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"There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry."

-- George Armstrong Custer

News and Opinion

Dakota pipeline protesters set for 'last stand' on banks of Missouri river

Native American protesters are preparing to take a “last stand” against the Dakota Access pipeline after police raided their camps and arrested hundreds, paving the way for construction of the final stretch of the controversial oil project.

The Standing Rock protesters in North Dakota have been fighting the $3.8bn pipeline since April but were dealt a blow last week when police successfully pushed them off the property where construction is rapidly advancing.

While claims of excessive use of force by police and inhumane treatment in jail have sparked national outrage, native leaders camped out in the cold in Cannon Ball said they have also grown increasingly concerned that time is running out to stop the project on the ground. Pipeline workers, they say, are getting frighteningly close to the sacred water of the Missouri river.

“There isn’t much land left between the water and the equipment,” said Cheryl Angel, a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe who in the spring helped form the first Sacred Stone camp for protesters who call themselves “water protectors”.

“They’re right there. They have breached our sacred ground. There is no time for waiting any more,” the 56-year-old said, tears streaming as she gestured toward the water and encroaching pipeline. “It is almost complete. All they need to do is go under that river.” ...

A judge has denied a request from tribal leadership to block construction but last month, as protests heated up, a number of federal agencies said the government would hold off on issuing permits to dig on federal land near or under the Missouri river.

The government has not provided an update since. Silence from President Barack Obama and the continuing expansion of the pipeline have increased anxiety for activists.

Did a DAPL Security Worker Wielding an AR-15 Rifle Try to Infiltrate Native Water Protectors?

Dakota Access pipeline protesters see bias after Oregon militia verdict

On the surface, there are parallels between the Dakota Access pipeline protest and the Oregon militia standoff, in which the brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the Malheur national wildlife refuge in a protest against the government’s treatment of ranchers.

In both cases, protesters declared willingness to risk their lives to fight for land rights, and law enforcement responded that the protests were illegal and dangerous. ...

Unlike at Standing Rock, many of the activists in Oregon were heavily armed, some openly carrying powerful assault weapons. The militiamen said that if necessary, they were prepared to defend themselves against government agents.

Ultimately, the presence of guns helped them avoid police confrontations at the refuge – and paved the way for their legal victory.

Police and federal officials were deliberately passive, saying they didn’t want a shootout. The FBI allowed the occupation to drag on for weeks, with numerous high-profile leaders freely leaving the refuge and returning.

The Standing Rock activists have declared their commitment to remaining unarmed, posting signs throughout the camps that say “NO WEAPONS”. Perhaps as a result, they have faced a much more aggressive response from law enforcement. ...

Xhopakelxhit, a Native American activist at Standing Rock, said that arming indigenous protesters didn’t seem like a viable option.

“If native people were armed like the Bundy militia,” she said, “we would be killed.”

Bundys vs. #NoDAPL: Armed White Militia Leaders Walk Free as Native Americans Face Police Violence

Dakota Access pipeline: Native Americans allege cruel treatment

Native Americans protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) on Saturday accused law enforcement officers of cruel and inhumane treatment in jail, but said mass arrests and violent confrontations with police would not deter them from fighting construction of the oil project.

Activists were reunited at the Standing Rock camps in North Dakota after their release from local jails. Some told the Guardian police aggressively detained them, crowded them into vans, wrote numbers on their arms to track them, conducted invasive body searches and showed a lack of respect for native culture.

“They treat us like we’re not human beings,” said Russell Eagle Bear, a member of the Rosebud Sioux, who was one of 141 people arrested on Thursday when protesters tried to block pipeline construction. “We’re simply numbers to them.”

In tears, Caro Gonzales, a member of the Chemehuevi tribe who was one of the first arrested, said police temporarily detained her and three other women in a large cage that she described as a “dog kennel”.

“We were all crying in pain, saying we needed medical attention,” said Gonzales, 26, who also goes by the name Guarding Red Tarantula Woman. ...

Gonzales, who lives in Olympia, in Washington state, and has been at the camp for three months, said she was arrested while praying. “They slammed us on to the ground,” she said.

She said she was particularly upset by the way police repeatedly searched her and other Native American women.

“He searched me everywhere, touched everywhere,” she said, adding that the experience has been emotionally draining. “I was just crying. I couldn’t physically stop myself.”

FAA Says North Dakota Cops Commited Felony by Shooting Down DAPL Protester Drones

It is a federal crime to shoot down aircraft, and this week, the FAA confirmed that that includes drones. This is great news for anyone who has a drone, and for anyone who doesn’t want errant bullets falling from the sky, and it’s bad news for anyone eager to pump a quadcopter full of lead. Of course, now the question is “Does this apply to police officers shooting down media drones?”

Kelsey Atherton of Popular Science reports that the FAA told Forbes in April:

According to the FAA “regardless of the situation, shooting at any aircraft — including unmanned aircraft — poses a significant safety hazard. An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air.”

Video footage shows this was not an emergency situation and it was more of a harassment situation. Regardless, North Dakota has no existing drone shooting law with exceptions for police, so the officer shooting down the media drone at the DAPL protests did break a federal law and the FAA says they are investigating the situation, but it is unknown at this time if the officer will be considered above the law. The FAA has also put temporary flight restrictions in the area until Nov 4 at the request of local law enforcement for “law enforcement activities.”

Who Will Weed Out the Warmongers?

If Hillary Clinton hangs on to win the presidency, liberal Democrats have vowed to block her appointment of Wall Street-friendly officials to key Cabinet and sub-Cabinet jobs. But there has been little organized resistance to her choosing hawkish foreign policy advisers.

Indeed, Washington’s foreign policy establishment has purged almost anyone who isn’t part of the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist “group think.” That’s why pretty much everyone who “matters” agrees about the need to push around Russia, China, Syria, Iran, etc.

Reflecting that attitude, Sunday’s lead editorial in the neocon Washington Post hailed the broad consensus within the Establishment for more warlike actions once President Obama is gone, taking with him what the Post calls Obama’s “self-defeating passivity.”

The Post praised a new report from the liberal Center for American Progress which calls for bombing the Syrian military and getting tough to “counter Iran’s negative influence” in line with what all the neocons — as well as Israel and Saudi Arabia — want the next President to do.

The absence of any significant counter to this neocon/liberal-hawk “group think” represents one of the greatest dangers to the future of the human species, since this new hubris comes with a cavalier assumption that nuclear-armed Russia and China will simply accept humiliation dished out by the “indispensable nation.” ...

In Washington, this “group think” has moved beyond the usual careerist and conformist “conventional wisdom” into something more akin to totalitarianism, at least on foreign policy issues.

That is why it is hard to even come up with a list of sensible people who could survive the onslaught of character assassinations if they were to be proposed as senior advisers to a President Hillary Clinton.

That is also why the attention of progressives, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, only on vetting domestic officials in a prospective Hillary Clinton administration is so insufficient.

Clinton Will Be More Confrontational with Russia and China

Syrian rebels' Aleppo offensive could amount to war crimes, UN envoy warns

The United Nations envoy for Syria has said he is “appalled and shocked” by indiscriminate rocket warfare targeting civilians in Aleppo after three days of a fresh rebel offensive in which dozens have died.

Staffan de Mistura said: “Those who argue that this is meant to relieve the siege of eastern Aleppo should be reminded that nothing justifies the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate weapons, including heavy ones, on civilian areas and it could amount to war crimes.”

Syrian insurgents on Sunday kept up their shelling of government-controlled areas of the city, killing at least seven people, including three children, state TV reported, and used car bombs and tanks to push into new territory in western areas. The Syrian government claimed the opposition fighters used toxic gas. ...

Russia and the Syrian government have halted their airstrikes on the rebel-held part of Aleppo since last week to allow for the evacuation of wounded and civilians. But no evacuation took place and efforts to allow medical and food supplies into the besieged area also faltered. Meanwhile, pro-government troops kept up a ground offensive against rebel-held areas. ...

The cycle of violence in the contested city has only escalated after US-Russia efforts failed to secure an internationally monitored ceasefire.

The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance

A curious aspect of the Syrian conflict – a rebellion sponsored largely by the United States and its Gulf state allies – is the disappearance in much of the American mainstream news media of references to the prominent role played by Al Qaeda in seeking to overthrow the secular Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

There’s much said in the U.S. press about ISIS, the former “Al Qaeda in Iraq” which splintered off several years ago, but Al Qaeda’s central role in commanding Syria’s “moderate” rebels in Aleppo and elsewhere is the almost unspoken reality of the Syrian war. Even in the U.S. presidential debates, the arguing between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton has been almost exclusively about ISIS, not Al Qaeda.

Though Al Qaeda got the ball rolling on America’s revenge wars in the Middle East 15 years ago by killing several thousand Americans and others in the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group has faded into the background of U.S. attention, most likely because it messes up the preferred “good guy/bad guy” narrative regarding the Syrian war.

For instance, the conflict in Aleppo between Syrian government forces and rebels operating primarily under Al Qaeda’s command is treated in the Western media as simply a case of the barbaric Assad and his evil Russian ally Vladimir Putin mercilessly bombing what is portrayed as the east Aleppo equivalent of Disney World, a place where innocent children and their families peacefully congregate until they are targeted for death by the Assad-Putin war-crime family. ...

Yet, occasionally, the reality of Al Qaeda’s importance in the rebellion breaks through, even in the mainstream U.S. media, although usually downplayed and deep inside the news pages, such as the A9 article in Saturday’s New York Times by Hwaida Saad and Anne Barnard describing a rebel offensive in Aleppo. It acknowledges:

“The new offensive was a strong sign that rebel groups vetted by the United States were continuing their tactical alliances with groups linked to Al Qaeda, rather than distancing themselves as Russia has demanded and the Americans have urged. … The rebels argue that they cannot afford to shun any potential allies while they are under fire, including well-armed and motivated jihadists, without more robust aid from their international backers.” (You might note how the article subtly blames the rebel dependence on Al Qaeda on the lack of “robust aid” from the Obama administration and other outside countries – even though such arms shipments violate international law.)

What the article also makes clear in a hazy kind of way is that Al Qaeda’s affiliate, the recently renamed Nusra Front, and its jihadist allies, such as Ahrar al-Sham, are waging the brunt of the fighting while the CIA-vetted “moderates” are serving in mostly support roles.

An interesting book review which presents historical background of the forces at work in Syria:

The U.S. and Russia Ensure a Balance of Terror in Syria

"The struggle for Syria," as Patrick Seale titled his 1965 classic, has escalated steadily since Britain seized the territory from Turkey in 1918. The British turned it over to France in 1920 and took it back from Vichy in 1942. Following nominal independence in 1946, Syria became a theater of Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The stream of military coups between 1949 and 1970 concluded with the Hafez al-Assad putsch that left Syria in the Kremlin camp. Assad, however, proved anything but subservient to his superpower benefactor. The struggle for Syria continued in desultory fashion as Syria irritated Moscow by flirting with the U.S. in Lebanon and sending troops to support the American reconquista of Kuwait in 1991. The U.S. soon reverted to form, labeling Syria a “terrorist state” and condemning both its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and its alliance with Iran. In 2011, the struggle became a war. The U.S. and Russia, as well as local hegemons, backed opposite sides, ensuring a balance of terror that has devastated the country and defies resolution.

The Russians, having lost Aden, Egypt, and Libya years earlier, backed their only client regime in the Arab world when it came under threat. The U.S. gave rhetorical and logistical support to rebels, raising false hopes — as it had done among the Hungarian patriots it left in the lurch in 1956 — that it would intervene with force to help them. Regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, were left to dispatch arms, money, and men, while disagreeing on objectives and strategy.

Christopher Phillips’s brilliant analysis of the factors fueling the Syria war is a refreshing contrast to works by most ostensible experts, who are partis pris, ill-informed, or both. With his new book, “The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East,” published by Yale this month, Phillips joins a short list of writers, among them Joshua Landis, Patrick Cockburn, Fawaz Gerges, and the late Anthony Shadid, who have made original contributions to understanding the Syria war’s causes and consequences. “The Battle for Syria” makes a determined and successful stab at apportioning responsibility to all the countries whose lavish provision of weapons and money have prolonged the war far longer than Syria’s own resources would have permitted. The deaths of more than 500,000 and the dispossession of almost half of Syria’s estimated 22 million inhabitants testify to the lack of interest these outsiders have in Syria itself and the priority they place on their own competing goals.

Saudi Warplanes Repeatedly Bomb Yemen Prison, Killing 60

Mostly destroyed and no longer usable, the prison in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah held 84 inmates until Saturday, when Saudi Arabian warplanes repeatedly bombed it, killing at least 60 of the people within and wounding dozens of others.

The exact number of prisoners killed compared to guards is unknown, though prisoners are said to be the vast majority. The prison was leveled in the attack, according to witnesses, and rescue workers are still looking through the rubble, with others believed trapped within.

Chances of Yemen Partition Grow as Pro-Saudi Faction Spurns UN Peace Deal

The UN offered a glimmer of hope for a peace process 19 months in Yemen’s war last week, offering a peace deal which would see the installation of an interim government made of mostly technocrats, and in which former President Hadi would be a figurehead.

Hadi, on whose behalf Saudi invaded Yemen, was quick to spurn the deal, insisting it would “reward the putschists” and punish his legitimate government. Hadi was “elected” to a two-year term in office in early 2012, and resigned in 2015, but insists he remains the rightful ruler of the nation.

The Shi’ite Houthis, who had previously ruled out any deal in which Hadi was returned to power, expressed support for the UN plan as a “basis for discussion.” The deal would force Hadi’s main deputy to resign, and give Hadi little to no real power.

Hadi’s rejection, assuming it is upheld by his Saudi backers, means a continuation of the war, and greatly increases the likelihood that Yemen as a unified nation is over. The nation is already in a state of de facto split, and roughly on the same borders as before the 1990 unification.

Turkey detains editor and staff at opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper

Turkish police have detained the editor and at least 12 senior staff of Turkey’s opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper in a widening crackdown on dissenting voices.

The editor-in-chief, Murat Sabuncu, the cartoonist, Musa Kart, the paper’s lawyer and several columnists were detained, some following raids at their homes, Cumhuriyet reported on its website. Police had warrants for the detentions of 16 staff members, the paper said.

The detentions at the left-leaning and pro-secular Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey’s oldest newspapers, come amid accusations by opposition parties and human rights groups that Turkey’s government is using the state of emergency imposed following a failed military coup in July to clamp down not only on the alleged coup plotters but on all government critics.

A statement from the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said those detained were suspected of “committing crimes” on behalf of the movement led by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, accused by the government of masterminding the coup attempt as well as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK.

While those detained are not accused of membership of the Gülen movement or the PKK, there are “claims” and “proof” that shortly before the 15 July coup attempt, the suspects published content that attempted to legitimise the coup, the statement said.

The gruesome death of a fish seller in Morocco has prompted protests across the country

The gruesome death of a fish seller in Morocco has prompted angry protests across the country. Video footage being shared on social media shows Mouhcine Fikri jumping into the back of a garbage truck to try and retrieve roughly $11,000 worth of swordfish that had been confiscated by police. He was crushed to death by the truck’s garbage compressor.

The incident happened on Friday night in the city of Al Hoceima, and the New York Times reports that localized protests soon spread to Marrakech and other parts of the country. On Sunday, two Government Ministers visited Fikri’s grieving family, and conveyed the condolences of the Moroccan King. Later that day, Mouhcine Fikri’s funeral was held, with many people walking behind his coffin as it made its way to the burial site.

The actions of the police in this case have been heavily criticized by the protesters, who say that heavy handed behavior by law enforcement officers is an ongoing problem for many Moroccan citizens. One union leader involved in the protests alleged that police violence has been responsible for the deaths of several workers and students.

South African Spy Company Used by Gadaffi Touts its NSA-Like Capabilities

The South African company best known for selling Muammar Gaddafi’s regime spy equipment used to monitor millions of Libyans’ international phone calls is now claiming it can intercept communications on a scale that rivals a government spy agency, according to a company brochure obtained by The Intercept.

In a 2016 pamphlet produced by VASTech SA Pty Ltd., the company outlines its current capabilities for governments, militaries, and law enforcement agencies around the world, claiming it can conduct “passive detection” of communications transmitted from satellites, fix-and-mobile phones, and fiber optic cable.

The company is offering multiple tools to vacuum up communications from around the globe undetected, or what the company calls “communication intelligence extraction solutions” — a capability not unlike the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program.

The new brochure “shows the company has continued its established route of selling very powerful surveillance technology focusing on international gateways,” says Matthew Rice, an advocacy officer at Privacy International, a U.K based nonprofit. “They’re commercializing some of the most intrusive capabilities and selling them on for profit, including to authoritarian regimes. Some of these companies, such as VasTech and Hacking Team, are even funded in part by public money.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Police Depts. Paid AT&T Millions to Scrutinize Our Texts & Chats

Iceland's prime minister resigns as Pirate Party triples seats in parliament

Iceland’s prime minister stepped down Sunday after his Progressive Party suffered huge losses in the snap election, which was called in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations earlier this year.

The Progressive Party lost more than half its seats in the 63-seat parliament, the BBC reported. Iceland’s anti-establishment Pirate Party, which is run by hackers and activists, has enjoyed a meteoric rise since its inception in 2012, and tripled its seats in Sunday’s election.

But despite early polls suggesting a possible win, it’s the center-right Independence Party that will be tasked with forming Iceland’s next government after winning 23 seats — not enough to declare an outright victory, however.

The Pirate Party hasn’t ruled out forming a coalition government with left-wing and centrist parties, but previously said it was unlikely they’d join forces with the Independence Party. This might change in the coming days, Reuters reports.

Big Pharma Paid LGBT Groups and Others That Opposed California Drug-Price Ballot Measure

San Francisco's two competing LGBT Democratic groups — the leftist Harvey Milk Democratic Club and the centrist Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club — rarely agree on contentious economic issues. But both groups announced in September that they would be opposing Proposition 61, the high-profile initiative to lower drug prices.

A letter from the two groups claimed that Proposition 61 “will not lower prescription drug costs” and that the decision to jointly campaign against the initiative was reached after “careful consideration.”

Unknown to many activists in the city, this act of political camaraderie appears to have been rewarded by the pharmaceutical industry, which cut each club a $5,000 check from a fund set up to defeat the drug price initiative.

Neither LGBT group, both of which have sent voter guides to city residents, revealed the donation on their website. ... The money was disclosed in filings made on Thursday that showed 19 different civic organizations, from the Foreign Legion to a bilingual voter guide organization, taking drug industry funds and endorsing No on Prop 61.

Proposition 61 is designed to allow California state agencies that pay for prescription drugs, such as the state Medicaid program and the state prison system, to pay the same or lower prices as listed by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, which uses its collective bargaining power negotiate for better rates. While experts are divided over the actual cost savings that could be achieved through Prop 61, given the opaque pricing structure for state and federal agencies, many argue that the state could win significant discounts, given that the VA pays up to 42 percent less than Medicare, according a recent analysis.

Forget the FBI cache; the Podesta emails show how America is run

The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta. They are last week’s scandal in a year running over with scandals, but in truth their significance goes far beyond mere scandal: they are a window into the soul of the Democratic party and into the dreams and thoughts of the class to whom the party answers. ...

The dramatis personae of the liberal class are all present in this amazing body of work: financial innovators. High-achieving colleagues attempting to get jobs for their high-achieving children. Foundation executives doing fine and noble things. Prizes, of course, and high academic achievement.

