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Kitchen window. Photo by: joanneleon. May, 2013.
Kitchen window. Photo by: joanneleon. May, 2013.
Kitchen window. Photo by: joanneleon. May, 2013.
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With all of the turmoil, scandals, activism, etc., it's easy to forget what is at stake in the Manning trial and with the Wikileaks grand jury (which may have already produced an indictment that is sealed at this time). Yes, the DoJ spying on journalists is a bad thing. There is no doubt about that. News organizations are already whispering to each other about how their sources have clammed up and are terrified because of the witch hunts declared by the Obama administration.
But the news organizations themselves have a lot to be terrified about too. Eric Holder signed a warrant that said that Fox News' Rosen was a suspected co-conspirator. Obama and Holder both tried to walk that back, saying they did not intend to prosecute journalists. But it's right there in black and white. Whether or not they called him a co-conspirator in order to be able to grab all their communications or not, this is little consolation. It says "co-conspirator" and it doesn't say "just kidding" in a footnote.
Manning's prosecution team has made it clear that whether he had leaked to Wikileaks or the the New York Times, they would still be using the Espionage Act, which carries a potential death penalty. They are claiming that just by giving this information to a publishing organization that uses the internet, he was aiding the enemy. And again, the prosecution was asked if leaking it to another publisher like the New York Times would also cause them to use the Espionage Act, and they said "yes" without hesitating. Obama and all the president's men aren't bluffing about that Espionage Act either because they've used it six times already, more than all other presidents combined. When you hear the name "Espionage Act", you think of traitorous government officials passing blueprints to Russian spies on microfilm for large amounts of money, or double agent/moles in our government giving away our military secrets to enemy foreign goverments. But this president has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers who did things like exposing information about the torture program or other war crimes, and as far as I know, none were doing this for profit or any kind of personal gain.
Meanwhile, one of the things about all of this that causes the most anger by civil liberties activists and others is that the Obama administration itself leaks profusely when it is convenient for them. They are famous for "sanctioned leaks". There are rules about disclosing classified information and it is supposed to be reported to a Congressional committee. This administration leaks classified information when it is politically convenient for them (or when loose cannon Brennan goes off) and they also abuse government secrecy by overclassification to hide inconvenient or embarrassing information. If they decide to leak it to the press, it's fine but if someone else does, they're risking prosecution with a law that carries a maximum penalty of a death sentence.
And if they are successful in getting a judge to say that leaking classified information to a press organization is "aiding the enemy" that is a horrific precedent to set. Even if they don't convince a judge of that, all the president's men (and women) are in the process of destroying the first amendment freedom of the press with the combination of abuse of government secrecy privileges and abuse of the Espionage Act. And all of this from, as Jeremy Scahill calls him, our Democratic, Peace prize winning, constitutional lawyer president. It's Orwellian. Saying this might get me quoted in another ranting meta diary about people who sound like they are from Red State by one of his fierce defenders, but so be it. It's just the truth and I'm not the one who has a Red State tinge.
Bradley Manning and the real war on leaks
The most significant dispute over leaks this week is not in Washington, where Attorney General Eric Holder is under fire for the searches of journalists’ files. It’s 40 miles north in Fort Meade, Maryland, where the trial of Army Private First Class Bradley Manning begins Monday.
Manning is facing a court-martial, or military prosecution, for sending 700,000 government documents to Wikileaks. It was the “biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history,” as Reuters reported, and the U.S. government believes that makes Manning an enemy of the state.
In an unusual move, prosecutors are charging Manning under the Espionage Act, which targets conduct specifically aimed at injuring the United States, and under the military code barring “aiding the enemy,” a treasonous offense that carries a potential death penalty.
If prosecutors win, Manning will face the most severe punishment for the dissemination of information to publishers in American history. That could be a hollow victory for the United States, however, by chilling press freedoms and government accountability in the long run.
AP Exclusive: Some Obama top political appointees using secret US government email accounts
The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery: Most U.S. agencies have failed to turn over lists of political appointees’ email addresses, which the AP sought under the Freedom of Information Act more than three months ago. The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay more than $1 million for its email addresses.
[...]
