Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Sidney Bechet. Enjoy!

“And now, we have no option. We can't say 'maybe' 'it's possible' 'it looks very probable...' No way! We have to say this is what the Bible teaches! This is fact! May 21, 2011 is the day of the Rapture, it is the day that Judgment Day begins...”

-- Harold Camping

News and Opinion

Here we go again...

Christian group predicts the world will be 'annihilated' on Wednesday

While our planet may have survived September’s “blood moon”, it will be permanently destroyed on Wednesday, 7 October, a Christian organization has warned.

The eBible Fellowship, an online affiliation headquartered near Philadelphia, has based its prediction of an October obliteration on a previous claim that the world would end on 21 May 2011. While that claim proved to be false, the organization is confident it has the correct date this time.

“According to what the Bible is presenting it does appear that 7 October will be the day that God has spoken of: in which, the world will pass away,” said Chris McCann, the leader and founder of the fellowship, an online gathering of Christians headquartered in Philadelphia.

“It’ll be gone forever. Annihilated.”

McCann said that, according to his interpretation of the Bible, the world will be obliterated “with fire”.

The blood moon – a lunar eclipse combined with a “super moon” – occurred without event on 27 September. This was despite some predictions that it would herald the beginning of the apocalypse. Certain religious leaders had said the blood moon would trigger a chain of events that could see our planet destroyed in as little as seven years time.

According to this new prediction, however, there will be no stay of execution. On the day of 7 October, the world will end.

Top U.S. general in Afghanistan: Hospital was ‘mistakenly struck’

Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the American air attack that killed at least 22 people at a hospital in northern Afghanistan were not intended to hit medical staff or patients.

“A hospital was mistakenly struck,” Campbell said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.” ...

Speaking a day earlier, Campbell said the attack, which took place under confused circumstances in the middle of the night Saturday, was authorized after Afghan troops requested air support from American forces. That contradicted earlier statements from Pentagon officials that the strike was ordered to protect U.S. forces on the ground. ...

On Monday, Campbell told reporters at the Pentagon that Afghan forces “advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces.” Campbell made it clear that this differed from initial reports that said U.S. forces were under attack and called in the airstrikes for their defense.

Campbell’s remarks differed from two previous comments, including one made by Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter on Sunday that said U.S. forces were under attack.

“At some point in the course of the events there [they] did report that they, themselves, were coming under attack. That much I think we can safely say,” Carter told reporters Sunday.

Dependency on Warlords Led to U.S. Attack on MSF Afghan Hospital

White House: Afghan hospital bombing not a 'war crime'

The White House on Monday avoided describing the weekend attack on an Afghan hospital as a "war crime," citing ongoing investigations.

When asked if the incident was a “war crime," Earnest said, "Well, I wouldn't use a label like that because that is under investigation.

"The events in Afghanistan are a profound tragedy. We're talking about doctors who have left the safety and comfort of their homes, traveled to a remote region of the world that everybody knows is dangerous and they're risking their lives," Earnest continued. "That fact that some of those individuals lost their lives is a profound tragedy."

Afghan Doctor Slaughter Pulls Back Curtain

On Dec. 26, 2009, a U.S. Special Operations team flew from Kabul to Ghazi Khan village in the Narang district of Kunar province. They attacked three houses, where they killed two adults and eight children. Seven of the children were handcuffed before they were shot. The youngest was 11 or 12, three more were 12, and one was 15. Both the United Nations and the Afghan government conducted investigations and confirmed all the details of the attack.

U.S. officials conducted their own inquiry, but no report was published and no U.S. military or civilian officials were held accountable. Finally, more than five years later, a New York Times report on Joint Special Operations Command’s (JSOC) Seal Team 6 named it as the U.S. force involved. But JSOC operations are officially secret and, to all practical purposes, immune from accountability. As a senior U.S. officer told the Times, “JSOC investigates JSOC, that’s part of the problem.”

