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This evening's music features r&b singer and songwriter Billy "The Kid" Emerson. Enjoy!

“Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap, and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War. Indeed, for almost ten years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet Empire…. What is more important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”

-- Zbigniew Brzezinski

News and Opinion

The Joint US-Saudi Guilt for 9/11

In a stunning repudiation of Barack Obama’s Middle East policies, Congress has overridden a presidential veto and confirmed that 9/11 survivors can sue Saudi Arabia for its role in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

The vote was a rare victory in a global political system in which the major powers routinely roll over ordinary civilians the way a tank rolls over a daisy. Whether it’s a Yemeni wedding party pulverized by an errant bomb or a terrified office worker plummeting through space to escape the fire on 9/11, these are the sorts of people whom drone operators call “bug splats,” individuals whose bloody remnants must be wiped away as quickly as possible so that the war machine can continue on its way. But now it looks like some of their surviving families may finally get their day in court.

As wonderful as this is, there’s a problem. JASTA, as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act is universally known, goes after the wrong people. Yes, Saudi hands are all over 9/11. As the inestimable Karen Breitweiser has pointed out the long-suppressed 28-page chapter (actually 29) of the Joint Congressional Report dealing with the Saudi role in 9/11 was a bombshell no matter how Washington and Riyadh try to deny it. ...

Still, the legislation overlooks one all-important fact: 9/11 in the final analysis was less a Saudi job than an American one.

This doesn’t mean that the CIA wired the Twin Towers with explosives or that Mossad somehow engineered the hijacking. What it means, rather, is that Washington has shaped the U.S.-Saudi relationship from the start and that it therefore must take responsibility for the horrors that have followed.

[See article for detailed history of the US-Saudi-jihadi relationship. - js]

So why didn’t the U.S. cut its losses by severing the Saudi partnership? Didn’t it realize that the costs were beginning to outweigh the benefits? The reason is that it knew that it was complicit in the Saudi terror campaign and that the Saudis knew it too. The two countries were in it together. Both had shown staggering recklessness and duplicity in their dealings with Al Qaeda, and both therefore had too much to lose in the event of a mutual falling out.

The George W. Bush administration, moreover, was especially vulnerable. After the stolen election of 2000, Republicans knew that they faced mass destruction at the polls in 2004 if the full news about Bush’s incompetence got out. So a cover-up was even more essential for Washington than it was for Riyadh. ...

To the degree that JASTA will help shift attention back to the Saudis, it is welcome. But if it takes aim at only one party in this grotesque pas-de-deux, and the less guilty one at that, then it could actually end up compounding the cover-up.

Justice Dept Drops Charges Against Arms Dealer Who Threatened to Embarrass Clinton

In a move that’s only going to add to speculation about the political underpinnings, the Justice Department has withdrawn charges against arms dealer Marc Turi, who had previously been indicated for arms deals exporting US weapons to Libya during the 2011 rebellion.

This became a major issue because, when Turi was charged, he and his company claimed that President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew about and supported the weapons exports as part of their efforts at regime change.Turi further warned that the trial would end up embarrassing both Obama and Clinton.

All indications are that’s exactly what ended the case, with officials saying that “discovery rulings” by the judge, which meant a lot more details about the case would wind up going public, fueled their decision to drop the case outright.

ACLU Lawyers Will Get to Question Ex-CIA Officials in Torture Case

In a critical step towards accountability, a federal judge has ordered that former high-ranking CIA officials will have to sit for depositions in the lawsuit against the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA torture program.

Two of the officials are John Rizzo and Jose Rodriguez, who both held top positions when the torture program was developed and carried out. Rizzo was the CIA’s chief lawyer, and Rodriguez was the head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and then deputy director of operations. The depositions are expected to happen in the next few months as part of the discovery process, which will be completed by mid-February.

The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three men — Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, Gul Rahman — who were tortured using methods developed by the CIA-contracted psychologists, James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen.

