geneva in April, collapsing after the opposition's High Negotiations Committee announced a "pause" in their participation. ...
A senior Gulf diplomat told the Guardian they did not expect anything significant to come out of this latest round of discussions. "We are dealing with tactical steps, but there is nothing beyond them," they said.
Escalations in a New Cold War
If the United States ever ends up stumbling into a major conventional or nuclear war with Russia, the culprit will likely be two military boondoggles that refused to die when their primary mission ended with the demise of the Soviet Union: NATO and the U.S. anti-ballistic missile (ABM) program.
The “military-industrial complex” that reaps hundreds of billions of dollars annually from support of those programs got a major boost this week when NATO established its first major missile defense site at an air base in Romania, with plans to build a second installation in Poland by 2018.
Although NATO and Pentagon spokesmen claim the ABM network in Eastern Europe is aimed at Iran, Russia isn’t persuaded for a minute. “This is not a defense system,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. “This is part of U.S. nuclear strategic potential brought [to] . . . Eastern Europe. . . Now, as these elements of ballistic missile defense are deployed, we are forced to think how to neutralize emerging threats to the Russian Federation.” ...
[I]t’s a threat Russia cannot ignore. No U.S. military strategist would sit still for long if Russia began ringing the United States with such systems. That’s why the United States and Russia limited them by treaty — until President George W. Bush terminated the pact in 2002.
President Reagan’s famous 1983 “Star Wars” ABM initiative was based on a theory developed by advisers Colin Gray and Keith Payne in a 1980 article titled “Victory is Possible”: that a combination of superior nuclear weapons, civil defense programs, and ballistic missile defenses could allow the United States to “prevail” in a prolonged nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Such nuclear superiority, Gray argued, could back up “very large American expeditionary forces” fighting in a future conflict “around the periphery of Asia.” By limiting damage to the U.S. homeland, missile defenses would neutralize Russia’s nuclear deterrent and help the United States “succeed in the prosecution of local conflict . . . and — if need be — to expand a war.”
Gray published that latter observation in a 1984 volume edited by Ashton Carter, who as President Obama’s Secretary of Defense now champions the new missile shield in Europe. So it should come as little wonder that Moscow is going all out these days in a sometimes ugly campaign to remind the world of its nuclear potency, lest NATO take advantage of Russia’s perceived weakness.
Extremists fear the Iranian nuclear deal might work
Donald Trump has promised that as soon as he becomes president of the United States, he will “rip up and rescind this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal.” Hard-liners in Iran are cheering. One of their leaders, the powerful editor Hossein Shariatmadari, recently declared, “The wisest plan of crazy Trump is tearing up the nuclear deal.”
Extremists in the United States and Iran have joined to derail this 10-month-old deal. They share a horror scenario: an Iran that is successfully integrated into the Middle East and the wider world, increasingly free at home and responsible in its neighborhood. Militants in Washington fear that this would give Iran a regional role commensurate with its history, size, and power, while they wish to see it tied down forever. Militants in Tehran fear that cooperating with the outside world will erode their authority and possibly lead to collapse of the Islamic Republic. These are reasonable fears.
When debate over the nuclear deal was raging last year in Washington, opponents relentlessly repeated a potent argument. They insisted that the deal made no sense because Iran is untrustworthy and never keeps its promises. Now, a new kind of Iran-related panic has broken out in Washington. This year’s fear is the opposite of last year’s. Opponents of the deal say it must be junked because Iran is living up to it.
“Iran has complied,” the Congressional Research Service reported last month. Its conclusion is hard to dispute. Iran has dismantled more than 12,000 nuclear centrifuges, shipped 98 percent of its nuclear fuel to Russia, and poured cement into the core of its heavy-water reactor. This has set off waves of outrage in Washington and Tehran. The prospect that the nuclear deal might actually work terrifies hard-liners in both capitals.
New Documents Show How Canadian Cops Use Secret Phone Surveillance Technology
New court documents are shedding more light on the controversial use of mobile phone surveillance technology by Canadian police, the second such case to emerge this year.
In the new case, court documents recently filed in a Toronto court show that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) used a device commonly known as a Stingray, or IMSI catcher, during a pair of criminal investigations into organized crime in early 2014. However, lawyers for the accused have argued that police misrepresented the nature of the device when seeking permission for its use by failing to disclose its range, its ability to pinpoint the location of phones, and potential for interference with 911 calls.
In a hearing that was originally slated for Tuesday — but postponed — the defense will seek more information about the IMSI catcher's capabilities and operating manual, the device's effect on non-targeted phones, and a copy of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between the RCMP and the device's manufacturer.
Notably, crown lawyers have argued the NDA prevents the RCMP from disclosing further information about the device, its capabilities, and how it used. "This is despite the fact that the agreement in place — likely akin to the ones in place with American law enforcement agencies — is almost surely unconstitutional," the defence lawyers write.
Adblockers: US growth could remove $12bn advertising by 2020
As much as $12bn in digital advertising revenue in the US could be lost if web users continue taking up adblocking at the current rate.
