The Evening Blues - 4-19-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lucky Peterson

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues musician and multi-instrumentalist Lucky Peterson. Enjoy!

Lucky Peterson - I'm Ready

“In accordance with the prevailing conceptions in the U.S., there is no infringement on democracy if a few corporations control the information system: in fact, that is the essence of democracy. In the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the leading figure of the public relations industry, Edward Bernays, explains that “the very essence of the democratic process” is “the freedom to persuade and suggest,” what he calls “the engineering of consent.” “A leader,” he continues, “frequently cannot wait for the people to arrive at even general understanding … Democratic leaders must play their part in … engineering … consent to socially constructive goals and values,” applying “scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs”; and although it remains unsaid, it is evident enough that those who control resources will be in a position to judge what is “socially constructive,” to engineer consent through the media, and to implement policy through the mechanisms of the state. If the freedom to persuade happens to be concentrated in a few hands, we must recognize that such is the nature of a free society.”

-- Noam Chomsky


News and Opinion

A report from the factory floor where the sausage is shoved into skins and the consent is manufactured:

Out of 26 Major Editorials on Trump’s Syria Strikes, Zero Opposed

A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the US by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war.

This is fairly consistent with editorial support for Trump’s April 2017 airstrikes against the Syrian government, which saw only one editorial out of 47 oppose the bombing (FAIR.org, 4/11/17). The single paper of dissent from last year, the Houston Chronicle, didn’t publish an editorial on last week’s bombing.

Seven of the top 10 newspapers by circulation— USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and Washington Post — supported the airstrikes. The New York Daily News and San Jose Mercury News offered no opinion, while the New York Times (4/13/18) was ambiguous — mostly lamenting the lack of congressional approval, but not saying that this meant the strikes were illegal or unwise. “Legislation should…set limits on a president’s ability to wage war against states like Syria,” is the Times’ conclusion. A complete list of editorials on the airstrikes can be viewed here.

Almost every editorial spoke in the same Official, Serious tone that demanded “action” be taken and “international norms” be “enforced.” Some, such as the Wall Street Journal (4/16/18), went further, insisting on a wider war against the Syrian regime, Iran and/or Russia in vague but menacing terms. ...

None of the top 100 newspapers questioned the US’s legal or moral right to bomb Syria, and all accepted US government claims to be neutral arbiters of “international law.”

Normalize Peace

Until war has been normalized for you, it’s the most insane thing that anyone could possibly imagine. We arrive in this world innocent and untarnished by propaganda and cultural mind viruses, but we are indoctrinated into a profoundly sick way of functioning before our capacity for abstract thought is anywhere close to being fully formed. And before we know it many of us find ourselves answering a child’s “Why?” questions about war with a shrug and a “That’s how it’s always been.”

And now we have groups that have a historical tradition of opposing the agendas of the US-centralized war machine actively cheerleading for escalations against Russia and regime change in Syria. Trump’s hawkish maneuvers against Russia, already far in excess of any ever undertaken by Obama, are being condemned by Democratic party leaders as grossly inadequate. Even some proper leftists who claim to oppose the predatory capitalism of the neocon centrists are now actively cheerleading for the longstanding CIA agenda of regime change in Syria. The obvious reality has been obscured that US military interventionism in the modern world is literally always disastrous, literally never helpful, literally always extremely profitable for military-industrial complex plutocrats, and literally always based on lies. ...

We need to de-normalize war. When we see talking heads promoting a sequel to the Iraq invasion with Iraq’s next-door neighbor, we should all be recoiling with horror in the same way we would if they were promoting cannibalism or pedophilia. History has taught us beyond a doubt that saying humanitarian problems can be solved with US military interventionism is like saying a crumbling building can be fixed with TNT, and we should respond to such claims accordingly.

These people are not promoting a differing political ideology, they are promoting death, destruction, destabilization and terrorism. The resurfacing of longstanding neoconservative agendas should be met with nothing other than rejection and revulsion.

Officials Confirm That Trump Bombed Syria to Validate His Tweets

Last week, the United States launched an act of war against a sovereign government because failing to do so would have cast doubt on the credibility of the statements that Donald Trump makes while livetweeting Fox & Friends. That may sound like hyperbolic snark, or the premise of an Andy Borowitz column, but it is a plain description of the rationale behind last Friday’s missile strikes in Syria, according to multiple military and administration officials.

As the New York Times reports:

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged President Trump to get congressional approval before the United States launched airstrikes against Syria last week, but was overruled by Mr. Trump, who wanted a rapid and dramatic response, military and administration officials said.

Mr. Trump, the officials said, wanted to be seen as backing up a series of bellicose tweets with action, but was warned that an overly aggressive response risked igniting a wider war with Russia.

