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This evening's music features Seattle area musicians, The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. Enjoy!

"When life is negotiated within a collective value system that devalues and deadens the individual’s inner life thus warps every human transaction, anomie descends, the worst among a people ascend to positions of power."

-- Phil Rockstroh

News and Opinion

Florida governor declares state of emergency before white nationalist's speech

Governor Rick Scott of Florida has declared a state of emergency ahead of a speech by a white nationalist leader this week at the University of Florida, in order to free up resources to prepare for possible violence. Richard Spencer’s speech on Thursday in Gainesville is part of a national campaign to use outrage over racist events on university campuses to draw attention to white nationalist ideas. The tour is also designed keep fringe provocateurs like Spencer in the media spotlight. Spencer has advocated for a “white ethno-state” in North America that would be achieved through “peaceful ethnic cleansing”. ...

Public universities have split in their response to attempts to host racist, xenophobic and antisemitic events on their campuses. Some have denied requests, citing safety concerns. A few have faced lawsuits as a result. Other public university leaders have argued that America’s strict freedom of speech protections give them no choice but to allow Spencer to use campus venues.

Citing serious safety concerns, the University of Florida was one of several schools to deny Spencer’s requests to speak in the wake of events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, where a peaceful counter-protester was killed when a car was driven into a crowd. Under threat of legal action, the school reversed course and said it and other local agencies would spend more than $500,000 on security costs to comply with Spencer’s request to rent a campus venue for a speech on 19 October.

In a statement in early October, the university president, W Kent Fuchs, said: “If you are like me, I expect you are surprised and even shocked to learn that [the university] is required by law to allow Mr Spencer to speak his racist views on our campus, and that we are not allowed by law to bill him for the full costs of keeping our campus safe, which exceed more than a half million dollars.”

Declassified US files reveal new details of Indonesia's mid-60s mass killings

Declassified files have revealed new details of US government knowledge of and support for an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s. The thousands of files from the US embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public on Tuesday after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration.

The files fill out the picture of a devastating reign of terror by the Indonesian army and Muslim groups that has been sketched by historians and in a US state department volume that was declassified in 2001 despite a last-minute CIA effort to block its distribution.

In 1965, Indonesia had the world’s third-largest communist party after China and the Soviet Union, with several million members, and the country’s president, the charismatic Sukarno, was vociferously socialist and anti-American. US officials were ecstatic when conservative generals imposed martial law in Jakarta, seized state radio and set out to annihilate the country’s communist party on the pretext that it had tried to overthrow the government. Within months, the army would prevail, shifting Indonesia’s political orientation to the US and opening its huge market to American companies.

The newly released files underline the US embassy’s and state department’s early, detailed and ongoing knowledge of the killings and eagerness to avoid doing anything that would hinder the Indonesian army. Historians had already established that the US provided lists of senior communist party officials, radio equipment and money as part of active support for the army. The documents specifically mention mass killings ordered by Suharto, a general who within months would seize total power and rule Indonesia for more than three decades, and the pivotal role in carrying out the massacres by groups that today remain Indonesia’s biggest mainstream Muslim organizations: Nahdlatul Ulama, its youth wing Ansor and Muhammadiyah.

A 21 December 1965 cable from the embassy’s first secretary, Mary Vance Trent, to the state department referred to events as a “fantastic switch which has occurred over 10 short weeks”. It also included an estimate that 100,000 people had been slaughtered.

Mogadishu Massacre: Hospitals Run Out of Blood, Antibiotics for Victims in Mass Bombing Killing 300+

Somalia bombing may have been revenge for botched US-led operation

The man who killed more than 300 people with a truck bomb in the centre of Mogadishu on Saturday was a former soldier in Somalia’s army whose home town was raided by local troops and US special forces two months ago in a controversial operation in which 10 civilians were killed, officials in Somalia have said.

The death toll from the bombing now stands at more than 300, making it one of the most devastating terrorist attacks anywhere in the world for many years. On Tuesday remains of victims were still being brought out of rubble spread over hundreds of square metres.

Investigators believe the attack on Saturday may in part have been motivated by a desire for revenge for the botched US-led operation in August.

Raqqa recaptured from Islamic State by US-backed forces

The Syrian city of Raqqa, once de facto capital of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate, has fallen to US-backed forces after a gruelling four-month battle.

