Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Los Angeles blues rock band The Red Devils. Enjoy!

“This is the permanent tension that lies at the heart of a capitalist democracy and is exacerbated in times of crisis. In order to ensure the survival of the richest, it is democracy that has to be heavily regulated rather than capitalism.”

-- Tariq Ali

News and Opinion

40 Years Ago, This Chilean Exile Warned Us About the Shock Doctrine. Then He Was Assassinated.

In August 1976, The Nation published an essay that rocked the US political establishment, both for what it said and for who was saying it. “The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile: Economic ‘Freedom’s’ Awful Toll” was written by Orlando Letelier, the former right-hand man of Chilean President Salvador Allende. Earlier in the decade, Allende had appointed Letelier to a series of top-level positions in his democratically elected socialist government: ambassador to the United States (where he negotiated the terms of nationalization for several US-owned firms operating in Chile), minister of foreign affairs, and, finally, minister of defense.

Then, on September 11, 1973, Chile’s government was overthrown in a bloody, CIA-backed coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. This shattering event left Allende dead in the smoldering presidential palace and Letelier and other “VIP prisoners” banished to a remote labor camp in the Strait 
of Magellan.

After a powerful international campaign lobbied for Letelier’s release, the junta finally allowed him to go into exile. The 44-year-old former ambassador moved to Washington, DC; in 1976, when his Nation essay appeared, he was working at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a left-wing think tank. Haunted by thoughts of his colleagues and friends still behind bars, many facing gruesome torture, Letelier used his newly recovered freedom to expose Pinochet’s crimes and to defend Allende’s record against the CIA propaganda machine. ...

What frustrated Letelier, a trained economist, was that, even as the world gasped in horror at reports of summary executions in the national stadium and the pervasive use of electroshock in prisons, most critics were silent when it came to Chile’s economic shock 
therapy—the brutal methods used by the “Chicago Boys” to turn Chile into the very first laboratory for Milton Friedman’s fundamentalist version of capitalism. Indeed, many who condemned Pinochet’s human-rights record heaped praise on the dictator for his bold embrace of free-market fundamentals, which included rapid-fire privatization, the elimination of price controls on staples like bread, and attacks on trade unions.

Letelier set out to explode this comfortable elite consensus with a litany of factual evidence and persuasive rhetoric. He argued that the junta wasn’t pursuing two separate, easily compartmentalized projects—one a visionary experiment in economic transformation, the other a grisly system of torture and terror. There was, in fact, only one project, in which terror was the central tool of the free-market transformation. “Repression for the majorities and ‘economic freedom’ for small privileged groups are in Chile two sides of the same coin,” Letelier wrote.

{Letelier's article is here: The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile: Economic Freedom’s Awful Toll]

Defense Secretary: 9/11 Lawsuit Bill a Threat to US Troops

The Obama Administration is in full press mode attacking the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) ahead of an expected veto. The bill would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its involve in the attack, and was unanimously passed in both the House and Senate. It enjoys considerable public support.

Administration officials are presenting it as a “dangerous precedent,” however, with Defense Secretary Ash Carter today insisting he is worried about the risk the bill poses to US troops, a sentiment echoed by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford.

This is a somewhat more specialized version of President Obama’s initial argument against JASTA, that the elimination of sovereign immunity for the Saudis by the bill might provide a precedent for some other nation to do the same with the US over its many, many misdeeds. ...

America’s own 9/11 Report, in particular the 28 Pages, detailed involvement by Saudi officials, including members of the royal family, in support provided to 9/11 attackers. While the White House has tried to downplay the report’s contents as inconclusive, their argument still boils down to the idea that America needs to ignore Saudi dalliances with international terror to protect the American government’s many criminals from similar legal repercussions.

Obama's murder of bin Laden did such a great job of ending the Global War on Terrorism that Clinton wants to hunt down and murder her own bin Laden.

Hillary Clinton's plan to stop Isis: hunt down leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

A key priority of Hillary Clinton’s proposed intelligence surge will be to kill or capture Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, her campaign has told the Guardian.

During the past year, Clinton, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee, has placed bolstering the vast US intelligence apparatus at the center of her national security agenda.

Days before the first presidential debate – and after the New York area escaped without mass casualties from multiple bombings – her campaign has for the first time expanded on how her policies would work.

Since its 2015 inception, the “intelligence surge” has evolved from an idea of expanding intelligence assets directed against the Islamic State and its adjuncts to a broader initiative with a significant domestic component, aimed at uncovering and preventing attacks directed or inspired by terrorist groups.

Much of it remains undefined. Its challenge, say Clinton campaign advisers, is to match and thwart the way terrorism has transitioned from large-scale attacks directed by established terrorist groups to small-scale assaults by unconnected, self-radicalized perpetrators that are comparatively difficult to detect.

Overseas, the Clinton campaign discusses the intelligence surge in terms of accelerating a focus on the Middle East. It seeks to expand intelligence sharing, particularly across European governments hindered by the lack of a continental intelligence infrastructure, concerning flows of jihadists, money and weapons. And it will support an intensified hunt for Baghdadi expending “significant resources”, reminiscent of Barack Obama’s successful push to find and kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Media Ask Which Candidate Can Better Exploit Our Irrational Fear of Terrorism

The media’s tendency to focus on horserace issues—who’s up and who’s down, what the cosmetics are of an event rather than the substance—is routinely derided by media critics, and mocking it has become something of an election year tradition. But one 2016 topic in particular, terrorism, has become the hot horserace topic of the year in a way that goes beyond the silly to the potentially damaging:

• Clinton, Trump Jockey Over Who Would Best Fight Terrorists (WNBC, 9/20/16)
• Who Has the Upper Hand on Terrorism, Clinton or Trump? (Politico, 9/20/16)
• Terror Threat Clash: Trump, Clinton Accuse Each Other of Boosting Enemy (Fox News, 9/19/16)
• Clinton, Trump Spar Over Terrorism in Wake of Latest Attacks (USA Today, 9/20/16)

Something missing from these reports is any discussion of the relative danger of terrorism. The reporters begin with the premise that voters are afraid of it, never challenging the underlying rationality of those fears.

The reality is that terrorism remains, objectively, a very minor threat. (One is 82 times more likely to be killed falling out of bed than by a terrorist.) But by framing the issue as an urgent danger, with two candidates “dueling” over opposing ways of addressing this menace, the media further inflate terrorism’s importance. Can one even imagine Trump and Clinton “jockeying” for position on climate change, or violence against women and LGBT communities, or lowering heart disease—all of which, statistically, are far, far more dangerous than terrorism?

This isn’t a new problem, of course. In nine Democratic primary debates, for example, the moderators asked a total of 30 questions about  terrorism or ISIS, and not one question about poverty (FAIR.org, 5/27/16). (A 2011 study by Columbia’s school of public health estimated that 4.5 percent of all deaths in the United States are attributable to poverty.)

Syrian regime starts new offensive

Warplanes kill 45 in Aleppo — but Assad says civilian deaths aren't his fault

Syrian warplanes bombarded several districts in the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo overnight with multiple reports of phosphorous bombs being used by the troops of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

An exact death toll is still unknown but the director of al-Quds hospital Dr. Hamza al-Khatib told Reuters on Thursday that at least 45 people had died in the overnight bombing raids....

The attacks came hours after Syria's President Bashar al-Assad claimed he bears no responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of people killed during the six years of civil war, and said war was likely to "drag on" because of continued external support for his opponents. ...

al-Assad blamed the US for the collapse of the ceasefire and said Syria and Russia had nothing to do with an attack on an aid convoy Monday that killed 20 people and destroyed 18 of 31 trucks.

We fly - you don’t: US wants no-fly zone over Syria, but only for Russia & the Syrians

Russia rejects Kerry's idea of grounding Russian, Syrian planes

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov rejected a proposal by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for Russia and Syria to halt flying over Syrian battle zones as unworkable, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

Kerry made his proposal at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, calling it a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way "out of the carnage".

