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This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player and singer Billy Branch. Enjoy!

"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war."

-- Charles de Montesquieu

News and Opinion

While Stockpiling Banned Land Mines, U.S. Boasts About Its Record of Clearing Them

Secretary of State John Kerry commemorated International Mine Awareness Day on Monday by touting the United States’ contributions to land mine-removal efforts and announcing a new effort to disarm explosives left behind by ISIS in Ramadi.

“Innocent people — including children — remain at risk from land mines in more than 60 countries around the world,” Kerry said in a written statement. “It is way past time for the international community to decrease that risk, to help ensure they can walk in safety. On this day of awareness, we call on other nations to join us in these efforts around the world.”

But the United States continues to stockpile land mines, and, despite an overwhelming international consensus, reserves the right to use them on the Korean Peninsula. ...

The Pentagon has not used land mines broadly since the first Gulf War in 1991, and stopped producing them in 1997. In 2014, then-Pentagon press secretary Jack Kirby said the U.S. still possessed 3 million anti-personnel mines held in reserve in case North Korea invades South Korea.

A Torturer’s Confession: Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator Speaks Out

War crimes on parade:

UK Secretly Helped Direct Lethal US Drone Strikes in Yemen

For the past decade British intelligence has systematically co-operated with US and Yemeni agencies in the covert war against al-Qaeda in Yemen, a VICE News investigation can reveal.

Long characterized as a unilateral policy of the United States, VICE News has found that through the use of double agents, surveillance, and electronic tagging, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, commonly known as MI6) assisted in identifying and locating human targets for American drone strikes from 2010 onwards.

The covert war in Yemen has killed up to 1,651 people, including up to 261 civilians, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Many more have been injured.

"We had a targeting list with names that we could pursue," explained Stephen Seche, former US ambassador to Yemen. "It was very useful for both [Britain and America] to sit and help triangulate what we were hearing from our different sources."

A former senior CIA official, responsible for operations in Yemen, noted that Britain provided "unique" capabilities via its network of human intelligence. "If you look at what capabilities each side has, that starts to tell you something about precisely where the actionable intelligence is coming from." ...

A former British official who served in Yemen summed it up bluntly: "Our station people were pretty shit-hot."

Pentagon: US May Open More Bases in Iraq

As they continue to push for ever-more ground troops in Iraq, the Pentagon today confirmed that they are giving consideration to opening up more bases in the country, or potentially reopening bases from the previous occupation, with an eye toward getting more deeply involved in the war.

Rear Admiral Andrew Lewis talked up a single significant new base, to be operated similarly to the existing Firebase Bell, near Mosul, and also would consider other, smaller outposts to provide more artillery support in the fighting around Mosul.

Lewis downplayed the move to ground troops in Iraq, a war in which President Obama repeatedly ruled out the introduction of “boots on the ground,” insisting that the ground troops are no different than war planes conceptually, and that they’re just conducting surface-to-surface strikes instead of air-to-surface strikes.

U.S. Radioactive Weapons Fueling Birth Defects in Iraq

Refugees in Greece warn of suicides over EU-Turkey deal

Afghans and Syrians detained in a camp on the Greek island of Chios say they will kill themselves if they are expelled from the EU under its migration deal with Turkey.

On Monday, 202 migrants were forcibly returned from Lesbos and Chios to the Turkish coast under the landmark deal aimed at halting “irregular” migration to Europe.

But Souaob Nouri from Kabul, who is held in the high-security camp in Chios, said: “If they deport us, we will kill ourselves. We will not go back.”

A man next to him warned of “terrible scenes” if Greek authorities insisted on pursuing policies that have already caused alarm among human rights groups.

“We are not terrorists,” said the man, who gave his name as Akimi. “We are refugees. The conditions here are very bad. There is no water. They hit pregnant women. Why do they treat us like this? All we want is asylum.”

Ukraine’s EU bid: Dutch PM says ‘ratification can’t go ahead’ following ‘no’ vote

Dutch referendum voters overwhelmingly reject closer EU links to Ukraine

Dutch voters have overwhelmingly rejected a Ukraine-European Union treaty on closer political and economic ties, in a rebuke to their government and to the EU establishment.

The broad political, trade and defence treaty – which had already been signed by the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte’s government and approved by all other EU nations, and Ukraine – provisionally took effect in January.

But on Wednesday 64% of Dutch referendum voters rejected it; the turnout was just 32% – barely enough for the result to be valid.

Voters said they were opposing not only the treaty but wider European policymaking on matters ranging from the migrant crisis to economics.

Though the referendum was non-binding, Rutte acknowledged late on Wednesday it was politically impossible for his unpopular government to ratify the treaty in its current form.

4-star admiral wants to confront China. White House says not so fast

The U.S. military’s top commander in the Pacific is arguing behind closed doors for a more confrontational approach to counter and reverse China’s strategic gains in the South China Sea, appeals that have met resistance from the White House at nearly every turn.

Adm. Harry Harris is proposing a muscular U.S. response to China's island-building that may include launching aircraft and conducting military operations within 12 miles of these man-made islands, as part of an effort to stop what he has called the "Great Wall of Sand" before it extends within 140 miles from the Philippines' capital, sources say.

Harris and his U.S. Pacific Command have been waging a persistent campaign in public and in private over the past several months to raise the profile of China's land grab, accusing China outright in February of militarizing the South China Sea.

But the Obama administration, with just nine months left in office, is looking to work with China on a host of other issues from nuclear non-proliferation to an ambitious trade agenda, experts say, and would prefer not to rock the South China Sea boat, even going so far as to muzzle Harris and other military leaders in the run-up to a security summit.

The White House has sought to tamp down on rhetoric from Harris and other military leaders, who are warning that China is consolidating its gains to solidify sovereignty claims to most of the South China Sea.

Rousseff should be impeached, Brazil congressional report recommends

The special investigator for a congressional commission recommended on Wednesday that the impeachment process against Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, move forward, saying there was evidence she violated fiscal laws.

“The facts show serious indications of unconstitutionality, illegality and fiscal irresponsibility,” Jovair Arantes said in a nearly 130-page report.

Arantes’ conclusion had been widely anticipated because he is a close ally of house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a nemesis of Rousseff who has been the driving force behind the impeachment process.

Rousseff is accused of manipulating budget accounts to allow her administration to boost spending to shore up votes before her 2014 re-election campaign. She has vehemently denied committing any crime and said previous presidents made use of similar accounting techniques. She has called the impeachment effort an attempted coup. ...

Despite the recommendation, Rousseff’s chances of surviving looked slightly better on Wednesday after the Progressive party announced it would remain in Rousseff’s governing coalition at least through the vote in the lower house.

Last week the country’s biggest party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement party, said it would leave the coalition. That was a major blow but it didn’t spark the pullout of other, smaller parties that many political observers had expected.

Analysts say securing the support of those parties will be key to Rousseff’s bid to fend off impeachment.

Muslim Civil Rights Group Files Class Action Lawsuit Challenging Terror Watch List

A Muslim civil rights group filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of others who say they have been wrongfully placed on the United States Terrorist Watchlist. Attorneys from the Council of American-Islamic relations (CAIR) filed a suit contending that the list is the result of a broad sweep that specifically targets Muslim Americans without any evidence that a particular individual poses a threat to national security.

"Through extra-judicial and secret means," the complaint alleges, "the federal government is ensnaring individuals into an invisible web of consequences that are imposed indefinitely and without recourse as a result of the shockingly large federal watchlist that now includes hundreds of thousands of individuals"

Among the 18 plaintiffs is "Baby John Doe," a four-year old from Alameda County, California, who has been on the watchlist since he was seven months old.

White House declines to support encryption legislation

The White House is declining to offer public support for long-awaited legislation that would give federal judges clearer authority to order technology companies such as Apple to help law enforcement crack encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The Obama administration’s refusal to either endorse or oppose legislation from senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican chair and top Democrat respectively of the Senate intelligence committee, stems in part from ongoing divisions among various federal agencies over encryption, the sources said.

Those divisions persist despite statements from president Barack Obama last month indicating that he supported efforts by the Department of Justice to ensure encrypted devices could be legally unlocked. He did not comment about the case brought to compel Apple to break into an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California. ...

The noncommittal stance reflects a political calculus that any encryption bill would be controversial and is unlikely to go far in a gridlocked Congress during an election year, sources said.

Panama Papers: Could Pirate Party Co-Founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir Become Iceland's Next PM?

Pirate Party Surges as Iceland Calls Early Elections and Names New PM

Iceland's government named a new prime minister on Wednesday and called for early elections in the fall, a day after its leader Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson became the first global politician brought down by the Panama Papers scandal.

A poll showed that if an election were held on Thursday it would be won by the anti-establishment Pirate Party, a stunning victory for a group set up by opponents of copyright enforcement rules.

It was unclear whether the naming of Fisheries Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson to head the government or the call for early elections would satisfy the thousands of Icelanders who in street protests this week demanded the government resign immediately for early elections. The opposition has been trying to force a new election with a vote of no confidence in the government.

The Pirate Party, which campaigns in favor of transparency and direct democracy, has had a small following in several European countries for a few years but has never before come close to political power.

Why the Panama Papers Scandal Isn't Such a Scandal After All

Though governments around the world have long decried tax havens and have aggressively pursued big banks in Switzerland and other countries, they have not pursued high-profile lawsuits against Mossack Fonseca or its clients despite knowledge of its business dealings.

"They haven't remotely the staff to investigate," said William Black, a University of Missouri–Kansas City white-collar criminologist, referring to federal regulators and prosecutors. "They haven't remotely the expertise. But mostly they don't have the will." ...

Thomas Ferguson, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and senior fellow of the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, wasn't shy when asked why prosecutors haven't gone after Mossaka Fonseca and its clients, who hobnob with the world's powerbrokers.

"It's clear that, put simply, governments tend to be heavily influenced by precisely the people who are hiding the accounts," he said.

World governments, especially the US government, clearly have the tools to track the money flowing into offshore tax havens, Ferguson added. The Federal Reserve facilitates those transactions. Yet somehow regulators don't have enough information to crack down on wealthy folks moving their money abroad to avoid the Internal Revenue Service. ...

It's not clear if Mossack Fonseca or the majority of the firm's clients in the Panama Papers did anything illegal, however, noted Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.

"Probably the vast majority of it is tax avoidance," he remarked. "Tax avoidance is legal. Tax evasion is illegal.

Global Tax Haven Network Means Americans Can Hide Wealth At Home

If you're rich, you can avoid paying tax. That's got to change

The world’s rich, well-connected elite play by a different set of rules from everyone else. The Panama Papers are the latest evidence of this, and the behavior they expose should come as a surprise to no one.

The real scandal here is not the rules people broke, but rather how the richest segment of the world population legally maneuvers to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. They avoid tax liabilities through dodgy offshore accounts and shell companies set up in countries that sell themselves as tax havens.

And these practices extend into the world’s political elite. If the prime minister of Iceland and his wife were holding millions of dollars in an offshore shell company while he was responding to Iceland’s financial crisis, we have to wonder in whose interest he was making those decisions.

It should also come as no surprise that efforts to limit the flow of money to tax havens have been consistently thwarted. If those in positions of power are themselves hiding money overseas, why would they work to stop this practice? ...

We need to take action now to restore trust in government and make sure that our tax code works for everyone – not just a well-connected few. Closing international tax loopholes would not only increase fairness but also provide resources to invest in education and infrastructure. That is how we move from a rigged game to an economy that works for everyone.

Commerce Secretary Pritzker Defends Corporate Tribunals In TPP

On Monday, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told a meeting before the Council on Foreign Relations that a controversial provision within the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which surrenders US sovereignty in favor of corporate interests, was a good deal because a US company has prevailed every time the process has been used. The process, known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), allows corporations to sue governments outside of normal legal channels and have the dispute settled in a corporate-friendly tribunal.

Secretary Pritzker, a former Council on Foreign Relations board member and one of the richest women in the world, explained that opposition to TPP was misguided and that free trade was being unfairly scapegoated for larger forces hurting US workers, such as automation. Pritzker claimed that wealth shifting east to a rising middle class in Asia was inevitable, and the only real question was whether or not US companies would get in on the action. Pritzker warned that without US “leadership,” the rules for commerce in Asia may be set entirely by non-Americans.

Obama’s Gift to Donald Trump: A Policy of Cracking Down on Journalists and Their Sources

One of the intellectual gargoyles that has crawled out of Donald Trump’s brain is the idea that we should “open up” libel laws to make it easier to punish the media for negative or unfair stories. Trump also wants top officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, so they never write memoirs that upset the boss. Trump is so disdainful of free speech that he has even vowed to use the Espionage Act to imprison anyone who says or leaks anything to the media that displeases him.

Actually, that last bit is made up; Trump hasn’t talked about the Espionage Act. Instead, the Obama administration has used the draconian 1917 law to prosecute more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. Under the cover of the Espionage Act and other laws, the administration has secretly obtained the emails and phone records of various reporters, and declared one of them — James Rosen of Fox News — a potential “co-conspirator” with his government source. Another reporter, James Risen of the New York Times, faced a jail sentence unless he revealed a government source (which he refused to do).

Obama has warned of the imminent perils of a Trump presidency, but on the key issue of freedom of the press, which is intimately tied to the ability of officials to talk to journalists, his own administration has established a dangerous precedent for Trump — or any future occupant of the Oval Office — to use one of the most punitive laws of the land against some of the most courageous and necessary people we have.

‘Disqualify’ And ‘Defeat’: Clinton Campaign Attacks Intensify To Halt Sanders’ Win Streak

Following a week where Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign refused to agree to a New York debate unless Bernie Sanders “toned down” his campaign, the Clinton campaign escalated its negative tone against Sanders, with one aide telling CNN their goal was to “disqualify” and “defeat him.” ...

“The Clinton campaign has refrained from going nuclear on Sanders, aides say, in large part to keep at least some goodwill alive in hopes of unifying the party at the end of the primary fight,” according to CNN. “No more, a top adviser [said]. The fight is on. Extending an olive branch to Sanders’ supporters ‘will come later.'”

However, the Clinton campaign and media outlets like CNN promote a false narrative that the campaign has not been in attack mode. Since September, she has used a network of surrogates and rapid response super PACs to push anti-Sanders talking points into the media.

Shadowproof has documented a pattern of dishonest attacks and rumors, particularly since January. The attacks include: Sanders supports Minutemen vigilantes and similar anti-immigrant hate groups, Sanders opposed bailing out auto workers, Sanders supports the NRA, Sanders wants to dismantle the Affordable Health Care Act, Sanders supported the indefinite detention of immigrants, and Sanders sees President Barack Obama as “weak” and will not support Obama’s legacy.

Voters have yet to see the full scope of what the Clinton campaign will sling at Sanders, but today’s interviews indicate she will return to her effort to paint Sanders as a gun-lover. She will focus on the fact that he is an independent senator, and, therefore, he is not a Democrat who will help the Democratic Party win in down-ballot elections in November. She also will attack him on regulating “too big to fail” banks and re-up her artful smear that Sanders has no respect for President Obama.

Sanders Vows To 'Fight Back' as Battle over Most 'Qualified' Roils Democratic Race

Bernie Sanders held his ground Thursday morning in an increasingly bitter battle with presidential rival Hillary Clinton, saying "this campaign will fight back" in the face of attempts by the former secretary of state to "disqualify" him.

The latest skirmish began Wednesday morning, when Clinton was asked point-blank by "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough whether Sanders was ready for the Oval Office. As Politico notes, "While Clinton did not specifically call Sanders unqualified...[she] declined three times to say whether her opponent had the proper pedigree."

The Washington Post, among other publications, wrote about the exchange under the headline, "Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president."

Meanwhile, CNN reported Wednesday that with the campaign now focused like a laser on New York's April 19 primary, Clinton's new strategy with regard to Sanders is: "Disqualify him, defeat him, and unify the party later."

