Skip to content
Images of the Day:
More than three years after President Barack Obama pledged to be transparent about the United States’ lethal drone program, his administration has finally come forward with an accounting of the numbers of civilian deaths that resulted from drone strikes between Jan. 20, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2015. But they only cover airstrikes “outside areas of active hostilities,” which encompasses Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are not included in the report. As expected, the administration’s numbers are significantly lower than tallies documented by leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, New America and The Long War Journal. Obama’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) sets the figure of “noncombatant deaths” at between 64 and 116. The NGOs , however, estimate between 200 and 1,000 civilian deaths occurred as a result of U.S. drone strikes in the areas, and during the time periods, covered by the DNI report. — Numbers in Obama’s Drone Deaths Report Just Don’t Add Up
Videos of the Day:
U.S.
Environment:
Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters:
An Accident Ready to Happen: The Crumbling Nuclear Power Infrastructure
In the March 26, 2002, issue of the New York Times in an article titled “U.S. Orders Checks for Corrosion at Nuclear Reactors,” by Matthew I. Wald, states that:
Nuclear reactor operators have been ordered to check their reactor vessels after the discovery that acid in cooling water had eaten a hole nearly all the way through the six-inch-thick lid of a reactor at a plant in Ohio. The corrosion left only a stainless-steel liner less than a half-inch thick to hold in cooling water under more than 2,200 pounds of pressure per square inch.” At the 25-year-old Ohio plant, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, the stainless steel was bent by the pressure and would have broken if corrosion had continued, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where officials were surprised by the discovery. They said they had never seen so much corrosion in a reactor vessel. The commission, which has warned plants for years to watch for any corrosion, has ordered all 68 other plants of similar design—pressurized-water reactors—to check their lids. The commission is particularly worried about a dozen of the oldest plants and ordered them to report by early April whether they were safe enough to keep in service. The commission told these plants to demonstrate that technicians there would have noticed such corrosion in their normal inspections, had it occurred. If the liner had given way in the Ohio reactor, experts say, there would have been an immediate release of thousands of gallons of slightly radioactive and extremely hot water inside the reactor’s containment building. [Possibly leading to a meltdown] … It could be something unique to Davis-Besse,” said Alexander Marion, director of engineering at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s trade association. A goal for the investigation at the plant, he said, would be to find out not only why the corrosion occurred but also why it was not noticed sooner. ‘The plants are getting older and we’re starting to see these kinds of problems,’ Mr. Marion said. (Most of these plants are still running and have gotten 14 years older!)
Hillary Clinton’s Emails and the Crisis of Legitimacy: The Hillary Clintons of the country may feel safe from prosecution, but the system that protects them has entered a deep crisis of legitimacy. U.S. criminal penalties are the harshest in the industrialized world, yet the rich and their servants enjoy infinite impunity. Clinton personifies the rot at the top of society, and the lies that are told to the bottom. A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Freedom Rider: Republicans Reject Trump: For all intents and purposes, the establishment GOP has dumped Donald Trump and joined Hillary Clinton’s corporate presidential campaign. Trump “shows all the signs of being headed for defeat,” but the Democrats hope to pile up huge majorities by pretending that he’s a threat. Anti-Trump hysteria gives Bernie Sanders cover to “sheep dog” his supporters to Clinton. The only sane choice is to reject both corporate parties. by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley 
The Obama Legacy Part 2: Economic Policy Wall Street Could Count On: Barack Obama has been Wall Street’s ace in the hole his entire presidency. He waged war against Social Security, food stamps and other entitlements and doggedly pursued a “Grand Bargain” with Republicans. Bankers, his main constituency, “were given a get out of jail free card” – plus trillions of dollars in free or dirt cheap money. “Barack Obama was the most effective evil finance capitalism could buy.” by Danny Haiphong
Treble Army – Amierdaca by Sese
Whitewashing Libya: House Report on Benghazi Reveals Nothing, Hides Everything: Republicans in the House “investigated” Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the Benghazi attacks for years, but ignored “the connection between the CIA facility and mission in Benghazi and the smuggling of arms and fighters from Libya to Syria.” The real crime is that “the US harnesses terrorism, using it as one of the most potent weapons it has against nations that refuse to submit to the will of Washington and Wall Street.”by Eric Draitser
On The Fourth of July, Thank the Most Important Founding Father: Haiti’s Jean-Jacques Dessalines: The United States owes a large portion of its continental size to Haitian freedom fighters that defeated Napoleon’s army at the turn of the 19th century. Had the Haitian’s not succeeded in liberating their island from the French, Napoleon’s New Orleans-based forces might have reconquered Britain’s former colonies on the eastern seaboard. The Louisiana Territories were, in a sense, purchased with Haitian blood. by Pascal Robert 
Labor:
World:
Equal ‘Justice Under the Law’ Exposed
Quotes of the Day:
Figures Don’t Lie But Liars Can ‘Figure’ Department: Numbers in Obama’s Drone Deaths Report Just Don’t Add Up By Marjorie Cohn
FBI Is Telling Florida Agencies That Responded to Orlando Attack to Deny Public Records Requests By Leah Barkoukis
Hillary Clinton’s Wanton Disregard for US Laws and National Security: There is a new poster child for the U.S. government’s double standard in dealing with violations of public policy and public trust—former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who will receive no punishment for her wanton disregard of U.S. laws and national ecurity. Clinton merely received a blistering rebuke from FBI director James Comey, who charged her with “extremely careless” by Mel Goodman
Black Liberation/Civil Rights: 
Economy: 
Get Ready for JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to Get Yanked from the Dow By Pam Martens and Russ Martens 
Health, Education, and Welfare: