Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Would you eat genetically modified food if you understood the science behind it?

While genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are considered safe by an overwhelming majority of scientists, only about one third of consumers share that view. A team of psychologists and biologists set out to discover if consumers' attitudes would change if the public understood the underlying science better. The short answer is 'yes.'

Using physics to print living tissue

Bioprinting is a relatively new technology that has advanced mostly by trial and error. Scientists are now using the laws of physics and predictive computer modeling to improve these techniques and optimize the bioprinting process.

Patagonia ice sheets thicker than previously thought

A new study of Patagonia's ice fields finds that many glaciers in the region are much thicker than previously thought.

Latest data shows steep rises in #CO2 for seventh year | #Environment | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/04/latest-data-shows-steep-rises-in-co2-for-seventh-year

#CarbonDioxide #GreenhouseGases

Why Nancy Pelosi Needs to Sue the Trump Administration Over the Yemen War

In four years, the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen has killed over 70,000 people and starved at least 85,000 children to death. The U.S. military involvement in the war was launched by President Barack Obama and continued by President Donald Trump without congressional approval. “It remains the case that neither President Obama nor President Trump has actually gained the consent of Congress within 60 days of engaging in hostilities,” Bruce Ackerman, constitutional law scholar and professor at Yale Law School, told In These Times, arguing this is “illegal under the War Powers Resolution.”

After years of war, a small group of lawmakers in the House and Senate finally succeeded in pressuring Congress to reassert its constitutional powers by passing a bipartisan bill that calls on the president to end the U.S. war in Yemen. Yet this historic milestone was vetoed by Trump in April, and now peace activists are regrouping and working toward next steps for ending the war, insisting the struggle is far from over. They are calling on Congress—specifically, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—to act. According to Jehan Hakim, founder of the Yemeni Alliance Committee, which formed in the aftermath of Trump's first Muslim ban, Congress must make it clear "that the President does not have the authority to wage never-ending wars.”

An Uphill Battle

The War Powers bill overcame its final hurdle when it passed in the House on April 4 following a previous win in the Senate. It invoked a federal law called the War Powers Act of 1973, which allows Congress—not the President—to wage war on another country. 

This law was first invoked in September 2017 in the House by newcomer Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) but was quickly stripped of its privileged status and replaced by a watered-down, non-binding version. At the time, Khanna tweeted, “They would have killed it completely had we not compromised.” Khanna assembled a bipartisan coalition consisting of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), and the late Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who worked together despite numerous setbacks to finally pass the bill by April, not long after Rep. Jones’ passing.

The War Powers Act was also invoked in February 2018 in the Senate by a bipartisan coalition consisting of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the latter of whom began calling for an end to the U.S. intervention in Yemen months after the war began under Obama’s leadership. At first, the Act did not fare much better in the Senate and was tabled shortly after its introduction in March 2018. When both the House and Senate eventually overcame numerous hurdles and passed the legislation in both chambers, it signified the first time Congress passed a War Powers bill since it became federal law nearly fifty years ago.

After this historic moment, Trump had the opportunity to end the U.S. government’s brutal and senseless war in Yemen. Instead, he vetoed the bill on April 16, ensuring that the U.S. would continue to provide intelligence, training, logistical support and other forms of military support to the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition. This veto—which is the second of his presidency—sent the bill back to the Senate for an override attempt, where it failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed for an override.

Essentially, both Obama and Trump were in violation of a federal law, and when Congress finally passed a bill to reinstate its authority over the president’s violation of this law, the president vetoed its decision. If Congress is unable to reassert its authority over war—a right granted by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution—what measures are there to protect both the Constitution from the president and Yemeni civilians whose lives are disrupted or cut short by his senseless war?

