Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
|
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist and singer Byther Smith. Enjoy!
Byther Smith & the Chicago Kingsnakes - Little Voice
“A free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes.
...The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard.”
-- Henry David Thoreau
News and Opinion
Chelsea Manning Faces Solitary Confinement for Having Vanity Fair’s Caitlyn Jenner Issue in Her Cell
Chelsea Manning supporters condemn threat of indefinite solitary confinement
Activists say charges of ‘disrespect’ and ‘disorderly conduct’ are a violation of Manning’s free speech as army insists its behavior is ‘fair and equitable’
Almost 40,000 signatures have been added to petitions calling on the US military to drop charges against the army soldier andGuardian columnist Chelsea Manning that could put her into indefinite solitary confinement for violations that include storing a tube of expired toothpaste in her military prison cell.
The charges, in which Manning is accused of “disrespect”, “disorderly conduct” and other violations under the rules of the brig in which she is being held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, have prompted an outpouring of anger from the public. Theoriginal petition posted by the internet freedom group Fight for the Future has gained more than 15,000 signatures, together with about 20,000 combined for petitions fromRoots Action andDemand Progress.
“There’s been a huge response from the public,” said Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer. “Just by threatening Chelsea with solitary confinement for such clearly trivial charges, the military is attempting to silence her and violate her right to free speech.”
Manning has told supporters that the property that was confiscated from her cell included the memoir I Am Malala by Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, a novel featuring trans women called A Safe Girl to Love, the LGBT publication Out Magazine, the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair and a copy of Cosmopolitan that included an interview with Manning.
The property, the military said in newly published documents, was not “properly marked with inmate’s name and registration number”.
Chelsea Manning and Hillary Clinton: A Case of Double Standards
Chelsea Manning, the former US Army intelligence officer behind the one of biggest leaks of diplomatic and other sensitive (i.e. embarrassing) material in American history, is facing indefinite solitary confinement at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, brig where she is serving a 35-year sentence. ...
The “crimes” of Chelsea Manning weren’t crimes against people but against the US government, i.e. they were acts of conscience that should be rewarded rather than punished. Nothing she did hurt a single person, except those persons in power whose hypocrisy and venality was exposed: not a single US casualty in our interminable “war on terrorism” can be traced back to the leaking of the materials that have been posted on Wikileaks via Manning. Indeed, the material that was released to the world exposed the very real crimes of our rulers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. This is Chelsea’s real “crime,” one for which she is paying dearly. ...
Hillary had her staff print out 55,000 pages of emails to hand over to the office of the Inspector General, which is in the process of reviewing them – but already we have these major revelations of wrongdoing, including possible felonies committed by some in her inner circle, throwing the possibility of her own collusion in the mix. The FBI has taken custody of the server: will they soon be taking custody of some top Clintonians – or even Hillary herself?
The answer to this last question is undoubtedly no. Regardless of what is revealed – short of outright espionage – Hillary Clinton isn’t going to face any legal repercussions. As Glenn Greenwald put it in what I think is his best book so far, With Liberty and Justice for Some:
“Those with political and financial clout are routinely allowed to break the law with no legal repercussions whatsoever. Often they need not even exploit their access to superior lawyers because they don’t see the inside of a courtroom in the first place – not even when they get caught in the most egregious criminality. The criminal justice system is now reserved almost exclusively for ordinary Americans, who are routinely subjected to harsh punishments even for the pettiest of offenses.”
Yes, the pettiest of offenses – like having a tube of toothpaste in your cell that’s beyond its expiration date.
Britain Challenges Julian Assange’s Asylum in Ecuadorean Embassy as Sweden Vows to Continue Inquiry
Jeb Bush: The Making of a War Criminal Part One...
Jeb Bush refuses to rule out use of torture if he becomes US president
Republican candidate Jeb Bush says torture is inappropriate, but use of brutal questioning methods may be justifiable and necessary for the US government
Jeb Bush has declined to rule out the US resuming the use of torture – with the Republican presidential hopeful saying brutal questioning methods might be justifiable and necessary in some circumstances. ...
“I don’t want to make a definitive, blanket kind of statement,” Jeb Bush told an audience of Iowa Republicans, when asked whether he would keep in place or repeal President Barack Obama’s executive order banning so-called enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA.
