The Evening Blues - 7-25-18



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Otis Spann

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Otis Spann. Enjoy!

Otis Spann - Someday

“Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent — the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.”

-- H.L. Mencken


News and Opinion

Only Idiots And Liars Say You Can Advance Both Progressivism And Russiagate

The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur’s popular progressive media outlet, has been consistently running programming to keep its audience in line with the CNN/CIA Russia narrative, up to and including criticizing Donald Trump for being insufficiently hawkish and aggressive toward Moscow. Since TYT’s audience spans across the spectrum from actual leftists to casual MSNBC viewers, this behavior often gets pushback from the anti-imperialist left, eventually culminating in public tantrums in which Cenk and his underlings proclaim that it is possible to advance progressive agendas while still fanning the flames of Russia hysteria.

When they do this, they are lying. It is not possible to play along with the “Russia! Russia!” frenzy while still advancing progressive agendas. ... People say “We can do both! We can walk and chew gum at the same time!” No you can’t. You can’t and you don’t. That’s why the new cold war has been steadily escalating, the US military budget has been increased by an amount greater than Russia’s entire military budget, and in the last two years progressives have accomplished, what? One successful progressive primary challenge? With a woman who is already retreating back to the establishment line on Israel and who, like Bernie Sanders, is already being labeled a Kremlin asset by establishment Democrats? In the same party that has spent the last two years proclaiming all criticisms of Hillary Clinton on new media were the result of a Kremlin conspiracy? Including criticisms stemming from authentic emails consisting of nothing other than officials within that party talking to one another?

It has not happened, it is not happening, and it will not happen. The entire reason the “Russia! Russia!” narrative has been so enthusiastically embraced by beltway Democrats is because it allows them to attack Republicans with a weapon that entails changing absolutely nothing about themselves or how they operate. They don’t want to attack Trump’s continuation and expansion of all of his predecessors’ neoconservative warmongering, neoliberal economic exploitation or Orwellian surveillance and police state policies because they fully intend to keep doing all of those things in order to keep their plutocratic donors happy. But if they can keep everyone laser-focused on advancing an agenda that requires no leftward change whatsoever, threatens none of their donors in any way, and may in fact be a complete propaganda construct from the ground up, they can maintain party viability without making a single uncomfortable adjustment to their lucrative political careers.

Oligarchy and the Death of Worlds

There are, at a global level, two “mainstream” forms of hegemonic politics, each with their own oligarchical backing. One of these is the Clintonian-Merkelist-Obamist-Sorosian politics that is a confluence of at least overt social-liberalism and a variety of economic neoliberalism. The other one is a Trumpian-Putinian-Bannonite-Orbánist instrumentalization of parochial nationalism. The former represents an oligarchic politics, democratically unrestrained trans-national capitalism, that has the potential to do great harm to the world if left unchecked. The latter represents a con game that starts out with cotton candy for the True People and eventually ends up with states under the control of local and not-so-local looters who instrumentalize nationalist conflict for crony enrichment — this too, is oligarchy. ...

Both of these options are bad. The problem is that they are the only ones currently on offer, in the sense that they have a significant quantity of “boots on the ground” — two sorts of oligarchy. If you’re a genuine supporter of “ethno-states” or revanchist nationalisms or whatever, you will naturally ignore my warning and happily choose the latter option. It’s what seems closest to what you want. If you’re not in that category, things become a lot harder. The transnationalist oligarchy espouses a social ideology that is, at least at the level of words and aspirations, less noxious, but wrapped in a lethal package. ...

This seems like a pretty lose-lose situation to me; the nature of nationalist autocracies is that even if they make peace now, we can’t trust that the irredentism they encourage won’t lead to nuclear war and world annihilation anyway. But if you don’t want to support the other, Clintonian hegemony, not least because it ends up leading to much the same places, you don’t have many other alternatives. A just, free, non-oligarchic world is presently not on offer, for whatever reason.

Obama Adviser Gets Schooled On Politics By Twitter

Congress blocks F-35 fighter shipments to Turkey

Congressional defense lawmakers officially barred deliveries of the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkish forces, inserting the ban into the final version of the Pentagon’s budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year. House and Senate conferees adopted the legislation, which prohibits shipments of the advanced, multi-role jet fighter to Ankara’s forces until the Pentagon delivers “an assessment of a significant change in Turkish participation in the F-35 program, including the potential elimination of such participation,” defense lawmakers wrote. ...

The F-35 has been used as a geopolitical pawn between Washington and Ankara, with congressional lawmakers looking to pressure Turkey over its increased military ties to Russia. Last week, a top U.S. diplomat warned Turkey of the “serious downside” to its proposed deal to buy Russian-made anti-missile weapons, saying sanctions levied by Congress over the deal would only be the beginning if Ankara presses forward. ...

The State Department has yet to take action against Turkey, a NATO ally, over its plan to field the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system. Opponents of the S-400 inside and outside the Pentagon deal say Ankara’s decision to field the Russian-made anti-aircraft missile system will draw Turkey deeper into Moscow’s growing sphere of influence in the Middle East.

CIA operations expanding in Afghanistan

An Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan earlier this month was part of a secret program that helps the CIA hunt down militant leaders, according to three former special operations soldiers who knew him. Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz, 32, a longtime member of the 1st Battalion of 75th Ranger Regiment, died on July 12 “of wounds sustained as a result of enemy small arms fire” in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktiya province, the Army announced the next day. But he was part of a team of Army Rangers supporting the CIA in an intensifying effort to kill or capture top militant targets, even as the broader U.S. military mission focuses on training and advising Afghan security forces.

“They’re pretty active to say the least,” said a former special operations officer with detailed knowledge of the program, which previously went by the code name Omega and now goes by ANSOF. “They’re the main effort out there in terms of frequency of missions right now.” ...

Over the past year, the CIA has ramped up its activities in Afghanistan at the behest of the Trump administration, according to a report in The New York Times, including by expanding its target set to encompass members of regional militant groups like the Taliban, which were long the purview of the military — not just foreign terrorist groups like al-Qaida. The CIA declined to comment, and the military does not officially acknowledge that it attaches personnel to the CIA.

Rangers, who lead the military’s counterterrorism task force in Afghanistan, have for years loaned a small number of their most experienced personnel to the CIA to provide helicopter gunships, drones and medical evacuations. Earlier in the war, the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 supplied the bulk of the military personnel to support the for the CIA operations.

After its failed caliphate, ISIS is making a comeback as an insurgent guerrilla force

Islamic State militants killed at least 50 people in a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks in regime-held parts southern Syria Wednesday — the latest sign that the group is making a comeback as an insurgent force despite the loss of its caliphate. The apparently coordinated attacks, the deadliest on Syrian government territory in recent months, included two suicide bombings in the city of Sweida, one on a busy marketplace, and others on three villages to the northeast of the city, where Syrian forces were engaged in ongoing battles with the militants Wednesday. ...

Analysts say the attacks are the latest reminder of ISIS’s enduring threat despite the loss of its sprawling caliphate — and its reemergence as a growing insurgent guerrilla force, particularly in neighboring Iraq. At its height, the Sunni extremist group commanded a huge swathe of contiguous territory across Syria and Iraq, accounting for about a third of both countries’ land. The so-called caliphate ruled over about 10 million residents, and attracted more than 40,000 extremists from other countries who wanted to live in their vision of an Islamic fundamentalist paradise.

Columb Strack, principal analyst for Middle East and North Africa at IHS Markit, told VICE News that he expected to see similar attacks in Sweida and Damascus in the coming months, until the Syrian regime could divert resources from an ongoing offensive to expel the ISIS presence from the area. He said ISIS’s presence in neighboring Iraq was even stronger, and the group was experiencing a resurgence “facilitated by implicit support of the local population.”

“They have regrouped and are building up their capability to conduct attacks against the Iraqi government and in particular Shia forces operating there,” he said. “They do not seek to re-establish a caliphate though. They’ve learned the valuable lesson that any territory they control just becomes a target for U.S. Coalition airstrikes.”

After Twitter outburst, Trump says he’s ‘ready to make a deal’ with Iran

US President Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday he was prepared to enter negotiations with Iran, two days after he dramatically threatened the country in an all-caps tweet.

“Iran is not the same country anymore, that I can say,” he said in a speech at the VFW National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. “We’ll see what happens, but we’re ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration — which was a disaster.” ...

Iran has said it will not renegotiate the hard-won 2015 pact.

Trump cuts cause 250 job losses at UN agency for Palestinian refugees

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is cutting hundreds of jobs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank after swingeing cuts on its budget imposed by the Trump administration. The loss of 250 jobs in the Palestinian territories, revealed on Wednesday, are the first to be announced since the US withdrew hundreds of millions dollars in aid.

A total of 154 employees in the occupied West Bank and 113 in the Gaza Strip will be released, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency, in a statement. More than 500 other full-time staff will be moved to part-time contracts, Gunness added. The statement said the US cut represented an “existential threat” to the agency, which had been trying to raise the money from other donors. ...

The agency was set up after the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel, which forced more than 700,000 Palestinians to flee or be expelled from their homes, and has long been blamed for perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The agency provides services to more than 3 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East and employs more than 20,000 people, the vast majority Palestinians.

The cuts follow the decision in January by Donald Trump to cut US aid to Palestinians, citing the decision by Palestinians to halt contact with Washington over the president’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. “We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” Trump tweeted on 2 January, shortly before the funding freeze was announced.

Most Americans support Trump inviting Putin to White House, poll finds

The majority of Americans approve of Donald Trump inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House, according to a new poll. Mr Trump invited the Mr Putin to Washington on the heels of a controversial summit between the two world leaders in Helsinki last week. During the summit, Mr Trump appeared to cast doubt on the US intelligence community's assessment that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 election.

Sixty percent of Americans said they disapproved of Mr Trump’s handling of Russia in the aftermath of the summit, according to a poll conducted by The Hill and the HarrisX polling company. According to the same poll, however, 54 per cent of respondents supported Mr Trump’s decision to invite Mr Putin to the White House.

The poll results were heavily divided along partisan lines: Eighty-seven percent of Republicans approved of the invitation, compared to 26 per cent of Democrats.

US to pay billions in aid to farmers hit by Trump trade war

With No Evidence That #GOPTaxScam Has Benefited Most Americans, Republicans Unveil Plan to Double Down on Corporate Tax Cuts

Despite the profound unpopularity of the Republican Party's tax law, pushed through last December amid loud protests directed at President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers, party leaders on Tuesday unveiled framework for their "tax cuts 2.0" package—signaling that they are doubling down on their plans to benefit the rich at the expense of working Americans.


The framework, which House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) released, claims that it would permanently extend tax cuts for individuals that were set to expire in 2025, help families to save for college, and help small businesses create retirement plans for their workers. ... As Brady, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Trump did last fall as they promoted their earlier tax plan, the framework released on Tuesday portrays the proposal as being beneficial for working Americans, with promises of "family-friendly savings plans" and the ability to grow "brand-new entrepreneurs."

But most benefits of the law that Republicans passed last winter have been shown to go to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) showing that "a third of the benefits from corporate rate cuts will ultimately flow to the top 1 percent of households, not ordinary workers."

2020 Democrats Band Together to Call for Puerto Rico Debt Cancellation

In another reflection of ideological shifts within the Democratic Party, several potential presidential candidates are joining forces on a bill that would enable mass debt cancellation for the struggling island of Puerto Rico. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are introducing the bill, the U.S. Territorial Relief Act of 2018, joined by Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., putting many of the Senate’s top contenders for the presidency in 2020 on the record that they believe Puerto Rico’s debt should be discharged comprehensively. Puerto Rico carries over $70 billion in debt, most of it unsecured and eligible for the relief outlined in the bill.

Gillibrand’s inclusion is notable because she voted for PROMESA, the Democratic establishment’s previous solution to the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. That bill, endorsed and signed by President Barack Obama, created an appointed fiscal oversight board to manage Puerto Rico’s affairs, which has led to punishing austerity proposals, mass protests and a wave of privatization, with assets sold off to finance interest payments. The selling point in PROMESA, however, was the creation of a bankruptcy-like mechanism that could be used to wipe out some debt legally. But then, hurricanes Maria and Irma destroyed the island’s infrastructure, putting Puerto Rico in the impossible position of rebuilding, attracting economic investment, and paying down debt simultaneously. ...

Under the bill, territories can opt for relief of unsecured public debt if they meet two out of three criteria: a population decrease of more than 5 percent over the past 10 years, the receipt of federal disaster assistance, and per capita debt over $15,000 per resident. Puerto Rico would qualify under all three factors, as would the U.S. Virgin Islands. The option, which could only be used once every seven years, would have to be ratified by the territory’s legislature and governor, or by a two-thirds vote of the legislature, a nod to the possible opposition of Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. Creditors would have the opportunity to contest the discharge of their bonds in a streamlined judicial proceeding.

The vulture funds holding most of the debt have extraordinary political power but make unsympathetic protagonists in the debate, so opponents of debt relief have instead focused on elderly Puerto Rican people who may hold bonds as part of their retirement income. The bill addresses that by creating a $15 billion taxpayer-funded compensation fund to benefit Puerto Rican creditors like residents, local businesses and banks, and union and public pension plans, as long as it is taken up within three years of enactment. Mutual funds like Oppenheimer and Franklin Advisors, which manage Puerto Rican debt for retail investors in the U.S., would be eligible for some compensation if they waive all manager’s fees on it, as well. Losses would fall on hedge fund speculators who scooped up Puerto Rican debt in search of a quick payday — though the losses would ultimately be relatively minimal given the bargain-basement prices the investors paid for the junk bonds.

“Why Abolish ICE Doesn’t Go Far Enough”: Oscar Chacón on the Roots of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Wall Street’s Ties to the Private Immigrant-Detention Network

There’s a new tactic in the battle against ICE’s detention network: Defund the private prison companies that operate these facilities. The movement for divestment from the detention-industrial complex will not in itself alter the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive anti-immigrant policies. But a campaign to target two massive corporate prison contractors, CoreCivic and GeoGroup, through their chief creditors, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan, demonstrates the crucial link between the banking system and government investment in immigrant jails.
“These financiers…are essential to the business model of what is effectively a morally bankrupt industry,” says Daniel Altschuler, Director of Civic Engagement and Research for Make the Road New York. ...

A study by Enlace, Make the Road, and other groups calculates that “JPMorgan, Wells, and BlackRock’s number of shares in the private prison and detention industry have collectively increased 28.3 times…driven mainly by JPMorgan and BlackRock, whose reported holdings increased 237.8 times.” Moreover, the companies simultaneously capitalize on loopholes in so-called Real Estate Investment Trusts, to shield their detention-industry assets from corporate taxation. According to the analysis, this obscure tax break is one of many benefits that result after “Private prison companies have spent millions lobbying Congress and making campaign contributions to protect their profits.”

The booming industry is highly leveraged, with about 90 and 95 percent of CoreCivic and GeoGroup’s finances, respectively, held in the form of debt through Wall Street loans that collectively provided $217.5 million in interest payments to shareholders last year. ...

So far, the divestment campaign has changed investment policies at public universities, union pension funds, and specialized social-investment funds. New York State, New York City, and Philadelphia have all moved to divest municipal pension funds from private prisons, and Portland, Oregon, has recently enacted a comprehensive ban on city investment in corporate securities. ... While immigrant-rights advocates will continue to pressure the government to overhaul the entire immigration policy regime, targeting the powerful Wall Street financial firms that control the prison industry’s debt financing targets the economic backbone of the prison industry, and for communities, linking the realm of finance with the system of mass incarceration raises public consciousness about the need for real accountability in the financial infrastructure.

At Rally Outside Jamie Dimon's Home, Immigrant Rights Advocates Demand #BackersOfHate Stop Bankrolling For-Profit Prisons

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon became the latest power broker to be directly confronted with the outrage of immigrant rights advocates, as CREDO Mobile, Make the Road New York, and other groups led a protest outside Dimon's Manhattan apartment building over his bank's financing of immigration detention centers.

"Private detention companies like CoreCivic and the Geo Group continue to be financed by Corporate #BackersofHate like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, who profit enormously from our communities' pain and the separation of families," read the event's Facebook page.

JPMorgan Chase has loaned tens of millions of dollars to CoreCivic, as well as underwriting numerous multi-million dollar corporate bonds for the company. The bank also has at least $72 million invested in the Geo Group. Both for-profit prisons have government contracts under which they run immigrant detention facilities that have filled up in recent weeks with parents and children who have been forcibly separated under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

The demonstrators came armed with the signatures and letters of more than 100,000 immigrant rights advocates, demanding that JPMorgan Chase divest from the for-profit prisons. "Jamie Dimon, in the past two years, 22 people have died in detention centers that you finance," said Ana Maria Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy. "JPMorgan Chase has to divest from private prisons and detention centers. You can no longer say you aren't aware of this issue!"

On Tuesday, dozens of demonstrators staged a similar action in New Jersey, where they delivered 70,000 petitions to the home of Wells Fargo board member Maria Morris demanding that the bank end its financing of for-profit prisons. The bank has investments in both GEO Group and Core Civic.

Mounting outrage in US over conditions facing detained immigrants

Hunger strikes at two US immigrant detention facilities, as well as lawsuits and press reports, are exposing the appalling conditions in which immigrants and refugees are being held under the Trump administration. These exposures come as the July 26 deadline approaches for the Department of Homeland Security to reunite 3,000 children and their parents, as ordered by a federal judge in California. Fewer than 500 children have so far been returned to their parents, and it is widely expected that the Trump administration will fail to meet the deadline for most of those who remain.

At least 60 detainees went on hunger strike last week at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, near the city of Bristol. They began refusing food on Tuesday, July 17, protesting conditions that included “nearly nonexistent medical care, inedible food, abuse from facility employees, and exorbitant commissary prices,” according to a posting on social media by Families for Freedom, a support group. ...

The Massachusetts action came on the heels of a similar protest on the opposite side of the country, as nearly 200 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington staged a three-day hunger strike beginning Saturday, July 14 and ending Monday, July 17. ... GEO Group, a private for-profit corporation, operates the detention center for ICE. The agency has a policy requiring medical evaluation of hunger strikers after three days, which explains why the protests have been set by the detainees as three-day events. The prisoners clearly wish to avoid such medical intervention, which could lead to force-feeding or other punitive measures.

Press reports and lawsuits charge that detainees have been placed in solitary confinement or beaten by guards in retaliation for their participating in hunger strikes or filing complaints against poor conditions and mistreatment. Last year, Washington state sued GEO Group for violating the state’s minimum wage law by paying detainees as little as $1 a day, or even giving them only snacks in return for labor. The conditions at the Dartmouth, Massachusetts detention center may be even more brutal. According to a report last week in The Intercept, guards at the center tried to pit prisoners against each other in fights, on which they would bet. When one detainee refused to fight for the pleasure of the guards and tried to file a complaint, he was told, “No one will believe baboon complaints.” From then on, the prisoner was systematically brutalized and denied access to hygiene and food.

A report by the group Freedom for Immigrants found at least 800 complaints of abuse by guards at 34 immigration detention facilities since Trump entered the White House. Such attacks took place regularly under the Obama administration as well, but Trump’s demonization of immigrants has encouraged the most fascistic elements in ICE, the border patrol and their contracting companies. Reports of these conditions have triggered lawsuits and official investigations in several states.



the horse race



Cynthia Nixon discovers “democratic socialism” in challenge to NY Governor Cuomo

In a development that illustrates the tactical divisions within the Democratic Party and the role of the pseudo-left within it, Cynthia Nixon, the challenger to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the state’s upcoming September primary, recently announced that she considers herself a “democratic socialist.” ... The candidate’s sudden embrace of the socialist label came shortly after the June 26 primary victory of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against veteran US Congressman Joseph Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District. Crowley is the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. ...

Nixon has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, the organization that has functioned for the 20 years of its existence as a lobby, seeking—with virtually no success—to push the Democrats to adopt more liberal rhetoric and party platforms. Along with promises about health care and other social and economic issues, Nixon’s campaign has focused on such issues as corruption in the state capital and money in politics. Known for her own same-sex marriage, the candidate has raised such issues as abortion rights and opposition to mass incarceration, but presented them within the framework of identity politics, not as democratic rights that must be fought for by the working class as a whole.

Despite Cuomo’s right-wing record and the lack of any enthusiasm for the incumbent, Nixon has so far attracted little support in the working class for her warmed-over liberalism. Recent poll numbers have suggested that she might not win as large a vote as Teachout did four years ago. This is part of the reason for her new “socialist” label, as she and her advisers note the growing interest in socialism reflected in Ocasio-Cortez’s success. Nixon’s brand of “socialism” is no more genuine than that of Ocasio-Cortez. She talks about increasing taxes on the rich to fund improved health care, housing and education. Her campaign website includes sections entitled “Rent Justice for All,” “Schools Not Jails” and “Fixing the Subways,” but the program amounts at best to modest reform demands such as the extension of the city’s rent stabilization program and spending for desperately needed modernization of the subway signal system. Nixon promises huge improvements in the educational system, but says absolutely nothing about a political struggle against the oligarchs and their stolen wealth in the capital of American capitalism, without which nothing can be achieved.

She is silent about the role of the working class. Nixon’s few references to the working class and the poor portray them as victims, not as a powerful social force whose independent political mobilization is required in order to win even the most modest reforms amid the crisis and decay of 21st century capitalism.


Fake Interview With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Was Satire, Not Hoax, Conservative Pundit Says

CRTV, a streaming service that offers conservative punditry guaranteed to be “100% free of anti-American propaganda,” spent part of Tuesday arguing that a fake interview it created with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — in which the congressional candidate appeared to be stumped by questions she was not, in fact, asked — was a satire, rather than a hoax.

The network, which has verified accounts on Facebook and Twitter, had initially given viewers no way of knowing that they were not watching an embarrassing interview with the democratic socialist running to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District. In fact, the fictional interview with one of the network’s hosts, Allie Stuckey, was created by splicing in answers Ocasio-Cortez had given to different questions during a recent appearance on the PBS show “Firing Line.”


After Shane Goldmacher, a New York Times reporter, pointed out that the interview had racked up more than a million views on Facebook with no disclaimer, the network added one, calling it “Hilarious satire!

Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old former bartender who ousted 10-time incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary last month, suggested that the video looked more like a dirty trick than a joke.



the evening greens


Defending Land and Environmental Rights Has Become an Increasingly Deadly Endeavor

In a new report released Tuesday, the anti-corruption watchdog organization says that 2017 was the deadliest year for land and environmental defenders since it began keeping track in 2012, with a total of 207 defenders killed worldwide. The report attributes this increase to a surge of killings related to agribusiness opposition, as well as better reporting on the issue. Global Witness says the true number of deaths is even higher, and “many, many more were attacked, threatened, and criminalized.”

The highest number of killings was recorded in Brazil, which accounted for more than a quarter of reports. Brazil was followed by the Philippines, as well as Colombia and Mexico. Agribusiness was the most dangerous industry to oppose, a first since reporting began, although resistance to mining, poaching, and logging continued to be risky as well. Indigenous people remained a disproportionate target of attacks.

Although Global Witness identified government actors as the suspected perpetrators in 56 of the deaths, governmental culpability likely plays a role in many more. Officials are often in league with business interests, cutting local communities out of decision-making and creating a “culture of impunity,” according to the report.

“Perpetrators feel emboldened by the cumulative impact of these murders. Government is guilty by omission because they’re not prosecuting these crimes, and a lot of times, they’re guilty by collusion,” Ben Leather, one of the authors of the report, told The Intercept. Thus, deaths attributed to local militias, gangs, or businesses themselves still often involve government complicity. “Tackling impunity is possibly the only way to really end this in the long term,” Leather added.

California wildfires partially shut down Yosemite at peak of tourist season

Yosemite national park has been partially closed as wildfires continue to sweep across California this week. Fueled by dry conditions and high temperatures, smoke has settled over the popular tourist destination, causing unsafe conditions for visitors and workers, prompting officials to issue a temporary closure and evacuate the remaining tourists beginning Wednesday at noon.

National Park Service representatives announced at a public meeting Tuesday that the iconic Yosemite valley, as well as the Wawona area, would be closed temporarily until air quality conditions improve.

Working against steep, difficult terrain and unrelenting heat that reaches into triple digits during the day, fire crews have been battling the Ferguson fire – one of 50 currently burning in the US – for the past 12 days. The blaze has scorched more than 36,500 acres is still only 25% contained.

The park has remained mostly open throughout the past week, despite warnings from local public health officials. Complicated by high temperatures, air quality measurements have been in “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” ranges through the past several days.

“We see these inversion layers that are created because of the weather, that just keep the smoke trapped down toward the ground,” Ginnie Day, a representative from the Mariposa county public health department, told the Guardian. “Our air pollution control deputy is pretty busy right now, but he’s said he’s never seen numbers this high – and he’s been doing this for 30 years.”

Trump’s War on the Environment, from Attacking California Fuel Standards to Destroying Public Lands


Also of Interest

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

Double Negative: Trump, Putin, and the Destruction of Political Intelligence

Attacks on Kurds in a Greek Camp Raise Fears That Conflict in Syria Has Followed Refugees Abroad

Is Bill Browder the Most Dangerous Man in the World?

House Progressives Introduce "People's Budget"

You Say You Want a Revolution? The Anti-Capitalist Film “Sorry to Bother You” Shows the Way

Fool’s gold: what fish oil is doing to our health and the planet


A Little Night Music

Otis Spann - Spann's Blues

Otis Spann & Lucille Spann - Chains of Love

Otis Spann - Three-In-One Blues

Muddy Waters & Otis Spann - Blow Wind Blow

Otis Spann - She's My Baby

Johnny Young & Otis Spann - Moaning and Groaning

Otis Spann - I'm Leaving You

Otis Spann - Brand New House

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac & Otis Spann - Someday Soon Baby'

Otis Spann - Must Have Been The Devil


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detroitmechworks's picture

And nobody is paying attention. I hate to say that the WW3 is being fought RIGHT NOW, but it is, and the US doesn't seem to be the good guy here.

Just read Plutus by Aristophanes, and it made me laugh my head off, because we're STILL having the same argument. Plutus (God Of Wealth) is blind, and everybody tries to get him to stay with them, when Poverty, the one who actually gets everything done, is chased off the stage. (And She makes a very good case against the rich)

Reading the classics is like getting splashed with cold water. It really will wake you up.

And some more frogleap because hell with it.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8vvtxeT6d8]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

joe shikspack's picture

@detroitmechworks

heh, we are paying attention, and the more people that pay attention, the more likely that groups of people will stand up and take action.

yep, the classics remind us that there really is nothing new under the sun and that human nature has yet to change.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

They don't wanna talk about policy. They have no vision. No ideas (unless you actually think handing more of what workers built to the cappie bastards and endless war are new ideas, then you're beyond help). If this is the best they can do, we're well and truly screwed.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE-znePV0UQ]

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

this is the best that they are willing to do. they have a calculus regarding just how much they have to allow the unwashed masses to have in order to keep everyone pacified to levels that their security forces can effectively restrain.

they want it all.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

just wait until facial recognition technology becomes more mature and ubiquitous.

bright future.

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Man, great essay by Caitlin Johnstone pointing out Cenk and the idea that you can not do both progressive domestic policies and be hard core Cold War with Russia.

Typically don't watch TYT videos, but saw one on Russia something or another. Holy shit. I mean holy shit. Cenk went off on this homophobic rant that was profane. And I don't shock easy. (I tried finding the video again as I should have bookmarked it, but can't find it.) Since then I have watched a number of their "Russia" videos. They are extremely xenophobic and hateful toward Putin but also the entire Russian people. The level of paranoia toward Russia as thee world villain is clinical.

What I think happened was the Cenk and his gang realized that taking a skeptical to neutral approach to Russia would be a financial loser: that looking around they saw that anybody taking those approaches was marginalized and attacked by the base they are serving. By not taking an aggressive approach to Trump and Russia they would lose viewers and youtube royalties, etc.. By being aggressive they would in fact get more viewers ala Maddow. Cenk is sorta like a pornographic dark shadow of Maddow.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster @MrWebster

Cenk went off on this homophobic rant that was profane

Russia Gate has made people change so much about themselves that things that used to disgust them have now become acceptable to them. The biggest one is this homophobic crap that is all over the net. I'm still trying to figure out why so many people who used to not trust the intelligence agencies have now decided that they are going to save the country from Trump or how people can possibly think that the rest of the government would sit by and do nothing if a foreign leader had total control over a president and members of his party. If that had actually happened the JCOS would get the military to remove them from office not just wait around for two years while Mueller patiently investigated it. It has to go farther than just their extreme hatred of Trump or that Hillary isn't president. Plus the leaders of foreign countries have bought into it too. I know why they are playing along, but why is Trump? He could have put a stop to it by releasing the original FISA warrant that started the Obama administration spying on him and people in his campaign.

I first saw it on DK and could not believe that the person who posted it wasn't banned. Now the front pagers are posting it in their diaries. A Russian bear doing the deed to Trump. But unfortunately it was posted here twice a few weeks ago.

I had thought such ugly anti-gay sentiment had disappeared from liberal society, but apparently it’s fine in Resistance circles to stigmatize your enemies as butt-humping queers in order to render them more repulsive in the eyes of your sophisticated, liberal audience. I did a little research, and it appears this “Hitler on Hitler” porno The Times produced is just the latest in a rather long line of Trump on Putin “homo” jokes, which are perfectly harmless when told by liberals, but when told by conservatives are homophobic hate crimes

This article is worth a read.

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

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg Yah, I am still astonished how people lost all intellectual consistency and certain moral/value beliefs. On a Jimmy Dore segment I think it was Ron Placone who said that Trump Derangement Syndrome has hijacked people's lizard brains. He said he refused to let dislike of Trump to capture his thinking abilities and values. I can offer nothing better.

I still kick myself for not bookmarking the clip Cenk went way overboard with the homophobic rant.

Good article. Yes, it is a cult. It is impervious to logic, rationality, and even basic skepticism. There are like my ex-inlaw born again Pentecostals.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

Ron makes a good point. But people had Bush derangement syndrome too, but they didn't lose their sanity like they have now.

Aaron also makes a good point and more this is what I have been seeing happening. Someone will say that something happened, but then they offer no evidence that it did. Too many articles will state unequivocally that something happened, but inside it there is no evidence or if there is it comes from someone who wasn't authorized to talk about it. Just because Brennan said that Trump committed treason doesn't prove that he did.

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

@snoopydawg Tracey was reacting to some WaPo article, and he posted this as an alternative headline to every Russiagate article.

"Alternate headline: Unknown "official" makes unverifiable claim based on unavailable evidence"

And that literally, not figuratively, describes the contents about all the Russian-gatve "revelations". But one thing I have noticed over time. The attribution of the source for a charge or claim was being placed further and deeper in the article with wording that you sorta had to decipher that the claim or charge was being made a source the article could not or would identify--nor very importantly, that the author had seen the actually proof.

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joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

Cenk is sorta like a pornographic dark shadow of Maddow.

presumably, cenk would like to make $7 million a year, too. you can't be a progressive and take the man's filthy lucre when the man stands for virtually everything that needs change.

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Would bet there are better ways to consider the flow of headlines. If you want to crush people with bad, you got it down. Try neutral if good is too high a standard. Understand you call em as you see em, but is there really no good you can copy and paste beyond all this ^^^ ???

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

a couple of things. if you don't pay attention to what is going wrong and why, you can't effectively advocate or act for change.

some portion of the stories that i post in every evening blues relate to efforts of people to make something right - active lawsuits, demonstrations, organizing efforts, etc.

if you don't stay abreast of the sort of efforts that people make to fix things and pay attention to and analyze the successes and failures, you are apt to have a longer learning curve in your pursuit of creating a better world.

if you want escape, there are innumerable means to achieve it. i provide people with what i consider the most potent means of coping with oppression ever invented every night along with the news. so there's that.

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@joe shikspack and I do appreciate the efforts made to enable some kind of positive coping mechanism. It just sometimes seems one heavy negative after another. I support your strong consolidations, as always. The oppression of bad on top of more bad has consequences with those trying to contest the doom we are saturated with. Not trying to target the messenger here. Feel it is important to blend some more of the good we need. Thanks for your efforts.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

you are always welcome to share some of the good news that you want to see here in the comments. i'm sure that folks would appreciate it.

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@joe shikspack I'll set my nets and do some fishing for something good!

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@QMS @QMS @QMS
No, there isn't anything good happening. There hasn't been enough pain for a massive groundswell of citizens to revolutionize again, yet.

semi s/ snark

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OLinda's picture

@QMS

The Blues

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Funny, I was just thinking with the story posted earlier about the establisbment Dems reassuring their masters “we are not Socalists” how the crafty Dem would do exactly what it sounds like Nixon is doing. That idea has also been why I’ve been skeptical of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so far. I guess we’ll see what happens there, but I do expect we’ll see more pseudo-Socalists if AOC continues to be the talk of the town, regardless of the sincerity of her convictions.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

enhydra lutris's picture

musician.

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