Rizzo was the CIA’s acting general counsel for much of the George W. Bush administration. President Bush nominated him to be confirmed in the position in 2007 but was forced to withdraw the nomination amid objections over Rizzo’s involvement in the torture program. Rizzo went along with the now-discredited Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memos that purported to approve torture, privately acknowledging the OLC’s “ability to interpret over, under and around Geneva, the torture convention, and other pesky little international obligations.” Rizzo also helped draft Bush’s still-secret order authorizing the CIA to establish secret detention facilities overseas and to interrogate detainees.

Rodriguez has repeatedly defended the CIA’s torture of detainees and played an integral role in the program from the start, authorizing the use of specific abusive methods on detainees. In 2005, over the objections of the White House and Congress and in violation of a federal court ruling, Rodriguez ordered the destruction of more than 90 videotapes that showed the torture of detainees through waterboarding and other methods.

Syria: Assad forces push to retake Aleppo

Eastern Aleppo could be destroyed by Christmas, warns UN Syria envoy

The whole of rebel-held eastern Aleppo could be destroyed by Christmas if the “cruel, constant” Russian-backed bombing of the Syrian city continues, the UN special envoy for Syria has warned.

In a passionate personal appeal from Geneva on Thursday, Staffan de Mistura said the scale of human tragedy in the besieged part of the city was huge, and the world needed to avert “another Srebrenica, another Rwanda”.

He said he was willing to go personally to eastern Aleppo to escort up to 1,000 Islamist fighters out of the city if it would mean a halt to the bombardment by Russian and Syrian forces. ...

In a question directed at the Kremlin, he asked: “Are you really ready to continue this level of fighting and de facto destroy the whole of the ancient city?” He also aimed his message at Jabhat al-Nusra, now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, saying it was “deciding the destiny of 275,0000 civilians” by refusing to leave the city.

Russia's S-300, S-400 ready to hit any unidentified object in Syria - MoD warns US-led coalition

Did Tim Kaine and Mike Pence Realize That “Safe Zones” in Syria Would Require U.S. Troops?

Democratic and Republican vice presidential candidates Mike Pence and Tim Kaine both advocated for establishing “safe zones” in war-torn Syria during their debate Tuesday night, an indication that whoever wins in November, the U.S. may end up deploying considerable resources — including ground troops — in the Middle East again.

“I truly do believe that what America ought to do right now is immediately establish safe zones so that families, and vulnerable families with children can move out of those areas, work with our Arab partners, real-time, right now, to make that happen,” Pence said.

Kaine responded, “Hillary and I also agree the establishment of humanitarian zones in northern Syria with the provision of international human aid, consistent with the United Nations Security Council resolution that was passed in February 2014 would be a very, very good idea.” ...

In February, Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate panel that the Pentagon has estimated it would take between 15,000 and 30,000 American troops to secure safe zones within Syria. ...

The Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, however, have not acknowledged the extensive commitment it would take to establish these zones.

'Neutral' First Aid Responders in Syria Promoting Regime Change

NY Times Attacks Gary Johnson for Equating US, Syrian War Crimes

Following an interview with the New York Times, Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson is coming under fire for noting a moral equivalence between killing civilians in airstrikes, and killing civilians in airstrikes.

Pressed on the civilian death toll of Syrian airstrikes against populated areas, and whether he saw those as equivalent to US airstrikes against populated areas, Johnson mockingly declared “no of course not – we’re so much better than all that. We’re so much better when in Afghanistan, we bomb the hospital and 60 people are killed in the hospital.”

Johnson is referring to last year’s Kunduz airstrikes, in which a US warplane repeatedly and deliberately bombed a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital near Kunduz, Afghanistan, in what officials later characterized as “a mistake.” The Syrian government has recently been heavily criticized for airstrikes around Aleppo which hit hospitals.

‘What about our human rights?’: Kurds feel force of Turkey’s crackdown

Ahmet stood on a roof in the district of Sur in Diyarbakır and watched as two bulldozers razed his family home. Dust clouds rose into the sky as another wall collapsed. “This is the second time that I watch them demolish my house,” the 33-year-old said softly. ...

