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"Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda."

-- Hannah Arendt

News and Opinion

Washington Post Appends Editor’s Note to Russian Propaganda Story

A lengthy editor’s note appeared Wednesday atop Craig Timberg‘s November 24 Washington Post story claiming that a Russian propaganda campaign aided the spread of “fake news” in the 2016 presidential election. The note lays some interesting distance between the newspaper and the work its article draws from.

Editor’s Note: The Washington Post on Nov. 24 published a story on the work of four sets of researchers who have examined what they say are Russian propaganda efforts to undermine American democracy and interests. One of them was PropOrNot, a group that insists on public anonymity, which issued a report identifying more than 200 websites that, in its view, wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda. A number of those sites have objected to being included on PropOrNot’s list, and some of the sites, as well as others not on the list, have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions. The Post, which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of The Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some sites from its list.

The note follows intense criticism of the article. It was “rife with obviously reckless and unproven allegations,” Intercept reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton wrote, calling PropOrNot, one of the groups whose research was cited in Timberg’s piece, “anonymous cowards.” One of the sites PropOrNot cited as Russian-influenced was the Drudge Report.

[See also Naked Capitalism's response, Washington Post Refuses to Retract Article Defaming Naked Capitalism and Other Sites - js]

what a bunch of cowards. "This blacklist that served as the entire news basis of our piece is bullshit but we wont retract the story" https://t.co/V5ZSwSMgTg

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) December 7, 2016

Obama under mounting pressure to disclose Russia's role in US election

Barack Obama is facing growing pressure from congressional Democrats in both houses demanding further disclosures regarding Russia’s role in the 2016 US elections.

The White House has not responded to a week-old letter signed by every Democrat and aligned member of the Senate intelligence committee seeking declassification of “additional information concerning the Russian government and the US election”.

Now a group of senior House Democrats has also written to the president, seeking a classified briefing for colleagues on “Russian entities’ hacking of American political organizations; hacking and strategic release of emails from campaign officials; the WikiLeaks disclosures; fake news stories produced and distributed with the intent to mislead American voters; and any other Russian or Russian-related interference or involvement in our recent election.” ...

Both communiques from the congressional Democrats, several of whom have access to classified intelligence, strongly implied that the Obama administration and the intelligence agencies know significantly more about Russian involvement in the election than they have disclosed. Alternatively, the politicians could be raising suspicions without evidence to weaken the incoming president, Donald Trump, whom his former opponent Hillary Clinton dubbed a “puppet” of the Russians.

McCarthy’s Ghost Smiles as Dems Point the Finger at Russia

A week ago, when the House approved by a 390-30 margin and sent to the Senate the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal 2017, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee praised “important provisions aimed at countering Russia’s destabilizing efforts — including those targeting our elections.” One of those “important provisions,” Section 501, sets up in the executive branch “an interagency committee to counter active measures by the Russian Federation to exert covert influence.”

This high-level committee could easily morph into a protracted real-life nightmare.

While lacking public accountability, the committee is mandated to ferret out such ambiguous phenomena as Russian “media manipulation” and “disinformation.” Along the way, the committee could target an array of activists, political opponents or irksome journalists. In any event, its power to fulfill “such other duties as the president may designate” would be ready-made for abuse.

The committee is to be selected by presidential appointees, including the director of the FBI — an agency with leadership that has all too often pursued covert and overt political agendas, from the times of J. Edgar Hoover to James Comey.

All in all, the provision is a gift for the next president, tied up in a bow by congressional Democrats.

Groups Demand Arrest of 'War Mastermind' Kissinger at Nobel Peace Prize Forum

The Nobel Peace Prize committee last month stunned many observers by choosing Henry Kissinger—the former secretary of state behind the secret American bombing of Cambodia and who supported Argentina's "dirty wars," among other things—to  speak at a forum on "The United States and World Peace after the Presidential Election."

In response, on Tuesday the progressive groups RootsAction and Nobel Peace Prize Watch issued a petition demanding that Norwegian officials arrest Kissinger.

