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.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player and singer Big Maceo Merriweather. Enjoy!
Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues
"I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing, they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor."
-- Thomas Jefferson
News and Opinion
Obama Administration Finds New Way to Let Criminal Banks Avoid Consequences
Three top Democrats are accusing the Department of Housing and Urban Development of quietly removing a key clause in its requirements for taxpayer-guaranteed mortgage insurance in order to spare two banks recently convicted of federal crimes from being frozen out of the lucrative market.
HUD’s action is the latest in a series of steps by federal agencies to eliminate real-world consequences for serial financial felons, even as the Obama administration has touted its efforts to hold banks accountable.
In this sense, the guilty plea has become as meaningless to banks as their other ways of resolving criminal charges: out-of-court settlements, or deferred prosecution agreements. “Too Big to Fail” has morphed into “Too Big to Jail” — and then again, into “Bank Lives Matter.”
Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Maxine Waters fired off a letter to HUD on Tuesday, saying they believe that the timing of the change was designed to clear the way for two banks recently convicted of federal crimes — JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup — to continue to make Federal Housing Administration-insured loans. Last year, JPMorgan Chase wrote $1.67 billion in FHA loans, and Citi wrote $342 million, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.
[Follow the link for the gory details. I bet Obama's post-presidential reward from his savvy bankster friends just grew by a very large increment. - js]
Guantánamo Bay psychologists to remain despite APA torture fallout
The Pentagon has said it has no plans to divest Guantánamo Bay of its psychologists even as the American Psychological Association signals a desire to end its decade-long association with US military and intelligence interrogations and detentions.
Those psychologists are said to participate in Guantánamo’s highly controversial forced tube feedings.
The APA, the premiere professional association for psychologists, is embroiled in a crisis after an independent report found it to be complicit in US torture, with responsible officials motivated in part by a desire for lucrative US military contracts. At least four senior officials have resigned or been sacked as a result.
Now the APA is signaling a desire to reverse a decade-old policy central to the crisis. Nadine Kaslow, a former APA president who chairs the special committee that aided the report, told the Guardian that the group “needs to adopt a policy to prohibit psychologists from being involved in interrogation, people being held in military custody at Gitmo and other sites”. ...
“We are not aware of any changes concerning the use of mental health professionals in support of detention operations at the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” said Henrietta Levin, a Pentagon spokesperson. ...
There are currently five psychologists working for the Guantánamo detentions taskforce, Levin confirmed. They are said to be involved at the facility’s behavioral-health unit and participate in some capacity in the controversial forced feedings administered to detainees on hunger strike.
“It wouldn’t be in every feeding, but the psychologists were in the mix of the ‘treatment’ of hunger strikers,” said Cori Crider, attorney for Abu Wael Dhiab, who in December was released from Guantánamo without charge after 12 years.
Riots in Athens: EU’s Impending Collapse?
People move events. The Greek people are trying to shape their own history. They aren’t there yet—even the Left hasn’t quite joined them. But a coalescence of forces is on the horizon: either Syriza radicalizes or it will be left behind. Capitalism by its very harshness is creating its own antithesis. Ideological labels are not important; what is, is a genuine people’s government. The riots in Athens, while the Greek Parliament passed the austerity measures, may be the first sign of the breakup of the EU, itself a political formation of advanced capitalism unable to meet the needs of its poorer members. ...
Austerity is repression, pure and simple. It is also, as I recently pointed out, the framework for class warfare, in both cases to the extreme detriment of working people. The people in the Athens street know this, know that Tsipras and Syriza have not done right by them. The public workers’ union went out on strike Wednesday. Crowds gathered before Parliament in the evening. ...
This was not the affirmation one expects from a basic settlement, and rather, a period of deliberation, of gathering force that, should the EU turn the screws further, might well explode, not as revolution, but a willingness to say No and from there leave the eurozone and the EU itself. Why would Germany and the other stalwarts, Finland, the Netherlands, and the Baltic countries care? For the reason that Greece is a living refutation of all the stalwarts value: balanced budgets, taxation favoring business growth, gradual diminishment of labor rights, erosion of pension and social-welfare programs, etc. By bringing Greece to its knees validates austerity: there is no other way than this, the best of all possible worlds. Capitalism, both in Europe and America (indeed everywhere), thrives on false consciousness lest its destructiveness becomes apparent.
Merkel 'gambling away' Germany's reputation over Greece, says Habermas
Jürgen Habermas, one of the intellectual figureheads of European integration, has launched a withering attack on the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, accusing her of “gambling away” the efforts of previous generations to rebuild the country’s postwar reputation with her hardline stance on Greece.
Speaking about the bailout deal for the first time since it was presented on Monday, the philosopher and sociologist said the German chancellor had effectively carried out “an act of punishment” against the leftwing government of Alexis Tsipras.
“I fear that the German government, including its social democratic faction, have gambled away in one night all the political capital that a better Germany had accumulated in half a century,” he told the Guardian. Previous German governments, he said, had displayed “greater political sensitivity and a post-national mentality”.
Habermas, widely considered one of the most influential contemporary European intellectuals, said that by threatening Greece with an exit from the eurozone over the course of the negotiations, Germany had “unashamedly revealed itself as Europe’s chief disciplinarian and for the first time openly made a claim for German hegemony in Europe.”
Protests Erupt Outside of Greek Parliament as It Approves Harsh Austerity Measures in Bailout Deal
EU ministers begin drive to deliver bailout as Greece gives bitter consent
Eurozone finance ministers are to begin discussions on delivering Greece’s bailout after MPs in Athens adopted the contentious package, amid angry scenes in parliament and violent clashes on the streets.
The Eurogroup of finance ministers is due to hold a conference call to discuss the situation at 8.00 GMT (9.00 BST) on Thursday, as they scramble to assemble a short-term financing package – expected to be worth about €7bn – to keep Greece afloat until the new bailout can be finalised.
Even with the deal accepted by Alexis Tsipras’s Greek government and the parliament, MPs in euro states are yet to give the green light. Germany’s Bundestag is set to vote on the plan on Friday and tough talks to finalise the bailout, expected to take much of the summer, can only begin after that.
Hours before the Athens vote, the French national assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of starting negotiations for the third bailout.
If a deal is reached, eurozone governments will contribute €40bn-€50bn and the IMF will contribute another chunk, with the rest coming from selling off state assets and from financial markets.
A Fury Rising as Greek Parliament Votes to Accept Eurozone Agreement
Greece's next hurdle? ECB
The European Central Bank increased emergency funding for Greek lenders, although capital controls will have to remain to avoid a bank run when they reopen on Monday.
European Union finance ministers also approved 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in bridging loans to keep Greece afloat, allowing it to make a bond payment to the ECB next Monday and clear its arrears with the International Monetary Fund.
The loans will be finalised on Friday provided Germany's parliament approves a Berlin government request to open talks on a three-year bailout program - Greece's third in the past five years - worth up to 86 billion euros. ...
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of Greece's sternest critics, questioned whether Athens would ever get a third bailout, even after the parliamentary vote. He suggested its financing needs were spiraling and a debt "haircut" or write-off outside the euro zone might be a better solution.
"We will now see in the negotiations whether there is even a way to get a new program, taking into account financing needs, which have risen incredibly," Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk radio.
The move by the Greek parliament was enough to persuade the ECB to raise Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) for the banks by 900 million euros for a week to nearly 90 billion euros.
When Will Greek Looting and Austerity End?
Back in 2010 a friend predicted it would end when Greeks stormed parliament and beat or hung members of parliament.
It seems that while that may or may not be literally the case, that in general terms it is one of three possible end states. Since there are always enough MPs willing to sign any deal, no matter how bad, because they personally do not suffer the consequences of said deals, bringing the consequences home will be necessary.
The second possibility is the Schauble plan. It is odd that Schauble, though extraordinarily punitive, is willing to offer a pretty good deal for Grexit. He’s worked hard for it, and maybe he’ll be able to force it thru yet. So far he has been stymied primarily by the fact that the Greeks will accept any deal, no matter how bad. ...
So, Schauble, having realized that Greece will not leave no matter how terrible the deal inflicted on them, must now convince not Greeks, but other key European decision makers.
The third possibility is that a truly radical government takes over in Greece: likely Fascists or Communists. Someone who actually says what they mean about austerity and will do whatever it takes to end it.
Greece Might Be Better Off Outside Eurozone, German Finance Minister Says
Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, suggested on Thursday that Greece might be better off leaving the euro, saying that a temporary exit from the common currency could give the country additional flexibility to reduce its crippling debt load.
It was the second time this week that Mr. Schäuble has raised the idea in public. His statement, in a radio interview, came just hours after the Greek Parliament reluctantly approved a package of economic policy changes, demanded by Germany and other creditors, intended to allow Greece to remain in the eurozone and to qualify for a new round of bailout financing.
Mr. Schäuble’s statements, a day before the German legislature is expected to approve negotiations on the new Greek bailout, highlighted the continuing debate in Germany about the best path toward resolving the crisis.
It also gave further credence to assertions by some Greek officials that Mr. Schäuble wanted Greece out of the eurozone all along, and underscored the divisions in Europe and beyond over whether Greece can recover from its long economic crisis without a substantial reduction in its debt.
This is a really interesting interview in Jacobin magazine with Stathis Kouvelakis, a member of Left Platform. There's far more here than can be fairly excerpted, but here's a small taste:
Greece: The Struggle Continues
Q: What were the causes of the July referendum? Many saw it as something out of the blue, a wildcard that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pulled out. But there is some uncertainty about his motivations — some even speculate that he thought he would lose.
A: I think that the referendum was clearly an attempt to get out of the trap into which the government was falling through the negotiating process.
It was quite obvious, actually, that during the downward spiral of concessions the government and Tsipras realized that whatever they proposed was never going to be enough for the troika. By the last week in June, it was clear that the agreement that was more or less taking shape would not pass the internal test within Syriza and would not pass the test of public opinion. ...
Two things have to be said at this point. The first is that Tsipras and most of the people close to him thought it was going to be a walk in the park. And that was pretty much the case before the closure of the banks. ... What happened in that cabinet meeting was that a certain number of people — the rightist wing of the government, lead by Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis — disagreed with the move. ... This wing thought that the referendum was a high-risk proposal, and they understood, in a way that Tsipras did not, that this was going to be a very confrontational move that would trigger a harsh reaction from the European side — and they were proved right. ...
On the other hand, the Left Platform’s leader and minister of energy and productive reconstruction, Panagiotis Lafazanis said that the referendum was the right decision, albeit one that came too late, but he also warned that this amounted to a declaration of war, that the other side would cut off the liquidity and we should expect within days to have the banks closed. Most of those present just laughed at this suggestion.
I think this lack of awareness of what was going to happen is absolutely key to understanding the whole logic of the way the government has been operating so far. They just couldn’t believe that the Europeans would react the way that they actually reacted.
Former Iran Ambassador: Nuclear Deal is Model for Closing Path to Militarization and Weaponization
Obama: Only Alternative to Iran Deal Is War
When the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran was announced early Tuesday, everyone knew what was coming next. After spending decades railing against Iran’s nuclear program and months claiming the negotiations were a threat to Israel, there was no calming Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu down.
A day later, world leaders are starting to fire back with surprising openness, lashing Netanyahu for his insincerity. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond insisted no deal would’ve been good enough for Netanyahu, and that what he really wanted was a “permanent standoff” with Iran.
President Obama seemed a little less interested in placating Netanyahu today as well, giving his usual lip service on Israeli security concerns but insisting Netanyahunever provided a valid alternative to the deal, and said the deal was a fair sight better than war.
Rights Campaigners 'Disturbed' as Obama Offers Further Spike to Israeli Military Aid
President Barack Obama offered Israel even more military aid this week as a consolation prize for the Iran deal, raising the concerns of human rights campaigners who oppose U.S. funding of atrocities against Palestinians.
Speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, the same day the accord was reached, Obama said he is ready to hold "intensive discussions" about bolstering Israel's military, according to unnamed administration officials cited by The New York Times.
However, Netanyahu—who has vigorously opposed diplomacy with Iran—rebuffed the gesture.
Obama indicated in an interview with the Times on Tuesday that Netanyahu is likely holding out to see if he can still sink the Iran deal. Netanyahu "perhaps thinks he can further influence the congressional debate, and I’m confident we’re going to be able to uphold this deal and implement it without Congress preventing that," said the president.
Russian-speaking Lithuanians upset at plans to remove Soviet-era monuments
They are four sculptures that bring a nostalgic dollop of socialist realism to the heart of an EU capital: on the Green Bridge over the Neris river in Vilnius the approaches are dominated by monuments to heroic Soviet archetypes: soldiers, workers, farmers and students.
But for how much longer? Plans to remove the badly corroded monoliths for repairs are proving highly controversial in Lithuania, which 25 years after independence is still torn between a westernising majority and a Russian-speaking minority.
The newly elected mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius, has insisted that the sculptures will be taken away, probably by the end of July, for repairs. But rumours abound that once removed, they will never be returned.
The sensitive cultural situation has echoes of a similar case in Estonia eight years ago, when the Tallinn authorities relocated a monument to the Red Army commonly known as the Bronze Soldier. The decision resulted in two nights of riots and a siegeof the Estonian embassy in Moscow. ...
After Lithuania restored its independence, most of the Soviet sculptures were removed and demolished. Some of the sculptures that remained intact were later collected and moved to the Grutas sculpture park near Druskininkai, where a local businessman, Viliumas Malinauskas, made a tourist attraction out of the monuments. His idea was awarded an Ig Nobel peace prize in 2001.
Google Exec Turned Obama Official Won't Describe Magic Solution to Encryption Debate
According to Alan Davidson, former Google executive turned Commerce Department official, strong encryption and law enforcement interests are not “irreconcilable.”
But he won’t speculate as to how that’s possible. ...
“We believe that encryption is an essential tool,” Davidson told guests on Wednesday morning at the Cryptosummit hosted by privacy group Access. “But we don’t think that’s incompatible with public safety.”
That’s the new mantra of Obama administration officials, who continue to insist — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary from encryption experts and other technologists — that they can have it both ways.
FBI director James Comey, for instance, proposed an imaginary solution to the problem last week, suggesting that the “smart people” in Silicon Valley should work a little harder to come up with it.
Critics Say Bill Would Turn Muslim Communities Into "Mini-Surveillance States"
An open letter published this week by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, signed by a coalition of 42 civil rights organizations, says that a proposed bill designed to counter violent extremism would threaten “freedom of speech, association, and religion,” while doing little to actually combat terrorism.
The legislation, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 25, would create a new government agency, the Office of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. While the practical implications of this new division still remain nebulous, the bill would give the new office a $10 million annual budget for “identifying risk factors that contribute to violent extremism,” identifying populations targeted for extremist propaganda, and developing government-approved “counter-messaging.” ...
The letter says the bill would result in “religious and political views [being] identified as markers of pre-terrorism that must be reported to the government,” and adds that such a development would likely have the perverse effect of stifling public discourse while stigmatizing entire communities as potential security threats. ...
Critics charge that despite considerable government resources now being committed to the purpose of countering violent extremism, there is little evidence that CVE programs actually reduce violence, nor is there much to substantiate the claim that holding “radical” ideas is a predictor of violent behavior, the authors note.
Naureen Shah, the director of Amnesty International USA’s Security and Human Rights Program, says the bill would have the potential result of creating “mini-surveillance states” within Muslim-American communities, by compelling the implementation of CVE programs that use threats and incentives to encourage people to report on each other’s political views.
Unarmed Mississippi man died after 20-minute police chokehold, witnesses say
Witnesses have told Mississippi state investigators that an unarmed black man died after being kept in a chokehold by a police officer for more than 20 minutes and denied CPR, according to his family’s attorneys, who said an autopsy confirmed he was fatally strangled.
State medical examiners provisionally found Jonathan Sanders died through homicide by manual asphyxiation, according to attorneys Chokwe Lumumba and CJ Lawrence.
Sanders, who was 39, repeatedly told Stonewall police officer Kevin Herrington “I can’t breathe”, according to one witness.
According to the attorneys, one witness alleged that Herrington said he was “going to get that nigger” seconds before confronting Sanders in Stonewall on the night of 8 July, and several said the officer was the aggressor. Police have described the encounter as “a fight”.
“We believe there is probable cause for a prosecution,” the attorney Lawrence said in an interview on Wednesday. “A determination should now be made by a jury at an open trial as to whether officer Herrington had any justification for choking Jonathan Sanders to death.”