Violence in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish south-east has surged after a ceasefire between the country’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and the PKK fell apart last July, leaving the three-year peace process in tatters and reviving a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives since 1984. ...

After the failed coup in July, the conflict is deepening. On Monday, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, extended the country’s state of emergency, imposed after the coup attempt, into next year. Administrators were appointed to dozens of Kurdish-run municipalities, with Ankara accusing the elected mayors of supporting the PKK.

Displaced once more, Ahmet and his family rented a small apartment in another Diyarbakır district after the police ordered them to leave their home in Sur in November, just before the curfew. He now makes about 500 Turkish lira (£130) a month selling liquorice syrup, a local delicacy. He has no plan for the coming winter.

He is stunned by the worldwide silence in the face of the Kurds’ situation in Turkey. Pointing towards the ruined city centre, where bulldozers pushed the rubble of his house into a heap, he said: “It looks like Syria here. What about human rights? Do they not apply to us?” Like many Kurds in Turkey, Ahmet feels abandoned by the EU, which last year struck an agreement with Ankara to stem the numbers of refugees coming to Europe. “They have sold us for the refugee deal,” he said.

Pentagon Fund Pushed Bomb Production, Expecting Ally Orders to Target ISIS

Endless US wars mean endless sales for well-positioned US arms makers, but military officials today are detailing a growing effort within the Pentagon to fund not just the weapons they intend to actually buy, but also weapons they figure other people might want to buy in the future.

The Pentagon’s Special Defense Acquisition Fund (SDAF) is meant for exactly that, with officials saying it allows them to “prime the pump” and placing advanced orders for weapons from arms makers “so we can stockpile things when we know there’s going to be an immediate rush or demand.”

In practice a lot of this money is being thrown at the ISIS war, with the expectation that all the nations that have gotten sucked into participating in the US-led coalition airstrikes against ISIS are going to need to buy a bunch of American bombs to drop on ISIS. ...

While the Pentagon claims perfect knowledge of what other countries are going to want to buy from US arms makers years down the road, any SDAF orders that no one ends up wanting ultimately ends up paid for by the Pentagon, and thrown into the Pentagon’s stockpile, even if they are ordering things that Congress hasn’t authorized them to buy.

This ultimately means the SDAF can be used by the Pentagon to buy anything it wants, above and beyond the appropriations they are actually allowed.

U.S. Admits Israel Is Building Permanent Apartheid Regime: Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion

In 2010, Israel's then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.” ...

This week, with its fresh new $38 billion commitment in hand, the Israeli government announced the approval of an all new settlement in the West Bank, one that is particularly hostile to ostensible U.S. policy, the international consensus, and any prospects for an end to occupation. ... In response to this announcement, the U.S. State Department yesterday issued an unusually harsh denunciation of Israel’s actions. “We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s recent decision to advance a plan that would create a significant new settlement deep in the West Bank,” it began. It suggested Netanyahu has been publicly lying, noting that the “approval contradicts previous public statements by the government of Israel that it had no intention of creating new settlements.”

Much of that, while a bit more rhetorically clear than usual, is par for the course: The U.S. — in vintage Obama fashion — issues pretty, pleasing statements claiming to be upset at Israel’s settlements while taking continuous actions to protect and enable the very policies Obama pretends to oppose. But the State Department denunciation yesterday was actually notable for what amounts to its stark and explicit acknowledgement — long overdue — that Israel is clearly and irreversibly committed to ruling over the Palestinians in perpetuity, becoming the exact “apartheid” state about which Barak warned:

Israelis must ultimately decide between expanding settlements and preserving the possibility of a peaceful two state solution. Since the recent Quartet report called on both sides to take affirmative steps to reverse current trends and advance the two state solution on the ground, we have unfortunately seen just the opposite. Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. Such moves will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from many of its partners, and further call into question Israel’s commitment to achieving a negotiated peace.

NSA Theft Suspect Worked For Contractor That Sells the Government Tech for Spotting Rogue Employees

Booz Allen Hamilton, the defense contracting giant whose employee was charged Wednesday in connection with the theft of hacking codes used by the National Security Agency, provides a fairly ironic service to the government: spotting rogue employees.

The highly secretive contractor in 2014 launched a special service called Insider4Sight designed to help the government spot “insider threats,” such as employees who steal confidential documents. “Insider4Sight behavior-based assessment tools are applied against expected role models to detect rogue insiders before significant damage occurs,” a company brochure boasts.

Booz Allen Hamilton employee Harold Martin III, a contractor for the NSA, was charged today with illegally copying and taking home highly confidential code used for infiltrating the computers of foreign governments.

The incident is sure to refocus attention on the $5.4 billion company, which also employed Edward Snowden, another NSA private contractor who stole documents from the agency. Snowden acted in order to reveal vast government surveillance programs, some of which have been subsequently deemed by federal courts as unconstitutional. Martin’s motives are not clear.

Yahoo is giving the US government access to its tech in an unprecedented way, report says

If Reuters' report is true, it sets Yahoo apart from virtually every company in Silicon Valley. In fact, building tools to let the government access user info is precisely what Apple and other tech companies sparred over with the feds earlier this year. Almost every major tech firm — Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and more — sided with Apple and vowed they'd fight any such governmental order. ...

ACLU lawyer Patrick Toomey [said]: "It is deeply disappointing that Yahoo declined to challenge this sweeping surveillance order, because customers are counting on technology companies to stand up to novel spying demands in court."

Yahoo email surveillance: who approved the secret scanning program?

By what legal authority do the National Security Agency and the FBI ask Yahoo to search its users’ emails? Neither the government nor the tech company would say, after Reuters first reported on Tuesday that Yahoo “secretly built a custom software program” it used on behalf of the NSA and CIA to scan customer emails. ...

But scanning the entirety of its email service for a specific string would appear to be a major change in the way Fisa has operated, said Liza Goitein, co-director of the national security program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

“A regular Fisa order, you have a specific target who is a US person or resident and you have to go to the Fisa court to get authorization with probable cause that they’re foreign powers or agents of a foreign power,” Goitein said. “So it’s not meant for mass surveillance at all. If Fisa is being used for mass surveillance that creates a whole other problem.”

“It’s hard to see how the Fisc [foreign intelligence surveillance court] found that to be constitutional,” she added.

The other possible law in play is section 702 of Fisa, which the NSA used to justify its Prism program of dragnet surveillance. That law exclusively applies to persons located outside the United States, which would seem to preclude its use on all Yahoo subscribers, though it was used by the Bush administration to justify Prism.

Yahoo scan by U.S. fell under foreign spy law expiring next year: sources

A Yahoo operation in 2015 to scan the incoming email of its customers for specific information requested by the U.S. government was authorized under a foreign intelligence law, parts of which will expire next year, two U.S. government officials familiar with the matter said.

The collection in question was specifically authorized by a warrant issued by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, said the two government sources, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Yahoo's request came under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the sources said. The two sources said the request was issued under a provision of the law known as Section 702, which will expire on Dec. 31, 2017, unless lawmakers act to renew it.

The FISA Court warrant related specifically to Yahoo, but it is possible similar such orders have been issued to other telecom and internet companies, the sources said.

NSA head denies 'blanket' email searches

The head of the National Security Agency (NSA) on Wednesday appeared to downplay allegations in a recent report that claimed Yahoo developed a scanning software to help U.S. intelligence search its customers' incoming emails.

“I would only comment — I’ve read this real quickly and thought, well, this is a little speculative,” Adm. Michael Rogers said at a cybersecurity summit in Cambridge, Mass., in apparent reference to the Yahoo report.

