The Evening Blues - 2-29-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and r&b singer Little Milton Campbell. Enjoy!
Little Milton - Who's Cheating Who?
"I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce."-- J. Edgar Hoover
News and Opinion
FBI vs. Apple Establishes a New Phase of the Crypto Wars
Think about it: The more we learn about the FBI’s demand that Apple help it hack into a password-protected iPhone, the more it looks like part of a concerted, long-term effort by the government to find new ways around unbreakable encryption — rather than try to break it. ...
As Apple CEO Tim Cook put it, in his rebellious public response to the court order: “The ‘key’ to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it.”
And it’s those protections that are now under siege. ...
Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, recently proposed that the government’s strategy all along has been to use the push for backdoors into encryption as “a feint.”
Writing for the national security law blog Just Security, Sanchez speculated that “the threat of a costly fight over legislation, even if unlikely to become law, may be largely geared toward getting Silicon Valley, or at least a critical mass of companies, to adopt a more cooperative posture. ” That means “quietly finding ways to accommodate the government.”
Sanchez concluded that when the government finally admits the obvious — and gives up on fighting unbreakable encryption — it will demand some sort of “compromise” legislation.
Sanchez imagined “privacy groups celebrating a victory” when that happens, “while intel officials snicker into their sleeves at a ‘defeat’ according to plan.”
Farook’s iPhone Is Probably Useless, Even the Police Say So
A locked phone used by a dead terrorist initially may have seemed like the perfect test case for law enforcement to argue that it needs ways to get around advanced device security.
But authorities may have picked the wrong phone after all. It’s becoming increasingly clear that law enforcement doesn’t really think there’s any important data on San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone and that it has more precedent-setting value than investigative value. ...
Apple lawyers don’t believe the FBI really cares about this particular phone at all.
In a motion filed on Thursday, they wrote that the bureau’s director would never talk at such length about an ongoing investigation if he had any suspicion that there might be a co-conspirator to convict. ...
“If the government did have any leads on additional suspects, it is inconceivable that it would have filed pleadings on the public record, blogged, and issued press releases discussing the details of the situation, thereby thwarting its own efforts to apprehend the criminals.”
'Incredibly Creepy' Billboards to Track Behavior of Passers-By
Billboards across the country will soon begin to spy on the behavior of passers-by and sell that data to advertisers.
Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, which owns tens of thousands of billboards nationwide, is on Monday announcing plans to use people's cell phones to allow its billboards to track the behavior of everyone who walks or drives past the ads.
"People have no idea that they’re being tracked and targeted," Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told the New York Times, which broke the news on Sunday. "It is incredibly creepy, and it’s the most recent intrusion into our privacy."
The marketing behemoth is partnering with AT&T and other companies that track human behavior to collect data on viewers' activity, which advertisers could then use to create hyper-targeted ads—similar to how websites track visitors through their browsers and sell that data to online marketers.
Unhappy Anniversary:
They’re still lying about the first Gulf War: How the first George Bush helped create today’s Middle East trouble
Ted Cruz has won applause in recent debates by citing what is seen as America’s last unambiguous victory. To defeat ISIS, he said, we should look to the first Gulf War. (Which ended 25 years ago today.) Cruz wants a repeat of that stormy desert operation, with its thousand-plus air attacks in 37 days —and with all its attendant destruction. “There ain’t much left” to a place after such a campaign, Cruz said with a smile. ...
The Gulf War marked the first time in the modern era that we sent our military to fight an Arab-world enemy. Think about that. What has seemed an awful but inescapable part of American foreign policy—the drawn-out struggle against one Islamic foe or another—began in that war. And our having waged that war is precisely what first inflamed the region’s zealots against us. Think about that, too. Not many remember this, but what first motivated Osama bin Laden to attack the United States? It was intolerable to an Islamist such as bin Laden that—because of the fight against Saddam—there were “infidel” American troops in Saudi Arabia, home of Islam’s two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. ...
In the lead-up to the invasion of Kuwait, the United States’ ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, met with Saddam. According to a transcript of that meeting released by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, Ambassador Glaspie told Saddam, “We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America.”
This led many to conclude that, in the words of Sir Edward Mortimer, “It seems [likely] Saddam Hussein went ahead with the invasion because he believed the U.S. would not react with anything more than verbal condemnation.” ...
We’re not great at looking back in this country; we’re not great at drawing the lessons from what happened the day before yesterday. But on this anniversary of the Gulf War, you’ll hear politician after politician celebrate what happened in Iraq 25 years ago. Take a moment to think about how different the world might look—might feel—if we’d never kicked that hornet’s nest.
Syria ceasefire: Truce comes into effect, ‘cautious’ optimism over dea
Violations Reported, But Syria Ceasefire Mostly Holds
Both Syrian rebels and government allies reported multiple ceasefire violations over the weekend, each blaming the other side for all violations, but by and large the ceasefire held through the weekend, with fighting enormously down from pre-ceasefire levels.
Russia announced late on Saturday that it is grounding all its warplanes in Syrian territory, despite the ceasefire allowing them to continue attacks on ISIS and al-Qaeda targets, saying they didn’t want there to be any “mistakes” to threaten the truce.
