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This evening's music features Chicago blues singer and guitarist, Buster Benton. Enjoy!

“A mask tells us more than a face.”

-- Oscar Wilde

News and Opinion

The Mask Is Off: Trump Is Seeking War with Iran

Something extraordinary has happened in Washington. President Donald Trump has made it clear, in no uncertain terms and with no effort to disguise his duplicity, that he will claim that Tehran is cheating on the nuclear deal by October—the facts be damned. In short, the fix is in. Trump will refuse to accept that Iran is in compliance and thereby set the stage for a military confrontation. His advisors have even been kind enough to explain how they will go about this. Rarely has a sinister plan to destroy an arms control agreement and pave the way for war been so openly telegraphed.

The unmasking of Trump’s plans to sabotage the nuclear deal began two weeks ago when he reluctantly had to certify that Iran indeed was in compliance. Both the US intelligence as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency had confirmed Tehran’s fair play. But Trump threw a tantrum in the Oval Office and berated his national security team for not having found a way to claim Iran was cheating. According to Foreign Policy, the adults in the room—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster—eventually calmed Trump down but only on the condition that they double down on finding a way for the president to blow up the deal by October. ...

Recognizing that refusing to certify Iran would isolate the United States, Trump’s advisors gave him another plan. Use the spot-inspections mechanism of the nuclear deal, they suggested, to demand access to a whole set of military sites in Iran. Once Iran balks—which it will since the mechanism is only supposed to be used if tangible evidence exists that those sites are being used for illicit nuclear activities—Trump can claim that Iran is in violation, blowing up the nuclear deal while shifting the blame to Tehran.

Thus, the advice of the adults in the room—those who we are supposed to restrain Trump—was not to keep the highly successful nuclear deal that has taken both an Iranian bomb and war with Iran off the table. Rather, they recommended killing it in a manner that would conceal Trump’s malice and shift the cost to Iran. According to The New York Times, the groundwork for this strategy has already been laid. Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Corker (R-TN) calls this strategy “radical enforcement” of the deal. “If they don’t let us in,” Corker told The Washington Post, “boom.” Then he added: “You want the breakup of this deal to be about Iran. You don’t want it to be about the U.S., because we want our allies with us.”

This is a charade, a rerun of the machinations that resulted in the Iraq war. It doesn’t matter what Iran does or doesn’t do. If it were up to Trump, he’d never have accepted that Iran was in compliance in the first place. He admitted as much to the Wall Street Journal. “If it was up to me, I would have had them [the Iranians] non-compliant 180 days ago.”

The war America can't win: how the Taliban is regaining control in Afghanistan

In Helmand, which is markedly worse off than when foreign combat troops left three years ago, Afghan forces on the frontline are desperate for support. But critics say that more military power only risks fomenting insurgency. “Even if you kill all the teenagers, the next generation will join the Taliban,” said Abdul Jabbar Qahraman, a former presidential envoy to Helmand. “The insurgency used to be mostly a business. Now it’s also about revenge.” Afghanistan is America’s longest war, but it is a war America cannot win. And nowhere is this more evident than in Helmand.

Places where British and American troops fought their hardest battles are now firmly under Taliban control. Babaji, the scene of one of biggest British air assaults in modern times, fell to the Taliban shortly after the Guardian visited last year. Marjah – where in 2010 thousands of US, British and Afghan troops launched the largest joint offensive in the war – is firmly in the control of the insurgents.

In Musa Qala, the Taliban run a veritable government; in Lashkar Gah, they are close enough to occasionally lob rockets into the governor’s compound. Prolonged, large-scale battles are rare. Instead, the war is a slow grind of guerrilla attacks, sporadic gun clashes and the occasional push to overrun a population centre. Homemade bombs – the Taliban’s weapon of choice – continue to spread. Several provincial capitals remain in government hands only due to US air support. In June alone, the US conducted 389 airstrikes in the country, the highest level since 2012.

Incredible. https://t.co/T6OSFfljOw pic.twitter.com/dgcgAAnoz9

— Robert Caruso (@robertcaruso) August 2, 2017

Trump suggests firing top general in Afghanistan for not "winning"

President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested firing the U.S.’ top military commander in Afghanistan for failing to win the conflict, as his top officials scramble to find a strategy to end the longest-running war in American history.

