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This evening's music features Detroit doo-wop and r&b group, The Falcons. Enjoy!

“Answers to leading questions under torture naturally tell us nothing about the beliefs of the accused; but they are good evidence for the beliefs of the accusers.”

-- C.S. Lewis

News and Opinion

It's nice that America's allies recognize that torture is wrong and have a legal system that can consider charges of war crimes.

The US leads the world in unapologetic barbarism.

Canada Just Did Something the U.S. Never Has: Paid Millions to a Guantanamo Torture Victim

Last weekend, the government of Canada did something its U.S. counterpart never has. As part of a legal settlement, Canada agreed to pay $10 million in damages to a former Guantanamo detainee and U.S. torture victim. Seven years after the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that a citizen’s rights had been violated by his own government because of his detention and alleged torture in U.S. custody, former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr settled a lawsuit with the government for an apology and millions of dollars. ...

This is not the first time Canada has made payments to victims of U.S. torture. In 2007, the Conservative Canadian government agreed to pay $10 million to Maher Arar, another Canadian national, over its role in his rendition by the U.S. to Syria and subsequent torture. Three months ago, Canada agreed to pay three more torture victims whom they had helped render to foreign prisons.

And Canada is not alone. In 2008, Sweden paid $500,000 to a former terror suspect for handing him over to U.S. officials in 2002, who sent him to Egypt to be tortured. In 2010, Britain agreed to pay millions of pounds to 16 former Guantanamo detainees because of its role in their U.S. detention. The same year, Australia reached an settlement with Mamdouh Habib – an Australian national held at Guantanamo — for an undisclosed amount of money.

The U.S., however, has yet to pay out a cent in legal settlements to the 700-some-odd men it has released from Guantanamo Bay who were all held without charge. And the U.S. has never compensated, let alone apologized, to any of its post-9/11 torture victims.

Chilcot: Tony Blair was not 'straight with the nation' over Iraq war

Sir John Chilcot has said he does not believe Tony Blair was “straight with the nation” about his decisions in the run-up to the Iraq war. The chairman of the public inquiry into the 2003 conflict said the former prime minister had however been “emotionally truthful” in his account of events leading up to the war, meaning he relied on both emotion and fact.

Breaking his long silence on the matter in an interview with the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, Chilcot said: “Tony Blair is always and ever an advocate. He makes the most persuasive case he can. Not departing from the truth but persuasion is everything.”

Chilcot was later asked if Blair was as truthful with him and the public as he should have been during the seven-year inquiry.

He replied: “Can I slightly reword that to say I think any prime minister taking a country into war has got to be straight with the nation and carry it, so far as possible, with him or her. I don’t believe that was the case in the Iraq instance.”

Trump says US mulling 'very severe' response to North Korea missile test

Donald Trump has said he is considering some “very severe things” in response to North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this week, as he called on other nations to exert pressure on Pyongyang over its “very bad behaviour”.

The president’s comments, made in Poland, came after the US ambassador to the UN made a push for new sanctions at a security council meeting and said America’s “considerable military forces” could be used against North Korea.

Nikki Haley told the meeting the US would submit a draft resolution within days “that raises the international response in a way that is proportionate to North Korea’s escalation”, but warned Washington had options if diplomacy failed.

“The United States is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies,” Haley said. “One of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces. We will use them, if we must, but we prefer not to have to go in that direction.”

She said the US was eyeing penalties against “any country that does business with this outlaw regime”.

US Tells North Korea It Is Prepared to Go to War

The top US general on the Korean Peninsula, Gen. Vincent Brooks, today issued a statement announcing that the United States is totally prepared to start a war against North Korea at any moment, and that it is only “self-restraint” that has kept the US from attacking so far.

Gen. Brooks went on to insist that America’s self-restraint “is a choice,” and that America can change their choice whenever they want to, ending the armistice and restarting the 1950 Korean War.

