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“As long as they killed people with conventional rather than nuclear weapons, they were praised as humanitarian statesmen. As long as they did not use nuclear weapons, it appeared, nobody was going to give the right name to all the killing that had been going on since the end of the Second World War, which was surely “World War Three.”

-- Kurt Vonnegut

News and Opinion

Senator Scolds Obama for “Preaching Nuclear Temperance From a Bar Stool”

While President Obama called for a “moral awakening” in Hiroshima and restated his ambition for a nuclear-weapon free future, back in Washington, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., criticized him for moving forward with a costly plan to renovate the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

“The U.S. cannot preach nuclear temperance from a bar stool,” Markey wrote in a Boston Globe opinion piece. ...

Markey attacked the modernization program on the Senate floor on Thursday. “The United States must take the lead,” Markey said, “instead of wasting billions of dollars on dangerous new nuclear weapons that do nothing to keep our nation safe.”

Markey also promoted a measure he introduced to delay the procurement of the new nuclear cruise missile, which he called a destabilizing and “dangerous new weapon.”

Erica Fein, nuclear policy expert with Women’s Action for New Directions, said it was courageous for Markey to “call out [his] party leader, something only a handful of other Democrats have been willing to do on this topic.”

Samantha Power to Receive Prize From Henry Kissinger, Whom She Once Harshly Criticized

Samantha Power built her journalistic and academic career around human rights, criticizing powerful nations for their complicity in abuses and failure to stop acts of genocide.

Then she joined the Obama administration, where she currently serves as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Early next month, Power will be receiving an award named for a man she used to criticize quite harshly: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has been implicated in a significant number of war crimes across the globe.

And she’ll be getting it from Kissinger himself.

The American Academy of Berlin’s Henry A. Kissinger Prize is awarded annually to a European or American diplomat.

Power can’t claim ignorance of Kissinger’s bloody, anti-human rights record.

[See article for extensive listing of quotes from Power's writings about Kissinger's war crimes.]

Guantánamo is planning for life after Obama

Military leaders are thinking about whether they will need to put a wheelchair lift into their showcase communal prison three or four years from now, widen some some cell doors, add ramps for geriatric captives.

Not one of the 80 prisoners is now in a wheelchair and most are in their 30s or 40s. The oldest is 68. But briefings by senior military officials here made clear that they are starting to actively think about operating an offshore Pentagon detention center long after President Barack Obama leaves office.

“At some point if detention operations continue here we will have to address, ‘Are the doors in the cells wide enough to move wheelchairs in and out? Are there ramps to reach the medical facilities?” said Rear Adm. Peter Clarke, the detention center commander. “And we’ve just started looking at that. So I can’t tell you we are ready or not. But it’s something we can plan for.”

Obama wants the prison emptied, and a Pentagon plan proposes moving 30 to 40 captives to military detention in the United States and releasing the rest to other countries. But Congress has outlawed any transfers to U.S. soil, and some members are proposing legislation to prevent transfers altogether, to anywhere, prompting speculation that the only way Obama does it is through an Executive Order that opponents of closure warn would be illegal.

Gitmo Judge Allowed Destruction of Evidence in 9/11 Case: Report

The judge in charge of military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay allegedly colluded with prosecutors to hide evidence that supported the defense of suspected 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, "irreparably" harming his case, according to a court document obtained by the Guardian on Tuesday.

The accusation could be the impetus to reform the highly controversial tribunals at the U.S. military prison in Cuba altogether, according to Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham University Law School's Center on National Security.

"This may well be the straw that breaks the camel's back in underscoring the unviability of the military commissions," Greenberg told the Guardian.

According to the recently unsealed defense filing, Army Colonel James Pohl "in concert with the prosecution, manipulated secret proceedings and the use of secret orders."

Pohl's actions prevented Mohammed's attorneys from learning that evidence in his defense had been destroyed, the document alleges.

NATO Plans Yet More Troops in Eastern Europe at ‘Landmark Summit’

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is talking up a “landmark summit” in early July in Warsaw, a meeting which officials say is guaranteed to include a major new deployment of NATO ground troops into Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. ...

This comes just a week and a half after the last NATO summit, which itself included deals to send massive numbers of additional troops into the same area. ...

NATO has been predicting an imminent Russian invasion of Eastern Europe since the 2014 regime change in Ukraine,citing Russian support for the ethnic Russian majority of eastern Ukraine rebelling when the pro-NATO government attempted to ban the Russian language and severely limit their ability to trade and travel across the border.

The invasion never happened, and after years of NATO buildup seems even sillier for officials to still be predicting.

Iraqi troops push into IS-held Fallujah

The Fight for Fallujah Is Becoming Iraq's Next "Human Catastrophe," Aid Official Warns

Islamic State militants fought vigorously overnight between Monday and Tuesday against the Iraqi army's onslaught in the southern district of the city of Fallujah, army officers said on Tuesday. Fallujah, in Anbar province, is the terrorist group's major outpost closest to the capital Baghdad. Islamic State has been holding Fallujah since 2014.

But as Iraqi troops and IS militants battle it out for the city, one aid official has warned of the "human catastrophe" that is unfolding in Fallujah, with residents unable to escape from the heavy fighting.

A staff member of Fallujah's main hospital said it received reports of 32 civilians killed on Monday. During the first week of the offensive, which began on May 23, medical sources reported the death toll in the city to be around 30 civilians and 20 militants. ...

Aid agencies have become increasingly alarmed about civilian suffering in a city that has been under siege for six months, and the United Nations has urged combatants to protect inhabitants trying to escape the fighting. The latest offensive is of particular concern because more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped with limited access to water, food and health care. ...

Last week, the chairman of Fallujah's local council, Isa al-Isawi, told the Associated Press that around 600 people had managed to escape the city. "It is not going to be an easy fighting at all," Isawi told AP from a refugee camp outside the city. "We heard from people who escaped from the city how ISIS [Islamic State] militants are prepared for this battle. Peaceful locals are the only victims of this fighting."

Fierce Resistance as Iraq Announces ‘Final Assault’ on Fallujah

Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi today announced the “final assault” against the major Anbar Province city of Fallujah, with reports that some of the ground troops have managed to enter suburbs at the southern edge of the city itself. ...

Iraqi officials have repeatedly predicted a quick, decisive victory, but US officials have said they believe it will be a “long, tough” battle, and that even beyond local recruits, the Iraqi forces can expect the population to be generally hostile to them.

Dozens killed in bombing of national hospital in Idlib

At least two dozen people including several children have been killed in northern Syria in the latest apparent attack by forces loyal to the Bashar al-Assad regime on medical facilities in opposition-held areas, UN officials and activists have said.

The bombing of the national hospital and its surroundings in Idlib city, a provincial capital wrested from regime control last year, was the latest incident in a systematic aerial campaign against medical personnel and facilities that has gone unpunished despite its intensification over the last year and a half.

“There is no use to all of this. The bombing of hospitals will continue and cannot be stopped – that much is clear,” said Zedoun al-Zoabi, head of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations, which operates a number of hospitals in northern Syria. “We have lost hope, and all we can do is build hospitals underground because there is no international decision to prevent the bombing of hospitals.”

200 Retired Israeli Security Officials Present Peace Plan

A group of over 200 retired Israeli military and intelligence officials have offered a detailed plan of action to reach a settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians, criticizing the far-right government for not making any progress to that end.

The proposal in particular pushes for an immediate, full freeze in settlement expansion to “preserve conditions” that might lead to future Palestinian statehood, along with a formal recognition that occupied East Jerusalem will inevitably be part of a future independent Palestine.

As to the process for negotiating statehood, the plan recommends accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, a plan which offers Israel normalized ties with the entire Arab world in return for a withdraw from the occupied territories and a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem.

In Surprise Move, Netanyahu Willing to Discuss Arab Peace Initiative

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surprised many today when he announced that his government is ready to hold talks on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, over 14 years after the initiative was first introduced. ...

Israel suspended the last peace talks in early 2014, after reneging on a prisoner release.

Only last year, Netanyahu deputy Silvan Shalom had declared the Arab Peace Initiative “unacceptable” and insisted no Israel government would ever accept it as the basis for the peace process.

Eric Holder Now Says Edward Snowden Performed 'Public Service' in Leaking Documents

On of the nation's top former public servants has just commended NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden for performing his own style of "public service" in releasing a cache of classified documents that blew open the National Security Agency's surveillance program.

Eric Holder, the former US Attorney General, made the comments over the weekend, recognizing that Snowden has sparked much national and international debate on surveillance, but maintained that the former NSA contractor should still be punished for leaking the documents.

"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did," Holder told David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, in a CNN podcast interview. "But I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made."

UK voters leaning towards Brexit, Guardian poll reveals

Public opinion has shifted towards the UK leaving the EU, two Guardian/ICM polls suggest as the referendum campaign picks up pace – with voters split 52% -48% in favour of Brexit, whether surveyed online or by phone.

Previous polls have tended to show voters surveyed online to be more in favour of Britain leaving the EU. But in the latest ICM research, carried out for the Guardian, both methodologies yielded the same result – a majority in favour of leaving.

“Our poll rather unhinges a few accepted orthodoxies,” said ICM’s director, Martin Boon. “It is only one poll, but in a rather unexpected reverse of polling assumptions so far, both our phone poll and our online poll are consistent on both vote intentions and on the EU referendum.”

Brazil political crisis: Anti-corruption minister quits in blow to acting president

OAS head calls for vote on Venezuela's 'grave alterations' to democracy

The head of the Organization of American States has called for an emergency meeting of regional governments to evaluate Venezuela’s respect for democracy, a move that could lead to the country’s suspension from the hemispheric body.

Luis Almagro said Venezuela had suffered “grave alterations of democratic order” and called for a vote on the matter in the coming weeks. ...

Almagro has been feuding with the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government immediately denounced the new measure.

The communications minister, Luis José Marcano, lambasted Almagro on state television, calling him a puppet.

“Venezuela is under attack by economic powers because we have the world’s largest oil reserves,” he said. ...

Maduro has accused Almagro of working with the opposition and the US to undermine Venezuela. Almagro responded by calling him a petty dictator.

World's Low-Cost Economy Built on the Backs of 46 Million Modern Day Slaves

Close to 46 million men, women, and children are enslaved across the world, according to a harrowing new report from the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

Many of them, the analysis notes, are in fact ensnared providing "the low-cost labor that produces consumer goods for markets in Western Europe, Japan, North America, and Australia."

The organization's 2016 Global Slavery Index—based on 42,000 interviews conducted in 53 languages, covering 44 percent of global population—found there to be 28 percent more "modern slaves" than previously estimated.

According to the report (pdf), "modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception, with treatment akin to a farm animal." The classification includes victims of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, sex trafficking, forced marriage, and other such exploitation. ...

In his forward to the report, Walk Free founder and chairman Andrew Forrest puts the onus on corporations to help end modern slavery. "Businesses that don’t actively look for forced labor within their supply chains," he said, "are standing on a burning platform. Business leaders who refuse to look into the realities of their own supply chains are misguided and irresponsible."

Democrats Targeted for Creating, and Now Ignoring, Mass Incarceration Disaster

'Democratic Party platforms haven't merely been silent; they have actually called for policies creating more imprisonment'

A new petition released Tuesday calls on Democratic Party leadership to make ending mass incarceration a core part of the party platform.

"So far, both [parties] have fallen short," reads the petition created by non-partisan public policy institute the Brennan Center for Justice. "Even Democratic Party platforms haven't merely been silent; they have actually called for policies creating more imprisonment.""

The statistics are stark: while the United States has 5 percent of the world's people, we are responsible for a quarter of its prisoners," the petition notes.

Until recently, Democratic leadership applauded so-called "tough-on-crime" legislation that produced the mass incarceration crisis the U.S. faces today, said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, and Ames Grawert, a counsel in the same program.

The petition is addressed to leaders of both major parties, but particularly calls out the Democratic Party for betraying its legacy of civil rights advocacy by promoting such "tough-on-crime" policies.

And ironically, as the Brennan Center notes, "the Republican Party is set to vote on a policy to reduce imprisonment at their convention," while the DNC has no such plans. "So where are the Democrats?" Chettiar and Grawert ask.

Wells Fargo Sponsorship of Black Lives Matter Panel Draws Scorn

Wells Fargo’s sordid practice of steering minorities into exploitative mortgages burst into public view after the housing crash in 2008. But to [he U.S. Black Chambers (USBC)], a black business group the bank has partnered with — by donating nearly half a million dollars — it’s ancient history. ...

[A recent Wells Fargo-sponsored] lunch discussion was titled: “From Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter, the Movement Continues.” One panelist was DeRay Mckesson, a former candidate for mayor in Baltimore and a high-profile Black Lives Matter activist. The Wells Fargo branding was prominent.

Liberal reformist politics in a nutshell. "Black liberation brought to you by orgs that prey upon Black folk." pic.twitter.com/XqGQ1VaC9s

— Dwayne David Paul (@DwayneDavidPaul) May 20, 2016

... In interviews with The Intercept, two board members for the U.S. Black Chambers offered Wells Fargo, without prompting, as an example of a beneficial corporate partner. ...

To USBC board chairman Aubry Stone, the bank is not entirely responsible for the predatory loans made to minority customers [...] Stone referred to Wells Fargo’s merger with Northwest Corporation in 1998 and its acquisition of Wachovia in 2008. “So it wasn’t necessarily them doing it. They inherited a lot of bad paper.”

But it was Wells Fargo itself, not any of the banks it merged with, that came under fire in Baltimore, for instance, for targeting black communities, and referring to subprime lending as “ghetto loans” and to blacks as “mud people” — not Wachovia or Northwest.

Fighting Hillary is How Progressives Win - Kshama Sawant

'Rigged' 2016 Election Has Voters Feeling Helpless, Unheard, and Ashamed

A new poll found that 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country's political system

This year's presidential primary has left many voters feeling helpless and alienated from their political parties, according to a new poll, which found that Democrats and Republicans alike want to see major changes in the way presidential candidates are chosen.

The survey, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and published Tuesday, reported that a full 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country's political system while 40 percent went so far as to say that the two-party structure is "seriously broken."

Seventy percent of voters, including equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans, said they feel frustrated about the 2016 presidential election and 55 percent reported feeling "helpless." ...

Most Americans believe that neither political party represents the views of ordinary voters. Just 14 percent say the Democratic Party is responsive to the opinions of the average voter while 8 percent say the same about the Republicans.

It’s Not Just the Speeches: Hillary Clinton Questioned over Son-in-Law’s Ties to Goldman Sachs

Hillary Clinton Won’t Say How Much Goldman Sachs CEO Invested With Her Son-in-Law

When Hillary Clinton's son-in-law sought funding for his new hedge fund in 2011, he found financial backing from one of the biggest names on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

The fund, called Eaglevale Partners, was founded by Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and two of his partners. Blankfein not only personally invested in the fund, but allowed his association with it to be used in the fund’s marketing. ...

The decision for Blankfein to invest in Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law’s company is just one of many ways Goldman Sachs has used its wealth to forge a tight bond with the Clinton family. The company paid Hillary Clinton $675,000 in personal speaking fees, paid Bill Clinton $1,550,000 in personal speaking fees, and donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. At a time when Goldman Sachs directly lobbied Hillary Clinton’s State Department, the company routinely partnered with the Clinton Foundation for events, even convening a donor meeting for the foundation at the Goldman Sachs headquarters in Manhattan.

[When confronted by reporter Lee Fang at a campaign event, Clinton studiously ignored the question. Clinton's Press Secretary Nick Merrill said that he would provide an answer, but has not responded at press time. - js]

Meet the Bernie Sanders Supporter Who Debated Bill Clinton for 30 Minutes at a New Mexico Restaurant

Bernie Sanders tells California he is the one to beat 'disaster' Trump

With the bright California sun beating down on their faces, the 12,000 people gathered in a square in downtown Oakland heard Bernie Sanders make a bold prediction.

“I don’t want to add to secretary Clinton’s anxiety,” he shouted in a hoarse voice, “but if you promise not to tell her – we’re going to win here in California.”

The crowd, squinting in the sunshine, chanted “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”

The Vermont senator, his face ruddy from long days of intensive campaigning in the state, continued: “The pundits, in their infinite wisdom, said this would be a fringe campaign ... a year later, we have won primaries in 20 states.” ...

Sanders, in Oakland, radiated confidence. “We will go into the convention with a great deal of momentum,” he said, “and we will come out with the nomination.”

“The point I will be making to the Democratic National Convention is that in virtually every single poll, we do better against Donald Trump than Secretary Clinton. So if we want a campaign that will make sure the disaster that is Donald Trump does not become president – we are that campaign.”