… Mr. Trump’s drumbeat of threats last week of a sharp response to the suspected gas attacks all but guaranteed that the United States military would strike Syria, according to two Defense Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity … Mr. Trump did not necessarily want to hit Syria hard enough to bring Russia into the war, administration officials said. But he did want to appear aggressive in his response.

Just days before the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Trump had called for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria. At that point, Assad was already (allegedly) using chemical weapons on a routine basis. No significant facts on the ground changed between when the president wanted to remove every last American soldier from Syria, and when he wanted to escalate U.S. intervention against Assad. What did change were Fox News’ programming decisions.

Unlike Assad’s [they forgot the "alleged" here. - js] typical war crimes, the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma produced dead bodies that weren’t too mutilated to be aired extensively on American cable news channels. Trump reportedly saw those images and felt moved to assert American power. He then, ostensibly, saw a Fox & Friends segment in which Russia was portrayed as challenging his authority to assert that power. He tweeted a rebuke. And thus, America went to war. ...

It was, of course, absurd for the man who had campaigned in support of torture, banning Syrian refugees — and deliberately targeting the families of enemy combatants for execution — to justify air strikes in Syria on humanitarian grounds. But it was also (less gratuitously) absurd for Barack Obama to issue similarly moralistic condemnations of chemical warfare as such, while his administration allowed U.S. troops to deploy white phosphorus in Afghanistan — and helped its Saudi allies to commit war crimes in Yemen. It is insane that Trump launched a strategically incoherent military intervention for the sole purpose of projecting an image of strength to a domestic audience — but it was also insane for Lyndon Johnson to escalate American involvement in Vietnam for much the same reason.

Rashid Khalidi: Ending the Proxy Wars in Syria is Key to De-escalating Deadly Conflict

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Warns Corker-Kaine AUMF Would Expand, Not Curb, Trump's Ability To Wage Endless War

Joining others who have already made their opposition clear, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)—who in 2001 was the sole member of Congress to vote against the original Authorization for Use of Military Force in the wake of the the 9/11 attacks—is raising her voice once more against a bi-partisan proposal introduced this week that she says would only strengthen, not curb, the "blank check for war" that Congress has bestowed on the president.

Saying she has "grave concerns" about the bill introduced by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lee on Tuesday warned it "would continue all current military operations, allow any president to unilaterally expand our wars, and effectively consent to endless war by omitting any sunset date or geographic constraints for our ongoing operations."

Read the text of the bill—officially titled "The Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2018"—here (pdf).

According to Lee, the legislation actually "further limits Congress's role in warmaking by requiring a veto-proof majority to block military action from the president."

Not alone in her opposition, Amnesty International on Tuesday also came out strongly against the Corker-Kaine bill.

"Since 2001, the U.S. has been operating as if the world is a permanent battlefield, at the costs of thousands of lives, including large numbers of civilians," the group declared. "Despite this, President Trump has reportedly expanded authority for air strikes outside of war zones, and expressed shockingly callous disregard for civilian casualties. The last thing President Trump needs is a renewed open-ended authorization that gives him a blank check to perpetuate endless war, which is exactly what this proposed bill represents."


UN Security Team Delays Inspectors Entrance to Douma for ‘Safety’

The UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) continues to prevent chemical inspectors from entering Douma for their investigation, citing safety concerns. They have offered no timetable for when the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors will be allowed in.

The OPCW inspectors did not visit Monday, and there were many allegations exchanged as to why. Though British officials blamed Russia for the delay, it is now clear that the UNDSS is driving the scheduling.

The UNDSS team visited two sites in Douma, but fled both times. In the first case, they claimed there was a large crowd there, and they were concerned about safety. At the second site there was a report of an explosion nearby, and claimed to have come under small arms fire by some unknown faction. No UN workers were injured, though one Syrian was said to have sustained light injuries working in a security capacity.

No Proof Assad Used Chemical Weapons - But US & UK Did Use Them In Iraq

Before launching Tomahawk missiles at targets in Damascus, let's first of all arrest Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Gordon Brown and Condoleezza Rice. Get them in chains and hand down the indictments. Do it now because while there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE to support the claims that Bashar al-Assad's military used chemical weapons in Douma last weekend or ever, we KNOW that the US and the UK used chemical weapons in Iraq. The first battle of Fallujah in April 2004 was a month long bombardment, during which US forces failed to take the city. The second battle, in November that year, destroyed the city. To justify the breathtaking carnage and loss of life, the liars said that Fallujah was an insurgent stronghold. The US and UK forces deployed white phosphorus shells and Depleted Uranium weapons. A year earlier (2003), when told that Iraq had complained about the use of Depleted Uranium munitions, Colonel James Naughton of U.S. Army Material Command stated in a Pentagon briefing that “They want it to go away because we kicked the crap out of the them. What a psychopath.

