REPUBLIC REBORN

Bombing people he isn’t sure are even terrorists.  Or, how to incite terrorism in as many hearts as possible, in the shortest amount of time. Foreign Policy

Antiwar

Doesn’t realize he’s actually signing into law a $0 minimum wage for untold numbers of the most vulnerable Californians, as well as tiny businesses in that state.  The minimum wage is a god-send for gigantic, established business, who can sleep better knowing that their small-business competition just took a big hit.     Zero Hedge

From The American Conservative.  Daniel writes: “War crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are treated as accidents even when they aren’t. Despite the fact that they illegally declared an entire region of the country to be a military target, Saudi claims that they don’t attack civilian targets deliberately are often accepted at face value. Client governments are usually given the benefit of the doubt even when they don’t deserve it.

That still doesn’t explain why there isn’t more outrage about the humanitarian crisis created by the Saudi-led blockade. Considering that Yemen is suffering one of the greatest contemporary man-made humanitarian disasters, how is there not more outrage against the governments responsible for creating that disaster? How is it that it can be greeted with such indifference outside of the country where it’s happening? I offered some possible reasons last week, and I’ll say a little more about it here.”

How much media attention has been given to the Brussels terrorist attack?  Now, how much have you seen any mention of the Saudi war on Yemen in the news?

Arizona police union implies that Daniel Shaver, young father-of-two who was murdered by a cop while pleading for his life, committed a felony and deserved what happened to him.  Meanwhile, the murderer might get a plea deal from the prosecutor that will probably keep him out of jail.  PINAC

Working around the toxic burn pits that were created by the US army in Iraq probably gave John Marshall cancer, as it probably did for thousands of other US soldiers, including VP Joe Biden’s son.  Marshall never received treatment from the VA hospital for his cancer, who ruled it wasn’t related to his service in Iraq.  Fox News

The Guardian has an excellent story on what is tantamount to war crime committed against US soldiers by their own government, by forcing them to work around these toxic burn pits.  From the article:

From the moment the US launched its campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon ordered the use of open-air burn pits to dispose of the wars’ massive volume of waste. The military relied heavily upon these sprawling ditches, which burned around the clock to consume the tens or even hundreds of tons of junk generated daily. By May 2003, according to Hickman, there were more than 250 burn pits at US bases peppered across the two nations.

The Department of Defense has long recognized that burn pits pose a substantial danger, especially to the environment. Waste management guidance in 1978, for instance, said that solid waste should not be burned in an open pit if an alternative is available, like incinerators. But the department charged ahead anyway and hired contractors like Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) to manage the pits. And up until 2009, the military didn’t have comprehensive standards in place governing what could or could not be burned. Centcom and the Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment regarding the standards or lack thereof.

“I’ll never forget the smell of burning shit,” said Marcus Hill, a retired US army sergeant who served in Balad between 2004 and 2007. But that was the least of his concerns. Among the other hazardous items service members recall being burned are: petroleum, oil, rubber, tires, plastic, styrofoam, batteries, appliances, electrical equipment, pesticides, aerosol cans, oil, explosives, casings, medical waste and animal and human carcasses. They also used jet fuel to stoke the fire.

These materials converged in a toxic plume that hovered over the base, and seeped into soldiers’ sleeping and working quarters, which were often a mile or less away. “Sometimes the smoke was so dense that you could breath it in and back out again, kind of like smoking a cigar,” said Hill. But for Hill and many others, the hazy cocktail didn’t initially register as a threat. “After being blown up a couple of times, you didn’t complain about stuff like that. It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “It was part of our mission and we were told not to worry about it.”

Will it ever end?  Who’s going to take the fall?  Did any foreign governments intercept her email?  What of the 30,000 emails she deleted? The Hill

The email “scandal”, however, is nothing compared to her destruction of Libya.

Purportedly to open up “emergency communications” between the two.  What the deal will mean in practice, however, probably won’t be good for privacy from a snooping bureaucracy. Activist Post

Daily Beast.  Hard to feel sorry for a maniac with a gun, and easy to side with the cops in this instance, but next time it might not be a gunman.  Disregard for human life is displayed by certain cops all the time, it’s not something society should ever tolerate.

Or dancing, or giving shoes to a homeless man, helping an old lady across the road, etc.  It’s nice, but a total PR stunt.  The latest is a video of members of the embattled Albuqurque PD playing basketball with some kids.  Charming, except for the loaded guns flopping around on their already-crowded utility belts. CopBlock