Trump’s suggestions that top defense officials should consider firing Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, came during a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room on July 19. Details of the nearly two-hour meeting became public Wednesday after senior U.S. officials confirmed what took place to NBC and Reuters.

During the meeting, Trump criticized the assembled military advisers for what he said was their failure to resolve the 16-year conflict. “We aren’t winning,” he said, according to the officials.

Reuters reported that Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, got into “a shouting match” with national security adviser H.R. McMaster over U.S. strategy, while NBC reported that Trump asked about taking Afghanistan’s minerals – reflecting his concerns that the Chinese are profiting from Afghan mineral wealth while the U.S. foots the bill for propping up the country.

Bannon and Blackwater Want to Outsource Afghan War

Interesting. Trump is talking about firing the general who refuses to meet with Trump's buddy Erik Prince (Blackwater founder, brother of Betsy DeVos).

Blackwater founder wants to boost the Afghan air war with his private air force

Erik Prince, the former CEO of the private military company known as Blackwater, wants to step up the Afghan air war with a private air force capable of intelligence collection and close-air support, according to a recent proposal submitted to the Afghan government.

According to a senior Afghan military official, Prince has submitted a business proposal offering a “turn-key composite air wing” to help the fledgling Afghan air force in its fight against the Taliban and other militant groups.

The development comes as the White House is considering a plan to draw down the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and replace the ensuing power vacuum with contractors.

Pentagon officials are skeptical of that plan. Moreover, a senior Afghan defense official told Military Times that U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has refused to meet with Prince regarding the contractor plan. Military Times has reached out to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan for a comment on Nicholson’s meeting or lack thereof with Prince and have yet to receive a reply.

Trump Considers Prolonging Afghan War to Secure $1 Trillion in Untapped Mineral Deposits

McMaster dismisses another Flynn hire from National Security Council

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has pushed out a top White House intelligence aide who earlier this year secretly shared information with a Republican lawmaker investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The dismissal of Ezra Cohen-Watnick, confirmed by the White House, is the latest in a string of NSC staff members removed at the behest of McMaster, who has steadily shed aides that had been brought on by his short-lived predecessor Michael Flynn.

Cohen-Watnick, 31, was one of the few remaining aides in the organization hired by Flynn, who was fired in February. Since his arrival McMaster has had a hand in steadily cleaning out several of Flynn’s marquee hires – three of them in the past three weeks. ...

McMaster’s first attempt to sideline Cohen-Watnick came in March after CIA analysts complained about working with him, according to a POLITICO report.

Poland wants Germany to pay “significant reparations” over WWII

Poland’s nationalist government is looking into whether it can demand reparations from Germany for damages inflicted in World War II – in a move likely to heighten growing tensions between the neighboring countries. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a parliamentarian from the ruling Law and Justice party, said Wednesday that he has commissioned a report, due next week, into whether Poland can legally proceed with a claim.

The issue has resurfaced amid a surge of patriotic sentiment this week as Poland observes the anniversary of the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising against Nazi rule, which resulted in the destruction of the capital and the deaths of as many as 200,000 civilians. Amid this national focus on the war – in which nearly 6 million Poles were killed – senior politicians have called on Germany to make amends, with Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz saying Tuesday that Germany had to “pay back the terrible debt they owe to the Polish people.” ...

Tensions have grown between Germany and Poland, important trading partners and neighbors, since Law and Justice came to power in 2015 and began pushing ahead with a conservative, nationalist agenda that has increasingly driven a wedge between Warsaw and its European Union partners to the west. Poland views Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, as having an undue influence over the bloc.

Kremlin slams Trump for signing bill approving sanctions against Russia

Russia wants the world to know that it’s not angry with Donald Trump, even after he signed a bill Wednesday imposing new sanctions on the country for interfering in the 2016 election. Instead it feels sorry for the U.S. president – who was “outwitted” by the U.S. establishment and has shown “total weakness” by “handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way.”

In a Facebook post responding to Trump’s decision to finally sign off on a package of new sanctions — a week after they had been voted through Congress by overwhelming majority — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the move “ends hopes for improving our relations with the new U.S. administration [and] is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia.” He added that the legislation “changes the power balance in U.S. political circles.”

Pelosi says Trump may try to 'wriggle out' of Russia sanctions

"President Trump's signing statement raises serious questions about whether his administration intends to follow the law, or whether he will continue to enable and reward Vladimir Putin’s aggression," House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. "The Republican Congress must not permit the Trump White House to wriggle out of its duty to impose these sanctions for Russia’s brazen assault on our democracy."

