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 blues guitarist Larry McCray. Enjoy!
Larry McCray Band - Last Four Nickels
“There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can’t remember what the second one is.”
-- Mark Hanna
News and Opinion
Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an "Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery"
HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, “unlimited money in politics.” It seems like a violation of principles of democracy … your thoughts on that?
CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congressmembers. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody’s who’s just a challenger.
Two Big Reasons Hillary Clinton Isn’t Taking Elizabeth Warren’s Revolving-Door Dare
Sen. Elizabeth Warren publicly challenged presidential candidates two weeks ago to support a bill intended to limit the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street.
The Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act would prohibit government officials from accepting “golden parachutes” from their former employers for entering public service. ...
One possible explanation for Clinton’s lack of interest in banning golden parachutes is that she tolerated them when she ran the State Department — for two of her top aides. Robert Hormats and Thomas Nides previously worked as executives for financial firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, respectively. Both received benefits tied to their Wall Street employment contracts for entering public service. ...
Progressive groups find Clinton’s association with Nides and Hormats concerning. Nides once served as chairman for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, one of Wall Street’s top lobbying groups and a fierce opponent of the Dodd-Frank financial reform. He also helped then-president Bill Clinton sell NAFTA to Congress in 1993. Hormats, an advocate for Social Security privatization and deregulation of the financial sector, was part of a small group of economists and policymakers who met with Clinton last December to discuss her campaign’s economic strategy. He has been called Clinton’s “economic guru,” and used his position at the State Department to advocate for U.S. multinationals.
The Clinton campaign did not respond to repeated requests to clarify their position on the Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act, or to address concerns about Nides, Hormats and their golden parachute payouts.
Senator Lindsey Graham’s Pro-War Super PAC Bankrolled by Defense Contractors
The Super PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., raised $2.9 million through the end of June, a significant portion of which came from defense contractors that stand to gain from Graham’s advocacy for greater military intervention around the world and increased defense spending. ...
“If I were a defense contractor, I’d be big time for Lindsey Graham, because I’ve been forward-leaning on rebuilding our military,” Graham told USA Today when asked about why defense contractors have been tapped to help lead his fundraising team. “People come to you because of your positions,” Graham added.
Why Obama’s “Safe Zone” in Syria Will Inflame the War Zone
The road to war is paved with a thousand lies. A fresh fib was tossed on the lie-cluttered warpath to Syria, when it was announced that the U.S. and Turkey would create a “safe zone” inside of Syria — supposedly to be aimed against ISIS.
This “safe zone” is a major escalation of war, but it was described in soft tones by the media. In reality a “safe zone” is a “no-fly zone,” meaning that a nation is planning to implement military air superiority inside the boundaries of another nation. It’s long recognized by the international community and U.S. military personnel as a major act of war. In a war zone an area is made “safe” by destroying anything in it or around that appears threatening.
Turkey has been demanding this no-fly zone from Obama since the Syrian war started. It’s been discussed throughout the conflict and even in recent months, though the intended target was always the Syrian government. ...
This is exactly how events developed in Libya, when the U.S.-NATO led a “no-fly zone” that was supposedly created to allow a “humanitarian corridor,” but quickly snowballed into its real goal: regime change and assassination of Libya’s president. This epic war crime is still celebrated by Obama and Hillary Clinton as a “victory,” while Libyans drown in the Mediterranean to escape their once-modern but now obliterated country.
If Obama’s goal in Syria was actually defeating ISIS, this could have been achieved at any time, in a matter of weeks. It would simply take a serious and coordinated effort with U.S. regional allies, while coordinating with the non-allies already fighting ISIS: Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah.
If Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan were involved in the fight on ISIS it would be quickly strangled of cash, guns, and troops, and be massively out-powered. War over.
The only reason this hasn’t happened is that the U.S. and its allies have always viewed ISIS as a convenient proxy against Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran, not to mention leverage against the Iran-friendly government of Iraq.
Iran's foreign minister calls for world's nuclear weapons states to disarm
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has called on Israel and the world’s eight other states with nuclear weapons to begin disarming, in response to his country’s acceptance of strict curbs on its nuclear programme in an agreement reached earlier this month.
Writing in the Guardian, Zarif argues that by agreeing to the Vienna deal, titled the joint comprehensive plan of action, Iran was honouring the spirit of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), in which states without nuclear weapons promise not to acquire them. But he says the nuclear weapons states are not keeping their side of the bargain by disarming.
“The cold war-era asymmetry between states that possess nuclear weapons and those that don’t is no longer tolerable,” the minister writes, claiming Iran had “walked the walk” on non-proliferation.
“Meanwhile, states actually possessing these destructive weapons have hardly even talked the talk, while completely brushing off their disarmament obligations under NPT and customary international law. That is to say nothing of countries outside the NPT, or Israel, with an undeclared nuclear arsenal and a declared disdain towards non-proliferation, notwithstanding its absurd and alarmist campaign against the Iranian nuclear deal.” ...
Zarif makes three proposals: for negotiations to begin on a nuclear weapons elimination treaty; that this should lead initially to nuclear arsenals being taken off high alert readiness (for example, by removing warheads from missiles); and for the creation of a zone in the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
Afghan Peace Talks on Hold as Taliban Confirms Leader’s Death
Following yesterday’s claims by the Afghan government that Taliban leader Mullah Omar died back in April 2013, the Talibanhas confirmed his death, albeit without a date attached to it, and is saying his former aid Mullah Mansour has been unanimously electedas his successor. Sirajuddin Haqqani was said to have been appointed as Mansour’s new deputy. ...
Taliban members speaking to the press are giving the impression Mansour was just recently elected by the Quetta Shura, which would suggest that either Mullah Omar’s death was more recent than the Afghan government claimed, or that there had been a leadership vacuum for some time. Statements bearing Mullah Omar’s name had been released as recently as this month, adding to the confusion.
Syrian conflict: Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front abduct leader of US-backed rebels dealing blow to plans to build moderate opposition to regime
The kidnapping by the al-Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra of the leader of a US-trained opposition group in northern Syria is a damaging blow to US plans to build up a moderate rebel movement opposed to both President Bashar al-Assad and to extreme Islamic fundamentalists.
The abduction is of particular significance because the US and Turkey are discussing ways of driving Isis out of a stretch of territory between Aleppo and the Turkish border and replacing them with moderates. The policy faces the difficulty that the Syrian armed opposition has been dominated by Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other extreme groups since at least the end of 2013.
An obscure rebel group called Division 30 said that Jabhat al-Nusra had kidnapped its leader, Nadim al-Hassan, and a number of fellow fighters north of Aleppo. A Syrian activist and a second opposition source were quoted by agencies as saying that 54 fighters trained by the US were from Division 30.
Jabhat al-Nusra is the most important opposition grouping after Isis and is reported to be receiving support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In recent months it has led a well-armed rebel coalition force to take the whole of Idlib province on the Turkish frontier from the Syrian army. It has sought to re-brand itself as being less sectarian and less violent than Isis, saying that Alawites, Druze and other Syrian minorities would not be automatically massacred. But it still insists on their forcible conversion to its fundamentalist variant of Islam which is ideologically close to Saudi Wahhabism.
An excellent and thoroughly documented piece. A full read brings you up to date on what's been happening in Ukraine since the US media pretty much dropped the story.
Monsters of Ukraine: Made in the USA
Remember Ukraine? I seem to recall blaring headlines about a supposedly “imminent” and “massive”
Russian invasion of that country: the Anglo-Saxon media was ablaze
with a veritable countdown to D-Day and we were treated to ominous sightings of Russian troops and tanks gathering at the border, allegedly just awaiting the order from Putin to take Kiev. And it turns out there has been an invasion, of sorts – although it isn’t a Russian one. It’s the Kiev regime’s own foot-soldiers returning from the front and turning on their masters.
The war is going
badly for the government of oligarch Petro Poroshenko. The east Ukrainians, who rose in revolt after the US-sponsored
coup threw out democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych, show no
signs of giving up: they’ve repulsed the “anti-terrorist” campaign launched by Kiev, withstanding relentless bombardment of their cities and enduring many thousands of casualties, not to mention widespread destruction. Indeed, the brutal protracted war waged by Kiev against its own “citizens” has arguably steeled the rebels’ resolve and made any thought of reconciliation unthinkable.
As is usual with violent fanatics, the war aims of the Kiev coup leaders – to bring the eastern provinces back into the fold – have been rendered impossible by their methods and conduct. The de facto blockade imposed on the east has bound the separatists all the more tightly to Russia, and so economics as well as searing hatred of a government the easterners regard as “fascist” has sealed the country’s fate.
Unable to crack the rebels’ resolve, the “revolutionaries” who once gathered in the Maiden have begun to turn on each other. Poroshenko, fearful of the rising power of the far-right militias who make up the backbone of his makeshift army, has ordered their dissolution – and the rightists are resisting. ...
Mired in debt, and rapidly sinking into an economic abyss, Ukraine is literally coming apart at the seams – and the ugly underside of the Maiden “revolution” is being exposed to the light of day.
Obama Administration War Against Apple and Google Just Got Uglier
The Obama administration’s central strategy against strong encryption seems to be waging war on the companies that are providing and popularizing it: most notably Apple and Google.
The intimidation campaign got a boost Thursday when a blog that frequently promotes the interests of the national security establishment raised the prospect of Apple being found liable for providing material support to a terrorist.
Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of the LawFare blog, suggested that Apple could in fact face that liability if it continued to provide encryption services to a suspected terrorist. ... Wittes and his co-author, Harvard law student Zoe Bedell argue that Apple’s decision to “move aggressively to implement end-to-end encrypted systems, and indeed to boast about them” after being “publicly and repeatedly warned by law enforcement at the very highest levels that ISIS is recruiting Americans” — in part through the use of encrypted messaging apps — could make the company liable if “an ISIS recruit uses exactly this pattern to kill some Americans.” ...
Within minutes of the Lawfare post going up, privacy advocates and technologists expressed outrage: Chris Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, called it a continuation in Wittes’ “brain-dead jihad against encryption,” while Jake Laperruque, a fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, wrote that Wittes’ post “equates selling a phone that’s secure from hackers with giving money to terrorists.”
German prosecutors investigate Internet journalists for treason
The Federal Prosecutor General is investigating two German journalists suspected of treason for releasing confidential information online. Charges have been filed against the two reporters who run the blog, Netzpolitik.
Journalists Andre Meister and Markus Beckedahl were informed of the investigation on July 24. The two reporters published the official letter on the Netzpolitik website on Thursday.
The prosecutor's letter referred to two articles that were published on the blog in February and April. The reporters were believed to have quoted from a report by Germany's domestic intelligence agency which had proposed a new unit to monitor the internet, particularly social networks. The document had been categorized as "classified document- confidential."
According to German media, the Federal Prosecutor had called in a consultant to determine whether the publish document was, in fact, classified as a state secret. Officials also plan to look into the unnamed informants of the reporters.
If found to be guilty, the reporters could face at least one year in prison.
Afghan War Is Not Over, Says Judge, So Indefinite Detention Can Continue
Though President Obama has publicaly championed end of combat operations in Afghanistan, that doesn't mean prisoners of war can be released
A federal judge on Thursday rejected the petition of a Guantanamo detainee who had requested to be freed after spending nearly a decade and a half in the U.S. offshore prison without trial.
As the Associated Press reports:
Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi has said his detention was illegal in light of President Barack Obama's statements that active hostilities in Afghanistan had ended.
The Yemeni was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Courts have upheld his detention on grounds that he likely aided Taliban forces.
His lawyers argued that his detention was unlawful under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which provided the legal justification for the imprisonment of foreign fighters captured on overseas battlefields. The Supreme Court has said such detention is legal as long as "active hostilities" continue.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said in a 14-page opinion issued Thursday that it was clear that hostilities still persist.
For many, however, the very existence of the offshore prison remains an absurdity and affront to the U.S. Constitution, international theories of jurisprudence, and recognized humamn rights standards.
