Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz guitarist Charlie Christian. Enjoy!

“Right or wrong, it's very pleasant to break something from time to time.”

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

News and Opinion

As Sanders Skewers DNC, Would-Be Home for Progressives Assailed as 'Dead Carcass'

In an interview with Democracy Now! on Monday, Salon columnist and former White House counselor to President Clinton, Bill Curry, described the DNC as a "dead carcass" of its former self and called for Wasserman Schultz's resignation.

"This is supposed to be a political party. In a healthy society, there would be a democratic process in the Democratic Party by which elected people would be overseeing these issues by making sure there wasn’t just nepotism and insider dealing," Curry said.

He continued: "That the political party itself—which is supposed to be the progressive party—has become mortgaged to a small group of Washington insiders who raise money from large corporate PACs, [and] has become just a dead carcass of what it once was, is the most important piece of information that this contretemps over the data files has emphasized. It is time for progressives in this country to stand up and demand a genuinely democratic process."

Backing MSF, Human Rights Watch Says US Must Consent to War Crimes Probe

There is "strong" evidence that the U.S. military attack on a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan two months ago constituted a criminal act, and should be investigated as such, Human Rights Watch said Monday in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (pdf).

"The attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz involved possible war crimes," said the advocacy group's Washington director Sarah Margon. "The ongoing U.S. inquiry will not be credible unless it considers criminal liability and is protected from improper command influence." ...

The Pentagon's report, as well as the military's "poor record prosecuting alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq," demonstrates the urgent need for an investigation conducted by an independent source, rather than the government or the army, HRW said.

"It is essential that you publicly and explicitly clarify that ongoing investigations into the Kunduz attack include a thorough inquiry that considers the possible criminal liability of U.S. personnel, including at the command level," the letter to Carter states. "We believe that there is a strong basis for determining that criminal liability exists.... We also call on you to take all necessary steps to ensure that the investigation is independent and not subject to undue command influence."

Obama administration demonstrates that its State Department human rights ratings are mostly based on political favoritism:

In favoring Middle East ally, U.S. glossed over human rights record

As the United States negotiated this year’s nuclear pact with Iran, the State Department quietly agreed to spare the Gulf sultanate of Oman from an embarrassing public rebuke over its human rights record, rewarding a close Arab ally that helped broker the historic deal.

In a highly unusual intervention, the department’s hierarchy overruled its own staff’s assessments of Oman’s deteriorating record on forced labor and human trafficking and inflated its ranking in a congressionally mandated report, U.S. officials told Reuters. The move, which followed protests by Oman, suggests the Obama administration placed diplomatic priorities over human rights to pacify an important Middle East partner. ...

The case of Oman illustrates how even a small country that is strategically significant to the United States can win concessions despite Washington’s public insistence that it bases its ranking system solely on human rights. ...

A Reuters investigation published on Aug. 3 revealed a high degree of “grade inflation” in this year’s rankings.

An unprecedented number of diplomatically sensitive countries such as Malaysia, China, Cuba, Uzbekistan and Mexico wound up with ratings higher than recommended by the State Department’s own human rights experts.

Iraq PM: We Want US Airstrikes, Not Ground Troops

In an interview today with NPR, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi said he is eager to get more airstrikes against ISIS from the US and its coalition partners, but that he opposes any deployment of foreign ground troops into Iraq for any reason.

“We don’t want boots on the ground. Full stop,” Abadi insisted, saying Iraq needs some air support but doesn’t need additional ground troops to defeat ISIS, nor would it welcome troops from any country, including the US.

Iraqi troops storm into center of Islamic State-held Ramadi

Iraq's armed forces stormed the center of Ramadi on Tuesday, a spokesman for the counter-terrorism units said, in a drive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in a city they captured in May.

The operation to recapture Ramadi, a Sunni Muslim city on the river Euphrates some 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, began in early November after a months-long effort to cut off supply lines to the city, whose fall to Islamic State was a major defeat for Iraq's weak central government.Progress has been slow because the government wants to rely entirely on its own troops and not use Shi'ite militias in order to avoid rights abuses such as occurred after the recapture of the city of Tikrit from the militants in April. ...

If the attack to capture Ramadi succeeds, it will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq.

Seymour Hersh's Latest Bombshell: U.S. Military Undermined Obama on Syria with Tacit Help to Assad

This Year’s Hottest Toy: Iraq-Syria LEGO Playset

The set retails for $3 trillion. Weapons of mass destruction not included.

Every Christmas sees one toy emerge as the most-wanted, gotta have gift — remember Tickle Me Elmo, and Beanie Babies from years past? Well, 2015’s big hit has emerged: The Iraq-Syria LEGO Playset.

The set retails for three trillion dollars, though the price may have doubled by the time this is published. Included in the standard set are enough LEGOS to build replicas of Mosul and Fallujah, allowing a child to refight those battles over and over. Figures include Sunni militias, Islamic State fighters, Shia militias, one figure representing the actual Iraqi Army, American special forces with and without boots, Iranians, Kurds, Turks, Russians, Syrians (moderate and radical, though they cannot be told apart), British, French and Italian troops, shady Saudi financiers and Hezbollah soldiers.

The basic set also includes a starter pack of refugee figures, though most people will want to opt for the bonus pack, if only to get access to the limited edition dead children refugee figures.

Local Jews in shock after Ukrainian city of Konotop elects neo-Nazi mayor

Two months after local elections were held across Ukraine, residents of the small northern city of Konotop are expressing shock and dismay over the behavior of newly chosen Mayor Artem Semenikhin of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party.

According to reports, Semenikhin drives around in a car bearing the number 14/88, a numerological reference to the phrases “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and “Heil Hitler”; replaced the picture of President Petro Poroshenko in his office with a portrait of Ukrainian national leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera; and refused to fly the city’s official flag at the opening meeting of the city council because he objected to the star of David emblazoned on it. The flag also features a Muslim crescent and a cross. ...

“The reaction of [the] community is shock. People are shocked it could happen in [a] city and nobody believed it could happen here but it happened somehow,” community activist Igor Nechayev told The Jerusalem Post by phone Monday.

While there have been a couple of instances of anti-Semitic graffiti over the past decade and one occasionally hears references to conspiracy theories identifying Ukrainian political leaders as Jews, for the most part, relations between the Jewish community and their non-Jewish neighbors are cordial, he said.

Look, there is a war on Christmas! Will somebody please notify Bill O'Reilly?

Far Right Jewish Leader Calls for 'Vampire' Christians to be Thrown Out of Israel

In a more than 1,000-word rant published on ultra-Orthodox website Kooker, Benzi Gopstein, head of the far-right Lehava movement — which objects to any mixing of Jews and non-Jews — claims that the Christian Church is the "centuries-old enemy" of Israel and that "the Vatican rubbed their hands in glee" at the "chimneys of Auschwitz."

"In a few days it will be 'Christmas' of the accursed religion. Unfortunately, across the country, you can feel it in the air," wrote Gopstein. "Stalls with Christian literature have sprung up up all over the country, Christmas trees can be seen in shops, and billboard ads funded by tax payers invite the public to learn about Christianity... in the heart of Jerusalem."

In the piece titled Eradicate the Vampires, Gopstein went on to warn that missionaries spent "billions of dollars to get a foothold in the Holy Land," and have "infested entire communities."

"I call on [Jews] to raise their voices and fight the perverse phenomenon [of Christianity]," he concluded. "Christmas has no place in the Holy Land... Let us remove the vampires from our country before they drink our blood again. We have given them enough already."

Muslims hailed for protecting Christians during terror attack on Kenyan bus

Muslims helped dress non-Muslim passengers in Islamic garb to prevent extremists from identifying them for slaughter on a bus in northern Kenya, witnesses said.

Two people died in the attack on Monday in northern Mandera County when gunmen, believed to be part of the Somali islamist group al-Shabaab, shot at a bus and truck headed for Mandera town, the regional government coordinator, Mohamud Saleh, said. ...

