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This evening's music features blues saxophonist Grady Gaines. Enjoy!

"'The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.' This is how an anonymous Nato spokesperson described Saturday’s disaster in Afghanistan. Let’s translate it into English. “We bombed a hospital, killing 22 people.” But “people”, “hospital” and “bomb”, let alone “we”: all such words are banned from Nato’s lexicon. Its press officers are trained to speak no recognisable human language.

The effort is to create distance: distance from responsibility, distance from consequences, distance above all from the humanity of those who were killed. They do not merit even a concrete noun. Whatever you do, do not create pictures in the mind. ...

Curiously, on this occasion, Nato did not use that other great euphemism of modern warfare, the “surgical strike” – though it would, for once, have been appropriate.

Shoot first, suppress the questions later."

-- George Monbiot

News and Opinion

Why Bombing the Kunduz Hospital Was Probably a War Crime

Did the U.S. military commit a war crime when it bombed a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz and killed at least 22 people? It’s too early for experts to say for certain, but there’s good reason to believe the attack may have violated international humanitarian law.

Hospitals enjoy special status protecting them from deliberate attack, and they are generally filled with protected persons — medical personnel, civilians, and sick or wounded soldiers, enemy as well as friendly — none of whom may be willfully wounded or killed.

“While hospitals can lose that protection if they’re being used for military purposes, the standard is very high,” says James Ross, the legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. What if the unsubstantiated Afghan claims about Taliban fighters being deployed at the hospital are true? “Even if this were the case it would have not have allowed for the kind of attacks that struck the hospital,” Ross told me.

Initial reports from the U.S. military alleged that U.S. forces were under attack in the vicinity of the hospital, prompting the airstrike. Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, later said this was actually not the case and that it was Afghan forces that requested air support, though he also said, speaking in broad terms about sites like medical facilities and schools, that “we do not strike those kind of targets, obviously.” Afghan officials later claimed the “hospital campus was 100 percent used by the Taliban,” a charge that MSF strenuously denies. ...

“These statements imply that Afghan and U.S. forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital with more than 180 staff and patients inside because they claim that members of the Taliban were present,” Christopher Stokes, MSF’s general director, said in a statement. “This amounts to an admission of a war crime.”

[There's plenty more detail at the link. - js]

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): “Even war has rules”

Afghan hospital bombing: MSF demands investigation under Geneva conventions

Médecins sans Frontières has called for an independent inquiry under the Geneva conventions into a US airstrike on a hospital in northern Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people.

The medical charity said the investigation, which can be set up at the request of a single state under the conventions, would gather facts and evidence from the US, Nato and Afghanistan.

“If we let this go, we are basically giving a blank cheque to any countries at war,” Joanne Liu, MSF international president said.

The investigation would be a first step, aimed to establish facts about the incident and the chain of command that led to the strike, MSF said. Only then would it decide whether to bring criminal charges for loss of life and damage.

The Geneva conventions are a set of treaties regarding humanitarian issues of civilians and combatants in wartime.

MSF’s call for an investigation was supported on Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said it would welcome any impartial investigation into what happened in Kunduz.

Glossing the Hospital Massacre

Wasn’t there some grandiose purpose to having U.S. military forces operating in Afghanistan? What was that, again? I’m having a hard time understanding just what was the point of the initial invasion and subsequent occupation of that country, and why it is continuing. Events such as the October 3rd bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, where 12 medical staff and 10 patients were murdered in a US airstrike, should make every US citizen pause and ruminate over just what their government has been up to in all these countries they consented to the invasion of, during the drunken rage of nationalism that erupted immediately after 9/11. The hospital was operated by Doctors Without Borders, and had been there for four years, offering the only medical and surgical treatment in the region. That’s over and done with now, they’re packing up and leaving the conflict zone and taking their lifesaving services with them, thanks to the US airstrike that destroyed their facility.

The United States is now scrambling for a scapegoat, something to sweep this incident under the rug. But it’s a rug overflowing with the innocent who met their demise in the crossfire of a US intervention, and this bombing will not go away as easily as US officials desperately want it to. ... Pre-empting an independent investigation is what’s on their mind at the moment, it would be terribly bad for the war effort if the belief that the hospital was intentionally targeted gained traction. So the US government is now planning to conduct its own investigation, which means constructing the plausible deniability narrative necessary to undercut whatever comes out of an impartial scrutinizing of the massacre. ...

The US government has attempted to impose order through force of arms on the Arabian Peninsula for years, and the result has been nothing but chaos and an ocean of blood. To attempt to force order from above is an impossible task, order grows up from below. Whatever social order or stability existed in the various states before the Imperial war machine invaded Iraq, it has now been blown to dust. Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, they’ve been thrown into turmoil, and any “liberation” of the civilians that has occurred due to the interventions has been a liberation from country, family, stability, and even life itself. Isn’t it ironic that these preventative, humanitarian wars, sold as a means to prevent some massacre, have become the chief progenitor of some much innocent life lost? It will be impossible to gloss the airstrike on the hospital, but will it tip the scales for non-interventionism as well?

Commander Urges Obama to Slow Afghan Drawdown

US commander for the Afghan War Gen. John Campbell today told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he has presented “options” to President Obama on backing away from the previous plan to drawdown US ground troops in Afghanistan from 10,000 to 1,000 after 2016, keeping more troops in the area for even longer.

Gen. Campbell cited “conditions on the ground,” including a growing ISIS presence in Afghanistan and an upsurge in violence nationwide. He did not detail exactly how many troops he was recommending in the new plan, but it was clear it was more.

Campbell went on to say that many “disaffected” Taliban had joined ISIS, and that there were now 1,000 to 3,000 ISIS active in Afghanistan, and that their growth in the country has become a “top priority” for the war in the country.

Obama Boots Syrian Peace Chance

President Barack Obama is turning his back on possibly the last best chance to resolve the bloody Syrian war because he fears a backlash from Official Washington’s powerful coalition of neoconservatives and “liberal interventionists” along with their foreign fellow-travelers: Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf sheikdoms.

The route toward peace would be to collaborate with Russia and Iran to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to accept a power-sharing unity government that would fairly represent Syria’s major religious and ethnic groups – Christians, Alawites, Shiites and moderate Sunnis – along with a commitment for free, internationally monitored elections once adequate security is restored.

But for such an arrangement to work, Obama also would have to crack down aggressively on U.S. regional “allies” to ensure that they stopped funding, supplying and otherwise assisting the Sunni extremist forces including Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and the Islamic State (or ISIS). Obama would have to confront the Sunni “allies” – including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey – as well as Israel.

His pressure would have to include stern action aimed at the global finances of the Gulf states – i.e., seizing their assets as punishment for their continuing support for terrorism – as well as similar sanctions against Turkey, possibly ousting it from NATO if it balked, and a withdrawal of political and financial support for Israel if it continued helping Nusra fighters and viewing Al Qaeda as the “lesser evil” in Syria. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Al-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia and Israel.”]

Obama also would have to make it clear to Syria’s “moderate” Sunni politicians whom the U.S. government has been subsidizing for the past several years that they must sit down with Assad’s representatives and work out a unity government or the American largesse would end.

This combination of strong international pressure on the Sunni terror infrastructure and strong-arming internal players in Syria into a unity government could isolate the Sunni extremists from Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and thus minimize the need for military strikes whether carried out by Russia (against both Al Qaeda and ISIS) or the U.S. coalition (focusing on ISIS).

Syrian troops launch ground offensive backed by Russian airstrikes

Ground troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have launched a major offensive in central Syria backed by Russian airstrikes, in an escalation in Moscow’s week-long campaign, which has so far been restricted to bombing runs to soften up rebel positions near major loyalist strongholds.

Russian warships fired missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea - more than 900 miles away – for the first time. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu said four warships launched 26 rockets at Islamic State targets.

Syrian activists said Russian fighter jets bombed a series of towns held by the opposition in Hama’s countryside in concert with a push by regime troops and armoured vehicles and the deployment of Russian helicopters, in what was described as the fiercest combat in months. ...

The Syrian push on the ground is the first time Assad’s forces have coordinated with the Russian airforce in an attempt to seize lost territory from opposition forces, ushering in some of the fiercest fighting in months in the civil war, which has now lasted four and a half years and killed over a quarter of a million people.

The assault mirrors the US strategy in northern Syria, where coalition planes bombed Islamic State positions to pave the way for their allies on the ground to advance against the militants. It also poses the question of how much territory the regime’s army, exhausted and depleted by the conflict, can seize from the rebels.

Most of the fighting appeared to be concentrated in Hama, a central province with a majority Sunni capital that has remained in the hands of the regime since the start of the war, and which is key to Assad’s strategy of cementing control over major population centres in a strip of territory from Latakia in the north, through to Homs and Hama and Damascus.

Russia & US pondering co-op against ISIS despite dubious accusations

Russia Seeks New, Broader Military Talks With US on Syria Strikes

Russia has formally offered a new round of “deconfliction” talks with the US on their respective wars against ISIS in Syria, aimed at preventing the risk of conflicts between the two nations’ warplanes as they both operate in the same area against the same forces.

Russia suggested the new talks should be broader than previous discussions, and that they were open to making deals to ensure that the two nations don’t have any “midair mishaps” or serious risk of confrontation.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter responded by condemning Russia, saying that their recent violation of Turkish airspace during an anti-ISIS sortie justified the US to “further strengthen our posture” against Russia, though he did suggest that the talks may well happen.

Interesting article by Patrick Cockburn which is worth a full read:

Russia in Syria: Russian radar locks on to Turkish fighter jets as Moscow steps up air strikes against opposition targets

Turkey said that radar used by Russian aircraft and its surface-to-air missile systems in Syria locked on to Turkish jets as the Russian air campaign intensifies against opposition targets.

The Turkish military said that eight Turkish F-16 fighters patrolling the Turkish Syrian border had been threatened by a Mig-29 and later by an anti-aircraft missile system. In both cases the threat consisted only of Russian use of radar for a limited period, but the Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russian actions were “very serious – even dangerous”. “It doesn’t look like an accident, and we’ve seen two of them over the weekend.”

Meanwhile, Russian air strikes are increasing in number against targets in territory held by Isis. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in the past 24 hours there were 34 air strikes in Palmyra which was captured by Isis on 22 May. The attacks are said to have killed 15 fighters and destroyed 10 vehicles. Air strikes against Raqqa, the Isis de facto capital in Syria, killed two fighters, while other raids took place north of Aleppo and close to Latakia.

It is still not clear how far Russian air strikes are being launched with the aid of forward air observers on the ground calling in an attacks on precisely identified targets. The US-led air campaign against Isis has been at its most effective when acting in collaboration with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) whose commanders can give the exact co-ordinates of a target. Even so, Isis forces as a whole have not been defeated by the US air campaign, even if they have suffered heavy casualties.

Another warmongering idiot raises his muzzle and howls for Russian blood:

Brzezinski Urges US to ‘Retaliate’ Against Russian Forces in Syria

In a newly published op-ed for the Financial Times, former official in the Johnson and Carter Administrations Zbigniew Brzezinski urged that US to use “strategic boldness” in confronting Russia, potentially militarily, over their involvement in Syria.

Brzezinski presented Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebel factions as at best a display of “Russian military incompetence” and at worst a “dangerous desire to highlight American political impotence,” saying America’s credibility is at stake from allowing Russia to strike the rebels the US previously armed, terming them “American assets.”

He called for the US to openly demand Russia unconditionally halt all such moves, saying Russian warplanes in Syria are “vulnerable, isolated geographically from their homeland” and could be “disarmed” by force if the Russians don’t comply with US demands.

Greg Grandin: Empire and Resistance

Soldier May Sue to End ISIS War

Last October, the Obama administration blew past the 60-day deadline for an armed conflict to be authorized by Congress or ended and continued bombing the Islamic State group. Many scholars say the air war has since then been illegal.

Now, a lawsuit seeking to prove the war is unlawful may be on its way.

The lawsuit, still a hypothetical, would be brought by an active-duty member of the U.S. military challenging an order related to the campaign against the jihadi group in Iraq and Syria.

Such a lawsuit could conceivably break new legal ground and result in either an end to the U.S. military campaign or, perhaps more likely, prompt Congress to authorize it.

Yale University law professor Bruce Ackerman floated the idea in July and received a warm response from the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, whose co-director, Matt Howard, said they would be happy to help interested troops.

So did anyone bite? Yes, Ackerman says.

“I’ve received some confidential expressions of interest, but I can’t go public on anything at this time,” he tells U.S. News.

If it happens, the challenge may put to the test President Barack Obama's controversial claim that dated war authorizations allow for the conflict.

As Experts Push for 'Killer Robot' Ban, UK and US Stand in the Way

The U.S. and UK are undermining attempts by the United Nations to negotiate over the future of autonomous weapons—or "killer robots"—talks which, if delayed further, could come too late to prevent so-called "robot wars."

Technology and human rights experts have been pushing for the UN to preemptively ban machines that can kill on the battlefield without human operators, citing a greater risk to civilian life and a broader lack of accountability for military officials. But Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said Tuesday that the negotiation process is in danger of getting "stuck."

"A lot of money is going into development and people will want a return on their investment," Heyns told the Guardian. "If there is not a pre-emptive ban on the high-level autonomous weapons then once the genie is out of the bottle it will be extremely difficult to get it back in."

As the UN General Assembly negotiates an agreement between nations on autonomous weapons, U.S. and UK representatives are reportedly pushing for weaker rules that would only prohibit future technology, but not killer robots developed during the protracted negotiating period. Such delays would also mean that existing semi-autonomous prototypes—like the Phalanx close-in weapons system (CIWS) in the U.S., the Iron Dome in Israel, and the SGR-1 sentry robot in South Korea—would not be subject to the ban.

Does Free Speech Have a Palestine Exception? Dismissed Professor Steven Salaita Speaks Out

US Ultimatum Has Israel Freezing New Settlement Construction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told top settler leaders that there is a de facto freeze on all new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, based on “current pressures” from the US. The settlers were demanding massive new building to spite Palestinian protesters complaining about recent crackdowns.

The meeting came amid reports that the United States gave Netanyahu an ultimatum, demanding he stop announcing new settlement construction, and warning that the US would not veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning the illegal settlements if they continued expansion.

Two More Stabbings in Israel as Street Violence Surges

A suspected Palestinian militant stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, snatched his gun, and was then shot dead by special forces on Wednesday, police said, as a surge of violence prompted Israel's prime minister to cancel a visit to Germany.

Hours earlier a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli in Jerusalem's Old City and was then shot and wounded by the injured man.

The incidents were the third and fourth knife attacks in Israel in a week as tensions mount over access to the Al Aqsa mosque in the West Bank. ...

The eighth century Al Aqsa mosque is one of the holiest sites in both Islam and Judaism, known to Jews as Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and has long been a flashpoint for conflict.

During the past year Palestinian rancor has grown due a rise in visits to the site by Israelis, including ultra-nationalist Jews. Palestinians fear an erosion of a decades-old arrangement guaranteeing exclusive Muslim prayer at the site.

Israel says it is keeping the status quo, but Palestinians say security forces have started sporadically restricting entry to Muslims during visits by Jews, with concern spreading that they are attempting to establish Muslim-free visiting hours.

Harper's racist, bigoted campaign intensifies:

Canada’s Prime Minister Considers More Expansive Niqab Ban

With two weeks to go before a federal election, the leader of the governing Conservative Party is promising to look at an outright ban on face-coverings in government buildings, but contends that the debate around his proposals have nothing to do with a handful of assaults against Muslim women in recent days.

In an interview with CBC on Tuesday evening, Harper said his re-elected government would consider forbidding the the religious garb in government departments.

"That's a matter we're going to examine," Harper told CBC. "Quebec, as you know, has legislation on this. We're looking at that legislation."

The legislation that Harper is referring to is Quebec's Bill 62, which contains measures that would forbid both public employees and Canadians from wearing the niqab in offices run by that province's government.

Harper's comments will undoubtedly add fuel to an already intense debate over his government's ban on the niqab at citizenship ceremonies — which was struck down by the courts, but which Harper promises to replace if he gets re-elected. It has led one of his main political rivals to accuse him of stoking racism and Islamophobia.

The US Is Going to Let Nearly 6,000 Drug Offenders Out of Federal Prison Early

The United States plans to free nearly 6,000 prisoners — the largest ever one-time release of federal inmates — in an effort to reduce overcrowding and ease the punishment for drug crimes.

The massive release, announced on Tuesday by the Department of Justice (DOJ), will take place over a four-day period from October 30 to November 2. ...

The releases were set in motion by the US Sentencing Commission, which voted unanimously last year to reduce federal drug sentences by an average of two years. The decision came after nearly two years of public hearings that included testimony from DOJ officials, advocacy groups, and experts.

The lengthy process led to rebalanced federal sentencing guidelines that decrease the weight of drug offenses and encourage early release of prisoners serving long terms for drug-related crimes.

The impact of the new policy could be huge. The approximately 6,000 released prisoners are just the first batch of what is poised to be the nation's largest-ever prison release program. When the commission announced its new "Drugs Minus Two" policy last year, it estimated the changes could result in early releases for as many as 46,000 of the approximately 100,000 drug offenders in federal custody.

Harvard's prestigious debate team loses to New York prison inmates

Months after winning a national title, Harvard’s debate team has fallen to a group of New York prison inmates.

The showdown took place at the Eastern Correctional Facility in New York, a maximum-security prison where convicts can take courses taught by faculty from nearby Bard college, and where inmates have formed a popular debate club. Last month they invited the Ivy League undergraduates and this year’s national debate champions over for a friendly competition.

The Harvard debate team was crowned world champions in 2014. But the inmates are building a reputation of their own. In the two years since they started a debate club, the prisoners have beaten teams from the US military academy at West Point and the University of Vermont. The competition with West Point, which is now an annual affair, has grown into a rivalry. ...

Students on the Harvard team were not immediately available for comment, but shortly after the loss they posted a comment on a team Facebook page.

“There are few teams we are prouder of having lost a debate to than the phenomenally intelligent and articulate team we faced this weekend,” they wrote. “And we are incredibly thankful to Bard and the eastern New York correctional facility for the work they do and for organizing this event.”

Groups Issue Warning: Pro-Corporate TPP Could Kill the Internet

"What we're talking about here is global Internet censorship."

The "disastrous" pro-corporate trade deal finalized Monday could kill the Internet as we know it, campaigners are warning, as they vow to keep up the fight against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations.

"Internet users around the world should be very concerned about this ultra-secret pact," said OpenMedia's digital rights specialist Meghan Sali. "What we’re talking about here is global Internet censorship. It will criminalize our online activities, censor the Web, and cost everyday users money. This deal would never pass with the whole world watching—that’s why they’ve negotiated it in total secrecy."

TPP opponents have claimed that under the agreement, "Internet Service Providers could be required to 'police' user activity (i.e. police YOU), take down Internet content, and cut people off from Internet access for common user-generated content."

Among the deal's provisions are rules that could criminalize file-sharing, whistleblowing, and breaking digital locks, even for legitimate purposes. Of course, because the contents of the pact have been negotiated largely in secret, the exact implications of the TPP on user rights is yet to be seen. 

However, Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Maira Sutton wrote on Monday, "We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August, and we won't know until the U.S. Trade Representative releases the text. So as long as it contains a retroactive 20-year copyright term extension, bans on circumventing DRM, massively disproportionate punishments for copyright infringement, and rules that criminalize investigative journalists and whistleblowers, we have to do everything we can to stop this agreement from getting signed, ratified, and put into force."

Privatization, Charters & High-Stakes Tests: Arne Duncan's Legacy

US Companies Stashed Trillions in Tax Havens Last Year

America's top companies have stashed a staggering $2.10 trillion of profits overseas in countries with lower or no tax rates, according to a new report. 

Nearly three-quarters of companies found on the Fortune 500 list hold profits in tax havens like Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands that, if repatriated and taxed in America, would yield about $620 billion in taxes, according to the study by Citizens for Tax Justice and the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

The largest holder of offshore profits was Apple, with $181.1 billion, followed by General Electric with $119 billion, and Microsoft with $108.3 billion stashed overseas. Just 30 companies account about 65 percent of the offshore holdings, the report said.

The numbers highlight a frequent debate over "shell games," in the United States, in which US-based companies avoid paying the US tax rate of 35 percent on profits they make by keeping the money in low tax countries where they pay as low as 6 percent. 

Bernanke Talks Tough But Was Weak When It Mattered

Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke joined practically everyone in America by saying in his new memoir, The Courage to Act, that more Wall Street executives should have gone to jail for criminal misconduct that led to the financial crisis.

“It would have been my preference to have more investigation of individual action, since obviously everything what went wrong or was illegal was done by some individual, not by an abstract firm,” he wrote.

Unlike practically everyone else in America, however, Bernanke was in a pretty good position to actually facilitate criminal misconduct proceedings, if he wanted to see them so badly — as head of the nation’s most powerful bank supervisory agency from 2006 to 2014.

The Fed, like all banking regulators, can initiate criminal referrals to the Justice Department for individuals they find to have broken the law. This acts as the first line of defense to discipline criminal misconduct on Wall Street.

But such activities were absent during the period when Bernanke was chair, according to criminologist and law professor Bill Black. “The Federal Reserve appears to have made zero criminal referrals; it made three about discrimination,” Black told Bill Moyers in 2013.

No PR campaign will save Walmart from being 'exhibit A' of bad worker policies

Americans are increasingly fed up with an economy that rewards wealth over work, a message that’s made it all the way to the top. That’s why when the White House hosts a Summit on Worker Voice on Wednesday to highlight the power of working people standing together to demand better jobs and better lives, one notable corporation has been excluded – Walmart.

Walmart is the embodiment of our broken economic system. The company pays poverty wages, has discriminated against women and minorities, harms our environment, wreaks havoc on the global supply chain and continues to lead a race to the bottom where workers are treated like numbers on a balance sheet instead of human beings with families to sustain. Walmart’s motto: “Save Money. Live Better” seems only to apply to its heirs, who have amassed more wealth than 42% of the poorest American families combined.

For nearly two generations, no company has been worse than Walmart when it comes to suppressing the rights of workers to stand together on the job. As evidence of this misconduct became overwhelming and public criticism about its labor practices grew, Walmart reacted as one would expect: with weak gestures and a robust, expensive public relations campaign.

Throughout 2015, Walmart has tried to position itself as a softer, gentler company more responsive to the workers that make it go. Earlier this year, Walmart announced a pay bump for associates. Walmart even ran a television ad touting the raises with an employee standing in front of checkout stand number 15 – a not-so-subtle reference to the efforts of working people to raise the country’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

No amount of subliminal advertising or corporate spin can change the fact that the new wage rates are nowhere near $15 and the lowest paid workers at Walmart will still be forced to live in poverty.

Bernie Sanders launches pro-union bill as battle for organized labor intensifies

With Hillary Clinton vying for endorsements the Vermont senator says his action for unions long predates his sponsorship of the Workplace Democracy Act

The battle for labor movement support among Democratic presidential candidates broke into the open on Tuesday with the launch of legislation by Senator Bernie Sanders protecting employees who seek to form unions.

Though the Workplace Democracy Act stands little chance of passing the current Republican-controlled Congress, it marks a new phase in the Sanders campaign’s effort to paint itself as the natural champion of organized labor.

The proposals to prevent workers from being victimized for attempting to form unions come amid growing union endorsements for Hillary Clinton and ahead of a White House “Worker Voice” summit on Wednesday which is expected to be attended by Vice-President Joe Biden.

Sanders rejected criticism that his support among unions was lower than he would have hoped, saying that members were backing him even if their leaders were influenced by personal ties to Clinton.

“We have a number of locals, we have the national nurses union and we are going to have a number of more unions on our side – no doubt about it,” the Vermont senator told reporters after a press conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Not Just Consumer Fraud, VW Scandal Called 'Crime Against Climate'

'Volkswagen did this intentionally and knew that the effect would be a staggering release of pollution.'

Joining the chorus of watchdogs who say Volkswagen (VW) must pay for its corporate crime, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) on Tuesday released an analysis charging that financial penalties for the company's environmental violations should be no less than $25.1 billion in the United States alone.

While VW Chief Executive Matthias Müller stressed on Wednesday that "there were no deaths, and our cars were, and are safe," the evidence suggests otherwise.

CBD points out that VW's vast cheating scandal on smog testing emitted powerful greenhouse gases equivalent to adding at least 32.2 million tons of extra carbon pollution into the atmosphere, or the emissions of 6.8 million cars. ...

"What Volkswagen did wasn’t just consumer fraud, it was a crime against our climate and against future generations relying on us for a livable planet," said Peter Galvin, director of programs at CBD. "The public has a right to know exactly what greenhouse gas pollution was released and in what amounts. What’s clear, though, is that this will have a far-reaching effect on our clean air and climate."

British Columbia Is Burning

With Renewables on the Rise, Dirty Fuels Losing Competitive Edge

Wind and solar power are "much more competitive" against dirty energy sources than they were even just a few years ago, according to a detailed global analysis published this week.

In fact, according to the findings from the research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), wind power is now the cheapest electricity to produce in both Germany and the U.K., even without government subsidies. Though Denmark passed the same milestone last year, this is the first time that threshold has been crossed by a G7 economy.

The analysis took into account not just the cost of generating a megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity, but also the upfront capital and development expenses, the cost of equity and debt finance, and operating and maintenance fees.

In the U.S., coal and gas are still cheaper, at $65 per MWh, compared to onshore wind at $80 and solar at $107.

Still, given documented trends, "[i]t's impossible to brush aside renewables in the U.S. in the same way it might have been just a few years ago," writes Bloomberg's Tom Randall.

"Renewables are really becoming cost-competitive, and they're competing more directly with fossil fuels," BNEF analyst Luke Mills told Bloomberg. "We're seeing the utilization rate of fossil fuels wear away."

Brazil to Auction Fracking Licenses in the Amazon

Brazil is about to auction hundreds of fracking blocks across the country - extending deep into the Amazon forest including the territories of remote and vulnerable indigenous peoples. Registered bidders include BP, Shell and ExxonMobil. ...

The areas chosen encompass Brazil's main groundwater aquifers, areas of high agricultural productivity, Amazon rainforest, and important conservation areas such as Abrolhos, Bahia, a marine nursery for humpback whales. ...

Some of these blocks even reach into indigenous territories within the states of Acre and Amazonas, at the Valley of Juruá, Serra do Divisor and Acre's Javari Valley in the extreme west of Brazil.

Bordering Bolivia and Peru, Acre is home to numerous indigenous peoples who migrated to the remote area after conflicts with drug traffickers, miners, loggers and oil exploration in their original territories in Brazil and neighbouring countries.

The Javari Valley encompasses the largest clusters of isolated indigenous peoples on record in the world, amounting to 77 groups. Known as the 'last frontier' for its lush and unspoiled nature, its indigenous tribes include the Nawa, Nukini, Puyanawa and Hunu Kui peoples.

Also of Interest

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

Activists work for a greater good, which may just inconvenience you

Syria: a geopolitical earthquake

Using deadly force — as a first resort

WikiLeaks documents show Washington backing of regime change is a major problem

Rejecting Government Hostility, People of Denmark Issue Welcome Letter to Refugees

Nato’s bombs fall like confetti, not containing conflict but spreading it

Huge March Against 'Pick-Pocket' Austerity Met with Police Violence in Brussels

A Little Night Music

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters - Gangster Of The Blues

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters - Looking For One Real Good Friend

Grady Gaines - Lonesome Saxaphone Part II

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters w/Joe Medwick - If I Don't Get Involved

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters w/Joe Medwick - I Want To Shout About It

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters - I'm Packin' Up

The Upsetters w/Jimi Hendrix - K.P.

The Upsetters - Jaywalking

The Upsetters - The Upsetter

The Upsetters - Every night about this time

The Upsetters - Rolling On

Upsetters - I'm In Love Again

The World Famous Upsetters - Cabbage Greens

Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters.- G.G. Shuffle

Grady Gaines - Shaggy Dog

Grady Gaines & The Texas Upsetters - There Is Something On Your Mind

Rhythm and Blues Musician Grady Gaines

Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters - I've Been Out There