Accountability for the U.S. attack on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz on Saturday, killing at least 22 people, is likely to be just as elusive. The bilateral security agreement that President Karzai refused to sign, but which President Ghani signed in September 2014, provides total immunity from Afghan law for U.S. forces and officials. So whoever should be held legally responsible for the massacre at the hospital will only be subject to accountability under U.S. military and civilian legal systems, which routinely fail to prosecute anyone for similar war crimes.

What makes this attack unique is not that U.S.-led forces attacked a hospital or killed civilians, but that, for the first time in many years, a Western NGO found itself operating behind enemy lines in territory controlled by Anti-Coalition Forces (ACF) or Taliban. Doctors Without Borders (or MSF for its French initials) thus found itself subject to U.S. rules of engagement under which Afghans have lived and died in their thousands for the past 14 years, effectively excluded from the protections formally guaranteed to civilians, the wounded and medical facilities by the Geneva Conventions.

How Putin will Win in Syria

The reason Putin will succeed where the US failed in its war on ISIS, is because the Russian air-strikes are going to be accompanied by a formidable mop-up operation that will overpower the jihadi groups on the ground. This is already happening as we speak. The Russian Air Force has been pounding terrorist targets across the Idlib Governorate for the last few days as well as ISIS strongholds in the East at Raffa. On Sunday, according to a report filed by South Front, roughly 700 militants surrendered to members of the 147th Syrian tank brigade shortly after bombers had attacked nearly cities of Mardeij, Ma’arat Al-Nu’man, Jisr Al-Shughour, Saraqib and Sarmeen. This is the pattern we expect to see in the weeks ahead. Russian bombers will soften targets on the frontlines, ground troops will move into position, and untold numbers of jihadis will either flee, surrender or get cut down where they stand. Bottom line: Syria is not going to be a quagmire as the media has predicted. ...

According to South Front: “Lieutenant General Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Main Operation Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, said the strikes have significantly reduced the terrorists’ combat capabilities.” In other words, the Russian offensive is already producing positive results. This is no small matter. By most accounts, the conflict had deteriorated into a stalemate. Now, with Russia in the picture, that’s changed. Now the table is clearly tilted in Syria’s favor. ...

There was an article in the Guardian on Sunday that caused quiet a stir among people who are following events in Syria. Here’s a clip:

“Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channeled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus…..In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those countries have made it clear that they remain at least as committed to removing Assad as Moscow is to preserving him.

“There is no future for Assad in Syria,” Saudi foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir warned, a few hours before the first Russian bombing sorties began. If that was not blunt enough, he spelled out that if the president did not step down as part of a political transition, his country would embrace a military option, “which also would end with the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power”.

Saudi Arabia poses no real threat to Putin’s operation in Syria. The Saudis may talk tough, but they already have their hands full with a crashing economy (due to plunging oil prices) and a war in Yemen they have no chance of winning. They’re certainly not going to get more deeply involved in Syria. ...

The only country that could make a difference in the outcome, is the United States. And, the fact is, Washington’s neocons don’t have the cojones to take on Moscow mano-a-mano, so Putin’s clean-up operation is going to continue on schedule.

Saudi Clerics Urge Jihad Against Syria, Iran, and Russia

Statement Calls for Backing Islamist 'Holy Warriors' in Syria

Reflecting the ever-growing sectarian nature of the Syrian Civil War, a group of 53 Saudi clerics, including some prominent Islamists, have issued a joint statement calling on the public to support a jihad against both the Assad government and their allies in Russia and Iran. ...

Sectarian agitation is always fairly successful in Saudi Arabia, but doubly so at the moment with the government engaged in an explicitly sectarian war in neighboring Yemen, and publicly endorsing a holy war in general terms for regime change in Syria.

So while the kingdom itself may admonish its citizens against backing al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, their talking points appear to be setting the stage for calls to arms like these which will do exactly that, and advances a narrative in which nations like Russia, in fighting ISIS, are “taking sides” with the Shi’ites against Sunni Islam.

Syrians Skeptical of Turkey’s Promised War Against ISIS

US officials and a lot of pro-US rebels were loudly welcoming Turkey’s official involvement in the war against ISIS when it was announced in late July, but months later many are expressing growing doubt about whether Turkey intends to do anything at all against ISIS.

After brief clashes at the border, Turkey quickly changed focus to a separate war against the Kurdish PKK, which spans southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. This war appears to be virtually the sole focus of Turkey’s military ever since, with nothing really happening on the ISIS front.

Oh my, another NATO numbskull that likes to catapult the propaganda and rattle his little sabre at Russia:

NATO Secretary-General: Russia's Violation of Turkish Airspace 'Does Not Look Like an Accident'

NATO's Secretary-General said today he doubted Russia's explanation that its weekend violations of Turkey's airspace was a mistake because there were two such incursions and they lasted longer than just a few seconds.

"I will not speculate on the motives but this does not look like an accident... and we have two of them," Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Tuesday, referring to the incursions and noting their duration.

Stoltenberg said the US-led NATO alliance, of which Turkey is a member, had not received "any real explanation" of what happened. He said he had not had any direct contact with Moscow but NATO has discussed the possibility of using its military lines of communication with Russia. ...

Meanwhile, Russia's NATO envoy said that he thought the military alliance was using the accidental incursion to distort the aims of Moscow's air campaign in Syria, according to the TASS news agency.

"The impression is that the incident in Turkish airspace was used to plug NATO as an organization into the information campaign waged by the West to distort the aims of the operations carried out by the Russian air force in Syria," Alexander Grushko was quoted as telling reporters in Brussels.

Who is behind Syrian Observatory for Human Rights? RT finds Western media's key source on Syria

Is a third Palestinian intifada on the way – or has it already begun?

A weekend of febrile violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem has led to growing fears of a third Palestinian intifada. One of the latest victims was a 13-year-old boy killed by Israeli forces during clashes outside a refugee camp in Bethlehem.

Abdel Rahman Shadi, who lived in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, was struck in the chest by Israeli fire and died after undergoing emergency surgery in Beit Jala hospital on Monday – the second youth to be killed in 24 hours.

There is concern among diplomats and analysts in the region that the escalating violence could turn into a new intifada, or uprising. Four Israelis were killed in attacks by Palestinians on Friday and Saturday.

The front page of one mass-circulation newspaper on Sunday stated simply: “The Third Intifada.” Elsewhere in the Israeli media, columnists were more circumspect. Some asked whether the latest events fitted the pattern of the two previous intifadas, which began in 1987 and 2000, and if not, how the current escalation could be curbed before becoming one.

Not only in the Israeli media has the question been asked. The issue was given added urgency by the Facebook posting of Muhanad Halabi, a 19-year-old Palestinian student who stabbed two Israeli men to death in the Old City on Saturday, who linked his actions directly to a “third intifada”.

Speaking to Palestinian Radio on Sunday morning, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, said he was reminded of the first days of the second intifada. “These events are reminiscent of September 2000,” he said. “Experience shows us that Israel cannot prevent Palestinian freedom by forceful measures.”

Israel demolishes homes of Palestinian attackers as clashes escalate

Binyamin Netanyahu promises ‘harsh’ action after days of rising violence

Israeli security forces have demolished the homes of two Palestinians behind lethal attacks on Israelis last year, and sealed off another, following prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s threat of “harsh” action amid sharply mounting unrest.

The acceleration of the controversial policy of house demolitions was one of a package of measures announced in recent days by Netanyahu to quell days of escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis, amid mounting criticism of Netanyahu’s leadership.

The houses destroyed were the former homes of Ghassan Abu Jamal and Mohammed Jaabis. Abu Jamal, with his cousin Uday Abu Jamal, killed four rabbis and a police officer in a bloody attack on a Jerusalem synagogue in 2014, before being shot and killed.

Jaabis rammed an earthmover into a bus in August, killing an Israeli and wounding several others. He was shot dead by police at the scene.

The demolitions took place hours after several thousand largely right-wing Israelis demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s home to protest his handling of the crisis.

The protest was attended by prominent figures in Israel’s national religious and right-wing political communities, including MPs from Netanyahu’s own Likud party, amid concern that the current tensions are in danger of being transformed into a new intifada (uprising).

