Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues-rock harmonica player and singer Paul Butterfield. Enjoy!

"History is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires."

-- Thomas Babington Macaulay

News and Opinion

US military says it may have killed more civilians in latest airstrike in Syria

Another airstrike around the city on Manbij, scene of the worst civilian casualty incident in the campaign against Isis, may have killed several dozen people

A day after announcing a formal inquiry into what watchdogs call the United States’ worst civilian casualty incident in its war against the Islamic State militant group, the US military said that more civilians may have been killed in another airstrike around the same Syrian city.

Manbij, the scene of intense fighting for over two months between Isis and US-backed militant groups, has now experienced another airstrike that “may have resulted in civilian casualties”, the US Central Command (Centcom) disclosed late on Thursday.

“We can confirm the coalition conducted airstrikes in the area in the last 24 hours,” Centcom said in a statement. ...

US military officials have said they expect the battle for Manbij to drag on, as Isis has dug into a position both sides consider a critical buffer between US-backed forces and the Isis capital of Raqqa. Manbij has strategic value for another reason: it provides a pathway for Isis to exfiltrate fighters through Turkey to the outside world.

Centcom Report Claims Only 14 Civilians Killed in US Strikes Over Past Year

Centcom’s latest undercount of the number of civilians killed in US airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria was released today, claiming only 14 civilians killed between July of 2015 and the end of April, bringing the official “overall” toll to 55 killed in the entire war.

Centcom’s toll included three civilians killed in the April 5 airstrike against a “financial storage facility,” part of an effort at the time to blow up any physical currency inside ISIS territory that appears to have been abandoned almost immediately thereafter, and four killed later that month in Mosul is an attempt to kill “an ISIS leader.” ...

Perhaps the most damning aspect of this statement is the conspicuous decision to end the count at the end of April of this year, ahead of both the Iraqi offensive in Fallujah, and the Kurdish attack on Syria’s Manbij. In both cases, the US repeatedly boomed large population centers, and in the case of Manbij was reported to have killed up to 200 civilians in a single day in a flurry of strikes against nearby villages.

Samantha Power: Syrian Offer of Safe Passage for Aleppo Civilians ‘Chilling’

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power condemned Syria’s leaflets, urging civilians in rebel-held East Aleppo to flee and offering them safe passage and access to temporary shelters “chilling,” insisting that the civilians must never trust a government “that’s bombed & starved them.

Power’s condemnation of leaflets urging civilians to evacuate, apart from being in keeping with condemning Syria for whatever they do, doesn’t make a lot of sense, since it exactly mirrors what Iraq has done in recovering cities from ISIS, trying to get as many civilians as possible out before using US airstrikes to pound the fighters within.

French PM considers ban on foreign-funded mosques

France’s prime minister has said he would consider a temporary ban on the foreign financing of mosques, urging a “new model” for relations with Islam after a spate of jihadi attacks. ...

In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, Manuel Valls said he was “open to the idea that – for a period yet to be determined – there should be no financing from abroad for the construction of mosques”.

The prime minister also called for imams to be “trained in France, not elsewhere”.

He said the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, whose portfolio also includes religious affairs, was working on building a new model for France’s relations with Islam.

Both Valls and Cazeneuve have faced calls to resign after the second jihadi attack in less than a fortnight raised questions over France’s vigilance and preparedness.The prime minister also called for imams to be “trained in France, not elsewhere”.

He said the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, whose portfolio also includes religious affairs, was working on building a new model for France’s relations with Islam.

Both Valls and Cazeneuve have faced calls to resign after the second jihadi attack in less than a fortnight raised questions over France’s vigilance and preparedness.

The Fear of Hillary’s Foreign Policy

The Democratic convention leaves one with an uneasy sense of déjà vu about the potential foreign policy direction of a second Clinton presidency. We’ve seen this movie before and we know how it turns out: badly.

The mood among some of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy cognoscenti here is one of an unadulterated smugness bred of certainty mixed with a sense of global entitlement. One Democratic U.S. senator lamented to a roomful of well-heeled donors and foreign policy experts on Monday that the U.S. had “lost” Ukraine. Lost? Was it ever America’s to begin with? ...

