The Evening Blues - 7-12-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features early Chicago blues pianist Blind John Davis. Enjoy!
Blind John Davis - How Long Blues, Cow Cow Blues
“They were careless people, Bill and Hillary - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald remixed on twitter
News and Opinion
Images of Militarized Police in Baton Rouge Draw Global Attention
Photographs and video of heavily armed police officers wearing body armor and helmets arresting protesters in Baton Rouge over the weekend reverberated on social networks and in the world’s media, focusing new attention on the militarization of police forces across the United States.
The image that drew the most comment, taken by Jonathan Bachman for Reuters, showed a young woman in a dress standing serenely on a road outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters as two Louisiana State Police officers dressed for battle rushed to arrest her.
This photo made by Jonathan Bachman of Reuters from the protests in Baton Rouge is incredible. pic.twitter.com/E6JtoIEusr
— Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) July 10, 2016
Another photograph taken by Bachman, showing a police officer’s knee pinning an African-American protester’s head to the pavement, struck a chord with photo editors in Iran and Russia, where the crackdown on peaceful protesters made complaints from the United States government about repression of dissent in those countries seem hypocritical.
This, to me, is the even better. Most haunting photo of 2016 by Jonathan Bachman @reuters. pic.twitter.com/ThRiyHzWYq
— Brad Meltzer (@bradmeltzer) July 11, 2016
07.11.2016: ACLU of Louisiana Responds to Police Misconduct and Excessive Use of Force at Baton Rouge Protests
BATON ROUGE, La. — Eyewitness accounts at demonstrations taking place in Baton Rouge and surrounding cities following the shooting of Alton Sterling brought to light the militarization of and illegal use of force by police on protesters.
American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman commented:
“The Baton Rouge police used violent, militarized tactics on groups of people who have gathered peacefully in protest of Alton Sterling’s killing. We were on the scene and witnessed police in full riot gear with assault rifles while individuals were exercising their lawful rights and posed no threat. The police lunged and grabbed at peacefully assembled people and threw them to the ground. Such misconduct violates the constitution and is serving to escalate an environment already filled with tension.
“We depend on the police to protect and serve everyone in our communities, to treat people fairly, to use violence only as the very last resort. But the Baton Rouge police have failed us. They failed when they encountered Alton Sterling. They failed when they lashed out at people protesting in peace.
“The ACLU stands with the protesters in Baton Rouge and urges the police to honor our constitutional rights instead of stomping on them.”
Historian: "You Can't Disconnect History of the 2nd Amendment From the History of White Supremacy"
Freddie Gray case: officer Brian Rice acquitted of assault charge
In another blow to the prosecution of the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a judge acquitted Lt Brian Rice of assault before the defense even presented its case. Judge Barry Williams called another of the remaining three charges “an extremely close call” but stopped short of dismissing it.
The prosecution rested its case Monday against Rice, the highest ranking officer charged in Gray’s death, after questioning several of Rice’s fellow officers.
Rice initiated a chase against Gray, a 25-year-old African American, after Gray began to run upon making eye contact with Rice last April. Gray died a week after that arrest, as a result of injuries he sustained while in police custody, setting off weeks of protests and unrest in the city.
Williams ruled that he would go forward with most of the charges, including manslaughter, the most serious charge Rice is facing.
Are we prepared for more killer police robots?
When a police robot is used to kill, one has to ask if we are at a tipping point. The dangerous events in Dallas, in which 12 policemen were shot, made it seem permissible to repurpose a robot to apply lethal force. When an armed suspect refused to surrender, a Remotec robot armed with plastic explosives was dispatched to kill him. This wasn’t Robocop and it didn’t operate autonomously. It was a bomb disposal robot remotely controlled by police officers. ...
The separation of police from their weapons and suspects raises concerns about changing the nature of policing. Will it create a tele-presence buffer that dehumanises the application of violent force?
US police have made good use of robots for more than a decade to assist in bomb disposal, hostage release, shootouts, surveillance and intelligence gathering. They enter buildings to deliver food and communications to hostage takers. In 2009, a robot was used to drag a woman away from her weapons during a New Mexico shootout. But more questionably, a robot burned down a mobile home in Tennessee in 2011 with an inappropriate teargas grenade when the suspect was not even present. And in 2014 an Albuquerque Swat team employed a robot to deliver chemical munitions to a suspect barricaded in a motel room. Where is this leading?
It was a shock last year when North Dakota passed a bill allowing the police to arm their drones with Tasers and guns to fire rubber bullets – which can kill or maim. We worried that the new law was a step too far. Would police now use armed robots whenever they get nervous, perhaps against public protesters? It would be just too tempting for dispersing and attacking with impunity.