Drone Flies Over NSA Complex in Germany, Dropping Leaflets

A group of activists flew a drone over a key National Security Agency complex in Germany on Friday, dropping leaflets encouraging the intelligence workers inside to quit in protest over invasive surveillance.

The site of the drone fly-by, the Dagger Complex, is a U.S. military installation south of Frankfurt. It houses the European Cryptologic Center — a major source of signals and communications intelligence in Europe for the NSA. According to German media, its 1,100 employees monitor massive amounts of communications with tools such as XKEYSCORE, one of the programs revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The group behind the drone mission, Intelexit, made headlines last week when it drove moving billboards past intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The billboards, framed by picturesque scenes of sunsets and American flags, include catchphrases such as “Complicit in mass surveillance and drone wars?” and “Listen to your heart, not to private phone calls,” directing observers to “exit intelligence.”

The Real House of Saud - Saudi Arabia's Oil-For-Tyranny

Saudi Arabia Continues Hiring Spree of American Lobbyists, Public Relations Experts

Saudi Arabia is in the market for a better reputation in Washington, D.C.

In September alone, foreign lobbying disclosure documents show the Saudi government signing deals with PR powerhouse Edelman and lobbying leviathan the Podesta Group, according to recent disclosures.

Edelman, the largest privately owned public relations agency in the world, is known for helping clients win favorable media coverage on mainstream outlets. The Podesta Group is a lobbying firm founded by Tony Podesta, a major fundraiser for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

The new signings are the latest in a year-long hiring spree by the Persian Gulf state as it further builds up its already formidable political arsenal inside the Beltway. ...

Edelman’s contract calls for the firm to “engage with opinion influencers, establish media engagement opportunities for [sic] principal, and assist in opinion editorial placement” on behalf of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.

The Saudi regime is currently facing yet another public relations crisis as the Kingdom moves to execute Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the young son of a government critic.

The nation also faces international outcry over the widespread killing of civilians in Yemen. Since March, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition that includes the U.S., U.K., Egypt and several Persian Gulf nations to support the Yemeni government in its war against the Houthi rebels. The Saudi-led coalition has repeatedly attacked schools, hospitals, and other civilian targets, including recent reports of a wedding party that was bombed, killing over 100 people.

The Revolutionary Age

Obama Has 38 Billion Reasons to Veto the Senate’s Defense Spending Bill

Congress is set to approve the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) later this week — the massive bill that sets the annual budget for the Department of Defense — but the White House says President Barack Obama will veto the $612 billion piece of legislation because of the unorthodox way it would fund the Pentagon.

American lawmakers sidestepped mandatory budget caps on 2016 defense spending by adding roughly $38 billion to the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, an account that is not subject to sequestration and technically reserved for incremental costs associated with fighting wars. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said he finds this "objectionable," while Obama and the Democrats want any increase in defense spending to be met with an equal increase in domestic spending.

The NDAA is an "irresponsible way to fund our national defense priorities," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters last week. "If the president got this bill, he'd veto it."

Obama has threatened to veto every NDAA since he took office but has yet to follow through, but this time his message "could not be clearer," Justin T. Johnson, a senior policy analyst for defense budgeting at the Heritage Foundation, told VICE News. "I expect the president will veto the NDAA, which will be a pretty historic event."

Facebook row: US data storage leaves users open to surveillance, court rules

EU court ruling that privacy is being compromised could force many digital companies to relocate operations

Europe's high court just struck down a major law routinely abused for surveillance. We are all safer as a result. pic.twitter.com/mR4hHTrTok

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 6, 2015

US data storage systems operated by Facebook and other digital operators do not provide customers with protection from state surveillance, the European court of justice has ruled.

The declaration by the EU court in Luxembourg that privacy is being compromised will have far-reaching consequences for the online industry and could force many companies to relocate their operations.

Declaring the American safe harbour scheme invalid, the ECJ – whose findings are binding on all EU members states – ruled that “the United States … scheme thus enables interference, by United States public authorities, with the fundamental rights of persons.”