Certain industries loom large and virtuous here. Hillary’s ingratiating speeches to Wall Street are well known of course, but what is remarkable is that, in the party of Jackson and Bryan and Roosevelt, smiling financiers now seem to stand on every corner, constantly proffering advice about this and that. In one now-famous email chain, for example, the reader can watch current US trade representative Michael Froman, writing from a Citibank email address in 2008, appear to name President Obama’s cabinet even before the great hope-and-change election was decided (incidentally, an important clue to understanding why that greatest of zombie banks was never put out of its misery). ...

Then there is the apparent nepotism, the dozens if not hundreds of mundane emails in which petitioners for this or that plum Washington job or high-profile academic appointment politely appeal to Podesta – the ward-heeler of the meritocratic elite – for a solicitous word whispered in the ear of a powerful crony.

This genre of Podesta email, in which people try to arrange jobs for themselves or their kids, points us toward the most fundamental thing we know about the people at the top of this class: their loyalty to one another and the way it overrides everything else. Of course Hillary Clinton staffed her state department with investment bankers and then did speaking engagements for investment banks as soon as she was done at the state department. Of course she appears to think that any kind of bank reform should “come from the industry itself”. And of course no elite bankers were ever prosecuted by the Obama administration. Read these emails and you understand, with a start, that the people at the top tier of American life all know each other. They are all engaged in promoting one another’s careers, constantly.

If Clinton Campaign Believes WikiLeaks Emails Are Forged, Why Don’t They Prove It?

Top Democrats have repeatedly waved off substantial questions arising from their hacked emails by falsely implying that some of them are forgeries created by Russian hackers.

The problem with that is that no one has found a single case of anything forged among the information released from hacks of either Clinton campaign or Democratic Party officials.

The strategy dates all the way back to a conference call with Democratic lawmakers in August. Politico reported that a number of Democratic strategists suggested that Russian hackers — who have been blamed by U.S. intelligence agencies for supplying the emails to Wikileaks and other web sites — could sprinkle false data among the real information.

Since then, despite the complete lack of evidence to support such a claim, it’s become a common dodge among leading Democrats and the Clinton campaign when asked questions about the substance of the emails.

The October Surprise: Michael Isikoff on the FBI’s Clinton Email Investigation That Could Jolt Race

FBI has obtained warrant to search newly discovered emails potentially relevant to Clinton probe

The FBI has obtained a warrant to search the emails found on a computer used by former congressman Anthony Weiner that may contain evidence relevant to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, according to law enforcement officials.

One official said the total number of emails recovered in the investigation into Weiner (D-N.Y.) is close to 650,000, but that reflects many emails that are not related to the Clinton investigation. But officials familiar with the case said that the messages include a significant amount of correspondence associated with Clinton and her top aide, Huma Abedin, Weiner’s estranged wife.

FBI agents investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state knew early this month that messages recovered in a separate probe might be germane to their case, but they waited weeks before briefing the FBI director, according to people familiar with the case. ...

Officials said the agents probing Clinton’s private email server did not tell the director immediately because they were trying to better assess what they had.

Kaine slams FBI

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine sharply criticized FBI Director James Comey Friday for the handling of information related to the renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Kaine called the announcement “cryptic” and questioning the timing, just 11 days before Election Day.

“When you do this 11 days before a presidential election and you don’t provide many details, but details are apparently being given by the FBI to the press, this is very, very troubling,” Kaine said in an exclusive interview with Vice News Tonight on HBO in Tallahassee, Florida. “We hope that the director, and we really think that he should, give a clearer accounting of what’s going on.” ...

Kaine expressed frustration about the fact that he learned details of Comey’s letter from leaked media reports, including news items that were connected to Anthony Weiner.

“Somebody in the FBI is giving information to reporters about it,” he said. “And so the reporters are able to report details that we haven’t been told and it’s 11 days before a presidential election struck me as highly unusual.”

Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied

Current and former FBI officials have launched a media counter-offensive to engage head to head with the Clinton media machine and to throw off the shackles the Loretta Lynch Justice Department has used to stymie their multiple investigations into the Clinton pay-to-play network.

Over the past weekend, former FBI Assistant Director and current CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes told viewers that “the FBI has an intensive investigation ongoing into the Clinton Foundation.” He said he had received this information from “senior officials” at the FBI, “several of them, in and out of the Bureau.”

That information was further supported by an in-depth article last evening in the Wall Street Journal by Devlin Barrett. According to Barrett, the “probe of the foundation began more than a year ago to determine whether financial crimes or influence peddling occurred related to the charity.” Barrett’s article suggests that the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, has attempted to circumvent the investigation. The new revelations lead to the appearance of wrongdoing on the part of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for secretly meeting with Bill Clinton on her plane on the tarmac of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on the evening of June 28 of this year. Not only was Bill Clinton’s wife under an FBI investigation at the time over her use of a private email server in the basement of her New York home over which Top Secret material was transmitted while she was Secretary of State but his own charitable foundation was also under investigation, a fact that was unknown at the time to the public and the media. ...

As if all of this wasn’t enough for the public to digest over the weekend, yesterday morning James Kallstrom, the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Division and 25-year veteran of the FBI, went on the John Catsimatidis radio program to call the Clintons a “crime family.” (You can hear the full program here.) Kallstrom’s comments were further amplified when the New York Daily News reported on his criticisms that the FBI had been hamstrung from conducting a real investigation. The Daily News quoted Kallstrom from the radio program as follows:

‘This investigation was never a real investigation, they never had grand jury empaneled…This investigation was without the ability to serve subpoenas, serve search warrants, and obtain evidence … It was just ludicrous.’

... Given the weekend leaks, it now appears that the FBI understands that the only hope for a real investigation is to shine some much needed sunlight on how Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department cowers before politically powerful people.

Democrats circle the wagons to protect the coronation:

FBI gets warrant as Comey told he may have broken law

The FBI has acquired a warrant to investigate emails found on a laptop used by an aide to Hillary Clinton as part of its investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee’s use of a private email server.

The move came as senior Senate Democrats made an extraordinary attack on the head of the FBI, James Comey, on Sunday over the new investigation, with the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, warning he may have broken the law.

In a scathing letter, Reid wrote: “Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another.

“My office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan action, you may have broken the law.” ...

Democratic congressman Steve Cohen on Sunday night called for Comey to resign. He said Comey’s letter “was plainly premature, careless and unprecedented in its potential impact upon a presidential election without a speck of information regarding the emails in question, their validity, substance or relevance”.

The former attorney general Eric Holder joined dozens of former federal prosecutors in signing a letter critical of Comey.

Trump Super PAC Sting Shows How Citizens United Opened Door to Foreign Money

An extraordinary hidden-camera investigation this week by the British newspaper The Telegraph found that a former operative for a pro-Trump Super PAC appeared eager to accept $2 million from a fictitious Chinese donor to support Trump.

The operative, a significant player in GOP politics named Jesse Benton, was also willing to plot out a series of steps that would conceal the origin of the imaginary Chinese money in order to evade U.S. law banning political spending by foreigners.

But Benton’s scheme would have been impossible to even conceive of before the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision made it far easier for foreign money to flow into U.S. elections.

The Telegraph’s reporters, claiming to be representatives of a Chinese donor who wanted to see Trump elected president, first approached Eric Beach, co-chair of Great America PAC. ...

Shortly afterwards, The Telegraph received email from Benton which began, “Eric Beach asked me to reach out.” Benton agreed to meet with them in person, and they secretly filmed the meeting.

Coal doesn’t help the poor; it makes them poorer

A dozen international poverty and development organizations published a report last week on the impact of building new coal power plants in countries where a large percentage of the population lacks access to electricity. The report’s conclusions are strikingly counter-intuitive: on the whole, building coal power plants does little to help the poor, and often it can actually make them poorer.

Delivering electricity to those in energy poverty is certainly important. For example, household air pollution killed 4.3 million people globally in 2012; many of those lives could be saved and health improved with the use of electric stoves to replace burning wood or charcoal. However, the question remains whether coal is the best way to deliver that electricity.

The report notes that approximately 15% of people in energy poverty live close to existing electric grids, but there are a variety of barriers blocking their connection. For example, the poor consume relatively little electricity, so the costs of connecting them may exceed the resulting profits. The power lines used to connect them also result in high energy losses and power system instability. The poor also have little political influence in many developing countries.

Approximately 84% of energy-poor households live in rural areas further away from the grid. For this group, decentralized stand-alone and mini-grid solutions are much quicker than waiting to build a new centralized power plant and distribution lines. A single power plant can take a decade between planning and ultimate completion, while distributed wind turbines or solar panels can be deployed much more rapidly. ...

Renewable energy also has low operating cost and zero fuel cost, while fossil fuel costs are variable and susceptible to price spikes. And renewable energy creates more (and safer) jobs than coal.

With Sights Set on COP22, Group Offers Roadmap for 'Fair Future' in Warming World

At the upcoming United Nations climate conference in Morocco, negotiations for how to fulfill COP21's agreement to limit global warming to 1.5º Celsius must emphasize methods that will also alleviate poverty and climate injustice, rather than leaning on "questionable technologies" such as geoengineering and carbon offset, says Friends of the Earth (FOE) Germany.

That's the argument put forth in the group's new report, "A change of course: How to build a fair future in a 1.5 degree world" (pdf, in German), published Friday alongside the German Catholic Bishops' Organisation for Development Cooperation (MISEREOR) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

The climate conference will take place in Marrakech, Morocco, from November 7-18.

The report takes aim at popular so-called "negative emissions" technologies, such as geoengineering, carbon offset regimes, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), arguing that leaders must pursue true sustainability instead.

"The fatal flaw of all negative emissions technology proposals is this: The hope for an atmospheric line of credit allows today's urgent need for radical reductions in CO2 emissions to fall by the wayside," the report argues. "What's currently Plan B is in fact the best way to force Plan A into the background—a fundamentally different economy, one that preserves the planet for all forms of life." ...

"In reaction to the Paris Agreement, we need to phase out coal, speed up the transition to renewables, phase out combustion engines, and protect and restore forests and soils," explained Hubert Weiger, chairman of Friends of the Earth Germany, in a statement.

Filmmaker Facing 30 Years for Documenting Climate Action Stands Resolute, Determined

A documentary filmmaker who could face more than 30 years in prison for merely capturing images of a climate activist taking part in a direct action has asserted her First Amendment rights, releasing on Friday a statement as well as raw footage taken the day of her arrest.

Lindsey Grayzel, along with cinematographer Carl Davis, was arrested and jailed on October 11 in Burlington, Washington after filming environmentalist Ken Ward, the subject of her current documentary. Ward, who was also arrested, was taking part in a #ShutItDown action to protest fossil fuels and express solidarity with those resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The protections given to the press extend to documentary filmmakers, who bring context to a story that is not possible under the constraints of commercial news outlets," she said in a statement released to news outlets.

"My focus is long form documentary, and I've been working to craft a film about Ken Ward's climate activism for over a year. It is a rare person who will acknowledge the reality of climate change and react not with helplessness, but instead with a determination to do everything in his power to stop or at least slow down the destruction. My job now is to tell Ken's story to the public, and I look forward to finishing this film."

Also of Interest

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

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Hat tip divineorder:

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A Little Night Music

Charles Sheffield - It's Your Voodoo Workin'

Dusty Springfield - Spooky

Elvis Presley - Devil in Disguise

The Beatles - Devil In Her Heart

The Specials - Ghost Town

Big Jay McNeely - Psycho Serenade

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs - Haunted House

Tabby Thomas - Hoodo Party

Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Little Milton - I Don't Believe in Ghosts

Randy Newman - Last Night I Had A Dream

James Harman - Lonesome Moon Trance

Tom Principato - Congo Square

Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper