No particular theme, and I'll be doing dinner when it first posts, but there's a hole to plug here. I had started gathering stuff when Johnny said it was off, so I'll just throw some stuff out here. Maybe some Country Joe and the Fish for starts, right after the orange Btfsplk.
Some News and Opinion
Ireland has voted to legalize gay marriage, both sides say - SFGate
DUBLIN (AP) - Irish voters have resoundingly backed amending the constitution to legalize gay marriage, leaders on both sides of the Irish referendum declared Saturday after the world's first national vote on the issue.
As the official ballot counting continued, the only question appeared to be how large the "yes" margin of victory from Friday's vote would be. Analysts said the "yes" support was likely to exceed 60 percent nationally when official results are announced later Saturday.
Gay couples hugged and kissed each other amid scenes of jubilation at counting centers and at the official results center in Dublin Castle, whose cobblestoned central square was opened so thousands of revelers could sit in the sunshine and watch the results live on big-screen televisions.
"We're the first country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in our constitution and do so by popular mandate. That makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world, of liberty and equality. So it's a very proud day to be Irish," said Leo Varadkar, a Cabinet minister who came out as gay at the start of a government-led effort to amend Ireland's conservative Catholic constitution.
My emphasis
NSA bulk phone records collection to end despite USA Freedom Act fail | US news | The Guardian
Even as the Senate remains at an impasse over the future of US domestic surveillance powers, the National Security Agency will be legally unable to collect US phone records in bulk by the time Congress returns from its Memorial Day vacation.
The administration, as suggested in a memo it sent Congress on Wednesday, declined to ask a secret surveillance court for another 90-day extension of the order necessary to collect US phone metadata in bulk. The filing deadline was Friday, hours before the Senate failed to come to terms on a bill that would have formally repealed the NSA domestic surveillance program.
"We did not file an application for reauthorization," an administration official confirmed to the Guardian on Saturday.
The administration decision ensures that beginning at 5pm ET on 1 June, for the first time since October 2001 the NSA will no longer collect en masse Americans' phone records.
After break, Senate to reconsider Patriot Act extension - SFGate
WASHINGTON (AP) - Unable to end a struggle over how to deal with government surveillance programs, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled a last-minute session to consider retaining the National Security Agency's bulk collection of domestic phone records.
McConnell, R-Ky., warned against allowing the controversial NSA program and other key surveillance activities under the USA Patriot Act to expire at midnight May 31. He said he would call the Senate into session that day, a Sunday, and seek action before the deadline.
Amnesty: South Sudan government troops are burning villages - SFGate
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - South Sudan government troops are setting villages on fire and abusing civilians in an ongoing military assault on rebels loyal to the country's former vice president, Amnesty International reported Thursday, the latest allegations of serious rights abuses since the resumption of heavy fighting last month.
Citing witness accounts in Unity state, the watchdog group reported Thursday that fighters in South Sudan military uniforms - and others in civilian clothing - have attacked villages using axes, machetes and guns.
Despite the spike in fighting the international community is "reluctant to take bold steps toward addressing repeated atrocities," Michelle Kagari, deputy director with Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Poland presidential vote could bring return to turbulence - SFGate
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Presidential candidate Andrzej Duda is a new face in Polish politics, but he may herald a return to an older era when his right-wing party held power.
Duda, 43, is the surprise challenger to incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski in Sunday's presidential election runoff, after surging from behind to a first-place finish in the opening round.
To supporters, the era when Duda's Law-and-Justice party ruled was a golden age in which leaders fought corruption, honored forgotten World War II heroes and defended traditional, Catholic values. To critics, it was a time of witch hunts and embarrassment on the international stage, as the Kaczynski brothers, identical twin leaders who were onetime child actors, made a series of diplomatic gaffes in power.
Komorowski is a conservative, pro-European leader allied with the ruling Civic Platform party. Duda's Law and Justice is a nationalist, euro-skeptic group led by the surviving Kaczynski twin, Jarowslaw. Ahead of Sunday's runoff, polls show the race too close to call.
US rejects nuclear disarmament document over Israel concerns - SFGate
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States on Friday blocked a global document aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons, saying Egypt and other states tried to "cynically manipulate" the process by setting a deadline for Israel and its neighbors to meet within months on a Middle East zone free of such weapons.
The now-failed final document of a landmark treaty review conference had called on the U.N. secretary-general to convene the Middle East conference no later than March 2016, regardless of whether Israel and its neighbors agree on an agenda.
Israel is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has never publicly declared what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program. A conference might force Israel to acknowledge it.
Since adopting a final document requires consensus, the rejection by the United States, backed by Britain and Canada, means the entire blueprint for global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation for the next five years has been blocked after four weeks of negotiations. The next treaty review conference is in 2020.
Don't call me shorty: Japan still top creditor nation | Asia Times
China may have surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, but Japan continues as the world's top creditor nation.
Japan's foreign investments and assets climbed to a record in 2014, making this the 24th consecutive year that Japan has been the No.1 creditor country.
Japan's net overseas assets grew 13% to 366.9 trillion yen ($3 trillion) last year. However, the yen's decline affected the total by boosting gross holdings 19% to 945.3 trillion yen, according to finance ministry data released in Tokyo on Friday, Bloomberg reported. Since 2012, the yen has fallen 28% against the dollar. Liabilities rose 23% to 578.4 trillion yen.
Wahhabis go nuclear - literally | Asia Times
The serious possibility of a nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 is only a few weeks away - on June 30.
So guess what the terminally paranoid House of Saud is up to: Lay their hands on a nuclear bomb to counteract the non-existent "Iranian bomb", which Tehran, via Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has consistently abhorred as un-Islamic, and wouldn't have it anyway because of stringent inspections bound to be part of the final nuclear deal.
The proverbial "former Pentagon official" has leaked to a Rupert Murdoch paper that the House of Saud is bound to buy a ready-made nuclear bomb from Pakistan. The choice of media already offers a clue; Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is one of News Corporationu2019s leading shareholders.
Clinton appears to rule out return of ground forces in Iraq - SFGate
HAMPTON, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she sees "no role whatsoever" for U.S. ground forces in Iraq despite setbacks in the struggle against Islamic State militants.
The existing U.S. policy of providing air support, intelligence, surveillance and training is the right one, Clinton said, in comments that appeared more definitive than her past statements about how the Iraqis themselves must carry the fight. ...
"American air support is available, American intelligence and surveillance is available, American trainers are trying to undo the damage that was done to the Iraqi army by former Prime Minister Maliki, who bears a very big part of the responsibility for what is happening inside Iraq today," she said.
"But at the end of the thought process that I engage in ... this has to be fought by and won by the Iraqis. There is no role whatsoever for American soldiers on the ground to go back other than in the capacity as trainers and advisers."
War Drums Department
Top US commander says IS actively recruiting in Afghanistan - SFGate
UN envoy: IS poised to become 'serious threat' in Libya - SFGate
Syrians try to build case against Assad in chlorine attacks - SFGate
Some Greens
Global Pollution and Prevention News: Coal power in Turkey to double if Turkey's plans go forward
Turkey is planning to double its coal power capacity in four years, the third largest investment in the polluting fossil fuel in the world, health campaigners have warned.
The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) today called on the European Union to promote sustainable development in Turkey and end lending for new coal projects.
Efficiency record for black silicon solar cells jumps to 22.1% -- ScienceDaily
Researchers have obtained the record-breaking efficiency of 22.1 percent efficiency on nanostructured silicon solar cells. An almost 4 percent absolute increase to their previous record was achieved by applying a thin passivating film on the nanostructures and by integrating all metal contacts on the back side of the cell.
California oil spill harder to clean up in choppy waters - SFGate
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 10-square-mile oil slick off the California coast is thinner than a coat of paint and it's becoming harder to skim from choppy waters, officials said as more dead animals were discovered.
The combination of sunlight and waves Friday helped evaporate and dissolve some of the oil that blackened beaches and covered wildlife in thick goo after a pipeline on shore leaked up to 105,000 gallons on the Santa Barbara coast Tuesday.
Federal regulators ordered Plains All American Pipeline to drain the pipe that leaked, test the metal in the damaged section of pipe, and complete a series of steps before it can ask to resume pumping oil through the pipe to inland refineries.
California, farmers reach water deal, but enforcement a challenge - SFGate
When California officials struck an unprecedented conservation deal Friday with a group of farmers who have the strongest claims on the stateu2019s dwindling water supply, it showed no one was immune from the fallout of the drought.
Under the agreement, many growers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will be given the option of reducing water use by 25 percent in exchange for an assurance that the state wonu2019t come down harder on them in the near future.
While it was the farmers who offered the bargain, they did so under immense pressure. Next week, California water officials are expected to take the extraordinary step of ordering other farms with senior water rights to cut their usage, a directive not issued since the 1970s.
Making sure this mandate is met u2014 and, more importantly, figuring out how much water the move will save u2014 wonu2019t be easy. State oversight of water is hindered by old and incomplete methods of tracking water use, complicating how officials target cuts and how they measure compliance.
Well Duh! Department
Federal data: As oil production soars, so do pipeline leaks - SFGate
The oil pipeline leak that fouled a stretch of California coastline this week reflects a troubling trend in the nation's infrastructure: As U.S. oil production has soared, so has the number of pipeline accidents.
Since 2009, the annual number of significant accidents on oil and petroleum pipelines has shot up by almost 60 percent, roughly matching the rise in U.S. crude oil production, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
Nearly two-thirds of the leaks during that time have been linked to corrosion or material, welding and equipment failures, problems often associated with older pipelines, although they can occur in newer ones, too. Other leaks were blamed on natural disasters or human error, such as a backhoe striking a pipeline.
Industry officials and federal regulators say they have adequate means of gauging the safety of pipelines, but the aging infrastructure is a source of lingering concern for outside experts.
"Tick, tick, tick," said Robert Bea, a professor emeritus in civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. "Things get older. They don't get stronger."
And now back to the busiess at hand --
And, just for a little change, some Phil Ochs
Hellraisers Preview
the Labor Editor of the Chicago Inter Ocean opining on the coming convention of Industrial Unionist.
Tomorrow at 11:00 am PDT
Diaries and Posts of Note
Hellraisers Journal: Joe Hill is "a true soldier in the army of labor," ready to die for the cause.
Ruby's Dream House
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