The Evening Blues - 11-1-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Little Willie Littlefield

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features boogie woogie and r&b piano player and singer Little Willie Littlefield. Enjoy!

Little Willie Littlefield - Kansas City

"His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

-- Arthur Balfour


News and Opinion

Britain must atone for the Balfour declaration – and 100 years of suffering

Many British people will not know of Sir Arthur James Balfour, an early 20th century foreign secretary. For 12 million Palestinians, his name is all too familiar. On the 100th anniversary of the Balfour declaration, the British government should take the opportunity to make things right.

At his desk in London, on 2 November 1917, Balfour signed a letter promising the land of Palestine to the Zionist Federation, a recently established political movement whose goal was the creation of a Jewish state. He promised a land that was not his to promise, disregarding the political rights of those who already lived there. For the Palestinian people – my people – the events this letter triggered have been as devastating as they have been far-reaching.

This British policy, to support Jewish immigration into Palestine while negating the Arab-Palestinian right to self-determination, created severe tensions between European Jewish immigrants and the native Palestinian population. Palestine (the last item on the decolonisation agenda) and we, its people, who sought our inalienable right to self-determination, instead suffered our greatest catastrophe – in Arabic the Nakba. In 1948 Zionist militias forcibly expelled more than 800,000 men, women and children from their homeland, perpetrating horrific massacres and destroying hundreds of villages in the process. I was 13 years old at the time of our expulsion from Safad. The occasion on which Israel celebrates its creation as a state, we Palestinians mark as the darkest day in our history.

The Balfour declaration is not something that can be forgotten. Today, Palestinians number more than 12 million, and are scattered throughout the world. Some were forced out of their homeland in 1948, with more than 6 million still living in exile to this day. Those who managed to remain in their homes number roughly 1.75 million, and live within a system of institutionalised discrimination in what is now the state of Israel. Approximately 2.9 million live in the West Bank under a draconian military occupation-turned-colonisation, with 300,000 of that number being the native inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have so far resisted policies to force them out of their city. Two million live in the Gaza Strip, an open prison subjected to regular destruction through the full force of Israel’s military apparatus.

The Balfour declaration is not something to be celebrated – certainly not while one of the peoples affected continues to suffer such injustice. The creation of a homeland for one people resulted in the dispossession and continuing persecution of another – now a deep imbalance between occupier and occupied. The balance must be redressed, and Britain bears a great deal of responsibility in leading the way. Celebrations must wait for the day when everyone in this land has freedom, dignity and equality.

Israel Set to Block Palestinian Unity

The latest attempt at reconciliation between the competing Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas has produced a preliminary agreement that Egypt brokered and was announced earlier this month. The reasons for movement on this subject at this time involve motivations of the Egyptians, who want to use improved relations with authorities in the Gaza Strip to help defeat extremists who are active in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt, which has taken the side of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their dispute with Qatar, also hopes to reduce Qatari and Turkish influence among the Palestinians. The evolving motivations of Hamas also are pertinent. The group has come to realize how thankless a task is the governing of the Gaza Strip, which is beset by an Israeli semi-blockade and unrepaired damage from Israel’s military assaults.

The preliminary agreement is little more than a joint statement of aspirations and a timetable for resolving outstanding issues. The main substantive advance has been Hamas’s declared willingness to turn over administration of the Strip to the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (P.A.). Laborious negotiations lie ahead to resolve questions such as how to integrate two separate cadres of civil servants. Historically based ill will and mistrust also must be overcome. Palestinians, just like other nations, have politics characterized by ideological and generational divides, some of which can be sharp. Anyone familiar with U.S. politics, with its considerable ill will and sharp divides, ought to find this easy to understand. ...

But reconciliation will not be left to the Palestinians themselves, just as it has not been left to them in the past. Israel has actively and repeatedly thwarted reconciliation. In addition to everything Israel has done to undermine the authority and credibility of the P.A. and to sustain dire extremism-breeding conditions in Gaza, it has taken more direct action to derail previous efforts at reconciliation whenever they showed any promise of success. Israel has employed one of its favorite ways of punishing the P.A., withholding taxes that it is supposed to pass on to the P.A., to pressure the P.A. into dropping previous efforts to reconcile with Hamas. For the right-wing government of Israel, derailing intra-Palestinian reconciliation helps to sustain the theme that Israel “doesn’t have a negotiating partner for peace.” If that government really wanted such a partner, then it would be supporting rather than derailing steps toward developing a unified Palestinian leadership that could speak most credibly for all Palestinians and to negotiate on their behalf.

But the government of Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want such a partner. It instead wants rationales for indefinitely kicking the prospect of meaningful peace negotiations into the future, while Israel’s colonization project cements its hold on the West Bank. The “no negotiating partner” meme has become sufficiently entrenched in Israeli public perceptions to make the government’s strategy politically sustainable. For now, Netanyahu’s government appears to have concluded that there are enough obstacles in the way of full Fatah-Hamas reconciliation that active derailment measures such as use of the tax weapon can be kept in reserve. Meanwhile, Israel is voicing old familiar demands (along with some new ones), which are highly unlikely to be met, as preconditions for negotiating with any unified Palestinian leadership that results from reconciliation.

South Koreans Plan to Welcome 'War Lunatic' Trump With Mass Protest, Demands for Peace

A coalition of more than 200 South Korean civic groups have announced plans to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's escalation of nuclear tensions with North Korea during his scheduled visit to Seoul next week.

The protests are expected to draw thousands, and will kick off with a "No Trump, No War People's Rally" outside the U.S. Embassy in South Korea's capitol city on Saturday, Nov. 4, ahead of Trump's arrival on Nov. 7 for a two-day visit. The coalition has also planned a candlelight vigil at Gwanghwamun Square for Nov. 7 and a protest outside the National Assembly building, during Trump's address to parliament on Nov. 8.

In a statement announcing details about the president's trip to Asia, the White House said, "The President's engagements will strengthen the international resolve to confront the North Korean threat and ensure the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

However, Trump's preference for "fire and fury" over diplomacy, and his continued threats to "totally destroy North Korea," have escalated nuclear tensions and raised alarm, at home and abroad—particularly among North Korean civilians and their neighbors to the south.

"Who can possibly welcome a foreign leader who talks about the possibility of a war on their land?" the civic groups said during a press briefing, according to the Seoul-based Korea Herald. "We should take the path of peace, not war. We cannot help but protect peace on our land and our livelihood for ourselves."

Thank goodness for the deep commitment to honesty that our government holds fast to. After all, in a democracy, a well-informed electorate is absolutely critical to a properly functioning state, so you can see why our leaders are so steadfast in their truthfulness.

A top U.S. general just said 4,000 American troops are in Syria. The Pentagon says there are only 500.

A senior U.S. military commander said Tuesday that 4,000 American troops are on the ground in Syria, a figure far greater than the 503 personnel the Trump administration says are deployed there.

Army Maj. Gen. James B. Jarrard, who heads the U.S.-led Special Operations task force targeting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, offered the surprising figure while briefing Pentagon-based reporters via satellite from Baghdad.

When asked to confirm the 4,000 figure, Jarrard appeared to be caught off guard. He then apologized and said the number is about 500. Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman facilitating the briefing, interjected moments later, insisting the number is just 503. ...

Yet it’s long been an open secret that the Pentagon has far more personnel involved in operations against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, than its publicly disclosed figures. ... Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert at the Institute for the Study of War, said sensitivity over U.S. troop levels in Syria and Iraq dates to the Obama administration, which was determined to fight the Islamic State with a minimal American presence on the ground. ...

These are not the only countries where the Pentagon appears to have manipulated deployment numbers. As the Wall Street Journal revealed in August, there are about 3,000 more troops on the ground in Afghanistan than the administration’s official tally showed.

Well now, this I can believe:

Tillerson: US could stay in Iraq to fight ISIS, wanted or not

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday night that American forces would hypothetically stay in Iraq in order to defeat the Islamic State group, even if the government in Baghdad requests the U.S. leave.

Tillerson, appearing with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicated American forces have the right to stay in Iraq under the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), a long-standing justification for military action around the globe, until the fight against ISIS is concluded.

The statement came up in response to a question from Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who asked “If U.S. forces are told to leave, will we depart Iraq or will be stay uninvited as our forces are doing in Syria, and under what legal authority will they remain?”

Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen kills 26 people

A suspected airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen killed at least 29 people, including children, in the country's north, a Yemeni health official said Wednesday.

Abdellah al-Ezi, head of the health office of the northern Saada province, said the airstrike struck a small hotel in a market, wounding 28 other people. Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia, is a stronghold of the Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis.

