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 Georgia Bluesman and slide guitarist Kokomo Arnold. Enjoy!
Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues
“Yet when the masses turn (as turn they will one day) and try to end the tyranny of centuries, not only the tyrants but all ‘civilisation’ holds up its hands in horror and clamours for ‘order’ to be restored. If a revolution carries high overhead expenses, most of them it inherits from the greed of reactionaries and the cowardice of the so-called moderates.”
-- C.L.R. James
News and Opinion
AP: Americans Strongly Support Different, Imaginary Drone Program
The headline on the Associated Press story is unambiguous: “AP Poll: Americans approve of drone strikes on terrorists.” And that’s true! According to the AP’s poll, 60 percent of Americans support the use of drones to “target and kill people belonging to terrorist groups like al-Qaida.”
The problem is the U.S. drone program does much more than kill members of al-Qaida: it also kills a significant number of civilians, and drone operators often don’t even know exactly whom they’re targeting. So the AP’s own poll doesn’t show, as the story claims, “broad support among the U.S. public for a targeted killing program begun under President George W. Bush and expanded dramatically under Obama.” What it does show is broad support for a drone program that doesn’t exist.
Counting the Dead in the Age of Drone Terrorism
In the twenty-first-century world of drone warfare, one question with two aspects reigns supreme: Who counts?
In Washington, the answers are the same: We don’t count and they don’t count.
The Obama administration has adamantly refused to count. Not a body. In fact, for a long time, American officials associated with Washington’s drone assassination campaigns and “signature strikes” in the backlands of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen claimed that there were no bodies to count, that the CIA’s drones were so carefully handled and so “precise” that they never produced an unmeant corpse -- not a child, not a parent, not a wedding party. Nada. ...
When it came to “collateral damage,” there was no need to count because there was nothing to tote up or, at worst, such civilian casualties were “in the single digits.” That this was balderdash, that often when those drones unleashed their Hellfire missiles they were unsure who exactly was being targeted, that civilians were dying in relatively countable numbers -- and that others were indeed counting them -- mattered little, at least in this country until recently. Drone war was, after all, innovative and, as presented by two administrations, quite miraculous. In 2009, CIA Director Leon Panetta called it “the only game in town” when it came to al-Qaeda. And what a game it was. It needed no math, no metrics. As the Vietnam War had proved, counting was for losers -- other than the usual media reports that so many “militants” had died in a strike or that some al-Qaeda “lieutenant” or “leader” had gone down for the count. ...
And that brings us to the other meaning of “Who counts?” If you are an innocent American or Western civilian and a drone takes you out, you count. If you are an innocent Pakistani, Afghan, or Yemeni, you don’t. You didn’t count before the drone killed you and you don’t count as a corpse either. For you, no one apologizes, no one pays your relatives compensation for your unjust death, no one even acknowledges that you existed. This is modern American drone reality and the question of who counts and whom, if anyone, to count is part of the contested legacy of Washington’s never-ending war on terror.
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou calls on journalists to tell ‘full story’ of US torture
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the treatment of al Qaeda suspects held in secret prisons, told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism today it was now down to journalists to “tell the full story” about the intelligence agency’s torture programme because politicians did not have the will. ...
“If the next president decides he wants to torture prisoners, all he needs is a stroke of his pen. We need legislation that will permanently and formally outlaw torture,” he said.
“So while it’s nice to have a redacted version of the executive summary out there in the public, there really hasn’t been any real change – nothing we can point to as a success for human rights… It’s up to journalists to get the full story because certainly the government won’t tell us.” ...
His remarks come as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Rendition Project published the first comprehensive profiles of the 119 people secretly detained and tortured by the CIA. You can read our full report, view our infographic and see the full data here.
A Tortured Truth - John Kiriakou
Isis on the Run? the US Portrayal Is Very Far from the Truth
A graphic illustration of Western wishful thinking about the decline of Islamic State (IS) is a well-publicised map issued by the Pentagon to prove that the self-declared caliphate has lost 25 per cent of its territory since its big advances last year.