Next Steps

Hassan El-Tayyab, co-director of Just Foreign Policy, an anti-war advocacy organization, told In These Times, “The War Powers fight to us is not over.” He and anti-war groups and activists are now pursuing the option to directly challenge the legality of Trump’s veto by urging House leadership and Speaker Pelosi to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration. Should the case be heard by the Supreme Court, it would be a “moment of truth for [Supreme Court] originalists,” says El-Tayyab. As both Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are proponents of originalism in their interpretation of the Constitution, El-Tayyab explains, their position will be tested by a lawsuit challenging Trump’s veto on the basis that it violates the Constitution.

There is precedent to limiting presidential powers, Ackerman explains, as was the case in the Steel Seizure case of 1952 in which the Supreme Court prevented President Truman from carrying out his executive order to seize the country’s steel mills to avert a nationwide strike. The authority of the Supreme Court to be the “ultimate defenders of checks and balances,” says El-Tayyab, "is critical for defending the Constitution and the people of Yemen.'

The Steel Seizure case has been “reaffirmed by [Justice] Roberts himself and the Court as recently as 2015,” explains Ackerman. He notes that, “the entire purpose of the [War Powers] Act was to move the assertions of presidential war power…and to reaffirm the foundational character of the Steel Seizure case.” Thus, should the Court reject the actual merits of a case brought upon by Speaker Pelosi against Trump’s veto, Ackerman argues, it would “be a real turning away from the Court’s fundamental responsibility to serve as the ultimate safeguard of the constitutional system.”

Hakim has been working alongside El-Tayyab and Just Foreign Policy to draft a letter to Speaker Pelosi urging her to challenge the legality of Trump’s veto. “Her constituents and our communities are counting on [Pelosi] to make the war in Yemen a foreign policy priority,” says Hakim.

The call for Pelosi to challenge Trump’s veto through a lawsuit is also gaining momentum in the legal community. Bruce Ackerman and several other legal experts recently sent Pelosi a letter urging her to serve as a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Trump’s veto of the War Powers bill. As House majority leader, Pelosi has the strongest legal standing to contest Trump’s veto by acting as lead plaintiff in a potential lawsuit against Trump. “The reason why Pelosi is central to move forward,” Ackerman explains, “is that if the court denies her the ‘People’s House’ standing to vindicate its expressed authority under Article 1 of the Constitution…the court would be legitimating precisely the kind of actions that King George III engaged in.” That is, this lawsuit would be defending a “core foundational principle of the American Revolution” that prevents the president from exercising “the war making power of King George III,” Ackerman adds.

In addition to bringing forth a lawsuit against Trump’s veto of Congress’ bill to end the war U.S.’ role in the Yemen war, some advocacy groups are also seeking to defund the war through the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. This effort seeks to prevent intelligence sharing, logistics and other forms of direct U.S. support while also suspending all weapon sales to the Saudi-led coalition.

In a yet-unpublished letter urging Congress to suspend military aid to the Saudi-UAE Coalition, organizations such as Just Foreign Policy, Win Without War, the Yemeni Alliance Committee and others are calling on Congress to “suspend the transfer, sale, and authorization for license for export of defense articles likely to be used in the war in Yemen” and “expressly prohibit any further U.S. assistance or support for Yemen-related intelligence sharing and logistics support activities to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.” Given the extent of the U.S. support for the Saudi and UAE coalition—which may amount to war crimes—the defense bill could be a critical and more comprehensive step to ending atrocities committed against the people of Yemen.

While these efforts are of immediate importance, Hakim also emphasizes the need for focusing on “political education” as well as community-building and raising awareness about the still “forgotten war” in Yemen. “It is when we march alone that our voices are muffled,” says Hakim. "Through unity and as a collective, we gain more power.”

Red and white meats are equally bad for cholesterol

Contrary to popular belief, consuming red meat and white meat such as poultry, have equal effects on blood cholesterol levels, according to a new study.

New process to rinse heavy metals from soils

Poisonous heavy metals contaminating thousands of sites nationwide threaten to enter the food chain, and there's been no easy way to remove them. An experimental chemical bath and electrochemical filter could now extract heavy metals from the soil and leave fields safe.

The World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm Just Came Online
https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm-just-came-online-1835215479 #climatechange #climatecrisis

The Song Remains the Same

Mueller finally speaks – and nobody’s tune changes.

Coffee not as bad for heart and circulatory system as previously thought

A new study shows that drinking coffee isn't as bad for our arteries as some previous studies would suggest. The research has shown that drinking coffee, including in people who drink up to 25 cups a day, is not associated with having stiffer arteries.

The end of the world will be a non-event https://prismo.xyz/posts/f97f15e1-a17a-47d7-a43b-e12efbdb518c

Chinese students and workers are uniting again, 30 years after Tiananmen Square crackdown https://prismo.xyz/posts/b47e2ac4-c857-4c41-8c72-496e8e2e1aac

Water filters, efficient cookstoves improve health in vulnerable Rwandan populations

A large-scale program to deliver water filters and portable biomass-burning cookstoves to Rwandan homes reduced the prevalence of reported diarrhea and acute respiratory infection in children under 5 years old by 29% and 25%, respectively. The results suggest that programmatic delivery of household water filters and improved cookstoves can provide a scalable interim solution for rural populations that lack access to safe drinking water and rely on traditional fires for cooking.

Slowdown in Earth's temps stabilized nature's calendar

When the rate of the Earth's air temperature slows down for a significant amount of time, so can phenology.

Physicists can predict the jumps of Schrödinger's cat (and finally save it)

Researchers have figured out how to catch and save Schrödinger's famous cat, the symbol of quantum superposition and unpredictability, by anticipating its jumps and acting in real time to save it from proverbial doom.

Sponges collect penguin, seal, and fish DNA from the water they filter

Scientists report that sponges, which can filter 10,000 liters of water daily, catch DNA in their tissues as they filter-feed. This proof-of-concept study identified fish, seal, and penguin DNA in sponges from the Antarctic and Mediterranean, demonstrating that sponges can be used to monitor biodiversity.

Edible insects? Lab-grown meat? The real future food is lab-grown insect meat

Livestock farming is destroying our planet. It is a major cause of land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration, deforestation -- and of course, climate change. Plant-based diets, insect farming, lab-grown meat and genetically modified animals have all been proposed as potential solutions. Which is best? All of these combined, say researchers.

Bid to beat superbugs boosted by immune defense discovery

The fight against superbugs could be helped by the discovery of a potential therapy based on the body's natural immune defenses.

The DNC’s New Finance Chair Embodies Everything the Left Hates About the Democratic Establishment

On May 5, Chris Korge was chosen to replace Henry Muñoz as the new finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Recent news reports have described Korge as a “Miami attorney” and a “top fundraiser.” Other titles Korge has carried have included “big-time lobbyist,” “retail czar” and “king of the airport lobbyists.”

Korge’s appointment has already sparked a small controversy, after a donation to Kamala Harris’ campaign and some old tweets of his that were critical of Bernie Sanders—including one claiming that the "only Bern the middle class will feel from Bernie is the pain from all the tax increases"—sparked concerns his presence in the DNC would augur a repeat of 2016 when the DNC was accused of harboring an anti-Sanders bias.

But there are other reasons Korge’s appointment may inspire concern from progressives. At a time when the DNC is attempting to shed a reputation of backing conservative candidates, engaging in pay-to-play politics and being subject to corporate influence, its new finance chairman embodies these trends.

Korge’s political influence and connections were forged through more than a decade of influence peddling in Miami-Dade County that virtually melded his political work with his and the city’s business. And while he’s not a lobbyist anymore, Korge remains a prominent businessman in the state whose fortunes depend partly on the favor of local elected officials.

Since the 1990s, Korge has been a leading fundraiser and something of a Democratic kingmaker in Florida—a crucial state for the party. Korge has used his corporate connections and fundraising power to both promote candidates and gain the ears of successive presidents. For much of that time, Korge also served as a lobbyist, using those same connections to secure lucrative deals for his clients.