Jeb Bush said he believed the techniques were effective in producing intelligence but that “now we’re in a different environment.” He suggested there may be occasions when brutal interrogations were called for to keep the country safe.
Did the U.S. Just Kill 5 Kids in Syria?
A Syrian monitor group says planes from the U.S.-led coalition killed civilians, including five children, in an airstrike near Aleppo this week.
According to a Syrian monitor group, warplanes believed to be part of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition bombed and killed 18 people in the Idlib province town of Atmeh on Tuesday night, close to the Turkish border.
Eight of the alleged fatalities were civilians, including women and children—among them, five young sisters and a three-person family of internally displaced persons. The remaining 10 were said to be fighters belonging to the independent Free Syrian Army brigade known as Jaysh al-Sunnah. One of the brigade’s main bases was apparently destroyed.
If confirmed, this attack would not only scandalize an already fraught year-long campaign against the transnational terror group; it would undoubtedly squander whatever’s left of the trust held by anti-Assad rebels toward Washington. Particularly after the Pentagon this week quietly announced that its $500 million program to “train and equip” rebels to fight the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS was being largely sidelined, following the fiasco of seeing all of the 54 initial graduates run off or get killed or captured by al-Qaeda.
The Pentagon confirmed to The Daily Beast that a target “near Aleppo” was struck on August 11, although described it as an ISIS “staging area.” (Ragip Soylu, a Turkish journalist, had earlier obtained confirmation from the coalition that Atmeh is classified as “near Aleppo.”) U.S. Central Command said that it’s currently assessing whether to open an investigation into the bombing, contingent on what eyewitness statements, photographs, and other documents reveal about the sortie. ...
Arabic social media was awash with rumors of the Atmeh strike, encouraged by a series of heartrending interviews conducted by Syrian media activist Hadi al-Abdallah. In one, he talks to a man who says he is the grandfather of the five dead sisters, who ranged in ages from 4 to 10. “Are these girls terrorists?,” the grandfather asks. “Are they carrying machine guns? May God take revenge!”
Growing US Concerns as Turkey Escalates War on Kurds
US officials are expressing growing concern at the Turkish military’scontinued escalation of its waragainst Kurdish factions in the region, and believe they were sold a bill of goods when Turkey attacked ISIS and the Kurdish PKK within hours of one another then sought NATO backing. ...
It seemed like everything the US was hoping for, but officials are now saying ISIS was a “bait-and-switch” tactic by Turkey to get the US to acquiesce to their war against Kurds, particularly in northern Iraq. Though US military officials have expressed anger at the way the war against the Kurds is being carried out, there seems to be no interest in the US changing its policy, and instead they wait for Turkey to go after ISIS.
That’s just not happening. Turkey launched some token strikes on ISIS in the first couple of days of border clashes, and there hasn’t been a peep on the border since. Even the much-vaunted “safe zone,” presented to the US as hurting ISIS, looks to be carved mostly out of Kurdish territory in Aleppo Province. The focus is entirely on Kurds, and to read the Turkish press, there is no war with ISIS.
Hear that distant commotion? It's a stampede of arms dealers ready to peddle their
wars wares to Iran...
A message for the US Congress from Switzerland: The Iran deal is done
News that Switzerland has become the first Western country to start lifting sanctions on Iran will no doubt be followed swiftly by reports of other nations (and corporations) seeking some of the Islamic Republic’s soon-to-be-unfrozen billions. Russia and China have already begun talking up arms sales to Tehran; over the weekend, Moscow sent a pair of warships to the port of Anzali, to display Russian naval wares.
For now, the Swiss are easing restrictions on harmless things such as precious metals. But Iran’s military procurers will have made note of recent reports that Switzerland has eased restrictions on arms exports. Swiss-made tanks (known, puzzlingly, as Piranhas) and ammunition are already used widely across the Middle East. How long before munitions makers from Switzerland join the stampede toward Tehran?
But perhaps more important than the specifics of the trade between Switzerland and Iran is the message it sends the US Congress, where a mighty—and mightily futile—bipartisan effort is under way to scuttle the deal. And it is entirely fitting that the message should come from the country that has represented American interests in Tehran for the past 35 years. The message: Move on.