Unfortunately for the Pentagon, sharp-eyed American journalists soon noticed something strange about its map identifying areas of IS strength. While it shows towns and villages where IS fighters have lost control around Baghdad, it simply omits western Syria where they have been advancing in and around Damascus. ...
Success at Tikrit was trumpeted at home and abroad and was to be followed by an Iraqi army offensive in Anbar province and possibly an assault on Mosul later in the year. But, just as this was supposed to begin, IS fighters attacked Baiji oil refinery, the largest in Iraq, and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, showing that they retain their offensive capability. As of last Thursday, IS fighters had seized most of the 36-square-kilometre refinery compound with only a few pockets of Iraqi federal police and soldiers still holding out. “We have very little food and ammunition, and we can’t withstand the suicide bombers, snipers and rockets,” said a federal police officer reached by phone by the Iraq Oil Report. “All of us are thinking of committing suicide.”
What emerges from the latest round of fighting is not only that IS retains the ability to launch offensives over a wide area, but that the Iraqi army very much depends on rushing a small number of elite combat units like so many fire brigades to cope with successive crises. One source in Baghdad told me that the number of troops useable for these purposes was about five brigades or some 15,000 soldiers. Other published reports suggest the number may be even smaller at 5,000 men drawn from the so-called Golden Brigade, an Interior Ministry Swat team and a unit known as the Scorpions. When these small but effective forces succeed in repelling an IS attack there is nobody in the regular army to hold the positions they have defended.
Rights Group Says Saudi-Led Coalition Using Cluster Bombs in Yemen
The Saudi-led coalition air campaign is using cluster bombs against Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to Human Rights Watch.
The controversial munitions have been banned by more than 100 countries and could pose a dangerous threat to civilians in a conflict that has already killed at least 1,200 in recent weeks, according to the U.N.
HRW provided video and photographic evidence that the Saudis used cluster munitions. ...
The controversial bombs pose dangers to civilians and 116 countries agreed to not use the deadly devices in a 2008 treaty. However the US, Saudi Arabia and Yemen did not sign the treaty. Cluster ammunition scatters submunitions or "bomblets" over a wide area and can pose a threat to civilians even after a conflict is over. Up to 30 percent of the ammunition don't explode immediately meaning they can be a danger to civilians for years, including curious children who pick up the sometimes colorful cylinders thinking they are toys.
Human Rights Watch describes the bombs as "de facto landmines."
Saudis Using US-Supplied Cluster Bombs in Yemen
Saudi Arabia is denying the use of cluster munitions, though photographs coming out of Yemen show what appear to be CBU-105 US-manufactured cluster munitions, which the US has supplied to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent years.
The timing is particularly inopportune for the US, which has publicly backed the Saudi war but insists they are “concerned” about the growing civilian death toll. The Pentagon has also played a support role in the conflict.
Al-Qaeda’s ‘Moderate’ Allies Worry What Happens After North Syria Victory
Routing the secular rebel forces in northwest Syria, al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front quickly amassed a collection of allies among other Islamist factions, including remaining “moderate” groups getting armed by the US. They made short work of Syrian resistence, seizing Idlib, and last weekend the city of Jisr Shughour.
These allies of al-Qaeda apparently didn’t think this through too much, as while they were happy with the victories, they stand to be fleeting indeed, and al-Qaeda could end up being a bigger problem to them than the Syrian military was.
Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio face defeat on Iran
Republican leaders are preparing to clamp down on Sen. Tom Cotton’s efforts to derail a bipartisan compromise on legislation giving Congress review power over a nuclear deal with Iran, clearing the way for it to be passed this week.
The Senate is set to resume work Monday on the long-considered bill, but lawmakers in both parties agree debate on the measure has run its course, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is widely expected to wrap up consideration of the time-sensitive bill and free it from parliamentary gridlock. ...
The provisions would disrupt the administration’s ongoing talks with Tehran and revive Obama’s veto threat against the bipartisan bill. And Cotton made his move even though Democrats were considering votes on other contentious amendments, like one from presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) requiring that a nuclear deal with Iran be approved by Congress. Lawmakers were even beginning to discuss how to accommodate Rubio’s demands for a vote on the Israel provision.