Clinton Scrambles for California as Sanders Challenges for Nation's Biggest Prize

As Bernie Sanders launched a campaign blitz in California on Monday ahead of the state's June 7 primary, his presidential rival Hillary Clinton found herself cancelling appearances in New Jersey to catch up with him.

Clinton skipped out on plans to campaign in the Garden State on Wednesday and Thursday in favor of a five-day tour through California, where some recent polls have seen her lead on Sanders shrink to a dead heat—though others have put her a few points ahead.

California Back in Big Oil's Crosshairs as Feds Quietly OK Offshore Fracking

Two federal agencies on Friday quietly finalized two reports, set for release next week, that found offshore fracking in California poses no "significant" risk to the environment—paving the way for oil and gas companies to resume the controversial extraction method in the Santa Barbara Channel and imperiling the region's wildlife in the process, opponents said.

The announcement Friday from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (OEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement puts an end to a court-ordered ban on offshore fracking in federal waters off the coast of California. The moratorium was put into place in January as part of a settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which challenged the Obama administration's 'rubber-stamping' of offshore drilling activity without an environmental review.

Environmental activists warned on Friday that kicking off a new round of drilling in the area puts wildlife at risk from chemical-laden wastewater and said they would be willing to file another lawsuit to keep it from happening.

"The Obama administration is once again putting California's beautiful coast in the oil industry's crosshairs," said Miyoko Sakashita, director of CBD's Oceans program. "Our beaches and wildlife face a renewed threat from fracking chemicals and oil spills. New legal action may be the only way to get federal officials to do their jobs and protect our ocean from offshore fracking."

Scientists Say Canada's Proposed LNG Port Threatens Paris Climate Accord

Ninety climate change experts from around the world urged Canadian government officials to "take urgent action" and reject a proposed, "unjustified" liquid natural gas (LNG) export terminal to be built on the British Columbia coast, joining with fierce local Indigenous opposition to the controversial project.

In an open letter (pdf) dated Thursday, the scientists warned "that the B.C. project would belch out emissions rivaling a large plant in Alberta’s oil sands," the Globe and Mail reported Monday.

Point by point, the letter writers critique proponents' arguments in favor of the PNW LNG project. The experts note that: 

• GHG emissions from the project are likely underestimated.
• There is inadequate climate policy to reduce impacts for the project. 
• There is no evidence that LNG from the project will replace coal in Asia.

On this last point, the scientists also note that "LNG will also likely displace nuclear power, renewables, and natural gas from other sources in many importing countries. There are many locations where LNG consumption would be additional to coal consumption, instead of replacing it. Importantly, GHG emissions from fracking, transport, liquefaction, and regasification significantly reduce LNG’s GHG benefits over coal."

Dow-DuPont Merger Will Cripple Farmers and Food Sovereignty, Groups Warn

Public interest groups urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to block the mega-merger of chemical corporations Dow and DuPont, which the organizations argue is part of a larger effort to put a "corporate cabal" in charge of the nation's food system.

Dow and DuPont announced in December plans "to merge into a $130 billion giant, thereby establishing the world's biggest seed and pesticide conglomerate," as Common Dreams reported. ...

"The proposed merger would create a powerful duopoly between Dow-DuPont and Monsanto," the organizations added. "Together, the two companies would control 76% of the market for corn and 66% of the market for soybeans, giving them the power to charge farmers higher prices and effectively decide which seeds farmers could plant."

Two farmers quoted in the letter to the DOJ argued, "We need more competition to keep prices down," and "We don’t like to see more consolidation; it means higher [costs] for farmers."

"Seed costs are the highest input expense for farmers," explained NFU president Roger Johnson. "We have seen time and again that consolidation and market restructuring has increased the cost of crop inputs. In a lagging farm economy with multi-year trends of low commodity prices, additional cost increases for crop inputs could cripple a lot of family farms in this country."

Also of Interest

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

With my brother in Guantánamo Bay, the heart of my family is missing

Want to help fight climate change? Start with reproductive rights

A Little Night Music

Muddy Waters w/ Mojo Buford - King Bee

Mojo Buford Blues Band - Last Night

Mojo Buford - Picking Rags, Come Home Baby

George 'Mojo' Buford - Steal My Chickens

George "Mojo" Buford - Lucille

Jo Jo Williams w/Mojo Buford - All Pretty Wimmens

Mojo Buford - Gone and Left Me

George "Mojo" Buford - Champagne and Reefer