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.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features boogie woogie piano player Cripple" Clarence Lofton. Enjoy!
Cripple Clarence Lofton - I Don't Know No.2
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
-- John Adams
News and Opinion
'We Have Agreekment': Grexit Likely Avoided as Greece Surrenders to Another Bailout
Greece appeared to reach a deal with its European creditors on Monday, pledging stringent austerity to avoid an exit — or "Grexit" — from the euro and the global financial chaos that could have followed.
"One can say that we have 'agreekment'," European Council President Donald Tusk said in a statement, following negotiations that lasted 17 hours, continuing through Sunday night.
"There are strict conditions to be met," Tusk continued. "The approval of several national parliaments, including the Greek parliament, is now needed for negotiations on an ESM [European Stability Mechanism] program to formally begin. ...
The new deal calls for Greeks, already reeling from harsh measures and economic decline, to cut back even further in exchange for more loans without which its financial system would likely collapse. The agreement, which still needs approval from Greece's parliament, will be the country's third bailout in five years.
Anticipating Greek reaction: Betrayal bedlam or bow to the boss?
Greece crisis talks: the July weekend that saved the euro but broke the EU?
For all the leaders involved, the past two days in Brussels will be hailed as the 48 hours that saved the euro. For many others from the Balkans to the Baltic, the brutal power plays pitting European leaders one against the other will signal instead the great damage being done to the single currency. And if historians are ever required to write the obituaries for Europe’s monetary union, they are likely to conclude that a weekend in July 2015 was the point when the serious illness afflicting the euro turned terminal. ...
Everyone had to claim victory. But they all may end up losers. Alexis Tsipras, the radical Greek prime minister only six months in office, predictably claimed he had secured his central aim, a programme of debt reduction. He has not. Yet. He obtained a promise of discussion in the future on debt relief measures. And Tsipras had to forfeit much of his government’s economic and fiscal sovereignty, the biggest such surrender ever in the EU, in order to keep Greece from collapse and obtain up to €86bn (£61bn) over three years.
The other key protagonist, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, argued that the agreement meant “the advantages outweighed the disadvantages” and that her main aim had been achieved. “The fundamental principles [of the eurozone] have been upheld.”
But her achievement is already being questioned at home and will run into big problems in the Bundestag. Her reputation has suffered, there is disquiet on her backbenches, trouble in her grand coalition with the Social Democrats, and acute wariness in the rest of the eurozone about crossing the German chancellor.
Der Spiegel called the German terms for saving Greece “a catalogue of horrors”. Paul De Grauwe, a prominent Belgian economist, described the weekend that “saved” the euro as the opening days of a new era: the “template of future governance of the eurozone being written in Brussels: submit to German rule or leave.”
Greece bailout agreement: the key points
Up to €50bn (£35bn) worth of Greek assets will be transferred to a new fund, which will contribute to the recapitalisation of Greek banks. The fund will be based in Athens, not Luxembourg as the Germans had originally demanded. ...
Talks will begin immediately on bridging finance to avert the collapse of Greece’s banking system and help cover its debt repayments this summer. Greece must repay more than €7bn to the ECB in July and August, before any bailout cash can be handed over.
Greece has been promised discussions on restructuring its debts. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the Eurogroup was ready to consider extending the maturity on Greek loans. There is now no need for a Plan B, she added.
The Greek parliament must approve the deal before the German bundestag votes. It must also start passing legislation straight away to implement the agreed measures. ...
Tsipras pledged to implement radical reforms to ensure that the Greek oligarchy finally makes a fair contribution.
This nugget was buried inside a Wapo article (retitled here):
Report: Greek leader threatened with military hostilities
Greece’s dire financial straits meant it had scant leverage to push back against some of its creditors’ most onerous demands. ...
The moves are fostering a deep sense of resentment among Tsipras’s allies and a conviction that Europeanssought to humiliate him. During a pivotal meeting with Merkel, French President François Hollande and European Council President Donald Tusk, Tsipras at one point received a thinly veiled threat that if he walked away and left the euro, Greece risked going it alone geopolitically, too.
According to two officials in Brussels with knowledge of the exchange, the specter was raised of aggression from Turkey — a neighboring nation viewed in Greece as a historic antagonist.
Germany bore the brunt of Greek rage. Greece’s defense minister, Panos Kammenos — head of Tsipras’s coalition partner, the Independent Greeks — called the deal a “coup by Germany” and its allies. It remained unclear whether his party would back the deal in Parliament .
“They blackmailed the prime minister,” he said in a television interview. “This agreement is not close to our values. We can’t agree.
Meanwhile, 30 members of the ruling Syriza party threatened to resign Monday rather than approve the deal.
Is Greece's New Debt Deal Worse Than Plan Rejected By Referendum?
Krugman: Killing the European Project
Suppose you consider Tsipras an incompetent twerp. Suppose you dearly want to see Syriza out of power. Suppose, even, that you welcome the prospect of pushing those annoying Greeks out of the euro.
Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness. The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief. It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.
Can anything pull Europe back from the brink? Word is that Mario Draghi is trying to reintroduce some sanity, that Hollande is finally showing a bit of the pushback against German morality-play economics that he so signally failed to supply in the past. But much of the damage has already been done. Who will ever trust Germany’s good intentions after this?
German-Led Eurogroup Launching Coup Against Greek Government
The world's rich nations assumed that what institutions like the IMF did in the South wouldn't hit the North. Capital, however, marched on. And on Sunday night, it marched into Athens with an offer to Greece that would end the idea that capitalism and democracy can survive together there. Reads the offer, provided by a source close to the talks , from the European financial elite, which call themselves the institutions: "The [Greek] government needs to consult and agree with the institutions on all draft legislation in relevant areas with adequate time before submitting it for public consultation or to Parliament." It would be a government in name only. Not only would the Greek people be forced to accept the kind of deal they rejected overwhelmingly at the polls just a week earlier, but they'd be blocked from implementing any future policies Germany disapproved of.
"The triumph of the West, of the Western idea, is evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism," Fukuyama wrote. But, instead, the absence of a viable alternative emboldened capital: with the threat of socialism gone, there is less need for either half of what's known in Europe as social democracy. In a previous interview with HuffPost, French economist Thomas Piketty highlighted the interaction. "The existence of a counter model was one of the reasons that a number of reforms or policies were accepted," he said, arguing that people in capitalist countries fared better thanks to the threat of communism. "In France, it's very striking to see that in 1920, the political majorities adopted steeply progressive taxation. Exactly the same people refused the income tax in 1914 with a 2 percent tax rate. And in between, the Bolshevik revolution made them feel, after all, that progressive taxation is not so dangerous as revolution."
During negotiations over the future of Greece, the Greek Syriza government repeatedly offered such progressive taxation as a way of achieving some of the budget surpluses the institutions were demanding. The offer was rejected, however, with the institutions arguing that higher taxes on the rich might slow growth. With no fear of revolution, the interest in progressive taxation is gone. ...
The United States has done precious little to support Greece or the principle of democracy in Europe. The Soviet Union may be gone, but the U.S. reluctance to intervene comes largely from the desire to keep Germany as a strong ally while the U.S. wages a proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine.
If European history is any guide, the too-clever calculations and the petty vindictiveness will backfire in a bad way.
Translation: "All our support to the Greek people and government against the mobsters"
The euro ‘family’ has shown it is capable of real cruelty
What kind of family, we might ask, does this to one of its own members? Even Der Spiegel online described the conditions that have been outlined as “a catalogue of cruelties”, but perhaps we should now put it another way, given Jean-Claude Juncker has denied that the Greek people have been humiliated. Juncker instead says that this deal is a typical “European” compromise. Yes, we see. ...
The eurozone and Gemany want regime change in Greece, or at least to split Syriza. Alexis Tsipras has fought tooth and nail for something resembling the debt restructuring that even the International Monetary Fund acknowledges is needed. The incompetence of a succession of Greek governments and tax evasion within Greece is not in doubt. But the creditors of the euro family knew this as they upped their loans, and must now delude themselves that everything they have done has been for the best. It hasn’t, and now that same family will go in and asset-strip in broad daylight a country that can no longer afford basic medicines. In three days Greece is supposed to push through heaps of legislation on privatisation, tax and pensions so it can be even poorer. ...
The euro family has been exposed as a loan-sharking conglomerate that cares nothing for democracy. This family is abusive. This “bailout”, which will be sold as being a cruel-to-be-kind deal is nothing of the sort. It is simply being cruel to be cruel.
Yet another deal
So, a deal has been agreed on by Tsirpas. It includes 50 billion in collateral to be managed by a fund controlled by Juncker.
We’ll see if the Greek parliament will pass it.
I have yet to see a single indication that Syriza ever made the necessary moves to allow for an orderly Grexit, though the EU has. They went into this fight relying on the good will of, yes, their enemies. (That they did not realize they were negotiating with their enemies was their first mistake.)
This is yet another step necessary for the end of the neo-liberal era. A tragedy, cruel beyond any justification, but that’s rather the point. Westerners, not just the rest of the world, need to understand who they are ruled by, and that no one is immune to their cruelty. ...
I’ll keep covering Greece as necessary, but the topic is beginning to become tedious. Horrible people doing horrible things to incompetent fools who refuse to resist, but simply lie there taking kick after kick to the nads while saying “but we love you, we want to be one of you, do anything to use so we can prove our devotion.”
I no longer have much preference for how this turns out. It is clear that while Grexit would be preferable in principle, that Tsipras and Syriza could not so much as manage a lemonade stand, let alone handle something as difficult as leaving the Euro under hostile fire and then rebuilding prosperity with Europe opposing them every step.
China accuses brokers of manipulating share prices during stock market crisis
Beijing has accused brokers of manipulating share prices during China’s recent stock market plunge and launched a crackdown against unlicensed companies that financed speculative trading.
The police ministry said investigators had found “evidence to suspect that individual trading companies are illegally manipulating securities and futures exchanges”. It said in a statement that a criminal investigation was under way but gave no details of which firms were being looked into.
The move appears to be aimed at deflecting blame away from the ruling Communist party for the trillions of dollars lost by investors after China’s market benchmark plummeted 30% since peaking in mid-June.
With Historic Iran Nuclear Deal Expected, Can President Obama Sell It to Congress and the Public?
US Seeks Base for Drone War Against Libya
Administration officials today report they are determined tolaunch a full-scale drone war against ISIS in Libya, including surveillance operations and potential strikes against ISIS forces on the ground in the North African country. All they need is a base.
That’s providing tougher than imagined, as officials concede that so far not a single nation has expressed any openness to hosting the US drone base. Many are said to be afraid that they would be making themselves a more direct target for ISIS in hosting US forces.
The Obama Administration’s recent diplomatic moves in Northern Africa, removing restrictions on military aid to the Egyptian junta and declaring Tunisia a “major non-NATO ally,” are both seen as attempts to butter the respective nations up as a potential host.
Hat tip OLinda:
Laura Poitras Sues U.S. Government to Find Out Why She Was Repeatedly Stopped at the Border
Over six years, filmmaker Laura Poitras was searched, interrogated and detained more than 50 times at U.S. and foreign airports.
When she asked why, U.S. agencies wouldn’t say.
Now, after receiving no response to her Freedom of Information Act requests for documents pertaining to her systemic targeting, Poitras is suing the U.S. government.
In a complaint filed on Monday afternoon, Poitras demanded that the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Security release any and all documentation pertaining to her tracking, targeting and questioning while traveling between 2006 and 2012.
“I’m filing this lawsuit because the government uses the U.S. border to bypass the rule of law,” Poitras said in a statement.
Iron Man and Transformers censored by US military for getting too close to the truth
Military chiefs at the Pentagon are gagging Hollywood when its science fiction blockbusters get uncomfortably close to the bone.
Directors are being forced to re-write scripts by the United States Department of Defense if the content is deemed inappropriate – and the big screen hits affected include Iron Man, Terminator Salvation, Transformers, King Kong and Superman: Man of Steel.
To keep Pentagon chiefs happy, some Hollywood producers have also turned villains into heroes, cut central characters, changed politically sensitive settings – or added military rescue scenes to movies.
Having altered scripts to accommodate Pentagon requests, many have in exchange gained inexpensive access to military locations, vehicles and gear they need to make their films.
A 1,400-page military document seen by the Sunday People exposes Pentagon involvement in hundreds of films and TV shows – changes to which pre-2002 are not classified.
Psychologists Collaborated with CIA & Pentagon on Post-9/11 Torture Program, May Face Ethics Charges
Psychologist accused of enabling US torture backed by former FBI chief
A prominent psychologist ousted from the leadership of the the US’s largest professional psychological association for his alleged role in enabling and covering up torture has enlisted a former FBI director to fight back.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Louis J Freeh, Bill Clinton’s FBI director, rejected an independent report begrudgingly embraced by the American Psychological Association (APA) as a politicized smear job. ...
Former federal prosecutor David Hoffman, who spearheaded the 542-page investigation, found that Behnke was an instrumental figure in more than a decade’s worth of institutional enablement by the APA of torture conducted by the CIA and US military.
Hoffman concluded that Behnke, along with others, concealed close ties to colleagues in the military in order to maneuver the APA into softening its traditional rejections of torture – thereby enabling psychologists to participate – and suppressing internal dissent.
The APA disclosed on Friday that it parted ways with Behnke, its ethics director for 15 years, on 8 July in an apparent firing.
Judge Orders Pentagon to Get Guantanamo Force-Feeding Videos Ready for Release
Pentagon video editors are on the clock now that a federal judge has ordered that several hours of “disturbing” force-feeding videos from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay are to be redacted and prepared for public release before the end of next month.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued the ruling on Friday, ordering the government to complete the redaction process that she initially ordered more than 10 months ago.
She set an August 31 deadline to prepare eight of the 32 tapes for release.
Kessler also ordered the government to redact an additional two compilation tapes before the end of September: one tape created by the government and one by attorneys representing Abu Wa’el Dhiab - a former Guantanamo detainee whose legal struggle has served as the catalyst for the pending disclosures.
“The only thing consistent about the Government’s position has been its constant plea for more time,” Kessler wrote in her order, adding that the “Government has failed, after having managed to stall for nine months by filing a truly frivolous Appeal with the Court of Appeals, to use the additional time it has already received.”
All parties are to return to the court in the middle of October to review the tapes, upon which, Judge Kessler instructed that “there will be no extensions of time (emphasis hers).”
'OUT-TTIP zone': Talks on deal resume in Brussels, Belgian town opts out of it
What happens when policy is made by corporations? Your privacy is seen as a barrier to economic growth
With all eyes on Greece, the European parliament has quietly passed a non-binding resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the controversial trade liberalisation agreement between the United States and Europe. Ironically, it did so a few hours after lecturing Alexis Tsipras, the Greek leader, about the virtues of European solidarity and justice.
If enacted, TTIP, along with two other treaties currently under negotiation– the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) – will considerably limit the ability of governments to rein in the activities of corporations; all three treaties have predictably triggered much resistance.
The European parliament’s resolution seeks to eliminate the main point of contention between the US and Europe. While many Europeans object to the very idea of creating an international tribunal, where corporations can sue governments for passing business-unfriendly laws, the European parliament has proposed to turn this tribunal into a public European institution. Some such institutions do have teeth – consider the recent “right to be forgotten” judgment from the European court of justice – but this can’t be taken for granted.
This surely won’t be the end of opposition to the treaties, though. One overlooked aspect of the emerging legal architecture that they enact is that, barring a Greece-like rebellion from the citizens, Europe will eventually sacrifice its strong and much-cherished commitment to data protection. This protectionist stance – aimed, above all, at protecting citizens from excessive corporate and state intrusion – is increasingly at odds with the “grab everything” mentality of contemporary capitalism.
Watching the watchers: Oakland seeks control of law enforcement surveillance
Fed up with unwarranted spying by police, residents of the California port city of Oakland are pushing back by developing the first enforceable city legislation to regulate the purchase and use of surveillance equipment by law enforcement agencies.
If approved, the legislation could make Oakland a national trailblazer for privacy rights campaigners alarmed at the rise of cameras, “stingrays” and other surveillance technologies used by law enforcement.
Activists are hopeful that in the coming months the city council and mayor’s office will appoint members of a privacy advisory committee to draft a city ordinance on surveillance. They say this will be a big win for residents and a significant change from 2013, when the Oakland police, fire and port officials proposed to use $2m in federal grant money to expand a surveillance program from the port of Oakland to the entire city.
Man dies in police custody after being pepper-sprayed in Alabama
A 35-year-old black man died in police custody in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Friday, after he was pepper-sprayed by police and collapsed while in handcuffs shortly after.
Tuscaloosa police said in a statement published Saturday morning that they were responding to a 911 call on Friday evening that said Anthony Ware was “sitting on the front porch of a residence” holding a firearm.
Six officers were involved in the incident. Ware was pursued into a nearby woods, where he was apprehended after being sprayed with OC (pepper) spray. Officers began administering CPR after Ware collapsed, according to the Tuscaloosa police department. ...
Local media reports said no gun was recovered from the scene. ... The death is being investigated by the Tuscaloosa County homicide unit, which is made up of officers from the Tuscaloosa police department and officers from other departments in the county.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature a report on the statement of John R Lawson upon being denied a new trial and being re-sentenced to life in prison at hard labor: "...Solemnly facing iron bars and prison walls, I assert my love for justice and my faith in its ultimate triumph...It is a privilege and a duty even by sacrifice to advance our priceless cause..."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Chris Hedges: We Are All Greeks Now
The poor and the working class in the United States know what it is to be Greek. They know underemployment and unemployment. They know life without a pension. They know existence on a few dollars a day. They know gas and electricity being turned off because of unpaid bills. They know the crippling weight of debt. They know being sick and unable to afford medical care. They know the state seizing their meager assets, a process known in the United States as “civil asset forfeiture,” which has permitted American police agencies to confiscate more than $3 billion in cash and property. They know the profound despair and abandonment that come when schools, libraries, neighborhood health clinics, day care services, roads, bridges, public buildings and assistance programs are neglected or closed. They know the financial elites’ hijacking of democratic institutions to impose widespread misery in the name of austerity. They, like the Greeks, know what it is to be abandoned.
The Greeks and the U.S. working poor endure the same deprivations because they are being assaulted by the same system—corporate capitalism. There are no internal constraints on corporate capitalism. And the few external constraints that existed have been removed. Corporate capitalism, manipulating the world’s most powerful financial institutions, including the Eurogroup, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve, does what it is designed to do: It turns everything, including human beings and the natural world, into commodities to be exploited until exhaustion or collapse. In the extraction process, labor unions are broken, regulatory agencies are gutted, laws are written by corporate lobbyists to legalize fraud and empower global monopolies, and public utilities are privatized. Secret trade agreements—which even elected officials who view the documents are not allowed to speak about—empower corporate oligarchs to amass even greater power and accrue even greater profits at the expense of workers. To swell its profits, corporate capitalism plunders, represses and drives into bankruptcy individuals, cities, states and governments. It ultimately demolishes the structures and markets that make capitalism possible. But this is of little consolation for those who endure its evil. By the time it slays itself it will have left untold human misery in its wake.
The Greek government kneels before the bankers of Europe begging for mercy because it knows that if it leaves the eurozone, the international banking system will do to Greece what it did to the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973 in Chile; it will, as Richard Nixon promised to do in Chile, “make the economy scream.” The bankers will destroy Greece. If this means the Greeks can no longer get medicine—Greece owes European drug makers 1 billion euros—so be it. If this means food shortages—Greece imports thousands of tons of food from Europe a year—so be it. If this means oil and gas shortages—Greece imports 99 percent of its oil and gas—so be it. The bankers will carry out economic warfare until the current Greek government is ousted and corporate political puppets are back in control. ...
The corporate dismantling of civil society is nearly complete in Greece. It is far advanced in the United States. We, like the Greeks, are undergoing a political war waged by the world’s oligarchs. No one elected them. They ignore public opinion. And, as in Greece, if a government defies the international banking community it is targeted for execution. The banks do not play by the rules of democracy.
They’re terrified of Bernie Sanders: Fox News, Hillary surrogates and Wall Street get extra-nervous
"Too far left" and "too extreme," is attack line from Fox and corporate Democrats. It's a sign Sanders is gaining
Income inequality in America is the highest it’s been since 1928, yet Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill wants you to know that some people are just ”too liberal” and “extreme” to be president. Many Americans still aren’t comfortable with confronting Wall Street greed, even if the 2008 financial crisis cost the United States over $12.8 trillion, 2.6 million jobs, and resulted in a Washington Post headline titled “U.S. Forces Nine Major Banks To Accept Partial Nationalization.” According to the Levi Economics Institute, the 2008 financial crisis resulted in “a Federal Reserve bailout commitment in excess of $29 trillion.” ...
Regardless of the fact that even Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are talking about wealth inequality, certain Democrats believe that only the most centrist and carefully vetted messages will gain the attention of yesterday’s middle of the road swing voter. The fear that an honest and genuine progressive candidate might ruffle the feathers of Wall Street lures many Democrats towards vapid centrism, or even blind acceptance of scandal and neoconservative foreign policy. The problem however, is that swing states already don’t trust this centrist candidate, even with hundreds of millions in overflowing campaign coffers.
For many, preventing another Bush administration means setting aside progressive ideals in favor of Citizens United cash and cold pragmatism. If it means winning, then it’s only rational to vote for a candidate who was against gay marriage until 2013,against the decriminalization of marijuana, pushed for the TPP on 45 separate occasions, supported Keystone XL, voted for the Iraq War, and is linked to neoconservatives. True, Vox states this candidate might “pull Democrats and the country in a hawkish direction,” but $2.5 billion is the best chance at preventing another Bush administration. Also, the fact that Vice News, the Associated Press, and other organizations are suing the State Department for access to emails doesn’t concern some voters.
This might be the mindset of certain people, but it’s definitely not the viewpoint of voters who still believe that values and principles overshadow enormous campaign contributions. A political awareness is forming, as illustrated in Iowa and New Hampshire, despite the fact that the same statisticians who never predicted this phenomenon are now saying it will be short-lived. ...
Whereas Vermont’s Senator is perhaps the only politician in world history who’s ever said, “I don’t want money from the billionaires,” other candidates don’t share his philosophy.
Future generations will look back at this election and either say that we defeated Citizens United by electing a man serious about defeating the Court’s decision, or succumbed to the grip of corporations by voting against the interests of our democracy.
The Evening Greens
Climate Change 'Crushing Bumblebees in a Vise': Study
Unlike other species, bumblebees aren't expanding their range north; have experienced 'unprecedented' range loss
Yet another reason to take urgent action on the climate crisis: a new study has found that the warming planet is behind shrinking bumblebee range—and their decline could cause widespread impacts.
The reason, according to the team of scientists, who looked at over 100 years of records from North America and Europe, is that while other species are shifting their habitats further north as temperatures climb, bumblebees aren't.
Lead author Jeremy Kerr, professor and University Research Chair in Macroecology and Conservation Biology at the University of Ottawa, puts it like this: "Picture a vise. Now picture the bumblebee habitat in the middle of the vise."
"As the climate warms, bumblebee species are being crushed as the climate vise compresses their geographical ranges. The result is widespread, rapid declines of pollinators across continents; effects that are not due to pesticide use or habitat loss. It looks like it's just too hot," he stated.
The scientists estimate the range loss as 185 miles. Kerr said, "The scale and pace of these losses are unprecedented."
New Study Exposes 'Fatal Flaws' in California Fracking Rules
Affirming what environmentalists have long charged, a new study finds that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may be polluting the air, water, and wildlife in California—and scientists say state leaders are not doing enough to protect residents from the toxic side effects of the controversial drilling practice.
The California Council on Science and Technology on Thursday released its long-awaited final assessment on well stimulation in the state, which found that a lack of adequate testing and data have made it nearly impossible for regulatory agencies to understand what effects fracking has on the environment. The council is an independent body that advises the state government.
"The toxicity and biodegradability of more than half the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing remains uninvestigated, unmeasured, and unknown. Basic information about how these chemicals would move through the environment does not exist," the report states. "We lack information to determine if these chemicals would present a threat to human health or the environment if released to groundwater or other environmental media."
Australia’s climate-denying government is going after wind and rooftop solar
If the Koch brothers ran a country, it might look like what’s happening in Australia. The government, under Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has been doing everything in its power to squelch renewable energy while bolstering the fossil fuel industry — and this weekend, it emerged that Abbott, who harbors particular disdain for wind farms, ordered the government’s $7.4 billion clean energy fund to stop making any new investments in wind and small-scale solar projects.
The Sydney Morning Herald first reported on the decision to block wind farms from receiving support from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which a wind industry representative called the latest blow in “an extraordinary and prolonged attack on a viable industry.” Mark Butler, the shadow environmental minister, was even harsher, accusing Abbott of “broadening his assault on renewable energy technologies, putting thousands of Australian jobs and billions of dollars in investment at even further risk” while moving the country in a decidedly backwards direction.
Ostensibly, the new policy is intended to focus CEFC investments on new renewable innovations, instead of using it to prop up existing industries that should be able to compete on their own. “It is our policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because we think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason why they can’t be supported in the usual way,” Abbott explained. “But while the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies — certainly not existing wind farms.” Greg Hunt, Australia’s minister for the environment, backed him up on Twitter, stressing that CEFC “should focus on solar and emerging technologies as was originally intended.”
But according to opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, making established technology off-limits will mean “the only thing the CEFC can invest in is flying saucers.”
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
How the Son of Edward Said Is Trying to Change Terrorism Prosecutions
Germany won’t spare Greek pain – it has an interest in breaking us
Obama’s Deadly Cold War Legacy
We Can All Get by Quite Well Without Banks - Ireland Managed to Survive Without Them
Transgender students in New Jersey get insurance coverage
Teacher Twitterstorm: NO WAY to Hillary
A Little Night Music
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Monkey Man Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Streamline Train
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing
Cripple Clarence Lofton - You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down
Cripple Clarence Lofton - In The Mornin'
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Crying Mother Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Sixes and Sevens
Cripple Clarence Lofton - When The Soldiers Get Their Bonus
Cripple Clarence Lofton - Mis Taken Blues
Cripple Clarence Lofton - It's Got to Be Done
Cripple Clarence Lofton + Montana Taylor - House Rent Struggle
Cripple Clarence Lofton + Montana Taylor - Clarence's Blues