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 Texas by way of Louisiana multi-instrumentalist bluesman, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Enjoy!
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Okie Dokie Stomp
“The policies the US government is following are dangerous for its citizens. It's true that you can bomb or buy out anybody that you want to, but you can't control the rage that's building in the world. You just can't. And that rage will express itself in some way or the other. Condemning violence when a section of your economy is based on selling weapons and making bombs and piling up chemical and biological weapons? When the soul of your culture worships violence? On what grounds are you going to condemn terrorism, unless you change your attitude toward violence?”
-- Arundhati Roy
News and Opinion
Obama promises to keep military options open in Iran nuclear deal
Barack Obama is promising Democratic lawmakers that the US will continue to keep economic pressure on Iran – and keep military options open – if a nuclear deal with Tehran goes ahead.
Obama, in a letter addressed to New York Democratic representative Jerrold Nadler, said that if Iran rushes to build a nuclear weapon, “all of the options available to the United States – including the military option – will remain available”.
In the letter, which has been seen by the Guardian and was first published by the New York Times, the president also says the US will uphold sanctions targeting Iran’s non-nuclear activities, such as its support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and what Obama calls Iran’s “destabilising role in Yemen”.
“We have a wide range of unilateral and multilateral responses that we can employ should Iran fail to meet its commitments,” the letter goes on, citing the “snap back” provisions of the deal, which allow the US and its European partners to restore sanctions in the event of a breach by Tehran.
An excellent article by Henry Giroux. Here's a taste:
The Plague of American Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism in the American collective psyche and in what might be called traditional narratives of historical memory is always viewed as existing elsewhere. Viewed as an alien and demagogic political system, it is primarily understood as a mode of governance associated with the dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s and, of course, in its most vile extremes, with Hitler’s poisonous Nazi rule and Mussolini’s fascist state in the 1930s and 1940s. These were and are societies that idealized war, soldiers, nationalism, militarism, political certainty, fallen warriors, racial cleansing, and a dogmatic allegiance to the homeland.[i] Education and the media were the propaganda tools of authoritarianism, merging fascist and religious symbols with the language of God, family, and country, and were integral to promoting servility and conformity among the populace. This script is well known to the American public and it has been played out in films, popular culture, museums, the mainstream media, and other cultural apparatuses. Historical memory that posits the threat of the return of an updated authoritarianism turns the potential threat of the return of authoritarianism into dead memory. Hence, any totalitarian mode of governance is now treated as a relic of a sealed past that bears no relationship to the present. The need to retell the story of totalitarianism becomes a frozen lesson in history rather than a narrative necessary to understanding the present
Hannah Arendt, the great theorist of totalitarianism, believed that the protean elements of totalitarianism are still with us and that they would crystalize in different forms.[ii] Far from being a thing of the past, she believed that totalitarianism “heralds as a possible model for the future.”[iii] Arendt was keenly aware that the culture of traditionalism, an ever present culture of fear, the corporatization of civil society, the capture of state power by corporations, the destruction of public goods, the corporate control of the media, the rise of a survival-of-the-fittest ethos, the dismantling of civil and political rights, the ongoing militarization of society, the “religionization of politics,”[iv] a rampant sexism, an attack on labor, an obsession with national security, human rights abuses, the emergence of a police state, a deeply rooted racism, and the attempts by demagogues to undermine critical education as a foundation for producing critical citizenry were all at work in American society. For Arendt, these anti-democratic elements in American society constituted what she called the “sand storm,” a metaphor for totalitarianism.[v]
Historical conjunctures produce different forms of authoritarianism, though they all share a hatred for democracy, dissent, and human rights. It is too easy to believe in a simplistic binary logic that strictly categorizes a country as either authoritarian or democratic and leaves no room for entertaining the possibility of a mixture of both systems. American politics today suggests a more updated if not different form of authoritarianism or what some have called the curse of totalitarianism. In this context, it is worth remembering what Huey Long said in response to the question of whether America could ever become fascist: “Yes, but we will call it anti-fascist.” [vi] Long’s reply indicates that fascism is not an ideological apparatus frozen in a particular historical period, but as Arendt suggested a complex and often shifting theoretical and political register for understanding how democracy can be subverted, if not destroyed, from within.
Wave of TV Ads Opposing Iran Deal Organized By Saudi Arabian Lobbyist
Television stations across the country are being flooded with $6 million of advertisements from a group called the “American Security Initiative” urging citizens to call their U.S. Senators and oppose the nuclear deal with Iran.
Though the American Security Initiative does not reveal donor information, the president of the new group, former Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., is a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia. Coleman’s firm, Hogan Lovells, is on retainer to the Saudi Arabian monarchy for $60,000 a month. ... The co-chairs of the American Security Initiative include former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and former Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Chambliss works at DLA Piper, another lobbying firm retained to influence U.S. policy on behalf of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.
The advertising effort is part of a fierce lobbying campaign to convince senators to support legislation expressing disapproval of the international accord with Iran, which will lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for inspections of the Iranian nuclear industry to ensure that it remains peaceful. The vote is scheduled to take place in September.
Iraq War General Ray Odierno Cashing In With New Job at JPMorgan Chase
Four-star General Ray Odierno retired from his position as U.S. Army chief of staff on Friday. Now, less than a week after mustering out, he’s cashing in. The former general has taken a job as a senior adviser to the investment firm JPMorgan Chase.
In a press release posted on JPMorgan’s website on Thursday, the firm announced that Odierno is joining the company in “a senior advisory capacity,” providing “strategic advice and global insights” to CEO Jamie Dimon as well as the company’s board of directors. The announcement also said Odierno “will represent JPMorgan Chase through engagement with clients, government officials and policy makers in the U.S. and internationally.”
Odierno, who led the U.S. 4th infantry division during the initial stages of the occupation of Iraq, has been criticized for the allegedly heavy-handed and brutal behavior he permitted as a commander. While troops under his command were credited with the capture of Saddam Hussein, they were also criticized for their extremely harsh tactics in dealing with the local population. In Thomas Ricks’ 2006 book Fiasco, Odierno was characterized as helping enable indiscriminate mass detentions, prisoner abuse, and extrajudicial killings of Iraqi civilians in the area under his control.
Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for Iraq war on behalf of Labour if he becomes leader
The Labour leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn is to issue a public apology over the Iraq war on behalf of the party if he becomes leader next month, a move Tony Blair repeatedly resisted.
In a statement to the Guardian, Corbyn said he would apologise to the British people for the “deception” in the runup to the 2003 invasion and to the Iraqi people for their subsequent suffering.
Such an apology would be important symbolically – particularly in a party where Iraq remains a sore point, 12 years after Britain joined the US in the invasion – and signal a wider departure from existing Labour’s defence and foreign policy.
The MP made a vow that suggests future UK military interventions will become rarer: “Let us say we will never again unnecessarily put our troops under fire and our country’s standing in the world at risk. Let us make it clear that Labour will never make the same mistake again, will never flout the United Nations and international law.”
'EU should settle refugees in countries like Germany and Britain'
Israel Confirms ‘Widespread’ Strikes Against Syria
The Israeli military is confirming that is it launching “widespread” artillery and air strikes against Syrian military targets across the Golan frontier, saying the attacks are meant to send a “strong message” about cross-border fire that landed in an empty field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. ...
While Israeli officials are solid on the idea that the attacks are “retaliation,” there appears to be more than a little confusion among Israeli military sources on who they are actually retaliating against, as they have already issued three distinct statements blaming three different groups for the stray fire.
In the wake of the incident, defense sources were blaming the Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad, though almost immediately thereafter they were claiming the Iranian military’s Quds Force had fired deliberately at Israel as part of “retaliation” against Israel, and insisted Iran was wholly responsible. That narrative didn’t last long, however, until they’d declared Syria’s government wholly responsible.
Turkish Election Commission Proposes November Vote
With the June 7 election deadlocked and no majority government possible, Turkey’s election commission has proposed November 1 for its next vote. This is sooner than many expected, though itwon’t be finalized until they receive “input”from the various political parties involved.
The deadline for forming a government is August 23, and after that the current ruling party, the AKP,will either have to get approval for an election dateor President Erdogan will have to form an “election government” with opposition parties to make the arrangements. PM Ahmet Davutoglu says he is keen to avoid the election government scenario, as this would mean the pro-minority HDP would be in the temporary government, at the same time as the AKP is carrying out a war against the Kurdish region from which most of their electoral support is coming. ...
The AKP tried to form coalition governments with both the CHP and MHP, though neither was willing. The MHP had apparently offered to join under several conditions, including starting a new war against the PKK, which the AKP actually did, but they also wanted to strip Kurds and other minorities of their citizenship, and demanded the AKP tackle corruption. It is generally believed the corruption call was the biggest problem for them.
Kurdish civilians under fire as Turkey bombs PKK in Iraq
When Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called a ceasefire with Turkey two years ago, residents of the village of Sigire slaughtered a sheep to celebrate what they believed was the start of a new era of peace.
Their homes and orchards in the mountains of northern Iraq had been on the frontline of a war between the Turkish state and Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for more than three decades.
"We felt our lives were beginning again," said 54-year-old Mam Bashir from Sigire, which is around 20 km (12 miles) from the Turkish border.
Now, they are under fire once more as a peace process between Ankara and the PKK breaks down and Turkish warplanes target the outlawed group in Iraq's Kurdish north, where many of its fighters are based.
On July 24, missiles smashed into Sigire, setting orchards ablaze.
"It was like paradise, but now it's ruined," said Mam Bashir, wading through dead leaves and ash in his orchard, which used to yield all kinds of fruit. "My heart is burning".
North Korea Has Declared a 'Semi-State of War' With South Korea
North Korea has reportedly ordered its soldiers to be ready for armed conflict, after giving South Korea a deadline of 48 hours to stop broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts.
A report by North Korean state media KCNA said the nation's leader Kim Jong-un had declared a "semi-state of war" at an emergency meeting late on Thursday evening.
The command Kim issued to his sizeable military was to be "fully ready for any military operations at any time," beginning from 5pm local time (4am ET) on Friday, according to KCNA.
This is not the first time this sort of strong rhetoric has been used by the leadership north of the most militarized border in the world. In the 60 years since the Korean War ended, the two countries have never officially been at peace, as an armistice rather than a peace treaty was signed.
Tensions between the two states escalated on Thursday, after an exchange of rocket and artillery fire across the border between them. ...
The exchange of fire came as US and South Korea were conducting their annual joint military exercises.
In Victory for Corporations, Court Rejects Rule on Labeling Goods Containing "Conflict Minerals"
Appellate Court Judges Cite '1984' to Expand Corporate First Amendment Rights
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision on Tuesday supporting a deeply-cherished belief of many huge corporations: that the First Amendment shields them from government requirements to provide information about their products.
The case involved a provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act ordering corporations to disclose their use of “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC is rich in minerals used in cell phones, laptops and many other gadgets, and demand for them has helped fuel what’s been called “Africa’s World War.”
In finding for the National Association of Manufacturers, the D.C. Circuit judges declared that to be unconstitutional compelled speech.
What’s most noticeable about the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals conflict minerals decision — written by George H.W. Bush appointee Raymond Randolph and joined by Reagan appointee David Sentelle — is that it reads less like a dispassionate legal treatise and more like an extremely long, nicely-typeset right-wing blog post.
But best of all are his quotations from both 1984 and Darkness at Noon — perhaps the two most famous anti-totalitarian novels ever written. The citations don’t make much sense wedged into the decision, but the implication is clear: forcing Apple to tell you whether there’s tantalum from Congo in your iPad is the kind of thing Joseph Stalin would do.