A progress report on the Democrat death cult:

The Democrats’ Russia-gate Obsession

Some leading Democrats in Congress are eager to turn the summit meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin away from avenues for improvements in U.S.-Russian relations, even if that means deflecting it toward World War III. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that “the White House announced that the meeting with Mr. Putin would be a formal bilateral discussion, rather than a quick pull-aside at the economic summit meeting that some had expected.” ...

For many months now, [top Democratic Party leaders] preoccupation has been to double, triple and quadruple down on an insidious — and extremely dangerous — political investment. Party leaders have positioned themselves to portray just about any concession from Trump in bilateral talks as a corrupt payoff. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was ringing a familiar bell when she proclaimed on CNN in mid-May: “Every day I ask the question, ‘What do the Russians have on Donald Trump financially, politically or personally that he’s always catering to them?’” ...

Days ago, looking ahead to the scheduled discussion between the two presidents at the G-20 summit in Germany, the home page of the Washington Post carried this headline: “Months of Russia controversy leaves Trump ‘boxed in’ before Putin meeting.” The tagline noted that “whatever course Trump takes will likely be called into question.” Powerful custodians of the USA’s hugely profitable military-industrial complex prefer it that way. They aren’t much interested in any course toward Russia other than antagonism if not belligerence. There is enormous commitment to heading off the “threat” of genuine diplomacy and rapprochement.

When Trump goes to kiss Putin's ring at the G20 meeting, maybe he should just return to Russia w/ him & their favorite amb. Sergey Kislyak.

— Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) June 29, 2017

The director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Matthew Rojansky, pointed out days ago: “The momentum in relations between the world’s two big nuclear powers is now so negative, that it really is time to call a halt to anything that looks like further escalation or deterioration.” Yet that negative momentum is what many members of Congress are trying to increase. Words like “irresponsible” and “reckless” don’t begin to describe what they are doing.

Trump says west is at risk, during nationalistic speech in Poland

Donald Trump said the survival of the west was at risk, as he lashed out at hostile forces ranging from Islamic terrorism to Russia, statism and secularism, during a speech in Poland. At the start of a four-day trip to Europe, the US president gave a highly nationalist address in Warsaw suggesting that a lack of collective resolve could doom an alliance that had endured through the cold war.

“As the Polish experience reminds us, the defence of the west ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,” Trump said at the site of the 1944 uprising against the Nazis. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the west has the will to survive.”

Trump, who delivered the speech on Thursday before flying to Hamburg for the G20 summit and bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, Russia and Germany, painted a picture of the west facing existential challenges in the effort to “defend our civilisation” from terrorism, bureaucracy and the erosion of traditions.

According to Polish press reports, Trump was enticed to Warsaw by promises of a rapturous reception. The Polish government, which paid for supporters to be bussed in from provincial areas, appeared to have delivered, as the president was greeted by a boisterous, highly partisan, crowd in Krasinski Square, one of Warsaw’s smaller public spaces.

Embraced by Far-Right Gov't in Poland, Trump Claims Future of Western Civilization is at Stake

Donald Trump's romance with China's Xi has cooled, 'ass-kicking' could lie ahead

“Occasionally, yes, toughness does involve some old-fashioned ass-kicking,” Donald Trump mused in “Surviving at the Top”. In his dealings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, though, the US president has until recently preferred to kiss. “He is a very good man ... he loves China and he loves the people of China,” Trump fawned after their first date in April at his Mar-a-Lago estate. In another interview he boasted: “I really liked him a lot. I think he liked me. We have a great chemistry together.”

But as the pair prepare for their second tête-à-tête on the sidelines of the G20 in Hamburg this week, the passion appears to be fading. “So much for China working with us – but we had to give it a try!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning before setting off for Europe on Air Force One. Experts warn that, after a brief and unusual honeymoon, relations between the world’s top two economies are veering towards the rocks after Xi and Trump failed to find common ground over how to rein in North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. ...

Björn Conrad, the vice president of Berlin’s Mercator Institute for China Studies, said that on reaching the White House Trump had shelved campaign promises to confront Beijing over what he termed its “rapacious” trade practices. He did so in the hope Xi would help him thwart Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Beijing, however, had been unwilling to forge such an alliance, meaning the risk of a full-blown US-China trade conflict was now back. “Now the focus of the Trump administration shifts once more – and China is back in the cross-hairs,” Conrad said.

Tens of Thousands of Protesters Plan to Protest Trump at G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany

Heh, could the empire end due to sheer incompetence and buffoonery?

G20 summit could mark end of the US as global leader, but what's next?

The world’s 20 biggest economic powers are about to gather in Hamburg for a two-day summit pondering whether they should still look to the US for global leadership. The summit, ostensibly about financial stability, could mark the moment of the US’s formal abdication as the world’s pre-eminent power. The task of leadership will be seen to be passed not to a single successor – a reluctant China is not ready – but to a new unstable quartet of Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Angela Merkel.

This contest for world leadership could not come at a worse time. Too many lights are flashing red on the global dashboard: climate change, North Korea, world trade, Ukraine, mass migration and discord in the Gulf. Yet the quartet comes to the summit, starting on Thursday night, with very different aims. ...

Merkel is not keen on being leader of the liberal west, describing such labels as “grotesque” and choosing to be seen in the constant company of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to dilute the impression of German dominance of Europe. But she also knows she can play considerate host only so far when she meets Trump. Martin Schulz, her social Democratic rival for chancellor in September’s election is looking for a chink in her electoral armour, and believes he has found one by being more strident in his criticisms of Trump. Polls show there is no downside to being rude about Trump: some 80% of Germans have no or little confidence in his ability to be a force for good in the world, according to a recent Pew Research poll.

Trump in turn continues to attack the German trade surplus, ridicule climate change, mull curbs on German steel imports and insist global politics is a Darwinian battle in which each leader must think first and only of their national interest.

Kurdish YPG militia expects conflict with Turkey in northern Syria

The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Wednesday that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to a "declaration of war" which could trigger clashes within days. Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus retorted that his country was not declaring war but that its forces would respond to any hostile move by the YPG, which he described as a small-scale army formed by the United States.

The mounting tensions between two U.S. allies in northwestern Syria risk opening yet another front in the multi-sided conflict, in which outside powers are playing ever greater roles. They could also distract the YPG from the U.S.-backed campaign it is spearheading to capture Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa, some 200 km (125 miles) away.

Asked by Reuters whether he expected a conflict with Turkey in northern Syria, where the two sides have exchanged artillery fire in recent days, YPG Commander Sipan Hemo accused Turkey of preparing for a major military campaign in the Aleppo and Afrin area. "These (Turkish) preparations have reached level of a declaration of war and could lead to the outbreak of actual clashes in the coming days," he said in emailed comments. "We will not stand idly by against this potential aggression."

Rami Khouri: In Rift with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE Want to Hold Back Waves of Change

Arab states slam Qatari response to demands

Foreign ministers from the four Arab states leading the boycott of Qatar expressed disappointment on Wednesday with the tiny Gulf nation's "negative" response to their demands, but did not announce new sanctions against Doha.

"The response the four states got was overall negative and lacked any content. We find it did not provide a basis for Qatar to retreat from its policies," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said reading out a joint statement. Shoukry also added that Doha's response was a "position that reflects a failure to realize the gravity of the situation." ...

Foreign ministers of the four states met in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation after a deadline they gave Qatar to meet 13 demands expired.

"The political and economic boycott will continue until Qatar changes its policies for the better," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at a news conference.

These U.S. States Still Haven’t Fully Recovered From Recession

Five states -- Arizona, Connecticut, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming -- still haven’t regained their levels of gross domestic product from before the financial crisis, more than five years after the country as a whole hit that milestone. Eight states are below prerecession levels of employment. And 15 have home prices that have yet to rebound fully.

While each of the states has individual obstacles, they illustrate how growth has lagged outside of the nation’s largest cities in New York, California and Florida. And though President Donald Trump won some of the states last November after highlighting sectors and regions that have lagged for years -- including, for example, coal mining in West Virginia and manufacturing jobs in the Midwest -- the pain hasn’t been limited to Republican territory.

“The hallmark of the recovery is that it is being driven by the nation’s largest metro areas,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Metro areas have attracted millennials and boomer empty-nesters and are globally oriented, benefiting from global capital inflows. Rural economies that are dependent on commodity-based activities have suffered.”

Here we go again. Worth a read:

Financial System of U.S. Rests on Health of Just Five Mega Banks

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as of March 31, 2017 there were a total of 5,856 banks in the U.S. operating under its Federal deposit insurance umbrella. But according to government financial researchers, five of those banks pose an ongoing material threat to the U.S. financial system. Not surprisingly, those five banks hold insured deposits for savers while simultaneously engaging in highly leveraged, high risk trading on Wall Street.

On June 27, Janet Yellen, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve (the nation’s central bank) spoke at an event at the British Academy in London. She stated the following about the U.S. financial system:

“Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis? You know probably that would be going too far, but I do think we are much safer, and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be.”

We hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there is no substantive data to support Janet Yellen’s view. In fact, the very body that provides the intelligence to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (F-SOC), the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research (OFR), has been pumping out volumes of research that strongly suggest just the opposite. According to OFR’s research, those five Wall Street mega banks hold the fate of the U.S. financial system in their highly interconnected and highly dangerous hands. Tragically, that’s pretty much the same condition the U.S. was in heading into the crash of 2008.

The Fight over Mexican-American Books

Arizona’s resistance to allowing school books and courses that teach Mexican-American history and culture has generated resistance, both in underground efforts to provide the books to students and to challenge the ban on courses in courts as discriminatory.

The Librotraficante Caravan, co-organized in Houston Texas by writer, teacher and activist, Tony Diaz, headed back to Arizona this month with a new shipment of banned books. According to Diaz, Houston activists made the 1,000-plus-mile ride once again to draw attention to Arizona’s decision to remove from classrooms books mostly dealing with Mexican-American culture. The journey also included the restocking of the underground libraries they formed during their 2012 Caravan, and updates on the advancement of Ethnic Studies in each state they pass through. According to the group’s press release, “With their 2012 Caravan, the Librotraficantes joined a nationwide movement to defy Arizona’s ban and to keep it in check.”

There is also a federal court case, which commenced on June 26, contesting the book ban and the ban on ethnic studies in Arizona, that the caravan was organized to call attention to. According to Diaz, the court case will be reviewed again with new evidence consisting of studies proving that the outlawed Mexican American Studies courses in Tucson increased student success and learning power at many levels. The case had been reviewed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which sent the case back to the Arizona Supreme Court to be considered with the additional evidence.

“We were in the courtroom when a Federal Judge told America that if you have proof that a course helps a particular group of students succeed, yet you outlaw the course, that looks like discrimination,” said Tony Diaz. “We hope that the upcoming Arizona Supreme Court ruling will drive a stake in the heart of this un-American law that tramples on Intellectual freedom."

New House Bill Would Kill Gerrymandering and Could Move America Away From Two-Party Dominance

If you want good job security, get elected to Congress. In 2016, the U.S. House had a 97 percent re-election rate, despite the latest Gallup poll placing the House’s approval rating at 21 percent. ...

Gerrymandering, combined with the way voters have sorted themselves into cities and rural areas, means that even while Democrats consistently win a majority of votes cast for House candidates, Republicans wind up controlling the House of Representatives regardless. A group of representatives in the House want to change this system, and are introducing legislation to change this system and make America’s federal elections more representative and competitive.

Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer authored and introduced the Fair Representation Act, which would enact a series of reforms designed to make our elections more competitive and open them up to more parties. Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland have co-sponsored the legislation. The bill would do three things: require all congressional districts to be drawn by independent redistricting commissions, establish multi-member districts, and have all districts use what’s known as ranked-choice voting (RCV). ...

Multi-member districts would mean that voters in each district would have the opportunity to elect multiple legislators to represent them instead of just one — which would mean that more people in the district would have the opportunity to elect someone closer to their own ideology rather than being stuck with one lawmaker who may or may not represent their viewpoint. Perhaps the most significant reform in the bill is RCV. Under this system, voters would be able to rank their preferences among various candidates and parties, rather than simply casting one vote for each office. If no candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes, then second-preferences are accounted for, and so on, until one candidate has a majority. Under RCV, you can vote your conscience without helping a candidate you loathe win instead.

Divest-Invest: Foundations Urged to Back Climate Solutions While Divesting From Fossil Fuels

France to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040

France will end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as part of an ambitious plan to meet its targets under the Paris climate accord, Emmanuel Macron’s government has announced.

The announcement comes a day after Volvo said it would only make fully electric or hybrid cars from 2019 onwards, a decision hailed as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine’s dominance of motor transport after more than a century.

Nicolas Hulot, the country’s new ecology minister, said: “We are announcing an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040.” Hulot added that the move was a “veritable revolution”.

He said it would be a “tough” objective for carmakers but France’s industry was well equipped to make the switch. “Our [car]makers have enough ideas in the drawer to nurture and bring about this promise ... which is also a public health issue.”

'No Trump, Yes Paris': Greenpeace Gives US President Cold Welcome in Poland

Warsaw welcomes Trump, courtesy of Greenpeace pic.twitter.com/l3xvkpRBUS

— Sylvie Kauffmann (@SylvieKauffmann) July 5, 2017

Greenpeace welcomed U.S. President Trump to Warsaw Wednesday evening by illuminating the message "No Trump, Yes Paris" on Poland's tallest building, the Palace of Culture and Science.

In a translated statement on Facebook, Greenpeace said:

Welcome President Trump to Poland! On the occasion of his arrival we prepared a special screening at the Palace of Culture This is how we protest against the anti-climate policy of the president of the United States and the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from The Paris Accords.

The president—who is visiting Warsaw ahead of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, this weekend—announced early last month that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. His decision to abandon the agreement has been condemned by world leaders and led U.S. cities and states to commit to upholding it.

"Trump is going to the G20 summit as a politician who has isolated himself from the Paris Agreement," said Pawel Szypulski of Greenpeace Poland. "It is difficult to suppose that during his visit to Warsaw he could find a common language in this matter with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, since all of them have adopted the Paris Agreement and realize that its implementation is in their interest and in the interests of the whole of the European Union."

Also of Interest

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

Socialists Spearhead Victory on $15 in Minneapolis

A Progressive Electoral Wave Is Sweeping the Country

CNN Warns It May Expose an Anonymous Critic if He Ever Again Publishes Bad Content

Greg Grandin review of "Chavez: My First Life"

Don't assume Trump is more responsible with nuclear weapons than North Korea

Mythical Powers of a Memorial Wall

Naomi Klein: how power profits from disaster

The Destructive Power Trips of Amazon’s Boss

How gentrification threatens America's music cities

Newly discovered photo reignites Amelia Earhart conspiracy theory

A Little Night Music

The Falcons - The Teacher

Falcons - You're So Fine

The Falcons - She's My Heart's Desire

The Falcons - That's What I Aim To Do

The Falcons - Fine Fine Girl

The Falcons - Darling

The Falcons feat. Wilson Pickett - Take This Love I've Got

Wilson Pickett & The Falcons - Billy The Kid

The Falcons feat. Wilson Pickett - Let's Kiss and Make Up

Wilson Pickett and the Falcons - Anna

The Falcons - Oh Baby

The Falcons - Just For Your Love

The Falcons - Swim