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This evening's music features New Orleans songwriter, singer and piano player Allen Toussaint. Enjoy!

"The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts."

-- Ivan Illich

News and Opinion

US officials say Russian planes dropped bombs that destroyed UN aid convoy

US defence officials now believe that Russian planes dropped the bombs that destroyed a UN aid convoy and killed at least 20 people, the Guardian has learned. ...

Reuters news agency quoted two US officials as saying two Russian Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes were in the sky above the aid convoy at the precise time it was struck.

The White House and state department said they could not confirm the allegations, while the Russian foreign ministry rejected them with “resentment and indignation”.

Previously, US officials had said that they would hold Moscow responsible for the attack, even if it was carried out by Syrian aircraft, as Russia had taken responsibility for the regime’s compliance with the ceasefire as part of the 9 September agreement.

But Moscow has not conceded that the convoy was hit by an airstrike, claiming instead that the 18 lorries had “caught fire”. In a separate statement on Tuesday, the country’s defence ministry said that the aid convoy had been accompanied by a militants’ pickup truck armed with a heavy mortar, Russian news agencies reported.

The US officials said there was no doubt the convoy was destroyed in an airstrike and that western coalition forces had no role in it. ...

The UN later retreated from the claim that the convoy had been targeted in an airstrike. “We are not in a position to determine whether these were in fact airstrikes. We are in a position to say that the convoy was attacked,” its humanitarian spokesman, Jens Laerke, said.

Syria aid convoy attack: what evidence is there that Russia is to blame?

US is not revealing what evidence it has to support claim Moscow was responsible

The attack on an aid convoy in Syria on Monday, carried out at night on an unlit road on the western outskirts of Aleppo, was sustained and highly effective – 18 of 31 trucks were destroyed, along with a nearby depot that was to receive the supplies.

Witnesses, among them aid workers who were travelling in the trucks and rescue workers who attended the aftermath, have described the sound of multiple explosions over at least an hour. They have also described the sound of jets repeatedly crossing the sky above them.

The US is not revealing what evidence it has to support its claim that Moscow was responsible for the strike. However, northern Syria is one of the most intensively monitored parts of the world, with advanced military and civilian radars plotting every flight near the Turkish border.

When Russia Called to Get US to Stop Syria Strike, US Official Wasn’t There

Weekend US airstrikes against a Syrian army base in Deir Ezzor, a protracted error which killed 83 Syrian soldiers and opened up the base for ISIS to overrun it, carried on longer than it should have, because when Russia made the call to warn the Americans, the guy who was supposed to answer it wasn’t there. ...

The Pentagon dismissed concern about the lapse, saying the contact “wasn’t expecting a call” and therefore didn’t feel obliged to sit next to the phone. Yet as intense US airstrikes were ongoing, in the middle of a US-Russia negotiated ceasefire, it seems like it wasn’t a total shock that a call ended up made.

Syria: "no proof that air strikes destroyed the UN convoy", says Russian defense minister

Russia says Syrian aid convoy caught fire, was not shot up

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday rejected assertions that an aid convoy near Aleppo had been shelled or struck from the air the previous day, saying it had caught fire instead. ...

"We have studied video footage from the scene from so-called 'activists' in detail and did not find any evidence that the convoy had been struck by ordnance," Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry said in a statement.

"There are no craters and the exterior of the vehicles do not have the kind of damage consistent with blasts caused by bombs dropped from the air."

Konashenkov said damage to the convoy visible in footage was instead the direct result of its cargo catching fire which he said had "oddly" occurred at the same time as militants had started a big offensive in nearby Aleppo.

Russia had stopped monitoring the convoy after it had delivered its aid after which he said its whereabouts had only been known to militants on the ground.

Erdogan establishes his credentials as a delusional, dictatorial moron at the UN:

Erdogan, at United Nations, Defends Turkey’s Move Into Syria

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey defended his decision to send ground troops into Syria on Tuesday, saying that his military’s incursion had helped establish “peace, balance and stability in a region taken over by hopelessness.”