On Wednesday night, Sanders set off a firestorm when he responded in remarks at Temple University: "She has been saying lately that she thinks I am quote, unquote 'not qualified' to be president. I don't believe that she is qualified ... if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interests funds."

"I don't think that you are 'qualified' if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC," he said. "I don't think you are 'qualified' if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don't think you are 'qualified' if you have supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement." ...

"Look, let me be clear," he added later. "This is not the kind of politics that I want to get in."

"But," he continued, "let me also be very clear. If Secretary Clinton thinks that I just come from the small state of Vermont, 'they're not used to this'... I'm not going to get beaten up, I'm not going to get lied about. We will fight back."

Sanders is getting there:

Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president

Clinton Machine on the Ropes as Sanders Takes Momentum to NY

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is on her heels having now lost seven of the past eight presidential nominating contests, thrusting the upcoming primary in New York front and center. ...

Though two weeks away, the April 19th contest is receiving a great deal of attention from media and candidates alike.

"Clinton now faces the unavoidable fact that she must win New York by a convincing margin or face a barrage of questions about whether her campaign is faltering," Politico's Gabriel Debenedetti reported Wednesday.

Debenedetti explains:

Nothing short of a cushioned victory in the state she represented as a senator is likely to calm persistent Democratic questions about why the front-runner is still losing states—some of them by landslide margins. While she retains a comfortable lead of roughly 250 pledged delegates even after her Wisconsin loss, the campaign’s repeated insistence that Sanders can't catch up may be accurate but it won't be enough to inspire confidence in her strength as the party nominee in November.

But New York's closed primary structure means that voters had to declare their party affiliation back in October to vote for the candidate of their choice, which could be problematic for Sanders, who does particularly well among independent voters.

Sanders: Clinton should apologize to victims of Iraq War

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders lashed out at front-runner Hillary Clinton on Wednesday over her support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A CBS reporter tweeted that she asked the Vermont senator about Clinton's calls for him to apologize to Sandy Hook victims because of his stance against holding gun manufacturers liable for gun crimes. Sanders reportedly responded by saying that Clinton should apologize to the victims of the Iraq War, which she voted in favor of as a senator.

In Fact, Sanders Has a Very Clear Plan on How to Break Up Too-Big-to-Fail Banks

Following suggestions that he somehow "bungled" when asked about how he would, if elected president, break up Wall Street's largest and most dangerous institutions, the Bernie Sanders campaign on Tuesday offered a detailed explanation of how he would end "too-big-to-fail banks."

Sparking corporate media's "great feeding frenzy" was an interview the presidential candidate had April 1 with the New York Daily News editorial board, the transcript of which was published online Monday.

The Washington Post described it as "pretty close to a disaster," while Jeremy Stahl wrote at Slate that Sanders "appeared to struggle" on the details of how to break up the big banks.

Hillary Clinton also seized on the interview, sending the transcript to supporters in a fundraising email that stated: "even on his signature issue of breaking up the banks, he's unable to answer basic questions about how he'd go about doing it." She also told MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday, "The core of his campaign has been breaking up the banks, and it didn’t seem in reading his answers that he would understand exactly how that would work under Dodd-Frank."

But as New York Times finance and business reporter Peter Eavis argued, "taken as a whole, Mr. Sanders's answers seem to make sense. Crucially, his answers mostly track with a reasonably straightforward breakup plan that he introduced to Congress last year." ...

Like the Times' Eavis, other analysts questioned the dominant media narrative that has emerged since the interview.

The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim charged that, as the interview went on, "it began to appear that the Daily News editors didn't understand the difference between the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve."

Grim wrote, "Sanders has also taken a beating for saying he couldn't cite a particular statute that may have been violated by Wall Street bankers during the financial crisis. But, quickly, without searching Google, can you name the particular statute that outlaws murder?"

CNN gets owned over claims Sanders doesn't have plan to break up big banks

Reporters Who Haven't Noticed That Paul Ryan Has Called for Eliminating Most of Federal Government Go Nuts Over Bernie Sanders' Lack of Specifics

The Washington press corps has gone into one of its great feeding frenzies over Bernie Sanders' interview with New York Daily News. Sanders avoided specific answers to many of the questions posed, which the D.C. gang are convinced shows a lack of the knowledge necessary to be president.

Among the frenzied were the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, The Atlantic's David Graham, and Vanity Fair's Tina Nguyen, and CNN's Dylan Byers telling about it all. Having read the transcript of the interview I would say that I certainly would have liked to see more specificity in Sanders' answers, but I'm an economist. And some of the complaints are just silly.

When asked how he would break up the big banks Sanders said he would leave that up to the banks. That's exactly the right answer. The government doesn't know the most efficient way to break up JP Morgan, JP Morgan does. If the point is to downsize the banks, the way to do it is to give them a size cap and let them figure out the best way to reconfigure themselves to get under it.

The same applies to Sanders not knowing the specific statute for prosecuting banks for their actions in the housing bubble. Knowingly passing off fraudulent mortgages in a mortgage backed security is fraud. Could the Justice Department prove this case against high level bank executives? Who knows, but they obviously didn't try. 

Clinton Foundation reveals up to $26 million in additional payments

The Clinton Foundation reported Thursday that it has received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments from major corporations, universities, foreign sources and other groups.

The disclosure came as the foundation faced questions over whether it fully complied with a 2008 ethics agreement to reveal its donors and whether any of its funding sources present conflicts of interest for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she begins her presidential campaign. ...

The foundation, which has raised $2 billion since Bill Clinton left the White House, has emerged as a political headache for Hillary Clinton amid recent controversies over donations. The foundation, along with the Clintons’ paid speaking careers, have provided additional avenues for foreign governments and other interests to gain entrée to one of America’s most prominent political families. Some Republicans have charged that Hillary Clinton, during her tenure as secretary of state, was in a position to reward foundation donors.

Thursday’s disclosure is one of a number of instances in recent weeks in which the foundation has acknowledged that it received funding from sources not disclosed on its Web site.

New Report Details Big Oil's $500 Million Annual Climate Obstructionism

Published Thursday by the UK-based non-profit InfluenceMap, the report (pdf) looked at two fossil fuel giants (ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell) and three trade lobbying groups, discovering that all together the five companies spend $114 million dollars a year to defeat climate change legislation.

More significantly, InfluenceMap says, "Extrapolated over the entire fossil fuel and other industrial sectors beyond, it is not hard to consider that this obstructive climate policy lobbying spending may be in the order of $500m annually."

We don't need self-driving cars – we need to ditch our vehicles entirely

I am rich beyond Google’s wildest driverless-car dreams; I own a fleet of swift and reliable driverless cars that take me where I’m going while I read or stare out the window or watch beautifully limber kids turf dancing in the aisles for my entertainment. I have been riding these liberating transportation marvels for many decades; I have seen the future; it is all of us in these driverless cars we already own together.

OK, by driverless cars I mean vehicles that get me there while I am not driving them, brilliantly efficient vehicles that get by with maybe one human driver per 50 or 500 people. You own them too. We call them buses, streetcars, trains, ferries. I own a car, I take taxis, but I make extensive use of my feet, my bike, and public transit, and the mix works very nicely for this city dweller.

Here in the shadow of Silicon Valley, it is dismal to see the obsession with privatization when the shifts we need to respond to climate change should include enhanced public transit, both in what fuels those fleets and how well they serve us. Enhanced public transit and reduced private transit. The Tesla cars are the best of big tech’s vision of the future; it is now possible to put solar panels on your roof and run your electric car for free in a nearly carbon-neutral way (once the panels and cars are built). Which is literally cool.

But existing technologies already allow us to keep our climate impact comparatively dainty. These technologies, when it comes to trains, have existed since long before the private automobile. The first passenger railroad ran in 1830 (and yeah, it ran on coal, but we can run passenger trains on clean electricity). We can go forward in part by going back. And around. And look out the window while we do it, while trained professionals navigate. ...

Runaway climate change demands that we run away from cars. Twenty-seven per cent of US greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation, about two thirds of that – or about 18% of the total – from cars. So we don’t need new ways to use cars; we need new ways to not use them. Because here’s the thing people keep forgetting to mention about driverless cars: they’re cars.

Record LA Gas Leak Could Bring Summer Blackouts to Southern California

The largest methane leak in US history has left southern California facing potential power outages this summer, with state officials warning that gas-run power plants could run short of fuel when electricity use spikes.

The Aliso Canyon gas reservoir belched methane into the skies over Los Angeles for four months, releasing an estimated 100,000 tons of the potent greenhouse gas before being plugged in February. And without the huge volumes of gas it normally holds, the region could find itself running short of juice on more than a dozen days this summer, state experts reported this week. ...

Power plants that burn natural gas provided about 48 percent of the state's electricity in 2015, California Energy Commission spokesman Albert Lundeen said. During the hot southern summers, when air conditioners are cranked up, those plants would dip into the Aliso Canyon reservoir to keep their generators spinning. Not only did that gas keep the lights on and air conditioners churning out cold air, it kept pressure in the lines high enough to keep fuel flowing to all customers.

"There are other storage facilities," he said. "They're just not anywhere near as large. So Aliso Canyon is essential to the structure of the system today."

Michigan governor faces racketeering lawsuit over Flint water crisis

A federal racketeering lawsuit by hundreds of resident in Flint, Michigan, is alleging the city’s two-year water crisis was the result of an“intentional scheme” crafted by state officials and Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, to balance the city’s budget.

In a press conference announcing the 17-count racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (Rico) complaint on Wednesday, attorneys said the state of Michigan ran Flint’s day-to-day operations through an emergency manager, who prioritized balancing the city’s budget through a cost-cutting measure: switching Flint’s water source in April 2014 from Lake Huron, which serviced the city for more than 50 years, to a local river. ...

In a Rico statement filed to federal court, the attorneys said state officials, contractors and emergency managers appointed to run Flint had “the intent and purpose of balancing the Flint City budget through a pattern of racketeering activity.”

“This association … misrepresented the suitability of the toxic Flint River water to Flint’s residents for approximately a two-year period, and billed Flint’s residents at rates that were the highest in the nation for toxic water that was unsuitable for use,” the lawsuit stated. ...

The attorneys asserted that the legal doctrine of governmental immunity will not be an issue in the Rico case, as the numerous state officials have been named as defendants individually – not in their official capacity. The attorneys declined to estimate the possible financial damages associated with the lawsuit, but said repayment for water bills alone to Flint residents could exceed $50m. Appropriate damages determined by the court will be tripled, as stipulated under civil Rico statute, said Kern.

The lawsuit also requests a jury and seeks compensatory damages for future medical costs and legal fees, and treble damages for property damages, loss of business and financial loss.

Several investigations by federal, state and local agencies are ongoing and could potentially lead to criminal charges.

Also of Interest

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

Panama Papers reveal how spies and CIA gun-runners use offshore companies to stay hidden

Bush-41’s October Surprise Denials

The End of the American Empire

Government surveillance planes routinely circle over most major cities

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla dares Congress to pass restrictive financial control board

Evicted by Matthew Desmond – what if the problem of poverty is that it’s profitable to other people?

Colorado town official left homeless in 'housing crisis' may have to give up seat

The real welfare queens are our legislators, not food-stamp recipients

A Clinton Superdelegate Just Admitted That Hillary Lied About Bernie and Guns

Yes, Bernie Sanders Knows Something About Breaking Up Banks

Hillary Clinton Fundraiser Hosted by All-Star Cast of Financial Regulators Who Joined Wall Street

Was Corporate Media Too Dumb To Understand Sanders Bank Breakup Plan?

Markos Moulitsas: "The Backup Nominee Is Joe Biden"

A Little Night Music

Billy Branch + Lurrie Bell & The Sons Of Blues - Help Me

Carlos Johnson and Billy Branch - Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong

Billy Branch - My Baby Caught the Train

Billy Branch - Everything gonna be alright

Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues - Bring It on Home

Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues - Blues Shock

"La Bruja" son jarocho featuring Billy Branch