Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features singer, guitarist and songwriter Memphis Minnie. Enjoy!

"At the beginning we reject the idea that when the United States acts against citizens abroad it can do so free of the Bill of Rights. The United States is entirely a creature of the Constitution. Its power and authority have no other source. It can only act in accordance with all the limitations imposed by the Constitution. When the Government reaches out to punish a citizen who is abroad, the shield which the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution provide to protect his life and liberty should not be stripped away just because he happens to be in another land. This is not a novel concept. To the contrary, it is as old as government."

-- Reid v. Covert

News and Opinion

Federal Appeals Court: US Citizens Can’t Sue FBI Agents For Torture Abroad

A federal appeals court decision effectively grants FBI agents involved in terrorism investigations abroad immunity from lawsuits, which allege torture or other constitutional rights violations.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Amir Meshal, an American citizen who was detained and tortured by FBI agents in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, and declined to permit Meshal to pursue damages for what he endured.

According to the federal appeals court [PDF], allowing Meshal to pursue damages would extend Bivens into a new context: the “extraterritorial application of constitutional protections.”

Bivens is a case that created precedent for bringing cases against federal government officials. However, courts have been extremely reluctant to allow plaintiffs to pursue damages when a case may set a precedent or lead to a court intruding upon national security and foreign policy matters.

In Meshal’s case, U.S. agents and foreign officials are accused of working together. A decision would pass judgment on officials working under a “foreign justice system.” Such “intrusion,” the appeals court claimed, could have diplomatic consequences. ...

In issuing this decision, the appeals court leaves the issue of remedies for torture to Congress or the Supreme Court and makes it virtually impossible for torture survivors to pursue justice when their rights are supremely violated.

Why Gun Control Should Start at the Pentagon

On October 3^rd, the United States bombed a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Despite the fact that the hospital provided GPS coordinates to the U.S., despite the nine-foot flag on the roof marking the building as a hospital, and despite repeated pleas by hospital staff to U.S. officials to stop the bombings, the U.S. continued to bomb the site for over an hour. Among the 22 dead following the attack were children, patients, and medical personnel from Doctors Without Borders. Thirty-seven others were also injured. ...

The U.S. just had its 14th anniversary in Afghanistan! Among the fond memories: 25,000 dead civilians; destabilization of nuclear-armed Pakistan; repressive insurgency; CIA paramilitary units, paired with a massive opium/heroin exporting infrastructure. Of course, civilian deaths in Pakistan read similarly, and in Iraq, estimates are as high as 165,000.

With that in mind, where is the international cry for disarmament of the United States and international intervention into U.S. affairs? Estimates put civilian deaths in Syria in the tens of thousands – certainly a crisis deserving pause as for-itself. However, the U.S. has systematically committed mass atrocities around the globe for decades. Why no demands from the United Nations that U.S. comply with international law? Why no sanctions on the U.S.? ...

A 2013 survey of 68 different countries voted the U.S. as number one threat to peace in the world. The international community need look no further to find peace. Disarm the Great American Mafia and global peace and security will flourish. Focusing the human rights gaze on “developing” nations with unscrupulous human rights records is a Band-Aid. Better to stop the bleeding at the source.

Obama officials at odds over Saudi airstrikes

As civilian casualties mount in Yemen, some worry the U.S. is abetting war crimes.

Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes in Yemen, conducted with U.S. assistance,
are alleged to have killed at least 1,500 civilians, dividing members of the Obama administration over whether the U.S. risks being accused of abetting war crimes in a bombing campaign that could ultimately strengthen Islamist militants. ...

The White House does not want to anger Saudi Arabia, a vital, oil-rich ally already unhappy with President Barack Obama’s decision to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran. At the same time, what many hoped would be a short Saudi-led campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overthrew Yemen’s government is now entering its eighth month with no end in sight.

“The White House is increasingly frustrated with the Saudis, and they’re trying to figure out how to handle it,” said one foreign policy expert familiar with the administration’s deliberations. Private conversations seem to be having limited effect, the source said, but "the U.S. is walking on such eggshells around Saudi when it comes to the public domain that they’re not willing to ramp up their public pressure." ...

An Amnesty International report over the summer raised the possibility that all sides in the Yemen conflict had committed war crimes. But facing Saudi resistance, the U.S. and other Western governments recently dropped support for a U.N. resolution to allow an independent investigation of human rights violations in Yemen; instead, to the dismay of rights activists, they backed a resolution that would let the Yemeni government led by Hadi oversee an inquiry, though with U.N. assistance. ...

Even before the Saudi-led campaign began, the U.S. had a bad reputation in Yemen when it came to civilian deaths due to drone strikes that have targeted Al-Qaeda’s affiliate. The perception that the U.S. is behind the civilian deaths as part of the Saudi-led campaign could further feed support for such jihadist groups. While the Islamic State has made some gains in Yemen, the last seven months of fighting have mainly benefited Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, counter-terrorism analysts said.

Airstrikes hit Médecins sans Frontières facility in Yemen

Building in northern province of Saada destroyed by aerial attack, the second MSF hospital to be hit in a war zone this month

A Saudi-led coalition airstrike has hit a Médecins sans Frontières hospital facility in Yemen, the latest bombing of a civilian target in the seven-month air campaign in the country.

“MSF facility in Saada Yemen was hit by several airstrikes last night with patients and staff inside the facility,” MSF said in a tweet.

.@MSF facility in #Saada #Yemen was hit by several airstrikes last night with patients & staff inside the facility. pic.twitter.com/MicfUT571V

— أطباء بلا حدود-اليمن (@msf_yemen) October 27, 2015

According to a news agency run by Yemen’s anti-Saudi Houthi rebels, the hospital director, Dr Ali Mughli, said several people had been injured in the attack.

Mughli was quoted as saying: “The air raids resulted in the destruction of the entire hospital with all that was inside – devices and medical supplies – and the moderate wounding of several people.”

However, MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher told AFP there were no casualties. ...

Natalie Roberts was MSF’s emergency coordinator for the area last summer and worked at the hospital that was struck on Monday night. She said it was the only functional hospital in the region, and had a large catchment area. ...

Roberts said she’d heard there were up to six airstrikes for a duration of 90 minutes on the hospital, the first at 10.30pm and the last at about midnight.

Saudi Arabia Used the UN to Brag About Helping Yemen While Still Bombing Yemen

Saudi Arabia has been accused of committing war crimes in Yemen, but that didn't stop the UN's humanitarian chief from appearing alongside Saudi government officials at a press conference on Monday to discuss the Kingdom's funding of relief operations in the war-torn country, a move that observers described as bizarre and perhaps unprecedented.

The press conference at UN headquarters in New York featured Stephen O'Brien, the UN's under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN, and the general supervisor of the Saudi agency overseeing humanitarian aid for Yemen.

The sparsely attended briefing was announced less than an hour beforehand, and it came minutes after O'Brien and one of the Saudi officials met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Reporters were provided with a 79-page pamphlet that extolled the work of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre, which was founded earlier this year. ...

On April 17, more than three weeks into the Saudi-led bombing campaign that has targeted Yemen's Houthi rebels and their allies, Riyadh announced it would contribute $274 million in aid to the country, which borders Saudi Arabia to the southwest. The aid, which met an emergency appeal made by the UN, was delayed for months, however, as Saudi officials insisted on obtaining memoranda of understanding with individual UN agencies. Human rights officials with knowledge of the negotiations said the Saudis insisted on certain stipulations, including that the aid not be distributed in Houthi-controlled areas. ...

On April 17, more than three weeks into the Saudi-led bombing campaign that has targeted Yemen's Houthi rebels and their allies, Riyadh announced it would contribute $274 million in aid to the country, which borders Saudi Arabia to the southwest. The aid, which met an emergency appeal made by the UN, was delayed for months, however, as Saudi officials insisted on obtaining memoranda of understanding with individual UN agencies. Human rights officials with knowledge of the negotiations said the Saudis insisted on certain stipulations, including that the aid not be distributed in Houthi-controlled areas.

Report: Troops who sought airstrike thought Taliban controlled Afghan hospital

The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned.

The new information adds to a body of evidence that the internationally run medical facility site was familiar to the U.S. military, raising questions about whether the decision to attack it violated international law.

A day before an American AC-130 gunship attacked the hospital, a senior officer in the Green Beret unit wrote in a report that U.S. forces had discussed the hospital with the country director of the medical charity group, presumably in Kabul, according to two people who have seen the document. ...