MI5 Spied on a Nobel Prize Winning Author for Over a Decade, New Files Reveal
It was 1956 and Doris Lessing — then a writer of growing acclaim and later a Nobel Prize winner — was feeling cagey. She believed that she was being watched. At home, in London, she felt herself being followed by unseen eyes, from unknown places.
Lessing, who had grown up in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), even suspected that Britain's Security Service, MI5, was tracking her goings-on — and sharing its intelligence with authorities back in Africa. She was, after all, an avowed Communist.
Lessing's friends told her that she was mad — that she was suffering from "a persecution complex."
She was not.
Newly published MI5 files, reviewed by VICE News prior to their release, reveal that MI5 was aggressively spying on Doris Lessing for over a decade.
Beginning in the 1940s — and picking up pace in the 1950s — British spooks carefully monitored the author's every turn: intercepting her mail, listening in on her phone calls, following her family, and recruiting her close associates to serve as informants. MI5 agents routinely reviewed Lessing's written articles and carefully collected newspaper reviews of her novels — some gushing, others disparaging.
Protesters unveil demands for stricter US policing laws as political reach grows
Leaders in the new civil rights movement campaigning against the killings of African Americans by police set out their most comprehensive set of policies and demands so far on Friday, as they moved to intensify their rapidly increasing influence on US politics.
The coalition of protesters outlined proposals for new laws at federal and state levels such as restricting the use of deadly force by officers, outlawing the supply of military equipment to police departments, instituting training to prevent racial bias and forcing the US government to keep a comprehensive record of fatal incidents.
“We must end police violence so we can live and feel safe in this country,” the group stated on a new website, Campaign Zero, which also establishes an issue-by-issue system for monitoring the policy positions of candidates for the Democratic and Republican US presidential nominations.
The unveiling of the detailed policy platform followed a series of disruptions by protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement of presidential campaign rallies held by presidential candidates across the country, including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The actions have succeeded in pushing police and criminal justice reform to the forefront of the race for the Democratic nomination.
The stink tank that
helped coordinate the crackdown on occupy now has some ideas about how to prevent police brutality. Commondreams reports it without identifying the nature of the group.
To Prevent Police Brutality, Overhaul Police Culture: Report
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a nonprofit policy organization based in Washington, D.C., analyzed a number of cases in which officers used excessive force as a first-resort means of addressing situations and found that, in departments throughout the country, police do not receive adequate training in communication, crisis intervention, and nonviolent deescalation of crises.
Rather, a pervasive culture of aggression and competition encourages officers to react with force, even when suspects are unarmed, which has caused "missed opportunities to ratchet down the encounter, to slow things down, to call in additional resources," PERF executive director Chuck Wexler wrote in a summary of the report, Re-Engineering Training On Police Use of Force (pdf).
[I find it quite odd that the group that worked to coordinate the brutalization of occupy is suddenly all worried about curbing police brutality. - js]
Greek PM Tsipras Resigns, Calls for New Election as Left Wing of Syriza Splits to Form New Party
Syriza rebels break away to form Popular Unity party
MPs angry at what they consider a betrayal of anti-austerity principles announce decision in letter to parliament, the day after Alexis Tsipras’ resignation
Led by the former energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, the new movement will be the third-largest group in the Greek parliament and could conceivably receive a mandate to try to form a new government.
Tsipras announced his resignation in a televised address on Thursday night. He said he felt a moral obligation to put Greece’s third international bailout deal, and the further swingeing austerity measures it requires, to the people.
Last week he piloted the punishing deal through the Greek parliament, but suffered a major rebellion when nearly one-third of Syriza MPs either voted against the package or abstained. Tsipras is gambling that he will be able to silence the rebels and shore up public support for the three-year bailout programme.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Syriza labour minister, George Katrougalos, said the government needed to “reconfirm its mandate” to implement the third Greek bailout and that the party is “crippled by a number of dissident MPs”.
“This is the essence of democracy, we do not have any problem to ask the people. We do not want to govern against the popular will,” he said, adding that Tspiras and his government were “confident in rightness of our policies and the maturity of the Greek electorate”.
Global capitalism has a boo-boo:
Global stocks in 'panic mode' as Chinese factory slump drags on markets
The FTSE 100 has hit its lowest level this year after further signs of a weakening Chinese economy spooked investors.
Britain’s leading share index fell 1.2% to 6,286 on Friday morning immediately after opening . By lunchtime in London it had fallen further to 6,274.
The drop mirrored stock markets across Asia-Pacific after they went into “panic mode” when further signs of a weakening Chinese economy compounded overnight losses on Wall Street and European bourses.
China’s factory sector shrank at its fastest pace in more than six years in August as domestic and export demand dwindled, a private survey showed, adding to worries that the world’s second-largest economy may be slowing sharply and sending financial markets into a tailspin.
China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan and heavy selling in its stock markets in recent weeks have sparked fears that it could be at risk of a hard landing, which would hammer world growth.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature news from Colorado: "John Lawson's Life Sentence Stayed by Colorado Supreme Court, May Get New Trial"
Tune in at 2pm!
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Oops, global capitalism has two boo boos:
US crude oil prices hit lowest since 2009, eliminating thousands of jobs
America’s oil boom is faltering, and with US crude oil prices hitting lows unseen since 2009 this week, experts believe the fall may continue taking thousands of jobs with it.
Consumers may cheer the lower prices at the pump, but jobs are being lost in the energy industry across the world. In June, the Energy Information Administration said the US petroleum industry lost about 6.5% of its jobs from October to April, or about 35,000 of its 538,000 workers, citing US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
On Wednesday, Royal Dutch Shell said it would eliminate 6,500 jobs worldwide as the company tries to reduce costs because of the lower oil prices. Declines in oil and natural gas extraction and support employment tend to lag declines in crude oil prices, so given the recent return to lower prices, more job cuts could be on the way.
Global stock markets have been rattled by the fall and continuing woes in China. The Dow Jones Industrial average hit a low for 2015 on Thursday and is expected to come under renewed pressure on Friday.
“Globally there’s probably been approaching a quarter-million layoffs from the oil industry. And hundreds and billions in cancelled projects,” said Walter Zimmermann Jr, vice president and chief technical analyst at United-ICAP. “Houston is getting hit especially hard. You go to Houston and nobody talks about the economic benefit of lower oil prices. And certainly no one is talking about that in the Bakken Field [North Dakota].”
Sen. Bernie Sanders: From Greece to Puerto Rico, the Financial Rules Are Rigged to Favor the 1%
Hillary Clinton violated government policy over emails, says judge
Hillary Clinton violated government policy in her use of a personal email server, a federal judge said on Thursday.
“We wouldn’t be here today if the employee had followed government policy,” judge Emmet Sullivan said.
Hearing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department, seeking access to the records of Clinton’s staff, Sullivan said that the former secretary of state had hindered State’s ability to provide records.
Sullivan ordered the department to ask the FBI for any emails relating to the lawsuit that have been recovered from Clinton’s server but are not in the department’s possession.
When a Justice Department lawyer raised concerns about the government’s right to search the private email of an official, Sullivan said: “There was a violation of government policy.”
“We’re not talking about a search of anyone’s random email,” he said, after Justice Department lawyers argued with the plaintiffs over how far the government could reach in records requests.
State Department did nothing to protect Clinton emails after hack
Despite a hack two years ago that publicly exposed Hillary Clinton’s emails, the State Department took no action to shore up the security of the former secretary of state’s private computer server.
A State Department official said the department could not do anything in response to the March 2013 hack of longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal because it occurred on a non-governmental computer system. The hacked emails, which included Blumenthal’s frequent correspondence with Clinton while she was in office in 2012, were sent by the Romanian hacker to media organizations, which later posted them online.
The disclosure renews questions of when State Department officials first learned that Clinton was doing department business on a private server and what steps they took to safeguard her sensitive diplomatic communications, some of which have been deemed classified.
National security and technology experts told McClatchy that the government should have taken immediate action, including implementing such security precautions as updating software and protecting passwords.
The failure to take any precautions also could have left Clinton’s server vulnerable to hackers, experts said. Just this week, a Senate committee chairman asked FBI Director James Comey whether the bureau was investigating the possibility she was hacked.
Martin O'Malley to campaign on expansion of social security
The Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley is to unveil a detailed plan to expand social security on Friday.
In a white paper shared with the Guardian, the former Maryland governor calls for expanding social security benefits and raising the payroll tax used to fund the government retirement program so that all income above $250,000 is taxable. Currently the threshold on earnings subject to the social security tax is set at $118,500. The O’Malley campaign would create a “doughnut hole”, exempting income over $118,500 and below $250,000 from taxation. The overall goal of O’Malley’s plan is to “increase the number of Americans with adequate retirement savings by 50% within two terms in office”.
O’Malley also expresses his support for a number of other progressive goals including the controversial “fiduciary rule” recently introduced by the Department of Labor which requires financial advisers to provide advice “in the best interest of their clients” as well as changing how cost of living adjustments are calculated to provide increased benefits to retirees.
The former Maryland governor is not the only candidate to call for an expansion of social security. The Liberal insurgent Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill in the Senate which would include the same tax increase on income over $250,000 and expand it to capital gains income above $250,000 as well.
'Deez Nuts' Gaining Momentum In Presidential Race
The Evening Greens
The Lubicon Lake Band Is Launching a Solar Project in the Heart of Canada’s Oil Sands
The Lubicon Lake Band in Little Buffalo, Alberta, is surrounded by fossil fuel extraction, and the province is lighting up with increasingly intense forest fires. A few years ago, the community experienced one of the largest oil spills in the province's history when 28,000 barrels of crude leaked onto their territory. A month ago, another pipeline burst, spurting 31,500 barrels of bitumen onto a nearby First Nation.
Now, a community leader is making a pointed statement: building a 20.8 kilowatt Piitapan Solar Project to show that they don't have to rely on electricity generated from fossil fuels. ...
The solar panels will supply electricity to the First Nation's brand new health centre, with excess feeding into the grid. "It's right in the community, so young people can see that we don't just have to generate power and electricity from fossil fuels, that we can power it from the sun," said Lubicon Cree First Nation and Greenpeace member Melina Laboucan-Massimo.
Along with the solar project, the team plans to hold workshops for elementary and high school kids to educate them on the benefits of renewable energy.
Indigenous communities in northern Alberta used to be self-sufficient, living off the land, Laboucan-Massimo said, but now they rely on social services, and outside sources of food, water and fuel.
Lubicon Cree First Nation estimates that oil companies have extracted $14 billion in resources from their traditional territory, but royalties go to the Alberta government — not to their community.
Navajo leader feels betrayed by EPA over 'contaminated' water supply
The president of the Navajo Nation said he feels betrayed that water supplied by the Environmental Protection Agency appeared to be tainted with a black oily substance.
The water was delivered by the EPA to Shiprock, New Mexico, on Friday 14 August, to sustain agricultural operations and livestock after an EPA accident released a toxic plume from Gold King Mine into their natural water supply.
When the water arrived, Joe Ben Jr, a representative of Shiprock’s farm board, said he rejected it after noting signs of contamination. ...
The EPA contracted Triple S Trucking, which is part of the Aztec Well family of companies that services the oil and natural gas industry, to deliver the water while irrigation pumps that normally deliver water from the San Juan river are shut down pending water quality assessments.
Ben said he requested certification from Triple S Trucking and the EPA that the barrels used to store the water, allegedly used in fracking operations, had been thoroughly cleaned. But no such report was forthcoming, Ben said.