"The Nobel Committee has arranged for well-known war mastermind Henry Kissinger to speak as an honored guest at a forum that is part of the Nobel Peace Prize events," the petition states. "Several of Kissinger's crimes come under treaties that make it mandatory for Norway to prosecute. Kissinger is complicit or a main actor in many violations of the Genocide Convention and of the Geneva Conventions."

Nobel Peace Prize Watch lays out Kissinger's actions (pdf) in great detail, making the case that Norway is obligated under international law to arrest the former secretary of state.

Kissinger was infamously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his role in the Vietnam war—a decision that comedian Tom Lehrer said "made political satire obsolete."

UK Foreign Secretary says Saudi Arabia is a 'puppeteer' in Middle East proxy wars

Boris Johnson accused Saudi Arabia of abusing Islam and acting as a puppeteer in proxy wars throughout the Middle East, in remarks that flout a longstanding Foreign Office convention not to criticise the UK’s allies in public.

The foreign secretary told a conference in Rome last week that the behaviour of Saudi Arabia, and also Iran, was a tragedy, adding that there was an absence of visionary leadership in the region that was willing to reach out across the Sunni-Shia divide.

At the event, Johnson said: “There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That’s one of the biggest political problems in the whole region. And the tragedy for me – and that’s why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area – is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.” ...

Johnson’s criticism of Saudi Arabia came as Theresa May returned from a prestigious two-day visit to the Gulf in which she lauded both the Saudi royal family for its visionary leadership, and the value of the 100-year-old alliance with the UK. ...

Since becoming foreign secretary, Johnson has repeatedly landed himself in trouble. He has been accused of committing a string of gaffes and some people argue his tendency to speak frankly loses the UK allies.

GCC and Britain announce new ‘strategic partnership’

The Gulf states and Britain pledged to work together to counter Iran’s "destabilising activities" in the region as they announced a wide-ranging "strategic partnership" at the GCC Summit in Bahrain on Wednesday.

A joint statement issued by the six member states of the GCC and the UK said the partnership intended to enhance cooperation across a swathe of security, military and regional political interests, as well as increased trade.

The partnership was announced after an inaugural meeting between the bloc and Britain, represented by prime minister Theresa May, which was chaired by Bahrain’s King Hamad.

The two sides said they would "oppose and will work together to counter Iran’s destabilising activities in the region" and called on Tehran to "engage the region according to the principles of good neighbourliness, strict non-interference in domestic affairs, and respect for territorial integrity," the communique said.

Most GCC countries view the region through the prism of what they see as Iranian aggression, and as with Washington, they would like London to do more to counter and contain Tehran.

But as with pledges by Barack Obama, the joint statement only went as far as saying the UK "remains committed" to helping the GCC protect against external aggression "just as it did during the Gulf War", when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable

If someone wants to become somebody in Official Washington, there are certain lies that you must assert as undeniable truths, almost like flashing a secret sign to gain entry to an exclusive club. For instance, you must say that Iran is the world’s “chief sponsor of terrorism” though that is patently false.

The problem is that a much bigger sponsor of terrorism is Saudi Arabia, with some competition from Qatar, but those two Gulf states are extremely wealthy U.S. “allies” and their hatred of Iran is shared by Israel, which possesses the most intimidating foreign lobby in Washington. So, deviation from the “Iran-chief-sponsor-of-terrorism” mantra marks you as someone who is not part of the club and never will be. ...

The U.S. government allied itself with Saudi Arabia in building the modern Islamic terrorism movement in the 1980s when the Reagan administration went in 50/50 with Saudi Arabia to finance and arm the Afghan mujahedeen – a project costing billions of dollars – to fight a merciless war against Soviet troops defending a leftist, secular regime in Kabul. ...

The Saudis ... recognized the value of influencing Official Washington, which the kingdom had tried to do by creating its own lobby based on spreading around lots of money. But that Saudi effort was blunted by Israel and its lobby, which didn’t want to share its unmatched influence over the U.S. government.

So, the Saudis found it easier to “rent” the Israel Lobby by developing covert ties with Israel and quietly paying Israel billions of dollars. The Saudi dollars, in effect, replaced the money that Israel had been getting from Iran during the 1980s when Israel brokered Iran’s arms sales. As part of the Israeli-Saudi under-the-table alliance, the two countries agreed that Iran and the so-called “Shiite crescent” – stretching from Tehran through Damascus to Hezbollah neighborhoods of Beirut – were their joint strategic enemies.

Behind the combined clout of politically influential Israel and financially powerful Saudi Arabia, the script was written for U.S. politicians, pundits and officials to recite: “Iran is the chief sponsor of terrorism.”

This dogma is repeated again and again, including by retired Generals James Mattis and Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for Defense Secretary and National Security Advisor, respectively. But the terror groups that Americans fear most, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State, are supported by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States, not by Iran.

Rolling Back the Empire: Washington’s Proxy-Army Faces Decisive Defeat in Aleppo

Syrian Army helicopters dropped leaflets on parts of eastern Aleppo on Sunday warning anti-government fighters to surrender while they still had the chance. Hundreds of jihadists have already laid down their weapons and surrendered while a hardline corps of deadenders continue to fend off the rapidly advancing army. ...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has made every effort to stop the fighting to protect US-backed jihadists that are trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Unfortunately, a proposal that was accepted by both Kerry and Lavrov concerning the withdrawal of fighters in Aleppo, was rejected by higher-ups in the Obama Administration ending the prospects for a negotiated settlement. ...

According to Reuters, “the Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would now accept no truce in Aleppo, should any outside parties try to negotiate one.” Meanwhile, “Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a week-long ceasefire.” Simply put, this is the end of the line for the US-backed terrorists that have laid to waste much of the battered country and killed more than 400,000 people. And while Aleppo may not be the decisive turning point in the ongoing conflict, it does put all of the main population centers and industrial hubs back under regime control.

More important, the recapturing of Aleppo is a major setback for Washington and its jihadist-breeding allies. (US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar) US plans for redrawing the map of the Middle East to meet its economic and geopolitical objectives has been defeated by a courageous and determined coalition (Syria, Iran, Russia and Hezbollah) that has methodically routed or exterminated the foreign-backed opposition and reestablished both state security and the sovereign authority of the elected government to control its own affairs.

Syria: Army close to retaking Eastern Aleppo, controlling 75% of the city

Why Aleppo matters

With Syrian government forces’ sudden and major advancements into the city’s rebel-held eastern territory in recent weeks, Aleppo’s uncertain fate is starting to crystallize, once again posing two central questions: Why Aleppo, and what next?

Just one of several battles raging in the country since 2011 pro-democracy protests transformed into civil war, the four-year fight for Aleppo has become Assad’s central preoccupation in his efforts to remain in power, dominating global headlines. For good reason.

“It’s the New York of Syria,” said Antoun Issa, senior editor at Middle East Institute. “This is a huge battle, and for any changes in the map to have occurred, considering it’s been paralyzed for three or four years, is a massive game-changer.”

Recapturing the whole of the northern metropolis would return all five major cities — the others being Damascus, Homs, Hama and Latakia — under Assad’s regime, badly weaken moderate rebel claims as being a viable alternative, push them further to the country’s rural fringes, and set in motion a tangible, if muddled, path toward an inevitable solution in Syria.

Syria Seizes Aleppo’s Old City as Rebel Losses Mount

Syrian ground troops continue to gain territory at a rapid pace in the contested city of Aleppo, and today the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Old City district, which troops just entered yesterday, has already fallen outright, forcing rebels out of one of their last territories in the major city.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was upbeat about it in an interview, saying that the “upcoming victory” in Aleppo would change the entire course of the war, and be a “huge step” toward ending the Civil War outright.

Vijay Prashad: The Battle for Aleppo is Over

Aleppo Rebels Slam US for Trying to Negotiate Evacuation

While the US has made much of its support for the “moderate,” albeit al-Qaeda dominated rebels in eastern Aleppo, with some officials going so far as to proclaim al-Qaeda’s loss in the city as America’s loss, the rebels don’t feel nearly the same way about it, and are publicly lambasting the US for not backing them further. ...

This is a continuation of a recurring theme in Syrian rebel reactions to the US, as they’ve repeatedly condemned the US as indifferent for not being able to unilaterally install them as the new government in Syria, and for the aid they have provided not being a panacea.

At the same time, nobody has seemed more surprised at their inability to unilaterally impose a solution on Syria than the administration, which has drifted around through myriad different failed strategies in Syria, and within the last few days was still demanding Syria accept an unconditional ceasefire in Aleppo to allow the rebels to keep the east.

The US investment of diplomatic efforts into “saving” al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Aleppo not only ended up failing, but forcing the US into the position of trying to save them again by negotiating a pullout, a move which is just making al-Qaeda all the angrier at them.

Donald Trump picked a third military officer to fill a post normally held by a civilian

Donald Trump has reportedly picked retired four-star Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Kelly’s selection, reported by The New York Times and CBS News, makes him the third high-ranking military officer in the Trump administration to fill a post normally held by a civilian.

If confirmed, Kelly will become the first member of the military to lead the department, created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The department has jurisdiction over a wide swath of the federal bureaucracy, including anti-terrorism, immigration and customs, and cybersecurity. Kelly retired earlier this year after a 40-year career in the Marine Corps. ...

Trump still has many more roles to fill in his administration and more generals may be coming. Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a candidate for secretary of state, met with Trump in late November.

Donald Trump Pentagon Pick Mattis Made Nearly $1,000,000 On Board Of Defense Contractor

In his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned that for security and liberty to prosper together, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

Fifty-five years later, a new president is planning to have his Pentagon run by a top official at one of the world’s largest defense contractors. President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will appoint retired General James Mattis as the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Not only would Mattis be the first general to hold the traditionally civilian position, he would move into the job directly from his position helping to run General Dynamics — a $30-billion colossus that heavily relies on Pentagon contracts overseen by the Defense Secretary.

Mattis is currently listed as one of 13 independent directors of the company. Financial filings reviewed by International Business Times show that since taking the position in 2013, Mattis has been paid $594,369 by General Dynamics, and has amassed more than $900,000 worth of company stock. While on the General Dynamics board, Mattis testified before Congress, where he called caps on defense spending — known as the sequestration— a national security threat. “No foe in the field can wreak such havoc on our security that mindless sequestration is achieving,” he said during the 2015 hearing.

Ethics experts interviewed by IBT say Mattis’ link to General Dynamics poses major conflict-of-interest questions for a Defense Department that annually directs more than $250 billion worth of spending to private military contractors.

Reagan Administration “Cavalierly” Leaked NSA Signals Intelligence — Apparently Without Informing the Agency

On Sunday, November 17, 1985, a short article appeared on page A12 of the Washington Post under the headline “Managua Said to Get Military Copters.” ...

This was about the hottest of hot political topics at the time: the battle between Nicaragua’s socialist Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed Contra brigades trying to overthrow it. While the Contras had been directly financed by the U.S. starting in 1981, the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, after several years public pressure eventually forced Congress to cut off all military aid.

By 1985 the Reagan administration was desperate to get the spigot turned back on, and so obviously welcomed any news that a Warsaw Pact country was arming the Sandinistas.

When National Security Agency analyst Deborah Maklowski got into work the Monday after the Post’s article appeared, her branch chief jokingly asked her how much money she’d gotten for it. That’s because, as Maklowski recounted in 2004 for SIDtoday, the NSA’s internal newsletter, she’d just written a report on this subject and distributed it internally. “The only change” in the Post article from her analysis, according to Maklowski, “was the lack of classification. ...

So what are the lessons of this brief glimpse behind the NSA curtain?

First, that the Washington Post apparently believed that it was appropriate for it to be handed a government report by an official trying to push administration policy and then just publish it essentially verbatim — without telling their readers this was what they were doing. (The Post did not respond to a request for comment.)

Second, that you can always ignore it when politicians tell us how terribly, terribly wrong it is for anyone to leak classified information.

Assange releases full testimony in Swedish 'sex case': https://t.co/gifUGH5o2w
PDF: https://t.co/q3Pzze6b1l
HTML: https://t.co/UvmGW97cYm

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 7, 2016

New SMS records show Assange was framed by police in 1st sex case: https://t.co/MqwZAvH0va and in 2nd case: https://t.co/OPCFRveUqM pic.twitter.com/SdI7rY0Cdp

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 7, 2016

Extensive British Spying Throughout Africa Revealed in Le Monde

Top-secret British surveillance operations targeted the director of the World Trade Organization, several multinational corporations, a top French businessman, and heads of state across Africa, according to a new series of reports by Le Monde.

On Tuesday, the French newspaper began publishing the revelations, which include a wide range of previously undisclosed details about British covert activities across the world. The reports were produced in partnership with The Intercept and are based on documents provided by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The series of stories focus largely on the controversial work of the U.K’s electronic surveillance agency Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. According to Le Monde, in March 2009, the British agency spied on Pascal Lamy, the then-head of the World Trade Organization and member of the French socialist party.  Between 2008 and 2009, it also targeted Octave Klaba, the founder of the French company OVH, one of Europe’s largest internet hosting companies; Emmanuel Glimet, a French trade and economy official; phone lines at the French ministry of foreign affairs; and several multinational French corporations, including the energy company Areva, oil giant Total, and the defense conglomerate Thalès.

Beyond France, the disclosures highlight the U.K.’s extensive spying operations across Africa. In 20 countries across the continent, GCHQ monitored current and former heads of state, prime ministers, diplomats, military and intelligence chiefs, as well as leading figures in the business and finance industry, Le Monde reports.

Americans Have Fewer Privacy Rights When Emailing People Overseas, Court Rules

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled against a constitutional plea made by Mohamed Osman Mohamud — a Somali-American who attempted as a teenager to detonate a fake car bomb supplied by undercover FBI agents during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon, in 2010.

Since his conviction in January 2013, Mohamud has been fighting in court to challenge the government’s warrantless collection of his emails sent overseas. With support from the American Civil Liberties Union as an amicus, he contended that the Fourth Amendment should have protected his emails.

However, the panel of three Circuit judges disagreed — deciding that the government has the right under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make use of American digital communications it obtains incidentally through its overseas surveillance programs, so long as the original target is a foreigner. Mohamud had “diminished” expectations of privacy when he hit send, knowing his correspondence would leave the country, the court said.

Under Section 702, the government doesn’t need to obtain a warrant, demonstrate probable cause, or be specific about exactly where and when the surveillance will take place. If the government can use communications from Americans collected under 702, even in narrow circumstances, it sets a precedent that could have lasting implications for their constitutional right to privacy in the digital age. ...

According to Orin Kerr, law professor at George Washington University Law School, the idea that the government only intended to spy on a foreign national, excusing it from monitoring an American at the other end, makes little legal sense. “Section 702 draws a statutory distinction between ‘targeting’ someone and merely incidentally collecting that person’s communications. But how is that a constitutional distinction?” he asked in a column for the Washington Post.

German firms including BMW pull advertising from Breitbart

Major German companies including BMW have stopped advertising on Breitbart, the rightwing US news and opinion site that campaigned for Donald Trump and plans to launch in Europe before key elections next year.

The boycott, prompted by a social media campaign titled KeinGeldFürRechts or No Money for the Right, follows a similar decision by Kellogg’s in the US, to which Breitbart responded by urging readers to stop buying the cereal firm’s products.

Breitbart’s editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow, has confirmed it is interviewing journalists to staff new services in France and Germany it aims to have operational in time for pivotal 2017 elections in which mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties face strong challenges from populist, hard-right rivals. ...

Media analysts said Breitbart, which was founded in 2007 and whose US audience more than doubled from 7.4 million users in September 2014 to 15.8 million this September, would face a crowded market if it went ahead with its plans to launch in Europe, but would be likely to find a ready audience.

Bill English: the Catholic conservative who will be New Zealand's next PM

A socially conservative former farmer with 11 siblings is set to become the next prime minister of New Zealand, after Bill English’s rivals withdrew from the leadership race on Thursday.

