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 blues, r&b and rock and roll guitarist Bo Diddley. Enjoy!
Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley
“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.”
-- Jonathan Swift
News and Opinion
UK-US surveillance regime was unlawful ‘for seven years’
Regime that governed access to intercepted information obtained by the NSA breached human rights laws, according to Investigatory Powers Tribunal
The regime that governs the sharing between Britain and the United States of electronic communications intercepted in bulk was unlawful until last year, a secretive UK tribunal has ruled.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) declared on Friday that regulations covering access by Britain’s GCHQ to emails and phone records intercepted by the US National Security Agency breached human rights law.
The challenges were brought by Liberty, Privacy International and other civil liberties groups who claimed that GCHQ’s receipt of private communications intercepted by the NSA through its “mass surveillance” programmes Prism and Upstream was illegal.
The existence of Prism and Upstream was revealed by the Guardian from documents provided by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The case brought by Liberty and Privacy International was the first in the UK to challenge GCHQ’s participation in these programmes. Lawyers argued that receiving information about people in Britain from the NSA sidestepped protections provided by the UK legal system.
Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: “For far too long, intelligence agencies like GCHQ and NSA have acted like they are above the law. Today’s decision confirms to the public what many have said all along – over the past decade, GCHQ and the NSA have been engaged in an illegal mass surveillance sharing programme that has affected millions of people around the world.
“We must not allow agencies to continue justifying mass surveillance programmes using secret interpretations of secret laws. The world owes Edward Snowden a great debt for blowing the whistle, and today’s decision is a vindication of his actions.
Most US investigative journalists fear their government spies on them
Survey reveals that 64% believe the government has ‘probably collected data’ on their work
Most of America’s investigative journalists believe their government has spied on them, according to a Pew Research Centre study.
Some 64% of participants in Pew’s survey said that the US government had “probably collected data” on their phone calls, emails and other online communications.
The report surveyed 671 members of an organisation called Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), which includes reporters, producers, editors, data specialists and photojournalists.
Reporters who covered national security, foreign affairs or the government were the most convinced., with 71% of them saying they believed data was being collected from their communications.
Deported Palestinian Scholar Sami Al-Arian on His Chilling Post-9/11 Prosecution
Obama's national security strategy: can he halt years of unmet promises?
The president’s new national security strategy could mark a stiffening of hawkish tendencies on Ukraine and other challenges where the US has appeared reactive
Barack Obama unveils his administration’s new national security strategy on Friday with the sound of past foreign policy promise ringing in his ears – and its unmet challenges staring him in the face.
“As-salamu alaykum,” began the president in Cairo in a famous “new beginnings” speech once aimed at bridging the divide between Islam and the US.
Three months earlier, in April 2009, he had told a similarly expectant audience in Prague he aimed to rid the world of nuclear weapons and reset relations with Russia. Only two years ago, in another landmark speech to the National Defense Academy, the president was still promising to end America’s seemingly permanent “war on terror” and curtail his use of drone killings.
Friday’s long-delayed policy document is expected to acknowledge instead the realities of a world where America is still fighting Islamic extremism on multiple fronts – not only with drones, but thousands of US troops too – spending more to maintain its nuclear weapons and squaring up against Moscow over war in Ukraine. ...
Amid fierce administration debate this week over whether to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia, the document may also mark a stiffening of Obama’s hawkish tendencies compared with a speech to West Point military cadets last year that appeared to mark a desire to extract the US from foreign wars.
Top UN Official Says 'Global War on Terror' Is Laying Waste to Human Rights
Battling terrorism shouldn’t justify torture or mass surveillance, says Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein
The United Nations, which is the legal guardian of scores of human rights treaties banning torture, unlawful imprisonment, degrading treatment of prisoners of war and enforced disappearances, is troubled that an increasing number of countries are justifying violations of U.N. conventions on grounds of fighting terrorism in conflict zones.