Rather than securing those votes, Cotton’s tactics drove Democrats away from negotiating over any more GOP amendments that would draw opposition from the White House. To preserve the bipartisan coalition backing the bill, GOP leaders are expected to shut off debate and the chance to amend the bill, instead of allowing a vote on proposals dubbed “poison pills” by Democrats and some Republicans.
Israeli soldiers cast doubt on legality of Gaza military tactics
Testimonies of Israeli combatants about last year’s war show apparent disregard for safety of civilians
Testimonies provided by more than 60 Israeli soldiers who fought in last summer’s war in Gaza have raised serious questions over whether Israel’s tactics breached its obligations under international law to distinguish and protect civilians.
The claims – collected by the human rights group Breaking the Silence – are contained in dozens of interviews with Israeli combatants, as well as with soldiers who served in command centres and attack rooms, a quarter of them officers up to the rank of major.
They include allegations that Israeli ground troops were briefed to regard everything inside Gaza as a “threat” and they should “not spare ammo”, and that tanks fired randomly or for revenge on buildings without knowing whether they were legitimate military targets or contained civilians.
In their testimonies, soldiers depict rules of engagement they characterised as permissive, “lax” or largely non-existent, including how some soldiers were instructed to treat anyone seen looking towards their positions as “scouts” to be fired on. ...
Post-conflict briefings to soldiers suggest that the high death toll and destruction were treated as “achievements” by officers who judged the attrition would keep Gaza “quiet for five years”.
The tone, according to one sergeant, was set before the ground offensive into Gaza that began on 17 July last year in pre-combat briefings that preceded the entry of six reinforced brigades into Gaza.
Baltimore by Nina Simone
With Nationwide Protests Against Police Brutality, Activists Declare: "Black Spring" has Begun
'The war on Black people in Baltimore is the same war on Black people across America,' declares grassroots organizers Ferguson Action.
"#BlackSpring has begun," event flyers announced. Last week, in the wake of Gray's death and the local protests and police crackdown that followed, solidarity demonstrations began springing up in cities across the country, with many more expected for the weekend. ...
"This is not a Baltimore issue. This is an American issue," Atlanta resident James Camper, who drove ten hours to participate in the Baltimore rally, told Washington Post reporter Justin Jouvenal.
While some reports say that the day of action is being dubbed a "victory rally" after news that local police officers are being charged for Gray's death, others say that the one instance of accountability does not erase the countless examples of discrimination and harm with impunity against Black communities.
"The war on Black people in Baltimore is the same war on Black people across America," declares grassroots organizers Ferguson Action. "Decades of poverty, unemployment, under-funded schools and police terrorism have reached a boiling point in Baltimore and cities around the country."
Organizers say that after the meager reforms—including the promise of more police body cameras—that came following the protests last fall, communities are calling for real, structural change. Their demands, they say, "speak to a world where all Black Lives Matter."
Baltimore Residents: “We Just Can’t Go Back”
After prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged six Baltimore police officers with the killing of Freddie Gray, this city, which had been roiled by protests since his death in police custody on April 19, appears to have calmed down. ...
On Sunday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lifted the curfew that had been effect for the past six days, further contributing to the impression of a return to normalcy. The prospect of things returning to normal, however, leaves many west Baltimore residents feeling deeply concerned.
“The last thing I want to come from this is to go back to the way things are,” said 22 year-old Brittany Byrd, who has been involved in the protests since Gray’s death.
“Yes. They were indicted. And yes it’s an important first step,” she said, “but these crumbs should be the beginning.” ...
“Even if they do get convicted (which they won’t be) they won’t spend much time in jail,” a local public defender, who asked to remain anonymous, told me. “People have to understand that in Baltimore the criminal justice system is tailor made to imprison and harass poor black people.”
As an example the public defender pointed to the case of Allen Bullock, who was photographed smashing the window of a police cruiser during Monday’s protests. Right now Bullock, 18, is in a Baltimore city jail facing eight misdemeanor charges.
Bullock’s bail is a stunning $500,000.
“The officers charged with Gray’s homicide received bail from $250,000-$500,000,” the public defender noted. “Is that not fucked up? Is that not a window into what’s wrong here?”
Baltimore Reacts to Charges in Freddie Gray’s Death: "Strange Fruit Still Grows in Our Community"
Baltimore Activists Recount How Police Unions Crushed Accountability Reforms
Only weeks before Freddie Gray’s death while in custody of Baltimore police, cops from around the state filled a committee hearing room in Annapolis to aggressively lobby against a wave of reform bills aimed at increasing police accountability in Maryland. The police won: every bill to make it easier to investigate and prosecute police misconduct went down to defeat, leaving the state’s extraordinarily cop-friendly laws in place. (It’s a measure of the egregious circumstances of Gray’s death and the public outcry afterward that six police officers have nevertheless been indicted.) ...
Police unions play a significant role in Maryland politics, from campaign endorsements to influence peddling. According to public records, the largest police associations, including the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, donated $1,834,680 to state politicians over the last decade and retained several of the most prominent lobbyists in the state.
The Maryland State FOP organized its members to show up in force during the hearing on the police reform bills. The Facebook page for the group shows officers packing the legislative room when the reform bills were debated. ...
“Our people said that the committee leadership was worried about the police reaction,” explained Thomas Nephew, an activist with the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, who was present at the March 12th hearing. “One of the legislative leaders said something like, if these bills go through, the cops will riot in the streets, which really tells you something.”
State of Emergency - Baltimore, Maryland
New York state police handcuff and shackle 'combative' five-year-old
The idea that police officers should use handcuffs and leg shackles to control an unruly individual is hardly unusual in the US, where fondness for the use of metal restraints runs through the criminal justice system.
What is unusual is when the individual in question is five years old, and the arrest takes place in an elementary school.
New York state police were called last week to the primary school in Philadelphia, New York, close to the Canadian border, after staff reported that a pupil, Connor Ruiz, was disruptive and uncontrollable. When officers arrived at the premises, they placed the five-year-old boy in handcuffs, carried him out to a patrol car and put his feet into shackles before taking him to a medical center for evaluation.
South Carolina police refuse to release video of officer killing man in driveway
When a white police officer in South Carolina chased a black man nine miles by car, then shot him to death in his driveway last year, the shooting apparently was captured on the officer’s dashboard camera – a video that state police have steadfastly refused to release.
North Augusta officer Justin Craven tried to pull 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite over for drunken driving, then followed him with blue lights to his home after Satterwhite refused to stop in February 2014, authorities said.
When Satterwhite stopped in his driveway, Craven ran up to his car and fired several shots through the closed door, telling deputies later that Satterwhite tried to grab his gun, according to a report from Edgefield County deputies who joined the chase after it crossed the county line.
Craven faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of misconduct in office and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. A prosecutor sought to indict him for voluntary manslaughter, which carries guaranteed prison time and a maximum sentence of 30 years, but a grand jury refused.
Craven’s dashcam video has been shown to few people outside law enforcement. Several who have seen it say it is horrible and offensive, and Satterwhite had no time to respond to Craven. They will not speak on the record because they have been threatened with legal action since the video has not been publicly released.
Protests Go Global as Ethiopians March Against Police Brutality in Tel Aviv
Several thousand people, mostly hailing from Israel's large Ethiopian population, took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday to protest racism and police brutality against ethnic minorities.
According to reports, marchers blocked highway traffic chanting and bearing signs which read: "A violent policeman must be put in prison" and "We demand full equal rights."
The protest was sparked by the release this week of a video which shows an Ethiopian-Israeli man in an IDF uniform being beaten by police. Demonstrators are demanding an investigation into the attack and are calling for an end to what they say is an epidemic of brutality against Israel's minority populations.
Snowden, Assange and Manning statues unveiled in Berlin
Taking a stand in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz are whistleblowers Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
The life-size bronze statues were unveiled on Friday in front of members of the German Green Party as well as activists. ...
The artist behind the work Italian sculptor Davide Dormino explains that he wanted to “represent three contemporary heroes who have lost their freedom for the truth.” He says that they act as a reminder of “how important it is to know the truth and have the courage to know the truth.”
German prosecutors launch investigation of spying charges
Germany's top public prosecutor will look into accusations that the country's BND foreign intelligence agency violated laws by helping the United States spy on officials and firms in Europe, including Airbus group, the federal prosecutors office said.
A spokesman for the prosecutors office confirmed weekend media reports that an investigation had been launched as opposition politicians demanded more information about the unfolding scandal from Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.
"A preliminary investigation has been started," the spokesman said. In a related development, federal prosecutor Harald Range himself will be questioned by a parliamentary committee looking into the affair in Berlin on Wednesday.
Der Spiegel magazine said the BND helped the U.S. National Security Agency over at least 10 years, embarrassing Germany and upsetting many in a country where surveillance is a sensitive topic due to abuses by the Nazis and the East German Stasi.
There's big money to be made in ripping off the poor.
America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich
Trailer parks are big and profitable business – particularly after hundreds of thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the financial crisis created a huge demand for affordable housing. According to US Census figures, more than 20 million people, or 6% of the population, live in trailer parks.
It is a market that has not been lost on some of the country’s richest and most high-profile investors. Sam Zell’s Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS) is the largest mobile home park owner in America, with controlling interests in nearly 140,000 parks. In 2014, ELS made $777m in revenue, helping boost Zell’s near-$5bn fortune.
Warren Buffett, the nation’s second-richest man with a $72bn fortune, owns the biggest mobile home manufacturer in the US, Clayton Homes, and the two biggest mobile home lenders, 21st Mortgage Corporation and Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance Company. Buffett’s trailer park investments will feature heavily at his annual meeting this weekend, which will be attended by more than 40,000 shareholders in Omaha.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature the statement of John R Lawson given before the court before he was sentenced to life in prison.
Tune in at 2pm!
|
Secrecy Over TPP Fuels Growing Opposition in Congress
The back-room push for the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact may be backfiring on its supporters, as more and more lawmakers in U.S. Congress drop their interest in the deal over its extreme secrecy.
Only members of the House and Senate are currently allowed to view the text of the deal, and even they are forbidden from discussing what it contains. As a new report from Politico published Monday details, "If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving." ...
The lack of transparency over the trade agenda has become a central argument for a growing number of opponents, who see the deal as a corporate power grab and "feel they are being treated with disrespect and condescension," as Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere explains.
Among those critics is Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who points out that "the cover sheets of the trade documents in that basement room are marked only 'confidential document' and note they’re able to be transmitted over unsecured email and fax—but for some reason are still restricted to members of Congress."
"We know when we're being suckered," Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) told Politico on Monday. "It's not only condescending, it's misleading."
Heh, interesting - both Chris Hedges and Bernie Sanders are calling for a revolution. I gotta say, though, I think that one of them is calling for a revolution and the other is calling for a "revolution."
Chris Hedges: Make the Rich Panic
It does not matter to the corporate rich who wins the presidential election. It does not matter who is elected to Congress. The rich have the power. They throw money at their favorites the way a gambler puts cash on his favorite horse. Money has replaced the vote. The wealthy can crush anyone who does not play by their rules. And the political elites—slobbering over the spoils provided by their corporate masters for selling us out—understand the game. Barack and Michelle Obama, as did the Clintons, will acquire many millions of dollars once they leave the White House. And your elected representative in the House or Senate, if not a multimillionaire already, will be one as soon as he or she retires from government and is handed seats on corporate boards or positions in lobbying firms. We do not live in a democracy. We live in a political system that has legalized bribery, exclusively serves corporate power and is awash in propaganda and lies.
If you want change you can believe in, destroy the system. And changing the system does not mean collaborating with it as Bernie Sanders is doing by playing by the cooked rules of the Democratic Party. Profound social and political transformation is acknowledged in legislatures and courts but never initiated there. Radical change always comes from below. As long as our gaze is turned upward to the powerful, as long as we invest hope in reforming the system of corporate power, we will remain enslaved. There may be good people within the system—Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are examples—but that is not the point. It is the system that is rotten. It must be replaced.
