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This evening's music features Chicago blues musician Byther Smith. Enjoy!

"I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons"

-- Leonard Cohen

News and Opinion

US just launched 50 Tomahawk missles into Syria. God help us. No one knows where this ends

— Peter Van Buren (@WeMeantWell) April 7, 2017

U.S. launches missile attack on Syria

Initial reports put the number of U.S. missiles fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea between 50 and 60. The strike was focused on a Syrian airfield near Homs and reportedly destroyed a number of airplanes and hit the runway. Officials tell NBC no people were targeted, and it’s currently unclear how many casualties resulted, if any. Russia, which has troops on the ground, was reportedly notified before the airstrikes. ...

Republican Senators John McCain (Arizona) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) took a shot at the Obama administration in a joint statement released Thursday night. “Unlike the previous administration, President Trump confronted a pivotal moment in Syria and took action. For that, he deserves the support of the American people,” the statement said.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said in a statement that he was informed of the strike against the Assad regime after the attacks were already underway. “These military strikes against Assad’s arsenal send a clear signal that the United States will stand up for internationally accepted norms and rules against the use of chemical weapons,” Cardin said.

Disgust as Corporate Media and DC Politicians Gush Over Trump's New War

'According to DC pundits, Trump was a dangerous maniac...until he started bombing?'

Corporate media and D.C. politicians on both sides of the aisle are falling over themselves to shower praise on President Donald Trump for unilaterally bombing a Syrian air base on Thursday, demonstrating that Washington's hunger for war continues no matter who is at the controls.

Some talking heads' praise for the new war effort has been so over-the-top that it alarmed viewers, as when NBC's Brian Williams called the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles—which state media now reports have killed civilians, including children—"beautiful" no less than three times in 30 seconds. Williams even misguidedly quoted a Leonard Cohen lyric to gush over the strike.

Brian Williams refers to this Pentagon video of missiles going to kill people as "beautiful" 3 times in 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/KBb3tP8qHT

— Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) April 7, 2017

The Washington Post's David Ignatius claimed that it was evidence that "the moral dimensions of leadership" had penetrated Trump's Oval Office. And in a New York Times op-ed titled "On Syria Attack, Trump's Heart Came First," White House correspondent Mark Landler framed the bombing as "an emotional act by a man suddenly aware that the world's problems were now his—and that turning away, to him, was not an option."

Many Congressional Democrats joined neoconservatives in offering immediate praise for the bombing. As Kevin Gosztola of ShadowProof observed:

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, proclaimed, "Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do." Even Democratic Senator Dick Durbin declared, "My preliminary briefing by the White House indicated that this was a measured response to the Syrian nerve gas atrocity."

Prior to the attack, neoconservative Elliott Abrams, a former official in President George W. Bush's administration, said, "Obama did nothing at all year after year to save the lives of Syrians. Now Trump has to match his rhetoric with something concrete."

It's not a matter of spine, it is that Trump and Schumer share the same ideologies https://t.co/yfzaSUJsgw

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) April 7, 2017

I’m Just Going To Start Referring To Establishment Democrats As Neocons

[T]he only functional difference between the Democratic neocons and the Republican neocons is what groups they pander to to get elected. Once they’re in office they are allies with the same agenda: grind Americans to death with exploitative neoliberal policies and squeeze what little tax money they’ve got left to fund immensely profitable wars over strategic military locations and oil.

Just look at the way these two identical groups have been responding to the extremely suspicious narrative that Assad suddenly decided to provoke the wrath of NATO by using sarin gas on his own people right before scheduled peace talks and right after the Trump administration announced it had no intention of deposing him, when he was already winning the war against the jihadists trying to overthrow him. Neither the Republican neocons nor the Democratic neocons are questioning this profoundly unbelievable story, rather they are both beating the drums of war, as neocons do.

[T]he neocons of the Democratic party and the neocons of the Republican party have formed a coalition to push Trump toward taking military action against the Assad government. They are making it abundantly clear that they will ratchet up their constant attacks on the administration even further if he does not play along, but if he falls in line he can expect to gain many powerful political allies as a reward. They’re using the carrot of a vastly more powerful presidency and the stick of greater opposition to push him into another corporatist child-slaughtering war.

Russia condemns US strikes on Syria as a 'violation of international law'

Russia to Bolster Syrian Air Defense, Suspend Syria Airspace Deal With US

Russia is set to beef up Syria's air defenses in the wake of a United States strike on a Syrian air base Friday, and it says it's suspending a deal with the U.S. to prevent mid-air collisions over Syria as well.

Russia has several dozen warplanes and batteries of air-defense missiles at its base in Syria, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Friday that a "complex of measures" to strengthen Syrian air defenses will be done shortly to help "protect the most sensitive Syrian infrastructure facilities."

"The combat efficiency of the U.S. strike was very low," said Konashenkov, adding that only 23 of the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles reached the Shayrat air base in the province of Homs. ...

Syrian military said at least 7 people were killed in the strike and several others were wounded.

Tillerson: ‘Steps Underway’ for U.S.-Led Coalition to Remove Assad

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday said that steps are already underway for organizing an international coalition to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after the regime used a chemical attack on civilians. Asked whether Assad has to be removed from power, Tillerson told the press that “Assad’s role in the future is uncertain, clearly, and with the acts that he has taken, it would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.”

There is a lot of great information in this article, it's well worth your time to check it out.

NYT Retreats on 2013 Syria-Sarin Claims

The New York Times, which has never heard an allegation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that it hasn’t immediately believed, has compiled a list of his alleged atrocities with a surprising omission: the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack outside Damascus. Why this omission is so surprising is that the sarin incident was the moment when the Western media and the Washington establishment piled on President Barack Obama for not enforcing his “red line” by launching military strikes against the Syrian government to retaliate for Assad “gassing his own people.” ...

Previously, the Times backed away from one of its front-page reports – published about a month after the sarin attack – that used a “vector analysis” to place the site of the sarin missile launch at a Syrian military base about 9 kilometers from the two impact zones. That analysis was considered the slam-dunk proof of Assad’s guilt, but it collapsed when it turned out that one of the missiles contained no sarin and the other rocket, which did have sarin, had a range of only about 2 kilometers, placing the likely firing location in rebel-controlled territory. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh further demolished the Assad-sarin myth in an article that traced the chemicals back to Turkish intelligence. ... Later, Turkish police and opposition officials corroborated much of Hersh’s findings – and I’ve been told that U.S. intelligence analysts now agree, at least generally, with Hersh’s conclusions.

But the Times never directly repudiated its earlier accusations against Assad’s military, thus allowing the groupthink to be sustained that Assad was responsible for the 2013 attack. That history became important again on Tuesday when another incident – also apparently involving sarin or a similar poison gas – claimed lives in an Al Qaeda-dominated area of northern Syria. The U.S. mainstream media (along with President Trump and his top aides) immediately blamed Assad again. ... The 2013 case loomed large in the background with Trump implicitly referencing Obama’s presumed failure to enforce his “red line.” Prominent U.S. news personalities, such as MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, also have cited the old Assad-was-guilty-in-2013 conventional wisdom to buttress their new rush to judgment over the Tuesday incident. Indeed, the 2013 sarin case has become a perfect example of how the major U.S. media often jumps to conclusions and then refuses to back down regardless of the ensuing evidence.

Remind me: What other policy debates has Hillary weighed in on since November 8, other than starting a new war?

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 7, 2017

@emptywheel @berningman16 The scent of war draws her out of the woods. She had an excellent mentor. pic.twitter.com/6mgJDOh5ol

— LagunaTick (@LagunaTicked) April 7, 2017

The attack on the Shayrat Airfield in Western Syria killed four Syrian servicemen, which means the US troops in Syria can no longer be considered part of an international coalition fighting terrorism. The US is now a hostile force that represents an existential threat to the sovereign government.

-- Mike Whitney

Assad tells paper he sees no 'option except victory' in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said there is no "option except victory" in the country's civil war in an interview published on Thursday, saying the government could not reach "results" with opposition groups that attended recent peace talks. ...

"If we do not win this war, it means that Syria will be deleted from the map. We have no choice in facing this war, and that’s why we are confident, we are persistent and we are determined," he said. ...

Rebels have in recent weeks launched two of their boldest offensives in many months, attacking in Damascus and north of the government-held city of Hama. The army says both assaults have been repelled. Assad, citing recent rebel offensives in Damascus and near the northern city of Hama, said "the opposition which exists is a jihadi opposition in the perverted sense of jihad".

"That is why we cannot, practically, reach any actual result with this part of the opposition (in talks). The evidence is that during the Astana negotiations they started their attack on the cities of Damascus and Hama and other parts of Syria, repeating the cycle of terrorism and the killing of innocents."

The Syrian government views all the groups fighting it as terrorists with agendas determined by foreign governments including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States.

Why the United States’ Use of Force Against Syria Violates International Law

The United States the use of force against the sovereign state of Syria is a prima facie violation of international law. It is an act of aggression against the UN Member State in violation of the Charter of the United Nations. It therefore gives Syria the right to react in self-defense or a legal justification for the use of force and it gives any other United Nations Member State the right to act in collective self-defense and to support Syrian action against the U.S. This is the basic understanding of the international legal consequences of the United States use of force against Syria. ...

The United States and mainly European countries, have been assisting non-State actors in their use of force against the government of Syria, including by providing soldiers who were combatants in the armed conflict. Such participation in an armed conflict by uninvited States supporting the use of force against a sovereign Member State of the United Nations is a violation of international law prohibiting interference in the domestic affairs of other States that was condemned by the International Court of Justice in 1986 in the Case Concerning the Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua between Nicaragua and the United States.

Both Syria and United States are Member States of the United Nations and therefore legally bound to the obligations in the Charter of the United Nations, which by virtue of its article 103 takes precedence over all the legal obligations. Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter prohibits in, relevant part, the “use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” The only justifications for the use of force are self-defense or when the use of force has been authorized by the United Nations Security Council.

Self-defense may only be used as a justification for the use of force, when a state has been subject to an armed attack. The necessity of satisfying the condition of having been subject to an armed attack was made clear by the International Court of Justice in the already mentioned Nicaragua Case. This interpretation is also consistent with the object and purpose of the charter of the United Nations, which is to prevent the use of force and ensure the peaceful co-existence of States. In this case, there has been no authorization by the UN Security Council.

[Lots more at the link. - js]

Trump Shocks World in Direct U.S. Strike on Syrian Airbase That Could Violate International Law

Sorry, Alt-Righters: Trump Has Officially Been Cucked

The subreddit r/The_Donald, the source and summit of all things Trumpster this side of 4chan, is in full damage control mode as of this writing. This was not supposed to happen. Their God Emperor was supposed to end all stupid regime change wars, build a wall, and Make America Great Again. Instead, he’s launching 59 Tomahawk missiles which each cost more than any rank-and-file Trumpster will ever make in a year at the government of a sovereign nation. They’re admonishing the deserters and trying to lighten the mood by making jokes, but they’re not fooling anyone. There’s a pinned tweet by Bill Mitchell trying to calm them all down by assuring them that America is not at war with Syria, but America’s attack was unquestionably an act of war and there’s no good reason to believe with any degree of confidence that Assad won’t retaliate like any other government would. There are uninvited US troops currently stationed inside his nation’s borders that now have a big bright target on them. ...

My dear Trump supporters: the neocons all got exactly what they wanted in these attacks. You didn’t. Trump chose to serve them instead of you. They own him. To speak in your parlance, Trump is cucked.

That’s as good a term as any, I suppose. You thought you’d elected a strong independent leader who would refuse to kowtow to the globalist agenda, and not even three months into his presidency what you’ve been given is Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy. The question of whether he was always with them or was leveraged into this position is ultimately inconsequential at this point; whatever the reason, he’s with them now. Not with you.

"Earlier in the week, Darling Nikki Haley set the stage by promising to “begin attacking” Syria, “alone if necessary.” The US has been attacking Syria for years. Last year, under President Peace Prize, the US dropped 12,197 bombs on Syria, more than any other country."

-- Jeffrey St. Clair

Jeremy Corbyn: US missile strikes on Syrian airbase risk escalating the civil war still further

Describing the nerve gas attack on the Idlib province of the war-ravaged region as a “horrific war crime”, Mr Corbyn added there was a need for an urgent independent United Nations investigations and that those responsible “must be held to account”.

But he added: “Unilateral military action without legal authorisation or independent verification risks intensifying a multi-sided conflict that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people."

“What is needed instead is to urgently reconvene the Geneva peace talks and unrelenting international pressure for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

“The terrible suffering of the Syrian people must be brought to an end as soon as possible and every intervention must be judged on what contribution it makes to that outcome.

Tomahawk maker's share rise after US cruise missile attack

Shares in Raytheon, the maker of Tomahawk cruise missiles, rose on Wall Street on Friday, after US President Donald Trump overnight ordered the firing of 59 of the missiles at a military target in Syria.

In early morning trading in New York, stocks in the company added just over 1 per cent. ...

After the attack overnight, oil prices surged to a one-month high, before easing off with analysts saying that the attack had not disrupted supplies.

Donald Trump hails friendship with China's Xi as missiles head to Syria

Donald Trump has hailed the start of “a very, very great relationship” with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, after months of Twitter attacks and tension culminated in a candle-lit steak dinner at the billionaire’s palm-dotted Mar-a-Lago resort. ...

Before the summit, trade disputes and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs were tipped to top the list of discussions between Trump and Xi, who returns to China on Friday afternoon. But as the leaders of the world’s two largest economies retired from their first evening together, a rapidly escalating crisis in Syria threatened to overshadow their long-awaited meeting as Trump ordered cruise missile strikes in response to the deadly chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun.

During their dinner on Thursday night, Trump and Xi exchanged highly choreographed smiles and a brief handshake before the cameras. Xi politely applauded Trump’s prediction of friendship. It was not immediately clear if the Chinese president had been given advance warning of the strikes on Syria. But experts say the public enthusiasm masks profound suspicions and even animosity and believe the behind-the-scenes conversations have the potential to be far less cordial.

Oh my, what could possibly go wrong with this?

Philippines' Duterte orders occupation of isles in disputed South China Sea

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday ordered troops to occupy uninhabited islands
and shoals it claims in the disputed South China Sea, asserting Philippine sovereignty in an apparent change of tack likely to anger China.

The firebrand leader, who on the campaign trail joked that he would jet ski to a Chinese man-made island in the South China Sea to reinforce Manila's claim, also said he may visit a Philippine-controlled island to raise the national flag.

Duterte's plan is unlikely to sit well with China, which lays claim to almost all the South China Sea, especially as it comes amid a fast-warming relationship in recent months.

The U.S. Government Is Trying to Unmask an Anonymous Anti-Trump Twitter Account

Soon after Donald Trump’s inauguration, persons critical of the president and his administration began creating anonymous Twitter accounts claiming to be dissident members of the federal government, such as the famous “Alt BLM” and “Rogue POTUS Staff” users. Today, Twitter is filing suit against the U.S. government, exposing an attempt to expose and attack one such account.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, says the @ALT_USCIS Twitter account is now being targeted by the Department of Homeland Security. ...

Homeland Security further asked that Twitter keep the very existence of the summons secret, and added that “failure to comply with this summons will render you liable to proceedings in a U.S. District Court to enforce compliance with this summons as well as other sanctions.” When Twitter replied stating that such a demand would require a court order, Special Agent Adam Hoffman of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, in the companies words, that “no such court order would be obtained.” Strangely, the summons specified a deadline for disclosure of @ALT_USCIS’s user information that occurred the day before the summons was even faxed to Twitter. Regardless of the fact that many of these “alt accounts” appear to be individuals pretending to be members of a given federal agency, removing their anonymity simply because they are criticizing the president would be a devastating blow to Twitter’s ability to facilitate free speech.

US spy agencies intercept and unmask congressional figures as often as once a month

The U.S. government’s foreign surveillance sweeps up American lawmakers and their staffers so routinely now that Congress is alerted as often as once a month that its employees involved in intercepted conversations have been unmasked and their identities shared with intelligence or law enforcement agencies, Circa has learned.

The so-called Gates notifications -- named for former CIA Director Robert Gates -- go to the Gang of Eight leadership team in Congress. ...

Often though, the affected lawmakers or congressional aides aren’t told about the unmasking, unless it involves a security or hacking threat. So some affected lawmakers may not know about their appearance in unredacted executive branch intelligence reports, according to intelligence community sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Polarised Ecuador puts president-elect's big promises to the test

As he prepares to become the world’s only wheelchair-using head of state, Ecuador’s Lenín Moreno is promising to triple poverty relief, crack down on corruption and ease up on the media. The ambitious policies and affable tone of the new president-elect are designed to shake off accusations that will be in the shadow of his predecessor Rafael Correa, who dominated this South American country’s politics for the past decade. “I will make the decisions in the next government. I will bring to bear my own style,” Moreno – who was Correa’s vice-president between 2007 and 2013 – told foreign journalists in Quito on Wednesday.

But his ability to realise his goals is likely to be limited by financial constraints and political tensions that were heightened by last Sunday’s bitterly contested election. Moreno clinched victory by about two percentage points, sealing Ecuador’s position as the standard bearer for “21st century socialism” in the face of recent defeats of the left in several other Latin American countries. But problems lie ahead.

His opponent, Guillermo Lasso, has refused to concede defeat. The rightwing former bank boss has rejected the election results as “illegitimate” and his demand for a recount of votes has been granted. His supporters have been picketing the country’s electoral council headquarters in Quito and Guayaquil since the vote on Sunday. Moreno’s amiable style may not be enough to build bridges despite his offer to “extend the hand” towards Lasso’s CREO movement, which won 48% of the vote – a share most analysts say came on the back of anti-Correa sentiment.

Heitkamp, Manchin and Donnelly were the Democrat clowns who voted for Gorsuch.

Senate confirms Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court after historic rules change

Donald Trump welcomed the first major triumph of his presidency on Friday when the Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court in an anticlimactic ending to the unprecedented partisan showdown over the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Gorsuch was approved by a vote of 54 to 45 after a marathon three-day hearing, a floor debate that included an all-night protest by a Democratic senator and a historic rules change that allowed his nomination to go forward on a simple majority. The White House said on Friday that Trump would swear in Gorsuch on Monday morning.

Rich Americans live up to 15 years longer than poor peers, studies find

You can’t buy time – except, it seems, in America. Increasing inequality means wealthy Americans can now expect to live up to 15 years longer than their poor counterparts, reports in the British medical journal the Lancet have found. Researchers said these disparities appear to be worsened by the American health system itself, which relies on for-profit insurance companies, and is the most expensive in the world. Their conclusion? Treat healthcare as a human right. ...

Among the studies’ key findings: the richest 1% live up to 15 years longer than the poorest 1%; the same gap in life expectancy widened in recent decades, making poverty a powerful indicator for death; more than one-third of low-income Americans avoid medical care because of costs (compared to 7% in Canada and 1% in the UK); the poorest fifth of Americans pay twice as much for healthcare as a share of income (6% for the poor, versus 3.2% for the rich); and life expectancy would have grown 51.1% more from 1983 to 2005 had mass incarceration not accelerated in the mid-1980s.

The poorest Americans have suffered in particular, with life expectancies falling in some groups even while medicine has advanced. For example, researchers reported that the poorest fifth of women born between 1930 and 1960 statistically lived four years less than Americans in the top fifth of the socioeconomic spectrum.

All of these health outcomes arrive in the context of widening general inequality. The share of total income going to the top 1% of earners has more than doubled since 1970, making the US more unequal than all but three developed countries: Chile, Mexico and Turkey.

Young Americans’ salaries haven’t increased in over 25 years

For the last 25 years, young Americans haven’t been able to get a raise — not even with a college degree.

Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show that in 2016 the average annual wage of a recent college graduate with a bachelor’s degree was $43,000, and for like-aged people with a high school diploma, that figure was $26,000. In 1990, those figures were $42,847 and $31,160, respectively. ...

The stagnant wages of young people in America fit into a broader pattern of intergenerational inequality. Researchers at Stanford University released findings in December that said children born in the 1940s had a 90 percent chance of earning more than their parents’ generation, while kids born in the 1980s only have a 50 percent chance of doing so.

Terrorism Smear Campaign Against Democratic Contender for Congress Run By Saudi Lobbyist

A Republican super pac has paid for a television ad attacking Democrat Jon Ossoff — one of the leading candidates in an April 18 special election to fill the House seat for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District — for producing video content for Al Jazeera.

The ad assails Al Jazeera as a “mouthpiece for terrorists,” and features imagery of deceased al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, with the clear insinuation that Ossof’s past work for Al Jazeera puts him in league with terrorists.

Ironically, the Super PAC, called the Congressional Leadership Fund, is chaired by former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman — a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia, home of 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers and one of the countries most responsible for exporting extremism.

Al Jazeera was relentlessly demonized by the Bush administration for its critical reporting on the war in Iraq and its airing of al Qaeda tapes. Yet today it is recognized as a legitimate news outlet even by boosters of that war like Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, who has fulsomely praised the network and sits down with it for interviews. Another Iraq war supporter, Hillary Clinton, complimented the channel during her tenure as secretary of state for producing “real news” often superior to American television journalism.

Standing Rock's Pipeline Fight Brought Hope, Then More Misery

Oil is now in the Dakota Access pipeline under the Missouri River, half a mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. The pipeline will soon begin operating despite a year of sometimes violent protests by thousands of native and non-native demonstrators, who fear a spill from the pipeline polluting the reservation's water supply. The fight ended abruptly when, as one of his first acts, President Donald Trump reversed an order from his predecessor, Barack Obama, and canceled a new, more thorough environmental study by the Army Corps of Engineers. ...

The protests over the pipeline, which included a contingent of military veterans, threw the dire living conditions on reservations throughout the country into high relief. "It is much more than just about a pipeline," said former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, who was chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs before leaving office in 2011. "They were promised health care, housing, law enforcement and a good education. Much of it was written in treaties and it hasn't been delivered."

The $3.8 billion pipeline will pump crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois and the drive to halt it was the most disruptive event to hit Fort Yates (pop. 195) in decades. Sonja and Steven Willard, who live at the intersection of streets named Akicita and Cante—Lakota for "warrior" and "heart"—enthusiastically pitched in. They joined the prayer circles and helped sort supplies donated to demonstrators camped out at Oceti Sakowin, the main protest camp near Cannon Ball. Their son Ghavin, a lanky 16-year-old, served as a scout, riding on horseback along the pipeline's route, keeping an eye on the construction crews as they advanced toward the Missouri River.

The Willards and their neighbors hoped they had been given an indefinite reprieve when Obama ordered the new environmental study on Dec. 4. Trump's quick abrogation of Obama's order was a shock. Though demonstrations continued—hundreds of protesters recently marched from the Washington headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers to the Trump International Hotel, where they erected a teepee—the Willards folded their tent.

"I know there are still people out there fighting," said Sonja, a square-jawed 46-year-old Hunkpapa Lakota, shortly after Trump issued his order, "but from my point of view it is over and done with. My hope was lost when Trump got in. Maybe I'm giving up too soon, but I feel no one can get around him, he is too powerful." ... With the pipeline now nearly complete, the Willard family doesn't go near the construction site. What they once viewed as a symbol of hope they now see as yet another depressing example of defeat.

Climate change: three of Australia’s big four banks reviewing exposure to fossil fuels

Three of Australia’s big four banks are reviewing their exposure to fossil fuels, including their lending practices to households and farmers, in response to climate change.

The Commonwealth Bank is conducting a “detailed climate policy review” that will be released publicly pending board approval, and NAB has a working group reviewing the risks from global temperatures rising two degrees.

ANZ is conducting portfolio analysis to identify changes in the financial position of business customers in sectors “most exposed” to climate change. It is also working with the Bureau of Meteorology to understand variability in average annual rainfall over recent decades to understand how climate change is affecting Australia’s traditional farming areas.

Executives from the three banks shared this information with the House of Representatives’ standing committee on economics, as part of a review of the four major banks. The revelations, written in response to questions on notice from the committee, were published on the federal parliamentary website on Friday afternoon.

It comes two months after the banking regulator warned climate change posed a material risk to Australia’s financial system, and urged companies to start adapting.

Also of Interest

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

Roaming Charges: Metaphysical Graffiti

Is Trump Going to Commit the Next Great American Catastrophe in Syria?

The Impending Clash Between the U.S. and Russia

Did Assad use chemical weapons on Khan Shaikhoun?

New study links carbon pollution to extreme weather

A Little Night Music

Byther Smith - She's a Good 'Un

Byther Smith - Don't Make Me Talk Too Much

Byther Smith - Every Woman I Meet

Byther Smith - I'm A Honey Bee

Byther Smith - Monticello

Byther Smith - Cut You Loose

Byther Smith - I Didn't Get None

Byther Smith - Live at the Natural Rhythm Social Club