Separately, in the days before the attack, "an official in Washington" asked Doctors without Borders "whether our hospital had a large group of Taliban fighters in it," spokesman Tim Shenk said in an email. "We replied that this was not the case. We also stated that we were very clear with both sides to the conflict about the need to respect medical structures."

Taken together, the revelations add to the growing possibility that U.S. forces destroyed what they knew was a functioning hospital, which would be a violation of the international rules of war. The Pentagon has said Americans would never have intentionally fired on a medical facility, and it's unclear why the Green Beret unit requested the strike — and how such an attack was approved by the chain of command — on coordinates widely known to have included a hospital.

John Oliver: Migrants and Refugees

Kurds: Turkey Repeatedly Opened Fire on YPG Fighters in Northern Syria

Kurdish forces from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Free Syrian Army forces who were fighting along side of them reported they came repeatedly under fire from Turkish soldiers across the border into Tel Abyan, a town the Kurds recently seized from ISIS, and absorbed into the Kobani canton.

According to the forces on the ground, they repeatedly came under brief machine gun fire from the Turkish side of the border, but did not return fire on the Turkish soldiers. Turkey has not directly addressed this report, but did hint at their involvement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted the YPG for its recent gains in his comments, vowing “Turkey will do whatever is necessary” and accusing the YPG of being secretly in league with ISIS, despite having taken the territory directly from ISIS.

Pentagon weighs deeper Iraq involvement

Top leaders at the Pentagon are considering a range of options to bolster the military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), including embedding some U.S. troops with Iraqi forces, according to two U.S. officials.

U.S. military commanders have forwarded several options to the Defense Department in the last few weeks, the officials told The Hill, as part of a mounting push within the administration to more aggressively target the terrorist group.

One of the options presented was embedding U.S. troops with Iraqi security forces; they would have the ability to call in airstrikes, a step that would bring American forces to the front line.

But even without a role in direct combat, that option would skirt close to having “boots on the ground” in Iraq — something President Obama has vowed not to do in the military campaign against ISIS.

The White House has repeatedly said U.S. troops would not have a "combat role" or be engaged in "large-scale ground combat" in Iraq.

A second option sent to Pentagon leaders would embed U.S. forces with Iraqis closer to the battlefield, at the level of a brigade or a battalion.

U.S. troops are now embedded with Iraqis at the division level, which keeps them stationed at headquarters.

Some of the options sent to Pentagon leaders would entail high risk for U.S. troops in Iraq and require more personnel, one of the officials said.

Netanyahu Says Israel Will Retain All Palestinian Territory

Speaking to Parliament, PM Vows Israel Will 'Forever Live by the Sword'

Speaking today at the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ratcheted up the rhetoric to a dramatic degree, saying Israel will retain full military control over all of the occupied territories for the “foreseeable future” and dismissing the prospects of Palestinian statehood.

Incredibly, during the speech Netanyahu stared down the centrist opposition and declared that Israel “will forever live by the sword,” insisting that it is only the problem of “extreme Islam” that keeps the Palestinians from being potential partners in a two-state solution.

Yet this ultimately undercut his insistence that Israel intends to keep that territory for themselves, a plan which he was quick to include didn’t mean a “binational state” in which those living under occupation would become citizens.

UK academics boycott universities in Israel to fight for Palestinians' rights

More than 300 academics from dozens of British universities have pledged to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest at what they call intolerable human rights violations against the Palestinian people.

The declaration, by 343 professors and lecturers, is printed in a full-page advertisement carried in Tuesday’s Guardian, with the title: “A commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians.”

The pledge says the signatories, from a variety of universities in England and Wales, will not accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions, act as referees for them, or take part in events organised or funded by them. They will, however, still work with individual Israeli academics, it adds.

The advert says the signatories are “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement”.

In a statement on behalf of the organisers of the boycott, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, of the London School of Economics, said Israel’s universities were “at the heart of Israel’s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people”.

He said: “These signatures were all collected despite the pressures that can be put on people not to criticise the state of Israel. Now that the invitation to join the commitment is in the public domain, we anticipate many more to join us.”

Keiser Report: Crossing Financial Rubicons

This is an interesting article about the Austerity regime of the European Union vs. democracy. Here's a taste to get you started:

The Pantomime of Democracy: Portugal’s Coup Against Anti-Austerity

“Meanwhile in Portugal we are witnessing the makings of a genuine coup with the unwillingness of the establishment there to accept the outcome of an election and the support won by parties who oppose EU austerity.”

Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin, Oct 24, 2015

This is the truest form of Euro authoritarianism, short of full prisons and torture chambers. (These may, in time, come.) If you are not seized by the idea, the fetishism of a currency; if you gather up your forces to mount an offence against austerity, twinned as it is with monetary union, then you must be, in the eyes of these policing forces, against the European project.

This obscene inversion has found form in Portugal, yet another country that has taken the road towards anti-democratic practice when it comes to the battle between the outcome of staged elections and the heralded inviolability of a broken euro system. It has the chill of history – political groupings with a certain number of votes barred because of supposedly radical tendencies. It has also received scant coverage in certain presses, with a few notable examples, such as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s observation that the country had “entered dangerous political waters.”

First, the mathematics of the election held on October 4. The combined Left bloc won 50.7 percent of the vote (122 seats), while the conservative premier, Pedro Passos Coehlo’s Right-wing coalition gained 38.5 percent – a loss of 28 seats. One would have to be a rather brave and foolish individual to let the latter form government.

This, in fact, is what Aníbal Cacavo Silva, the country’s constitutional president, did. “In the 40 years of democracy, no government in Portugal has ever depended on the support of anti-European forces, that is to say forces that campaigned to abrogate the Lisbon Treaty, the Fiscal Compact, the Growth and Stability Pact, as well as to dismantle monetary union and take Portugal out of the euro, in wanting the dissolution of NATO.”

The statement hits upon a definition of the European project, if you can call it that, linked to bound, self-interested market structures and the virtues of military defence. Cavaco Silva evidently cannot conceive that a European project could involve a variation of the theme, let alone one averse to dogmas of austerity and the bank.

The US Has Angered China by Sailing Close to Mischief Reef

A patrol by the USS Lassen was the most significant US challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China asserts around the islands in the Spratly archipelago and could ratchet up tension in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

One US defense official said the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef. A second defense official said the mission, which lasted a few hours, included Mischief Reef and would be the first in a series of freedom-of-navigation exercises aimed at testing China's territorial claims.

China's Foreign Ministry said the "relevant authorities" monitored, followed, and warned the USS Lassen as it "illegally" entered waters near islands and reefs in the Spratlys without the Chinese government's permission. ...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang later told a daily briefing that if the United States continued to "create tensions in the region," China might conclude it had to "increase and strengthen the building up of our relevant abilities".

Lu did not elaborate, except to say he hoped it did not come to that, but his comments suggested China could further boost its military presence in the South China Sea.

Beijing summons US ambassador over warship in South China Sea

China has reportedly summoned the US ambassador after Washington launched a direct military challenge to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea with naval manoeuvres near two artificial islands.

State television reported that the Chinese vice-foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, had branded the move “extremely irresponsible” when meeting with the US ambassador to China, Max Baucus.

Chinese authorities said earlier they had monitored, followed and warned US warship USS Lassen as it “illegally” entered waters near the disputed reefs, and urged Washington to “immediately correct its mistake”. ...

The Chinese embassy in Washington said the concept of “freedom of navigation” should not be used as an excuse for muscle-flexing and the US should “refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining regional peace and stability”. ...

Pentagon officials have spent months lobbying for the White House to take a harder line on China’s actions in the South China Sea, which is a key global shipping lane, through which more than $5tn of world trade passes every year.

“There are billions of dollars of commerce that float through that region of the world,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing. “Ensuring that free flow of commerce … is critical to the global economy.”

Japan Finance Ministry seeks cuts in host-nation spending for U.S. military

Japan's Ministry of Finance on Monday called for cuts in the country's budget spending for U.S. forces stationed in Japan in a bid to restore public finances, a move likely to meet opposition from its key ally Washington.

The move comes after passage of bills last month that aim to tighten the alliance and give Japanese military the biggest global role since the World War Two, with Washington seeking greater Asia-Pacific security in the face of rising China.

Japan's contribution, or the "sympathy budget", to cover salaries for workers at U.S. bases, utilities and training expenses, hit 189.9 billion yen ($1.56 billion) for the current fiscal year, versus a 4.98 trillion yen overall defense outlay.

Tokyo also shoulders a big share of expenses for realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, which have led to steady rises in its overall U.S. military-related spending in recent years.

Noam Chomsky & Abby Martin: The Empire's Election Extravaganza

Congressional leaders back two-year budget deal

Congressional leaders are throwing their collective weight behind a hard-won, two-year bipartisan budget plan aimed at heading off a looming government debt crisis and forestalling a government shutdown in December.

The pact, which would take these volatile issues off the table until after the 2016 presidential election, emerged in behind-the-scenes negotiations late on Monday on Capitol Hill. It would give the Pentagon and domestic agencies $80bn in debt relief in exchange for cuts elsewhere in the budget.

The deal represents one last accommodation between President Barack Obama and the departing House speaker, John Boehner, but whether it succeeds depends in great measure on the reception it gets from restive House Republicans, including the arch-conservatives who forced the Ohio Republican out.

“This is again just the umpteenth time that you have this big, huge deal that’ll last for two years and we were told nothing about it and in fact even today, were not given the details,” said Representative John Fleming. “And we’re probably going to have to vote on it in less than 48 hours.” A vote could come as early as Wednesday in the House. ...

Capitol Hill Democrats are likely to solidly support the agreement, although it gives greater budget relief to the Pentagon than it does domestic programs.

Americans Win Right to Challenge Inclusion on Government's Secret 'No Fly List'

Court ruling seen as a victory against racial profiling, specifically for Arab-Americans

A federal court on Monday ruled that a Michigan man can challenge his inclusion on the government's "No Fly List," in a move that is being celebrated as a victory for the hundreds of U.S. citizens assigned to that secretive list, as well as the countless Arab-Americans routinely subjected to similar racial profiling.

Reversing a previous district court ruling, Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons ordered (pdf) "further proceedings" in the case of Saeb Mokdad, a Lebanese-American who since September 2012 has been prohibited three times from boarding a plane to visit his family in Lebanon.

The Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL), which is defending Mokdad, argues that his placement on the list is unconstitutional, and that the government must provide an explanation as to why he is included on the Terrorist Screening list and allow for a "meaningful opportunity" to contest his status. The suit specifically singles out the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of the FBI, and the Director of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which is charged with placing people on the list.

Gibbons also ruled that a district court does have the authority to decide on such a case, which as Salon reporter Ben Norton notes, "establish[es] a precedent for courts throughout the country."

National Outrage as Videos of Brutal Police Assault on Black Student Go Viral

A brutal attack by a male officer on a black, female high school student in Columbia, South Carolina on Monday has spurred widespread outrage after a number of cell phone videos of the incident went viral.

In the videos, Spring Valley High School resource officer Ben Fields, who is white, is shown briefly reproaching the student, who refuses to get up from her desk, before he puts his arm around her neck, flips the desk over backwards, and then throws her to the ground, where he handcuffs her.

Classmate Niya Kenny was also arrested for standing up for the girl, filming the attack on her phone, and asking Fields to stop.

"I was screaming 'What the f, what the f is this really happening?' I was praying out loud for the girl," Kenny said. "I just couldn't believe this was happening. I was just crying and he said, 'Since you have so much to say you are coming too.' I just put my hands behind my back."

FBI director concedes he has little evidence to support 'Ferguson effect'

FBI director James Comey conceded on Monday that he had little evidence to support his theory that a recent increase in crime was caused by heightened scrutiny of the police, as the White House appeared to distance itself from his remarks.

Addressing police chiefs at a conference in Chicago, Comey said he could not be certain that the so-called “Ferguson effect”, following unrest in the Missouri city after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old last year, had led to a retreat by officers, but said this was “common sense”.

“The question is, are these kinds of things changing police behavior around the country?” said Comey. “The honest answer is I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case … but I do have a strong sense.”

Barack Obama’s press secretary, however, said at a White House briefing on Monday that available evidence “does not support the notion that law enforcement officers around the country are shying away from fulfilling their responsibilities”.

Authorities demand major US internet companies prove their speed claims

A group of major US internet providers have been told to prove their “fast lanes” and premium services are any quicker than ordinary internet access.

The office of New York’s attorney general has written to Time Warner, Verizon and Cablevision raising concerns that subscribers might not be getting the speeds advertised. Senior enforcement counsel Tim Wu requested detailed information by 8 November. He warned records could be subpoenaed and legal action taken to stop any deceptive business practices.

Wu wrote that the office had two concerns: that speeds in the so-called last mile — the wiring closest to subscribers — “may deviate far enough from the speeds advertised to render the advertising deceptive”; and the quality of connections between the three providers and sites such as Yahoo or Netflix. There had been many consumer complaints, officials said.

Give Ai Weiwei your Lego bricks so he can show what corporate politics looks like

Last week, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was denied a bulk order of Lego bricks for a new work for Melbourne’s NGV, as “the company refused to approve the use of Legos for political works”.

As the planned work was to explore the subject of free expression, Lego’s statement would be amusing if its political implications were not so grim.

Horrified Australians have been offering their personal supplies of plastic bricks to the artist via social media. So, in a public and visible defence of free speech and “political art”, Ai is now creating a “new work”, organising physical collection points for these donated bricks across different cities.

Ai actually used Lego last year to create portraits of 175 of people jailed or exiled for their political activism. The works represented figures from Nelson Mandela to Edward Snowden, and was assembled on the site of San Francisco’s infamous Alcatraz prison.

Lessig on Super Pac crusade: 'One very important ally has been Donald Trump'

When Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard professor running for the Democratic presidential nomination, scans the Republican field, he sees one obvious ally: Donald Trump. ...

Lessig has mounted his outsider’s campaign on the argument that corporations and private individuals should not be able to sink limitless money into political campaigns. The practice creates conflicts of interest for elected officials and prevents the work of the people from getting done, Lessig says.

Which is also what Trump has been saying, to a very different audience. Lessig recognized the real estate mogul for the effort when asked whom he sees as a potential partner in a bipartisan effort to pass new campaign finance laws.

“One very important ally has been Donald Trump, who has opened up this issue for Republicans in a way which nobody imagined it was going to be developed,” Lessig said. “He’s made it possible for Republicans to begin to identify this issue in exactly the same way [as Democrats].”

Bernie and the Big Banks

Benghazi: Hillary Clinton is guilty, but not as charged

Hillary Clinton was battered for 10 hours on 22 October by Republican Congressmen seeking to blame her for security failings, when she was secretary of state, that led to the murder of United States ambassador Christopher Stevens in the US consulate in Benghazi on 11 September 2012. The Republican purpose in grilling her for so long was a blatant attempt to throw enough mud and make enough insinuations to damage her bid for the presidency. ...

Of course, there is a strong case against Clinton’s actions in Libya, but they relate to her support for the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and not the death of Christopher Stevens in 2012. There is no doubt that she played a crucial role, along with President Barack Obama’s advisers Samantha Power and Susan Rice, in the decision by the US to intervene on the side of the anti-Gaddafi rebels. Although France and the UK played a more public role, the US termed its strategy as “leading from behind”. Clinton was proud of her action, proclaiming in October 2011 after the killing of Gaddafi: “We came, we saw, he died.” She said during the recent Democratic presidential candidates’ debate that what she did in Libya was “smart power at its best”.

Although Clinton would have been an easy target due to her significant contribution to the disintegration of Libya, her Republican critics avoided the issue. After all, the UN Security Council, Nato, US allies such as David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, and many senior Republicans in the US had applauded military intervention in Libya and would have to take a share of the blame. ... Neither Clinton nor her Republican critics show any real interest in events in Libya in 2011 or in the following years. Their attitude is a perfect example of the degree to which the domestic political priorities of Washington dictate and distort perceptions of developments abroad.

Roger Waters fears Hillary Clinton could be ‘first female President’ to drop a nuclear bomb

The outspoken Pink Floyd co-founder believes there is something “scarily hawkish” about the former Secretary of State, a politician he claims has a look of dishonesty about her. 

His biggest concern is that the Democratic nominee tipped to succeed President Obama could become the first President to effectively bring about the Armageddon. 

Waters, a British citizen who cannot vote, told Rolling Stone magazine: “I have an awful worry that she might become the first woman president to drop a f**king nuclear bomb on somebody.” 

Plumes of Methane Leaking Off the Coast of Washington Are Really Bad News for the Oceans

As the oceans absorb greater amounts of carbon dioxide from human-caused emissions, the waters off Washington and Oregon have become more acidic. That has forced some commercial fisheries to relocate to places like Hawaii or get out of the business entirely, since the acidic waters make it more difficult for mollusks, crabs, and corals to grow their shells.

Not only is climate change making the ocean more acidic, it's warming the waters, causing sea levels to rise and even helping to unlock methane deposits that have been frozen on the seafloor, which in turn makes the oceans more acidic. And those plumes of methane bubbling up through the water column could exacerbate global warming. ...

Johnson's lab analyzed the water temperature about a third of a mile down where the methane was frozen below the seafloor. The researchers found the ocean temperatures had warmed 0.3 degrees Celsius in the past 44 years, suggesting the warming was causing frozen deposits of methane — known as methane hydrates — to be converted into methane gas that was rising through the water column.

"In the deep ocean, that is a big deal," Johnson said of the rate of warming. ...

"Methane is free lunch for a lot of bacteria," Johnson said. "As the methane percolates up through the sediments in the top 10 to 20 centimeters bacteria eat it like crazy. Then as it gets into the water column, there is another type of bacteria that eat it."

So far, the biggest threat from the methane plumes appears to be the local water quality, Johnson said. The bacteria convert the methane into carbon dioxide, producing lower-oxygen, more-acidic conditions — and that hurts local fisheries.

"It's not that it is going to immediately accelerate global warming. There is not enough coming out to make much of a contribution," Johnson said. "The fishing communities are concerned about ocean acidification and low oxygen in the water and it (methane) has a tendency to make that worse."

Indonesia's Fires Are Emitting More Carbon Pollution Than the Entire US Economy

At a time when the world is pushing to cut carbon emissions, Indonesia's blazing forests are shoving it in the opposite direction.

More than 115,000 fires are burning across the Southeast Asian nation, most of them on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, according to the Global Fire Emissions Database. Not only are they wreathing the region in a noxious haze, they've been pumping out far more carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases on a daily basis than the United States, according to international estimates. ...

In September, Indonesia announced a crackdown on companies blamed for illegal fires, most of which are set to clear land for palm oil or pulpwood plantations. But the fires have only continued to grow, and much of the burning land is peat forest — a rich trove of carbon that releases up to 200 times the greenhouse gases of other fires as it burns.

Global warming could be more devastating for the economy than thought

A new study published in Nature by scientists at Stanford and UC Berkeley has made waves for its finding that thus far we have dramatically underestimated the damage human-caused climate change will do to the global economy.

By looking at data from 160 countries across the 50-year period from 1960 to 2010, the authors found that an average local temperature of 13°C (55°F) is economically optimal, particularly for agricultural productivity. That temperature roughly reflects the current climate in many wealthy countries like the USA, Japan, France, and China.

If regional temperatures are cooler, then warming benefits the local economy, but past that peak temperature, warming reduces economic productivity. The robustness of this result is particularly interesting. The study found that it held true for both rich and poor countries, and that the relationship held for both the 1960–1989 and 1990–2010 time frames.

To date, economists had believed that global warming would not impact economic growth in wealthy countries, because it was assumed they would have the resources to adapt to a changing climate. However, looking at data over the past half century, the authors found that wealthy countries have been nearly as vulnerable to temperatures warming beyond 13°C as poorer countries.

We find only weak suggestive evidence that richer populations are less vulnerable to warming, and no evidence that experience with high temperatures or technological advances since 1960 have altered the global response to temperature. This suggests that adaptation to climatic change may be more difficult than previously believed, and that the accumulation of wealth, technology and experience might not substantially mitigate global economic losses during this century.

Also of Interest

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

Hacking The CIA Director’s AOL Account Was A Political Act

Bowing to Silly US Propaganda

Austerity and the Wall Street Bounce

Checkmate on ‘The Devil’s Chessboard’

Guantánamo 9/11 cases hit yet another snag

How the Dodgers and baseball shaped Bernie Sanders' world view

Russia to exhume murdered Tsar's father to resolve riddle of royal children

A Little Night Music

Memphis Minnie - Hoodoo Lady Blues

Memphis Minnie - I'm A Bad Luck Woman

Memphis Minnie - Kissing In The Dark

Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe - When The Levee Breaks

Memphis Minnie - Nothing In Rambling

Memphis Minnie - Black Rat Swing

Memphis Jug Band w/Memphis Minnie & Hattie Hart - Cocaine Habit Blues

Memphis Minnie - I Got To Make A Change Blues

Memphis Minnie - Down By The Riverside

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe - Wild About My Stuff

Memphis Minnie - If You See My Rooster

Memphis Minnie & Little Walter - Lake Michigan

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe - North Memphis Blues