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 delta blues harmonica player and singer, also a member of the Jelly Roll Kings, Frank Frost. Enjoy!
Frank Frost - Chicago Blues Festival 5
"Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia."
-- George Orwell
News and Opinion
NATO and Russia 'War Games' Not Games At All
War games conducted by Russian and NATO forces go far beyond the hypothetical, raising the specter of a very real conflict on the European continent, a new study warns.
According to the European Leadership Network (ELN), a think tank based in London, "[o]ver the last 18 months, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the relationship between Russia and the West has deteriorated considerably"—at least in part due to war games that feed a "climate of mistrust."
ELN's report, Preparing for the Worst: Are Russian and NATO Military Exercises Making War in Europe more Likely? (pdf), analyzes a Russian 'snap exercise' in March involving 80,000 military personal from bases all across the country, and NATO's Allied Shield set of war games conducted on air, land, and sea in June, which involved 15,000 personnel from 22 countries.
Though both sides "may maintain that these operations are targeted against hypothetical opponents, the nature and scale of them indicate otherwise: Russia is preparing for a conflict with NATO, and NATO is preparing for a possible confrontation with Russia," the authors write. ...
"We do not suggest that the leadership of either side has made a decision to go to war or that a military conflict between the two is inevitable," the report continues, "but that the changed profile of exercises is a fact and it does play a role in sustaining the current climate of tensions in Europe."
Artist Mariam Ghani, Daughter of Afghan Pres., Takes on US Abuse from Gitmo to Bagram to US Prisons
Democrats Continue to Delude Themselves About Obama's Failed Guantánamo Vow
As everyone knows, “closing Guantánamo” was a centerpiece of the 2008 Obama campaign. In the Senate and then in the presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly and eloquently railed against the core, defining evil of Guantánamo: indefinite detention.
On the Senate floor, Obama passionately intoned in 2006: “as a parent, I can also imagine the terror I would feel if one of my family members were rounded up in the middle of the night and sent to Guantánamo without even getting one chance to ask why they were being held and being able to prove their innocence.” During the 2008 campaign, he repeatedly denounced “the Bush Administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantánamo.”
In the seventh year of Obama’s presidency, Guantánamo notoriously remains open, leaving one of his central vows unfulfilled. That, in turn, means that Democratic partisans have to scrounge around for excuses to justify this failure, to cast blame on someone other than the President, lest his legacy be besmirched. They long ago settled on the claim that blame (as always) lies not with Obama but with Congressional Republicans, who imposed a series of legal restrictions that impeded the camp’s closing.
As I’ve documented many times over the last several years, that excuse, while true as far as it goes, does not remotely prove that Obama sought to fulfill his pledge. That’s because Obama’s plans never included an end to what he himself constantly described as the camp’s defining evil: indefinite detention. To the contrary, he explicitly demanded the right to continue to imprison Guantánamo detainees without charges or trial – exactly what made Guantánamo so evil in the first place – based on the hideous new phrase “cannot be tried but too dangerous to release.” Obama simply wanted to indefinitely imprison them somewhere else.
In other words, Obama never sought to close Guantánamo in any meaningful sense but rather wanted to re-locate it to a less symbolically upsetting location, with its defining injustice fully in tact and, worse, institutionalized domestically. In that regard, his Guantánamo shell game was vintage Obama: he wanted to make a pretty, self-flattering symbolic gesture to get credit for “change” (I have closed Guantánamo) while not merely continuing but actually strengthening the abusive power which made it so odious in the place.
John Kerry voices concerns Washington might lose EU support for anti-Russia sanctions if US pulls out of Iran Nuke deal
Iran deal supporters have more cred. But opponents have the media-savvy
The true nature of the debate over the Iran nuclear deal announced last month is slowly coming into focus. Those who favor it are are backed by dozens of nuclear scientists and arms control experts, while opponents consist almost exclusively of bellwether politicians mugging for the camera and playing into the fears of the constituents they have whipped into a terrified frenzy.
That’s where the ever intensifying debate surrounding the nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran now sits, as a furious lobbying campaign – estimated to cost upwards of $40m – tries to buy enough votes in Congress to override the president and scuttle the historic deal.
The biggest news about the deal last week should have been the fact that 29 of what the New York Times called “some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control” came out in favor of it. The scientists agreed that the deal has “more stringent constraints than any previously negotiated nonproliferation framework.”