Footage obtained by The Associated Press shows a bulldozer removing wreckage and debris from the site of the airstrike.

Ahmed Mohammed, an eyewitness, insisted there were no fighters in the hotel. "This is an act of aggression by the Americans, the Saudis, and the Zionists, and by God's will we will take revenge one day. And even if we don't get revenge, our children will," he said.

From Belgium, Catalonia Leader Dismissed By Spain Insists He’s Still in Charge

Four days after he was removed from office by the Spanish government and charged with sedition for declaring an independent Catalan Republic, Carles Puigdemont appeared in Belgium on Tuesday to insist that he remains the legitimate president of Catalonia. ... Despite rejecting the authority of the Spanish state to dissolve Catalonia’s autonomous government, and admitting that he will be forced to remain in exile for the immediate future, Puigdemont said that his pro-independence movement plans to take part in the elections for a new Catalan parliament on December 21 that have been decreed by Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Puigdemont pledged to respect the results of the upcoming elections and demanded a commitment from Spain’s central government to do the same, meaning that they would not dissolve the local legislature again, should pro-independence parties triumph. ...

In Spain, meanwhile, images of fascist salutes and Franco-era songs, seen and heard at rallies against Catalan independence in Madrid and Barcelona, have been deployed by separatists to argue that they are threatened by a menacing strain of Spanish nationalism.


Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel reiterated his call for a negotiated solution to the Catalan crisis and made clear that, even though Puigdemont had not been invited to Belgium in any official capacity, he would be afforded “the same rights and obligations as any European citizen, no more, no less.”

Support for an independent Catalonia rises to three-year high: poll

Support for the creation of an independent state of Catalonia rose to an almost 3-year high in October according to an official regional survey published on Tuesday.

Some 48.7 percent of Catalans believe the Spanish region should be independent, according to the poll from Centre d‘Estudis d‘Opinio, up from 41.1 pct in June and the highest since December 2014.

Spain's Civil Guard searches Catalan police HQ

Spain's Civil Guard police force on Tuesday searched the headquarters of Catalonia's regional police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, in a probe centred on the outlawed independence referendum on October 1, a spokesman said.

"We're carrying out an inspection related to the Mossos d'Esquadra's communications on the day of the illegal referendum on October 1," the Civil Guard spokesman told AFP. ...

The Mossos were tasked with stopping the ballot, which had been deemed illegal by Spain's Constitutional Court. But senior Mossos officers issued orders not to use force, and agents steered clear of clashes with activists gathered in large numbers to protect voting stations.

JFK Files Reveal US Plotted to Use Biological Weapons in Cuba

The recently published JFK files have shed further light on U.S. plans to use biological weapons as part of its Cuban Project, an agricultural sabotage plot against the socialist country.

During a meeting with top-ranking officials on Sept. 6, 1962, U.S. General and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Marshall Carter said, “biological agents disguised as substances of natural origin” can be employed to destroy crops in Cuba.

Others present at the meeting, which took place only six weeks prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis, included National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Air Force Gen. Edward Lansdale, who led clandestine operations against Cuba; and Edward R. Murrow, the famous broadcast reporter who was serving at the time as the director of the U.S. Information Agency, according to National Public Radio.

Notes extracted from a document recounting the meeting read, “General Carter pointed out the extreme vulnerability of any such operation and the terrible consequences it could have if something goes wrong, especially if there is any obvious evidence of U.S. involvement."

Bundy offered counsel on the matter, suggesting that the use of chemical agents were not propitious, especially if their use could be traced back to Washington. A proposal to discuss a plan to “attack Soviet personnel located in the territory of Cuba,” was also revealed in the document but with no further details concerning the matter.

I Will Not Accept A Party That Normalizes War Crimes

Donald Trump inherited a government that had been engaged in war throughout the last eight years on unprecedented levels. Obama had attacked a record eight countries, marking him as being at war longer than any other president. Obama had rained depleted uranium bombs onto tens of thousands of people, violating prior laws against unacceptably cruel weapons and creating hideously deformed newborn babies. The drone program had been expanded under Obama to something Noam Chomsky called “The most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times,” a judgement justified by how this drone program once assassinated the American 16-year-old son of a suspected terrorist without trial.

That assassination was explained by Obama’s spokesman by saying the teen’s father should have been more responsible, a rationalization similar to those used for the rest of America’s recent atrocities. The uranium bombings, like torture and a lack of Habeas Corpus, are now only theoretically illegal, with the authorities trying to minimize or erase these things from the public consciousness. Obama’s wars, like Trump’s wars so far, have gone ignored or numbly accepted by a people that can’t remember when their country wasn’t at war.

Hillary Clinton has objectively committed war crimes, mainly when she approved the catastrophic NATO invasion of Libya after being informed that the invasion was about gold and oil. Like with dozens of other modern war criminals, she’s never even been investigated for these actions, and whether those actions are war crimes have become a matter of debate. At the same time those who’ve opposed the empire are demonized, with Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden being reviled for their exposing the crimes of the state. This amounts to a rally around barbarism as those first two have been tortured with solitary confinement and the latter is hiding out in Russia to avoid the same penalty.

This is how dictatorships are formed: indefensible things get incrementally remade as defensible. Corruption becomes more and more normalized. We lapse less and less out of a society that can call itself civilized.

An excellent and most enjoyable rant worth a full read:

Democrats, Class and Russia-gate Magic

Recently, Democratic Party elites have purged progressives from positions of power within the Party; have been exposed in creating and promulgating, and swallowing whole the dodgy Russian Dossier subterfuge; and have gone round-heeled for war criminal and torturer-in-chief George Bush the Lesser — yet Democratic partisans and lesser-of-two-evils, fainting-couch jockeys still retail in the fiction that the Democrats present a viable alternative to their more crass Republican doppelgängers.

It must take hours of dedicated practice to become such virtuosos of self-deception.

Desperate liberals have convinced themselves that the risible, Russiagate fool’s mythos will provide a deus ex machina miracle to rid the (sham) republic from the likes of boxy-suit-clad, two-legged toxic waste dump who ascended to the presidency due to the Democratic Party gaming their primary and nomination process for a candidate who performed the seemingly impossible — to wit, preventing the craven Trump from defeating himself. The best thing Republicans have going for them is, the Democrats themselves, from their corrupt-to-their-reeking core leadership class down to their willfully and belligerently obtuse rank-and-file. In particular, professional and political-class liberals’ refusal even to acknowledge the grim plight of the besieged U.S. working class, and when they deign to notice their economic lessers, at all, they, as a rule, evince an aura of condescension and scorn.

Apropos, I recall a piece published in the New York Times after Trump’s “pussy grabbing” palaver came to light, late in the 2016 presidential campaign. Quoting from the article, headlined: “Inside Trump Tower, an Increasingly Upset and Alone Donald Trump,” published Oct 9, 2016:

“But the real source of comfort to Mr. Trump seemed to be the small band of supporters waving Trump signs on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk outside the building. His fans clashed with people walking by, including a woman who told a female Trump supporter that she should go back to her ‘trailer.’”

It is a given that Trump’s misogynist remarks displayed the very emblem of mouth-breather inanity. Yet the demeaning jibe bandied by the passing pedestrian, who I’m certain would self-identify as “progressive” in her politics, was emblematic of liberal classism. When was the last time you witnessed an affluent liberal expressing umbrage in regard to their caste’s proclivity for class-based shaming? Why do liberals refuse to acknowledge class-based deprivation as a defining factor in the angst and animus of the laboring class? In short, an honest reckoning would cause Liberalcrats to acknowledge classism is, as is the case with sexism and racism, hurtful, destructive, and flat-out reprehensible. Moreover, an acknowledgement would call them to account for their own privilege thus revealing the imperative to make amends and provide restitution for their complicity in the oppression inflicted on the less fortunate by capitalism, the system that is the source of liberal affluence and the progenitor of their snobbery.

As Elon Musk Proposes Taking Over Power Authority, Puerto Ricans Demand Community-Owned Solar Power

Dennis Banks, Native American Activist And Wounded Knee Occupier, Dies At 80

Dennis Banks, a Native American activist who co-founded the American Indian Movement and helped lead the 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee, has died at 80. His death was announced on Facebook, and confirmed by his family in a statement to The Associated Press.

Banks was Ojibwe and Turtle Clan, and his Ojibwe name was Nowa Cumig. He died surrounded by his family on Sunday.

