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"When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. But they say they don't care about their lives. You have to take out their families."

-- Donald Trump

News and Opinion

White House walks back assertion military won't target US citizens overseas

The White House on Tuesday walked back its assertion that the military will never target U.S. citizens in overseas operations.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters earlier in the day that “no American citizen will ever be targeted” when asked whether the Trump administration would deliberately go after U.S.-born people with ties to extremists.

The statement represented a break with policy set under the Obama administration.

But a White House official later clarified that “U.S. policy regarding the possible targeting of American citizens has not changed.”

The official cited former Attorney General Eric Holder’s legal justification for using lethal force against suspected terrorists with U.S. citizenship, saying the military could target them if the government believes they pose an “imminent” threat to the country.

Uh, How About NOBODY Should Be Authorized To Assassinate US Citizens

There’s a viral copypasta going around social media claiming that the National Security Council position President Trump is attempting to push Steve Bannon into entails authority over a secretive government “kill list” which authorizes assassinations of enemies of the US government, including assassinations of American citizens. 

Unlike 99 percent of all social media copy/paste trends, this one is actually grounded in fact. The United States government can and does assassinate people with impunity, including US citizens, and the National Security Council is indeed a fundamental part of its process in doing so. In 2011, US-born citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was executed without trial via US drone strike in Yemen, and two weeks later another drone strike killed his 16 year-old son, also a US citizen. The panel responsible for these decisions conducts itself with total opacity, giving the US public no insight at all into how, when and why the decision to assassinate someone is made, all perfectly legally. Reuters reports that according to an unnamed official, these extrajudicial killings are “permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself.” ...

For God’s sake, liberals. Wake up already. We have here a golden opportunity to shine a big, bright light on a truly reprehensible practice by the US government that everyone wanted to hurry up and forget about under President Obama, and we’re letting it slip through our fingers by making it about some alt-right jerk who probably can’t get on the panel anyway. It’s fine to ring alarms about Bannon, but can we please stop pretending he’s the most concerning thing about the issue in question? Even if you’re fine with the extrajudicial killings of foreigners, pure egoic self-interest should propel you to fight tooth and claw against a policy which enables your government to kill you with impunity and opacity under the “Trust us, we’re the good guys” post-9/11 authoritarian schtick Bush lulled us into accepting.

What makes this such a perfect opportunity is the way all the establishment fearmongering about Trump can be used in our favor to illustrate just how horrific executive powers have gotten under Bush and Obama. When it was Obama assassinating people liberals were able to compartmentalize away from the jarring reality of what was happening, thinking “Well he seems like a nice guy and he looks good in a suit, and isn’t his family beautiful? What breed is their new dog? I should really google that,” but now that those same exact powers have been transferred to Trump people can suddenly see them since they no longer belong to a trusted member of their pack.

It may only take 3.5% of the population to topple a dictator – with civil resistance

Many people across the United States are despondent about the new president – and the threat to democracy his rise could represent. But they shouldn’t be. At no time in recorded history have people been more equipped to effectively resist injustice using civil resistance. ...

In fact, it is hard to identify a progressive cause in the United States that has advanced without a civil resistance movement behind it.

This does not mean nonviolent resistance always works. Of course it does not, and short-term setbacks are common too. But long-term change never comes with submission, resignation, or despair about the inevitability and intractability of the status quo.

Nonviolent resistance works not by melting the heart of the opponent but by constraining their options. A leader and his inner circle cannot pass and implement policies alone. They require cooperation and obedience from many people to carry out plans and policies.

In the US on Tuesday, dozens of lawmakers have said they will boycott confirmation votes for Trump nominees. Numerous police departments countrywide have announced that they will not comply with unethical federal policies (particularly regarding deportations). And the federal government employs more than 3 million civil servants—people on whose continued support the US government relies to implement its policies. Many such civil servants have already begun important conversations about how to dissent from within the administration. They, too, provide an important check on power. ...

Historical studies suggest that it takes 3.5% of a population engaged in sustained nonviolent resistance to topple brutal dictatorships. If that can be true in Chile under General Pinochet and Serbia under Milosevic, a few million Americans could prevent their elected government from adopting inhumane, unfair, destructive or oppressive policies – should such drastic measures ever be needed.

