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"When the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him."

-- Chief Red Cloud

News and Opinion

Standing Rock Demonstrators File Class-Action Lawsuit Over Police Violence

Pipeline demonstrators injured by rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, and water cannons during a wintry nighttime standoff with police last week filed a class-action lawsuit Monday against the sheriff of the North Dakota county involved. The suit describes in new detail the evening of November 20, when more than 200 people protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline were injured by “less-than-lethal” weapons.

The lawsuit alleges that sheriff’s deputies and police officers used excessive force when they deployed impact munitions, like rubber bullets, as well as explosive tear gas grenades and water cannons against protesters. It argues that the tactics were retaliatory, punishing those involved for exercising free speech rights. It also argues that officers were inadequately trained to handle the situation, naming Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler, and Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Keiser as defendants.

Plaintiffs, represented by the National Lawyers Guild’s Water Protectors Legal Collective, requested a restraining order and preliminary injunction that would bar officers from using such weapons against people protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. The suit awaits a decision from a federal judge on whether to approve class-action status.

[For reporting on the injuries sustained by water protectors, see the article at link. - js]

Standing Rock is the civil rights issue of our time – let's act accordingly

If Trump Tower represents all that’s dark and greedy in America right now, Standing Rock is by contrast the moral center of the nation.

But the peaceful protests have been met with repression that closely resembles the work of Bull Connor, as the pipeline company’s hired guards began by using dogs, and the local sheriff escalated from pepper spray to using water guns in freezing weather, “sonic cannons” and rubber bullets.

Clearly the authorities are attempting, a la Birmingham or Selma, to goad nonviolent protesters into some kind of reaction that will justify more repression. They’ve used every trick in the book, including arresting reporters and shutting down camera drones to make sure they’re operating in the dark.

So far the Native Americans and their allies have held back despite the most intense provocation – for instance, the pipeline company bulldozed sacred sites and ancient graves the day after the tribe handed a list of their locations to a federal court. Now the Army Corps of Engineers has announced that they’re revoking the permit under which everyone is camped at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers as of 5 December.

So far the Obama administration has announced at least a short delay before granting the final pipeline permits. ...

Yes, Donald Trump will likely overturn the delay. But Trump’s not president yet; this tragedy is playing out in the Obama years.

Bernie Sanders on the Dakota Access Pipeline & Treaty Rights Violations by U.S. Government

North Dakota governor issues executive order to clear out Standing Rock protest camp

North Dakota’s governor ordered the immediate evacuation Sunday evening of the main Standing Rock encampment following a heavy snowstorm that blew across the state — but it’s not yet clear whether the order will have any effect beyond limiting the government’s liability.

The thousands of people who joined the camp in the last month must leave land controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers and not return, according to Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s executive order. He directed emergency services to stop guaranteeing they would access the area if needed. ...

The order stated that winter conditions could endanger those without “proper shelter, dwellings, or sanitation for prolonged periods of time,” and that the dwellings used by protestors, who call themselves water protectors, were not approved by Morton County officials to be suitable for the current weather conditions. ...

The executive order doesn’t say whether police will move in on the camp.

Standing Rock: violence and evacuation orders raise spectre of showdown

Police violence against Standing Rock protesters in North Dakota has risen to extraordinary levels, and activists and observers fear that, with two evacuation orders looming, the worst is yet to come.

A litany of munitions, including water cannons, combined with ambiguous government leadership and misleading police statements, have resulted in mass arrests, serious injuries and a deeply sown atmosphere of fear and distrust on the banks of the Missouri river.

Statements by the US Army Corps of Engineers and North Dakota state government that, despite their orders of evacuation, there are no plans to forcibly remove protesters opposing the Dakota Access pipeline have done little to assuage fears.

As the first snows have fallen and more protesters arrive in support, apprehension at the encampments about the coming days is running high.

“We’re going to hope for the absolute best,” said Linda Black Elk, a member of the Catawba Nation who works with the Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council. “If they do attempt to remove people forcibly, we are certainly preparing for mass casualties.”

Father of Activist Injured at Standing Rock Calls on Obama to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline Drilling

Attempted murder charges against a Standing Rock protestor were dropped to make way for federal charges

Attempted murder charges were dropped in a North Dakota courtroom Monday against a Standing Rock protester accused of firing a gun at police — but the protester now faces federal charges that could land her in prison for up to 10 years.

Morton County dropped its attempted murder charges against Red Fawn Fallis to clear the way for federal prosecutors to pursue the charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The 37-year-old Fallis, who is from the Pine Ridge Indian Reserve in South Dakota, was arrested on Oct. 27 during a 400-person rally taking place near construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. ... In all, 147 protesters, including Fallis, were arrested that day.

According to police affidavits filed in connection to the attempted murder charges, Pennington County Deputy Thad Schmit spotted Fallis “being an instigator and acting disorderly” so he “took [her] to the ground.”

Police allege she resisted arrest by tucking her arms under her body, and in the struggle that ensued, they heard two gunshots ring out, and saw the ground near one officer’s left knee “explode.” Officers say they grabbed a gun from her left hand and handcuffed her.

She did not have the gun in her hand when police took her down, the affidavit states. But they believe she was able to get the gun when the officer let go of her left arm.

On the way to jail, Fallis “made the statement that she was trying to pull the gun out of her pocket and the deputies jumped her and the gun went off.” ... None of the officers said they saw her pull the trigger. One officer said in his affidavit that two shots were fired, while another said that three shots were.

Tyranny at Standing Rock

What we’re witnessing at Standing Rock, where activists have gathered to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline construction on Native American land, is just the latest incarnation of the government’s battle plan for stamping out any sparks of resistance and keeping the populace under control: battlefield tactics, military weaponry and a complete suspension of the Constitution.

Militarized police. Riot and camouflage gear. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Drones. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Concussion grenades. Arrests of journalists. Intimidation tactics. Brute force.

This is what martial law looks like, when a government disregards constitutional freedoms and imposes its will through military force. ...

Had 318 million Americans taken to the streets to protest the government’s SWAT team raids that left innocent children like Aiyana Jones or Baby Bou Bou dead or scarred, there would be no 80,000 SWAT team raids a year.

Had 318 million Americans raised their voices against police shootings of unarmed citizens such as Alton Sterling and Walter Scott, there would be far less use of excessive force by the police. ...

Had 318 million Americans told the government to stop drilling through sacred Native American lands, stop spraying protesters with water cannons in below-freezing temperatures, stop using its military might to intimidate and shut down First Amendment activity, and to stop allowing Corporate America to dictate how the battle lines are drawn, there would be no Standing Rock.

Unfortunately, 318 million Americans have yet to agree on anything, especially the source of their oppression.

This is how tyrants come to power and stay in power.

Lawsuit Advances Against CIA Torture Contractors

The International Criminal Court’s investigation into myriad US torture programs the world over has rested on the fact that the US government is not doing anything to punish any of those involved in the crimes. One civil lawsuit is continuing to slowly advance, however.

Dr. James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, a pair of contracted psychologists, were hired by the Bush Administration to design and run the entire torture program. ... Their defense is built around the idea that they acted “with government permission” in committing these crimes, and seems to rest heavily on their ability to get the current government’s support in suppressing classified evidence of all the sordid details.

While President Obama spent the last eight years admitting “we tortured some folks” and shirking responsibility for it, experts are saying is likely to rest on President-elect Donald Trump whether to claim “state secrets” to block this particular civil case from going any further.

Taliban ​facing financial crisis as civilian deaths deter donors

The Afghan Taliban are facing a cash crisis with donors unwilling to bankroll an insurgency whose victims are increasingly civilians rather than foreign troops, according to several members of the movement.

Mullah Rahmatullah Kakazada, a senior diplomat under the Taliban regime, told the Guardian that the Taliban was in an increasingly precarious financial position despite chalking up several dramatic battlefield successes in the last year.

“The war is becoming unpopular because of all the bad publicity on civilian casualties,” he said. “These people who give money don’t want to spend it on mines that kill children.”

The Taliban have long collected donations from sympathisers around the region, including wealthy Afghan and Arab businessmen in the Gulf. ...

Kakazada said the departure of most foreign combat troops since 2014, and the outbreak of bloody infighting between rival Taliban groups, had weakened the legitimacy of a war the Taliban still portray as a struggle against “foreign occupation”.

Key Sunni Figure Warns Iraq Could Split if Shi’ite Militias Enter Mosul

Fresh off of yesterday’s hugely controversial vote in Iraq’s parliament, which resulted in the nation’s Shi’ite militias being formally legalized as a government institution and promised military wages for all their fighters, key Sunni figure Khamis Khanjar is warning against the militias’ calls to increase involvement in the Mosul invasion, warning Iraq could split over the issue.

As with the previous invasion in Fallujah, Iraq has promised the militias will remain outside the city in a support role. This promise lasted less than 24 hours after the fall of Fallujah, and with troops bogged down in Mosul, the militias are eager to get a deeper role in this major Sunni city as well.

The Shi’ite militias’ tendency to torture and kill Sunnis makes that a no-go, and while Khanjar is hoping his own 3,000-man Sunni militia can pick up the slack after the city’s capture, the force isn’t likely to be a game-changer during the offensive.

Rebels Abandon Northeastern Aleppo as Syrian Military Advances

A weekend of losses for the Nusra Front-led rebels in Syria’s Aleppo continued to mount on Monday, with the rebels announcing that they have abandoned nearly a third of their holdings in the city, materially the whole northeastern portion, in an attempt to try to get into a more defensible position.

Syrian airstrikes began a week ago, softening up the rebel positions after several weeks of Russian-imposed ceasefire. the advance on the ground began Friday, and the rebels are now describing their losses as the biggest defeat within the city of Aleppo since 2012.

Iranian Boat Aimed at US Helicopter, But Didn’t Shoot

The Pentagon has found a new excuse to be furious at Iran today, claiming they behaved in a “provocative” and “unprofessional” manner in an incident off the coast of Iran. A US MH-60 attack helicopter flying around just outside of Iranian waters reportedly had something pointed at them.

One of the small Iranian boats inside Iranian waters off the coast of Iran is claimed to have “pointed at” the helicopter with some sort of weapon. Some reports suggested it was a machine gun, but others say it couldn’t be confirmed. Either way, no shots were fired.

The Pentagon insisted that the people in the helicopter didn’t “feel threatened,” but they’re still furious at Iran, claiming that the not shooting that happened is an “escalation.” The helicopter ultimately flew back to the US aircraft carrier which is always parked off Iran’s coast in case the US decides to follow through on years of threats to attack the country.

Back on the outside for the first time in 4 years, Barrett enjoys an Egg McMuffin. #FreeBB pic.twitter.com/bLbX21ZcTJ

— Free Barrett Brown (@FreeBarrett_) November 29, 2016

Peter Thiel Insider Picked to Oversee Donald Trump’s Defense Department Transition

Trae Stephens, a principal at billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund, was appointed last week by Donald Trump to help lead the transition effort at the Defense Department.

Thiel, who made a $1,000,000 donation to a pro-Trump Super PAC, is Trump’s highest-profile supporter in Silicon Valley.

At Thiel’s Founder Fund, Stephens “focuses on startups operating in the government space,” according to his official biography. Before that, he worked at another Thiel-backed firm: Palantir, a highly controversial data analysis firm that is currently competing for Defense Department contracts.

“Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in intelligence and defense as well as international expansion,” says the biography.

Palantir gained notoriety in 2011 after the hacking collective LulzSec dumped thousands of hacked emails from HBGary Federal, a firm collaborating with Palantir to pitch clients, revealing plans to use Palantir’s data analysis tools on a project to spy on labor unions, journalists, and activist groups on behalf of business interests.

'Snooper's charter' bill becomes law, extending UK state surveillance

The “snooper’s charter” bill extending the reach of state surveillance in Britain was given royal assent and became law on Tuesday as signatures on a petition calling for it to be repealed passed the 130,000 mark.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, hailed the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 as “world-leading legislation” that provided “unprecedented transparency and substantial privacy protection”.

But privacy campaigners claimed that it would provide an international standard to authoritarian regimes around the world to justify their own intrusive surveillance powers.

The new surveillance law requires web and phone companies to store everyone’s web browsing histories for 12 months and give the police, security services and official agencies unprecedented access to the data.

It also provides the security services and police with new powers to hack into computers and phones and to collect communications data in bulk. The law requires judges to sign off police requests to view journalists’ call and web records, but the measure has been described as “a death sentence for investigative journalism” in the UK.

WikiLeaks releases more than half a million US diplomatic cables from the momentous year of 1979

Today, 28 November 2016, marking the six-year anniversary of "Cablegate", WikiLeaks expands its Public Library of US Diplomacy (PLUSD) with more than half a million (531,525) diplomatic cables from 1979.

If any year could be said to be the "year zero" of our modern era, 1979 is it.

In the Middle East, the Iranian revolution, the Saudi Islamic uprising and the Egypt-Israel Camp David Accords led not only to the present regional power dynamic but decisively changed the relationship between oil, militant Islam and the world.

The uprising at Mecca permanently shifted Saudi Arabia towards Wahhabism, leading to the transnational spread of Islamic fundamentalism and the US-Saudi destabilisation of Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden would leave his native Saudi Arabia for Pakistan to support the Afghan Mujahideen.

The invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR would see Saudi Arabia and the CIA push billions of dollars to Mujahideen fighters as part of Operation Cyclone, fomenting the rise of al-Qaeda and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

The 1979 current of Islamification spread to Pakistan where the US embassy was burned to the ground and Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed.

The Iranian hostage crisis would go on to fatally undermine Jimmy Carter's presidency and see the election of Ronald Reagan.

Saddam Hussein? Took power in 1979. ...

The Carter Cables III bring WikiLeaks' total published US diplomatic cable collection to 3.3 million documents.

Search the Carter Cables III here.

The party of Brexit has a new leader

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has elected Paul Nuttall as its new leader. Nuttall, a member of the party since 2004, is a strident opponent of political correctness, a climate change skeptic and believes abortions should not be carried out after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

After months of infighting and organisational chaos, the party is looking to move forward. Nuttall has already talked about how UKIP can “replace Labour” – picking up votes in mainly working class communities that feel let down by their traditional representatives.

This year UKIP got their long-held wish when the UK voted to leave the EU, with the party’s former leader and figurehead Nigel Farage proclaiming “Independence day” for the U.K.

But while UKIP may have won the war, they aren’t really sure how they are going to participate in the peace. ... Farage has been the figurehead for a movement that captured the imaginations of Trump supporters, the Five Star Movement in Italy and Marine Le Pen in France. The world is now his stage and this could be a problem for UKIP. Not only has Farage taken much of the attention with him, but his exit has exposed potentially fatal structural problems.

Argentina’s ‘Not One Less’ movement drives new policies to protect women from violence

The ascendant Argentinian women’s rights movement Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) published on Friday the country’s first index of violence against women after collecting survey responses from more than 59,000 people.

The data measure indicators like discrimination, stigmatization, and emotional and physical violence. According to the survey, 67 percent of women have experienced a physically violent situation with their partners, 79 percent have been touched inappropriately on public transportation, and 20 percent have been raped. ...

The group came into being after a series of brutal femicides made headlines in 2015. After an Argentine radio journalist tweeted “Aren’t we going to raise our voice? THEY ARE KILLING US,” female journalists, artists, and activists began to discuss what needed to be done.

They decided to organize a march in downtown Buenos Aires on June 3, 2015 using the name Ni Una Menos. About 300,000 people showed up, including prominent politicians and celebrities. Similar marches were held in cities all over Argentina and neighboring countries.

The following day, Argentina Supreme Court Justice Elena Highton announced that her office would begin to gather and publish national femicide statistics. The subsequent data show there were 225 femicides in 2014 and 235 in 2015.

Keiser Report: Attractive Debts

Fight for $15 Plans National Strikes as Uber Drivers Join Protest for First Time

A nationwide day of action and disruption is set to take place on Tuesday, as workers from around the country and across industries are set to take part in strikes to show their refusal to back down in the face of an incoming rightwing political agenda.

The actions, organized by the Fight for $15 collective, will see airport baggage handlers, Uber drivers, fast-food cooks, cashiers, hospital workers, and others strike to disrupt the U.S. service economy. It marks the first time that Uber drivers will be joining in a Fight for $15 action, showing that the labor collective is growing, with gig workers protesting side by side with more traditional labor.

Protests are scheduled at 20 major airports and outside McDonald's franchises throughout the country to "underscore that any efforts to block wage increases, gut workers' rights or healthcare, deport immigrants, or support racism or racist policies, will be met with unrelenting opposition by workers in the Fight for $15," the organization said Monday.

Yes, the US economy is rigged. That's why we're striking

Since the election, a lot has been written about the widespread anger people feel about the economy. Many think it is rigged in favor of the rich and worry that working Americans put in longer hours for less money. America does not feel fair any more for millions of ordinary people whom the political elites ignore. Working people are slipping behind.

I know all about that. I work a low-wage job at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I endure long hours of difficult and physically demanding labor. I am about to graduate from college and I help support my parents after my father lost his job at a factory. But even though I work hard and live at home, I barely have enough money to pay my bills.

That makes me angry. I am standing up for my rights and demanding a fair minimum wage of $15 an hour for all Americans. On Tuesday I will do something I have never done before: I will go on strike and risk arrest to make sure our voices are heard.

Workers at nearly 20 of the busiest airports around the country will join the Fight for $15 protests. We will send a powerful message to these corporations: that it’s time they start respecting the people who care for the nearly 2 million passengers who travel through those major airports each day.

Airport workers will join thousands of fast-food employees walking off their jobs in more than 340 cities across America. Our fight for fair wages and union rights has spread to America’s airports where people like me do vital jobs that help keep our nation’s airlines running.

Rand Paul, top aide slam Trump for considering Petraeus

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the similarities between retired Gen. David Petraeus's mishandling of classified information and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server could be a "potential problem" as Petraeus is considered for a Cabinet post.

Trump is reportedly considering the former CIA director to be secretary of State and said after a meeting on Monday that he was "impressed." He's also expected to meet with another potential contender, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), this week.

“I think the problem they’re going to have putting forward is there’s a lot of similarities to Hillary Clinton as far as revealing classified information,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in a Monday interview.

“They spent a year and a half beating up Hillary Clinton over revealing classified information and then they would appoint somebody who the FBI says not only revealed it, but then lied about it in an interview and purposefully gave it to someone who did not have the clearance to have that.” ...

Doug Stafford, Paul’s chief strategist, also signaled Monday that Petraeus' previous admission that he gave classified information to a woman he was having affair with while he was CIA director should disqualify him.

Donald Trump selects Tom Price as secretary of health and human services

Donald Trump has chosen a prominent critic of Obamacare as his secretary of health and human services, casting fresh doubt over the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Congressman Tom Price of Georgia, an orthopedic surgeon who has long been a leading congressional voice in opposition to Barack Obama’s healthcare reform legislation, was confirmed on Tuesday as the president-elect’s pick. ...

If confirmed by the Senate, Price is likely to play a key role in attempts by Trump to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 legislation that has become a key issue of partisan contention.

The Georgia congressman had long been considered the favorite to serve as HHS secretary. An ally of Paul Ryan, Price replaced the current speaker as chair of the House budget committee in 2015.

US - ObamaCare leading critic Congressman Tom Price named as health secretary

With Extremist Tom Price at Helm, the 'War on Women Has Reached HHS'

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the nation's top health official has an abysmal record on women's issues and LGBTQ rights, advocates are warning on Tuesday. ...

As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he'd oversee an agency "with an annual budget of more than $1 trillion, health programs that insure more than 100 million Americans, and agencies that regulate food and drugs and sponsor much of the nation's biomedical research," as the New York Times pointed out. ...

Price "poses a grave threat to women's health," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards. "Our nation's HHS Secretary should aim to break down barriers to healthcare. Instead, Tom Price wants to build more."

He's voted repeatedly to defund Planned Parenthood while supporting and co-sponsoring a number of anti-abortion bills in Congress. Indeed, Bustle notes, "he's voted against abortion rights six times in 2016 alone."

Citing these votes, NARAL Pro-Choice America senior vice president Sasha Bruce declared:

With the selection of Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donald Trump is sending a clear signal that he intends to punish women who seek abortion care. Tom Price is someone who has made clear throughout his career that he does not trust women to make our own decisions about our health care. Instead, he wants to punish us for the choices we make for our bodies, our futures, and our families. In Congress, Tom Price cosponsored some of the most offensive anti-choice legislation on record, legislation that could ban abortion for almost any reason. Not only has Tom Price tried to outlaw abortion nationwide, including in cases of rape, incest, and health of the woman, he has worked to put an outright ban on the most common forms of contraception. As chair of the Budget Committee, he has been on the front lines of the efforts to dismantle the lifesaving Affordable Care Act, as well as the dangerous attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. For the seven in 10 Americans who support legal access to abortion, this is an incredibly alarming pick.

"Perhaps even more telling than Price's disgusting but not altogether unsurprising views on abortion was his vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act," the outlet continued. "Although the bill passed handily in the House in 2013, Price was among a number of House Republicans who voted against it. Despite never giving any quotes on the subject, a number of Price's Republican colleagues in the House reportedly voted against it because they were dissatisfied with the protections the VAWA gives to LGBT people—an incredibly gross cherry on top of this discriminatory milkshake."

Obama’s Use of Unreliable Gang Databases for Deportations Could Be a Model for Trump

Should Trump decide to move forward with mass deportations, he will have access to an existing deportation infrastructure built with bipartisan consensus over the past decade. And at the heart of it is a sprawling database that ICE uses to siphon information on undocumented migrants with alleged gang ties from state and local law enforcement. ...

In the mid-2000s, ICE created a gang database similar to those used in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, Washington state, Wisconsin, and Virginia. ICE’s system contains an unknown number of people, but there are more than 250,000 people in California’s and Texas’s gang databases alone, the majority of whom are Latino. These databases are populated with intelligence from street stops and arrests by local police, which is then uploaded and shared between agencies. ICE’s has access to all of them. ...

These data sets contain unverified and potentially flawed information derived from field interviews and arrests that may never result in criminal charges or convictions. Earlier this year, California’s state auditor found rampant inaccuracies in the state’s CalGang system, which included dozens of people with insufficient evidence of supposed gang ties.

Peter Bibring, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the flaws in CalGang’s data heighten the need to restrict ICE’s access to that information. “The system is so error prone that a significant number of people lack any supporting justification for whether they are gang members,” Bibring said. “It’s irresponsible of the state to be using CalGang, let alone handing over information to ICE.” ...

Remarks last week by Trump’s immigration adviser, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, indicate that the incoming administration is looking at deporting people accused of being in gangs who have not been convicted of a crime. ... Despite the glaring problems with unverified gang intelligence being used for deportations, in which there are no rights to court-appointed legal representation or discovery, law enforcement veterans expect no changes from the way gang task forces work with local police under Trump’s presidency.

Wisconsin will start counting three million votes on Thursday

Wisconsin’s state board of elections agreed Monday to begin the process of a statewide recount after Green Party candidate Jill Stein filed a petition contesting the results on Friday. ...

The commission is asking each county clerk to submit their estimated costs of a recount on Monday. They will then begin the recount on Thursday, after receiving full payment from the campaigns (In addition to Stein, Reform Party USA’s Rocky de la Fuente also filed a petition for a recount in Wisconsin).

Stein is also challenging the results in Pennsylvania, where the deadline to file a recount comes Monday evening, along with Michigan, whose deadline is Wednesday.

Stein is alleging foreign hackers tampered with the voting machines in some states that Trump won. ... Stein acknowledged in an interview with NPR Saturday that the recount effort is largely symbolic. “In my view, this is not likely at all to change the outcome, and that’s what the computer and voting security experts say as well,” Stein said. “But it’s the voters who benefit by standing up and saying we deserve a voting system that is secure in which we know our votes are being counted and our votes are being respected.”

Bernie Sanders on Green Party's Effort to Force Recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan & Pennsylvania

Security experts join Jill Stein's 'election changing' recount campaign

More election security experts have joined Jill Stein’s campaign to review the presidential vote in battleground states won by Donald Trump, as she sues Wisconsin to secure a full recount by hand of all its 3m ballots.

Half a dozen academics and other specialists on Monday submitted new testimony supporting a lawsuit from Stein against Wisconsin authorities, in which she asked a court to prevent county officials from carrying out their recounts by machine.

Stein argued that Wisconsin’s plan to allow automatic recounting “risks tainting the recount process” because the electronic scanning equipment involved may incorrectly tally the results and could have been attacked by foreign hackers.

“There is a substantial possibility that recounting the ballots by hand will produce a more correct result and change the outcome of the election,” Stein argued in the lawsuit in Dane County circuit court. A copy was obtained by the Guardian.

Bernie Sanders: "I Was Stunned" by Corporate Media Blackout During Democratic Primary

Scientists Call on Obama to Enact Trump-Proof Arctic Drilling Ban

With the proverbial bell tolling for the end of the Arctic ice sheet, as well as for the Obama presidency, dozens of leading scientists are calling on the president to pass a permanent ban on fossil fuel drilling in the Arctic—one that cannot be easily undone by his climate-denying successor, Donald Trump.

On Monday, 34 prominent scientists, including former members of the Obama administration, sent a letter to the outgoing president explaining why such a ban is crucial for the preservation of the pristine Arctic ecosystem, as well as for the future of the planet.

"You have identified disruption of the earth's climate as a significant concern of your administration because it poses a grave threat to the future of our planet," the letter states.

But, the letter continues, the president's efforts on climate will be betrayed so long as the Arctic remains under future threat of fossil fuel development:

We can lay no claim to sustainability if we continue to develop the Arctic's offshore fossil fuels. First, the hypersensitivity of Arctic ecosystems, combined with our obvious inability to respond to significant spills under Arctic conditions, means that we are taking risks that we cannot manage; we are essentially crossing our fingers that we will cause no severe, adverse events such as the Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon oil spills.

[...] Second, thoughtful research and careful management are necessary for dealing with climate disruption but, in the foreseeable future, no amount of Arctic research can counter the full adverse effects of more oil and gas development on the global climate. Moving away from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid such disruption.

limate hawks want the outgoing president to go even further, particularly because the president-elect—who believes climate change is a "bunch of bunk," according to Trump's incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus—has made clear his disdain for federal environmental regulations.

"Under a Trump administration, the Interior Department could revise its five-year plan and open these areas to extraction within a few years," Grist reported last week.

However, a permanent ban on Arctic drilling would not be so easy to reverse.

Specifically, scientists, lawmakers, and environmental advocates are asking Obama to use the executive powers granted to him under section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (pdf) to permanently protect both the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.

The Act "gives the president unilateral authority to protect sections of the outer continental shelf from future energy development leasing," as explained in a recent letter sent to Obama by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who is among the 72 members of Congress also advocating for such a move. 

Still Without Clean Water, Flint Demands Aid From Lame-Duck Congress

The mayor of Flint, Michigan, and over 100 advocacy groups on Monday sent an open letter to all members of Congress, demanding emergency aid to help the city cope with its ongoing water crisis.

The city, whose residents continue to suffer from health problems related to lead-tainted drinking water, still does not have clean water.

The letter (pdf) reminds the legislature that "[a]lthough the crisis in Flint began over two years ago, the community has yet to receive appropriate federal relief."

"Flint needs to stay a priority—we cannot let this go away," said Flint Mayor Karen Weaver on a conference call with reporters Monday, according to the Detroit News. "This is November. We're six months into our [second] year [...] now that the residents of Flint have not been able to bathe or cool with their water. It makes no sense." ...

"Congress is aiming to craft an aid package to replace corroded pipes in Flint and other cities around the country. But the size of the aid bill and the method for passing it are still up in the air," the Hill explains.

"It is imperative that Congress pass a final Water Resources Development Act of 2016 (WRDA) bill in the lame duck that provides guaranteed aid for Flint," the letter reads. "The people of Flint need federal relief to help them rebuild and recover from the public health crisis created by lead contamination of their drinking water—a disaster that began over two years ago and continues to unfold."

The Hill reports:

[...] Weaver said Monday that the city should be at the top of lawmakers' agendas as they enter the final few weeks of their session.

"If Flint doesn't show you that there is a need to invest in infrastructure, and maintaining infrastructure and water quality standards, I don't know what place does," she said.

Danny Lyon on why he's naming and shaming 'climate criminals'

Some may know the US photographer Danny Lyon for late-1960s shots of outlaw motorcycle gangs. Others may be familiar with his photograph of Bernie Sanders as a young protester at a 1962 Chicago University sit-in, which surfaced during this presidential campaign, or Lyon’s record of the marches staged by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which remain some of the most valuable visual representations of the civil rights movement. ...

Other, less confrontational septuagenarians might settle for promoting a few classic images in their later years. Not only does Lyon reject this (“There is a show now of my work in a London gallery,” he says. “I have nothing to do with it and no interest in publicizing it”), but he’s applying his type of 60s-style protest tactics to what he regards as today’s most pressing issue: climate change. ...

Lyon’s new photobook, Burn Zone (available on his site as a free PDF and as a $25 printed book) is, in part, a record of the ecological collapse he has witnessed as an on/off resident within the New Mexico stretch of the Rio Grande valley. ... The pictures Lyon shot of this and other aspects of local climate change are moving, yet his new book isn’t a simple ecological lament. Working with the 33-year-old climate activist Josephine Ferorelli, Lyon has also included a list of 50 “Climate Criminals” in Burn Zone, detailing not only their names and alleged actions, but also telephone numbers, postal and email addresses, and social media handles. Vice-President-elect Mike Pence and the Koch brothers make the list, as well as many lesser-known fossil fuel executives and statesmen.

“I wanted to make it clear that the forces actively trying to destroy life on Earth as we know it, and who are doing it for the basest of motives – greed – are real live humans like ourselves, with homes, addresses, phone numbers, emails and that they should be shunned,” explains Lyon. “To do this they have to be identified.”

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