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This evening's music features Louisiana blues singer Robert Pete Williams. Enjoy!

““The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

-- Thomas Jefferson

News and Opinion

Greenwald calls out the New York Times for catapulting the propaganda again.

Watch How Casually False Claims are Published: New York Times and Nicholas Lemann Edition

I cannot count how many times I’ve read or heard claims from major media outlets about the Snowden story that I knew, from first-hand knowledge, were a total fabrication. We have a perfect example of how this happens from the New York Times today, in a book review by Nicholas Lemann, the Pulitzer-Moore professor of journalism at Columbia University as well as a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker. Lemann is reviewing a new book by Edward J. Epstein – the long-time neocon, right-wing Cold Warrior, WSJ op-ed page writer and Breitbart contributor – which basically claims Snowden is a Russian spy. ...

Lemann himself is highly dismissive of the book’s central accusations about Snowden, and does a perfectly fine job of explaining how the book provides no convincing evidence for its key conspiracies. Nonetheless,

there is one statement in Lemann’s review that is misleading in the extreme, and another that that is so blatantly, factually false that it’s mind-boggling it got approved by a NYT editor and, presumably, a fact-checker. But it is worth looking at because it illustrates how easily this happens. Here’s the first one:

Snowden, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, and their immediate circle of allies come from a radically libertarian hacker culture that, most of the time, doesn’t believe there should be an N.S.A. at all, whether or not it remains within the confines of its legal charter.

Though ambiguous about who exactly it is describing, this passages strongly implies that Snowden “doesn’t believe there should be an N.S.A. at all.” Snowden believes nothing of the kind. In fact, he believes exactly the opposite: that the NSA performs a vital function and many of their programs are legitimate and important. He has said this over and over. That’s why he wanted to work for the agency. It’s why he refused to dump all the documents he took and instead gave them to journalists, demanding that they only publish those which expose information necessary to inform the public debate: precisely because he did not want to destroy NSA programs he believes are justifiable. ...

But while that passage from Lemann is misleading, his final paragraph is outright false as a clear factual matter:

This time around, [Epstein’s] concern seems to be half with the celebratory closed loop between Snowden and the journalists who covered him, and half with the causes and consequences of a major security breach at the N.S.A. The heart of the matter is the second of these concerns, not the first. In the Snowden affair, the press didn’t decide what stayed secret, and neither did Congress, the White House or the N.S.A. Snowden did.

This is the exact opposite of the truth. It is a fundamentally false description of what happened. Most amazingly, the New York Times knows first-hand that this claim it just published is false because of its direct involvement in reporting the Snowden archive.

Not a single document that saw the light of day was published because Snowden decided it should be: literally not one. Snowden played no decision-making role whatsoever in determining which documents were published and which were withheld. What happened was exactly the opposite of what Lemann told New York Times readers: it was the press, not Snowden, which decided what stayed secret and what was reported.

Revealing evidence of Russia's hacking would be 'irresponsible' – US State Department

BREAKING: Saying Something In An Authoritative Tone Now The Same As Providing Proof

WASHINGTON, DC — In a breaking news story we here at NNC will continue to update as new information becomes available, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has just released a joint statement with Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers confirming their longstanding position that making an assertion in an authoritative tone is now officially the same as providing proof of that assertion.

“We have a high degree of confidence that saying we have a high degree of confidence in something is the exact same thing as providing proof of that claim to the American public,” the statement said, adding, “We can substantiate this assertion by the confident tone in which we speak it with our mouths.”

Litvinenko suspects added to US sanctions list against Russia

The two men Britain believes carried out the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko are among five new names placed on a US sanctions list, as the Obama administration rushes to censure Russia before it relinquishes power in 10 days’ time.

Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, suspects in the 2006 murder of Litvinenko with polonium in London, were placed on the “Magnitsky list” by the US Treasury, along with Alexander Bastrykin, the powerful head of Russia’s investigative committee.

Officials said the sanctions were not linked to the recent allegations that Russia interfered in the US elections, but the measures are the latest of several taken against Russia in the past fortnight.

The Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012 with the aim of punishing officials responsible for human rights abuses, notably the 2009 prison death of the whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Democrats are playing with fire on Russia

Two months after the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the most cohesive message from congressional Democrats is: blame Russia. The party leaders have doubled down on an approach that got nowhere during the presidential campaign — trying to tie the Kremlin around Donald Trump’s neck. ...

At the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last Thursday on foreign cyber threats, ranking member Jack Reed (D-RI) denounced “Russia’s rejection of the post-Cold War international order and aggressive actions against its neighbors,” and he condemned “a regime with values and interests so antithetical to our own.” It was the kind of oratory that would have made John Foster Dulles or Barry Goldwater proud. ...

Democratic lawmakers aren’t interested in doubts or caveats. They believe the Russian hacking issue is a political winner. Whether or not that’s true, it’s certainly a convenient way to evade the sobering lessons that should have been learned from the last election about the Democratic Party’s lack of authenticity in its claims to be fighting for the interests of working people.

At the same time, enthusiasm for banging the drum against Putin is fast becoming a big part of the Democratic Party’s public identity in 2017. And — insidiously — that’s apt to give the party a long-term political stake in further demonizing the Russian government.

The reality is grim, and potentially catastrophic beyond comprehension. By pushing to further polarize with the Kremlin, congressional Democrats are increasing the chances of a military confrontation with Russia. By teaming up with the likes of Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to exert bipartisan pressure for escalation, Democrats could help stampede the Trump administration in reckless directions.

This approach ... is worse than irresponsible. It is madness that could lead to a nuclear holocaust.

An excellent review of the mainstream media's post-truth coverage of recent events. Here's a taste:

The ‘Post-Truth’ Mainstream Media

For several months, Western officials and media outlets repeated thousands of times that there were between 250,000 and 300,000 civilians trapped under Syrian and Russian bombardment in East Aleppo. Western reports rarely mentioned the Syrian government’s estimate that there were only one-third that number of civilians in the rebel-controlled enclave – nor that its estimates were solidly based on what it had found in Homs and other rebel-held areas after it restored state control.

Once East Aleppo fell to government forces, it turned out that there were less than 90,000 people there, about what the Syrian government estimated but only a fraction of the much higher numbers confidently repeated ad nauseam by Western officials and media.

Part of the reason for this misreporting was that Syrian rebels had publicly killed Western and independent journalists to secure a monopoly on information coming out of rebel-controlled areas. Given the West’s disdain for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and sympathy for his opponents, the mainstream Western media then became reliant on anti-government rebels and allied activists for what was going on in those parts of Syria.

Now the complicity of Western media in the success of this strategy has been exposed as a systematic and deadly lapse in journalistic standards. So we should by now have seen widespread corrections and retractions from mainstream media that helped the rebels broadcast propaganda that conveyed a misleading, one-sided picture of the crisis in Aleppo.

The absence of corrections or retractions reflects a “new normal” in Western media practice. The mainstream media reports propaganda, usually produced by Western governments but in this case even by Al Qaeda splinter groups, as uncontested fact. Then, when the bubble bursts and the propaganda is exposed, it is quickly swept down the memory hole as the same reporters, editors and producers who got it all wrong unapologetically move on to other equally unsubstantiated narratives, in this case, ”Russia hacked the election,” and even, “Russia hacked the electric grid.”

Chair of CDU talks hacking and fake news | DW News

Moscow is pushing populist movements to bring 'real security threats to Europe,' NATO report says

Moscow is encouraging a wave of populism that extends from the election of President-elect Donald Trump through Brexit and rise of nationalist politics in France and Germany to bring about “real security threats to Europe,” according to a report in a new NATO journal.

The report, in the January edition of the NATO Review online magazine, was put together by Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Institute of International Relations Prague. He points out that the problems facing the European Union are in no small part down to the EU itself.

“A powerful driver has been a perceived — and not entirely unjustified — belief that a Brussels elite is committed to a project of political unification out of step with the interests and ambitions of national constituencies,” he wrote. He writes that many in the EU capital of Brussels who desire a federal Europe are viewing Brexit as an opportunity to push their agenda, which is not shared by many Europeans. And this, he wrote, means the EU today “is not only victim of the populist wave, it is also cause.”

