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This evening's music features r&b singer Joe Tex. Enjoy!

"America doesn't want any cultural reference whatsoever. America wants to be virginally birthed every single day through the vaginal canal of their own frickin' mass stupidity and pop out of the womb and declare that they're virgins by birth as of 20 minutes ago and they deserve a break today. They deserve to get free access to Disneyland. They're entitled to every frickin' consumer product slave-made in China because we're American potentates and of course that is always, every time what people say before their empire collapses."

-- Max Keiser

News and Opinion

I missed this one the day it was posted (prior to Trump's Afghanistan speech) - there's some good info in it. Here's a taste:

Afghanistan - Trump To Announce Four More One-Year Wars

This evening Trump will announce a new "path forward" in the occupation of Afghanistan. According to the usual leaks it will be very same path the U.S. has taken for 16 years. ... Neither the military nor the CIA nor the local Afghan government will let the U.S. leave. Fear mongering is abound: "What happens if Afghanistan becomes a hotbed for international terrorists?" But few if any international terrorist incident in the "west" were ever organized in Afghanistan. In all recent incidents the culprits were locals.

For the military it is all about optics. The generals do not want to concede that they lost another war. The CIA wants to keep is militarized forces and drones which it justifies through its engagement in Afghanistan. The drug production in Afghanistan, which the U.S. never really tried to suppress, is rumored to finance "black" CIA operations just like it did during the Vietnam war and throughout various South American conflicts. The members of the Afghan government all live off U.S. largess. The war in Afghanistan is a racket paid for with the lives of countless Afghans and U.S. taxpayer money. ...

A "new" part of the plan is to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the financing and supplying of Taliban groups. That is not in Pakistan's interest and is not going to happen. The Trump administration wants to hold back the yearly cash payment to the Pakistani military. This has been tried before and the Pakistani response was to close down the U.S. supply route to Afghanistan. An alternative supply route through Russia had been developed but has now been shut down over U.S. hostilities towards that country. The U.S. can not sustain a deployment in Afghanistan without a sea-land route into the country. ...

During 16 years the U.S. failed to set a realistic strategic aim for the occupation of Afghanistan. It still has none. Without political aim the military is deployed in tactical engagements that make no long lasting differences. Any attempts to negotiate some peace in Afghanistan requires extensive engagement with the Taliban, Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran. No one in Washington is willing to commit to that. Trump's likely decision means that the story of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan will continue throughout the next years exactly as it happened during the last 16 years. The decision, once made, is unlikely to change until the next presidential election. The 16 one-year-wars in Afghanistan will become 20 one-year-wars for no perceivable gain.

Pakistani Journalist: Why Is Trump Pushing For Failed Military Solution Instead of Diplomacy?

Trump’s Afghanistan troop increase adds to $1 trillion in war costs

President Trump said the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan was “not a blank check,” but his decision to send more troops will add billions of dollars a year to the already-towering war costs, which have topped $1 trillion in Afghanistan alone over the past 16 years.

And the government will still be paying for war veterans' health-care costs for at least another half century.

Direct U.S. spending on the war in Afghanistan will rise to approximately $840.7 billion if the president’s fiscal year 2018 budget is approved, according to Anthony Cordesman, a military strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That includes the total cost estimated by the Congressional Research Service for the 2001 to 2014 fiscal years, and money from the Defense Department’s overseas contingency budgets for the fiscal years 2015 to 2018.

The cost of the war also includes State Department spending and massive obligations for veterans’ medical and disability costs. And veterans are filing claims in greater numbers and for more serious injuries than in past wars.

“Historically, the bill for these costs has come due many decades later,” Linda J. Bilmes, a faculty member at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said. “The peak year for paying disability compensation to World War I veterans was in 1969 – more than 50 years after Armistice.” Bilmes, who co-authored a book about Iraq called “The Three Trillion Dollar War” with economist Joseph Stiglitz, said that if the Department of Veterans Affairs were run like a business, this money would be booked as deferred compensation and would show up on the government's balance sheet.

U.S. Has Thousands More Troops in Afghanistan Than the Pentagon Admits

The average number of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan at any given time is thousands more than the Pentagon officially acknowledges, according to three U.S. defense officials.

The Pentagon officially acknowledges 8,400 troops on the ground there, but that number actually hovers between 11,000 and 12,000, the officials said.

The actual force manning level is 8,448, which is the maximum number of U.S. service members who are authorized to be assigned to either Resolute Support or U.S. Forces Afghanistan, the two military missions there.

But there is overlap between units as service members are transitioning in and out and there are units and people there on temporary duty shorter than 120 days. Those additional forces put the actual footprint at between 11,000 and 12,000 on any given day, according to the officials.

Saudi Bombing Kills Dozens, and US Complicit, as 'Man-Made Crisis' in Yemen Worsens

An airstrike by the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition on a hotel near the Yemeni capital Sanaa killed dozens of people on Wednesday, multiple news agencies have reported, as a "man made" humanitarian crisis extends its grip on the impoverished nation.

A local medic estimated the number of those killed at 35, Reuters reports. The Associated Press reports that the number may be as high as 60, citing officials and witnesses.

Since March 2015, Saudi-led forces backing the current Yemeni government have waged a military campaign against Houthi forces, with the U.K. and U.S.  fueling the war with millions in arms sales as well as logistical support to ally Saudi Arabia. The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed over 10,000 civilians.

Whether the latest additions to the death toll are civilians remains unclear. A doctor helping with the rescue efforts told AP that all those killed were farmers. A spokesperson for the Saudi coalition said it was a legitimate military target, Reuters reports.

Trapped in Raqqa: Amnesty Says Civilians Caught in "Deadly Labyrinth" As U.S. Intensifies Airstrikes

Sept. 11 trial stumbles on documents so secret the judge can’t see them. For now.

In a bizarre new episode in the Sept. 11 trial, defense lawyers wrote a legal brief based on documents from the prosecution that are so far so secret the judge can’t see them. Death penalty defender Jay Connell described the ongoing problem Monday at the opening of a weeklong pretrial hearing in the case against five men accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. He said that he had sought starting June 7 to file a Top Secret legal pleading and 10 accompanying notices, supported by 5,000 pages of documents. But the court’s security officer would not take them because they had unfamiliar classification markings.

In them, based on court discussion, Connell appeared to be asking the judge to call certain experts and government witnesses on the question of when the war on terror began. Also, he appears to be seeking experts to testify on the reliability of post-torture interrogations in a bid to disqualify any confessions his client, Ammar al Baluchi, made to FBI agents soon after he got to Guantánamo in 2006.

Prosecutors who had provided Connell with the material in trial preparation were trying to figure out if the judge and his security staff need a security clearance to see it. Connell was puzzled. If he, presumably had clearance to see the material, how could the judge not? ... The trial judge, Army Col. James Pohl, expressed similar bewilderment at an ongoing effort by prosecutors to figure out whether the judge and his staff had been cleared.

Attorney David Nevin, defending the alleged 9/11 plotter, said Khalid Sheik Mohammed was disturbed on Sunday to learn about the ongoing issue. Nevin quoted Mohammed as telling him Sunday: “I’m used to the idea that they can kill me based on things I can’t see. But now it seems they want to kill me based on things the judge can’t see.”

Russia readies for huge military exercises as tensions with west simmer

Russia is preparing to mount what could be one of its biggest military exercises since the cold war, a display of power that will be watched warily by Nato against a backdrop of east-west tensions. Western officials and analysts estimate up to 100,000 military personnel and logistical support could participate in the Zapad (West) 17 exercise, which will take place next month in Belarus, Kaliningrad and Russia itself. Moscow puts the number significantly lower. ... The first of the Russian troops are scheduled to arrive in Belarus in mid-August.

Moscow has portrayed Zapad 17 as a regular exercise, held every four years, planned long ago and not a reaction to the latest round of sanctions. ... The Russian armed forces have undergone rapid modernisation over the last decade and Zapad offers them a chance to train en masse. ...

Russia has not said how many troops will participate in Zapad 17 but the Russian ambassador to Nato, Aleksander Grushko, said it was not envisioned that any of the manoeuvres would involve more than 13,000 troops, the limit at which Russia – under an international agreement – would be obliged to allow military from other countries to observe the exercise.

Keiser Report: Empire of Debt

Why Donald Trump's plans to pardon sheriff Joe Arpaio are so troubling

On Tuesday night, Donald Trump all but promised he would pardon disgraced Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt three weeks ago. “I won’t do it tonight,” he said. “But Sheriff Joe can feel good.” CNN is now reporting the White House has prepared the paperwork for Trump’s signature.

As many have warned, pardoning Arpaio – famous for racially profiling Latinos in Maricopa County – would be an endorsement of racism. There’s another reason the possibility of a pardon should trouble us: it reflects Trump’s deep disdain for the judiciary and its role in our system of checks and balances.

For years, Arpaio pursued a discriminatory policy of stopping and holding people for whom there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. A federal court ordered him to stop in 2011, but he continued to detain people unlawfully for another 17 months.

Last month, a different federal judge found Arpaio guilty of willfully defying the court order – a criminal charge that was fairly easy to establish, given that Arpaio repeatedly bragged to national media outlets: “I’m not going to give it up” and “nothing has changed.” In short, Arpaio’s disregard for the law and the court’s order was flagrant and sustained.

Pardons do not intrinsically threaten the rule of law. Rather, the exercise of mercy is part of our constitutional design, and if anything presidents have used it too sparingly in recent years. But typically pardons are issued after a person has served some part of his sentence, shown remorse, and demonstrated a measure of rehabilitation, or to remedy some fundamental unfairness. There’s a thorough vetting process involving the justice department’s office of the pardon attorney to assess these factors. Arpaio has not even been sentenced yet. He has defiantly maintained his innocence, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Colin Kaepernick supporters hold rally outside NFL headquarters

upporters of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality against blacks, showed their solidarity with him and his cause at a rally outside National Football League headquarters on Wednesday, demanding that he be signed by the start of the regular season next month.

More than 1,000 people, many wearing jerseys bearing Kaepernick’s name, crowded the steps outside the NFL’s midtown Manhattan offices.

Kaepernick, who once took the 49ers to the Super Bowl, opted out of his contract with the team in March and remains unsigned. Supporters say he is being blackballed for his advocacy, but some critics say he should not have sat or kneeled during the anthem or contend his lack of a job is more about his on-field talent.

Chants at the demonstration included “Boycott! Boycott!”

Women’s March organizer Tamika Mallory, addressing football fans, said, “I don’t care how long you’ve been watching football, if they don’t stand up for your children, turn the damn TV off.”

Populist Challenger Stuns In Birmingham Mayoral Election, Will Go To Runoff

The South is not a place known for its radical politics. Statewide, the region is dominated by right-wing Republicans. The Democratic Party is cordoned off in urban centers, but mayors typically avoid populist policy and tend to have a cozy relationship with the ruling GOP governors (just ask Atlanta’s Kasim Reed).

But over the past year, a new generation of populists has taken aim at these city centers, seeking to oust a Democratic establishment that has grown moribund, in favor of a radical politics that favors greater redistribution of power from elites to the common person. In Jackson, Mississippi, this took the form of the election of Chokwe Antar Lumumba Jr. as mayor. His father was elected mayor in 2014 but tragically passed away. His son has vowed to carry on his legacy and make Jackson “the most radical city on the planet” — implementing forms of community control over government that are unheard of not only in the South, but in most municipalities anywhere in the country.

Tuesday night, the second domino came close to falling in Birmingham’s mayoral race. It was supposed to be an easy reelection for Birmingham mayor William Bell, a fixture of the state’s Democratic Party establishment who had been in office since 2010. In an Aug. 1 poll taken by a local news station, Bell held a wide lead, winning support from 54 percent of respondents with 57 percent saying Bell was doing an “excellent” or “good” job. But Randall Woodfin, a 36-year-old former board of education president who ran an insurgent campaign promising, among other things, free community college for graduates of the city’s high schools, stunned observers by actually getting more votes than Bell on Election Day. Woodfin took 41 percent of the vote to Bell’s 37. That Aug. 1 poll had Woodfin at just 14 percent. Woodfin and Bell will both advance to a runoff on Oct. 3.

Woodfin’s team knocked on 40,000 doors between February and the election, making contact with 15,000 voters (15,656 was the number who voted for him last night). He also had support from Our Revolution, the organizing group formed around the campaign list of Bernie Sanders’s presidential run. Our Revolution president Nina Turner flew in for a rally on Saturday.

New Bill Would Force Arrested Protesters to Pay Police Overtime, Other Fees

A new bill introduced by seven Pennsylvania Republican state lawmakers could force protesters arrested at demonstrations to pay for police overtime and other fees related to the action. The bill, SB 754, has been introduced by Rep. Scott Martin of Lancaster County; his district has been the site of anti-pipeline protests aimed at the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline.

Under the terms of the bill, “a person is responsible for public safety response costs incurred by a State agency or political subdivision as a result of the State agency’s or political subdivision’s response to a demonstration if, in connection with the demonstration, the person is convicted of a felony or misdemeanor offense.” In other words, they could be on the hook for costs, such as police overtime, medical or emergency response, or other basic public services associated with protests. Whatever felony or misdemeanor offense the protester was convicted of would come with its own independent penalty. ...

The text of the legislation is not subtle about being inspired by anti-pipeline protests. It includes a lengthy section laying out the costs associated with the demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota — citing specific figures, such as the “331,721 hours of response support” by local police and National Guard and a $38.2 million price tag for local and state taxpayers.

'Corporate Mercenaries': Trump-Allied Firm Slammed for $1 Billion Suit Against Water Protectors

In what environmental justice groups are characterizing as legal harassment by "corporate mercenaries," the company that owns the contested Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has filed a lawsuit against Greenpeace, Earth First!, BankTrack, and individuals who oppposed and protested the pipeline, claiming over $300 million in damages. Greenpeace general counsel Tom Wetterer said the "meritless lawsuit" is "not designed to seek justice, but to silence free speech through expensive, time-consuming litigation."

DAPL developer Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) in a 187-page complaint (pdf), claims the groups "employ patterns of criminal activity and campaigns of misinformation to target legitimate companies and industries with fabricated environmental claims and other purported misconduct, inflicting billions of dollars in damage." Kasowitz law firm, which is representing ETP, filed another lawsuit against Greenpeace last year, and is also reportedly representing President Donald Trump in the ongoing federal investigation into allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign. 

"This has now become a pattern of harassment by corporate bullies, with Trump's attorneys leading the way," Wetterer said. "They are apparently trying to market themselves as corporate mercenaries willing to abuse the legal system to silence legitimate advocacy work." Seeking nearly $1 billion in damages, ETP accuses the environmentalists of defamation, illegal business interference, and violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a federal law often used to target mobsters and that, according to the Justice Department, "was passed by Congress with the declared purpose of seeking to eradicate organized crime in the United States."

The complaint claims Greenpeace launches "fraudulent, slanderous" campaigns "based upon fabricated evidence and witness accounts," to "generate maximum publicity and donations, irrespective of the environmental merit," purporting that "raising money and the network's profile is the primary objective, not saving the environment." It also claims the environmental organizations—which it calls"militant eco-terrorist groups"—"knowingly funded, controlled, directed, and incited acts of terrorism," and "used this manufactured crisis to relentlessly campaign against DAPL based on a series of demonstrably false lies and illegal activity designed to publicize those lies." ETP claims their financial losses were the result of the environmentalists "targetting [ETP's] banks, investors, research analysts, and other critical business constituents."

Please go fishing, Washington state says after farmed Atlantic salmon escape broken net

Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the waters between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, and officials are asking people to catch as many as possible. Tribal fishers, concerned about native salmon populations, call the accident “a devastation.”

It’s open season on Atlantic salmon as the public is urged to help mop up a salmon spill from a damaged net pen holding 305,000 fish at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm near Cypress Island. ...

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is urging the public to catch as many of the fish as possible, with no limit on size or number. The fish are about 10 pounds each. No one knows how many escaped from the floating pen, but the net had some 3 million pounds of fish in it when it imploded about 4 p.m. Saturday, said Ron Warren, fish program assistant director for the WDFW.

Anchor lines to the pens broke Saturday afternoon, and walkways for servicing the pens tipped, making it unsafe for employees even to get in the water and assess the scope of the spill, Warren said. In a statement Tuesday morning, Cooke said, “exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week’s solar eclipse” caused the damage. Cooke said the salmon escaped after a “structural failure” of a net pen.

The company’s explanation met with disbelief from fishermen and environmental groups. ... Lummi fishers were incensed at the Atlantic salmon intruding in home waters of native Washington Pacific salmon. ... G.I. James, a member of the Lummi Natural Resources staff and fish commission, said Pacific salmon face enough trouble as it is without dueling with invaders in their home waters. “It is potentially a disease issue, and impact on our fish, as dire a shape as they are in, right now any impact to them is difficult to absorb.”

US public lands: Trump official recommends shrinking national monuments

Conservation safeguards on a “handful” of national monuments across the US could be rolled back following the delivery on Thursday of the White House’s long-awaited review of such public lands, interior secretary Ryan Zinke said.

Speaking to the Associated Press in Billings, Montana, Zinke said unspecified boundary adjustments for some of the 27 national monuments were among his recommendations. None of the sites would be eliminated and revert to state or private ownership, he said, while public access for uses such as hunting, fishing or grazing would be maintained or expanded.

“I’ve heard this narrative that somehow the land is going to be sold or transferred,” Zinke said. “That narrative is patently false and shameful. The land was public before and it will be public after.”

There is considerable legal doubt over the executive’s power to eliminate national monument status. Conservation groups fear the review will rather open portions of such lands to exploitative use.

Dan Hartinger, deputy director of parks and public lands defense at the Wilderness Society, called Zinke’s announcement a loss for the American people and said: “This effort to erase protections for current national monuments is not only horribly misguided and places at risk cultural, historical and natural resources, but it is also illegal. “This is not something they have they have the authority to do.”

Brazil abolishes huge Amazon reserve in 'biggest attack' in 50 years

The Brazilian president Michel Temer has abolished an Amazonian reserve the size of Denmark, prompting concerns of an influx of mineral companies, road-builders and workers into the species-rich forest.

The dissolution of the Renca reserve – which spans 46,000 sq km on the border of the Amapa and Para states – was described by one opposition senator Randolfe Rodrigues of the Sustainability Network party, as the “biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years”.

Conservationists said it will open the door for mining companies to enter Renca – the Portuguese acronym for the National Reserve of Copper and Associates – which was set up in 1984 and encompasses nine protected areas.

Christian Poirier of Amazon Watch said Temer’s decision had to be seen in the context of wider efforts by his government to erode protected areas, weaken environmental licensing, and diminish indigenous rights in the interests of wealthy supporters in the extractive industries.

“The abolition of Renca will wreak havoc on the forest and indigenous communities in the interests of the small group of economically powerful groups who are keeping Temer in power,” he said. “This is the largest assault so far in a package of threats.”

“A gold rush in the region will create irreversible damage to local cultures,” warned Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of WWF-Brazil. “In addition to demographic exploitation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and water resources, this could lead to an intensification of land conflicts and threats to indigenous peoples and traditional populations.”

Russian tanker sails through Arctic without icebreaker for first time

A Russian tanker has travelled through the northern sea route in record speed and without an icebreaker escort for the first time, highlighting how climate change is opening up the high Arctic.

The $300m Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong in South Korea in 22 days, about 30% quicker than the conventional southern shipping route through the Suez Canal.

The tanker was built to take advantage of the diminishing Arctic sea ice and deliver gas from a new $27m facility on the Yamal Peninsula, the biggest Arctic LNG project so far which has been championed by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Also of Interest

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

Soul Snatchers: How the NYPD’s 42nd Precinct, the Bronx DA’s Office, and the City of New York Conspired to Destroy Black and Brown Lives (Part 1)

Soul Snatchers :: Part Two :: The Bronx Terrorist — Detective David Terrell

Boston Police Protected Far-Right Rally-Goers, Clashed with Black Counterprotesters

I was detained for protesting Trump. Here’s what the Secret Service asked me.

Donald Trump’s Defining Moments

California Sheriffs Use Bare-Knuckle Tactics Against “Sanctuary State” Proposal

Corporate Debt Threatens U.S. Economic Prospects

PA Lawmaker Working to Curb Pipeline Protestors Tied to Shadow Lobbyists for Company Behind Project

Freedom for the Speech We Hate: a Legal Guide to Your Protest Rights

Hat tip divineorder:

Inside the Left’s Plans to Occupy Trump

A Little Night Music

Joe Tex - My Babe

Joe Tex & his X Classmates - Blessed Are These Tears

Joe Tex and His X Classmates - Charlie Brown Got Expelled

Tex, Joe - Yum, Yum, Yum

Joe Tex, The Rock and Roll Cowboy - Cut It Out

Joe Tex - Right Back To My Arms

Joe Tex - Switchin' in the Kitchen

Joe Tex - Ain't I A Mess

Joe Tex - You Little Baby Face Thing

Joe Tex - Baby, Be Good

Joe Tex - Sexy Sassy Wiggle

Joe Tex - I Gotcha