This evening's music features Houston bluesman Johnny Clyde Copeland.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

The New Sliding Scale of Ethics

“Move Forward!” Judge Slams Government Delay in Releasing Gitmo Force-Feeding Videos

The Obama administration ran into an impatient judge on Thursday, who said she had heard enough excuses for why hours of classified footage of a Guantanamo detainee being force-fed have not yet been prepared for release by the government.

Department of Justice lawyers, who have sought to shield the videos from public view, claimed they could have eight of the 32 tapes in question redacted and ready to be reviewed by opposing counsel by August 31.

That, according to District Court Judge Gladys Kessler, is too long a wait.

“That’s not going to be,” she boomed from the bench. “We’re going to move forward.” Kessler pointed out that it’s been quite some time since her October order that the videos be released, pending further negotiations over the redaction process.

Kessler also took exception with the government’s decision to appeal that ruling before completing the negotiations over redactions — an appeal that ultimately failed in May.

“The government’s appeal was as frivolous an appeal as I’ve ever seen,” Kessler said, scolding Justice Department lawyer Andrew Warden.

"A Hostage Situation": Greece Yields to Austerity Demands Just Days After Historic "No" Vote

Eurozone crisis: Greek austerity plans meet warm but cautious response

Eurozone finance ministers are poised to offer their tentative backing for Greek bailout proposals, after Athens caved in to creditor demands for further austerity measures in return for the promise of limited debt relief. ...

New industrial production figures on Friday showed that Greek output dived 4% during May, compared to 0.4% growth in April, underling how far and fast the economy slumped as the debate over a creditor bailout dragged on.

In the 13-page document sent to Greece’s creditors on Thursday night, Tsipras outlined plans for fierce cuts on hitherto protected privileges such as pensions, tax breaks for the country’s islands, and limits on military spending. In exchange, Greece wants a three-year €53.5bn loan deal to save the nation from bankruptcy and kickstart its wrecked economy. ...

Tsipras faces a rough ride from Greek MPs opposed to giving any ground to the paymasters in Brussels and the IMF, in the wake of more than 60% of people rejecting more austerity in the 5 July referendum.

In a sign of possible trouble ahead, the energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who leads the most radical wing of the ruling Syriza party, did not sign the package. Another key figure on the left, Zoe Konstantopoulou, the president of parliament, has publicly announced that no new memorandum outlining further austerity will be passed by the 300-seat House.

Apparently Mr. Schauble doesn't care for the helpful advice that Americans are giving him.

Just swap Greece for Puerto Rico: German finance minister's sarcasm

Schäuble reportedly told Greece: 'How much money do you want to leave the euro?'

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble wanted Greece out of the euro and was willing to pay the country to leave, according to Mediapart, a French investigative website.

The publication has a long interview with an anonymous source who, it says, was a member of the Greek negotiating team that was trying to cut a deal with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union over bailing out the Greek economy. ...

Mediapart's source says Schäuble told Varoufakis' team:

You cannot argue too much with Schäuble. It would be dangerous, because you won't get finance, German banks will want their money back, and so on. So it's an institution where you cannot make your voice heard, so what's the point in encountering [them]? There was no one else but Varoufakis talking straight. Schäuble has said "How much money do you want [in order] to leave the euro?" He doesn't want Greece in the euro at all. He was the first to raise the issue of a Grexit back in 2011.

Caught Between 'Grexit' and 'Hell No' — Greece Submits To Austerity's Knife

After submitting a proposal for consideration by foreign creditors overnight, the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras on Friday presented the plan to a full meeting of Parliament, in hopes of securing backing for a plan that would keep Greece in the eurozone by exchanging long-term debt relief and further financial assistance for a new set of of harsh austerity programs and conditions.

"We are confronted with crucial decisions," a government official quoted Tspiras as telling Syriza lawmakers during the morning session. "We got a mandate to bring a better deal than the ultimatum that the Eurogroup gave us, but certainly not given a mandate to take Greece out of the eurozone." ...

Looking at the deal from the outside, Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman, in a blog post on Friday morning, argues that with the Troika "still demanding a rising primary surplus over time, and balking at top line debt relief that might at least offer a clear marker of progress," the deal that Syriza has presented is only putting off for now, what will become unavoidable later. "If those are the requirements for Greece to stay in the eurozone," Krugman predicts, "Grexit is inevitable."

In addition to those on the left who expressed criticism of the deal put forth by the Syriza leadership, many economists continue to believe that while painful, an exit from the eurozone would have been the better decision. Still other observers are making the case that the situation in Greece has become one for which no good solution—political or economic—exists.

This is an interesting interview with economist James Galbraith, a colleague of Yanis Varoufakis, about the Greek debacle. Here's a taste:

Greece threatens the entire neoliberal project: Angela Merkel, Alexis Tsipras and the demise of austerity

Lynn Parramore: What’s your take on the attitudes of the creditor powers — the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Commission (EC) — toward Greece?

Jamie Galbraith: What happened on the 26th of June was that Alexis [Tsipras] came to realize, at long last, that no matter how many concessions he made he wasn’t going to get the first one from the creditors. That’s something Wolfgang Schäuble had made clear to Yanis [Varoufakis] months before.

But it was hard to persuade the Greek government of this because its members naturally expected, as you would when you’re in a negotiation, that if you make a concession the other side will make a concession. That isn’t the way this one worked. The Greeks kept making concessions. They’d present a program and the other side would say —as you can read in the press — oh, no, that’s not good enough. Do another one. Then they’d complain that the Greeks were not being serious.

What the creditors meant by that was this: when you come around and agreeto what we tell you, then you’re serious. Otherwise not. This is the way bad professors treat extremely recalcitrant students. You come in with a paper draft and they say, no, that’s not good enough. Do another one. ...

LP: Is the austerity doctrine — which has been widely discredited by economists — under serious threat?

JG: It is definitely under threat from an increasingly emboldened political movement across Europe — certainly in Spain, certainly in Ireland, probably in Portugal, Italy, and France. So the answer is yes. This is what terrifies the European elites about the Greek situation. What Syriza did was to wipe out — and the referendum completed the job — the leadership of the previous sort of condominium of governing parties, which were a neoliberal conservative party and a neoliberlized social party. Now what do you find in the rest of Europe? Look at Germany, look at France. You find exactly the same thing. And of course, the elites in those countries fear the same phenomenon. So what we’re seeing is an allergic reaction to what they regard as a political threat of the first order.

Capitalism and Government Debt at Odds in Greece

Greece is the latest battleground in the financial elite’s war on democracy

Greece may be financially bankrupt, but the troika is politically bankrupt. Those who persecute this nation wield illegitimate, undemocratic powers, powers of the kind now afflicting us all. Consider the International Monetary Fund. The distribution of power here was perfectly stitched up: IMF decisions require an 85% majority, and the US holds 17% of the votes.

The IMF is controlled by the rich, and governs the poor on their behalf. It’s now doing to Greece what it has done to one poor nation after another, from Argentina to Zambia. Its structural adjustment programmes have forced scores of elected governments to dismantle public spending, destroying health, education and all the means by which the wretched of the earth might improve their lives. ...

Consider the European Central Bank. Like most other central banks, it enjoys “political independence”. This does not mean that it is free from politics, only that it is free from democracy. It is ruled instead by the financial sector, whose interests it is constitutionally obliged to champion through its inflation target of around 2%. Ever mindful of where power lies, it has exceeded this mandate, inflicting deflation and epic unemployment on poorer members of the eurozone.

The Maastricht treaty, establishing the European Union and the euro, was built on a lethal delusion: a belief that the ECB could provide the only common economic governance that monetary union required. It arose from an extreme version of market fundamentalism: if inflation were kept low, its authors imagined, the magic of the markets would resolve all other social and economic problems, making politics redundant. Those sober, suited, serious people, who now pronounce themselves the only adults in the room, turn out to be demented utopian fantasists, votaries of a fanatical economic cult. ...

Neoliberalism is inherently incompatible with democracy, as people will always rebel against the austerity and fiscal tyranny it prescribes. Something has to give, and it must be the people. This is the true road to serfdom: disinventing democracy on behalf of the elite.

If Syriza Blinks

So, the EU wants Greece to sign an even worse deal than the “no” referendum already rejected.

If Syriza accepts such a deal, Greece will stay in depression and, likely, that depression will get worse.

Let me be explicit: This sort of thing will not stand. If the moderate left-wing (not center-left, moderate-left) won’t do the job, then someone else will.

That will mean either the hard-right, or the hard-left. People who can credibly say: “When we say we will end austerity, we mean we will do anything it takes. Anything.”

The hard-right is salivating over what is being done to Greece. LePen in France, the hard-right in Britain, and so on. They know that rage, anger, and hate is building as people are smashed in the face over and over again by neoliberal politics. They are thrilled by Cameron’s smash-mouth budget in England. They love the way the refugee crisis is being bungled.

They know how to use the fear, desperation, and rage. And they will use it. People will become so fed-up with having lousy lives and no hope for the future that they will turn to anyone who looks hard-assed enough to fix it and to break with current power structures, who will get (and deserve) the blame.

Unbridled capitalism is the 'dung of the devil', says Pope Francis

The pontiff condemns the impoverishment of developing countries by the world economic order and apologised for the church’s treatment of native Americans

Pope Francis has urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a “new colonialism” by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the “sacred rights” of labor, lodging and land.

In one of the longest, most passionate and sweeping speeches of his pontificate, the Argentine-born pope used his visit to Bolivia to ask forgiveness for the sins committed by the Roman Catholic church in its treatment of native Americans during what he called the “so-called conquest of America”. ...

Quoting a fourth century bishop, he called the unfettered pursuit of money “the dung of the devil”, and said poor countries should not be reduced to being providers of raw material and cheap labour for developed countries. ...

“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” the pope said, decrying a system that “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature”.

“This system is by now intolerable: farm workers find it intolerable, labourers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable. The earth itself – our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say – also finds it intolerable,” he said in an hour-long speech that was interrupted by applause and cheering dozens of times.

China stock markets rise again after Beijing intervention

Chinese stocks rose strongly for a second day on Friday, buoyed by a barrage of government support measures, but worries persist about the long-term impact that four weeks of stock market turmoil may have on the world’s second-largest economy.

Over the past two weeks Chinese authorities have cut interest rates, suspended initial public offerings, relaxed margin lending and collateral rules and enlisted brokerages to buy stocks, backed by cash from the central bank.

Some analysts predict further moves to come from the central bank, which often makes policy announcements over the weekend, such as another rate cut or relaxation of the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.

The frantic efforts to stem the market slide finally began to gain traction on Thursday, when shares rose around 6% after the securities regulator banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling.

FBI Claims Arrests Tied to Fourth of July ‘Plots,’ Declines to Offer Any Details

In new comments today, FBI Director James Comey is claiming that he “believes” plots linked to the Fourth of July may have been thwarted by a series of arrests by the FBI, and that those plots may have killed people if carried out.

The details were almost preposterously scant, as Comey said 10 people were arrested over four weeks, some tied to ISIS, some tied to the Fourth of July, all of them unnamed. He didn’t say who they were or what they were charged with, but conceded that some were charged with things that weren’t terror related. ...

The FBI has been issuing reports on “terror arrests” on a fairly regular basis for years, and the stories are almost always the same; some foreign-born US citizen is approached by FBI informants, eventually given a fake explosive, and arrested for planning to fake blow something up with it.

That these sorts of dubious arrests have historically been good enough in the eyes of Comey and others to publicly trumpet, and the latest round of arrests didn’t warrant even a mention of names or a broad-brush narrative suggests that the latest “plots” are speculative indeed, and that officials don’t feel comfortable enough with these “not terror” arrests to make them public knowledge.

Chuck Schumer and Rob Portman Unite to Screw Domestic Business and Regular Americans

In today’s bitter, poisonous political environment, there’s still one place where Democratic and Republican leaders find common ground: an abiding devotion to multinational corporations.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have just proposed a plan that would give those corporations something they’ve always wanted: a so-called “territorial” tax system in the U.S.

A territorial tax system would only tax U.S.-based multinationals on their profits earned within the United States — which sounds like it makes sense, except that it’s incredibly easy for big corporations to use financial trickery to sell to a big market like the U.S. but say their profits were earned in another country. Another country that always happens to have a much lower tax rate than here. For instance, in 2010 U.S.-based multinationals claimed that so much of their profits were earned in Bermuda that these profits were 1578 percent the size of Bermuda’s economy. ...

The obvious consequence if the Schumer-Portman scheme becomes law is that businesses based solely within the U.S. would be at a permanent disadvantage. Multinationals could earn profits in the U.S., get their armies of lawyers and accountants to make these profits appear to have been “earned” in the Cayman Islands, and get taxed at the overseas profit rate. Meanwhile, purely domestic companies would either have to pay the higher domestic rate, or turn into multinationals themselves.

Human Rights Violations Already Being Trumped By Obama's Corporate TPP Trade Deal

AP, Reuters report the Obama administration is reportedly poised to upgrade the ranking it gives Malaysia on its efforts to stamp out human trafficking. The move is being criticized as an affront to global human rights that could help move forward a pending controversial trade deal.

The State Department gives the ranking in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, a tool the Department states "reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue." In 2014 it gave (pdf) Malaysia the lowest ranking, a Tier 3, and stated: "The Government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking."

Other countries the State Department designated as Tier 3 in its last report include Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea. But unnamed government sources told the Associated Press and Reuters that the forthcoming 2015 TIP Report would upgrade Malaysia to a Tier 2.

AP reports that the change "is sure to ameliorate diplomatic relations as the Obama administration negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which includes Malaysia." ...

The reported ranking change has sparked the ire of Senator Bob Menendez (N.J.). As The Hill reports, the Democrat "specifically got a provision into a trade bill that would prohibit the United States from entering into trade agreements that are fast-tracked through Congress with Tier 3 countries, which Malaysia currently is."

He issued a statement to media Wednesday saying, "If [the upgrade is] true, this manipulation of Malaysia’s ranking in the State Department’s 2015 TIP report would be a perversion of the trafficking list and undermine both the integrity of this important report as well as the very difficult task of confronting states about human trafficking."

Also of interest:

Obama’s Failure to Make the Strategic Case for an Iran Nuclear Deal

Greece and the Crisis of International Capital

“Guerrilla Warfare Against a Hegemonic Power”: the Challenge and Promise of Greece

Hat tip Don midwest:

Why the EU's increasing failure to protect nature means I may vote no

“Tsipras Has Just Destroyed Greece”

Greece - White Flag Flying Over the Acropolis