This evening's music features blues guitarist and singer Louisiana Red.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

Pelosi to Wall Street: Ignore Warren. Dems Still Love You

U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday told CNBC that there was no "consensus" among Democrats that the Obama administration should enforce stricter regulations on the financial industry, highlighting a growing intra-party divide just as the 2016 presidential election begins to take shape.

Pelosi's comments draw another line in the sand between so-called "corporate" and "progressive" Democrats, coming amid criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others that the White House, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mary Jo White, have been "too soft" on Wall Street.

"There may have been a couple of people who say that, but that is not the consensus in our party," Pelosi said in a 45-minute interview with CNBC's John Harwood. "People will express themselves the way they do. That doesn't mean they're speaking for the party."

Think it's cool Facebook can auto-tag you in pics? So does the government

State-of-the-art facial recognition technology, which had been the stuff of hypothetical privacy nightmares for years, is becoming a startling reality. It is increasingly being deployed all around the United States by giant tech companies, shady advertisers and the FBI – with few if any rules to stop it.

In recent weeks, both Facebook and Google launched facial recognition to mine the photos on your phone, with both impressive and disturbing results. Facebook’s Moments app can recognize you even if you cover your face. Google Photos can identify grown adults from decades-old childhood pictures.

Some people might find it neat when it’s only restricted to photos on their phone. But advertisers, security companies and just plain creepy authority figures have also set up their own systems at music festivals, sporting events and even some churches to monitor attendees, which is bound to disturb even those who don’t give a second thought to issues like the NSA’s mass surveillance programs. ...

Last year, the FBI’s massive “next generation” facial recognition database went “fully operational.” But we’ve heard little about how it works and how it’s being used since; the FBI has, as is its modus operandi, attempted to keep it secret from the public. (A judge ruled last year in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that there was a “significant public interest” in the FBI becoming more forthcoming about its plans.)

The little public comment they have made has not exactly inspired confidence. As the National Journal reported, FBI Director James Comey “told Congress that the database would not collect or store photos of ordinary citizens, and instead is designed to ‘find bad guys by matching pictures to mug shots.’” He didn’t adequately explain why documents obtained by EFF showed that the FBI was populating its database with millions of completely innocent people’s photos.

Jason Leopold shuffles through Hillary's latest email dump and comes up with some interesting info. Here's a taste:

Hillary Clinton Sought Advice on Afghanistan From Former Bill Clinton Advisors

Weeks before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Pakistan in late October 2009 in an attempt to improve diplomatic relations with the country, she sought outside advice about how to pressure the Pakistanis to do more in fighting al Qaeda, according to emails the State Department released late Tuesday.

The emails also suggest that Clinton was on the fence about whether she should support a proposed troop surge in Afghanistan, which President Barack Obama's military advisers said was crucial in order to address the country's deteriorating security situation that the administration feared would further empower al Qaeda. There was also concern among administration officials at the increasing number of Taliban forces in South Waziristan along the Afghan border.

On October 3, 2009, Clinton met with retired Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and director for strategic plans and policy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Bill Clinton's presidency, to discuss the issue. About a week later, Clark emailed her with his thoughts on Afghanistan and suggestions for how to approach the Pakistanis about al Qaeda.

Clark referred to an unnamed person with whom he joked about the fact that "someone deep in" Pakistan's intelligence service was likely happy al Qaeda was alive because it meant the US wouldn't "abandon Pakistan again." Clark said he and the unnamed person "recommended" by Clinton discussed "defeat strategy," and the "need for something more than just deploying more forces and hoping the training for the Afghans will work."

"I continue to be struck by the parallels to Vietnam, and especially [President Lyndon B.] Johnson's inability to resist escalation, and his advisor's continued 'incrementalism,'" Clark wrote.

Tsipras, Syriza get a helping hand from an unlikely source:

IMF says Greece needs extra €60bn in funds and debt relief

International lender issues strong message to Europe by warning that Athens’ debts are unsustainable and it needs 20-year grace period on debt repayments

The International Monetary Fund has electrified the referendum debate in Greece after it conceded that the crisis-ridden country needs up to €60bn (£42bn) of extra funds over the next three years and large-scale debt relief to create “a breathing space” and stabilise the economy.

With days to go before Sunday’s knife-edge referendum that the country’s creditors have cast as a vote on whether it wants to keep the euro, the IMF revealed a deep split with Europe as it warned that Greece’s debts were “unsustainable”.

Fund officials said they would not be prepared to put a proposal for a third Greek bailout to the Washington-based organisation’s board unless it included both a commitment to economic reform and debt relief.

According to the IMF, Greece should have a 20-year grace period before making any debt repayments and final payments should not take place until 2055. It would need €10bn to get through the next few months and a further €50bn after that.

The IMF’s analysis will be seized upon by the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, who has been insisting he will only agree to tough new austerity measures if Greece is granted debt relief.

Greferendum Odyssey: EU slams door on talks with Greece till Sunday referendum

Syriza can’t just cave in. Europe’s elites want regime change in Greece

It’s now clear that Germany and Europe’s powers that be don’t just want the Greek government to bend the knee. They want regime change. Not by military force, of course – this operation is being directed from Berlin and Brussels, rather than Washington.

But that the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the troika of Greece’s European and International Monetary Fund creditors are out to remove the elected government in Athens now seems beyond serious doubt. Everything they have done in recent weeks in relation to the leftist Syriza administraton, elected to turn the tide of austerity, appears designed to divide or discredit Alexis Tsipras’s government. ...

There’s no suggestion of genuine compromise. The aim is apparently to humiliate Tsipras and his government in preparation for its early replacement with a more pliable administration. We know from the IMF documents prepared for last week’s “final proposals” and reported in the Guardian that the creditors were fully aware they meant unsustainable levels of debt and self-defeating austerity for Greece until at least 2030, even on the most fancifully optimistic scenario.

That’s because, just as the earlier bailouts went to the banks not the country, and troika-imposed austerity has brought penury and a debt explosion, these demands are really about power, not money. If they are successful in forcing Tsipras out of office, a slightly less destructive package could then be offered to a more house-trained Greek leader who replaced him. ...

The real risk across Europe is that if Syriza caves in or collapses, that failure will be used to turn back the rising tide of support for anti-austerity movements such as Podemos in Spain, or Sinn Féin in Ireland, leaving the field to populists of the right.

Either way, any Greek euro deal that fails to write off unrepayable debt or end the austerity squeeze will only postpone the crisis. If the Syriza government survives, it will have to change direction. Its fate, and its chaotic confrontation with the eurozone’s overlords, is going to shape all of Europe’s future.

Varoufakis: `I Will Not` Be Finance Minister on Yes Vote

Greek crisis: NSA phone tap of Angela Merkel reveals she knew Greece's debt was unsustainable

Back in 2011, before the most recent reorganization of Greek debt, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her personal assistant that Greece's debts would still be unsustainable under the terms of the new arrangement unless it received more generous assistance from Germany and other wealthier European countries.

That's according to this National Security Agency intercept of her communications, revealed to the world by Wikileaks:

NSA Merkel phone tap: chancellor saw Greek debt as unsustainable in 2011 even with another haircut #Wikileaks #Greece pic.twitter.com/78B9cuiRDJ

— Derek Scally (@DerekinBerlin) July 2, 2015

Greece's creditors know that they aren't going to be paid back. But they want the debt to stay on the books anyway.

Why?

Well because as long as the debt is on the books, Greece needs to keep asking for permission to roll the debt over and failure to pay debts can be used as a political trigger for forcing Greece out of the Eurozone. The debt, in other words, isn't about money. It's about political control. If the debt is formally forgiven then not only do Greece's creditors need to write down some money, but they need to let Greece go on its merry way. If the debt is merely subjected to repeated rounds of extend and pretend then Greece's creditors get to keep making various demands about structural reform.

It's not, in other words, that Europe wants Greece to reform in order to get its money back. It's that Europe wants Greece to remain formally on the hook for its debts as a tool to get Greece to reform.

TISA Exposed: 'Holy Grail' of Leaks Reveals Detailed Plot for Corporate Takeover

Fifty-two-nation Trade in Services Agreement uses trade regulations 'as a smokescreen to limit citizen rights,' says labor leader

Days ahead of another round of secret international negotiations, WikiLeaks on Wednesday released what it described as "a modern journalistic holy grail: the secret Core Text for the largest 'trade deal' in history."

That deal is the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, currently being negotiated by 52 nations that together account for two-thirds of global GDP. Those nations are the United States, the 28 members of the European Union, and 23 other countries, including Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Israel. According to WikiLeaks, TISA "is the largest component of the United States' strategic neoliberal 'trade' treaty triumvirate," which also includes the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP). ...

Overall, the leak provides further evidence of how "a self-selected group of mainly rich countries" plans to "bypass other governments in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and rewrite its services agreement in the interests of their corporations," reads an expert analysis penned by University of Auckland law professor Jane Kelsey. "It also makes the new risks from TISA to governments' right to regulate in their national interest much clearer."

Or, as the Our World is Not For Sale network said in a statement: "TISA is exposed as a developed countries’ corporate wish lists for services which seeks to bypass resistance from the global South to this agenda inside the WTO, and to secure an agreement on services without confronting the continued inequities on agriculture, intellectual property, cotton subsidies, and many other issues."

Phil Thompson on the Historical Fight for Civil and Economic Rights

Also of interest:

How Photography Can Destroy Reality

XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications