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Exxon's Attorney for AG Probe, Has NFL Concussion Cover-Up and Big Tobacco Roots
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
New TCBH! poem by resident poet Gary Lindorff: 'Riding the elephant'
There is an elephant lying
flat out on the ground,
depressed, wasted.
His life is giving rides.
New TCBH! poem: 'Sucking the bones of bees'
We are
breaking the little bones of earth
(bones of coral, bones of red wolf,
bones of bat and bee,
Documents: How IOGCC Created Loophole Ushering in Frackquakes and Allowing Methane Leakage
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Earthquakes caused by injection of shale oil and gas production wastes — and methane leakage from shale gas pipelines — have proliferated in recent years, with both issues well-studied in the scientific literature and grabbing headlines in newspapers nationwide.
Introducing IOGCC: The Most Powerful Oil and Gas Lobby You’ve Never Heard Of
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) is far from a household name, but a new investigation published by InsideClimate News' Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Lisa Song may have just put what is likely the most powerful oil and gas lobbying node you've never heard of on the map.
Image Credit: Google Maps
Hot time in the old town of Philly in July?: Washington, Alaska and Hawaii Blowout Wins Boost Sanders Nomination Odds
By Dave Lindorff
Hillary Clinton backed the coup: Shine the Light of Truth on Poor Honduras
By John Grant
Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most dangerous places in the world.
Why I won’t be voting for Hillary in November: A Neolib Posing as a Progressive vs. a Reality TV Star Posing as a Fascist
By Dave Lindorff
I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton if she wins the Democratic Party nomination for president, and I won’t heed Bernie Sanders if, as he has vowed to do, he calls on his supporters to “come together” after the convention, should he lose, to support Clinton and prevent Donald Trump or another Republican from becoming president.
Fracking Supply Chain a Climate Disaster, Doing Little to Uplift Poor Communities: Studies
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Two recent studies further call into question the oil and gas industry's claims of the climate benefits and community benefits of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking").
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
New TCBH! poem by resident poet gary Lindorff: 'The Pink Bear'
Wow. I had a dream that went on all night.
There was a pink bear sighting in Alaska.
Then there were pink bear sightings
In South Dakota and Colorado,
All thought to be hoaxes but then
The New York Times published a photo, front page;
It looked real enough.
The article interviewed a hiker
Who reported talking to the Pink Bear.
He said it was standing up.
When asked what the bear said
The hiker said he couldn’t repeat it;
The bear was talking trash.
The hiker said the bear was heading for Washington.
What happened next is hard to believe.
(I mean in my dream it was hard to believe.)
There were signs that great changes are coming:
Mount Shasta was waking up, sending out a plume of ash.
Native Americans warning, This is it.
Scalia, Shmalia: Corporate Front Groups Helped Win Supreme Court Stay of Obama Clean Power Plan
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
"Liquid Freedom": First Company to Export US Crude Oil Now Exporting Iran's Oil
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Army of Lobbyists Push LNG Exports, Methane Hydrates, Coal in Senate Energy Bill
Cros-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Focus: Flint Water Crisis - Feb 4, 2016
Congress grills EPA and Michigan State officials over Flint water - Business Insider
VIDEO: House Oversight Committee's Flint water crisis hearing (full) - YouTube
POLL: Poll finds Snyder approval plummets in Flint water wake (VIDEO) - WLNS
Protesters: 'Arrest Rick Snyder! Make him drink the water!’ (VIDEO) - MLive.com
Water crisis brings Democratic presidential debate to Flint - MLive.com
Emergency management laws and the political coup behind the Flint water crisis - LA Times
Anger in Michigan over appointing emergency managers - The New York Times
Flint whistleblowers who exposed their poisoned water: we’re just getting started - YES! Magazine
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Banana Republic: U.S. Fracking Pioneer Aubrey McClendon Bringing Practice to Argentina
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Aubrey McClendon, the embattled former CEO and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, has announced his entrance into Argentina to begin hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in the country's Vaca Muerta Shale basin.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
'Arktos' -- Latest new poem by ThisCantBeHappening! resident poet Gary Lindorff
The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major,
The Great Bear constellation
That presides over the Arctic.
Ursa shows the way to the North Star
Leaked EPA Document Showing Water Contamination Could Be Smoking Gun in Federal Lawsuit
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A PowerPoint presentation obtained from a source and published by DeSmog in August 2013 has made its way into a major hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") related legal case, which is set to go to trial soon in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
New Book Reveals Koch Brothers Paid Firm Run by Former NYPD Chief to Smear Journalist
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The just-published book "Dark Money," penned by New Yorker staff reporter Jane Mayer, reveals that the Koch Brothers hired the former commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — and his daughter, a former FBI agent — to smear her as a "plagiarist" in the months after the release of her August 2010 bombshell article on the Kochs.
Guess Where Huge Funds for Fighting Climate Change Are Being Wasted
In the United States it's not actually difficult to find significant funding with which to research new and innovative -- not to say bizarre and absurd -- pursuits, as long as they form part of an overall project of mass murder.
The United States has hundreds of programs at universities, think tanks, and research institutes that claim to devote their attention to “security” and “defense” studies. Yet in almost all of these programs that receive many millions of dollars in Federal funding, the vast majority of research, advocacy and instruction have nothing to do with climate change, the most serious threat to security of our age.
Hence the need for this petition to the U.S. Congress: End federal funding for security and defense programs at universities and think tanks that do not take climate change as their primary subject for research and for instruction. All universities, think tanks and research institutes that claim to be concerned with “security” or “defense” research must devote at least 70% of their resources to work on the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change, or lose their eligibility for Federal funding.
This excellent proposal originated with Emanuel Yi Pastreich, Director of The Asia Institute. Other signers, including myself: David Swanson, Director, World Beyond War; John Kiriakou, Associate fellow, Institute for Policy Studies; John Feffer, Director, Foreign Policy in Focus; Norman Solomon, Cofounder, RootsAction.org; Coleen Rowley, Retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division legal counsel.
Why do we think this is important? Why do we plan to deliver the petition to the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the House Armed Services Committee? Here's why:
In an act of profound intellectual irresponsibility, so-called scholars of "security studies" spend their hours imagining fantastic military scenarios, rather than responding to the incontrovertible threat of climate change which scientists have unanimously identified as a reality.
We cannot waste any more of our tax dollars on security and defense studies that fail to address the primary threat to the well-being of the United States, and of the world.
The time has come to put an end to this insanity. We demand that all programs of defense and security studies in the United States identify in their statement of purpose climate change as the primary security threat to the United States and that they dedicate at least 70% of their budgets to research, teaching and advocacy to the critical topics of mitigation of (primarily) and adaptation to (secondarily) climate change.
Any program that fails to focus on climate change in this manner should lose its status for Federal funding.
Mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change should be the primary concerns for all in security and defense field studies. Obviously other security issues deserve study, but granted the fact that the cost of climate change will run in the trillions of dollars over the next decade, and even more beyond then, we do not have the funds to support programs that are not dedicated to addressing this immediate threat.
Emails: US Government Facilitated LNG Business Deals Before Terminals Got Required Federal Permits
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Emails and documents obtained by DeSmog reveal that the U.S. Department of Trade has actively promoted and facilitated business deals for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry and export terminal owners, even before some of the terminals have the federal regulatory agency permits needed to open for business.
Obama's Oily Christmas Gift: Faster Pipeline Approvals
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Just over a week before the U.S. signed the Paris climate agreement at the conclusion of the COP21 United Nations summit, President Barack Obama signed a bill into law with a provision that expedites permitting of oil and gas pipelines in the United States.
Big Oil Argued for U.S. Crude Exports to Fend Off Iran, But First Exporter Vitol Group Also Exported Iran's Oil
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The American Petroleum Institute (API) successfully lobbied for an end to the 40-year ban on exporting U.S.-produced crude oil in part by making a geopolitical argument: Iran and Russia have the ability to export their oil, so why not unleash America?
"Miracle of American Oil": Continental Resources Courted Corporate Media to Sell Oil Exports
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A document published by the Public Relations Society of America, discovered by DeSmog, reveals that from the onset of its public relations campaign, the oil industry courted mainstream media reporters to help it sell the idea of lifting the ban on crude oil exports to the American public and policymakers.
What winter?: No Denying It, Climate Change Is Happening Now
By Dave Lindorff
The leaves came off the last trees -- a crabapple, a willow and a hardy Norway maple -- during the first week of December this year, surely the latest I can remember seeing leaves on trees since we moved to the Philadelphia area 18 years ago. But it’s not just that.
Talk Nation Radio: Chris Williams on How Paris Set the Earth on a Course to Burn
https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-chris-williams-on-how-paris-set-the-earth-on-a-course-to-burn
Chris Williams wrote the book Ecology & Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis. He is a long-time environmental activist with a scientific background and has authored numerous articles on the science and politics of climate change and energy for various media outlets. He's a writer-in-residence at Truthout, and an educator and professor at Pace University in the dept of chemical and physical sciences. He discusses climate change after Paris.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal Lobbying for Bill Preventing Climate Change Accounting in US Trade Deals
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
The day before global leaders and diplomats passed a climate change deal in Paris at the United Nations climate summit, the U.S. House of Representatives — in a 256-158 vote — authorized the final text of a bill that has a provision preventing climate change to be accounted for in all U.S. trade deals going forward.
Federal Court Gives Blessing to Covertly Approved Enbridge Cross-Border Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
A federal court has ruled that the Enbridge Alberta Clipper (Line 67) cross-border tar sands pipeline expansion project, permitted covertly and behind closed doors by the Obama Administration, got its greenlight in a legal manner.
New TCBH! poem: 'Bestiary: The old gang'
Mouse (who never had an evil thought)
Asked penguin (who never raped or pillaged),
Have you seen caterpillar
(that one who never held anyone at gunpoint)?