The left is stealing from the right's playbook. Call it the Herbal Tea Party

“We need to stand and fight. We are the majority. Let’s take our country back,” Mimi Fleischman told the crowd outside Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Los Angeles office on Tuesday afternoon.

It was the latest anti-Trump gathering to target congressional Democrats for perceived pusillanimity towards Trump’s embryonic, whirlwind administration.

About 200 protesters had picketed Feinstein’s house in San Francisco after she had voted for four of the president’s cabinet nominees. Then on Tuesday morning the California senator, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, announced she would oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions as US attorney general.

“The pressure is working,” said Daniel Lee, 43, an actor and writer.

One rally speaker, Laura Smith, said congressional Democrats should imitate the blanket opposition their Republican colleagues waged against Barack Obama. “I hated that obstructionism but you know what, it frickin’ worked.”

Activists said they were studying tactics used by the Tea Party, a grassroots movement which yanked the GOP to the right and hardened congressional resistance to Obama. Some have called it the Herbal Tea Party.

Thousands Demand Schumer Do More to Stop Trump

Thousands of protesters gathered outside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) home in New York on Tuesday night, demanding he take a stronger stand against President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees.

Roughly 3,000 people amassed at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn around 6:00pm, then marched to Schumer's apartment near Prospect Park, waving signs that read, "Show Some Spine, Schumer" and "Resist Trump," and chanting, "Wake up, Chuck!" and "Filibuster every bill! Filibuster everything!"

Senate Democrats have been the target of numerous protests and demonstrations since Trump's inauguration, as watchdog groups and activists accused them of being too soft on the president's controversial appointees. ...

Trump's opponents have their eyes set particularly on Schumer, who as Senate Minority Leader has a unique opportunity to set an example for other Democrats, they say.

Sally Yates firing and Trump cabinet cause partisan 'bad blood' to boil over

Republicans defended the president’s ban on entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries and his decision to fire the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, on Monday night for refusing to enforce it. Democrats boycotted votes on two of Trump’s cabinet nominees and braced for a long battle over his imminent pick for the supreme court.

With both sides digging in, there seemed little prospect of an end to what former president Barack Obama once described as the “rancour and suspicion” of hyper-partisan politics in Washington. Trump campaigned on a pledge to fix a broken system. ...

On Tuesday morning Senate Democrats delayed the consideration of Tom Price, Trump’s pick for health secretary, and Steven Mnuchin, his choice for treasury secretary. Democrats refused to attend votes on the committees tasked with reviewing the two nominees, who rank among Trump’s more controversial selections, saying Price and Mnuchin had misled them in their confirmation hearings.

Democrats demanded that Price, a congressman from Georgia, and Mnuchin, a former partner of Goldman Sachs, appear before the committees for further questioning. The theatrics amounted to the only options at the Democrats’ disposal to block Trump’s cabinet appointees from their position in the Senate minority. ...

It remained unclear when the votes might be rescheduled. Democrats could continue to stall indefinitely under rules requiring that at least one of them be present for the relevant committees to hold a vote.

Boycotting Mnuchin for Treasury: Democrats Had Strong Grounds

The U.S. Treasury Secretary is one of the four most powerful posts in the U.S. government, overseeing a sprawling network of functions that impact the average American every single day. Putting a man or woman in that post who has exhibited impeccable integrity throughout their career should be the sworn duty of every member of the U.S. Senate, which oversees the confirmation hearing process. ...

As the tawdry details of Mnuchin’s business dealings unfolded in the initial confirmation hearing on January 19 and it became clear that Mnuchin had brazenly withheld disclosures on tens of millions of dollars in problematic assets, it also became clear that Republicans were unfazed by the shocking revelations and would attempt to vote him into office anyway.

Rules Don't Apply to GOP as Finance Committee Approves Nominees Without Dems

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee suspended the rules Wednesday morning to vote on cabinet nominees Steven Mnuchin and Tom Price without any Democrats present.

The Democratic members of the committee boycotted the votes on Tuesday, charging Mnuchin, who is nominated for treasury secretary, and Price, who is President Donald Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, with misleading the panel during confirmation hearings.

When Democrats also refused to show up on Wednesday, Republicans agreed by unanimous consent to change the committee's standing rules, "which normally require at least one member of each party to be in attendance for committee work to proceed," as The Hill explains.

"Steven Mnuchin is such an illegitimate, compromised nominee that Republicans had to change the rules to force through his nomination, just like Mnuchin will change the rules on Wall Street to favor bankers and billionaires at the expense of working families," the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement.

Mnuchin and Price now head to the Senate floor, where tensions are rising.

Meanwhile, news outlets report that Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee employed a similar tactic on Wednesday, boycotting the vote on Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt.

In Just 10 Days, President Trump Has Split the Government Into Warring Factions

... Although this is all new to Americans, there is ample precedent overseas. I spent most of my life reporting on the breakdown of process and laws in foreign countries. The origin of the chaos is the assumption to power of a vastly inexperienced leader who is fantastically rich, psychologically unstable, unusually bombastic and trusts only a few people, mostly family members. This profile has elements of former and current rulers of Italy (Silvio Berlusconi), Uzbekistan (Islam Karimov), Kazakhstan (Nursultan Nazarbayev), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Mobutu Sese Seko), Venezuela (Hugo Chavez), Iraq (Saddam Hussein) and Equatorial Guinea (Teodoro Obiang), to name just a few.

One of the things I learned while reporting from some of these countries is that when a war of bureaucracies breaks out, some bureaucracies are far more equal than others — in the sense of truly mattering in determining a nation’s fate. The dissent from within the State Department is significant, but when the normal inter-agency process of modern states breaks down, foreign ministries tend to be left in the cold, carrying out whatever policies are determined by the places where the real power resides: the security ministries and the presidential palace. ...

An unusual appeal went out to federal workers on Monday from a former National Security Council staffer, Laura Rosenberger, who wrote to her former colleagues, “In many ways, you are the last line of defense against illegal, unethical, or reckless actions — which the first week of this administration confirm will abound.” Rosenberger added, “History has shown us that implementation of such policies depends on a compliant bureaucracy of obedient individuals who look the other way do as they are told. Do what bureaucracy does well: slow-roll, obstruct, and constrain. Resist. Refuse to implement anything illegal, unethical, or unconstitutional.

It is a stirring plea but there are many reasons why it might not ignite a rebellion among the legions of bureaucrats who make the government run from day to day. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, asked to respond to the dissent from the State Department officials on Monday, made it clear what the administration thinks of disloyalty. “These career bureaucrats have a problem with it?” he said. “I think they should get with the program or go.” I have heard these sorts of threats before, though not on American soil.

Neil Gorsuch, Trump SCOTUS Pick, Has History of Ruling Against Workers, Women & Regulation

Trump picks Neil Gorsuch for U.S. Supreme Court

Donald Trump announced that Judge Neil Gorsuch is his nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States Tuesday night in a prime time address to the nation. The 49-year-old Gorsuch, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, is a self-professed admirer of the late Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice he would replace. ...

Trump’s consideration and then selection of the judge was widely celebrated in conservative circles. The National Rifle Association called the nomination “outstanding,” the Federalist Society called Gorsuch “exceptional,” and the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru called him “a careful and thoughtful judge whose jurisprudence is squarely in the mainstream of legal conservatism.” ...

Gorsuch has lauded Scalia’s originalist approach that favors a strict interpretation of the Constitution and the law. Arguably his highest-profile decision involved Hobby Lobby, which cited religious objections in refusing to provide contraception to employees under the Affordable Care Act. Voting with the majority, Gorsuch sided with Hobby Lobby. Later, the Supreme Court largely upheld that decision.

Democrats are still fuming over the Republican obstruction of Obama nominee Merrick Garland, and many are itching to filibuster Gorsuch. Some Democratic senators immediately expressed their opposition following the announcement.

BREAKING: Donald Trump just named Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for #SCOTUS.

He’s a disastrous choice for #SCOTUSnominee. Here’s why: pic.twitter.com/xppH5sIjIT

— Feminist Majority (@FemMajority) February 1, 2017

Why Democrats should hold the line and filibuster against Neil Gorsuch

... Already Democrats have signaled they will fight the nomination with a filibuster. Moments after Trump’s announcement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement “the Senate must insist upon 60-votes for any Supreme Court nominee, a bar that was met by each of President Obama’s nominees.”

Yet he also, notably, made his objection about Gorsuch’s record, adding, “Gorsuch has repeatedly sided with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women’s rights, and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent Justice on the Court.”

Gorsuch’s record is surely as objectionable to any good Democrat as Scalia’s textualist approach to interpreting the constitution ever was. But in fighting Gorsuch, Democrats have a chance to highlight more than that.

They have a chance to shed light on the fact that not only have Republicans successfully used gerrymandering and voter ID laws to skew electoral outcomes in their favor – they’ve also used every partisan trick in the book to get one more of their own in on the court that’s supposed to stand above partisan warfare.

Trump has already urged Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to do away with the filibuster if Democrats mount a sustained resistance to his pick. But McConnell so far, has signaled some resistance to doing so, telling Politico, “that’s not a presidential decision. That’s a Senate decision,” and suggesting Democrats should refrain from even requiring 60 votes.

But Schumer is right to require them, and what’s more, his fellow Democrats should hold the line.

No senator who believes individual rights are reserved to the people, not the government, can support Gorsuch’s nomination.

— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) February 1, 2017

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee probably won’t decide cases this term

President Trump is expected Tuesday night to announce his nominee for Supreme Court justice, who will fill the spot on the bench left vacant after the death of Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago. But it remains to be seen when the nominee, who stands to be a crucial tie-breaker in cases that would otherwise result in 4-4 splits, will actually be able to decide cases.

The last Supreme Court justice to be confirmed was Elena Kagan, an Obama nominee in 2010; it took the Democratic-majority Senate 87 days to decide on her. If today’s Republican-majority Senate were to take that long, Trump’s pick, who will almost certainly join the court’s conservative bloc, would miss the traditional window for hearing oral arguments, which ends on April 26.

While there is no law barring a justice from deciding cases in which he or she was not present for oral arguments, tradition dictates that justices don’t decide those cases.

Nine Unanimous 'Nays' from Democrats as GOP-Run Committee Approves Jeff Sessions

Followed by shouts of "Shame! Shame!" in the gallery, and with no Democratic members voting in favor, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted to recommend confirmation for Jeff Sessions to become the next U.S. Attorney General.

After stalling tactics and vociferous objections from Democratic members (some of which prompted contentious exchanges among lawmakers), the final vote was 11-9 along strict party lines.

President Bannon?: Racist, Islamophobic Breitbart Leader Consolidates Power in Trump White House

US-backed Syrian alliance says gets more US support since Trump took office

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State has supplied its Syrian allies with armored vehicles for the first time, expanding support since U.S. President Donald Trump came to office, a spokesman for the Syrian groups told Reuters on Tuesday.

The armored vehicles and troop carriers had arrived four or five days ago, said Talal Silo, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia.

Former Senior FBI Counterterrorism Agent Slams Trump on Torture and Muslim Ban

A veteran U.s. counterterrorism agent says that President Donald Trump’s executive order banning people from seven majority Muslim countries will harm the fight against terrorist organizations and make it more difficult for intelligence agencies to maintain partnerships with foreign partners in the battle against ISIS and al Qaeda.

“Any kind of blacklisting countries like this will probably ruin effective local partnerships that are already in place,” said Ali Soufan, a former FBI special agent who served as one of the central U.S. officers targeting al Qaeda in the years leading up to 9/11. “When you’re operating in conflict zones in places like Yemen or in places like Iraq or Syria or Libya, you need local support,” he told The Intercept in an interview. “You need local help. You need people to assist you, to translate for you, to show you the lay of the land. Unfortunately, if this ban is seen as an anti-Muslim ban, or if this ban is blacklisting a whole entire population, that will end up fighting back on the much-needed, local cooperation that we depend on.” ...

Referring to Trump’s overt support for torture, Soufan said, “He’s not putting any lipstick on a pig. He’s just trying to sell a pig to the nation. I think there is overwhelming support for the idea that torture is not only illegal, but it’s also immoral and ineffective.”

Pentagon Botches Online Fight Against ISIS

A critical national security program known as "WebOps" is part of a vast psychological operation that the Pentagon says is effectively countering an enemy that has used the internet as a devastating tool of propaganda. But an Associated Press investigation found the management behind WebOps is so beset with incompetence, cronyism and flawed data that multiple people with direct knowledge of the program say it's having little impact.