“The only way you can get the parties’ attention is if you take votes away from them,” Ralph Nader told me by phone. “So,” he said of Sanders, “How serious is he? He makes Clinton a better phony candidate. She is going to have to agree with him on a number of things. She is going to have to be more anti-Wall Street to fend him off and neutralize him. We know it is bullshit. She will betray us once she becomes president. He is making her more likely to win. And by April he is done. Then he fades away.”
We must build mass movements that are allied with independent political parties—a tactic used in Greece by Syriza and in Spain by Podemos. Political action without the support of radical mass movements inevitably becomes hollow, and that, I think, will be the fate of the Sanders presidential campaign. Only by building militant mass movements that are unrelentingly hostile to the system of corporate capitalism, imperialism, militarism and globalization can we wrest back our democracy.
“The rich are only defeated when running for their lives,” the historian C.L.R. James noted. And until you see the rich fleeing in panic from the halls of Congress, the temples of finance, the universities, the media conglomerates, the war industry and their exclusive gated communities and private clubs, all politics in America will be farce.
Candidate Sanders Calls for 'Political Revolution' Against Billionaire Class
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is calling for revolution. The independent senator from Vermont who just this week announced his bid for Democratic nominee, minced no words when speaking on ABC's This Week on Sunday.
"I think I'm the only candidate who's prepared to take on the billionaire class which now controls our economy, and increasingly controls the political life of this country," Sanders told host George Stephanopoulos. "We need a political revolution in this country involving millions of people who are prepared to stand up and say, enough is enough, and I want to help lead that effort."
Laying out what appeared to be a key pillar of his campaign, Sanders spoke decisively about the need for the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations to "start paying their fair share of taxes." In addition, he championed "bold leadership" to tackle the climate crisis, which includes the rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and voiced clear opposition to the pendingTrans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
Further, Sanders called for an end to big-money politics and a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling.
Pirate Party surges in polls to become biggest political party in Iceland
Iceland is in the grips of piracy, albeit the Pirate Party who have managed to become the biggest political party in the country, after local polling showed public support in overwhelming numbers.
The Party, which has sprung up in over 60 countries, campaigns for internet and data freedom. It now has a 23.9 per cent share of the vote, up from 12.8 per cent in February. ...
In 2013, the Pirates won three parliamentary seats in Iceland’s election and have also been using their seats in the European Parliament to bring pressure on the European Union to overhaul copyright laws.
The party’s leader, Birgitta Jonsdottir, was previously a member of Iceland’s Parliament for the Citizen’s Movement, a party that formed in the wake of the Iceland’s financial crisis.
Ms Jonsdottir said: “To be completely honest, I don’t know why we enjoy so much trust, we are all just as surprised, thankful and take this as a sign of mistrust towards conventional politics." ...
“Traditional politics have not shown progress and people are tired of waiting for change. It is good that people are rejecting corruption and hubris.”
The Evening Greens
Government For Sale to Corporations Edition
Corporate Bedfellows: Parks Service and Budweiser Team Up in Dubious 'Co-Branding' Scheme
'It is both telling and troubling that the current National Park Service leadership sees its core values best reflected in beer ads'
What do the National Park Service (NPS) and Anheuser-Busch—the largest beer brewing corporation on the planet—have in common? They are both desperate to attract young people and bring in large amounts of cash.
That is the basis of a new $2.5 million "co-branding" partnership between the two entities—in what critics warn signals the ever-creeping "corporatization" of national parks.
Approved by NPS director Jon Jarvis in January, the deal comes with a considerable perk for the company, which brews Budweiser beer: a waiver of the agency's long-standing policy that prohibits association of the National Park Service with alcoholic beverages.
An internal NPS memorandum reveals that, instead, the two entities will focus on "aligning the economic and historical legacies of two iconic brands." The document, which was obtained by the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), states that both entities already share the "same goals surrounding relevancy, diversity, and inclusion." ...
However, PEER executive director Jeff Ruch told Common Dreams that what is being called a "proud partnership" has much more to do with NPS eagerness to make corporate deals in a bid to raise $1 billion for its corporate endowment. "They appear to be saying yes to whichever corporation is willing to walk into their door," said Ruch.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Lobbying: The National Petroleum Council
The National Petroleum Council includes top executives from Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP America. It has an annual budget of $4.5 million collected from members, and pays its executive director $750,000 in salary and benefits. And it regularly “makes recommendations” to the U.S. Secretary of Energy — as in its recent report “Arctic Potential: Realizing the Promise of U.S. Arctic Oil and Gas Resources,” which advocates changes to regulations that “are limiting Arctic exploration activity.” ...
There are more than 1,000 federal advisory committees, including one about organ transplantation. The Department of Energy alone has 21 others in addition to the NPC. In theory all these federal advisory committees could provide a useful way for a range of experts and regular people to provide feedback on complex issues like the fossil fuel industry. In practice, the NPC is dominated by the industry itself. Of the NPC’s 210 members (all selected by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and his predecessor), 173, or 82 percent, are from oil and gas companies, corporations that provide them support services, and large utility consumers. ...
And while the NPC categorizes its remaining 37 members as “Non-Industry and Not-for-Profit,” they tend to be people like John Deutch — who’s not just the MIT chemistry professor that the NPC lists him as, but also the former head of the CIA. The very few who might be skeptical of the fossil fuel industry’s agenda include Conservation International co-founder Peter Seligmann, Conservation Fund founder Patrick Noonan, and Rocky Mountain Institute founder Amory Lovins. However, their brands of environmentalism have long included partnering with large, polluting corporations, and Seligmann, Noonan and Lovins did not respond to requests to discuss their involvement with the NPC.
The Energy Department’s other advisory committees include a coal council, a nuclear committee, one committed to ultra-deepwater drilling and another to “unconventional” extraction technology like fracking. Although an Energy Department spokesperson pointed out a few advisory committees whose work touches on efficiency and renewable issues, no single federal committee advising the agency exclusively represents a renewable industry like wind or solar the way the NPC reps big oil.
New Oil-By-Rail Rules 'Leave Communities at Risk of Catastrophe'
Obama administration announces mandate for safer cars, brakes on oil trains, but climate groups decry regulations as too lax
Environmental groups reiterated their call for a total ban on hazardous oil trains on Friday, saying the U.S. Department of Transportation's newly released safety standards for tank cars "virtually guarantee more explosive derailments, putting people and the environment at great risk."
The final rules come two years after an unattended oil train derailed and exploded in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people, and in the wake of a series of fiery derailments that took place in West Virginia, Illinois, and Ontario this year.
The mandates include thicker steel walls on rail cars, tougher valves, and in some cases, electronically controlled brakes. ...
But a coalition of environmental organizations say the rules are not strong enough, are industry-friendly, and "leave communities at risk of catastrophe"—particularly as the DOT itself admits that derailments on main lines are likely to occur 15 times a year.
Without an immediate ban on those cars and only a few new speed limit impositions, the new rules are "yet another indication of how dangerous energy policies written by and for Big Oil are for our communities and our climate. These weak regulations allow the industry to continue endangering communities with bomb trains that facilitate hazardous expansion of the oil industry," said David Trumbull, campaigns director of Oil Change International, one of the groups in the coalition, in a press release on Friday.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
My 49 hours in a Baltimore cell – for being a reporter
Following the Money: The New Anti-Semitism?
Obama: Debate Senator Warren on Global Economic Pact
Rising Up, in Baltimore and Beyond
Hat tip gooderservice for the next two links:
Carly Fiorina failed to register this domain
How to Talk to Your Kids About Bernie Sanders
Kumu Hina
This needs more eyeballs:
Economics, like politics: 31 flavors of permanent unreality
A Little Night Music
Kokomo Arnold - Old Original Kokomo Blues
Kokomo Arnold - Sissy Man Blues
Kokomo Arnold - Grandpa Got Drunk
Kokomo Arnold - Busy Bootin
"Gitfiddle Jim" (Kokomo Arnold) - Paddlin' Blues
Kokomo Arnold - Chain Gang Blues
Kokomo Arnold - Old Black Cat Blues
Kokomo Arnold - The Twelves
Kokomo Arnold - Shake That Thing
Kokomo Arnold - Salty Dog
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
|