Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
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Good Morning!
New Guinea Impatiens. June, 2012. Photo credit: joanneleon
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.
~Howard Thurman
News
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Two Occupy-related groups plan events Saturday
Organizers of two groups that grew out of the Occupy movement will begin a series of events in Philadelphia on Saturday and are promising peace, love, street protests, and fierce political debate. And, probably, camping.
Only one of the groups has members who may camp. That would be the people who organized the Occupy Philly encampment last fall outside City Hall. They are pulling together six days of activities they are calling the "National Gathering."
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Such a show of force could help revive a movement that grabbed the public imagination last summer and fall as thousands formed Occupy encampments in cities across the country to protest income inequality and other issues.
The gathering starts Saturday at 9 a.m. at Independence Mall and ends - or begins anew, depending on your interpretation - Thursday at 11 a.m. when the participants step off on a 99-mile march to Wall Street.
In between, participants will feed the homeless in defiance of Mayor Nutter's ban on doing so in city parks, protest what they consider questionable bank deals that cost the city and the School District millions, see a circus, and - well, it's Occupy. Almost anything could happen. Bongos undoubtedly will be involved.
City Prepares for Occupy National Gathering
The Occupy event begins Saturday and runs through the Fourth of July. Organizers say about 1500 protesters are expected for marches and gatherings in support of the group’s push for economic equality and other causes.
As Independence Day approaches, fireworks and parties aren’t the only big events the city is bracing itself for. Occupy groups from across the country are headed to Philadelphia for a national gathering on Independence Mall.
The Occupy event begins Saturday and runs through the Fourth of July. Organizers say about 1500 protesters are expected for marches and gatherings in support of the group’s push for economic equality and other causes. The group says they’ll spend five days creating what they call a blueprint, a list of social issues they want to tackle.
Philadelphia on July 4 will be Occupied again
THE FOURTH OF JULY fireworks may detonate a little early this year, with the Occupy movement pledging to descend again on Philadelphia starting Saturday.
Organizers of the five-day "Occupy National Gathering" plan to set up Saturday morning on Independence Mall and have told the National Park Service they refuse to apply for permits.
And the Occupy organizers, who predict 2,000 attendees, are peeved that an offshoot group calling itself the "99% Declaration" will hold what it calls a "Continental Congress 2.0" from Monday to Wednesday. That meeting, expected to draw 100 to 150 people, will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Organizers also obtained a permit to hold an Independence Hall rally from 2 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 4.
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Two tea-party groups have permits for July 4. That should make for some lively conversation about democracy.
Tom Morello Releases “World Wide Rebel Tour” Documentary in 30 Languages and 42 Country Variations
Tom Morello has launched a free documentary entitled “World Wide Rebel Tour” available for in 30 languages and 42 country-specific versions. The 30-minute documentary was directed by Bobby Roth (TV’s Lost, Prison Break, The Mentalist) and was filmed at Henson Studios in Los Angeles in August of 2011.
The films feature Q&As with Morello in the native languages of 42 countries mixed with live performances from his acclaimed 2011 The Nightwatchman album World Wide Rebel Songs. Rolling Stone named it one of the “Top 50 Best Albums of the Year” in 2011 and Morello one of the “100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time (#26).”
“The World Wide Rebel Tour is a virtual tour spanning the entire planet. No one has ever toured 42 countries in one day, until now,” Said Morello about the project, “From Malawi to Myanmar, from Uzbekistan to the U.S.A., people’s voices and struggles have made their way into my music. I’m returning the favor with this global rebel rocking throw-down. Free. Everywhere.” He continued, “What is the World Wide Rebel Tour? Remember that old Coca-Cola commercial? ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…?’ It’s like THAT…but with class warfare.”
We Could Stop Importing Oil From the Middle East Today if We Wanted To
#1: We could stop importing oil from the Middle East today if we wanted to.
The chart on the right shows U.S oil consumption. Take a look at the past few years: oil consumption has dropped nearly 2 million barrels per day since 2007. Over the same period, U.S. imports of oil have dropped 2.1 million barrels per day.
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#3: The main source of lower oil imports comes from better fuel economy and other efficiency measures, not from fracking.
There are two charts below. Take a look at the one on the left. In the 25 years between 1980 and 2005, U.S. oil consumption increased by more than 5 million barrels per day. Now take a look at the projection for the 25 years from 2010 to 2035. EIA forecasts an increase of only about 1 million barrels per day.
Here we go.
Reluctance in Some States Over Medicaid Expansion
WASHINGTON — Millions of poor people could still be left without medical insurance under the national health care law if states take an option granted by the Supreme Court and decide not to expand their Medicaid programs, state officials and health policy experts said Friday.
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While upholding the most hotly debated part of the health care overhaul law — a requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty — the Supreme Court said in its ruling on Thursday that states did not have to expand Medicaid as Congress had intended — leaving a huge question mark over the law’s mechanism for providing coverage to 17 million of the poorest people.
In writing the law, Congress assumed that the poorest uninsured people would gain coverage through Medicaid, while many people with higher incomes would receive federal subsidies to buy private insurance. Now, poor people who live in a state that refuses to expand its Medicaid program will find themselves in a predicament, unable to obtain either Medicaid or subsidies.
Six Ways the Big Banks Are Getting Back-Door Bailouts
The country's biggest banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine.
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Yet those same banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine. Most of us know about the big, official bailouts. But the banks get much more than that from federal and state governments. Those lobbying dollars and campaign donations aren't just to keep regulators away; they lead to lucrative contracts where banks are paid to administer government services, and are put in position to skim fees off the very same taxpayers who pay for those services.
The big banks have their tentacles in every aspect of government—despite right-wing hand-wringing about government bureaucracy, the big banks are often actually the ones coming between you and your money. So who's really getting rich off “welfare”? JP Morgan and Bank of America.
Assange faces tough choice: lawyer
Assange's concerns that he could be prosecuted in a US court for serious crimes were well-founded, given details that have emerged about a grand jury investigation, public warnings from top US officials and reported questioning of WikiLeaks associates, according to Ratner.
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Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa, who has often been at odds with Washington and offered Assange asylum in 2010, has said that the South American country will take its time considering the application.
Does the US have a case against Julian Assange?
"They're all over this case," Ratner told AFP.
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"It's a very open question as to whether you could try him for espionage," said Stimson, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation think-tank who oversaw detainee policies at the Pentagon under ex-president George W. Bush.
A better option for prosecutors may be "to see whether or not they could charge him with something like conspiracy to disclose classified documents," he said.
But such an approach would be breaking new legal ground, experts said.
Julian Assange remains at embassy after failing to report to police
He said he had evidence that the US had secret plans to force him to face trial in America. "In the US, since at least the beginning of 2011, a US grand jury has been empanelled in Washington. It has been pulling in witnesses, forced testimony from those witnesses, subpoenaed records from Google, from Twitter," he said.
U.S. Indicts Man Accused of Aiding Al Qaeda in Yemen
A man being held in Britain has been indicted in Manhattan on charges that he helped to develop online propaganda for Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, federal prosecutors said Friday. He is expected to be sent soon to New York. The defendant, Minh Quang Pham, 29, traveled to Yemen and took an oath of allegiance to the affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, received training from the group and provided it with expert advice and assistance in photography and graphic design, an indictment says. It also says that in April 2011, he worked with an American citizen in Yemen on the propaganda effort, and met with another American as well. The indictment does not identify the Americans, but their descriptions suggest they might be Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric, and Samir Khan, who helped to produce Inspire, an English-language online magazine published by the group in Yemen. Both men were killed in a drone strike last September.
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Yemen says al Qaeda militants may have fled to Oman
“What we are sure of is that we’ve kicked out the terrorist elements from the towns and that they’re now being chased,” Abubakr al-Qirbi told Reuters on the sidelines of an anti-piracy conference in Dubai.
Many had fled to mountainous parts of southern Yemen, while others could have fled to neighbouring countries using land and sea routes.
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Any infiltration into Oman, which sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one third of the world’s seaborne oil exports, would raise fears of al Qaeda setting up a new base in a region of strategic importance.
Pentagon Asks Congress to Shift Billions in Funding
The Pentagon asked Congress to shift $8.2 billion in previously approved fiscal 2012 funds to bankroll “higher priority” items, including added fuel costs to resupply U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The shift is detailed in an 82-page “reprogramming request” sent to congressional defense committees yesterday. It would provide at least $772 million to pay for increased fuel costs for transporting supplies by northern routes into Afghanistan after Pakistan closed its ground lines to U.S. convoys.
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The Pentagon also asked approval to provide $20 million to reflect the “rapid increase” in costs related to the military trial of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-defendants. The money would go to the Defense Legal Services Agency, which is already getting $104.6 million in the current year.
Well worth reading.
A Russia House on the Indian Ocean
The building blocks of the historic visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pakistan in September have begun arriving in Islamabad. It is a poignant moment in the region's history and politics. This will be the first time a Russian president visits Pakistan since its birth in 1947.
The Russians are fabricating some hardy bricks for the mansion they hope to build in the region which forms a beachhead on the Indian Ocean - a mansion large enough for their friends in Pakistan and in the neighboring countries of India, Iran and Afghanistan to consort with them.
But then, the very sight of the Russian bricks infuriates the United States. The point is, this Russia House will stand bang on the way of the New Silk Road that the US has been planning, which also needs to run through Pakistan. If the access is blocked, it becomes problematic for the US to keep together the body and soul of the tens of thousands of its troops who were hoping to settle down in the Hindu Kush and Central Asia as pioneers in the "Wild West" of China's Xinjiang and on the "soft underbelly" of Russia.
Blog Posts of Interest
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