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This evening's music features early rock n roll musician Little Richard. Enjoy!

“You may have heard the talk of diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras. These are all fine and applicable, but they understate the task and allow the citizens of this country to pretend that there is real distance between their own attitudes and those of the ones appointed to protect them. The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country’s criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies—the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects—are the product of democratic will. And so to challenge the police is to challenge the American people who send them into the ghettos armed with the same self-generated fears that compelled the people who think they are white to flee the cities and into the Dream. The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.”

-- Ta-Nehisi Coates

News and Opinion

Police Arrest, Detain Air Force Vet for 26 Hours After He Posted Alton Sterling Shooting Video

After Dallas Shootings, Police Arrest People for Criticizing Cops on Facebook and Twitter

Four men in Detroit were arrested over the past week for posts on social media that the police chief called threatening. One tweet that led to an arrest said that Micah Johnson, the man who shot police officers in Dallas last week, was a hero. None of the men have been named, nor have they been charged.

“I know this is a new issue, but I want these people charged with crimes,” said Detroit Police Chief James Craig. “I’ve directed my officers to prepare warrants for these four individuals, and we’ll see which venue is the best to pursue charges,” he said. ...

Law enforcement officials everywhere are suddenly much more sensitive to threats against their lives. Several police departments across the country have arrested individuals for posts on social media accounts, often from citizen tips — raising concerns among free speech advocates. ...

Bruce Schneier, security technologist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, said it was a sign of the times. These days, almost all communications are recorded in some capacity. “This new world where things aren’t forgotten is going to be different,” Schneier said. “And you’re seeing one manifestation of it in casual comments that are resulting in arrest.”

Two Years After Eric Garner’s Death, Ramsey Orta, Who Filmed Police, Is Only One Heading to Jail

In first, U.S. judge throws out cell phone 'stingray' evidence

For the first time, a federal judge has suppressed evidence obtained without a warrant by U.S. law enforcement using a stingray, a surveillance device that can trick suspects' cell phones into revealing their locations.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Tuesday ruled that defendant Raymond Lambis' rights were violated when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration used such a device without a warrant to find his Washington Heights apartment.

The DEA had used a stingray to identify Lambis' apartment as the most likely location of a cell phone identified during a drug-trafficking probe. Pauley said doing so constituted an unreasonable search.

"Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizen's cell phone into a tracking device," Pauley wrote.

The ruling marked the first time a federal judge had suppressed evidence obtained using a stingray, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which like other privacy advocacy groups has criticized law enforcement's use of such devices.

In Attempt to Dodge Suit, White House Argues Funding War Makes War Legal

A lawsuit filed earlier this year charging President Barack Obama with waging an illegal war against the Islamic State (or ISIS) was met on Tuesday with a motion from the Obama administration asking the court to dismiss it.

In its motion to dismiss (pdf), the administration argues that Congressional funding for the war amounts to Congressional approval for it.

The lawsuit (pdf) was filed in U.S. district court by Capt. Nathan Michael Smith, an intelligence official stationed in Kuwait, in May. Smith has been assigned to work for "Operation Inherent Resolve," the administration's name for the nebulous conflict against the terrorist group ISIS.

According to the 1973 War Powers Resolution, "when the President introduces United States armed forces into hostilities, or into situations where hostilities are imminent," Smith's lawsuit reads, "he must either get approval from Congress within sixty days to continue the operation, in the form of a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, or he must terminate the operation within the thirty days after the sixty-day period has expired."

The Obama administration has justified the legality of the war on ISIS by relying on the Authorization for the Use Military Force (AUMF) resolution, passed by Congress in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001.

The single sentence, consisting of only 60 words, has now been relied upon by first President George W. Bush and now Obama to justify the unending wars waged by the U.S. in the 21st century.

The AUMF reads in full:

That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Leaked Data Reveals How the U.S. Trains Vast Numbers of Foreign Soldiers and Police With Little Oversight

A joint investigation by The Intercept and 100Reporters reveals the chaotic and largely unknown details of a vast constellation of global training exercises, operations, facilities, and schools — a shadowy network of U.S. programs that every year provides instruction and assistance to approximately 200,000 foreign soldiers, police, and other personnel. The investigation exposes the geographic and political contours of a U.S. training system that has, until now, largely defied thorough description.

The data show training at no fewer than 471 locations in 120 countries — on every continent but Antarctica — involving, on the U.S. side, 150 defense agencies, civilian agencies, armed forces colleges, defense training centers, military units, private companies, and NGOs, as well as the National Guard forces of five states. Despite the fact that the Department of Defense alone has poured some $122 billion into such programs since 9/11, the breadth and content of this training network remain virtually unknown to most Americans. ...

The investigation raises serious questions about U.S. government oversight, safeguards, and accountability. The investigation found:

• A global training network without any coherent strategy, carried out by scores of agencies and offices with no effective oversight, centralized planning, or a clear statement of objectives.
• The lack of any means of testing and evaluation, let alone a comprehensive way to count or track foreign trainees.
• Vetting procedures designed to weed out human rights abusers that examine trainees so rapidly that experts question their worth.

Defense Secretary: Expanded US Powers in Afghanistan Allow Action Against Taliban

During a surprise visit to Afghanistan today, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter touted the massive expansion of the rule of engagement for US forces in the country, saying they will allow for “more efficient” support of the Afghan government in fighting the Taliban. ...

New US commander in Afghanistan Gen. Nicholson confirmed Carter’s comments, and said the new authority was used far more often than the Pentagon had previously admitted, insisting that troops used the authority “almost daily.”

Nicholson insisted that defense operations in support of the Afghans had been picking up for 18 months at any rate, well before the new authority was granted, but that now the US could take on operations “more of an offensive nature.”

Al-Qaeda Held Aleppo Districts Ready for ‘Months of Siege’

With the loss of Castello Road, the last supply route into the area, al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front is facing a siege situation in their half of the north Syrian city of Aleppo, though officials affiliated with the Nusra-led faction suggest they foresaw this and stockpiled substantially before the road fell. ...

For locals, the siege situation is likely to make the situation even worse, with supplies for civilians in short supply in most places around the country, and neither al-Qaeda nor the Syrian military shy about striking residential neighborhoods.

Chilcot Report damns the charade of Iraq War

Reduced to a Tweet, the just-released Iraq Inquiry might read like this: “#Tony Blair a poodle? Verily.”

That’s the key finding that emerges from the 2.6 million-word official investigation into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War, informally known as the Chilcot Report. In the wake of 9/11, the British prime minister and his colleagues fancied that by supporting the George W. Bush administration in its determination to overthrow Saddam Hussein they could exercise a positive influence over US policy more generally. Instead, they allowed their country to be dragged into an unnecessary, poorly planned, ultimately unsuccessful, and arguably illegal war. In the end, the United Kingdom and its people gained nothing and paid dearly.

The report provides copious evidence to support that negative judgment. Along the way, the report demolishes what remains of Blair’s reputation and the entire Anglo-American case for taking down Saddam. By extension, it also offers this cautionary note: Any ally expecting that signing on as a junior partner in some American military adventure will translate into leverage in Washington should think again. Blair sought to steer Bush; in the end, he got used. ...

One imagines that, for British citizens, the Chilcot Report will make for bitter reading. But they can at least console themselves with this: On their side of the Atlantic, there has finally been an accounting. On our side, there’s been none — nor is there likely to be anytime soon.

DNC Platform Retains Traditional Militarism, Shows Weakness of Anti-War Movement

Barack Obama attacks Polish democracy in a speech... Polish TV changes speech

Amid fears of a rollback of Poland’s democratic freedoms, President Obama had a harsh message of concern during a trip here for a NATO summit. ...

But viewers of Telewizja Polska, the main public broadcaster, saw a very different suggestion on the evening news.

“Ninety-five percent of the meeting was about issues of NATO and security, but Obama praised Polish efforts at democracy,” the reporter said. “Concerning the issue of the constitutional tribunal, he said he is sure that spreading democratic values in Poland will not stop.”

Then the broadcaster played a clip of Obama’s friendly cushioning of his criticism, while skipping the substance of the message.

In the clip played on Polish television, Obama was also translated by a dubbed voice-over as saying that “Poland is and will be an example of democracy for the whole world.”

Deutsche Bank: A giant in crisis

Eric Holder’s Longtime Excuse for Not Prosecuting Banks Just Crashed and Burned

Eric Holder has long insisted that he tried really hard when he was attorney general to make criminal cases against big banks in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis. His excuse, which he made again just last month, was that Justice Department prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to bring charges.

Many critics have long suspected that was bullshit, and that Holder, for a combination of political, self-serving, and craven reasons, held his department back.

A new, thoroughly-documented report from the House Financial Services Committee supports that theory. It recounts how career prosecutors in 2012 wanted to criminally charge the global bank HSBC for facilitating money laundering for Mexican drug lords and terrorist groups. But Holder said no.

When asked on June 8 why his Justice Department did not equally apply the criminal laws to financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, Holder told the platform drafting panel of the Democratic National Committee that it was laboring under a “misperception.”

He told the panel: “The question you need to ask yourself is, if we could have made those cases, do you think we would not have? Do you think that these very aggressive U.S. attorneys I was proud to serve with would have not brought these cases if they had the ability?”

The report — the result of a three-year investigation — shows that aggressive attorneys did want to prosecute HSBC, but Holder overruled them.

Impeachment Effort May Fail in Brazilian Senate

Some press reports on the crisis in Brazil seem to imply that the removal of President Dilma Rousseff, re-elected in 2014 for a four-year term, is a done deal. ... The Senate vote on May 12 suspended the president, and she is expected to be put on trial in mid-August. In order to permanently remove her from office, the Senate will have to vote for conviction by a two-thirds majority. That means the pro-impeachment forces will need 54 of the 81 senators.

But according to one of Brazil’s most well-known and respected journalists, Paulo Henrique Amorim, there is now a bloc of 36 Senators who have committed to vote against impeachment, with some of the Senators making this conditional on a referendum to decide whether to have early presidential elections. Some supporters of Dilma and her Workers’ Party (PT) are against this proviso, since Dilma was elected for a four year term and they think that she should serve it out without further interruption, as according to the constitution. However, Dilma herself is willing to accept the referendum. This group of 36 Senators (G-36) is 8 more than enough to defeat the impeachment effort.

Although Brazil is not getting a lot of international attention at the moment, that will change when the Rio Olympics begin on August 5. The machinations of the pro-impeachment forces, and their corruption, will not look pretty under the spotlight of the international media. It is quite possible that the G-36 will grow, and solidify, and the Senate will vote to acquit Dilma. This would only make sense, since she is not accused of any crime that could be successfully prosecuted in a court of law.

Victorious Corbyn Survives Another Day as Labour Says He Will Appear on Ballot

In what was described as "a victory for common sense and democracy," the UK Labour party has said Jeremy Corbyn's name must appear on the ballot in the upcoming leadership contest.

Corbyn, who was the target of what some were calling a post-Brexit coup, said he was "delighted" at the decision by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC). Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a key ally of Corbyn, said on Twitter: "Jeremy on the ballot. Democracy prevails. We will use leadership election to sign up even more members and prepare ground for general election."

The Independent reports:

After a tense meeting lasting several hours, Labour’s national executive decided in a secret ballot that the party leader has an automatic right to be on the ballot paper to fight to keep his job against any challenger.

Party members and supporters will get to choose between Mr Corbyn and his challenger, the former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle.

Corbyn, justice and democracy has triumphed. And, now for an historic decisive landslide victory. May the labour members damn the wreckers.

— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) July 12, 2016

'Trustworthy' Trump? Plagued by Email Controversy, Clinton's Lead Plummets

The race between the two presidential frontrunners remains too close to call in the final stretch leading to the two major party conventions, as new polling shows that Donald Trump has overtaken Hillary Clinton in key battleground states while her national lead has shrunk to just three points.

A McClatchy-Marist survey released Wednesday found that in a head-to-head match-up, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is currently ahead 42 to 39, which McClatchy notes, marks the first time that support for Clinton has dropped beneath 50 percentage points.

At the same time, likely Republican nominee Trump is now leading in Florida and Pennsylvania, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, while the two remain locked in a tight race in Ohio. Since 1960, no candidate has won the presidency without winning at least two of those states. ...

The results are slightly different, though no less troubling for the Democratic Party, when third-party candidates are considered.

In Florida, Trump's lead grows to five points (41-36 percent) as seven percent of voters there back Libertarian Gary Johnson and four percent go for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, according to the Quinnipiac survey.

The four-way race also buoys the GOP in Pennsylvania, where Trump takes 40 percent to Clinton's 34 percent. Nine percent of Pennsylvania voters support Johnson while three percent say they would vote for Stein.

The additional candidates also shake up the Ohio tie, where Trump overtakes Clinton 37 to 36 percent as seven percent of voters back Johnson and six percent go for Stein.

Nationally, McClatchy finds that Clinton fares somewhat better in the four-way race, topping Trump 40 to 35 percent, with Johnson winning 10 percent of the vote while Stein wins five percent.

How Will Sanders's Endorsement Affect the Policy Fight at the Convention?

What now? Sanders supporters shift allegiance to Clinton, Trump – and Stein

After [Sanders and Clinton] appeared at the joint rally, the Guardian asked Sanders supporters: what now?

We received 375 responses on readers’ plans for their November vote. And despite the show of solidarity with Clinton on Tuesday, Sanders’ fans aren’t all convinced the presumptive Democratic nominee is who they will now support: Green party nominee Jill Stein was the most popular among reader respondents, with 171 new supporters, more than double the number who said they would move their support to Clinton.

A write-in vote for Sanders was also a popular option, with just 20 respondents opting for Trump. These results aren’t necessarily a representative sample, and they differ significantly from a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday, which found that 85% of Sanders supporters intended to vote for Clinton.

‘Revolution stuffed back into counter-revolutionary party’: Jill Stein on Sanders endorsing Clinton

Clinton legal team moves to block deposition in email lawsuit

Lawyers for Hillary Clinton are going to federal court for the first time to block efforts to force her to testify in a civil lawsuit related to her private email set-up.

Clinton's attorneys submitted a legal filing Tuesday morning in a bid to shut down a conservative group's request for an order forcing her to submit to a deposition in the midst of her presidential campaign.

Clinton’s legal team said her testimony was unnecessary and superfluous in light of her questioning before the House Benghazi Committee last October and several State Department inquiries into the issue. ...

Judicial Watch has asked to depose Clinton in a pair of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits which have raised questions about whether her private email system was created in part to avoid making messages accessible under FOIA.

FBI Plans to Release Files on Clinton Email Investigation

In a letter filed on Tuesday in federal court, the FBI said they plan to turn over relevant documents seized as part of their federal probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Some of those documents could ultimately become public as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the conservative group, Judicial Watch. In the letter, the FBI’s general counsel James A. Baker wrote “During the course of the investigation, the FBI obtained certain information that may include agency records of the Department of State. In accordance with our policies and procedures, the FBI will be providing this information to your Department for review and determination of record status to the Federal Records and subsequent FOIA processing as appropriate.”

Bernie Sanders endorsing Crooked Hillary Clinton is like Occupy Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016

Donald Trump strikes muddled note on 'divisive' Black Lives Matter

Donald Trump has accused the Black Lives Matter movement of “dividing America” amid renewed tensions surrounding police brutality and race relations, while suggesting he identified with African Americans who felt as though the system was stacked against them. ...

Even as he expressed concerns over the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, describing videos of the encounters as “tough to watch”, Trump blamed Barack Obama and Black Lives Matter as primarily responsible for divisions over race.

“I think it’s certainly, it’s very divisive and I think they’re hurting themselves,” Trump told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in reference to the phrase “black lives matter” and the eponymous movement leading national demonstrations for criminal justice reform. ...

Asked what he would say to African Americans who feel as though the system was biased against them, Trump drew an analogy with his own campaign. “Well, I’ve been saying, even against me the system is rigged,” Trump told O’Reilly. “When I ran for president I could see what is going on with the system, and the system is rigged.

“I can really relate it very much to myself.”

Republicans could be poised for a battle over gay rights at the GOP convention

The Republican party could be poised for a fractious proxy battle over LGBTI rights after activists on the party platform committee announced they had sufficient support to potentially force a vote on the convention floor.

Republican supporters of more gay-friendly policies would use a “minority report” to the GOP platform to try to strip all references to LGBTI issues from the party manifesto. It would be replaced with a scaled-back, 1,200-word statement of conservative principles. ...

The proposed minority report spoke only about “core principles”, saying “the cornerstone of American government is the principle of human equality enunciated in the Declaration of Independence”, and went on to touch on key Republican issues such as condemning government regulation and promoting the right to life, religious liberty and secure borders. ...

The current draft Republican platform, agreed to on Tuesday, features a variety of controversial provisions that include calling internet pornography “a public health crisis”, implied support for conversion therapy for gay youths, and a provision to force the federal government to hand over public lands to states.

The minority report would remove all of this controversial language as well as dozens of other red meat conservative policy positions, including a provision calling for “a border wall [that] must cover the entirety of the southern border and must be sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic”.

Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests

The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and vegetables means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry

Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the US are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards, according to official data and interviews with dozens of farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials. ...

“It’s all about blemish-free produce,” says Jay Johnson, who ships fresh fruit and vegetables from North Carolina and central Florida. “What happens in our business today is that it is either perfect, or it gets rejected. It is perfect to them, or they turn it down. And then you are stuck.”

By one government tally, about 60m tonnes of produce worth about $160bn (£119bn), is wasted by retailers and consumers every year - one third of all foodstuffs. ...

But that is just a “downstream” measure. In more than two dozen interviews, farmers, packers, wholesalers, truckers, food academics and campaigners described the waste that occurs “upstream”: scarred vegetables regularly abandoned in the field to save the expense and labour involved in harvest. Or left to rot in a warehouse because of minor blemishes that do not necessarily affect freshness or quality.

When added to the retail waste, it takes the amount of food lost close to half of all produce grown, experts say.

Philadelphia reforms its water testing after investigation into lead levels

The Philadelphia water department announced it will stop using water tests that scientists have said could conceal dangerous levels of lead.

Such tests are intended to monitor for corrosion, and protect the public from lead that can leach into water from home plumbing. But scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have warned for 10 years that Philadelphia’s testing protocols underestimate the amount of lead, thus potentially deeming dangerous water sources safe.

A Guardian investigation of large cities in the eastern US found that Philadelphia had some of the most outdated testing practices on the eastern seaboard, using three methods the EPA warned against. Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia in particular, has struggled with elevated blood lead levels in children.

For the past six months, the department faced intense pressure to change its testing methods from clean water activists and a class-action lawsuit that alleged water department testing protocols “temporarily hide” lead contamination and that the city does not test enough high-risk homes.

“It’s surely a move in the right direction,” said Tony Spagnoli, one of the organizers of a citizen-led campaign to test water in hundreds of homes, called Philly Unleaded Project. The testing will be conducted at cost in Virginia Tech’s laboratory, which is separately testing water quality for the city of Flint, Michigan.

Number of Americans 'Alarmed' by Climate Change Rises in Latest Poll

A new analysis of voter preferences shows more Americans are passionate or "alarmed," about climate change, with the percentage of poll respondents in this category rising sharply to 17 percent compared to 12 percent last year.

Researchers polled 1,204 eligible American voters four months ago and used their responses to classify what they call "Six Americas"—six categories of people based on their opinion on climate change. These categories ranged from "alarmed" to "dismissive." About 10 percent of the respondents were classified as dismissive, which was not a statistically significant drop from 11 percent in 2015.

Researchers say there hasn't been such a wide gap between the extreme pro-climate supporters and climate change deniers since 2008, right after Barack Obama was first elected president. That was also the year they started this analysis. ...

The other categories of poll responders, listed by decreasing level of climate anxiety and awareness, include: "concerned" at 28 percent, "cautious" at 27 percent, "disengaged" at 7 percent and "doubtful" at 11 percent.

This analysis shows "how distinct each group is from each other," said Maibach. He described the alarmed group as an "issue public," citizens who care deeply about an issue. Other "issue public" groups include gun rights advocates and supporters on both sides of the abortion debate.

The climate change issue public is "just beginning to develop and exercise its political muscle," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change. But this group is "not anywhere close to having the kind of political power as the National Rifle Association (NRA)."

Also of Interest

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

In the Lair of the Bernie Holdouts

Clinton-Led Democrats Are Now “To the Right of George W. Bush” on Palestinian Rights

After Sanders Endorses Clinton, 'Political Revolution' Faces Hard Choices

What's next for Bernie?

Key Area of Dispute on Drone Numbers: Number of Strikes

We Have Met the Alien and He Is Us

Billionaires in Brazil: Understanding How Extreme Wealth and Political Power Overlap Everywhere

Did Rupert Murdoch Choose Britain’s New Prime Minister?

Turkey Makes Overtures to Minorities, but Old Enmities Linger

In New York Gang Sweeps, Prosecutors Use Conspiracy Laws to Score Easy Convictions

A Little Night Music

Little Richard - Lucille

Little Richard - Keep a Knockin'

Little Richard - Send Me Some Lovin'

Little Richard - Hound Dog

Little Richard - Rip It Up

Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It

Little Richard & Tanya Tucker - Somethin' Else

Little Richard - Rosita

Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly

Little Richard - Get Rhythm