It's time we have a holiday to honor those who try to stop wars too

Memorial Day and Veteran's Day often get equated, but there is an essential distinction between the two. Veteran's Day honors all who have served the American military in wars. Memorial Day honors those who've perished. It's an annual reminder that wars have grave human costs, which must be both recognized and minimized.

Those costs are not inevitable. We ought to also set aside time to remember those throughout American history who have tried hardest to reduce them, to prevent unnecessary loss of life both American and foreign: war resisters.

War resistors can be heroes

American history is littered with examples of pointless wars fought for bad reasons, and with people who risked their careers and their freedom to oppose them. The Mexican-American War, for one, was a blatant land grab. While James K. Polk claimed that Mexico had struck first — saying in his war message to Congress that "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon America's soil" — the truth was that he had sent American troops into disputed territory between the Rio Grande and Nueces Rivers, whereupon Mexican troops, concerned by American encroachment, attacked.

Abraham Lincoln, then in his only term as a Congressman from Illinois, questioned Polk's rationale and introduced what came to be known as the "spot resolutions" demanding that the President point out the exact spot on which American blood had been spilled, to prove that it was really American land. Lincoln received vociferous attacks from Democratic newspapers and meetings back in his district; participants at one rally condemned him as "this Benedict Arnold of our district." But he was on the right side of history: the war was unjustified and caused needless suffering.

more

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/25/8656381/war-resisters-memorial-day

CIA Ends Information Sharing with Climate Scientists

Shutting down a program that began nearly a quarter-century ago, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has decided to stop sharing classified information it collects on the ocean and atmosphere with scientists studying climate change.

The CIA has ended its Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis (MEDEA) program, according to news reported by Mother Jones. Under MEDEA, about 60 civilian scientists had security clearances that allowed them to receive classified data, “such as ocean temperature and tidal readings gathered by Navy submarines and topography data collected by spy satellites,” wrote journalist Tim McDonnell.

The program provided climate experts with information about global warming and other climate-related threats that they couldn’t access from other sources. The CIA uses that data in its analyses on how weather changes will impact global conflicts. It’s believed that the spy agency had heretofore partnered with the MEDEA scientists to perform their analyses, which then made its way into the agency’s annual Worldwide Threat Assessment (pdf) report, according to McDonnell.

President Obama has called climate change “an immediate risk to our national security” and urged U.S national security agencies to give the matter high priority. He also signed an executive order requiring that climate change data be developed and shared among federal agencies, and made available to the public.

The CIA didn’t state why it shuttered MEDEA, saying in a statement: “Under the Medea program to examine the implications of climate change, CIA participated in various projects. These projects have been completed and CIA will employ these research results and engage external experts as it continues to evaluate the national security implications of climate change.”

more

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/cia-ends-information-sharing-with-climate-scientists-150526?news=856581

Bernie Sanders Asks if American Economy is 'Moral'

Every candidate in the 2016 presidential race talks about responding to income inequality and stagnant middle class wages. No one else talks about it like Bernie Sanders.

The self-described socialist senator from Vermont wants to reverse the "massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1 percent." The 90 percent top income tax rates America had during the 1950s might not be too high, he said.

He wants big Wall Street banks broken up. He's willing to accept slower economic growth in return for what he'd consider a more equitable distribution of income.

"The issue we're dealing with is actually the struggle to rebuild American democracy," Sanders said in an interview at a Capitol Hill bistro. "Economically, over the last 40 years, we've seen a middle class in this country disappearing.

more with video

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/bernie-sanders-asks-if-american-economy-moral-n364541

Tuesday Toon Roundup

Vets






Climate



Politics



Immigration




GOP



Ireland



Texas Bikers







Iraq

Slowpoke Toon: "Pro Life"

Russia Plans to Use Prison Labor for 2018 World Cup

Russian authorities want to use prison labor to drive down the costs of holding the 2018 World Cup.

The Russian prison service is backing a bid by Alexander Khinshtein, a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, to allow prisoners to be taken from their camps to work at factories, with a focus on driving down the costs of building materials for World Cup projects.

"It'll help in the sense that there will be the opportunity to acquire building materials for a lower price, lower than there is currently on the market," Khinshtein told The Associated Press. "And apart from that it'll make it possible to get prisoners into work, which is very positive."

Russian prison labor schemes have faced allegations that prisoners are routinely underpaid or forced to work long hours. In 2013, the then-imprisoned Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova went on hunger strike in protest at working conditions in her prison camp.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has been working with Khinshtein to draw up the proposals, said the lawmaker, adding that they will be submitted to parliament soon.

more
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/russia-plans-prison-labor-2018-world-cup-31290140

4th biggest Cable Company to Buy 2nd biggest cable company

Charter Communications Inc. is near an agreement to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for about $55.1 billion in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the matter.

Charter will pay about $195 a share, with $100 in cash and the rest in its own stock, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. The deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow, they said. Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company that Charter is trying to buy, will also be merged into the combined entity, they said.

Charter, the fourth-biggest U.S. cable company, is making its second move on No. 2 Time Warner Cable after its early 2014 bid was rejected and Comcast Corp. swooped in with a competing offer. Charter, whose largest shareholder is billionaire John Malone, got another shot when the Comcast deal fell apart in April because of regulatory scrutiny.

Spokespeople for Charter and Time Warner Cable declined to comment.

The price is 14 percent above Time Warner Cable’s closing price on May 22. Shareholders will have the option to accept as much as $115 a share in cash and less Charter stock, the people said. The deal value of $55.1 billion is for Time Warner’s equity. Charter also will assume debt in the transaction.

more
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-25/charter-said-to-near-deal-for-time-warner-cable-at-195-a-share

Antitrust, anyone?

Utah is winning the war on chronic homelessness with 'Housing First' program

Terry Birch recalls walking cautiously into the tiny one-bedroom apartment seven months ago, like a cat exploring a box, or something wild fearful of a trap.

After two decades on the streets, he finally had a real roof over his head, a home to call his own. It was clean, private and safe, but also scary and confusing.

"I couldn't get used to the four walls. It felt like they were closing in on me," he said, sitting in the living room of unit No. 2 at the

Metro Apartments. "On the streets, I had no responsibility, other than keeping myself clean."

He paused, surveying his surroundings: "And then this."

This is "Housing First," a novel effort by Utah to attack an intractable social ill. The state provides apartments to the chronically homeless and worries about addressing the underlying causes, such as drug abuse, later. By allowing bodies to rest and heal, housing officials say, emotional health will probably follow.

Last month, officials announced that they had reduced by 91% the ranks of the chronically homeless — defined as someone who has spent at least one year full-time on the streets — and are now approaching "functional zero."

More

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-housing-first-20150524-story.html

EU dropped plans for safer pesticides because of TTIP and pressure from US

EU plans to regulate hormone-damaging chemicals found in pesticides have been dropped because of threats from the US that this would adversely affect negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to a report in The Guardian. Draft EU regulations would have banned 31 pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that have been linked to testicular cancer and male infertility.

Just after the official launch of the TTIP negotiations on 13 June 2013, a US business delegation visited EU officials to demand that the proposed regulations governing EDCs should be thrown out in favour of a further "impact study." Minutes of the meeting on June 26 show Commission officials saying that "although they want the TTIP to be successful, they would not like to be seen as lowering the EU standards." Nonetheless, the European Commission capitulated shortly afterwards.

That climbdown was despite repeated promises from the European Commission that TTIP would not jeopardise EU health and safety standards. For example, a Commission factsheet on Pesticides in TTIP from February 2015 states: "TTIP will not lower the food safety standards for pesticides." The Guardian report demonstrates that plans to strengthen regulations governing EDCs were blocked, which is equivalent to a lowering of future standards that would have been introduced had it not been for TTIP.

As well as giving the lie to assurances that health and safety would not be compromised in order to reach an agreement on TTIP, the European Commission's move makes no sense from a purely economic standpoint. The claimed benefit from an "ambitious" TTIP agreement is £100 billion in 2027. According to "the most comprehensive study of the subject yet published," the health costs of EDCs to Europe are between £113 billion and £195 billion (between €160 and €277 billion) every year. Tackling EDCs with more stringent safety rules could potentially provide a far bigger boost to the EU economy than even the most optimistic—and unrealistic—predictions for TTIP. And yet the European Commission decided it was more important to appease the US than save money or protect EU citizens.

more

http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/05/eu-dropped-plans-for-safer-pesticides-because-of-ttip-and-pressure-from-us/

Bob Woodward providing cover for Bush crimes and blame for Obama

The righties are all over this one......

Bob Woodward Shoots Down Story That Bush Lied to Get U.S. in Iraq War, Implies Obama Troop Pullout Was Wrong Move
May. 24, 2015 7:45pm Dave Urbanski

Legendary journalist Bob Woodward shot down the notion that President George W. Bush lied to get America involved in the Iraq War in 2003 — and strongly implied President Obama didn’t make the right call by ordering the U.S. troop pullout.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the Washington Post icon and bestselling author noted that Bush made mistakes leading up to the war — but came down hard on the “line” saying Bush lied.

“I spent 18 months looking at how Bush decided to invade Iraq … lots of mistakes, but it was Bush telling George Tenet the CIA director, ‘Don’t let anyone stretch the case on WMD.’ And he was the one who was skeptical,” Woodward told host Chris Wallace.

More from Woodward:

“And if you try to summarize why we went into Iraq, it was momentum. That war plan kept getting better and easier, and finally at the end people were saying, ‘Hey, look, it’ll only take a week or two.’ And early on it looked like it was going to take a year or 18 months, and so Bush pulled the trigger. A mistake certainly can be argued, and there’s an abundance of evidence. But there was no lie in this that I could find.”

more
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05/24/bob-woodward-shoots-down-story-that-bush-lied-to-get-u-s-in-iraq-war-implies-obama-troop-pullout-was-wrong-move/

(Look, I tried to find a 'legit' left wing source but couldn't. I think the propaganda speaks for itself, though. Maybe we should call him Baghdad Bob Woodward from now on....)