The recapture of Raqqa after three years of Isis rule is a symbolic loss to the terrorist group, which is under intense pressure in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, forced into a strip of the Euphrates valley and surrounding desert between the two countries.

The Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday that they had captured the city’s stadium and the nearby hospital, which were the last holdouts of the terrorist group in the city. But they fell short of issuing an official statement announcing the liberation of Raqqa.

“Military operations have ended in Raqqa, but sweeping operations are continuing to destroy sleeper cells if they exist and to cleanse the city from mines,” Talal Selo, a SDF spokesman, said in a statement. “The situation is under control in Raqqa and soon we will announce the liberation of the city.”

Israel Attacks Syrian Air Defenses After Warplanes Come Under Fire

It’s pretty common for Israeli warplanes to attack targets inside Syria, and it’s very rare for Syria to do anything about it. This appears to be giving Israeli officials a sense that they’re entitled to attack Syria whenever the mood strikes, and led to a furious reaction overnight when Israeli warplanes were raiding Syria, and came under fire from Syrian air defenses.

Israel responded with a new round of attacks against Syrian air defense batteries east of the capital city of Damascus, presenting it as “retaliation” for Syria daring to fire on the warplanes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted such attacks are “not acceptable,” and that Israel will continue to strike Syria whenever it sees fit.

Throughout Syria’s war, Israel has regularly attacked Syrian military targets, particularly in the country’s south. Though Israel says they are “neutral” on the Syrian war, top officials have regularly said they would prefer ISIS winning in Syria instead of the Assad government.

Battle of Kirkuk: "There's a big rift between Kurdish parties in Kurdistan"

Iraqi forces drive Kurdish fighters out of town of Sinjar

Kurdish fighters have lost more territory in Iraq, a day after Iraqi forces pushed them out of the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The commander of local Yazidi fighters, Masloum Shingali, said Kurdish forces had left the town of Sinjar before dawn on Tuesday, allowing Shia-led militia fighting with Iraqi forces to move into the town.

Shingali said there had been no clashes and that the Kurdish forces left immediately. “They didn’t want to fight,” he said.

The town’s mayor, Mahma Khalil, said the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a predominantly Shia militia coalition, were securing Sinjar.

Iraqi troops pushed their Kurdish allies in the battle against Islamic State out of Kirkuk on Monday, seizing oilfields and other facilities as tensions soar over last month’s Kurdish vote for independence.

Iraq made 'declaration of war' when its troops seized parts of oil-rich region, Kurdish forces say

Iraqi army units have seized positions in and around Kirkuk, a major oil city that's dominated by the country's Kurdish people, who voted for independence last month. ... Reports indicated that the Iraqi troops had not faced significant opposition from Kurdish peshmerga militia fighters in the area. However, the General Command of the Peshmerga Forces responded strongly to the advance, local news reported.

"The attack is a clear declaration of war against the people of the Kurdistan Region," the General Command said in a statement.

Catalonia: detention of secessionist leaders sparks large protests

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Catalonia to protest against a judge’s decision to detain two prominent pro-independence leaders, as tensions between the Madrid and Barcelona governments continue to rise.

On Monday night, Spain’s national court denied bail to Jordi Sánchez, president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Jordi Cuixart, president of Òmnium Cultural. Both men are being investigated for alleged sedition in the run-up to the regional independence referendum two weeks ago.

Sánchez and Cuixart are accused of using huge demonstrations to try to stop Spanish police officers following a judge’s orders to halt the independence referendum that had already been suspended by the country’s constitutional court.

The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, quickly denounced the move and described both men as “political prisoners”. “Spain jails Catalonia’s civil society leaders for organising peaceful demonstrations,” he tweeted on Monday night. “Sadly, we have political prisoners again.”

The following day, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, tweeted: “Catalonia has woken up saddened and worried today. The imprisonment of [Sánchez and Cuixart] is a threat to everyone’s rights and freedoms.” Thousands of people crowded into the Plaça Sant Jaume in the Catalan capital at midday on Tuesday to demonstrate against the ruling. Similar demonstrations were held in Tarragona, Lleida and Girona.

'First high-level political prisoners over referendum': Catalan leaders jailed for possible sedition

Catalan government will not respond to Madrid's order on Thursday

Catalan authorities will not respond on Thursday to the Spanish government’s order that they clarify whether they have declared independence from Spain, Catalonia’s TV3 reported on Monday, citing sources.

Wow, Putin spent $80,000 in an election cycle where $6.8 Billion was spent in total. Gosh, I bet that 80k had a massive effect!

Boo! Putin scary!

Russian troll factory paid US activists to help fund protests during election

Russian trolls posing as Americans made payments to genuine activists in the US to help fund protest movements on socially divisive issues, according to a new investigation by a respected Russian media outlet. On Tuesday, the newspaper RBC published a major investigation into the work of a so-called Russian “troll factory” since 2015, including during the period of the US election campaign, disclosures that are likely to put further spotlight on alleged Russian meddling in the election. ...

RBC said it had identified 118 accounts or groups in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that were linked to the troll factory, all of which had been blocked in August and September this year as part of the US investigation into Russian electoral meddling. ...

Perhaps the most alarming element of the article was the claim that employees of the troll factory had contacted about 100 real US-based activists to help with the organisation of protests and events. RBC claimed the activists were contacted by Facebook group administrators hiding their Russian origin and were offered financial help to pay for transport or printing costs. About $80,000 was spent during a two-year period, according to the report.

The main topics covered by the groups run from Russia were race relations, Texan independence and gun rights. RBC counted 16 groups relating to the Black Lives Matter campaign and other race issues that had a total of 1.2 million subscribers. The biggest group was entitled Blacktivist and reportedly had more than 350,000 likes at its peak. ...

The company estimated that about 10 million Americans saw the ads, but interestingly also specified that only 44% of the impressions took place before last November’s election, making the Russian campaign look more like an attempt to sow general chaos rather than a narrowly focused electoral drive.

Human Anxiety in Late-Stage Capitalism

How is it [that] liberals fail to grasp the fact that the Trump presidency is not an aberration; rather, his ascension to power should be regarded as being among the high probability variables of late-stage capitalism and empire building? The psychopathic, tangerine-tinged clown Trump is the embodiment of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, a development that is concomitant to over-expanded empires. Thus he will continue to flounce deeper into the quagmire of crash-engendering, economic legerdemain and perpetual war.

Empires are death cults, and death cults, on a subliminal basis, long for their own demise. Paradoxically, the collective mindset of imperium, even as it thrusts across the expanse of the world, renders itself insular, cut off from culturally enhancing novelty, as all the while, the homeland descends into a psychical swamp of churning madness. A draining of the swamp of the collective mind cannot come to pass, for the swamp and citizenry are one. Withal, the likes of leaders such as Trump rise from and are made manifest by the morass of the culture itself. In a swamp, the gospel of rebirth and redemption is heard in the song of humus. New life rises from its compost. In the presence of Trump’s debased mind and tombified carcass, one is privy to arias of rot. While Hillary Clinton’s monotonous tempo was the dirge of a taxidermist — cold, desiccated of heart, and devoid of life’s numinous spark — Trump’s voice carries the depraved cacophony of a Célinean fool’s parade … its trajectory trudging towards the end of empire.

As liberals new BFFL (Best Friend for Life) George W. Bush might ask, “Is our liberals learning.”

In a word, no. For example, the collective psyche of U.S. culture as been enflamed by the revelations that actresses were coerced into sexual encounters with a movie mogul whose power in the industry was only matched, even enhanced, by his sadistic nature. The staff of his company assisted, was complicit in, or remained silent about his lechery, as did the whole of the movie industry and the entertainment press. All as NFL athletes are being threatened with expulsion from the League if they kneel during the national anthem. Yet the great unspoken remains: The enabling of and submission to the degradation, exploitation and tyranny, and the lack of resistance thereof share a common and singular factor: The careerism of all concerned. The cultural milieu concomitant to capitalism is at the rotten root and noxious blossoming of the situation.

Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 cinematic barnburner “Two or Three Things I Know About Her” should be required viewing for those unaware or in denial of the acuity of the film’s theme i.e., becoming enmeshed within the psychical landscape of dominance, degradation, and submission inherent to and inseparable from capitalist/consumer culture will cause one to become party to societal sanctioned prostitution. When life is negotiated within a collective value system that devalues and deadens the individual’s inner life thus warps every human transaction, anomie descends, the worst among a people ascend to positions of power.

North Korean UN envoy says 'nuclear war may break out at any moment'

North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador has warned that the situation on the Korean peninsula “has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment”.

Kim In-ryong told the UN general assembly’s disarmament committee that North Korea is the only country in the world that has been subjected to “such an extreme and direct nuclear threat” from the United States since the 1970s and said the country has the right to possess nuclear weapons in self-defence.

He pointed to large-scale military exercises every year using “nuclear assets” and said what is more dangerous is what he called a US plan to stage a “secret operation aimed at the removal of our supreme leadership”.

This year, Kim said, North Korea completed its “state nuclear force and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb and intercontinental ballistic rockets”.

“The entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe,” he warned.

Top Trump Official John Kelly Ordered ICE to Portray Immigrants as Criminals to Justify Raids

A directive to immigration officials across the country to try to portray undocumented immigrants swept up in mass raids as criminals came directly from then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, The Intercept has learned.

Earlier this month, The Intercept published a cache of internal emails exchanged between Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Texas in February, while the first mass raids of the Trump administration were underway.

The redacted emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by students at Vanderbilt University Law School, show that while hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country, DHS officials tried — and largely failed — to engineer a narrative that would substantiate the administration’s claims that the raids were motivated by public safety concerns. In the emails, local ICE officials are ordered to come up with “three egregious cases” of apprehended criminals to highlight to the media. ...

As a reader of The Intercept pointed out, the email’s subject line — “Due Tonight for S1 – URGENT” — meant that the request had been made by the secretary of Homeland Security himself, referred to as “S1” in department shorthand. Kelly was at the helm of the department at the time, before he was appointed in July to replace Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff.

US civic groups urge Amazon tax pledge: 'We expect you to pay your fair share'

As US cities throw billions in tax breaks and build war rooms to strategize on how best to lure Amazon to their city, civic leaders on Tuesday called on the tech giant to pay its fair share. Amazon’s plans to open a second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in a major US city have set off an often bizarre bidding frenzy as municipalities pitch for the company’s business. Amazon has promised to create up to 50,000 new jobs at the new site and bids must be in by 19 October.

New Jersey has pledged $7bn in potential tax credits to lure Amazon to Newark. Michigan is preparing to offer similar breaks to woo the company to Detroit. Business leaders in Tucson even tried to mail Jeff Bezos a 21ft saguaro cactus to gain his attention. (Amazon said it could not accept gifts and returned it). But in an open letter to the Amazon boss 73 civic leaders from cities and states including Arizona, California, Chicago, New Orleans and Tennessee have asked the company to promise quid pro quo for taxpayer support.

“You have your list of things you’re looking for from cities – but we live in these cities, and we’ve got some expectations of our own for Amazon,” the authors wrote. “We love jobs, we love technology, and we love convenience – but what you’re looking for will impact every part of our cities. We built these cities, and we want to make sure they remain ours.” The signatories called on Amazon to pledge to hire local construction workers, help build sustainable communities, contribute to affordable housing developments, be transparent about the breaks it is receiving and pay state property and income taxes.

“The things about our cities that make you want to move here are the same reasons many of us live here – we have great systems of higher education, museums, and infrastructure that helps move people and things from one place to another. But we got that stuff by collectively paying for it, through taxes, and we’re expecting Amazon to pay your fair share if you end up being our neighbor,” they write.

Here's the intro to an interview of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Jeremy Scahill. It develops into an interesting interview, though the first part of it about comic books might be something to skip through:

Ta-Nehisi Coates Unplugged

Donald Trump responds to the suffering of black and brown people in a radically different way than he does to that of white people. Puerto Ricans, in his mind, should have been grateful to him, and any Puerto Rican who complains is dirt. He can call John McCain a loser for getting shot down in Vietnam, but black athletes can’t exercise their First Amendment rights. Black athletes are sons of bitches, but the white shooter in Las Vegas is probably smart, according to Trump. This is a pattern that only the willfully ignorant can deny. And this isn’t just about Trump at home. He’s re-escalating the war in Afghanistan. He’s expanded a lethal spigot to Saudi Arabia to keep the bombs dropping on Yemen. He has eased the restrictions for the U.S. military on killing civilians. He’s considering authorizing increased CIA drone operations. And Trump is threatening to wipe North Korea, a country of 25 million people, off the map.

Part of the horrors emanating from Trump involves style, and some involve substance. President Obama was a belligerent war president. So was Bill Clinton. So was George W. Bush. So is Donald Trump. Trump is not really taking the war positions he is because he’s Donald Trump. He’s doing what American presidents do, albeit with some tweaks and differences here and there. But Trump says things that are horrifying. He openly lies. He deliberately chooses to inflame situations. So how much of Trump is who he is and what he believes and how much of it is how he does it and how he speaks?

Journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates recently wrote an article about Trump that has sparked a lot of discussion and debate. The title alone is very provocative: “The First White President.” It’s a fascinating read and it addresses the ways in which the eight-year presidency of the first black president, Barack Obama, was seized on by Trump trying to make his way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

In the piece, Coates write, “It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true — his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power. To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies. The repercussions are striking: Trump is the first president to have served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch. But more telling, Trump is also the first president to have publicly affirmed that his daughter is a ‘piece of ass.’”

Coates continues: “That is the point of white supremacy — to ensure that that which all others achieve with maximal effort, white people (particularly white men) achieve with minimal qualification. Barack Obama delivered to black people the hoary message that if they work twice as hard as white people, anything is possible. But Trump’s counter is persuasive: Work half as hard as black people, and even more is possible. Trump truly is something new — the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president. And so, it will not suffice to say that Trump is a white man like all the others who rose to become president. He must be called by his rightful honorific — America’s first white president.”

Regreening the planet could cut as much carbon as halting oil use – report

Planting forests and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement, an international study showed on Monday. Natural climate solutions, also including protection of carbon-storing peatlands and better management of soils and grasslands, could account for 37% of all actions needed by 2030 under the 195-nation Paris plan, it said.

Combined, the suggested “regreening of the planet” would be equivalent to halting all burning of oil worldwide, it said.

“Better stewardship of the land could have a bigger role in fighting climate change than previously thought,” the international team of scientists said of findings published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The estimates for nature’s potential, led by planting forests, were up to 30% higher than those envisaged by a UN panel of climate scientists in a 2014 report, it said.

Trees soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot. That makes forests, from the Amazon to Siberia, vast natural stores of greenhouse gases.

Federal Court Dismisses RICO and Defamation Lawsuit Against Greenpeace

In a decision that could set a powerful precedent for protecting activists from legal attacks, a federal judge on Monday dismissed all claims in a lawsuit filed by a major Canadian logging company against Greenpeace, Stand.earth, and individual activists, which included claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Resolute Forest Products Inc. filed the $300 million CAD lawsuit in response to the environmentalists' advocacy work in protest of deforestation that results from logging. The activists celebrated the decision, and called for future collaboration between environmental advocates and corporations to protect natural resources.

"The judge's decision to dismiss the case affirms that Resolute's divisive and bullying tactics are a waste of time and resources," said Greenpeace USA senior forest campaigner Daniel Brindis. "It is time for Resolute to finally work with environmental organizations including Greenpeace to address their destructive forestry operations and forge a collaborative and sustainable path forward."

While Greenpeace USA general counsel Tom Wetterer called the ruling "very positive news," he also emphasized that the decision by Resolute's attorneys to file RICO claims was an "attempt to abuse our legal system and silence legitimate criticism on matters of public concern" by using a federal law typically reserved for targeting mobsters—and which even the Justice Department says "was passed by Congress with the declared purpose of seeking to eradicate organized crime in the United States."

"Resolute's claim that organizations and activists committed to the conservation of the forests were part of a criminal enterprise is absurd and a sad symptom of a wider assault on constitutional rights and democracy," said Wetterer. "The logging company's allegations were a clear attempt to silence the voices that advocate for the environment."

Climate Change Has Doubled Area Hit By Forest Fires in US

Also of Interest

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

Accused of corruption, popularity near zero – why is Brazil's president still in office?

Kentucky’s Last Remaining Abortion Clinic Could Be Forced to Shut Its Doors

A Little Night Music

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Tacoma Black Party

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Close But No Cigar

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - I Don't Want to Play That

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Concussion

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Top Going Down, Bottom Going Up

Jimmy James and Friends - Jam

Jimmy James - Sure Thing

Jimmy James - Foxy Lady

Sharon Jones invites Jimmy James to play guitar