The Evening Blues - 5-26-16



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues musician Maurice John Vaughn. Enjoy!

Maurice John Vaughn w/Fred Brousse Blues Band - The Sky Is Crying

"Similar questions were posed to Allende as to me. Allende was told that he blamed everything on a conspiracy, on the economic crisis, that he blamed the high inflation that sabotaged him on the United States, and that he was frequently accusing the little lambs of Nixon and Kissinger of a coup. But everything became known later."

-- Nicolas Maduro


News and Opinion

Operation Condor conspiracy faces day of judgment in Argentina court

It was an organised programme of state-sponsored murder in which US-backed regimes conspired to hunt down, kidnap and kill political opponents across South America and beyond. Operation Condor [...] was devised to eliminate thousands of exiled leftwing activists who had dared confront the military dictators who ruled the continent in the 1970s and 80s. ...

Eighteen former military officers – including Argentina’s last dictator Reynaldo Bignone, 88 – will on Friday be sentenced on charges including kidnapping, torture and forced disappearance. Seven other defendants, including Jorge Videla – the general who headed Argentina’s junta during its bloodiest first three years – have died since the trial began in 2013.

The court has heard evidence on the deaths of more than 100 leftwing activists allegedly killed in Argentina, including 45 Uruguayans, 22 Chileans, 15 Paraguayans and 13 Bolivians.

The verdict is also likely to cast a fresh light on allegations that the operation was backed by the CIA – and at least tacitly approved by the then secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

The plaintiffs allege that Operation Condor received support from the US, especially in the form of its communications system, which they say operated through Condortel, a US telex system based in Panama.

Gastón Chillier, the executive director of Cels (Centre for Legal and Social Studies) in Argentina, said: “What we found among the large amount of documents we presented as evidence is that the US definitely had knowledge of the existence of the operation and even provided a communications station in Panama for the intelligence services of the six nations involved to communicate with each other via telex.”

Swedish Court Upholds Arrest Warrant for Julian Assange

A Swedish court on Wednesday rejected a request to overturn the arrest warrant of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange because there were no new circumstances to consider.

The Stockholm District Court said it made the decision because Assange is still wanted for questioning in a case of suspected rape and that "there is still a risk that he will depart or in some other way evade prosecution or penalty."

The court said it saw no reason to hold another detention hearing saying he would remain "detained in absentia."

Thomas Olsson, Assange's lawyer in Sweden, says he would appeal the decision because "the passivity of the prosecutor had delayed the investigation in an unacceptable" way.

Former 9/11 Commissioner Won’t Rule Out Saudi Royal Family Foreknowledge of 9/11 Plot

A former member of the 9/11 Commission on Tuesday left open the possibility that the Saudi royal family knew about the 9/11 terror plot before it happened.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., asked members of the panel at a House Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing to raise their hands in response to this question:

“How many of you there believe that the royal family of Saudi Arabia did not know and was unaware that there was a terrorist plot being implemented that would result in a historic terrorist attack in the United States, in the lead-up to 9/11?”

Two of the four panelists raised their hands, but Tim Roemer, 9/11 Commission member and a former congressman from Indiana, did not. Neither did Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“Congressman, that is just too difficult a question for someone to raise their hand or put their hand down,” Roemer explained. He then suggested that Rohrabacher read 28 classified pages of a 2002 congressional report that describe overseas support for the 9/11 attackers.

The [28 pages were] initially classified by the George W. Bush White House, fearful of upsetting a U.S. ally. Despite twice promising to release the pages, President Obama has withheld them.

US prosecutors say businessman with 'close ties' to Turkey's Erdogan poses flight risk

Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish billionaire businessman who is accused of money laundering and sanctions violations poses an extraordinary flight risk and should not receive bail, US prosecutors said on Wednesday. ...

US prosecutors said Zarrab has "close ties" to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Zarrab was at the center of a 2013 gold corruption scandal in Turkey that ensnared then Prime Minister Erdogan's government. Prosecutors in Turkey alleged he bribed high-level officials to facilitate illicit transactions with Iran.

Three ministers were ultimately forced to resign even though they claimed their innocence.

The charges against Zarrab were ultimately dropped after Erdogan, who called the corruption allegations a coup orchestrated by political opponents, dismissed prosecutors and police working on the case.

US prosecutors said a Turkish prosecutor's report into corruption had been "corroborated by emails obtained through the FBI's investigation."

"There appear to be credible allegations that Zarrab has already secured his release from Turkish prison by causing the wholesale reorganization of the Turkish prosecutor's office and police department through bribery," US prosecutors said.

Erdogan – Our friend the autocrat?

Iraqis Are Bombarding Fallujah With 50,000 Civilians Trapped Inside

Iraqi government security forces and allied militias continued their assault on the Islamic State-held town of Fallujah on Wednesday, killing more civilians than militants in the process, according to sources inside the city.

At least 21 civilians have been killed in the three day-old offensive, compared with 14 Islamic State fighters, a Fallujah hospital source told Reuters. ...

Aid agencies have become alarmed about civilian suffering in a city that has been under siege for six months, and the United Nations has urged combatants to protect inhabitants trying to escape the fighting.

On Wednesday morning Iraqi troops concentrated artillery fire on Fallujah's northern and northeastern neighborhoods, according to a resident Reuters contacted via the Internet.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Tuesday that up to 50,000 people may still be trapped inside the town of 100,000.

Fearing Kurds, Many Raqqa Arabs Side With ISIS

Though they have, throughout US involvement in the Syrian War, been America’s go-to ally, the Kurdish YPG hasn’t had the rosiest of track records. Several times throughout the war, when offensives have put them in control of Sunni Arab territory, they have engaged in ethnic cleansing, killing Arabs they see as “pro-ISIS” and burning entire villages worth of homes.

This is informing the almost exclusively Sunni Arab population of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa as the YPG launches a major offensive just north of the city, and according to locals, is prompting many civilians to join the ISIS effort to defend the city.

This problem has been true in ISIS territory in both Iraq and Syria, where at times the “liberators” have been seen as unwelcome, and prone to violent outbursts against the locals.

Russia Halts Strikes on Syrian al-Qaeda, Citing Rebel Requests

Less than a week after Russia requested joint operations with the US to fight the growing al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, a call which the US rejected, Russia has announced they are putting their unilateral offensive against the group on hold indefinitely.

Russian officials cited requests from 10 rebel factions within Syria to put a halt to the strikes while they separate themselves from Nusra, which controls a major umbrella group in the Idlib Province and is believed to be on the verge of declaring an independent “emirate” in the area.

GOP senators propose sending ISIS fighters to Gitmo

A group of Republicans led by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced legislation on Wednesday to send detained Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fighters to Guantanamo Bay.

“Instead of closing the prison, the Administration should transfer detained ISIS fighters to Guantanamo Bay," the senators said in a statement.

The legislation comes in the form of an amendment to the Senate's 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes Pentagon spending and activities. It's also backed by Sens. Joni Ernst (Iowa), Ted Cruz (Texas), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), James Inhofe (Okla.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), and Tim Scott (S.C.).

It urges the transfer of captured ISIS fighters to the detention facility in Cuba, as the administration tries to shut the facility down before President Obama leaves office in January.

Holy crap! The State Department said something vaguely critical of Israel. I wonder how long it will be until the US apologizes and increases the amount of the military aid package.

US: New Far-Right Israeli Coalition Raises ‘Legitimate Questions’

While US officials had previously been reluctant to comment at all on the incoming “most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history,” today the State Department confirmed that this, including new Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman “raises legitimate questions” about the direction Israel is taking.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US is particularly concerned about the number of ministers in the new Israeli cabinet that have been publicly opposed to the two-state solution, though he added that the US will judge the coalition on actions, not rhetoric. ...

The US “concerns” are likely minimal, as Israel already had a far-right government before Lieberman’s addition, and Netanyahu campaigned last year explicitly on his opposition to Palestinian statehood.

EU Nations Ignore Egypt Arms Embargo, Fuel Junta Killings

In the immediate wake of the 2013 military coup d’etat in Egypt, the nation began carrying out bloody crackdowns on protesters loyal to the ousted elected government, leading the European Union to impose an arms embargo.

A new report from Amnesty International shows that the embargo has largely been meaningless, and that 12 of the 28 EU member nations continue to be major suppliers of weapons and other “policing equipment” to the military junta.

Egypt’s crackdown on dissent, of course, has continued throughout that period, and Amnesty said that in providing billions of dollars worth of weapons and other gear to the junta, the European Union nations are contributing significantly to that crackdown.

Obama's Historic Hiroshima Visit Underscores Nuclear Hypocrisy

President Barack Obama on Friday will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit to Hiroshima, Japan—a visit, according to anti-nuclear campaigners, that "rings hollow without far bolder efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons."

During his visit, Obama will reportedly offer no apology for the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on the Japanese city 71 years ago, which killed 140,000 people, though lingering effects, both physical and psychological, remain today.

At the start of his presidency, in 2009, Obama gave a speech in Prague during which he called for world without nuclear weapons and said, "the United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons. To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, and urge others to do the same."

Yet that lofty goal "has been replaced by an administration plan to build a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear production facilities to last the nation well into the second half of the 21st century"—to the tune of $1 trillion over three decades, and in violation of the terms of the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, historian Lawrence Wittner wrote.

Way to go Obama! Your neocon foreign policy is making the world a much safer place. I mean, gosh, I feel so secure in the knowledge of the superiority of American nuclear weapons as a deterrent. That's way better than a world without them!

China to send nuclear-armed submarines into Pacific amid tensions with US

The Chinese military is poised to send submarines armed with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s existing deterrent force that it has been left with no alternative.

Chinese military officials are not commenting on the timing of a maiden patrol, but insist the move is inevitable.

They point to plans unveiled in March to station the US Thaad anti-ballistic system in South Korea, and the development of hypersonic glide missiles potentially capable of hitting China less than an hour after launch, as huge threats to the effectiveness of its land-based deterrent force. ...

Until now, Beijing has pursued a cautious deterrence policy, declaring it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and storing its warheads and its missiles separately, both strictly under the control of the top leadership.

Deploying nuclear-armed submarines would have far-reaching implications.

Warheads and missiles would be put together and handed over to the navy, allowing a nuclear weapon to be launched much faster if such a decision was taken. The start of Chinese missile patrols could further destabilise the already tense strategic standoff with the US in the South China Sea.

US nuclear arsenal controlled by 1970s computers with 8in floppy disks

The US military’s nuclear arsenal is controlled by computers built in the 1970s that still use 8in floppy disks.

A report into the state of the US government, released by congressional investigators, has revealed that the country is spending around $60bn (£40.8bn) to maintain museum-ready computers, which many do not even know how to operate any more, as their creators retire.

The Defense Department’s Strategic Automated Command and Control System (DDSACCS), which is used to send and receive emergency action messages to US nuclear forces, runs on a 1970s IBM computing platform. It still uses 8in floppy disks to store data.

Shockingly, the US Government Accountability Office said: “Replacement parts for the system are difficult to find because they are now obsolete.”

France Labour Law strike chaos: "We want more social rights for the workers"

French union dispute leaves newspaper stands empty save for leftwing daily

France’s CGT trade union has been accused of a “scandalous” attempt to lean on the press after it prevented almost all of Thursday’s French national newspapers from being printed, as part of escalating nationwide strike action against the government’s changes to labour laws.

The union’s strikers shut off printing presses and distribution and allowed only one newspaper, the leftwing daily L’Humanité, to be printed after it agreed to the union’s demands to publish an opinion piece by the CGT leader, Philippe Martinez. ...

It has emerged that CGT representatives contacted the French newspaper editors’ union on Wednesday, saying they insisted that every daily paper run a pre-written communique by Martinez, in which he called for the government proposals to be abandoned.

L’Humanité, which was formerly the official publication of the French Communist party and which, although it has long been independent, retains strong ties to its political roots, was the only paper to publish the release.

All other daily papers were prevented from publishing by the union, which shut off the printing presses on Wednesday night.

Baltimore officers charged in Freddie Gray death sue state's attorney

Two of the officers charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore last April filed a defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit against state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby

Officer William Porter – whose first trial ended with a hung jury in December – and Sgt Alicia White jointly filed suit against Mosby, the state, and other officials, alleging that the statements of charges “were made not for the purpose of prosecuting crimes that had allegedly been committed by White and Porter, but rather for purposes of quelling the riots in Baltimore”, according to court documents.

The plaintiffs attempted to keep the suit sealed but it was revealed on Wednesday, two days after Mosby’s office lost its case against officer Edward Nero, who was charged with assault for his role in Gray’s arrest. Porter and White are both charged with manslaughter for not getting medical attention for Gray, who died of a catastrophic spinal injury he suffered in the back of a police van. ...

The charges against the officers followed on high-profile failures of prosecutors to criminally charge officers in other police-involved deaths like that of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York.

But for many, the speed with which Mosby brought the charges – after promising to do a thorough investigation – was a problem and seems to be part of the basis of the suit, which also names a major in the sheriff’s department who assisted Mosby with the investigation. She brought charges less than 24 hours after receiving records of the police investigation.

Bill Would Require DNA Samples From Americans When Sponsoring Family Visas

A new immigration bill under consideration by the House Judiciary Committee would impose unprecedented restrictions on U.S. citizens seeking to sponsor the immigration of their family members, requiring that all parties submit to mandatory DNA testing as part of their visa applications.

H.R. 5203, the Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016, would require that “a genetic test is conducted to confirm such biological relationship,” adding that, “any such genetic test shall be conducted at the expense of the petitioner or applicant.”

A public letter from the American Civil Liberties Union protesting the bill notes that its provisions would require “even a nursing mother [to] undergo DNA testing to prove the biological relationship with her infant,” and “would amount to population surveillance that subverts our notions of a free and autonomous citizenry.” It is unclear how the bill would account for adopted children, or those who for a variety of other reasons might not fully share the DNA characteristics of their parents. ...

In addition to the genetic testing requirements, which would be applicable across the globe, the bill also prohibits nationals and dual-nationals of seven specified countries –Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — from obtaining any type of U.S. visa without undergoing enhanced security screening procedures.

Canada Plans to Reject Chinese Telecom Workers on Suspicion They Could Be Spies

Canada's immigration department is planning to deny permanent resident visas to three Chinese citizens who work for Chinese telecom titan Huawei over concerns the applicants are involved in espionage, terrorism, and government subversion.

A fourth person previously employed by Huawei, but married to someone who currently works for the company, was also told their application would be rejected, the Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday.

Huawei is the third largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, operating in 170 countries with more than 170,000 employees. It came under fire when a scathing 2012 US House Intelligence Committee report alleged it was spying on Americans, a claim that was characterized by Huawei as "little more than an exercise in China-bashing." The UK and Australia have also raised concerns that the company was being used to gather intel for the Chinese government.

'It needs more public-spirited pigs': TS Eliot's rejection of Orwell's Animal Farm

The letter in which TS Eliot rejects George Orwell’s allegory Animal Farm because “we have no conviction … that this is the right point of view from which to criticise the political situation” has been published online for the first time by the British Library, alongside a wealth of other material from 20th-century writers.

Addressing the author as “Dear Orwell”, Eliot, then a director at publishing firm Faber & Faber, writes on 13 July 1944 that the publisher will not be acquiring Animal Farm for publication. Eliot described its strengths: “We agree that it is a distinguished piece of writing; that the fable is very skilfully handled, and that the narrative keeps one’s interest on its own plane – and that is something very few authors have achieved since Gulliver.”

Animal Farm, a beast fable that satirised Stalinism and depicted Stalin as a traitor, was rejected by at least four publishers, with many, like Eliot, feeling it was too controversial at a time when Britain was allied with the Soviet Union against Germany.

“I think my own dissatisfaction with this apologue is that the effect is simply one of negation. It ought to excite some sympathy with what the author wants, as well as sympathy with his objections to something: and the positive point of view, which I take to be generally Trotskyite, is not convincing,” wrote Eliot to Orwell. “And after all, your pigs are far more intelligent than the other animals, and therefore the best qualified to run the farm – in fact, there couldn’t have been an Animal Farm at all without them: so that what was needed (someone might argue), was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs.”



the horse race



Keep Oil in the Soil: Bill McKibben on Being Named by Sanders to DNC Platform Committee

This is a short article rich in information that will tick you off. Check it out to see the connections of these Clintonista lobbyists and who they are really working for.

Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz Pick Influence Peddlers to Guide DNC Platform

Three professional influence peddlers, including a registered corporate lobbyist, have been chosen by Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., to serve on the committee responsible for drafting the party’s platform. ...

Wendy Sherman and Carol Browner, two of the representatives chosen by Clinton, work at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a “government affairs” firm that was created in 2009 through a merger with Madeleine Albright’s consulting company and Stonebridge International, a defense contractor lobbying shop. ...

Wasserman Schultz appointed Howard Berman, a former congressman who now works at Covington & Burling as a lobbyist. Disclosures show he currently represents the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade group for the movie industry, on “intellectual property issues in trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties, copyright, and related legislation.”

The picks stand in contrast to the slate chosen by the Bernie Sanders campaign, which included environmentalist Bill McKibben, philosopher Cornel West, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.

Wasserman Schultz fights to keep her job

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is fighting to stay on as head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) amid a roiling debate within her party about whether she should step aside before the Democratic National Convention in July.

Wasserman Schultz’s future as DNC chairwoman was called into question late Tuesday after The Hill reported that senators have privately discussed whether she should resign. Some argue such a move could mollify supporters of Bernie Sanders after a bitter primary fight against Hillary Clinton.

The issue reverberated across the Capitol on Wednesday, as Democrats in the House and Senate were bombarded with questions about whether a change in leadership is needed. ...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the DNC chairwoman has “the respect of her colleagues”; Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), head of the House Democratic Caucus, said she has “done phenomenal work”; and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), head of the Congressional Black Caucus’s campaign arm, praised her as having “done a great job in a difficult scenario.”

But the mood in the Senate was different; talk of replacing Wasserman Schultz received little pushback from Senate leaders.

Neck-and-Neck in California as Sanders Virtually Erases 50-Point Deficit

New poll shows Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in statistical tie less than two weeks before California's Democratic primary

Less than two weeks before California's critical Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are locked in a dead heat in that state, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), shows that among Democratic primary likely voters, 46 percent support Clinton and 44 percent support Sanders. Sanders leads Clinton among those who are very liberal (64% to 35%) as well as among younger voters (66% to 27%). Latino voters are slightly more likely to support Clinton (52% to 43%), while white voters are more divided (47% Clinton, 41% Sanders).

The San Jose Mercury News points out: "Sanders started the campaign a year ago trailing Clinton in California by more than 50 percentage points in early polls, but he had pared down her lead to single digits earlier this year. PPIC's last poll in March found Sanders trailing by seven percentage points."

As Politico notes, a Sanders victory on June 7 would create "an awkward situation for Clinton, who could be celebrating being dubbed the 'presumptive nominee' even as she loses the nation's largest state—and one of its most diverse."

Bernie Sanders up for debate against Donald Trump

Bernie Sanders has responded in the enthusiastic affirmative to an offer of unclear seriousness from Donald Trump to debate him before the 7 June California primary.

Appearing on late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel’s show on Wednesday, Trump said he would be glad to debate Sanders mano a mano – for charity. At which Sanders, whose supporters routinely cheer his stump speech attacks on Trump, and who has failed to lure Hillary Clinton into a similar California showdown, tweeted that he was game:


Sanders camp: Discussions underway for Trump debate

Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager says “back-channel conversations” are underway with Donald Trump’s staff about setting up a bipartisan debate between the two presidential candidates.

“I think it would benefit voters from across the country and I have to believe it would be one of the most-watched debates in presidential politics,” Jeff Weaver said Thursday on MSNBC.

“Let's see if he has the courage to go one-on-one with Bernie Sanders,” he added.

The Sanders campaign is seeking to ramp up pressure on Trump to follow through on his Wednesday night remarks to late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.

"Significant Security Risks": State Department Says Clinton Broke Rules Using Private Email Server

Government Report on Clinton Email Scandal Much Worse Than Expected

As Politico's Rachael Bade, Josh Gerstein, and Nick Gass write:

The watchdog’s findings could exact further damage to Clinton’s campaign, and they provide fresh fodder for Trump, who has already said he will go after Clinton for the email scandal “bigly.” The Democratic frontrunner’s bid for the White House has already been hindered by high unfavorability ratings, with people saying they don’t trust her.

The report represents the latest pushback — in this case by a nonpartisan government entity — against her campaign’s claim that she did not break any rules and that her use of a private server was completely allowed.

In fact, technology staff in the Information Resource Management (S/ES-IRM) office who brought up concerns about Clinton's use of her private server were reportedly instructed not to question the arrangement.

"In one meeting, one staff member raised concerns that information sent and received on Secretary Clinton’s account could contain Federal records that needed to be preserved in order to satisfy Federal recordkeeping requirements," the report states. "According to the staff member, the Director [of S/ES-IRM] stated that the Secretary's personal system had been reviewed and approved by Department legal staff and that the matter was not to be discussed any further. As previously noted, OIG found no evidence that staff in the Office of the Legal Adviser reviewed or approved Secretary Clinton's personal system."

Other staff from different offices were also instructed "never to speak of the Secretary's personal email system again."

An excellent piece from Matt Taibbi, worth a full read:

Hillary Clinton's New Anti-Trump Ad Misses the Mark

A new attack ad put out by the Hillary Clinton campaign this week achieves the near-impossible, making Donald Trump look wronged and (almost) like a victim. More believably, it makes the Democrats look sleazy and disingenuous in comparison.

The ad begins with a picture of a grinning Trump and the words, "In 2006, Donald Trump was hoping for a real estate crash." ...

[Click link for full description. - js]

Then we hear Trump talking about how a bursting of the real-estate bubble would be an opportunity for rich folks like himself. ...

This ad is disingenuous in a dozen different ways. For one thing, the destruction that the Clinton campaign describes was not caused by people swooping in after the bubble burst, buying at the bottom of the market.

It was caused by the existence of a speculative bubble in the first place. And that bubble was inflated not by Donald Trump, but by the people who have at least in part bankrolled Hillary Clinton's career: namely, Wall Street banks. ...

By blaming Trump for a problem caused by their own political patrons, Hillary and the Democrats are walking face-first into Trump's rhetorical buzz-saw. Couldn't they find something else to hit him with?



the evening greens


Billion-Dollar Funds Tried, and Failed, to Force Oil Majors to Disclose Climate-Change Plans

On Wednesday, activist investors representing some of the world's biggest funds tried, and failed, to change how two of America's largest oil companies approach climate change. This time, the activists pushing for action on climate change from Exxon Mobil and Chevron weren't just in the street, as has happened often before. They had seats in the companies' shareholder meetings — and that's because they are some of the biggest money managers in the world.

Over the last year, Exxon Mobil and Chevron have faced mounting pressure from large shareholders about the risks posed to their business by a changing climate, and by increased regulation around carbon emissions. And at Wednesday's meetings, institutional investors with billions in company stock attempted to force the oil giants to disclose more about how they are preparing to operate in a world that's trying to burn less fossil fuel and forestall rising temperatures.

They failed, as 62 percent of Exxon shareholders and 59 percent of Chevron's went with the company's recommendation, and voted down resolutions to release climate impact reports. The companies had suggested that doing so would make them less competitive. ...

Institutional investors suggest the the recalcitrance of American oil majors is linked to corporate incentive structure and how the SEC manages the relationships between owners and company directors.

Anne Simpson, investment director for CalPERS said that because executive pay is tied to metrics like expanding proven oil reserves, companies are discouraged from shifting investment to renewable energy sources. One of the failed resolutions CalPERS supported would have change the measure of company output from barrels of oil to British thermal units, a source-neutral measure of energy, in the hope of spurring greater exploration of oil alternatives.

Bill McKibben on Exxon, the Power of Divestment, and Being Targeted by Shadowy Right-Wing Group

ExxonMobil CEO: ending oil production 'not acceptable for humanity'

Rex Tillerson, the boss of oil giant ExxonMobil, said cutting oil production was “not acceptable for humanity” as he fought off shareholders’ and activists’ attempts to force the company to fully acknowledge the impact of climate change on the environment and Exxon’s future profits.

During a long and fractious annual meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, Tillerson, who serves as Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, beat back several proposals to force the company to take more action on climate change.

However, dissident shareholders won a vote that could make it easier for them to propose board candidates concerned about climate change and remove incumbent directors.

