This evening's music features jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

In Guatemala, Protests Threaten to Unseat President, a U.S.-Backed General Implicated in Mass Murder

Speaking of murderous US-backed regimes...

Kurds Fighting the Islamic State Enraged at Turkey Over Brutal Killing of Female Fighter

As photos of the naked and bloodied corpse of a female Kurdish militant recently trended on Twitter, women's rights groups in Turkey reeled at an act of sexualized torture committed by Turkish police, who also allegedly leaked the images.

The pro-Kurdish group Save Kobane identified the body as Kevser Elturk, known by her nom de guerre Ekin Van. Elturk was a commander in the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), an organization that has fought an armed campaign for a independent Kurdish state since 1984 in the area where Turkey, Syria, and Iraq meet, and which has recently been instrumental in repelling advances in the region by Islamic State (IS) militants. Turkey, NATO, and the United States have classified the PKK a terrorist organization.

Elturk was killed in clashes with Turkish security forces near the town of Varto in eastern Mus Province on August 10. The images of her remains and a description provided by those who later prepared her body for burial indicate that she was stripped of her uniform, dragged by the neck with a rope through town, and abandoned in the town square. ...

Elturk died in one of many firefights that have occurred since a two-year peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK collapsed in late July. The development followed an IS attack on Kurdish activists in Suruc who had met to plan the reconstruction of Kobane, a Kurdish border town that has become a symbol of resistance in the fight against IS. The bombing killed 33 people and injured over 100 others.

The PKK blamed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for abetting the attack, and hostilities between the PKK and the Turkish state quickly renewed with force.

Judge Rejects Obama Administration’s ‘Fear-Mongering,’ Orders Release of Immigrants

A federal judge rejected “fear-mongering” over “illegal immigration” by President Barack Obama’s administration and ordered the government to implement changes to ensure detained mothers and children are released within the next two months.

On August 6, the Justice Department requested the United States District Court of the Central District of California reconsider an order issued in July. The order found the government violated provisions of a legal agreement known as the “Flores agreement,” in force since 1997. The agreement is supposed to protect the rights of immigrant children, and the government has run afoul of the agreement by keeping migrant children, both accompanied and unaccompanied by guardians, in detention centers.

The government maintained the “proposed remedies could heighten the risk of another surge in illegal migration across our Southwest border by Central American families, including by incentivizing adults to bring children with them on their dangerous journey as a means to avoid detention and gain access to the interior of the United States.”
Judge Dolly M. Gee saw through attorneys’ baseless argument that the court’s order would impair the government’s ability to detain and expedite removal of undocumented immigrants as Congress intended.

The statement about risking “another surge in illegal migration” is “speculative at best, and, at worse, fear-mongering,” the judge declared. She noted the government has provided no “credible reason” why it cannot deal with cases of illegal migration and simultaneously comply with the Flores agreement by not holding children for “prolonged periods in secure, unlicensed facilities.”

Forget license plate readers on police cars, how about on garbage trucks?

San Jose, California, America’s 10th largest city, isn’t just content to put license plate readers on police cars anymore—rather, it now wants to deputize garbage trucks to be an additional tool in its ongoing surveillance.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the mayor and one city councilman put forward a new proposal Wednesday that would allow sanitation vehicles to use the scanning devices and feed the data automatically to city police.

"We can cover every street at least once a week and possibly deter thieves from coming into our city," Councilman Johnny Khamis told the paper.

If passed, the city would likely become the first in the country to expand the law enforcement tool to another public entity besides parking enforcement.

Black Monday: Biggest slide in Chinese stocks since 2007, Brent oil below $44

This is a really interesting economic analysis by Ian Welsh, worth reading in full:

As the Dow Jones Drops

Down about 1,000 as of this writing. (Since mostly recovered.) ...

But this started in China, which is important.

We are now in a situation analogous to the late 19th and early 20th century. America is the global hegemon (as Britain was then), and China is the world’s most important economy (America was then.) China is the global manufacturer. It buys the most resources, which is what most of the world sells, since most countries have given up manufacturing most goods for themselves. It prints the most money, dwarfing America and Europe. Its rich people are driving up real-estate prices all over the globe. ...
So what and how China does now matters most, economically. The contagion started in China, spread to emerging economies, money fled to the US and a few other safe havens, China’s economy continued to stall, it’s stock market fell despite radical attempts to keep it inflated, and that has now come home to New York. ...

The elites learned from 2008 that the important thing to do in a financial crisis is to just print enough money and relax enough accounting rule–extend and pretend. That will be the play again this time if this contagion turns truly serious. ... Printing money is a viable strategy only as long as the elites control the regulatory apparatus (including prosecutors, finance departments/treasures, and central banks), legislators, and executives. The reason people are screaming so loudly about Corbyn is not because he can’t win in England, it’s because if he did, and he’s serious about his policies, he will inevitably have to confront them. And an English PM with a majority he controls is pretty much a dictator.

A lot is at stake here. Our elites are losing control over the electoral apparatus and the common narrative. ... The decision was made in 2008 and 2009 to not allow an actual recovery and to protect the rich at all costs. There was a cost, it has been paid for the last six years, and this is yet and simply another one of those costs. China, as an exporting power, cannot carry the world economy when the people to whom it exports insist on various levels of austerity (be clear, the US is in austerity too, just not as bad an austerity as Europe).

Dismaland: Banksy opens 'bemusement park' in England

Some Clinton emails classified from Day 1

Dozens of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails would automatically have entered the world with “classified” status, according to a report.
At least 30 email threads since 2009 immediately deserve that designation based on the context in which they were written, according to Reuters.

Reuters' review of Clinton's public State emails would undermine her presidential campaign's claims that she never sent or received messages that had already gotten classified status.

The report found that the email chains in question included “foreign government information,” or any information provided by overseas officials in confidence to their American equivalents.

Such communications are “presumed” classified, it said, as both a national security precaution and a safeguard of the diplomatic process and its integrity.

Reuters said Friday it had uncovered at least 17 emails sent by Clinton during her tenure at State that would possibly qualify for classification given they contain “foreign government information.”

Reports Say Biden Decision Imminent

Fueling speculation, Biden privately met with Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Saturday

The political rumor mill is abuzz with news that Vice President Joe Biden may soon join the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, after reports suggested such a decision is imminent.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the vice president is currently "weighing multiple political, financial and family considerations," and that "conversations about the possibility were a prominent feature of an August stay in South Carolina and his home in Delaware last week."

Also spurring speculation was a private meeting on Saturday between Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a favorite of the party's left flank. Warren has yet to endorse any of the current Democratic contenders for the presidential bid and the reaction to their meeting indicated that Biden could be hoping to capitalize on some of her ideas and popularity among progressives.

However, as author and Nation columnist Greg Mitchell pointed out, such theories ignore the fact that many of Warren's supporters are already flocking to Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders Attracts 10,000 in South Carolina Campaign Swing

Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his progressive populism to deeply Republican South Carolina and found enthusiastic crowds totaling 10,000 during a two-day campaign swing as he made a pitch to connect with the black voters that provide most of the Democratic support in the early primary state.

It was the Vermont senator's first visit to the state since announcing his candidacy in late April, in a challenge to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Sanders had canceled a planned appearance in Charleston in June in the wake of the massacre at the city's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that left nine dead.

In each of his South Carolina stops, Sanders linked his progressive agenda to issues and challenges important to the black community. He called for restoring sections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court overturned and pledged to fight 'institutional racism,' with a particular focus on the criminal justice system. ...

Between campaign events, Sanders met with groups of black leaders, including ministers and business owners, and visited with Black Lives Matter activists after his rallies.

Also of interest:
Major Figures in Democratic and Republican Money Groups Go Into Business Together

The Devil Is In the Details: How Patients’ Mental Health Data Is At Risk

Banks Get Credit for Helping the Poor — By Financing Their Evictions?

The Magician’s Apprentice

How Much Longer Can Saudi Arabia's Economy Hold Out Against Cheap Oil?

Stock Selloff: Panic Time or a Blip on the Radar?