A 2010 study into the effects of these weapons on Fallujah concluded that increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the city exceeded those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Still think we're the good guys, the righteous ones? More than 300,000 Depleted Uranium rounds were fired on the city, some of them from British tanks. It was unimaginably evil. The brilliant journalist Robert Fisk visited Fallujah for The Independent newspaper in 2012. He produced a special report on the legacy of the bombardment of the city and how large numbers of babies were being born with horrific deformities in the hospital there.

Keiser Report: Healthcare as The New Oil

Tortured, Mentally Ill Guantánamo Prisoner Asks Court to Be Repatriated to Saudi Arabia

A mentally ill prisoner who U.S. officials have admitted to torturing at Guantánamo Bay will have a hearing in federal court this week that could lead to his repatriation to Saudi Arabia. Since being captured in Afghanistan by U.S. forces in 2002, Mohammed al-Qahtani has been held at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay on allegations of having ties to high-ranking members of Al Qaeda. During the time he spent in U.S. custody, he was subjected to some of the most extreme forms of torture authorized by the U.S. government in the post-9/11 era. In 2009, a senior Bush administration legal official at Guantánamo decided that Qahtani could not be tried by the prison’s military commission, thanks to a regime of torture that had left him in “life-threatening condition.”

In the hearing, due to be held at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this Thursday, lawyers for Qahtani plan to ask for his current condition to be formally examined by a mixed medical commission, a group of neutral doctors intended to evaluate prisoners of war for repatriation. That commission could potentially order the government to release him from custody and return him home to Saudi Arabia, based on their evaluation of his mental and physical state.

“The government knew from very early in his detention that this man was manifesting serious psychiatric conditions,” said Ramzi Kassem, Qahtani’s lawyer and a City University of New York law professor. “As early as 2002, a senior FBI official reported observing ‘behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma’ in Mr. Qahtani, like ‘talking to nonexistent people, reportedly hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end.’” Kassem went on, “That was before the worst phase of torture in U.S. custody, which only compounded those conditions. Torture can make a sane person lose their mind, but for someone who had documented mental health issues going back to the age of 8, this treatment was even more harmful.” ...

Under the George W. Bush administration, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed off on the torture regimen used against Qahtani at Guantánamo Bay. Rumsfeld notoriously scribbled a note in the margins of a memo authorizing the use of a number of torture techniques on Qahtani suggesting that the terms should be made harsher. In 2008, during his sixth year of U.S. detention at Guantánamo Bay, Qahtani attempted to kill himself after being informed that he may face charges that would carry the death penalty.

The U.S. government claims that during interrogation sessions Qahtani confessed to a range of crimes related to his support of Al Qaeda, while also providing information that incriminated other Guantánamo detainees. Media reports have occasionally described Qahtani as the “20th hijacker” in the 9/11 attacks, based on an aborted attempt he made to enter the country in August 2001. Qahtani later repudiated confessions that he made under torture about his and other detainees’ links to Al Qaeda.

Family of Afghan man tortured by CIA demands US reveal location of his body

It took almost 15 years for Gul Rahman’s family to receive a direct acknowledgment that he had been killed in a secret CIA interrogation facility in Afghanistan. Now the family is pressing the United States to disclose what happened to his remains. A Freedom of Information Act (Foia) request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the family seeks “information on what agents of the United States did with the body of Mr Gul Rahman, an Afghan citizen, following his death in CIA custody in November 2002”.

Rahman disappeared in October 2002, when the family was living in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. He was delivered to a clandestine CIA prison near Kabul known as “the Salt Pit”, where he endured more than three weeks of interrogation that included being doused with frigid water and shackled naked or in a diaper for days in stress positions.

He was discovered dead in his cell on 20 November 2002, after being restrained overnight on the concrete floor on a night when the outside temperature dropped below freezing.

Gul Rahman’s family, represented by his nephew Obaid Ullah, filed a lawsuit in 2015 alongside two surviving former Salt Pit prisoners against James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, the two contract psychologists who designed the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program”. A settlement reached in that lawsuit last year included a statement confirming that “Gul Rahman was subjected to abuses in the CIA program that resulted in his death and pain and suffering to his family”.

But the settlement left unresolved the mystery of what happened to Gul Rahman’s remains. Internal CIA investigations produced for the lawsuit recorded that the CIA ordered a freezer to preserve the body for an autopsy, and summarized an autopsy report that listed the likely cause of death as hypothermia. No records relating to the disposition of Rahman’s remains have been released. The Geneva Conventions and other international treaties require that prisoners who die in custody in wartime be buried in marked graves, that the graves’ locations be recorded in a registry, and that their families be notified and allowed access to the gravesites when hostilities end.

Former Gitmo Prisoner Moazzam Begg Explains How Torture & U.S.-Run Prisons Helped Give Birth to ISIS

A 'Defining Moment' to Stand Against Torture as Human Rights Groups Demand Senate Reject Gina Haspel for CIA

As Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's pick to head the CIA, continues to face intense scrutiny over her "central" role in the Bush administration's torture regime ahead of her May 9 Senate hearing, more than 40 national human rights and civil liberties organizations sent a letter (pdf) to every U.S. senator on Thursday demanding that they refuse to confirm an author of "one of the darkest chapters in American history."

"Ms. Haspel chose to embrace a program that, as she knew better than most, was brutally dismantling other human beings both physically and psychologically," observes the coalition of groups, which includes CodePink, the Arab American Institute, and Peace Action.

"If the Trump White House is going to tell the next CIA director to bring back 'enhanced interrogation,' such orders are most likely to issue in the wake of another national crisis, and again be accompanied by purported legal justification. In those circumstances, why would members expect Ms. Haspel to choose differently?" the groups add. The letter goes on to note that Trump "has openly advocated for torture on multiple occasions," signalling his willingness to resurrect the CIA program, which remains shrouded in secrecy years after it was officially shut down.

Despite this secrecy, extensive reporting and accounts from former CIA officials indicate that, as an intelligence officer, Haspel played a key role in the torture program and later destruction of evidence. "To the best of my understanding, she ran the interrogation program," one former CIA official told The Daily Beast. "Her becoming director absolutely terrifies me. Once I heard her name, I immediately thought, 'Oh, God.'" ...

"This is a defining moment," the letter concludes. "We urge you to oppose Gina Haspel’s nomination for CIA director."

North Korea wants total denuclearisation, says Seoul

North Korea has expressed a desire for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula without attaching preconditions such as the withdrawal of US troops, the South Korean president has said. The statement, unconfirmed by North Korea, comes before a summit between the leaders of the two countries on 27 April, to be followed in May or June by a meeting between Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, and Donald Trump.

The US president on Wednesday pledged to meet Kim “in the coming weeks” but said he was prepared to walk away if the talks were not fruitful. The key question at any summit between Trump and Kim is whether the North Korean leader is serious about dismantling his regime’s nuclear weapons, and what he would demand from the US in return.

The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, told reporters that North Korea had not “attached any conditions that the US cannot accept, such as the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. All they are expressing is the end of hostile policies against North Korea, followed by a guarantee of security.”

Black men arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks feared for their lives

Two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks said they were just waiting for a business meeting – and a week later still wonder how that could have escalated into a police encounter that left them fearing for their lives. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson spoke to the Associated Press in their first interview since video of their 12 April arrests went viral.

Robinson said he thought about his loved ones and how the afternoon had taken such a turn as he was taken to jail. Nelson wondered if he would make it home alive. “Anytime I’m encountered by cops, I can honestly say it’s a thought that runs through my mind,” Nelson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.” ...

Police this week released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrest. In it, a woman is heard saying the men refused to “make a purchase or leave”. Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn’t use the restroom because he wasn’t a paying customer.

He thought nothing of it when he and Robinson, his business partner, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting. A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police walked into the coffee shop until officers started walking in their direction. “That’s when we knew she called the police on us,” Nelson said.

Nelson and Robinson, black men who became best friends in the fourth grade, were taken in handcuffs from the Starbucks in Philadelphia’s tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, where Robinson has been a customer since he was 15.

Philadelphia Starbucks only took 2 minutes before calling the cops on 2 black men

The two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last week for “trespassing” said the manager didn’t waste any time calling the cops on them.

Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson told their story on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Thursday, saying it was only two minutes after they entered the shop that the manager called 911 on them for trespassing. Several cops arrived and took them out in handcuffs, and it was captured on customer video that went viral, sparking several days of protests outside the shop and online. ...

The two men also told “Good Morning America” that they weren’t read their Miranda rights when the cops arrested them. Philadelphia Police Officer Eric Mclaurin told VICE News on Thursday that the department has no comment on the issue. ...

Cell phone video of the incident has amassed over 11 million views on Twitter, leading to multiple protests and a condemnation from Philly Mayor Jim Kenney. Starbucks released a public apology, and its CEO Kevin Johnson met with the mayor, community leaders, and Nelson and Robinson earlier this week to apologize on behalf of the company, according to a press release. The chain is also planning to conduct racial bias training for all employees. ...

Social media users have been using the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks since the incident came to light, and the city’s mayor called it an example of “what racial discrimination looks like in 2018.

Amazon Gets Huge Subsidies to Provide Good Jobs — but It’s a Top Employer of SNAP Recipients in at Least Five States

Later this year, Amazon will begin accepting grocery orders from customers using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal anti-poverty program formerly known as food stamps. As the nation’s largest e-commerce grocer, Amazon stands to profit more than any other retailer when the $70 billion program goes online after an initial eight-state pilot.

But this new revenue will effectively function as a double subsidy for the company: In Arizona, new data suggests that one in three of the company’s own employees depend on SNAP to put food on the table. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, the figure appears to be around one in 10. Overall, of five states that responded to a public records request for a list of their top employers of SNAP recipients, Amazon cracked the top 20 in four.

By 2021, Amazon is projected to handle 50 percent of all online sales in the United States. To accomplish this, it must add to the dozens of fulfillment centers that ensure the swift delivery of cheap televisions and shampoo bottles to nearly every corner of the nation. And to finance this expansion, the company will doubtless continue to leverage the promise of full-time jobs with benefits that it has used to win more than $1.2 billion in incentives from state and local governments so far. ...

The new data showing Amazon employees’ extensive reliance on SNAP demonstrates an additional public cost of the corporation’s rapid expansion. Even as generous subsidies help its warehouses turn a profit, its workers still must turn to the federal safety net to put food on the table. In Pennsylvania, for instance, an estimated $24.8 million in subsidies support 13 warehouses employing around 10,000 workers. At the same time, more than 1,000 of those workers don’t make enough money to buy groceries, according to public data provided by the state.

The American people are financing Amazon’s pursuit of an e-commerce monopoly every step of the way: first, with tax breaks, subsidies, and infrastructure improvements meant to lure fulfillment centers into town, and later with federal transfers to pay for warehouse workers’ food. And soon, when the company begins accepting SNAP dollars to purchase its goods, a third transfer of public wealth to private hands will become a part of the company’s business model.



the horse race



The GOP Is Trying to Bring Down This Anti-Establishment Republican. Can He Survive the Trump Era?

As the 2018 midterm election cycle ramps up, Republican operatives are busy strategizing about how to protect incumbent GOP lawmakers. In one case, though, Republicans are working to overthrow one of its incumbents: Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina.

Jones, who is in his 11th term in office, cuts an unlikely figure in Washington, D.C. He has fought for a higher minimum wage, tougher regulations on Wall Street, and stronger limits on big money in politics. He has called for restrictions on government surveillance, sharply criticized the leadership of his party for being too cozy with K Street lobbyists and corporate interests, and waged a one-man battle to rein in United States-backed wars raging throughout the Middle East. Though once a strong supporter of the Iraq War, Jones changed his tune as the disastrous war unfolded: “Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney,” he once quipped. ...

Scott Dacey, a casino and tax lobbyist who also serves on the Craven County Board of Commissioners, will be Jones’s opponent in North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District Republican primary on May 8. Dacey divides his time between Washington, D.C., and North Carolina. ... For two consecutive cycles in 2012 and 2014, a Republican operative named Taylor Griffin challenged Jones using a similar playbook. Griffin, who previously worked at a public relations firm for the banking industry, claimed Jones was too liberal and too friendly with Democrats. Super PACs, Wall Street PACs, GOP leadership PACs, and undisclosed dark money from outside organizations, including pro-Israel groups, poured over $1 million into race to unseat Jones.

In both races, though, Jones — who has deep roots in the district, having taken over his father’s congressional seat — emerged victorious. This time could be different. Jones is one of the last remaining populists in the GOP, and his repeated votes against the Trump agenda, especially on tax cuts, could provoke a backlash. In 2016, North Carolina’s 3rd District went for Trump by 20 points. In any case, Jones announced recently that this election campaign will be his last. Even if he survives this latest primary challenge, he intends to retire after the following cycle.

MSNBC Worse Than Sinclair Broadcasting Ed Schultz Reveals

Pittsburgh prepares officers for possible riots in case Trump fires Mueller

Pittsburgh police have issued a memo to department detectives to prepare for possible protests should President Trump fire special counsel Robert Mueller. The memo, issued by Victor Joseph, commander of the Pittsburgh bureau of police, instructed detectives to begin wearing a full uniform and carrying riot gear “until further notice”. “There is a belief that President Trump will soon move to fire Special Prosecutor Mueller. This would result in a large protest within 24 hours of the firing,” the emails states.

“The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice,” the memo read and was issued based on “information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District”. The police department appeared to be acting on information gathered from a group, Nobody is Above the Law, that has been preparing for demonstrations should the president move to fire Mueller. ...

On its webpage, Nobody is Above the Law warned that “Donald Trump could be preparing to put himself above the law. We won’t allow it,” the group says on its web page. “Our response in the hours following a potential power grab will dictate what happens next – whether Congress will stand up to Trump or allow him to move our democracy toward authoritarianism,” the group says. It added that it currently has more than 800 protest rallies planned and had received 300,000 RSVPs.



the evening greens


Last caribou in lower 48 US states all but extinct: 'The herd is functionally lost'

The last remaining herd of caribou to roam the contiguous United States is believed to be on the brink of disappearing, after an aerial count suggested that only three members survived the winter – all of them female. The South Selkirk herd were once part of a larger population of southern mountain caribou whose habitat spanned much of the Pacific North-west. But human activity – from hunting to logging and snowmobiling – has forced the population to break off into small herds.

By 2009, the Selkirk herd was estimated to have about 50 members, living in an ecosystem that stretched from British Columbia to Washington and Idaho. Seven years later that number had dwindled to 12, despite decades of efforts to save them. This week, biologists with the provincial government of British Columbia suggested just three members of the herd remained.

Weighing as much as 600lb, mountain caribou feed on a slow-growing lichen that relies on centuries-old trees to develop, putting them at odds with the settlers who first chopped down old-growth forests to develop the land, and later, the logging industry.

“We’ve really jeopardised their habitat over the last 30 to 40 years through unsustainable rates of logging,” said Mark Hebblewhite, a Canadian wildlife biologist at the University of Montana. “It’s all about habitat. You can do everything you want; you can kill wolves, you can kill invasive predators, you can kill species like moose … but without habitat what you’re doing is just buying time.”

Facing Fires and Floods, Colorado Communities Launch Landmark Suit Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Taking a cue from coastal communities that are aiming to hold the fossil fuel industry legally accountable for significantly contributing to the climate crisis, three Colorado municipalities are suing ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy "for the substantial role they played and continue to play in causing, contributing to, and exacerbating climate change."

San Miguel County, Boulder County, and the city of Boulder—which filed the lawsuit (pdf) in Colorado state court on Wednesday—are believed to be the first inland communities to seek compensation from oil and gas companies for climate-related damage to the health, safety, welfare, and property of their residents.

"Climate change is not just about sea level rise," noted Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones. "It affects all of us in the middle of the country as well."

A large number of residents in these rural communities depend on tourism, farming, and ranching to get by—activities that are increasingly affected by intensifying heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods. Scientists—including those within the fossil fuel industry—have for years warned about extreme weather consequences of global warming, which is driven largely by greenhouse gas emissions from dirty energy.

"For over 50 years, Suncor and Exxon have known that fossil fuels would cause severe climate impacts. To enhance their own profits, they concealed this knowledge and spread doubt about science they knew to be correct," said Marco Simons, general counsel for EarthRights International, which is representing the Colorado communities alongside the Niskanen Center.

These oil companies need to pay their fair share," declared Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones.

Environment: Great Barrier Reef irreversibly damaged by global warming, 2016 heatwave


Also of Interest

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

Gina Haspel, Trump’s Pick to Lead the CIA, ‘Ran the Interrogation Program,’ Said Former CIA Lawyer

On the Criminal Referral of Comey, Clinton et al: Will the Constitution Hold and the Media Continue to Suppress the Story?

Four Lessons From the Strike on Syria

Who Will Protect Elections From U.S. Oligarchs?

Political killings shake Mexico election


A Little Night Music

Lucky Peterson - Jimmy Wants To Groove

Lucky Peterson - Wash My Back

Lucky Peterson - Beyond Cool

Lucky Peterson - Papa was a Rolling Stone

Lucky Peterson & Dave Fields - Further On Up The Road

Lucky Peterson - Build Myself A Cave, Hoochie Coochie Man

Lucky Peterson - Brown Can't Be Bad

Lucky Peterson - Feeling They Call The Blues

Lucky Peterson & Michael "Iron Man" Burks - Killing Floor


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Lookout's picture

We will too. Over a third of the Great Barrier Reef has died.

We can't seem to kill ourselves fast enough shooting and bombing a few at the time. We can't even be satisfied with collapsing the empire. No, we have to make sure the entire ecosystem is uninhabitable for our species. Well it is important for the bottom line you know. Way to go humans. We rank up there with the Chicxulub asteroid...only slightly slower

... in 1991, researchers found evidence that the giant crater near the town of Chicxulub (pronounced CHEEK-she-loob) in Mexico came into being about the time of the mass extinction. The explosion that created the crater, which is more than 110 miles (180 kilometers) wide, likely involved a hit from an object about 6 miles (10 km) across. The crash would have released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT, or beyond a billion times the power of the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

https://www.space.com/19681-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-chicxulub-crater.html

Thanks for the tunes and news. I'll quit cratering and go extinct for a while. All the best...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

heh, that reminds me, in 2016 when faced with the election prospects, something like 13% preferred to die in a cataclysmic giant meteor strike.

or as the who put it:

"civilization is trying to find a new way to die"

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

joe shikspack's picture

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

frankly, it looks like kim may be beating him at that game. as in, what happens if the war between the koreas ends before trump can arrive to arrange a "peace?"

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Anja Geitz's picture

to a place where we no longer need to soak ourselves in blood in hand to hand combat. We're "sophisticated" about all of that now. Disposable human beings are killed remotely while our tuxedoed overlords dine on the misery of their families. Progress, eh?

We need to de-normalize war. When we see talking heads promoting a sequel to the Iraq invasion with Iraq’s next-door neighbor, we should all be recoiling with horror in the same way we would if they were promoting cannibalism or pedophilia

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

joe shikspack's picture

@Anja Geitz

well, that has been the dream of the elites all along - automatic, push-button war. a long time ago i wrote an article about it, which i reposted here.

they have the technology now to pretty much do what they want. the only thing they haven't figured out is how to kill whoever they want and guarantee that there will be no consequences, accountability or repercussions.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwjG0Zd62Q8]

I wish them luck on this one. President Cartman tweeted his 'blessing' for the talks, but who needs that? Let the Korean people decide how they want to govern for once and kick the 'Murican capitalists out.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner is not substantially different from the system we are now operated upon. My primary healthcare provider is told by the insurance companies (who indirectly allow her salary) which procedures and medications are covered. She is only permitted to bill X$, so limits her time assessing my condition to a screen generated form (paperless records thanks obama). This is the way things are now with a non-profit health service. Don't see much difference if it's goggles or apples or seevees or wally world. It is all corporate extraction of of our wages to pay for sickness and disease. That does not change in this system.

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joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

just remember, there's not as much profit in cures as there is in treatments for ongoing "conditions."

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Mark from Queens's picture

@joe shikspack

Absolutely brilliant.

Hope you're well, brother.

It's pretty grim in America with everyone gripped by a malaise but thinking it's all because of Drumpf. Tough for the masses to get to the bottom of it when they're snowed in by relentless propaganda, debt servitude, unfulfilling jobs and corporate monopoly ownership of everything they see/hear/eat/buy. Feel sometimes like we're the last clear-eyed and sane ones left in the country.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

joe shikspack's picture

@Mark from Queens

yeah, it's really just an extension of the rentier game. the idea is to get in between the worker drones and their survival needs, use the government to legitimize and institutionalize your theft of all the survival needs and then ration them out such that you never put out quite enough so that everybody can have what should be their human right.

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Azazello's picture

That was a great Jimmy Dore segment. Looking back, I think Ed Schultz would have been a big help to the Sanders campaign. That's why he had to go.
OK, so here's my theory about Democracy Now: Nermeen Shaikh is a Saudi intelligence asset. No doubt she's the one who booked those two a-holes they had on today. Both of 'em called for regime-change in Syria, and one of 'em wants a "no-fly zone", i.e. air cover for the jihadists in Idlib. That Moazzam Begg even admitted that he was in Yugoslavia during the destruction of that country. That is, he admitted to being one of the foreign jihadis that the Saudis shipped in to do the dirty work for the Clintons and NATO.
In other news, Poroshenk wants to join NATO, which has been the goal all along.

Arizona teachers have been voting on whether or not to walk out and and will announce the results tonight, 8 pm AZ time.
Meanwhile, our idiot governor wants to start a Keno game to pay teachers' salaries.

Have a nice night everybody.

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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

saudi asset? or perhaps there is a major saudi donor willing to bail out pacifica, if only... well, you know. that would explain a lot.

it was a bad day in the progressive media sphere. did you see this steaming pile of crap that showed up over at the intercept today?

it seems that the attack on lefty news outlets is gaining steam.

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
It's a minor masterpiece of classic propaganda, a modern interpretation of a time-tested theme: So-and-so Dictator is just like Hitler. This chestnut has been helping to manufacture consent since the late 40s. It's like the Night Train of imperial propaganda. This guy went beyond Hitler, he threw in every evil dictator he could think of.

In fact, the Syrian dictator long ago booked his place in the blood-stained pantheon of modern mass murderers, alongside the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Henry Kissinger, and George W. Bush. I can think of few human beings alive today who have more blood on their hands than he has.

Bravo.

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

snoopydawg's picture

I guess that they are tired of Amazon getting all the perks and making tons of money. Today they voted to cut $9 billion from snap and impose work requirements on millions of people who are currently on them. Anyone between 18-59 who are receiving food stamps and are able bodied will have to work 80 month. 58 years old and taking care of your 90 year old cancer stricken mom or pop? Tuff. You have to find a job in order for you to stay on them. I'm sure that mom can be on her own for a couple hours each day.

The inhumanity of people who are richer than gawd is beyond my comprehension. How do poor people make your life worse? What's the animosity coming from?

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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's picture

@snoopydawg

We poor, elderly and disabled are useless mouth breathers who are using their limited resources and therefore we must die.

20,000 species die every day usually because of what humans are doing or have done. That half of the coral reefs died in less than two years should be a wake up call to everyone on the planet, but people still refuse to believe that climate change is a threat.

Yep. Rachel changed her tune instead of being fired. Jaw dropping, indeed.

Riots if Trump fires Mueller who is running a bogus investigation, but the people who are going to protest if he does just yawn when they hear about the Yemen genocide and the other war crimes this country is doing. Please!

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

The Aspie Corner's picture

@snoopydawg That's what this is really all about. Hurting people with disabilities is just a bonus for these amoral bastards. Capitalism can't die soon enough, though I suspect the planet will burn before the bourgeoisie ever allows for that to happen.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

How do poor people make your life worse? What's the animosity coming from?

my best guess: guilt.

as long as the poor stay quiet and invisible, they're fine. when they become apparent, it becomes intuitively obvious that they share the planet and have rights, well, that's a problem.

