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"Conspiracy theories are almost universally mocked in the US, unless they involve Putin and Russia – then they are encouraged."

-- Trevor Timm

News and Opinion

US Defense Secretary Slams Russia for ‘Eroding International Order’

US officials have been coming up with excuses for military confrontation with Russia for some time now, and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter seems to be the latest beating that increasingly tired war-drum, declaring Russia both a threat to “collective security” and of plotting to erode “international order.”

Carter’s complaints, like so many others in recent months, centered around supposition and allegations, claiming that Russia’s support for the Syrian government means they are “prolonging” the war, and similarly making the conflict “more dangerous.”

Carter even played up the dubious allegations of Russia trying to “hack the election,” even though the comments come just a couple of days after intelligence officials were conceding that there was no real evidence to support these claims, insisting the US would not tolerate Russia’s “attempts to interfere with our democratic processes.”

Hillary Clinton: 'unpatriotic' Donald Trump's praise of Putin is 'scary'

Hillary Clinton on Thursday derided Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin as “unpatriotic” and “scary” and suggested the Republican nominee’s coziness with the Russian president could represent a threat to national security.

In a press conference at an airport in Westchester, New York, her first such formal event in 278 days, Clinton discussed Trump’s remarks at a “commander-in-chief forum” hosted by NBC and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in New York on Wednesday night, in which the nominees drew sharp contrasts on foreign policy and national security in back-to-back appearances that previewed their first debate later this month.

“Bizarrely, once again he praised Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin – even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian president to our American president,” Clinton said on the airport tarmac, in front of her campaign plane. “Now, that is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country as well as to our commander-in-chief – it is scary.”

Russian fighter jet came within 10 feet of American plane over the Black Sea

A Russian fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American anti-submarine plane in the Black Sea on Wednesday, stoking tensions in the disputed waters just south of Crimea.

Unnamed US defense officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jet had intercepted an American P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane in the Black Sea.

The officials said that, at one point during the 19 minute interception, the planes came within 10 feet of each other. One Pentagon source called that "unsafe and unprofessional."

Russian military sources fired back, with one general accusing the American plane of flying dark.

"On September 7, the US P-8 Poseidon surveillance airplanes tried to approach the Russian border twice," said Major General Igor Konashenkov in a statement, according to state-owned English-language broadcaster RT. He added that the planes were flying "with their transponders off."

Russian jets intercept US spy planes approaching border with transponders off

Russia Defends Intercepting US Spy Plane Approaching Its Border

... Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the incident, saying they had no choice but to perform a “visual inspection” of the American spy plane because the plane was heading for their border and then turned off its transponders, raising concerns about its identity.

Pentagon officials say the plane was not required under international law to have its transponder turned on, though Russia noted that it was also fully acceptable under international law to fly up and see what the deal was with a plane that was heading into Russia with its transponder off.

Trump turns defense hawk

For months, Donald Trump has blasted Congress for excessive defense spending, calling for buying fewer of the newest fighter jets and scaling back weapons purchases pushed by “special interests."

But on Wednesday, he was singing from the traditional GOP national security hymnal, calling for billions of additional dollars for a bigger Army and Marine Corps, missile defense systems and more ships and fighter jets. He also advocated an end to mandatory budget caps — the same ones he used to criticize as too loose.

It is the latest sign that a candidate who has alienated many bedrock Republican voters is trying to steer toward a more mainstream message that can resonate with party stalwarts and independent voters concerned about an erosion of American security and credibility on the world stage.

"Millions of People in Laos Still Live in Fear" as Obama Pledges $90 Million to Clean Up U.S. Bombs

Obama administration offered $115b​n in weapons to Saudi Arabia

The Obama administration has offered to sell $115bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia over its eight years in office, more than any previous US administration, according to a new report.

The surge in sales is in part to reassure the Saudi monarchy of US backing in the wake of last year’s nuclear deal with Tehran, which raised fears in the Gulf that Washington would tilt more towards Tehran in its foreign policy.

The report’s author, William Hartung of the Centre for International Policy, said another factor was a drive by US arms manufacturers to boost sales to compensate declining procurement by the Pentagon. However, the most recent deals – such as the offer to sell more than 150 M1A2 Abrams battle tanks for an estimated $1.15bn – were principally intended to replenish the Saudi arsenal, depleted in the war in Yemen. ...

The report comes as concerns about the UK’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia and their implication in potential war crimes in Yemen have split MPs on parliament’s arms control committee.

Arms sales over the eight years of the Obama administration have also included combat aircraft, attack helicopters, bombs, air-to-ground missiles, warships and military training. A division of Northrop Grumman is involved in a $4bn train-and-equip programme for the Saudi Arabian national guard, which has reportedly played a key role in the Yemen intervention.

[See also: With Civilian Deaths Rising, Efforts to Block US-Saudi Arms Sale Gain Steam -js]

House Expects Friday Vote on 9/11 Lawsuit Bill Opposed by Saudis

Reports out of the Republican leadership say that the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, is expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week, likely on Friday.

The JASTA allows for 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for damages related to the 2001 terrorist attack. Saudi Arabia threatened the US over the bill back in April, threatening to immediately divest themselves of $750 billion in US treasury assets, potentially collapsing both the US debt market and the dollar.

Syria: Residents begin returning to Jarablus, freed from islamic state group militants

Turkey May Go Deeper in Syria, Citing Kurdish Forces

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli today suggested that the Turkish military, which invaded northern Syria two weeks ago, is preparing to go deeper into Syrian territory in the near future, suggesting that Turkey may ultimately want a deeper slice of Syria than just the 90 km border stretch.

While this would include some ISIS territory deeper into the country, Canikli’s comments centered heavily on the Kurdish YPG, and continued Turkish annoyance that they have forces west of the Euphrates River, and have not totally withdrawn. ...

Turkish officials made it clear the 90 km stretch of land was their goal, but never how deep into Syria this was intended to reach. As they continue southward, they risk coming up against the frontiers of the Nusra Front and the Syrian military around the city of Aleppo.

Aid groups suspend cooperation with UN in Syria because of Assad 'influence'

More than 70 aid groups have suspended cooperation with the UN in Syria and have demanded an immediate and transparent investigation into its operations in the country because of concerns the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has gained “significant and substantial” influence over the relief effort.

The coalition, which includes some of Syria’s most widely known aid organisations, told the UN it intends to withdraw from the UN’s information-sharing programme in protest at the way some of its agencies are functioning within the country.

In a letter to the UN (pdf), the 73 groups made clear they could no longer tolerate the “manipulation of humanitarian relief efforts by the political interests of the Syrian government that deprives other Syrians in besieged areas from the services of those programmes”. ...

Last week, the Guardian revealed the UN has awarded contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to people closely associated with Assad, including businessmen whose companies are under US and EU sanctions. ...

The decision to withdraw from the Whole of Syria programme, in which organisations share information to help the delivery of aid, means in practice the UN will lose sight of what is happening throughout the north of Syria and in opposition-held areas of the country, where the NGOs do most of their work.

Anti-Racist Dutch MP Refuses to Shake Netanyahu’s Hand

A Dutch politician from an anti-racist party declined to shake hands with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before a meeting at the Dutch parliament in The Hague on Wednesday.

Tunahan Kuzu, a member of Parliament who was born in Turkey and co-founded the new multi-ethnic party, Denk, or Think, in 2014 to represent immigrants to the Netherlands, explained later that he intended the gesture as a sign that many in the Netherlands object to the abuse of Palestinian civilians living under Israeli military rule in the occupied territories. ...

In a statement posted on Facebook, Kuzu said that after the cameras left the room, he confronted Netanyahu with photographs of Palestinians suffering abuses in Gaza and the West Bank — including one of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, with one arm in a sling, who was placed in a headlock by an Israeli soldier — and asked the Israeli leader if this matched his rhetoric about promoting democracy, technology, and security in the region.

OPM Spent Less Than Nearly All Other Federal Agencies on Cybersecurity

The federal agency that stored, and lost, millions of current and former government employees’ sensitive files, fingerprints, and security clearances spent only a small fraction of what other federal agencies allocated for cybersecurity, according to a new report published by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday.

The Office of Personnel Management breach, announced last June, involved the personal data of over 20 million individuals and was described by a former NSA senior official as “crown-jewels material.” The report was the conclusion of a year-long investigation following the breach. ...

The breach, according to many national security officials, will take years to recover from.

Hong Kong refugees helped hide Edward Snowden after NSA leak

Supporters of Edward Snowden are raising funds to try to help refugees who helped hide him when he went on the run in Hong Kong in 2013.

Until now, the whereabouts of Snowden in the weeks after he leaked secret intelligence documents had remained a mystery. But it has now been revealed he was staying with refugees in cramped and impoverished flats in some of the poorer parts of the city.

One of the whistleblower’s lawyers in Hong Kong, Robert Tibbo, disclosed the details in an interview with Canada’s National Post. Tibbo said Snowden had sent $1,000 to each of the people who had helped him. Other supporters of Snowden are also sending donations.

The fear is that now those who helped him have been identified, they might face reprisals. The money is to try to help them. ...

Snowden, in a text sent to the Post, expressed thanks to the refugees. “Imagine the world’s most wanted dissident brought to your door. Would you open it? They didn’t even hesitate and I’ll always be grateful for that,” he said.

Dakota Access Company Attack Comes on Anniversary of Whitestone Massacre

Seattle Seahawks consider team-wide national anthem protest at NFL opener

The Seattle Seahawks are considering following Colin Kaepernick and making a protest of their own before their NFL opener against Miami on Sunday.

A number of Seahawks players said they had been discussing their options, and suggested they might be prepared to take a team-wide stand before the weekend’s game.

Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane, who sat for the national anthem during the Seahawks-Raiders pre-season game last Thursday, said he will continue not to stand, while receiver Doug Baldwin and linebacker Bobby Wagner said they had discussed a protest in the locker room.

Wagner said nothing had yet been decided. But he added: “Anything we want to do, it’s not going to be individual. It’s going to be a team thing. That’s what the world needs to see. The world needs to see people coming together versus being individuals.”

Trump finally got it right on the Fed's 'false economy' – but will we listen?

Even a stopped clock is right twice daily. So we shouldn’t be too surprised that Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, whose economic policies can broadly be described as a big goofy mess, has managed to hit the nail on the head with at least one critique. And it happens to be an important one for the wallets of most Americans.

On Labor Day, Trump said that the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rates have created a “false economy” and that “at some point the rates are going to have to change.” ...

When interest rates are that low, there’s nowhere else for investors to park their cash except the stock market. And there’s no other reason to invest in stocks except the fact that there’s no other place to put it that might earn a reasonable return.

Translation? At this stage, the geriatric bull market is hooked on cheap money from the Fed, not fundamentals. Which means all those records you keep reading about the S&P 500 index and other market bellwethers setting simply aren’t justified. That, in turn, means that Trump has correctly pointed out that the Fed’s policy of flooding the market with cheap money, via ultra-low interest rates, is creating a speculative stock market bubble. You remember how the last one of those – in housing – ended, don’t you? Yes, exactly.

Leading Economists Oppose TPP Provision Giving Corporations Upper Hand in Investor-State Disputes

Obama Promises Lame-Duck TPP Push Despite Uproar Over Pro-Corporate Provisions

A provision that would let foreign corporations challenge new American laws and regulations has become the latest flashpoint in the battle over the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, even as President Obama on Tuesday said he will renew his push for its passage in the lame-duck session of Congress.

“We’re in a political season now and it’s always difficult to get things done,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in Laos. “So after the election, I think people can refocus attention on why this is so important.” He sounded confident: “I believe that we’ll get it done.”

The latest salvo from opponents of the deal came in the form of a letter to Congress signed by hundreds of law professors and economists – including Laurence Tribe, who taught Obama at Harvard – protesting the inclusion of “Investor State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) provisions in the TPP agreement.

The ISDS provisions would empower corporations who object to U.S. laws and regulations that cut into their profits to sue the United States before an international arbitration panel. The signatories to the letter write that this “system undermines the important roles of our domestic and democratic institutions, threatens domestic sovereignty, and weakens the rule of law.”

Buzzfeed has an excellent, detailed, investigatory article up about ISDS. Here's a teaser to get you started:

The Court That Rules The World

Imagine a private, global super court that empowers corporations to bend countries to their will.

Say a nation tries to prosecute a corrupt CEO or ban dangerous pollution. Imagine that a company could turn to this super court and sue the whole country for daring to interfere with its profits, demanding hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars as retribution.

Imagine that this court is so powerful that nations often must heed its rulings as if they came from their own supreme courts, with no meaningful way to appeal. That it operates unconstrained by precedent or any significant public oversight, often keeping its proceedings and sometimes even its decisions secret. That the people who decide its cases are largely elite Western corporate attorneys who have a vested interest in expanding the court’s authority because they profit from it directly, arguing cases one day and then sitting in judgment another. That some of them half-jokingly refer to themselves as “The Club” or “The Mafia.”

And imagine that the penalties this court has imposed have been so crushing — and its decisions so unpredictable — that some nations dare not risk a trial, responding to the mere threat of a lawsuit by offering vast concessions, such as rolling back their own laws or even wiping away the punishments of convicted criminals.

This system is already in place, operating behind closed doors in office buildings and conference rooms in cities around the world. Known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, it is written into a vast network of treaties that govern international trade and investment, including NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Congress must soon decide whether to ratify.

These trade pacts have become a flashpoint in the US presidential campaign. But an 18-month BuzzFeed News investigation, spanning three continents and involving more than 200 interviews and tens of thousands of documents, many of them previously confidential, has exposed an obscure but immensely consequential feature of these trade treaties, the secret operations of these tribunals, and the ways that business has co-opted them to bring sovereign nations to heel.

Assange says Clinton leaks might come as early as next week

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday that he plans to release several batches of documents pertaining to the Hillary Clinton campaign within the next few weeks and the first could come out as soon as next week.

“The first batch is coming reasonably soon,” Assange said in an interview on “Hannity.” “We’re quite confident about it now. We might put out some teasers as early as next week or the week after.”

Assange didn’t give specifics about what would be in the leak, but has promised that WikiLeaks would release documents on the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee that would have a significant impact on the looming general election.

NBC’s Military Forum Was a Master Class on How Not to Hold Candidates Accountable

The "Commander-in-Chief Forum" with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that NBC’s Matt Lauer moderated Wednesday night was billed as a way to interrogate the presidential candidates on substantive veterans’ and national security issues.

But from the questions chosen to the format, the event served as little more than a class on how not to hold the candidates accountable.

In the 25 minutes devoted to Clinton, nearly half was spent by Lauer grilling her about her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state (one veteran also asked about the issue). That left little room for questions on policies she presided over while in office.

Lauer repeatedly failed to fact-check candidates on their responses to questions. When Hillary Clinton explained her anti-ISIS plan by saying “we are not going to have ground troops in Iraq,” he failed to point out that we already do have those troops. When Donald Trump claimed to have opposed the wars in Iraq and Libya from the beginning, Lauer failed to correct him and tell the audience that wasn’t true.

The forum was co-sponsored with the veterans group the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and some of the strongest questions came from veterans themselves — such as one question about how war veterans can trust a candidate with hawkish tendencies to end U.S. wars (Clinton) and another about how we can de-escalate tensions with Russia (Trump).

Unfortunately, those veterans received little airtime.

Colin Powell told Hillary Clinton how he 'got around' email rules

Hillary Clinton has repeatedly acknowledged that setting up a private email server while Secretary of State was a "mistake," but Democrats rolled out a new explanation yesterday: it's all Colin Powell's fault.

On Wednesday, Democratic members of the House of Representatives released, what else, an email from former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Clinton in which he detailed his use of a personal email address to conduct government business.

Clinton emailed Powell just after President Obama's inauguration in January 2009 to ask if he had used a Blackberry phone while Secretary of State. He sent a friendly and lengthy response ("Love, Colin" was his sign-off) that he did not but that he used a private email account to "communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers."

He added that he "even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal email accounts. I did the same thing on the road in hotels." He advised her to be "very careful" about getting a Blackberry because it "may become an official record and subject to the law." He "got around" such rules, he wrote, "by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data." Unlike Clinton, however, Powell did not use a private email server, just a private AOL email address.

Jill Stein faces charges for North Dakota protest graffiti

A North Dakota judge issued a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline. ...

