The Evening Blues - 3-29-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Frank Frost

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features delta blues singer and harmonica player Frank Frost. Enjoy!

Jelly Roll Kings - Frank Frost Blues

“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."

-- C.S. Lewis


News and Opinion

Signing away online privacy

Internet service providers will soon be allowed to sell your browsing history, financial and health data, and other personal information to third-parties according to a bill passed by the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon.

The Senate pushed the measure through in a party-line vote earlier in March, and the White House has signaled its support of the legislation, meaning that it will almost certainly become law. Though House Democrats mounted a last-minute stand against the rollback of Obama-era rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission last year, they came up 10 votes shy; the bill passed by a margin of 215 to 205. ...

“If the bill is signed into law, companies like Cox, Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon will have free rein to hijack your searches, sell your data, and hammer you with unwanted advertisements,” Electronic Frontier Foundation legislative counsel Ernesto Falcon wrote in a blog post.

Craig Aaron, president and CEO of the Free Press Action Fund, said in a statement that House Republicans “voted to take away the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of Americans just so a few giant companies could pad their already considerable profits.”

Republicans Gut Internet Privacy Rules

U.S. Senate backs Montenegro's membership in NATO

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed the expansion of NATO to allow Montenegro to join the alliance, hoping to send a message that the United States will push back against Russian efforts to increase its influence in Europe.

The long-delayed vote was 97-2 in favor of Montenegro's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That was well above the two-thirds majority needed in the 100-member Senate to ratify Montenegro's membership.

There was no immediate confirmation of whether President Donald Trump would formally deposit the instrument of ratification, the last step in the U.S. ratification process.

However, his administration had supported NATO membership for the tiny Balkan nation, one of Europe's smallest, despite Trump at times criticizing the alliance as he campaigned for president last year.

Heh, who wrote this headline? This is a question that is needless to ask. On the other hand, the article is excellent and worth a full read.

Does Washington Want to Start a New War in the Balkans?

With Monday’s procedural vote in the U.S. Senate to allow Montenegro into NATO, the Washington elite proved once more that heightening tensions with Russia might not just be inevitable, but actually desirable. With the exception of Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the entire 100-strong body of the Senate rallied behind the motion that would see the tiny Adriatic state admitted into the Atlantic alliance over the objections of many Montenegrins . The vote set off a 30-hour countdown, during which Senators will debate before putting the issue to a final vote.

If you needed more proof that US foreign policy is misguided, just look to what happened to Rand Paul after his earlier decision to block Montenegro’s accession.  The Kentucky senator was subjected to a barrage of insults from fellow Republican John McCain, who flatly accused Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin.” ... Correctly arguing that the U.S. is already spread far too thinly militarily in dozens of countries all over the world with little to show for it, Paul questioned the wisdom of expanding the monetary and military obligations of America at a time when it is already drowning in debt. He had previously voted against the matter in a vote last December.

McCain represents a mercilessly hawkish wing of the Republican Party that would be quite happy to risk war with Russia and harm to U.S. interests over such a strategically irrelevant country. Paul, on the other hand, takes a more pragmatic position on the country’s NATO ambitions, as should anyone in full possession of the facts. To begin with, the Montenegrin people themselves display little interest in their country joining NATO. Polls there consistently show that no more than 40% of the public favor NATO membership, with support for accession dropping considerably below that figure among older people. Many remain suspicious of the alliance after it bombed Yugoslavia, of which Montenegro was part, in 1999. Distrust for the military alliance is so strong that anti-NATO demonstrations regularly take place across the country. To press ahead with Montenegro’s NATO accession would fly directly in the face of the will of its people.

Worse, Montenegro’s October parliamentary election was marred with exaggerated charges that a Russian coup was in the works. If it hadn’t been for some last minute intelligence from Serbia and the country’s own agencies, so the story goes, Russian GRU spies would have assassinated Djukanovic and would have installed a puppet government. In fact, the pro-Western Podgorica government has successfully used the specter of Russian influence in order to detain and unlawfully harass opposition leaders. Just last week, Marko Milacic, a pro-neutrality campaigner, was “pre-emptively detained” after campaigning in favor of a referendum that would have allowed Montenegrins to vote on whether they want indeed to join NATO.

War and Propaganda

For a decade now, the influential media has been building fear of and animosity against Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. For example, the media spread the establishment’s story that NATO’s buildup of weapons and forces near the Russian border is a reaction to Russian aggression. In its coverage, the media downplayed the U.S. violation of its pledge not to expand NATO ‘one inch’ to the east if the Soviet Union would allow Germany to be reunited. Unfortunately, the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations all violated that pledge. Perhaps the media didn’t think NATO’s expansion to Russian borders might have been viewed as a provocation to Russia.

However, a key insider saw things very differently. In 1996 George Kennan, architect of the containment policy towards the Soviet Union, warned that NATO’s expansion into former Soviet territories would be a “strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions.” In 1998, Thomas Friedman solicited Kennan’s reaction to the Senate’s ratification of NATO’s eastward expansion. Kennan said: ”I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.”

The mainstream U.S. media also downplayed the importance of the U.S. supported 2014 Ukrainian coup, a major provocation that caused Russia to react as Kennan had predicted. Even George Friedman, CEO of Stratfor, a U.S. firm involved in analyzing intelligence, spoke about this coup that the media hailed as a revolution: “It really was the most blatant coup in history.”

The media continues the campaign against Russia by hyping the unsubstantiated claim that the Russian government hacked the Democratic National Committee’s emails and somehow provided the emails to Wikileaks. This problematic charge further bolsters the perception of Russia as our enemy, making the idea of war more palatable.

U.S. ‘Probably Had a Role’ in Mosul Deaths, Commander Says

The senior United States commander in Iraq said on Tuesday that an American airstrike most likely led to the collapse of a building in Mosul that killed scores of civilians this month.

But the commander, Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, indicated that an investigation would also examine whether the attack might have set off a larger blast from explosives set by militants inside the building or nearby.

It was the fullest acceptance of responsibility by an American commander since the March 17 airstrike.

“My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties,” said General Townsend, who commands the American-led task force that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But he asserted that “the munition that we used should not have collapsed an entire building.”
Continue reading the main story

“That is something we have got to figure out,” he added.

U.N. Urges Iraq and Allies to Rethink Tactics as Airstrikes Kill Civilians

Airstrikes against Islamic State fighters are killing so many civilians that Iraq and its American-led coalition of allies should reconsider their tactics, the top human rights official at the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said he did not underestimate the difficulty of rooting out the Islamic State forces from their remaining strongholds in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. But he urged Iraq and the coalition to “undertake an urgent review of tactics to ensure that the impact on civilians is reduced to an absolute minimum.”

There were clear indications that the militants were using large numbers of civilians as human shields, he said, and under those conditions, airstrikes on densely populated areas can have “a lethal and disproportionate impact on civilians.”

The United Nations reported that as of March 22, at least 307 people had been killed and an additional 273 had been wounded in Mosul in a little more than a month, as Iraqi troops pressed their attack on Islamic State forces entrenched in the city.

Russian general claims US-led coalition hit dam in Syria

A senior Russian general on Tuesday accused the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of targeting Syria's infrastructure — including a key dam — in territory held by the Sunni extremist group. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military's General Staff said the coalition was trying to "completely destroy critical infrastructure in Syria and complicate post-war reconstruction as much as possible."

A U.S.-backed Syrian opposition force has insisted it is taking care to preserve vital infrastructure as it steps up military operations in northern Syria ahead of a push on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS group's self-styled caliphate.

Rudskoi further claimed that coalition jets had destroyed four bridges over the Euphrates River in Syria and hit the Tabqa dam to the west of Raqqa. The collapse of the dam would cause an "ecological catastrophe" and lead to "numerous" civilian deaths, he said.

On Monday, the U.S.-led coalition reiterated that it is taking every precaution to ensure the integrity of the dam. "To our knowledge, the dam has not been structurally damaged," it said on its Twitter account.

Guns silent as engineers work to ease pressure on Syrian dam

Syrian engineers worked on Tuesday to open spillways and ease pressure on a major dam across the Euphrates River during a pause in a U.S.-backed assault to capture it from Islamic State (IS) militants, a Reuters witness said. The Tabqa Dam is a key strategic target in the military campaign to isolate and capture the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, Islamic State's biggest urban stronghold. Engineers arrived from the dam's northern entrance, which the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance captured last week. The dam's southern reaches remain in IS hands.

U.S.-led coalition aircraft could be heard overhead as SDF forces manned positions on the dam. Coalition forces in armored vehicles were also seen in the area. Inspections at the dam were being carried out after the Syrian government on Sunday said it had been damaged by U.S. air strikes and could collapse, with the risk of catastrophic flooding. Islamic State said the dam's operating systems were not working properly and it was vulnerable to collapse. ... The main operations buildings for the dam along with its technicians are located on the southern bank controlled by Islamic State.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Doubled Down on Threats to Punish Criticism of Israel

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley repeated her prior threats to punish criticism of Israel on Monday, boasting about creating a climate of fear at the U.N. in which other diplomats are frightened to speak to her about recent efforts to condemn Israel’s illegal colonization of the West Bank.

Haley was addressing the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – the powerful Washington, D.C. lobby whose self-described goal is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Each year, thousands of delegates and students descend on D.C. for the forum, where the most senior politicians of both parties — from presidential candidates to Congressional leadership – often speak.

Haley received thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd, a reception rivaled only by what they gave Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, when he spoke to the conference by satellite. ...

Since her confirmation Haley has moved quickly to silence any criticism of Israel at the U.N. In her first speech at U.N. headquarters in New York, Haley promised to “have the backs of our allies,” and added that “for those who don’t have our back, we’re taking names; we will make points to respond to that accordingly.”

Former Democratic Senators Advised Group Funding Anti-Muslim Extremist Frank Gaffney

America's powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, enlisted the help of one of the nation’s most prominent and extreme anti-Muslim activists, Frank Gaffney, during its 2015 push to sink the Iran nuclear deal. And it did so through an organization staffed by some of the country’s most prominent Democratic consultants and advised by a group of four ex-Senate Democrats.

AIPAC’s funding of Gaffney was uncovered earlier this month by LobeLog’s Eli Clifton. He noticed that a 501(c)(4) dark-money organization called Citizens For a Nuclear Free Iran, or CNFI, which AIPAC created to oppose the Iran deal, gave $60,000 to “Secure Freedom,” a group whose tax ID number identifies it as belonging to Gaffney’s think tank, the Center for Security Policy, or CSP. AIPAC later confirmed to Haaretz that it offered the funding to Gaffney to run ads opposed to the Iran deal. ...

During its failed campaign to sink diplomacy with Iran, CFNI enlisted a gamut of top Democrats. Its advisory board included four Democratic senators-turned-lobbyists: Mark Begich of Alaska, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Former Nevada Democratic congresswoman Shelley Berkley also advised the group.

In addition to Gaffney’s accusations [that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is a covert operative of the Muslim Brotherhood], he has claimed that officials in the U.S. government are waging a “civilizational jihad” to undermine the country from within. Gaffney was even briefly banned from the Conservative Political Action Conference after he accused anti-tax activist Grover Norquist of being part of a purported plot to bring Islamic law to America. His sham polling was also used by then-candidate Donald Trump to justify his call for a total ban on Muslim migration to the United States.

Theresa May has triggered Article 50, and it's anyone's guess what happens next

Nine months after Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union, the big day is finally here. British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the formal process of removing her country from the E.U. Wednesday, which means that Brexit begins now – but what exactly that will mean for the U.K. is still anyone’s guess.

Wednesday marked the beginning of a two-year period of complicated negotiations on the departure, casting the country of 64 million people into the unknown. If no deal is reached on the terms of Britain’s exit and its future relationship with the bloc, the U.K.’s membership will lapse anyway on March 29, 2019. ...

May now faces a formidable challenge in negotiating an exit deal with the remaining 27 E.U. member states on issues like trade and security within a two-year timeframe, while fending off a fresh push for Scottish independence that could fracture the United Kingdom itself.

Anti-abortion activists charged over undercover Planned Parenthood videos

California prosecutors have charged two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood with 15 felonies, saying they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent.

State attorney general Xavier Becerra announced the charges on Tuesday against David Daleiden of Davis, California, and Sandra Merritt of San Jose. The two operate the Irvine-based Center for Medical Progress. The allegations say the pair filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. Becerra says they used a fictitious bioresearch company to meet with women’s healthcare providers and covertly record them. ...

Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead.

Keiser Report: 'The New Detroit'

The beauty pageant to build Trump's border wall is beginning

Wednesday marks the deadline for the hundreds of companies interested in building Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise – a “great, great wall” on the US-Mexico border – to submit concept papers detailing their proposals. It is the first step in a process that promises to combine three of Trump’s most successful ventures: beauty pageants, reality TV competitions and xenophobia.

After an initial elimination round, the remaining contestants will submit more detailed technical proposals. Another round of cuts will ensue, and then a group of finalists will convene in San Diego, California, to construct both a 30ft-long prototype of their design and a 10ft by 10ft “mock-up” that will be used by the government to “test and evaluate the anti-destruct characteristics” of the design.

Think of it as a swimsuit competition followed by a high-stakes Apprentice challenge. Those who can withstand the battering ram for at least 90 minutes while also being “aesthetically pleasing” (on the US-facing side) have a shot at winning a lucrative piece of one of the US government’s largest infrastructure projects in decades.

Senate Republicans pour cold water on talk of reviving healthcare bill

Senate Republicans and the White House sounded ready to abandon efforts to repeal and replace the nation’s healthcare law, at least for now, even as House Republicans insisted on Tuesday they were not ready to give up on their years-long quest.

The intra-party dispute came in the wake of last Friday’s collapse of healthcare legislation in the House, a GOP humiliation at the climactic moment of seven years of promises to get rid of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, made his views clear after a closed-door lunch with fellow Senate Republicans and Vice-President Mike Pence.

“It’s pretty obvious we were not able, in the House, to pass a replacement. Our Democratic friends ought to be pretty happy about that because we have the existing law in place, and I think we’re just going to have to see how that works out,” McConnell said. “We believe it will not work out well, but we’ll see.”

Trumptax might split Republicans just like Trumpcare did

Trumpcare is out, Trumptax is in. That’s the message from the Trump administration and most Republicans in Congress this week in an effort to move on from their failure to achieve consensus on a plan to replace Obamacare last week. ...

Already there is sniping within the Republican conference over House Speaker Paul Ryan’s tax reform proposal. The criticism centers on the border-adjustment tax that would levy a 20 percent tax on imports from all countries, a protectionist measure that would also help pay for other tax cuts. While most members of Congress have yet to take a position, outlines like we saw in the health care debate are already appearing.

Speaker Ryan and some of his close allies, like Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, are again on one side of the debate supporting the tax as President Trump shows openness and mild support. Brady is convening Republicans on his committee Tuesday in the hopes of achieving some consensus.

That may be difficult since conservative groups aligned with GOP mega-donors the Koch brothers, like Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, are against the tax. Republican senators are openly hostile to it. And Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a member of the Freedom Caucus, has said he has a “natural hesitancy” to support the tax.

Democrats, emboldened by Trump’s defeat on health care, again look poised to be unified against Trump tax reform, making Republican unity critical for passage.



the horse race



Cyber Firm Rewrites Part of Disputed Russian Hacking Report

U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has revised and retracted statements it used to buttress claims of Russian hacking during last year's American presidential election campaign. The shift followed a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank.

In December, CrowdStrike said it found evidence that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, contributing to heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine's war with pro-Russian separatists. VOA reported Tuesday that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which publishes an annual reference estimating the strength of world armed forces, disavowed the CrowdStrike report and said it had never been contacted by the company. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense also has stated that the combat losses and hacking never happened.

After CrowdStrike released its Ukraine report, company co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch claimed it provided added evidence of Russian election interference. ... On Thursday, CrowdStrike walked back key parts of its Ukraine report.

Devin Nunes rejects Democrats' calls to quit Trump-Russia investigation

The embattled House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, has refused to recuse himself from the committee’s investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, despite calls from Democrats.

“Why would I?” asked Nunes, who has lost the confidence of the Democrats on the intelligence committee after a series of allegations that they consider a cover-up for the White House. “It’s the same thing as always around this place: a lot of politics, people get heated, but I’m not going to involve myself with that.”

The speaker of the House gave Nunes his full confidence on Tuesday. Asked at a press conference whether he should step down, Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in Congress, responded simply: “No.”

The Surveillance State Behind Russia-gate

Although many details are still hazy because of secrecy – and further befogged by politics – it appears House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was informed last week about invasive electronic surveillance of senior U.S. government officials and, in turn, passed that information onto President Trump. This news presents Trump with an unwelcome but unavoidable choice: confront those who have kept him in the dark about such rogue activities or live fearfully in their shadow. (The latter was the path chosen by President Obama. Will Trump choose the road less traveled?)

What President Trump decides will largely determine the freedom of action he enjoys as president on many key security and other issues. But even more so, his choice may decide whether there is a future for this constitutional republic. Either he can acquiesce to or fight against a Deep State of intelligence officials who have a myriad of ways to spy on politicians (and other citizens) and thus amass derogatory material that can be easily transformed into blackmail. ...

So, were Trump and his associates “wiretapped?” Of course not. Wiretapping went out of vogue decades ago, having been rendered obsolete by leaps in surveillance technology. The real question is: Were Trump and his associates surveilled? Wake up, America. Was no one paying attention to the disclosures from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 when he exposed Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as a liar for denying that the NSA engaged in bulk collection of communications inside the United States.

The reality is that EVERYONE, including the President, is surveilled. The technology enabling bulk collection would have made the late demented FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s mouth water.

At his evening meeting on March 21 at the Old Executive Office Building, Nunes was likely informed that all telephones, emails, etc. – including his own and Trump’s – are being monitored by what the Soviets used to call “the organs of state security.” By sharing that information with Trump the next day – rather than consulting with Schiff – Nunes may have sought to avoid the risk that Schiff or someone else would come up with a bureaucratic reason to keep the President in the dark.



the evening greens


Blacksnake engorging:

Oil is now flowing into the Dakota Access Pipeline under Lake Oahe

Oil is flowing into the Dakota Access Pipeline below Lake Oahe, the main point of contention in a monthslong battle against the controversial project.

“Dakota Access is currently commissioning the full pipeline and is preparing to place the pipeline into service,” the company behind the project states in a status update filed late Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“We estimate that the line-fill process will be complete in the next several weeks, which allow us to put the Dakota Access Pipeline into service,” a spokesperson for Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, told VICE News. Once complete, the $3.8 billion pipeline will move up to 570,000 barrels of oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, says the fight isn’t over yet. “There is still very active litigation and we will be asking the Court to shut it back off,” she told VICE News on Tuesday.

“Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward – we’re not spending money on that anymore. We consider that to be a waste of your money.”

-- White House budget director Mick Mulvaney

Trump Dismantles U.S. Climate Rules, Virtually Ensuring U.S. Will Break Paris Accord Promises

Donald Trump Rewards Fossil Fuel Industry By Signing Climate Denial Executive Order

Trump's executive order issued Tuesday doesn’t just knock over the centerpiece of Obama administration’s efforts to prevent the worst effects of climate change, the Clean Power Plan. It also includes a list of disastrous concessions that the fossil fuel industry and its front groups have worked for years to win.

It orders the Interior Department to end a moratorium on new coal mine leasing on federal land; directs agencies to reconsider rules limiting emissions from hydraulic fracturing; kills guidance requiring climate change be considered in environmental reviews for infrastructure projects; and calls for a re-calculating of the social cost of carbon, which puts a dollar value on what greenhouse gas emissions cost society. Trump’s order also demands federal agencies rethink any policy that stands in the way of energy development and cancels other Obama-era climate efforts such as his Climate Action Plan. ...

Meanwhile, climate and environmental advocates are preparing to stand in the way of Trump via lawsuits and demonstrations. Organizers involved in resisting the Dakota Access pipeline have moved their fight to new spaces, starting a camp in Iowa branded as a “progressive think tank and resistance to the Trump administration.” Camps built to protest the Diamond Pipeline were recently established in Oklahoma. And the renewed fight against the Keystone XL will be infused with energy from Dakota Access veterans.

Ponca Nation member Mekasi Camp Horinek has fought all three pipelines. “I want to say thank you to the president for all the bad decisions that he’s making — for the bad cabinet appointments that he’s made and for awakening a sleeping giant. People that have never stood up for themselves, people that have never had their voices heard, that have never put their bodies on the line are now outraged,” he told The Intercept shortly after Trump signed his order reviving Keystone XL.

“I would like to say thank you to President Trump for his bigotry, for his sexism, for bringing all of us in this nation together to stand up and unite.”

Nuclear Power Suffers Major Blow With Westinghouse Bankruptcy

Major nuclear power company Westinghouse, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday in a massive blow to the industry. The filing marked "a defining moment in the decades-long downward spiral of the global nuclear power industry," wrote Greenpeace Japan in a statement.

"Toshiba/Westinghouse is responsible for building more nuclear reactors worldwide than any other entity," the group observed. "With the financial meltdown of Westinghouse, Toshiba also recently announced its plans to withdraw from foreign construction projects—a move that has far-reaching implications outside Japan and the U.S., such as the construction of three reactors in the U.K. at Moorside."

"We have all but completely pulled out of the nuclear business overseas," Toshiba president Satoshi Tsunakawa said at a news conference, according to the New York Times.

The Times further reports:

The filing comes as the company's corporate parent, Toshiba of Japan, scrambles to stanch huge losses stemming from Westinghouse's troubled nuclear construction projects in the American South. Now, the future of those projects, which once seemed to be on the leading edge of a renaissance for nuclear energy, is in doubt.

"This is a fairly big and consequential deal," said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. "You've had some power companies and big utilities run into financial trouble, but this kind of thing hasn't happened."

"Toshiba/Westinghouse find themselves a victim of their own hubris and a nuclear industry where financial prudence was never a strong point," Greenpeace Germany added in a brief (pdf).

Dead Sea evidence of unprecedented drought is warning for future

Far below the Dead Sea, between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories, researchers have found evidence of a drought that has no precedent in human experience.

From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick, crystalline salt: evidence that 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago, rainfall had been only about one fifth of modern levels. The cause in each case would have been entirely natural. But in the region where human civilisation began, already in the grip of its worst drought for 900 years, it is a reminder of how bad things could get and a guide to how much worse human-induced climate change could become.

“All the observations show this region is one of those most affected by modern climate change and it’s predicted to get dryer. What we showed is that even under natural conditions, it can become much drier than predicted by any of our models,” said Yael Kiro, a geochemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the US. ...

Rainfall in the region has fallen by 10% since 1950, and could continue to fall this century. In Syria, 15 years of drought are thought to have played a part in triggering the cruel civil war that has displaced millions and created a refugee crisis for Europe, and even briefly masked the entire region in an unprecedented dust storm.


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: Trump Declares War on The Planet in Real-Life Remake of The Purge

Body Count for the American Century

Civilians in western Mosul are being shot at by Isis and Iraqi forces alike

How to protect your online history now that Republicans want to let internet providers sell it

Wells Fargo Gets An Additional $110 Million Wrist Slap Over Fake Accounts Scandal

Nearly extinct tigers found breeding in Thai jungle

The Lovings, a marriage that changed history – in pictures


A Little Night Music

Frank Frost - Jelly Roll King

Frank Frost - Pretty Baby

Frank Frost - Scratch My Back

Frank Frost - Ernest's Groove

Frank Frost - Now What You Gonna Do, My Back Scratcher, Never Leave Me At Home

Frank Frost - Unseen Eye

Frank Frost & Sam Carr - Love I Have Is True, Sittin' On Daddy's Knee

Frank Frost - Ride With Your Daddy Tonight

Frank Frost - Now Twist



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During its failed campaign to sink diplomacy with Iran, CFNI enlisted a gamut of top Democrats. Its advisory board included four Democratic senators-turned-lobbyists: Mark Begich of Alaska, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Former Nevada Democratic congresswoman Shelley Berkley also advised the group.

The above illustrates why it serves neoliberals and/or conservadems to stay neoliberal, even if costs them elections under the Harry Truman rule of fake Republicans:* So few people or businesses with big bucks find a need to hire anyone to the left of Lieberman.

If they stay neoliberal, they'll do fine financially, even if they lose an election. They'll head a college or university (Kerrey) or the Motion Picture Association of America (Dodd) or find a slot in a lobbying firm or a think tank or start their own lobbying firms (Daschle, Gephardt) or think tanks. Or get a nice Presidential nomination, when Democrats are in power.

As long as they continue to freeze the left of the left out of holding offices, only neoliberals will have influence-peddling muscle. And as long as neoliberals have influence peddling muscle, they'll do fine, in or out of office.

Have a good one.

*https://caucus99percent.com/content/harry-truman-may-17-1952-americans-d...

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joe shikspack's picture

@HenryAWallace

heh, and with the increasing concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, it becomes easier and easier for the politicians to figure out what they have to do to curry favor and reserve their seat on the gravy train.

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it "Riding The Gravy Train".

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Bollox Ref's picture

than Russia. Again.

(See Demise of King Nicholas I and the House of Petrović-Njegoš, a WWI Allied Power, subsumed into essentially a Greater Serbia.... a not so happy Kingdom of the Southern Slavs.)

(Edited)

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Bollox Ref

Montenegro is more likely to suffer the attentions of Servia than Russia. Again.

(See Demise of the King Nicholas I and the House of Petrović-Njegoš, a WWI Allied Power, subsumed into essentially a Greater Serbia.... a not so happy Kingdom of the Southern Slavs.)

The only place in Europe as badly fucked up as the Levant: the Balkans.

The last time any major power allowed itself to get entangled there, WWI was the result. And WWII was essentially the result of that.

We need to get the fuck out and stay out. We (USA) won't, of course. The US Government is seriously addicted to interventionism, and needs an intervention!

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Bollox Ref's picture

@thanatokephaloides

Allowed the release valve of an independent Albania.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

joe shikspack's picture

@Bollox Ref

the whole region is trouble and there is no good that will come of the us or europe becoming involved. we all saw what happened last time.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Nuclear Power Suffers Major Blow With Westinghouse Bankruptcy
Major nuclear power company Westinghouse, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday in a massive blow to the industry. The filing marked "a defining moment in the decades-long downward spiral of the global nuclear power industry," wrote Greenpeace Japan in a statement.

Thank you for posting that, Joe.

I often got my you-know-what reamed out over at TOP because I'm staunchly anti-nuclear. Nuclear fission power's disadvantages are well known, and sufficiently well rehearsed here at c99p that I don't need to rehash them now. But the blind beLIEvers in nuclear "over there" are many, and they have a disturbing correlation to the blind beLIEvers in Hillary Clinton.

It is a good thing indeed to be able to tell the truth in peace. I can do that here. You do it, too. You can't do it OT.

Thank you!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

divineorder's picture

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides I too had my run ins with the 'trust us' crowd there. Really good to see this!

350 dot org follows

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

great graphic!

i hope that all is well and your travel plans are coming together.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack @joe shikspack

NWS warning last night estimated 60mph gusts and it sounded like it in our old shack here in the TX Hill Country. No real damage, but was a little skeery.

We took a day off from planning and packing to drive into Austin early this am. The clouds in the pre-dawn light over the beautiful hills along the way made one look like a volcano, and as we traveled along we really enjoyed the bluebonnets and other wildflowers. After a major drought for a number of years everything is quite green and allergens are high.

About 30 miles out from Downtown the McMansion developments begin. The beautiful hills are now alive with beeg houses and no longer as lovely as they once were.