‘War on Terror’ Blowback Hits Dallas
In response to the killing of five police officers and wounding of seven more in Dallas, Texas, Police Chief David O. Brown became the first city or state official to order a remote-controlled execution of a suspected killer with whom hours of negotiation had not resulted in surrender.
The decision of the local city police chief to remotely assassinate the cornered suspect rather than make an attempt to incapacitate him is a stark continuation of what appears to be a U.S. military and police tactic of kill rather than capture. Brown has 30 years of law enforcement experience with training at many police schools including the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar in Tel Aviv, Israel. ...
Do U.S. government officers at all levels – national, state and local – now believe that remote-control killing of a target is safer and cheaper than detaining the accused (whether a suspected international terrorist or a domestic suspect) than arresting the person, holding a trial and imprisoning him or her after a conviction for a crime.
It appears that shooting to kill is easier in all aspects whether it’s unmanned aerial drones killing people outside the United States or unmanned ground robots with bombs inside the United States. ...
It’s now time for community activists to ask their city council members what rules of engagement their police officers use when a suspect is cornered. I suspect that in many cities the rules say shoot to kill rather than shoot to incapacitate/capture/detain, certainly the statistics on police shootings seem to indicate that the national tactic for police departments is to shoot to kill.
US transfers two Guantánamo Bay inmates to Serbia
Two inmates from the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay were transferred to Serbia on Monday as the Obama administration pressed ahead with its long-held goal of shutting the widely condemned facility at the US naval base in Cuba.
The transfer of Yemeni national Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi and Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov to Serbia reduced the number of detainees at Guantánamo to 76, with 27 of those approved for transfer once an appropriate country can be found, US officials said.
“The United States appreciates the generous assistance of Serbia as the United States continues its efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility,” The secretary of state, John Kerry, said in a statement, calling it a “significant humanitarian gesture”.
Gosh, now here's something out of the ordinary (not) - a US-backed insurgency that commits horrible war crimes.
U.S.-backed Syrian rebels committing war crimes, torture, abductions; imposing harsh Sharia law: Amnesty International Report
Syrian rebel groups backed by the U.S. and its allies “have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, torture and summary killings,” according to Amnesty International.
A report by the leading human rights organization details how extremist rebel groups have taken over large parts of major Syrian cities, in which they have created repressive theocratic regimes where critics are violently silenced and where religious and ethnic minority groups fear for their lives.
“‘Torture Was My Punishment’: Abductions, Torture and Summary Killings Under Armed Group Rule in Aleppo and Idleb, Syria” shows how the Syrian people have been caught between a rock and a hard place — with extremist rebels on one side and a brutal regime on the other.
The report focuses primarily on the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib, in the north of the country. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, and the Aleppo governorate is the most populous.
Amnesty documented abuses committed by five armed groups that have controlled parts of Aleppo and Idlib since 2012. These rebels have been supported by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the U.S.
Israel Passes New NGO Bill to Clamp Down on Human Rights Groups
In a close 57-48 vote, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, today passed a controversial bill regulating non-government organizations that receive foreign government funding, a bill which will apply overwhelmingly to human rights groups.
That’s the whole point of the bill, which Israel’s far-right government has argued will strike a blow against “foreign interference” in Israeli affairs. Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu termed it a “democratic” bill, accusing the European Union of trying to advance their support for a two-state solution by bankrolling NGOs in Israel. ...
Reflecting the discomfort a lot of Israelis are feeling with this new law, Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog said the new law was “indicative, more than anything, of the budding fascism creeping into Israeli society.”
In Africa, the U.S. Military Sees Enemies Everywhere
From east to west across Africa, 1,700 Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and other military personnel are carrying out 78 distinct “mission sets” in more than 20 nations, according to documents obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act.
“The SOCAFRICA operational environment is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous,” says Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, using the acronym of the secretive organization he presides over, Special Operations Command Africa. “It’s a wickedly complex environment tailor-made for the type of nuanced and professional cooperation SOF [special operations forces] is able to provide.” ...
[Emphasis mine - this language just jumped off the page at me. It reminds me of Abraham Maslow's comment, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." -js]
“We operate in the Gray Zone, between traditional war and peace,” he informed a room of U.S., African, and European military personnel at the Special Operations Command Africa Commander’s Conference held in Garmisch, Germany, last November. ...
[Emphasis mine again. One wonders if there are some other "gray zones" that they work in, like the zone between actions that would be prosecuted under the international law of war and criminal activities that, due to their secrecy, escape prosecution. -js]
Last fall, The Intercept revealed that Bolduc had publicly disclosed that there are nearly 50 terrorist organizations and “illicit groups” operating on the African continent. He identified only the Islamic State, al Shabaab, Boko Haram, al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, and the Lord’s Resistance Army by name or acronym, while mentioning the existence of another 43 groups. Despite repeated inquiries by The Intercept, however, neither the Department of Defense, U.S. Africa Command, nor SOCAFRICA would provide further information on the identities of any of the other organizations.
South Sudan clashes: UN says 36,000 civilians seek shelter in capital
South Sudan: is the renewed violence the restart of civil war?
When Riek Machar, the former rebel leader and vice-president of South Sudan, arrived at Juba airport late last month he was greeted by ululations and the release of white doves, the symbol of peace. Just under two weeks later there are tanks on the streets, artillery bombarding neighbourhoods, hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians, at least 300 people dead, and the airport has been shut by fierce fighting. The whereabouts of the doves are unknown.
The fighting in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, is chaotic, and details of exactly who has been engaged, and why, are still unclear. But we know that troops nominally loyal to the president, Salva Kiir, have been fighting those of Machar since Thursday. Both men were reported to have ordered a ceasefire on Monday night, but the reality is it might already be too late to pull South Sudan back from the brink.
The worst-case scenario is that the civil war that started in 2013 and was ended by a peace deal last year will now restart. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 2 million from their homes. A new bout of bloodletting would shatter South Sudan, which is currently seen as an extremely “fragile” state rather than one that has “failed” like Somalia.
Renewed violence would force aid agencies to withdraw. About half of the nation’s 11 million population is threatened by famine already. War would almost certainly mean desperate hardship and death for a very significant number of people.
Tribunal rules against China in sea dispute
Beijing's claims to most of the South China Sea shot down by international court
A court in The Hague has ruled that China has no historic legal rights over the waters of the South China Sea. In a move that has infuriated Beijing, the ruling marks the first legal decision over the waters that hold some of the world's most promising oil and gas fields and vital fishing grounds.
The ruling came from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on Tuesday, with judges deciding China has no historic control over the South China Sea and that the country has breached the Philippines' sovereign rights with its actions.
China, which boycotted the hearings, vowed again to ignore the ruling and said its armed forces would defend its sovereignty and maritime interests.
The case, brought by the Philippines in 2013, hinged on the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island group. Manila's 15-point case also asked the tribunal to rule on the status of the nine-dash line, a boundary that is the basis for China's claim to roughly 85 percent of the South China Sea.
China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
South China Sea ruling was aimed at easing tension - but may just stoke conflict
By taking its case to the UN’s arbitration court in The Hague, the Philippines government hoped to find a peaceful, internationally acceptable solution to its long-running maritime dispute with China, its vastly more powerful neighbour. But Tuesday’s ruling, largely backing Manila and rejecting Beijing’s claims to exclusive control of large parts of the South China Sea, may do the exact opposite, stoking regional tensions, drawing in the US and Japan, and increasing the risk of armed confrontation.
The possible trigger for such an escalation is China’s refusal to accept the authority and jurisdiction of the UN court, and its instant rejection of its findings, despite the fact Beijing is a signatory of the UN’s convention on the law of the sea, which the court oversees, and is a permanent member of the UN security council. This attempt by Beijing to cherry-pick which treaties and rules it follows poses a significant challenge to the supremacy of international law and the UN system, of which it, in theory, is a key guardian. Its supporters will argue it is only following the US example.
That Chinese officials and state media pre-empted the court ruling over a period of months before the verdict, disparaging the court and proclaiming its proceedings null and void, suggests a disturbing new doctrine of Chinese exceptionalism may be emerging under the muscular tutelage of Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian president. The irony should not be lost on the US, which justified its 20th-century global expansion in terms of exceptionalism and now finds itself on the receiving end.
EU launches sanctions procedures against Spain & Portugal
Well now, here's a shocker, Obama's savvy businessman protector Eric Holder saved HSBC's bacon.
Congress Exposes That DoJ Overruled Recommendation to Indict Money Launderer HSBC Over Too Big to Fail Worries
The House of Representatives released a bombshell today out of its three-year investigation as to why the UK-based bank HSBC got off lightly for money laundering, both for with states subject to economic sanctions like Iran and Sudan, as well as narcotics traffickers. The report found that Attorney General Eric Holder “misled” Congress about the evidence against the bank, and that staff prosecutors had recommended indictment but were overruled by Holder. In addition UK regulators interfered in the case, and argued that criminal sanctions would lead to a financial nuclear winter. That was demonstrated to be false in 2014, when BNP Paribas, which apparently had fewer friends in court, pled guilty to criminal money laundering charges and paid $8.9 billion in fines.
[The House Financial Services Committee report is here(pdf). Following are some of the items that the documents the FSC received show. -js]
- Attorney General Holder misled Congress concerning DOJ’s reasons for not bringing a criminal prosecution against HSBC.
- DOJ to date has failed to produce any records pertaining to its prosecutorial decision making with respect to HSBC or any large financial institution, notwithstanding the Committee’s multiple requests for this information and a congressional subpoena requiring Attorney General Lynch to timely produce these records to the Committee.
- Attorney General Lynch and Secretary Lew remain in default on their legal obligation to produce the subpoenaed records to the Committee.
- DOJ’s and Treasury’s longstanding efforts to impede the Committee’s investigation may constitute contempt and obstruction of Congress.
Former Black Panther wins settlement and reprieve from solitary confinement
A former Black Panther held for 22 years in solitary confinement has won a $99,000 settlement and a permanent reprieve from solitary, in a case that challenged his treatment as cruel and unusual and was set to go to trial this week.
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz was convicted in 1970 of first-degree murder for an attack on a Philadelphia police station that left one officer dead and another wounded. He earned his nickname that refers to escaped slaves in North and South America after he twice broke free from prison.
By the 1980s Shoatz shifted his efforts to win release by lobbying lawmakers to repeal sentences of life without parole. He became president of the Pennsylvania Association of Lifers in 1983 and was placed in solitary confinement for several years. He was again placed in solitary in 1991, where he remained until 2014 after successfully finishing a step-down program. ...
The settlement only applies to Shoatz but could make it more difficult for Pennsylvania to argue against the release from solitary of other prisoners who have been held even longer.
Next month, the head of the state’s prison system is set to testify in a case the Abolitionist Law Center filed on behalf of 63-year-old Arthur Johnson, who the state has held in isolation since 1979.
In Historic NLRB Ruling, Temps Win Right To Join Unions
A new ruling will enable temporary and permanent employees to come together to negotiate with their bosses in mixed bargaining units. ...
The ruling represents a blow to corporations that have moved forcefully, sometimes overwhelmingly, toward using temporary workers in an effort to block worker benefits and collective bargaining. ...
For labor and working people, the ruling represents an exciting precedent from the board. The ruling makes it more challenging for employers to avoid labor contracts by using temporary services and removes some obstacles for workers in negotiating effectively with their bosses.
So long, Bernie. Thanks for demonstrating the utter corruption of the Democratic Party and its domination by the 1% oligarchy.
Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton for president
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid here Tuesday, ending a primary campaign that defied expectations and tested the notion that Clinton’s claim to the Democratic nomination was inevitable.
The Vermont senator, appearing with Clinton at Portsmouth High School, congratulated Clinton for winning the Democratic nomination, saying "I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States." ...
Tuesday's rally drew supporters of Clinton and Sanders, some of whom chanted "Bernie" while others chanted "unity." Some Sanders supporters left their seats when Sanders endorsed Clinton. Earlier, when New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said "we need to elect Hillary," she was interrupted by shouts of "No!" and chants of "Bernie, Bernie."
While Trump praises dictators, Hillary takes their money. Remind us again of Saudi Arabia's human rights record? https://t.co/22ZMIXm3mM
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) July 12, 2016
Jill Stein: Revolution Undermined: On Bernie Sanders’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton
I join millions of Americans who see Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the opposite of what they and Bernie Sanders have fought for. Despite her penchant for flip flopping rhetoric, Hillary Clinton has spent decades consistently serving the causes of Wall Street, war and the Walmart economy.
The policies she fought for – along with her husband and political partner, Bill Clinton – have been foundations of the economic disaster most Americans are still struggling with: the abuses of deregulated Wall Street, rigged corporate trade agreements, racist mass incarceration, and the destruction of the social safety net for poor women and children. The consistent efforts of the Democratic Party to minimize, sideline, and sabotage the Sanders campaign are a wake up call that we can’t have a revolutionary campaign inside a counter-revolutionary party.
Sadly, Sanders is one of a long line of true reformers that have been undermined by the Democratic Party. The eventual suppression of the Sanders campaign was virtually guaranteed from the beginning with super-delegates and super Tuesdays, that were created after George McGovern’s nomination to prevent grassroots campaigns from winning the nomination again.
Sanders, a life-long independent who has advocated for building an independent democratic socialist party similar to Canada’s New Democratic Party, has said that his decision to run as a Democrat was based on pragmatism, but there is nothing pragmatic about supporting a party that for decades has consistently sold out the progressive majority to the billionaire class. This false pragmatism is not the path to revolutionary change but rather an incrementalism that keeps us trapped, voting for lesser evil again and again. ...
If you don't want to vote for a war monger or racist billionaire, there are more options. The political revolution will keep going.
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) July 12, 2016
I congratulate Bernie Sanders on running an impressive campaign within an undemocratic primary, and I thank Bernie for showing clearly how a grassroots campaign, armed only with a progressive vision and small contributions from real people, can win over the majority of Americans. Let’s keep the revolution going and build it into the powerful force for transformative change that it is becoming. Together we are unstoppable.
Keith Ellison trys to put the best face on the platform and the Democrats.
As Sanders Endorses Clinton, How Far Left Has He Pushed the Democratic Party Platform?
House GOP raises pressure on FBI over Clinton
More than 200 House Republicans on Monday demanded that FBI Director James Comey answer a slew of questions about his decision not to recommend federal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of State.
The lawmakers accused Comey of creating “a cloud over our nation’s justice system” and implored him to divulge additional details about his decision, even after a nearly five-hour hearing last week.
“No one is above the law and the American people deserve a more robust explanation for your decision to not recommend criminal charges against the former secretary,” the 204 GOP lawmakers told Comey. ...
The FBI head will appear in the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, in a hearing billed as addressing global security issues but which will likely include several questions about the decision regarding Clinton.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is scheduled to appear in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
In addition, the heads of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees have filed their own letters with the FBI to inquire about its decision.
Pressure grows on Clinton aides to lose security clearances
Pressure is growing on the State Department to revoke the security clearances of several of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, potentially jeopardizing her ability to name her own national security team should she become president.
The move could force Clinton to make an uncomfortable choice: abandon longtime advisers or face another political maelstrom by overriding the White House security agency.
It’s not clear if Clinton or longtime aides Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan still hold active security clearances. The information is protected under the Privacy Act and absent permission from each person, the only way it can be made public is if State sees an overriding public interest in disclosing it — an unlikely scenario.
None of the aides implicated in the probe — Abedin, Sullivan and Cheryl Mills — are still employed at State. That makes it unlikely that they continue to hold security clearances, awarded on a need-to-know basis.
But department spokesman John Kirby said last week that former officials could still face “administrative sanctions” for past actions — sanctions that could in theory make it incredibly difficult to be approved for security clearance in the future.
Was Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrong to weigh in on Donald Trump?
In an interview published by the New York Times, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US supreme court justice, became the first justice in decades to publicly provide her opinion of a potential president in the midst of the campaign when she told Adam Liptak: “I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.”
She then added that her late husband would have seen Trump’s election as a reason to decamp to New Zealand. ...
Ginsburg’s comments ignited the inevitable firestorm, with some commentators – particularly on the right – already suggesting that the justice ought to recuse herself if the November election results in another Bush v Gore-like case before the court. Frequent Ginsburg critic Ed Whelan, who once clerked for the now-deceased justice Antonin Scalia and now runs the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the Washington Post: “I think this exceeds the others in terms of her indiscretions.”
Even Dahlia Lithwick, the senior legal correspondent at Slate, expressed surprise that Ginsburg would weigh in on a Trump presidency in 2016.
“With an election pending? Wow,” she told the Guardian.
In Warming Oceans, Stronger Currents Releasing Heat in Bigger Storms, Study Says
Global warming is intensifying some of the world's most important ocean currents, new research shows, raising the risk of damaging storms along heavily populated coastlines of China and Japan. The findings are sobering as China and Taiwan rebound from the devastating effects of super typhoon Nepartak last week.
The western boundary currents, which run along the eastern coasts of South Africa, Asia, Australasia, and South America, carry massive amounts of heat from the tropics northward. The recent research by a group of scientists with the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany found they are strengthening, warming and moving northward.
"They have been getting stronger and warmer since CO2 in the atmosphere has been increasing," said study author Hu Yang. "This heat must be released to the atmosphere. The most common way to release the heat is storms."
Yang said storms like Nepartak, which took aim at Taiwan and the Chinese mainland last week, are likely to become more common in coming decades. ...
The study, published in June in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, looked at the Kuroshio Current, the Gulf Stream, the Brazil Current, the East Australian Current and the Agulhas Current, which are western branches of gyres that circulate around the perimeter of the world's subtropical oceans—clockwise in the northern hemisphere, counterclockwise the southern hemisphere. They are fast, much warmer than the surrounding ocean and have a "broad impact on the weather and climate over the adjacent mainland," including the formation of intense storms, according to the study. They also play an important role in distributing heat globally.
Previous studies have suggested that the currents — with the exception of the Gulf Stream — have all strengthened in recent decades.
The author of this piece gives the Democrats unearned credit for the party's "strongest platform language yet," on climate change. Color me unimpressed since the Democrats won't ban Hillary's favorite fossil fuel extraction method - fracking, nor will the Hillbots allow the environmentally-dangerous TPP to fail.
Republican platform declares coal is clean
The Republican platform committee met in Cleveland the week before the Republican National Convention to hammer out the party’s policies in a Trump era. Not to be outdone by Democrats, who approved the party’s strongest platform language yet on climate change this weekend, Republicans have gone as far as possible in the other direction — by endorsing coal as clean.
After a unanimous vote on Monday, the RNC’s draft platform officially declares coal “an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.”
#WebOfDenial: Senators to Call Out Big Oil's Blockade of Climate Action
More than a dozen U.S. senators are launching a campaign to call out the powerful industry of climate denial and demanding Congress take action against the back-door blockading of environmental policy that they are calling the #WebOfDenial.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkeley (D-Ore.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Monday introduced a resolution (pdf) condemning "efforts of corporations and groups to mislead the public about the harmful effects of tobacco, lead, and climate" and urging "fossil fuel corporations and their allies to cooperate with investigations into their climate-related activities."
The senators will take to the Senate floor on Monday and Tuesday to call out the influential groups and individuals like the right-wing Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, and Donors Trust, among other entities, for creating what they describe as "a massive campaign to deceive the public about climate change to halt climate action and protect their bottom lines.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Americans don't care about the Chilcot report - their anger at Bush subsided long ago
CIA documents reveal details about wrongfully renditioned German
The Icelandic Pirate Party and the Search for a New Democracy
NATO Reaffirms Its Bogus Russia Narrative
Hillary Clinton’s Outsourcing of Top Secret Government Documents: The Untold Story
A Little Night Music
Blind John Davis - Born To Lose + interview w/ Studs Terkel
Blind John Davis w/Studs Terkel - No Mail Today, Pinetop's Boogie
Blind John Davis - Everyday I Have The Blues
Blind John Davis and George Barnes - Magic Carpet
Blind John Davis - I Almost Lost My Mind
Blind John Davis - My Own Boogie
Blind John Davis & Eddie Taylor - Groundhog Blues
Blind John Davis - Alley Woman Blues
Blind John Davis - Rockin' In Boogie
Comments
All most too much packed into one diary
Thanks and evening Joe
I want a Pony!
evening arrow...
too much news? couldn't be.
Thanks Joe. I feel like someone died today. I cried for the loss
of my step daughter (nasty custody battle, crazy birth mother capable of anything including abduction), and my dog, who I loved with all my soul.
This is not a good day.
[video:https://youtu.be/06fCMfcMnqk]
[video:https://youtu.be/BUywtGoucKE]
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
evening lch...
i'm terribly sorry to hear about your losses today. i hope that you are able to find comfort and ease after today's ordeals.
Just accumulated life, Joe. But I was thinking about what things
made me feel this heartsick and crying sad. Besides today, those two stand out. I used to want to live without regret. But if we're not really living, that just isn't possible. I didn't have to love my step daughter like my own, and fight for her life side by side with her dad. I didn't have to adopt a scruffy underfed dog who turned into an intelligent, strong, runner, handful, but so full of love. Love carries risks.
Investing in Bernie's movement which I see as love, carries risks. Well, we are there now. What we can do and are willing to do going forward, is the question. It doesn't look like it will be a soft landing.
Black and brown people have known this for a long time. Now we the 99% are learning it. We either fight or give up. But we need to coalesce around something. What will it be. We just can't be against, we have to be for....
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
yep...
yes, we need an organizing principle for a mass movement. it's a problem that a lot of people are thinking about now. i sure hope that we hit on something soon.
Sorry to hear it LCH.
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 --
I am so very sorry.
Those things are more than difficult.
I wished I were blind and deaf ...
sorry I hold through the whole day, but after reading three or four headlines of your stories, I started to cry. It's too much. It took a while to sink in, but now I am at a point I don't want to deal with it anymore.
Thanks anyway and have a good evening.
https://www.euronews.com/
Mimi, me too. Love you, and your passion. Also ich spreche
Deutsche. Mais I'm Sicilian and Alsatian, living in France. Escaped with the last bit we had. Lost everything and everyone, it seems.
[video:https://youtu.be/W9-lAOdQrGo]
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
I love you back, virtual friend, there are just days
that we have to go through and put behind. I think you have a terrific mix of ancestry. Sicilian and Alsatian. I looked at your profile, to get an idea how old you are. I am looking for a home since I arrived in the US and still it feels I haven't found one after frigging 35 years... But C99p is not a bad place to hang out... so at least a little bit of a virtual, digital home (as if that would be sufficient, but heh we are very modest in our expectations these days). Big hug and thanks for the beautiful song. Hang in there. I still can't get over that I gave up our dog for adoption. Seems so ridiculous now, as nothing what I planned worked out the way I thought...
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
it seems like it has been a trying day for a lot of folks. take it easy and then we will get it together and move forward.
ok, that sounds like something to look forward to, thanks /nt
https://www.euronews.com/
Been peppering a few diaries with songs today
This one is very special to me. Ever since I was a 10 year old boy in western PA.
A piece of a soundtrack to my life.
Haunting...Beautiful...Melancholy It's always been there. First with Vince and now with the piano version of George Winston's.
To say today's events hit me hard is an understatement.
I hope it comforts you as much as it does me.
I want a Pony!
Thank you for the song, Arrow. Helpful. nt
thanks arrow...
good stuff!
Thanks!
Haven't heard that in years. It was my favorite at about that age. I like this arrangement.
"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."
Sure was sad to hear Bernie endorse the $hill...
I wish he had waited till the convention anyway. Oh well, I'm thinking it will be a boon to the Green Party. I'll proudly support Jill.
Living in Alabama, the stink of racism is rampant. I had hoped the rest of the country was a little more sane. I read somewhere that the concept that black folk only count as three fifths of a person was in our national DNA. Sadly it seems so. blacklivesmatter
Glad 2 more folks got out of Guantánamo. Another went to Italy this weekend.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guantanamo-idUSKCN0ZQ0WW
China wants to know why we call it the S. China Sea if they don't own it.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Great picture, Lookout. Thank you. nt
evening lookout...
i was ready for a contested convention and some struggle for the 99% rather than the coronation of the next 1% candidate. while i anticipated bernie's capitulation, i was disappointed at the timing.
his early capitulation has me taking a dim view of his efforts towards dragging the movement into yet another futile attempt to take over a deeply corrupt party.
i'm looking forward to dumping the dem registration that i did in order to vote for sanders. i am disgusted to be associated with such a party.
i'm looking forward to voting for jill stein again.
I co-sign this comment. :)
You always say things so well, joe.
Don't ask a Taiwanese.
You know what I mean.
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.
Not a good day for me
My first try at triggering a start to one of my annuity payouts was denied. I have to call customer service to ask WTF. 20 minutes on hold, listening to Berners vent, the Viking ship replica going home because of foreign-flagging (or political) snafus, Lynch saying nothing at great length, Dems grandstanding for their PoC constituencies, knocks the wind out. I'll call later. WTF.
Now we have rollo-drones? For home use, only. We are so screwed. And some unfortunate fell off a rim of the Grand Canyon. A nice last photo of her. what is wrong with us?
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.
But I did (successfully?) change my NY registration
from D to G. Online, with a buttload of verification questions.
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.
evening riverlover...
good luck with getting your annuity straightened out.
what, the dems grandstanding? the devil you say!
Dropped like a hot potato
What gives? Lots of emails from Bern asking for money ("Dear Brothers and Sisters"), then, after Cali ... nothing. No heads up, no explanation, no advance warning on the endorsement or an explanation why, no lawsuit updates on voter fraud, no nothing. With all due respect to the many wonderful, thoughtful people on this site, how can you excuse this behavior? If a friend treated me this way, I'd ditch them. The Revolution sham continues. Revolution, indeed!
Funny how Bern feels he owes the DNC and Clinton his undying loyalty and attention, but his supporters? Zero.
evening writerinres...
not to worry, i'm sure that somebody will be emailing you soon to ask for another $27. given sanders' recent note to his supporters, it looks like his organizing ambitions are not satisfied, yet.
it's my guess that after california he knew that he was going to toss in the towel, but had to do it in a way that allowed him to claim some sort of victory. i guess it's best that he didn't ask for money after that given that he was not going to keep fighting.
the revolution was, is and always has been us. we have always had to do it ourselves and we still do.
Word.
Up to us.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I felt betrayed by Bernie when...
Today, I have seen coming for a long time, perhaps from the start, now that I think about it. However,
I did believe he would wait until the convention, as he said he would. When I felt betrayed, though, was when he said that primaries were not crooked, just dumb, or something to that effect.I will not be throwing Bernie out with the bathwater, though. He accomplished an enormous amount in a year and he's been a truth-telling (about issues) Senator and member of the House since he hit Washington. And a D.C. politician who managed not to become a multi-millionaire. All that ain't nothing.
Meanwhile, I changed my voter registration to indie and will be voting Green in November, although not with a lot of joy or expectation.
Writerinres,
I wrote a diary today that expressed some of the same sentiments that you do. I hope you will read it --- perhaps it, and the many comments may be helpful to you.
Militarized police
I almost posted the photo of the man with his head on the ground last night when I posted The Intercept excerpt. Then, I changed my mind because it was so disturbing to me, I didn't even want to put it in the thread. Not that y'all are ostriches who like to bury your heads, but I just couldn't do it.
Such a disgrace.
Horrible thought: if you are knocked down by cops,
scan the visible area for a camera to give eye contact. Shudder.
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.
Yesterday here in Paris FR, we saw two black skinned men
on the ground with their hands behind their back secured with plastic ties with a policeman standing by them a block or so away from where we are staying. . One of the men's head was lifting up and down almost like he might be having a seizure. There has been lots of nightime shouting singing and some screaming, some probably from the ongoing protests of new anti-labor protection laws and some due to France loss to Portugal.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Eric Holder holds his dept. back from prosecuting
big banks? Quelle surprise. I have not read this yet. Was just reading Greenwald's tweets and he had retweeted it.
Manning
still hot hot hot
Hi joe,
Hope all is well. Is it cooling off?
Still hot here. It's either 85 or 95 deg. F everyday, and forecast the same for the next 10, and already was for the past 2 weeks at least. Also, a mini drought.
Funny that watering the lawn at the break of dawn has become a favorite thing to do. I just have a sprinkler, the oscillating kind that throws streams of water up 5 or 7 feet in the air and sways back and forth.
So, I settle in on the front porch with a cup of coffee, set the kitchen timer, haha, and watch the sunrise, and the water. Sometimes a birdie will play and catch the mist just above the sprays. So quiet and peaceful. When it's this hot, I like to water a bit every day, so that is the good news about the heat! It gives me an excuse for this relaxing, meditative, morning activity.
Thank you for the news and blues.
If you set it right, rainbows!
And if you get the point perfectly, unicorns, or fawns or bunnies run out. Last is not documented. We will survive.
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.
evening olinda...
things are going ok here. it's hot. it's humid. yuk.
we've had pretty high temps and very high humidity here for about a week and a half. it got bad enough that i did my daily walk a few times lately at the local cathedral of consumerism (the mall). i'm hoping that the weather will break soon.
glad that you're finding ways to enjoy the weather there.
have a great evening!
Greeings Joe & Bluesters! Will be dropping by
as I find out facts this evening. We've got to watch for 'bs' spinning of the Dem Party Platform.
I found a draft of the Platform as of July 1, but need to locate the end product, for comparison to the spin coming from FSC's campaign staff, and campaign surrogates.
First, thanks for tonight's EB. Missed the 'endorsement,' and from the comments, decided that I really didn't miss anything. Instead, I decided to follow several Twitter accounts, for analysis.
Here's some of what I've heard/learned this afternoon,
Bernie's Secret Service Detail was dissolved, so to speak, as soon as he returned to D.C. today. (Per Mark Halperin)
Larry Sabato's polling projects that 80% of Bernie's supporters will vote for FSC. BUT, he believes that she will need at least 90% of his voters to win.
Mr M heard this on one of the XM finance channels. I'll see if I can find anything in print on this. It is consistent with what I've been hearing from pollsters for the past couple weeks (70-80%). One dude that I regularly hear on XM said last week that at that point in time, FSC had gained more of Bernie's voters, than 'O' had gained from her (at the same point in the race, IOW). That seems odd/dubious to me, but then I'm often in an 'anti-FSC bubble.' We'll see.
(Postscript: Chris Matthews just quoted 78% to Nina Turner.)
What I do know is that 'H*ll would freeze over' before she gets the votes of any of our Family, or even our close friends!
Oh, and I've stumbled onto a piece by Nancy Altman--sounds as though her definition of 'expanding' Social Security meaning setting up 'mandatory' retirement savings accounts.
There will be no requirement for employers to contribute to them, BTW. (Although, they can, if they choose to do so.)
Soon, I'll try to clip the video of Kent Conrad, who's running all over the place trying to sell them, lately. Guess it wasn't just on his Commission's agenda, after all.
Later.
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
you didn't miss much in missing bernie's concession speech. what little i heard just pissed me off.
i think that clinton needs every vote that she can get and sanders' supporters are important because they are likely voters. in an election with such despised candidates where turnout is likely to be suppressed, she really can't afford to lose sanders' supporters and 70-80% of them probably isn't enough.
that said, clinton will not be getting my vote, either.
In swing states
HRC will need every vote she can get in swing states. She may not win by a massive margin, even against Trump. Then again, short hair don't care about no margin. She will claim a mandate anyway, or act as though she has one, much as her plurality President spouse before her.
Thanks, Joe. Have a good evening.
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 --
evening el...
you have a great evening, too!
Hi Joe,
I'm curious as to why my diary isn't featured on the front page. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to the process of selecting diaries to be featured. My diary has close to 100 comments. Is it a thumbs up thing that determines whether a diary is featured? I'm just curious and would really like to know!
Ajaradom,
I'm pretty sure it is just a judgement call by JtC, the owner of the blog. When he sees something he wants on the front page, he puts it there. It doesn't happen automatically by thumbs up or comments.
Thank you Joe!
That is a stunning diary. Thank you for all the work that you put into it. I also appreciate your introducing me to Blind John Davis. I can't believe I never heard of him before. You have added to my life!