Stein campaign spokeswoman Meleiza Figueroa could not immediately comment on whether Stein plans to turn herself in. ...

Before the charges were filed, Stein said in a statement said she hoped North Dakota authorities “press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs”.

[See also: With Arrest Warrants Issued, Jill Stein Says Campaign 'Proud' of Pipeline Protest - js]

Climate change made Louisiana's catastrophic floods much more likely

Climate change has radically increased the likelihood of the sort of torrential downpours that triggered ruinous floods in southern Louisiana last month, federal government scientists have said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said increasing global temperatures driven by human activity made the Louisiana floods, considered the worst natural disaster in the US since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, at least 40% more likely.

Nearly 7tn gallons of water was dumped on Louisiana in a week from 8 August, killing 13 people and flooding 60,000 properties, including the governor’s mansion. The repair bill is likely to be close to $9bn.

Scientists from Noaa and World Weather Attribution ran a statistical analysis of past rainfall and used two climate models to determine how heavy downpours have changed along the US gulf coast in the past 100 years. The experiment altered factors such as greenhouse gas levels to see how they correlate to extreme rainfall events.

“We found human-caused, heat-trapping greenhouse gases can play a measurable role in events such as the August rains that resulted in such devastating floods, affecting so many people,” said Karin van der Wiel, a research associate at Noaa’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Making Case for Clean Air, World Bank Says Pollution Cost Global Economy $5 Trillion

Air pollution is the fourth-leading cause of premature deaths worldwide and the problem only continues to worsen, but governments have been reluctant to make the dramatic changes necessary to curb polluting industries in favor of cleaner alternatives.

In an effort to strengthen the case for action, the World Bank along with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle released a joint study (pdf) Thursday warning about the economic effects of pollution-related fatalities.

In 2013, one in every 10 deaths was caused by diseases associated with outdoor and household air pollution—such as lung cancer, stroke, heart disease, and chronic bronchitis. And, according to the study, these fatalities cost the global economy roughly $225 billion in lost labor income. That number rises to more than $5 trillion when accounting for so-called "welfare costs" —what people are willing to pay for the reduction or prevention of pollution-induced death.

Noting that the losses equal the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of India, Canada, and Mexico, the report authors say the findings are "a sobering wake-up call."

And this problem is only growing worse, particularly in developing nations where rapid urban growth is clogging city air while billions of households are still reliant on cooking with solid fuels—such such as wood, charcoal, coal, and dung—which produce high levels of damaging pollutants.

Yosemite adds 400 acres in national park's largest expansion in 70 years

Visitors to Yosemite national park in California have more room to roam after officials on Wednesday announced a 400-acre expansion of the park – its largest in nearly 70 years.

The addition features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife.

Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite’s western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a not-for-profit conservation group, for $2.3m and donated to the park. ...

The land completes the park’s original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said the Yosemite Conservancy’s president, Frank Dean.

Also of Interest

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

Documents Show U.S. Military Expands Reach of Special Operations Programs

US-trained sniper now ‘minister of war’ for ISIS

Remembering the Man Who Got Obama to Talk Openly About America’s Most Violent Secret War

People in Damascus desperately try to cope with the dangers of war

Israel used military censor to conceal first settlements from public, document reveals

Louisiana public defenders: a lawyer with a pulse will do

Looking at 9/11 in the Context of the Wall Street Bailout of 2008

Google Program to Deradicalize Jihadis Will Be Used for Right-Wing American Extremists Next

Mexican heritage textbook for Texas schools full of 'offensive stereotypes'

48 Words at 4 AM Is All Network News Has to Say About Pipeline Protests

Pipelines, Poverty and Privilege: the Finances of Judge James Boasberg

The one-percenters are now destroying dollar stores

The (Bill) Clinton Team’s Secret Meeting on CEO Compensation

A Little Night Music

Tampa Red - Let Me Play With Your Poodle

Tampa Red & Georgia Tom - You Can't Get That Stuff No More

Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too

Tampa Red - Love Her With A Feeling

Tampa Red - Let's Get Drunk and Truck

Tampa Red - What Is That Tastes Like Gravy ?

Tampa Red - She's Dynamite