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This evening's music features bluesman Henry Gray. Enjoy!

“There is one thing that has disappeared, not just from the U.S. but from the entire world, is the idea of ever being embarrassed by anything.”

-- Fran Lebowitz

News and Opinion

Congress overrides Obama's veto of 9/11 bill letting families sue Saudi Arabia

Barack Obama suffered a unique political blow on Wednesday, when the US Congress overturned his veto of a bill that would allow families of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.

The overwhelming bipartisan vote in both the Senate and House inflicted the first veto override of Obama’s presidency, less than four months before he leaves office. ...

The Senate voted 97-1, with the Democratic minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, alone in supporting the veto. The House followed suit a short time later, voting 348-77 to override and putting Congress directly at odds with the White House and national security establishment.

White House Is Profoundly Wrong About the Most Embarrassing Thing Senate Has Done

The White House reacted harshly to the Senate’s overwhelming vote on Wednesday to override President Obama’s veto of a bill that would enable the family members of 9/11 victims to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in U.S. Courts.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest called it “the single most embarrassing thing the United States Senate has done possibly since 1983.”

As it happens, the White House’s principled opposition to the bill was based on its worry that it would open the door to lawsuits from foreigners accusing the U.S. government of crimes, possibly including the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, deaths of innocent people with drones, and global mass surveillance.

Bad Theater at the United Nations (Starring Kerry, Power, and Obama

For some bizarre reason, among his own people Obama is still generally considered a “liberal” who is reluctant to use military force. Don’t waste your breath telling my fellow American citizens that there are already several hundred American Special Forces troops on the ground in Syria, or that Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan (who was involved in the Bush-Cheney torture program) openly admits that America is deliberately prolonging the war, as Edward Hunt recently wrote:

‘CIA Director John Brennan has provided more insight into the administration’s strategy. Addressing the fact that the administration has continued to support a number of opposition groups that are fighting to overthrow the Syrian government, Brennan explained that the administration only provides the opposition groups with just enough resources to keep them fighting. “I think what we’re trying to do is to make sure the moderate opposition continues to stay strong, puts the pressure on the regime,” Brennan explained. “We don’t want the Syrian government to collapse,” he added. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”

‘With its approach, the Obama administration has applied a policy to Syria that has prolonged the war. In fact, some administration officials insist that a prolonged war works to their advantage. Despite the fact that the years of fighting have only succeeded in producing more death and suffering for the Syrian people, with the war now claiming somewhere between a quarter million and a half million lives, a number of officials contend that indefinite fighting provides the United States with strategic benefits.’ (Edward Hunt, Foreign Policy in Focus, Sept. 14)

None of this openly admitted American involvement in the Syrian “civil” war (the label is a deliberate distortion, since a major part of the anti-Assad forces are not Syrian and continue to be armed and funded by other nations) prevents Kerry or US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power or Hillary Clinton from engaging in cheap, vile, mendacious histrionics in front of the Security Council and the world, to the effect that all of the bloodshed and horror are the fault of Russia. They are so confident that their blatant fiction will fall on receptive ears attached to persons unlikely to be aware of the contradictory facts cited above, that they don’t even bother to suggest that Brennan and others go easy with the honesty. There’s no need.

And they get away with it.

RT's Gayane Chichakyan and John Kirby spat over Syria, Saudi and Yemen

US gives Russia ultimatum to halt Aleppo attacks

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday threatened to end Washington's engagement with Russia in Syria following a brutal regime offensive against rebels in Aleppo.

"He informed the foreign minister that the United States is making preparations to suspend US-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria … unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities," said US State Department spokesman John Kirby. ...

Shortly after the US comments, the Russian military said in a statement it was "ready to continue joint work with our American partners on the Syrian issue" and send a delegation to Geneva to "relaunch consultations."

Russia and the United States have exchanged blame for the failure of an early September ceasefire.

Worse Than a Slaughterhouse: 250,000 Trapped in East Aleppo Amid Devastating Bombing Campaign

Syrian National Coalition: Political Solution ‘No Longer Viable’

The Syrian National Coalition, which styles itself as the political leadership of the Syrian rebellion, today declared that they don’t believe that there is any political solution to the Syrian Civil War, and that rather the focus must be on defeating “Russian aggression.”

The National Coalition was originally designed to solicit western funding for the rebellion, and also served as the nominal leadership of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). This didn’t last long, however, as FSA forces quickly started defecting around to various other groups, while keeping the FSA name. Either way, the coalition was never able to exert much of any control over the fighters.