Mr. Erdogan urged world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly to find an immediate political solution to the Syrian crisis that does not tolerate the “starve-or-surrender policy” employed by the Syrian government against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

“We cannot lose more time to realize the political resolution process and end the root of the problem, which is the fighting in Syria,” Mr. Erdogan said, citing “terror” and an “atmosphere of cruelty.”

Senate Dems Wavering as 9/11 Lawsuit Bill Veto Looms

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which would allow the family of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia over their role in the attack, is expected to be vetoed this week. President Obama has until Friday to decide on whether or not to do so, and the White House has repeatedly assured the Saudis that he would do so. ...

Indications are that more than a few Senate Democrats are jumping ship on the JASTA, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA) saying she is rethinking her previous support for the bill, and Sen. Ben Cardin (D – MD) now saying he understands Obama’s “concerns.” A handful of pro-Saudi Republicans are also expressing concern about the legislation now.

Palestinians lose in US military aid deal with Israel

The announcement last week by the United States of the largest military aid package in its history – to Israel – was a win for both sides. ...

But the clearest message from Israel’s new aid package is one delivered to the Palestinians: Washington sees no pressing strategic interest in ending the occupation. It stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran deal but will not risk a damaging clash over Palestinian statehood.

Some believe that Mr Obama signed the aid package to win the credibility necessary to overcome his domestic Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly before he leaves office, that corners Mr Netanyahu into making peace.

Hopes have been raised by an expected meeting at the United Nations in New York tomorrow. But their first talks in 10 months are planned only to demonstrate unity to confound critics of the aid deal.

If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu need not fear US financial retaliation, even as he intensifies effective annexation of the West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right lesson from the aid deal – he can act against the Palestinians with continuing US impunity.

US government wants to make sure that whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling leaves prison in a casket:

Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Appears to Have Suffered a Heart Attack in Prison

I’ve written a couple of articles recently, here and here, about CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling and his battle to get adequate medical care while incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution at Englewood, Colorado. Jeffrey has a history of atrial fibrillation. He has had several medical “episodes” in prison related to his heart, and prison officials have refused to allow him to see an outside cardiologist or to go to a hospital for tests.

Jeffrey’s wife, Holly Sterling, told me in an email on Sunday that Jeffrey appears to have suffered a heart attack. She said:

Things continue to get worse for Jeffrey. He had another episode today and had to go to the medic. He was playing darts and began sweating profusely, heart pounding, and chest pain. Jeffrey was informed, for the first time, of his blood work results. He has high levels of Troponin. A Troponin test measures the levels of Troponin T or Troponin I proteins in the blood. These proteins are released when the heart muscle has been damaged, such as occurs with a heart attack. The more damage there is to the heart, the greater the amount of Troponin T and I there will be in the blood.

Prison medical officials told Jeffrey two weeks ago that they would take him out to see a specialist, but that never happened. They told Jeffrey recently that it was the cardiologist who had cancelled the visit, a very unlikely proposition. ...

Holly Sterling has been tireless in her work to get her husband to a cardiologist. She asked Jeffrey’s sentencing judge, Leonie Brinkema, to intervene. Brinkema refused. She then enlisted the support of Norman Solomon’s Roots Action, which has asked supporters to call Warden Deborah Denham at 303-763-4300. In addition to the warden, Solomon recommends contacting the Bureau of Prisons’ North Central Regional Office by calling Sara M. Revell at 913-621-3939 or writing to her at ExecAssistant@bop.gov. Our grass roots pressure may be the only thing that gets Jeffrey Sterling to a cardiologist. It could save his life.