English led the National party to its worst ever defeat in 2002, but the former deputy prime minister and three-term finance minister says he has “grown” since then, and has “much more energy” now the youngest of his six children are teenagers.

Despite being involved in politics for 26 years English is still something of an “enigma”, said Professor Raymond Miller, a political scientist from Auckland University.

“The greatest strength English will provide to this government is continuity and his ability to keep the markets stable, and his great weakness is his defeat in 2002 and his seeming inability to excite the public,” said Miller.

“Nobody knows too much of English’s background and personal life despite his many years in politics, as he has largely had his head down all these years as finance minister. But we do know he is a social conservative from a rural background who is a devoted and practising Roman Catholic.”

US Border Patrol uses desert as ‘weapon’ to kill thousands of migrants, report says

The US Border Patrol agency has engineered the death and disappearance of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants by using the desert wilderness as a “weapon”, according to an advocacy group.

Agents chase and scatter border crossers across hostile terrain in a strategy that leaves many people injured, dead or lost, turning the US’s south-western frontier into a “vast graveyard of the missing”, the Arizona-based group No More Deaths said on Wednesday.

“The known disappearance of thousands of people in the remote wilderness of the US–Mexico border zone marks one of the great historical crimes of our day,” the group said in a blistering report, the first of three reports documenting alleged abuses by Border Patrol.

In addition to deadly apprehension methods it accused the federal agency, which deploys about 18,000 agents on the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, of sabotaging humanitarian aid efforts and discriminating against undocumented people in emergency responses.

No More Deaths, a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, worked with volunteers from another group, La Coalición de Derechos Humanos, on the 34-page report. It drew on a survey of 58 border crossers and 544 cases from the Missing Migrant Crisis Line. Tens of thousands have gone missing since the 1990s, including 1,200 last year, it said.

Women's March on Washington won't have access to Lincoln Memorial

For the thousands hoping to echo the civil rights and anti-Vietnam rallies at Lincoln Memorial by joining the women’s march on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration: time to readjust your expectations.

The Women’s March won’t be held at the Lincoln Memorial.

That’s because the National Park Service, on behalf of the Presidential Inauguration Committee, filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters.

The NPS filed a “massive omnibus blocking permit” for many of Washington DC’s most famous political locations for days and weeks before and after the inauguration on 20 January, said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a constitutional rights litigator and the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. ...

Answer [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] requested a permit to host a rally along Pennsylvania Avenue the day after the inauguration and was denied. ...

“The Lincoln Memorial is not possible,” said Cassady Fendlay, spokeswoman for the women’s march on Washington. She said march organizers were not associated with the Answer Coalition, and have “had no issues with the permitting process at all”.

“We are in conversation with the police. We have secured another location,” said Fendlay, declining to name where the march would now take place but saying it would be nearby.

Michigan Recount Halted as Judge 'Gives In' to Trump and State GOP

A federal judge on Wednesday effectively ended the ongoing presidential recount in Michigan by lifting the order he previously issued allowing it to move forward.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith halted the recount, which began on Monday amid legal challenges, on the grounds that the Green Party's Jill Stein and other plaintiffs "have not presented evidence of tampering or mistake. Instead, they present speculative claims going to the vulnerability of the voting machinery—but not actual injury."

The ruling seemed to agree with an earlier decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals, which said that Stein did not have a chance at winning the presidency and therefore wasn't an aggrieved candidate with standing to call for a recount.

Stein's campaign said it was "deeply disappointed" by the decision and would appeal the court's ruling. On Twitter, Stein said Goldsmith "gave in" to President-elect Donald Trump and state Republicans. Trump and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed lawsuits last week to halt the recount, claiming it would pose a financial burden on taxpayers.

Meet the Republican Elector Who Is Refusing to Vote for Trump

Donald Trump’s EPA Team Will Be Run by Fossil-Fuel Industry Advocates

Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he wants the Environmental Protection Agency to be run by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a longtime ally of the oil and gas industry who has led litigation efforts to overturn the EPA’s rules to address climate change.

As a state attorney general, Pruitt was caught sending a letter to regulators that was drafted by lobbyists working for Devon Energy, a major drilling company. As Pruitt joined a lawsuit against rules opposed by the fracking industry, he simultaneously courted industry donors, including billionaire fracking executive Harold Hamm, who served as the co-chair of Pruitt’s 2013 election campaign.

Pruitt has questioned the role of human-made pollution in causing climate change, writing for the National Review this year that the “debate is far from settled.”

The End of the EPA? Trump Taps Climate Change Denier & Fossil Fuel Ally Scott Pruitt to Head Agency

Giraffes facing extinction after devastating decline, experts warn

The world’s tallest animal is at risk of extinction after suffering a devastating decline in numbers, with nearly 40% of giraffes lost in the last 30 years, according to the latest “red list” analysis.

The authoritative list, compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has also added more than 700 newly recognised bird species, but 13 of these are already extinct.

It says wild relatives of important food crops, such as mangoes and sunflowers, are now in danger of extinction, cutting the ability to safeguard food supplies by breeding new varieties resilient to drought and disease. ...

The natural world is in the midst of a mass extinction as wild places are destroyed by conversion to farmland, mining and pollution, and animals are hunted in huge numbers. In October, a major analysis found the number of wild creatures was on track to fall by two-thirds by 2020, compared to 1970. Recent red list updates have found the eastern Gorilla and whale shark moving closer to extinction, while the prospects of the giant panda are improving.

The number of species assessed by the red list now totals more than 85,000, with more than 24,000 at risk of extinction, but many more species remain unstudied. “Many species are slipping away before we can even describe them,” said Inger Andersen, IUCN’s director general.

“This red list update shows that the scale of the global extinction crisis may be even greater than we thought,” she said. “Governments gathered at the UN biodiversity summit [at which the update will be presented on Thursday] have the immense responsibility to step up their efforts to protect our planet’s biodiversity – not just for its own sake but for human imperatives such as food security and sustainable development.”

Parisians are getting free public transport to combat the city’s dangerous pollution

Paris is in the grip of its worst pollution crisis in a decade, and on Thursday, for the third consecutive day,  local government banned half of French drivers from using their cars in the city and made all public transport free. Paris is not the only major European city coping with high pollution levels this week. Lyon and other cities in France have experienced poor air conditions, with the pollution problem crossing the channel into London as well.  ...

In January, France will introduce a new obligatory system where all vehicles will have to display a sticker showing its level of emissions. In the future, rather than a blanket ban on all vehicles, only those with specific sticker colors will be ordered to leave their cars at home during future pollution spikes.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo recently announced her intention to ban all diesel cars from the City of Light by 2025. Her ambitious pledge was joined by the mayors of Mexico City, Madrid and Athens. The city is also looking to phase out diesel engines on public buses throughout its quarters. 

Also of Interest

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

'This is an awakening': Native Americans find new hope after Standing Rock

Drowning in Information: NSA Revelations From 262 Spy Documents

Jeff Sessions, Trump’s Attorney General Pick, Introduced First Bill Exempting Fracking from Drinking Water Rules

The Big Shift: Why Banks Need to Stop Investing Our Money Into Fossil Fuels

Bombshell Dropped in Federal Court: Proof of a Silver Market “Mafia” Among Big Banks

Obama Is Leaving Trump the Power to Wage War Almost Anywhere

What happens if Trump gets Roe v. Wade overturned?

Greg Lake, legendary prog rock bassist, dies aged 69

A Little Night Music

Lou Ann Barton - It's a Bad Thing

Jimmie Vaughan & Lou Ann Barton - I'm In The Mood For You

Jimmie Vaughan w/Lou Ann Barton - Scratch My Back

Lou Ann Barton - Stop These Teardrops

Lou Ann Barton - Te-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu

Lou Ann Barton - Shake A Hand + You Ought To Stop It

Lou Ann Barton - Mean Mean Man

Lou Ann Barton - Shake Your Hips