Tillerson said Exxon had invested $7bn in green technology, but the science and technology had not yet achieved the breakthroughs needed to compete with fossil fuels. “Until we have those, just saying ‘turn the taps off’ is not acceptable to humanity,” he said. “The world is going to have to continue using fossil fuels, whether they like it or not.” ...

The Guardian was banned from reporting from inside the meeting, and instead listened to proceedings via webcast. “We are denying your request because of the Guardian’s lack of objectivity on climate change reporting, demonstrated by its partnership with anti-oil and gas activists and its campaign against companies that provide energy necessary for modern life, including newspapers,” a spokesman said.

Hundreds of Millions to Be Displaced by Climate Change, French Minister Warns

Calamitous global conflict as a result of climate change will produce hundreds of millions of refugees by 2100, said France's environmental minister Ségolène Royal to representatives from 170 countries at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi on Thursday.

"Climate change issues lead to conflict, and when we analyze wars and conflicts that have taken place over the last few years we see some are linked to an extent to climate change, drought is linked to food security crises," Royal said, according to the Guardian.

"The difficulty of having access to food resources leads to massive migration, south-south migration," she said, referring to migration between developing countries.

"The African continent is particularly hit by this south-south migration," Royal continued. "If nothing is done to combat the negative impact of climate change, we will have hundreds of millions of climate change migrants by the end of the century."

The minister's words echoed what humanitarian groups have argued: that climate change is among the root causes fueling the so-called "migrant crisis" created by world powers.


Also of Interest

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

The New York Times’s (and Clinton Campaign’s) Abject Cowardice on Israel

Israel is at war over nature of a Jewish state, and NYT spins it as ‘changing of the guard’

New WikiLeaks Trove Further Exposes TISA's Neoliberal Agenda

Democrats made assault weapons more popular, says gun historian

Bernie Sanders Easily Wins the Policy Debate


A Little Night Music

Maurice John Vaughn w/AC Reed - [Everything I Do] Got To Be Funky

Maurice John Vaughn - I Done Told You

Maurice John Vaughn - Generic Blues

Maurice John Vaughn, "Little Bobby" Neely, Abb Locke - I Wanna Hear Some Blues

Maurice John Vaughn - Mojo Hand

Maurice John Vaughn - I got money

Maurice John Vaughn - I Want To Be Your Spy



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cybrestrike's picture

Julian Assange is going to realize how badly the US wants him for embarrassing them so badly on the world stage. He’s going to be staying in that embassy for quite some more time. They want him disappeared—badly. At this point it doesn’t matter, because all secrets have been revealed, but some people in some dark locked rooms in darker buildings want him gone as an example.

Erdogan is going to show the EU that they should have dealt with his megalomania much earlier. Because now he’s going to make life difficult for Merkel and company. They done messed up here. Turkey, as long as Erdogan’s party is in power (which appears to be for a long time, especially if he rewrites their constitution), will be more of a problem child than the oligarchs in the EU thought Greece would be.

I’m not sure if anything will come of the fact that we do indeed know the Saudis were involved in 9/11. It’s basically an “everyone knows it” thing in the intelligence and diplomatic world. Since the fall of the House of Saud would prove to be problematic for “our interests” in the Middle East (read: Israel), nothing will come of this. At least not yet.

The Apartheid State of Israel and Occupied Palestine will extract some concessions for the State Department calling them out. Maybe a few hundred more million in aid will keep Netanyahu and that omnicidal maniac Avigdor Leibermann quiet till they decide to bomb more brown people in the name of “security”.

China has gotten the hint that the US-run neoliberal hegemony will do anything to break up and disrupt anything that tries to stop their version of the world. Hell, look at what a little meddling did in Brazil, the B in BRICs. They’ve every right to defend what they perceive as their sovereignty against the ageing US empire. Could get messy, though.

Re: Democratic National Commttee Platform. It’s all well and good that Sanders got so many progressive voices on the platform committee. But to me it’s meaningless. The platform is summarily ignored once the nominee is elected. If the nominee is Sanders, the platform is awesome. If it is Clinton, you might as well flush it down the toilet, because her Borg Hive Collective will ignore it. That’s probably the cynic in me, but there it is.

The clock is ticking on Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Her getting the boot would be great, but shouldn’t be seen as some grand concession to the left wing of the Democratic Party. The party bigwigs think sacking her will and letting Sanders pick some people for the platform committee will bring some Sanders people back in the fold. They’d be far from right. They’d better watch Bernie’s interview on The Young Turks to see what would bring the leftists back to vote for Clinton (if she is the nominee). And they should take copious notes.

Regarding HRC’s email issues…she’ll get away with it. That’s the cynic in me. I try to ignore that part of my brain. But she’s one of those people. And those people always get away with it. However, if she threatens to tarnish Obama’s legacy thing, she’s toast. He’s all about YOLO and himself right now, and anything that threatens that will have to go. He loves the whole “law & order wannabe billy-badass” thing, and letting Hillary take the fall for being an overly paranoid and entitled yutz would be right in his wheelhouse.

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stevej's picture

re the DNC, DWS, Sanders stuff is exactly where mine is. I suspect that DWS even knows what lucrative job offer she will receive for being prepared to fall on her sword -after all that is the way these things roll.

Sometimes we have to give our inner cynic free reign Smile

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

snoopydawg's picture

On the supposed rape charges against Assange? The events happened over 6-7 years ago IIRC.
And why the hell is Britain being the US's puppet again and spending $10,000 a day guarding the embassy? Or are we tax payers footing the bill? Again, like we foot all foreign country's foreign aid?

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

joe shikspack's picture

has run out for some of the charges, but not others:

The crimes Mr Assange is suspected of are subject to statutes of limitation - prosecutors only have until August 2015 to question him about some of the allegations against him, although they have until 2020 to investigate the most serious alleged rape offence.

the uk police have ended their stakeout at the ecuadorian embassy. on the other hand, they are still trying to arrest him.

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mjsmeme's picture

for the most part, don't turn on each other (they don't look back). Looks like Obama is between a rock and a hard place.