Russia and the Syrian government spurned his plea with warplanes mounting the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, burying any hope for the revival of a doomed ceasefire.

Syria Announces New Offensive Against Aleppo as Truce Talks Fail

The Syrian government has announced a major new offensive against the Nusra Front-held half of the city of Aleppo today, urging locals to avoid areas where terrorists are located and announcing a number of areas through which civilians can flee the area.

The offensive was announced after the latest efforts to revive the already collapsed ceasefire failed. Syrian officials withdrew from the ceasefire on Monday, citing weekend violations. The announcement was vague on whether this offensive would include attempts to send ground forces into the area.

Turkey Won’t Join Raqqa Invasion If Kurds Involved

Turkish government spokesman Ibrahim Kalin today warned the international community that they must not allow the Kurdish YPG to play any role in the invasion of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa if they want Turkey to be involved in the push. ...

This is likely to be a major stumbling block in having such an offensive, since the US troops in the area are embedded almost exclusively with the Kurdish forces, and if the Kurds are cut out of the offensive it will boil down to Turkey and a few dozen US troops doing all the fighting.

The opposite possibility, the US attacking Raqqa with the Kurds but without Turkey, could be problematic too, as Turkey has warned they won’t accept any offensive in which the Kurds play a major role, and won’t accept the Kurds ending up with more territory in the fight.

Turkish journalist detained over 'subliminal coup messages'

A prominent Turkish journalist was detained for trial on Friday, accused of participating in a coup by sending out subliminal messages to rogue troops who tried to seize power, media said.

Ahmet Altan, also a popular a novelist, was first held for questioning with his brother Mehmet Altan two weeks ago, both of them accused of sending out the messages during a TV talk show a day before the abortive July coup, state media reported. ...

The brothers, outspoken critics of President Tayyip Erdogan, allegedly disseminated "subliminal messages suggestive of a coup attempt" during their TV appearance on July 14, the state-run Anadolu Agency said at the time of their first detention.

Ahmet Altan, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Taraf newspaper, has denied the charges in a post on P24, calling them "nonsense".

Pentagon Seeks 500 More Ground Troops in Iraq for Mosul Invasion

With officials saying that the planned invasion of the city of Mosul could begin as soon as October, the Pentagon is once again requesting more US ground troops be deployed into the area around the city, The Pentagon has already deployed several hundred troops multiple times in the last two months on the same basis.

The Pentagon is seeking another 500 “permanent” US troops in Iraq, which would bring the official figure in the country to 4,900. In practice, the Pentagon already is believed to have in excess of 6,000 troops in Iraq, but labels many of them “temporary” and doesn’t count them, despite their deployments not having any specific end date.

... While officials have previously claimed that the US troops would primarily be there for “logistics” purposes, it is expected that many will be embedded into the Iraqi forces.

House Panel: ‘Reboot’ of US Military to Cost $1 Trillion Over Next Decade

[Surprise! - js] The House Armed Services Committee is laying out a ridiculously expensive scheme to “reboot” the entire military.

Panel members insist that 15 years of non-stop war has, despite that same period being loaded with record budgets, pushed the military to its limit, and that the new plan is needed, which will take a decade and cost an addition $1 trillion, above and beyond the already massive amounts being spent.

Hawks on the panel insist that the massive new scheme is needed because the military is “unready” to fight a major war with either Russia or China.

US National Security Policy for Climate Change Seeks Security for Corporate-Controlled Assets

Chelsea Manning gets 14 days in solitary confinement for suicide attempt

Prison officials have sentenced Chelsea Manning to 14 days in solitary confinement following an attempt to kill herself in July. ...

Government officials drew the public’s ire after charging Manning with three counts of misconduct following the suicide attempt, including two which carried possible penalties of indefinite solitary confinement.

Seven days of Manning’s punishment will be suspended indefinitely, in effect reserved in case prison officials feel Manning poses further disciplinary problems. Manning did not indicate whether she intends to appeal against the punishment.

“The term for this status is ‘disciplinary segregation’,” said Manning, in a statement released by Fight for the Future, a group advocating on Manning’s behalf. “There is no set date set for this to start. After I receive the formal board results in writing, I have 15 days to appeal. I expect to get them in the next few days.

“I am feeling hurt. I am feeling lonely. I am embarrassed by the decision. I don’t know how to explain it,” said Manning.

Yahoo says 500 million users were hacked by 'state-sponsored actor'

Yahoo revealed 500 million user accounts were breached in 2014 by an unnamed "state-sponsored actor" in one of the biggest cybersecurity breaches of all time.

The pioneering web company, in the verge of closing its $4.8 billion sale to Verizon, announced the breach after weeks of speculation after Motherboard reported a hacker listed a database of 200 million Yahoo accounts for sale on the dark web marketplace The Real Deal.

In a statement, the company said there is "no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network," and that the company is cooperating with law enforcement. The company adds that users can visit a security FAQ page in order to learn more about what they can do to secure their accounts (free tip: reset your password).

FBI investigation of leaked NSA hacking tools examines operative's 'mistake'

A careless agent. A cache of hacking tools left on a remote and unsecured computer. A shadowy group of Russian hackers. A fire-sale on the deep web.

This is the current focus of a inquiry into a cache of NSA exploits that were dumped on to public websites last month by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, four people with direct knowledge of the probe investigation told Reuters.

Various explanations have been floated by officials in Washington as to how the tools were stolen. Some feared it was the work of a leaker similar to former agency contractor Edward Snowden, while others suspected the Russians might have hacked into NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

But officials heading the FBI-led investigation now discount both of those scenarios, the people said in separate interviews.

NSA officials have told investigators that an employee or contractor made the mistake about three years ago during an operation that used the tools, the people said. That person acknowledged the error shortly afterward, they said. ...

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the former NSA person, who has since departed the agency for other reasons, left the tools exposed deliberately. Another possibility, two of the sources said, is that more than one person at the headquarters or a remote location made similar mistakes or compounded each other’s missteps.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge urged to confront past colonial wrongs in Canada

A who’s who of Canadian leaders will descend on the 300-person ballroom of Government House in Victoria, Canada on Monday to shake hands and make acquaintance with the royal couple. But just beyond them will sit a powerful art installation aimed at showcasing an entirely different side of Canada’s relationship with its monarchy.

Reaching almost 2.5 metres (8ft) high, and stretching more than 12 metres long , the cedar frames of the Witness Blanket hold more than 800 objects, ranging from leather straps once used to beat children to a doll made of a rag and sticks by a child desperate to recreate the toy she was forced to leave at home.

Each object is an intimate window into one of Canada’s ugliest chapters: the residential schools where about 150,000 indigenous children were taken to forcibly integrate into Canadian society. A truth commission last year described the state-run schools as a tool of “cultural genocide”.

It was the same commission that inspired the Witness Blanket. “Truth telling and remembering requires remembering all parts of it,” said Carey Newman, the Kwagiulth artist behind the installation. “The very laws that enacted residential schools were signed off by our sovereign. That’s a really big part of how we got here.” ...

During the treaty-making process, First Nations entered a relationship with the crown on an equal footing, said the Assembly of First Nations national chief, Perry Bellegarde. “We have that nation-to-nation relationship with the crown,” he said. “We hold the crown and monarchy in high regard.”

But the bond, predicated on peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, and which aimed to allow both nations to benefit from sharing Canada’s land and resource wealth, has since “been tainted and soured”, he said.

Canada is rated sixth in the world when it comes to the United Nations Human Development Index. “But when you apply those same indices to indigenous peoples, we’re 63rd,” Bellegarde said. “Obviously we’re not sharing the land and resource wealth of this great country.”

The cop who killed Terence Crutcher is charged with manslaughter

Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby has been charged with first-degree manslaughter for the shooting death of Terence Crutcher, prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Shelby shot and killed the 40-year-old Crutcher on September 16 in an incident that sparked nationwide outrage when video of it was made public on Monday. ...

Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiller said a warrant had been issued for Shelby's arrest, and she was planning to surrender to authorities, according to local TV news broadcaster Fox23. Shelby was placed on administrative leave by the Tulsa Police Department after the shooting. If convicted, she faces a minimum of four years in prison.

Moral Mondays Leader Rev. Barber: Release Video of Keith Scott Shooting, It Belongs to the Public

Keith Lamont Scott's family says Charlotte police videos prove nothing

The family of Keith Lamont Scott are urging for the public release of the videos showing his fatal shooting by a Charlotte police officer, after the department permitted them to view the footage on Thursday.

After seeing the footage, the family's attorney Justin Bamberg said in a statement that they have been left with "more questions than answers."

While police have contended that Scott, 43, was armed and pointing a gun; a witness had said he was actually holding a book. "It is impossible to discern from the videos what, if anything, Mr. Scott is holding in his hands," Bamberg said.

The family, along with civil rights groups like the NAACP, are demanding transparency and the immediate public release of the videos.

Charlotte Police Chief Refuses to Release Dashcam Video of Officer Killing Keith Scott

After a second night of angry protests over the fatal shooting of Keith Scott by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city’s police chief admitted that dashcam video of the incident, which has not been made public, does not include “absolute, definitive, visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun.” ...

At least one witness to the shooting, which took place on Tuesday afternoon as officers were searching for someone else and came across Scott sitting in his car, said that the victim was not holding a gun, as the police said, but a book.

Chief Putney, who has resisted demands from the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and others to release all video of the shooting recorded by other officers and by cameras mounted on patrol cars, said that his department only releases footage “when we think it is in the public’s interest.” In this case, he told reporters at a news conference, “you shouldn’t expect it to be released.”

#Charlotte Police Chief said "transparency is in the eye of the beholder." What does that even mean?pic.twitter.com/QOQUNfQRNe

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) September 22, 2016

Asked by one incredulous reporter how withholding the visual evidence could be squared with the city’s promise of full transparency, Putney said, “I never said ‘full transparency.’ I said ‘transparency,’ and transparency’s in the eye of the beholder.”

Charlotte protesters ‘hate white people,’ NC Congressman Robert Pittenger says

U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger says the violence in Charlotte stems from protesters who “hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not.”

Pittenger is a Republican whose district includes parts of the city where protests have turned violent in the wake of a police shooting of a black man.

Pittenger appeared on a BBC TV news program Thursday and made the statement when asked to describe the “grievance” of the people protesting.

Protesters in #Charlotte "hate white people" - North Carolina Congressman Pittenger tells #newsnight https://t.co/q6ELYD01QV

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 22, 2016

“The grievance in their minds – the animus, the anger – they hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not,” said Pittenger, who then went on to criticize people who receive welfare.

“It is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we’ve put people in bondage, so they can’t be all they’re capable of being.”

Clinton is buying twice the TV ads, but Trump is gaining in polls

Gone are the days when Donald Trump could rely on endless free media. His impromptu calls into cable news studios may have been enough to smother his Republican primary opponents, but the general election has Trump buying TV ads like any other candidate.

Still, for the past month, he's only put out half as many campaign ads as Hillary Clinton, for half the cost according to a study put out this week by the Wesleyan Media Project. While Clinton has pumped out over 50,000 ads for around $35.5 million, Trump has only gotten about 27,000, spending $14 million.

The market breakdown shows Clinton spots making up 60 percent of all political ads in Toledo, Ohio to 73 percent in PIttsburgh, Pennsylvania to 80 percent in Des Moines, Iowa.

Despite Clinton's market domination, the polls are still moving to Trump.

Meanwhile, delusional assholes are catapulting the McCarthyite propaganda:

Despite Lack of Evidence, Dems Demand Russia ‘Stop’ Trying to Hack Election

Capping off a summer in which a substantial part of the Democratic Party’s campaign for president has been accusing Russia of plotting to get the Republican nominee elected, a pair of Democrats who are ranking members on their respective intelligence committees, Rep. Adam Schiff (D – CA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), are once again, despite any publicly available evidence to support the allegations, presenting claims Russia is hacking the US election as an unquestionable fact.

They went on in the statement to claim that the only “the very senior levels” could’ve ordered such a plot, which again isn’t proven to exist, and followed it up with a demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately stop all efforts to try to hack and/or influence the US elections.

Clinton, apparently rattled by poll numbers, is resorting to desperate promises:

Channeling Sanders, Clinton Proposes Whopping Billionaire Estate Tax

In a nod to her former opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Thursday proposed steeply elevating the estate tax for the wealthiest Americans.

The former Secretary of State now advocates an estate tax of 65 percent, and said she would lower the cutoff for the estate tax to those estates worth more than $3.5 million—a tax structure first put forth by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who ran against Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary.

"Secretary Clinton understands that it is appropriate to ask the top three-tenths of 1 percent, the very wealthiest people in this country, to pay their fair share of taxes so that we can provide a child tax credit for millions of working families and lower taxes for small businesses," Sanders told Wall Street Journal after the policy change was announced.

Clinton had previously proposed a 45 percent estate tax rate; the current rate is 40 percent and only applies to estates worth over $5.4 million.

Clinton's proposed reforms would elevate the estate tax rate to its highest level since 1981, the Wall Street Journal notes.

"Beyond all that," writes Slate, "Clinton has said she would largely do away with the step-up in basis at death, a rule that allows lucky heirs to avoid paying capital gains taxes that, say, their parents or uncle or other rich benefactor would have owed had they sold their stock before passing away."

Climate takes a tern for the worse:

Terns flee warming temperatures in epic migration north to Alaska

Eyebrows would be raised if American crocodiles, found on the southern tip of Florida, decided to relocate to New York’s Fifth Avenue or Moroccan camels suddenly joined the tourist throng outside Buckingham Palace in London. Yet this is the scale of species shift that appears to be under way in Alaska.

In July, researchers in Cape Krusenstern national monument on the north-west coast of Alaska were startled to discover a nest containing Caspian terns on the gravelly beach of a lagoon. The birds were an incredible 1,000 miles further north than the species had been previously recorded.

“There was plenty of shock, it is a very unusual situation,” said Dr Martin Robards, Arctic program director at the Wildlife Conservation Society, which found the nest. “We checked with Caspian tern experts and they were all very surprised they were this far north. We get Arctic terns here but these terns are much bigger, they really stand out.”

The terns, usually found in Washington state, successfully bred and chicks have now flown the nest. While it remains to be seen whether Caspian terns will become ensconced long-term within the Arctic circle, the epic relocation is emblematic of how warming temperatures are causing a huge upheaval in the basic rhythms of Alaska’s environment. ...

Alaska is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the US, with the winter temperature 6F (3.3C) warmer than it was 60 years ago. Snow and ice has retreated, spring is coming earlier. The landscape is changing and so are its residents.

“To be 1,000 miles further north attests to how much the globe has warmed,” said Terry Root, a biologist and senior fellow at Stanford University. “Birds follow their physiology, nothing else. If they think they should move, they move. Alaska has warmed so much that it is causing havoc to a lot of nature.”

As Tribes Fight Pipeline, Internal AFL-CIO Letter Exposes 'Very Real Split'

The AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, generated waves of criticism by standing against the Standing Rock Sioux and supportive allies last week when it endorsed the Dakota Access Pipeline – a project opponents say threatens tribal sovereignty, regional water resources, and sacred burial grounds while also undermining efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

Yet while a public statement by AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka stirred widespread backlash, what has not been seen by the general public is an internal letter which preceded that statement—a letter which not only reveals a deeper and growing rift within the federation, but one that also helps expose the troubling distance between the needs of workers and priorities of policy-makers on a planet where runaway temperatures are said to be changing everything. ...

The five-page letter (pdf), dated September 14th, is addressed to Trumka and copied to all presidents of the AFL-CIO's 56 affiliated unions. It was sent by Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), which represents 14 separate building and construction unions within the federation.

In the letter, McGarvey questions top leadership for not taking a firmer position in defense of the union members working on Dakota Access and calls out other AFL-CIO member unions—specifically the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the National Nurses United (NNU), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU)—for aligning with "environmental extremists" opposed to the pipeline and participating in a "misinformation campaign" alongside "professional agitators" and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. ...

Criticizing the unions standing with the tribes, McGarvey accuses their leaders of "callously" and "hypocritically" disregarding the pipeline workers. He also declares the "misinformation and inaccuracies that [these union members] have used to justify their opposition to this project to be nothing short of astounding if not wholly ignorant." McGarvey's letter concludes by demanding a "public apology" by those unions "for not only the uninformed public opposition to this project" but for also "initiating the conscious decoupling of the American Labor Movement or, what remains of it."

"Is This America?" Co-Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Recalls Dog Attack on Native Americans

Tribes Across North America Unite in 'Wall of Opposition' to Alberta Tar Sands

In a historic show of unity, more than 50 First Nations across North America on Thursday signed a new treaty alliance against the expansion of tar sands mining and infrastructure in their territory.

Citing the threats to water and land through a spill or pipeline leak, as well the industry's undeniable impact on "catastrophic climate change," the treaty (pdf) states, "Tar Sands expansion is a collective threat to our Nations. It requires a collective response."

"Therefore," it continues, "our Nations hereby join together under the present treaty to officially prohibit and to agree to collectively challenge and resist the use of our respective territories and coasts in connection with the expansion of the production of the Alberta Tar Sands, including for the transport of such expanded production, whether by pipeline, rail or tanker."

Leaders gathered in Vancouver, which sits on Musqueam Territory, as well as on Mohawk Territory in Montreal for simultaneous ceremonies to cement the continent-wide agreement, which specifically unites the tribes in opposition to all five current tar sands pipeline and tanker project proposals—Kinder Morgan, Energy East, Line 3, Northern Gateway, and Keystone XL—as well as tar sands rail projects. ...

As Carrier Sekani Tribal Chief Terry Teegee observed, "a pipeline cannot hope to pass through a unified wall of Indigenous opposition," nor can it find an alternate route around it.

"We are in a time of unprecedented unity amongst Indigenous people working together for a better future for everyone," added Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Sacred Trust Initiative.

Trump to Fossil Fuel Execs: 'You Will Like Me So Much'

The same day as a new report highlighted the carbon emissions calamity that would accompany new fossil fuel extraction, Donald Trump promised an audience of fossil fuel executives that is the very agenda he would pursue if elected to the White House.

"Oh, you will like me so much," the Republican presidential candidate said in his address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

He promised to lift regulations, open up more federal lands for fossil fuel extraction—including coal and fracking—and ease the way for new fossil fuel infrastructure projects including pipelines.

Trump said he would get rid of "all unnecessary regulations, and [place] a temporary moratorium on new regulations not compelled by Congress or public safety." He also called anti-coal regulations "unfair to our people and our workers."

New fossil fuel projects the executives would like to advance would be no problem under a Trump presidency, he said. "If I'm president, they'll happen quickly. You'll be amazed how quickly," he said.

Also of Interest

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

How the Pentagon Sank the US-Russia Deal in Syria – and the Ceasefire

Facebook Disables Accounts of Palestinian Editors

New Data Disproves US Corporations’ False Narrative on Taxes

A Scam Too Far

The tiny nation of Kiribati will soon be underwater — here's the plan to save its people

A Little Night Music

The Red Devils - Tail Dragger

The Red Devils - Quarter to Twelve

The Red Devils - She's Dynamite

The Red Devils - Louisiana Blues (Commit A Crime)

The Red Devils - Time To Cry

The Red Devils - The Hook

The Red Devils - Mr. Highway Man / Cross Your Heart

The Red Devils 1993 Live at Pinkpop The Netherlands