Several current and former WebOps employees cited multiple examples of civilian Arabic specialists who have little experience in counter-propaganda, cannot speak Arabic fluently and have so little understanding of Islam they are no match for the Islamic State online recruiters.

It's hard to establish rapport with a potential terror recruit when — as one former worker told the AP — translators repeatedly mix up the Arabic words for "salad" and "authority." That's led to open ridicule on social media about references to the "Palestinian salad."

Four current or former workers told the AP that they had personally witnessed WebOps data being manipulated to create the appearance of success and that they had discussed the problem with many other employees who had seen the same. Yet the companies carrying out the program for the military's Central Command in Tampa have dodged attempts to implement independent oversight and assessment of the data.

Trump order may give Pentagon bigger role in civilian cybersecurity

The Department of Homeland Security fears losing its primacy in civilian cybersecurity through an impending White House executive order, according to current and former officials, raising concerns about digital security in the Donald Trump era becoming a stalking horse for surveillance.

Trump had been expected on Tuesday afternoon to issue an executive order on cybersecurity, a long-forecast first venture into a subject central to rising public, security and international anxieties after mass hacks of big companies and the US government itself. But the White House abruptly told pool reporters that the signing was cancelled without explanation.

Draft versions of the order that have leaked have elevated the Pentagon to a co-equal role with DHS over cybersecurity, which would give the military, with its capabilities and interests in surveillance, a deeper role into civilian digital protection than ever before. ...

Some across the administration – none of whom would speak for the record or for the identification of their agencies, for fear of reprisal – believe the recent orders are moving the mammoth homeland security department, reluctantly created by George W Bush after the 9/11 attacks, into an immigration enforcement agency with vestigial roles in counterterrorism, cybersecurity and natural disaster response.

Others consider that fear overblown. They believe Trump is focusing the department first on central campaign promises – an immigration crackdown and a de facto Muslim ban – though not at permanent expense of the department’s other responsibilities.

Will Trump Ally with Russia and Target Iran?

Russia accuses cybersecurity experts of treasonous links to CIA

Two of Moscow’s top cybersecurity officials are facing treason charges for cooperating with the CIA, according to a Russian news report.

The accusations add further intrigue to a mysterious scandal that has had the Moscow rumour mill working in overdrive for the past week, and come not long after US intelligence accused Russia of interfering in the US election and hacking the Democratic party’s servers.

Sergei Mikhailov was deputy head of the FSB security agency’s Centre for Information Security. His arrest was reported in a series of leaks over the past week, along with that of his deputy and several civilians, but Tuesday’s news went much further.

“Sergei Mikhailov and his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchayev, are accused of betraying their oath and working with the CIA,” Interfax said, quoting a source familiar with the investigation. ...

The story did not make it clear whether the pair were accused of being CIA agents or merely passing on information through intermediaries.

Austria moves to ban the burqa

Austria has become the latest European country to move to ban the burqa, as the government attempts to counter surging support for a populist far-right opposition party.

The ban on wearing full-face Islamic veils such as the niqab or burqa in public was part of a package of planned reforms announced late Monday. The proposals were contained in a policy document laying out a vision for the country as an “open society that requires open communication.”

“Full-face veils in public places are the opposite of that, and will be banned,” said the document.

The niqab is an Islamic face veil that leaves the area around the eyes unobstructed, although a separate eye veil can be worn with it. The burqa is an even more concealing garment – a one-piece covering the face and body, often with a mesh veil worn over the eyes.

Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz, whose center-right People’s Party had pushed senior coalition partner the Social Democratic Party for the ban, said that by prohibiting “anti-social symbols” like burqas, the country would be able to better integrate migrants.

The policy document also said the government would consider a broader ban on public employees wearing the Islamic headscarf or other religious symbols, stating that the reforms must ensure that the state “presents itself in a world-open and religiously neutral manner.”

Dakota Access pipeline moves to final stage in army corps approval process

The Dakota Access pipeline is in the final process of getting approvals to complete construction across the Missouri river, according to North Dakota senator John Hoeven.