The piece makes the case that a strong EU is important to European support for NATO, and is vital to strong European security. And this, the piece argues, is the root of Russian efforts to encourage popular dissatisfaction.

World War III is a comin' and Armageddon tired of it.

World War III is on its way, says poll of Western countries

World War Three is just around the corner and the planet is teetering on the brink of all-out conflict – according to people in major Western nations, at least.

A new poll shows the public are somewhat gloomy about the future, fearing a “worldwide conflict” is looming.

With superpowers backing different sides in the bloody conflict in Syria, Isis continuing to fight in the Middle East, a spate of terrorist attacks across the globe and Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump both talking a tough game, the YouGov survey of 9,000 people across nine countries found popular opinion thinks world peace has rarely been further away. ...

Some 64 per cent of Americans think the world is close to a major war, compared to just 15 who think world peace is likely.

New Intercept Exposé Uncovers SEAL Team 6's Ghastly Trail of Atrocities, Mutilations, Killings

176 retired military officers tell Trump waterboarding doesn’t work

One hundred seventy-six retired military officers, including 33 four-star generals and admirals, sent Donald Trump a letter urging him to leave the torture tactic of waterboarding in America’s past.

Prominent names such as Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former head of the Joint Special Operations Command, and Adm. William McRaven, who lead the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, signed the letter, sent Jan. 6 and recently obtained by the The New York Times. Citing “six thousand years” of combined military experience, they call waterboarding “unnecessary,” “counterproductive,” and a violation of “our core values as a nation.”

Obama apparently hasn't decided what sort of mess in Syria he wants to hand over to Trump. Erdogan is pissed because the US won't bomb al-Bab and has threatened to kick the US out of the strategic Incirlik air base, so the US is making a lot of noise about flying over al-Bab as if it is something that should satisfy Erdogan. Meanwhile, Obama is trying to figure out if he wants to piss off Erdogan even more by making direct arms shipments to the Syrian Kurds, who are the US's only really effective battlefield ally.

U.S. increases support for Turkish military operations in Syria

U.S. aircraft have begun regular aerial intelligence surveillance in support of Turkey’s offensive against the Islamic State in northwestern Syria, in anticipation of increased U.S. support for the flailing Turkish military operation around the town of al-Bab.

The increased support comes after weeks of U.S. military and diplomatic talks with Turkish counterparts, and Russian airstrikes backing the Turkish offensive. ...

Decisions to increase support come as the Obama administration is also in the final stages of weighing direct weapons shipments to U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces moving toward the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa.

Turkey, which considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group allied with Turkey’s own Kurdish separatists, has warned the United States against aiding the group. Weapons shipments to the YPG, which composes the majority of what the United States calls the Syrian Democratic Forces, are now funneled indirectly through Iraq in deference to Turkish concerns.

Arming the Kurds is one of a handful of national security decisions the administration will have to make in the next two weeks on what it sees as important, ongoing operations that it fears President-elect Donald Trump will alter or discontinue.

Greece: severe weather places refugees at risk and government under fire

Thousands of refugees are enduring freezing temperatures in flimsy tents across Greece as a result of the arctic blast that has swept across Europe, triggering criticism abroad and putting the government on the defensive.

In a robust exchange in parliament the migration policy minister, Yannis Mouzalas, conceded that people trapped in the country were living in appalling conditions exacerbated by severe cold weather and unprecedented snowfall nationwide.

“The situation in the hot spots is very bad,” he said. “Conditions on the islands are awful.”

The government has faced severe criticism over conditions in reception centres, which pose health and safety risks in the depths of winter. ...

Temperatures have plunged to –5C on Lesbos, where authorities have struggled to cope with refugee numbers that surpassed capacity long ago. In other parts of Greece, including the southern island of Crete, the cold snap has seen temperatures drop to an unprecedented –14C. In the Attica region surrounding Athens – where efforts have been under way to place people in rented apartments – sub-zero temperatures were also recorded with snow blanketing ancient monuments.

PLO threatens to revoke recognition of Israel if US embassy moves to Jerusalem

Senior Palestinian officials have warned that the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s recognition of Israel – one of the key pillars of the moribund Oslo peace agreements – is in danger of being revoked if Donald Trump moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership is also calling for protests in mosques and churches on Friday and Sunday to object to the move, calling for opposition to the plan “from Pakistan to Tehran, from Lebanon to Oman”.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told reporters on Tuesday that any move to relocate the US embassy would provoke a reaction. “One of the measures we are considering seriously is the issue of mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel. [It] is not valid any more doing this,” he said referring to the proposed embassy move.

The warning came amid increasingly stark warnings over the risk of an “explosion of violence” in the region if the US embassy is moved, and after Abbas himself wrote to Trump to reconsider, citing the dangers in the move.

In his letter – disclosed on Monday and also copied to other world leaders – Abbas told Trump moving the embassy “will likely have [a] disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region, since Israel’s decision to annex East Jerusalem contradicts with international law”.

Why China is so rattled over Taiwan leader’s visit to Houston

China delivered yet another stern warning to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday night, saying in the state-run Global Times tabloid that it would “take revenge” if the incoming president abandoned its decades-old “One China” policy toward Taiwan.

The latest threat was delivered in an editorial in the tough-talking Times, which is no stranger to bluster, on the subject of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover visit in the U.S. when she met with high-ranking Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, en route to a diplomatic tour of Central America.

“If Trump reneges on the One China policy after taking office, the Chinese people will demand the government take revenge,” read the editorial in the influential paper, which is controlled by the ruling Communist Party but does not reflect official government policy.

“There is no room for bargaining.” ...

Beijing is particularly wary of Tsai, who assumed office in May last year, suspecting she may want to push for formal independence.

Preventing such a move is China’s “top national security priority,” said Kristian McGuire, a Washington-based research analyst and associate editor of Taiwan Security Research.

Best Buy National Repair Techs Routinely Search Customer Devices, Act as “Paid Informers” for FBI

Did you know that Best Buy’s central computer repair facility — their so-called “Geek Squad” — contains at least three employees who are also regular informers for the FBI? And that these employees routinely search through computers and other devices that Best Buy customers send in for repair? And when they find something they think the FBI would be interested in, they turn over the information for rewards of up to $500?

That’s a sideline business you probably didn’t imagine existed — outside of the old Soviet Union or communist East Germany. ...

[See links to mainstream coverage here and here - which lead to questions like these:]

How common is the practice of paid FBI informants spying on fellow citizens in the ordinary performance of their jobs?

Are other computer repair companies and facilities similarly infected (infiltrated) by government agents?

Are other businesses also infiltrated to this degree?

Are “sex crimes” the only activity paid FBI informers watch for?

Is political activity subject to this kind of spying?

How much will this practice widen under AG Beauregard Sessions and President Trump?

This is an excellent essay, well worth reading in full.

The Law Says a Civilian Must Run the Pentagon. Does Gen. Mattis Deserve an Exception?

Why has Donald Trump picked so many generals for his cabinet? A few popular theories: Trump has patterned himself on the movie “Patton”; he spent his boyhood years at New York Military Academy; he likes the martial machismo of gold-braided uniforms; he needs to balance the ruthless image he cultivated on the “Apprentice” with a nod to sacrifice and service.

In a speech last month at the Fort Myers Officers’ Club, Michael Hayden, the former head of the NSA and CIA, suggested that Trump’s overrepresentation of the military in his appointments was simply due to a lack of a better alternative.

“Many in the power ministry establishment, the foreign policy establishment, have signed letters: Never Trump,” said Hayden, who himself called Trump “erratic” and signed a letter saying that Trump would be “a dangerous president.” ...

The waiver of retired Marine General James Mattis will require 60 votes in the Senate, 10 more than the simple majority needed to confirm a presidential appointment. Democrats, who hold 46 seats, could block it. But so far only one Democratic senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, has come out against the waiver, calling civilian control of the military “fundamental to the American democracy.”

Trump’s choices for defense (James Mattis), homeland security (John Kelly), and national security adviser (Michael Flynn, who does not require Senate confirmation) are all retired generals. His interior secretary (Ryan Zinke) was a Navy SEAL commander; his CIA director (Mike Pompeo) was an Army captain who graduated first in his class at West Point. Before approving a cabinet with such heavy representation from the military, senators may want to consider whether Trump is simply selecting for a value that is uniquely prized by the military: following orders.

Keiser Report: Trump Tweetstorm

House Republicans revive obscure rule that allows them to slash the pay of individual federal workers to $1

House Republicans this week reinstated an arcane procedural rule that enables lawmakers to reach deep into the budget and slash the pay of an individual federal worker — down to $1 — a move that threatens to upend the 130-year-old civil service.

The Holman Rule, named after an Indiana congressman who devised it in 1876, empowers any member of Congress to propose amending an appropriations bill to single out a government employee or cut a specific program.

The use of the rule would not be simple; a majority of the House and the Senate would still have to approve any such amendment. At the same time, opponents and supporters agree that the work of 2.1 million civil servants, designed to be insulated from politics, is now vulnerable to the whims of elected officials. ...

The rule changes the process of passing spending bills by allowing any rank-and-file House member to propose an amendment that would cut a specific federal program or the jobs of specific federal employees, by slashing their salaries or eliminating their positions altogether.

Before the change, an agency’s budget could be cut broadly, but a specific program, employee or groups of employees could not be targeted because of civil service protections.

Restaurants run by labor secretary nominee report 'disturbing' rates of sexual harassment

Two-thirds of female fast food workers at restaurants operated by Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s controversial nomination for US labor secretary, experienced sexual harassment at work, a rate much higher than the industry average, a stinging advocacy survey has claimed.

Many female workers, according to the research conducted by Restaurant Opportunities Center (Roc) United, have been harassed by customers referencing the highly sexualised advertising campaigns Puzder has championed as CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of chains including Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s.

“Customers have asked why I don’t dress like the women in the commercials,” one Tennessee-based Hardee’s employee told researchers.

“I continually get notes left on tables from customers, customers flirt or ask me out,” said another Carl’s Jr employee in California. “I have also been followed outside the store by customers.”

Puzder, CEO of the billion-dollar company since 2000, has staunchly defended his company’s notorious advertising that often features scantily dressed women eating burgers in scenes some have compared to pornography, arguing in 2011: “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.”

ACLU & NAACP: Jeff Sessions Unfit for Post Defending Civil Rights & Enforcing Laws on Discrimination

Jeff Sessions confirmation hearing to shine light on history of racism claims

Donald Trump’s nominee for US attorney general will be forced later on Tuesday to defend a career dogged by claims of racism and bigotry, as Democrats begin a struggle to block cabinet appointments made by the president-elect.

Jeff Sessions, a law-and-order Alabama conservative loathed by civil rights activists, is due to be questioned by senators at the first confirmation hearing of an overloaded week in Washington, where Republicans are moving to steamroller opposition to nine of Trump’s contentious selections.

Democratic Senate leaders have accused Trump of trying to “jam through unvetted nominees”, while in an extraordinary statement, the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics condemned the “vote-a-rama” strategy as unprecedented in its four-decade existence. ...

The selection of Sessions, who was denied a federal judgeship 30 years ago amid explosive allegations of racial discrimination, has met especially strong opposition from campaigners distressed by the senator’s record on a wide range of issues. ...

The Senate must vote to approve a president’s major appointments. As the minority, Democrats will be unable to block any of Trump’s picks who receive full Republican support. Sessions, who has cultivated deep relationships with colleagues during 20 years in the upper chamber, is likely to be approved.

Lewis vs. Sessions

Democratic senators have requested that Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus be allowed to testify at the Jan. 10 confirmation hearing of Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, who has faced allegations of racism in the past.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, agreed to the request from top Democrat Dianne Feinstein last week, as long as civilian witnesses can testify before the Congressional Black Caucus lawmakers at the hearing, despite a tradition of lawmakers testifying in court before outside witnesses.

Democrats see this break in tradition as an insult to caucus members and a way for Republicans to distract from the testimony of Lewis, a respected longtime congressman and civil rights leader. ...

In the days before his hearing, Sessions has been accused of exaggerating his record as a civil rights lawyer. In an opinion piece by civil rights lawyers J. Gerald Hebert, Joseph D. Rich, and William Yeomans, they say Sessions mischaracterized his record in the questionnaire he filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee. These lawyers worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the 1980s, when the four civil rights cases Sessions listed among his 10 most significant cases as a lawmaker were being litigated, and they say Sessions’ role in these cases was small.

Jared Kushner to Serve as Trump Senior Adviser

President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who emerged as a key figure in the Republican's successful 2016 campaign, will be named senior adviser to the president, the campaign announced Monday. ...

Kushner was an influential behind the scenes confidant to his father-in-law during last year's election and has continued to be a leading voice in Trump's transition to the White House. But a number of legal questions potentially complicate the billionaire real estate developer's role in the incoming administration.

"Mr. Kushner is committed to complying with federal ethics laws and we have been consulting with the Office of Government Ethics regarding the steps he would take," Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement.

Kushner will resign from his company, divest "substantial assets," and recuse himself from matters that would impact his financial interests, Gorelick said. His remaining assets will be purchased by a trust.

But he may also be challenged on a federal anti-nepotism law aimed at preventing officials from appointing relatives to government positions.

The law prohibits elected officials from appointing relatives to Cabinet positions, but may not apply to a job as White House adviser. However that is not completely certain.

Party of no

As the new Republican Congress enters its second week, Democrats are divided over how to best confront the incoming administration: say no or make deals.

Scores of liberal activists temporarily stunned by November’s election results have roared back in recent weeks to anoint themselves “The Resistance” to Donald Trump. A progressive “Tea Party,” they argue, will slow down Trump’s agenda but also pave a path to political victory, as the Republicans’ tea party did in the Obama administration. And there are increasing signs that congressional Democrats will follow the grassroots anger and take up the “party of no” mantle they once decried. ...

The Senate will become a focal point for any legislative opposition since Republicans only have a 52-vote majority and a lot of legislation will require 60 votes to break a filibuster. In his first week as Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer told CNN that “the only way we’re going to work with [Trump] is if he moves completely in our direction and abandons his Republican colleagues.” ...

Hostility toward Trump is already at such high levels among progressive activists that Democrats in Congress may feel obligated to fall in line behind their base. If they don’t, many on the left stand ready to challenge them in congressional primaries the way conservative tea party activists did in 2010.

Ticking Carbon Clock Warns We Have One Year to Avert Climate Catastrophe

We may only have one year remaining before we lock in 1.5ºC of warming—the ideal goal outlined in the Paris climate agreement—after which we'll see catastrophic and irreversible climate shifts, many experts have warned.

That's according to the ticking carbon budget clock created by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). The clock's countdown now shows that only one year is left in the world's carbon budget before the planet heats up more than 1.5º over pre-industrial temperatures.

That's under the most pessimistic calculations. According to the most optimistic prediction, we have four years to kick our carbon habit and avert 1.5º of warming.

And to limit warming to 2ºC—the limit agreed upon in the Paris climate accord—we have nine years to act under the most pessimistic scenario, and 23 years to act under the most optimistic.

"So far, there is no track record for reducing emissions globally," explained Fabian Löhe, spokesperson for MCC, in an email to Common Dreams. "Instead, greenhouse gas emissions have been rising at a faster pace during the last decade than previously—despite growing awareness and political action across the globe. Once we have exhausted the carbon budget, every ton of CO2 that is released by cars, buildings, or industrial plants would need to be compensated for during the 21st century by removing the CO2 from the atmosphere again. Generating such 'negative emissions' is even more challenging and we do not know today at which scale we might be able to do that."

Indian Point nuclear plant in New York will close after dozens of 'safety events'

The Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York, which last year leaked radioactive material into groundwater near New York City, will close by April 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.

“For 15 years, I have been deeply concerned by the continuing safety violations at Indian Point, especially given its location in the largest and most densely populated metropolitan region in the country,” Cuomo said. “I am proud to have secured this agreement with Entergy [the plant’s operator] to responsibly close the facility 14 years ahead of schedule, to protect the safety of all New Yorkers.”

The plant has had 40 “safety events”, “operational events”, and shutdowns since 2012. The shutdowns have exposed apparent fragility in the nuclear facility’s workings: in December 2015 the plant was shut down for three days after droppings from a “large bird” caused an arc between power lines and a transmission tower. In April 2016, Entergy admitted it had found that bolts holding together the interior of one of Indian Point’s reactors were damaged and, in some cases, missing.

Entergy also came under fire in 2016 after the Guardian published a safety assessment of proposed natural gas pipelines to be built by energy pipeline company Spectra on Indian Point property. The assessment, provided to the Guardian by engineer Paul Blanch and obtained through a freedom of information act (Foia), was partly hand-drawn and did not adequately account for the damage to the plant that could result from a breach of the lines.

Tilikum and Granny are dead.

Granny, the matriarch of a wild orca population close to Vancouver and Seattle, may have been as old as 105. She was studied for 40 years as researchers unravelled why orcas are one of only three mammals – with short-finned pilot whales and us – known to experience the menopause. Orca matriarchs, scientists learned, have a crucial role in guiding a pod, taking care of other females’ calves, and even feeding adult males.

Granny was also a symbol of freedom during the most disastrous period of human-cetacean relations, dodging the “capture kings” of the 1960s and 70s who grabbed hundreds of killer whales and placed them in aquariums for our amusement.

Tilikum embodied this cruelty. Snatched from Icelandic waters aged two as recently as 1983, he was transported first to a Canadian marine park and then to SeaWorld in the US. One former trainer estimates this impressive alpha male was the largest cetacean ever to be held in captivity.

In one of the most carefully worded obituaries ever written, SeaWorld paid tribute to 36-year-old Tilikum’s “long and enriching life”. It was “long” by the standards of captivity: analysis of 201 captive orcas found a median survival of just 6.1 years. And the “enrichment” must refer to the human pleasure taken from inspiring encounters with this caged beast. ... While in captivity, he was implicated in the deaths of three humans, including his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, in 2010.

One hundred million people have watched Blackfish, the documentary about Tilikum that takes the basic premise that if you were taken from your mother and reduced to a life chewing a concrete cage, you might become slightly psychotic. The film sparked a boycott of SeaWorld, and last year the “theatrical killer whale experience” at its San Diego park closed. Orca entertainments continue at other SeaWorld parks.

Sandpipers go the extra 8,000 miles to have as much sex as possible

A bird smaller than a city pigeon has been recorded flying 13,000km (8,000 miles) in just one month to have sex with as many females as possible

In behaviour never witnessed before, male pectoral sandpipers were observed travelling to as many as 24 different “breeding sites” in northern Alaska within a single season, a team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature. ...

A breeding season lasts a mere four to six weeks.

The average bird covered some 3,000km (further than flying from Paris to Moscow) – but one particularly determined specimen was recorded flying 13,045km in just four weeks.

And this was after the birds, which are about 21cm (8.3in) long and weigh about 100g (3.5oz), journeyed halfway across the globe from South America, where they overwinter, to their Alaskan breeding grounds.

Also of Interest

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

US Intel Agencies Try to Strong-Arm Trump into War With Russia

U.S. Decline to Banana Republic Accelerates as Trump Places Son-in-Law Jared Kushner in White House

Bernie Sanders Assumes Mantle as Progressive Leader in CNN Town Hall

Saudi Arabia’s dream of becoming the dominant Arab and Muslim power in the world has gone down in flames

Thomas Friedman-style globalization has failed. We need internationalism

Wall Street’s Win-Win with Trump

Women Visiting New York City Jails Describe a Pattern of Invasive, Humiliating Strip Searches

Your private medical data is for sale – and it's driving a business worth billions

No Right to Free Water, Except for Nestlé

Jill Stein: Running for president showed me how our elections are broken.

UK Labour leader wants “maximum wage” law to stop inequality

A Little Night Music

Robert Pete Williams - On My Way From Texas

Robert Pete Williams - I'm Lonesome Blues

Robert Pete Williams - Louise

Robert Pete Williams - Dyin' Soul

Robert Pete Williams, Guitar Welch and Hogman Maxey - John Henry

Robert Pete Williams - Rolling Stone

Robert Pete Williams - Free Again