A Hillary Clinton presidency will more likely than not be a faithful replication of her husband’s tenure. Her record as Secretary of State speaks to the kind of foreign policy she will pursue. She continually sought to embroil the U.S. in the Syrian civil war (2011-present), and pushed President Obama to unleash NATO forces in helping to overturn the Libyan government (2011) which cleared the path for ISIS to build dangerous footholds in both countries.

Whenever the option was between military action and serious diplomacy, the nation’s chief diplomat would invariably opt for the former, as when she forcefully lobbied the President to send more troops to Afghanistan (2009).

As a candidate she has surrounded herself with liberal hawks, like former State Department Policy Planning chief Jake Sullivan and former the Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. She has also smothered the neoconservative establishment in a warm embrace. Leading members of the neocon tribe like Eliot A. Cohen and Max Boot have signaled that “they’re with Her” and on July 21 in Washington, D.C.’s tony Logan Circle neighborhood, leading neocon Robert Kagan and former Biden adviser Julianne Smith spoke on Clinton’s behalf at a fundraiser.

A source who attended the Logan Circle soiree told me that Smith cited an outgoing memo to President Obama from Secretary Clinton which warned him of the danger of unchecked “Russian aggression.” Smith claimed that as someone who saw “Hillary in action,” that “it was the Secretary who pushed President Obama the hardest on checking Russian aggression.” Smith, according to my source, credited Clinton with pushing Obama “to turn up the heat on Putin.”

This effort by then-Secretary of State Clinton to “turn up the heat” on Putin, it should be noted predates the 2014 crisis in Ukraine by well over a year and predates Russia’s annexation of Crimea (which occurred after a referendum in which Crimea’s voters, by a 96 percent margin, called for leaving Ukraine and rejoining Russia). In other words, if what Smith says is true, Clinton was actively working to subvert the “re-set policy” of which she was ostensibly in charge!

"Eat, Pray, Starve": Greg Grandin on Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton & the U.S. Role in Honduras

US Spy Chief: Turkey’s Military Purge Hurting ISIS War

Turkey’s wholesale purge in the two weeks since the failed military coup [is] not sitting well with US officials, and US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper [who] accused the purge of doing serious harm to bilateral military cooperation, particularly as it relates to the ongoing US war against ISIS.

Centcom commander Gen. Joseph Votel concurred, in comments at the Aspen Security Forum, and the two reported that a large number of Turkish military officers who were directly dealing with the US have ended up purged, or outright jailed over the coup.

This powerful series of tweets says all you need to know about the state of Turkey's democracy

Powerful series of tweets says all you need to know about the state of Turkey's democracy https://t.co/eI7mBjembV pic.twitter.com/27WlY2z3Ge

— Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 29, 2016

Erdogan's post-coup purges have targeted at least 50,000 people, including soldiers, police, civil servants, and academics, suspected of inciting or sympathizing with the military uprising. At least 15,000 have been detained so far.

Journalists — long a favorite target of Erdogan's — have also been hastily targeted in the post-coup crackdown. As of Thursday, 42 journalists had been detained, according to Turkish analyst and journalist Mahir Zeynalov.

Zeynalov has been sharing photos on Twitter of the journalists as they are hauled away by Turkish police.

[Click Zeynalov's twitter feed link - many of the tweets were made on July 29. -js]

Turkey builds ‘traitors' cemetery’ for dead coup plotters

Erdogan Seeks Direct Presidential Control of Turkey’s Military, Spy Agency

According to officials familiar with the situation, President Erdogan’s “overhaul” of the Turkish military after a failed coup earlier this month is centered around an effort to bring the armed forces, as well as the national intelligence agency, directly under presidential control.

This continues Erdogan’s general trend to centralize power under his control, but marks a dramatic change for the structure of Turkey, which historically has granted the military a broad level of autonomy from the elected government, a system meant to set them up as a guarantor of Turkey’s democracy.

This has had a checkered history itself, with the autonomous military often feeling itself entitled to launch coups d’etat throughout modern history, sometimes nominally to “save” democracy, and sometimes just to increase their own power in the face of a rival. Erdogan has been seen as a threat to military autonomy for awhile now, which meant the coup was considered by many inevitable.

Thousands protest outside U.S. base in Turkey

Thousands of Turkish protesters filled the streets outside the U.S. military base at Incirlik, Turkey, on Thursday, burning American flags and demanding that the government close the base.

The U.S. military maintains an arsenal of nuclear weapons at Incirlik and it is an operational hub for the air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

#1 Incirlik Turkey protesting against supposed US link to coup attempt [More on Channel] https://t.co/pClFtvol15 pic.twitter.com/ufFo27EGyW

— Trending NATO News (@NATOlizer) July 28, 2016

Military dependents were evacuated from Incirlik earlier this year due to mounting security concerns.

1000s of angry Turks gather outside #Incirlik after the #Manbij massacre, demanding the base close. #CloseIncirlik pic.twitter.com/pxybUKhBmw

— Ben Davies (@benad36) July 28, 2016

Rudy Giuliani suggests Muslims on US watchlist should wear GPS bracelets

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has suggested the US government should put electronic monitoring bracelets on Muslims who are on the federal government’s terror watchlist.

“I would think that’s an excellent idea,” Giuliani told NJ.com. “If you’re on the terror watchlist, I should know you’re on the terror watchlist. You’re on there for a reason.” ...

Electronic tags have been considered in various countries as a way to monitor potential terrorism suspects. A UK judge ruled last year that it was a violation of a the European Convention of Human Rights to ask a suspect to wear a tag.

Chelsea Manning Could Face Additional Punishment for Her Suicide Attempt

U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning tried to kill herself on July 5 in her cell at Fort Leavenworth military prison. Now, military officials are considering filing charges in connection to the suicide attempt that could make the terms of her imprisonment much more punitive — possibly including indefinite solitary confinement — while possibily losing any chance of receiving parole.

According to a charge sheet posted by the ACLU, Manning was informed by military officials on Thursday that she is under investigation for “resisting the force cell move team,” “prohibited property,” and “conduct which threatens.” In the weeks following her suicide attempt, she has been active on social media, thanking her followers for their moral support.

Manning’s treatment in prison since her 2010 arrest has repeatedly generated outrage among civil liberties advocates. The punitive tactics that have been employed against her include stripping her naked in her cell on a nightly basis, extended solitary confinement and denial of medical necessities like eyeglasses. In 2011, then-State Department spokesman P.J Crowley publicly described Manning’s treatment in prison as “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.”

Following a 14-month investigation into Manning’s treatment by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, the UN accused the U.S. government of holding Manning in conditions that constituted “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” particularly with regard to their extended use of pretrial solitary confinement. The harsh measures the military has employed during Manning’s detention have led to suspicions that the government is attempting make an example of her over her whistleblowing activities.

The latest threat to charge Manning with offenses related to her own attempted suicide seems to be proceeding in the same spirit of abusive treatment.

William Chapman shooting: court hears that officer told two different accounts

A police officer in Virginia initially gave a different explanation than his current defense for why he fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old outside a Walmart, according to testimony given by one of his colleagues on Thursday.

When asked moments after killing William Chapman what had happened, officer Stephen Rankin “said [Chapman] was reaching for something”, detective Albert Mannings, one of the first officers to arrive on the scene, told jurors.

Attorneys for Rankin have stated that he opened fire on Chapman in the store’s parking lot on 22 April 2015 because the 18-year-old charged at him and posed a physical threat. James Broccoletti, Rankin’s lead attorney, reiterated this argument on Thursday and made no mention of Chapman appearing to reach for something as a justification for Rankin shooting him in the face and the chest.

Spain's acting leader accepts king's invitation to form a government

Efforts to end the political deadlock that has paralysed Spain for seven months have faced another setback after the acting prime minister accepted the king’s invitation to try to form a new government, but failed to say whether he would submit himself to parliament for approval.

Spain has been without a government since an inconclusive general election in December last year. Another general election in June also yielded a hung parliament.

On Thursday night, the acting Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, whose conservative Partido Popular (PP) won the most seats, but fell short of an absolute majority in both elections, said he had accepted King Felipe’s invitation to build “a stable and solid government as quickly as possible”.

Rajoy said he would update the king “after a reasonable period of time” on how meetings with political rivals had gone and let him know whether he had won the support needed to seek investiture before parliament.

Opponents seized on Rajoy’s apparent refusal to submit himself to parliament, arguing that Spain’s constitution makes it quite clear that anyone who accepts the king’s invitation to form a government is obliged to present themselves to the congress of deputies for a vote of confidence.

“It’s irresponsible of Mr Rajoy to speculate about the possibility of not presenting himself for investiture,” a spokesman for the centre-left Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) said. “We call on him to be serious and to respect the constitution.”

The rent is too damned high.

US economy grows by just 1.2% in second quarter as businesses cut back

The US economy grew by just 1.2% from April to June, the US Department of Commerce announced on Friday, as cut backs by businesses wiped out a rise in consumer spending.

The lower-than-expected figure is the latest in a series of disappointing economic numbers attributed to growing uncertainty among consumers and businesses, both of whom are keeping a tighter rein on spending.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the US government to report that gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of the economy’s health – would increase at a 2.6% annual rate after rising at a rate of 1.1% in the first quarter.

The 1.1% figure was revised down to 0.8% on Friday. The economy has now grown at an annual rate of less than 2% for three straight quarters.

One of the reasons why Americans might be spending less is because a bigger portion of their pay is gobbled up by their monthly rent. According to US Department of Labor, back in May, rent was 3.8% higher than it was a year ago. This is the strongest 12-month rate of increase since 2008.

Rent saw the strongest 12-month rate of increase since 2008 pic.twitter.com/Ep9ualI2f2

— Steve Goldstein (@MKTWgoldstein) June 16, 2016

UN human rights expert recommends changes in US policing

A United Nations human rights expert is recommending changes in the way protests are handled in the United States, saying the process of issuing permits for demonstrations is "arbitrary" and could easily lead to discrimination against certain groups.

Maina Kiai of Kenya, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, offered preliminary findings Wednesday from his visits this month to seven U.S. cities — including the sites of this year's Democratic and Republican political conventions — to investigate how the U.S. upholds its citizens' rights of assembly and association. Kiai's full report to the United Nations will be completed and published in June 2017.

The first issue Kiai addressed involved permits and other requirements set by the government in order to protest. Such restrictions, he said, should meet standards set by international law, which recommends a system by which citizens notify the authorities when they will assemble, rather than the government having to grant permission.

The United States "has these time, place and manner restrictions that have been authorized by courts and authorities" where protests are concerned, he said, "and these will not necessarily conform with international law."

"When you require permits, when you require permission, then you turn the right into a privilege," Kiai said. "Rights do not need permission from anyone to be exercised."

From Inside Ritz-Carlton, Clinton Donors Tell Sanders Backers to Give Up

Hillary Clinton's big-money donors have something to say to Bernie Sanders' supporters: Go away. ...

Now, some of Clinton's biggest donors want them to back off—a message delivered from "the lobby of the Center City Ritz-Carlton," Politico reports:

There is a widespread sense among major donors who gathered here that supporters of her vanquished rival Sanders have overstepped their bounds with their protests and heckling of speakers, according to interviews with about a dozen donors and fundraisers.

[....] While Clinton continues to promise to rein in the influence of big money, her donors this week have seemed emboldened, celebrating at private parties around town and mingling in the lobby of the Center City Ritz-Carlton over cocktails and seafood, discussing politics and summer plans over a thumping bass pulse. The soaring marble lobby of the hotel, the preferred accommodation for major donors, became such a scene that the hotel restricted it to guests-only late Wednesday night.

One supporter, whose family has donated more than $6 million to Democrats over the years, told Politico that the convention protests "didn't do them any good."

The New York Times also reports:

While protesters marched in the streets and blocked traffic, Democratic donors congregated in a few reserved hotels and shuttled between private receptions with A-list elected officials. If the talk onstage at the Wells Fargo Center was about reducing inequality and breaking down barriers, Center City Philadelphia evoked the world as it still often is: a stratified society with privilege and access determined by wealth.

[....] The Philadelphia convention offered other symbolic contrasts to the party's last two gatherings, when President Obama sought, with mixed success, to restrict his party from raising money to pay for the conventions from lobbyists or political action funds. Those shackles were thrown off this year, waving a green flag to Washington’s influence industry. Lobbyists and corporate representatives flooded the city, where much of the Democratic Party's elite—and potential senior members of a future presidential administration—had gathered.

Kshama Sawant vs. Rebecca Traister on Clinton, DNC & Possibility of a Female President

The Democrats have a new weight-loss exercise plan, get your exercise jumping sharks:

US Agriculture Secretary: Trump’s Russia Comments Could Be a Felony

Efforts among top Democrats to make hay over claims of Russian culpability in the DNC hack and to try to link the Trump campaign to those efforts have centered on Trump’s comments during a news conference suggesting that if Russia was so good backing the Democrats they might be able to find the 30,000 missing Hillary emails. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack claimed this amounted to a felony. ...

The Logan Act regulates private correspondence with foreign governments, and bars any attempt to directly or indirectly influence a foreign government “in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States.”

Trump insists he was joking, but even if he wasn’t, his comments appear to fall well outside what the Logan Act is intended to cover, both because an offhand comment at a news conference is obviously not “private correspondence” and because the missing Hillary emails aren’t a dispute between the US and Russia at any rate.

Rev. William Barber at the DNC: We Need to Revive the Heart of Our Democracy

Hillary Clinton Talks Tough on Shadow Banking, But Blackstone Is Celebrating at the DNC

Blackstone, the giant Wall Street private equity firm, will hold an invitation-only reception before the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The event, at the swanky Barnes Foundation art museum, includes the usual perks for attendees: free food, drink, and complimentary shuttle buses to the final night of the convention. ...

Last December, Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Hamilton “Tony” James hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Hillary Clinton that featured Warren Buffett. He’s made six-figure donations to the Center for American Progress, known as Clinton’s White House in exile, and sits on CAP’s Board of Trustees. And he has made no secret of wanting to hold a high-level position in a future Democratic administration, perhaps even Treasury Secretary.

The head-scratcher here is that James runs a private equity firm, exactly the kind of “shadow bank” that Clinton has derided as a scourge to the financial system. Shadow banks are financial institutions that do bank-like activities (such as lending or investing for clients) but aren’t chartered as banks, existing outside of the traditional regulatory perimeter.

Ex Counselor to Bill Clinton: Hillary's Economic Justice Incompatible with Her Corporate Relationships

Greenwald nails it.

Greenwald Explains What Out-of-Touch Media Doesn't Get About Trump, Russia, and US Electorate

Donald Trump poses "extreme dangers" to the United States and the world, journalist and co-founding editor of The Intercept Glenn Greenwald says in a new interview published at Slate.

Do you think the people voting for Donald Trump because they feel their economic future has been destroyed, or because they are racist, or because they feel fear of immigrants and hate the U.S. elite structure and want Trump to go and blow it up, give the slightest shit about Ukraine, that Trump is some kind of agent of Putin? They don't! Just like the Brexit supporters. The U.K. media tried the same thing, telling the Brexit advocates that they were playing into Putin’s hands, that Putin wanted the U.K. out of the EU to weaken both. They didn't care about that. That didn't drive them.

He cautioned pundits and the political elite against harboring a limited perspective about Trump supporters and their beliefs:

One of the things that is bothering me and bothered me about the Brexit debate, and is bothering me a huge about the Trump debate, is that there is zero elite reckoning with their own responsibility in creating the situation that led to both Brexit and Trump and then the broader collapse of elite authority. The reason why Brexit resonated and Trump resonated isn’t that people are too stupid to understand the arguments. The reason they resonated is that people have been so fucked by the prevailing order in such deep and fundamental and enduring ways that they can't imagine that anything is worse than preservation of the status quo. You have this huge portion of the populace in both the U.K. and the U.S. that is so angry and so helpless that they view exploding things without any idea of what the resulting debris is going to be to be preferable to having things continue, and the people they view as having done this to them to continue in power. That is a really serious and dangerous and not completely invalid perception that a lot of people who spend their days scorning Trump and his supporters or Brexit played a great deal in creating.

Meanwhile, Greenwald denounced hysteria around Trump's relationship with Russia in general and specifically the billionaire's call on Wednesday for Russia to find Clinton's "missing" emails. "[T]he history of linking your political opponents to Russia is a really dangerous and ugly one in the U.S.," Greenwald said.

FBI investigating hack of House Democrats' fundraising committee

The FBI is investigating a cyber intrusion at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that may be related to an earlier hack at the Democratic National Committee, said four sources familiar with the matter on Thursday.

The previously unreported incident at the DCCC, which raises money for Democrats running for seats in the US House of Representatives, may have been intended to gather information about donors, rather than to steal money, the sources said.

The previously unreported incident at the DCCC, which raises money for Democrats running for seats in the US House of Representatives, may have been intended to gather information about donors, rather than to steal money, the sources said. ...

The DCCC intrusion could have begun as recently as June, two of the sources told Reuters.

State AGs and Groups Defy Lamar Smith's Subpoena Over Exxon Climate Probes

New York and Massachusetts' attorneys general, along with several activist groups, tell the House Science Committee chair his requests overstep Congress' bounds.

Two state attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil and a number of nongovernmental advocacy groups said they will defy subpoenas issued by the chairman of the House Science Committee that demand documents pertaining to the ongoing climate fraud investigations of the oil giant.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey called the subpoena sent by committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith a "dangerous overreach by the Committee and an affront to states' rights."

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also came out swinging—both delivered the unmistakable message they intend to be formidable adversaries.

The all-out refusal to turn over records and the combative tone of the letters is a stinging, yet not unexpected, rebuke of Smith, the Texas Republican who has a history of questioning the consensus on climate change. It now leaves Smith to consider his next move in an escalating political and possible legal fight over what some see as partisan attempts to shield Exxon from mounting scrutiny of its climate record.

Smith's office did not respond to a request for comment. But in a published statement attributed to a spokeswoman, Smith said he was prepared to press the fight.

"These actions only raise additional questions about why the AGs refuse to be open and honest about their coordination with environmental extremist groups," according to the statement.

Scientists Call for End to Coal Leasing on Public Lands

Sixty-seven scientists urged the end of "coal leasing, extraction and burning" on public land in a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday, calling it essential to averting the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.

The scientists argued that the United States cannot meet its pledge to help reduce worldwide emissions enough to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius if it continues to produce coal on federally owned land.

"The vast majority of known coal in the United States must stay in the ground if the federal coal program is to be consistent with national climate objectives and be protective of public health, welfare, and biodiversity," the scientists wrote. ...

The coal industry has decried these moves, but its struggles began long before the campaign to curtail its public lands leases. Increased competition from natural gas and other energy sources, coupled with coal-specific pollution regulations has sent coal prices plummeting. Earlier this year, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, Inc., the nation's two largest coal companies, declared bankruptcy.

California Coastline Wildfire Rages a Week Later

A wildfire burning along California's Big Sur coastline continues to rage on a week after it broke out, and looks to be a problem for the scenic region for weeks to come. ...

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire has now spanned 48 square miles (124 square kilometers) and is 15 percent contained.

It has destroyed at least 41 homes and put at least 2,000 homes and other buildings at risk. The massive blaze has forced at least 350 residents to flee.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection estimated it will take until the end of August to extinguish it. ...

Crews have stopped the spread of that 61-square-mile (157-square kilometer) blaze, which destroyed 18 homes in mountains and canyons around Santa Clarita.

The fire command says the blaze is 85 percent contained Friday, eight days after it broke out in a semi-rural area of suburban Santa Clarita and spread into the mountainous Angeles National Forest.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

“The Two-party System Is the Worst Case Scenario” – An Interview with the Green Party’s Jill Stein

Long Live the Queen of Chaos

Hillary Clinton’s Nomination Met With Joy From Many Women at DNC, But Disenchantment From Others

She Stoops to Conquer: Notes From the Democratic Convention

In the Hillary Clinton Era, Democrats Welcome Lobbying Money Back Into the Convention

Can Facts Slow The DNC Breach Runaway Train?

Against Neo-McCarthyism

Suddenly, a Palestinian breast cancer survivor becomes a 'security threat'

As the Syrian Government Tightens Its Noose, Aleppo’s Doctors Fear the Worst

Where are the world’s most water-stressed cities?

Northern lights, blood moons and brilliant stars - in pictures

A Little Night Music

Paul Butterfield - Why Are People Like That?

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Morning Sunrise

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Driftin' Blues

Paul Butterfield - In My Own Dream

Paul Butterfield - The Thrill Is Gone

Paul Butterfield - Slowdown

The Band (feat. Paul Butterfield) - Mystery Train

Rick Danko & Paul Butterfield - Born in Chicago