A forecast by analytics firm Optimal says more than 43 million people in the US will use an ad blocker this year, taking more than $3.8bn (£2.63m) out of the digital ad industry. At the current rate of growth, that figure will more than triple to over $12bn by 2020 when more than 100 million US web users will be blocking ads.
Optimal said its forecast suggested adblocking would reduce US digital ad revenue from a predicted $50bn in 2020 to $38bn. The prediction will add to worries among publishers already feeling the squeeze from downward pressure on the rates they can charge for ads.
France strike chaos: Week of protests threaten to bring country to standstill
France Rises Up Against Anti-Labor Reforms
France erupted with nationwide demonstrations and strikes on Tuesday, as union members and a burgeoning pro-democracy movement began a series of planned actions to protest President François Hollande's controversial set of employer-friendly labor reforms.
Truckers blocked motorways across France and massive marches took place in Paris, Lille, and Montpellier, among other cities. Government forces sought to quell the actions: protesters were met with tear gas in Paris and water cannons and tear gas in Nantes, and police vans circled a public square in Lille.
France erupts in defiance of employer-friendly labour reforms https://t.co/BlxpvtGlCG via @duncancameron #NuitDebout pic.twitter.com/7WnkAXx8n8
— rabble.ca (@rabbleca) May 17, 2016
Hollande has galled the nation by forcing the new set of reforms through the National Assembly without the law being subject to a parliamentary vote, a move the Telegraph described as "the 'nuclear' option."
Hollande's severely unpopular proposals allow employers to more easily fire workers and create precarious, poorly paid positions in place of permanent contracts. Critics also charge that the reforms are designed to make it easier for corporations to move jobs offshore and increase workers' hours without overtime pay.
The reforms provoked the nation's Nuit Debout ("Up All Night") protest movement to form in March, and the country has seen widespread demonstrations and mass rallies since then.
Noam Chomsky: Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff "Impeached by a Gang of Thieves"
Mississippi city ordered to desegregate schools 60 years after landmark ruling
Nearly 60 years after the landmark US supreme court ruling that ordered schools to integrate, the classrooms of Cleveland, Mississippi, are still divided by race.
A federal court ordered the Cleveland school district to consolidate its schools entirely on Friday, ruling that after so many decades of resistance, only dismantling and reforming the schools could bring the town’s two sides together.
In a 96-page opinion, the US district court for the northern district of Mississippi wrote: “The delay in desegregation has deprived generations of students of the constitutionally guaranteed right of an integrated education. Although no court order can right these wrongs, it is the duty of the District to ensure that not one more student suffers under this burden.”
To say the town has two sides is no exaggeration; the population of 12,000 is split east and west by the old Illinois railroad tracks. Residents on the east side are black, and attend East Side high school. On the west, white children attend Cleveland high.
Chris Hedges: Welcome to 1984
The artifice of corporate totalitarianism has been exposed. The citizens, disgusted by the lies and manipulation, have turned on the political establishment. But the game is not over. Corporate power has within its arsenal potent forms of control. It will use them. As the pretense of democracy is unmasked, the naked fist of state repression takes its place. America is about—unless we act quickly—to get ugly.
“Our political system is decaying,” said Ralph Nader when I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C. “It’s on the way to gangrene. It’s reaching a critical mass of citizen revolt.”
This moment in American history is what Antonio Gramsci called the “interregnum”—the period when a discredited regime is collapsing but a new one has yet to take its place. There is no guarantee that what comes next will be better. But this space, which will close soon, offers citizens the final chance to embrace a new vision and a new direction.
This vision will only be obtained through mass acts of civic mobilization and civil disobedience across the country. Nader, who sees this period in American history as crucial, perhaps the last opportunity to save us from tyranny, is planning to rally the left for three days, from May 23 to May 26 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in what he is calling “Breaking Through Power” or “Citizen’s Revolutionary Week.” He is bringing to the capital scores of activists and community leaders to speak, organize and attempt to mobilize to halt our slide into despotism.
After Distancing Herself From Bill Clinton’s Economic Policies, Hillary Wants Him as Mr. Economic Fix It
After having institutionalized the neoliberal economic policies that have enriched the 1% and particularly the 0.1% at the expense of everyone else, Hillary Clinton wants to give the long-suffering citizenry an even bigger dose. As she said in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky:
My husband, who I’m going to put in charge of revitalising the economy, because you know he knows how to do it,” Clinton said in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, on Sunday. “And especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out.
This plan is revealing, and in not a good way.
There Goes Hillary as “Most Qualified Candidate Evah.” Since when does a supposedly super competent elected official use their spouse in a policy design and implementation capacity outside of existing bureaucratic role and capacities? In banana republics and the Clinton presidency. And remember how well that co-presidency thingie worked out? Hillary’s big special project, health care reform, was such a bomb that it was over 20 years before the idea could be revived. And after that debacle, she retreated from taking on high-profile tasks and moved in the direction of a more traditional First Lady role.
Needless to say, if Hillary doubts she can get the job done with her Cabinet and if needed, a czar here or there, and needs to bring in Bill too, this is an admission that her vaunted experience is not what it is cracked up to be. Hillary has the classic resume of someone who has failed upward: a series of every-splashier job titles, but with no or negative accomplishments. ...
This prospective appointment suggests Hillary she feels pressed enough by Sanders and Trump to give Bill a more prominent campaign role so as to remind voters of how great things were in the 1990s. In reality, she can’t propose policies that will appeal to both “moderate Republicans” and progressives. In other words, they should just trust Bill and not worry about pesky details.
Trump would be a disaster for US
Poll: Trump Closing in on Clinton, as Sanders Maintains Double-Digit Lead
Donald Trump has reduced Hillary Clinton's national lead to just three points—down from five last week—underscoring the grim prospects of the presidential election, a new poll released on Tuesday reveals.
The NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll finds that Clinton now leads Trump nationally 48 to 45 percent, an unsettling development as the candidates enter their final stretch of primaries, two of which are taking place Tuesday in Kentucky and Oregon. Last week, Clinton and Trump were found to be in a dead heat in three swing states. ...
The survey also notes that Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders, beats Trump by 53 to 41 points in a hypothetical match-up—a much wider margin than the former secretary of state.
Chomsky: Today's GOP is a Candidate for Most Dangerous Organization in Human History
Sanders Blasts 'Vulture Capitalists' and Colonialism in Puerto Rico
Presidential hopeful calls for an end to austerity cuts, saying that voters in the US territory 'must be empowered to determine their own destiny.'
Campaigning in Puerto Rico on Monday, Bernie Sanders railed against the "colonial-like relationship" that has allowed Wall Street "vulture capitalists" to profit off the debt-stricken territory's economic crisis and demanded that Congress and the Obama administration grant immediate relief.
"It is unacceptable to me for the United States government to treat Puerto Rico like a colony during a time when its people are facing the worst fiscal and economic crisis in its history," the presidential hopeful declared in a rousing speech at a packed town hall in San Juan.
Currently in the midst of economic free-fall, the territory defaulted earlier this month after the U.S. government—at the urging of hedge fund lobbyists—failed to take action on restructuring its $70 billion debt. Consequently, the island has had to slash many essential services while calls grow for even more cuts.
"What vulture funds on Wall Street are demanding is that Puerto Rico fire teachers, close schools, cut pensions and abolish the minimum wage so that they can reap huge profits off the suffering and misery of the children and the people of Puerto Rico," Sanders said. "We cannot allow that to happen. We will not allow that to happen."
Among the measures the Vermont Senator called for is a proposal for the Federal Reserve to provide emergency loans to Puerto Rico to facilitate an "orderly restructuring of its debt." He also said he introduced legislation to invest $1 trillion over five years for local infrastructure projects and proposed a new energy policy that replaces fossil fuels with renewable sources.
[Sanders' speech begins around 4:20 - js]
The Coming Democratic Crackup
If the Democratic Party presses ahead and nominates hawkish Hillary Clinton for President, it could recreate the conditions that caused the party to splinter in the late 1960s and early 1970s when anti-war and pro-war Democrats turned on one another and opened a path for decades of Republican dominance of the White House.
This new Democratic crackup could come as early as this fall if anti-war progressives refuse to rally behind Clinton because of her neoconservative foreign policy – thus infuriating Clinton’s backers – or it could happen in four years if Clinton wins the White House and implements her militaristic agenda, including expanding the U.S. war in Syria while continuing other wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – and challenging Russia on its borders. ...
Some of that hostility is already playing out as Clinton backers express their anger at progressives who balk at lining up for Clinton’s long-delayed coronation parade. The stubborn support for Sen. Bernie Sanders, even after Clinton has seemingly locked up the Democratic nomination, is a forewarning of the nasty fight ahead.
The prospects are that the animosities will get worse if Clinton loses in November – with many anti-war Democrats defecting or staying home thus infuriating the Hillary Democrats – or if Clinton were to win and begin implementing her neocon foreign policy agenda which will involve further demonizing “enemies” to justify “regime changes.”
If anti-war Democrats begin to resist, they can expect the Clinton-45 administration to stigmatize them as (fill-in-the-blank) “apologists” and “stooges” of “enemy” powers, much as happened to protesters against the Vietnam War and, more recently, to Americans who objected to such U.S. interventions as the Iraq War in 2003 and the Ukraine coup in 2014.
Yet, few Democratic strategists seem to be aware of this looming chasm between anti-war and pro-war Democrats. ... So, the establishment Democrats – with their grim determination to resuscitate Hillary Clinton’s nearly lifeless campaign – may be engaging in the political equivalent of whistling past the graveyard, as the ghosts of the party’s Vietnam War crackup hover over Election 2016.
How Far Will the Sanders Insurgency Go?
Earth's Smallest Porpoise Is Going Extinct in Mexico Due to China's Lust for Exotic Fish
A Mexican drive to save the vaquita marina appears to be failing as the snub-nosed marine mammal hurtles towards extinction. ...
The vaquita's plight is rooted in Chinese demand for the swim bladder of an endangered fish from the same area called the totoaba. Each bladder — the gas sack that regulates the buoyancy of the fish — reportedly fetches $10,000 dollars in the Chinese market, where it is regarded as a delicacy. ...
"We are convinced that we can still save the vaquita," Omar Vidal, director of the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico, told a press conference in the Mexican capital this week. "However, we also know for sure that this is our last chance of doing so."
There are currently only about 60 vaquitas left in the shallow nothern waters of the northern Gulf of California, the only place they live in the world, according to a new study released last Friday by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, or CIRVA. Significantly fewer will be females of reproductive age that, scientists say, only give birth to a calf every two years.
Toxic 'red tide' in Chile prompts investigation of salmon farming
Chilean authorities are investigating the country’s salmon-farming industry after an algal bloom carrying a virulent neurotoxin spread for hundreds of miles along the rugged coastline of Patagonia, triggering a health emergency and angry protests by fishermen.
The huge “red tide” has grown rapidly over recent weeks, in what has been described as the country’s worst environmental crisis in recent years: dozens of people have been poisoned by the algal bloom which makes seafood toxic and has deprived thousands of fishermen of a living.
Scientists attribute the unusually potent and widespread algal bloom to unseasonably warm water temperatures as a result of the El Niño weather phenomenon.
But the spotlight is now being focused on the salmon industry amid allegations that the algal bloom may have been exacerbated by the dumping of rotting salmon in the open ocean and the massive piles of salmon faeces and salmon food now smothering portions of the seafloor. ...
Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, has named a scientific commission to investigate the environmental catastrophe – and examine suggestions that human activity may have worsened the red tide.
Marine biologist Hector Kol said the algal bloom may have been triggered by nutrients which are dumped into floating salmon cages, and then fall to the sea bed. These underwater banks of nutrients, said Kol, may act as a reservoir for the toxic algae, providing refuge and shelter.
Amid Western drought, Oregon county to vote on Nestlé bottling public water
A rural county along the Columbia river in Oregon will have an opportunity on Tuesday to be the first in the United States to reject a Nestlé water-bottling facility by popular ballot initiative.
If successful, the measure could set a precedent making it much harder for Nestlé and other water-bottling companies to find new sources at a time when a long drought in the American west has triggered public anger at the very notion of private companies making money and creating extensive plastic bottle waste out of a badly needed resource.
The battle has been fierce, sometimes pitting neighbor against neighbor. Backers of Measure 14-55 argue that Nestlé, which hopes to pump 238m gallons of water a year from a natural spring in the town of Cascade Locks, is being invited to help itself to a precious natural resource in a time of drought, and privatize it on terms that benefit only the company. ...
As concern over the long drought has heightened over the past two years, Nestlé and other big water-bottling companies have found themselves increasingly under siege. In southern California, the company is struggling to negotiate a new contract with the US Forest Service to draw its Arrowhead brand water from a source in the San Bernardino National Forest following the discovery by a local newspaper last year that it had been operating without a permit since the late 1980s.
Tar Sands Operations Shut Down, Work Camps Evacuated as Fire Jumps North
Major Alberta tar sands facilities have been shut down and 19 work camps are under a mandatory evacuation order, after weather conditions caused Canada's uncontrolled Fort McMurray wildfire to surge northward on Monday.
The order, which covers about 8,000 people and was issued late Monday evening, came due to the "unpredictable nature" of the fire and the fact that those camps could be isolated if the road was jeopardized, said Scott Long, executive director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
The evacuation zone, stretching about 30 miles north of Fort McMurray to just south of Fort MacKay, included Syncrude and Suncor facilities, along with several smaller operations. As such, the Wall Street Journal reported, the order "is a setback for large oil-sands producers such as industry leader Suncor Energy Inc., which had said last week that it was in the process of planning to resume production at its oil sands sites."
The Edmonton Journal reported after 10pm local time that the wildfire, which began earlier this month, was at that time about nine to 12 miles from the tar sands facilities and was consuming nearly 100 feet of forest per minute.
In total, the fire has spread to more than 702,000 acres due in part to hot, dry weather conditions. About 90,000 people were evacuated from Fort McMurray and the surrounding area in the first week of May and they remain displaced.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The Most Intriguing Spy Stories From 166 Internal NSA Reports
The Intercept's SIDtoday archive
Face recognition app taking Russia by storm may bring end to public anonymity
As oil boom goes bust, Oklahoma protects drillers and squeezes schools
The first 50 lashes: a Saudi activist's wife endures her husband’s brutal sentence
A Little Night Music
Sippie Wallace - I'm A Mighty Tight Woman
Sippie Wallace w/Albert Ammons - Buzz Me
Sippie Wallace - The Mail Train Blues
Sippie Wallace - Up The Country Blues
Sippie Wallace - Shake It To A Jelly
Sippie Wallace w/ Clarence Williams' Blue Five - Trouble Everywhere I Roam
Sippie Wallace - Murder Gonna Be My Crime
Sippie Wallace, Big Mama Thornton, Jeannie Cheatham: Three Generations Of The Blues
Comments
RE: Senate report on CIA torture is one step closer to disappear
Now we know where Secretary Clinton's IT guy now works...
I want my two dollars!
afternoon ken...
heh, i was thinking that maybe the ig might decide to form his own agency under the spook umbrella - the "office of serendipitous accidents." maybe he could hire jose rodriguez as his deputy.
America - love it or leave it...
I really want out of here... how do I leave it?? How do you even fix something this broken?
Disturbing.
There is something seriously wrong with Australia too, I notice.
The rape of East Timor: “Sounds like fun”
Chevron & Texaco had joint venture in Timor that
went partners with Indonesian national oil company. US might not have officially supported Indonesia, but we didn't interfere either. Can't help but wonder why
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The way Australia is treating refugees—locking them up on Nauru
and using the Nauruan authorities to prevent reporters or NGO watchdogs from so much as setting foot on the island — makes Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant bluster look like Angela Merkel’s outstretched, welcoming arms.
afternoon hk...
there are days that i realize that i live pretty close to the nsa and that many of these sickos that participated in these deviant acts probably live in my state. not a good feeling.
Yeah, that's right - me too, joe
I am close enough to see the weird hovering spy blimps when I drive around...
Hi neighbor.
heh...
i haven't seen the blimps in a while, not since the one that got away and ran on a juggernaut through pennsylvania. i guess they must be flying the remaining one much lower now.
howdy, neighbor! i wonder if there are enough mid-atlantic folks on c99 to start arranging a social outing sometime.
I am REAL close to NSA, NASA and Ford Meade and
the constant helicopter traffic over my head makes me feel like I am in a war zone. Firetrucks and lots of police cars with their darn noisy sirens do the rest.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Greetings! Quick drive-by - Apparently, Bernie's campaign needs
a cash infusion, since they are losing more staff.
(This week, I've started checking out my Twitter feeds, and am amazed at how much news that I miss, when I don't bother to read it.)
Anyhoo, I've followed this reporter, Gabriel Debenedetti for several months, hearing him almost weekly on XM Radio. He seems to be pretty knowledgeable. Here's a tweet that came down from him, earlier today:
I don't know, but my guess is from reading other articles, some of this is due to his campaign funds drying up. None in my household are doing any phone banking or canvassing, but we've contributed, and will do so again, tomorrow's snail mail. (don't trust online contributing)
Hopefully, tonight's results will help pump up contributions to Bernie's campaign.
BTW, an interesting little factoid, I thought,
Pretty cool, huh?
Gonna start posting a 'Tweet For The Day,' when I can. Here's the link, "The Wage Gap Will Cost You Way More Than Half a Million Dollars," Alicia Adamczyk @aliciaadamczyk, April 12, 2016, Lost wages don't tell the full story.
Gotta run 'the B' out, before a short rain shower comes in. Except for 2-3 days this Spring, thankfully, the humidity has remained bearable.
Thanks for tonight's excellent edition of News & Blues, Joe. Between you, my cell phone news feed, and Twitter (again)--think I've got 'the news' covered.
Fingers crossed that Bernie takes both states.
Hey, Everyone have a nice evening!
Mollie
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."--Cicero
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Sent some bucks
Here's to 9 out of 9.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Hear, hear, Bisbonian! ;-D EOM
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
TY for the reminder, Bis
Sent the Bernman some serious pesos just now.
Improve the Resilience Resource Library by adding your links.
Vote Smart - Just the Facts - 40,000 politicians by name or zipcode
afternoon mollie...
hmmm... the high level departures from sanders' campaign are not a great sign at this point. i hope that it's just a funding shortfall.
you and the b have a great walk!
Fewer States to Campaign In = Fewer Staff?
Or am I missing something?
Can you expand on your concerns?
Improve the Resilience Resource Library by adding your links.
Vote Smart - Just the Facts - 40,000 politicians by name or zipcode
evening ab...
if one was prospectively about to embark on a 50-state campaign for the presidency, it would seem like you'd want to be building rather than diminishing staff. at least that's my take on it.
on the other hand, i have no idea as to why these folks left, whether they were asked to leave or left on their own, so i'm just running the speculator.
I don't know how far Bernie will go.
And we probably won't know until after the convention.
I do believe that the NV convention added another deep wound to an already tattered Democratic Party.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
afternoon featheredsprite....
i'm pretty sure that no matter who wins, the democratic party is going to fracture along ideological lines after the convention. i suspect that if sanders wins, the revenge of the clintonistas will be fierce.
Hey Joe!
I like the idea of rendering ideas (limitations) obsolete like ole Gonzales. I thought we had rendered the idea of segregation obsolete, but not. The trick in Alabama is to start your own town. So Birmingham is surrounded by satellite towns which are largely segregated. Those folks in MS never figured it out. Alabama likes to make fun of Mississippi.
I'm a retired teacher and I heard a lot of my dog ate my homework stories...kinda reminds me of the CIA report disappearing?
I think it would be insightful to compare Puerto Rico with Cuba. Whose people are in better condition? Socialist or capitalist?
I'm sorry about the fire in Alberta, but it seems like poetic justice that the oil sands production had to shut down.
I'm hoping Bernie has done well today and we gain 25 delegates. It ain't over till it's over!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
afternoon lookout...
it's pretty amazing that mississippi has managed to maintain such transparently racist institutions for so long. i'm sure that they'll figure out some other way to express their antipathies, though.
hopefully, bernie has managed to pull off a major upset over hillary bloodyhands today. i guess we'll know soon.
have a good one!
Evening joe and all. TY, eh. I read Hedges' article on Nader. He
is correct. Mass mobilization is the only hope left to restore democracy.
Too right this. This window closes in November. You folks either get out into the street or say goodbye to it all.
It's a good start. But they better get conferencing over fast and get people out into the streets and train them for mass resistance. Fast.
Hedges says Nader is inviting Bernie to lead this movement.
He's probably right. Welcome to Third World America, where those cheated out of their election victories have to mobilize their people into the streets to reclaim democracy. But you have to deal with the facts on the ground and unless you folks hit the streets en masse this summer and fall it is game over for you.
I long for the day when the Comm-Page is less filled with outraged outrage and more filled with instructions for meetups to plan for hitting the streets. I mean, just what are c99 folks planning to do on 5 Nov? Write once again about how outraged you are? WTF good does that do? There is no time left for your outraged outrage. It is 17 May already. You have a date with destiny on 4 Nov.
Is c99 a salon? A boutique? For just how long are you all gonna freak out daily about TOP? How much do you need to finally learn to stay the FUCK away from that place? Turn from idle outrage to work hard for your own salvation in the only place you could make a difference - THE STREET. Use c99 as a rallying point for PRACTICAL ACTION.
Plan meetups. Go search for how mass protests are done properly. Teach yourself about resistance. Join up with activist groups in your neighbourhood. Get out into the street with them. Write here about your experiences. Inspire other c99ers to do the same. Etcetera. Help each other get out of your yourselves and into street action with others.
Jeebus Murphy, my beloved friends, I urge you to get into the streets so that when your children ask:
"Where were you in the war?,"
you will say,
"I was in the street with my comrades stopping fascism in its tracks."
But I repeat myself.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Hey, CuzG!
Sorry I missed your shout-out yesterday - I couldn't keep the bluz loaded on my iPad last night.
I loved that Hedges article because it is RIGHT ON! Mass mobilization is the only way. If the people don't respond, America will fall and fall hard. We're already in that downward death spiral, but with the right leader, we can veer off to the promised land.
Have a lovely evening, Cuz!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Bernie made the Cassandra call
and some of us caught it. Clueless about how to mobilize against it, except voting for Bernie, when given that chance. As a large populous, we are unfamiliar with protest. My pitchfork (new last year) is in the shed. But I am a non-violent person. I know that barbed words go unheeded.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
evening gerrit...
that latter section looks like the start of a post of its own to me. it appears that you have a talent for organization and motivational exhortations that could be put to good use.
i have some ideas of things that a group such as exists on this site might do that i'd be willing to contribute to a larger discussion should you care to start one.
it appears to me that most of the denizens of the site are now deeply embroiled in the election process and their energies and attention will probably be on that until the california primary is over.
it might be a good idea to encourage regional meet-ups for now and perhaps plan for a gathering at the convention in philly. i assume many of us will be going there to take part in demos.
it might be good to have some discussions based around a variety of convention outcome scenarios to see if large portions of our members can agree on what direction to take with our activism.
there are a number of predictable scenarios that we ought to consider how to respond to:
bernie wins nomination
bernie loses nomination, runs as independent
bernie loses nomination, endorses hillary bloodyhands
there are a variety of responses possible to these outcomes. if we mostly agreed on the response, well, that would mean we could organize more effectively.
anyway, you get the idea.
The peoples summit?
Seems to be the Bernie allies. You reckon that will be the strategy session, or do you think Bernie has a plan in mind? Sure wish I had a better idea and I bet Bernie does too. I'm not losing hope yet. It is a long time till July and many things might happen....
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
i would not assume that bernie is behind the people's summit...
there seems to be a line between bernie's organization and the activists who have created the spontaneous informal structures that have beat the bushes to bring out progressives to support bernie. this people's summit looks to me like the latter group gathering to consider its options with and aside from bernie.
I think so too, that's why I think it's important
to find out who is behind the People's Summit and who finances it. Bernie hasn't indicated anything with regards to join them or be "their leading horse". They have indicated to support Bernie, not the other way around, afaik. It's confusing and I would like to find out this time. Nader has been so consistently being bashed that it's necessary.
https://www.euronews.com/live
HRC looks good in orange. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I have a song below for you, Joe Shikspack :=)
Heh, heh, heh, I'm really keen for that very conversation to take place here on c99. It is the most important conversation (beside resilience :=) for c99ers to have. This is it: it's the fkn kristallnacht every Dem primary election night (and state convention) and circumstances require a strong, strong, mass non-violent-but-massive, movement in the STREETS.
But here is my problem, mate. I'm a Canuckian, not an American. I would think it is not appropriate for me to become involved in the neighbour's family disputes. As much as American progressives need an intervention (and my goodness, "need" is a weak word :=), someone would need to teach me about appropriate boundaries. What do you think?
I would be real happy to contribute, joe. Please discuss among the mods and with JtC what the boundaries are. ...the silver-tongued devil (yes, you joe) and I :=) I look forward to hearing back from you, mate. Have a great day today,
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
afternoon gerrit...
you call that a problem? since the 60's i've thought of that as a blessing.
but seriously, our problems are global, the force that oppresses us has global reach and global allies. shouldn't we be thinking big - as in creating a global movement?
if we agree on that point, then, shucks, i guess you belong in this discussion.
Do you know joe, what the sign of being a champion bullshitter
is? Well, it's the ability to abstract to the next level at the drop of a hat :=) Global...well, you do have a point. So, if we call for mass NVR in BOTH countries, that would be very global of us, I suppose. And if we link to the global left...hmm. Both countries are governed by neolibs, ours is just more genteel. All right then, we'll talk.
You will understand if I do need to see some site leadership on this matter? I don't know what kind of poobah you are here, but when we talk non-violent political revolution everyone has to have some skin in the game. I don't really give a shit if I get punted from the site, but it would be good to know that the site leadership is good with mass NVR. I look forward to the discussions. Ty, mate.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Good evening, Joe and bluzerz!
I started one comment and hit something on my keyboard which took me to neverland and now I don't even know what I said to begin with, so OVERS!
That Ed Snowden. What might be in store in the new reveal. Glenn Greenwald will keep us salivating and the guilty parties screaming bloody murder! My mom used to say, "the person who cries the loudest at the funeral harbors the most guilt." Let's see if her theory pans out. Will the loudest protester be the one with the most to lose? Hmmmmm...
Good to see France is still fighting for the worker. Someone needs to.
Noam Chomsky tore it up on "Democracy Now," yesterday. Good to see it posted here, joe.
Bernie needs more money because people are afraid he's losing. I, myself, am broke on my ass. I owed a lot in taxes and am busy paying a bit off each week. I hope to be done by the end of June, but perhaps I can send Bernie a few bucks after Friday's payday. We'll see.
Still waiting for that rain. CuzG - I need some of that rain you suggested yesterday! My rain catching barrels are empty! My thirsty plants have needed every drop. Well, I can't control it - I can only appeal to the universe.
Have a beautiful Tuesday, folks. I'm hoping for two Bernie wins tonight! Cheers!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Evening Cuz RA :=) I sure hope you get your rain, my friend.
Send best wishes to the genius man at home. Good luck with the taxman. I unfortunately had a a bit of savings at hand - meant for us, but had to fork it over to the taxman all at once. Well, at least over here, I know I'm paying for civilization, so I don't grumble too loudly :=)
The Nader article really does say it all. I'm glad it appealed to you also. Bless the few honest journos left: Hedges, Greenwald, and thank heavens for Edward Snowden. I hope he has something to wake folks up and get them out into the street. The rest of us are all rooting for ordinary Americans to take their country back. As the princess said into the droid, "You're our only hope." Bidibidi-beep.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Evening Cuz RA :=) I sure hope you get your rain, my friend.
Send best wishes to the genius man at home. Good luck with the taxman. I unfortunately had a a bit of savings at hand - meant for us, but had to fork it over to the taxman all at once. Well, at least over here, I know I'm paying for civilization, so I don't grumble too loudly :=)
The Nader article really does say it all. I'm glad it appealed to you also. Bless the few honest journos left: Hedges, Greenwald, and thank heavens for Edward Snowden. I hope he has something to wake folks up and get them out into the street. The rest of us are all rooting for ordinary Americans to take their country back. As the princess said into the droid, "You're our only hope." Bidibidi-beep.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
evening ra...
i'm glad that greenwald is taking a more aggressive approach to releasing the snowden archive. i appreciate the intercept's care in releasing information so as not to give the powers that be ammunition to use against whistleblowers, but, i am eager to see more of the archive available for us to understand our own history.
i hope that you get your rain. if not, we've got plenty to spare if you want to come and get it.
Two very different views of Ralph Nader...
Chris Hedges finds merit in Nader's views of the revolutionary changes going on in our country today:
"Nader, who sees this period in American history as crucial, perhaps the last opportunity to save us from tyranny, is planning to rally the left for three days, from May 23 to May 26 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in what he is calling “Breaking Through Power” or “Citizen’s Revolutionary Week.” He is bringing to the capital scores of activists and community leaders to speak, organize and attempt to mobilize to halt our slide into despotism." - See more
right here above
The 2nd view is from the founder and chief of "top":
"Ralph Nader is an ass, yes. But he’s also a wrong ass."
That's the first line of his May 13, 2016 diary
well, the chief of "top" made a lot of "top" comments
through the years. I thinks he wants to be "toppled" over like the Saddam statue ....
https://www.euronews.com/live
I thnk, instead,...
...he wants to run for Congress or other office on the Dem ticket.
well he would't get my vote
he said fuck on the front page too often, enjoyed the hate male he got from the right-wing nuts.