Taking an implicit passing shot at big powers, the outspoken U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein of Jordan puts it more bluntly: “This logic is abundant around the world today: I torture because a war justifies it. I spy on my citizens because terrorism, repulsive as it is, requires it.
“I don’t want new immigrants, or I discriminate against minorities, because our communal identity or my way of life is being threatened as never before. I kill others, because others will kill me – and so it goes, on and on.”
Speaking Thursday at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., Zeid said the world needs “profound and inspiring leadership” driven by a concern for human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people.
“We need leaders who will observe fully those laws and treaties drafted to end all discrimination, the privation of millions, and atrocity and excess in war, with no excuses entertained. Only then, can we help ourselves out of the present serious, seemingly inexhaustible, supply of crises that threatens to engulf us,” he declared.
Merkel, Hollande to meet Putin in Moscow on Ukraine peace plan
Merkel and Hollande to present Ukraine peace plan to Putin
Hollande and Merkel are expected to hold talks with Putin at 5pm Moscow time (2pm GMT), though there is significant uncertainty over what ideas they were bringing to the table. They undertook the hasty and unusual mission after Putin put forward his own plan and they responded with counter-proposals, amid an upsurge of fighting and growing European fears that a US decision to supply arms to Kiev could trigger an uncontrollable rise in violence.
Merkel and Hollande met the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in Kiev on Thursday evening.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, said on Twitter that the leaders had discussed “steps so that the Minsk agreement can start working”. A ceasefire signed in Minsk in September froze the frontlines at their positions at the time, but never held.
Kerry sounded lukewarm about Merkel and Hollande’s visit. He said Putin had sent “a couple of ideas” to France and Germany, and the pair had come up with a response but he did not give details. Kerry also said the US wanted a diplomatic solution but was reviewing all options, including “the possibility of providing defensive systems to Ukraine”.
US officials are concerned that Putin will use European eagerness to stop the fighting to consolidate his hold on Crimea and eastern Ukraine and shrug off the obligations Russia undertook in Minsk to cut off the flow of arms and manpower to the pro-Moscow separatists.
Hollande, however, has insisted that the Franco-German proposals were based on a guarantee of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. He warned “the diplomatic option cannot be extended indefinitely”
European defence ministers oppose sending weapons to Ukraine
European defence ministers spoke out on Thursday against sending weapons to the Ukrainian army, pointing to a potential transatlantic split if Washington decides to supply arms. ...
"More weapons in this area will not bring us closer to a solution, and will not end the suffering of the population," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen told reporters. ...
Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said Rome opposed the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine.
"We need to lower the temperature of the crisis, not to raise it," she told a news conference.
Why We Shouldn't Arm Ukraine
President Barack Obama has resisted demands to escalate our response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, but his resistance may soon collapse. ...
It has been under great pressure for months, with Republicans accusing him of being "weak and indecisive." This week, a report from three establishment-oriented think tanks—the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs—said the United States should provide "lethal defensive arms" and other supplies to the Kiev government. Ashton Carter, nominated to be secretary of defense, said in his confirmation hearing Wednesday, "I'm very much inclined in that direction."
But Obama abstained from shipping weapons to Ukraine because there was no reason to think they would do much good—and there still isn't. Lethal military assistance combines several unappealing features.
It would cost a lot of money that would probably be wasted, since the arms would not be sufficient to stop Vladimir Putin from achieving any military goal he sets. It could induce him to intensify his aggression before our help can arrive.
It could expand the destruction of the fighting without changing the outcome. And it's likely to eventually present the U.S. with a choice between accepting defeat and having to use our own forces to save Ukraine.
Your tax dollars at work:
Pentagon thinktank claims Putin has Asperger's
If Kremlinology made for a viable career track at the Pentagon during the cold war, Putinology is its pale 21st-century successor, complete with geopolitical guessing games, spycraft and the unknowable machinationsof the man inside Red Square. The latest contribution to the field comes courtesy of a Pentagon thinktank: a suggestion that Vladimir Putin has an autistic disorder.
Studies from 2008 and 2011, commissioned by the Pentagon and revealed by USA Today through a freedom of information request, suggest Putin has “an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions” and may be Asperger syndrome. But the studies, which focused on videos of the Russian president, do not claim to make a diagnosis and are primarily the brainchild of one person, Brenda Connors of the US Naval War College (USNWC) in Newport, Rhode Island.
Connors, a “movement patterns analysis” expert, is a former State Department official and professional dancer who has been described, by a psychologist from the University of Chicago, as a “dancer and diplomat”.
Aides: Obama to Seek ISIS War Request, AUMF Next Week
Congressional aides familiar with the situation are reporting on Thursday that they’ve been informed President Obama will finally submit a proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS next week.
By law, a president is obliged to seek an AUMF within 90 days of the launch of hostilities. That deadline passed months ago, and while the president initially blamed the 2014 lame duck Congress for not wanting a vote, officials have since insisted they are waiting for Obama to decide on a wording. ...
Expect the final text to include few limits on the war, no deadline, and a bevy of loopholes allowing escalation of the conflict into additional countries, and against additional targets.
Bibi-Boehner Fiasco Continues as Fallout Spreads
The Bibi-Boehner fiasco appears to be the gift that keeps on giving. At least, it continues to buoy the hopes of those who want the P5+1 and Iranian negotiators to forge a framework accord by the notional deadline of March 24 to be followed by a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program by July 1.
John Boehner’s (R-OH) unilateral invitation has served above all to persuade some nervous Democrats to rally behind Obama and his promise to veto any sanctions legislation during the ongoing negotiations. Indeed, until Boehner’s surprise announcement— which, incidentally, was extended (apparently falsely) “on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate” (emphasis added)— Sens. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) had a shot at peeling off enough Democrats to get a sanctions bill through the Senate even before March.
But, as widely predicted, the invitation made it clearer than ever that Boehner’s—and Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY)—stunt was fundamentally a partisan maneuver designed to embarrass and undermine the president. This point was underlined by the praise it immediately elicited from the Sheldon Adelson-chaired Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the boast a few hours later by Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI)—a Republican operation through and through—that it would host a reception for Netanyahu after his address to Congress.
Although the RJC, ECI, and ZOA have all enthusiastically supported the invitation and Netanyahu’s acceptance, mainstream Jewish organizations have, as I suggested when the invitation was first announced, kept a low profile. The leadership of these organizations may lean right, especially with respect to Israel, but the vast majority of American Jews vote Democratic and are certainly far more liberal in their worldview than either John Boehner or Bibi Netanyahu. Referring to the possible “terrible consequences” of Netanyahu’s show of contempt for a U.S. president in a critical commentary (“The Netanyahu Disaster”) by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic last week, The Forward headlined its most recent editorial “Bibi’s Bad Choice:”
[O]ne of those consequences incurred by the “Republican Senator from Israel” — that’s what some call Netanyahu now — is the damage done to the Israeli government’s relationship with the majority of American Jews. Netanyahu may be appeasing his funders, his Congressional allies and his friends in Jewish communal leadership with his upcoming speech. But he risks alienating many more American Jews whose support he may no longer take for granted.
Australia's Prime Minister Might Be Thrown Out by His Own Party Next Week
Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, could be kicked out of office by next Tuesday. He is not facing an election but a vote over his leadership by his own party, and his adversaries are citing his knighting of the UK's Prince Philip as the final straw.
On Friday, Luke Simpkins, a member of Abbott's ruling Liberal Party in the Australian parliament, dropped the bombshell that Abbott would have to face a formal challenge to his control after two weeks of speculation.
Simpkins wrote to Liberal MPs, telling them that he would move to "spill" all leadership positions in the party at a meeting next Tuesday and that he had a second for the motion.
If his motion is successful, it would declare all positions in the party vacant and force the parliamentary party to re-elect a leader and deputy leader. If Abbott failed in this ballot, he would lose the prime ministership.
"In the last two weeks I have been inundated with emails and walk-ins to my electorate office all questioning the direction the government is being led in," wrote Simpkins in an email to colleagues that has since been leaked to media. "The knighthood issue was for many the final proof of a disconnection with the people."
French President François Hollande Promotes Secularism Following Paris Terror Attacks
French President François Hollande has reaffirmed his commitment to the spirit of secularism and pledged to institutionalize the national unity displayed during the rallies across France that honored the victims of the Paris terror attacks that left 17 dead in January.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Hollande vowed to devote extra resources to the country's educational system and increase state-sponsored public service employment opportunities for people under the age of 26.
Secularism, which has been enshrined in French law since 1905, has proved a divisive issue since two Islamic radicals attacked the headquarters of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo for printing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
While some consider secularism a bulwark against religious extremism, others in France believe the authorities underestimate the effect it has on social exclusion. This holds particularly true among the country's Muslims, some of whom feel unfairly targeted by laws that ban the wearing of headscarves at schools or full-face veils in public.
Speaking on Thursday, Hollande defended secular values and argued that they provide the foundation on which religious freedom is based.
"Secularism is non-negotiable because it allows us to live together," he said. "It has to be understood for what it is: the freedom of thought — therefore, the freedom of religion. These are values and rules of law that aim to protect not only what we share, but also what is unique to each one of us. It is France's guarantee against intolerance."
Intolerance After The Violence: Paris Gun Attack
Staten Island Court Considers Whether to Release Eric Garner Grand Jury Investigation Details
Lifting the curtain of secrecy currently hanging over the grand jury investigation into the death of Eric Garner will help restore public trust in the criminal justice system, a Staten Island judge was told on Thursday. It would also answer questions about the fairness and impartiality of the process that led to a decision not to bring criminal charges against the officer who placed Garner in a chokehold before his death, the court heard. ...
The NYCLU was joined by the Legal Aid Society; Letitia James, the city’s public advocate; the New York Post and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in pushing for the release of the grand jury transcripts. The Garner family did not participate in the lawsuit but submitted a statement of support in favor of disclosure.
Speaking before the start of the arguments, Judge Garnett reminded the parties that grand jury secrecy was “embodied” in the state’s constitution, and that the parties must prove a “compelling and particularized” need for disclosure.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers attempted to persuade the judge that the Garner case is different from other cases in which judges have ruled in favor of secrecy, describing it as a “catalyst” for a nationwide debate on grand jury reform.
“What the public is dying to understand – and what it has the right to understand – is how this process works,” said Matthew Brinckerhoff, an attorney for the city’s public advocate. He added: “This case is the catalyst for what will undoubtedly be reform measures.”
Disclosure of the grand jury minutes was opposed by the office of the Richmond County district attorney Daniel Donovan, which argued that the grand jury witnesses gave their testimony with “assurances of secrecy” and that making their testimony public would bring the “inevitable result of harassment or retaliation”.
FCC’s Net Neutrality Shift a Victory for Open Internet & Grassroots Activism Against Cable Giants
Greek Minister: Poison of Troika Austerity Fueling Rise of Nazi Party
Revealing the distance that still remains between the Greek and German governments when it comes to renegotiating terms of the bailout program, a meeting between the nation's financial ministers in Berlin on Thursday was punctuated by the acknowledgement that the two could not, in fact, even "agree to disagree" and a warning from the new Syriza government that without a loosening of austerity, fascist forces will almost surely rise. ...
In his remarks, Varoufakis said that if the Troika does not bend and accept new terms, there is serious risk that the spiraling impacts of the economic Depression in his country will continue to fuel the rise of fascist, rightwing forces within his country.
"No one understands better than the people of this land how a severely depressed economy, combined with a ritual national humiliation and unending hopelessness, can hatch the serpent’s egg within its society. When I return home tonight, I will find a country where the third-largest party is not a neo-nazi party, but a nazi party,” he said, referring to the Golden Dawn party which currently, despite many of its members serving prison time for violence and corruption, holds the third-most seats in Greek Parliament. "We need the people of Germany on our side."
Despite those risks and proving that members of the Troika are ready to play hardball with Syriza, the ECB on Wednesday applied market pressure on the new government by announcing it would no longer accept Greek-issued bonds.
Greece: ECB Kicks Syriza in the Face; Syriza Turns the Other Cheek
On Wednesday the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds and government-guaranteed debt as collateral. Although Greece would still be eligible for other, emergency lending from the Central Bank, the immediate effect of the announcement was to raise Greek borrowing costs and squeeze its banks, and to increase financial market instability within Greece.
We should be clear about what this means. The ECB's move was completely unnecessary, and it was done some weeks before any decision had to be made. It looks very much like a deliberate attempt to undermine the new government. They are trying to force the government to abandon its promises to the Greek electorate, and to follow the IMF program that its predecessors signed on to.
Clarity is important here because the European authorities, or the troika, as they are commonly called, plunged the eurozone into at least two additional years of unnecessary recession that began in 2011 because they were playing a similar game of chicken. The ECB, for its part, deliberately and repeatedly allowed the eurozone to go the brink of financial meltdown during this period. It was not because the financial markets had the power to collapse the euro when they pushed the yield on the 10-year sovereign bonds of Italy and Spain to unsustainable levels in the range of 7 percent. It was because the ECB deliberately allowed these market actors to create an existential crisis for the euro, in order to force concessions from the governments of Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland.
These concessions were not just about paying off debt but also "structural reforms" that sought to remake the European welfare state in the weaker countries, including shrinking the size of the state; cutting spending on health care, pensions, and unemployment compensation; and changing labor laws that favored workers.
Syriza's leadership, headed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, are playing it smart. They responded to the ECB's assault without animosity or denunciations. They are not going to voluntarily leave the euro or even suggest the possibility. ... They want the world to know who is the aggressor here and who is being reasonable. This is important because we are witnessing a political battle for democracy in Europe, and the outcome of this chapter will be partly decided by what the troika can get away with politically. Much noise is made about German voters opposing concessions to the Greeks, but this is only possible because the whole fight has been misrepresented to them for years. The European authorities transferred massive amounts of debt from reckless private lenders to EU governments (including Germany) and at the same time increased Greece's debt load from 115 percent to more than 170 percent of GDP by shrinking the Greek economy at a rate comparable to the worst of the U.S. Great Depression.
The ECB should be ashamed of its latest assault on Greek democracy. And they should not be able to get away with disguising it as anything less than that.
ECB cancels soft treatment of Greek debt in warning to Athens
The ECB in a dramatic move last night pulled the plug on Greek banks ability to use Greek sovereign bonds as collateral in borrowing from the ECB. It is not a killer move – because it means Greek banks are now totally reliant on the ECB for funding emergency funding. ...
The move caught Greek negotiators in Berlin off guard. Syriza sources were last night puzzled as to whether it was a move by the ECB to pressure the politicians to find a solution, or pressure on them to comply. As always when playing with the future of 11 million innocent and powerless people, the level of puzzlement is frightening. ...
In the end, this crisis will be resolved either by politicians, waiving rules, or central bankers sticking to them. If the latter there is little alternative but to force Greece into a u-turn, or to leave the euro.
In this regard the move has already had impact. My social media feeds, and those of people I follow, are now reflecting Greek sentiment changing towards euro exit. ...
As I have repeatedly blogged, on the basis of well authoritative briefings, the Greek radical left party Syriza does not want to be in power unless it can make significant reforms to the welfare, pension and privatisation programme imposed by 2012.