Some of the Muslim passengers gave non-Muslims headscarves to try and conceal their identities when the bus stopped.

US third-quarter GDP revised down as economy continues sluggish recovery

The US economy grew at a slightly slower pace than first thought in the third quarter of 2015, continuing a sluggish recovery trend started after the last recession.

The Commerce Department announced Tuesday that gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2015 grew at an annual rate of 2%, down from a previous estimate of 2.1%. This was the department’s third and final estimate of the quarter’s GDP.

The latest GDP measure, the broadest indicator of a nation’s economic health, marks yet another quarter of low growth and is a marked slowdown from the 3.9% growth rate reported between July and September.

Federal Reserve officials are not expecting much improvement in 2016, estimating growth of 2.1% to 2.4%. ...

Corporate profits after tax fell at a 1.7% rate in the third quarter and profits, undercut by the dollar’s strength and lower oil prices, were down 8.2% from a year ago.

How Seattle Uber Drivers Won the Right to Unionize

Staff at Texas Jail Where Sandra Bland Died Will Not Be Indicted

A Texas grand jury decided on Monday that no indictments would be issued relating to the death of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who died by hanging in an apparent suicide three days after being jailed following a traffic stop this summer.

Inconsistencies in documents pertaining to Bland's arrest and detention, allegations that police footage of her encounter with the trooper was edited, along with her family's insistence that she was not suicidal, meant some members of the public were wary of evidence that jail officials provided about her death earlier in the year.

The grand jury failed to reach a decision on whether the trooper who arrested Bland will face charges, and will reconvene in January to reconsider that issue, reported the Chicago Tribune. 

Sandra Bland 'would be alive if she were a white woman', says Bernie Sanders

Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at a Texas county jail last summer, would not have died had she been white, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said after a grand jury declined to indict anyone in connection with her death.

“Sandra Bland should not have died while in police custody,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a statement responding to the grand jury decision. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman.

“My thoughts are with her family and her loved ones tonight. We need to reform a very broken criminal justice system.” ...

After the decision was announced, Bland’s family expressed concern with the judicial process.

“The grand jury’s refusal to indict anyone in connection with her death is not a surprise to us as a secret process where secret evidence is presented to secret grand jurors is not one we can trust or have confidence in,” Sharon Cooper, Bland’s sister, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday after the decision. “… Please know that while this decision is disheartening, we will continue to press forward with our existing civil lawsuit.”

Poll: Voters Strongly Favor Small Donor Matching Funds

A new poll of likely voters found that 72 percent favor a law to provide candidates with “limited public matching funds for small contributions they raise from constituents,” with 39 percent favoring it strongly. Only 21 percent oppose it, and of those, only 7 percent oppose it strongly.

Support was strong across the political spectrum, with 76 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents, and 66 percent of Republicans favoring such a law. Moreover, the somewhat lower support on the right was mostly due to GOP respondents having no opinion rather than opposing small donor matching funds — just 23 percent of Republicans opposed the concept, and just 9 percent of them opposed it strongly.

The poll was conducted by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s Democracy Corps. Recent previous polling has generally found somewhat lower though still strong levels of support for small donor matching funds.

As Sanders Chides Clinton on Regime Change, Is Democratic Front-Runner Touting a GOP Foreign Policy?

Australia Approves 'Irresponsible' Coal Port Near Great Barrier Reef

Australian environmental minister Greg Hunt on Monday approved the expansion of a coal terminal in Abbot Point in northern Queensland, a decision which prompted backlash from green groups who said the port poses a grave risk to the Great Barrier Reef.

Despite the country's pledge to reduce carbon emissions, the approval means Abbot Point is on track to become one of the world's biggest coal ports, servicing projects planned for the Galilee Basin—including the controversial $16 billion Carmichael mine proposed by Indian energy giant Adani, which in recent months was abandoned by nearly all of its financiers over climate concerns.

"It's disappointing that the Minister has approved this project within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, despite the damage it will do," said World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia Reef campaigner Louise Matthiesson.

Hunt granted the approval on 29 conditions, including that the 1.1 million cubic meters of waste material expected to be dredged from the site be disposed of on existing industrial land and not contaminate the surrounding marine area—but environmentalists warned that the land marked for that purpose lies just outside of wetlands that are home to thousands of migratory birds.

Three People Locked Themselves to a Canadian Pipeline and Shut It Down

Three people are facing charges after they locked themselves to a Canadian pipeline that's at the center of a court battle. It's the second time this month that protesters have shut down Enbridge's Line 9, and Aboriginal communities opposing the controversial pipeline are warning that more protests like this one are on the horizon.

As the day broke around 7:30 am Monday, a small group of protesters who oppose Line 9 broke into a fenced-off area near Sarnia, Ontario, and turned a wheel to shut down a section of the pipeline. Then, according to one of the demonstrators, they called Enbridge to report they had turned off the valve.

Just after 8 am police arrived on the scene and found that three women had locked themselves to the pipeline valve using bicycle U-locks. ...

For 40 years, Line 9 carried crude oil from east to west, but this year the National Energy Board (NEB) gave Enbridge the green light to reverse the pipeline's flow. Enbridge can now pump Alberta oil sands petroleum products east, including bitumen, which is heavier than crude oil and harder to clean up when it spills.

Bitumen is one of the reasons a group of First Nations opposed the pipeline reversal project. In June, Chippewa of the Thames First Nation appealed the NEB decision, but their case failed.

About three weeks ago, Enbridge began pumping Alberta oil through the pipeline. Chippewa of the Thames are now seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada to stop the flow.

Sea snake thought to be extinct 'rediscovered' in Western Australia

A species of sea snake thought to be extinct has been rediscovered off the Western Australian coast.

A wildlife officer spotted two courting short-nosed sea snakes while patrolling in Ningaloo marine park on the state’s mid-north coast. Sightings of the species of snake were last recorded at Ashmore reef in the Timor Sea in 1998.

'Almost too late': fears of global superbug crisis in wake of antibiotic misuse

It is “almost too late” to stop a global superbug crisis caused by the misuse of antibiotics, a leading expert has warned.

Scientists have a “50-50” chance of salvaging existing antibiotics from bacteria which has become resistant to its effects, according to Dr David Brown.

The director at Antibiotic Research UK, whose discoveries helped make more than £20bn ($30bn) in pharmaceutical sales, said efforts to find new antibiotics are “totally failing” despite significant investment and research.

It comes after a gene was discovered which makes infectious bacteria resistant to the last line of antibiotic defence, colistin (polymyxins). ...

Resistance is thought to have grown due to colistin being heavily used in pockets of the agricultural industries, particularly in China, often to increase the physical size of livestock.

Worldwide, the demand for colistin in agriculture was expected to reach almost 12,000 tonnes per year by the end of this year, rising to 16,500 tonnes by 2021.

In the UK, nearly half of all antibiotics used are in farming, according to reports, although the use of it as a growth agent has been banned in the EU since 2006.

Also of Interest

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

The Coming Saudi Crack-up?

Democratic Debate Spawns Fantasy Talk on Encryption

How a North Carolina village came to believe solar farms were 'killing the town'

A Little Night Music

Benny Goodman Septet 1940 - Ad-Lib Blues

Charlie Christian - Blues in B

Charlie Christian - Royal Garden Blues

Benny Goodman Sextet - Rose Room

The Edmond Hall Celeste Quartet - Profoundly Blue

Charlie Christian - Swing to Bop

Charlie Christian - Solo Flight

Benny Goodman Sextet - Roast Turkey Stomp

Charlie Christian - Charlie's Dream

Charlie Christian - Celestial Express

Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian - Flying Home

BB King discusses the influence of Charlie Christian

Charlie Christian - Lester Young - Buck Clayton - Good Morning Blues

Charley Christian Live at Minton's Playhouse