Rights Campaigners and Doctors Face Off With Israel Over Force-Feeding
As jailed Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan falls into coma, physicians and advocates say only way to save his life is to release him
Just weeks after the Israeli government passed a widely-opposed law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners, administrative detainee Mohammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike for 60 days, slipped into a coma on Friday morning while shackled to his hospital bed.
Now, the unconscious 30-year-old Palestinian attorney from the village of Einabus, who has been incarcerated in Israeli custody for nearly a year without charge or trial, finds himself at the center of a growing controversy. The Israeli government is threatening to make Allan a test case for the country's new force-feeding laws and Israeli doctors are so far refusing to carry out the controversial practice, which is considered torture by United Nations experts.
Allan, currently on life support in Barzilai hospital in Askalan, reportedly suffered seizures and breathing difficulties before losing consciousness Friday morning. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said in a statement that Allan confirmed as recently as August 12 that "he seeks to live, but a life of dignity and freedom."
In a statement released last week, United Nations experts affirmed Allan's right to make this choice: "Hunger strikes are a non-violent form of protest used by individuals who have exhausted other forms of protest to highlight the seriousness of their situations. The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental human right."
The case is also pitting doctors against the Israeli state, whose lawmakers directly cited the U.S. practice of force-feeding people incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay when justifying the legislation. The Israeli Medical Association has opposed the legislation from the beginning—denouncing the force-feeding as torture, urging physicians not to participate, and currently challenging the law in the courts.
[Way to go, Obama! You're such a beacon of hope to the world's oppressed! - js]
Palestinian hunger striker in induced coma on day 60 of protest
Naturally, this article fails to mention who is responsible for the refugee crisis and who sets the terms that make Gaza an open air prison camp, preventing Palestinians from developing an economy of their own such that they could provide for the education of their young.
More Than 450,000 Palestinian Refugees Are Set to Miss School Due to UN Funding Shortfall
A United Nations funding shortfall means that more than 450,000 Palestinian child refugees are set to find their classrooms are closed on the first day back to school.
In a report to the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UNRWA, the branch of the body charged with providing aid to Palestinian refugees, warned that the "financial crisis" looked set to "force the suspension of services relating to the agency's education program."
"At a time of growing instability [and] rising extremism, there's going to be an extra half million kids on the streets of the Middle East," Chris Gunness, a spokesperson for the agency, told VICE News. "Radical groups are in full recruitment mode… these children should be in UN schools."
In a bid to stave off the crisis UNRWA has issued an urgent appeal to donors, including the United States, Australia, and the Gulf countries, to help plug the $101 million dollar hole in its education budget, but now with just nine days to go until the start of the school year in many places the funding pot is still short.
UNRWA is mandated to provide life-saving humanitarian aid as well as state-like services, including schools and hospitals, to millions of Palestinian refugees scattered across the region but it does not have a guaranteed budget. Instead the organization depends on donor contributions, which it says have not kept pace with the huge increase in demands on its services.
Former general under Pinochet dies in apparent suicide days after sentencing
A retired Chilean general has died in an apparent suicide days after a court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for planning the murder of a chemist who worked for former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Hernan Ramirez Rurange, 76, was sentenced along with 13 other ex-army officers on Tuesday for planning the murder of Eugenio Berrios, whose body was found on a Uruguayan beach in 1995.
Berrios’ death was part of a scheme by Pinochet operatives to obstruct human rights investigations into the dictator’s 1973-1990 regime, according to the court. ...
Berrios oversaw the production of sarin gas and other chemicals for Pinochet’s government, and long faced allegations that he helped poison a popular Chilean politician in 1982.
[War criminal Henry Kissinger is still at large. - js]
Greek parliament approves austerity filled bailout deal from creditors
After Contentious All-Nighter, Greece Bailout Approval Spurs Rebellion
In a development spurring calls for a new "anti-bailout movement," the Greek Parliament early Friday approved a controversial €85 billion financial rescue package—the country's third such bailout from foreign creditors in five years, and one that will require the Greek people to endure further cuts and austerity. ...
"I do not regret my decision to compromise," Tsipras said as he defended the deal in parliament. "We undertook the responsibility to stay alive over choosing suicide." He admitted to lawmakers the deal was no triumph, "but we are also not mourning over this difficult agreement. I have my conscience clear that it is the best we could achieve under the current balance of power in Europe, under conditions of economic and financial asphyxiation imposed upon us."
"But the vote laid bare the depth of anger within Tsipras's leftist Syriza party at austerity measures in exchange for 85 billion euros in aid," Reuters reports, "as 43 lawmakers—or nearly a third of Syriza deputies—voted against or abstained." ...
Meanwhile, a statement signed by more than a dozen Syriza dissenters is calling for people across Greece to mobilize and form a "united movement" for democracy and social justice. The bailout deal, they say, "reverses the Greek people's mandate that went against neoliberal policies on the July 5 referendum."
"We need to continue on the path of July 5 until the end, until we overthrow the bailout policies, with an alternative plan for the next day, for a democratic Greece, reconstructed and socially just," the statement reads. "We call for the creation of a nationwide movement, by establishing committees against the new Memorandum, austerity and the country’s new guardianship."
Greece creditors raise 'serious concerns' about spiralling debt levels
Greece’s European creditors have underlined the temporary nature of the country’s surprise return to growth by warning that they have “serious concerns” about the spiralling debts of the eurozone’s weakest member. ...
According to an analysis completed by the European commission, the European Central Bank and the eurozone bailout fund, Greece’s debts will peak at 201% of its national output (GDP) in 2016.
The study says that Greece’s debt burden can be made more bearable by waiving payments until the economy has recovered and then giving Athens longer to pay. However, it opposes the idea of a so-called “haircut” – or reducing the size of the debt. It is a course of action the International Monetary Fund, which joined the three European institutions in negotiating the latest bailout, thinks may be necessary for Greece’s debts to become sustainable.
The analysis emerged shortly after Greece stunned the financial markets by announcing that its economy grew by 0.8% in the three months leading up to the crisis that forced Athens to close the banks and impose capital controls.
The Battle Against Austerity: Lessons From Greece
Migrant crisis: Greece struggles to handle influx in Kos
Europe's migrant crisis came into ugly focus this week on an idyllic Greek island as reports emerged of thousands of men, women and children corralled in a stadium for days in blazing heat with little food, water or shelter.
The small island of Kos is just one of the places where an unprecedented wave of migrants, many fleeing war, have landed after making a perilous journey across the Mediterranean. ...
More than 7,000 migrants arrived on Kos in July, according to Doctors Without Borders. Tens of thousands more landed elsewhere in Greece in the same month, stretching the capacity of its cash-strapped government to cope, the U.N. refugee agency said.
Altogether, some 124,000 refugees and migrants had arrived in Greece by sea this year as of the end of July, according to the UNHCR -- a "staggering" 750% increase over the same period in 2014.
Rocky Anderson to file suit against NSA for 'criminal' surveillance during Olympics
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is asking for the public's help in filing claims against the National Security Agency for what he called the "illegal" and "criminal" gathering of information during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
In an interview with KSL NewsRadio, Anderson said he first became aware of the alleged surveillance when he read an article detailing the NSA's activity in the Wall Street Journal in 2013. The publication disclosed that every phone call and text message in Salt Lake City was subject to surveillance by the NSA and FBI before and during the 2002 Olympic Games held in Utah. ...
Anderson said he had since spoken with a source who worked within the NSA at the time of the Olympics, and said the truth is even worse than the Wall Street Journal alleges.
According to the source, not only was the greater Salt Lake City area under NSA surveillance, but the areas surrounding all the Olympic venues were being watched, meaning that the NSA was collecting information on all the calls made, how long they lasted and what numbers were involved. Anderson said his source also claimed that the NSA targeted specific people and recorded their conversations.
"Here's how this man put it to me: They saw this as a golden opportunity to put a security cone over an entire geographic area and grab everything. And he said they did it all outside the Fourth Amendment, outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," said Anderson.
"Now think of this," Anderson said. "All of it without a warrant, all of it without probable cause. It is absolutely unprecedented in our nation's history."
A question worth pondering...
