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“Never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.”

-- John Wayne

News and Opinion

'I'm sorry': Historic moment Tony Blair FINALLY apologises for Iraq War and admits in TV interview the conflict caused the rise of ISIS

Tony Blair has finally said sorry for the Iraq War – and admitted he could be partly to blame for the rise of Islamic State.

The extraordinary confession by the former Prime Minister comes after 12 years in which he refused to apologise for the conflict.

Blair makes his dramatic 'mea culpa' during a TV interview about the 'hell' caused by his and George Bush's decision to oust Saddam Hussein.

In the exchange, Blair repeatedly says sorry for his conduct and even refers to claims that the invasion was a war 'crime' – while denying he committed one.

Blair is asked bluntly in the CNN interview, to be broadcast today: 'Was the Iraq War a mistake?'

He replies: 'I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong.

'I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.'

Challenged that the Iraq War was 'the principal cause' of the rise of Islamic State, he said: 'I think there are elements of truth in that.

'Of course you can't say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.'

In the 'trial by TV', respected US political broadcaster Fareed Zakaria accuses him of being President Bush's 'poodle' over the conflict. Blair's confession comes a week after The Mail on Sunday published a bombshell White House memo revealing for the first time how Blair and Bush agreed a 'deal in blood' a year before the invasion.

Charles Glass: Tony Blair is Right - Those Who Removed Saddam Hussein Share Blame for Rise of ISIL

See also:

Bush Lapdog Blair Can’t Even Apologize Correctly for Destabilizing the Middle East

Not Sorry Enough: Tony Blair Apologizes for Iraq War ‘Mistakes’

And on this side of the Atlantic, the silence is deafening

Tony Blair says he’s sorry. It only took him twelve years to own up, but hey – it’s better than what’s happening on this side of the Atlantic, where not one word of apology to the relatives and loved ones of those who died – never mind the nation at large, or the Iraqi people – has been uttered by the architects of the Iraq war.

While practically everyone but the most recalcitrant neocons now admits that war opponents were right, the advocates of that disastrous adventure are admitting nothing, and regretting even less: not only that, but they are still turned to by the media as credible spokesman on matters of state. Indeed, the neocons are everywhere these days, attacking the Iran deal, calling for regime-change in Syria, demanding a return to Iraq, and – lately – agitating for confronting the Russians in Ukraine and the Middle East. ...

In spite of Blair’s dissimulations, however, it’s interesting to note that our own war criminals are still running around without having been confronted by our lickspittle media, let alone faced any legal ramifications. Because, after all, lying a nation into war is illegal as well as immoral – and yet there has been no real inquiry into how and by whom we were lied to. ...

The Senate conducted an investigation into prewar intelligence-gathering, but the several reports it issued were compromised by partisan bickering and wound up basically whitewashing the entire process: in particular, the key role played by Feith’s rogue Office of Special Plans and the complementary Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group was swept under the rug. No one was held accountable.

And, on this side of the Atlantic, no one has said “I’m sorry.”

Vladimir Putin accuses US of backing terrorism in Middle East

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has launched a stinging attack on US policy in the Middle East, accusing Washington of backing terrorism and playing a “double game”.

In a speech on Thursday at the annual gathering of the Valdai Club, a group of Russian and international analysts and politicians, Putin said the US had attempted to use terrorist groups as “a battering ram to overthrow regimes they don’t like”.

He said: “It’s always hard to play a double game – to declare a fight against terrorists but at the same time try to use some of them to move the pieces on the Middle Eastern chessboard in your own favour. There’s no need to play with words and split terrorists into moderate and not moderate. I would like to know what the difference is.”

Western capitals have accused Moscow of targeting moderate rebel groups during its bombing campaign in Syria, which Russia says is mainly aimed at targets linked to Islamic State. However, Putin’s talk of “playing with words” and other statements by government officials suggest Moscow believes all armed opposition to Bashar al-Assad is a legitimate target.

US Struggles to Decide on ‘Combat’ Narrative in Iraq

Obvious Combat Mission Being Spun as 'Advisory'

Last week’s raid against an ISIS prison in Iraq, which led to the first American combat death of the latest Iraq war, has left the administration struggling with repeated promises not to send ground troops into combat in Iraq, and the obvious combat nature of the mission.

While most analysts expected that the raid would simply mark the eventual shift to overt ground combat, one which has been expected at any rate, Pentagon officials have tried to present overt gunbattles with enemy troops as an “advisory” mission. ...

Likely part of this dispute is that the raid was approved by the Secretary of Defense, who only “informed” the White House of the fact. The White House seems to be trying to avoid going directly on the record about the matter until they see whether the public is going to buy the idea of this being something short of combat.

When Combat Isn’t Combat

If the U.S. is not officially at war, why are its soldiers dying in war zones?

An American soldier died in Iraq this week as a result of the U.S. intervention to support Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State. It’s the first loss of an American service member since the fight against ISIS began, and the first U.S. combat death in Iraq since 2011. U.S. special operations forces operating in Iraq in what Pentagon officials say was a supporting role took part in an Iraqi operation to free Iraqi hostages, including members of the Iraqi Security Forces. After more than 70 hostages were freed, 39-year-old Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, a veteran of 14 official combat deployments and doubtless several other less-official trips into danger, died of his gunshot wound.

His death has raised the question of how an American could have died in combat when America, at least according to President Barack Obama and his national security leaders, is not at war.

“We have this capability. It is a great American strength,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Friday at the Pentagon of special-operations raids like the one this week. But he insisted those raids are not the same as the U.S. military “assuming a combat role.” ...

But before Carter left the podium on Friday, he offered this explanation for why he couldn’t reveal more details of Wheeler’s actions: “This is combat. Things are complicated.”

Indeed. ...

Thursday’s events have thrust into the public spotlight the rather plastic definitions of “war” and “combat” with which Americans have been operating for a while now. And not just in Iraq and Syria.

America’s Elite Forces Deploy to a Record-Shattering 147 Countries in 2015

The Army’s Green Berets are among the best known of America’s elite forces, but they’re hardly alone. Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, Army Rangers, Marine Corps Raiders, as well as civil affairs personnel, logisticians, administrators, analysts, and planners, among others, make up U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF). They are the men and women who carry out America’s most difficult and secret military missions. Since 9/11, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has grown in every conceivable way from funding and personnel to global reach and deployments. In 2015, according to Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw, U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to a record-shattering 147 countries – 75% of the nations on the planet, which represents a jump of 145% since the waning days of the Bush administration. On any day of the year, in fact, America’s most elite troops can be found in 70 to 90 nations.

There is, of course, a certain logic to imagining that the increasing global sweep of these deployments is a sign of success. After all, why would you expand your operations into ever-more nations if they weren’t successful? ...

A recent $500 million program, run by Green Berets, to train a Syrian force of more than
15,000 over several years, for instance, crashed and burned in a very public way, yielding just four or five fighters in the field before being abandoned. This particular failure followed much larger, far more expensive attempts to train the Afghan and Iraqi security forces in which Special Operations troops played a smaller yet still critical role. The results of these efforts recently prompted TomDispatch regular and retired Army lieutenant colonel Andrew Bacevich to write that Washington should now assume “when it comes to organizing, training, equipping, and motivating foreign armies, that the United States is essentially clueless.” ...

“As far back as Vietnam,” Bacevich tells me, “the United States military has tended to confuse inputs with outcomes. Effort, as measured by operations conducted, bomb tonnage dropped, or bodies counted, is taken as evidence of progress made. Today, tallying up the number of countries in which Special Operations forces are present repeats this error. There is no doubt that U.S. Special Operations forces are hard at it in lots of different places. It does not follow that they are thereby actually accomplishing anything meaningful.”

Russia, US Discuss Syria Transition Process

Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met over the weekend to discuss the possibility of a transitional political process in Syria, which Russia believes could eventually unify secular rebels and the Assad government. ...

As usual though, the two nations are also deeply divided on what the transition looks like, with Russia keen to see Assad stay in power pending the defeat of ISIS, and the US still insisting that Assad cannot be involved under any circumstances.

This likely is why the US is averse to Western European involvement, as Britain and others have expressed support for Assad staying on a temporary basis, and their inclusion in the talks would make the dispute less of a Russia vs. US issue and more of a US vs everyone issue.

Syria Burning: Charles Glass on the Roots & Future of the Deadly Conflict

This op-ed is worth reading in full. Obama is an incredible asshole.

Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis

"The needed concessions are not from the combatants in Syria, but from the proud nations that claim to want peace but refuse to cooperate with one another."

The Carter Center had been deeply involved in Syria since the early 1980s, and we shared our insights with top officials in Washington, seeking to preserve an opportunity for a political solution to the rapidly growing conflict. Despite our persistent but confidential protests, the early American position was that the first step in resolving the dispute had to be the removal of Mr. Assad from office. Those who knew him saw this as a fruitless demand, but it has been maintained for more than four years. In effect, our prerequisite for peace efforts has been an impossibility. ...

In May 2015, a group of global leaders known as the Elders visited Moscow, where we had detailed discussions with the American ambassador, former President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, former Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov and representatives of international think tanks, including the Moscow branch of the Carnegie Center.

They pointed out the longstanding partnership between Russia and the Assad regime and the great threat of the Islamic State to Russia, where an estimated 14 percent of its population are Sunni Muslims. Later, I questioned President Putin about his support for Mr. Assad, and about his two sessions that year with representatives of factions from Syria. He replied that little progress had been made, and he thought that the only real chance of ending the conflict was for the United States and Russia to be joined by Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in preparing a comprehensive peace proposal. He believed that all factions in Syria, except the Islamic State, would accept almost any plan endorsed strongly by these five, with Iran and Russia supporting Mr. Assad and the other three backing the opposition. With his approval, I relayed this suggestion to Washington. ...

The recent decision by Russia to support the Assad regime with airstrikes and other military forces has intensified the fighting, raised the level of armaments and may increase the flow of refugees to neighboring countries and Europe. At the same time, it has helped to clarify the choice between a political process in which the Assad regime assumes a role and more war in which the Islamic State becomes an even greater threat to world peace. With these clear alternatives, the five nations mentioned above could formulate a unanimous proposal. Unfortunately, differences among them persist.

Erdogan says Turkey won't let Kurds 'seize' northern Syria

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Kurdish groups on Saturday of trying to grab control of northern Syria, and said Ankara would not allow this to happen.

In a speech in southeast Turkey, Erdogan denounced the merging of the Syrian town of Tel Abyad last week into an autonomous political structure created by the Kurds.

"All they want is to seize northern Syria entirely," Erdogan said. "We will under no circumstances allow northern Syria to become a victim of their scheming. Because this constitutes a threat for us, and it is not possible for us as Turkey to say 'yes' to this threat."

Turkey is alarmed by territorial gains for the Kurds in Syria's civil war, which it fears could stir separatism among its own Kurdish minority.

Tel Abyad, on the border with Turkey, was captured in June from Islamic State by Kurdish YPG militia with help from U.S.-led air strikes. Last week, a local leadership council declared it part of the system of autonomous self government established by the Kurds.

Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or "cantons', across northern Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011. They deny aiming to establish their own state.

House Freezes Aid to Palestinians for ‘Inflammatory’ Speech

In weekend moves they said were intended as a “message” to the Palestinian Authority, the House of Representatives voted to temporarily freeze $450 million in aid to them, and also “fined” them $80 million for recent criticism of the Israeli government. ...

Rep. Ed Royce (R – CA) said that about one-third of the Palestinian Authority’s budget comes from foreign aid, and that this means donors have considerable leverage. He suggested other nations could follow the US example and cut aid as well.

This seems unlikely, however, as many of the other donors, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, are harshly critical of Israel’s crackdown on the Palestinians, and probably aren’t going to be looking to take that out on the Palestinians.

Knife-Wielding Israeli Settler Attacks Founder of Rabbis for Human Rights

Lockheed Martin, Boeing Rally Around Saudi Arabia, Wave Off Humanitarian Concerns

Representatives from two major defense contractors whose advanced weaponry is being used in the Saudi Arabia-led bombing campaign that has killed scores of civilians in Yemen were quick to defend the human rights record of the Persian Gulf kingdom in a panel discussion held last week in Washington, D.C.

Ronald L. Perrilloux Jr., an executive with Lockheed Martin, complained of an atmosphere of “hostile media reports” shaping the views of Congress, most of which, he said, are “patently false.”

“Another significant irritant,” Perrilloux said, “is the application of human rights laws” toward U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. ... Democrats on Capitol Hill recently blocked arms transfers to Saudi Arabia over concerns regarding the rising civilian death toll caused by the campaign.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin play a pivotal role in the war in Yemen and the Saudi-led air campaign, which has contributed significantly to the civilian death toll. Saudi Arabia’s air force is using Boeing-made F-15 jets to bomb Yemen. The United Arab Emirates’ air force, a major partner in the Sunni Arab and Western coalition to restore Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, uses Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16 jets to strike Yemen.

A Pardon From Saudi Arabia's King Might be the Last Hope for a Shiite Cleric Facing a Death Sentence

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal against the death sentence passed this year on Shiite Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, placing him at risk of imminent execution.

Nimr's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told Reuters that the sentence had been upheld after hearings that took place without his lawyers or family members being given prior notice. His life now hangs on the possibility of a pardon from King Salman.

The prominent human rights activist and scholar has campaigned for reforms within Saudi Arabia. Nimr was shot four times and arrested in July 2012 during the height of the Arab Spring, and was detained for more than two years before being sentenced to death in October 2014. He has now been incarcerated for more than three years and he is currently detained in Al-Hair prison in Riyadh.

"We don't want anything to happen to him or to Ali or the other young men," Mohammed al-Nimr said. Political analysts who follow Saudi Shiite politics have warned that widespread protests may erupt if the executions are carried out.

More than 20 Shiites were killed in protests between 2011 and 2013 in the Shiite district of Qatif against sectarian discrimination and Riyadh's role in ending street demonstrations in Bahrain and the fate of previously detained local people.

Nuclear weapons issue spoils Pakistan PM Sharif's trip to the US

Pakistan wants peace, but it has no plans to slow down its nuclear weapons programme, either.

That was the message from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this week in Washington. Problem is, that desire has caused problems with the White House.

So much so that the prime minister's visit this week turned out to be nothing more than a courtesy visit.

Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme is growing quickly. In February, it launched an updated version of its long-range cruise missile, the RA’AD, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 350km.

A report published on Thursday in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states that Pakistan has a stockpile of 110-130 warheads, up from 90-110 in 2011.

Wow, when the US Empire's military investigates itself, it really knows how to drag its feet.

Coalition investigators acknowledge hospital airstrike killed civilians

A coalition investigation team has officially acknowledged that civilians were likely killed by the American airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz earlier this month.

The initial assessment, released by the NATO-led Resolute Support coalition on Saturday, adds no new information to the controversy over what happened on Oct. 3, when a U.S. special operations AC-130 shelled the hospital.

At least 23 medical staff and patients were killed in the attack. Doctors Without Borders, which goes by its French initials MSF, says seven bodies remain unidentified.

"The Combined Civilian Casualty Assessment Team determined that the reports of civilian casualties were credible, and we continue to work with the government of Afghanistan to fully identify the victims," Resolute Support spokesman Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner said in a statement.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter asked for patience at a Pentagon press briefing on Friday, saying that a thorough investigation would take time.

What's worse than bombing a hospital?

Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies

Experts warn that Department of Defense espionage program places international NGOs at great risk

It is the stuff of spy novels, but a new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide.

After a months-long investigation, The Intercept's Matthew Cole, with help from Margot Williams and Lee Fang, exposes the reach of a highly-classified Department of Defense program, which ran from December 2004 to 2013.

The program was reportedly the "brainchild" of Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, an evangelical Christian who served under President George W. Bush. After the 9/11 attacks, Boykin was charged with expanding the intelligence gathering arm of the DoD and, "taking a page from the CIA's playbook," began tapping NGOs to use as a cover for Pentagon espionage operations.

The exposé highlights one group, the Colorado Springs-based Christian organization Humanitarian International Services Group, or HISG, whose founder, Kay Hiramine, had for years been on the Pentagon payroll and whose organization reportedly had millions funneled to it via a "complex web" of private trusts and nonprofits.

The Pentagon reportedly employed HISG, which provided disaster relief and supplies to poor and war-torn countries, to infiltrate North Korea to gain access and information regarding its nuclear program—relying on the organization's "unwitting" employees, volunteers, and contacts to do so.

Sam Worthington, president of InterAction, an association of nearly 200 American NGOs, told the reporters that such activity "violates international principles" and places legitimate aid and development workers at great risk.

"It is unacceptable that the Pentagon or any other U.S. agency use nonprofits for intelligence gathering," Worthington said. "It is a violation of the basic trust between the U.S. government and its civic sector."

Vietnam war's 'napalm girl' Kim Phuc has laser treatment to heal wounds

More than 40 years after Kim Phuc was photographed running naked from a napalm attack, treatment in the US will also help ease her pain

In the photograph that made Kim Phuc a living symbol of the Vietnam war, her burns aren’t visible – only her agony as she runs wailing toward the camera, her arms flung away from her body, naked because she has ripped off her burning clothes.

More than 40 years later she can hide the scars beneath long sleeves, but that betrays the pain she has endured since that errant napalm strike in 1972. ...

Late last month, Phuc, 52, began a series of laser treatments that her doctor, Jill Waibel of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, says will smooth and soften the pale, thick scar tissue that ripples from her left hand up her arm, up her neck to her hairline and down almost all of her back.

Even more important to Phuc, Waibel says the treatments also will relieve the deep aches and pains that plague her to this day.

IRS possessed Stingray cellphone surveillance gear, documents reveal

The Internal Revenue Service is the latest in a growing list of US federal agencies known to have possessed the sophisticated cellphone dragnet equipment known as Stingray, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Invoices obtained following a request under the Freedom of Information Act show purchases made in 2009 and 2012 by the federal tax agency with Harris Corporation, one of a number of companies that manufacture the devices. Privacy advocates said the revelation “shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology”. ...

Stingrays are the best-known example of a type of device called an IMSI-catcher, also known as “cell-site simulators”. About the size of a briefcase, they work by pretending to be cellphone towers in order to strip metadata and in some cases even content from phones which connect to them.

Despite their extensive capabilities, they require only a low-level court order called a PEN register, also known as a “trap and trace”, to grant permission for their use.

Immense secrecy has so far surrounded these devices, but a picture is slowly emerging which shows widespread use. Various revelations by the American Civil Liberties Union and news outlets including the Guardian had shown that at least 12 federal agencies are already known to have these devices, including the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The IRS makes 13.

Will New Plan for Testing Caps Bring End to Disastrous Bush-Obama Education Policies?

The Obama administration on Saturday acknowledged what many parents and educators have seen as a problem for years—the excessive use of high-stakes testing in the nation's public schools.

"I believe that in moderation, smart, strategic tests can help us measure our kids' progress in school," President Obama said in a video posted to Facebook.

"But I also hear from parents who rightly worry about too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them and for the students. I want to fix that," adding, "Learning is about so much more than just filling in the right bubble."

As the New York Times reports, the administration admitted

that the push [for standardized testing] had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.

Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to “reduce over-testing” as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools.

Yet reform advocates were also quick to point out that the plan neither offers a true policy change nor makes up for damage already cased by this "testocracy." As Weingarten added in her statement, "the devil is in the details," and as education historian Diane Ravitch writes, the plan is really "too little too late." Ravitch continues:

You might say that the Obama administration is lamenting the past 13 years of federal policy, which mandated annual testing, and made test scores the determinative factor in the evaluation of teachers, principals and schools.

In short, the Bush-Obama policies have been a disaster.

This is a classic case of too little, too late. Think of the thousands of teachers and principals who were unjustly fired and the thousands of pubic schools wrongly closed when they should have gotten help. This administration and the George W. Bush cannot be absolved for the damage they have done to American education by issuing a press release.

Complicity in Neoslavery: Chris Hedges Calls Out Corporate America for Exploiting Prison Labor

Chris Christie says Black Lives Matter is calling for the 'murder of police'

The Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said on Sunday the Black Lives Matter protest movement was creating an environment that could put police officers at risk.

Speaking on CBS, he said: “I don’t believe that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers.”

He also accused President Obama of supporting the movement and encouraging “lawlessness” while not backing up law enforcement. ...

In September, Black Lives Matter said in a statement that conservatives were trying to turn the movement into a danger to officers.

“We’re targeting the brutal system of policing, not individual police,” the movement said on its Facebook page. “The Black Lives Matter Network seeks to end the system of policing that allows for unchecked violence against black people.”

Christie, the governor of New Jersey and a former US attorney, presents himself as a tough voice on law and order issues. He is nonetheless well down in polls regarding the 15-strong Republican presidential field.

Voices of Rise Up October: Quentin Tarantino, Cornel West, Victims' Families Decry Police Violence

When we ban begging we take away the first amendment rights of the poor

All across America, municipalities have criminalized begging. This is bizarre. It is now clearly established that the first amendment protects people who express themselves by spending millions of dollars. How can it fail to protect people who express themselves by asking for one dollar?

Many cities have suggested that begging fails to express ideas worthy of the first amendment. ... Some, like Portland, Maine, have done so by banning all speech in public spaces traditionally used by panhandlers, such as traffic medians. Others, like Grand Junction, Colorado, have enacted no-begging buffer zones within which all panhandling, no matter how peaceful, is deemed “aggressive”. Because these bans criminalize speech, and because the first amendment’s free-speech guarantee does not say “except for poor people”, the ACLU and other groups have challenged anti-begging laws in court. ...

One city that has unabashedly expressed this view is Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell has banned begging in its 400-acre downtown historic district and in numerous 20-foot buffer zones around restaurants, bus stops and other places where people might seek charity. The city reasons that substantially all begging – even standing by a restaurant with a sign that says “Please Help” – is coercive and devoid of value.

Thus, when the ACLU of Massachusetts and the law firm Goodwin Procter sued on behalf of two homeless people, Lowell compared them to vermin. ...

A federal appellate court has invalidated the anti-begging measure in Portland. And a federal district court struck down an anti-begging measure in Grand Junction. And, on Friday, a federal court struck down the Lowell ordinance. But, beyond case law, the more fundamental issue is that begging codes risk apportioning first amendment rights by wealth. The poor cannot buy TV ads. They cannot afford lobbyists. They are not trending on Twitter. So it is cruel and unfair to say that governments can safely regulate words, including requests for charity, spoken by the poor but not by the wealthy.

Hillary Clinton Pledges to Stop Accepting Money From Private Prison Lobbyists

Civil rights group ColorOfChange announced Thursday that the Hillary Clinton campaign has agreed to stop accepting contributions from lobbyists and campaign committees that serve the private prison industry.

The announcement came after a series of protests from activist groups about the ties between private prison lobbyists and the Clinton campaign. In one act of protest, United We Dream’s Juan Carlos Ramos interrupted a Clinton speech earlier this month to raise the issue.

ColorOfChange executive director Rashad Robinson said the Clinton campaign’s decision came after meetings with representatives of Black Lives Matter, Get Equal, Presente, and United We Dream.

It looks like outsiders are doing well outside of the US, too:

Former Comedian Wins Guatemala's Presidential Election

Former TV comedian Jimmy Morales has won Guatemala's presidential elections by a large margin thanks to his image as an outsider and promises to tackle the kind of corruption that brought down the last elected president. 

Morales obtained 67 percent of the votes in a second round runoff against former first lady Sandra Torres.

The 46-year-old, who once made a film about a poor peasant who accidentally became president, had previously won a first round poll on September 6. That was three days after President Otto Pérez Molina resigned to face corruption allegations in an open court.

"I will strive with all my heart and with all my strength to not disappoint," Morales told supporters in a video message message broadcast on Sunday night. "I have received a mandate, and the mandate of the people of Guatemala is to fight against the corruption that has corroded us."

Bernie and the Big Banks

Sanders tears into Clinton's ambitions and record at Iowa Democrat fundraiser

Bernie Sanders gave his sharpest criticism yet of Hillary Clinton on Saturday night at the Jefferson Jackson dinner, the Iowa Democratic fundraiser that is one of the most important events of the Democratic primary season.

Echoing Barack Obama’s subtle criticism of Clinton in his speech at the 2007 Jefferson Jackson dinner, the Vermont senator pledged in his prepared remarks: “I promise you tonight as your president I will govern based on principle not poll numbers.” ...

Sanders explicitly compared himself to Obama in his speech. He said “Eight years ago the experts talked about how another Democratic candidate for president, Barack Obama, couldn’t win. How he was unelectable. Well Iowa, I think we’re going to prove the pundits wrong again. I believe we will make history.”

The Vermont senator went on to implicitly call out Clinton, noting she had long lagged behind him on a number of progressive causes. In particular, Sanders cited issues such as gay rights, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Iraq war as “the difficult choices” – a subtle reference to Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices – that he has made. ...

The speech echoed the remarks that Obama made in 2007 where he pointedly referenced the ambitions of Clinton by saying: “I am not in this race to fulfill some long-held ambitions or because I believe it’s somehow owed to me. I never expected to be here.” And he argued Democrats have “always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we led, not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction.”

Sanders currently trails Clinton in Iowa by a margin of 51-40 according to a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

World set to use more energy for cooling than heating

Rising demand for air conditioning and refrigeration threatens to make planet hotter and undermine pledges to rein in emissions

The world faces a looming and potentially calamitous “cold crunch”, with demand for air conditioning and refrigeration growing so fast that it threatens to smash pledges and targets for global warming.

Worldwide power consumption for air conditioning alone is forecast to surge 33-fold by 2100 as developing world incomes rise and urbanisation advances. Already, the US uses as much electricity to keep buildings cool as the whole of Africa uses on everything; China and India are fast catching up. By mid-century people will use more energy for cooling than heating.

And since cold is still overwhelmingly produced by burning fossil fuels, emission targets agreed at next month’s international climate summit in Paris risk being blown away as governments and scientists struggle with a cruel climate-change irony: cooling makes the planet hotter.

“Most people tend to think of energy in terms of heat and light and transport,” said Toby Peters, visiting professor of power and the cold economy at the University of Birmingham. “But more and more, it’s going to be about cold. Demand for cold is already huge, it’s growing fast, and we’re meeting it in basically the same way we’ve been doing for a century. Cold is the Cinderella of the energy debate. If we don’t change the way we do it, the consequences are going to be dramatic.”

Morocco poised to become a solar superpower with launch of desert mega-project

World’s largest concentrated solar power plant, powered by the Saharan sun, set to help renewables provide almost half the country’s energy by 2020

The Moroccan city of Ouarzazate is used to big productions. On the edge of the Sahara desert and the centre of the north African country’s “Ouallywood” film industry it has played host to big-budget location shots in Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, The Living Daylights and even Game of Thrones.

Now the trading city, nicknamed the “door of the desert”, is the centre for another blockbuster – a complex of four linked solar mega-plants that, alongside hydro and wind, will help provide nearly half of Morocco’s electricity from renewables by 2020 with, it is hoped, some spare to export to Europe. The project is a key plank in Morocco’s ambitions to use its untapped deserts to become a global solar superpower.

When the full complex is complete, it will be the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the world , and the first phase, called Noor 1, will go live next month. The mirror technology it uses is less widespread and more expensive than the photovoltaic panels that are now familiar on roofs the world over, but it will have the advantage of being able to continue producing power even after the sun goes down.

The potential for solar power from the desert has been known for decades. In the days after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 the German particle physicist Gerhard Knies, calculated that the world’s deserts receive enough energy in a few hours to provide for humanity’s power needs for a whole year. The challenge though, has been capturing that energy and transporting it to the population centres where it is required.

With Global Warming, 'Patricia Exactly the Kind of Terrifying Storm' to Expect

Hurricane Patricia—the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere—was downgraded to a tropical depression with 35-mph sustained winds on Saturday, and offered to some observers a reminder of the consequences of a warming planet.

No fatalities from the historic storm, which forced the evacuation of some 50,000 people, have yet been reported, and initial reporting indicates no major devastation, damages from potential heavy winds, rains, and landslides are still unfolding as the storm makes its way inland. ...

Before making landfall Friday evening along Mexico's Pacific coast with sustained winds of 165 mph, the then-Category 5 storm was packing winds of 200 mph. "These are the highest reliably-measured surface winds on record for a tropical cyclone, anywhere on the Earth," meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote.

Masters and fellow meteorologist Bob Henson described Patricia as "stunning, historic, mind-boggling, and catastrophic." They add that it's "the fastest-intensifying hurricane ever observed in the Western Hemisphere," and that Patricia's "200 mph sustained winds make it the 3rd strongest tropical cyclone in world history."

"How did Patricia get to be so strong?" meteorologist Eric Holthaus asks at Slate.

The answer, quite simply, involves human-caused climate change. Hurricane Patricia is exactly the kind of terrifying storm we can expect to see more frequently in the decades to come. Although there’s no way to know exactly how much climate change is a factor in Patricia’s explosive strengthening, it’s irresponsible, at this point, not to discuss it.

"Meteorologically," Holthaus adds, "there are at least four reasons why global warming could have contributed to Patricia’s ferocity: El Niño, exceptionally warm ocean temperatures, increased atmospheric humidity, and sea level rise."

Also of Interest

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

BBC Protects UK's Close Ally, Saudi Arabia, With Incredibly Dishonest and Biased Editing

Israel’s descent into unmasked, right wing extremism: A new generation rises to fight occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid

The Pentagon’s Missionary Spies

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Rogers - Walking By Myself

Jimmy Rogers - Gold Tailed Bird

Jimmy Rogers - The Last Time

Jimmy Rogers - Left Me With A Broken Heart, Pretty Baby

Jimmy Rogers All Stars - Ev´ry day I have the blues

Jimmy Rogers - Slick Chick

Sunnyland Slim & Jimmy Rogers - I'm in love

Jimmy Rogers - Rock This House

Jimmy Rogers - Lemon Squeezer

Jimmy Rogers w/Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - Why Are You So Mean To Me?

Jimmy Rogers - Sloppy Drunk

Jimmy Rogers - Angel Child, St. Louis

Jimmy Rogers - Blue Bird

Jimmy Rogers - You´re Sweet

Jimmy Rogers - Rock With You Baby

Jimmy Rogers, Carey Bell - Big Boss Man

Jimmy Rogers - Chicago Bound

Jimmy Rogers - One Kiss

Jimmy Rogers - That's all right

Jimmy Rogers All Stars - Blues All Day Long

Jimmy Rogers and his Trio - Ludella

Jimmy Rogers and his Rocking 4 - You're The One

Jimmy Rogers - She Loves Another Man

Jimmy Rogers All Stars - Blow Wind Blow

Little Walter w/Jimmy Rogers - I Just Keep Loving Her

Jimmy Rogers - That Ain't It