The secret email accounts complicate an agency’s legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails in response to congressional or internal investigations, civil lawsuits or public records requests because employees assigned to compile such responses would necessarily need to know about the accounts to search them. Secret accounts also drive perceptions that government officials are trying to hide actions or decisions.
[...]
Agencies where the AP so far has identified secret addresses, including the Labor Department and HHS, said maintaining non-public email accounts allows senior officials to keep separate their internal messages with agency employees from emails they exchange with the public. They also said public and non-public accounts are always searched in response to official requests and the records are provided as necessary.
Turkish PM gets into row with Reuters reporter over Taksim protests
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan argued today with Reuters reporter Birsen Altaylı about the seven-day long Taksim Gezi Park protests, accusing her of misinforming her agency about the situation in the country.
“Don’t tell me that all of society [is supporting the protests], I will not believe it,” Erdoğan told the reporter. “There might be extensions of ideological structures [behind the protests]. This might have gotten them to revolt. You have to see that. What haven’t we done in this country that [led the protesters to] take such a step?” said Erdoğan.
People have killed their fear of authority - and the protests are growing
My friend, who was completely uninterested in politics until six days ago, had never been in conflict with the police before. Now, like hundreds of thousands of others in Turkey, she has become a warrior with goggles around her neck, an oxygen mask on her face and an anti-acid solution bottle in her hand. As we have all learned, this the essential kit to fight the effects of tear gas. As for TOMA, that is the vehicle-mounted water cannon. To paralyse it, you either have to put a wet towel in its exhaust pipe or burn something under its engine or you and a dozen others can push it over. This kind of battle-info is circulating all over Turkey at the moment. It is like a civil war between the police and the people. Yet nobody expected this when, six days ago, a group of protesters organised a sit-in at Istanbul's Gezi Park to protect trees that were to be cut down for the government's urban redevelopment project.
Ten years of arrogance
The protests that have now engulfed the country may have begun in Gezi Park in Taksim, the heart of Istanbul. It was never just about trees, but the accumulation of many incidents. With the world's highest number of imprisoned journalists, thousands of political prisoners (trade unionists, politicians, activists, students, lawyers) Turkey has been turned into an open-air prison already. Institutional checks and balances have been removed by the current AKP government's political manoeuvres and their actions go uncontrolled. On top of this growing authoritarianism, the most important reason for people to hit the streets in support of the Gezi resistance was the arrogant tone of the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Even on Sunday, when millions of people were joining the demonstrations, he called the protestors "looters". Throughout his tenure, his rhetoric has been no different. He has repeatedly called his political opponents "alchoholics, marginals, sniffers, bandits, infidels". His mocking sarcasm has become his "thing" over time, and even some of his closest colleagues accept that "he no longer listens to anyone".
[...]
Then, there is the fear. This kind of thing is hard to report in a prominent newspaper. That is perhaps why the international media have not reported that the fear of government and the Prime Minister has been growing even among non-political people. You can easily hear your grocery shop man saying "I think my phone is tapped". The mainstream media has not covered it, but we have read reports on social media about people being arrested for making jokes about the government. That is perhaps why for the past two days every wall in Taksim Square is full of curses against the Prime Minister. The public is enjoying the death of the "cruel father figure" with the most sexist curses I have ever seen in my life. And I have seen some. But there is a more important component to the protests.
I transcribed this interview. The reporter on the street is so typical in many ways. The protester gives some familiar sounding reasons why they are resisting.
VIOLENT clashes continue in Turkey
Announcer: Continuing difficult conditions in Taksim Square. Lindsay Hillsam is there and she has with her a protester who I see has a gas mask. She doesn't. Let's go right now. Lindsay Hillsam in Taksim Square.
Reporter: John it's been a pretty chaotic scene over the last half hour or so. I'm in Taksim Square. Looking behind me I still see quite a lot of protesters but a huge amount of tear gas has just wafted across the square. A lot of people ran away. We had to put these on (holds up gas mask) our gas masks. So clearly there are a lot of people out tonight and the police are also out tonight. Now I am joined by a guest here in the square who is braving the tear gas. (Names the female protester) who is one of the activists. I see you here and you've got this gas mask as well. Is this not putting you off from protesting?
Protester: No, not at all. Like thousands of people who have been resisting here since the last seven days, we are all here and the tear gas is not dispersing anybody. It's just make this crowd bigger and bigger every day.
Reporter: But why? You don't have any leaders. You don't have any specific demand.
Protester: We definitely do have specific demands and it all started with government coming here and destroying all this park here in order to build up a shopping mall like they are doing in every part of the city
Reporter: But it's something bigger than that now, isn't it?
Protester: It is totally bigger than that because it's like an accumulation of a lot of things happening. All the gentrification, all the destruction of the city. The living areas for ordinary people are being taken away by people.
Reporter: But that's a town planning issue and yet people are talking about your democratically elected prime minister as if he's a dictator.
Protester: That's not planning, that's dictating. Some neoliberal policies which is only going to serve only government filling their pockets and that's all and nowhere in the world you cannot see taking away natural places in order to build shopping malls.
Reporter: But you're a minority, aren't you? The prime minister was elected with more than 50% of the vote.
Protester: Well that's true. That's true but this course has been changing a lot since the last eleven years since his first election. His discourse keeps changing and what he is doing is he is using people's desperateness in order to... just with his patronage policies, he's like offering people...
Reporter: And the Islamitization, is that the problem for you?
Protester: It is definitely a problem for me but here, like media should also cover that there are a lot of Muslim people who are resisting the government's policies because this is not serving people. This is just making some part of the society getting richer and richer.
Reporter: But why not go through the democratic process voting him out next time? You have the choice.
Protester: The thing is that all this legal regulations that they are doing, they are all using very illegal processes in order to make such a change in the city. You have to have a lot of longer process of communication with people, looking for a consensus, which they are not doing and democratization, democracy, you cannot just limit this to... this is what government is trying to do.
Reporter: Thank you.
Way back.
Michael Moore: Occupy Wall Street will only get bigger
A biologist documented the fact that the 2012 winter monarch migration was 1/20 of its normal size
Monarchs of Life
What can you do? At least four things
1. Start a milkweed garden on your yard no matter how small. On the monarchwatch.org, find the milkweed species that are best adapted to the climate of your space.
2. Stop buying and consuming agricultural products that are grown using synthetic chemicals, and choose certified organic produce only. The reason for this is that organic agriculture bans the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which cause untold death and destruction to beneficial pollinators including monarchs and other butterflies. Corn pollen is one of the monarchs' favorite foods, and at least two peer-reviewed studies, one by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the other at Cornell University, indicate a large percentage, up to 44 percent, of the monarchs in the study died when fed exclusively with GMO varieties.
3. Contact your senators and representatives, both state and federal, and demand a ban on the use of all pesticides, herbicides and GMOs, and ask them to start a well-thought-out plan of protection and conservation of milkweed habitats in the United States, Mexico and Canada, together with effective protection and reforestation of the monarch overwintering pine forests in Mexico.
4. Contact your city officials in parks and recreation and ask them to halt the
use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides and to plant milkweed patches on every park around town and around the county.
American Wealth Isn't Even Half-Recovered From the Big Crash
During the Great Recession, middle class Americans saw their personal wealth cut in half to a roughly 40-year low. So how are their finances faring now, all these years into the recovery?
They've barely recovered, at least judging by a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It finds that adjusted for inflation, average net worth -- the value of what households own minus their debts -- is still far below its pre-recession peak. Through the end of 2012, families had recouped less than half of what they lost, as shown by the teal line below.
Are we ever going to undo all the damage that has been done? This can't become the new normal.
Judge: FBI Doesn't Need a Warrant to Access Google Customer Data
In what looks very much like a blow to that whole Constitutional thing about due process, a federal judge has ordered Google to release customer data to the FBI, despite the fact that the FBI has no warrant for the information.
The FBI made its request via 19 "National Security Letters." Here's CNET with a short explainer on what National Security Letters are:
NSLs are controversial because they allow FBI officials to send secret requests to Web and telecommunications companies requesting "name, address, length of service," and other account information about users as long as it's relevant to a national security investigation. No court approval is required, and disclosing the existence of the FBI's secret requests is not permitted.
Can science 'cure' religious fundamentalism?
An Oxford University researcher claims that, in time, deep-seated, extreme beliefs may be treated as a mental illness, rather than a product of free will.
Oxford University researcher Kathleen Taylor believes that neuroscience can begin to affect -- with a view to, perhaps, curing -- human beings of their most extreme beliefs.
[...]
She said: "Someone who has for example become radicalized to a cult ideology -- we might stop seeing that as a personal choice that they have chosen as a result of pure free will and may start treating it as some kind of mental disturbance."
In her view, certain beliefs cause "a heck of a lot of damage."
She referenced not only religious fundamentalism -- specifically that of Islam -- but also behavioral mores such as spanking children.
On hearing her words, some might venture that so many other seemingly irrational (to some) beliefs -- such as Apple fanboyism or the idea that wearing socks with sandals is somehow acceptable -- can be altered through neuroscientific manipulation.
This is where the moral gradient becomes treacherous.
Between this, the "entitlement" cuts that they are still determined to do, approving Keystone XL, a non-withdrawal withdrawal from Afghanistan and FSM knows what else, I'm convinced that the Dems are throwing the 2014 election, getting as much of the dirty work out of the way between the 2012 and 2014 elections, and then starting over again after the 2014 election in order to try to make nice with the base and keep the White House in 2016. This midterm election is going to be a disaster.
Democrats' 2014 strategy: Own Obamacare
Party strategists believe that embracing the polarizing law — especially its more popular elements — is smarter politics than fleeing from it in the House elections. The new tack is a marked shift from 2010, when Republicans pointed to Obamacare as Exhibit A of big government run amok on their way to seizing the House from Democrats.
[...]
But the White House and congressional Democrats have in recent weeks launched a messaging offensive aimed at blunting the anticipated GOP barrage. Before the Memorial Day recess, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi distributed a 78-page binder instructing members on how to sell the bill in their districts, and White House officials ranging from Obama to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted the benefits of the bill in a spree of university commencement speeches.
I don't agree with the author of this article. I'm including it only because he explains the juggernaut and kabuki better than other articles do. The "grand bargain", the sequester cuts, and the cuts to the safety net are all still there looming. Our government's new way to force these things down our throats while making it look like it was forced down their throats (with govt. shutdowns, fiscal cliffs, what will the meme be this time?) is crisis legislation, a corollary of disaster capitalism and shock doctrine. It probably won't happen until fall, as this article explains, plus, we now know that this is going to be Obamacare Summer and it's already been kicked off while all the president's men use college commencement speeches to sell it.
Congress shows just how optional a budget can be
Could Republicans push President Barack Obama to the point where he feels he has to play shutdown politics when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1?
Monday’s veto threats against the first two bills reported from the House Appropriations Committee hinted strongly that such a fight could be coming. And if the only alternative is to be slowly bled to death by an ever-larger sequester, the White House clearly feels it has to take a stand.
The immediate targets are budgets for military construction, veterans and the Department of Homeland Security. But the greater goal is to draw a line against the House Republican plan that would impose sequester spending levels but protect defense-related programs by using Obama’s domestic priorities as a bank.
[...]
Meanwhile, the House GOP leadership has blocked efforts by the Democrats to appoint conferees. With no conferees appointed, the clock hasn't started ticking yet on the 20-day deadline for conferees to file a report.
Not that the deadline carries much weight. If a conference report isn't filed within 20 days, that just means House members can offer motions to instruct the conferees to include whatever they want in the budget resolution. Democrats would no doubt propose such things as ending tax breaks on corporate jets and forbidding Medicare from becoming a voucher program. But while the votes may put Republicans in a tough spot, they aren't binding on the conference committee.
More important, there's no reason for Ryan and his fellow Republicans to concede an inch to Murray's side in the negotiations over the budget resolution. They'll have much more leverage over spending and deficit reduction in just a few months, when the two sides are expected to face off over something much more tangible and consequential: the annual appropriations bills for fiscal 2014, which must pass to keep government agencies open past Sept. 30, and an increase in the debt ceiling, which is likely to be needed around the same time to prevent the government from stiffing some of its creditors.
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