In a prepared statement, the EPA reported that Triple S claimed to have steam-cleaned and inspected tanks prior to delivering water sourced from the Bloomfield Utility Department in New Mexico for use at Shiprock.
The agency also promised to explore the Navajo Nation’s allegations.
A World on Fire: July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded
The world is burning up.
The previously available evidence for that statement is staggering and on Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. announced that July was the hottest month the planet has ever experienced since records began and that both land and ocean temperatures are on pace to make 2015 the hottest year ever recorded.
According to NOAA's latest figures, the July average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.46°F (0.81°C) above the 20th century average. As July consistently marks the warmest month of the year, NOAA said this most recent one now registers as having the all-time highest monthly temperature since records began in 1880, with an average global thermometer reading of 61.86°F (16.61°C).
NOAA's temperature analysis follows on the heels of similar findings by both NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published earlier this week which also said July was a record-breaker in terms of heat.
Crusading Spanish Judge Sets Sights on Corporate and Environmental Crimes
Famed Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, known for having put Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on trial for genocide in 1998, has reportedly "set his sights on widening the definition of international law to target corporations that carry out economic or environmental crimes," the Guardian reported on Thursday.
Garzón—who has taken on alleged torture and ill-treatment of inmates at the U.S. prison of Guantánamo Bay; crimes committed during the reign of Francisco Franco; and the political persecution of WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange—will now turn his focus toward corporate crime.
Next month, according to the Guardian, he and other leading human rights activists, judges, and academics from a dozen countries will come together at a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina to push forward the idea that economic and environmental crimes be considered crimes against humanity, akin to torture or genocide.
Executive in WV Spill Pleads Guilty, Gets His Bentley and Millions Back
Former Freedom Industries president Gary Southern on Wednesday pleaded guilty to pollution crimes for his company's role in a massive chemical spill in West Virginia in January 2014.
Southern is the last of six Freedom officials to plead guilty in the spill, which saw more than 7,000 gallons of hazardous waste pour from a damaged tank into West Virginia's Elk River—contaminating the state's largest public water supply, which serves 300,000 people.
Following the guilty plea, Southern faces a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of $300,000. Sentencing hearings are scheduled for December. ...
Residents who expressed anger over Southern's callousness may not be quelled by the terms of his plea deal. Under those stipulations, Southern will get back many of the assets that were seized by authorities during the investigation into the spill—including a Bentley luxury car and $7.3 million from his bank account. However, Southern will also give up the right to sue the federal government over the property seizures, which his lawyers argued in court were illegal.
Prosecutors will also drop 12 felony counts pending against Southern over separate allegations that he had hidden his personal wealth from the FBI while the bureau investigated Freedom's bankruptcy declaration last year.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
How the Flawed Science of Bite Mark Analysis Imprisoned a Man for Murder
How DuPont Slipped Past the EPA
Climate change is so dire we need a new kind of science fiction to make sense of it
Why Are We Ignoring the War on Yemen?
Nothing to See Here: On Pooh-Poohing Sanders’ Surging Crowds
Noam Chomsky: America is the gravest danger to world peace
Panic Attackers: Grass-Roots Challenge Sparks High-Level Hissy Fit
A Little Night Music
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Born In Louisiana
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Catfish
Clarence Gatemouth Brown + Canned Heat - Please Mr. Nixon
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Deep deep water
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Alligator Eating Dog
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Pressure Cooker, Up Jumped the Devil
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Boogie Uproar
Clarence Gatemouth Brown + Canned Heat - Live at Montreux
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Fiddle Medley
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Dollar Got The Blues
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Gate's Salty Blues
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Ain´t That Just Like A Woman
Albert Collins & Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Frosty
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Grape Jelly
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown - Same Old Blues
Clarence Gatemouth Brown - She Winked An Eye
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, Vassar Clements, Keith Nelson - Six Levels Below Plant Life
Roy Clark and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Caldonia
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - I've Got My Mojo Working
A Master Class with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown