This evening's music features Texas bluesman Juke Boy Bonner.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

No Actual Threat, But US Ratchets Up Security for July 4th

While conceding there is no specific threat, nor evidence of any ongoing plot, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are both issuing warnings about terrorist plots on the Fourth of July, and Rep. Michael McCaul (R – TX) predicted several “small scare ISIS attacks” that day.

Terrorists have not used July 4 as a particular date to carry out attacks in the past years of the over decade-long terror war, and officials offered no particular reasoning for why this year should be any different, though some maintained that the 4th is such a “powerful” holiday ISIS would be desperate to attack it.

Not that officials are going to let the lack of evidence spoil their security crackdown, as the FBI sets up command centers across the country to prepare for increased police deployments nationwide, just in case.

Hillary Clinton’s Failed Libya ‘Doctrine’

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fancied the violent 2011 “regime change” in Libya such a triumph that her aides discussed labeling it the start of a “Clinton Doctrine,” according to recently released emails that urged her to claim credit when longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was deposed. And Clinton did celebrate when Gaddafi was captured and murdered.

“We came; we saw; he died,” Clinton exulted in a TV interview after receiving word of Gaddafi’s death on Oct. 20, 2011, though it is not clear how much she knew about the grisly details, such as Gaddafi being sodomized with a knife before his execution.

Since then, the cascading Libyan chaos has turned the “regime change” from a positive notch on Clinton’s belt and into a black mark on her record. That violence has included the terrorist slaying of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic personnel in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, and jihadist killings across northern Africa, including the Islamic State’s decapitation of a group of Coptic Christians last February.

It turns out that Gaddafi’s warning about the need to crush Islamic terrorism in Libya’s east was well-founded although the Obama administration cited it as the pretext to justify its “humanitarian intervention” against Gaddafi. The vacuum created by the U.S.-led destruction of Gaddafi and his army drew in even more terrorists and extremists, forcing the United States and Western nations to abandon their embassies in Tripoli a year ago.

One could argue that those who devised and implemented the disastrous Libyan “regime change” – the likes of Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power – should be almost disqualified from playing any future role in U.S. foreign policy. Instead, Clinton is the Democratic frontrunner to succeed Barack Obama as President and Power was promoted from Obama’s White House staff to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — where she is at the center of other dangerous U.S. initiatives in seeking “regime change” in Syria and pulling off “regime change” in Ukraine.

The Defense Department’s Indefensible Position on Killing Human Shields

The Defense Department apparently thinks that it may lawfully kill an unlimited number of civilians forced to serve as involuntary human shields in order to achieve even a trivial military advantage. According to the DOD’s recently released Law of War Manual, harm to human shields, no matter how extensive, cannot render an attack unlawfully disproportionate. The Manual draws no distinction between civilians who voluntarily choose to serve as human shields and civilians who are involuntarily forced to serve as human shields. The Manual draws no distinction between civilians who actively shield combatants carrying out an attack and civilians who passively shield military objectives from attack. Finally, the Manual draws no distinction between civilians whose presence creates potential physical obstacles to military operations and civilians whose presence creates potential legal obstacles to military operations. According to the Manual, all of these count for nothing in determining proportionality under international law. ...

The Manual cites no basis in treaty, custom, or scholarship for its position. Nor could it do so. As is well known, Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions immediately follows its prohibition on the use of human shields with an unequivocal statement that “[a]ny violation of these prohibitions shall not release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population.” Yet, according to the Manual, if a defending force violates the prohibition on using civilians as involuntary human shields then the attacking force is, in effect, released from its obligation not to inflict excessive incidental harm on those civilians.

Of course, the United States is not a signatory to Protocol I. However, the United States is bound by customary international law, one principle of which is that international humanitarian law (IHL) applies unconditionally to each party to an armed conflict irrespective of the conduct of opposing parties. If the DOD thinks that unlawful conduct by our adversaries releases us from our obligations under customary international law, it is badly mistaken.

US churches vote on joining BDS movement targeting Israel

The international movement to boycott Israel over its treatment of Palestinians has received backing from one of the largest Protestant churches in the US, as two other major denominations prepare to vote on whether or not to divest money from the Jewish state.

The United Church of Christ’s general assembly on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of divesting funds at its synod in Cleveland. Further votes by the Episcopal Church and the Mennonite Church USA were expected on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Inspired by the sanctions campaign against apartheid South Africa, the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) campaign, encourages organizations and institutions such as universities and churches to divest from Israel until “the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel” have been recognized.

Decisions that will shape Greece's future are being made in Frankfurt

When Alistair Darling was faced with the hair-raising news in autumn 2008 that Royal Bank of Scotland was on the brink of being forced to close Britain’s cash machines, there was never a serious doubt that, whatever Mervyn King’s moral qualms, the Bank of England’s job was to underpin the UK’s financial system as “lender of last resort”.

Yanis Varoufakis and his colleagues in Athens have also faced the prospect of a total financial collapse this week – but key decisions about whether, and on what terms, to prop up its struggling banks are being taken thousands of miles away in Frankfurt. ...

Bank branches are already closed, a powerful symbol to Greek citizens of a government that has lost control of events. But Tsipras and Varoufakis know that without support from the European Central Bank, capital controls and withdrawal limits would just be the start. The Syriza government faced presiding over total financial collapse.

As the Greek bank run continued in recent weeks, the ECB had repeatedly extended the ceiling for its crisis loan scheme, known as emergency liquidity assistance (ELA), which permits the Greek central bank to prop up Greek lenders.

When the ECB opted to leave the ELA ceiling unchanged on Sunday, it didn’t amount to pulling the plug on the banks, but it sent the message that Frankfurt – and by extension Brussels – would be willing to watch the Greek banking sector fail.

Tsipras Signals Greece May Accept Bailout Terms

An unexpected new effort by Greece to compromise with its creditors on a bailout package prompted a cool response from most of the rest of Europe on Wednesday as the financial pressures on Athens intensified and efforts to find a way out of the crisis remained chaotic.

On another day of twists and turns, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government reversed course and said it would be willing to accept many of the terms of a bailout package that it had previously rejected, if they are part of a broader deal to address the country’s funding needs for the next two years.

While reviving hopes for a deal to end Greece’s latest financial crisis, the seeming reversal by Mr. Tsipras further underscored the confusion over his strategy as well as over where the monthslong muddle of negotiations now stood. The sudden turn of events raised questions about what offer was actually still on the table for Greece, whether Mr. Tsipras would still go ahead with a referendum scheduled for Sunday on a deal and, if so, what deal Greeks would actually be voting on.

Greek debt: Merkel dismisses Tsipras's last-ditch compromise plan

Germany has dismissed a last-ditch compromise plan from Greece that bowed to some key demands of its creditors.

In an address to the Bundestag, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, reiterated her stance that there was no point in having talks with the government of Alexis Tsipras before a referendum in Greece on an EU bailout plan.

“The door to talks with the Greek government has always been, and remains, open,” she said, but added that talks could not take place before Sunday’s poll. ...

Greece is insolvent and almost bankrupt after five years of €240bn (£170bn) in European bailouts dried up at the stroke of midnight and it became the first EU member to default on its creditors. On Tuesday, Greece missed a deadline to make a €1.5bn (£1.1bn) payment to the International Monetary Fund, dealing a blow to a Europe committed to the irreversibility of its 16-year-old single currency.

Shortly before it slid into default, Greece wrote to its creditors to elaborate on an earlier request for a two-year €29bn loan from the eurozone’s €500bn crisis fund. The Tsipras government indicated it was ready to accept a large part of its creditors’ demands, but asked for concessions on VAT reform and pensions.

Greece sticks with bailout referendum with fiscal lifeline talks in the balance

Greece’s prime minister vowed Wednesday to stick with plans for a referendum on the cuts demanded to receive a financial rescue, even as powerful lenders led by Germany insisted that all talks are frozen until the outcome of the vote.

The renewed commitment to holding the planned Sunday plebiscite came amid sharply mixed messages from the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, that could further frustrate European partners and deepen rifts in Greece as the financial blows mounted. ...

Tsipras appeared to open room for significant concessions in the cash-for-cutbacks standoff, suggesting he could agree with the painful belt-tightening measures he once scorned.

But at the same time, he stood behind his plans for the referendum and urged Greeks to reject the European Union’s demands, which include raising taxes and further trimming pensions.

Greece, he said in an afternoon address to the nation, will be back at the negotiating table after the referendum, seeking “better terms for the Greek people.”

Greek pensioners queue at dawn as banks allow a €120 withdrawal

Greek pensioners began queuing before dawn at up to 1,000 banks around the country which opened on Wednesday to let them collect the €120 (£85) they will be allowed this week.

Hours after Greece’s bailout programme with its creditors expired and the country became the first in the developed world to miss an IMF loan repayment, Greek pensioners without debit cards were at last able to withdraw some cash. ...

Banks are due to remain closed all week after the Greek government imposed capital controls following the decision by the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to call a referendum on Sunday on whether to accept the demands that lenders insist must be met before they will release fresh bailout funds to stop a Greek default.

Long queues formed through the night on Sunday as anxious Greeks withdrew their cash. ATMs had been replenished and reopened by Monday afternoon, but Greek account holders are now limited to withdrawals of €60 a day (in practice, many are finding it hard to take out more than €50 because of a growing shortage of €20 notes).

Large numbers of pensioners, however, do not use bank cards and rely instead on deposit books – so have been unable to withdraw any money at all. Many were further frustrated by a string of finance ministry announcements, each reducing the amount they would be allowed to take out.

Why I set up the Greek bailout crowdfund - Thom Feeney

I set up the crowdfunding campaign to support the Greek bailout because I was fed up with the dithering of our politicians. Every time a solution to bail out Greece is delayed, it’s a chance for politicians to posture and display their power, but during this time the real effect is on the people of Greece.

I wondered, could the people of Europe just have a crack at fixing this? Less talk, more direct action. If we want to sort it, let’s JFDI (just effing do it)! On Tuesday, between leaving for work and returning home, the crowdfunding page had raised over €200,000 in around six hours, which was incredible. This isn’t just about raising the cash, though. In providing the perks, we would be stimulating the Greek economy through trade – buying Greek products and employing Greeks to source and send the perks out.

The way to help a struggling economy is by investment and stimulus – not austerity and cuts. This crowdfunding is a reaction to the bullying of the Greek people by European politicians, but it could easily be about British politicians bullying the people of the north of England, Scotland and Wales. I want the people of Europe to realise that there is another option to austerity, despite what David Cameron and Angela Merkel tell you.

The reaction has been tremendous, I’ve received thousands of goodwill message and as I write almost €630,000 has been pledged by more than 38,000 donors. Many Greek people are messaging me to say how overjoyed they are to hear that real people around Europe care about them. It must be hard when you think the rest of the continent is against you.