Instead, Senator Chuck Schumer, who is poised to be the incoming Senate Democratic leader, got far more press by coming out against it after reportedly being pressured by pro-Netanyahu lobbyists for weeks. Nonproliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis, who goes by @ArmsControlWonk on Twitter, skewered Schumer in Foreign Policy for his disingenuous and misleading reasoning for opposing the deal, explaining that Schumer got “got the facts all wrong” and “came across a bit like your crazy uncle who gets his opinions from talk radio and wants to set you straight at Thanksgiving.”
In Open Letter, Retired Pentagon Brass Endorse Iran Deal
In anew open letter, three dozen retired US generals and admirals have endorsed the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran as the “most effective means” to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and called on Congress to vote in favor of the pact.
The letter echoes sentiment from current Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who said that resolving the dispute with Iran diplomatically “is superior than trying to do that militarily.”
Lavrov: Ousting Assad militarily equals ISIS taking over Syria
US Military Leaders ‘Outraged’ at Turkish Strikes in Iraq
US military leaders are reportedly “outraged” at the recent escalation of Turkish airstrikes against Iraqi Kurdistan, with concerns centered both on the risk of sucking the US into yet another regional conflict and the danger that Turkish warplanes could inadvertently bomb American forces in the region.
The US has a number of ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan training the Peshmerga,and has refused to tell Turkey where those troops are exactly, instead giving them broad swathes of territory to avoid. Turkey has countered by giving the US 10 minutes advanced notice when warplanes are headed into those areas, telling them to get out of the way. ...
Turkey is also attacking the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria, and trying to prevent a linkup of Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan into a contiguous region. This has fueled enormous tension between the Turkish government and Kurds in general, and with the US suddenly welcome at Turkish airbases, they risk losing their alliance with those same Kurds.
U.S. Shelves Its $500M Syrian Rebel Army
The Obama administration is still publicly counting on a $500 million rebel army to beat ISIS in Syria. But privately, the Pentagon brass long ago moved past its own proxy force, The Daily Beast has learned. They’ve found another group to fight the self-proclaimed Islamic State instead.
In recent weeks, the handful of fighters in the administration-backed rebel army—the so-called “New Syrian Force”—have been killed, kidnapped, or fallen off the proverbial radar. But the Pentagon maintained a brave face, even after these 54 fighters (out of what was supposed to be a total of 15,000) were decimated by Islamist attacks. “We continue to see volunteers want to be a part of this program,” Air Force Colonel Pat Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters Friday. ...
But what Ryder didn’t say is that, in the eyes of the administration, a better force had emerged—already trained, competent, organized—that posed little risk of abandoning the fight or worse yet, switching sides. They are the Syrian Kurdish militia—the Popular Protection Units or YPG, by their Kurdish initials. And they have successfully wrested Syrian territory out of ISIS’s hands. ...
According to one group, the YPG has so far reclaimed at least 11 villages from ISIS, including the Syrian city of Kobani, one of the biggest victories in the year-long campaign. And in June, the YPG regained control of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad, cutting off a key ISIS conduit to weapons and supplies. Like the New Syrian Force, the YPG can call in coalition airstrikes as needed.
Along with hoping nascent Arab fighters can take on ISIS, the U.S. is now keen to work alongside as many as 50,000 proven Kurdish fighters. ...
The first public mention of the U.S. military move away from the New Syrian Army and toward the YPG came from Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, [July 7] when he talked about the need for “options.”
“We’re trying to form a network of partners, partners that we may not have conceived before, like the YPG, the Syrian Kurds in and around Kobani and over to the east bank of the Euphrates River,” Dempsey said.
The Many Things Wrong With the Anti-Encryption Op-Ed in the New York Times
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and his counterparts in Paris, London, and Madrid took to the New York Times op-ed page Tuesday morning to pose a flawed argument against default encryption of mobile phones, a service being commercialized and implemented gradually by Apple and Google.
The op-ed misstated the extent of the obstacles to law enforcement, understating the many other ways officials bearing warrants can still collect the information they need or want—even when confronted with an encrypted, password protected device.
The authors failed to acknowledge the value to normal people of protecting their private data from thieves, hackers and government dragnets.
And they demanded—in the name of the “safety of our communities”—a magical, mathematically impossible scenario in which communications are safeguarded from everyone except law enforcement.
