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This evening's music features New Orleans piano player and singer Professor Longhair. Enjoy!

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

-- George W. Bush

News and Opinion

“The Khans’ Grief Is Being Used by a Party That Is Treacherous”

One after another, reporters and pundits, hacks and flacks all began circulating George W. Bush’s response from more than a decade ago to the protest of a dead soldier’s parent. It was a lesson in manners for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

George W Bush in 05 on criticisms of Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan: This is America. She has a right to her position. pic.twitter.com/Vv3aaz73pK

— Karen Travers (@karentravers) July 31, 2016

It’s true, as the people tipping their hats to Bush have pointed out, that the president himself did not attack Sheehan the way Trump has gone after the Khans. But he didn’t have to. He let his underlings do it.

“Cindy Sheehan is a clown,” said Bush’s senior adviser and dirty trickster Karl Rove, whose management of the media ecosystem was unparalleled. The Washington Post reported at the time that Sheehan was a frequent topic of conversation between the president and his advisers. And somehow, some way, Rove’s sentiment trickled down into every pore of the conservative press. Bill O’Reilly called Sheehan “dumb enough” to get “in bed” with the radical left. Glenn Beck called Sheehan a “tragedy pimp” who was “prostituting her son’s death.” Rush Limbaugh said she was somehow lying about having lost her son. ... Unlike Trump, Bush did it the right way. His team assassinated the character of his bereaved critic through the normal, respectable political channels. ...

Cindy Sheehan’s son was killed in the same war that later took the life of the Khans’ son, and like them, Sheehan in 2005 was both a living rebuke to the Republican Party’s vision and an asset to the Democrats in their mission to take back the House. ... Sheehan sees the Khans’ story through the prism of her own sour experience in the public square. The villains aren’t all on one side of the aisle. “I think the Khans’ grief is being used by a party that is treacherous,” she said. “I have all the sympathy in the world for them. Not only sympathy, but empathy.”

She’s not just talking about the loss of her son but also her onetime alliance with the Democratic Party. After “Camp Casey,” Sheehan was a key figure in the Democrats’ efforts to reclaim power in Congress, which were predicated on riding, if not co-opting altogether, the moral energy of the anti-war movement. The strategy by the 2006 midterms was to rail against the now-unpopular war and regain a majority in the House. Sheehan met with members of Congress. She campaigned relentlessly. “Every Democrat I met with in 2005 said, ‘If you help us win the House, we’ll help you end the war,’ ” she recalled. Only one of those two things came true.

What Khizr Khan Said That Wasn't About Trump and You Probably Won't Hear

As the United States this week expands its bombing campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) to Libya, Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who gave a powerful anti-Donald Trump speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), has criticized U.S. wars in Muslim nations as leaving us in a "quagmire," "more vulnerable," and creating "chaos for ourselves." But Khan's take on the war on terror is unlikely to be amplified by corporate media, as one political writer points out. ...

On Monday, the same day the U.S. started its new campaign in Libya—a move one antiwar group said will only further "entrench divisions and intensify violence" in the region—the Khans gave an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball."

Asked by host Chris Matthews, "What do you think when you, or feel, when you see us attack Iraq or go into Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden, or we go attack with bombs Libya? We're bombing Syria now—all Islamic countries. What do you feel as an Islamic man?"

Khizr Khan replied, "As a Muslim-American, not just as Islamic man—as a Muslim American, I feel that these policies are not in the interest of United States of America, and we see the result of it. We are more vulnerable now. We have created a chaos and—for ourselves."

"Well, you know you're speaking to the choir," Matthews responded. (In fact, "Matthews’ record isn't entirely consistent" on being against either the war in Iraq or on avoiding a military approach to confronting ISIS, Norton notes.)

"I wish this country would have listened to Chris Matthews when he was talking, when he was preaching," Khan said, "we could have saved ourselves from this quagmire."

This section of the interview, Norton points out, "is not included in the isolated clips for the episode on MSNBC’s website. One has to watch the full episode to see it."

How Obama purchased the "invitation" to get his war back on in Libya.

Frozen Sovereign Funds Behind the Libyan 'Invitation' to Bomb Sirte

PERIES: Now Libya’s national unity government apparently invited the US to come in and try to rid of ISIS in Sirte. But from what I understand it’s not so united, this unity government. Tell us more about it.

PRASHAD: Well for about a couple of years there were two governments inside Libya. One in the city of [Tripoli] one in the city of the Tobruk and Al Badya. There was also of course a third government which is the Islamic State which had established itself in the center of the country. There were any number of militias including the petroleum guards of Ibrahim Jadhran that basically ran riot outside the control of any institution inside Libya.

So that fractiousness has not been erased by the creation of the government of national accord. Which was basically put together by the initiative of the United Nation. Pushed very strongly by the west. Now this government of national accord has been under pressure to go off the Islamic State and indeed the troops of the government of national accord have been making some gains against IS.

Now one of the interesting things that a member of this government told me is that right now there's 67 billion dollars of Libyan sovereign funds which are being held in banks and which the western, the UN is not allowing this government to access. One of the things apparently that this government has been told is if they’re able to defeat the Islamic State, if they're able to take very strong action against the Islamic State, if they're able to show essentially that they're actually a government, then this money will be turned over to them.

So the idea that this government has asked the west, asked the United States in particular to bomb Libya is not entirely about its agenda. This is--they also want access to their money, they're starved for scarce resources, this is beside the fact that Libya is an oil rich country and this is perhaps a major motive in why they have allowed or invited the US to bomb inside Libya. So one shouldn't take this invitation at face value.

US-Backed Libyan Govt ‘Resting’ After Airstrikes

While Libya’s ‘unity government’ praised the US airstrikes against the ISIS-controlled city of Sirte, saying it was making their offensive a lot easier, they still insisted that the process of trying to take the city would be “gradual,” and that the troops involved are “resting” right now, with no timetable to try to take more of the city.

The US began airstrikes in Sirte on Monday, hitting several targets there throughout Monday and two more early Tuesday. ...

US officials have said there is no timetable for their operation in Libya, and the early indications are that the strikes in Sirte are just the beginning. Libya has no actual government, but three self-proclaimed governments, two with some UN backing. The US seems interested in propping one such government up, but this could be a herculean task in Libya, a nation with little national unity and a lot of local factions which violently resist outside intervention, whether it’s from abroad or from the next town over, as unwelcome.

US Announces Formal Investigation Into Civilian Deaths in US Strikes Against Manbij

With Centcom already promising an investigation into the US airstrikes on July 19 in Manbij, in which warplanes killed up to 200 civilians after “mistaking them for ISIS,” the Pentagon has confirmed today that a second formal investigation has been launched into a July 29 strike, which hit civilian neighborhoods near Manbij, killing another 28.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Chris Garver confirmed that the incidents were found to be “credible enough” to warrant more investigation into the matter, which is unusual, as most such incidents, even with loads of witnesses and evidence, never gets that far before being dismissed by Centcom as “not credible.”

The Pentagon has dramatically undercounted the number of civilians killed throughout the war, admitting only 55 civilians killed in the entire war. The new investigations already have undercounts built into them too, with Garver only confirming “at least 15” killed in the July 29 incident, and 10 to 73 on the July 19 massacre, while saying he believe it was “on the lower end of the scale.”

Syria: Eastern Aleppo under siege

Two-Year US Campaign More Than Doubles ISIS’ Reach

While ISIS remains the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, it’s got an increasingly global reach, with affiliates in an ever-increasing number of countries, and cells across Western Europe launching attacks at a growing rate. A new White House briefing laid out the grim facts.

At the time the US launched the war against ISIS in 2014, the group had a presence in seven nations worldwide. Suddenly being at war with the United States and a huge coalition gave the group a major boost in international credibility, and got them on the radar in more countries.

By 2015, the State Department estimated that ISIS had a presence in 13 countries, and the latest briefing showed 18 “fully operational” ISIS countries in the world, meaning it’s well more than doubled since the US war began. The briefing also added six more countries where ISIS is “taking root.”

Austrian Chancellor suggests ending EU accession talks with Turkey

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said on Wednesday that he would start a discussion among European heads of government to quit talks with Turkey about joining the European Union because of the country's democratic and economic deficits.