The rebels also say that they are going to stick to the ceasefire for the time being, but that they also intend to complain to the United Nations about “Russian violations” and also complained about the US not keeping them more directly involved in the negotiations.
'Thousands of People May Have Starved to Death' in Syria, Warns UN
Thousands of people may have starved to death in areas deliberately cut off by Syrian government troops and the Islamic State (IS), the United Nations human rights chief said on Monday.
Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said some of the estimated half a million people trapped in besieged towns and villages had been cut off for years. ...
Speaking as the UN and partner organizations get ready to deliver life-saving aid to about 154,000 besieged Syrians in the next five days, Zeid warned the situation could be even worse than first imagined.
"Thousands of people may have starved to death," he said. The course of the war had seen Syrian people's human rights "shockingly violated," he added, highlighting the fact that at least 10 hospitals and other medical units have been damaged or destroyed just since the beginning of the year. ...
Pending approval from parties to the conflict, the UN will deliver aid to about 1.7 million people in hard-to-reach areas in the first quarter of 2016, UN Resident Coordinator in Damascus, Yacoub El Hillo, said on Sunday.
Aside from almost 500,000 people living under siege, there are estimated to be another 4.6 million Syrians who are hard to reach with aid.
Netanyahu: Syria Peace Deal Must Meet Israel’s Needs
Speaking today ahead of a cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel “welcomes” the ongoing Syrian ceasefire in theory, but insists that the international community recognize that any peace deal ending the Syrian Civil War has to comply with Israel’s needs.
Netanyahu and other officials were vague on exactly what that meant, but insisted that it had to halt “Iranian aggression from Syria,” which likely suggests Israel is going to demand a regime change that installs a new government that’s not an ally to Iran.
That’s in keeping with Israeli comments throughout the war that they “prefer ISIS” ending up in control of Syria.
Former CIA director: Military may refuse to follow Trump’s orders if he becomes president
Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges.
Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his party’s nomination, but Hayden said the candidate’s rhetoric already raises troubling questions.
“I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language that candidate Trump expressed during the campaign,” Hayden said during the interview with Maher.
Hillary's mentor Kissinger's handiwork on display:
A Chilean Ex-Soldier Guiltily Recalls His Unit’s Atrocities
The scene has haunted Guillermo Padilla for over 40 years.
As an 18-year-old soldier in the Chilean Army in 1973, Mr. Padilla was on patrol with his unit in a southern city when the owner of a supermarket turned in his own son, accusing him of supplying munitions and food to a guerrilla group. The soldiers threw the young man into a well and began shooting at him. Then they dragged out his bloody, bullet-riddled body, put it in a military truck and drove off. Mr. Padilla was watching from a nearby jeep.
“I never knew where he was taken, and not even his name,” he said. “The whole experience in the army made me mature quickly. I became a soldier at 18, and after everything I saw, by 21 I had become a different person.”
Mr. Padilla was part of a commando unit that spent months combing towns and remote outposts in southern Chile in late 1973, searching for suspected opponents of the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and for weapons. The unit raided homes, arrested and tortured suspects, and killed at least 30 people, he said.
He admitted to participating in several executions as part of a firing squad.
“I didn’t feel anything,” he said. But now, he said, “there are times when I can’t get the images of these people out of my head.” ...
Like thousands of other conscripts, Mr. Padilla still carries the emotional scars of having been forced to witness or commit atrocities — many were ordered, on fear of death, to beat, kill, torture or rape innocent people. They still feel the shame and fear instilled in them as they jumped from adolescence to manhood almost overnight, and fear retribution, being shunned by family and friends, or ending up in jail. ...
According to an official report on prison and torture during the 17-year Pinochet dictatorship, after the coup, Mr. Padilla’s Puente Alto regiment held prisoners in train wagons, blindfolded, bound and deprived of food and water. Many detainees were subjected to torture and rape.
For years, he has taken medication to sleep at night, and he longs for the forgiveness of the victims’ families. But he hesitates to approach them; he says he does not know how, aware that much of society regards the soldiers as criminals.
Trident rally is Britain's biggest anti-nuclear march in a generation
Thousands of protesters have assembled in central London for Britain’s biggest anti-nuclear weapons rally in a generation.
Campaigners gathered from across the world: some said they had travelled from Australia to protest against the renewal of Trident. Others had come from the west coast of Scotland, where Britain’s nuclear deterrent submarines are based. ...
The campaigners headed for Trafalgar Square where were addressed by the leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green party. The true draw – cited as an inspiration by many of those assembled – was the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, whose unswerving unilateralist stance has electrified the nuclear deterrent debate in a manner few could have foreseen. ...
Organisers of the march, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, were confident the turnout would send a robust message of growing support against renewing the nuclear weapons system – at an estimated cost of least £41bn – and argued that worries about job losses were a red herring.
Prominent Wall Street Whistleblowers Announce New Initiative
China to cut 1.8m jobs in coal and steel sectors
China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, or about 15% of the workforce, as part of efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity.
It was the first time China gave figures that underlining the magnitude of its task in dealing with slowing growth and bloated state enterprises.
Yin Weimin, the minister for human resources and social security, told a news conference on Monday that 1.3 million workers in the coal sector could lose their jobs, plus 500,000 from the steel sector.
China’s coal and steel sectors employ about 12 million workers, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics. “This involves the resettlement of a total of 1.8 million workers. This task will be very difficult, but we are still very confident,” Yin said. ...
The central government will allocate 100bn yuan (£10bn) over two years to relocate workers laid off as a result of China’s efforts to curb overcapacity, officials said last week.
Crowd Pelts Cops With Rocks and Debris After Shooting of Teen in Salt Lake City
A small riot erupted in Salt Lake City after police shot a teenage boy near a homeless shelter on Saturday night.
The shooting occurred at around 8pm in the northern part of the city, near a shopping mall about five miles east of the airport. Witness Selam Mohammed, 19, told local news outlets that his friend was trying to break up a fight outside the Road Home, a homeless shelter, when police arrived on the scene.
Mohammed said his Kenyan friend, who remains unidentified, was wielding a broomstick when police approached him from behind with their guns drawn and ordered him to drop it. The teen was reportedly shot four times in the chest and stomach. ...
After the shooting, a crowd gathered and began pelting the cops with rocks, bottles, and debris. Dozens of officers from multiple police agencies responded, and video footage from the scene showed police vehicles blocking off the street and attempting to disperse the crowd.
The Salt Lake Tribune said its reporters observed angry bystanders "yelling obscenities at police and throwing rocks."
The Empire Files: An Unparalleled Act of Police Terror
Coalition of 400 companies fight Georgia's proposed 'religious liberty' bill
A coalition of more than 400 companies is openly opposing a Georgia “religious liberty” bill that is rapidly heading toward passage, with at least one major company already leaving the state over the proposal.
The proposed law would allow both individuals and organizations to refuse to conduct business with or otherwise discriminate against anyone whose marriage they find counters their religious beliefs. It also protects individuals from existing nondiscrimination laws in Atlanta and elsewhere.
A similar bill was dismissed last year, but the speed at which this year’s version, the “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA), is moving has raised serious concerns among state lawmakers, business owners, the faith community and activists.
The bill passed both the House and, in a different form, the Senate this month. The most recent version bars the government from taking “adverse action” against a person or faith-based organization that “believes, speaks, or acts in accordance” with the religious belief that “marriage should only be between a man and a woman”. ...
Just in the last week, roughly 100 businesses have joined a coalition of what is now over 400 companies opposing the religious freedom bill. The group Georgia Prospers, of which Moore is a member, includes a range of businesses – from Fortune 500 companies like Delta, Coca-Cola, and Home Depot to smaller ones across the state – in support of “treating all Georgians and visitors fairly”
Antonin Scalia: The Billion-Dollar Supreme Court Justice
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was worth billions of dollars to corporate America, if a Dow Chemical settlement made public Friday is any indication.
Dow was in the midst of appealing a $1.06 billion class-action antitrust ruling after a jury found that it had conspired with other chemical companies to fix prices for urethane, a material used in furniture and appliances.
But because of Scalia’s death and the sudden unlikelihood of finding five votes on the Supreme Court to overturn the case, Dow decided to settle for $835 million, the bulk of the original award. ...
The case reveals how corporations have used the conservative majority on the court as a safety valve to nullify unfavorable rulings. As the Alliance for Justice has documented, time and again, the Roberts Court has issued 5-4 rulings that protect big corporations from liability, limit access to justice for workers and consumers, and allow companies to evade regulations on the environment, racial and gender discrimination, and monopolistic practices.
Elizabeth Warren Highlights Key Weakness in Clinton's Wall Street Donation Defense
Hillary Clinton has been fielding questions for months about her Wall Street speaking fees and campaign contributions, in every interview, town hall, and debate. And rightly so; we all know how the banks' fraudulent behavior tanked the economy, and everyone - Left, Right, and Center - is disgusted with what Citizens United has done to campaign finance. Clinton's defense has become streamlined and simple: sure, she took money from banks, but so did Obama - and he still passed very strict regulation on the banks. It seems effective; but there's a huge problem with this argument - so huge, in fact, that it transforms it from a defense into a powerful critique. To understand why, we turn to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass).
Warren recently published a report, titled Rigged Justice: 2016; How Weak Enforcement Lets Corporate Offenders Off Easy. She published an editorial at the same time, in which she outlines and interprets her findings. She starts off by referring to candidates "feverishly pitching their legislative agendas." As she shows, however, laws don't mean anything if they aren't enforced -- and it turns out, in far too many cases, they effectively haven't been.
It is true, Obama passed strong Wall Street reform; but under his watch not a single Wall Street CEO has been prosecuted, and regulation has been lax. Do we believe Clinton might also pass strong laws? Maybe so; but Warren has proven that the laws are meaningless if they go unenforced. The real question is, would Clinton nominate strong regulators? If we judge her by Obama - as she has repeatedly insisted we should - we must conclude that she would not. In fact, Warren may just have revealed how those massive donations and speaking fees get repaid: by putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse.
An excellent article from Wall Street on Parade, well worth a click to read in full:
New York Times Rethinks Hillary Clinton for President
You know there is something bizarre going on in American politics when the New York Times endorses Hillary Clinton for President at the end of January and then begins to question her judgment before a month goes by. What message does it send to voters when a major newspaper sounds like it has endorser’s remorse and we’re still in the primary season? ...
The reader reaction to its endorsement likely stunned the editorial page editors at the Times. Over 5700 comments appeared over the next eight days with many running along the lines of Marian from New York City, who wrote:
“Throughout the decades, The Times has erroneously endorsed the Clintons in spite of their corruption.
“This endorsement not only suffers from the same error, it is also dishonest. In the past, The Times gave full-throated acknowledgment of Clinton corruption, but argued, erroneously, that ‘good policy’ trumps character.”
Marion perfectly captures the anti-establishment outrage across the country. How dare the New York Times shove a candidate at us who has wallowed in Wall Street money from firms charged with felonies while she is under an FBI investigation for transmitting sensitive government communications over a household server.
If good character no longer matters to the New York Times – what does that say about media ethics in America? ...
We don’t know for certain that the New York Times has been influenced by the outrage from its readers but we can say for certain that this past Sunday’s print edition and the digital edition provided readers with a multi-media onslaught of reasons to question Hillary Clinton as a “deeply qualified” presidential candidate.
As part of a long article investigating Hillary Clinton’s actions in Libya as Secretary of State, the Times ran a photo with the following caption: “The president was wary about intervening, but Mrs. Clinton was persuasive. In the end, the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi left Libya a failed state and a haven for terrorists.” The same caption offers a link to a video titled: Hillary Clinton’s Legacy in Libya. The video presents a devastating indictment of Hillary Clinton’s judgment calls in the Middle East.
Feeling the Bern Become a Flame
Cornel West Says Civil Rights Leaders That Support Hillary Clinton Have Lost Their Way
Dr. Cornel West, one of the preeminent public intellectuals on issues of a race and inequality and an avid Sanders supporter, had harsh words for civil rights leaders supporting Clinton's campaign during an interview with VICE News as he toured South Carolina on Sanders' behalf last week.
West spoke at length of "Brother Bernie's" activism during the civil rights era, while questioning Clinton's commitment to the cause. When asked why some civil rights leaders were backing Clinton's campaign, including Rep. John Lewis, who marched in Selma in 1965, West replied that Lewis and others had lost their way.
"There's no doubt that the great John Lewis of 50 years ago is different than the John Lewis today," West remarked. "He's my brother. I love him, I respect his personhood, but there's no doubt he's gone from a high moment of Martin Luther King-like struggle to now [a] neoliberal politician in a system that is characterized more and more by legalized bribery and normalized corruption. That's what big money does to politics. And the Clinton machine is an example of that." ...
West repeatedly referred to both Lewis and Rep. Jim Clyburn, who was also involved in the civil rights movement and now represents South Carolina in the House of Representatives, as "neoliberal politicians." The classification, he explained, refers to "a politics that proceeds based on financializing, privatizing, and militarizing."
West said that Clyburn and Lewis had become "too well adjusted to Wall Street." They are now a part of a system, he said, "in which politicians are well adjusted to injustice owing to their ties to big money, big banks, and big corporations, and turning their backs, for the most part, to poor people and working people. Poor people and working people become afterthoughts."
Did Bernie Sanders Run a White, “Northern Liberal” Campaign in South Carolina?
Killer Mike says conscience wouldn't let him vote for Hillary Clinton
Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike has taken aim at Hillary Clinton, saying that his conscience wouldn’t allow him to vote for her.
Killer Mike, AKA Michael Render, was speaking at a Bernie Sanders rally at Claflin University in South Carolina on Sunday when he made the comments. In particular he criticised Clinton’s response to a recent question from Ashley Williams, an activist for the black liberation movement, Black Lives Matter. During a Clinton fundraiser, Williams asked her if she would “apologise to black people for mass incarceration” and held up a banner with a 1996 Clinton quote that said “we have to bring them to heel”. She was escorted out by security, but the incident was captured on video.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard quits DNC to support Bernie Sanders
Representative Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her post as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday, in order to support Bernie Sanders in his run for the party’s presidential nomination.
Gabbard made the announcement on Sunday, appearing as a panel member on the NBC show Meet the Press.
“I think it’s most important for us, as we look at our choices as to who our next commander-in-chief will be, is to recognize the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, who exercises good judgment,” she said. ...
Gabbard, 34, an Iraq war veteran and now representative for Hawaii, became the fourth member of Congress to endorse Sanders. She elaborated on her decision, by saying it stemmed from Sanders’ cautious foreign policy.
“As a veteran and as a soldier I’ve seen first-hand the true cost of war,” she said.
“I served in a medical unit during my first deployment, where every single day I saw first hand the very high human cost of that war. I see it in my friends who now, a decade after we’ve come home, are still struggling to get out of a black hole.”
I resigned from the DNC & endorsed @BernieSanders to be our next President and Commander-in-Chief. Here's why: https://t.co/qinG2yCUow
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) February 28, 2016
Ex-TEPCO Bosses Indicted in 'Major Step' for Justice in Fukushima
In what environmental advocates called a "major step" toward justice against corporate crime, three former executives with the Tokyo Electronic Power Company (TEPCO) on Monday were indicted on negligence charges over their roles in the 2011 nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. ...
Ex-TEPCO chair Tsunehisa Katsumata and former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro were charged with professional negligence over allegedly failing to take measures to protect the plant, despite being aware of elevated tsunami risks, in what became the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.
The three were not taken into custody, but will face the first criminal action in connection with the disaster which forced the evacuation of 160,000 residents, many of whom are still unable to return. If convicted, the men face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to one million yen ($8,865).
Prosecutors moved forward with the charges after a civilian judiciary panel ruled in July for the second time that the executives should be put on trial. ...
The trial, which is not expected to begin for at least six months, could reveal undisclosed information about the disaster that TEPCO has worked to keep under wraps, while Japan's nuclear regulatory agency and President Shinzo Abe continue to push for restarts on reactors without addressing safety issues, the group said.
California's "Monster" Gas Leak Was Largest in US History, Study Shows
The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout, which lasted for months and sickened scores of nearby residents, has been confirmed as the largest methane leak in history.
According to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday in the journal Science, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane—effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Southern California Gas Co. said it stopped the leak earlier this month. State Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources engineers confirmed the leak was halted last week.
"Aliso Canyon will be, certainly, the biggest single [methane] source of the year," said co-lead study author Stephen Conley of UC Davis and Scientific Aviation. "It's definitely a monster." ...
The Aliso Canyon disaster has prompted calls from members of Congress for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to create the first federal standards for underground gas storage.
But with more than 300 such facilities across the U.S., the leak "is just the latest and most public example showing that we need to keep natural gas in the ground, not burn it," as Earthworks executive director Jennifer Krill wrote last month.
Across Canada and World, Climate Movement Prepares for Leap into 2016
Global day of action is in support of the Leap Manifesto, a set of 15 demands endorsed by more than 150 organizations and unveiled last September
With ambitious calls for a post-carbon future, respect for Indigenous rights, and economic justice for all, climate activists from across Canada and the world will celebrate International Leap Day on Monday with rallies, film screenings, teach-ins, and more.
The actions are in support of the Leap Manifesto, a set of 15 demands endorsed by more than 150 organizations and unveiled last September. Canadian anti-capitalist and author Naomi Klein and her husband, filmmaker Avi Lewis, are among its initiating signatories.
"The Manifesto, bolder than anything on offer from the major federal political parties, lays out an alternative vision that would get us to 100 percent renewable electricity within two decades — while building a fairer, more humane society in the process," they said in a statement read at the launch and published at the Toronto Star at the time.
"In Paris, Canada’s government committed to radically lowering its emissions," additional high-profile supporters wrote on Friday. "The Leap Manifesto outlines practical policies for how we can do this in ways that change our country for the better."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Eight Memorable Passages From Apple’s Fiery Response to the FBI
The Cult of Hillary, the Ultimate Junk Bond
‘I witnessed the birth of Isis’: how one film-maker captured the horror of Iraq
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s Surprise Bernie Sanders Endorsement
Global funds flee stocks, raise bond holdings to five-year high as growth fears mount
‘The Big Short’ director blasts big banks, oil in Oscar acceptance speech
An E.Coli’s Last Message to President Obama
Don’t Shut Post Offices—Reinvent Them
Some Americans Are Seriously Considering Moving to an Island in Canada If Trump Wins
A Little Night Music
Little Milton - Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
Little Milton & Bonnie Raitt - Grits Ain't Groceries
Little Milton - Blind Man
Little Milton - Guitar Man
Little Milton — I Don't Believe In Ghosts
Little Milton - That's What Love Will Make You Do
Little Milton - The Blues is Alright
Comments
CLO's imploding
(Collateralized loan obligations
This is another warning sign for the economy.
I'd like a heads-up when Jack Lew
…falls to his knees in front of Paul Ryan and begs Ryan to save the US banks; while both Hillary and Donald suspend their campaigns to fly to DC to solve the problem.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
You mean some big paydays imminent for the banks yet again
like the bank bail-outs in 2008?
If a major crash happens, HRC is in for some real hard physical work in a long long time - she will turn around and run away from Obama so fast that it will make our heads spin.
No government bailouts this time
In the last omnibus bill congress wrote in that the banks can take depositer's money from them. Once a person puts money in a bank, it's not theirs any more. I don't remember the exact amount, but if people want to withdraw more than $3,000, they have to fill out a form first and then it takes a few days until their money is released. I'll try to find the link, or you can search for bank bail ins.
This happened in Greece.
Plus, some European countries are going cashless. I think it's being tried in Australia or Austria. Do a search for cashless society.
Some economists are saying that another crash is coming by the end of this year or the first of next year.
And Hillary lied,(I know) when she said that Obama put heavy restrictions on the banks when Dodd Frank was passed. But she didn't tell us how much it's been watered down so that it's basically useless.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
evening gj...
oh, my. i guess now that people are dropping stocks like hot potatoes and the housing market is dropping, they will have to come up with a new way to overstate how the economy is doing.
I saw this chart this morning
That says how badly junk bonds are doing lately compared to when Lehman had to close it's doors. Another way of saying they're doing so poorly is that they are paying awsome interest rates (as long as they're paying). Fracking is imploding, me thinks.
evening crider...
i don't see how fracking could be sustainable when the costs of production exceed the market value of what they produce. i suspect that the frackers are going down.
I didn't think there was anyone alive
…who dared use this factual reference to the birth of ISIS — as in this essay: They’re still lying about the first Gulf War: How the first George Bush helped create today’s Middle East trouble. It was also rarely if ever reported that this marked the beginning of the credible threats leading up to 911, as well.
The significant connection was soon dropped from the US historical narrative, and the subsequent attempts to take down the World Trade Center (the long stated target) were never directly connected to either the first Gulf war nor to the successful 9/11 attack that would come later. Americans have yet to know the "why" of the matter — or much else.
But there is something in the posted essay that is far more important and insidious. Americans have yet to understand that it is the State Department that deliberately initiates all the wars that the US military cannot win. The object isn't winning, in any event. The object is the corporate asset-stripping of the United States via defense contracts and fairytale boogymen designed for the American people. Note this passage:
This same scenario is endlessly repeated by the State Department in order to foment US wars or proxy wars. It was used to trigger the Georgia / Russia conflict, and used again to trigger the Ukraine / Russia conflict. The State Department also uses the same technique, along with false-flag attacks executed by government contractors, to foment civil wars, as was the case in Libya and Syria. The ensuing crisis is then followed by a US "humanitarian intervention". When you hear the words "humanitarian intervention" you can rest assured that everyone involved will be slaughtered or scattered to the four winds — and that country's natural resources will soon be privatized to foreign corporations. (Libya is currently being invaded by nations with corporate interests in Libya's natural resources.)
So, if you ever want to know about your next war, keep an eye on the State Department.
That was the gift given to the American people by Chelsea Manning.
Use it so she doesn't die in vain.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
can you help me understanding exactly
what Chelsea Manning's gift was? Which kind of information had she given out that relate to this specific transcript of April Gaspie and Saddam's conversation that the Margaret Thatcher Foundation released?
sicking to 'april's gift', mimi...
no one seems to remember (the PTB would like you to forget) the Iran/Iraq war, when the US (west?) was on saddam's site, and gave him a pass on chemical war becaus: the enemy of our enemy is our freind™, and additionally provided his regime with what would now be called WMD. funny how no one who mattered would answer :'why we know saddam has wmd' (no matter that he'd actually destroyed them all by the time...) with WE provided him with them!' used to drive me batshit crazy. just scanning (burned out eyes by now), i can' say all of this seems just right, but from the Wayback Machine: 'How the US armed Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons'.
apologies, mimi.
in my tired and addlepated dotage, i'd forgotten to say: small wonder, then, that glaspie either told him that, or was directed to tell him that. in any event, she took the fall, likely both historically, and by being sent to a metaphorical siberia for her (their) sins.
thanks, wendy, I will have to read up on that
anyhow. There is so much history in it that happened before I followed the news. I heard and remember some, but not others.
And whether or not TPTB are able to loot the invaded
country, chaos & destruction are intended and not accidents.
evening pluto...
yeah, i was pretty impressed with how many low-circulation truths were in that article. a little more and we might have been treated to an explanation of slant-drilling and the use of incubators as propaganda devices.
Well, you find them
…and I'll pluck them bald.
Pretty soon the site's silent readers will carry the virus-of-seeing-what's-real back to their home planets.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
heh...
i have no idea of how many silent readers we have or what home planets they may be from, but i sure hope that they are getting something out of the news selection if some of them are from one of the more repressed planets of my experience.
oh, I remember the incubator story, even remember
where I have put the old video footage in our archives in the basement.
I have been aware of the assets stripping for a long time
And remember that Smedley Butler told us that back in the 30's when he said that he had been muscle for hire for 33 years. He also wrote about the companies that profited from the wars. One example was about the number of boots a company sold the military. They sold 4 times the number of boots then there were soldiers.
And it continues to this day. Cheney gave out no bid contracts to companies that now do the things that the military used to do for over a Century. No more KP, building their own latrines, guarding bases and other things. And many contractors have been found guilty of defrauding the government, but after paying a small fine they get new contracts.
Another thing that not too many people are aware of is that after the Iraqi army was defeated and were on their way back home, the U.S. Air Force slaughtered over 10 thousand troops. The first and last trucks were hit by bombs from planes and then for over an hour, the planes killed the troops with either bombs or strafed them.