The acting secretary of the army has directed the army corps of engineers to proceed with an easement necessary to finish the pipeline, Don Canton, spokesman for Hoeven, told the Associated Press. The easement “isn’t quite issued yet, but they plan to approve it” within days, he added.

A spokesman for the US army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer representing the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, cautioned in an email that the battle wasn’t over. “People are jumping the gun, no easement has been issued,” he said, adding that he had confirmed that with the justice department.

But Hasselman added: “I’d say it’s a near certainty that they go ahead. It will be illegal of them to do so, of course, so [we] will have to litigate that.”

The Standing Rock tribe, supported by indigenous activists and environmental groups across the globe, has long argued that the $3.8bn project threatens sacred lands and the regional water supply.

Scott Pruitt Will Make America Great Again — for Polluters

'Biggest Oil Find' of 2016 Puts Crown Jewel Texas Oasis in Crosshairs for Fracking

Travelers crossing the long stretch of arid desert spanning West Texas might stumble across an extraordinarily improbable sight — a tiny teeming wetlands, a sliver of marsh that seems like it should sit by the ocean but actually lays over 450 miles from the nearest coast.

This cienega, or desert-wetlands (an ecosystem so unusual that its name sounds like a contradiction), lies instead near a massive swimming pool and lake, all fed by clusters of freshwater springs that include the deepest underwater cave ever discovered in the U.S., stretching far under the desert's dry sands.

Famous as “the oasis of West Texas,” Balmorhea State Park now hosts over 150,000 visitors a year, drawn by the chance to swim in the cool waters of the park's crystal-blue pool, which is fed by up to 28 million gallons of water a day flowing from the San Solomon springs. The pool's steady 72 to 76 degree Fahrenheit temperatures make the waters temptingly cool in the hot Texas summer and surprisingly warm in the winter, locals say — part of the reason it's been called “the crown jewel of the desert.” ..

In September, Apache Corp. announced a major new oil and gas find in Reeves County, a claimed $80 billion discovery that could turn the region's fate on its head. ...

The prospect of allowing thousands of wells to be fracked where water is so scarce raises fundamental questions about what natural resources Americans are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of fracked oil and gas, Matta and other Balmorhea locals say. Though the drilling industry long denied that fracking puts water wells at risk of contamination, a major EPA study released in December concluded that drilling and fracking can pose serious risks to people's drinking water, and has already left some of the country's water supplies “unusable.” ...

Blazing natural gas flares that light up the evening skies accompanied the earliest stages of the drilling which Apache plans for here. The company estimates that it will pump over 3 billion barrels of oil from the field, which it dubbed Alpine High, at $50 a barrel, plus 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. To put that in context, the industry predicts about three times as much oil and gas from the Marcellus Shale — but that prospect stretches across roughly 90,000 square miles, including most of Pennsylvania and into other states, including New York, West Virginia, and Ohio.

By contrast, Apache's Alpine High acreage represents roughly 500 square miles of land, and the oil and gas that the company seeks to drill lies in stacked layers of rock formations underground.

Also of Interest

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

Protest Matters. Protest Works. That's Why So Many Keep Saying It Doesn't.

Like Saudi Arabia, Israel Has a Soft Spot for Sunni Extremism

Who is Neil Gorsuch? A staunch conservative with a background to worry liberals

What Trump’s Supreme Court pick means for the court

Making Sense of Trump’s Immigration Policy Through the Lens of Bannon’s Populist Conservatism

Dangers of Democratic Putin-Bashing

New Memo from State Department Dissent Channel Describes Anguish of Spurned Refugees

Kellyanne Conway Ramps up Trump’s War on the Media

How Colonialism Shaped Modern Inequality

A Little Night Music

Eddie Shaw and The Wolfgang - Hoochie Coochie Man

Eddie Shaw - Riding High

Eddie Shaw & Hubert Sumlin - Sitting On Top Of The World, My Baby's So Ugly, Out Of Bad Luck

Eddie Shaw - The Things I Used to Do

Eddie Shaw - Blues Dues

Eddie Shaw - Smooth Taste Revisited

Eddie Shaw - Dunkin' Donut Woman

Back porch jamming with Eddie Shaw

Eddie Shaw and Hubert Sumlin - Shake It

Eddie Shaw and the 757 Allstars - Rock This House

Eddie Shaw Howls Again!