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mimi's picture

that - aside from the tweets - the Drummer doesn't write any of his speeches, announcement and other public remarks by himself? The ones that he makes in public in real time?

Why do my guts tell me, he would not be capable of formulating any of it by himself and is barely capable reading what has been written for him either on the teleprompter or otherwise on notes he looks at while speaking? He even seems to have difficulties reading. He reminds me of Marsha Blackburn in the mannerism he speaks. Actually there are so many similarities the way certain Republicans talk in public, one could think they are all trained, manipulated or even worse (hypnotized) in the ways they have to express themselves.

May be we need to be lucky to have his tweets. It seems these are the only words who are genuinely produced by himself. Imagine the Drummer without the capability to tweet? What would be left of him?

Or may be that kind of thinking is just my only escape route to deal with the current 'drumming happenings'.

Good Evening, all.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

Would it be a possibility to be right in thinking that - aside from the tweets - the Drummer doesn't write any of his speeches, announcement and other public remarks by himself? The ones that he makes in public in real time?

i would guess that it would be a fair bet that most of what he is supposed to say outside of his tweets is scripted by (alleged) professionals. i would also guess that he gets bored from time to time and goes off script or ad libs.

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Azazello's picture

@mimi
I heard on NPR today that he has an employee, a full-time tweeter, who makes good money and does this stuff all day long.

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

mimi's picture

@Azazello
beyond reasonable doubt... Thx, Azazello.

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Bollox Ref's picture

In someone's delusion.

Unless you're hardcore MSNBC/NPR, no one will give a proverbial.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

joe shikspack's picture

@Bollox Ref

it appears, given the website that is hosting the "nobody is above the law" app, is moveon.org that if there is a riot, it will be the democrat hack equivalent of the brooks brothers riot.

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Bollox Ref's picture

@joe shikspack

It doesn't strike me as a place that will riot because of Inside-the-Beltway stuff.

(Edited)

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

joe shikspack's picture

@Bollox Ref

agreed, pittsburgh would probably only riot if that place that makes the godawful sandwiches with the fries, coleslaw and anchovies on them closed down - or if some foolish dictator outlawed pierogies.

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Ah yes, our highly vaunted freedoms. The freedom from open expression, freedom to be jailed for resisting fascism, freedom to be brain washed, freedom to be forced into poverty and confinement. Freedom to support endless wars and global imperialism. Freedom from guilt and responsibility. How exceptional is that !?!?

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh:

"Freedom Of Choice"

A victim of collision on the open sea
Nobody ever said that life was free
Sink, swim, go down with the ship
But use your freedom of choice

I'll say it again in the land of the free
Use your freedom of choice
Your freedom of choice

In ancient Rome
There was a poem
About a dog
Who found two bones
He picked at one
He licked the other
He went in circles
He dropped dead

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom of choice!
Is what you want!

Then if you got it you don't want it
Seems to be the rule of thumb
Don't be tricked by what you see
You got two ways to go

I'll say it again in the land of the free
Use your freedom of choice
Freedom of choice

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom of choice!

In ancient Rome
There was a poem
About a dog
Who found two bones
He picked at one
He licked the other
He went in circles
He dropped dead

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

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Article is a dialogue between these 2 men

Daniel Cohn-Bendit was one of the leaders of the student protests of 1968 in France, and later in Germany. Between 2002 and 2014, he was copresident of the Green Group in the European Parliament. (May 2018)
Claus Leggewie is a political scientist and codirector of the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg. He was, until last year, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Essen. His most recent book, published in Germany, is Europe First! A Declaration of Independence.
 (May 2018)

There is a photo of Cohn-Bennett and a cop

Cohn-Bendit: The feeling we had in those days, which has shaped my entire life, really, was: we’re making history. An exalted feeling—suddenly we had become agents in world history. Not an easy thing to process when you’re only twenty-three years old.

Leggewie: The most famous image of May 1968 contains all the ingredients of the myth of revolt. It shows you, the twenty-three-year-old sociology student, face-to-face with a nameless member of the CRS [the reserve of the national police], in front of the Sorbonne…

Cohn-Bendit: Disciplinary action had been announced for that day—May 6, 1968—to counter our occupation of the university. We were defended by our professors, by Alain Touraine and others. When the reporter took this picture, we were just about to enter the university, with demonstrations already in full swing outside.

Leggewie: Everything that’s relevant about May 1968 is present in this image: above vs. below, ancien régime vs. youth, system vs. movement, hero vs. villain, power against counterpower, order against anarchy.

1968: Power to the Imagination1968: Power to the Imagination

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joe shikspack's picture

@DonMidwest

thanks for the link!

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