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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Junior Wells

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player and singer Junior Wells. Enjoy!

^{Junior Wells - Keep Your Hands Out Of My Pockets}

"When they say [Donald Trump] is not "presidential": I asked myself what does it mean to be "presidential"? You wear a suit; you talk to the American people like you possess the character and the dignity of one who seeks the highest office in the land, and behind the door you're the worst criminal on the planet, plotting the overthrow of nations and governments, and regime change, and sending drones to kill people you don't like? That's presidential."

-- Louis Farrakhan

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News and Opinion

Trump, Obama and Syria

Whether by mistake or design, Donald Trump is presiding over the – agonizing slow – demise of Barack Obama’s illegal and immoral scheme to overthrow the government of Syria using jihadist terror armies. ... Donald Trump may have inadvertently undone a crime perpetrated by more well regarded predecessor. The complications present in Syria are the direct result of Barack Obama’s regime change attempt. Using the canard of humanitarian intervention Obama and his cohort in NATO, the gulf monarch states, and Israel conspired to overthrow the Syrian government with the indispensable help of jihadist proxies. The result was the death of half a million people and the displacement of millions more as refugees.

It is always difficult to determine what Trump intends to do and what he achieves by accident. His promise to “put America first” resonated with white voters. His election is proof that their connection with the Republican Party has little to do with support for intervention and endless war. His claim that he was taking U.S. troops out of Syria was opposed by the war party duopoly and their friends in corporate media and not by the lumpen masses often referred to as his “base.” The people who gave Obama direct or tacit approval to bring about the destruction of a sovereign nation now claim that Trump needs permission before giving Turkey the green light to invade northern Syria. The furor over his impulsively made decision exposes the Democrats’ hypocrisy and may have put Syria on the road to peace. ...

The Democrats’ crocodile tears shed over the Kurds are part of their effort to undermine Trump while continuing to engage in the same criminality which both parties practice. Not one Democratic Party critic has questioned the premise of U.S. imperialism which brought the Kurds and the Syrians to this point. Barack Obama had better manners, greater intelligence and an in with all the right people. He won a Nobel Peace Prize and then proceeded to kill thousands of people and years later very few are willing to point out his wrong doing. Of course his wrong doing is also theirs and the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and Democratic presidential candidates would be hard pressed to point out when they ever spoke out against U.S. war making.

While the Democrats pantomime concern for the Kurds, an anniversary that ought to live in infamy was commemorated. On October 14, 2011, a fifteen year old American citizen named Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was assassinated via drone strike on orders of president Obama. His American citizen father Anwar al-Awlaki had suffered the same fate two weeks earlier. Trump’s rages, bigotry, incompetence, and crazed twitter posts are of far less consequence than the actions of a president with a kill list.

Trump may be truthful when he says he wants to remove U.S. troops from the region but his opponents will thwart him at every turn. He can’t be praised because he is devoted to the concept of America being “first” and therefore in control of the rest of the planet. His critics may be right in one regard. Russian diplomacy is slowly but surely winning over American pig headishness. Of course none of the Trump haters are hating him for the right reasons. For now America is first in nothing more than waging acts of aggression.

Russian troops patrolling between Turkish and Syrian forces following US withdrawal

Russia announced Tuesday that it has units patrolling between Turkish and Syrian forces in northern Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area.

Russian military police in the northwestern town of Manbij were “along the line of contact between the Syrian Arab Republic and Turkey,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow told The Washington Post in a statement.

The Russian military is also “interacting” with Turkey’s government, the Post reports.

A U.S. official told the newspaper late Monday that U.S. troops had withdrawn from the area.

Russian forces sweep into U.S. base abandoned in Syria

Russian forces began sweeping in to fill a security void left by withdrawing American troops in northern Syria on Tuesday, with Moscow-backed mercenaries taking control of a strategic former U.S. special operations outpost and Russian troops engaging in armored patrols as the new buffer between Turkish and Syrian armies.

Video posted on social media by Russian journalists traveling with the mercenaries and Syrian government forces showed abandoned American military tents under camouflage netting, as well as other remnants hastily left behind in recent days by U.S. troops near the strategic Syrian town of Manbij.

The Atlantic Council laments the demise of American "leadership" in Syria and the potential for it to be irreversible:

Turkey Syria offensive: "The US has shown a complete lack of ability to act as a moderator"

Congress to launch sanctions on Turkey as Trump measures deemed ineffective

The US Congress will press ahead with a broad package of sanctions on Turkey, including cutting military support, after measures announced by the Trump administration were dismissed as ineffective, Senate officials have confirmed. The Republican senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Chris van Hollen are expected to launch a bipartisan bill on Tuesday aimed at forcing the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to halt his military campaign in north-eastern Turkey, amid reports of widespread human rights abuses and the release of Isis militants who had been detained there.

The Senate bill would impose restrictive measures on Turkey’s political leadership and Turkey’s domestic energy sector. It would also prohibit US military support to Turkey, a Nato ally. Donald Trump, widely blamed even by normally loyal supporters for giving a green light to the Turkish invasion, had sought to head off congressional sanctions and regain the initiative with an executive order on Monday.

On Tuesday, the justice department announced new criminal charges against a major Turkish bank for what was described as a multi-billion dollar sanctions busting scheme. Halkbank was charged with fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses, for the scheme which involved selling Iranian oil for gold. ... It was unclear whether the unveiling of the charges was in any way coordinated with the sanctions and steep dip in US-Turkish relations. The US has already sentenced the bank’s general manager, and a gold trader, Reza Zarrab, who pleaded guilty and offered cooperation.

Trump Is Scrambling to Undo the Chaos He Unleashed in Northern Syria

In an executive order signed Monday, Trump declared that Turkey's offensive "undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, endangers civilians, and further threatens to undermine the peace, security, and stability in the region.” The move raises tariffs on Turkish steel from 25 to 50 percent, places sanctions on key Turkish officials and ministries, and freezes negotiations in a $100 billion trade deal with Ankara. "I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey's economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path," read the order.

Vice President Mike Pence said that during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday, Trump had also demanded an immediate end to the Turkish assault on Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

“The United States of America simply is not going to tolerate Turkey’s invasion in Syria any further. We are calling on Turkey to stand down, end the violence, and come to the negotiating table,” Pence told reporters, adding that he and national security adviser Robert O’Brien would be heading to Turkey in the “immediate future” to persuade Erdogan to stop the offensive. ...

On Tuesday, Erdogan, who has shrugged moves by European nations to pressure him to abandon the offensive, vowed in a televised speech that he would continue until his objectives are achieved. He plans to drive Kurdish fighters, which he considers indistinguishable from Kurdish separatists in southern Turkey, away from the border region, then repopulate the area with about 2 million Syrian refugees.

Western pundits who lobbied for Syrian rebels now admit they are jihadist extremists

Trump’s Chaotic Syria Exit Puts Anti-War 2020 Democrats in a Delicate Spot

The Pentagon announced on Monday that the U.S. was pulling all of its troops out of northeastern Syria at President Donald Trump’s direction, completing a withdrawal he had started by Twitter declaration a week earlier. The move further clears the way for a full-on invasion by Turkey, whose soldiers have already been accused of executing noncombatants. In the chaos, hundreds of Islamic State detainees have reportedly escaped. ...

Trump’s abandonment of eastern Syria and the U.S. military’s Kurdish allies has put progressive Democrats — many of whom also favor withdrawing from overseas military operations — in a delicate spot. Over the past week, they have been trying to thread the needle between condemning Trump for recklessly abandoning an ally and emphasizing that withdrawing U.S. troops should be an eventual policy goal. Trump’s decision has showcased what a worst-case scenario for expedited military withdrawal could look like, making it harder for progressive Democratic presidential candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to press their cases against “endless wars” on the campaign trail. The question of how progressives can go about drawing down U.S. military commitments without repeating Trump’s calamitous actions would be an obvious pick for Tuesday night’s Democratic debate.

So far, the Democratic candidates have been critical of Trump but light on specifics about what they would do differently. Last week, Sanders condemned Trump’s withdrawal from Syria, telling reporters that “as somebody who does not want to see American troops bogged down in countries all over the world — you don’t turn your back on allies who have fought and died alongside American troops. You just don’t do that.” But when George Stephanopoulos asked Sunday morning on ABC for Sanders to explain the difference between his and Trump’s approaches, Sanders responded simply that Trump “lies. I don’t.” Warren’s response was similarly vague. She tweeted that “Trump recklessly betrayed our Kurdish partners” and that “we should bring our troops home, but we need to do so in a way that respects our security.”

Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California and co-chair of Sanders’s 2020 campaign, told The Intercept that progressives urgently need to make the case for a “doctrine of responsible withdrawal.”

“I don’t believe that withdrawal from a progressive perspective means a moral indifference to the lives of the places that we leave,” Khanna said in a phone interview. “It’s not an ‘America First’ approach that says our interests and our American lives are the only things that have moral worth. Rather, our withdrawal is based on an understanding of the limitations of American power to shape and restructure societies. It emphasizes the need for effective diplomacy and understands our moral obligations in these places.”

Catalan leaders trial: "A bad situation becomes worse"

How Macron discovered the soft power of the working class

“Progressive politics is doomed if it exists only to promote the interests of the middle classes,” French president Emmanuel Macron recently warned a large group of parliamentarians and ministers from his centrist La République En Marche (LREM) party and the Mouvement Démocrate (Modem). In particular, he cited the issue of immigration. He said the subject “had to be faced” and explained that he saw an essential difference between the middle and working classes: the latter are in contact with immigration, the former are not. “We have no right to dodge this issue. The question is whether or not we want to be a middle-class party. The middle classes are not bothered by this [immigration]: it doesn’t impinge on them. The working classes have to live with it.” His statement blindsided the entire French intelligentsia, the political, cultural and literary classes, and recast a divisive question. ...

Obviously, the [gilet jaunes] continuing unrest has played a part in his rethink. In a recent interview in Time magazine, Macron admitted that the movement came as a shock to him, but added that “the gilets jaunes were very good for me”. He can see the limitations of an economic model that fails the majority of the population, but he is also questioning progressive thinking, not because he has any fundamental doubts, but because of the dangers inherent in a project supported only by the elite. After months of social and political upheaval, Macron can see that there is no future in an ideology that fuels mistrust between the ruling and working classes. ...

Unlike conventional industrial action, the gilets jaunes are not represented by a party, trade union or leader. Their independence seems to mirror the estrangement of the elites. As power and wealth have concentrated in the big cities – the 21st-century equivalent of medieval citadels – so the most powerful classes have increasingly lost interest in the surrounding communities. In France – and throughout the developed world – this elite distancing prompted a corresponding growth in the autonomy of those at the bottom of the economic pile. It is this cultural independence that partly explains the enduring nature and power of the populist wave. What we call “populism” is the political expression of a radical increase in the independence of the working classes.

In France, the working classes donned hi-vis vests to show they still existed. Their British counterparts seized on Brexit to send the City of London a wake-up call. All over the western world, globalisation’s losers are pulling the strings of populist leaders in order to raise their own visibility. Far from being all-powerful, or even political wizards, the likes of Donald Trump, Matteo Salvini and Nigel Farage are little more than puppets of the working classes. The lowest socioeconomic groups may not realise they belong to a new proletariat, but they share a common understanding of the prevailing economic model. They are also convinced that they have been culturally and geographically sidelined; pushed out of the places where jobs and wealth are created. They haven’t been manipulated politically, they’ve reached an entirely rational diagnosis of the contemporary world.

The risk of a return to the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century is real, but the fundamental challenge of this century is the inclusion – economic and cultural – of ordinary people. That problem is the result of an economic model that concentrates wealth in the hands of the wealthiest urban dwellers. The big challenge for society and democracy is to reconcile Paris with peripheral France, London with Sheffield, New York with the rust belt, California with the flyover states. We simply have no choice.

Brexit talks plough on as deadline looms

Boris Johnson 'on brink of Brexit deal' after border concessions

Boris Johnson appears to be on the brink of reaching a Brexit deal after making major concessions to EU demands over the Irish border. A draft text of the agreement could now be published on Wednesday if Downing Street gives the final green light, according to senior EU and British sources.

It is understood that the negotiating teams have agreed in principle that there will be a customs border down the Irish Sea. A similar arrangement was rejected by Theresa May as a deal that no British prime minister could accept.

Johnson will still have to win over parliament – including the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and the hardline Tory Brexiters of the European Research Group (ERG) – on the basis that, under the deal, Northern Ireland will still legally be within the UK’s customs territory.

One Eurosceptic source close to both camps indicated that such an arrangement would be “extremely difficult for the DUP to swallow”, but neither the DUP nor ERG publicly made any criticism of Johnson’s efforts.

EU is a collection of fading, failing economies – George Galloway

Trump impeachment inquiry gathers pace as more officials testify

Democrats continued their whirlwind investigation of Donald Trump on Tuesday as another witness testified before Congress, building momentum towards a likely impeachment of the president. Trump sought to fight back by drawing attention to a TV interview in which Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice-president Joe Biden, acknowledged “poor judgment” in his business dealings in Ukraine but denied any wrongdoing.

George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state, became the latest official to appear in private before three House committees. In emails supplied to Congress by the state department inspector general, Kent expressed concerns about White House efforts to remove the then ambassador to Ukraine.

The impeachment inquiry is moving at dizzying speed. The Axios website noted that if everyone agrees to appear, Democrats will have interviewed 11 administration officials by the end of next week. Every witness has “bolstered the case against Trump”, Axios added, leaving White House officials demoralised or panicked.

The hearings have been held behind closed doors but Democrats may yet decide to publish transcripts. Trump, who has been leading his own defence, tweeted on Tuesday: “Democrats are allowing no transparency at the Witch Hunt hearings. If Republicans ever did this they would be excoriated by the Fake News. Let the facts come out from the charade of people, most of whom I do not know, they are interviewing for nine hours each, not selective leaks.”

'Arrest and Detain Giuliani Right Now,' Say Critics, After Trump Lawyer Refuses Congressional Subpoena

President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday told Congress he would not comply with a subpoena to hand over documents related to the House impeachment inquiry investigation into the White House's dealings with Ukraine—a move that critics noted could land him in jail.

"Giuliani and Trump must both think they're above the law," said CNN contributor Keith Boykin.

The president's lawyer was ordered on September 30 to hand over documents related to his efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to open an investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 general election.

Giuliani did not reply to a request for comment but told ABC, "If they enforce it then we will see what happens."

By ignoring the subpoena, Giuliani is setting up yet another clash between the executive and legislative branches in the course of the inquiry. As Common Dreams reported, Trump announced on October 8 he would not cooperate with the inquiry, setting up a clear constitutional crisis.

'Biden's case shows dirty deals are a norm in US' - Blumenthal

Hunter Biden Admits His Last Name Has Opened Basically Every Door for Him

Hunter Biden admitted there wasn’t much in his life that couldn’t be at least partly chalked up to his last name. And that includes his spot on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma — which could now be a liability in his dad's 2020 presidential run. ABC News’ Amy Robach asked the former VP’s son in an interview published Tuesday: "If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think you would've been asked to be on the board of Burisma?"

"I don't know. I don't know. Probably not, in retrospect," Biden, a lawyer and international consultant, answered. "But that's — you know — I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn't Biden." Biden added: “Because my dad was Vice President of the United States. There's literally nothing, as a young man or as a full grown adult that — my father in some way hasn't had influence over. It does not serve either one of us.”

Worth a full read:

Wall Street’s Mega Banks Report Earnings Today, Capping the Craziest Banking Era in U.S. History

Among the items of interest in JPMorgan Chase’s written presentation was that it spent $6.7 billion in this past third quarter buying up its own stock and thus boosting its stock price artificially beyond outside investor demand. The third quarter buybacks of its stock came on top of spending $5 billion in the second quarter and $4.7 billion in the first quarter, bringing its net repurchases of its own stock just so far this year to a whopping $16.4 billion — money that could have otherwise gone to loans to small businesses to kickstart innovation and job growth in America.

This Thursday, the House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets will hold a hearing on stock buybacks by publicly traded corporations. The hearing will make the following points: there’s nothing normal about corporations inflating their share price through buybacks – in fact, the practice was illegal in the United States prior to 1982. The second point is that buybacks come at the expense of legitimate uses of corporate cash such as boosting stagnant worker wages, investing in new equipment or research and development.

Buybacks are also seen as abusive forms of stock price manipulation and the SEC has no meaningful programs to police how and when these transactions occur. The Subcommittee notes that buybacks have skyrocketed from less than $200 billion in 2000 to a record $811 billion last year. The mega banks on Wall Street are responsible for a big chunk of those dollars.

Another of the craziest aspects of this uniquely corrupt period in American banking is that Wall Street’s brokerage firms and investment banks have combined with deposit-holding, federally-insured banks – giving the so-called “universal” banks the potential to use savers’ deposit money to artificially inflate their own stock through buybacks. That’s really crazy. But what is even crazier is that the SEC is also allowing these mega banks to trade in their own stock in their own Dark Pools, the equivalent of an in-house stock exchange.

Ohio Jail Guards Plead Guilty After Video Shows Them Beating Mentally Ill Man Strapped to a Chair

Two correctional officers at an Ohio jail pleaded guilty Tuesday to beating a mentally ill inmate strapped to a chair, in a gruesome assault that was captured on surveillance video.

The officers, Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan, were accused of restraining and repeatedly punching Terrance Debose in a March attack at the embattled Cuyahoga County Jail, where six inmates died in a four-month span last year. Evans pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony assault and tampering with evidence — he turned off his body camera before beating Debose, who has an undiagnosed mental illness — while Dugan pleaded guilty to attempted abduction and misdemeanor assault, according to Cleveland.com.

Both men are currently on unpaid leave from the jail, and have agreed to resign from their positions after their sentencing in December. In the meantime, they’re out on bail. ...

Surveillance video from the assault showed Evans and Dugan dragging Debose — who was strapped to a chair at the time — into an isolation cell. Pinned to the chair and unable to defend himself, the officers punched Debose in the face repeatedly. He was then left there for two hours, bleeding, according to Cleveland.com. He suffered a concussion as a result of the beating. Debose is black; the two correctional officers are white.

Border Patrol Illegally Held a Sick 9-Year-Old Girl Without Medical Attention, Lawsuit Says

A 9-year-old asylum-seeker from El Salvador was held in a California Border Patrol station for 10 days with her mother, according to a lawsuit reviewed by KPBS. Conditions at the facility also made the child sick, advocates say, but she didn’t receive any medical attention. The girl’s detention violated a longstanding court settlement that outlines how the government is supposed to treat migrant children in its custody, her attorneys told KPBS. The settlement, known as the Flores Settlement agreement, states that minors can only stay in Border Patrol custody for 72 hours. The girl and her mom were finally released on Monday. ...

[T]he girl’s lawyers say Border Patrol violated federal rules. “In the case of CBP custody, it sets a strict 72-hour limit on children in CBP custody because they are meant as short-term holding facilities and there have been numerous reports and documentation of inadequate medical care, inadequate access to food and water, poor sanitation, and frequent illness,” Erika Pinheiro, an attorney with the organization Al Otro Lado, which is representing the girl, told NBC San Diego. ...

The girl’s lawyer told KPBS that she suffered from stomach pains and diarrhea while in detention and didn’t receive medical treatment until they were released to a shelter.

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Krystal Ball: Bernie has the best night of his career

'Huge Moment in the 2020 Race': Ocasio-Cortez to Endorse Bernie Sanders for President

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, The Washington Post reported Tuesday night, a political coup for the Vermont senator as he looks to increase his standing in the polls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

"This is big," said Politico campaign reporter Holly Otterbein after confirming the news with members of the Sanders campaign.

According to the Post:

The endorsement could be a blow for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who, like Sanders, is running on a platform of sweeping liberal change and who has emphasized her role as a female pioneer. Ocasio-Cortez had worked as a volunteer organizer for Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid; she was recruited to run for Congress in 2018 by Justice Democrats, a group that grew out of the Sanders campaign.

[...]

Her backing was a sought-after prize in the Democratic primary, and it was widely assumed that she would endorse either Sanders or Warren, the most liberal figures in the contest.

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) will also endorse Sanders, reported CNN's Greg Krieg. ...

The news broke in the waning minutes of a primary debate featuring Sanders and 11 of his rivals for the nomination in which Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) fended off attacks from more right wing candidates on issues like Medicare for All, Sanders' signature legislation.

Between his stellar performance at the debate tonight and AOC’s pending endorsement - this is a huge moment and Sanders cannot, and should not, be ignored any longer by those who continue to erase him, his candidacy and his supporters.

— Sanafraid of No Ghost Saeed (@SanaSaeed) October 16, 2019

Warren Surrogate responds to Buttigieg attacks and AOC Bernie endorsement

Ilhan Omar endorses Sanders

[Representative Ilhan Omar] said in a statement released by Sanders’ campaign: “Bernie is leading a working class movement to defeat Donald Trump that transcends generation, ethnicity and geography. ... And it’s why Bernie is fighting to end our forever wars and truly prioritize human rights in our foreign policy—no matter who violates them. And it’s why I believe Bernie Sanders is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in 2020.”

.@BernieSanders isn’t fighting to win just one presidential election -- he’s fighting for the soul of our democracy.

Here’s more on why I’m so proud to give Bernie my endorsement for president of the United States: pic.twitter.com/1NLMPnzS1x

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 16, 2019

Sanders similarly praised Omar: “Ilhan is a leader of strength and courage. She will not back down from a fight with billionaires and the world’s most powerful corporations to transform our country so it works for all of us. I’m proud of what we’ve done in Congress, and together we will build a multiracial working class coalition to win the White House.”

2016 pundits: Bernie can’t get support from people of color

2019 pundits: Bernie’s support is skewed too people of color (urban) and too young (internet)

These fucking people https://t.co/9AjDuxFBh8

— Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap (@kaitlin_sb) October 16, 2019

Democrats Talk Healthcare, Foreign Policy, Impeachment & More at 4th Presidential Candidate Debate

every time i hear people like Klobuchar and Buttigieg talk about insurance like we'll all cry about losing it i feel like i'm going crazy. literally nobody likes their insurance company. insurance companies suck and shouldn't exist.

— Erin democracy banshee Ryan (@morninggloria) October 16, 2019

Joe Biden: "There's nothing we can't achieve together as a nation."

Also Joe Biden: "Medicare for All is impossible."

— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) October 16, 2019

Do these fundraising numbers spell the end of Biden

Buttigieg Denounced for Spouting 'Pack of Lies' About Medicare for All While Swimming in Insurance Industry Cash

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg—the leading recipient of campaign cash from the healthcare industry among Democratic presidential candidates—went on the offensive against Medicare for All with right-wing talking points during Tuesday night's debate, bashing the popular proposal as a tax hike on the middle class that would kick "150 million Americans off of their insurance in four short years."

Buttigieg's debate performance was met with enthusiastic applause from cable news talking heads and conservative commentators, but progressive critics and health policy experts said the mayor's attacks on Medicare for All were deceptive at best and, at worst, blatant falsehoods.

"Mayor Pete was spinning a pack of lies about Medicare for All last night," The Week's Ryan Cooper tweeted Wednesday morning. In a column on Wednesday, Cooper argued that Buttigieg's two primary lines of attack against Medicare for All during the debate—that it would hike taxes on the middle class and cost trillions of dollars—were highly misleading.

Buttigieg took aim at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for refusing to "acknowledge" Medicare for All would raise taxes on middle-class Americans, echoing attacks he leveled against Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the days leading up to Tuesday night's debate. ...

Amid widespread backlash, Buttigieg doubled down on his criticism of Medicare for All Wednesday by launching new Facebook ads attacking Warren for supporting the policy, which would guarantee comprehensive healthcare for everyone in the U.S. states for free at the point of service.

Not one single question about the climate crisis.
Not one single question about the climate crisis.
Not one single question about the climate crisis.

This is the existential crisis of our time. Not one single question, and that’s completely inexcusable. #DemDebate

— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) October 16, 2019

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Acting 'On Behalf of Life,' Extinction Rebellion Defies Blanket Ban on Climate Protests in London

Activists with the global Extinction Rebellion movement vowed to remain in the streets demanding climate action after the London Metropolitan Police Monday night imposed a city-wide protest ban that lawmakers and human rights groups condemned as "chilling and unlawful."

"Imposing a blanket ban on Extinction Rebellion protests is an unlawful restriction on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Allan Hogarth, head of advocacy and programs at Amnesty International U.K., said in a statement. "Under U.K. and international human rights law, the government has an obligation to facilitate the exercise of these rights."

Extinction Rebellion U.K. quickly signaled that it would refuse to comply with the police order, which the group said is legally "dubious."

"They take these actions to protect an establishment that is criminally negligent in its inaction on ecological and climate breakdown," the group tweeted late Monday. "We rebel against a broken system. We act on behalf of life."

George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian and supporter of the Extinction Rebellion movement, said the "truncation of the right to protest" by London police "intensifies the moral case for taking action."

After Shell CEO Claims 'We Have No Choice' But to Invest in Fossil Fuels, McKibben Says, 'We Have No Choice But to Try and Stop Them'

Climate activists and experts underscored the necessity of fighting to urgently end the use of fossil fuels worldwide after Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden claimed Monday that "we have no choice" but to invest in long-term oil and gas projects.

On Tuesday, Bill McKibben, co-founder of the global environmental advocacy group 350.org, declared that "we have no choice but to try and stop them."

The 61-year-old fossil fuel executive's comment was part of an exclusive interview published Monday by Reuters. According to the news agency:

A defiant van Beurden rejected a rising chorus from climate activists and parts of the investor community to transform radically the 112-year-old Anglo-Dutch company's traditional business model.

"Despite what a lot of activists say, it is entirely legitimate to invest in oil and gas because the world demands it," van Beurden said.

"We have no choice" but to invest in long-life projects, he added.

Shell, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom, is among the world's largest energy companies. Last year, the publicly traded company's revenue was $388.4 billion.

Based on an investor presentation from June, Reuters reported that "Shell plans to greenlight more than 35 new oil and gas projects by 2025." ...

Patrick Galey, a global science and environment correspondent for Agence France-Presse, posited that "when the trials of oil and gas executives come, this interview will be Exhibit A."

Just 100 Companies Will Sign Humanity’s Death Warrant

In recent weeks, climate activists in New York City jammed up foot traffic on Wall Street with a die-in, covering themselves in fake blood and lying on the ground. Other activists in Washington, D.C., blocked intersections using a variety of tactics, gridlocking traffic and pissing off a lot of people. It seems clear that when it comes to our impending extinction, practically no one cares, unless it means they have to sit in traffic for 10 extra minutes. Apparently there is nothing that upsets Americans more than being stuck in their car, moving at a negative MPH, completely unable to get to the jobs they fucking hate.

And that’s why those are the types of protests that matter—the ones that interrupt the flow of capitalism, not the colorful marches where we all show up for two hours while the politicians we’re ostensibly trying to influence go play golf. I’m not saying don’t get involved in the friendly marches—I’m just saying our rulers don’t care that you did. It’s like when you dress up your baby in a costume: I’m not saying you have to stop, but you’re only doing it for yourself. The ruling elite, like your baby, doesn’t actually care.

But since I aim to please, here’s a point for those of you who don’t give a shit about the climate crisis. The corporations that are screwing up your life, tainting your water, polluting your air, buying up your favorite coffee shop and turning it into a gas station, sucking your tax dollars up through subsidies, and all the while paying their employees a warm can of farts per hour—those corporations are the same ones creating the climate catastrophe. In fact, The Guardian reported that just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These include Exxon Mobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Chinese and Russian coal, Chevron, BP, CNPC, ConocoPhillips, Gazprom, Lukoil, Total, Petrobas and many others. ...

Basically, a tiny number of sociopaths make the decisions that are currently dooming us all, and as much as I’d like to tell you otherwise, those people don’t even notice if we all march outside in colorful hats. ... Point is, the only protests that create change are those that interrupt the flow of business, because these corporations will not give up easily. Too much profit rests in the balance for them to stop their prolonged execution of the human race.

The Guardian article continues: “Fossil fuel companies risked wasting more than two trillion dollars over the coming decade by pursuing coal, oil and gas projects that could be worthless in the face of international action on climate change and advances in renewables – in turn posing substantial threats to investor returns.” They have made a two trillion-dollar gamble that we will all keep using fossil fuels even as society collapses. So they don’t just have a dog in the race, they have a goddamn elephant riding on top of a T. rex riding on top of Mike Pompeo. (One can argue that such an animal would not fare well in a race, but it is undeniably a significant beast to have in said contest.) ...

As President Obama pointed out last year in a speech, “American energy production, you wouldn’t always know it, but it went up every year I was president. … And you know that … suddenly America’s like the biggest oil producer … that was me, people.” Our former president is actually proud of the fact that he helped put the nail in our coffin. When the ruling elite don’t think you’re paying attention, they brag about their crimes—the same way you or I might sit around privately and say, “Man, you wouldn’t believe how much weed I smoked last night.” Our powers that be sit around boasting, “Man, you wouldn’t believe how many regulations I gutted last night.”

The 100 corporations actively suffocating us in a blanket of global warming emissions are the same ones that run our government. They have wrapped their tentacles around our politicians, the regulatory agencies and the criminal justice system. It’s now one big, incestuous, money-obsessed pile of X-rated nastiness—and you and I are not part of it. We are the cannon fodder, the collateral damage, the chum. Until we stop these corporations, the expiration date of the human race is set in stone.

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Also of Interest

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

Documents Reveal Hospital Industry Is Leading Fight Against Medicare for All

30 years after communism, eastern Europe divided on democracy's impact

Russian troll freed in Belarus after arrest for US election tampering

Protecting the ‘Whistleblower’ & Other Preposterous Pranks

Fearing American abandonment, Kurds kept back channels to Damascus, Moscow wide open

As US-Turkey Tensions Grow, So Do Questions About US Nukes in Incirlik

Caitlin Johnstone: My List Of Demands

Means Testing: Sanders vs. Warren on the Single Most Important Policy Idea for Progressive Success

Bernie Sanders is right, it’s time to redistribute economic power

Sanders and Omar Bill Would Provide Universal Free Public School Lunches in US

Will Congress finally fulfill a 200-year-old promise to the Cherokee people?

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A Little Night Music

Junior Wells - She's a Sweet One

The Junior Wells Blues Band - Shake My Hand

Junior Wells - I'm Gonna Cramp Your Style

Junior Wells - Why Are People Like That

Junior Wells - Lawdy Lawdy

Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues

Junior Wells - Come On In This House

Junior Wells - Checkin' On My Baby

Junior Wells - Trouble No More

Junior Wells - Messin' With The Kid

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