Safe harbour is an agreement between the European commission and the US that provides guidance for US firms on how protect for the personal data of EU citizens as required by the European Union’s directive on data protection. There are negotiations going on to upgrade the framework and provide better privacy for online users.

Liberal Leader Would Change When Canada’s NSA Could Spy

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has pledged to change the way Canada's foreign intelligence agency — often described as "Canada's NSA"— is able to spy on Canadians with a warrant if he's elected prime minister later this month.

According to the party's official election platform, released earlier in the day, an elected Liberal government would "limit Communications Security Establishment's powers by requiring a warrant to engage in the surveillance of Canadians."

VICE News originally reported that meant the Liberals intended to give the Communication Security Establishment (CSE) new powers, since the agency is currently prohibited from "directing" surveillance at Canadians for domestic purposes. But the party insisted that is not the case.

Asked several times during a special town hall in Toronto hosted by VICE Canada to clarify his stance, Trudeau emphasized that CSE would be subjected to oversight.

Mimicking Media Outlets, DOJ Will Finally Attempt Tally of Killings by Police

Database will not require police to report people they kill

Mimicking major media outlets, and following pressure from Black Lives Matter campaigners, the Department of Justice announced Monday that it will bolster its efforts to record killings by police using information compiled from multiple sources.

The undertaking, however, will not require police departments to report people their officers kill, and is strikingly similar to the approach employed by the Guardian, which in June launched its own database, The Counted.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which will house the initiative, said it will improve its data by "surveying police departments, medical examiners' offices and investigative offices about the reports that it identifies from open source and using data from the multiple sources to obtain a more accurate factual account of each incident." The agency claims it will "complete its methodology study by late 2015/early 2016 and then begin to stand up a national program on arrest related deaths."

Similarly, The Counted combines "Guardian reporting with verified crowdsourced information," including tips and media reports, to monitor police killings.

California Cops Are Pissed About the State’s New Racial Profiling Law

California cops will soon be required to document and make public the ethnicity and race of individuals they stop while patrolling — and they're not happy about it.

Civil rights groups praised the sweeping racial profiling bill signed into law this weekend by Governor Jerry Brown, but the law enforcement community claims it will unduly burden officers. The law, called the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015, requires departments to log data for each stop of a citizen, including the time, date, location, and reason, as well as the "perceived race or ethnicity, gender, and approximate age of the person stopped," and whether the officer took any actions or searched the person.

The data will be turned over to the state attorney general and a Racial and Identity Profiling Board that will oversee the law. The data will also be made public. ...

California police unions came out in force against the bill, with one spokesperson, Lieutenant Steve James of the Long Beach Police Officers Association and the national trustee for the California Fraternal Order of Police, telling the Los Angeles Times that, "There is no racial profiling. There just isn't. There is criminal profiling that exists."

Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK

As more than 60,000 people marched against Tory's attack on the economy, sharp-shooters took up positions on rooftops

As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector.

Outrage resulted as images surfaced showing how police had dispatched sniper teams to rooftops in the city as an estimated 60,000 people, including families with young children, followed a route through the city center.

Just a police Sniper on roof of tory party conference, which resembles a prison
#CPC15 pic.twitter.com/RPCYt1YIeH

— Ben Whittingham (@BenWhittingham2) October 4, 2015

In response to the public outcry, a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson told reporters the sniper units were only being used for "observation" purposes. "[The guns]," the official said, "are used for their powerful sight, which is stronger than any pair of binoculars. They are not there to shoot people."

UK police use snipers to intimidate, then insult our intelligence with this justification

http://t.co/ScYxv6Bosi pic.twitter.com/qKpROkpYz7

— Henry Smith (@hnrysmth) October 5, 2015

China's yuan jumps to fourth most-used world payment currency

Recently devalued currency overtakes Japan’s yen in terms of world payments, and now only comes behind the US dollar, euro and sterling

The yuan has surpassed seven currencies in the past three years as a payment currency and now only comes after the US dollar, the euro and the sterling.

Overall, global yuan payments increased in value by 9.13% in August, while payments across all currencies decreased by 8.3%, according to Swift.

The yuan reached a record high market share with 2.79% of global payments for the month, compared with 1.39% in January 2014.

More than 100 countries used the yuan for payments in August, but more than 90% of flows were concentrated in 10 countries. Singapore processed 24.4% followed by the UK with 21.6%.

Breast Cancer Patient Arrested for Protesting TPP: "This is Price Gouging at the Cost of Lives"

Obama faces TPP deal balancing act as Congress considers approval

President looks to quell criticism of trade agreement from the likes of Bernie Sanders on the left and Senator Orrin Hatch on the right after international talks

The White House began lobbying Democrats to take a fresh look at a controversial free trade agreement on Monday after concessions aimed at appeasing some critics on the left risked fracturing fragile support among Republicans.

Despite narrowly securing congressional approval to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with 11 other countries, Barack Obama still has to persuade a majority of US lawmakers to pass the final deal, which aims to remove thousands of import tariffs. ...

“While the details are still emerging … I am afraid this deal appears to fall woefully short,” said Orrin Hatch, chair of the finance committee, which is responsible for trade, in the Senate. ...

The deal was also slammed by critics on the left, particularly presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who called it “disastrous” despite the minor concessions on tobacco and pharmaceuticals.

“I am disappointed but not surprised by the decision to move forward on the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that will hurt consumers and cost American jobs,” said the Vermont senator in a statement.

“Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multinational corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.” ...

“Its fate in Congress is highly uncertain given the narrow margin by which trade authority passed this summer, the concessions made to get a deal, and growing congressional and public concerns about the TPP’s threats to jobs, wages, safe food and affordable medicines and more,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

NAFTA on Steroids: Consumer Groups Slam the TPP as 12 Nations Agree to Trade Accord

Rise Up, Precariat! Cheap Labour is Over

Just three weeks before the Canadian federal election comes a report from Morgan Stanley that should remind everyone, especially the parties running for office, that it’s still about the economy. The the message of the paper is as unambiguous as it is surprising: the era of cheap labour is over. It all has to do with demographics, which are changing, and public policy which so far has not.

I have written more than once over the years about the devastating impact of so-called “labour flexibility” policies – devastating to employees, families, productivity, equality, communities, the birth rate (yes, the birth rate) and the economy as a whole. ... For all the talk about what will grow the economy – and leaders’ debate on the topic was worse than useless, it was embarrassing – the key component to future economic growth is rising wages and salaries. ...

The percentage of the global population who were working experienced a huge increase in the last three decades of the twentieth century due to the post-war baby boom in developed countries and the entry of China and Eastern Europe into the capitalist system. That abundance of working age people created the conditions for the cheapening of labour and the reduction of its bargaining power. That, says Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting committee, is already ending. “…population growth in the rich world, which was 1% a year in the 1950s, has fallen to 0.5% and should drop to zero by 2040.”

Governments eager to advance the interests of large corporations took advantage of this labour surplus by developing convenient theories to justify a broad assault on wages and salaries – and unions. Things like labour standards, generous Unemployment Insurance and poverty reducing welfare schemes made labour “inflexible” the argument went – by which they meant uppity workers demanding their fair share. ... The twenty-five year pursuit of cheap labour across the developed work has resulted in what has been called the “precariat” – those working in precarious, low-paying jobs with little or no protection from ruthless employers.

The Morgan Stanley paper contains a warning to employers – that if they continue to mistreat and underpay their employees they will pay the price with an increased militancy as labour shortages kick in and workers’ bargaining power increases. Goodhart recommends that employers get out ahead of the curve: “The synergies are stark: if the global economy needs a return to higher-paid work, then attacking precarity is the quickest way of achieving that.” I can’t see that happening any time soon and personally I’d like to see a little militancy for a change.

Dissent on Israel Not Permitted at Bernie Sanders Event

This past Saturday, when Bernie Sanders, an increasingly viable contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, held one of his biggest campaign rallies to date, drawing more than 20,000 people to an event at the Boston convention center. Among those visitors were a number of young activists from Boston Students for Justice in Palestine, who were curious about Sanders’ position on the occupied territories. They had a sign with them; in a playful nod to one of Sanders’ campaign slogans, it simply asked, “Will Ya Feel The Bern For Palestine?” The activists say they were well-received by other Sanders supporters in the crowd.

But staffers working for a candidate widely viewed as one of the most progressive members of the Senate were apparently not happy. Security was made aware of a threat: Some students who support Sanders were holding a sign with a question on it. A tactic right out of the Bush campaign “playbook” went into action.

“They told us to either put the sign away or leave,” said Sana Hashmani, one of the student activists. “We asked why, and they said that Bernie’s campaign staff had said the sign had to go.”

There had been no signs of trouble previously. The pro-Palestine group was doing nothing unusual — except, perhaps, for daring to question Sanders about territories occupied by Israel, of which Sanders has been a not-entirely-progressive supporter. “When we got there and entered the overflow space with our sign, people were supporting us and taking pictures, and other people had signs talking about various social issues as well,” Hashmani said.

In a brief cell phone video of the incident, security staff can be seen threatening to arrest the students if they didn’t leave the premises.

Two days after the students were ejected, a day after the group posted about the encounter on Facebook, a Sanders 2016 spokesperson acknowledged a campaign staffer was behind the ejection and that an error had been made. “What happened was a poor decision by a low-level staffer and doesn’t reflect campaign policy,” the spokesperson said.

In the fight to stop climate change, forests are a vital weapon

Forests are undervalued assets in meeting the twin global challenges of our time: achieving prosperity and safeguarding climate stability. It’s time we gave them the attention – and finance – that they deserve. ...

If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank somewhere between China and the European Union as a source of current annual greenhouse gas emissions. So halting deforestation would be a giant step toward taming climate change. ... If we were to stop tropical deforestation tomorrow, allow damaged forests to grow back, and protect mature forests, the resulting reduction in emissions and removal of carbon from the atmosphere could equal up to one-third of current global emissions from all sources.

The good news is that climate negotiators have already agreed on a way to make this happen. It’s called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation or REDD+, in which rich countries reward developing countries for reducing deforestation on a pay-for-performance basis. ... The few REDD+ agreements already in place have priced avoided CO2 emissions at only $5 per ton, truly a bargain compared to most other options.

New science suggests that forests support agriculture by regulating weather at continental scales, in addition to the shade, forage, and pollination they provide to adjacent farms. This means that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest threatens to deny rainfall to faraway crops in Brazil’s agricultural heartland. Forested watersheds fill reservoirs behind hydroelectric dams and extend their lives by controlling erosion, ensuring that millions of people have access to modern energy. And all these services are in addition to the harvest of timber and non-timber forest products such as charcoal, which provide, on average, one-fifth of household incomes in communities that live in and around forests. ...

Rich countries should think about paying for forest services as a utility. We are willing to pay electric bills in return for keeping the lights on; we should be willing to pay for tropical forest conservation as one way to ensure climate stability, while also promoting development benefits. But so far, rich countries have only pledged about a billion dollars per year for REDD+. Americans spend 20 times that amount on pet food. We can do better than that. And we should.

Chernobyl Study: 'Amazing Illustration' of How Destructive Human Civilization Has Become

If you think that life for a wild animal would be more horrendous and hazardous inside an "exclusionary zone" in the shadow of a melted-down nuclear plant than living in a world beset with deforestation, hunting and poaching, and the nearly non-stop encroachment of humanity's industrial expansion—a new study may have you thinking twice about such assumptions.

Published in the journal Current Biology on Monday, the new research shows that despite nearly three decades of living within the Belarus sector of the Chernobyl "exclusion" zone, the relative abundances of large mammals—including elk, deer and wild boar—are similar to those in four "uncontaminated" nature reserves in the region. Moreover, the study found, that the population of wolves was more than seven times higher inside the exclusion zone, compared to outside.

As the Guardian's reporting on the study notes, its findings run counter to previous hypothesises—not to mention everyday common sense—regarding how chronic long-term exposure to radiation might influence animal populations. But as Professor Jim Smith, professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth and one of the paper's authors, explained to the Guardian, the research findings do not show that living within a nuclear contamination zone is good, but simply highlights the widespread dangers and downward pressures contemporary society is having on the planet's wild mammal populations.

"What we do, our everyday habitation of an area – agriculture, forestry – they’ve damaged wildlife more than the world’s worst nuclear accident," Smith explained. "It doesn’t say that nuclear accidents aren’t bad, of course they are. But it illustrates that the things we do everyday, the human population pressure, damages the environment. It’s kind of obvious but it’s an amazing illustration of it."

'Not Protesters — Protectors': Fracktivists Descend on Colorado Governor's Mansion

Anti-fracking activists in Colorado erected a 20-foot mock oil derrick in front of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's mansion in a Denver neighborhood on Monday, demanding an end to drilling in their state.

About 230 people joined the demonstration—which made stops at several "Hall of Shame" locations including Halliburton's Denver office, the state capitol, and the EPA's regional headquarters—calling for a ban on hydraulic fracturing and a shift to cleaner fuels.

They specifically targeted Hickenlooper, whose pro-fracking stance has helped encourage an extraction boom in the state. According to the Denver Post, three activists were ticketed for blocking traffic at the governor's mansion, which was the final stop of the day.

"Under Hickenlooper, Colorado has been reckless in its development of shale gas reserves," the grassroots organizing coalition Flood the System, which supported Monday's action, wrote on its website. "Over 55,000 wells are currently in production and industry's cozy relationship with the governor continues to maintain business as usual."

Will BP's Record Gulf Spill Settlement Amount to a Record Tax Break?

Groups are warning that much of the $20.8 billion in settlement payments could be written off as the 'cost of doing business'

As the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday a final settlement with BP over the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, groups are warning that the oil giant may still nab a substantial tax break under the deal.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the $20.8 billion settlement agreement marks the "the largest settlement with a single entity in American history." The resolution includes $5.5 billion to settle civil claims under the Clean Water Act; $7.1 billion in natural resources damages claims under the Oil Pollution Act, in addition to the $1 billion previously committed for early restoration; and $4.9 billion in economic damages claims to the five Gulf states and up to $1 billion for local governments.

However, reporting by the Times-Picayune highlighted the little-noticed detail that, while the DOJ has explicitly forbidden BP from deducting its Clean Water Act penalties, no restrictions have been placed on the billions labeled natural resource damages payments, restoration, and reimbursement to government, which it can treat as a business expense.

U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) says this amounts to $15.3 billion that can be written off as the "cost of doing business"—$5.35 billion of which can be claimed as a tax windfall.

Also of Interest

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

Fatal shootings by police around the US are being ruled suicides. Are officers avoiding scrutiny, or just being used as weapons?

Reddit launches aggregated news site Upvoted

US strike on MSF hospital in Kunduz poses tough legal questions

Reflections on ‘Deep Poverty’

The blood of El Salvador’s massacres stains America

Coal Executive Finally Brought Up on Criminal Charges

Free Trade Is Elites Betraying Their Own Populations

Bernanke Tries to Rewrite the Financial Crisis in New Book

In rural America, a startling prospect: Voters Obama lost look to Sanders

A Little Night Music

Sidney Bechet - St.Louis Blues

Sidney Bechet - Si tu vois ma mère

Sidney Bechet - Blue Horizon

Sidney Bechet + Louis Armstrong + Django Reinhardt 1952, La Route Du Bonheur

Sidney Bechet - Muskrat Ramble

Sidney Bechet - I Had It, But It's All Gone Now

Sidney Bechet - Egyptian Fantasy

Sidney Bechet - Tin Roof Blues

Sidney Bechet - Bechet Creole Blues

Sidney Bechet - Dans les rues d'Antibes

Sidney Bechet - Petite Fleur

Sidney Bechet - Blues In Thirds

Sidney Bechet - Saturday Night Blues