European leaders have voiced concern over Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's crackdown on suspected dissidents after a failed coup attempt month, identifying his idea of reintroducing the death penalty in Turkey as a red line barring accession to the EU.

Kern sharpened the critical rhetoric in an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF.

"We are all well advised to now say we're pressing the reset button," he said, calling accession talks a "diplomatic fiction".

Why Turkey’s coup failed: People no longer willing to follow military

Widely Reported D.C. Metro Police “Terrorism” Arrest Involved Gift Cards, Not Violence

The FBI "terrorism" arrest of a Washington, D.C., Metro police officer making headlines all over the world on Wednesday actually involved a man who sent $245 worth of gift cards to an FBI informant he thought was his friend.

Nicholas Young, a 36-year-old Virginia man, had previously tried to dissuade the informant from joining ISIS, even as the informant spent years cultivating him and waiting for him to do something illegal. Young is not alleged to have planned any act of violence. Instead, he is accused of sending $245 worth of gift cards to a government informant who had pretended to be living in Islamic State territory. The informant had been posing as a friend of Young’s for several years. He was only one of several informants who had been in touch with Young since 2010 and had seemingly tried to coax him into committing an illegal act. ...

In a Department of Justice press release announcing Young’s arrest on Wednesday, it was noted that since 2014, ” Young met on about 20 separate occasions with an FBI confidential human source.” This source was an informant posing as a U.S. military reservist of Middle Eastern background. The informant told Young he had become disillusioned with the Army and wanted to travel abroad and live in the territories of the Islamic State. ...

In November 2014, Young was led to believe that the informant in the case had successfully made it abroad and was now living under ISIS rule. ... In April 2016, an FBI undercover agent contacted Young again from the informant’s email account and told him to download a mobile messaging application. A few months later, in July, the FBI contacted Young through that application while still posing as the informant and told him that circumstances in Islamic State territory were “better than the news reports portrays.” The undercover agent, who Young thought was his friend, subsequently asked Young if he could send him some gift card codes that could be used to purchase messaging accounts for international communications.

A week later, an account, allegedly belonging to Young sent 22-digit gift card codes to the account operated by the undercover agent. The FBI then redeemed these gift cards for a total of $245.

The charges in this case stem entirely from this gift card transaction.

Black Lives Movement Answers the Question: What Are Your Demands?

In the midst of an election year in which issues of race and policing have often taken center stage, the most comprehensive and detailed policy platform on how to tackle them has come not from candidates or elected officials, but from a movement that found its voice on the streets of Ferguson, Baltimore, and dozens of other cities. ...

As community organizations and individuals operating under the Black Lives Matter principle denounced police violence, racism, and lack of accountability, they also took on broader issues affecting black communities: mass incarceration, access to clean water, economic justice. While the number of mostly black and brown people killed by police continued to grow, street protests have been sporadic. But away from the spotlight, a movement that made its name by way of protest continued to organize, and this week released a comprehensive policy platform, “A Vision for Black Lives,” that is at once an exhaustive indictment of the nation’s systemic racism and a clear-eyed presentation of concrete solutions to the problem. ...

The platform, which the authors called “an articulation of our collective aspirations,” was developed on the premise that “the U.S. is a country that does not support, protect or preserve Black life.” “Neither our grievances nor our solutions are limited to the police killing of our people,” reads the introduction, which goes on to discuss underinvestment in black communities, failing schools, the exploitation of black labor, and a host of deep-seated systemic issues. ...

The document focuses on six key areas — political power, community control, economic justice, investment and divestment, reparations, and an end to the war on black people — and includes a long list of tangible goals such as ending the death penalty, the money bail system, felon disenfranchisement, deportations, and the privatization of police and prisons. Each section lists statistics, resource tools, model legislation, and groups already working on a specific issue.

The movement for black lives coalition chooses not to endorse any political candidates at the federal or local level — but the authors of the platform hope politicians will read it, and some expressed frustration that the national conversation on race and police has largely missed the point.

“Neither the RNC nor the DNC had specific policy language in their platforms that addressed the things that we talk about; they address surface issues while we look to address the root causes of the issues,” said Michaela Brown, an organizer with the community organization Baltimore BLOC, one of the more than 60 groups that worked on the document. “It’s not about reform. Reform is putting a Band-Aid on and hope it heals. We want transformation, to provide a new arm.”

Facebook deactivated a woman's account during her fatal standoff with police

Before she was shot and killed by police, 23-year-old Korryn Gaines live-streamed parts of her hours-long standoff in the hallway of her Baltimore-area apartment. That is, until Facebook shut down her accounts.

Baltimore County police said they asked Facebook to deactivate Gaines' Instagram and Facebook accounts. Gaines' followers had been responding to her in real time, urging her not to comply with officers' orders, the police said at a news conference on Tuesday. ...

Facebook's decision to comply with Baltimore police raises questions how and when Facebook and other social media companies become involved in police actions. Facebook briefly removed a video shot by Diamond Reynolds that showed her boyfriend, Philando Castile covered in blood after being shot by a police officer in Minnesota. The company later attributed the removal to a "technical glitch."

Costa Rica expects asylum claims to quadruple as refugees head south

Asylum claims in Costa Rica are set to quadruple this year from 2014 as stricter controls in Mexico and the US force Central Americans fleeing violence and political instability to find new migration routes.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans from the “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have fled their homes in recent years to escape violent criminal gangs who regularly target civilians for murder, rape and extortion.

While most of this migrant flow still heads north, some refugees have found homes elsewhere on the Central American isthmus.

While Belize and Panama have also seen spikes in migration, Costa Rica, one of the most politically and economically stable countries in the region, has become an attractive alternative for Central American refugees.

Now, the country is going one step further, following the announcement of a new scheme to offer temporary protection to refugees from the Northern Triangle.

Under the new protection transfer agreement (PTA), Costa Rica will accept up to 200 prescreened refugees for periods of up to six months, while their US asylum applications are processed. Migrants who arrive in Costa Rica before applying will not be considered for US asylum.

Peru is investigating whether police raids were run by death squads in disguise

The deadly swoops by Peruvian cops on gangs of heavily-armed criminals on the point of perpetrating kidnappings and bank robberies looked like spectacularly effective policing — at the time.

Now, it has emerged that those urgent police raids may have been akin to death squads in disguise. ...

[A] probe has reportedly already honed in on 96 officers of various ranks linked to raids in which police allegedly executed 27 presumed gangsters. The focus is on five major operations in cities along Peru's Pacific coast, including the capital Lima, between June 2012 and June 2015.

In each case, several suspected criminals died in what police later described as a "shoot-out." ... One theory is that all the raids were carried out by a single death squad called in by local police commanders to deal with each gang.

The squad allegedly used informants to learn of the criminals' plans, possibly even encouraged them, before designing a raid. In each case, it appears the police could have used the intelligence to arrest their targets, rather than kill them.

Nicaragua’s President Ortega picks wife as his running mate

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, who has so far governed the country for two decades, has chosen his controversial wife as his running mate for the country's next elections in November.

Rosario Murillo is already the government's spokeswoman, and the announcement that the also avid promoter of new age spirituality is now set to become vice president brought widespread accusations that the couple is trying to perpetuate itself in power.

The president, who is currently the only candidate in the election, has insisted that putting his wife on the ticket is proof of his commitment to equal rights. ...

Ortega first governed Nicaragua after he led the Sandinista guerrillas to victory over the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, weathering a US-backed war against him for most of the next decade until he lost elections in 1990. The former guerrilla later staged a spectacular comeback and won two consecutive presidential elections in 2006 and 2011.

Jeremy Corbyn's Struggle for Labour Leadership

Corbyn sets out 10-point vision for Britain

Jeremy Corbyn has set out a 10-point programme for Britain’s future, based on a huge public investment programme and a commitment to equality.

He has also dismissed the idea Labour could split if he is re-elected leader. ...

Answering media questions after the event, Corbyn said there was no chance of the party separating if he defeats Owen Smith in the party’s leadership election. Smith, who will enter his first head-to-head debate with Corbyn at a leadership hustings in Cardiff on Thursday evening, warned this week it was likely that the party would split or even “bust apart and disappear” if Corbyn won. ...

While Thursday’s speech, in front of about 60 supporters and members of the media, was officially part of the leadership battle, Corbyn used the chance to launch the 10-point list of his priorities to put to the country. At the centre is a previously-announced plan for £500bn in public spending via a new national investment bank, to help create a hi-tech and green-based economy. Corbyn said this would be financed by a resultant stronger economy and by cracking down on tax evasion.

Corbyn said a Labour government under him would pledge to build 1m new homes in its first term, half of them council properties. Other pledges covered more job security at work, a better-funded and wholly public NHS, more spending on education and environmental issues and action to combat inequality and income disparities.

On foreign policy, he said a Labour government would focus on conflict resolution and human rights, saying his party’s record over the Iraq war meant it must “work for a more peaceful world”.

The authorities are on the run:

UC Berkeley denies chancellor built an ‘escape hatch’ to flee student protests

The embattled chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley is facing criticism for the construction of an “escape hatch” to flee student protests near his office.

The Daily Californian, the student newspaper for the state’s most prestigious public university, reported last week that the administration had spent $9,000 on the construction of an “emergency exit” near Nicholas Dirks’ office in response to protests and sit-ins that have targeted the administrator.

The paper went on to publish a staff editorial criticizing the exit, which it called “the most recent in a series of increasingly absurd missteps” involving Dirks.

“When students have something to say, administration should open the door, not create new closed ones,” the senior editorial board opined.

Dirks has faced harsh criticism from faculty and students over his handling of a slew of sexual harassment cases, the university’s budget, and a $700,000 expenditure on a security fence around his official residence. He is currently under university investigation for allegedly using university facilities (including a personal trainer) without paying for them.

Keiser Report: Economics Farce

Federal Reserve fines Goldman Sachs $36.3m for alleged disclosure violations

The Federal Reserve fined Goldman Sachs $36.3m for what it called the use and disclosure of confidential materials that the US uses in its supervision of banks.

The Fed ordered the big Wall Street bank on Wednesday to put in place a program to ensure that the alleged violation doesn’t happen again.

Regulators now want to ban Joseph Jiampietro, a former managing director at Goldman, from the banking industry and levy fines against him for the incident that took place more than two years ago. ...

Regulators say the “confidential supervisory information” obtained by Goldman included reports of bank examinations used by regulators. Goldman employees improperly used and disclosed the confidential information during presentations to clients and prospective clients in an attempt to get their business, they said.

With Clinton at Helm, Democratic Party Again a 'Plaything of the Super-Rich'

It appears that nothing is holding her back now that Hillary Clinton has officially become the Democratic nominee for president. With "cash machine" Tim Kaine by her side, the Democratic ticket's fundraising operation is in full swing, and the money—Big Money—is pouring in.

On Tuesday, the campaign announced a record take of $90 million last month for the candidate and the Democratic Party, not including that brought in by the Super PACs supporting her bid. Republican nominee Donald Trump raised a reported $80 million last month. ...

No longer bird-dogged by climate activists for accepting fossil fuel industry dollars, on Tuesday Clinton attended a private fundraiser in Aspen reportedly hosted by Charif Souki, son of the founder of liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy. CNN Politics producer Dan Merica estimated that the nominee raked in $650,000, "but likely more," based on attendance at the event, where dinner plates reportedly cost $10,000 to $50,000.

And on Monday, the former secretary of state headlined an intimate reception hosted by Warren Buffett's daughter Susie in Omaha, Nebraska—attended by 15 people at $100,000 a pop.

Kaine, described by Politico as "one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful fundraisers," is doing his part, too. On Tuesday, the vice presidential nominee attended his first fundraising event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hosted by "Democratic mega-donor Sharon and Mitchell Berger," CNN reported a haul of "at least $300,000, according to attendee figures and ticket prices."

"It is the Democrats, first Barack Obama and now Clinton, who turned their backs on public financing because, thanks to their sellout to Wall Street, they can look to big money to smash populist sentiment, as expressed so dramatically this time by the incredible outpouring of small contributions that financed the Bernie Sanders campaign," Robert Scheer wrote , referring to the notorious $27 donation average boasted by the Sanders campaign.

"Follow the money," he added, "and it is obvious that the Democratic Party as much as the GOP is now the plaything of the super-rich."

First Evidence Surfaces of Foreign Money Pouring into U.S. Elections After Citizens United

Hmmm... while the evidence that Russians want to influence the American elections is pretty scant at the moment, there is plenty of evidence that the Chinese have an interest, that the SCOTUS opened the door to their influence and that greedy American lawyer/lobbyists are guiding them through the hoops.

Here's a small taste of a longish, very detailed article:

The Citizens United Playbook: How a Top GOP Lawyer Guided a Chinese-Owned Company Into U.S. Presidential Politics

Six days after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on corporate money in U.S. elections with its January 21, 2010, ruling in Citizens United, President Obama warned in his State of the Union address that it would “open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”

But as unlimited contributions have coursed through the election system, no one has been able to point to a specific example of foreign money flowing into U.S. presidential politics as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Until now.

The Intercept has determined that a corporation owned by a Chinese couple made a major donation to Jeb Bush’s Super PAC Right to Rise USA — and it did so after receiving detailed advice from Charlie Spies, arguably the most important Republican campaign finance lawyer in American politics. ...

The Spies memo was dated February 19, 2015. One month later, American Pacific International Capital Inc., a California corporation owned by Gordon Tang and Huaidan Chen, a married couple who are citizens of China and permanent residents of Singapore, made a $1 million donation to Right to Rise USA. APIC subsequently gave the group an additional $300,000, its total donation of $1.3 million making APIC one of the Bush Super PAC’s largest contributors.

The company, which invests in real estate and industries in Asia and the U.S., is well-connected across the American political scene. Neil Bush, the brother of both Jeb and George W. Bush, is a member of APIC’s board. Gary Locke, U.S. ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014 and previously secretary of commerce, serves as senior adviser to APIC. In October 2013, while Locke was still ambassador, APIC co-owner Huaidan Chen purchased Locke’s Washington, D.C.-area home from him for $1.68 million.

Donald Trump insists campaign is greater than ever as Republicans plot 'intervention'

Donald Trump has insisted all is well with his campaign even as Republicans grow increasingly worried about a candidate who seems to have gone permanently off-track.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is reportedly among a handful of high-profile Republicans considering whether to confront Trump about his approach to his presidential campaign.

“There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before,” the Republican candidate tweeted on Wednesday.

According to the Associated Press, citing a Republican official with direct knowledge of Priebus’ plans, the RNC chairman may join a small group of well-respected Republicans to confront Trump in the coming days. The plan is not final, but the official says the group may include former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, both Trump allies.

Priebus has already been speaking with Manafort and the billionaire’s children, who are said to agree that Trump needs to stop picking fights within his own party and back off his criticism of the Khan family.

'It’s pretty small': Trump's left hand on display for all to judge in New York

Donald Trump’s ailing presidential campaign suffered yet another blow on Wednesday, when the size of his hands – a recurring, sensitive issue for the 70-year-old – was made public.

An imprint of Trump’s left hand was found on display at Madame Tussaud’s New York wax museum by the Hollywood Reporter. Using a measuring apparatus, the Reporter found the hand to be a mere 7.25 inches – compared to the average male hand size of 7.44 inches.

The revelation threatens to further destabilize Trump’s efforts to be president. Notoriously thin-skinned – he most recently insulted the Muslim parents of an American war hero – Trump has been insisting he has “normal” hands for years. The furore regarding the self-described billionaire’s appendages even spilled over into a Republican presidential debate in March, when Trump inferred his hand size did not mean he had a small penis.

Got an Extreme Weather Event? NOAA Tool Searches for Climate Link

This year has seen a relentless streak of new temperature and climate records, as well as extreme weather events such as the deadly floods in Houston, Baltimore and West Virginia, a "heat dome" over the Midwest and the massive Sand fire blazing near Los Angeles.

Now, a new searchable tool from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows, county by county, whether or how climate change will change the likelihood of these extreme events in the decades to come.

The project is an updated version of NOAA's interactive Climate Explorer, part of the agency's U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. David Herring, the toolkit's program manager, said the site was designed to allow local governments, small business owners and natural resource managers to plan for a future of warming-fueled extreme weather.

The Explorer includes maps and charts on how temperature and precipitation patterns could change on a local level through 2100. It includes historical, observed data from the mid-1900s to the present, as well as projected trends based on climate models. These were created by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and downscaled to provide location-specific information.

Two climate scenarios are presented: a high-emissions scenario that assumes a "business-as-usual" approach with largely unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, and a moderate scenario that assumes the level of heat-trapping gases will stabilize by 2100. Each scenario creates a range of possible outcomes.

Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is 'Five-Alarm Threat' to Food and Farms: Legal Experts

In July, Monsanto rejected Bayer's $64 billion takeover offer as "financially inadequate," but said it was open to continued negotiations. And this week, Bayer's second-quarter figures—which revealed a weak crop sciences division—were seen by some as "justification for the acquisition."

But nothing justifies a "five-alarm threat to our food supply and to farmers around the world," declared Anne Isakowitsch, senior campaigner with global consumer watchdog SumOfUs, which publicly released the legal opinion on Wednesday.

"This new mega corporation would be the world's biggest seed maker and pesticide company," she said, "defying important antitrust protections, giving it unacceptable control over critical aspects of our food supply—undermining consumer choice and the freedom and stability of farmers worldwide." ...

Many have observed that the Bayer-Monsanto deal is just one of several Big Ag mega-mergers—along with those between Dow and DuPont and ChemChina and Syngenta—that "already threaten to hyper-consolidate the biotech seed industry," as Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter said in May.

"The shocking consolidation in the biotech seed and agrochemical industry turns over the food system to a cabal of chemical companies that would make it even harder for farmers, consumers and communities to build a vibrant, sustainable food system," she said at the time.

Scientists say Guam’s reefs have bleached four years straight

Corals in one of the world’s most diverse corners of the ocean have been ravaged by the ongoing effects of a global bleaching event, scientists say — and nobody’s sure how long it may take them to recover or what they might look like afterwards. The reefs around the U.S. territory of Guam and other nearby islands in what’s known as the Marianas archipelago have been suffering since 2013, and the pattern is only expected to continue through the rest of this summer.

If you’re up on your marine biology news (or if you’ve been scanning headlines at all over the past few months), you’ve probably heard that the world’s coral reefs are in trouble. An ongoing global bleaching event — brought on by warming ocean temperatures and the most recent El Niño effects — has been ravaging reefs for several years now, and reports suggest that the pattern is continuing this summer.

But while the devastation is apparent in reefs all around the globe, some have received more notice than others. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, for instance, made headlines back in April when scientists announced that a whopping 93 percent of its corals had bleached. Corals in U.S. waters, as well as other reefs scattered throughout the Pacific, have turned heads recently as well. But the plight of the corals surrounding Guam and its neighbors has largely gone unreported in mainstream media. ...

According to Mark Eakin, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch, the Coral Reef Watch will likely assign Guam’s reefs an Alert Level 2 by September, which will probably last through November or so. This is the highest alert level that NOAA issues and suggests that coral death — not just bleaching — is likely. As of August 1, the area around Guam has been mostly assigned a “warning” level, meaning that bleaching is possible.

Also of Interest

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

Trumped

Reparations site asks people to 'offset your privilege' with acts of kindness

New York's newest protesters are right: it's time to defund police

The Propaganda War With Putin

Missouri State Public Defender’s Office Appoints Governor Jay Nixon To Serve as Public Defender

Why the Government Is Getting Fed Up With Wall Street All Over Again

Coalition Of U.S. States Signed Pact To Keep Exxon Climate Probe Confidential

'It’s pretty small': Trump's left hand on display for all to judge in New York

X-ray reveals mysterious face hidden beneath Degas' Portrait of a Woman

A Little Night Music

Professor Longhair - Big Chief

Professor Longhair - Tipitina

Professor Longhair - Ball The Wall

Professor Longhair - How Long Has That Train Been Gone?

Professor Longhair - Mess Around

Professor Longhair - Rockin' Pneumonia

Professor Longhair - Nice jazz festival 1979