The attorneys are requesting that a special prosecutor take over the case, citing remarks at a town hall meeting on Tuesday by Clarke County’s district attorney, Bilbo Mitchell, that he had handled 15 cases of killings by police during his career and none had resulted in an officer being indicted.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature from the Chicago Day Book: Congressman Buchanan of Illinois: "Mark John D Rockefeller Jr with the stamp of the criminal."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Report Exposes 'Revolving Door' Within Corporate-Dominated TTIP Talks
As European delegates met with stakeholders in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the details of a massive, pending trade deal between the U.S. and Europe, a new report highlights the revolving door that exists between negotiators of the deal and the industries expected to profit from it.
Watchdog groups have long warned that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)will benefit multinational corporations at the expensive of public and environmental health, labor rights, and state sovereignty.
The study, published by Brussels-based watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), highlights at least fifteen examples of officials who once held positions of power within the European Commission or the UK government and are now actively lobbying the TTIP negotiations on behalf of some of the biggest food, telecom, pharmaceutical, and other industries. ...
CEO research has further shown that European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, her Cabinet, and the Directorate General (DG) for Trade have met with industry representatives and lobbyists in more than 80 percent of declared meetings; whereas public interest groups were only included 17 percent of the time. Data shows that agribusiness and food industry groups dominated those talks, while telecommunications and Big Pharma interests were not far behind.
Indeed, on Wednesday, the European Commission hosted a TTIP Stakeholder Presentations Event, whose participants ran the gamut from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to corporate bigwigs Dow Chemical and Pfizer.
Bill Clinton apologizes for 1994 crime law that created current mass incarceration crisis: “That only made it worse”
Speaking at the annual NAACP convention on Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton apologized for the draconian sentencing laws he signed while in office “that only made the problem worse,” the New York Times’ Peter Baker reports.
Clinton was referring to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which put 100,000 more police officers into circulation, banned a number of high-caliber assault rifles and introduced more comprehensive background checks for some gun purchases — but it also included harsher sentences for federal prisoners, setting a trend that trickled down to the state level.
“In that bill,” he said, “there were longer sentences. And most of these people are in prison under state law, but the federal law set a trend. And that was overdone. We were wrong about that.”
Talk Like Warren, Act Like a Clinton
The Evening Greens
Warming of oceans due to climate change is unstoppable, say US scientists
Seas will continue to warm for centuries even if manmade greenhouse gas emissions were frozen at today’s levels, say US government scientists
The warming of the oceans due to climate change is now unstoppable after record temperatures last year, bringing additional sea-level rise, and raising the risks of severe storms, US government climate scientists said on Thursday.
The annual State of the Climate in 2014 report, based on research from 413 scientists from 58 countries, found record warming on the surface and upper levels of the oceans, especially in the North Pacific, in line with earlier findings of 2014 as the hottest year on record.
Global sea-level also reached a record high, with the expansion of those warming waters, keeping pace with the 3.2 ± 0.4 mm per year trend in sea level growth over the past two decades, the report said.
Scientists said the consequences of those warmer ocean temperatures would be felt for centuries to come – even if there were immediate efforts to cut the carbon emissions fuelling changes in the oceans.
Al Gore criticizes Obama on climate change and 'insane' Arctic drilling
With Shell planning to begin drilling in the Chukchi Sea within days, Gore said that Obama was wrong to ever allow drilling in the Arctic
The former US vice-president and climate champion Al Gore has made a rare criticism of Barack Obama as Royal Dutch Shell prepares to drill an exploratory well in the Arctic Ocean, denouncing the venture as “insane” and calling for a ban on all oil and gas activity in the polar region.
With Shell planning to begin drilling in the oil-rich Chukchi Sea within days, Gore said in an interview with the Guardian that Obama was wrong to ever allow drilling in the Arctic.
It was the only real point of criticism from Gore of Obama’s efforts to fight climate change, at home and through a global deal to be negotiated in Paris at the end of the year.
“I think Arctic drilling is insane. I think that countries around the world would be very well advised to put restrictions on drilling for oil in the Arctic ocean,” Gore told the Guardian in Toronto, where he was passing on his techniques for talking about the climate crisis to 500 new recruits from his Climate Reality Project.
Yet another way that Obama's useless, corrupt, corporate crony-filled administration is helping the Oil and Gas industry destroy the planet.
Thanks Obama!
With Zero Accountability, Big Oil Wringing Profit from Developing Countries
Thanks to "foot dragging by the Securities and Exchange Commission" combined with "aggressive lobbying and legal challenges by oil industry laggards," a U.S. law meant to increase transparency around fossil fuel operations in developing countries has been stalled for nearly five years, charges a new report from Oxfam America.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act sought to help citizens "follow the money" by including the groundbreaking provision known as the Cardin-Lugar provision, or Section 1504, that would require all oil, gas, and mining companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose payments made to governments around the world for each project. ...
As Oxfam's report, Show Us the Money! (pdf), points out, "more than 663 million people in developing countries live in absolute poverty. And they have a right to know: how much do their governments receive for each project and where does the money go?"
But while July 21, 2015 will mark five years since Dodd-Frank was passed, there is still no sign of an official Section 1504 rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
And that means "following the money and holding governments accountable is next to impossible for citizens of developing countries," said Oxfam America president Raymond Offenheiser. In fact, because so many of these transactions remain shrouded in secrecy, they are more likely to be siphoned off as bribes, mismanaged or wasted, or even used to fund violence or conflict, Oxfam says.
After EPA Ignored Environmental Racism for Decades, Communities Fight Back
The Environmental Protection Agency has been ignoring complaints about environmental racism across the United States for up to 20 years, repeatedly failing to investigate evidence that incinerators, power plants, and hazardous waste dumps are disproportionally harming the health of low-income communities of color, a new lawsuit charges.
Filed Wednesday by environmental advocacy organization Earthjustice on behalf of communities across the country, the lawsuit argues that the EPA failed to take adequate action in response to complaints that states were violating civil rights laws by granting permits to hazardous polluters primarily in poor and working-class Black and Latino neighborhoods.
Residents and lawyers identify environmental racism relating to: two power plants in Pittsburg, California; a landfill in Tallassee, Alabama; a hazardous waste dump and treatment facility in Chaves County, New Mexico; a wood-incinerator power station in Flint, Michigan; and an oil-refinery in Beaumont, Texas.
In some places, states failed to fully consider the impact of the facilities on local communities. In others, state authorities "actively stopped residents from participating in public hearings on the permits, or provided them with inaccurate information," a summary of the lawsuit charges.
Complaints were filed to the EPA as early as 1994, with the most recent in 2003. Residents, still waiting for meaningful action from the EPA, say the federal agency is complicit in the harm being done to them.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Whale hunting in Alaska: Point Hope, the village caught between tradition and climate change
On the Front Line of the War Against Isis, Joint Action by US and Iran Has Never Felt Closer
Blame the Banks
'Our children will grow up in a destroyed country' – Greeks fear for the future
Hey! Wake Up! Quick - who DO you love?
Officer Suspended for not Killing Bear Cubs
KosAbility: This Sunday's Big ? ~ More on Meds ~ more more
The agony of Fallujah
Next Up: Fafnir's Bones
Courage
A Little Night Music
Big Maceo Merriweather w/Tampa Red - Winter Time Blues
Big Maceo Merriweather - County Jail Blues, Ramblin' Mind Blues + Texas Blues
Big Maceo Merriweather - Chicago Breakdown
Big Maceo Merriweather - Tuff Luck Blues
Big Maceo Merriweather - So Long Baby
Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues #2
Big Maceo Merriweather w/Tampa Red - Won't Be A Fool No More
Big Maceo Merriweather w/Tampa Red - Texas Stomp
Big Maceo Merriweather - Some Sweet Day
Big Maceo Merriweather + Tampa Red - Poor Kelly Blues
Tampa Red w Big Maceo Merriweather & Ransom Knowling - Georgia, Georgia Blues
Big Maceo Merriweather + Tampa Red - Kid Man Blues
Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton - Kidman Blues
Big Maceo Merriweather + Tampa Red - Come On Home
Big Maceo Merriweather - Have You Heard About It
Big Maceo Merriweather - Maceo's 32-20
Big Maceo Merriweather - Detroit Jump