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This evening's music features blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite. Enjoy!

"America now is nakedly belligerent, on the war path while drastically streamlining its own political economy, as, e.g., through outsourcing, industrial division of labor, and extreme emphasis on the financialization of capitalism itself, combining internal-external processes to hold its position in a world political economy and power system where unilateral prestige and military prowess no long hold, reducing America to one among equals, an intolerable state to a nation habituated to international success. The strain is showing. ...

Clinton and Trump, and the political parties and party system that stand behind them, epitomize the logical outcome, viz., moral bankruptcy, of advanced capitalism in America, in which war, militarism, and defense budgets and production all become necessary to avoid economic stagnation or poor growth, while the ideological reproduction of exceptionalism through its various historical stages ensures a blindness to the human costs of impending war. The election is rendered meaningless because continuity has been preserved with an antiradical heritage now transposed into a setting so whipped up with neurotic frustration at having lost undisputed world supremacy and at home increasing wealth and income differentiation that a paralysis of will is setting in, making the militarization of policy (and, via massive surveillance, regimentation or stringent conformity in the political realm) not only thinkable but operable."

-- Norman Pollack

News and Opinion

Worth a full read, here's a teaser:

When CIA and NSA Workers Blow the Whistle, Congress Plays Deaf

Do the committees that oversee the vast U.S. spying apparatus take intelligence community whistleblowers seriously? Do they earnestly investigate reports of waste, fraud, abuse, professional negligence, or crimes against the Constitution reported by employees or contractors working for agencies like the CIA or NSA? For the last 20 years, the answer has been a resounding “no.”

My own experience in 1995-96 is illustrative. Over a two-year period working with my wife, Robin (who was a CIA detailee to a Senate committee at the time), we discovered that, contrary to the public statements by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and other senior George H. W. Bush administration officials (including CIA Director John Deutch), American troops had in fact been exposed to chemical agents during and after the 1991 war with Saddam Hussein. While the Senate Banking Committee under then-Chairman Don Riegle, D-Mich., was trying to uncover the truth of this, officials at the Pentagon and CIA were working to bury it.

At the CIA, I objected internally — and was immediately placed under investigation by the CIA’s Office of Security. That became clear just days after we delivered the first of our several internal briefings to increasingly senior officials at the CIA and other intelligence agencies. In February 1995, I received a phone call from CIA Security asking whether I’d had any contacts with the media. I had not, but I had mentioned to CIA officials we’d met with that I knew that the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” was working on a piece about the Gulf War chemical cover-up. This call would not be the last I’d receive from CIA Security about the matter, nor the only action the agency would take against us.

In the spring of 1995, a former manager of Robin’s discreetly pulled her aside and said that CIA Security agents were asking questions about us, talking to every single person with or for whom either of us had worked. ... The agency didn’t care about helping to find out why hundreds of thousands of American Desert Storm veterans were ill. All it cared about was whether I’d keep my mouth shut about what the secret documents and reports in its databases had to say about the potential or actual chemical exposures to our troops.

Iraqi Offensive South of Mosul Stalls as ISIS Resistance Grows

After 10 days of upbeat reports on the invasion of Mosul, Iraqi special forces south of the city have run into their first major obstacle, with heavy resistance from ISIS forcing them to pause their advance and wait for additional reinforcements.

While officials are treating this as a brief pause, it effectively means that ISIS has temporarily broken the southern advance into Mosul, and that only the northern advance, the Kurdish forces are still approaching the city.

That could be a huge problem for the Iraqi government, as in addition to fighting ISIS they’re in a bit of a territorial battle with the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Kurds have annexed a lot of territory they’ve captured, and that could make the Mosul offensive something of a race.

Iraq after ISIS

The latest offensive in Mosul is a chief priority of the outgoing Obama administration, which desperately needs a foreign policy win in the Middle East before leaving office, and of the Iraqi government, which suffered huge reputational damage during IS’s rapid rise.

Though the campaign will likely solve one problem, it is equally likely to create any number of other issues for Baghdad and its many international backers. Not least of which will include new sectarian tensions, and young terror groups looking to replace IS.

“I expect the campaign, and it will be a long one, will eventually be a success,” says Niamh McBurney, Middle East and North Africa Intelligence Analyst at AKE International, a risk management firm. But, she says, the campaign will likely last at least six months, and will cause widespread destruction in Mosul while displacing much of the city’s civilian population. “I anticipate the length and ferocity of the campaign — with IS’s slash-and-burn tactics — will mean the military success will lead to a possible social and political crisis.” ...

“After 9/11, we had a series of tactics to counter terrorism,” Ali Soufan, a veteran of the FBI, said. “So we disrupted plots, we arrested operatives, we killed bin Laden himself. We successfully managed to prevent another 9/11 from happening. But we confused strategy with tactics. We never had a strategy to counter the narrative of al Qaeda, the popularity of organizations like al Qaeda. We never had a strategy to deal with the incubating factors of extremism and terrorism in the Middle East. We didn’t touch on that issue. And, unfortunately, that is what creates entities like ISIS and entities like al Qaeda today, and that’s why that narrative of Osama bin Laden is spreading like wildfire from the western shores of Africa to Southeast Asia.”

We Have a Duty to Call for End to Killing in Syria & How We End It Matters

US: Kurdish Troops Will Be Involved in Invading ISIS Capital of Raqqa

US Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the leader of the US military forces in Iraq and Syria, today announced that Kurdish YPG forces will participate in the invasion of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, despite Turkish government demands that the Kurds not be allowed to take part.

Townsend was a bit vague on the details of Kurdish involvement, saying the US are “going to take this in steps,” and that Turkey has to realize the only way that the US is going to have enough force to take over Raqqa any time soon is with a significant portion of the YPG involved.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated that his government wants only “local forces” involved in the Raqqa battle, and that the YPG, who Turkey considers a terrorist organization, must not be allowed to take part in any way.

US-led coalition killed 300 Syrian civilians in 11 probed strikes – Amnesty

U.S. using Tunisia to conduct drone operations in Libya: U.S. sources

The United States has begun using a Tunisian air base to conduct surveillance drone operations inside Libya, the latest expansion of its campaign against Islamic State militants in North Africa, U.S. government sources said on Wednesday.

The unarmed drones have been flying out of Tunisia since late June and are now part of a U.S. air defense in support of Libyan pro-government forces fighting to push Islamic State fighters out of their stronghold in the Libyan city of Sirte, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The use of the Tunisian base, which was first reported by The Washington Post, extends the U.S. military's ability to gather intelligence on Islamic State in Libya, the U.S. sources said. Other locations in Africa where U.S. drones are launched, including Niger and Djibouti, are farther away.

Media Roll Out Welcome Mat for ‘Humanitarian’ War in Syria

As she marches toward the US presidency, Hillary Clinton has stepped up her promotion of the idea that a no-fly zone in Syria could “save lives” and “hasten the end of the conflict” that has devastated that country since 2011. ...

The New York Times’ self-appointed savior of women, Nicholas Kristof (10/6/16), invoked the plight of a young Syrian girl in Aleppo to conclude that Obama’s alleged “paralysis” on Syria “has been linked to the loss of perhaps half a million lives” in the country, as well as to “the rise of extremist groups like the Islamic State,” among other unpleasant outcomes. We have no “excuse,” we’re told, for “failing to respond to mass atrocities.”

Never mind that the rise of ISIS has much to do with that mass atrocity known as the US invasion of Iraq, thanks to which many young Iraqi girls and other human beings have suffered rape, mutilation and death. It’s convenient for certain industries, at least, when US weapons are deemed the solution for problems US weapons helped to create in the first place.

USA Today (10/8/16), meanwhile, ran an opinion piece by an American doctor who worked briefly at a now-destroyed hospital in Aleppo, arguing that the US “should lead the way in establishing real no-fly zones, either under United Nations auspices or with the British and the French”—because “otherwise, our inaction will continue to be an embarrassment and stand as an example of our spineless irresponsibility.”

But considering that there has already been plenty of US action in Syria—including the mistaken “pulverization” of whole families with children—it would seem we’ve already exhibited a fair amount of lethal irresponsibility.

[Plenty more at the link. - js]

CAP brings out the Democrat warmongers for Hillary:

At Hillary Clinton’s Favorite Think Tank, a Doubling Down on Anti-Iran, Pro-Saudi Policy

The Center For American Progress hosted a sort of preview of Hillary Clinton’s Middle East policy on Tuesday, with a Clinton adviser and a Gulf state diplomat agreeing that the next president should double down on support for the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, while ramping up action against Iran.

It is a signal that a future Clinton administration would overwhelmingly favor the Gulf states in their ongoing, Middle East-wide power struggle with Iran, implicitly rebuking President Obama, who has come under fire from Gulf states for mild criticism of their foreign policy and his nuclear deal with Iran. ...

Panelists at the event, titled “Strengthening U.S. Partnerships in the Middle East,” argued for what is essentially a supercharged anti-Iran, pro-Saudi posture, with little disagreement from CAP moderator Brian Katulis.

Former acting CIA Director and Clinton foreign policy advisor Mike Morell called for escalation of sanctions “that bite” on Iran in response to their “malign behavior in the region.” And in what would be a dramatic escalation of U.S. power in the region, he called for intercepting Iranian vessels traveling to Yemen to supply weapons to Houthi rebels.

“I know there’s issues of international law here,” Morell said. “Ships leave Iran on a regular basis carrying arms to the Houthis in Yemen. … I would have no problem, from a policy perspective, of having U.S. Navy board those ships and if there’s weapons on them for the Houthis, turn those ships around and send those ships back to Iran. I think that’s the kind of action, tough action that would get the attention of the Iranians and will get the attention of our friends in the region to say the Americans are now serious about helping us deal with this problem.”

Is Yemen Too Much for the World to Take?

The Yemen war uniquely combines tragedy, hypocrisy and farce. First come the casualties: around 10,000, almost 4,000 of them civilians. Then come those anonymous British and American advisers who seem quite content to go on “helping” the Saudi onslaughts on funerals, markets and other obviously (to the Brits, I suppose) military targets.

Then come the Saudi costs: more than $250m (£200m) a month, according to Standard Chartered Bank – and this for a country that cannot pay its debts to construction companies. But now comes the dark comedy bit: the Saudis have included in their bombing targets cows, farms and sorghum – which can be used for bread or animal fodder – as well as numerous agricultural facilities.

In fact, there is substantial evidence emerging that the Saudis and their “coalition” allies – and, I suppose, those horrid British “advisers” – are deliberately targeting Yemen’s tiny agricultural sector in a campaign which, if successful, would lead a post-war Yemeni nation not just into starvation but total reliance on food imports for survival. Much of this would no doubt come from the Gulf states which are currently bombing the poor country to bits. ...

The kingdom signed up to the additional protocol of the August 1949 Geneva Conventions which specifically states that “it is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock…for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population…whatever the motive…” ...

But I guess that one war – or two – in the Middle East is as much as the world can take right now. Or as much as the media are prepared to advertise. Aleppo and Mosul are quite enough. Yemen is too much. And Libya. And “Palestine”…

West's failure to reconnect Iran to global banks 'risks breaching nuclear deal'

The west risks breaching the landmark nuclear agreement if it fails to give Iran proper access to the international financial system, a former British ambassador to Iran has argued.

Sir Richard Dalton, who served in Tehran between 2003 and 2006, said in a report published this week in the journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs in London that the US and its allies had made “some potentially significant mistakes” in respect to reconnecting Iran to global banks after the deal.

Hassan Rouhani, under pressure to show tangible benefits of the lifting of sanctions to Iranians before the next presidential vote in 2017, complained at the UN in September that the US was failing to fulfil its obligations. ...

Noting that the nuclear agreement would only endure “if everyone works at it”, Dalton wrote that “common sense suggests that, if the situation is not appreciably better later in the year, it will be impossible for the US and its partners to argue credibly that they are not in breach of” the nuclear deal. ...

The ongoing banking difficulties have prevented Iran from capitalising on interest shown by western businesses in returning to the country, or finalising lucrative deals with the west, such as the purchase of planes from Airbus and Boeing. Iran is also partly to blame because it does not have adequate regulations on transparency, anti-corruption and money laundering.

Israel: Ancient Papyrus Proves Jerusalem Belongs to Israel

While the UNESCO resolution which recognized the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as a “Muslim holy site of worship” was barely reported around the world, and considered fairly non-controversial, Israeli officials have been expressing fury over the matter for two solid weeks.

And the Muslims may have a huge, ancient mosque that has been a key part of Islam for 1,300 years, but Israel has a small strip of papyrus they found in a cave, which they’re pretty sure is a far more conclusive document, since it mentioned the word Jerusalem and was written in Hebrew. ...

The al-Aqsa mosque was built on a site which is believed to have previously housed an important Jewish temple, and some Israelis advocate the eventual destruction of the mosque and the construction of a new temple, though the details of such a construction would be hugely religiously complicated, and since the destruction of the mosque would undoubtedly start a massive war, it is considered unlikely. Still, the far-right government wants to ensure that they have some international precedent for their claim to the territory.

SE Asian terror mastermind to stay at Guantanamo: US

A Southeast Asian terror mastermind who has been accused over a series of high-profile attacks will stay in detention at Guantanamo Bay after US officials rejected his bid for release.

A US government body tasked with reducing the number of inmates at Guantanamo said that Indonesian militant Riduan Isamuddin, better known by his nom de guerre Hambali, still represented a "significant threat to the security of the United States". ...

Hambali, who was captured in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo three years later, was believed to be Al-Qaeda's top representative in Southeast Asia and operational chief of regional militant group Jemaah Ismaliyah (JI).

He was accused of helping mastermind the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali that left 202 people dead, and plotting other attacks in Indonesia, as well as on US airliners.

Hambali appeared before the Periodic Review Board at Guantanamo in August seeking his release after 10 years in detention without charge.

A portrait of penury: American painting in the 1930s

Too Big to Fail, Hillary-Style

One of the more illuminating aspects of the Podesta emails was a series of communications that took place in the fall of 2015. That’s when Bernie Sanders was gaining traction for, among other things, his calls to break up the big banks and resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.  The Clinton administration’s dismantling of that act in 1999 had freed the big banks to use their depositors’ money as collateral for risky bets in the real estate market and elsewhere, and so allowed them to become ever more engorged with questionable securities.

On December 7, 2015, with her campaign well underway and worried about the Sanders challenge, the Clinton camp debuted a key Hillary op-ed, “How I’d Rein in Wall Street,” in the New York Times. This followed two months of emails and internal debate within her campaign over whether supporting the return of Glass-Steagall was politically palatable for her and whether not supporting it would antagonize Senator Elizabeth Warren. In the end, though Glass-Steagall was mentioned in passing in her op-ed, she chose not to endorse its return. ...

Hillary won’t push to bring back Glass-Steagall. Doing so would dismantle her husband’s legacy and that of the men he and she appointed to public office. Whatever cosmetic alterations may be in store, count on that act remaining an artifact of the past, since its resurrection would dismay the bankers who, over the past three decades, made the Clintons what they are.

No wonder many diehard Sanders supporters remain disillusioned and skeptical -- not to speak of the fact that their candidate featured dead last (39th) on a list of recommended vice presidential candidates in the Podesta emails. That's unfortunately how much his agenda is likely to matter to her in the Oval Office.

Bernie Sanders’s Hopes and Regrets

Leading protests and stirring up trouble in the Senate might be all that’s left for Bernie Sanders to do in contesting Hillary Clinton’s administration if, as many expect, it deviates from her public embrace of some Sanders positions if and when she becomes President.

“I won’t stay silent if Clinton nominates the same old, same old Wall Street guys,” Sanders said this week. “The leverage that I think I take into the Senate is taking on the entire Democratic Party establishment, and, you know, taking on a very powerful political organization with the Clinton people. We won 22 states and 46 percent of the pledged delegates, 13.4 million votes . . . and a majority of the younger people, the future of the country. . . . That gives me a lot of leverage, leverage that I intend to use.”

Looking forward to Clinton’s expected election on Nov. 8, the 75-year-old Vermont senator said he’s begun to draft some of his planks that were accepted into the Democratic platform into legislation: on climate change, minimum wage and breaking up big banks. But given what we now know about what the Clinton machine thinks of him, it’s debatable how much leverage he’ll have. ...

In the context of these revelations, is it not reasonable to assume that if Sanders had taken Jill Stein’s offer to head the Green Party ticket that such a team would have gotten 15 percent in the polls and a place at the debates? Wouldn’t Sanders’s presence at the debates have given an alternative to voters who detest both Trump and Clinton and at least a chance to build a viable third-party movement? ...

It is questionable whether Sanders would have divided the Clinton vote to make Trump president. Millions of angry voters from an eroding middle class could have supported Sanders instead of Trump. In other words, Sanders could have taken away just as many and perhaps more votes from Trump, as both were insurgency candidates against the Establishment’s choice.

Sanders who hasn’t even a whiff of corruption about him might well be soaring above both of them in the polls by now.

Yes, US elections are rigged – but not in the way Donald Trump thinks

If Donald Trump actually cared about “rigged” elections, he would stop complaining about the demonstrably false “voter fraud” myth he keeps peddling and instead focus on the real problem: gerrymandering – the changing of electoral boundaries for political gain. Of course he’ll never do that, since gerrymandering is a Republican party speciality and the only thing keeping the GOP from losing the House of Representatives this year.

All signs point to Trump suffering a rout in two weeks, with Clinton’s chances of victory north of 80 or 90%, according to statistical analysis from both the New York Times and FiveThirtyEight. Donald Trump is the most unpopular candidate in modern history, and in elections past, he’d be dragging the rest of the party to a historic defeat in Congress as well.

But despite all this, there’s almost no chance the Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives this election – or in the one after it – since Republicans in statehouses across the country have fixed the election process by redrawing the congressional district maps in several key states in 2010. They can retain a majority even when Democrats received far more total votes. (The Washington Post has a helpful graphic that explains exactly how gerrymandering works.) ...

It isn’t a new problem; the practice is almost as old as the country itself, and Democrats have engaged in it as well. But no one has perfected it as well as Republicans did in 2010, and until the practice is done away with once and for all, democracy will suffer.

An excellent, detail-rich modern history of election fraud. Here's a teaser:

The Modern History of ‘Rigged’ US Elections

The United States is so committed to the notion that its electoral process is the world’s “gold standard” that there has been a bipartisan determination to maintain the fiction even when evidence is overwhelming that a U.S. presidential election has been manipulated or stolen. The “wise men” of the system simply insist otherwise.

We have seen this behavior when there are serious questions of vote tampering (as in Election 1960) or when a challenger apparently exploits a foreign crisis to create an advantage over the incumbent (as in Elections 1968 and 1980) or when the citizens’ judgment is overturned by judges (as in Election 2000).

Strangely, in such cases, it is not only the party that benefited which refuses to accept the evidence of wrongdoing, but the losing party and the establishment news media as well. Protecting the perceived integrity of the U.S. democratic process is paramount. Americans must continue to believe in the integrity of the system even when that integrity has been violated.

The harsh truth is that pursuit of power often trumps the principle of an informed electorate choosing the nation’s leaders, but that truth simply cannot be recognized.

Keiser Report: Observations on US elections

Amidst Law Enforcement Crackdown, DAPL Company Warns Water Protectors: Get Out, Or Else

To the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies who stepped up their resistance this weekend with a new protest camp reclaimed through eminent domain, Dakota Access Pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners has a stern message: get out or face prosecution.

Protesters can leave the property, the company stated Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. "Alternatively and in coordination with local law enforcement and county/state officials, all trespassers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and removed from the land."

"Lawless behavior will not be tolerated," it stated.

But according to the Sacred Stone Camp, the new camp, which sits "directly on the proposed path of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)," is not on land owned by Energy Transfer Partners; rather, it is "unceded territory affirmed in the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie."

"We have never ceded this land," said Joye Braun, Indigenous Environmental Network organizer, in a weekend press release. "If DAPL can go through and claim eminent domain on landowners and Native peoples on their own land, then we as sovereign nations can then declare eminent domain on our own aboriginal homeland."

As Common Dreams reported, the erection of the new camp came amidst "escalating attacks on protesters by local law enforcement officials."

'No Retreat': Tribes Stand Firm as Police Threaten to Clear Pipeline Protest Camp

According to eyewitness accounts, buses full of law enforcement were traveling toward the frontline camp on Thursday morning.

Indigenous water protectors and their allies are prepared for a crackdown by law enforcement on Thursday, vowing to hold ground they reclaimed through eminent domain last weekend despite threats by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) developer Energy Transfer Partners and local officials.

The Associated Press reported:

Law enforcement officials demanded that the protesters leave the private land on Wednesday, but the protesters refused. It appeared only thick fog and cloudy skies kept a large contingent of law enforcement officers from moving in. Officials have frequently monitored protesters by air.

But the activists have refused to bend. The Bismarck Tribune quoted protest organizer Mekasi Camp-Horinek, of Oklahoma, as calling out, "No surrender, no retreat!" as he walked away from the negotiations with top law enforcement officials on Wednesday afternoon.

Humanity a plague on the world?

World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns

The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.

The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame. ...

The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans dominate the planet. “We are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.

Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, said: “The richness and diversity of life on Earth is fundamental to the complex life systems that underpin it. Life supports life itself and we are part of the same equation. Lose biodiversity and the natural world and the life support systems, as we know them today, will collapse.”

Fewer Polluters Criminally Prosecuted as EPA Cowers From GOP Attacks

Fewer polluters were criminally prosecuted based on referrals from the Environmental Protection Agency this year than in any year in the past two decades, including during the George W. Bush administration.

Justice Department data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show that the feds are on pace to prosecute 88 cases that came from EPA referrals this year, compared to 182 in 2011.

The reason, former insiders say, is obvious. “The EPA is a piñata,” said Doug Parker, who left a position as head of the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division in April after working more than two decades as a special agent for the agency. “There was a material effort to downplay criminal enforcement, because they thought it would exacerbate tensions.”

For Republicans and their donor base, the need to reduce the size and scope of the EPA, if not kill it altogether, has become a top priority. The party’s 2016 platform promised to “transform the EPA into an independent bipartisan commission,” shifting responsibility for environmental regulation to the states. The political pressure has meant stagnation and reductions in the EPA’s budget, causing the agency to bleed nearly 2,000 people over the last five years. The workforce hasn’t been so small since 1989. ...

As the workforce shrunk, the agency shifted to what it called “Next Generation Compliance,” meaning that corporations increasingly monitor themselves, using technology to deliver compliance information to the EPA.

With New Study in Hand, Pennsylvanians Reiterate Call for Fracking Ban

Latest analysis specifically expresses concern about the potential link between childhood leukemia and oil and gas drilling

As yet another study links fracking to cancer-causing chemicals, Pennsylvanians opposed to oil and gas drilling in their state are reiterating their call for a statewide moratorium on the practice.

A new analysis from the Yale School of Public Health "confirms that numerous carcinogens involved in the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing have the potential to contaminate air and water in nearby communities," according to a press statement on Monday. 

The study, which lead author and assistant professor Nicole Deziel said "represents the most expansive review of carcinogenicity of hydraulic fracturing-related chemicals in the published literature," examined more than 1,000 chemicals that may be released into air or water as a result of fracking.

It found that the majority of those chemicals—more than 80 percent—lacked sufficient data on cancer-causing potential, "highlighting an important knowledge gap," according to the researchers. Of the 119 compounds for which sufficient data exists, 44 percent of the water pollutants and 60 percent of air pollutants were either confirmed or possible carcinogens, with 20 of those tied to increased risk for leukemia or lymphoma and therefore requiring further study.

The study specifically expresses concern about the potential link between childhood leukemia and oil and gas drilling, noting that the illness "may be an early indicator of exposure to environmental carcinogens due to the relatively short disease latency and vulnerability of the exposed population."

Elon Musk delivers its first quarterly profit in three years

Tesla snapped its 13-quarter losing streak with a slim third-quarter profit of $21.9 million on $2.3 billion revenue, a 145 percent increase from last year. That came as a bit of a surprise to Wall Street; this is only the second profitable quarter for Tesla in its 13-year history. Tesla shares rose more than 4 percent after hours.

One reason Wall Street was caught off guard is that Tesla had raised its car delivery estimates earlier this month to about 24,500, and today beat that revised estimate by an additional 300 cars (for a total of 24,821 cars delivered). Deliveries increased 114 percent in the third quarter from just 11,580 cars in the same period last year.

But the good news might not last for Tesla. ... Chevrolet’s $30,000 all-electric Bolt is landing in dealerships in January, and Tesla’s supply of federal incentives is running out, so its cars are about to get even more expensive for consumers. A current Model S starts at $66,000 and the coming Model 3 starts at $35,000, but production isn’t supposed to start until later next year.

Also of Interest

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

The Pathologization of Dissent

Stopping Hillary’s Coming War on Syria

The Election: Does It Matter Who Wins?

Justice Department Releases Guidelines on Controversial Anti-Hacking Law

Here’s How Wall Street Is Ripping You Off, and What You Can Do About It

Gaffes, Mistakes, and Humiliations Define Brazil’s New Foreign Policy

A Little Night Music

Charlie Musselwhite - Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?

Charlie Musselwhite - Just A Feeling

Charlie Musselwhite - Stingaree

Charlie Musselwhite - It's Getting Warm In Here

Charlie Musselwhite & Elvin Bishop - She Still Looks Good to Me

Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite - I'm In I'm Out And I'm Gone

Charlie Musselwhite - Make My Getaway

Charlie Musselwhite @ Green Hills in Blues 2011