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joe shikspack's picture

great to see you! i hope everything is going well.

your take is pretty much identical to mine on everything but hillary's email issues. it kind of depends on what you mean by "getting away with it." if you mean, she will never see the inside of a courtroom or a jail cell, yeah, i think you're right about that. also, i'd say it's about 70% likely that it won't interfere with her becoming president, except as part of a constellation of corrupt acts and parsed words that might stack up to a terminal case of "not trustworthy enough to be president."

i think that if she does win the presidential lottery, she will be hounded in front of congressional investigators over the emails and the clinton foundation and everything else she has been embroiled in ad nauseum. i suspect that they might actually find grounds for impeachment.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

We are living in interesting times, indeed! I believe the email server news is the tip of the iceberg and more and more will be revealed regarding the true intentions of ethics and motives in the coming weeks. Once one thing is outed - the courage of others will spring forth like a dam bursting. That's my hope, anyway - we'll see if it pans out!

Shall we continue to degrade and demean immigrants and their families. Suppose one is adopted. DNA will mean jack. I can say that because I'm adopted and have no DNA match to those that I consider my family. Sigh.

Have a beautiful evening, everyone!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

riverlover's picture

Plans on shaking down all potential immigrants, even those displaced and homeless, to increase revenue and block any inflow. That light beam will be aimed at Mexicans and Central Americans, too. Entry fee. DNA tests retail for about $100 a head now. Probably want earnest money, too.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Raggedy Ann's picture

It's like drug testing - someone is getting rich from that brainy idea. The same ones are probably going to benefit from this too. Lab work is expensive. Wink

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

i think that there will be some interesting revelations to follow based upon the material in the emails. if i were a gambling man, i would bet that the relationship with sidney blumenthal will yield some evidence of deeply corrupt collusion.

if the clinton foundation is investigated, i am pretty certain that criminal investigators will hit paydirt pretty quickly.

i find the way that our congressworms, and obama as well, think of immigrants deeply disturbing, their actions show them to be unfit to hold offices of public trust.

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snoopydawg's picture

To get the TPP passed, first Obama downgraded Malaysia's human rights violations from tier 3 to tier 2 even though they traffic in slavery and human trafficking. The first black president of the United States is okay with slavery. Figure that out.
Now in his visit to Vietnam and to get them to sign on to the TPP, he's selling them weapons. Many members of congress are upset with him for overlooking its human rights violations and have sent him a letter. The link to the letter is included in the link to the article.
Vietnam also deals in human trafficking. And Obama and some members of the congress are okay with this.
As they were and are okay with the innocent civilians in fallujah being murdered first by the US military and now by ISIS.
After reading the article about wiki leaks exposing the TISA's agenda of removing national sovereignty from the countries that sign on, please read this one.
Obama, congress and the corporations are committing treason by signing away our national sovereignty over to the corporations.
Obama should be impeached for this, but since the people who have the power to impeach him agree with him, it won't happen. Sigh.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36156-obama-visits-vietnam-to-promote...
And remember folks that Hillary is going to continue Obama's legacy and agenda. And every death of the innocent civilians that happens when she starts new wars are going to be on the hands of the people who voted for her. Same as it was if they voted for Obama's second term and Bush's second one too.

The letter explains that under the TPP, Vietnam would get immediate trade benefits, but has 5 years to establish labor rights. Even then, there are no guarantees that the TPP's labor standards, such as they are, will ever be enforced. Currently "workers do not have the right to strike," and "Independent labor activists are treated like political dissidents: arrested and jailed." "Not only are collective bargaining and the right to join independent unions absent from the entire economy, other abuses including forced labor and child trafficking exist as well, particularly in garments, bricks, and agriculture." If the TPP is signed, it will pit American workers directly against these conditions for at least 5 years, assuming the best-case enforcement scenario. American workers will, of course, lose.

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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

The obvious reasons. Greed. Money. Period.
Obama knows that it will cost Americans even more jobs lost, but he doesn't give a shit. His whole two terms has been making sure that Wall Street and the corporations get everything that they want.
And he will be guaranteed huge speaking fees after he leaves office.
He is following in the Clinton's footsteps, isn't he?

Business leaders want to lower their "costs" by moving jobs to places like Vietnam that have extremely low wages and lax environmental protections. The TPP further opens Vietnam to this purpose. By lowering tariffs on goods coming back to the US, corporations will gain more profits as production is forced out of our country. Executives and Wall Street shareholders can then pocket the differential for themselves, and tell the American public this is great because they get "lower prices."

The TPP is not about boosting the American economy, Not at all. We can understand why the multinational corporations want to move these jobs to low-wage countries -- they get to pocket the difference in wage and environmental costs.

But why does the Obama administration want to push US production to places like Vietnam?

This is about foreign policy and the US "pivot to Asia" confronting China. What is really happening here is the President telling Asian countries that the US will sacrifice jobs to bring them into the fold in opposition to China. Doyle McManus explains in the LA Times, in"Obama's pivot to Asia is working":

Almost every country in the region is clamoring for a closer relationship with the United States.
The most striking case is Vietnam, most of whose leaders are old enough to have fought in their country's war with the United States. The communist regime has been openly courting a deeper military relationship, and has even invited the U.S. Navy to return to Cam Ranh Bay, its base during much of the war. During his visit, Obama is expected to announce an expansion of American military sales.
… "Any time China tries to put its thumb on any of its neighbors, that makes them enthusiastic about getting close to us," noted Derek Chollet, a former Defense Department official.
Only a few hundred miles from Vietnam's coast, Chinese construction teams have been dredging the seafloor and using landfill techniques to increase the size of China's territories, then building infrastructure to support military facilities.

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

joe shikspack's picture

obama has spent his whole time in office finding ways to deliver benefits to the 1% and to shift governance power to the 1%'s corporations.

obama is trying to be the man who sold the united states.

i'm sure that the post presidential rewards will be most generous and his presidential library will be the biggest one evah! of course, all the stuff that is worth knowing in the library will be classified in perpetuity.

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snoopydawg's picture

There are way too many people who think that he has been the best president since FDR.
From going back on almost every campaign promise he made, his cabinet appointments to his never ending wars and thousands of innocent civilians killed from his drone strikes to the selling out of this country with the 3 trade acts.
And those same people are now going to vote for Hillary who promises to continue his legacy.
The Obama foundation will be next of course.
The damage he has done to the Democratic Party, this country and the people of this world is incalculable.
I didn't think I could despise anyone more than I did Bush.
And seeing him smirk in the videos from his first campaign look to me that he's saying "are you people actually believing that I'm going to do those things?"

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

I don't think that Trump will follow through with a debate of Sanders

Sanders knows his policy positions and has been going over them several times a day for several months. Trump does not have a solid understanding of his policies.

And Bernie has few areas that he can be attacked, except his whole agenda

Sanders to Trump: Let's Debate in 'Biggest Stadium Possible' Sanders appeared eager for one-on-one with Trump after rival Hillary Clinton backed out of debate promise

If Bernie wins in CA, he may be on the way for the nomination

Several issues are trending against Hillary: Israel/Palestine now that an even worse leader, Lieberman, is now in power, the climate crisis gets worse all the time and more activists are on the issue, the "trade" deals are being rejected by more and more people, "Hillary's ratings never go up", Bernie started out as an unknown, people are upset at The Establishment, ...

Hear that Hillary is going to throw DWS under the bus. Is Hillary going to throw Kos under the bus, or is Kos going to hire DWS?

Yes, interesting times

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Haikukitty's picture

But I can't help feeling like the tides are shifting.

Is it too late? I don't know - but I hope not!!

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enhydra lutris's picture

seem to be the most symbolically appropriate site for Bernie to Debate Trump. just to put a thumb in his eye.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

i can't help but think that debating trump is the best possible thing that sanders could possibly do. it will draw far more attention than a debate with clinton and it will show how sanders can perform against trump.

by now, another debate with clinton is not going to cover new territory, so people are likely to tune out. a debate with trump, however, promises to deliver some new themes to the debate and get a lot of people thinking about how much more presidential sanders is than trump or clinton.

clinton would throw anybody under the bus to be president. dws may go under as a sacrificial offering, though it probably won't be until after the convention - there's still important rigging to oversee.

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Bisbonian's picture

Completely on its head...it makes HER look irrelevant.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

joe shikspack's picture

yeah, it kind of leaves her at the kiddie table looking like the kid that was too chicken to debate her opponent.

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Gerrit's picture

am so glad to see a small measure of much-delayed justice for the American-sponsored mass killings in South America during the 70s and 80s. The justice now being meted out to South American henchmen will hopefully lead to justice for Kissinger and the many, many plotters in Washington. The horrors visited upon justice activists, their families, and the many, many workers was truly heinous. I just hope that justice would reach those American killers and plotters before they die. Like with the post-WW2 hunt for war criminals as they hid while aging. America's blood-stained soul needs those killers to receive justice before it could ever heal. And heal its soul, America must do, before it is lost to fascist darkness forever.

Excuse the black thoughts: Thursdays are ptsd therapy for me; it is darkness at noon in my world. Tomorrow, the sun rises anew. Even for the killers of yesterday.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

joe shikspack's picture

heh, i wish people like henry kissinger and darth cheney long lives in hopes that they will one day have to stand to account for their war crimes.

have a great tomorrow!

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lotlizard's picture

then the U.S. can very well prosecute high-level decisionmakers into their mid-90s as well.

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Haikukitty's picture

I don't know what could.

Picking lobbyists to draft the party platform. They really don't even try to pretend anymore.

Three professional influence peddlers, including a registered corporate lobbyist, have been chosen by Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., to serve on the committee responsible for drafting the party’s platform.

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joe shikspack's picture

the clintons and their hangers on are quite shameless. on the other hand, their shamelessness is the closest they come to a form of honesty even as they spin and parse about how wonderful the things that they are doing to promote their own interests will be for everybody else.

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of years ago. I love their music & patter.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

joe shikspack's picture

they were really great. what incredible musicians! and joey was pretty funny, too.

they played a lot of stuff that i recognized from their albums and finished with an encore of a really gorgeous version of "wish you were here." a lot like this one:

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enhydra lutris's picture

choices is a microcosm of the split in the party itself - hilariorously telling. Thanks for the news & blues.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

i hope that they videotape the platform committee sessions. i bet that there will be some fascinating discussions and maybe some interesting fireworks.

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Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks announces that TYT will give ONE MILLION DOLLARS to charity if Donald J. Trump will agree to debate Bernie Sanders on The Young Turks.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

joe shikspack's picture

heh, that would be a great thing, though i suspect that sort of money is small change compared to what others might put up.

i just wish that the promoter bill graham was still alive, he would be the perfect guy to promote this piece of political theatre.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

joe shikspack's picture

i wonder how long it will be before we have to migrate again to a bigger server with more memory and bandwidth.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

All the liberal / progressive bloggers sick of being insulted, chastised and demonized as racist/sexists/misogynist/purity litmus seeking (don't worry, it doesn't need to make sense)/ trolls seeking to selfishly topple a foregone conclusion.

It's so nice NOT to be under some stupid political party umbrella with the constant demands of loyalty oaths and the quiz of "why are you here?" accompanied by the anonymous flags. One day a person wakes up and says, "They're right. Why am I here?" And then you're not. You're someplace else.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Unabashed Liberal's picture

raised for charity, according to The Hill.

IIRC, the last time that was brought up, all the networks made it plain that it was not their policy to pay candidates to participate in presidential debates.

So, I doubt that we'll see this happen--UNLESS there are enough Cenks willing to meet this Trump requirement.

It would be interesting, for sure!

(Actually, I figure that FSC would jump in at the last minute, if a debate were to take place.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you've already posted on the following topic, please disregard.

Just heard about the Senate email bill on XM. It's not surprising, but makes us furious, nonetheless.

New law would let the FBI read your email without a court order

A new Senate bill would let the FBI and other law enforcement agencies access the contents of any US citizen’s email without a court order during investigations.
Instead, the FBI would need just a National Security Letter, which would force companies to provide email access to the agency without alerting the person who’s being investigated.

The FBI can already access phone records without a court order, but that law doesn’t apply to email conversations.

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved the 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act on Tuesday, CNET reports.

The bill will head to the full Senate now that it has passed the committee.

“The threats facing our nation continue to grow and this year’s legislation provides the Intelligence Community the resourcing and authorities it needs to keep America safe,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said in a statement.

Vice Chairman Dianne Feinstein added, "The threat of terrorism remains high, so it's vital that we provide intelligence agencies with all the resources they need to prevent attacks both at home and abroad."

Burr and Feinstein recently proposed an encryption backdoor law that received plenty of criticism.

[Repaginated for emphasis.]

Thanks for tonight's edition of News & Blues, Joe!

Everyone have a nice rest-of-the-evening!

Bye

Mollie


"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown

SOSD Rescues Available For Adoption Or Sponsorship
Taro & Jacky (SOSD)

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

mimi's picture

of your government agency legal, where does it take you? Someone on Breaking through Power today gave you answer.
I take the fifth and say nothing. I want you to listen to the speakers, if you have time.

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joe shikspack's picture

$10-15 million is a pretty steep ask. while it would be the "super bowl of politics," and it would generate a very large audience, but i'm guessing that networks are not interested in promoting a model that allows their profits to be cut into.

thanks for the info on the intel authorization act!

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

By AMY CHOZICK, MAY 26, 2016

. . . “I keep hearing Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, or seeing Bernie fliers,’’ said Ms. Furia, a retiree. “I am sort of tired of hearing him.’’

She was referring, of course, to Senator Bernie Sanders, Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic opponent, who is pouring energy and resources into California’s June 7 primary.

His efforts appear to be paying off.

For months, the Clinton campaign exuded confidence about California, a diverse state in which 30 percent of the Democratic electorate is Latino, with a primary rather than a caucus, a format that tends to favor Mrs. Clinton.

She defeated Barack Obama there by 8.3 percentage points in 2008 and had hoped the state could serve as the victorious bookend of a turbulent primary race.

But now, Mrs. Clinton’s lead in California has evaporated, going from seven percentage points over Mr. Sanders in March to two percentage points, within the margin of error, in a poll released Wednesday night by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

That has created the possibility of an embarrassing defeat here for the Clinton campaign and complicated Mrs. Clinton’s plans to turn her focus to the general election against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. . . .

Look forward to reading your coverage of the 'email bill,' Joe. I suppose this measure was intended to compensate for Senators not having been able to eradicate the use of encrypted email accounts, altogether.

Mollie


"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown

SOSD Rescues Available For Adoption Or Sponsorship
Taro & Jacky (SOSD)

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

snoopydawg's picture

The constitution is just a God damned piece of paper.
The presidents, congress, the justices on the Supreme Court and other courts and every government official swears an oath to uphold it, yet for some reason they think that they can pass secret laws in secret courts that don't follow it.
And they hide behind the 'threats' to this country.
Does anyone believe that if all the security agencies, the TSA, NSA or spying on us stopped then we would be attracted the next day, week or year?
Me neither.
However there are many other people who do believe that because they have drank the propaganda koolaid.

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

lotlizard's picture

Only random attacks on members of the public.

That should tell you how many genuine “sleeper cells” there are in this country (by which I mean the U.S., although I’m writing from Frankfurt am Main right now—guess I’ll always think of first the dormant Kingdom of Hawaii, then the U.S. as “my country”).

The Red Army Faction / Baader-Meinhof people in Germany only went after the biggest bigwigs.

In contrast, attacks on the general public were the style of the secret NATO deep-state program Operation Gladio.

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mimi's picture

in today's session of the conference many things had been said about issues that are in this thread's comments.
Here is the live stream: 7 hours long - all speeches.
[video:https://youtu.be/LKbsEQLH_aw]
Nader said there will be videos and DVDs made and probably separate videos posted for each speaker or speaker groups.
The speeches by Jonathan Turley and Bruce Fein were eye-opening to me. I recommend listening to them.

This conference was completely blacked out by all other media other than the Real News Network. I hope I find a way to post and write about most of the speakers. This is part of the managed ignoring scheme of corporate media. What a shame. There's a lot of stuff in it. There is just the above video available for now.

Ralph Nader (TC 5:40)

Electoral Reforms
Mark Green - Public Interest Lawyer (TC: 25:31)

Public Budgets
Dennis Kucinich – Former U.S. Representative (53:01)

Consumer Protections
Marta Tellado - President/CEO, Consumers Reports (1:08:06)

Civil Service
Tom Devine - Government Accountability Project, Legal Director (1:24:48)
Max Steir - President/CEO Partnership for Public Service

Corporate Crime
Russell Mokhiber - Corporate Crime Reporter

The Commons and Corporate Welfare
Greg LeRoy - Good Jobs First

Ralph Nader

Medicare For All
Karen Higgins - Co-President, National Nurses United

Labor Law Reform
Mark Dimondstein - President, American Postal Workers Union

Afternoon Section

Minimum Wage/Minimum Income
Robert Pollin - Professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Global Trade Treaties
Lori Wallach - Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Community Based Economics
Michael Shuman - Director of Community Portals, Mission Markets

Sustainable Energy
David Freeman - Friends of the Earth

Restoring Rule of Law
Bruce Fein - Attorney
Jonathan Turley - Professor, George Washington University

Citizen Summons
Ralph Nader
Medea Benjamin - Co-Founder, Code Pink
Wenonah Hauter - President, Food and Water Watch
Miles Rapoport - President, Common Cause

They plan a second conference like this one in September. I hope it gets more exposure. Like they make it legal to cut out third parties to ever have a chance to win, the make it legal to cut out voters. This country is sliding in a sea of shit. There is nothing fun about it. Though I think Nader said Justice is Fun.

Although this conference had very uplifting and eye-opening speeches and analysis, I am not able to read or write anything anymore for a while. I feel these are not interesting times, these are very dangerous times. So, I can't get myself to write anything that is acceptable.

Have a good evening, all.

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joe shikspack's picture

thanks again for your continuing updates on the conference.

fein is probably my favorite conservative lawyer, he has been on the side of the angels on quite a number of issues at least since the time that dubya took office. turley is an interesting guy, too. i'm looking forward to checking out their segment.

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I don't remember whether he was a regular "legal" commentator on CNN or MSNBC but he is no longer ever on anymore.

I really liked his analysis of legal issues... Very fact filled.

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Orwell was an optimist

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

mimi's picture

with Nader introducing him.

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joe shikspack's picture

i'm hoping to spend some quality time this weekend listening to some of the conference.

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...remains the most essential read on the intertubes, IMHO.

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lotlizard's picture

The democratic renaissance is, of course, small-d democratic.

Not Democratic™ as a discredited brand name.

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joe shikspack's picture

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joe shikspack's picture

i'm glad that folks are enjoying it.

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