President Trump signs new Russia sanctions, questions whether bill interferes with foreign policy authority

President Trump has signed a new package of sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, but issued a blistering statement insisting that the bill encroaches on the executive branch’s ability to conduct foreign policy. 

"Since this bill was first introduced, I have expressed my concerns to Congress about the many ways it improperly encroaches on executive power, disadvantages American companies, and hurts the interests of our European allies," Trump wrote in a statement as he signed the bill passed by the House and Senate.

While Trump said his administration worked with Congress to make the bill better, he notes the legislation "remains seriously flawed – particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate."

The legislation, which overwhelmingly passed both houses of Congress, bars Trump from easing or waiving the penalties on Russia unless Congress agrees.

Senator Gillibrand pulls support for Israel Anti-Boycott Act

In an act unprecedented in recent history, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand took a stand this week in support of the right of Americans to boycott Israel by formally withdrawing her sponsorship of S.720, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.

The New York Democrat’s withdrawal of her sponsorship comes after constituents repeatedly pressed her on her support of the bill at town hall meetings in New York City.

On 22 July in the Bronx, Gillibrand affirmed that “we are all allowed to boycott” in response to a constituent who laid out his concerns that the bill would criminalize those supporting boycotts of Israel.

At another town hall in Queens on 31 July, Gillibrand stated in response to similar concerns that she would not support the bill in its current form. She made good on her promise by notifying the Senate on 1 August that she wished to withdraw her sponsorship of the bill.

It is exceedingly rare for members of Congress to withdraw their sponsorship from bills. One veteran congressional staffer could recall only one instance of it happening in recent memory when a representative took his name off a bill regulating minor league baseball.

Brazil’s Corrupt Congress Protects its Bribe-Drenched President, Finalizing Elites’ Two-Year Plot

Just over a year ago, in Brasília, one of the most nauseating and humiliating political spectacles I’ve ever seen took place over nine hours. In Brazil’s lower House – a body where a majority of members are implicated in corruption investigations – one dirty, shady cretin after the next stood up in front of television cameras and flamboyantly declared that their conscience, their religion, their God, their children, their devotion to Jerusalem, the memory of their mother, their pastor, the purity of their soul demanded that they punish corruption by removing the elected President, Dilma Rousseff, from office. ...

In sum, Brazil’s incomparably corrupt political and media class tore the country apart, effectively and deliberately reversing the outcome of the 2014 election, by insisting that their high ethics and solemn respect for The Rule of Law simply could not tolerate the mundane, common budget tricks Rousseff deployed to make the economy appear stronger than it really was. Words do not exist to describe what a glaring fraud it all was.

But now – fast forward to yesterday – they themselves have made the true nature of their deeds and their character as clear as it could possibly be. The career mediocrity and soulless operative they installed to run the country, Vice President Michel Temer, has been drowning in actual corruption ever since he was installed. Just two months ago, audio tapes surfaced of Temer endorsing bribery payments by a Brazilian businessman to numerous witnesses, including his party comrade Eduardo Cunha, to maintain their silence. ... A month later, evidence emerged that Temer personally received ample bribes, accompanied by disclosure of a video of one of his closest aides carrying a suitcase full of cash after Temer directed bribe payments. ...

In Brasilia, everything is possible. Yesterday, the same lower House that last year voted to impeach Rousseff had to decide whether to suspend Temer and put him on trial for corruption. By a vote of 263-227, they refused to do so, ensuring that Temer – bribes and all – remains in power. ... The very same bloated, slimy, pompous right-wing and centrist criminals who 12 months ago shamelessly draped themselves in the flowing costumes of ethics, religion and morality banded together to ensure that their fellow criminal who rules the country will face no consequences. He now cannot face these charges until he leaves office.

RExxon Tillerson’s Petro-Imperially Perfect Regime Change Threat

It takes a lot for anything anybody in the Insane Clown Trump administration says to get my attention these days. The longtime Exxon-Mobil CEO and current United State Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did the trick with these 48 words two days ago: “We are evaluating all of our policy options as to what can we do to create a change of conditions where either Maduro decides he doesn’t have a future and wants to leave of his own accord or we can return the government processes back to their constitution.”

That is the United States’ top “diplomat” saying that a democratically elected head of sovereign state, Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, must leave office or “we” – the U.S. government that is – will reserve the right to remove him (absurdly described as “return[ing]” the Venezuelan government “back to their constitution.”) It is a declaration of the United States’ presumed entitlement to conduct internationally criminal regime change, confident that it is exempt from global sanction or prosecution. Because we own the world and what we say goes – especially in our hemisphere. Capice?

Nobody should doubt that Tillerson is signaling Washington’s willingness to carry out a coup in Venezuela. The Bush administration tried and failed to do precisely that in April of 2002 – and Washington has never stopped waiting for its next best moment to depose the democratically elected socialist government there. That moment is now, perhaps, with Venezuela weakened by low oil prices and years of economic poaching and sanctions, and with U.S-fueled street protests led by a fanatical right wing racist and upper-class opposition to the Bolivarian Revolution.

How Corporations Have Taken Over Government, Nonprofit and Regulatory Agencies

Media’s Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn

You’ve seen or heard or read the personal interest story a thousand times: An enterprising seven-year-old collects cans to save for college (ABC7, 2/8/17), a man with unmatched moxie walks 15 miles to his job (Today, 2/20/17), a low-wage worker buys shoes for a kid whose mother can’t afford them (Fox5, 12/14/16), an “inspiring teen” goes right back to work after being injured in a car accident (CBS News, 12/16/16). All heartwarming tales of perseverance in the face of impossible odds—and all ideological agitprop meant to obscure and decontextualize the harsh reality of dog-eat-dog capitalism.

Man walks eight miles in the snow to get to work every day (ABC 27, 3/14/17). Or was it a teen walking 10 miles in freezing weather to a job interview (New York Daily News, 2/26/13)? Or was it 10 miles to work every day (Times Herald Record, 3/17/17)? Or was it 12 (ABC News, 2/22/17) or 15 (Today, 2/20/17) or 18 (Evening Standard, 2/9/09) or 21 (Detroit Free Press, 1/20/15)? Who cares—their humanity is irrelevant. They’re clickbait, stand-in bootstrap archetypes meant to validate the bourgeois morality of click-happy media consumers.

These stories are typically shared for the purposes of poor-shaming, typically under the guise of inspirational life advice. “This man is proof we all just need to keep walking, no matter what life throws at us,” insisted Denver ABC7 anchor Anne Trujillo, after sharing one of those stories of a poor person forced to walk thousands of miles a year to survive.

A healthy press would take these anecdotes of “can do” spirit and ask bigger questions, like why are these people forced into such absurd hardship? Who benefits from skyrocketing college costs? Why does the public transit in this person’s city not have subsidies for the poor? Why aren’t employers forced to offer time off for catastrophic accidents? But time and again, the media mindlessly tells the bootstrap human interest story, never questioning the underlying system at work.

Don't Lie to Poor Kids About Why They're Poor

Work hard and you’ll get ahead — that’s the mantra driven into young people across the country. But what happens when children born into poverty run face first into the crushing reality that the society they live in really isn’t that fair at all? As new research shows, they break down.

A just released study published in the journal Child Development tracked the middle school experience of a group of diverse, low-income students in Arizona. The study found that the kids who believed society was generally fair typically had high self-esteem, good classroom behavior, and less delinquent behavior outside of school when they showed up in the sixth grade. When those same kids left in the eighth grade, though, each of those criteria had degraded — they showed lower self-esteem and worse behavior.

What caused this downward slide?

In short, belief in a fair and just system of returns ran head-on into reality for marginalized kids. When they see people that look like them struggling despite working hard, they’re forced to reckon with the cognitive dissonance. ...

Erin Godfrey, a psychology professor at New York University and the study’s lead author, explains that for marginalized kids who behave badly, “there’s this element of people think of me this way anyway, so this must be who I am.” She points out that middle school is the time when many young people begin to notice personal discrimination, identify as a member of a marginalized group, and recognize the existence of systemic discrimination.

Nikole Hannah-Jones on DOJ's Attack on Affirmative Action & How School Segregation Never Ended

Far-Reaching Bill Would Legalize Weed, Offer Reparations for War on Drugs

Advocates for marijuana legalization and criminal justice are lauding a bill Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced on Tuesday to end federal prohibition of pot and offer financial assistance to communities devastated by the War on Drugs. "The question is no longer 'should we legalize marijuana?'; it is 'how do we legalize marijuana?'" said Queen Adesuyi, a policy associate at the Drug Policy Alliance. "We must do so in a way that recognizes that the people who suffered most under prohibition are the same people who should benefit most under legalization."

"From disparate marijuana-related arrests and incarceration rates to deportations and justifications for police brutality—the War on Drugs has had disparate harm on low-income communities and communities of color. It's time to rectify that," Adesuyi added.

Not only do states and the federal government spend billions of dollars on enforcing pot laws each year, but law enforcement officials disproportionately arrest and incarcerate people of color for weed-related offenses. In 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found: "Marijuana use is roughly equal among blacks and whites, yet blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession."

Steven Wasserman, Brother of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to Oversee Awan Family Investigation

In what may be one of the most remarkable conflicts of interest that we have seen in a long time, it appears that Steven Wasserman, Assistant Attorney for the District of Columbia who is the brother of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has been tasked with overseeing the investigation of DNC IT employee Imran Awan, who was arrested earlier this week while attempting to flee the US and charged with bank fraud.

The Assistant US Attorney overseeing the Awan family investigation is Steven Wasserman, the brother of Wasserman Schultz! pic.twitter.com/iRZsUMJRH0

— Pamela Moore (@Pamela_Moore13) July 26, 2017

White House Says Russia’s Hackers Are Too Good to Be Caught but NSA Partner Called Them “Morons”

The hackers behind the dump of Democratic Party emails in the midst of last year’s presidential race left apparent evidence of their identity — a breadcrumb trail winding from the stolen files back to the Russian government, according to assessments from the U.S. intelligence community. Some of this evidence was there from the beginning, embedded inside the first documents to hit the web, raising a niggling question: Why would diabolically skilled Russian operatives operate so sloppily?

This question has persisted, and last week the White House seized upon it, promulgating the idea that if the Russian government were really behind the attacks, its online agents wouldn’t have left any fingerprints. Russia quickly repeated this claim through its UK embassy.

But a 2011 presentation to the NSA and its foreign partners by Canada’s signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment, undermines the notion of a foreign hacker so skilled that a victim would never know their identity. The document calls Russian hackers “morons” for routinely compromising the security of a “really well designed” system intended to cover their tracks; for example, the hackers logged into their personal social and email accounts through the same anonymizing system used to attack their targets, comparable to getting an anonymous burner phone for illicit use and then placing calls to your girlfriend, parents, and roommate. ...

The CSE presentation, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, dates to no earlier than 2011, and describes the agency’s work tracking a set of Russian government-sponsored hackers codenamed MAKERSMARK. The MAKERSMARK team was believed by NSA “with a high level of confidence” to be sponsored by a Russian intelligence agency, according to a separate Snowden document originating with the NSA’s Special Source Operations division. The MAKERSMARK team was armed with a clever technical system to mask members’ identities and the location of their computers, thus (on paper, at least) making it less likely the attacks would be traced back to Russia.

CSE’s account of the Russian actors does not exactly jibe with the White House’s vision of ninja-like computer users. The agency presentation, prepared by a “cyber counter intelligence” agent focused on MAKERSMARK, highlights Russian hackers’ “misuse of operational infrastructure” and “poor OPSEC [operational security] practices,” both of which made it elementary for the Canadians to trace attacks back to their source. The document says Russian hackers were provided with “really well designed” systems with which to launch attacks, but because the execution was so shoddy, “this has not translated into security for MAKERSMARK operators.”

EPA Staffers Are Being Forced to Prioritize Energy Industry’s Wish List, Says Official Who Resigned in Protest

EPA staffers are spending their days addressing an industry wish list of changes to environmental law, according to Elizabeth Southerland, a former senior agency official who issued a scathing public farewell message when she ended her 30-year career there on Monday.

Southerland, who most recently served as director of science and technology in the EPA’s Office of Water, said that agency staffers were now devoted to regulatory rollback based on the requests from industry. Companies and trade groups have directly asked EPA administrator Scott Pruitt for some changes. Other requests have come in through public comments in response to Executive Order 13777, which the White House issued in February. That executive order directed federal agencies including the EPA to suggest regulations to be changed, repealed, or replaced. ...

Southerland said that a working group headed by EPA associate administrator Samantha Dravis and the agency’s chief of staff, Ryan Jackson — both of whom were appointed by Scott Pruitt — cherry-picked industry comments calling for rollback and submitted them to scientists and other career employees at the agency. “They pulled out the ones from the industry — the coal, electric power, oil and natural gas areas, just them — and sent them around and asked us to respond within one day about whether we agreed with the request for a repeal,” said Southerland. ...

The full range of proposed rollbacks will become apparent in September, when the EPA and other agencies are required to report back on their assessments of regulation. In the meantime, the staff of the EPA is spending their time considering how to dismantle the policies they have helped create — a process that’s both time consuming and extremely expensive. “The taxpayers are paying for us to now spend enormous amounts of federal employee hours undoing everything they had spent those same federal employee hours building,” said Southerland. “Look at the enormous treasure that these people are having everyone expend for their ideology.”

EPA backs off delay for smog-causing emissions reduction after being sued

One day after getting sued by 15 states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, Scott Pruitt, reversed his decision to delay implementation of Obama-era rules reducing emissions of smog-causing air pollutants. Pruitt presented the change as his agency being more responsive than past administrations to the needs of state environmental regulators. He made no mention of the legal challenge filed against his prior position in a federal appeals court.

At issue is a 1 October deadline for states to begin meeting 2015 standards for ground-level ozone. Pruitt announced in June he would delay compliance by one year to give his agency more time to study the plan and avoid “interfering with local decisions or impeding economic growth”. Pruitt, who was Oklahoma’s attorney general prior to his appointment by Donald Trump, has long been an opponent of stricter environmental regulations. Since arriving in Washington, he has repeatedly moved to block or delay regulations opposed by the chemical and fossil-fuel industries.

Wednesday’s sudden reversal was the latest legal setback for Pruitt’s regulatory rollback agenda.

Why do endangered right whales keep dying off the coast of Canada?

Researchers are scrambling to figure out why one of the world’s most endangered whale species is dying in “unprecedented” numbers, after at least 10 north Atlantic right whales have been found floating lifelessly off the coast of Canada.

The first whale carcass was reported in early June. Within a month, another six reports came in, leaving researchers reeling. This week, after several carcasses washed up on the shores of western Newfoundland, Canadian officials confirmed that the number of whale deaths had risen to at least 10, making 2017 the deadliest year for the whales since researchers began tracking them in the 1980s.

“This is a huge blow to the recovery of the north Atlantic right whale,” said Moira Brown of the Canadian Whale Institute. “This is an animal that maybe numbers 500 animals.”

The north Atlantic right whale – which lives along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US and can reach up to 16m (50ft) in length – has struggled since being nearly hunted to extinction by whalers in the late 18th century. Brown described the string of deaths as unprecedented. “We’re now looking at having lost about 2.5% of the known population. And it’s at least double – if not slightly more – than the number of calves born this year.” ...

With no obvious causes for the deaths, a team including federal scientists, pathologists and veterinarians have been racing against time to figure out what is happening. Necropsies have been carried out on several of the whales – using a backhoe to enter the large animals – in hopes of finding clues before the carcasses decompose.

Also of Interest

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

Did Trump Really End the CIA’s Secret War in Syria?

Seymour Hersh Owes The World An Explanation For His Seth Rich Comments

The Treasury Secretary Just Lied Under Oath

Jared Kushner’s Pro-Israel Bias Is Nothing New for U.S. Mideast Envoys — It’s Just the Most Blatant

US judge lifts order that halted 9/11 case at Guantanamo

Interesting State Department cable about Venezuela

The Cities Where Rent Hikes Leave the Most People Homeless

Former Clinton Adviser: Sanders and His Followers Are ‘Detrimental to the Democratic Party’

Docs Reveal Monsanto's Attempts to Influence Reports About Roundup

A Little Night Music

Buster Benton - Good to the last drop

Buster Benton - Get Yourself Together

Buster Benton - Sweet 94

Buster Benton - Money Is The Name of The Game

Buster Benton - Spider In My Stew

Buster Benton - Dangerous Woman

Buster Benton & Carey Bell - Born With The Blues

Buster Benton - Lonesome for a Dime

Buster Benton - The Best Piece Of Chicken

Buster Benton - That's Your Thing

Buster Benton - Do As You Please

Buster Benton - Hole In My Head