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This evening's music features Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir. Enjoy!

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

-- Haile Selassie

News and Opinion

Amnesty International USA Denounces DOJ's Inaction Nine Months After Torture Report

Confronted with a slew of new facts nine months ago, including how the CIA rammed food up detainees’ rectums and threatened to sexually assault their family members, the Justice Department has done nothing.

In a furious letter to DOJ’s inspector general, Amnesty International USA on Tuesday slammed the department for failing in its legal obligation to investigate, review, and address human rights violations, particularly after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence published the executive summary of its investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program.

“The effect, if not the purpose, of the Justice Department’s action or inaction has been to evade public accountability and conceal its institutional failures,” wrote Naureen Shah, director of the group’s Security with Human Rights division.

Shah requested that the inspector general launch a formal investigation into the department’s decisionmaking process.

Somali Drone Victim Seeks Justice for U.S. Strike in German Courts

In legal complaints filed in Germany last week, a Somali man, whose name was given only as “C.D.,” described his father “A.B.” as a herdsman who raised goats and camels in southern Somalia, not far off the coast of the Indian Ocean.

The strike that killed A.B. was apparently aimed at Mohamed Sakr, a London-born alleged member of the Somali jihadist group al Shabaab. ...

C.D.’s lawyers argue that the killing of A.B. and Sakr amount to murder under German law, and that German officials may be liable because of their cooperation with American forces. ... This spring, the court in Cologne dismissed a lawsuit brought by the family of Yemeni drone victims who had also argued that Germany was complicit in U.S. drone strikes and bore responsibility for civilians harmed in them. In that case, the court decided that it did not have the authority to intervene in the terms of the Ramstein contract, and that the German government was “not obliged to prevent the United States from using the airbase in Ramstein for executing drone strikes.” (The human rights group behind that suit has appealed the decision.)

C.D.’s effort differs from the Yemeni case because it asks the court only to find that the German government violated the law in this particular strike, said Amrit Singh, legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative. Singh and her German partners also believe that they can persuasively argue that at the time of the strike, neither Germany nor the U.S. was in a traditional armed conflict in Somalia.

Pope Francis in the USA: Calling for Revolution of Tenderness, Pope Touches Down in Richest Nation

Ahmed Could Have Been Obama’s Drone Victim

Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old Muslim boy who brought a homemade clock to school and was subsequently arrested because the clock looked similar to a bomb that resembled a movie prop, has been rightly recognized worldwide as a victim of anti-Islam paranoia that has spread in the US like a cancer. Obama, being the postwar on Terror President, invited young Ahmed to the White House to display his homemade device. When he does make his trip to DC to visit the President that declared the War on Terror to be over, what will they talk about? If the subject of foreign policy does come up, as well as Muslim fear-mongering and the need to protect young Muslims such as himself from persecution, young Ahmed might rightly ask Obama this: how similar do I look to the hundreds of young men that have died from your drone strikes? How similar do I look to Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the 16-year-old boy who was killed via drone while eating dinner in Yemen? Are you inviting me to the White House as a political stunt? He could go on and on with this line of questioning, but might be escorted out before he received an answer. Obama has attempted to sustain the narrative that the “War on Terror” is over, that he ended it, since it was just a war on a tactic anyway, and from now on it’s going to be a cool and collected foreign policy, a reversal of the paranoid Bush years. It could be a teachable moment in the limits of hypocrisy, although it would probably never be allowed in the presence of a President keen on continuing the narrative that he is a friend to young Muslim men and women, rather than their executioner.

Privatizing the Apocalypse

Imagine for a moment a genuine absurdity: somewhere in the United States, the highly profitable operations of a set of corporations were based on the possibility that sooner or later your neighborhood would be destroyed and you and all your neighbors annihilated. And not just you and your neighbors, but others and their neighbors across the planet. What would we think of such companies, of such a project, of the mega-profits made off it?

In fact, such companies do exist. They service the American nuclear weapons industry and the Pentagon’s vast arsenal of potentially world-destroying weaponry. They make massive profits doing so, live comfortable lives in our neighborhoods, and play an active role in Washington politics. Most Americans know little or nothing about their activities and the media seldom bother to report on them or their profits, even though the work they do is in the service of an apocalyptic future almost beyond imagining. ...

In the recent debate over whether President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran will prevent that country from ever developing such weaponry, you could search high and low for any real discussion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, even
though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates that it contains about 4,700 active warheads. That includes a range of bombs and land-based and submarine-based missiles. If, for instance, a single Ohio Class nuclear submarine – and the Navy has 14 of them equipped with nuclear missiles – were to launch its 24 Trident missiles, each with 12 independently targetable megaton warheads, the major cities of any targeted country in the world could be obliterated and millions of people would die.

Indeed, the detonations and ensuing fires would send up so much smoke and particulates into the atmosphere that the result would be a nuclear
winter, leading to worldwide famine and the possible deaths of hundreds of millions, including Americans (no matter where the missiles went off). Yet, as if in a classic Dr. Seuss book, one would have to add: that is not all, oh, no, that is not all. At the moment, the Obama administration is planning for the spending of up to a trillion dollars over the next 30 years to modernize and upgrade America’s nuclear forces.

Given that the current U.S. arsenal represents extraordinary overkill capacity – it could destroy many Earth-sized planets – none of those extra taxpayer dollars will gain Americans the slightest additional “deterrence” or safety. For the nation’s security, it hardly matters whether, in the decades to come, the targeting accuracy of missiles whose warheads would completely destroy every living creature within a multi-mile radius was reduced from 500 meters to 300 meters. If such “modernization” has no obvious military significance, why the push for further spending on nuclear weapons?

One significant factor in the American nuclear sweepstakes goes regularly unmentioned in this country: the corporations that make up the nuclear weapons industry. Yet the pressures they are capable of exerting in favor of ever more nuclear spending are radically underestimated in what passes for “debate” on the subject.

US Nuclear Weapons In Germany: Russia Concerned By American Plans To Add To Stockpile

Russia is concerned about U.S. plans to modernize and station additional nuclear weapons in Germany, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who spoke with a German TV channel Tuesday. The channel had reported earlier in the day that the U.S. planned to station 20 nuclear weapons in the European country, as per a line in the 2015 U.S. defense budget. ...

“At the same time in Europe -- not just in Germany, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey -- U.S. tactical nuclear armaments remain deployed," said Zakharova, who also claimed that Russia had reduced its own stockpiles fourfold since the 1990s, despite the U.S. keeping its arsenal at strength. “The Americans are modernizing their aerial bombs, and the NATO European members are modernizing their aircraft that carry these weapons," he said. ...

As part of the renewed hostilities between the U.S.-led NATO and Russia, who are clashing over Moscow's military actions in Ukraine, Russia has threatened to place short- to medium-range nuclear capable missiles in Kaliningrad, an enclave on the Baltic coast controlled by Russia, according to a BBC report. The missiles would have the ability to reach nearly all areas of Europe.

US arrogance and hypocrisy on parade:

Russian vetoes are putting UN security council's legitimacy at risk, says US

The United States has warned that Russia’s continued blanket use of its UN veto will jeopardise the security council’s long-term legitimacy and could lead the US and like-minded countries to bypass it as a decision-making body.

The warning comes as the UN reaches its 70^th anniversary and the security council faces a crisis caused by its paralysis over Syria. It has failed to agree concerted action to try to stem the bloodshed, even after more than 220,000 Syrians have died and more than 11 million have been forced from their homes.

Russia has used its veto powers four times to block resolutions on Syria that Moscow sees as damaging to its ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It has also forestalled common action on Ukraine where it is a party to the conflict, having annexed Crimea and pursued a covert military campaign in support of eastern separatists.

[The Guardian here fails to make clear that the complaints against Russia are brought by the US - which is also a party to the conflict along with its NATO subordinates. -js]

Samantha Power, the US permanent representative to the UN, said that the US and other countries had increasingly been going elsewhere to have atrocities investigated, and that a “forum-shopping” trend was likely to continue.

[Shorter Samantha Power - "If Russia and China won't let us have our way we will take our marbles and go home and play with our toys however we damned well please." -js]

The man with the job of voting ‘No’, Russia’s permanent representative, Vitaly Churkin, is unapologetic. He portrays the vetoes as aimed at protecting the security council’s integrity by preventing it from being used as a vehicle for toppling governments.

“Some countries were trying to involve the security council in regime change operations in Syria and we were telling them that it’s not the business of the security council to go into regime change mode,” Churkin said. “This is a fundamental difference and it’s not the fault of the security council that this difference is there.”

The Obama Two-Step on Syria

It was a pathetic spectacle, another black face in a high place in the person of General Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the United States Central Command, came before the Senate’s Armed Services Committee to report to incredulous members that the 500 million dollar program to train 5000 so-called moderate rebels in Syria had only resulted in the training of a few dozen. ...

Strangely however, while General Austin was falling on his sword on front of the Senate committee, spokespersons for Barack Obama were busy telling anyone who would listen that President Obama could not be blamed for the calamity unfolding in Syria.

The White House claimed that it is not to blame on the training issue. In what some are calling his “the devil made me do it” defense, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary argued that the finger should be pointed at those who convinced President Obama to get directly involved in training Syrian rebels, including by implication the former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. ...

No, the devil did not make Obama engage in the incredible cynicism that sacrificed an ancient culture and the lives of so many. It was the imperatives of empire and the ethical position that Westerners have the right to determine the leadership of states and what lives have value.

Being the self-centered narcissist and operating from a colonialist, Eurocentric mindset, Obama is now taking a familiar position that European imperialists have taken for years after committing unspeakable crimes against humanity – they feign innocence.

But this is Obama’s war and while he may escape prosecution as the war criminal that he is, the consequences and moral condemnation that it has generated is inescapable. It is his legacy, a legacy written in blood that no amount of slick public relations will be able to erase from the pages of history.

We need to find a way to help Syria that isn't 'add more military'

As the refugee crisis across Europe continues and Syrian civil war drags on, it seems the only “solution” western politicians can muster for the conflict is to send more weapons for various fighters, drop more bombs from the sky and argue for a more entrenched war – actions that will all but guarantee to further descend the region into chaos.

The UK, France and Australia have already announced plans in recent weeks to start bombing Isis-controlled sections of Syria in response to the refugee crisis (they’ve failed to explain how dropping more bombs on an already-devastated country will cause fewer refugees rather than more). The US has military special forces units already fighting on the ground in Syria sans any debate from Congress or in the public arena, either from the current administration or any of the presidential candidates. ...

Sadly, the calls for a US military escalation will only get louder, as various Republican war mongers hog the stage during the high-profile Republican campaign. And the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, is as hawkish, or more so, than Republicans. Gen. John Allen, the man in charge of the still-undeclared Isis war, supposedly someone who would “push back” against the more uber-militaristic elements in the Obama administration is stepping aside. Who his replacement will be is not known, but you can guess the drumbeat for someone who is even more “aggressive” will get louder by the day.

What is happening in Syria is an absolute tragedy, and one can only hope that the western powers will welcome refugees with open arms, and that a potential negotiated settlement is still somehow possible to at least stop the carnage on one side of the war. But while there are proposals everywhere for more war, no one has explained how adding more military destruction to the equation would actually help.

Coalition Cooperate: US ready for ‘immediate’ discussion on ISIS with Russia

Will US Grasp Putin’s Syria Lifeline?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thrown U.S. policymakers what amounts to a lifeline to pull them out of the quicksand that is the Syrian war, but Official Washington’s neocons and the mainstream U.S. news media are growling about Putin’s audacity and challenging his motives.

For instance, The New York Times’ lead editorial on Monday accused Putin of “dangerously building up Russia’s military presence” in Syria, even though Putin’s stated goal is to help crush the Sunni jihadists in the Islamic State and other extremist movements.

Instead, the Times harrumphs about Putin using his upcoming speech to the United Nations General Assembly “to make the case for an international coalition against the Islamic State, apparently ignoring the one already being led by the United States.”

The Times then reprises the bizarre neocon argument that the best way to solve the threat from the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other jihadist forces is to eliminate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military who have been the principal obstacles to an outright victory by the Sunni terrorist groups. ...

Yet, despite all its huffing and puffing and calling Putin names, the Times ultimately concludes that Obama should test out the lifeline that Putin has tossed to Obama’s Syrian policy which – with all its thrashing and arm waving – is rapidly disappearing into the quicksand. The editorial concluded:

“Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in London on Friday, made it clear that America would be looking for ‘common ground’ in Syria, which could mean keeping Mr. Assad in power temporarily during a transition. ... Kerry’s apparent willingness to work with the Russians – a position that I’m told Obama shares – is at least a sign that some sanity exists inside the State Department, which initially mounted an absurd and futile attempt to organize an aerial blockade to prevent Russia from flying in any assistance to Syria.

If successful, that scheme, emanating from Nuland’s European division, could have collapsed the Syrian regime and opened the gates of Damascus to the Islamic State and/or Al Qaeda. So obsessed are the neocons to achieve their long-held goal of “regime change” in Syria that they would run the risk of turning Syria over to the Islamic State head-choppers and Al Qaeda’s terrorism plotters.

EU braces for turbulent summit after divisive deal on refugee quotas

EU leaders are preparing for a tense summit in Brussels dedicated to the continent’s migration crisis, a day after European governments forced through a divisive deal to impose refugee quotas.

The leaders did not want their emergency summit on Wednesday evening to be hijacked by an unseemly squabble over quotas and ordered interior ministers to strike a deal in which member states will share 120,000 people between them.

The summit will focus on the faster screening and fingerprinting of people arriving on the EU’s southern borders and helping neighbouring countries in the Balkans and the Middle East, notably Turkey, to stop people heading for the EU.

Syrian Kurdish leaders planning to capture last border crossing with Turkey held by Isis

Syrian Kurdish leaders plan to capture the last border crossing point between Syria and Turkey held by Isis, making it impossible for jihadist volunteers from Europe and elsewhere to reach Isis-held territories.

The seizure of the frontier town of Jarabulus on the Euphrates River is certain to anger Turkey, which is already alarmed by the rise of a Syrian-Kurdish state-let in northern Syria, aided by US air strikes and fielding strong military forces.

The loss of Jarabulus would isolate Isis, bringing to an end its ability to bring in thousands of fanatical Islamic fighters who have been crossing from Turkey into Syria without significant hindrance over the last four years. Isis has frequently used these foreign volunteers as suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives as an essential element in its military strategy. ...

Mr Nassan quoted the overall commander of the YPG, General Sipan Hamo, as saying the attack on Jarabulus would “be in coordination with the US because we are part of the international coalition. They fight in coordination with us”. This may present the US with a dilemma because in July it did a deal with Turkey whereby it uses Incirlik airbase in Turkey for air strikes against Isis. But the Turks want to stop the YPG advancing west of the Euphrates. The Syrian Kurds already control half of Turkey’s 550 mile-long border with Syria.

Kurdish Ministers Resign in Turkey to Protest Offensive Against PKK

Two members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Ali Konca and Development Minister Muslum Dogan have tendered their resignations today, in an apparent protest of the government’s military offensive against the Kurdish PKK.

The HDP had been in the opposition, but became part of a unity “election government” after the ruling AKP failed to get a majority, and is holding some positions in anticipation of an election this autumn. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was unlikely either minister would be replaced before the vote.

Konca and Dogan were the first two HDP members to ever get ministries in a sitting national government, as this was the first time the HDP got beyond the 10% threshold to be able to have seats in parliament. The party has long been a pro-minority party with strong support in the Kurd-dominated southeast.

Egypt's President Pardons 100 Prisoners, Including Three Al Jazeera Journalists

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi today pardoned 100 prisoners, including three Al Jazeera television journalists, according to security sources.

Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed, and Australian Peter Greste were sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial last month for operating without a press license and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt. Greste was convicted in absentia, having been deported in February after spending 400 days in prison. ...

The pardons came a day before Sisi plans to head to New York for the 70th session of the UN General Assembly and the Egyptian president also announced them on his Facebook page.

Oh looky, the authoritarian government in China is just like the authoritarian government in the US. Maybe Xi should get together with James Comey so that they can press their socially and politically repressive agenda together.

China Pressures U.S. Companies to Buckle on Strong Encryption and Surveillance

Before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits President Obama, he and Chinese executives have some business in Seattle: pressing U.S. tech companies, hungry for the Chinese market, to comply with the country’s new stringent and suppressive Internet policies. ...

That might require such things as forcing users to register with their real names, storing Chinese citizens’ data locally where the government can access it, and building government “back doors” into encrypted communication products for better surveillance. China’s new national security law calls for systems that are “secure and controllable”, which industry groups told the Times in July means companies will have to hand over encryption keys or even source code to their products.

Among the big names joining Xi at Wednesday’s U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum: Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft.

The meeting comes as U.S. law enforcement officials have been pressuring companies to give them a way to access encrypted communications. The technology community has responded by pointing out that any sort of hole for law enforcement weakens the entire system to attack from outside bad actors—such as China, which has been tied to many instances of state-sponsored hacking into U.S systems.

Apple’s App Store Got Infected With the Same Type of Malware the CIA Developed

Last week, Chinese app developers disclosed that an Apple programming tool had been hijacked to trick developers into embedding malicious software into apps for Apple devices.

The malware, called XcodeGhost, works by corrupting Apple’s Xcode software, which runs on Mac computers and compiles source code into apps that can run on iPhones, iPads, and other devices, before submitting them to the App Store. If a developer has XcodeGhost installed on their computer, apps that they compile include malware without the developer realizing it.

Although XcodeGhost is the first malware to spread this way in the wild, the techniques it uses were previously developed and demonstrated by Central Intelligence Agency researchers at the CIA’s annual top-secret Jamboree conference in 2012. Using documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Intercept‘s Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley described the CIA’s Xcode project in a story published in March.

European court advocate general accuses US intelligence services of ‘mass, indiscriminate surveillance’

European companies may have to review their widespread practice of storing digital data with US internet companies after a court accused America’s intelligence services of conducting “mass, indiscriminate surveillance”.

The influential opinion by the European court of justice’s advocate general, Yves Bot, yet to be confirmed by the Luxembourg court as final, is a significant development in the battle over online privacy. The court normally follows the advocate general’s opinion; ECJ judgments are binding on EU countries.

The opinion by Bot contains far-reaching recommendations that threaten to upend many current commercial practices and assumptions in the digital industry.

If any EU country considers that transferring data to servers abroad undermines the protection of citizens, the advocate general’s finding said, it has the power to suspend that transfer “irrespective of the general assessment made by the [EU] commission in its decision”.

“The access of the United States intelligence services to the data transferred covers, in a comprehensive manner, all persons using electronic communications services, without any requirement that the persons concerned represent a threat to national security,” Bot’s opinion noted in one of its most damning sections.

“Such mass, indiscriminate surveillance is inherently disproportionate and constitutes an unwarranted interference with the rights guaranteed by articles seven and eight of the charter [of fundamental rights of the EU].”

Price Gouging In Health Care Is The Rule, Not the Exception

Martin Shkreli announces turnaround on 5,000% price rise for drug

Turing and its chief executive officer, Martin Shkreli, became the new face of the US drug pricing controversy this week, after the New York Times reported that the company had raised the price of Daraprim, a 62-year-old treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection, to $750 (£488) a pill from $13.50 (£8.79) after acquiring it. The medicine once sold for $1 a pill.

The story sparked outrage among patients, medical societies and the Democratic presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, who outlined a proposal to cap rocketing prescription drug costs for consumers.

Shkreli told ABC World News Tonight on Tuesday: “We’ve agreed to lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit, and we think these changes will be welcome.” The final cost was still being determined, but would be less than $750 per pill.

Native Groups Protest Pope Francis’ Canonization of Junípero Serra over Role in California Genocide

Los Angeles officials propose spending $100m on homelessness emergency

Los Angeles officials said Tuesday that they would declare a state of emergency on homelessness and proposed spending $100m to reduce the number of people living on city streets. ...

The first rollout of funds – projected for 1 January 2016 – would go toward permanent housing and shelter, his office said.

The action came the morning after Garcetti proposed to release nearly $13m in newly anticipated excess tax revenue for short-term housing initiatives. The bulk of that money would be dedicated to housing homeless veterans.

If approved, the pair of initiatives could steer additional resources toward the city’s homeless population, which recent estimates have put at more than 20,000 and growing. The majority live on the streets.

Alice Callaghan, a longtime advocate for the homeless on Skid Row, said the proposed funding would not be nearly enough to stop the loss of affordable housing, especially in rapidly gentrifying areas downtown and on the west side.

“A hundred million dollars won’t even buy all the homeless pillows,” she said, contrasting LA’s proposal with New York City’s $41bn affordable housing plan unveiled last year. “A hundred million certainly won’t build much housing – and what we really have here is a housing crisis.” ...

Earlier this year, a study by the city’s top budget official found Los Angeles already spends $100m a year to deal with homelessness – much of it on arrests and other police services – but its departments have no coordinated approach for addressing the problem. Without clear guidelines, departments instead tend to rely on ad hoc responses, according to the report by city administrative officer Miguel Santana.

An excellent article by Ellen Brown, worth reading in full. Here's a taste:

Time for the Nuclear Option: Raining Money on Main Street

Predictions are that we will soon be seeing the “nuclear option” — central bank-created money injected directly into the real economy. All other options having failed, governments will be reduced to issuing money outright to cover budget deficits. So warns a September 18 article on ZeroHedge titled “It Begins: Australia’s Largest Investment Bank Just Said ‘Helicopter Money’ Is 12-18 Months Away.”

Money reformers will say it’s about time. Virtually all money today is created as bank debt, but people can no longer take on more debt. The money supply has shrunk along with people’s ability to borrow new money into existence. Quantitative easing (QE) attempts to re-inflate the money supply by giving money to banks to create more debt, but that policy has failed. It’s time to try dropping some debt-free money on Main Street.

The Zerohedge prediction is based on a release from Macqurie, Australia’s largest investment bank. It notes that GDP is contracting, deflationary pressures are accelerating, public and private sectors are not driving the velocity of money higher, and central bank injections of liquidity are losing their effectiveness. Current policies are not working. ...

Willem Buiter, chief global economist at Citigroup, is also recommending “helicopter money drops” to avoid an imminent global recession, stating:

A global recession starting in 2016 led by China is now our Global Economics team’s main scenario. Uncertainty remains, but the likelihood of a timely and effective policy response seems to be diminishing. . . .

Helicopter money drops in China, the euro area, the UK, and the U.S. and debt restructuring . . . can mitigate and, if implemented immediately, prevent a recession during the next two years without raising the risk of a deeper and longer recession later.

In the UK, something akin to a helicopter money drop was just put on the table by Jeremy Corbyn, the newly-elected Labor leader. He proposes to give the Bank of England a new mandate to upgrade the economy to invest in new large scale housing, energy, transport and digital projects. He calls it “quantitative easing for people instead of banks” (PQE). The investments would be made through a National Investment Bank set up to invest in new infrastructure and in the hi-tech innovative industries of the future.

From Garbage Offensives to Occupying Churches, Actions of the Young Lords Continue to Inspire

FBI Said to Recover Personal E-Mails From Hillary Clinton Server

The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s success at salvaging personal e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted raises the possibility that the Democratic presidential candidate’s correspondence eventually could become public. The disclosure of such e-mails would likely fan the controversy over Clinton’s use of a private e-mail system for official business. ...

Outside computer specialists have said the FBI has the technical capability to recover deleted e-mails. The exact number of personal e-mails recovered by the FBI could not be learned.

Hillary Clinton taps Arkansas network in bid to finish Sanders

Hillary Clinton can’t beat a Republican in Arkansas, but she’s not there for a general-election battle.
The former first lady has returned to her onetime home state to court Democratic convention-goers, knowing every southern delegate could prove crucial to ending Bernie Sanders’ run.

“This is about delegates, it isn’t about electoral votes,” said Skip Rutherford, a longtime Clinton friend and the dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas. “There will be a completely different strategy when it comes to electoral votes.”

If it gets that far. With her challenger gaining ground in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton’s team knows she needs to mobilize her family’s network of southern supporters and ensure the race for the party’s nomination does not extend beyond March 1. ...

“The Clintons have 40 years of history here in Arkansas, and that includes being close personal friends with the chairman” of the state party, said HL Moody of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. “So is there official contact? Not necessarily on a daily basis. But do old friends talk? Sure."

Ted Cruz: Spending Every Waking Moment Asking People for Money Is Politics in a Nutshell

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, went on the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Monday and told Colbert that “Running for president is real simple: you just have to surgically disconnect your shame sensor, because you spend every waking moment asking people for money. … That is politics in a nutshell.”

This was on the one hand admirably honest of Cruz: even lowly members of Congress may spend half of every day fundraising, and Cruz’s presidential campaign has received $14.3 million in donations from 175,000 individuals. ...

Cruz has spoken bluntly about money and politics before; in a speech last June he said that “Career politicians’ ears and wallets are open to the highest bidder. Corrupt backroom deals result in one interest group getting preferences over the other, although you give the other a chance to outbid them.” Of course, his proposed solution is to remove the current $2,700 cap on individual donations to politicians and require that the donations be immediately disclosed.

Jimmy Carter on US 'Oligarchy' and Corrupting Power of Money on Politics

Commenting on the political landscape, now six years after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laments that Washington D.C. has become corrupted by the influence of money.

"We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy," Carter told Oprah Winfrey in an interview excerpt released on Tuesday. "I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life."

When asked if he would be able to become president today, the Nobel Peace Prize winner answered: "Absolutely not."

"There's no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million, or more," Carter continued. "I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it," he added.

Pope Francis calls for urgent action on climate change in White House speech

Addressing a crowd of nearly 15,000 on the south lawn, pope invokes Martin Luther King Jr in speaking of the moral need to protect our ‘common home’

Pope Francis enlisted the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr to help bolster his call for urgent action on climate change on Wednesday in a welcoming ceremony at the White House that Barack Obama said would “shake our conscience from slumber”. ...

In a surprise move, the pope made what amounted to a direct reference to Obama’s new emission regulations, which are deeply controversial among Republicans. Before a crowd of VIPs and dignitaries that included lawmakers from both parties, the pope told the president it was “encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution” at a “crucial moment in history”.

Pope Francis extended the metaphor of injustice to include the need to care for “our common home”.

In words that pile moral pressure on those who oppose carbon emission regulations, the pope said: “It seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.”

To loud applause, the pontiff said: “To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.” ...

The pope called for action: “Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them,” he added. “Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities, our societies.”

Warning: TTIP Aims To Defang Local Rules Against Hazardous Chemicals

The mammoth Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) under secret negotiation between the United States and European Union is poised to slash the power of local governments to regulate toxins—from pesticides to fracking chemicals—the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) warned in a report released Tuesday.

Preempting the Public Interest: How TTIP Will Limit US States’ Public Health and Environmental Protections (pdf) is based on an analysis of the European Commission's proposed chapter on regulatory cooperation from the April 20 round of negotiations. The report follows other analyses of the text which conclude that the TTIP poses a threat to human rights, environmental protections, and democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. ...

The chapter's contents, warns CIEL, highlight the direct threat the TTIP poses to public health and environmental protections on the U.S. state level. This is especially troublesome, the report argues, because federal regulations under the Toxic Substance Control Act have proven "egregiously ineffective"—and could be even further eroded, thanks to the influence of the chemical industry in Congress.

In contrast, some state governments have taken the lead in responding to the dangers posed by fracking chemicals, pesticides, and hazardous products by adopting "more than 250 laws and regulations protecting humans and the environment from exposure to toxic chemicals," the report says.

However, so-called "harmonization provisions" in the EU's proposal could force states to conform to the lowest common denominator—in this case weaker federal guidelines. As Sharon Treat, attorney, co-author of the report and former Maine state legislator, explained to Common Dreams, "The bottom line is if you're trying to make the U.S. compatible with an international standard, and you have minimal federal regulations on the U.S. side, and you have states that go beyond that, the provisions will be used to attack state chemical and pesticide regulations."

Volkswagen hires BP oil spill lawyers to defend emissions cases

Volkswagen has hired the US law firm that defended BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster to help it deal with a growing collection of investigations and law suits over the emissions scandal that has rocked the car maker and dragged in the German government.

The hiring of Kirkland & Ellis emerged as the German government admitted that it already knew about “defeat devices” that can cheat emissions tests.

Written responses from the transport ministry to questions from the Green party in July show the government was aware of the so-called defeat devices. However, the transport ministry said it had “no knowledge” of the devices actually being used, and there was no mention of VW.

Oliver Krischer, the deputy leader of the Green party, told German television that this showed the government knew that car makers were trying to manipulate emissions tests. He said: “The government worked together with the auto industry, not to ensure that the emissions levels were reduced, but so that the measuring system was set up in such a way that on paper the cars met the necessary standards.” ...

VW has admitted that 11m of its cars worldwide were designed to cheat emissions testing and put aside €6.5bn (£4.7bn) to deal with the potential costs of the crisis. However, it could still face fines of up to $18bn in a criminal investigation in the US, as well as possible charges for its executives and legal action from customers and shareholders. Several law firms in the US, including Clifford Law and Hagens Berman, have filed class action law suits against the German company.

German public prosecutors says they are considering launching a criminal investigation into the scandal and are examining a collection of legal claims that have already been filed by private individuals against VW.

As VW Scandal Unfolds, Ripple Effect Extends Through Entire Auto Industry

Volkswagen's unfolding diesel emissions-fixing scandal, which is now known to affect 11 million cars worldwide and is causing the company's stocks to plummet, could turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and officials from Germany, France, the U.K., and beyond widen their probe to include other car makers. ...

According to Reuters on Monday, the EPA and California officials said they would test diesel vehicles from other manufacturers for similar violations. In addition to Volkswagen, Reuters noted, automakers including General Motors and Fiat Chrysler sell diesel cars and SUVs in the United States. ...

Meanwhile, the UK's Telegraph declared on Tuesday: "Every major car manufacturer is selling diesel cars that fail to meet EU air pollution limits, according to a report released this month."

The Telegraph continued:

While Volkswagen has made the headlines by admitting to rigging pollution tests with software in VW and Audi diesels, new figures reveal that nine out of 10 diesels breach emissions regulations.

Analysis from transport group Transport and Environment (T&E) claims that the worst culprits were Audi, Opel, BMW and Volkswagen.

An Audi was the worst car identified in the survey. It emitted levels of nitrous oxide that were 22 times the allowed EU limit.

And the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ)—which recently restated its intent to hold white collar criminals accountable—has reportedly taken the preliminary steps to open a criminal investigation into VW.

In a statement on Tuesday, consumer watchdog group Public Citizen called on the DOJ to follow through on its promises.

"Justice demands a sharp break from the kid-glove, coddling treatment that the U.S. Department of Justice has shown to corporate criminals over the past decade," said Public Citizen president Robert Weissman. "Assuming the allegations are true, this is a premeditated, intentional act designed to circumvent the law, with callous disregard for the fact that the vehicles were poisoning people and the planet in the process."

"Volkswagen must be made to plead guilty for its crimes with no deferred prosecution agreement, regardless of whatever cooperation it now provides," he continued. "Individuals inside Volkswagen must be prosecuted and should be sent to jail."

Hillary Clinton opposes Keystone, but other pipelines have forged ahead

Clinton has taken a stance on Keystone XL, but in the meantime, TransCanada has moved on and new tar sands projects are being prepped at the border

At a campaign stop in Iowa on Tuesday, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton broke her silence on where she stands on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline: “I oppose it because I don’t think it’s in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change.”

But while politicians have been dithering over the increasingly unpopular Keystone XL, international tar sands development and other carbon-intensive pipeline projects have been charging ahead. ...

One way TransCanada might get around what Clinton called the Keystone “distraction” and pump more tar sands crude into the US might be the Upland pipeline, which the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has termed a “mini Keystone”. In On Earth magazine this month, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) policy consultant Joshua Axelrod expressed concern that Upland “has more to do with crossing the border than building this particular pipeline”.

In April, the Canadian energy company submitted an application for a new Presidential Permit to authorize the construction and operation of 240 miles of cross-border pipeline. The Upland Pipeline Project would connect the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to an area near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. The company said that the pipeline would allow 300,000 barrels of crude from the Bakken oil fields to reach “transportation connection points” in Canada.

While it is not Upland’s stated purpose, opponents cite the likelihood that the pipeline would eventually be used to transport heavy crude from Canada into the US. ...

Canadian oil and gas conglomerate Enbridge, for example, is also attempting to double the number of gallons pumped along its Alberta Clipper pipeline, opened in 2010, to 880,000 barrels per day.

The Sierra Club is challenging Enbridge’s expansion of the Alberta Clipper project, which Lena Moffitt, director of the Dirty Fuels Initiative at the Sierra Club, describes as illegal: “Under the guise of refurbishing, they’ve just put in a new line.”

Colorado Supreme Court to Decide if Citizens Can Ban Fracking

Do the citizens of a town have the right to ban something they perceive to be detrimental to their health and quality of life? Even if the state supports the practice? The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday announced it will weigh in on this debate as it prepares to hear the cases of two communities which, despite the state's pro-fossil fuel stance, voted to ban fracking within their borders.

The court will hear cases from Longmont, where voters banned the oil and gas drilling practice in 2012, and Fort Collins, where voters approved a 5-year moratorium in 2013. After their passage, both grassroots efforts came under fierce attack by both the drilling industry as well as the pro-fossil fuel state government, led by the outspoken fracking advocate Gov. John Hickenlooper (D). The bans were both thrown out in 2014 by two back-to-back district court rulings. The cities and several environmental groups appealed.

"I would say this is pretty huge," said Tanya Heikkila, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies fracking policy debates, in regards to the upcoming hearing.  While the state generally allows local governments to participate in decisions about how drilling and fracking occur, it refuses to cede municipalities the power to prohibit such activities, even if there is a clear citizen opposition.

"The Supreme Court decision will clarify that issue," Heikkila said.

Similar fights are being waged in both Texas and Ohio, where citizen efforts to ban fracking have been undermined by the state.

Also of Interest

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

After a Century of Mass Government Surveillance, It’s Time for New Limits

Canada's Liberal Leader Blasted for Blaming Misogyny on 'Certain Types of Music' and Porn

Happy Birthday ruled public domain as judge throws out copyright claim

Donald Trump gets easy ride as Stephen Colbert asks the soft questions

sis in Syria: Kobani Stood Up to the Jihadists and Won - But It's Still a City Under Siege

Bernie Sanders: We Must End For-Profit Prisons

A Little Night Music

J.B. Lenoir - I feel so good

J.B. Lenoir - God's Word

J.B.Lenoir - Slow Down

J.B.Lenoir - Alabama Blues

J.B. Lenoir - Born Dead

J.B. Lenoir - Talk to Your Daughter

J.B. Lenoir - Feelin' Good

J.B. Lenoir - Vietnam Blues

J.B Lenoir - The Mojo Boogie

J B Lenoir - Play A Little While

J.B. Lenoir - Man Watch Your Woman

J. B. Lenoir - Back Door

JB Lenoir - Natural Man

J.B. Lenoir - I've been down so long

J.B Lenoir - Let's Roll

J.B. Lenoir - Do What I Say

J B Lenoir, Sunnyland Slim & Friends- Live in '63