Lucky for him I can't vote.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening dharmasyd...
as a nader voter, i was always a bit peeved about the stupid anti-nader propaganda that was incredibly prevalent at the gos. i was never a good fit there and as time went on and the site became more and more republican, there were fewer issues in common there. i suspect that by the time this election cycle is over there will be no tolerance for anti war or progressive views there.
damn, i wish nader had scheduled at least some of his event on the weekend. i'd love to go, but i don't think that i can arrange my schedule to accommodate it.
My understanding is it will stream...
may be there is a way to tie c99 into the process? I'll bet this crew would all like to throw in their two cents and in reality the perspective here would be helpful to them as well. Wouldn't you know I've got a gig that week - one of the few I do every year. I'm hoping the discussion will be available for viewing after the fact. I can't find streaming info on the website
but I heard Ralph say it was the plan in an interview.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Fishes Have Feelings, Too
Fishes Have Feelings, Too
interesting article from weekend NYT
evening don...
thanks for the link, that is interesting.
Don
Great link.
I`ve witnessed some of those reported occurrences in my home reef tanks.
Here`s a cleaner servicing a Pajama Cardinal fish.
I`m already against the next war
Great pphoto, beautiful creatures!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Overwhelmed with paperwork
ssi review for my son
trying to get an OMMP card for my son
trying to write to a foundation why my son deserves OJT program that he earned ...
and now I had to get a provisional ballot after 10 years of voting here and being registered here in Oregon as a Democrat. They had a copy from 2006 that was handwritten, never seen it before. My husband couldn't get to vote because he works 12 hour shifts. So they took my vote and a veterans vote.
I'm done with Democrats. Someone, something changed me and my husband's registration after ten years at the same address.
My brother didn't even get a ballot - they sent it to three different addresses in three weeks.
I feel stomped on tonight/week.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
My great sympathy.
I spent part of today lying on a tile floor (radiant heat) feeling sick with frustration, guilt, anger about a real estate hole I poured my savings into to find it's worse than I walked away from. I am feeling betrayed, so calls in to litigating lawyers in another country.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
so sorry to hear riverlover
I think I will focus my political energy from now on to just election reform. I've been hearing horror stories all day. It's bringing people together for sure.
My own brother had his address changed 3 times in just three weeks. He never got his ballot. They sent it to the wrong address three times.
I had many people behind me in line today at the election's office. Sanders staff on phone said to be very courteous to the election clerks. I hope Sanders continues to speak out against this blatant fraud. He MUST run as an Independent now. Hell, I can't even be registered as a democrat no matter how hard I tried. LOL
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
evening dj...
this voter roll purge thing is worse than i ever remember it. i hope that people speak out, maybe write letters to the editor, file complaints with the election board and their representatives to encourage some action on this.
this smells bad.
Wonder how this story will go? George Soros in Panama papers
Panama Papers reveal George Soros' deep money ties to secretive weapons, intel investment firm
A song for today's NV news...
Sorry, been on an REM kick lately. I guess I've been feeling like such an angry adolescent lately, I've gone back to the music of my youth
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90zxW9QvUKU]
A Public service announcement followed me home the other day
I paid it nevermind. Go away.
Shits so thick you could stir it with a stick- free Teflon whitewashed presidency
We're sick of being jerked around...
Well, look behind the eyes
It's a hallowed, hollow anesthetized
"save my own ass, screw these guys"
Smoke and mirror lock down
It's been a bad day...
Coup Accomplished, Tyranny is marching in
Sorry to sound that bad, but I think one would be very dishonest to say one doesn't see what's coming. I still can't believe it.
Where do we go from here?
Nowhere. Sit down. Stay put. Resist. The developments are nothing but totally and utterly destructive.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
the coup was accomplished long ago. what you are seeing is a rise of resistance to escalated domination.
I like this EuroNews video - May be the title says it all
Bill Gates’ Plutonium Pipe Dream: Convert Mountains of Depleted Uranium at Paducah to Power Earth for Centuries (Pt. 2) -
https://www.euronews.com/live
Imagine that! The Peace Prize President
Has been at war during both of his terms and the war in Afghanistan won't be over when he leaves office.
But what is worse is the mess he created in the Middle East when he bombed Libya and Syria will continue for over a decade after he leaves office.
And if that wasn't enough carnage for the Drone King, he's setting up a war with Russia and who the hell knows where that will lead and how many more innocent civilians will be killed because of the Fucking Peace Prize President.
My disgust at how he duped so many people during his first campaign when he offered us so much hope to change the things in this country and to make it more fair for we the people.
Instead, we saw the rich get richer, the middle class lose more ground and the poor disappearing.
Income inequality has gotten much worse and it's as bad as it was in 1928 m
And instead of even trying to get his agenda passed, he either caved to the republicans or worked with them especially when it came to getting the TPP fast tracked.
IMO, that's why the democrats lost the last election on purpose. It gave Obama the cover to work with the republicans or to hide behind them by saying that they blocked his agenda.
He told us that he would rather be a one term president and try to get his policies inacted then be a two term mediocre president.
Well guess what Barry? I'm hoping that you will go down in history as being the president that sold out America's national sovereignty over to foreign corporations and oversaw the final destruction of what was left of the middle class.
You will have done more damage to the working people then Clinton did when he passed nafta.
He makes me sick.