U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects
The board of the American Psychological Association plans to recommend a tough ethics policy that would prohibit psychologists from involvement in all national security interrogations, potentially creating a new obstacle to the Obama administration’s efforts to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects outside of the traditional criminal justice system.
The board of the of the A.P.A., the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists, is expected to recommend that members approve the ban at its annual meeting in Toronto next week, according to two members, Nadine Kaslow and Susan H. McDaniel, the group’s president-elect. The board’s proposal would make it a violation of the association’s ethical policies for psychologists to play a role in national security interrogations involving any military or intelligence personnel, even the noncoercive interrogations now conducted by the Obama administration. The board’s proposal must be voted on and approved by the members’ council to become a policy.
The board’s recommendation is a response to a report from earlier this month after an independent investigation into the involvement of prominent psychologists and association officials in the harsh interrogation programs operated by the C.I.A. and the Defense Department during the Bush administration.
Palestinian toddler burns to death in suspected Jewish ‘price tag’ attack
Palestinian Baby Burnt to Death in Suspected Jewish Terror Attack
An 18-month-old baby, Ali Saad Dawabsha, has been killed and three of his family members seriously injured in a suspected "price tag" arson attack by Jewish settlers in the northern West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses, at least two masked men arrived at the Palestinian village of Douma at around 4am on Friday morning. The assailants smashed the windows of two houses, threw firebombs inside, and scrawled Hebrew graffiti on the wall reading "Revenge" and "Long live the Messiah." Locals claimed they saw the men flee in the direction of Ma'aleh Ephraim, a settlement nearby to the village. ...
"Price tag" is the name given to attacks by Jewish extremists in revenge for actions against settlers taken by the Israeli government — literally exacting a "heavy price" in retaliation for perceived wrongs against their community. Palestinian villages are frequently the targets of settler violence, but left-wing activists and Christian holy sites have also been attacked. ...
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 2014 more than 300 acts of settler attacks on Palestinians resulted in injury or property damage; an average of six per week. ...
Investigations by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights NGO, have found that between 2005 and 2014 only 7.4 percent of more than 1,000 cases it helped Palestinians file with the Israeli police force resulted in an indictment. According to the organization more than 80 percent of cases were closed due to insufficient investigations by the police force.
Israeli government's talk is cheap on 'price tag' violence
The killing of a Palestinian infant in a suspected arson attack by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank has been swiftly condemned as an act of terror by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
This horrific act is not an isolated event, but part of a widespread campaign by extremist settlers against Palestinians and their property, and it will be instructive to compare the treatment of the perpetrators – if and when they are identified – with Palestinian youths accused of stone-throwing. ...
B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group which monitors settler activity, said that in the past three years, nine Palestinian homes in the West Bank had been set alight, and a Palestinian family had been severely burned when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Palestinian taxi. “In recent years, Israeli civilians set fire to dozens of Palestinian homes, mosques, businesses, agricultural land and vehicles in the West Bank. The vast majority of the these cases were never solved, and in many of them the Israeli police did not even bother to take elementary investigative actions,” B’Tselem said in a statement.
Most settler attacks are relatively small-scale, but together they present a picture of life for Palestinian villages in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and home to more than 200 settlements – all of which are illegal under international law. Throw in restrictions on movement for Palestinians and the continual and invasive presence of the Israeli military – and the grinding, oppressive reality of life under almost half a century of occupation becomes a little clearer. ...
Friday’s arson attack was met with condemnation by Israel, Palestine and the international community. But, as B’Tselem says, “official condemnations of this attack are empty rhetoric as long as politicians continue their policy of avoiding enforcement of the law on Israelis who harm Palestinians, and do not deal with the public climate and the incitement which serve as backdrop to these acts. In the light of this, the clock is ticking in the countdown to the next arson attack, and the one after.”
Officers at Sam DuBose scene involved in death of another unarmed black man
Two police officers who corroborated a seemingly false account of the fatal shooting of Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati were previously implicated in the death of an unarmed, hospitalised and mentally ill black man who died after he was “rushed” by a group of seven University of Cincinnati police officers.
Kelly Brinson, a 45-year-old mental health patient at Cincinnati’s University hospital, suffered a psychotic episode on 20 January 2010 and was placed inside a seclusion room at the hospital by UC officers. He was then shocked with a Taser three times by an officer and placed in restraints. The father of one – son Kelly Jr – then suffered a respiratory cardiac arrest and died three days later.
In court documents obtained by the Guardian and filed by Brinson’s family in a civil suit against UC police and the hospital, all seven officers are accused of using excessive force and “acted with deliberate indifference to the serious medical and security needs of Mr Brinson”.
The documents named University of Cincinnati officers Eric Weibel and Phillip Kidd – the same men who, in a formal report, supported officer Ray Tensing’s claim that he was “dragged” by DuBose’s vehicle on 19 July.
Tensing’s account that he was “dragged” was used as justification for the lethal use of force. It was later dismissed as an attempt to mislead investigators and as “making an excuse for the purposeful killing of another person” by the Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters, who charged Tensing with murder on Wednesday.
The revelation that officers Weibel and Kidd provided the corroboration for Tensing’s account of the incident was met with anger by Brinson’s family members, who told the Guardian on Thursday that if both officers had been disciplined correctly in 2010, the death of DuBose might have been avoided.
Will Prosecutors Charge Officers Who Lied to Protect Ray Tensing After He Fatally Shot Sam Dubose?
Cops Who Also Lied About Sam Dubose Shooting Now on Leave As More Bodycam Footage Emerges
Two University of Cincinnati officers have been taken off duty pending an internal investigation into a video that shows them corroborating their colleague's false account of the fatal shooting of unarmed black man Sam Dubose.
University of Cincinnati's public information officer Lonnie Soury confirmed Thursday that Officers David Lindenschmidt and Phillip Kidd had been placed on paid administrative leave as new bodycam videos taken from the officers who responded to the July 19 shooting were released, Cincinnati's WLWT-TV reported. ...
On Thursday, new bodycam footage taken from the perspective of the responding officers was released. In one of the videos, Lindenschmidt can be heard recounting Tensing's version of events.
The Nightly Show - When Does It End? - The Shooting of Samuel DuBose
Ellen Brown tells the story of how a central bank held a gun to Greece's head, while bankers pushed her down, stripped her assets and Goldman Sachs repeatedly raped her.
The Greek Coup: Liquidity as a Weapon of Coercion
In the modern global banking system, all banks need a credit line with the central bank in order to be part of the payments system. Choking off that credit line was a form of blackmail the Greek government couldn’t refuse. ...
First there was the derivatives scheme sold to Greece by Goldman Sachs in 2001, which nearly doubled the nation’s debt by 2005.
Then there was the bank-induced credit crisis of 2008, when the ECB coerced Greeceto bail out its insolvent private banks, throwing the country itself into bankruptcy. ...
The Greek prime minister was later replaced with an unelected technocrat, former governor of the Bank of Greece and later vice president of the ECB, who refused a debt restructuring and instead oversaw a second massive bailout and further austerity measures. An estimated 90% of the bailout money went right back into the coffers of the banks.
In December 2014, Goldman Sachs warned the Greek Parliament that central bank liquidity could be cut off if the Syriza Party were elected. When it was elected in January, the ECB made good on the threat, cutting bank liquidity to a trickle.
When Prime Minister Tsipras called a public referendum in July at which the voters rejected the brutal austerity being imposed on them, the ECB shuttered the banks.
The Greek government was thus broken Mafia-style at the knees, until it was forced to abandon its national sovereignty and watch its public treasures sold off piece by piece. Suspicious minds might infer that this was a calculated plot designed from the beginning to throw Greece’s prized assets onto the auction block, a hostile takeover and asset stripping for the benefit of those well-heeled entities in a position to purchase them, including the very banks, hedge funds and speculators instrumental in driving up Greek debt and destroying the economy.
The Silent & Unseen Victims of the Greek Debt Crisis
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature news from the harvest fields: "Never before has there been made so much effort..to organize the harvesters."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Hillary Clinton foists private email release delays on Obama administration
Democratic presidential candidate says she hopes State Department will pick up the pace as district court judge criticises ongoing delays during a hearing
Hillary Clinton has directed fresh criticism over the release of her emails toward the Obama administration as a federal judge fumed over delays in turning over records that she kept on a private server while serving as secretary of state.
“This is really a matter for the State Department,” she told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. “They are the ones that are bearing the responsibility to sort through these thousands and thousands of emails and determining at what pace they can be released, and I really hope it will be as quickly as possible,” added Clinton.
Earlier in the day, district court judge Richard Leo criticised the ongoing delays during a hearing prompted by media challenges under freedom of information laws.
“Even the least ambitious bureaucrat could do this,” said the judge, according to reports from the court.
“Now, any person should be able to review that in one day – one day,” he added in apparent irritation at the scrutiny given to a batch of just 60 emails.
Clinton rejects the notion that her “inner circle” while she was secretary of state has been slow to turn over emails that they also kept on private servers.
The Evening Greens
Police Remove Greenpeace Activists from Portland Bridge After They Forced Shell Ship Back to Port
Portland icebreaker protesters cleared after judge fines Greenpeace $2,500 an hour
Authorities have forced protesters in kayaks from a river in Portland, Oregon, where they were trying to stop a Royal Dutch Shell icebreaker from leaving dry dock and joining an Arctic oil drilling operation.
Police also tried to lower protesters who were dangling from a bridge into the water below. Sergeant Pete Simpson said safety was the main priority, and police and coast guard officers were joined by firefighters and a rope-rescue team.
A federal judge in Alaska had earlier ordered Greenpeace USA to pay a fine of $2,500 for every hour that protesters continued to block the icebreaker from leaving for the Arctic.
US district court judge Sharon Gleason ruled on Thursday in Anchorage that Greenpeace was in civil contempt because of protesters dangling off the bridge and impeding the vessel.
Greenpeace USA executive director Annie Leonard said: “Shell is still trying to circumvent the growing global call to preserve the Arctic, and has turned to the courts for help.”
Fennica headed to Arctic
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Shell Oil vessel Fennica departed Astoria early Friday morning for the Arctic after a heated protest in Portland that drew worldwide attention.
Portland police closed the St. Johns Bridge Thursday afternoon as 13 protesters hung from the bridge in an attempt to stop the Shell Oil icebreaker Fennica from its path to the Arctic.
It was reopened shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday.
After nearly two days of hanging from the bridge, the dangling protesters were lowered one by one into the Willamette River.
The protesters said they were cited with criminal trespassing and interfering with a peace officer.
The moment that three protesters were removed, the Fennica began heading towards the St. Johns Bridge. "Kayaktivists" in the Willamette tried to move in front of the boat's path but crews pushed them away and the ship passed under the bridge just before 6 p.m. It was expected to reach Astoria by 11:50 p.m.
We can stop Shell's disastrous Arctic drilling – but only if we join together
Shell is putting corporate profits ahead of our future in its determination to drill in the Arctic. Our elected leaders, most of whom are beholden to corporate interests, won’t act. That’s why some environmentalists are willing to put their lives on the line if need be to stop this insanity.
On Tuesday, Portland “kayaktivists” – activists on kayaks – and Greenpeace workers converged near the drydock to prevent MSV Fennica, Shell Oil’s damaged ice-breaker, from making its way to the Arctic. If it reaches its destination, the ship will pave the way for Shell drilling in a virgin territory.
Fennica was in Portland for repairs to a gash in its hull, which it only became aware of when water started leaking into the ship. This carelessness is not surprising. The Department of Interior has stated that there is a 75% chance of an oil spill in the Arctic once drilling commences, a spill which experts say would be virtually impossible to clean up, posing unacceptable risks to indigenous peoples and the marine environment. ...
After two days of protests, the Fennica turned around. It was a hard-won victory and already short-lived. On Thursday, the police were moving in to extract the climbers. Some kayaktivists have already been arrested. We know that this is not the end. Shell will try again to get its ice-breaker into the Arctic. But we hope that this blockade may just be the “human tipping point” that stops all the new drilling and new fossil fuel infrastructure now.
Portland’s ongoing and powerful resistance to the shipping of coal and oil by rail, as well as tar sands mining equipment by road, has shown us that people won’t stand by as the planet continues to experience weather extremes. That’s why activists here and across the Northwest will continue to act as a chokepoint in the transport of dirty coal, oil and gas from coal, oil, gas and tar sands to our east and north – the carbon content of which, once burned, could well exceed the Keystone XL pipeline five times over.
California exceeds water conservation goals in first month of drought cutbacks
California regulators said on Thursday that water use fell by 27% in June, passing the governor’s conservation target in the first month of mandatory cutbacks during the drought.
Data released on Thursday by the State Water Resources Control Board shows 265 out of 411 local agencies hit or nearly reached savings targets.
Governor Jerry Brown previously ordered an overall 25% reduction in urban water use. His administration gave each community nine months to hit assigned conservation targets as high as 36%.
Cities that fail to hit those marks could face state-ordered conservation measures and fines.
Some communities opposed the targets assigned by the State Water Resources Control Board, calling the goals unfair and unrealistic. Agencies that don’t meet targets face fines and state-ordered conservation measures such as a limit on how many days a week residents can water lawns.
California’s largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, previously released figures for June showing strong water conservation.
Zimbabwe calls for extradition of dentist who killed Cecil the lion
The Zimbabwean environment minister has called for the dentist who killed Cecil the lion to be extradited from the US to face trial for financing an illegal hunt.
Oppah Muchinguri told a news conference that Walter Palmer, 55, was a “foreign poacher” and said she understood Zimbabwe’s prosecutor general had started the process to have him extradited.
“Unfortunately it was too late to apprehend the foreign poacher as he had already absconded to his country of origin,” she told a news conference. “We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he be made accountable.”
A bilateral extradition treaty between the US and Zimbabwe has been in effect since April 2000 in cases where an individual is charged with what would be a criminal offence in both countries.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) said on Thursday it was investigating the illegal killing of the lion by the Minnesota dentist and whether any US laws were broken. ...
The dentist has a kill list of 43 different animals including a polar bear, a mountain lion, an elephant and an African lion he killed in 2005, according to records obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Where Is Walter Palmer? Lion-Killing Dentist Disappears As Protesters Rally Outside His Home
Where in the world is Walter Palmer? Nobody seems to know — not the US Fish and Wildlife Service agents who want to speak with the dentist after he shot, skinned, and beheaded a rare African Lion in Zimbabwe earlier this month, nor the knot of angry animal lovers yelling "scumbag," and "murderer" outside his home and dental practice in Minnesota.
"I'm sure he knows" the government is on his tail, Ed Grace, the US Fish and Wildlife Service's chief of law enforcement for told the Washington Post. "We've made repeated attempts to try and get in contact with him."
But Palmer has seemingly slipped into hiding, with no known sightings of the endangered dentist since Tuesday. It may be just as well, as police said numerous "terroristic " and other threats have reportedly been made against the 55-year-old game hunter and outside his known domiciles.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
“Yes, We’re Corrupt”: A List of Politicians Admitting That Money Controls Politics
Listen to WSJ’s Bret Stephens Secretly Plot With “Pro-Israel” Evangelical Group Against Iran Deal
Campus police: different badges, different uniforms, but same deadly force
Samuel DuBose's killing is a dark cloud with a grim silver lining
You’re watching Pentagon propaganda: “American Idol,” “Ice Road Truckers” and the truth about your favorite shows
Taibbi: "In the Age of Trump, Will Democrats Sell Out More, Or Less?"
At the crosswalk of haters and hate
A Little Night Music
Larry McCray - Soulshine
Larry McCray - Delta Hurricane
Larry McCray - Same Old Blues
Larry McCray - Witchin' Moon
Larry McCray - Run
Larry McCray - Don't Need No Woman
Larry McCray - Gone For Good
Larry McCray Band - Blues Is My Business
Larry McCray - Smooth Sailing
Larry McCray - All Along the Watchtower
Larry McCray - Born to Play the Blues
Larry McCray - Midnight Rambler
Larry McCray - Buck Naked
Larry Mccray - Rio das Ostras Jazz & Blues Festival