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This evening's music features Louisiana blues musician Otis "Lightnin' Slim" Hicks. Enjoy!

"When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out."

-- Abbie Hoffman

News and Opinion

The fucking #Resistance strikes again:

Rep. Steny Hoyer: Members of Congress Protesting Family Separation Should Maintain “Decorum”

Members of Congress are right to be outraged by the Trump administration’s separation of migrant families, but there’s an acceptable way to express that anger, according to the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives — and it’s not by shouting at the president.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said it was inappropriate of members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to yell at President Donald Trump in protest of his administration’s systematic separation of migrant children, some of whom are being held in cages, from their families.

In a tense encounter at the Capitol on Tuesday, five members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus protested and shouted at Trump as he left a meeting. “Mr. President, don’t you have kids? Don’t you have kids, Mr. President?” Rep. Juan Vargas of California yelled as Trump walked away. Members also held up signs that read, “Families Belong Together.”

Hoyer found the tactics “not appropriate,” suggesting in an interview with CNN on Thursday that his Democratic colleagues should have chosen another venue to make their point. “But having said that, there are very strong feelings, and nobody engenders stronger feelings and says worse things or acts in a more confrontational manner than the president of the United States,” he added. “That does not, however, justify us following suit.”

'F*ck Decorum': On House Floor, Rep. Ted Lieu Plays Audio of Detained Children Crying

Dispensing with the commitment to political "civility" that leads so many lawmakers to prioritize good manners over justice, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) ignored House rules on Friday and played audio of detained immigrant children crying in an effort to highlight the thousands of young kids who have been ripped from their parents by the Trump administration.

"I think the American people need to hear this," Lieu said as Rep. Karen Handel (R-Ga.)—who was presiding over the House chamber—repeatedly slammed the gavel and ordered Lieu to suspend his time, citing the congressman's breach of a "decorum" rule barring the use of electronic devices to play sound in the House chamber.

"2,300 kids were ripped away from parents with no real plan to reunite them," Lieu added in a tweet after he ultimately yielded his time and left the House chamber. "I can't play the ProPublica audio of their cries for help because of 'decorum'? F*ck decorum. Donald Trump engaged in the functional equivalent of kidnapping. The American people need to hear this."

Undocumented Mother: Stop Separation of Migrant Children by Dropping Charges Against Their Parents

Trump stokes immigration chaos with call for summary deportations

Donald Trump called on Sunday for the US to abandon its judicial system and summarily deport people who enter the country. The president attacked the rule of law amid sustained criticism of his administration’s handling of immigration at the southern border.

“When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” Trump said in a tweet, while being driven to his golf course in Virginia.

The statement amounted to a proposal for the suspension of law by the country’s chief law enforcement officer.

He's trying to use the most vulnerable as a battering ram in his ongoing attack on the rule of law. But if he can deprive them of due process, American citizens will be next. How long before new chant at his rallies is "lock them all up"? Now is the time to hold the line https://t.co/38wSQj3ghK

— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) June 24, 2018

'No Justice, No Sleep!' Protesters Blare Audio of Crying Detained Children Outside DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's Home

Citing their "obligation" to ensure that Trump administration officials who are implementing the president's cruel anti-immigrant agenda are not permitted to "work, eat, and sleep" in peace, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside of Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Kirstjen Nielsen's Virginia home early Friday morning and blared audio of crying immigrant children.

"There's a child snatcher living in Alexandria, Virginia," said Heidi Hess, co-director of CREDO Action, an advocacy group that organized the protest. "Rightfully so, there's a huge amount of attention focused on the border and the detention centers but the people who are making the decisions are here in D.C., so it's important to shine a spotlight on them as well."

Wielding signs calling for Nielsen's resignation, the demonstrators led chants of "No justice, no sleep!" just steps away from the front door of the DHS secretary's home. After about an hour of speeches and chants, Nielsen finally attempted to sneak out the back exit of her townhouse—but protesters were waiting for her there as well, shouting "Shame!" as she climbed into a black SUV. "History will remember you! History will judge you!" shouted one demonstrator. "You belong in The Hague!"

Ralph Nader Asks Former First Ladies: Why No "Heartfelt Concern for Tens of Thousands of Children Killed or Seriously Maimed" by Their Husbands' Wars?