Brazil Congress’ Sneak Grab at Self-Amnesty Shows the Deep Corruption of Its New Ruling Faction

In a move that shocked even the most longtime, jaded observers of corrupt Brasília plotting, the leaders of the House of Deputies late last night attempted to sneak into their voting schedule a sleazy bill that would grant themselves amnesty from having violated campaign finance laws. This happened with Brazil’s installed president, Michel Temer, out of the country speaking this morning at the U.N. (where he remarkably praised impeachment as a “model” against corruption as he was surrounded by his own corruption-implicated ministers), while the new president of the House, Rodrigo Maia, assumed the position of “interim president” of the republic in Temer’s absence. Although the plot was thwarted by vehement objections principally led by two relatively small parties (PSOL and Rede) and supported by members from a few others, the attempt itself speaks volumes about the new faction that has seized power in Brazil after impeaching the country’s elected president.

The retroactive amnesty they tried to enact is aimed at so-called “caixa dois”: the covert funds candidates receive and then spend on their campaigns without officially declaring them as expenditures or donations. Long used by politicians to get massive largesse from large corporations and oligarchs without any detection or legal accountability, this dark practice has been brought to light as part of the country’s sweeping “Lava Jato” corruption investigation.

That’s why these leading members of Congress are now so eager to retroactively immunize themselves from consequences: because so many of the most powerful members of Brazil’s Congress — including the ones who denounced “corruption” as they led the way in impeaching Dilma — are implicated and in serious danger from having broken these laws. So they’re now trying to pass a new law preventing their own punishment, demonstrating exactly what impeachment opponents have long warned (and Temer’s close ally Romero Jucá admitted while being secretly recorded) was the real goal of removing Dilma: to enable the truly corrupt to use their undemocratically obtained power to protect themselves from investigations and prosecution.

Throng of Corporate Criminals Demands “Rule of Law” in Apple EU Tax Case

John Engler, the president of the group of corporate overlords who comprise the Business Roundtable, wrote last week to the heads of all 28 European Union countries, declaring that the “rule of law” demands that they overturn the European Commission’s recent decision that Apple owes Ireland $14.5 billion in back taxes. ...

The Business Roundtable’s main complaint is that the European Commission overruled an Irish government policy that allowed Apple to funnel tens of billions in profits to a “head office” with no employees that paid taxes at a rate of 0.005 percent in 2014. ...

The Business Roundtable, an association of over 100 CEOs, was founded in 1972 to advance the political interests of large corporations. It is some ways a microcosm of the U.S. political system, with a politician (Engler is the former governor of Michigan) acting as the front man for the corporations that control it.

Apple, which has stashed over $181 billion in profits overseas to avoid U.S. taxes, is not a member of the Business Roundtable. However, Business Roundtable’s concern on the issue is understandable, given that the Fortune 500 companies all told have over $2.4 trillion sitting in other countries.

Chris Hedges: To Stop Terrorism, End U.S. Occupation of the Middle East

US cities launch campaign to crack down on unsanctioned surveillance

Local officials in 11 cities around the US launched a campaign on Wednesday to crack down on the unsanctioned police use of surveillance equipment, especially devices that imitate cellphone towers. ...

In partnership with 17 different organizations from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), employees of local governments around the nation will distribute model legislation, including to their own communities.

“The decisions that are now made principally by police departments need to be made by the city council,” said Chad Marlow, the ACLU’s advocacy and policy counsel. “And we need to maximize community input into those positions.” ...

Police departments are rarely transparent when they obtain surveillance equipment, Marlow said. Rather than include funds used for spying technology in budgets submitted to the oversight of elected officials, police departments have sometimes purchased the devices with funds that were never open to scrutiny. “Sometimes they use civil asset forfeiture funds because they sort of seize it on the lowdown and then use it on the lowdown,” Marlow said. For Baltimore’s secret drone surveillance program, revealed by Bloomberg News in August, funds came from “a private donor”.

The legislative guidelines also suggest that law enforcement be required to report use of any approved devices to elected officials. “To verify legal compliance, surveillance technology use and deployment data should be reported publicly on an annual basis,” the guidelines say.

Officials in cities from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to Tesla Motors’ hometown of Palo Alto, California, will announce legislation based on the proposed rules, saying that “surveillance technologies should not be funded, acquired, or used without express city council approval”. They will also generally encourage city councils nationwide to exclude their police forces from engaging in domestic spying.

Did Obama Host a Summit on Migrants While Ignoring a Refugee Crisis in the U.S.'s Own Backyard?

Video Shows Terence Crutcher Was Not Reaching Into Car When Shot, Lawyer Says

Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Oklahoma last week, was not reaching into his car when the fatal shot was fired, a lawyer for his family said on Tuesday.

Graphic video of the fatal shooting on Friday was recorded from two angles by Tulsa Police Department cameras mounted on a police helicopter and a police car.

Speaking to reporters outside the Tulsa County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, Benjamin Crump, who is representing the dead man’s family, said that a streak of Crutcher’s blood on the glass, visible in a still image taken from the helicopter video, proved that the car window was closed when he was shot.

Crump accused a police department spokesperson, Officer Jeanne Mackenzie, of spreading “misinformation that he caused his own death” when she told reporters on Friday night that Crutcher had prompted the shooting by refusing to raise his hands and reaching into his vehicle.

Tulsa's top cop wants feds to investigate police shooting of unarmed black man

Tulsa's police chief has asked the Justice Department to join the investigation into the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer, after the release of video footage of the incident prompted outrage on Monday. ...

At a news conference on Monday, Police Chief Chuck Jordan urged people to remain calm and promised that justice would be done. "I'm going to tell you right here now," Jordan said, "there was no gun on the suspect or in the suspect's vehicle."

North Carolina: violent protest erupts after fatal police shooting in Charlotte

Protesters clash with police in Charlotte after fatal shooting of Keith Scott

Protesters took to the streets in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday night, clashing with police after the fatal police shooting of a black man earlier in the day.

Keith Scott, 43, was shot and killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer Brentley Vinson, who is also black, after being mistaken for a wanted man.

Police said officers went to a Charlotte apartment complex around 4pm looking for a suspect with an outstanding warrant when they encountered Scott, who was not the suspect they were looking for, inside a car.

According to department spokesman Keith Trietley, officers saw the man get out of the car with a gun and then get back in. When officers approached the car, the man got out of the car with the gun again. At that point, officers deemed the man a threat and at least one fired a weapon, he said. A weapon was recovered by detectives at the scene.

According to police, officers immediately began rendering aid after the shots were fired. Scott, a father of seven, was pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center.

The police version is at odds with that of Scott’s family who have insisted that he was disabled, sitting in his car reading a book, and had no gun. “He sits in the shade, reads his book and waits on his kid to get off the bus,” Scott’s sister told reporters. “He didn’t have no gun, he wasn’t messing with nobody.”

Colin Kaepernick on death threats: if I'm killed 'you've proved my point'

Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback whose refusal to stand for the national anthem has rocked the NFL and ignited a fierce debate about the meaning of the American flag, says he has received death threats since he began his protest last month. ...

“To me, if something like that were to happen, you’ve proved my point, and it will be loud and clear for everyone why it happened, and that would move this movement forward at greater speed than what it is even now,” Kaepernick said. “Granted, I don’t want that to happen, but that’s the realization of what could happen, and I knew there were other things that came along with this when I first stood up and spoke about it. That’s not something I haven’t thought about.” ...

Kaepernick also spoke about the shooting of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last week. Police video shows the 40-year-old Crutcher walking away from police officers and towards his SUV last Friday with his hands in the air. He then approaches the driver’s side of his vehicle, where an officer shocks him with a stun gun and another fatally shoots him.

Police had been called to the scene to respond to a report of a stalled vehicle. The officer who shot Crutcher, Betty Shelby, has been placed on paid leave.

Can we stop calling it "paid administrative leave"? Betty Shelby's on a murdercation. #TerenceCruthcher

— Adrienne Marie (@STINGRAYdrienne) September 20, 2016

“His car was broken down, he was looking for help and he got murdered,” Kaepernick said. “That’s a perfect example of what this is about. I think it will be very telling what happens with the officers that killed him because everybody’s eyes will be on this.”

He said that events like Crutcher’s death were precisely why he began his protest. “I find it very hard that people don’t understand what’s going on. I think the message has been out there loud and clear for quite some time now.”

John Boehner Cashes Out, Joins Corporate Lobbying Firm That Represents China

John Boehner, the retired speaker of the House, is monetizing his decades of political relationships and cashing out to serve some of the most powerful special interests in the world.

Boehner is joining Squire Patton Boggs, a lobbying firm that peddles its considerable influence on behalf of a number of foreign nations, including most notably the People’s Republic of China. Serving Beijing is somewhat appropriate: Boehner has long been a supporter of unfettered trade, helping to lead the effort to grant Most Favored Nation status to China. Squire Patton Boggs also represents a long list of corporate clients, including AT&T, Amazon.com, Goldman Sachs & Co., Royal Dutch Shell, and the Managed Funds Association, a trade group for the largest hedge funds in the country. ...

The news comes just a week after the announcement that Boehner will be joining the board of Reynolds American, the tobacco company responsible for brands such as Camel and Newport cigarettes. The tobacco board seat will likely earn Boehner over $400,000 a year in stock and cash. The Squire Patton Boggs salary has not been disclosed, but lawmakers of Boehner’s stature have easily obtained salaries at similar gigs in the seven-figure range.

Progressives Are Targets of Hillary’s “Basket of Deplorables” Speech

By now Hillary Clinton’s comment that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are “sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” and hence “irredeemable” is known throughout the land. They, said she, belong in a “basket of deplorables.” She thus consigns to her “basket” many millions of Americans, in fact more each day as Trump does ever better in the polls.

Make no mistake about it, this bit of invective was no accident. Hillary is carefully scripted, and especially so in these months of her campaign. Cameras were rolling and she knew it. Moreover, she has said the same thing repeatedly on camera in front of high-end donors. Why then did she say such a thing? ...

We may make sense of this by suggesting that Hillary’s remarks were aimed not at Trump supporters but at progressives. Her purpose is to shame liberal voters who might be willing to consider and discuss the issues that Donald Trump is raising in a rational way. After all, if you speak in favor of Trump because you support some of his ideas, you too may be quickly classified as a “deplorable.” In that case you will be lucky if you have any friends if you are a “progressive.” This applies most acutely to foreign policy where Clinton demonizes Putin as “Hitler” whereas Trump wants to “get along” with him, a policy of détente. If you agree with Trump’s détente, then be very quiet about it. The basket awaits you.

Hillary knows that progressives fear like death itself the racist label – and rightly so given the nature of the racism beast. In fact today no American, other than a handful of obscure, powerless troglodytes, wants that label. ...

And Hillary’s bit of stereotyping hides the fact that by any reasonable measure, Hillary is the arch racist of the two major candidates, as noted some time ago here. The Donald has spoken ill of some people of color, although not of whole races; but Hillary is the architect or vigorous cheerleader for wars that have consumed the lives of millions of people of color throughout the Middle East and North Africa – and beyond. Is killing millions of people of color to be given a pass when a judgment of racism is considered? That is a strange moral calculus.

A Debate on Empire: Is Donald Trump One Terrorist Attack Away from the Presidency?

US Bill To Benefit Oil and Gas Industry Seeks First Native American Land Grab in 100 Years

Bishop and Chaffetz will propose in the coming weeks a bill that would see thousands of acres of Indigenous lands turned into oil drilling zones.

Two Republican congresspeople are seeking to pass a controversial bill through the U.S. House of Representatives that would seek the first land grab of Native American lands in 100 years, members of the Ute nation have warned.

The Utah Public Lands Initiative was proposed by Utah Congressperson Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and seeks to “roll back federal policy to the late 1800s when Indian lands and resources were taken from tribal nations for the benefit of others,” the Ute Business Committee said in an article for the Salt Lake Tribune Saturday.

Bishop and Chaffetz will present the bill to the House in a few weeks, and if it passes it would see 18 million acres of public lands in Eastern Utah downgraded from protected lands and turned into oil and gas drilling zones that are exempted from environmental protections, Think Progress reported earlier this year when the bill was unveiled.

“The actions of Bishop and Chaffetz would seek to divest the Ute Indian Tribe of their ancestral homelands,” the committee added while also bringing back “failed policies of tribal land dispossession that have had a devastating and lasting impact upon tribal nations for the past century.”

The bill proposes to make more than 100,000 acres of the Ute reservation lands for the state of Utah. “This modern day Indian land grab cannot be allowed to stand,” the committee argued.

With Most of Dakota Access Pipeline Approved, Final Battle Remains Over Critical Portion

New Zealand kea, the world's only alpine parrot, faces extinction

The world’s only alpine parrot is at threat of extinction in New Zealand as numbers plummet in the face of threats from non-native predators and human development.

The kea is the world’s only mountain-dwelling parrot and also one of the most intelligent species of bird known for their playfulness and novelty-seeking nature.

The birds, which are considered a pest by many New Zealanders, are only found in the mountains of the South Island in a vast habitat of some 3.5 million hectares.

Conservationists have begun raising the alarm after years of “crashing” population numbers, with the wild kea population estimated to be as low as 1,000-5,000.

Recent studies from the Kea Conservation Trust have found two-thirds of all chicks never reach fledgling stage, as their nests are ground-dwelling and they are eaten by stoats, rats and possums (which the NZ government has pledged to exterminate by 2050).

“Kea are one of the most maligned of New Zealand birds, as well as one of our most loved,” said Tamsin Orr-Walker, chair of the Kea Conservation Trust.

“One of the most interesting things about kea is they are one of the few wild species that seek out humans. That is really rare, and it is that inquisitive nature that is getting them into trouble because a lot of the ways humans interact with them is endangering their survival.”

375 top scientists warn of 'real, serious, immediate' climate threat

Yesterday, 375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter regarding climate change. In the letter, the scientists report that the evidence is clear: humans are causing climate change. We are now observing climate change and its affect across the globe. The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic.

These facts are incontrovertible. No reputable scientist disputes them. It is the truth.

Despite these facts, the letter reports that the US presidential campaign has seen claims that the earth isn’t warming, or it is only a natural warming, or that climate change is a hoax. These claims are false. The claims are made by politicians or real estate developers with no scientific experience. These people who deny the reality of climate change are not scientists.

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: The Courtiers and the Tyrants

Trump's plan to seize Iraq's oil: 'It's not stealing, we're reimbursing ourselves'

Obama’s Legacy But Clinton’s Judgment

How Video Games Are Influencing War Propaganda in Syria

George H.W. Bush, the CIA and a Case of State Terrorism

Evidence FBI Gathered While Running Porn Site Thrown Out Again

Virginia Governor Photographed With Willie Nelson’s Pot — But Arrests Thousands for Possession

Justice Kennedy, Author of Citizens United, Shrugs Off Question About His Deeply Flawed Premise

Low-income families face eviction as building 'rebrands' for Facebook workers

The mysterious lynching of Frank Little: activist who fought inequality and lost

A Little Night Music

Elvis Costello and Alan Toussaint - Yes We Can

Allen Toussaint - Working in a Coalmine

Allen Toussaint - Tipitina and Me

Bonnie Raitt / Allen Toussaint - What Is Success

Allen Toussaint - Party Goin' On

Allen Toussaint - Java

Allen Toussaint - It's Raining

Allen Toussaint - On Your Way Down

Allen Toussaint - Long Long Journey

Allen Toussaint - Life Is a Carnival