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This evening's music features soul and blues singer Little Johnny Taylor. Enjoy!

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shore, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. Our children are still taught to respect the violence which reduced a red-skinned people of an earlier culture into a few fragmented groups herded into impoverished reservations.”

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

News and Opinion

Pipeline protester injured - may lose arm after clashes at Standing Rock

A 21-year-old New York woman is fighting to save her arm after she was severely injured by explosives during clashes with police at Standing Rock in North Dakota on Monday.

Sophia Wilansky claims her arm was “devastatingly injured” when a concussion grenade fired by the police exploded, but the Morton County sheriff’s department has denied responsibility, instead suggesting a propane bottle rigged by the protesters themselves might be to blame.

Wilansky was injured at around 4 a.m. Monday morning as police used water cannons, teargas and rubber bullets to break up protests at the Blackwater Bridge, just north of the Standing Rock encampments where protesters have been seeking to block the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“Friends, please know that I was severely, devastatingly injured by the pipeline pigs last night,” Wilansky wrote on her Facebook page before she was airlifted to the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, 400 miles away.

"Instantaneous Blast CS" grenade, manufactured by Defense Technology, fired at #NoDAPL water protectors on Highway 1806 last night pic.twitter.com/b34PsASz8b

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) November 22, 2016

There she underwent eight hours of emergency surgery to save her arm. Wilansky’s father told the Guardian that his daughter had been hit by a concussion grenade fired by a police officer which had damaged the arteries, medial nerve, muscle and bone in her left arm had been blown away. “The best-case scenario is no pain and 10-20 percent functionality,” he said.

‘Nothing to See Here’ Headlines Conceal Police Violence at Dakota Access

The New York Times (11/21/16) gets a failing grade for its headline over a report on escalating police violence against Native American activists and others defending the Missouri River against the Dakota AccessPipeline:

16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

Sorry, New York Times–when more than 470 people have been arrested opposing the pipeline since August, that’s not the news. Nor did the print edition headline—“16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest as Tensions Continue”—add anything.

No, the news in the story came in the second paragraph, where reporter Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote that “officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather.”

NPR’s website (11/21/16) likewise reported the story of police violence leading to widespread injuries under an innocuous headline: “Police, Protesters Clash Near Dakota Access Pipeline Route,” as did ABC News (11/21/16) with its “Hundreds of Dakota Access Protesters Clash With Police.” This “clash” framing—also utilized in headlines on CBS (11/20/16) and CNN (11/20/16)—implies a parity between police in military vehicles, employing water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber-coated bullets and concussion grenades (one of which may have cost an activist her arm), on the one hand, and basically unarmed civilians on the other. (Police say one officer was hit in the head by a thrown rock.)

One almost gets the sense that editors writing headlines like these have enlisted themselves on the sheriff’s team, waving spectators away with a “nothing to see here, folks.”

Exclusive Video: #noDAPL Protestors Share Experiences of Police Repression

The Dakota Pipeline is moving forward, even after a night of violence

The company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline continued to move drilling equipment into place near the Missouri River Monday, the day after police used water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in freezing temperatures.

For the last week, the company has been preparing to drill under Lake Oahe, a reservoir behind a dam on the Missouri River, though it doesn’t yet have an easement it needs from the Army Corps of Engineers to begin. “All activity is taking place on private land for which we have all the necessary permits and approvals,” Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Vicki Granado told VICE News.

The government agency has jurisdiction over Lake Oahe and a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers said the pipeline company can drill for 200 feet before hitting federal land. If it goes any further, the government will take enforcement action. ...

Amnesty International announced Monday it had sent another delegation of human rights observers to monitor the protest — the fourth time since August they had done so. In a letter to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, the group called Sunday night’s reports “alarming.”

What I find kind of shocking about this article, is that the writer can go on and on speculating about a Trump administration's likelihood of using tactics like we have seen in use at Standing Rock - with nary a mention of the fact that the Obama administration has been quite active in arming and deploying jack-booted thugs to suppress dissent from the Occupy movement to Standing Rock.

How is it that these liberal press assholes can't seem to see that the fascism they fear is here already and being carried out by a dapper Democrat who has built the armory of fascism for the dastardly Donald to pick up and carry on with Obama's tactics?

The Standing Rock protests are a taste of things to come

Horrific scenes have been coming out of North Dakota these last several days, where the battle is ongoing to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. ... For those with a passing knowledge of the kind of tactics faced by America’s civil rights movement, [the events at Standing Rock] might sound like blast from our more brutal past. As Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House, it should also sound like our possible future. ...

As with Trump’s fledgling regime, the notion that certain lives don’t matter is also at the core of the Dakota Access pipeline. At one point slated to run just north of Bismarck, Energy Transfer Partners rerouted the project away from the overwhelmingly white city due to concerns about the threat it might pose to water supplies there. Of course we can’t know exactly what ETP’s motivations were in this case, but other fossil fuel companies have a long history of treating indigenous and poor communities – overwhelming black and brown neighborhoods – as sacrificial zones, where they can hide their toxic externalities and keep profits flowing in at full speed. ...

While he ran a populist candidacy, Trump is building a cabinet for the 1%. If his history of dealing with protests is any indication, he’ll protect their interests – his interests – by force. At campaign events, when interrupted by protesters, Trump reminisced about the “good old days”, when “this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough”. Come January, he’ll be commander-in-chief, potentially with a man who called Black Lives Matter an “enemy within our borders” by his side as secretary of homeland security. With the national guard already in Standing Rock, what comes next – in North Dakota and elsewhere – could be far more brutal than what water protectors have faced.

US Airstrikes Kill at Least 10 Civilians Near ISIS Capital of Raqqa

In an embarrassing bit of timing, as US officials were railing against the Syrian military for targeting civilians at the UN, US warplanes were attacking a cotton mill in northeastern Syria, an attack which killed at least 10 civilians.

It is unclear why the cotton mill, in the village of Salhiyeh, was targeted in the first place, but it is north of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, which Kurdish YPG forces are in the process of surrounding.

This is the latest in a growing number of incidents in which US airstrikes supporting Kurdish offensives in Syria have killed innocent civilians. Despite these being well documented, official Pentagon figures dramatically under-report the actual death toll of US strikes.

US Vows Syrian Generals Will Face Trial

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power today singled out a list of 12 Syrian military leaders, including ten generals and two colonels, who she said were responsible for leading attacks on civilians during the Syrian Civil War, and will “one day face justice.”

Power insisted the US are “documented their abuses” and that the military figures will one day be held accountable. ...

Syria isn’t a member of the International Criminal Court, which seems to limit the possibility of any international legal moves against their military. The US of course is familiar with this, as the US State Department has similarly argued US military personnel are immune to ICC prosecution as a non-member nation.

Erdogan ‘Disillusioned’ With US Over Kurds

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told CBS News that he is “disillusioned” with US-Turkey relations, and in particular with his relationship with the Obama Administration, complaining about Obama’s handling of the Syrian War as well as Turkey’s extradition request for Fethullah Gulen after the failed coup d’etat.

Erdogan has appeared more hopeful about President-elect Donald Trump, and indeed Trump’s new National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has called for Gulen’s extradition, though Trump’s desire to focus on fighting against ISIS in Syria probably doesn’t portend a major shift away from airstrikes backing Kurdish offensives.

Putin Responds to NATO Expansion With More Missiles

In an interview to be broadcast on state media, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concern about NATO expansion along the Russian frontier, as well as military buildups in Eastern Europe, insisting it was obliging Russia to take “countermeasures,” adding that he is “concerned by NATO’s decision making.”

The chairman of Russia’s Defense Committee Viktor Ozerov elaborated further in his own comments, saying that Russia is deploying S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems and nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to the Kaliningrad exclave. ...

Despite Russia doing exactly what they said they’d do in response to the US doing what they did, US State Department officials appeared shocked by the Russian move, insisting it was destabilizing to the security of all of Europe, and inconsistent with stability.

Colombia's new peace deal with Farc rebels rejected by opposition

The Colombian opposition has rejected the latest version of a peace agreement between Farc guerrillas and the country’s government, following a six-hour meeting with government delegates.

Rightwing senator and opposition leader Álvaro Uribe met Monday with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos to review the revised accord. ...

“We insisted on the introduction of amendments to the agreement prepared by the government and the Farc, and the government opposed these changes on substantial subjects,” Uribe told journalists. ...

According to the government, the new accord includes amendments pertaining to 56 of the 57 points raised by the opposition.

Is presidential hopeful François Fillon the French Thatcher?

Netanyahu forbids Israeli ministers from contacting Trump's team

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forbade all ministers and deputy ministers from making direct contact with members in U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's team. A written directive was distributed to all cabinet members on the matter by Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman following talks between Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel with a number of Trump advisers. ...

Immediately after it became clear that Trump had won the election, Netanyahu ordered his ministers to refrain from talking about it. “I ask every minister and Knesset member to wait until the new administration takes office,” he said. “We need to formulate a policy together with the new administration via the customary back channels, not via statements to the media.”

Netanyahu made these comments in response to the gleeful reaction to Trump’s victory by several ministers, first and foremost the leaders of Habayit Hayehudi, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Bennett and Shaked said at the time that Trump’s victory was an opportunity to remove the two-state solution from the Israeli and international agenda.

At a briefing for diplomatic reporters last Wednesday, Defense Minister and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman said that after Trump won, his closest advisors had sent official messages to the Israeli government asking it to refrain from making statements about the day after Trump takes office. "I hope that we have enough sense to stop the jubilation and public enthusiasm," Lieberman said. "It is undoubtedly damaging."

Congress Shows How Not to Respond to Donald Trump’s Terrible Nominees

Donald Trump has nominated some of the worst of the worst to serve in his cabinet — a rogues gallery of apologists for torture, racial and religious discrimination, deportation, and all manner of abuses of civil and human rights.

But rather than present a vigorous and united front against these nominees and demand that Trump replace them, Democrats and Republicans who in the past have been sensitive to concerns about civil liberties are instead offering to give them a chance — or actually supporting them.

There has been one notable exception: the outcry from Democrats about Trump’s selection of Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as his chief strategist. Some 169 House Democrats signed a letter calling on Trump to fire Bannon, pointing to allegations of anti-Semitic remarks he made. They were also joined by 10 sitting senators and Maryland’s Democratic Senator-elect Chris Van Hollen.

Anti-Semitism, then, would appear to be a litmus test for congressional Democrats.

But not Islamophobia, or the advocacy of human rights abuses like torture.

[See article for details of the tame congressional reaction to Trump's cabinet of horrors. - js]

Trump spokesman declines to back FBI Director James Comey

A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump pointedly declined to back embattled FBI Director James B. Comey on Monday, saying Trump would meet with the nation’s top law enforcement officer “at some point.’’

“There hasn’t been any official statement with regard to Director Comey,’’ Trump spokesman Jason Miller said during the transition team’s daily briefing. Asked if Trump would seek the resignation of Comey, who played a controversial role in the presidential campaign’s final days, Miller said only: “I would imagine that at some point, the two will meet.” ...

Trump, who at times assailed the FBI and called Comey corrupt during the campaign, told “60 Minutes” after his election victory that he had not decided whether to ask Comey to step down. “I haven’t made up my mind. I respect him a lot. I respect the FBI a lot,’’ said Trump, adding that he wanted to meet with Comey before deciding.

Edward Snowden downplays Trump victory: he's 'just the president'

Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Monday downplayed the importance of President-elect Donald Trump and again defended his decision to leak documents showing widespread surveillance of US citizens’ communications.

“Donald Trump is just the president. It’s an important position. But it’s one of many,” Snowden told an internet conference in Stockholm, speaking via a video link from Russia, where he has been living as a fugitive. ...

Snowden also urged his audience not to become discouraged by the result of the US presidential election and to continue to call for governments as well as businesses to respect people’s private lives.

Trump Considering Gen. James "It's Fun to Shoot People" Mattis for Pentagon Chief

Following a slew of controversial appointments by the president-elect, Donald Trump said on Sunday he was considering Marine Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis for Pentagon chief under his administration.

The former U.S. Central Command leader met with the future commander-in-chief Saturday at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. ...

Mattis led the Marines during the notorious bombardment of Fallujah in Iraq. Speaking about fighting in Afghanistan, he told a panel discussion in San Diego in 2005, "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. . . . It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," he said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

NBC News adds that

referring to the rules to live by in Iraq, he told a group of soldiers a 2003 speech, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

And in 2013, he told USA Today, "Those who want to say girls don't go to school, sure I'm all for killing them, or stopping them, and if that means killing them, you do it."

Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn Says Islam Is “Like a Cancer”

On Thursday night, news broke that President-elect Donald Trump had offered the job of national security adviser to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Thomas Flynn, a career intelligence officer who previously served as head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. He retired from the military in 2014, and became one of Trump’s earliest boosters.

The national security adviser demands a calm strategist who can serve as an honest broker among different agencies. “I think he’ll be stretched a bit by this,” former NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden said, on Sunday. Flynn’s conspiratorial Twitter account reflect the weaknesses and insecurities of the man who chose him. “I don’t think every single Muslim in the world wants to kill the other seven billion people in the world,” he said, in another interview, when asked about his tweet that “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.” ...

In his 2016 book, The Field of Fight, Flynn characterized U.S. counter-terrorism efforts as “a world war against a messianic mass movement of evil people.” In a speech earlier this year, he called Islam “a cancer” and “a political ideology. It definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion.” On Sunday, Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, was asked to respond to Flynn’s remarks.

“Is he in line with how President-elect Trump views Islam?” asked Martha Raddatz, the interviewer.

“I think so,” Priebus replied. “Clearly there are some aspects of that faith that are problematic. And we know them. We’ve seen it.”

Trump himself has seldom distinguished between Islam and “radical Islam,” which he has called an “ideology of death that must be extinguished.” Those are dangerous words. Flynn’s appointment suggests that Trump intends to follow through on them.

Jeff Sessions accused of retaliation after claims of racism cost him a judgeship

Donald Trump’s nominee for US attorney general has been accused of bringing criminal prosecutions against a pair of black officials in Alabama as retaliation for their roles in derailing his nomination to be a judge.

The officials faced federal corruption charges in the southern district of Alabama, where Jeff Sessions was the top federal prosecutor, after their allegations of racism caused the US Senate to deny Sessions the judicial appointment in 1986.

“Sessions decided to go after me because he didn’t get the federal judgeship,” said Douglas Wicks, a former Mobile County commissioner. Wicks spent more than five years in prison after being convicted on charges that were brought by Sessions a few months after he was accused of calling Wicks a “nigger”.

Thomas Figures, a black senior prosecutor who served under Sessions in the US attorney’s office, was also later indicted on federal corruption charges. He had told senators that Sessions called him “boy” and instructed him to be careful what he said to white people.

Figures and his supporters claimed that he, too, was a victim of retaliation over the failed Sessions judgeship nomination. Sessions said at the time that he had recused himself from the case. Figures was eventually cleared by a jury of all charges.

“It was a shakedown,” Figures, who died last year, said while testifying at his trial. His late brother, Alabama state senator Michael Figures, said at the time: “The government set out to entrap my brother.”

Immigrants Fighting for Sanctuary Cities & Campuses to Protect Millions from Trump Deportation Push

Trump Attorney General Pick Jeff Sessions Said Immigrants in the U.S. Military Might Be Spies

Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, said in a 2014 radio interview that he does not think undocumented immigrants should serve in the military, and that immigrants in the military in general are more likely to be spies.

“I just think in terms of who’s going to be most likely to be a spy: somebody from Cullman, Alabama, or somebody from Kenya?” Sessions asked, appearing on the conservative Lars Larson show in April 2014. ...

Sessions was specifically taking issue with a bill that would have made certain undocumented immigrants eligible for military service and citizenship. The legislation failed, but the Pentagon later that year began allowing a very limited number of undocumented immigrants to serve anyhow.

The U.S. has a long record of immigrants serving in the military, and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act allows immigrants who served during in the U.S. military during periods of conflict to apply for naturalization. The U.S. has been in one of those periods since September 11, 2001. Still, some veterans who do not follow through with their service-earned naturalization end up being deported. ...

Sessions is at odds with Trump on the matter, who said at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief forum in September that he is not opposed to allowing undocumented veterans to legally stay in the U.S.: “I think that when you serve in the armed forces, that’s a special situation, and I could see myself working that out. Absolutely,” he said.

Gun rights group: US should appoint special 'second amendment' prosecutor

A small gun rights group wants Donald Trump to “make the second amendment great again” by appointing a special Department of Justice prosecutor to go after cities and states that violate gun owners’ rights.

Trump’s pick for attorney general is Jeff Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama with an A rating from the National Rifle Association who has taken hard line positions on immigration reform, drug laws, and reforming the criminal justice system. ...

Among the first potential targets of a special assistant attorney general for gun rights, the group suggested, would be strict gun permitting laws in New York, California, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington DC that require citizens to show a specific need for a gun before being granted a license to carry a firearm in public.

NY Post: 'Donald Trump’s media summit was a 'f—ing firing squad'

Media Stars Agree to Off-the-Record Meeting With Trump, Break Agreement, Whine About Mistreatment

A glittering array of media stars and network executives made pilgrimage on Monday to the 25th floor of Trump Tower to meet with the president-elect. They all agreed that the discussions would be “off the record”: meaning they would conceal from their viewers what they discussed. Shortly after the meeting ended, several of the stars violated the agreement they made, running to the New York Post and David Remnick of the New Yorker to whine about Trump’s mean behavior. “The participants all shook Trump’s hand at the start of the session and congratulated him,” Remnick reported, “but things went south from there.” ...

To begin with, why would journalistic organizations agree to keep their meeting with Donald Trump off the record? If you’re a journalist, what is the point of speaking with a powerful politician if you agree in advance that it’s all going to be kept secret? Do they not care what appearance this creates: the most powerful media organizations meeting high atop Trump Tower with the country’s most powerful political official, with everyone agreeing to keep it all a big secret from the public? Whether or not it actually is collusion, whether or not it actually is subservient ring-kissing in exchange for access, it certainly appears to be that. As the Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone put it: “By agreeing to such conditions, journalists expected to deliver the news to the public must withhold details of a newsworthy meeting with the president-elect.” ...

Trump, apparently, was very mean to them. His tone was unpleasant and uncivil — hostile even. He did not treat the august press corps with the respect and admiration to which they are entitled. At least two of them ran to David Remnick to whine about how mean and critical Trump was. ... The media was quite critical of Trump, and he hates them back. If they don’t want to be disliked by powerful politicians — if confronting hostility of this type traumatizes them this way and sends them running to David Remnick for therapy and comfort — then they should go find other work. Who cares if Trump is nice to Wolf Blitzer and Phil Griffin? ...

All presidents have the temptation and potential to abuse their power. That’s why the American founders were preoccupied with creating safeguards against that, and one of those was a free press. The homage these TV stars and executives were prepared to make inside Trump Tower, followed by their self-absorbed whimpering afterward, suggests that one should look elsewhere for the vital checks that an aggressive press must provide.

Trump won't try to “lock her up” after all

On Tuesday, a source close to the Trump camp told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that his new administration will not pursue further investigations into whether Clinton mishandled classified documents by passing them through her private email server or allegations against the Clinton Foundation. Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway confirmed that much during an interview later on the show. ...

The news comes just over a week after Trump said he was “going to think about” pursuing an investigation during an interview with “60 Minutes.”

“I don’t wanna hurt them. They’re good people,” Trump told 60 Minutes’ interviewer Lesley Stahl, referring to the Clintons.

MSNBC’s source said Trump apparently felt the Clintons had “been through enough.”

Keiser Report: Trumpocalypse

Trump to withdraw from Trans-Pacific Partnership on first day in office

Donald Trump has issued a video outlining his policy plans for his first 100 days in office and vowing to issue a note of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership “from day one”.

In the brief clip posted to YouTube on Monday, the president-elect said that “our transition team is working very smoothly, efficiently, and effectively”, contradicting a wealth of media reports telling of chaos in Trump Tower as Trump struggles to build a team.

He said that he was going to issue a note of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, calling it “a potential disaster for our country”. Instead he said he would “negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back”.

Hours before Trump’s announcement, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, warned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be “meaningless” without US participation.

Speaking to reporters in Buenos Aires on Monday, Abe conceded that other TPP countries had not discussed how to rescue the agreement if Trump carried out his promise to withdraw.

Wisconsin rules GOP gerrymandering violates Democrats' rights

District judges have struck a blow against the practice of gerrymandering – the deliberate manipulation of voting boundaries to favour one party over another – in a ruling that could reverberate across the US.

A court in Wisconsin said on Monday that state assembly voting districts drawn up by Republicans five years ago are unconstitutional and violate the rights of Democrats.

The ruling has no bearing on the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump scored a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, taking its 10 electoral college votes, but could lead to a precedent that will affect future races for the US House of Representatives.

“I feel enormous excitement about what this potentially might mean for American democracy,” said Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a professor at the University of Chicago law school, who argued the case in court. “One of the worst aspects of our democracy has been the presence of partisan gerrymandering.”

This is the first time in 30 years that a court has taken a stand against it, Stephanopoulos added. “If the supreme court upholds this decision, there could be very positive and dramatic consequences in states all over the country where gerrymandering has happened.”

Fight for 15 plans 'most disruptive' wage protest and strike after Thanksgiving

Tens of thousands of low-wage workers will protest at 20 different airports including Chicago’s O’Hare international airport and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty on 29 November, according to organizers from the group Fight for 15.

In addition to the strike at airports, fast-food workers, home care and childcare workers also plan to protest as part of the Fight for $15 movement calling for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights.

Terrence Wise, a McDonald’s worker from Kansas City, Missouri, said Donald Trump’s election had reaffirmed the group’s determination to push for change. “We reject sexism and racism and we will not allow our friends and family members to be deported,” Wise said. “This will not happen.”

“On November 29 we will wage our most disruptive strike and protest ever,” Wise said.

But organizing director Kendall Fells said the group’s message was not specifically directed at President-elect Trump. “Republicans in Congress, the GOP state legislatures, McDonald’s, airlines, they’re who our message is directed to. It’s not for any one particular person.”

Sweeping New Rutgers Report Reveals University's Ties to Slavery & Displacement of Native Americans

State says literacy not a right in Detroit

Attorneys for Gov. Rick Snyder and state education officials say no fundamental right to literacy exists for Detroit schoolchildren who are suing the state over the quality of their education.

The lawyers are asking a federal judge to reject what they call an “attempt to destroy the American tradition of democratic control of schools.”

Timothy J. Haynes, an assistant attorney general, made those statements in a 62-page motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Snyder and state education leaders in September by seven Detroit children who allege decades of state disinvestment and deliberate indifference to the city schools have denied them access to literacy. ...

Haynes says claims laid out by plaintiffs — including deplorable building conditions, lack of books, classrooms without teachers, insufficient desks, buildings plagued by vermin, unsafe facilities and extreme temperatures — go far beyond mere access to education.

“(They) ask this court to serve as a ‘super’ Legislature tasked with determining and dictating educational policy in every school district and school building throughout the United States where an illiterate child may be found,” the response says.

“Such a path would effectively supersede democratic control by voters and the judgment of parents, allowing state and federal courts to peer over the shoulders of teachers and administrators and substitute court judgment for the professional judgment of educators.”

The Detroit schoolchildren, represented by a California public interest law firm, sued state officials Sept. 13 in what legal observers say is an unprecedented attempt to establish that literacy is a U.S. constitutional right.

'Extraordinarily hot' Arctic temperatures alarm scientists

The Arctic is experiencing extraordinarily hot sea surface and air temperatures, which are stopping ice forming and could lead to record lows of sea ice at the north pole next year, according to scientists.

Danish and US researchers monitoring satellites and Arctic weather stations are surprised and alarmed by air temperatures peaking at what they say is an unheard-of 20C higher than normal for the time of year. In addition, sea temperatures averaging nearly 4C higher than usual in October and November.

“It’s been about 20C warmer than normal over most of the Arctic Ocean, along with cold anomalies of about the same magnitude over north-central Asia. This is unprecedented for November,” said research professor Jennifer Francis of Rutgers university.

Temperatures have been only a few degrees above freezing when -25C should be expected, according to Francis. “These temperatures are literally off the charts for where they should be at this time of year. It is pretty shocking. The Arctic has been breaking records all year. It is exciting but also scary,” she said. ...

Francis said she was convinced that the cause of the high temperatures and ice loss was climate change. “It’s all expected. There is nothing but climate change that can cause these trends. This is all headed in the same direction and picking up speed.”

Fukushima: tsunami waves hit after 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Japan

Japan has lifted all tsunami warnings issued after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit off the country’s east coast, as the risk of major damage appeared to pass.

The quake, which struck east of Fukushima prefecture at about 6am on Tuesday, prompted urgent warnings for people to leave low-lying areas in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures as a series of tsunami waves hit the shore.

The warnings allowed for the possibility of waves of up to 3m (10 feet) along the country’s north-east Pacific coast, but the highest recorded wave, of 1.4m (4.6 feet), was observed at Sendai port shortly after 8am. ...

There were no reports of severe injuries from the quake, which struck at a depth of 30 km (18.6 miles), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

In a statement, the agency said the earthquake was thought to be an aftershock of the 9.0-magnitude event that devastated the same region in 2011. The region was also hit by a series of weaker quakes throughout Tuesday.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company said it had restored a cooling system at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant that briefly stopped after the quake, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Also of Interest

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

A Tradition of Forgetting Indian Rights

Medics Describe How Police Sprayed Standing Rock Demonstrators With Tear Gas and Water Cannons

The Koch Brothers’ Favorite Congressman Will Be in Charge of the CIA

Draining the Swamp at State

Trump’s Lack of Transparency Again Exposed by the Routine Openness of a Foreign Leader

Trump’s Tulsi Gabbard Factor

Nominating Mnuchin for Treasury Will Dredge Up Mortgage Meltdown Controversies

What Trump Could Do With Executive Power

Rep. Grayson: Stay out of Mosul

Historian finds German decree banishing Trump's grandfather

A Little Night Music

Little Johnny Taylor - Part Time Love

Little Johnny Taylor - Zig Zag Lightning

Little Johnny Taylor - Somewhere Down The Line

Little Johnny Taylor - A Thousand Miles Away

Little Johnny Taylor - Looking at the Future

Little Johnny Taylor - Little Bluebird

Little Johnny Taylor - You'll Need Another Favor

Little Johnny Taylor - True love

Little Johnny Taylor - Everybody Knows About My Good Thing, Pt. 1 & 2

Little Johnny Taylor - Driving Wheel