While today’s comments are in keeping with much of the recent rebel narrative about the post-ceasefire situation being all Russia’s fault and proof that the rebellion needs to stay the course, an admission from an explicitly political group that they don’t believe in politics as a viable avenue of discussion makes them even less meaningful than they already were.

Oops, looks like Erdogan may have overplayed his hand:

US providing light arms to Kurdish-led coalition in Syria, officials confirm

US officials have confirmed they are supplying arms to a Kurdish-led coalition in Syria, angering Turkey and jeopardising a precarious common front in the war against Islamic State extremists.

The officials say that the US is supplying only light weapons and they are going to the Arab contingent of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). However, Kurdish officials linked to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the dominant partner in the SDF, say they have been promised the US will arm them directly if they lead the battle for Isis’s Syrian stronghold in Raqqa.

Ankara has reacted furiously to news of the arms supplies, as it views the YPG as a terrorist group, linked to Turkish Kurd militants. The country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he found out about US planes carrying arms landing at the Kurdish-controlled town of Kobani, while he was attending the UN general assembly in New York, at which he met the US vice-president, Joe Biden. Erdoğan claimed Biden said he was unaware of the arms deliveries.

The US insists that the weapons do not represent a threat to Ankara and are essential to the effort to deal a potentially decisive blow to Isis, something Obama is keen to achieve before leaving office.

Two Pakistani soldiers killed in 'surgical' Indian strikes in Kashmir

Two Pakistani soldiers have been killed in the contested territory of Kashmir after India launched what it described as “surgical strikes” against “terrorists … waiting to infiltrate the nation”.

The multiple nighttime strikes across the line of control (LOC) that divides the Himalayan region marked a major escalation of a deepening crisis between the nuclear armed rivals.

Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, India’s director-general of military operations, said the attacks were against militants preparing to cross the LOC, a ceasefire line agreed in 1972, into Indian-controlled territory and had resulted in “significant casualties … to terrorists and those trying to shield them”.

“There were launchpads across the line of control where terrorists were present waiting to infiltrate the nation and attack areas in Kashmir and metros across the country,” Singh said. ...

Pakistan’s army announced the “martyrdom” of two of its soldiers during five and half hours of fighting. “Pakistani troops befittingly responded to Indian unprovoked firing” on four sections of the line of control, an army statement said.

U.S. Military Is Building a $100 Million Drone Base in Africa

From high above, Agadez almost blends into the cocoa-colored wasteland that surrounds it. Only when you descend farther can you make out a city that curves around an airfield before fading into the desert. Once a nexus for camel caravans hauling tea and salt across the Sahara, Agadez is now a West African paradise for people smugglers and a way station for refugees and migrants intent on reaching Europe’s shores by any means necessary.

Africans fleeing unrest and poverty are not, however, the only foreigners making their way to this town in the center of Niger. U.S. military documents reveal new information about an American drone base under construction on the outskirts of the city. The long-planned project — considered the most important U.S. military construction effort in Africa, according to formerly secret files obtained by The Intercept through the Freedom of Information Act — is slated to cost $100 million, and is just one of a number of recent American military initiatives in the impoverished nation.

The base is the latest sign, experts say, of an ever-increasing emphasis on counterterror operations in the north and west of the continent. As the only country in the region willing to allow a U.S. base for MQ-9 Reapers — a newer, larger, and potentially more lethal model than the venerable Predator drone — Niger has positioned itself to be the key regional hub for U.S. military operations, with Agadez serving as the premier outpost for launching intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions against a plethora of terror groups.

Appeals court can't guarantee Snowden safe travel to Norway

A Norwegian appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking a legal guarantee to allow Edward Snowden to travel to Norway without risk of being extradited to the United States. ...

An Oslo law firm filed the lawsuit in April on behalf of the former National Security Agency contractor and the Norwegian chapter of PEN that had invited Snowden to receive its Ossietzky Prize in November. The literary group had appealed the Oslo district court June ruling.

Meanwhile, Obama's Bureau of Prisons is still trying to make certain that whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling leaves prison in a casket. Here's an excerpt of his reply to Kevin Gosztola from Shadowproof's questions:

Letter From CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Details Federal Prison’s Scandalous Treatment

As of September 26, 2016, I am a few days into taking the beta blocker (metoprolol) that was prescribed. The symptoms I have complained of since June 21, 2016 continue though not as frequent and not as intense. It is so difficult describing the feeling I have during the times my heart does flutter/palpitate, but imagine feeling a sudden very hard heartbeat with a sort of pause that emulates your entire body, breathing, moving, etc. being suddenly halted. There is also an at times sharp pain within my chest at the heart. Add in lightheadedness and shortness of breath in with those events and that’s what it feels like. Some days, the events are continual and it feels like at any moment my heart is just going to stop. In addition, I’m not sure whether it is from the medication or to do with my overall health (not to mention the stress of attempting to obtain help from FCI Englewood), but my energy level is quite low.

Of course, I certainly believe that FCI Englewood should take this situation seriously, this is a very scary situation for me. As I have stated time and again to the medical staff here, the episode of atrial fibrillation I experienced some years ago was serious enough for me to be hospitalized for 4 days and what I felt then is what I’m feeling now. Unfortunately, FCI Englewood has done everything but take what I have presented to them with regard to my health seriously. Certainly indicative of their dismissiveness has been the reaction at each and every instance I have gone to them for help. I cannot imagine any other setting where an individual presents medical professionals with heart related symptoms on repeated occasions and is continually dismissed.

There has been more effort to refute me than there has been to actually provide any care.

Obama's pick as ambassador to Cuba has '0% chance' of approval

Barack Obama has a “0%” chance of getting his nomination for ambassador to Cuba approved by Congress, according to the union representing US diplomats.

The president this week announced Jeffrey DeLaurentis as his choice to become the first American ambassador to Cuba in more than half a century, aiming to put the seal on his detente with the communist island nation.

But while Havana welcomed the move, Republican senators including Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas have pledged to block any ambassador nomination, citing a lack of progress in democracy and human rights.

Asked to rate the chances of DeLaurentis being approved, Ásgeir Sigfússon, spokesman for the American Foreign Service Association, said: “I would say 0%. With Marco Rubio on the Senate foreign relations committee, it’s never going to happen.”

After 52-year war, Colombia's peace with the Farc faces public vote

Colombia’s 52-year conflict has left few of its citizens unscathed. In sprawling cities and remote country villages, nearly everyone has experienced killings and kidnaps, bombings and displacement – or knows someone who has.

After the historic peace agreement between the Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was signed and sealed this week, it is now up to those same citizens to approve the deal – and finally put an end to the 52-year war.

In a national plebiscite on Sunday, some 34 million voters will be asked to vote yes or no to the question: “Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace?”

To make the vote’s result binding, the winning side would need a majority of ballots cast and support totaling at least 13% of eligible voters.

Most recent polls show 66% of voters will approve the deal, but a third of voters will reject it.

NYPD sent undercover officers to Black Lives Matter protest, records reveal

Legal papers filed by the New York police department reveal that the department sent its own undercover officers to protests led by Black Lives Matter after the death of Eric Garner. The NYPD documents also show that it collected multimedia records about the protests. ...

The revelations come from the same records request that led to the The Intercept’s release of documents last summer showing that MTA and Metro-North transit police had regularly spied on Black Lives Matter protesters in and around Grand Central, deploying plainclothes officers to monitor demonstrations, track their movements, and share photos of activists. ... The attorneys litigating for the records say the NYPD’s newly revealed operations are potential constitutional violations, especially since released MTA and Metro-North police observations of these protests frequently stated that the gatherings were “peaceful” and “orderly”

“The fear and disarming effect caused by undercovers being assigned to what were and continue to be extraordinarily peaceful protests is disturbing,” said MJ Williams, one of the attorneys involved in the records request. “To the extent that it would influence individuals not to participate and get individuals to censor what they say because of a fear of undercovers – that’s a basis for a first amendment violation.”

She added: “As someone who was present at the protests, it’s disturbing to know the NYPD may have a file on me, ready to be used or to prevent me from getting a job simply because I’ve been active in some political capacity. That’s potentially a fourth amendment violation for unlawful seizure, but on the other hand, we’ve seen law enforcement agencies have all sorts of justifications for data collection for public safety that the courts have allowed.”

The Empire Files: How Palestine Became Colonized

Natural born killers: humans predisposed to murder, study suggests

Humans are predisposed to murder each other, new research suggests, although it remains unclear if it’s down to genetics or other factors.

Researchers from Spain have found that a tendency to bump off members of the same species is particularly common among primates, and have estimated that around 2% of human deaths at the origin of our species were down to such lethal spats.

“What it is saying, in the broadest terms, is that humans have evolved strategies for solving problems with violence,” said Mark Pagel, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the research.

But, the authors add, the impact of society can greatly modify how aggressive humans are, with the proportion of human deaths due to people fighting between themselves fluctuating over mankind’s history.

“Lethal violence is part of our evolutionary history but not carved in stone in ‘our genes’,” said José María Gómez, first author of the study from the Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA) in Spain. “At least to some extent, the way humans organise in societies influences our levels of lethal violence.”

Hmmm. Does "the way humans organise in societies" mitigate or normalize "our levels of lethal violence?"

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres dead at 93

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres died early Wednesday at 93 years of age, after suffering a stroke two weeks earlier. ...

Within hours of Peres’ death, US President Barack Obama said Americans were “in his debt because, having worked with every US president since John F Kennedy, no one did more over so many years as Shimon Peres to build the alliance between our two countries -- an unbreakable alliance that today is closer and stronger than it has ever been.” ...

Critics, meanwhile, were quick to point out that Peres joined the Haganah paramilitary group after he and his family moved from Belarus to British Mandate of Palestine in 1930. The Haganah was one of the principal forces behind the Nakba, or catastrophe, that left around 750,000 Palestinians as refugees abroad and wiped out some 500 Palestinian villages.

He also played a key role in the establishment of the first illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank through vast land confiscations of privately owned Palestinian land, and became a fierce defender of the Israeli military’s multiple assaults and continued blockade on the Gaza Strip.

During his tenure as prime minister in 1996, Peres also ordered and oversaw the Qanaa massacre in Lebanon, in which the Israeli military killed and injured hundreds of civilians and UN peacekeepers.

Following the massacre, Israeli gunners told Israeli media that they had no regrets over killing more than 100 civilians, because the dead were "just a bunch of Arabs." Peres meanwhile was later quoted as saying that “everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way,” he that he was “at peace.”

Shimon Peres' mixed legacy: War criminal or peace dove?

U.S. owes black people reparations for a history of ‘racial terrorism,’ says U.N. panel

The history of slavery in the United States justifies reparations for African Americans, argues a recent report by a U.N.-affiliated group based in Geneva.

This conclusion was part of a study by the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights. The group of experts, which includes leading human rights lawyers from around the world, presented its findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, pointing to the continuing link between present injustices and the dark chapters of American history.

"In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent," the report stated. "Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching."

Citing the past year's spate of police officers killing unarmed African American men, the panel warned against "impunity for state violence," which has created, in its words, a "human rights crisis" that "must be addressed as a matter of urgency."

The panel drew its recommendations, which are nonbinding and unlikely to influence Washington, after a fact-finding mission in the United States in January.

Donald Trump attacks 'biased' Lester Holt and accuses Google of conspiracy

Donald Trump has gone on the offensive after his underwhelming debate performance by criticizing debate moderator Lester Holt as biased and accusing Google of a conspiracy to rig search results in favor of Hillary Clinton.

He also had surrogates attack his Democrat rival for her husband’s infidelities while suggesting she wants to “strip [the United States] of its status as a sovereign nation”.

The Republican nominee launched the latest salvo of attacks in an interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly where he claimed Holt “was much, much tougher on me than he was on Hillary”. Trump said that while initially “I said good things right after the show” he had changed his mind about Holt’s performance “after seeing the way he badgered and even the questions I got”. ...

Also, at the rally, Trump unveiled a new accusation towards Clinton, whom he has repeatedly attacked as “a globalist”, by saying she was a “vessel for special interests ... who want to strip [the United States] of its status as a sovereign nation”.

Point of No Return: Earth Reaches 400ppm Threshold Permanently

Scientists say it is 'almost impossible' that carbon dioxide output will drop below symbolic milestone in our lifetimes

September's carbon dioxide output failed to drop below 400 parts per million (ppm) despite historically being the year's low point for CO2 emissions, which means the Earth has very likely passed that symbolic climate threshold forever.

The Earth has hit 400ppm before, but seasonal cycles have always reduced carbon dioxide output back below that level. Now, climate scientists say it is "almost impossible" that will ever happen again.

According to Climate Central:

September is usually the month when carbon dioxide is at its lowest after a summer of plants growing and sucking it up in the northern hemisphere. As fall wears on, those plants lose their leaves, which in turn decompose, releasing the stored carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. At Mauna Loa Observatory, the world's marquee site for monitoring carbon dioxide, there are signs that the process has begun but levels have remained above 400 ppm.

"Is it possible that October 2016 will yield a lower monthly value than September and dip below 400 ppm? Almost impossible," scientist Ralph Keeling, who runs the carbon dioxide monitoring program at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography, wrote in a blog post this week. "Brief excursions towards lower values are still possible but it already seems safe to conclude that we won't be seeing a monthly value below 400 ppm this year—or ever again for the indefinite future." ...

Another recent report also found that the planet could pass another point of no return—the agreed-upon 1.5°C warming threshold—in a decade.

Heh, hard to tell whether this is good or bad news for the environment. Hopefully it won't preserve the life span of the fracking industry.

Oil prices rise 6% after Opec agrees to limit crude output>

Oil prices settled up nearly 6% on Wednesday after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) struck a deal to limit crude output. Its first agreement to cut production since 2008 follows a and will be finalised at its policy meeting in November.

Opec reached agreement to limit its production to a range of 32.5m-33m million barrels per day (bpd) in talks held on the sidelines of the 26-28 September International Energy Forum in Algiers, group officials told Reuters. Opec estimates its current output at 33.24m bpd.

“We have decided to decrease production by around 700,000 bpd,” said Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh.

Opec will agree to production levels for each member country at its 30 November meeting in Vienna, group officials said. After reaching its group target, it will seek support from non-member oil producers to further ease the global glut.

Furniture that destroys forests: crack down on 'rampant' trade in rosewood

Governments have launched a crackdown on the rampant billion-dollar trade in rosewood timber that is plundering forests across the planet to feed a booming luxury furniture market in China.

The Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) summit on Thursday placed all 300 species of rosewood under trade restrictions, meaning criminals can no longer pass off illegally logged species as legitimate.

Rosewood is the world’s most trafficked wild product, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, accounting for a third of all seizures by value, more than elephant ivory, pangolins, rhino horn, lions and tigers put together.

With a beautiful deep red glow, it is the traditional wood used for elite, classic-style “hongmu” furniture in China: one huge carved bed was on sale recently for $1m. But due to explosive demand from China’s fast-growing middle class, the rosewood trade has soared since 2005, multiplying 65 times in value and now worth $2.2bn a year.

As a result, the forests of south-east Asia have been rapidly emptying, peaking in 2014. Traffickers are now targeting more than 80 other countries across the tropics where rosewoods grow, particularly in west Africa but also central America.

Zimbabwe accused of preparing to ship dozens of young elephants to China

Concerns have been raised that Zimbabwe is again preparing to send dozens of young elephants to wildlife parks in China.

The government’s national park authority, ZimParks, began capturing elephants from Hwange national park in August and keeping them in pens at Umtshibi wildlife capture and relocation unit.

The agency has said it plans to capture about 100 elephants, mostly sub-adults, and contain them in pens for two months before moving them to another park. But conservationists believe the government intends to sell them to wildlife parks in China.

The live export of elephants from Zimbabwe is legal. But it has been criticised by animal welfare advocates who argue the process compromises their complex social and physical needs. ...

In the past, Zimbabwe has exported elephants to India, Spain, the US and elsewhere. Last year it sent 24 Hwange elephants to China, provoking an outcry from animal welfare organisations. Experts looking at photos of those elephants – some as young as two – believed there were signs of distress, injury and possibly abuse.

Also of Interest

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

Shimon Peres became a beloved Israeli leader by staying quiet about peace

Shimon Peres was no peacemaker. I’ll never forget the sight of pouring blood and burning bodies at Qana

Why the U.S. has blessed a Saudi war against a small group of impoverished smugglers in Yemen

Troubling Gaps in the New MH-17 Report

Police surveillance: The US city that beat Big Brother

Justice Department Is Fighting Fired FBI Agent’s Use of Whistleblower Defense

Apple Logs Your iMessage Contacts — and May Share Them With Police

'Partnership on AI' formed by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft

Dakota Access Pipeline and the Future of American Labor

The Book of Hygge review – can the Danes really teach us how to live?

The 1940s school that turned photography into art

A Little Night Music

Henry Gray & Bob Corritore - Blues Won't Let Me Take My Rest

Henry Gray, Kid Ramos & Lynwood Slim - Early in the Morning, What'd I Say

Little Henry Gray - Matchbox Blues

Henry Gray - Finger snappin' boogie

Henry Gray - My Girl Josephine

Henry Gray - You're My Midnight Dream

Henry Gray - Watch Yourself

Henry Gray - Mojo Boogie

Henry Gray - You Messed Up

Henry Gray - Bright Lights Big City