When the Next Crisis Comes, Which Movements Will Seize the Opportunity?
You, too, could be caught in a situation where people are ready for an alternative, yet your group has none to offer.
It’s understandable. We who work for change seem years away from convincing a critical mass of people that it is both stupid and wrong to have a school-to-prison pipeline, or a rate of carbon emissions killing hundreds of thousands of people, or a “national security strategy” that mainly breeds insecurity. ...
I asked a Washington, D.C., friend who works among progressive Democrats what he heard after the Wall Street disaster. Did people in his circle discuss organizing the strong, grassroots anger into a push for major reform? He knew of none. As it turned out, that anger was organized by the right and became the Tea Party. Polls show that even today many people identifying as Tea Party members express hostility to Wall Street.
All this missed opportunity should be seen in the context of Barack Obama’s presidency, since it was he who said, during his candidacy, that the Swedish solution to its own banking crisis had been correct: Seize the banks rather than bail them out. (In a recent New Yorker article on Greece, former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said President Obama told him that the U.S. bailout was against his personal politics.)
[Pfffffftttt!!! Against your personal politics? Pull the other one, Mr. Hamilton Project! -js]
Presidents do what they do, given the existing power realities they face. The lesson for us in the United States is: In 2009 we lacked a powerful movement that had a vision, and was willing to mobilize direct action on behalf of that vision.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature from the Chicago Day Book: "It is the theory of..West that the two Rockefellers are red-handed murders."
Tune in at 2pm!
|
Ohio voters to decide on marijuana legalization in November election
Ohio citizens will vote on whether to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana use in November, a decision that could concentrate the state’s legal marijuana business to 10 growers.
Ohio’s secretary of state Jon Husted said on Wednesday that a measure to legalize marijuana had collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in the state’s 3 November election.
The measure includes a provision that would allow only 10 growers to grow and sell pot commercially.
Critics, including the state legislature, say this could create a monopoly. The legislature added a measure, called Issue 2, to the ballot that would block monopolies from operating in Ohio.
According to Husted, if both measures are approved, the one introduced by the legislature would take precedence.
Citizens United Means Wealthy, White Donors Dominate 2016 Presidential Fundraising
Though the American population is becoming more and more diverse, the presidential candidates are being bankrolled by a pool of very wealthy donors, the vast majority of whom are white.
The trend is driven in part by Citizens United and related campaign finance court decisions that deregulated much of the campaign finance system. With the exception of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, who has rejected Super PAC support on principle, all of the major presidential candidates are relying on big-money donors to finance their presidential aspirations.
Out of over 50 individual donors who gave $1 million or more to the Super PACs supporting the current field of presidential candidates, only four are nonwhite. And with the exception of a $2.5 million contribution by a company owned by Cuban-American Benjamin Leon, all of the corporate entities that gave $1 million or more to Super PACs are owned or run by white executives. ...
Activists have expressed frustration that politicians in Washington, particularly in Congress, have failed to hold investigations into police-involved killings of African Americans. In April, as demonstrators in Baltimore called for the federal government to bring relief to poverty-striken neighborhoods and clamp down on militarized law enforcement, lawmakers in Washington instead moved to boost spending on the F-35 and other pet projects requested by the defense contracting industry.
“Elections funded primarily by wealthy, white donors mean that candidates as a whole are less likely to prioritize the needs of people of color,” notes a report from Demos.
Is There Anything Progressive About Hillary’s Economic Plan?
The long period of income stagnation facing middle class and working class families has created a substantial demand for progressive economic policies. In response, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly indicated that middle class living standards would play a central role in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Last week, in a major speech she laid out an argument for more long-term investment and urging companies to focus on developing the skills of their workers. The major item that Secretary Clinton put forward in a previous talk was tax incentives for workplace training and profit sharing. While these are admirable goals, it is not clear whether the specific proposals she put forward are likely to push the economy in this direction.
In her most recent talk she proposed graduating the capital gains tax rate. Under this proposal people would have to hold stock and other assets for a longer period of time to get the full benefit of the capital gains tax rate. ...
Taking these in turn, we have a long history of creating tax breaks to promote various types of corporate or individual behavior. Few work as planned. ... Since there is no specific proposal at this point it is difficult to know what potential problems it poses. ...
