Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
|
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Memphis blues singer and harmonica player Herman "Little Junior" Parker. Enjoy!
Little Junior Parker - Driving Wheel
"The Europeans had made two promises to the United States if Marshall Plan help was forthcoming. The first promise was maximum self-help on the part of every country; and second, maximum mutual aid."
-- Paul Hoffman
News and Opinion
Joseph E. Stiglitz: The U.S. Must Save Greece
As the Greek saga continues, many have marveled at Germany’s chutzpah. It received, in real terms, one of the largest bailout and debt reduction in history and unconditional aid from the U.S. in the Marshall Plan. And yet it refuses even to discuss debt relief. Many, too, have marveled at how Germany has done so well in the propaganda game, selling an image of a long-failed state that refuses to go along with the minimal conditions demanded in return for generous aid.
The facts prove otherwise: From the mid-90’s to the beginning of the crisis, the Greek economy was growing at a faster rate than the EU average (3.9% vs 2.4%). The Greeks took austerity to heart, slashing expenditures and increasing taxes. They even achieved a primary surplus (that is, tax revenues exceeded expenditures excluding interest payments), and their fiscal position would have been truly impressive had they not gone into depression. Their depression—25% decline in GDP and 25% unemployment, with youth unemployment twice that—is because they did what was demanded of them, not because of their failure to do so. It was the predictable and predicted response to the austerity. ...
The question now is: What’s next, assuming (as seems ever more likely) they are effectively thrown out of the euro? It’s likely that the European Central Bank will refuse to do its job—as the Central Bank for Greece, it should do what every central bank is supposed to do, act as a lender of last resort. And if it refuses to do that, Greece will have no option but to create a parallel currency. The ECB has already begun tightening the screws, making access to funds more and more difficult.
Greece can easily survive without the funds from the IMF and the eurozone. Greece has done such a good job of adjusting its economy that, apart from what it’s paying to service the debt, it has a surplus. It isn’t even dependent on the IMF and the eurozone for foreign exchange: At least before the most recent stranglehold that Greece’s creditors had imposed, it was running a current account surplus of 1%—5% if we exclude oil exports.
The U.S. was generous with Germany as we defeated it. Now, it is time for the U.S. to be generous with our friends in Greece in their time of need, as they have been crushed for the second time in a century by Germany, this time with the support of the troika. At a technical level, the Federal Reserve needs to create a swap line with Greece’s central bank, which—as a result of the default of the ECB in fulfilling its responsibilities—will have to take on once again the role of lender of last resort. Greece needs unconditional humanitarian aid; it needs Americans to buy its products, take vacations there, and show a solidarity with Greece and a humanity that its European partners were not able to display.
Greece extends bank closures as reform proposal due
Greece has extended bank closures and a $66 limit on ATM withdrawals until Monday, as the deadline for the country to submit detailed economic reform proposals looms.
The debt-strapped country has until the end of Thursday to present the plans in exchange for a bailout.
On Wednesday, Greece submitted a request for a three-year bailout from the European Stability Mechanism — a European Union agency that provides loans.
‘Leave Euro, retake democracy!’ Far-left & eurosceptic MEPs bash eurozone over Greece
Greece finally admits €2bn gas pipeline deal with Russia
Closer ties between Athens and Moscow is likely to worry the US, which has stepped up its involvement in Greece's debt crisis
Greece has admitted for the first time it is planning a €2bn gas pipeline with Russia.
The move is likely to worry the US, which has stepped up its involvement in Greece's debt talks with international creditors over fears the cash-strapped country could drop out of the single currency and come under the influence of its Cold War rival.
Panayotis Lafazanis, Greece's energy minister, said the move would be a key part of the country's "multi-faceted" foreign policy and would create 20,000 jobs, the Financial Times reported.
China bans major shareholders from selling their stakes for next six months
China’s securities regulator took the drastic step of banning shareholders with stakes of more than 5% from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets. ...
China’s stock markets opened down again Thursday morning before making up some ground. Shanghai Composite Index fell more than 3% in the first half hour of trading before reversing course and rising 1.4%, while the Shenzhen Component Index opened down just over 1%. ...
Iron ore prices plunged to fresh six-year lows on Thursday as the contagion hurt commodity markets, with resource-heavy economies such as Australia bearing the brunt.
The spot price of the commodity used to make steel took its biggest one-day hit ever overnight, falling 10% to $44.59 a tonne, analysts said, as demand in key market China continues to shrink.
An IG Markets strategist, Evan Lucas, said: “Iron ore has just logged its worst trading day on record. The steel price in China is now cheaper per tonne than cabbage.”
Chinese Economy Running Off the Cliff and There is Nothing Beneath It
Hat tip Pluto:
Few western eyes on BRICS summit
While most pundits and market savants were preoccupied with the Greek crisis and the plunge in Chinese stocks, a potentially far more important event, with deep political, economic and financial implications for the US, began to take place on Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit and the seventh BRICS Summit, both of which are being held from July 8 to July 10 in Ufa, Russia. The meetings will focus on regional trade and infrastructure, bilateral cooperation within multilateral frameworks as well as coordination and cooperation in regional and international affairs, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
SCO and BRICS are part of the alternative world order that China is building with the help of Russia. This matters because last year the combined economic output of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries was $17 trillion, almost equal to the U.S.’ gross domestic product, according to Bloomberg. In 2007, the US’s GDP was double the BRICS’ output.
What the Taliban Wanted at First Official Peace Talks
The Taliban raised issues including the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, prisoner release, and removal of its members from UN sanction lists during the first official peace talks with the Kabul government, officials said Thursday.
The two sides sat down on Tuesday for discussions hosted by Pakistan in Murree on the outskirts of Islamabad, and will meet again after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Government delegates involved in the negotiations told reporters at a Kabul press conference on Thursday morning that demands lists had been exchanged and key discussion topics set for the next round. A venue has yet to be decided, but one of the delegation members said that they might take place in China.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai, who led the government delegation, outlined the topics discussed by the Taliban and added that there would be no preconditions to future discussions.
The talks could be the first step towards ending more than 13 devastating years of conflict in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 when hardline Taliban militants were removed from power by a US-led invasion force.
Ceasefire discussions will also take place in the next session, but delegation member Haji Din Mohammad said that military operations against the Taliban would continue for now. The Taliban similarly did not agree to suspend attacks, and claimed responsibility for two separate suicide bombings that left one dead and at least three injured on Tuesday.
Obama: Chances of Iran Deal Less Than 50-50
Apparently aware that despite polls showing most Americans supporting the Iran nuclear deal, most in the Senate are opposed, President Obama has reportedly sought to reassure Senate Dems that there was a good chance no nuclear deal would be reached at all.
During a cocktail party Tuesday night, Obama told a group of Senators, including Dick Durbin (D – IL) that he believed the chances of a deal were “less than 50-50 at this point” and that the US would walk away if they thought the deal was too weak.
A Mounting Humanitarian Catastrophe in Yemen: War Death Toll Tops 3,000, Fear of Famine Grows
Yemen Govt Would Accept Truce in Return for Four Provinces
Yemen’s Hadi government-in-exile, backed by ongoing Saudi attacks on the country aiming to reinstall them, today informed the UN that they are open to a “conditional truce” that would end the war, issuing a series of demands.
The Hadi offer, according to a spokesman, was to back an end to the Saudi attacks on Yemen in return for the Shi’ite Houthisagreeing to cede them four provinces. None of the provinces were specified, and were only said to be in the east and south of the country. ...
The Houthis have sought an agreement on a transition to an elected government, something that the Hadi government opposes.
Former Dictator of Guatemala Ruled Mentally Unfit to Face Retrial for War Crimes
Efrain Rios Montt, the aging former dictator of Guatemala, is mentally incompetent and unable to stand trial once more for charges of genocide during Guatemala's decades-long civil war, government forensic scientists have ruled. ...
The news dredging up wounds from Guatemala's painful civil war comes amid a current period of political turmoil reaching the highest office in the country.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators in recent weeks have rallied and called on President Otto Perez Molina to step down over a fiscal corruption scandal that has already toppled vice president Roxana Baldetti, who resigned in early May. Perez Molina, himself a former general who still faces lingering allegations of abuses during his time in the civil war, has said he won't resign. ...
Guatemala's Commission for Historical Clarification has estimated that 10,000 mostly indigenous civilians were killed by armed forces in the 17 months Rios Montt was president, and 448 villages were literally wiped off the map. At least 200,000 people were killed overall in the government's US-backed war against guerrillas and paramilitaries between 1960 and 1996, in unrest that was rooted back to the 1940s.
This article makes for some harrowing reading, but the facts within it ought to be brought up to illuminate the discussion the next time some humanitarian
interventionist mad bomber mouths the name Srebernica to justify their next round of death-dealing, hellfire demockery from above:
How Britain and the US decided to abandon Srebrenica to its fate
New research reveals that Britain and the US knew six weeks before massacre that enclave would fall – but they decided to sacrifice it in their efforts for peace
They will fill the VIP stands at Srebrenica next weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of the worst massacre on European soil since the Third Reich; heads of state, politicians, the great and good.
There will be speeches and tributes at the town’s memorial site, Potocari, but the least likely homily would be one that answered the question: how did Srebrenica happen? Why were Bosnian Serb death squads able, unfettered, to murder more than 8,000 men and boys in a few days, under the noses of United Nations troops legally bound to protect the victims? Who delivered the UN-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica to the death squads, and why? ...
Until now, it has always been asserted that the so-called “endgame strategy” that forged a peace settlement for – and postwar map of – Bosnia followed the “reality on the ground” after the fall, and ceding, of Srebrenica. What can now be revealed is that the “endgame” preceded that fall, and was – as it turned out – conditional upon it.
The western powers whose negotiations led to Srebrenica’s downfall cannot be said to have known the extent of the massacre that would follow, but the evidence demonstrates they were aware – or should have been – of Mladic’s declared intention to have the Bosniak Muslim population of the entire region “vanish completely”. In the history of eastern Bosnia over the three years that preceded the massacre, that can only have meant one thing.
WikiLeaks: NSA Targeted German Chancellery, Merkel Aides
WikiLeaks on Wednesday published a new list of German phone numbers it claims showed the U.S. National Security Agency targeted phones belonging to Chancellor Angela Merkel's close aides and chancellery offices for surveillance.
Wednesday's publication came a week after WikiLeaks released a list of numbers it said showed the NSA targeted officials at various other German ministries and elsewhere. That rekindled concerns over U.S. surveillance in Germany after reports two years ago that Merkel's own cellphone was targeted.
Merkel's chief of staff last week asked the U.S. ambassador to a meeting and told him that German law must be followed.
There was no immediate comment from the German government on the latest publication.
An interesting update on the nice people that the US government does business with. Click the link for more details; here's a taste:
Hacking Team Emails Expose Proposed Death Squad Deal, Secret U.K. Sales Push and Much More
For the last few days, I have been reading through the hacked files, which give remarkable insight into Hacking Team, its blasé attitude toward human rights concerns, and the extent of its spyware sales to government agencies on every continent. Adding to the work of my colleagues to analyze the 400 gigabyte trove of hacked data, here’s a selection of the notable details I have found so far:
In May, a Hacking Team representative traveled to Dhaka in Bangladesh to demonstrate the company’s spy technology at the headquarters of a brutal paramilitary security agency that is known for torture and extrajudicial killings. The Rapid Action Battalion – described by Human Rights Watch as a “death squad” that has perpetrated systematic abuses over more than a decade – wanted to see “a practical demonstration” of Hacking Team’s surveillance equipment “in the ground settings of Bangladesh,” according to the company’s emails. Last month, a reseller for Hacking Team in Bangladesh reported that he had submitted the bid papers for the deal and was “pushing RAB to select our offer through our personal relationship.” ...
In October 2014, in Doha, Qatar, Hacking Team demonstrated its technology for two officers from Belarus intelligence agency the Operations and Analysis Center, or OAC. The Belarus government is an authoritarian regime that been accused by Human Rights Watch of suppressing “virtually all forms of dissent,” cracking down on journalists, activists, opposition politicians, and anyone else deemed to have deviated too far from the orthodoxy of despotic president Alexander Lukashenko, known as “Europe’s last dictator.” Nevertheless, these issues don’t seem to have put off Hacking Team’s attempts to make a sale. “The prospect confirms to be impressed by our solution,” noted a Hacking Team employee after the meeting with the two officers. “They will evaluate to proceed with the Sales Department to arrange a dedicated meeting.” It is unclear from the emails whether the sale went ahead or if efforts to finalize it are still ongoing. ...
A presentation prepared by Hacking Team for a surveillance conference in South Africa later this month shows the company complaining about the “chilling effect” that it claims regulation of surveillance technology is having on the ability to fight crime.
The presentation singles out the organizations Hacking Team views as its main adversaries, noting that it is a “target” of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Privacy International and warning that “democracy advocates” are putting pressure on governments.
Adviser to Cyber Program at NYU’s UAE Campus Linked to Spy Tech Used to Repress Activists
Hacking Team, the surveillance company notorious for helping repressive governments spy on their own citizens, partnered with Cyberpoint International, a U.S. defense contractor, to sell spyware to the United Arab Emirates, according to documents revealed this week.
The technology has been used to crack down on pro-democracy activists in the UAE, some of whom found Hacking Team software surreptitously implanted on their computers.
The surveillance product used by UAE authorities has ties to New York University, which maintains a campus in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. Paul Kurtz, the chief strategy officer at Cyberpoint, chairs an advisory board for a privacy and cybersecurity center at the NYU-Abu Dhabi campus. ...
The relationships illustrate the multifaceted business and military ties that bind the U.S. and the UAE, despite rampant human rights abuses.
FBI Director Says Scientists Are Wrong, Pitches Imaginary Solution to Encryption Dilemma
Testifying before two Senate committees on Wednesday about the threat he says strong encryption presents to law enforcement, FBI Director James Comey didn’t so much propose a solution as wish for one.
Comey said he needs some way to read and listen to any communication for which he’s gotten a court order. Modern end-to-end encryption — increasingly common following the revelations of mass surveillance by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — doesn’t allow for that. Only the parties on either end can do the decoding.
Comey’s problem is the nearly universal agreement among cryptographers, technologists and security experts that there is no way to give the government access to encrypted communications without poking an exploitable hole that would put confidential data, as well as entities like banks and power grids, at risk.
But while speaking at Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on Wednesday, Comey repeatedly refused to accept that as reality.
“A whole lot of good people have said it’s too hard … maybe that’s so,” he said to the Intelligence Committee. “But my reaction to that is: I’m not sure they’ve really tried.”
FBI and DOJ Target New Enemy In Crypto Wars: Apple and Google
The FBI and Department of Justice on Wednesday targeted a new set of threats to national security and law enforcement: not ISIS, or pedophiles, but Apple and Google. ...
Google and Apple, in response to demands from consumers who request higher levels of privacy and security, have been slowly rolling out stronger end-to-end encryption on their devices and services such as Gmail and iPhones. ...
Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates and FBI Director James Comey both insisted that they would prefer not to force compliance through a legislative mandate. “The approach of the administration,” Yates said, “is not to have a one size fits all legislative solution at this point.” However, she noted that a mandate “may ultimately be necessary” to force companies to comply. Several senators, including Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., agreed.
“Maybe no one will be creative enough” to solve the problem, Comey said, “unless you force them to.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wondered aloud whether companies that “intentionally design a product in a way that prevents you from complying with a lawful court order” are the equivalent of a citizen who refuses to answer questions in court, and is subsequently held in contempt.
The FBI doesn't want to have to force tech companies to weaken encryption
Notably, just one day before Comey’s testimony, an all-star group of leading technical experts released a paper running through, in specific detail, the myriad of problems mandated backdoors in encryption would cause for the public. The paper posed dozens of technical questions about how such backdoors would work in practice, which the FBI has so far not even attempted to answer. The scale of the questions – and the fact that many of them will never have clear answers – shows just how ill-thought out the FBI’s idea really is.
The criticism seems to have forced the FBI to scale back its ambitious and dangerous rhetoric. Comey kept emphasizing Wednesday that he “was not an expert,” does not prefer a “one size fits all” law anymore, and that he wanted to work with tech companies – so they weaken our security voluntarily. He also claimed he doesn’t want the government to hold those master keys to everyone’s communications, he just wants companies to hold them and hand over data to the government when asked.
But no matter who holds the keys, the same problems persist. The FBI – and apparently many senators, judging by Wednesday’s hearings – think that all you need to do is force a bunch of smart people to get into a room and they’ll be able to wave their hands to magically to solve one of the hardest unsolved problems that has vexed computer engineers for decades.
Here’s a question for the FBI director – or UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who is pushing a similar proposal in Britain – which no one seems to ask: can you name a single security engineer or technical expert who thinks this is even remotely a good idea? So far those experts have universally lined up against it. If Comey is really interested in a debate, he should bring in a technical expert to argue the case, instead of throwing up his hands every time the conversation starts veering into specifics.
Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt - Chris Hedges
To slash the amount of money spent on homelessness, just give homes away
Just as the answer to hunger is food, the answer to homelessness is homes.
It costs more to keep people on the streets than it does to house them and provide any support services they may need. People who live on the streets don’t get preventative medical care. They wait for a medical crisis and then go to a local emergency department, where care is most expensive. The rest of us pay for that healthcare at a premium. People who are homeless spend more time in the hospital, and more time in jail. All this costs public funds. Studies from New York to California show that permanent supportive housing costs less in the long run. ...
Cycling and recycling people who are homeless through the shelter system doesn’t allow them to build a foundation. And even people who have a cornerstone of stability – a job – can’t afford a home. An annual study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition says the nation’s so-called housing wage – the amount of money a worker must earn per hour to afford a decent apartment, is $19.35 for a two-bedroom apartment, and $15.50 for a one-bedroom. A worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour can’t possibly afford a place to live.
In fact, nowhere in the US can minimum-wage workers afford a one-bedroom rental unit without spending far more than 30% of their income on housing, the cutoff suggested by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Paying more than that makes purchasing other necessities – such as food and healthcare – difficult.
It’s better to house them. Liberal Connecticut knows this. So does Utah, a state that is far more conservative. Until other states catch up, we can count on continued homelessness, and on the US being something slightly less than the land of opportunity.
Could Warren's New Bill Force 2016 Contenders to Tackle Too-Big-To-Fail Banks?
In a move explicitly aimed at reining in risky Wall Street excess, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday introduced what they call a "21st Century Glass-Steagall Act" that would restore the wall of separation between investment and commercial banking.
While its sponsors say the proposed legislation (pdf) would protect taxpayers and make "Too Big to Fail" institutions smaller and safer, its introduction has the added benefit of putting Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the hot seat on Wall Street reform.
The bill (pdf) was introduced Tuesday by Sens. Warren (D-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Angus King (I-Maine), who say it would reduce risk for the American taxpayer in the financial system and decrease the likelihood of future financial crises. The original Glass-Steagall legislation, they explained in a statement, was introduced in response to the financial crash of 1929 and separated depository banks from investment banks—with the goal of dividing the risky activities of investment banks from the core depository functions that consumers rely upon every day.
Its proponents, including presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, contend that President Bill Clinton's repeal of the legislation in 1999 was part of deregulation that contributed to the 2008 economic collapse.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature an update on the plight of Joe Hill, languishing in the Salt Lake County Jail.
Tune in at 2pm!
|
'Favoring Capitalist Interests Above All Else,' Europe's Parliament Backs TTIP
Members of European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday passed a resolution on the pending trade deal between Europe and the United States, backing a controversial provision that critics warn places corporate profits above the health and safety of the people and puts the continent's fragile democracy at great risk.
Despite clear disagreement within European Parliament (EP) over the inclusion of a modified version of the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, MEPs voted 436-241 in favor of a draft text of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
While MEPs have no direct role in the secret talks between nations, the draft will influence the way the European Commission proceeds with negotiations. Once negotiations are complete, MEPs will vote as to whether to accept or reject the final agreement.
Wednesday's vote came after contentious manipulations on the part of EP President Martin Schulz—for which he was accused of "shredding the rules of procedure"—to a remove an amendment that would have taken ISDS off the table entirely.
Court Revokes Redskins Trademark
In what is being reported as the biggest legal blow thus far against the contentious Washington D.C. football enterprise, a federal court on Wednesday ruled that the name "Redskins" is disparaging to Native Americans and thus its trademark registration must be revoked.
In the decision (pdf), Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Alexandria, Virginia ordered the federal Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the registration. Though it does not forbid use of the name, the ruling threatens the team's ability to protect its brand or prevent others from selling items with the team's logo.
The ruling upholds a previous court decision in a case brought by five Native American plaintiffs, led by Navajo activist Amanda Blackhorse, who argued that the team name is offensive and violates the federal Lanham Act, which prohibits trademarks that denigrate people or bring them into "contempt or disrepute." Last August, Blackhorse and the others were suedby the team before the Department of Justice intervened.
The Evening Greens
Big Oil Knew. Big Oil Lied. And Planet Earth Got Fried.
New report exposes why fossil fuel companies didn't need the warning from the public scientific community to start a decades-long campaign of denial. They already knew their business model was a threat.
They knew. They lied. And the planet and its people are now paying the ultimate price.
It's no secret that the fossil fuel industry—the set of companies and corporate interests which profit most from the burning of coal, oil, and gas—have been the largest purveyors and funders of climate change denialism in the world.
Now, a new set of documents and a report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) answers the age-old question always asked when it comes to crimes of corruption, cover-up, and moral defiance: What did they know and when did they know it?
As it turns out, "The Climate Deception Dossiers" shows that leading oil giants such as ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell—just like tobacco companies who buried and denied the threat of cancer for smokers—knew about the dangers of global warming and the role of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions long before the public received warning from the broader scientific community. And what's worse, of course, is not only that they knew—but how they have spent the last nearly thirty years actively denying the damage they were causing to the planet and its inhabitants.
UCS has made the complete collection of 85 internal memos—totaling more than 330 pages—available online.
As part of its research, UCS discovered that as early as 1981—nearly seven years before NASA scientist James Hansen made his famous testimony before Congress about the dangers of human-caused global warming—internal discussions about the reality of the threat were already occurring inside the corporate offices of ExxonMobil and others.
New Warnings After Vessel Breaks in 'Doomed' Shell Arctic Drilling Project
Workers find 39-inch hole in hull of Shell vessel meant to safeguard controversial drilling operation in vulnerable Chukchi and Beaufort Seas
Just days before its controversial Arctic drilling expedition is set to begin, Royal Dutch Shell hit yet another speedbump on the way to the Chukchi Sea—its own vessel.
On Friday, workers discovered a 39-inch hole in the hull of an ice management ship meant to safeguard the oil giant's drilling operations in the remote waters off the coast of Alaska. Crew members and the pilot on board the MSV Fennica found the hole after a ballast tank began leaking. The cause is unknown.
The 380-foot Finnish vessel has since returned to a port in Dutch Harbor, Alaska to repair the hole. While it is not clear how long the operation will take, reports indicate that until the Fennica is fixed, the entire drilling project may be delayed.
It's the latest setback for a venture that has been met with years of resistance from climate activists, who say the pristine region is too vulnerable to be exposed to fossil fuel exploration and that Shell has too poor a safety record to be allowed into the area.
Did BP Get Off Cheaply? Antonia Juhasz on $18.7B Gulf Oil Spill Settlement
Monsanto Off the Hook for Cancers From PCBs It Produced
Monsanto emerged victorious on Tuesday at the end of a nearly month-long trial in which plaintiffs had alleged the former manufacturer of PCBs showed "a reckless disregard for human life."
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were manufactured in the U.S. from 1929 until being banned in 1979, and, according to reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Monsanto was the primary manufacturer of them. The EPA classifies PCBs as probable human carcinogens.
The suit charges Monsanto with negligence for production and sale of PCBs despite knowledge of their harm.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Rep. John Sarbanes and a Campaign Finance Reform Plan That Might Actually Work
Greek island refugee crisis: local people and tourists rally round migrants
The New York Stock Exchange goes down: inside the dystopian aftermath
The three surprising countries you should thank for low gas prices
KosAbility: We're talking about pill disposal this Sunday.
The Ripple Effect - Kreutzmann, Hidalgo, Buffett, Garcia and Crosby
SC Legislature Approves Removal of Confederate Flag. "Could Come Down In Days."
A New 'Gaza' in Yemen
Country Roads
A Little Night Music
Mystery Train-Little Junior's Blue Flames and Elvis Presley
Little Junior Parker - Five Long Years
Little Junior Parker - Feel So Bad / Sittin' At The Bar
That's Alright - Little Junior Parker
Junior Parker - Man Or Mouse
Little Junior Parker - These Kind Of Blues
Little Junior Parker - Next Time You See Me
Little Junior Parker - Dangerous Woman
Junior Parker - Just Like A Fish
Junior Parker - Pretty Baby
Junior Parker - Barefoot Rock
Junior Parker - Backtracking
Junior Parker - I got money
Junior Parker - I Need Your Love So Bad
Junior Parker - Love Aint Nothin But A Business Goin On
Junior Parker - I Wanna Ramble