From Watts to Ferguson: 50 Years of Lessons (Not) Learned
Data on Use of Force by Police Across U.S. Proves Almost Useless
When the Justice Department surveyed police departments nationwide in 2013, officials included for the first time a series of questions about how often officers used force.
In the year since protesters in Ferguson, Mo., set off a national discussion about policing, President Obama and his top law enforcement officials have bemoaned the lack of clear answers to such questions. Without them, the racially and politically charged debate quickly descends into the unknowable.
The Justice Department survey had the potential to reveal whether officers were more likely to use force in diverse or homogeneous cities; in depressed areas or wealthy suburbs; and in cities or rural towns. Did the racial makeup of the police department matter? Did crime rates?
But when the data was issued last month, without a public announcement, the figures turned out to be almost useless. Nearly all departments said they kept track of their shootings, but in accounting for all uses of force, the figures varied widely. ...
And many departments, including large ones such as those in New York, Houston, Baltimore and Detroit, either said they did not know how many times their officers had used force or simply refused to say. That made any meaningful analysis of the data impossible.
The report’s flaws highlight a challenge for the Obama administration, which has called for better data but has no authority to demand that police departments keep track of it. Those that do keep track are under no obligation to release it.
When the Justice Department’s civil rights investigators have scrutinized police departments and reviewed records that would not otherwise have been made public, they have found evidence of abuse.
Video Appears to Show Teen With Gun Moments Before Police Shot Him in Ferguson
St. Louis County police have released surveillance footage of the chaotic scene on August 9 that led to the police shooting of 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri.
The video, shot from cameras at a business called Solo Insurance Services, shows the scene at West Florissant Avenue on Sunday, where demonstrators gathered to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed teen who was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
In the footage, gunshots are heard as people flee and duck behind cars. After the crowd's initial moments of panic, a man wearing a white t-shirt can be seen standing up and lunging toward the parking lot holding what appears to be a pistol. Police say the video "shows Harris grab a handgun out of his waistband once shots are fired during the protest," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Police chief fires officer who fatally shot unarmed Texas college football player
A Texas police department has fired an officer who shot dead a young football player last week and said they will turn over all evidence in the case to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.
Arlington police chief Will Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday that officer-in-training Brad Miller, 49, had acted irresponsibly and broken protocol at several key moments during an encounter early on Friday morning with 19-year-old Christian Taylor. ...
Johnson said the incident was “a tragic case. Our community is hurting, a family is hurting, our department is hurting, and indeed our nation is hurting.”
Local protesters planned to demonstrate against the shooting on Tuesday night.
Taylor’s father, Adrian, said he felt encouraged by the department’s decision to fire Miller, but was unsatisfied.
“My son is never coming home again,” he said. “So right now I’m not sure there’s anything that could satisfy me.”
Texas woman accuses police of sexual assault over body-cavity strip search
A woman has accused sheriff’s deputies in Texas of sexually assaulting her at a gas station by stripping her and conducting a body cavity search without her consent during a traffic stop.
Charnesia Corley, 21, who is African American, said officers with the Harris County sheriff’s department held her down in a Texaco parking lot and probed her vagina in a search for marijuana.
“They did a manual cavity search. It’s the most serious search you can do under our constitution and should be done in a sterile environment. You sure can’t do it in public by the side of the road. It’s unbelievable,” her attorney, Sam Cammack, told the Guardian on Tuesday. ...
Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director of the ACLU of Texas, said a cavity search without a warrant was a “blatant” violation of the fourth amendment, and that an orifice probe was the most invasive search possible.
“A body cavity search without a warrant would be constitutionally suspect. But a body cavity search by the side of the road ... I can’t imagine a circumstance where that would be constitutional,” she told the Houston Chronicle.
New York prisoners reported beatings by interrogators after killers escaped
Inmates who knew the two convicted killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northern New York reported beatings by guards trying to determine where the pair went, according to a legal services group.
Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York has received several complaints from inmates on that Clinton Correctional Facility honor block, who were later moved to other prisons, managing attorney James Bogin said on Tuesday. Many were transferred and spent time in solitary confinement and some are still missing their clothes and other belongings, he said.
“People were beat up,” Bogin said. “People lost property.”
A 23-day manhunt by more than 1,100 law enforcement officers followed the 6 June escape of murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat. Matt was fatally shot 27 June about 30 miles from the prison. Sweat was shot and recaptured nearby two days later.
The New York Times first reported the prisoner accounts of beatings, noting 60 inmate complaints filed with the legal services group.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature from the Chicago Day Book: "Will 'Red-Hot' Manley Report of Walsh Commission Put an End to Gunthug Armies?"
Tune in at 2pm!
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Amnesty International Votes to Push for the Decriminalization of Sex Work
Amnesty International members voted Tuesday to officially advocate for the decriminalization of sex work, amid backlash from anti-trafficking groups and Hollywood celebrities.
While some country sections reportedly objected to the move and attempted to alter the proposal, an Amnesty spokesperson told VICE News it ultimately "passed with a comfortable majority." ...
"Sex workers are one of the most marginalized groups in the world who in most instances face constant risk of discrimination, violence and abuse," Amnesty's Secretary General Salil Shetty said in a statement after the vote. "Our global movement paved the way for adopting a policy for the protection of the human rights of sex workers which will help shape Amnesty International's future work on this important issue."
The resolution passed today compels the organization to advocate policies that decriminalize "all aspects of consensual sex work," including the activities of those who purchase the service of prostitutes. Amnesty cited two years of research and consultation, which it said had "drawn from an extensive evidence base from sources including UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization, UN Women, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health." Based on its findings, the group said they concluded a stance advocating decriminalization was the best way to reduce abuse risks faced by sex workers, while also defending their human rights.
Hillary Clinton handing over personal email server to justice department
Hillary Clinton has relented to months of demands that she had over the personal email server she used while secretary of state, directing the device be given to the justice department.
The decision advances the investigation into the Democratic presidential front-runner’s use of a private email account as the nation’s top diplomat, and whether classified information was improperly sent via and stored on the email server she ran from her house in suburban New York City. ...
It is not clear if the device will yield any information. Clinton’s attorney said in March that no emails from the main personal address she used while secretary of state still “reside on the server or on back-up systems associated with the server”.
Federal investigators have begun looking into the security of Clinton’s email setup amid concerns from the inspector general for the intelligence community that classified information may have passed through it.
There is no evidence she used encryption to shield the emails or her personal server from foreign intelligence services or other potentially prying eyes.
‘Top Secret’ emails found as Clinton probe expands to key aides
As pressure builds on Hillary Clinton to explain her official use of personal email while serving as secretary of state, she faced new complications Tuesday. It was disclosed her top aides are being drawn into a burgeoning federal inquiry and that two emails on her private account have been classified as “Top Secret.”
The inspector general for the Intelligence Community notified senior members of Congress that two of four classified emails discovered on the server Clinton maintained at her New York home contained material deemed to be in one of the highest security classifications - more sensitive than previously known. ...
The expanding inquiry threatens to further erode Clinton’s standing as the front-runnerfor the Democratic presidential nomination. Since her reliance on private email was revealed in March, polls in crucial swing states show that increasing numbers of voters say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, in part, because of her use of private emails. ...
Administration officials and Clinton aides have declined to provide a full list of which aides used personal email for government business or who might have had an email account on Clinton’s personal server.
Clinton acknowledged that Huma Abedin, her deputy chief of staff and one of Clinton’s closest confidants, had an account on her personal server in a sworn affidavit filed Monday in a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking State Department records.
Clinton’s affidavit was her first disclosure that any of her former aides used personal accounts or accounts on her personal server to conduct business.
Clinton Campaign Shuts Down Black Lives Matter Protest
After The New Republic on Tuesday preemptively reported that a small number of Black Lives Matter activists were on their way to a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Keene, New Hampshire, the potential protest against the leading Democratic presidential candidate never took place because security at the event barred the group entry.
According to TNR:
When they arrived at today’s Clinton event, which focused on substance abuse and the heroin epidemic, after first sharing their talking points and questions exclusively with the New Republic, the activists found the entrances closed by U.S. Secret Service who said the venue was at capacity. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who was in contact with the five activists, later told the New Republic that the activists were eventually let into an “overflow room.” Following the event, Clinton met with the group for about 15 minutes in a private meeting that they claim turned contentious at times, and featured Clinton giving unsolicited advice for the direction of the movement. ...
Asked whether Clinton actually proposed policies in the meeting, Jones said, "Not that I recall, no. In fact, I know that she didn’t because she was projecting that what the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do is X,Y, and Z—to which we pushed back [to say] that it is not her place to tell the Black Lives Matter movement or black people what to do, and that the real work doesn’t lie in the victim-blaming that that implies. And that was a rift in the conversation." Jones said that the meeting concluded without any aggression, and that the meeting was "respectful."
In a tweet, Black Lives Movement-Boston characterized their failed attempt to protest the event a success because they had "gotten the attention of [Clinton's campaign] staff" and "now they are working with us."
New poll puts Bernie Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire
A poll released by Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald shows Sanders leading former secretary of state Hillary Clinton by 44% to 37% in New Hampshire among Democratic primary voters.
This marks the first time Sanders has taken a lead in any poll. By contrast, in a poll conducted by Franklin Pierce University eight years ago, in September 2007, Clinton led Barack Obama by 36% to 18%.
While the poll may be an outlier, the very fact that Sanders, a self-declared socialist, is leading Clinton in any poll raises eyebrows. This marks the first time that Sanders has registered a lead over Clinton in any state or national poll. In past polls in New Hampshire, Clinton had maintained a narrow but comfortable lead in that state’s first-in-the-nation primary.
As Anti-Austerity Candidate Surges, 'Corbynomics' Catches Fire in UK
New polling shows longtime left-wing lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, a leading anti-war and anti-austerity voice in the UK, surging toward victory in his quest to become leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party. ...
A YouGov poll conducted for London's Sunday Times has Corbyn 32 points ahead of his closest rival, up from a 17-point lead three weeks ago.
Corbyn, 66, has sparked an enthusiasm in the UK that has garnered comparisons to Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, and the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders in the U.S.
"He has pushed an anti-austerity agenda into the heart of political debate, forced his rivals to halt their shift to the right, and brought tens of thousands of young people into active politics," Guardian columnist and associate editor Seumas Milne wrote earlier this month.
The Evening Greens
Republican hopefuls reap $62m in support from donors with fossil fuel ties
Republican presidential candidates have banked millions of dollars in donations from a small number of mega-rich individuals and corporations with close ties to the fossil fuel industries that stand to lose the most from the fight against climate change.
Eight out of the 17 GOP figures currently jostling for their party’s presidential nomination have between them attracted a bonanza of at least $62m so far this year from sources either directly involved in polluting industries or with close financial ties to them. Three Republican contenders stand out as recipients of this fossil fuel largesse: the Republican climate change denier-in-chief, Ted Cruz; the party establishment favorite Jeb Bush; and the former governor of Texas, Rick Perry.
The funds have come from just 17 billionaires or businesses that have pumped enormous sums – in one case $15m for a single candidate – into the support groups or Super Pacs that work alongside the official campaigns yet are free to attract unlimited contributions. The $62m forms a substantial chunk of almost $400m that has been given to presidential contenders from both main parties in 2015, raising questions about the leverage that fossil fuel interests might seek to exert over the next occupant of the White House at a critical time for the battle against climate change.
The super-wealthy donors all have connections with oil and gas operations, fracking companies, drilling firms and other activities associated with emissions of industrial carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas. Their money has gone entirely to Republican candidates, signalling a strong preference among fossil fuel billionaires for the GOP.
According to a study of donations based on filings to the Federal Election Commission carried out by Greenpeace and the Center for Media and Democracy in collaboration with the Guardian, by far the greatest beneficiary of what might be labelled fossil fuel donations has been Ted Cruz. The sitting US senator from Texas, who is among the most prominent and blatant climate change deniers in the US, has been showered with a staggering $36.5m from just four wealthy sources with links to fossil fuels interests.
US Catholic fossil fuel investments at odds with pope's climate push
US Catholic organisations have millions invested in oil, coal and gas but so far few dioceses have reviewed their finances in response to Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change
Pope Francis heartened environmentalists around the world in June when he urged immediate action to save the planet from the effects of climate change, declaring that the use of “highly polluting fossil fuels needs to be progressively replaced without delay”.
But some of the largest US Catholic organisations have millions of dollars invested in energy companies, from hydraulic fracturing firms to oil sands producers, according to their own disclosures, through many portfolios intended to fund church operations and pay clergy salaries.
This discrepancy between the church’s leadership and its financial activities in the US has prompted at least one significant review of investments. The Archdiocese of Chicago, America’s third largest by Catholic population, told Reuters it will re-examine its more than $100m (£64m) worth of fossil fuel investments. ...
The pope’s encyclical, a letter sent to all Catholic bishops, has sharpened a debate well underway in Catholic organizations and other churches about divestment. But many major American dioceses have resisted the push.
“You now have this clash between Pope Francis’ vision of the world, and the world that the bishops who run the investments live in,” said Father Michael Crosby, a Capuchin friar in Milwaukee who advocates socially responsible investing in the church.
“The bishops are a very conservative group, and I’m not hopeful this will be resolved anytime soon.”
Local anger swells at EPA over toxic gold mine spill in Animas River
Townspeople watching millions of gallons of orange-colored mine waste flow through their communities demanded clarity on Tuesday about possible long-term threats to their water supply. ...
EPA officials said the shocking orange plume has already dissipated and that the leading edge of the contamination cannot be seen in the downstream stretches of the San Juan River or Lake Powell.
Jen Pelz of conservation group Wildearth Guardians questioned why EPA was reporting on testing results only in Durango.
“I would think they would need to do water-quality measuring throughout the San Juan and the Animas,” Pelz said. “As you get downstream, there have been no releases like 3m gallons rushing downstream. Even the Animas river was developing a recovering fishery.”
Pelz said the habitat will feel the bioaccumulation of mining toxins for years to come.
“Birds eat the fish and it’s eventually going to get to them,” said Pelz. “It may not be next year, but it may be the following year that mallards and water birds might show mortality effects and effects on their eggs. The reality is that there are going to be a lot of long-term health effects that everyone is discounting at the moment from this contamination.”
Australia's Weak COP21 Climate Goal Sends 'Shudder Through the Pacific'
Environmental campaigners, scientists, and officials blasted Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday for unrolling dismally low greenhouse gas reduction goals for the upcoming United Nations talks in Paris, charging that the government of the country—already one of the worst carbon polluters in the world—is poised to dramatically worsen the global climate crisis.
In a statement released Tuesday, Abbott's office said Australia will set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions "so they are 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030"—the equivalent to 19 per cent from 2000 levels by 2030, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). ...
The target set by Abbott—who will not attend the talks in person—falls well below the goal recommended by Australia's government body of independent experts, the Climate Change Authority, which concluded last month that the country must cut emissions from 40 to 60 percent below 2000 levels by 2030 in order to do its part to prevent the earth from heating over two degrees Celsius. ...
Climate campaigners were not surprised, given Abbott's track record of adopting policies that favor the country's large coal industry, including his opposition to a proposed carbon tax last year. However, they did express alarm about the dangerous repercussions for people and the planet.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception
The Pentagon’s Dangerous Views on the Wartime Press
Sweden and Ecuador edge closer to end of Julian Assange standoff
Researchers open 'neglected chapter' of Ukraine's Holocaust history
Perseid meteor shower: how to see the celestial show from the US
Mining Giant Credits Activists for Possibly Saving Great Barrier Reef
Where Did the Antiwar Movement Go? (Or What It Means When You Kill People On the Other Side of the Planet and No One Notices)
John Kiriakou: Let’s Talk About Torture
Classified E-mail in the News Again: This Time, Hillary’s
When are felonies not felonies? When banks do them
Repeal the Genocidal Doctrine of Discovery
Christie makes pitch for the transphobic vote
A Little Night Music
Frank Frost w/Sam Carr - My Soul Lover
Frank Frost - Chicago Blues Festival (1997) Part 4
Frank Frost and Sam Carr - Jelly Roll King
Frank Frost - Big Boss Man
Frank Frost and Sam Carr at King Biscuit II
Frank Frost - My Back Scratcher, Never Leave Me At Home
Frank Frost - Pocket Full of Money
Frank Frost - Didn't Mean No Harm
Frank Frost - Harpin' On It
Frank Frost and Sam Carr at King Biscuit I
Frank Frost - Now What You Gonna Do
Frank Frost - Everything's Alright
Frank Frost - Just Come On Home
Frank Frost - Things You Do
Frank Frost - Mean Black Spider
The Jelly Roll Kings - Have Mercy Baby
Frank Frost - Harp And Soul
Jelly Roll Kings - I Didn't Know / Road Of Love
Frank Frost - Feel Good Babe
Jelly Roll Kings - Something On Your Mind
Jelly Roll Kings - I'm a big boy now
Jelly Roll Kings - Catfish Blues
Jelly Roll Kings - Honeydrippin' Boogie
The Jelly Roll Kings - King Biscuit Blues Festival pt.1
The Jelly Roll Kings - King Biscuit Blues Festival pt. 2