Stephan: This will be the last SR until the 2nd of September. As longtime readers know I have been publishing SR seven days a week, 365 days a year since 1991, and have filed editions from a caravansary in Pakistan; underneath Red Square in Moscow; from underneath a tarpaulin in an open boat bobbing in Canadian waters off shore from a wifi hotspot on a remote island; leaning against a dumpster in the middle of a Native American reservation in a forest to name a few spots that come to mind as I write this. Except for rare occasions when something is wrong with the net where I am, SR publishes.
The one exception to this is when I am invited to crew on the Alisaz, a lovely 65-foot boat that cruises in Northern Canadian and Alaskan waters, when I have no access to the internet. Tomorrow I am flying to Ketchikan, Alaska to join Alisaz moored at the dock there, so I wish everyone a wonderful two weeks while I am gone. SR will resume when I return on the 2nd September.
-- Stephan
Stephan: Yesterday I ran a story on what is happening, almost without media coverage, in Puerto Rico. In today's email I received the URL for this story from a businessman in San Juan. As usual it is a story of moral depravity, political corruption, greed, and just plain nastiness.
A protester holds a sign that reads in Spanish, “We didn’t take out a loan. We didn’t see a dime. We’re not going to pay” during a protest in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 15, 2015.
ATHENS, GREECE — Despite only making headlines in recent months, the economic crisis in Puerto Rico has been developing and worsening for the past several years, a crisis which has led to Puerto Rico being dubbed “the Greece of the Caribbean.”
In this interview, Déborah Berman-Santana, professor emeritus of geography and ethnic studies at Mills College in Oakland, California, analyzes the latest developments in Puerto Rico.
Berman-Santana is the author of “Kicking Off The Bootstraps: Environment, Development, and Community Power in Puerto Rico,” a detailed analysis of “Operation Bootstrap,” a post-World War II industrial program launched by the United States […]
Joe Romm, PhD, Foiunding Editor of Climate Progress -
Stephan: I'll just let this story speak for itself.
Credit: The New Indian Express
Nuclear power advocates are trying a new line of attack on solar and wind energy — it’s too darn cheap!
In the real world, however, the unexpectedly rapid drop in the price of cleantech, especially renewable power and batteries, is a doubly miraculous game-changer that is already cutting greenhouse gas emissions globally and dramatically increasing the chances we can avoid catastrophic climate change.
As I detailed on Monday, the New York Times in particular keeps running slanted articles talking up nuclear and talking down renewables — articles that totally miss the forest for the trees. That culminated in a truly absurd piece last week, “How Renewable Energy Is Blowing Climate Change Efforts Off Course,” which is the exact opposite of reality, as Goldman Sachs has detailed in its recent reports on “The Low Carbon Economy.”
Matt Zapotosky and Chico Harlan, Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here is some excellent news about the American Gulag. Anyone with an IQ above their shoe size should have been able to predict that when you run prisons for profit all manner of nasty things are sure to follow. That no one seems to have been able to do that is a story in itself, but they didn't. Now though the outcome data is so appalling that it is clear private for-profit prisons are a bad idea, and the DOJ has done the right thing. Here is the story.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates instructed Justice Department officials Thursday to end its use of private prisons. Credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP
The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government. (emphasis added)
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”
“They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates […]
Stephan: Yesterday I ran a story about Civil Forfeiture, a creature of the War of Drugs, and the corruption of police departments that inevitably results. Well, today I have some good news on this subject, and once again California leads the way.
The ACLU of California is reporting that a bill to limit the power of police to seize personal property and keep it forever and ever, has been approved in the State Assembly and is now headed to the Senate. Senate Bill 443, first introduced in 2015 by State Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), provides individuals with stronger property rights protections by requiring a conviction in most state civil asset forfeiture cases. That’s right … due to a “loophole,” the cops can seize your “stuff” even though you may not have been charged with or convicted of a crime. A press release from the organization states:
“Today’s vote is a tremendous victory for fairness and justice,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Director for the ACLU of California. “For years, the scales of justice were tipped in favor of profits and against the fundamental rights of countless Californians who were unfairly deprived of their life savings and property through civil forfeiture laws. Today, the Legislature got it right.”
Current state and federal civil asset forfeiture laws give the government permission to seize personal property, allowing law […]
The ACLU of California is reporting that a bill to limit the power of police to seize personal property and keep it forever and ever, has been approved in the State Assembly and is now headed to the Senate. Senate Bill 443, first introduced in 2015 by State Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), provides individuals with stronger property rights protections by requiring a conviction in most state civil asset forfeiture cases. That’s right … due to a “loophole,” the cops can seize your “stuff” even though you may not have been charged with or convicted of a crime. 
