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“When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that, in our democracy, government is us.”

-- Barack Obama

News and Opinion

Did Hillary Just Threaten To Attack Russia?

While the media and the American people were avidly watching and commenting on Donald Trump’s much-awaited immigration speech, another peroration by a presidential candidate somehow got overlooked: Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the American Legion. Overshadowed by Trump’s visit to Mexico, and his subsequent stem-winder, Hillary’s performance was greeted with tepid applause by her military audience, and pointedly ignored by her media cheering section. The reason for the latter’s silence is perhaps due to the fact that it underscores one of her biggest vulnerabilities: her militant interventionism in an age when the American people are sick and tired of foreign wars. ...

Toward the end of her speech, Hillary really bares her fangs and gives us an indication of what life is going to be like under the Clinton Restoration. While claiming that she’ll only use military force as “a last resort” – the typical rhetoric of warmongers – she hints at what the future holds:

“You’ve seen reports. Russia’s hacked into a lot of things. China’s hacked into a lot of things. Russia even hacked into the Democratic National Committee, maybe even some state election systems. So, we’ve got to step up our game. Make sure we are well defended and able to take the fight to those who go after us.

“As President, I will make it clear, that the United States will treat cyber attacks just like any other attack. We will be ready with serious political, economic and military responses.”

If that isn’t a veiled threat to attack Russia in retaliation for their alleged “cyber-attacks” on the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Foundation, then what is she trying to say?

This should scare the bejesus out of “liberals” and others on the left who have been scammed into jumping on the Clinton bandwagon in the name of stopping Trump. Are we really going to start World War III in order to avenge the honor of Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Given how problematic attribution is in the case of cyber-attacks, this threat of “military action” makes Dr. Strangelove look sane.

For all the yelping and screeching in the media about how Trump is “unstable,” and even crazy, this threat shows that Hillary in quite simply unhinged. Her major theme these days resembles something out of Joe McCarthy’s playbook: her campaign has come right out and said Trump is “Putin’s puppet.” And since she so clearly believes the Russians are actively disrupting her efforts to take the White House, it’s reasonable to assume her policy toward Russia will reflect this in a vindictive campaign of revenge.

And they tell us Trump is “scary”!

If Hillary Clinton doesn’t scare you, then you aren’t paying attention.

US Imposes Sanctions Over Russia’s Bridge to Crimea

The US Treasury Department today announced the addition of a number of companies to their list of sanctions related to the Crimean Peninsula, this time going after companies involved in the construction of the Kerch Strait bridge, which links the peninsula to Russia. ...

The Treasury Department insisted this showed they continue “condemning Russia’s violation of international law, and we will continue to sanction those who threaten Ukraine’s peace.” The US objects to Crimea’s 2014 secession from Ukraine and its accession into the Russian Federation.

Hacker Guccifer, who exposed Clinton’s use of private e-mail, gets 52 months

The Romanian hacker who helped expose Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of private e-mail as secretary of state was sentenced Thursday to 52 months in prison in connection to an admission that he broke into about 100 Americans' e-mail accounts. The compromised accounts included celebrities, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and family members of former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, and Sidney Blumenthal, a political advisor whom Clinton corresponded with using her private e-mail account.

Marcel Lehel Lazar, a 44-year-old cab driver known by the handle Guccifer, conducted his crimes at home and was extradited to the US this year. He pleaded guilty to identity theft and federal hacking charges.

Guccifer had claimed he hacked into Clinton's private e-mail server at her New York residence. But he has never been charged for that, and he has never divulged the contents of the alleged hack. However, the hacker did reveal private documents from other hacks, including self portraits painted by George W. Bush. He also leaked memos Blumenthal sent Clinton to her private e-mail account. This eventually exposed the fact that Clinton used that account as secretary of state for personal and private businesses instead of using her government account for official business.

Syria: Army launches numerous air strikes after rebels make gains in major Hama offensive

Turkey's Syria offensive shows how each party is fighting its own war

In the Pentagon’s fight against Islamic State, the Kurds had always been a good fit. In northern Iraq they were both trusted ally and known quantity. On the battlefields of Syria they were seen as better trained, more able and more motivated than any other group, including the Arab militias that the US had supported elsewhere in the war.

There remained one big problem, though: Turkey. With a deep and unresolved enmity towards the very groups the US had chosen as allies in Syria, the arrangement was always likely to rupture. Last week, it did just that.

After seething at Kurdish gains on its southern border over the past year, Ankara sent tanks and troops to Syria in pursuit of the Kurds who it insisted were using the remit the US had given them as a premise for a land grab that would realise historical ambitions. Going after Isis in the border town of Jarabulus was Turkey’s stated goal, but stopping the Kurds in their tracks was more important.

One week on, the Turkish intervention continues to highlight a stark reality in Syria: each party is fighting its own war on the world’s most internecine battlefield, with goals that are rarely compatible, even with those of their allies. The bottom line is that a solution to the increasingly opaque and endlessly destructive conflict seems further away than ever. ...

It is for now impossible to reconcile competing visions for what will emerge from Syria. And it is just as difficult to see how any of the major players’ key goals can be met. Turkey’s detente with Russia has put both sides ahead in the lineup. On the other hand, a US-Turkish joint push into Syria appears to have been derailed by mutual distrust.

There is little from which to take comfort for those who still live in the wastelands of Syria. The country has been carved up into spheres of influence that are doing little to slow its destruction.

Turkey-Backed Rebels Will Struggle to Hold Vast Border Zone

The Turkey-backed coalition of Syrian rebels installed in the northern Syrian city of Jarabulus during Turkey’s invasion last week was virtually given the city in the Turkish push, but keeping it, and the vast border zone that Turkey wants them to take over, looks to be a huge task.

The rebels reported that they have between 1,200 and 1,500 fighters total, and while Turkey is moving south to challenge Kurdish control over the city of Manbij, the rebels are expecting to move westward, against the town of Marea, which they’ve contested with ISIS for months. That’s a 70km trip, mostly through ISIS territory. ...

Unless Turkey intends to do all the heavy lifting for them, and stay in northern Syria over the long-term, it’s hard to see how this collection of rebels can possibly hold that much ground with that few fighters, even assuming they can take it in the first place.

Experts Raise Alarms as US War Hawks Push for Deeper Syria Intervention

As the civil war in Syria deepens, American war hawks are using recent atrocities to push for direct U.S. military intervention against the Syrian government, according to observers who warn that further escalation will only worsen what has been dubbed "the most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet."

At The Nation on Thursday, journalist James Carden wrote that "neoconservative advocacy groups" are citing a new report by the United Nations' Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to craft a narrative that "asserts that the widespread suffering of the Syrian people could have been averted if only the [Obama] administration had intervened in the Syrian conflict sooner; if only President [Barack] Obama simply had not reneged on his 'red line' pledge and unleashed a full scale, Iraq-style intervention, surely the situation would be better than it is today." ...

Of course, as commentator Jeffrey Sachs wrote this week, the U.S. hardly sitting on the sidelines in Syria right now—though the public is largely "left in the dark" as to the extent of U.S. involvement.

Among the questions that should be asked, Sachs posited: "How big are the ongoing CIA-Saudi operations? How much is the U.S. spending on Syria per year? What kinds of arms are the U.S., Saudis, Turks, Qataris, and others supplying to the Syrian rebels? Which groups are receiving the arms? What is the role of US troops, air cover, and other personnel in the war?"

"The U.S. government isn't answering these questions," Sachs said, "and mainstream media aren't pursuing them, either."

France: Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp to be ‘gradually dismantled’

Calais refugee camp running out of food amid donor fatigue

Charities are warning that they no longer have enough donated food or money to feed the rapidly growing population of refugees in the camp in Calais, with supplies running out on a daily basis and migrants reporting they are going hungry.

“A few months ago, there would be a maximum of 70 people in the lines; now we have 500 people queuing. We started running out of food about three weeks ago,” Marie Eisendick, who has helped run the Calais community kitchen, funded by the charity HelpRefugees since the beginning of the year, said.

It was no longer possible to provide a hot meal for everyone who wanted one, and hungry people had to be turned away regularly, she added, describing the absence of better assistance from the UK and French authorities as “scandalous”. “We have the same resources and staff that we had three months ago, but there are thousands more people to feed.”

Latest census figures show a 30% increase in the camp’s population in a month, bringing the total number to more than 9,100. About 70 new people arrive every day, with large numbers coming from Sudan and Afghanistan. Volunteers say they do not have enough tents and blankets to hand out to new arrivals.

‘Blockupy Berlin!’ Anti-capitalist protesters clash with police in German capital

Uzbekistan plunged into uncertainty by death of dictator Islam Karimov

Uzbekistan’s veteran dictator Islam Karimov has died, leaving central Asia’s most populous country in a state of turmoil and political uncertainty.

Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, revealed the news in a televised meeting with his cabinet, declaring: “May God’s mercy be upon him.” The announcement confirmed speculation that Karimov had suffered a fatal stroke earlier this week.

The Uzbek government did not immediately confirm the reports but played funeral music on state channels. Earlier it issued a statement saying that the 78-year-old president’s health had “sharply deteriorated”. Reuters said it had spoken to three diplomats who said Karimov was dead. “Yes, he has died,” one told the agency.

Karimov – a Soviet-era strongman who had ruled Uzbekistan since before the fall of the Berlin Wall – has no official successor. The most likely candidate to replace him appears to be Uzbekistan’s long-time prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. ...

There is little prospect that the country of 31 million will democratise, after a quarter of a century characterised by repression, the boiling of prisoners, and unflinching authoritarian rule. Even by the standards of the region, Karimov treated manifestations of dissent harshly.

Massive Pro and Anti Government Demonstrations in Venezuela

Public Relations Firm Claims to Have Ghost Written Thousands of Op-Eds in Major U.S. Newspapers

Laura Bentz of Keybridge Communications describes her company as “a boutique PR firm — founded by a former writer for the Wall Street Journal — that specializes in writing and placing op-eds. With some of the country’s most influential trade groups and global corporations as clients, we run many of the major op-ed campaigns in the U.S. We place roughly 3,000 op-eds per year.”

On its website, Keybridge openly claims to be able to “brand a CEO” by putting op-eds into newspapers in “virtually every major city.”

Less openly, Keybridge carefully markets its services with a PDF that names people for whom it claims to have written and placed op-eds.

For a mere $5000, Keybridge offers this service in the PDF: “First, we write a 500-800 word op-ed. Then we place it in one or more newspapers around the country. If we’re pitching to a national audience, we guarantee that we’ll reach at least 50,000 readers. Includes media monitoring.” ...

Paying $5000 for this service is not simply paying for research or editing. It’s paying for the unfair advantage of having your op-ed pitched by people who’ve built cozy relationships with op-ed page editors, and who in at least some cases used to be op-ed page editors. ...

To the extent that this service can really reach 50,000 people whom one wouldn’t have otherwise reached, it is part of the corruption of a thoroughly corrupt communications system. It’s part of the rigging of everything that breeds cynicism and resentment.

Official Named to Election Cybersecurity Panel Oversaw Breach of Millions of Voters’ Private Data

One of the members of panel who will be working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure the cybersecurity of American elections recently oversaw a data breach of millions of private Social Security numbers.

The National Association of Secretaries of State named four state officials who serve in that role to DHS’s Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group, which will work to safeguard the integrity of American elections.

Ironically, one of those picked, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, was in charge of a department that inadvertently committed a massive breach of private information of millions of registered state voters. ... Kemp’s office last fall accidentally mailed CDs to 12 media organizations that included [...] the Social Security and driver’s license number of all 6 million voters in the state.

Leaked Catalogue Reveals a Vast Array of Military Spy Gear Offered to U.S. Police

A confidential, 120-page catalogue of spy equipment, originating from British defense firm Cobham and circulated to U.S. law enforcement, touts gear that can intercept wireless calls and text messages, locate people via their mobile phones, and jam cellular communications in a particular area.

The catalogue was obtained by The Intercept as part of a large trove of documents originating within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, where spokesperson Molly Best confirmed Cobham wares have been purchased but did not provide further information. The document provides a rare look at the wide range of electronic surveillance tactics used by police and militaries in the U.S. and abroad, offering equipment ranging from black boxes that can monitor an entire town’s cellular signals to microphones hidden in lighters and cameras hidden in trashcans. Markings date it to 2014. ...

“By design, these devices are indiscriminate and operate across a wide area where many people may be present,” said Richard Tynan, a technologist at Privacy International, of the gear in the Cobham catalogue. Such “indiscriminate surveillance systems that are not targeted in any way based on prior suspicion” are “the essence of mass surveillance,” he added.

The Criminalization of Poverty: Woman Describes Fines & Arrests After $1.07 Check Bounces

This is promising. Kaepernick is perfectly positioned to bring a political and economic justice message to usians disengaged from the political process.

Colin Kaepernick Pledges $1 Million to Social Justice Groups as More Players Sit

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest is growing, and with it, his mission.

When Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem ahead of the 49ers' Thursday night preseason finale against the San Diego Chargers, he was joined by his teammate Eric Reid—while further up the coast, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane also sat down in solidarity as the anthem played ahead of a game against the Oakland Raiders.

"I believe in what [Kaepernick] is doing," Reid told ESPN. "I believe that there are issues in this country—many issues, too many to name. It's not one particular issue. But there are people out there that feel there are injustices being made and happening in our country on a daily basis. I just wanted to show him I support him. I know there are other people in this country that feel the same way." ...

Those actions have now expanded, as Kaepernick on Thursday pledged to donate $1 million of his salary to community organizations focused on social justice causes.

"I've been very blessed to be in this position and make the kind of money I do, and I have to help these people. I have to help these communities," he said. "It's not right that they're not put in the position to succeed, or given the opportunities to succeed."

How Wall Street's CEO bonus loophole cost the US government $1bn

Here’s a figure that could have you reaching for an EpiPen, assuming you can afford one: one billion dollars. That’s how much additional revenue the Institute for Policy Studies calculates the federal government might have collected over a four-year period if it weren’t for a pesky loophole that allows US corporations to deduct performance-based compensation from what they have to pay in corporate taxes each year.

The just-released study comes amid the latest example of how basic salary on share price performance leads to bad decisions that have negative effects on society at large: Mylan, the drug company whose decision to hike the price of the lifesaving EpiPen has triggered a sky-high share price and a massive pay day for its CEO, Heather Bresch. ...

In whose interests are companies like Mylan and the Wall Street banks being run?

The basic argument – based on law that dates to the early 20th century, when Henry Ford’s shareholders sued him for trying to make cars more affordable to customers – is that a company has a fiduciary duty to maximize profits for its investors. It has been seized on, amplified and raised to the status of holy writ by short-term thinkers among those on Wall Street.

The result? Publicly traded businesses, fearful of being pummeled by hedge fund investors, end up increasingly detached from the realities of the real world. They reward CEOs lavishly for delivering outsize profits and big stock price gains, even if that is done by keeping wages and salaries for employees at rock bottom levels. That’s how we end up with firms like Walmart and McDonald’s ostensibly employing people full time, who still rely on various forms of government assistance to keep them above the poverty line.

Holt, Raddatz, Cooper, Wallace to moderate presidential debates

The commission on presidential debates has announced the moderators for the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. Here they are:

First presidential debate: Lester Holt, Anchor, NBC Nightly News Monday, September 26, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Vice presidential debate: Elaine Quijano, Anchor, CBSN and Correspondent, CBS News Tuesday, October 4, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

Second presidential debate (town meeting): Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week,” ABC Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN Sunday, October 9, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

Third presidential debate: Chris Wallace, Anchor, Fox News Sunday Wednesday, October 19, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

The CPD also announced that Steve Scully, Senior Executive Producer, White House and Political Editor for C-SPAN Networks, will serve as backup moderator for all the debates.

At the Clinton Foundation, Access Equals Corruption

More than half of the people who managed to score a personal one on one meeting with Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State donated money to the Clinton Foundation, either as an individual or through a company where they worked. “Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million,” the Associated Press reported. ...

At this writing, there is no evidence that anyone received any special favors as a result of their special access to Clinton. ... That’s irrelevant. She’s still corrupt.

Clinton’s defenders like to point out that neither she nor her husband draw a salary from their foundation. But that’s a technicality.

The Clintons extract millions of dollars in travel expenditures, including luxurious airplane accommodations and hotel suites, from their purported do-gooder outfit. They exploit the foundation as a patronage mill, arranging for it to hire their loyalists at extravagant six-figure salaries. Charity Navigator, the Yelp of non-profits, doesn’t bother to issue a rating for the Clinton foundation due to the pathetically low portion of money ($9 million out of $140 million in 2013) that makes its way to someone who needs it.

“It seems like the Clinton Foundation operates as a slush fund for the Clintons,” says Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group.

As a measure of how institutionally bankrupt American politics is, all this crap is technically legal. But that doesn’t mean it’s not corrupt.

Though Promised for Domestic Use, Dakota Access Pipeline May Fuel Oil Exports

Proponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will connect fracked crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to markets across the country — claim the controversial project will enhance energy independence. But at least a portion of the oil may well end up as exports to foreign markets, either as crude or as a refined product.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, has built public support and pressured regulators to approve the project by asserting that the oil will enhance energy independence, because it will be used exclusively by U.S. consumers. ...

But rather than serving the exclusive interests of American consumers, critics point to evidence the oil will go abroad. In December, Congress lifted the 40-year ban on crude oil exports. ...

The Intercept also reviewed regulatory filings that suggest some of the oil transported by the Dakota Access Pipeline will be shipped overseas. ...

Energy Transfer Partners’ 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, notes that low crude oil price are a challenge for the company due to “general oversupply,” but that “export projects” under construction, including at Nederland, will “balance this market by 2018.” The filing also lists the Bakken pipeline in a section about positioning the company as a “leader in the export of hydrocarbons.”

'World Watching' as Tribal Members Put Bodies in Path of Dakota Pipeline

Thirty-eight activists were arrested in two states on Wednesday as protests against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) continue.

While construction on one section of the pipeline has been halted until a court ruling expected next week, work continues at other sites. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Des Moines, Iowa, foiled an attempt by DAPL parent company Energy Transfer Partners to silence protests there by denying its request for a temporary restraining order.

The ongoing protests come as Alvaro Pop Ac, chairman of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on the U.S. to ensure that it was complying with provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as it deals with the growing opposition to the pipeline.

Noting that tribal members from across the country and Canada have joined the movement, the statement read in part:

Thousands of Indigenous peoples from different nations have gathered in the Sacred Stone Spirit camp, in North Dakota, to block construction of the pipeline. Actions such as these tend to occur in different parts of the world and are often misunderstood and described as rebellious, backward thinking, and unilateral opposition to development. Therefore, we call on the United States government to establish and implement, in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned, a fair, independent, impartial, open, and transparent process to resolve this serious issue and to avoid escalation into violence and further human rights abuses.

For Indigenous peoples, the environment is a living entity that contains our life sources as well as our sacred sites and heritage. The environment is an important part of our lives and any threats to it impacts our families, ancestors, and future generations. It is therefore imperative that the United States respects and recognizes the intrinsic, inter-related rights of Sioux and their spiritual traditions, history, philosophy, and especially their rights to their lands and territories.

The world is watching what is happening in North Dakota.

#NoDAPL By Thunder Voice Eagle. So powerful. pic.twitter.com/fONUL5foow

— Ruth Hopkins (@RuthHHopkins) September 1, 2016

Dakota Pipeline Was Approved by Army Corps Over Objections of Three Federal Agencies

Senior officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and two other federal agencies raised serious environmental and safety objections to the North Dakota section of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline, the same objections being voiced in a large protest by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe that has so far succeeded in halting construction.

But those concerns were dismissed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which relied on an environmental assessment prepared by the pipeline's developer, Dakota Access LLC, when it approved the project in July, according to public documents. 

The 1,134-mile pipeline would carry approximately 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota to Illinois along a route that did not originally pass near the Standing Rock reservation, the documents show. After the company rerouted the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just a half-mile upstream of the reservation, the tribe complained that the Army Corps did not consider threats to its water supply and cultural heritage.

The EPA, the Department of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation echoed those concerns in public comments on the Army Corps' draft environmental assessment. Citing risks to water supplies, inadequate emergency preparedness, potential impacts to the Standing Rock reservation and insufficient environmental justice analysis, the agencies urged the Army Corps to issue a revised draft of their environmental assessment.

'Sickening' Killing of Wolf Pack Proceeds Despite Research Debunking Program

Washington state has the remaining five members of a pack of gray wolves in its gun sights this week, after assassinating six members of the pack for killing cattle that a local rancher had sent to graze atop their den.

"It's been a sickening week in the Pacific Northwest," writes Noah Greenwald, the endangered species program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Snipers, including gunners in helicopters, have snuffed out half of Washington state's Profanity Peak wolf pack and have put the rest of the pack in the crosshairs." ...

The state is proceeding with the extermination program despite research showing its ineffectiveness and vocal protests calling on authorities to protect the wolves, which were on the endangered species list until 2013.

The pack being targeted represents a full 12 percent of the state's gray wolf population, according to Greenwald.

This is the fourth time that the state's Fish & Wildlife Department has killed wolves to protect Len McIrvin's cattle, the Seattle Times reports, and it's the first time that the department has targeted an entire pack, according to Reuters.

Also of Interest

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

How Obama’s Asia Pivot Nudged China Toward Pakistan but Helped Aggravate India

Turkey’s Coup: Winners & Losers

The Pentagon’s Not-So-Secret Commando Army

Belated Pushback on Saudis’ War on Yemen

I’m a journalist on the run from Erdoğan – I have no idea what I’ve done

Colin Kaepernick joined by Eric Reid in kneeling for national anthem protest

What Does Black Lives Matter Want?

A Little Night Music

Arthur Conley - Ha! Ha! Ha!

Arthur Conley - Who's Foolin' Who

Arthur Conley - Burning Fire

Arthur Conley - Get Yourself Another Fool

Arthur Conley - Hand In Glove

Arthur Conley - Shake, Rattle & Roll

Arthur Conley w/Duane Allman - Stuff You Gotta Watch

Arthur Conley - Aunt Dora's Love Soul Shack