Throughout much of his career, Korge's rise and influence has often been linked to the political success of Alex Penelas, a Cuban-American councilman for the Florida city of Hialeah who served as the mayor of Miami-Dade County from 1996 to 2004. (Penelas, now a lobbyist, is running for mayor again in 2020.)

Penelas is remembered today largely for the numerous allegations of corruption that dogged his time as mayor and diminished public trust in the county government, many of which centered around his relationship to Korge. Before that, Korge was one of several lobbyists who moonlit as Penelas' top fundraisers for his successful 1990 bid for county commissioner. During that campaign, Penelas pummeled his opponent for having ties to lobbyists.

Korge’s connection to Penelas quickly became a point of controversy. During a December 1991 debate among commissioners over how to dole out an extra $48 million of tax money, Penelas was accused by fellow commissioner Joe Gersten of doing Korge’s bidding when he pushed to bestow an added $350,000 a year to the Miami Arena. At the time, Korge was one of three registered lobbyists for arena managers. “If you don’t like Chris Korge, say it, for God’s sake!” Penelas shouted, according to reports. “I think the issue is, you do like Chris Korge,” Gersten replied.

In the following years, Korge lobbied for several clients working against the interests of city government and the people it represented. Korge was one of the go-to lobbyists for a number of companies that wanted to delay impending new safety standards for hurricane shutters in April 1994.

In 1995 he helped local golfing legend Charlie DeLucca secure what was described as a “sweetheart deal” and “giveaway.” The deal saw the city spend nearly $4 million to renovate the Melreese Golf Course, before handing over a 30-year lease to private developers who would pay $275,000 a year in rent, while the city paid $300,000 a year to pay for improvements. Under the deal, the city would only start making a profit off of the course after 17 years. The same year, he acted as part of, in the words of the MiamiHerald, a “Dream Team of Dade lobbyists,” working to privatize the county’s water and sewer department to the chagrin of unions and the department's employees.

“The secret to becoming influential is the willingness to support something you believe in,” Korge later said. “A lot of times, people don't want to take the chance of being on someone's side.”

By the mid-1990s, Korge had acquired a reputation as one of the most politically powerful people not just in the county, but all of South Florida. Through high-priced events that brought donors together with local and other Democratic officials, Korge quickly became one of the DNC’s major fundraisers. Then-president Bill Clinton stopped by for dinner at Korge’s Pinecrest home in 1997, and Korge even stayed the night at the White House.

“There are probably a dozen dealmakers in this town, then there are 30 or 40 wannabes,” Maurice Ferre, the former mayor of Miami, later said. “The king of them all is Chris Korge.”

Korge worked to maintain his influence. Though publicly expressing ambivalence toward lobbying (“Not very much,” he replied when asked in 1998 if he liked being a lobbyist), he joined a lobbyist-led effort in 1998 to derail proposed lobbying reforms, including lobbyist disclosure requirements for companies wanting to do business with the county, which would have brought a measure of transparency to the influence peddling endemic to the county government. He later spoke out against a proposal to make County Hall lobbyists disclose how much their clients were paying them.

By this time, Korge’s relationship with Penelas—for whose successful mayoral campaign Korge had raised $2.4 million—came increasingly under scrutiny. A sworn deposition by a Penelas aide in a 1998 civil suit against the county revealed the degree to which business interests held sway in his office. The aide testified that Penelas regularly sought advice from an informal circle of friends, family, businesspeople and fundraisers, including Korge.

After former county manager Armando Vidal was fired by Penelas in 1998 over charges of corruption, Vidal claimed he had been pressured to approve a no-bid contract for gift stores and newsstands at Miami International Airport (MIA) for Sirgany/Century. Sirgany had several connections to the mayor's office, including Korge, who had not only worked in the company’s warehouse in his teens, but now counted it as a client.

The lucrative Sirgany contract—which gave the company control of 19 newsstands at MIA, or more than half of its available retail space, for another five years—became a consistent source of scandal for Penelas. A series of investigations by the Miami Herald in 1999 revealed the extent to which political cronyism dominated at MIA, centering around Korge, whom the paper described as “the airport’s unofficial retail czar.”

Korge, it turned out, counted as clients all four major concession operators at MIA, who controlled approximately 90 percent of food and shopping space at the airport, a stranglehold they’d held since 1992. When MIA had put newsstands out for bid that year, Sirgany had twice lost out in evaluations by airport staff. The Miami-Dade County Commission overruled them, with Penelas, then a commissioner, pushing for an immediate vote that ended with Sirgany scoring a 10-year deal. According to the Herald, Penelas went against staff recommendations three times to support Korge’s clients’ MIA bids.

Once Penelas won his election, Korge was known to drop references to the new mayor’s office and what it was supposedly comfortable with while pushing his clients' interests, unwittingly backed up by Penelas. “I've heard that many times, and I have expressed my displeasure on many, many occasions,” he told the Herald. Many of the deals held by Korge’s clients saw no other bidders, and one consultant for Disney complained he had spent three years trying to make inroads into the airport before giving up, concluding “that fighting Chris Korge was not worthwhile.”

Further Herald investigations in the 2000s turned the matter into yet another headache for Penelas. Dade Aviation Consultants (DAC), a Korge client that Penelas had convinced the Commission to grant a $15 million-a-year contract to in exchange for overseeing the MIA’s expansion, was found to have paid $1.3 million worth of fees to Korge and other lobbyists whom it kept on retainer. This $1.3 million was essentially public money, since DAC got its revenue from not just the contract, but landing fees paid by airlines.

DAC was being habitually shaken down by Penelas, Korge and other officials and lobbyists to pitch in money for campaigns and other causes. At one point, Penelas and Korge requested that DAC give $50,000 to the DNC. A report by the county’s Office of the Inspector General that reviewed DAC’s performance over 10 years of its contract found not only that the company had no method to record and measure its work, but that $2.9 million could have been saved every year by simply having airport staff do the same work.

The issue flared up again in 2002, when the Herald uncovered that Host Marriott Services Corp (HMSC), a Korge client that had secured a 10-year concessions contract at MIA on the condition that it operated with minority partners, had been paying those partners tens of thousands of dollars a month to pretend they were running eight restaurants. In fact, HMSC was operating all the concessions, while those involved produced records and reports falsely claiming millions of dollars worth of sales. The partners in turn kicked 10 percent of the monthly sum from HMSC to Korge, who had organized the arrangement.

“In the voluminous annals of airport sleaze, the Host Marriott deal will go down as a classic,” wrote the Herald’s Carl Hiaasen.

The case sparked a years-long joint corruption probe by the Miami-Dade Police, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that resulted in no indictments. Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez pulled his detectives off the case in November 2003 even as he said it was “clear-cut” that laws had been broken, charging that the U.S. Attorney was hesitant to bring charges in a case involving so many powerful political players. The case may well have helped torpedo Penelas’ bid for Senate in 2004, however, which Korge, as one of Penelas’ closest political confidantes, was involved in.

This kind of influence peddling wasn’t limited to the MIA either, as Korge’s clients appeared to miraculously beat the competition in other areas of city business. In 1999, when the Commission had to decide between a $19 million bid from BellSouth to provide pay telephone services in county facilities and a $50 million offer from AT&T, the Commission chose BellSouth, Korge’s client, even though it meant far less money for the county (BellSouth later donated generously to the Gore campaign). In 2001, the Commission rejected appeals for new bids on a government transit program, with disabled residents who relied on the service complaining the operator at the time, Korge’s client, Advanced Transportation Solutions, provided a dreadful service that regularly arrived hours late, even just to ride a few miles.

Korge’s rising political fortunes were stalled by Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000. He chose to consolidate his influence within the Democratic Party, having spent the preceding years raising millions of dollars for both the DNC and the Gore campaign, while further ingratiating himself to the Clintons. Besides staying the night at the White House, Korge hosted then-President Bill Clinton for a viewing of the first presidential debate between Bush and Gore, and he turned his fundraising prowess to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign.

Korge used his influence in Democratic politics, and within Florida in particular, to support and recruit centrist to conservative candidates. In 2001, he convinced former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson, a former fighter pilot and POW with a centrist record in Congress, to run against Jeb Bush for governor, before Peterson bowed out a few months later, citing the “war on terror.” In 2006, he backed Rod Smith in the Democratic primary for governor of Florida, who received an A rating from the NRA and had co-sponsored “stand your ground” legislation, and was opposed by environmentalists for his closeness to agribusiness.

“I told him, ‘Listen, You're wasting your time,’” Korge told the Orlando Sentinel in 2006 about meeting Smith. “But by the time he left, not only was I giving him checks and getting involved, but I was convinced that he could win the general election.”

Another figure on the receiving end of Korge’s generosity was a young Marco Rubio, who received $500 from Korge in 1999 for his campaign for state representative in the 111th district. Korge did not donate to Rubio’s Democratic opponent, Anastasia Garcia.

In 2008, Korge served as a key figure in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, at one point raising $1 million for her in a single night. When she lost the primary, Korge became a top bundler for Barack Obama, a position he was disappointed to find came with less access than that of his relationship with the Clintons.

“I’ve had almost no communication with the White House,” he complained to the Washington Post in 2009 after raising $5.5 million for the Obama campaign.

Korge raised funds for Obama again in 2012, and most recently was involved in Andrew Gillum’s unsuccessful bid for governor in 2018. As late as March 2019, Korge and a handful of other top Democratic donors were waiting for former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who Korge has known for more than three decades, to enter the 2020 presidential contest. Like Korge, McAuliffe was a former lobbyist and major Democratic fundraiser who’s had his own brush with the law and has represented some unseemly clients. McAuliffe has praised Korge’s selection as DNC finance chair.

Despite leaving behind the lobbying game more than a decade ago, Korge has maintained a link to his past. Besides working as an attorney and real estate developer, Korge is the chairman of NewsLink, an airport concession business formed in 2004 that operates in several different airports in Florida and the Northeast, including MIA. When MIA executives urged the commission to finally open new bids for shops and restaurants in 2012, NewsLink fiercely opposed the move, with its president and CEO declaring that “this is not the time to go to public solicitation.” Ironically, Korge and NewsLink complained years later when businesses with government connections received no-bid contracts with the MIA.

In 2017, Korge, arguing that construction and train delays at MIA had led to lost revenue for NewsLink, requested a lease extension and a kiosk as compensation, a request denied by the airport. Korge did what he had always done: he took his request to the mayor’s office instead. In an earlier time, when Penelas was mayor and Korge was king of county lobbyists, it may well have been fast-tracked and approved. This time, Korge had to wait in line like everyone else.

The following year, Korge opposed county legislation that would have forced concession operators to pay a “living wage” of up to $15 an hour, despite NewsLink generating $55 million of revenue in 2016. “We couldn't pay a living wage,” he told the Miami Herald.

While Korge hasn’t been a lobbyist for some time, the appointment of someone with his history to the DNC may well rub up against the organization’s attempt to rebrand in the wake of 2016, when it faced accusations of pay-to-play and was criticized for blurring the line between public service and private enrichment.

Perhaps none of this will ultimately matter to the party’s base and voters in general as long as Korge keeps the money flowing. The real test will come in August, when the DNC votes on whether or not to keep Korge on as finance chair.

The Mizzerables (Punk, IL) Stream Single “Gravity” From Forthcoming Album, “Whatever… This Sucks”

Chicago-based punk quartet The Mizzerables are allowing fans to stream their latest single. The effort is called “Gravity” and it is due to appear on the band’s newest album. Whatever… This Sucks will be the group’s first collection of new music since their 2017 EP, No Sleeves. It will be released at a currently undisclosed date this summer. […]

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