Rogers told CNBC’s Walter Isaacson that the NSA can’t get a judge’s approval to “blanket” search through "all email."

“That would be illegal. We don’t do that, and no court would ever grant us authority to do that,” Rogers said. “We have to make a specific case. What the court grants is specific authority for a specific period of time for a specific purpose.”

Are Our Earnings Really Our ‘Just Deserts’?

At some point during their undergraduate education, economists will encounter an apparently innocuous equation that will forever change their way of thinking: MP_L=w denotes that a worker’s remuneration is equal to his or her marginal product in a competitive labor market. In other words, your wage is determined by what you contribute to output.

This equation forms the benchmark assumption of the labor market (from which later deviations are allowed), and underpins the standard defense of income inequality. If a worker is paid according to her marginal product then her wage is ‘just’ and deserved, because that is what she contributed to social output. The theory that the distribution of income and wages reflects the marginal contribution of different individuals to output is the theoretical foundation in economics for what is known as ‘just deserts’, and has been used to justify growing social inequality. ...

In a new paper, MacArthur award winner and Professor Emerita Nancy Folbre systematically and thoroughly dismantles the notion of just deserts. She argues that, for a wide range of reasons — including the fact that markets that are not competitive, a lack of appropriate governance, opportunistic manipulation of markets by powerful groups, collective action and similar real world factors — there can be a very large gap between contribution to social output and wage outcomes.

[Here's an interview:]

Duane Buck: supreme court poised to side with inmate in 'racially tainted' case

The supreme court is strongly indicating it will side with a black Texas prison inmate who argues improper testimony about his race tainted his death sentence.

Conservative and liberal justices alike agreed Wednesday that inmate Duane Buck is entitled to a new court hearing.

The only issue in arguments at the high court appeared to be whether to throw out Buck’s sentence altogether and order a new punishment hearing. The court also could merely instruct lower courts to decide whether the death sentence can stand.

Buck has been trying for years to get federal courts to look at his claim that his rights were violated when jurors were told by a defense expert witness that Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. ...

“What occurred at the penalty phase is indefensible,” Justice Samuel Alito said in a comment that was widely shared by the six other justices who asked questions Wednesday. Justice Clarence Thomas asked no questions, as is his custom.

"America Divided": New TV Series Explores Inequality from Water to Housing to Mass Incarceration

Hurricane Matthew forces Haiti to postpone crucial elections — for a fourth time

Haiti was already facing a momentous weekend by any standard, before the Caribbean's worst hurricane in a decade made landfall on the battered island nation. After a year of violent protests, allegations of voter fraud, and three postponed presidential elections, Haiti had hoped to restore confidence in its electoral process at the ballot box this Sunday.

Sadly, mother nature intervened. On Wednesday the impoverished Caribbean nation postponed a planned election for president — for the fourth time. ...

Haiti's decision to postpone the election follows a trail of electoral misfires and controversies. In the last round of elections in October 2015 a handful of front-runners decried the initial results as fraudulent, and eventually forced a new round of elections. The interim Haitian president and the head of the country's legislative body tried repeatedly to set a new date for the elections, but subsequent efforts have been cancelled, rescheduled, or postponed. As a result, the impoverished country, still struggling to rebuild from a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000, has been without an elected president since Michel Martelly's term expired in February, after the country failed to elect his predecessor a month earlier.

The escalating political tension, which has turned violent in the weeks leading up to Sunday's long-awaited and now postponed vote, has put Haiti in the tenuous position of trying to steady its fragile democracy and cope with yet another natural disaster.

Some of Clinton's pledges sound great. Until you remember who's president

The Democrats promise to take on a system rigged against middle America. So why the hell has Barack Obama done almost nothing about that for eight years?

The puzzle that is currently frustrating the pundit minds of America is this: why is Hillary Clinton not simply clobbering Donald Trump? How is this ranting, seething buffoon still competitive with her? Trump has now stumbled through a series of the kind of blunders that break ordinary political campaigns – the sort of deadly hypocrisies that always kill the demagogue in old movies – and yet this particular demagogue keeps on trucking. Why?

Let us answer that burning pundit question of today by jumping to what will undoubtedly be the next great object of pundit ardor: the legacy of President Barack Obama. Two months from now, when all the TV wise men are playing historian and giving their estimation on where Obama ranks in the pantheon of the greats, they will probably neglect to mention that his legacy helped to determine Hillary’s fortunes in this election cycle. As a beloved figure among Democrats, for example, Obama was instrumental in securing the nomination for her. As a president who has accomplished little since 2011, however, Obama has pretty much undermined Clinton’s ability to sell us on another centrist Democratic presidency. His legacy has diluted her promise. ...

The immediate problem for Democrats this year is simple, really: it is hard to criticize power when your own leader is the most powerful person in the land.

The larger problem facing them is the terminal irrelevance of their great, overarching campaign theme. Remember the “man from Hope”? “Hope is on the way”? “Keep hope alive”? Well, this year “hope” is most assuredly dead. Thanks to Obama’s flagrant hope-dealing in the dark days of 2008 – followed up by his failure to reverse the disintegration of the middle class – this favorite Democratic cliché has finally become just that: an empty phrase. Today as the Democrats go into battle against Trump, they find that their rallying cry has lost its magic. Hillary is discovering how difficult it is to win an election without hope.

Debate Wrap-Up: Tim Kaine and Mike Pence Agreed on Some Terrifying Policies

Tim Kaine and Mike Pence quarreled and quibbled over a number of issues Tuesday night, the central one being the condition of Donald Trump’s soul, but the biggest takeaway of the debate may be the things the two men agreed about — all of which are scary.

They agreed that Russia is evil and terrifying and must be aggressively countered. They agreed that the U.S. should militarily intervene in Syria. They agreed that the national debt is frightening. They agreed that community policing, a euphemism for doing nothing, is going to make everything better again. And they agreed to talk over the female moderator, Elaine Quijano.

Gary Johnson's own VP pick pretty much just endorsed Hillary Clinton

The market hasn't been kind to Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson lately. Recent questions from the media like "name a foreign leader you admire" have stumped him, and despite an outsize appetite for third-party candidates this year, he polls at only about 8 percent.

Now, even his running mate, Bill Weld, has abandoned hopes of winning anything beyond, maybe, Johnson's home state of New Mexico. Indeed, rather than winning a trophy for the Libertarians, Weld is now on the same mission as Hillary Clinton, and that's stopping Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump, not "the third-choice" Libertarian Party, is the main focus for Weld now. "I think Mr. Trump's proposals in the foreign policy area, including nuclear proliferation, tariffs, and free trade, would be so hurtful, domestically and in the world, that he has my full attention."

Looming megadroughts in western US would make current drought look minor

Warming temperatures and uncertain rainfall mean if more isn’t done to slow climate change, droughts lasting 35 years could blight western states, study says

The harsh drought currently gripping California may appear trivial in the future as new research shows that the south-west US faces the looming threat of “megadroughts” that last for decades.

California is in its sixth year of drought, which was barely dented by rains brought by the El Niño climate event and sparked a range of water restrictions in the state. But warming temperatures and uncertain rainfall mean that if more isn’t done to slow climate change, droughts lasting 35 years are likely to blight western states by the end of the century, according to the study, published in Science Advances.

Such a megadrought would impose “unprecedented stress on the limited water resources” of the parched US south-west, researchers found, bringing conditions similar to the 1930s dustbowl to California, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah – but over a lengthier period.

Using a combination of temperature and precipitation models, the study predicts a 70% chance of a megadrought by the end of the century, should rainfall levels remain the same, with a 90% chance of an elongated drought should rainfall decrease, as most climate models forecast. ...

The new report does proffer a crumb of hope – if greenhouse gas emissions are radically cut then the risk of megadrought will reduce by half, giving a roughly 50:50 chance that a multi-decade stretch of below-average rainfall would occur this century.

But the research found that the emissions cuts would have to be far steeper than those agreed to by nations in Paris last year, where a 2C limit on warming was pledged.

Amid Media Blackout over Climate Change Links to Hurricane Matthew, Top Scientist Speaks Out

Methane Emissions From Fossil Fuel Industry May Be 60 Percent Higher Than Estimates: Study

As President Barack Obama heralds the ratification of the Paris climate agreement, a new study shows that methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry are far higher than previously estimated.

According to the research published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, they may be as much as 60 percent greater.

"Our study shows that leaks from oil and gas activities around the world are responsible for a lot more methane than we thought," said co-author Lori Bruhwiler, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research scientist, in a press statement.

Out of the 623 million tons of methane—which comes in second after CO2 for greenhouse gas potency—emitted by all sources annually, fossil fuels are responsible for 132 million to 165 million tons, or roughly 20-25 percent, the team lead by NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) scientists found.

The study's abstract states: "Our findings imply a greater potential for the fossil fuel industry to mitigate anthropogenic climate forcing, but we also find that methane emissions from natural gas as a fraction of production have declined from approximately 8 percent to approximately 2 percent over the past three decades."

On the former point, Bruhwiler says that fixing leaks can help slash the emissions in the short term.

The latter finding, the researchers say, indicates that fossil fuel extraction is not behind the global uptick in methane emissions. But then, what is?

"We believe methane produced by microbial sources—cows, agriculture, landfills, wetlands, and fresh waters—are responsible for the increase, but we cannot yet pinpoint which are the primary drivers," lead author Stefan Schwietzke, a scientist with CIRES at the University of Colorado Boulder, said. "If the methane is mainly coming from cows or ag[riculture], then we could potentially do something about it. If it's coming from decaying vegetation in wetlands or fresh waters, then a warming climate could be the culprit, which means that it could be part of a self-reinforcing feedback loop leading to more climate change. Those are big ifs, and we need to figure them out."

Flint warnings as Atlantic City may be forced into state takeover of water

Atlantic City may be forced by New Jersey into an unprecedented state takeover of its water as the result of a bailout, something experts have warned has worrying echoes of the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and could result in price hikes. ...

Casino closures over the past five years opened a cavern in Atlantic City’s budget, as property values plummeted and tax revenues plunged. However, Governor Chris Christie – now also chair of Trump’s White House transition team – refused earlier this year to allow Atlantic City to formally go bankrupt to shed or restructure debt.

Instead, a harsh $73m bailout loan was signed by the city and state, which required Atlantic City to dissolve its independent water utility and hold the infrastructure as collateral for the bailout loan. Christie, a water privatization proponent, has said he would “sell” the city’s assets if Atlantic City failed to meet its loan obligations, a promise that could result in a private company owning or leasing the city’s infrastructure.

“The relationship to Flint is very compelling,” Mary Grant, a water privatization expert at Food & Water Watch, said. “An emergency manager came in and made decisions about the water system against the wishes of the local elected officials, and that resulted in the Flint water crisis, because they put money before health and human lives.”

Also of Interest

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

How the White Helmets Became International Heroes While Pushing U.S. Military Intervention and Regime Change in Syria

In the Chicago Police Department, If the Bosses Say It Didn’t Happen, It Didn’t Happen

State Department hands over 200 pages of Clinton Foundation emails

Lies, fearmongering and fables: that’s our democracy

The 11 most endangered historic places in America

Kiss the sky: psychedelic posters of the 60s and 70s

A Little Night Music

Billy (The Kid) Emerson - Move Baby Move

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - If Lovin' Is Believing

Billy The Kid Emerson - Do The Chicken/Don't Be Careless

Billy 'The Kid' Emerson - Dancin' Whippersnapper

Billy (The Kid) Emerson - I never get enough

Billy 'the Kid' Emerson - When it rains, it really pours

Billy (The Kid) Emerson - The Woodchuck