He co-founded the American Indian Movement, or AIM, in 1968 to advocate on behalf of native people and against discriminatory federal policies and practices. The next year the group, including Banks, began a lengthy occupation of Alcatraz Island. That occupation captured national attention for their protest over, among other things, living conditions on reservations.

But it was the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee that propelled Banks, in particular, to the spotlight. In 1998, Banks told NPR that the purpose of the protest was to focus attention on the U.S. government's poor treatment of native people. "It was aimed at trying to ... bring about major change in America regarding policies, attitude, and the behavior of white America," he said.



the horse race



US senators warn of 'fake news' threat from Russia and urge tech giants to act

Senators from both parties warned of the role of Russian misinformation on Wednesday in a hearing on the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 election. Questioning executives from Twitter, Google and Facebook, members of the Senate intelligence committee warned of the influence of “fake news” and bots on the campaign and how Russia “conducted an information operation intended to divide our society along issues like race, immigration and second amendment rights” in the words of the committee’s chair, Richard Burr of North Carolina.

However, there were partisan divides in how the concern was phrased. Burr attempted to minimize the influence of Russian-linked Facebook ads in determining the result of the 2016 election, while Mark Warner, the committee’s vice-chair, explicitly criticized the Trump administration’s approach to this issue.

“We have a president who remains unwilling to acknowledge the threat that Russia poses to our democracy,” said the Virginia Democrat. “President Trump should stop actively delegitimizing American journalism and acknowledge and address this real threat posed by Russian propaganda.”

Warner also raised concern about the sheer scope of misinformation on social media. He said in his opening statement that, in addition to the 80,000 Russian-backed posts on Facebook that reached 126 million Americans during the 2016 campaign, there were potentially 120,000 similar posts on Instagram and that up to 15% of Twitter accounts are “fake or automated. An executive for Facebook conceded that starting from October 2016, just before the election, the Russian posts on Instagram reached an additional 16 million Americans.”

Warner went on to attack the tech companies testifying, telling them that members of the committee “were frankly blown off by the leadership of your companies, and dismissed” when they initially raised concerns. All three tech executives said their internal investigations were continuing and that they had yet to determine the full scope of Russian interference.

'Russian disinformation': US Senate keeps insisting on 'Moscow meddling' despite tech giants data

Americans 'evenly split' over need to regulate Facebook and other big tech

Voters in the US are evenly divided over whether to regulate technology companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook that enable the targeting of users based on their political interests, according to a survey that suggests many Americans remain undecided over whether Silicon Valley is a force for good.

Forty-nine per cent of people said they would support regulating the targeting of news feeds, search engine results or advertising based on political affiliations or viewpoints, while 51% said they would oppose such regulation.

The question was one of several asked in October’s Harvard/Harris Poll at the request of the Guardian and comes amid growing talk in Washington about exploring ways to restrain big technology.

“These findings show that public opinion among voters is almost evenly split between the need for new policy to ensure more trust and privacy in social media, and preventing the reckless regulation of the internet and the curtailing of online freedoms,” said Dritan Nesho, chief executive of the research company HarrisX, which carried out the survey. “The jury is still out.”


'He's bait, absolutely': experts say George Papadopoulos a lure to catch bigger fish

In the heat of the 2016 election campaign, George Papadopoulos was a jet-setting political operative on the rise. But now, experts say, the 30-year-old is almost certainly being used as a lure to catch bigger fish in the wider inquiry being led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, which is examining Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Federal investigators on Monday revealed that Papadopoulos was the first person to agree to cooperate with the Mueller inquiry under the terms of a plea agreement. “He’s bait, absolutely,” said John Lauro, a white-collar criminal defense attorney operating in New York and Florida. “They clearly put pressure on him, and I would not be surprised if he then engaged others being investigated and had tape-recorded conversations with them, in person or on the phone.”

US-Russia Probe: This is a big cloud that is only getting darker and is not going to go away’



the evening greens


Climate change fueling disasters, disease in ‘potentially irreversible’ ways, report warns

Climate change significantly imperils public health globally, according to a new report that chronicles the many hazards and symptoms already being seen. The authors describe its manifestations as “unequivocal and potentially irreversible.”

Heat waves are striking more people, disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading and weather disasters are becoming more common, the authors note in the report published Monday by the British medical journal the Lancet. Climate change is a “threat multiplier,” they write, and its blows hit hardest in the most vulnerable communities, where people are suffering from poverty, water scarcity, inadequate housing or other crises.

“We’ve been quite shocked and surprised by some of the results,” said Nick Watts, a fellow at University College London’s Institute for Global Health and executive director of the Lancet Countdown, a project aimed at examining the links between climate change and public health. ...

The project, a synthesis of scientific literature and media reports, tracks 40 indicators of human health, including migration, nutrition and air pollution. Given the profound health dangers posed by a warming climate, the study’s authors focused on a key question: How well is the world responding? “The answer is, most of our indicators are headed in the wrong direction,” Watts said. “Broadly, the world has not responded to climate change, and that lack of response has put lives at risk . . . The impacts we’re experiencing today are already pretty bad. The things we’re talking about in the future are potentially catastrophic.”

'It feels like Dominica is finished': life amid the ruins left by Hurricane Maria

When it rains or the wind blows in the tiny fishing village of Scotts Head, the youngest residents run for cover. With Dominica’s once-lush landscape deeply scarred by the unprecedented fury of Hurricane Maria only weeks earlier, the signs of nature’s wrath are everywhere and felt by everyone. “The children are terrified the hurricane will return – we all are. Everybody is still in shock,” says Guadiosa Ytac, 49, who left London for the Caribbean more than a decade ago. ...

In the few short hours between sundown and sunrise, the 29-mile by 16-mile “Nature Island” – which boasted dozens of waterfalls, rainforests, nine active volcanoes and 365 rivers – was reduced to rubble, lurching from tropical paradise with a burgeoning eco-tourism sector to abject poverty and ruin in a single night. ... With 95% of buildings damaged or destroyed and the few remaining roads still clogged with tree trunks, the distribution of aid – much of which has come from neighbouring islands – has been treacherous and slow. Approximately 3,000 Dominicans are living in shelters; the rest are staying with relatives and friends, according to the UN, which launched an appeal for $31.1m (£23.4m) to reach at least 90% of residents – about 65,000 people – in the next three months.

Informal estimates suggest one-fifth of the population have fled the island since September, with ferry operators reporting that a growing number of passengers are opting for one-way tickets. But what of those who remain, marooned without work or permanent shelter? What are their hopes for the future now that the country has, according to the prime minister, been reduced to “worse than a war zone”?

When Hurricane Maria struck, Dominica was still recovering from tropical storm Erika, which pummeled the island in August 2015. That disaster caused $483m of damage there, according to the World Bank, equivalent to 90% of its GDP. Estimates suggest Maria wrought far greater devastation.

“People are trying to be strong in Dominica, like everything is fine, but it’s not. Everywhere needs rebuilding but there is no money to rebuild things with. OK, so we have some food and water – but how long for? Everything else is gone.”

Shocking New Investigation Links Berta Cáceres’s Assassination to Executives at Honduran Dam Company

Fossil fuel companies undermining Paris agreement negotiations – report

Global negotiations seeking to implement the Paris agreement have been captured by corporate interests and are being undermined by powerful forces that benefit from exacerbating climate change, according to a report released ahead of the second meeting of parties to the Paris agreement – COP23 – next week. The report, co-authored by Corporate Accountability, uncovers a litany of ways in which fossil fuel companies have gained high-level access to negotiations and manipulated outcomes.

It highlights a string of examples, including that of a negotiator for Panama who is also on the board of a corporate peak body that represents carbon traders such as banks, polluters and brokers. It also questions the role of the world’s biggest polluters in sponsoring the meetings in return for access to high-level events.

The report argues that as a result of the corporate influence, outcomes of negotiations so far have been skewed to favour the interests of the world’s biggest corporate polluters over those of the majority of the world’s population that live in the developing world. It finds that influence has skewed outcomes on finance, agriculture and technology.

[See article for detailed list of examples of corporate infiltration of the negotiation process. - js]


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: Criminal Indictments at Home, Secret Wars Abroad

Blaming the Afghan War Failure on — Russia

Steve Bannon Tried to Recruit Teachers Union to Trump’s Agenda While in the White House

Palestinians crash Banksy 'street party' satirising Balfour celebrations

Rescue at Oakland Slaughterhouse Shows New, Potent Tactics of Growing Animal Rights Movement


A Little Night Music

Little Willie Littlefield - Rockin´ Chair Mama

Little Willie Littlefield - Boogie Woogie Playgirl

Little Willie Littlefield - Farewell

Little Willie Littlefield - Lump In My Throat

Little Willie Littlefield - I Wanna Love You

Little Willie Littlefield - Ruby Ruby

Little Willie Littlefield - Drinkin' Hadacol

Little Willie Littlefield - Midnight Whistle

Little Willie Littlefield - Hucklebuck With Willie

Little Willie Littlefield - Goofy Dust Blues


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Meteor Man's picture

The president and First Lady Melania Trump will depart the U.S. on Friday, Nov. 3 and return Nov. 14. In addition to South Korea, they will travel to Japan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hawaii.

I hope our war lunatic gets a similar reception in Japan, China and Vietnam about Trump nuking North Korea. I guess the planet is safe from a nuclear attack until The Lunatic In Chief gets to Hawaii.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

joe shikspack's picture

@Meteor Man

i am hoping that there is nowhere on earth that trump can go where people will not remind him that he is a moron and they object to the idea of unleashing "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

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OLinda's picture

INTERCEPTED PODCAST: CRIMINAL INDICTMENTS AT HOME, SECRET WARS ABROAD

[Mentioned in the Also of Interest section]

For those interested in the Mueller goings on, Jeremy says it's thorough and nuanced. What more could one want? Smile

I haven't listened yet. For those who would rather read, a transcript will go up pretty soon. You can listen to it on the page, or I-Tunes and other platforms.

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR ROBERT MUELLER has delivered the opening salvo against Trump cronies in his secretive investigation into Russia, the election, and the Trump campaign.

This week on Intercepted: The most nuanced discussion you will hear on what we know, what we don’t know, and the challenge of criminally prosecuting anyone for actually conspiring with Russia to interfere in the election.

New York Times reporter Charlie Savage and former federal prosecutor-turned-defense attorney Ken White of Popehat break down the recent indictment and plea deal and what it may mean for Trump.

Savage also lays out the secret authorities Trump recently signed giving the military and CIA wider latitude to conduct drone strikes and night raids across the world. In the aftermath of the ambush and killing of four U.S. special forces soldiers in Niger and the terrorist attack that killed more than 300 people in Somalia, we take an in-depth look at U.S. militarism in Africa.

...

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joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

i haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, either. i am trying to decide if it's worth investing a lot of time in learning the ins and outs of the latest spectacle on offer from the russiagaters.

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lotlizard's picture

with both feet, various Western countries are helping them, and — in stark contrast to the case of Iran — Israel and its sockpuppets in the U.S. power elite are fine with all of that?

What does that tell us?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-nuclear/saudi-arabia-to-extract...

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joe shikspack's picture

@lotlizard

heh, i think that it tells us that there are a lot of countries that are hoping to sell the saudis nuclear plants and attendant services.

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lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
Tongue in cheek of course — just to troll the “international community” and see people’s heads a-splode.

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ggersh's picture

sweet sweet tunes, thanks

Under things that just don't add up.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

they missed one - because the us can never admit a failure of its military to win the day.

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snoopydawg's picture

and was at war during his entire tenure, yet left office with an 80% approval rating? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people who call themselves democrats?
On top of that, they were going to vote for the person who was involved with and promised to continue his actions.
And these people were the ones who called Bush a war criminal.
Unknw

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

what, you didn't get the memo? bush is ok now, we've all forgotten his war crimes in a frisson of joy at his criticism of trump. all is forgiven.

feh!

what a bunch of chumps.

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GreatLakeSailor's picture

@joe shikspack

Being led by their 1% reality-makers.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

joe shikspack's picture

@GreatLakeSailor

yeah, apparently a lot of effort is going into chimpy's rehabilitation.

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snoopydawg's picture

@GreatLakeSailor

cozying up with Cheney and Rumsfeld.
McCain has already been forgiven for his warmongering because he saved the ACA and gave a wonderful speech on American hegemony.
Hell, even Comey is being let out of the dawg house because he said something funny on Twitter after Manafort was arrested.
big sigh

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

that obama gets a pass shows how easy it is to manipulate people.

if left can't get into the propaganda war on something like equal footing, it looks very tough.

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

probably is. identity is a powerful force and the politics of identity generally trump the politics of compassion.

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new to me. thx.

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