The proposal for a graduated capital gains tax may lead investors to hold stock for somewhat longer periods of time, but it is difficult to envision major changes in corporate behavior as a result. The most frequent traders would not be affected at all, since they already hold stock for much less than a year. Furthermore, it is not clear that the duration of stock ownership will have much effect on corporate behavior.
There are far more direct routes to achieving Secretary Clinton’s stated goals.
'Top secret' Clinton emails include discussion of US drone operation
The two emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server that an auditor deemed “top secret” include a discussion of a news article detailing a US drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, US officials who have reviewed the correspondence told the Associated Press.
The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary of state, and Republicans in Congress have seized on the involvement of federal law enforcement as a sign that she was either negligent with the nation’s secrets or worse.
Corbyn rolls towards the British Labour Nomination
So, Jeremy Corbyn, who believes in re-industrializing England, re-nationalizing the railroads and various other genuine left-wing policies is cruising towards the Labour nomination, leading every poll. ...
Let us examine why:
- Neo-liberalism has been in charge in England since Thatcher in the 70s. There were some good years, but the simple fact is that most of the population is no better off than before her, and many are worse off. Neo-liberalism, for most people in Britain, has failed. Incomes are stagnant or down; university tuitions are way up; universal healthcare is being dismantled; the welfare state is mean and stingy; and increasing people can’t afford to buy a home where the jobs are (London). Thatcherism, and Blair’s “new left” has failed.
- Corbyn talks like an ordinary human being. He has held to the same principles and policies for his entire life, even when times were against him. It is credible that if elected Corbyn will actually implement those policies. Being yesterday’s man is important, because the media is full of stories about how the younger generations are doing worse than their parents and grandparents. Sure, Corbyn wants to do stuff that is out of fashion: but those old-fashioned politics, according to the media, worked better than the new-fangled ones.
- Labour has lost two elections in a row. Worse, they were wiped out of their Scottish stronghold by the the SNP, who won because the ran to Labour’s left. Contrary to all the squealing from neo-liberals like Blair, the evidence is that Labour lost more seats because it was too right wing than too left wing.
The Evening Greens
Fighting for Next Generation, Kids File Climate Suit Against US Government
Claiming that the continued development and burning of fossil fuels violates their constitutional rights, 21 young plaintiffs—ranging in age from 8 to 19—filed a landmark climate change lawsuit against the federal government on Wednesday.
"The federal government has known for decades that CO2 pollution from burning fossil fuels was causing global warming and dangerous climate change," said one of the teenage plaintiffs and youth director of Earth Guardians, 15-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez of Colorado. "It also knew that continuing to burn fossil fuels would destabilize our climate system, significantly harming my generation and generations to come."
Despite that knowledge, the government "continued to authorize and promote fossil fuel extraction, production, consumption, and all their associated emissions—to the grave detriment of future generations," added attorney Philip Gregory of the California firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, a counsel to the plaintiffs. ...
As MSNBC reports, the lawsuit "debuts a new legal framework to fight climate change, one that portrays federal support for the development and use of fossil fuels as a violation of the Fifth and Ninth Amendments, as well as the public trust doctrine."
The public trust doctrine ensures "the rights of present and future generations to those essential natural resources that are of public concern to the citizens of our nation," reads the complaint. "These vital natural resources include at least the air (atmosphere), water, seas, the shores of the sea, and wildlife. The overarching public trust resource is our country's life-sustaining climate system, which encompasses our atmosphere, waters, oceans, and biosphere. Defendants must take affirmative steps to protect those trust resources."
Accompanying the youth's legal complaint (pdf) was an "expert declaration" (pdf) from former NASA scientist James Hansen, who first sounded the alarm on climate change in 1988. Hansen's granddaughter, 17-year-old Sophie Kivlehan of Pennsylvania, is among the plaintiffs.
Government vows to pay for Colorado mining spill but costs remain unknown
Effects already proving devastating for Navajo Nation as attorneys general from affected states Colorado, New Mexico and Utah promise ‘to be vigilant’
The spill of toxic wastewater from an abandoned gold mine high in Colorado’s San Juan mountains caused untold millions in economic disruptions and damages in three states – to rafting companies, Native American farmers unable to irrigate, municipal water systems, and possibly water well owners. And largely because the federal government inadvertently triggered the release, it has vowed to pay the bill. ...
The Gold King spill was proving devastating to the Navajo Nation, which recently negotiated a settlement giving it rights to water from the San Juan river. The tribe plans to build a $20m water treatment plant in north-western New Mexico to take in the extra volume of water granted by the settlement and provide a clean drinking source to more of the 16,000 families on the reservation who still haul water to their homes.
Heavy metals already were present in the tribe’s underground aquifers, and “now those same things are dumped in the river”, said Rex Kontz, deputy general manager for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. He said meeting EPA standards for clean drinking water could double the plant’s cost and require millions more in operating costs each year.
The EPA said it will be Monday at least, but perhaps weeks more, before test results can help show what hazardous materials are in the water. The higher the concentrations, the higher the cost of removing heavy metals. And unlike some other Native American tribes, the Navajo are not swimming in casino cash. ...
Navajo farmers were nervously waiting for someone to announce that it’s OK to irrigate their crops again. Just two weeks without water could wipe out their corn and alfalfa just before harvest, which represents an entire year’s salary for some farming families.
Beyond Ironic, Obama's Pending Arctic Visit Invites Charges of Hypocrisy
Green-lighting drilling in the Arctic while promoting the need to protect it is 'like shooting rhinos to save them,' says climate campaigner
"Alaskans are on the front lines of one of the greatest challenges we face this century: climate change," President Barack Obama said in a video posted on the White House website Thursday, in which he announced an upcoming trip to the state to highlight the crisis of global warming. "Climate change once seemed like a problem for future generations. But for most Americans, it’s already a reality."
The words are nice. But some environmentalists have seized on the hypocrisy of Obama's rhetoric, given that he recently gave the final go-ahead for Royal Dutch Shell to drill for Arctic offshore oil in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska. ...
Just yesterday, Oil Change International and Greenpeace released a report stating plainly that in order to stave off "climate disaster," Arctic oil must stay in the ground. Arctic drilling is "inconsistent" with efforts to keep global warming to less than 2° Celsius, according to the assessment, which echoed similar findings by other researchers.
"The bottom line is that there is no room for Arctic oil in a climate safe world," OCI's Hannah McKinnon wrote. "By allowing Shell to drill in the U.S. offshore Arctic Ocean, the Obama Administration is ignoring the world's best scientists, as well as millions of concerned citizens in North America and beyond."
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Jeb Bush, Hosted By Defense Contractor-Backed Group, Calls Iraq War "A Pretty Good Deal"
'Our Central American spring': protesters demand an end to decades of corruption
A life in feuds: how Gore Vidal gripped a nation
Here Are The Wobbly Democrats Who Could Make Or Break The Iran Deal
Bad Intelligence Leading Us to War Again?
Selling Off New York’s Public Libraries
DOJ Affirms the Legal Right to Sleep (even if homeless)
Police shootings: Beyond BLM
The low cost of transgender troops
A Little Night Music
Byther Smith & Jim Kohler Band - You Treat Me Like Dirt
Byther Smith - Funky Man
Byther Smith - 35 Long Years
Byther Smith - I Don't Like To Travel
Byther Smith & Jim Kohler Band - The Thrill Is Gone
Byther Smith - So Many Roads So Many Trains
Byther Smith & The Night Riders - Mississippi Kid
Byther Smith - Come on in this house
Byther Smith - I Got So Much Love
Byther Smith - I'm movin' on
Byther Smith - The Man Wants Me Dead
Byther Smith w/Bobby Radcliff and Brad Vickers - Got My Mojo Workin'
Byther Smith w/Bobby Radcliff and Brad Vickers - Sweet Home Chicago
Byther Smith - 300 Pounds of Joy
Byther Smith - Play the blues in Paris
Byther Smith - I'm A Mad Man
Byther Smith - What My Mamma Told me
Byther Smith - Live On and Sing the Blues
Byther Smith - Love Me Like I Love You
Byther Smith - Money Tree
Byther Smith - Hold That Train