We took a relatively new Rapid bus into the Capitol area from the area where my mother used to live and where we knew we could park for free on the street . It was great, paid for it on an app. No hassles with parking.

Looking out on Lady Bird Lake we saw kids out standup paddling. Beautiful scene as always. As we continued along we commented to each other how much infill is STILL going on in Austin. Strip center parking lots are filling up with apartments and condos everywhere one looked. Must be all the wealthy seeking rents.... Meh.

Your quote tonight hit home for me after roaming the halls of the venerable Texas Capital and Annex with 1500 other retired teachers working to protect our pensions and get continued affordable healthcare benefit. God how much money was spent to build that puppy, and how much it must take to cool, heat and secure it?

But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."

Heh, yep, that still nails it. However the quiet was disrupted today by angry and scared retired teachers and you could tell that some Capitol denizens were very unused to this.

Huge shortfall for the health benefit, and a Senate Bill would put forth 311 millon out of cuts to other programs, while a House bill would put forth 500 million which will take some of the state's obscenely huge 'rainy day fund.' Neither will be enough.

Thanks for the EB, have a good evening!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

you could tell that some Capitol denizens were very unused to this

i'm glad that you and your compatriots went to confront your legislators. they are told and they repeat the mantra amongst themselves that it is "interest groups" that organize against their righteous efforts to balance the budget.

when that "interest group" manifests before them as a vast number of greying, aging older folks with fear and anger burning in their eyes - asking why they are being stolen from - it does take these people aback. i'm probably too cynical to suppose that it causes an actual eruption of conscience in politicians when they see that, but one can always hope.

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@joe shikspack Thanks Joe! There is a reason we start packing way in advance..........pack, weigh, make new decisions, stop for a day and then back to making the final pack. Yesterday we took the morning off to do an exercise kayak on the river and it was well worth it to get out in nature! Now doing the advance bill pay and other last minute details but know it will all get done. One of the nice things about going to California to camp and visit relatives is it is a shake-out and we can make sure we have it all and things can be acquired in California that cannot be obtained once in Zambia!

All this said, thanks as usual for all your good work in reporting such a wealth of information five days a week!

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Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

heh, you guys really have your system down. i really admire that. i guess that you get a lot of practice, though. Smile

i'm glad to hear that it is going well. take care, and as always i will look forward to your occasional dispatches from the road.

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joe shikspack's picture

@thanatokephaloides

heh, yes, i remember those guys. i don't miss them.

it has always been pretty obvious to me that nuclear power is enormously expensive and considerably risky. living downstream from three mile island really reinforced that notion for me.

i'm delighted that westinghouse is going down, but i assume that their bankruptcy means that taxpayers and ratepayers are going to get stuck holding the bag for the costs of cleaning up the enormous mess that these carnivorous capitalists have made.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Good evening, joe!

@joe shikspack

i'm delighted that westinghouse is going down, but i assume that their bankruptcy means that taxpayers and ratepayers are going to get stuck holding the bag for the costs of cleaning up the enormous mess that these carnivorous capitalists have made.

And their workers, too. Don't forget them!

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Shockwave's picture

A Scientist Just Spent 2 Hours Debating the Biggest Global Warming Deniers in Congress

At a congressional hearing on climate science Wednesday, Michael Mann lamented that he was the only witness representing the overwhelming scientific consensus that manmade global warming poses a major threat.

"We find ourselves at this hearing today, with three individuals who represent that tiny minority that reject this consensus or downplay its significance, and only one—myself—who is in the mainstream," he said in his opening testimony.

Let's fight back and join the March for Science on April 22.

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The political revolution continues

joe shikspack's picture

@Shockwave

i'm surprised that even one person with a clue is testifying before the current congress on climate change.

i think that a lot of these congressmen need some people to visit their townhalls...

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divineorder's picture

@Shockwave participate.

Another gathering that might be of interest to some since Naomi Klein will be there:

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/29/moving-beyond-resistance-ber...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder @divineorder

Thanks for the article and the mood boost!

On the other hand, the page containing that article led to this (editing to add bolding):

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/03/31/journalists-sue-trump-over-i...

Published on
Friday, March 31, 2017
by
Common Dreams

Journalists Sue Trump Over Inclusion on 'Kill List'

'It is an affront to U.S. values that journalists are living in fear of being killed by U.S. drones, simply for doing their jobs'
by
Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Two journalists have sued President Donald Trump saying they are on the "Kill List"—an "illegal death sentence" that violates their constitutional rights and impedes their professional work, the lawsuit charges.

The plaintiffs are 46-year-old Bilal Abdul Kareem, a U.S. citizen and freelance journalist who reports on the ongoing conflict in Syria. The other, 54-year-old Ahmed Zaidan, is a senior journalist with Al Jazeera and is a Syrian and Pakistani citizen. In 1998 Zaidan was the first journalist to interview Osama Bin Laden, and his work has been featured on CNN and PBS's "Frontline."

The lawsuit (pdf) filed Thursday by human rights organization Reprieve and the Washington, D.C. law firm Lewis Baach in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. argues: "Plaintiffs' inclusion on the Kill List is the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action, accomplished without due process, and in violation of the United States Constitution and U.S. and international law."

Their designation on the list, the suit argues, was due to the fact that their "travel, communications, social media content and contacts, related data, and metadata have been input into 'algorithms' used by the United States to identify terrorists."

And though the two journalists were put on list by President Barack Obama, that list has been inherited by Trump, who "has continued to include them on the Kill List and has, in addition, removed certain restrictions and criteria previously employed in the designation of persons to be included on the Kill List."

But the two have no connections to the September 11 terror attacks, have no association with Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and pose no threat, immediate or otherwise, to the United States, the suit says.

"It is a basic principle of the rule of law that innocent people should not be targeted and killed. This is especially the case with courageous journalists performing an essential function of keeping the public informed," said Jeffrey Robinson, attorney at Lewis Baach.

Outlining the urgency of their plea, the suit states: "During the past year, Kareem has narrowly avoided being killed by five separate air strikes, at least one of which was carried out by a drone."

Their inclusion on the list constitutes a violation of their First Amendment rights; "is a direct result of their activities arising out of and necessary to their work as journalists covering the conflict in Syria, the War on Terror, and other matters"; and has undermined their ability to continue their journalistic work effectively, the suit states.

As a result of the latter, people in the U.S. and beyond are being deprived "of important information and viewpoints about the conflicts in Syria and Pakistan and the War on Terror, interfering with their ability to participate effectively in the ongoing political debate regarding these matters," it adds. ...

Think that last might be the point of this?

But at least more of the ugly is coming out of the woodwork...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Azazello's picture

@Shockwave
Long time no see. Are you still in L.A.?
The best 4 hours on radio is coming up at 6, if you like border music.
Listen live at KXCI.org

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Shockwave's picture

@Azazello Still in LALA Land. ¿Y tu?

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The political revolution continues

karl pearson's picture

@Shockwave Thanks for the info. I signed up for the satellite march in my small city. It's a university town so it should be quite an event. In the 1960's science was the go-to subject when I was in high school. How pathetic that one has to March for Science.

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lotlizard's picture

@karl pearson It was a race with the Soviets on the terrain of science.

Now we have a race among Abrahamic religions on the terrain of mobilizing and weaponizing “true belief” (i.e., that which true believers believe). Science is just one weapon among many in the armory of cultural, racial, and religious identity politics.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

skinny--per a staffer, within the next two weeks, or so, he will come out with a single-payer plan. I was up front, told her about seeing a Tweet that he would propose one, as opposed to a public option plan.

Hat tip to Oldest Son. I used the phone number on the Tweet--it worked!

Two things she wouldn't do was: Comment on any details--said she doesn't know them (very well could be true); and, when I asked her twice if it would be a 'Medicare-For-All' plan--which I defined as a 'buy-in' to the existing Medicare program, perhaps with enhancements--she said that all she can say is that it will be a single-payer plan.

So there. Wink Seriously, it'd be interesting (to me) if someone else cares to call, and see what they're told. At any rate, I look forward to seeing what is put forth. When I get back in from walking 'the B,' if I can find it, I'll post a link to Bernie's proposal from the campaign. (if I can find it, pretty quickly)

Here's an excerpt and a link to a tragic dog story--with a happy ending.

[Warning: The photo slideshow is difficult to look at--especially the photo of her muzzle bound with electrical wire. She lost part of her tongue--which was black--due to blood loss. Happily, other photos are uplifting. She now has a new forever home, but is still somewhat traumatized.]

Dog With Muzzle Bound With Electrical Tape.png
It is believed the dog had her mouth taped shut for as much as 48 hours before she received care at Charleston Animal Society. (Charleston Animal Society)

The Associated Press reports William Dodson's sentence Friday represented the state's maximum for animal cruelty. However, Dodson's sentence for mistreating Caitlyn won't extend his prison time.

The 43-year-old man was sentenced a day earlier in federal court to 15 years on a gun charge stemming from a traffic stop months before Caitlyn was found in spring 2015. Under a plea agreement, the two sentences will run simultaneously.

"I wish I could give you more," Judge Markley Dennis told Dodson in court Friday. . . .

Dodson, who was free on bail from the traffic stop, had chained Caitlyn outside after wrapping her muzzle nine times. But the then 15-month-old Staffordshire bull terrier mix escaped and was found in critical condition.

The tape cut off blood flow to her tongue. Veterinarians at the Animal Society unraveled it after an estimated 36 hours.

"I remember seeing the fear... in her eyes," Roman said. "That was 36 hours of torture." . . .

Everyone have a nice evening!

Bye

[Edited: Corrected typo.]

Mollie


"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive."--Gilda Radner

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

i'll be very interested to see what sanders comes up with, too.

perhaps you might post the phone number or the tweet that contains it?

have a great walk with the b. i'm glad that that poor dog you posted the story about has a real home now.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack Margaret Flowers

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

@divineorder

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

you gotta wonder.

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Azazello's picture

Evening everybody and my condolences, joe. Looks like the Mayor vetoed the minimum wage law. I thought I read that the council has a veto-proof majority, hope that's true.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yc6K4GGwL8 width:500 height:300]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

yeah, jimmy has baltimore's mayor pegged. she's really not that much different from her democratic predecessors. useless to the vast majority of the citizens of baltimore.

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
She's the Chief Executive Officer, not the Mayor. I wish these idiots would figure out that rising wages benefit not just the wage-earners individually but the economy as a whole. I drive around town and I see shuttered businesses and vacant retail space. Supply-side don't seem to be working out so well, let's try demand-side.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

there is a very powerful set of interlocking corporate interests and a party machine that the mayor more or less reports to. it doesn't matter what they promise to get elected, they wind up working for the established power elite.

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divineorder's picture

Looks like the kabuki is about to begin... again...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

The points of my quoted material and commentary on some of these articles will undoubtedly have been better addressed by those more qualified than myself, but just in case:

From the OP:

Cyber Firm Rewrites Part of Disputed Russian Hacking Report

U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has revised and retracted statements it used to buttress claims of Russian hacking during last year's American presidential election campaign. The shift followed a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank.

In December, CrowdStrike said it found evidence that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, contributing to heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine's war with pro-Russian separatists. VOA reported Tuesday that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which publishes an annual reference estimating the strength of world armed forces, disavowed the CrowdStrike report and said it had never been contacted by the company. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense also has stated that the combat losses and hacking never happened.

After CrowdStrike released its Ukraine report, company co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch claimed it provided added evidence of Russian election interference. ... On Thursday, CrowdStrike walked back key parts of its Ukraine report.

So I wonder if the corporate Dems continued to emulate the Bush 2 Admin in torturing the company co-founder until he made up something they figured that could use as an excuse to attack yet another country while enacting 'regime change' of an elected President in their own? (pointed snark)

Again from the OP:

Dead Sea evidence of unprecedented drought is warning for future

Far below the Dead Sea, between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories, researchers have found evidence of a drought that has no precedent in human experience.

From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick, crystalline salt: evidence that 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago, rainfall had been only about one fifth of modern levels. The cause in each case would have been entirely natural. But in the region where human civilisation began, already in the grip of its worst drought for 900 years, it is a reminder of how bad things could get and a guide to how much worse human-induced climate change could become.

“All the observations show this region is one of those most affected by modern climate change and it’s predicted to get dryer. What we showed is that even under natural conditions, it can become much drier than predicted by any of our models,” said Yael Kiro, a geochemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the US. ...

Rainfall in the region has fallen by 10% since 1950, and could continue to fall this century. In Syria, 15 years of drought are thought to have played a part in triggering the cruel civil war that has displaced millions and created a refugee crisis for Europe, and even briefly masked the entire region in an unprecedented dust storm.

Yup, global dimming - whether caused by massive volcanic eruptions, meteor strikes, nuclear war using multiple powerful modern bombs - or the lucrative massive pumping of industrial pollutants such as sulfites (think acid rain) into the stratosphere, to further dim already reduced sunlight required by life on the planet, destroy the ozone layer protecting us from fatal radiation, continuously rain down toxic industrial pollutants to acidify soil and water and to poison life and all below and to create a greenhouse warming effect being termed 'geoengineering' which the Trump admin is all in for officially making the American public fund (as I recall, Congress had previously been appealed to for the companies already doing such things 'experimentally' to be paid for this) - brings drought and massive die-off, which was indeed previously survived by some small remaining life in the fecund and un-weakened-by-industrial-pollution global ecologies of much earlier times.

However, there is already an accelerating die-off of the complex and interdependent life support system occurring in a situation where it now seems virtually undeniable that a relatively small group of pathological billionaires and their currently useful lackeys are trying to kill off all non-patented life, not realizing that they're included in this category no matter how much nanotech they might have patched into their brains/bodies or how much investment and fantasizing is conducted by them and those profiting from this about their become unliving 'immortal' robots or computer programs and somehow mysteriously not dying with their bodies.

Again from the OP:

' Major nuclear power company Westinghouse, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday in a massive blow to the industry. The filing marked "a defining moment in the decades-long downward spiral of the global nuclear power industry," wrote Greenpeace Japan in a statement.

"Toshiba/Westinghouse is responsible for building more nuclear reactors worldwide than any other entity," the group observed. "With the financial meltdown of Westinghouse, Toshiba also recently announced its plans to withdraw from foreign construction projects—a move that has far-reaching implications outside Japan and the U.S., such as the construction of three reactors in the U.K. at Moorside."

"We have all but completely pulled out of the nuclear business overseas," Toshiba president Satoshi Tsunakawa said at a news conference, according to the New York Times. ...'

I wonder if this was strategic to avoid massive lawsuits for ruining an entire ocean - along with a lot of government/corporate media downplaying/propaganda and claims that any level of such radiation is 'safe' and even that it cannot become concentrated going up the food chain.

Some scientific concerns and facts known (best read in full at source, if possible) in 2011:

http://e360.yale.edu/features/radioactivity_in_the_ocean_diluted_but_far...

Published at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Fukushima
Radioactivity in the Ocean: Diluted, But Far from Harmless

With contaminated water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear complex continuing to pour into the Pacific, scientists are concerned about how that radioactivity might affect marine life. Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs are that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local food chain.

By Elizabeth Grossman • April 7, 2011

... Buessler and other experts say this much is clear: Both short-lived radioactive elements, such as iodine-131, and longer-lived elements — such as cesium-137, with a half-life of 30 years — can be absorbed by phytoplankton, zooplankton, kelp, and other marine life and then be transmitted up the food chain, to fish, marine mammals, and humans. Other radioactive elements — including plutonium, which has been detected outside the Fukushima plant — also pose a threat to marine life. ...

... Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the resulting damage to the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, huge quantities of water have been poured on four stricken reactors to keep them cool. Thousands of tons of radioactively contaminated water have then been released from the Fukushima complex into the ocean. And even though the Japanese this week stopped a leak of highly radioactive material from the badly damaged Reactor No. 2, the water used to cool the reactor cores continues to flow into the sea. In addition, atmospheric fallout from the damaged reactors is contaminating the ocean as prevailing winds carry radioactivity out over the Pacific.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has reported that seawater containing radioactive iodine-131 at 5 million times the legal limit has been detected near the plant. According to the Japanese news service, NHK, a recent sample also contained 1.1 million times the legal level of radioactive cesium-137.

Studies from previous releases of nuclear material in the Irish, Kara and Barents Seas, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, show that such radioactive material does travel with ocean currents, is deposited in marine sediment, and does climb the marine food web. In the Irish Sea — where the British Nuclear Fuels plant at Sellafield in the northwestern United Kingdom released radioactive material over many decades, beginning in the 1950s — studies have found radioactive cesium and plutonium concentrating significantly in seals and porpoises that ate contaminated fish. Other studies have shown that radioactive material from Sellafield and from the nuclear reprocessing plant at Cap de la Hague in France have been transported to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. A study published in 2003 found that a substantial part of the world’s radioactive contamination is in the marine environment. ...

... A lack of comprehensive studies by the Russians in the areas where nuclear waste was dumped also has hampered understanding. Two events in the early 1990s — a die-off of seals in the Barents Sea and White Sea from blood cancer, and the deaths of millions of starfish, shellfish, seals and porpoises in the White Sea — have been variously attributed by Russian scientists to pollution or nuclear contamination. ...

... Radioactive iodine is taken up by the thyroid in humans and marine mammals — or in the case of fish, thyroid tissue — and is also readily absorbed by seaweed and kelp. Cesium acts like potassium and is taken up by muscle. Cesium would tend to stay in solution and can eventually end up in marine sediment where, because of its long half life, it will persist for years. Because marine organisms use potassium they can also take up cesium. “Cesium behaves like potassium, so would end up in all marine life,” said Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Maryland. “It certainly will have an effect.” ...

... Tom Hei, professor of environmental sciences and vice-chairman of radiation oncology at Columbia University, explained that the mechanisms that determine how an animal takes in radiation are the same for fish as they are for humans. Once in the body — whether inhaled or absorbed through gills or other organs — radiation can make its way into the bloodstream, lungs, and bony structures, potentially causing death, cancer, or genetic damage. Larger animals tend to more sensitive to radiation than smaller ones. Yet small fish, mollusks and crustaceans, as well as plankton and phytoplankton, can absorb radiation, said Poston. ...

... A 1999 study found that seals and porpoises in the Irish Sea concentrated radioactive cesium by a factor of 300 relative to its concentration in seawater, and a factor of 3 to 4 compared to the fish they ate. ...

...“This is not an imminent health concern, but we haven’t seen the end of it,” said Theo Theofanous, professor of chemical and mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it is not conducting any monitoring of the marine environment for radiation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is monitoring airborne radiation, but its spokespeople were unable to say whether the EPA was monitoring the marine environment as well.

Experts such as Buesseler of Woods Hole, as well as activists like Beránek, said an international effort should quickly be launched to sample and measure radionuclides in the ocean, seafloor, and marine life, with close attention paid to which direction ocean currents can be expected to transport water potentially contaminated by Fukushima.

Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health, and other books. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Salon, The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Grist, and other publications.

NBC's version 2 years later:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/fukushimas-radioactive-ocean-plume-due-re...

Science
Aug 31 2013, 1:49 pm ET
Fukushima’s radioactive ocean plume due to reach US waters in 2014

by Jeremy Hsu

A radioactive plume of water in the Pacific Ocean from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, will likely reach U.S. coastal waters starting in 2014, according to a new study. The long journey of the radioactive particles could help researchers better understand how the ocean’s currents circulate around the world.

Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016. Luckily, two ocean currents off the eastern coast of Japan — the Kuroshio Current and the Kuroshio Extension — has diluted the radioactive material so much that its concentration fell well below the World Health Organization’s safety levels within four months of the Fukushima incident. But it could have been a different story if nuclear disaster struck on the other side of Japan....

2 years prior,even here seeing some downplaying regarding bioaccumulation, it seems:

http://www.livescience.com/19419-fukushima-radiation-pacific-ocean.html

Fukushima Radiation Tracked Across Pacific Ocean
Jesse Emspak, Live Science Contributor April 2, 2012

Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found in tiny sea creatures and ocean water some 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of Japan, revealing the extent of the release and the direction pollutants might take in a future environmental disaster.

In some places, the researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered cesium radiation hundreds to thousands of times higher than would be expected naturally, with ocean eddies and larger currents both guiding the "radioactive debris" and concentrating it.

With these results, detailed today (April 2) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team estimates it will take at least a year or two for the radioactive material released at Fukushima to get across the Pacific Ocean. And that information is useful when looking at all the other pollutants and debris released as a result of the tsunami that destroyed towns up and down the eastern coast of Japan. ...

... The drifters are tracked via GPS, showing the direction of currents over a period of about five months. Meanwhile, the team also took samples of zooplankton (tiny floating animals) and fish, measuring the concentration of radioactive cesium in the water.

Small amounts of radioactive cesium-137, which takes about 30 years for half the material to decay (called its half-life), would be expected in the water, largely left over from atmospheric nuclear tests in the 1960s and the Chernobyl accident in 1986. But the expedition scientists found nearly equal parts of both cesium-137 and cesium-134, which has a half-life of only two years. Any "naturally" occurring cesium-134 would be long gone.

Naturally, the oceans hold about 1-2 becquerels (Bq) of radioactivity per cubic meter of water, where a becquerel is one decay per second. The researchers found hundreds to thousands of times more, with up to 3,900 Bq per cubic meter in areas closer to the shore, and 325 Bq in sites as far as 372 miles (600 km) away.

Currents and eddies

Ocean phenomena, big and small, also affected the radiation spread. For instance, the team found that the Kuroshio Current, which runs roughly east-northeast from the south of Japan toward the Aleutians, acts as a kind of boundary for the spread of radioactive material, even as it also pushes a lot of it away from the coast. In addition, eddy currents that arise at the edge of the Kuroshio caused the cesium and other radioactive pollutants to reach higher concentrations in some places closer to the coast, carrying some of the drifters toward populated areas south of Fukushima.

"It's [an] interesting thing to think about, as the concentrations vary by a factor of 3,000," Buesseler said. "With what we knew about transport prior to this work, you wouldn't know why it is so different."

The team also looked at the amounts of cesium isotopes in the local sea life, including zooplankton, copepods (tiny crustaceans), shrimp and fish. They found both cesium-137 and cesium-134 in the animals, sometimes at concentrations hundreds of times that of the surrounding water. Average radioactivity was about 10 to 15 Bq per kilogram, depending on whether it was zooplankton or fish (concentrations were lowest in the fish). [Image Gallery: Freaky Fish]

Even so, Buesseler said, the radioactivity levels are still below what is allowed in food in Japan, which is 500 Bq per kilogram of "wet" weight. And while cesium was present in the fish, it doesn't accumulate up the food chain the way polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or mercury do. Mercury and PCBs tend to stay in an animal's tissues for long periods, so when a tuna eats smaller fish, it takes in all the chemicals those small fish have eaten. Cesium tends to be excreted from animals much faster.

The WHOI expedition calculated that some 1.9 petabecquerels — or 1.9 million billion becquerels total — were in the stretch of ocean studied. The total released by the Fukushima accident was much greater, but a lot of the radionuclides were dispersed by the time of the sampling in June. ...

Yet radiation was continuing to be pumped into the ocean and there is no room for storage of the radioactive cooling water nor any such thing as 'safe' storage over eternity - and I've read - posted right here on C-9, if I recall correctly - that not only are the hastily-manufactured containers corroding but that the instant the cooling fails, a massive, unstoppable nuclear meltdown explodes into being...

(Best read in full at source, if the device used permits.)
http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/radioactive-water-from-fukushima-is-syst...

Posted by Michael Snyder
Date: August 09, 2013

Right now, a massive amount of highly radioactive water is escaping into the Pacific Ocean from the ruins of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan. This has been going on all day, every day for more than two years. The enormous amounts of tritium, cesium and strontium that are being released are being carried by wind, rain and ocean currents all over the northern Hemisphere. And of course the west coast of the United States is being hit particularly hard. When you drink water or eat seafood that has been contaminated with these radioactive particles, they can stick around for a very long time. Over the coming years, this ongoing disaster could potentially affect the health of millions upon millions of people living in the northern hemisphere, and the sad thing is that a lot of those people will never even know the true cause of their health problems. ...

...This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.

The amount of water that we are talking about is absolutely enormous. According to Yahoo, 400 metric tons of water is being pumped into the basements of destroyed buildings at Fukushima every single day…

The utility pumps out some 400 metric tons a day of groundwater flowing from the hills above the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the basements of the destroyed buildings, which mixes with highly irradiated water that is used to cool the reactors in a stable state below 100 degrees Celsius.

Tepco is trying to prevent groundwater from reaching the plant by building a “bypass” but recent spikes of radioactive elements in sea water has prompted the utility to reverse months of denials and finally admit that tainted water is reaching the sea.

And of course all of that water has to go somewhere. For a long time Tepco tried to deny that it was getting into the ocean, but now they are finally admitting that it is…

Tepco said on Friday that a cumulative 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium had probably leaked into the sea since the disaster. The company said this was within legal limits.

Tritium is far less harmful than cesium and strontium, which have also been released from the plant. Tepco is scheduled to test strontium levels next.

40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean?

And that is what they are publicly admitting. The reality is probably far worse.

And all of that tritium is going to be around for a very long time. You see, the truth is that tritium has a half-life of about 12 years. ...

But strontium is even worse. ...

...And now Tepco is admitting that extremely dangerous levels of strontium have been escaping from Fukushima and getting into the underground water. And of course the underground water flows out into the Pacific Ocean… ...

...Cesium has an even longer half-life than strontium does. It has a half life of about 30 years, and according to samples that were taken about a month ago levels of cesium at Fukushima have been spiking dramatically…

Samples taken on Monday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than they were on Friday, at 9000 becquerels per litre, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) revealed.

Levels of caesium-137 stood at 18 000 becquerels per litre, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said.

“We still don’t know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination,” a Tepco spokesperson stated.

When cesium gets into your body, it can do a tremendous amount of damage. The following is an excerpt from a NewScientist article that described what happens when cesium and iodine enter the human body…

Moreover the human body absorbs iodine and caesium readily. “Essentially all the iodine or caesium inhaled or swallowed crosses into the blood,” says Keith Baverstock, former head of radiation protection for the World Health Organization’s European office, who has studied Chernobyl’s health effects.

Iodine is rapidly absorbed by the thyroid, and leaves only as it decays radioactively, with a half-life of eight days. Caesium is absorbed by muscles, where its half-life of 30 years means that it remains until it is excreted by the body. It takes between 10 and 100 days to excrete half of what has been consumed.

And it is important to keep in mind that it has been estimated that each spent fuel pool at the Fukushima nuclear complex could have 24,000 times the amount of cesium that was produced by the nuclear bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War 2.

Overall, the Fukushima nuclear facility originally contained a whopping 1760 tons of nuclear material.

That is a massive amount of nuclear material. Chernobyl only contained 180 tons.

And of course the crisis at Fukushima could be made even worse at any moment by a major earthquake. In fact, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on Sunday.

This is a nightmare that has no end. Every single day, massive amounts of highly radioactive water from Fukushima is systematically poisoning the entire Pacific Ocean. The damage that is being done is absolutely incalculable.

Please share this article with as many people as you can. The mainstream media does not seem to want to talk about this, but it is a matter that is extremely important to every man, woman and child living in the northern hemisphere of our planet.

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and has a law degree and an LLM from the University of Florida Law School. He is an attorney that has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington D.C. and who now spends his time researching and writing and trying to wake the American people up. You can follow his work on The Economic Collapse blog, End of the American Dream and The Truth Wins. His new novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

Posting, fast - internet being shut down.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.