And remember Hillary's BFF Kissinger said that the stupid men who join the military are just cannon fodder?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
holy crow, joe;
this is a hella lot of news. i love the billboards tracking smart phones best; gives a whole 'nother dimension to Total Information Awareness, doesn't it?
the kenyan lad the SLC police shot is named Abdi Mohamed, and as far as i can discover, he's still in a coma (bless his broom-wielding heart). and fuck the police, as ever. i hope it's not crass of me, but i thought i might drop of my new 'February Police State and US Injustice Department News’ in case folks wanted to read some of the current heap of barbarity brought to us in the name of 'Serve and Protect' officers.
good leap day to you all.
Total information Awareness indeed.
Awareness is for everybody else, except us the subjects - the peasants/peons/serfs/proles/unwashed. While we keep drooling over our iCrap, jShit or whatever in a brainwashed state, they keep making money off spying on us and looting.
Most of these innovations all come out of defense research. And no wonder they lend themselves seamlessly for surveillance.
evening wendy...
yeah, that billboard piece really grabbed my attention. i wonder how long it will be before either a phone company or a billboard company starts collecting and selling our location information in the same way that people who operate license plate readers do it.
hell, joe,
google does the equivalent already; few know it, though. 'Google Is Not What It Seems', by Julian Assange
Oh boy, too much "good" stuff in today's EB
will probably read late at night. Sigh. heh, Edgar Hoover, one kind of a guy I guess...
Thanks Joe.
evening mimi...
happy reading!
Evening Joe & c99%-ers. Thanks for yet another superb, ecelectic
Kevin Alexander Gray makes some good points. Although I would also add the media blackout of Sanders as another factor. That and the saavy con-artistry displayed by HRC
Hmmmm....... Michael Hayden the peacenik getting applause from a liberal audience? We are officially in the Looking glass territory. But then I guess the liberal crowd will applaud for any remark from any idiot against Trump.
Rep. John Lewis keeps hitting new lows just when I think he can't go any lower. His "free stuff" rhetoric comes straight from the Romney/Gingrich playbook. Reminds me of another civil rights leader Andrew Young who is not even a pale shadow of his former self. Black Misleadership Class keeps breaking new ground.
evening funkygal...
yeah, when bill maher thanked hayden for "his service," and then said that he meant it, well, my opinion of maher went down another several notches.
seems to me that whatever hayden did right during his "service" was quite overshadowed by the wrongs that we are aware of, god only knows what sort of awful crap he did that we are unaware of.
Back when Snowden was working undercover
…for the CIA in Switzerland, he and Michael were like this:
The NSA wasn't even on the the radar yet.
See, you don't even have to finish high school to make it to the top in America, the land of opportunity.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
when my son got recruited
someone wanted to hire him to do something like espionage (he spoke three languages almost fluent, had a highschool diploma, but not much more). He said "No way". I bet you, he would have been on its way to the "top" by now. I don't remember the exact story. I wonder if the decision was the right one... I guess he would kill me for doubting his rejection. Sigh, just imagine, where we could have ended up...
Such handsome guys in those suits. Switzerland, best place to retire... oh chucks, one time failed, always failed.
Haven't been to a caucus yet - skipped it in 2012.
But friends recommend going once just to see something as close as it gets to real democracy in action. So might give it a shot tomorrow. If there is no Green party precinct caucus, am going to go with Bernie (though I have lots of reservations about his policies). Haven't seen any polling recently but apparently it is very close at this point.
Guess The Grey Lady is trying hard not to make itself
totally irrelevant and hence pretending to criticise HRC. Good for all the commenters piling on NYT. Not for the first time they are shooting first and then asking questions later. The reporting on Killary's "achievements" in "New Libya" is brutal.
i was kind of surprised by their libya coverage...
they had a couple of in-depth articles up that i haven't had the time to read all the way through yet (i'm hoping to check them out in full this weekend) but what i've read so far is pretty damning.
Springtime for Hitler in Germany
I got a kick out of this. Did anyone see it?
http://zap2it.com/2016/02/nathan-lane-matthew-broderick-donald-trumps-pr...
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
awesome!
“Well, I never! Talk about bad taste!” n/t
I did not know Obama...
...had received so much money from the financial services back in '07-'08. So I have to thank Hillary for showing me why Obama was so quick to appoint his economic team of banksters, even before he was inaugurated. And Hillary says that financial support did not influence him? Lordy, Lordy! Geithner, Summers, et al show very well how those financial contributions influenced him from the get go into infinitem!
Hillary is cut from the same cloth.
evening dharmasyd...
hillary is cut from the same cloth as obama, but she's trying really hard to sew the fabric back together at the coattails. i find it hard to believe that black voters are going for it after all of the nasty things that hillary said and did about and to obama in 2008.
They're still lying about the first gulf war
and they're still lying about every war from the Revolutionary war on. Every single one. Most people don't like being lied to right to their face, but with politicians we seem to excuse it somehow, like it's the best we're going to get. I guess I've lived enough of that. It doesn't matter whether it's Sanders, Stein, or Clinton, they all lie, or continue the false narratives, one way or another. If we continue to accept that, they'll continue to do it.
I see VICE news is still spreading propaganda and flat out lies
about Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Absolutely unreal how brazen the ruling class media has become and the reporters and writers that participate in the media fraud.
evening al...
the media, they're just like politicians. they all lie. but not everything they say is a lie.
Evening joe.
Ya, reminds me of an old saying, "ya can't believe everything you read in the papers son".
It's no different, just more pervasive and elaborate. The people they get to do their bidding should be ashamed, not to mention brought up on charges.
One of the Revolution cornerstones, breaking up the 90% media monopoly of the Imperialists/Zionists.
I'm not willing to say...
...that Sanders and Stein "... all lie, or continue the false narratives, one way or another..." Not yet, I'm not ready to say that. Bernie has 'hedged" a bit; I can see that, yet I'm not ready to abandon the totality. As to Stein, I don't know; I have not studied her sufficiently to make judgement. The fact that she is running, hopelessly, in a national U.S. election is not sufficient for me to judge her for trying. It's a long, slow process. It may be so slow that we cannot save ourselves or the planet, but I cannot judge anyone for trying even if they may be deluded.
If they're not telling the truth, then they're lying imo.
I appreciate that, but both of them will not say what the Libya and Syria wars are really about, they will not say what the war OF terror is really about or the war against ISIS. They will not say that the U.S. and it's friends created ISIS, basically out of al Qaeda, to act as proxy armies against Gaddafi and Assad and that they're funding, training, and aiding them while pretending to fight against them. Sanders has approved of Obama extending the Afghan war again, and has stated that we need to do "something about" Putin and Russia, indicating he is in line with the "Russian aggression" propaganda (lies). They will not mention the PNAC charter for a New American Century, or U.S. imperialism.
When they don't do that they are in effect lying, they are perpetuating the false narratives and lies that all of our politicians and government officials do regarding the true purpose of U.S. imperialism. None of them will mention the name of Smedley Butler.
I react from the standpoint that we don't have time to deal with the one step forward two step back approach, and that we need to save people from being killed right now, just as if a murderer was in town and killing children we would pull out all stops to protect the children by stopping the killer. I don't think we can accept this any longer no matter who it is, it has gone on far too long. I also say what I say and how I say it to provoke, I admit that. I think we need provoking.
Provoking is something the citizenry...
...of the US really needs. But it is such a delicate balance. How do we provoke sufficiently while not driving everyone away calling us "looney Conspiracy Theorists?" There are doubtless many answers to this.
I feel we need to address this issue with deep consideration. Ultimately this probably requires a degree of restraint, of not putting it all out there all at once so the fearful will feel they must reject the thinking outright. Is this restraint a cop out or a persuasive argument? I have no absolute answers. I am only experimenting and testing to try to find our what will work. While realizing that time is short, I cannot allow that to push me into actions which might be even more damaging.
I think we're dealing with an insidious machine and
just have to let it fly. For example, I was in a conversation the other day and a commenter called another commenter a "Putin apologist". Now that's a planted phrase that's been used by government and private controlled trolls since the Iraq war. First it was "Saddam apologist", then Gaddafi apologist then Assad apologist then Putin apologist. I've of course been accused of all of them and eventually you can see what they're really up to. It's like using the term conspiracy theorist to try to shut down the conversation about something. Anyway, as soon as that commenter said that I laid into him/her about using such a bullshit and propagandish phrase and sure enough, no come back. When they're called on it appropriately and with facts, they will back down because they simply don't know how to proceed past that.
So I slowly came to not give a shit anymore. It's not for everybody, I've always been of this type, even when I worked for the federal government for 30 years, I was always the one challenging one thing or another. Additionally, I was a government analyst, I know how to research and analyze and have the chops for it, and I've spent the last almost ten years now studying, reading, and researching nearly every day about U.S. imperialism, foreign affairs, wars, etc. I do know what I'm talking about and I'm not afraid to say it in ways others won't. I know it rubs some the wrong way, but that's on them to me, if they can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen.
It's why I call for a boycott instead of voting for Stein. I believe eventually we have to have a new political system, the one we have will never work for we the people, it will certainly NEVER give me the freedom I want in life. I believe we all have one life to live and no one else has the fucking right to dictate how I fucking live without my direct input, and no one has the right to do what our government does and has been doing since it's inception (native American genocide, slavery, Japanese internment, rule by the rich, purposefully manufactured poverty for half the country, imperialism and killing and displacing people in other countries for greed and power, rigging/corrupting all systems, etc.) I believe they have to be stopped now.
Robert Borosage and the Whistleblower United Campaign
very interesting how the whistle blowing looks like in real life as told by the whistle blowers, Richard Bowen, Michael Winston, Gary Aguirre and William Black. It's a long four part video, but I have never heard of those people other than William Black. It's quite an initiative. I hope it will be heard more about.
I don't quite understand what Robert Borosage does and where the money comes from for his Campaign for America's Future group. I heard him speak (and have made my own video footage) at the New Populism Conference in May in DC. The conference was interesting in hind sight, because it gave very much space and exposure of "black voices" before "black lives matter" came into the public and I wonder how so different groups came together.
I just now read a little bit on their website. Who is Robert Borosage and how does he fund his activities?
part four of the video clips from TRN is especially
good. William Black makes it very clear and pulls the first three clips all together.
Good evening, Joe. Another great roundup, thanks.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Merchants of death