CLAIM: ‘Russian planes’ destroy Syria’s Cave Hospital.

NON-LEGAL STRATEGIES: Under Intense Pressure to Silence Wikileaks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange.

“Can’t we just drone this guy?” Clinton openly inquired, offering a simple remedy to silence Assange and smother Wikileaks via a planned military drone strike, according to State Department sources. The statement drew laughter from the room which quickly died off when the Secretary kept talking in a terse manner, sources said. Clinton said Assange, after all, was a relatively soft target, “walking around” freely and thumbing his nose without any fear of reprisals from the United States. Clinton was upset about Assange’s previous 2010 records releases, divulging secret U.S. documents about the war in Afghanistan in July and the war in Iraq just a month earlier in October, sources said. At that time in 2010, Assange was relatively free and not living cloistered in in the embassy of Ecuador in London. Prior to 2010, Assange focused Wikileaks’ efforts on countries outside the United States but now under Clinton and Obama, Assange was hammering America with an unparalleled third sweeping Wikileaks document dump in five months. Clinton was fuming, sources said, as each State Department cable dispatched during the Obama administration was signed by her.

Clinton and other top administration officials knew the compromising materials warehoused in the CableGate stash would provide critics and foreign enemies with a treasure trove of counterintelligence. Bureaucratic fears about the CableGate release ultimately proved to be well founded by Clinton, her inner circle and her boss in the White House.

“Non-legal strategies” was brought up in a 2010 email from State Department Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter, addressed to then Secretary of State Clinton, Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and Jacob Sullivan. Presumably it was sent to Clinton’s private and unsecured email address, and in the hands of foreign intelligence almost immediately.

JED BABBIN: Obama’s Blinkered Generals.

Earlier versions of the NMS have followed the guidance set in Obama’s National Security Strategy and the National Counterterrorism Strategy by avoiding mention of Islamic ideology in an effort to avoid the responsibility of having to plan to defeat it. The 2016 version evidently won’t be any better. It will, for example, use the bowdlerized term “violent extremist organizations” instead of “Islamic terrorist networks.”

(This is more than a semantic exercise. The Department of Homeland Security has defined Violent Extremist as “an individual who supports or commits ideologically-motivated violence to further political goals,” thereby including right wing extremists having no connection to Islamic terrorism.)

Since 9/11 we haven’t defeated any of the terrorist networks in part because we haven’t even attempted to defeat their ideology. President Obama, in July 2009, said that he is uncomfortable using the word “victory” to describe the United States’ goal in Afghanistan. He said the U.S. fight there is against terrorism and not a nation.

Read the whole thing.

I’d add that there doesn’t seem to be much threat of a “victory” in Afghanistan, and that there never was. The war there has been largely a distraction since about mid-2002, and an increasingly expensive distraction since about January, 2009.

I’d also add that Obama has doubled down on Bush’s failures (as described above by Babbin), and purposely squandered Bush’s successes. That’s one hell of “a mess” Obama’s successor will inherit in January.

UNITY: Clinton cancels joint events with Sanders.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM? Implication of sabotage adds intrigue to SpaceX investigation.

The long-running feud between Elon Musk’s space company and its fierce competitor United Launch Alliance took a bizarre twist this month when a SpaceX employee visited its facilities at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and asked for access to the roof of one of ULA’s buildings.

About two weeks earlier, one of SpaceX’s rockets blew up on a launchpad while it was awaiting an engine test. As part of the investigation, SpaceX officials had come across something suspicious they wanted to check out, according to three industry officials with knowledge of the episode. SpaceX had still images from video that appeared to show an odd shadow, then a white spot on the roof of a nearby building belonging to ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

The SpaceX representative explained to the ULA officials on site that it was trying to run down all possible leads in what was a cordial, not accusatory, encounter, according to the industry sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Bizarre.

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT:

Why is Hillary Clinton so quiet about Obamacare? Speech after speech–not a word. https://t.co/cSX0kROE3W

— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 3, 2016

RESET: Two U.S. Diplomats Drugged In St. Petersburg Last Year, Deepening Washington’s Concern.

Two U.S. officials traveling with diplomatic passports were drugged while attending a conference in Russia last year, and one of them was hospitalized, in what officials have concluded was part of a wider, escalating pattern of harassment of U.S. diplomats by Russia.

The incident at a hotel bar during a UN anticorruption conference in St. Petersburg in November 2015 caused concern in the U.S. State Department, which quietly protested to Moscow, according to a U.S. government official with direct knowledge of what occurred.

But it wasn’t until a dramatic event in June, when an accredited U.S. diplomat was tackled outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, that officials in Washington reexamined the November drugging and concluded they were part of a definite pattern.

It’s well past time to play a little tit for tat with Moscow until they return to civilized behavior.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Taliban launches major assault on Afghan city of Kunduz.

An aid worker living in Kunduz described an eruption of gunfire early Monday morning.

“Heavy fighting is still going on,” Ehsanullah Sadiqi told CNN, speaking by phone from Kunduz.
He said traumatic memories are still fresh for much of the city’s population after the Taliban capture of Kunduz in late September 2015.

“A lot of people who fled Kunduz last year at this time when the Taliban had taken over the city returned to Kunduz. So the number of people trying to flee again today was huge,” Sadiqi said. He described city streets that are almost completely deserted.

Obama sold Afghanistan a bloody bill of goods.

JUSTICE IN EDROGAN’S TURKEY: Victims Of Turkey’s Post-Coup Purge Invited To Prove Their Innocence.

Prove their innocence?

More:

The sweeping purge has been in part made possible by a three-month state of emergency declared shortly after the failed coup. At the time, officials said it would be a one-time measure to give the government extraordinary powers not only to detain suspects but to enact measures by decree. Now, weeks before it’s due to expire, there’s a move to extend the state of emergency.

Turkey’s National Security Council, at a meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recommended extending the state of emergency for another three months. After the meeting, Erdogan told an audience of local leaders that the state of emergency “is only for an effective counter-terrorism,” according to the state run Anatolia News Agency.

Ever since the massive purge began, Turks have been wondering how so many people could have been in on a coup that was so secret everyone missed it.

Indeed.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: AFSOC shoots for AC-130 laser gunship mod in 2020.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Near ‘Collapse,’ Minnesota to Raise Obamacare Rates by Half.

CRIME OF THE CENTURY: Man steals $220 worth of tequila by hiding bottles in shorts in Manchester.

It’s my experience that tequila and pants have never gone together well.

ARCANE AND PROBLEMATIC: The taxonomy of porn.

In 2015, Stoya launched the porn site TrenchcoatX.com with fellow adult-film star Kayden Kross. The site’s first iteration sought to avoid traditional porn’s arcane and problematic search tags by forgoing them. “At first, when the site launched we put up descriptions of the movie, and each scene. There were no labels on any of it, which was nice and utopian,” Stoya explained.

But the seeming utopia ran into a challenge: How could users tailor the site’s content to their preferences, and (more crucial to the founders) how could the site enable customers to prevent content from popping up that they might find traumatizing?

It’s marvelous, the things we’re encouraged to worry about.

HIT THE ROAD, HEADPHONE JACK: USB-IF Announces USB Audio Over USB Type-C Standard For Digital Audio.

Are you miffed that the latest iPhone doesn’t have a dedicated 1/8″ audio jack? Well, Apple likely won’t be alone, as other smartphone OEMs may be looking to ditch the venerable headphone jack in order to take advantage of audio over USB-C.

This week, the USB-IF (Implementers Forum) announced “USB Audio over USB Type-C”, and it’s touting it for much the same reasons that Apple does with its latest iPhone. USB-IF expects this standard to be used for headsets, mobile devices, docking stations, gaming setups, VR solutions, and more. Notebooks are not mentioned, but it seems certain they’ll all support USB-C in the near-future, which of course will be able to be used for audio.

We’re just a hardware refresh or two away from wondering what all the fuss was about.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Colorado gives marijuana candy a new look to avoid confusion.

A requirement that edible marijuana products come with a diamond-shaped stamp and the letters T-H-C — not just on the packaging but on the brownies, candies and other edibles themselves — takes effect Saturday.

The rule referencing marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient was added after complaints that the treats look too much their non-intoxicating counterparts. It is the first such requirement in any legal weed state.

Colorado’s new “universal symbol” for foods that contain marijuana is designed to give the treats a distinct look even after they’re out of the packaging. In other words, a pot cookie being passed around a high school cafeteria no longer will look so innocent, giving parents a way to identify marijuana edibles without smelling or tasting them.

That seems like a prudent regulation.

TOO BIG TO FAIL, OR TOO BIG NOT TO TAKE US ALL DOWN WITH THEM? Fines, Withdrawals, Job Cuts. It Was an Ugly Day for Global Banks.

MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES UNITED: How Democrats Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Big Donor Money

The flow of money, documented in Federal Election Commission reports, shows Democrats expanding their fund-raising advantage in the final phase of the presidential race, defying expectations at the beginning of the campaign that Republicans would dominate the money chase.

The shift has allowed the national Democratic Party to overcome a cash shortage and provide Democrats in key states like Virginia and North Carolina with money for early voting drives, additional staff and canvassing aimed up and down the ticket.

The Democratic National Committee — in debt and underfinanced a year ago — has poured nearly $30 million into these key states through the beginning of September. The funding was powered by a surge of six-figure contributions raised by Mrs. Clinton from the likes of James Cameron, the Hollywood director, and George Soros, the retired hedge fund manager, as well as several members of the billionaire Pritzker family.

As the man accused of accepting tainting money for his charity is supposed to have said, “The only thing tainted about it is there taint enough of it.”

INTEGRATION? White On Black Crime vs. Black On White Crime: New Statistics Show More Killings Between Races.

One more time…

My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.

— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 24, 2014

DO YOU HAFF YOUR PAPERS? Trump Foundation reportedly doesn’t have proper paperwork to solicit money.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Trump Foundation didn’t obtain registration that’s needed to ask for donations, according to a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

New York law states that any charity that asks for more than $25,000 per year needs to obtain a special registration before soliciting offers. The Trump Foundation, a fairly large charity, must also undergo an audit that asks whether the charity spent any money for personal gain of its top officials. The paper noted that it’s unclear whether the $25,000 was solicited or whether the solicitation occurred in New York.

Schneiderman could order the charity to stop raising money immediately if the allegations turn out to be true. The Democratic attorney general could also make Trump return any money that had been raised.

Yes, of course the Clinton Foundation does far worse than skip out on paperwork, but this has been a week of largely unforced errors for the Trump campaign, starting about 40 minutes into Monday night’s debate.

And hopefully it ended with this morning’s bizarre oh-dark-thirty tweetstorm about Alicia Machado and her non-existent sex tape.

TAKING THE PRUDENCE OUT OF JURISPRUDENCE: Oregon Judge to Convicted Murderer: ‘If I Could, I Would Take All the Guns in America’

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: The Clintons’ big fat Greek bond wedding.

State Department attorneys admitted Wednesday that they had lost copies of a 2012 email between Jake Sullivan, a top former aide to Hillary Clinton, and an employee of the Clinton Foundation.

The email contained an attachment memo about Greek bonds — a significant detail given the heavy investments Clinton’s son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, was making in the Greek economic recovery during that same period.

Chelsea Clinton, Mezvinsky’s wife, is a board member at the Clinton Foundation. The fact that one of Clinton’s closest aides shared insider information about the economic climate in Greece with the foundation — just one year after Mezvinsky and fellow Goldman Sachs alum founded a hedge fund that operated primarily by placing bets on international economic trends — raises questions about the many potential conflicts of interest that could have arisen from the Clintons’ web of connections.

Read the whole thing.

THIS DEAL KEEPS GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME: U.S. Signed Secret Document to Lift U.N. Sanctions on Iranian Banks.

The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations.

The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted until 2023, under a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that went into effect on Jan. 16.

The U.N. Security Council’s delisting of the two banks, Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International, was part of a package of tightly scripted agreements—the others were a controversial prisoner swap and transfer of $1.7 billion in cash to Iran—that were finalized between the U.S. and Iran on Jan. 17, the day the Americans were freed.

Well, at least now we’ll be able to make our next ransom payment by direct deposit.

NEW YORK TIMES: Ohio, Long a Bellwether, Is Fading on the Electoral Map.

Hillary Clinton has not been to the state since Labor Day, and her aides said Thursday that she would not be back until next week, after a monthlong absence, effectively acknowledging how difficult they think it will be to defeat Donald J. Trump here. Ohio has not fallen into step with the demographic changes transforming the United States, growing older, whiter and less educated than the nation at large.

And the two parties have made strikingly different wagers about how to win the White House in this election: Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, is relying on a demographic coalition that, while well tailored for Ohio even in the state’s Democratic strongholds, leaves him vulnerable in the more diverse parts of the country where Mrs. Clinton is spending most of her time.

I wonder if the NYT would publish such a disparaging piece about Ohio if Clinton were doing better there.

[Bad link — fixed now!]

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED:

Discharged for making Marines sing the Marines' Hymn. AYFKM? pic.twitter.com/EKpqM2LjBC

— Mr. ✘ (@GlomarResponder) September 29, 2016

State AGs sue to stop Obama’s internet transition.

The lawsuit — filed Wednesday in a Texas federal court — threatens to throw up a new roadblock to one of the White House’s top tech priorities, just days before the scheduled Oct. 1 transfer of the internet’s address system is set to take place.

In their lawsuit, the attorneys general for Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada and Texas contend that the transition, lacking congressional approval, amounts to an illegal giveaway of U.S. government property. They also express fear that the proposed new steward of the system, a nonprofit known as ICANN, would be so unchecked that it could “effectively enable or prohibit speech on the Internet.”

The four states further contend that ICANN could revoke the U.S. government’s exclusive use of .gov and .mil, the domains used by states, federal agencies and the U.S. military for their websites. And the four attorneys general argue that ICANN’s “current practices often foster a lack of transparency that, in turn, allows illegal activity to occur.”

“Trusting authoritarian regimes to ensure the continued freedom of the internet is lunacy,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a statement.

Crazy like a fox.