Would be nice if Laura Bush and Michelle Obama had expressed similar heartfelt concern for the tens of thousands of children killed or seriously maimed by the wars of their husbands in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. -R

— Ralph Nader (@RalphNader) June 22, 2018

Noted consumer advocate and author Ralph Nader on Friday offered a sharp retort to Laura Bush and Michelle Obama in response to the former first ladies levied criticism at the Trump administration's cruel immigration policy that separated immigrant children from their families.

"Would be nice if Laura Bush and Michelle Obama had expressed similar heartfelt concern for the tens of thousands of children killed or seriously maimed by the wars of their husbands in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere," he tweeted. As it's signed "-R," it was written by Nader himself, rather than his staff who often tweet on his behalf.

The tweet follows an op-ed published Sunday at the Washington Post in which Bush took aim at Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, writing that she "was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents." "I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart," she wrote, tweeting out the same section of text. Michelle Obama retweeted that, adding, "Sometimes truth transcends party."

Hillary's work in Hondouras is really paying dividends now:

Central Americans are more afraid of their home countries than Trump

Like most migrants stopping in Guadalajara on their way to the United States, Ricardo made it here by riding on top of the trans-Mexico freight train commonly known as “The Beast.” ... Video footage of children in cages and stories of parents unable to locate their children have circulated widely, casting a new dimension of dread and uncertainty among Central American migrants passing through Mexico.

But fear of returning home — where many face the threat of gang violence — remains more potent. Ricardo, who asked not to be identified by his real name for fear of retaliation, is undecided on whether to cross the border illegally or formally apply for asylum, but one thing is certain: He’s dead set on making it to America.

“The violence is terrible. Honduras is full of gangs,” he said. “You work all week, and by Saturday they are threatening you to extort the little money you have.” Ricardo still hopes to eventually make it to New York. “It is still worth trying,” he said.

Ricardo’s outlook is common, said Janet Valverde, a spokesperson for FM4, the nongovernmental organization that runs the migrant shelter in Guadalajara. ... The majority of those passing through the Guadalajara shelter are escaping from Honduras, a country where violence is the second-leading cause of death after heart disease, according to 2016 data collected by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Anonymous Promises Action Over Immigration & Child Separation

With So-Called 'Voluntary' Deportation, Trump's DHS Using Children as Bait to Expel Immigrants

After outraging Americans and the international community by holding thousands of children hostage in an effort to push through President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policy, the Trump administration is again using children who have been taken from their parents as pawns—to get detained immigrants to agree to their own deportations and drop their asylum cases.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a fact sheet over the weekend stating that detained parents who sign a so-called "voluntary departure order"—paperwork that simply expedites deportation—can be reunited with their children.

"A parent who is ordered removed from the U.S. may request that his or her minor child accompany them," according to DHS—but critics and immigrant rights advocates have noted that presenting this possibility to parents who have been put through a traumatizing ordeal, is akin to kidnapping children and then using them as bait to get immigrants out of the country.

Immigration lawyers are highly skeptical that these agreements will be honored. (The Trump admin has already deported many parents w/o their kids).

It really looks like they're tricking people into dropping their asylum claims by using their kids as bait.https://t.co/h9DD43StX7

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) June 25, 2018

"We have no reason to believe that [voluntary deportation] is the fastest way for parents to be reunited with their children," Efrén Olivares, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, told reporters on Sunday. "Putting them in that position is not a voluntary [deportation]; it's being obtained under duress."

You're on your own, US tells Syrian rebels, as Assad goes on offensive

The US has warned Syrian rebels in the south-west of the country they should not expect military support to help them resist a major government offensive. The message from Washington comes as Russian jets struck an opposition-held town on Sunday in the first air cover provided by Moscow to an expanding Syrian army offensive in the strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The US message sent to heads of the Free Syrian Army said Washington wanted to make clear that “you should not base your decisions on the assumption or expectation of a military intervention by us”.

The Syrian army began ramping up its assault last week in order to recapture the area.

Washington had warned the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his Russian allies that violations of a “de-escalation” zone agreed by the US and Russia last year would have “serious repercussions” and pledged “firm and appropriate measures”. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Friday the Syrian military escalation “unambiguously violates” the de-escalation arrangement. “Russia will ultimately bear responsibility for any further escalations in Syria,” Haley said in a statement.

Turkey elections: "The question is what kind of ruling Erdogan has in mind?"

Turkey’s election hands Erdogan unchecked power for up to a decade

NATO member Turkey slid toward one-man authoritarian rule Sunday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was returned to office under a new executive presidential system that gives him almost unchecked power. The 64-year-old, who has dominated Turkish politics since becoming prime minister in 2003, comfortably won the first round of a presidential poll, securing nearly 53 percent of the vote. His nearest rival, Muharrem Ince of the secular Republican People's Party, mustered just 31 percent.

The win gives Erdogan sweeping and unprecedented powers under Turkey’s new executive presidential system, which was approved by a narrow margin in a referendum last year. The new system abolishes the office of prime minister and curbs parliament’s powers, while giving the president extraordinary new scope to act without parliament’s approval. His new powers include the ability to issue decrees which carry the force of law, to appoint top judges and officials, and give him complete control of the Cabinet. ...

Human Rights Watch’s Turkey director Emma Sinclair-Webb told VICE News that the new system raised huge concerns for democracy and human rights in Turkey. She said the “state of emergency” under which Erdogan had conducted his crackdown on opposition since the 2016 failed coup had given observers “a dress rehearsal for what an executive presidency might look like.”

Supreme Court Rules That the U.S. Government Must Get a Warrant Before Accessing Cellphone Location Data

In a landmark privacy decision, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Friday that police must get a warrant in order to obtain your cellphone’s location data over an extended period of time. ...

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal justices on the court, declaring that even though the data is held by a third party, the government still needs a warrant to obtain it. “We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier’s database of physical location information,” said Roberts, writing for the majority. “In light of the deeply revealing nature of [cell-site location information], its depth, breadth, and comprehensive reach, and the inescapable and automatic nature of its collection, the fact that such information is gathered by a third party does not make it any less deserving of Fourth Amendment protection.”

The court made the ruling in the case of Timothy Carpenter, who was convicted in 2013 of robbing Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Michigan and Ohio. In order to build their case, the FBI obtained 127 days’ worth of location information for Carpenter’s cellphone – almost 12,900 location points – which they used to place him at the scene of the robberies. The FBI obtained the data under the Stored Communications Act, which allowed them to acquire it directly from Carpenter’s wireless provider without obtaining a warrant based on probable cause. According to disclosures by phone companies, police across the country make these types of requests tens of thousands of times per year. ...

Friday’s decision was made on narrow grounds, and the court did not examine potential implications for other technologies, like surveillance cameras, facial-recognition technology, or other types of phone or internet data. The court also declined to rule on whether obtaining real-time location data from a cellphone qualified as a search under the Fourth Amendment, and left open the possibility that the government could access less than seven days’ worth of location information without a warrant.

The trade war is on — and Trump voters are the target

The European Union’s robust retaliatory tariffs came into force Friday on $3.2 billion of U.S. goods designed specifically to inflict pain on Donald Trump’s political base in the American heartland. Harley Davidson motorbikes, orange juice and bourbon whiskey, as well as cranberries, peanut butter and playing cards are now subject to a tax by the world’s largest trading bloc — a reaction to the levies imposed earlier this month by Trump on steel and aluminum imports from Europe.

Speaking about the tariffs Thursday, European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker told the Irish parliament that the bloc will “do what we have to do to rebalance and safeguard" itself. ...

The problem for many U.S. producers and manufacturers is that the EU is just one of many countries that have introduced — or are planning to introduce — retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Harley-Davidson to make more bikes overseas as US-EU tariff row grows

Harley-Davidson plans to shift the production of some of its bikes out of the US in response to Europe’s new tariffs on motorcycle imports. In a stock market filing, the company said the EU’s reaction to Donald Trump’s steel tariffs, which will add $2,200 (£1,657) to the average cost of a motorcycle exported from the US to Europe, will result in up to $100m of extra charges over the next couple of years.

The decision is the most high-profile example to date of the potential impact of a widening trade dispute between the US and its largest trading partners. It came amid reports of US plans to escalate its trade spat with China, reports that led to selloffs in global stock markets on Monday morning. “Harley-Davidson maintains a strong commitment to US-based manufacturing, which is valued by riders globally,” Harley-Davidson said in the filing.

“Increasing international production to alleviate the EU tariff burden isn’t the company’s preference, but represents the only sustainable option to make its motorcycles accessible to customers in the EU and maintain a viable business in Europe.” The company said ramping up production in international plants would require incremental investment and could take at least nine to 18 months to be fully complete.

The decision is a blow to the Trump administration, which has defended its imposition of tariffs on the EU as part of a strategy to boost jobs in the US. Harley-Davidson is based in Wisconsin, a state Trump narrowly won in the last election and the home of the Republican House speaker, Paul Ryan.

50 Years after MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign, 2,500+ Arrested over 6 Weeks Calling for Moral Revival

"Slap in the Face" to Poor Americans: House GOP Passes Farm Bill Attacking Nation's Hungriest Families

With the Poor People's Campaign protesting "policy violence against families and children" outside the Capitol Building, House Republicans on Thursday forced through a "shameful" and "cruel" Farm Bill that would deprive about 2 million Americans of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called food stamps.

"It's a deliberate slap in the face to the millions of low-income Americans who rely on SNAP benefits to survive," declared Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires. "We don't want to live in a country where the government allows its citizens to starve, and neither should anyone else."

"This is just another attempt by Paul Ryan to pretend that the biggest problem with the federal deficit is lazy poor people, not the $1.5 trillion tax cut he and his colleagues just gave to the richest people in the country," Pearl added, singling out the House Speaker who infamously revealed last year he's been "dreaming" of slashing social safety net programs since he was "drinking at a keg" in college. ...

The "regressive" bill also infuriated environmentalists such as Friends of the Earth's Lisa Archer, who described it as "a massive handout to corporate agriculture" that slashes conservation programs and blocks efforts to limit the use of harmful pesticides. "The GOP Farm Bill is a disaster for people and the planet," Archer concluded. "Any member of Congress that voted for this bill is prioritizing the interests of corporations over the health of the American people."

The Senate is currently working on a competing Farm Bill that not only includes funding for mental health services and research into organic agriculture, but also maintains and even strengthens the food assistance program.

A Historic Bill in New York Could Create First-of-Its-Kind Accountability for Prosecutors — If Andrew Cuomo Doesn’t Veto It

[O]ne of the most important pieces of criminal justice reform legislation is on the cusp of becoming law in New York. As it stands, the bill is one signature away — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s — from being put on the books. Every day, we hear about horrible cases, in which men and women — often black men and women — are being set free from prison after serving huge chunks of their lives for crimes they didn’t commit. Sometimes they have served 30 or 40 years behind bars. ...

These types of exonerations are far from uncommon. After reviewing all of their exoneration cases, guess what the Innocence Project determined as the leading cause of wrongful convictions? Prosecutorial misconduct. A 2018 study by the National Registry of Exonerations made the exact same determination. Police and prosecutor misconduct — not faulty witnesses or false confessions — is the primary cause of wrongful convictions in our country.

In New York, though, political bodies are finally pushing for some accountability. As of last week, the State Assembly and Senate have now each passed a bill, the first of its kind in the nation, forming an independent commission with full subpoena power, to investigate prosecutorial misconduct. It’s wild that nothing like this already exists, but that gets to the heart of the matter. America’s prosecutors have been able to be consistently awful with little to no formal, binding oversight.

Nearly 18 months passed between the bill’s introduction and its passage in both chambers of the state legislature. And now it’s awaiting Cuomo’s signature. The issue is so dire that Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to the governor in support of the bill. ... Human Rights Watch went on to detail case after case of wrongful convictions in the state in which prosecutorial misconduct was the primary cause. In each case, innocent people spent long periods of their lives behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Not only did the wrongful convictions and sentences cost the state millions of dollars to incarcerate the wrong people, tens of millions more were spent on settlements to compensate these men. And yet the prosecutors just keep on handling cases like it never happened. ...

So Cuomo has to decide: Will he side with the people who have been wrongfully convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct — many of whom I’d guess remain in prison, their appeals unheard — or with the prosecutors who get away scot-free for putting the wrong people behind bars?

The Mueller probe is hammering Trump’s allies with insane legal bills

Past and present members of the Trump team are collectively racking up millions in lawyers’ fees as special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign grinds on. “I don’t make enough money to withstand an onslaught from the federal government,” former Trump campaign communications aide Michael Caputo, who’s been called before both Mueller’s team and Congress as a witness, told VICE News. “The legal fees were suffocating.”

Those massive costs add to the boa constrictor-like pressure Mueller is using to squeeze Trump’s allies, legal experts told VICE News. Now, with the probe in its second year, that financial strain may play a role in determining whether those charged with crimes choose to fight in court, or cooperate, they said.

“There are times when people plead guilty because they just don’t have the money to go on,” said Renato Mariatti, a former federal prosecutor turned defense attorney. “It can have a very significant, if not determinative, role in case strategy.” Fighting criminal charges lodged by Mueller could easily cost over $1 million, white-collar defense attorneys told VICE News. The cheaper approach, pleading guilty and seeking a deal, may still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with qualified white-collar defense attorneys charging anywhere from $500 to over $1,000 per hour.

Mueller Has Reportedly Obtained Phones and Computer of War Profiteer Erik Prince

As part of his probe of possible collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained and is currently examining the phones and computer of notorious war profiteer and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, ABC News reported on Monday.

Citing multiple anonymous sources familiar with the matter, ABC's James Gordon Meek noted that Mueller is reviewing Prince's communications in an effort to determine whether he attempted "to establish a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin."

In a statement to ABC, Prince's spokesperson confirmed that Prince has given Mueller "total access to his phones and computer."

'We Don't Know... How Bad It Is': 31-Car Oil Train Derails Into Iowa Floodwaters

Adding to the mountain of evidence that "oil trains are a disaster for our health, our safety, and our climate"—an argument environmentalists have been making for years—a 31-car freight train derailed in Iowa and started leaking crude oil into floodwaters on Friday morning, forcing evacuations of nearby homes and raising concerns about drinking water contamination. ...

The derailment occurred around 4:30am local time near the Sioux-Lyon County border, and one or more train cars spilled oil into the floodwaters of the Rock River. Rock Valley Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo told Iowa's Des Moines Register that within a few hours, oil had reached his city, about 5 miles downriver.

After days of heavy flooding, an oil train just derailed, forcing evacuations in Sioux County, Iowa.

We need to stop the transport of oil by rail. Sign the petition: https://t.co/yJIFOJcGu9 pic.twitter.com/zPjbKh0iey

— Stand.earth (@standearth) June 22, 2018

Although officials on the scene told the Associated Press they are still unsure what caused the train to leave the tracks, Jacob Faber, who lives near the site of the derailment and spent the Thursday night volunteering with flood recovery efforts, said, "There was water on the train track and the train tried to go over it."

Noting that the massive oil-filled tankers looked as if they had been "thrown around like Legos" across the floodwaters, Faber added that the entire area reeked of exhaust fumes: "You can't describe how strong that oil smell is when you're close to it."

A spokesman for BNSF railroad told the AP the company does not know how much oil has leaked into the floodwaters. He did not say how much oil the tankers were carrying. Ken Hessenius of the Iowa Natural Resources Department said cleanup crews are at the site, working to contain the spill.

Trump's Head of NOAA Proposes Axing 'Climate' and Conservation From Agency's Mission

The Trump-appointed acting director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—which plays a key role in monitoring the global climate crisis—has reportedly proposed stripping "conservation" and "climate" from NOAA's mission statement, which scientists say "would undermine the agency's vital work on behalf of the American people."

During a recent Department of Commerce meeting, Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet—President Donald Trump selected him for NOAA's number two spot, but he is leading the agency while the controversial pick for director is tied up in the Senate—reportedly gave a presentation in which he proposed notable alterations to NOAA's mission statement.

The agency's current mission statement (emphasis added):

• To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts;
• To share that knowledge and information with others; and
• To conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

Gallaudet's proposal:

• To observe, understand, and predict atmospheric and ocean conditions;
• To share that knowledge and information with others; and
• To protect lives and property, empower the economy, and support homeland and national security.

The suggested cuts seem to align with the Trump administration's broader war on science, and could signal a significant shift in the future endeavors at an agency which, as the New York Times noted, "because of its work on climate science data collection and analysis... has become one of the most important American agencies for making sense of the warming planet." Given NOAA's notable contributions to climate research, the proposal was met with swift condemnation by the scientific community. Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists—and a former NOAA scientist and senior executive—called it "shocking" and "foolhardy."

Also of Interest

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

Two Boys Sue the U.S. Government for Separating Them From Their Fathers

Force-Feeding, Fasting, and Big Macs: the Doublespeak of Food at Guantánamo

The FBI Is Using Unvetted, Right-Wing Blacklists to Question Activists About Their Support for Palestine

The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

Trump Insider Wanted to Sell Social Media Surveillance Tools to Abusive Governments, Leaked Documents Suggest

A Little Night Music

Lightnin' Slim - You Know You're So Fine

Lightnin' Slim - I Just Don't Know

Lightnin' Slim - Cool Down Baby

Lightnin' Slim - Tom Cat Blues

Lightnin' Slim - New Orleans Bound

Lightnin' Slim - Have Your Way

Lightnin Slim - Rock Me Mama

Lightnin' Slim - Farming Blues

Lightnin' Slim - If You Ever Need Me

Lightnin' Slim - She's My Crazy Little Baby