As everybody stares over the abyss it’s worth spelling out what that is: not immediate euro exit. If the ECB triggers a bank run in Greece, the government would likely resort to capital controls and seek bilateral funding outside the euro system. The Greek constitution also allows it simply to hand power back to the shattered, pro-Brussels centrist parties and let them self-destruct some more.
Los Indignados to Podemos: The Making of a Party (1/2)
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature the entire testimony of Mary Petrucci, Ludlow survivor, before the Commission on Industrial Relations.
Tune in at 2pm!
|
Another economic crash is coming. How did this happen?
This is a really interesting interview with economist Lance Taylor conducted by Lynn Parramore. I'll include the preamble and an excerpt from the interview as a teaser:
What Thomas Piketty and Larry Summers Don’t Tell You About Income Inequality
In a new paper for the Institute For New Economic Thinking’s Working Group on the Political Economy of Distribution, economist Lance Taylor and his colleagues examine income inequality using new tools and models that give us a more nuanced — and frightening —picture than we’ve had before. Their simulation models show how so-called “reasonable” modifications like modest tax increases on the wealthy and boosting low wages are not going to be enough to stem the disproportionate tide of income rushing toward the rich. Taylor’s research challenges the approaches of American policy makers, the assumptions of traditional economists, and some of the conclusions drawn by Thomas Piketty and Larry Summers. Bottom line: We’re not yet talking about the kinds of major changes needed to keep us from becoming a Downton Abbey society.us from becoming a Downton Abbey society.
LP: Let’s take a look at a couple of ideas that are popular right now, like raising the minimum wage and increasing taxes on the highest income brackets. How might these measures impact income inequality in America?
How much could the top one percent “reasonably” be taxed? If we wanted to tax them as much as rich European countries do, we’d have to double their tax burden. The Obama administration is now floating an increase of about one percent of the top group’s income. That’s not going to do a lot for income inequality given how much richer the rich have gotten since 1980. A marginal tax rate around 60 percent, the Scandinavian norm, could do the trick, but putting it into place here seems highly unlikely. The same observation applies to higher capital gains taxation and Piketty’s recommendation of a tax on wealth. It won’t be enough.
Of course taxes could also be raised on less affluent households, but the prospects are not much better. Our models show that unless the U.S. tax/transfer system is made dramatically more progressive, adjustments around the edges will not have much impact on income inequality.
On the wage front, we looked at what would happen if you raised the wages 10 percent for the poorest 20 percent, and 5 percent for the next 20 percent. That would sound like a pretty big proposal if an American politician floated it. But our models show that it hardly moves the Palma ratio. It does very little to change income inequality.
Also, you have to keep in mind that the U.S. transfer system effectively “taxes” you at a steep rate if you’re low income and get a higher wage because your benefits, like Medicaid, will be reduced. When you factor in these kinds of mechanisms, you see that policy initiatives within the range now be being discussed will not strongly affect income inequality in the U.S. economy.
Zombie Banks eating Human Souls
The Evening Greens
Here's Why Deforestation in the Amazon May Bring More Frequent, More Intense Droughts to Brazil
As reservoirs shrink and taps run dry in Brazil's worst ever water crisis, some scientists are making a connection between Amazonian deforestation and the monster drought.
Scientists have long known that rainforests sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, making them important players in global climate dynamics. More recently, they've learned that forests influence regional climate conditions by pumping so much water into the air that they create their own rainy weather patterns, a dynamic scientists call the "biotic pump."
That means logging the Amazon in order to raise cattle or cultivate crops might be causing southern Brazil — most significantly, the 20-million-person megacity of São Paulo — to dry out .
The biotic pump works like this: Humid air rising from forests causes air pressure to drop, sucking moisture from surrounding areas, like the ocean, into the middle of continents, which adds to the forests' humidity. In turn, greater levels of precipitation fall on areas downwind. This dynamic is something that researchers think happens not only in the Amazon, but also in the Congo River Basin and in Russia. ...
While Brazil has slowed deforestation in recent years, it's still occurring on a massive scale. That could damage Brazil's biotic pump because forest loss is happening on the country's Atlantic Ocean side, where moisture is higher. If the biotic pump is already broken, that's extra bad news for São Paulo.
Monsanto Crops Pushing Monarch Butterfly to 'Verge of Extinction'
'The alarming decline of monarchs is driven in large part' by Roundup Ready crops, Center for Food Safety finds
Herbicide-resistant genetically modified crops have brought the iconic monarch butterfly to the brink of extinction, according to a new report presented by the Center for Food Safety to Congress on Thursday.
The report, Monarchs in Peril (pdf), is the most comprehensive look yet at how Monsanto's 'Roundup Ready' crops have helped decimate the monarch population, which has declined by 90 percent in the past 20 years.
"This report is a wake-up call. This iconic species is on the verge of extinction because of Monsanto's Roundup Ready crop system," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director at Center for Food Safety. "To let the monarch butterfly die out in order to allow Monsanto to sell its signature herbicide for a few more years is simply shameful."
As Common Dreams has reported before, and the new study makes abundantly clear, a critical factor in the orange-and-white butterflies' decline is the loss of host plants for larvae in their main breeding habitat, the Midwestern Corn Belt. Monarchs lay eggs exclusively on plants in the milkweed family, the only food their larvae will eat.
And the loss of milkweed can be blamed on the proliferation of glyphosate, one of the very few herbicides that kills the perennial plant and a primary ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. While glyphosate was little used two decades ago, it has become by far the most heavily used herbicide in the U.S. thanks to glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready corn and soybean crops. According to the Center for Food Safety, corn and soybean fields in the Corn Belt have lost 99 percent of their milkweed since 1999.
Oil-Soaked Interest Groups Doing Their Best to Kill Mass Transit
Fossil fuel-backed, billionaire-friendly interests are doing their best to kill any increase in the federal gas tax—in turn, hobbling efforts to boost mass transit or fix America's crumbling infrastructure.
Last Wednesday, a laundry list of about 50 anti-government groups, including the Koch Brothers-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners, and Club for Growth, sent a letter (pdf) to Congress stating "strong opposition" to raising the gas tax. The tax, which has sat at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, finances the dwindling Highway Trust Fund and pays for roads and bridges around the country.
Earlier this year—with gas prices hovering at just over $2 a gallon—there were hopeful signs that conservatives, who have in the past vehemently opposed raising the gas tax, might be willing to bend. ...
But last week's letter seems to have dampened whatever level of support may have existed.
"Everyone knew it would be difficult, but you had a lot of senators and representatives saying privately that they would be open to raising the gas tax, so long as it could be framed in a certain way," a high-ranking American Public Transit Association official told Rachel Cohen of The American Prospect. "This letter just killed our momentum, I think permanently."
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Bob Marley at 70: legend and legacy
This is how Barack Obama wants to be the left’s Ronald Reagan
The government's cyberterrorism 'concerns' are a pretext for their own hacking operations
A Need for Dialogue
This German to Pres. Obama - Don't Listen to Sen. McCain - War is in the Air - Stop it !
An OPOL Report SPECIAL: I just looked around and he was gone
A Little Night Music
Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love
Bo Diddley - Road Runner
Bo Diddley - You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover
Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing
Bo Diddley - Look At My Baby
Bo Diddley - Diddley Daddy
Bo Diddley - Bring It To Jerome
Bo Diddley - Sixteen Tons
Bo Diddley - Down home special
Bo Diddley - Back To School
Bo Diddley - Hey good lookin'
Bo Diddley - Ooh Baby
Bo Diddley - Crackin Up
Bo Diddley - Pills
Bo Diddley - Diddy Wah Diddy
Bo Diddley - I Want My Baby / Surfboard Cha Cha
Bo Diddley - Please Mr. Engineer
Bo Diddley - Do The Robot
Ron Wood & Bo Diddley
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!
|