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"Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor."

-- Eric Sevareid

News and Opinion

Saudi Arabia rejects US Senate 'interference' in kingdom's affairs

Saudi Arabia has rejected as “interference” a US Senate resolution to end American military support for a Riyadh-led war in Yemen, and another holding its crown prince responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rejects the position expressed recently by the United States Senate, which was based upon unsubstantiated claims and allegations, and contained blatant interferences in the Kingdom’s internal affairs, undermining the Kingdom’s regional and international role,” the statement carried by Saudi Press Agency on Sunday said.

“The Kingdom hopes that it is not drawn into domestic political debates in the United States of America, to avoid any ramifications on the ties between the two countries that could have significant negative impacts on this important strategic relationship.”

From Arizona to Yemen: How Bombs Built by Raytheon in Tucson Killed 31 Civilians in Yemeni Village

After Senate's Passage of War Powers Resolution, Sanders Tees Up Pressure on House to End US Involvement in Yemen

Pleading for a swift end to the nation's complicity "in the worst humanitarian disaster on Earth," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday urged people to put pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan and his fellow Republicans to pass the resolution to end U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia's years-long assault on Yemen.

Sanders's call, made in an email to supporters, comes a day after the Senate passed his War Powers resolution, also sponsored by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), to do just that. "A bipartisan majority spoke with one voice that the status quo is over and we will no longer accept the war crimes being committed in our name," said Murphy, welcoming the vote.

"Here is the truth: by continuing to back Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen with weapons, aerial refueling, and targeting assistance," Sanders writes, "the United States has been complicit in the worst humanitarian disaster on Earth—a war which no one can seriously claim is actually making us safer."

But there's barrier to getting the bill to President Donald Trump to sign, Sanders notes. The U.S. House on Wednesday tucked a provision in to the Farm Bill to effectively prevent a vote on Yemen. "So either something has to change, or the new Congress under [presumptive House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's leadership will have to take it up again in early 2019. Meanwhile, many Yemeni children and families will die," Sanders writes.

"My hope is that if we can put enough pressure on Paul Ryan and the Republicans in Congress, something can change," he continues.

To do that, the senator is urging people to sign on to a petition demanding Ryan and the House vote on legislation to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition's bombing campaign.

Justin Trudeau says Canada is looking to pull out of Saudi arms deal

Canada is looking for a way to end a multibillon-dollar deal to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, according to the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, but the country hasn’t yet figured out how to leave the agreement.

“We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” Trudeau told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, in the latest signal that his government is increasingly likely to terminate the contract.

Following the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and mounting civilian deaths from the war in Yemen, Trudeau has been under increasing pressure from rights groups, academics and policy advisers to cancel the arms deal.

Both Germany and Sweden have cancelled arms contracts with Saudi Arabia following public outrage over the brazen killing of the dissident journalist, but Trudeau has previously said that cancelling the contract would cost the Canadian government billions.

Yellow vests "determined to continue the movement" despite concessions by Emmanuel Macron

Macron's ratings fall further after month of gilets jaunes protests

A month of gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, protests have taken a further toll on the popularity of President Emmanuel Macron, a new poll showed on Sunday, with analysts saying he will be forced to change his style of governing.

Around 66,000 protesters turned out again on Saturday on the fifth round of anti-government demonstrations, which sprung up over diesel taxes last month. The figure was about half the number of the previous weekend, suggesting momentum was waning and the most acute political crisis of Macron’s 19-month presidency was coming to an end. ...

“It is calming down, but what remains of it all is a strong feeling of hatred towards Macron,” said veteran sociologist Herve Le Bras from the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). A major poll by the Ifop group published in Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed Macron’s approval had slipped another two points in the last month, to 23%. The proportion of people who declared themselves “very dissatisfied” by his leadership jumped by six points to 45%.

Voices of the Yellow Vests: "We are just here peacefully, getting tear gassed."

The french protesters known as the “Yellow Vests,” for the safety jackets that have become the emblem of their movement against austerity, income inequality, and the government of President Emmanuel Macron, are hard to describe accurately on a left-right political spectrum.

That has not stopped politicians and activists of all stripes from attempting to claim the movement, but it is worth taking any opportunity to actually listen to the voices of the protesters themselves. So we can be grateful that video journalist Raul Gallego Abellan spent last Saturday in Paris asking a broad spectrum of protesters how they describe the movement themselves, and what they say to observers who want to focus only on the sporadic clashes with the police that broke out along the Champs-Élysées.

What was striking about the protesters Gallego Abellan met and spoke with, he said, was how much more diverse, politically and socially, they were than the largely white, rural members of the movement who took to the streets last month, when the protests were triggered by a planned fuel tax increase and joined by far-right activists. Last weekend, Gallego Abellan said, more left-wing activists, students, ambulance drivers, truck drivers, and others joined the protest. There were also, for the first time, “people from the poor suburbs called the banlieues,” the filmmaker noted, “urban working-class, middle-class, second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.”

On the streets of Paris on Saturday, the central message was that the poor, the working class, and the middle class were being taxed too much to support policies that rewarded the rich. People said they were tired of the political system that had forced them last year to vote for Macron, a former minister and investment banker, just to keep out the far-right National Front candidate, Marine Le Pen.

Macron “misjudged the nature of his mandate when he won,” the British commentator David Runciman argued this week on his “Talking Politics” podcast. “The key election was the first round, not the second round, of the French presidential system, when he won 24 percent of the vote. That’s his support. Everything else has to be coalition-building, everything has to be compromise, and he has governed as the guy who won 66 percent of the vote in the second round.”

Taking French Lessons: The Power of the 'Yellow Vests'

The people of France are currently engaged in a major political battle with their government. But those of us on the outside watching the “Yellow Vests” bring their nation to a standstill are also learning a valuable lesson: how to make politicians bend to your will through relentless activism. Within just a few weeks of widespread and continuous protests, French President Emmanuel Macron has given in to several demands, postponing a planned fuel tax hike and offering both tax cuts and a minimum-wage increase. Macron even issued a mea culpa in a televised address to the French people—an act that American politicians might find humiliating. “The anger is deeper. I feel it is justified in many ways,” he told them. “It is 40 years of malaise that is resurfacing … no doubt over the past year and a half we have not provided answers.”

Through weeks of mass direct action, the French have shown their government who is boss, and elected officials have been forced to accept and acquiesce—at least to an extent. It is a dynamic we can only dream of here in the U.S. ...

In pushing a fuel tax hike, the French government has foisted the responsibility for the problems caused by carbon emissions onto ordinary people instead of targeting transnational corporations like Google and Amazon, which should pay higher taxes to aid the transition to clean energy. Major tech companies are currently exploiting the patchwork of tax codes across Europe, and Amazon even negotiated a settlement with the French government earlier this year for an undisclosed amount in back taxes. France could also reinstate a tax on the rich. Last year, Macron backed out of the so-called Solidarity Tax on Wealth (known by its French acronym ISF) and has thus far ruled out the idea of returning to the days of a direct tax on the wealthiest individuals. ...

The French have taken on Macron—a charismatic, telegenic and purportedly liberal politician who has paid lip service to progressive values while attempting to grow the economy on the backs of ordinary people. We Americans have to contend with both Trump—an authoritarian narcissist and pathological liar with delusions of grandeur—and the Democratic Party, whose milquetoast leadership often takes greater pride in civility over progress. There are already militant actions occurring piecemeal around the U.S. The youth-led movements demanding action on climate change are burgeoning in this country. ... If Americans take a single lesson from the French, it should be to adopt a position of extreme distrust toward the rich and powerful.

Don’t Laugh : It’s Giving Putin What He Wants

The BBC has published an article titled “How Putin’s Russia turned humour into a weapon” about the Kremlin’s latest addition to its horrifying deadly hybrid warfare arsenal: comedy. The article is authored by Olga Robinson, whom the BBC, unhindered by any trace of self-awareness, has titled “Senior Journalist (Disinformation)”. Robinson demonstrates the qualifications and acumen which earned her that title by warning the BBC’s audience that the Kremlin has been using humor to dismiss and ridicule accusations that have been leveled against it by western governments, a “form of trolling” that she reports is designed to “deliberately lower the level of discussion”.

“Russia’s move towards using humour to influence its campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon,” Robinson explains, without speculating as to why Russians might have suddenly begun laughing at their western accusers. She gives no consideration to the possibility that the tightly knit alliance of western nations who suddenly began hysterically shrieking about Russia two years ago have simply gotten much more ridiculous and easier to make fun of during that time.

Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the emergence of a demented media environment wherein everything around the world from French protests to American culture wars to British discontent with the European Union gets blamed on Russia without any facts or evidence. Wherein BBC reporters now correct guests and caution them against voicing skepticism of anti-Russia narratives because the UK is in “an information war” with that nation. Wherein the same cable news Russiagate pundit can claim that both Rex Tillerson’s hiring and his later firing were the result of a Russian conspiracy to benefit the Kremlin. Wherein mainstream outlets can circulate blatantly false information about Julian Assange and unnamed “Russians” and then blame the falseness of that reporting on Russian disinformation. Wherein Pokemon Go, cutesy Facebook memes and $4,700 in Google ads are sincerely cited as methods by which Hillary Clinton’s $1.2 billion presidential campaign was outdone. Wherein conspiracy theories that Putin has infiltrated the highest levels of the US government have been blaring on mainstream headline news for two years with absolutely nothing to show for it to this day. Nope, the only possibility is that the Kremlin suddenly figured out that humor is a thing. ...

Ah well. People are nuts and we’re hurtling toward a direct confrontation with a nuclear superpower. Sometimes there’s nothing else to do but laugh. As Wavy Gravy said, “Keep your sense of humor, my friend; if you don’t have a sense of humor it just isn’t funny anymore.”

North Korea threatens to pull out of denuclearization talks “forever”

North Korea threatened Sunday to withdraw from denuclearization talks “forever” over fresh sanctions imposed by the U.S. Pyongyang claimed the White House had “slandered” Kim Jong Un’s regime “out of sheer malice”, and fabricated charges of money-laundering, cyberattacks and ship-to-ship transfers of fuel in order to impose the new restrictions on regime officials.

A statement, credited to the policy research director of the Institute for American Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and carried by the state-run news agency, said U.S. State Department officials had miscalculated if they thought slapping new sanctions would “drive us into giving up nuclear weapons.”

“It will block the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever — a result desired by no one,” the regime warned, adding that U.S. actions could regress relations to 2017, “which was marked by exchanges of fire.” The warning came after three top Kim aides were sanctioned last week by the U.S. Treasury Department, citing serious human rights abuses and censorship.

North Korea’s statement stands in contrast to recent comments by Trump, who said last week that he was “in no hurry” to conclude negotiations with North Korea, adding that “Kim Jong Un sees it better than anyone and will fully take advantage of it for his people. We are doing just fine!”

Messianic Jewish Lobbying Group Builds Support for U.S.-Funded Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Palestine

A Pro-Israel activist group is quietly pushing lawmakers on Capitol Hill and key officials in the White House to embrace a plan that would entail paying Palestinian residents in the West Bank to move abroad. The plan is a bid to reshape the ethnic and religious population of territories controlled by Israel, according to the head of the group, called the Alliance for Israel Advocacy. If all goes according to the group’s plan, legislation will be released in January, when the new Congress convenes, that will redirect U.S. funds once dedicated to the United Nations for Palestinian humanitarian assistance into a voucher program administered by the Israeli government. A draft summary of the proposal states that the money will help finance the permanent relocation of Palestinians from the West Bank to countries such as Turkey, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, or the United States.

The effort is being championed by the Alliance for Israel Advocacy, a lobbying group formed by the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, a nonprofit that represents Jews who have converted to Christianity but who still practice some Jewish customs. The so-called Messianic Jews broadly share many spiritual beliefs of modern born-again evangelicals.

The Intercept was unable to confirm the Alliance for Israel Advocacy’s accounts of its meetings with Congress and the White House, and the lawmakers whom the group said were considering sponsorship of its legislative effort declined to comment on this story. But Paul Liberman, the executive director of the Alliance for Israel Advocacy, explained the policy plan — and his account of the lobbying push — in an extensive interview with The Intercept. ... Debra Shushan, the director of policy at the group Americans for Peace Now, said that under normal circumstances, any such proposal would never gain traction and would be viewed as comically extreme. But in the Trump era, once unthinkable demands have quickly become policy on Israel and Palestine, leaving Shushan concerned that the Alliance for Israel Advocacy proposal might be more than just a fringe idea.

Netanyahu’s son banned from Facebook over hate speech

The son of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been temporarily banned from Facebook after a series of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian posts the social network said broke its rules on hate speech. The company confirmed the ban after Yair Netanyahu, 27, claimed in a tweet on Sunday that Facebook had blocked him for 24 hours for posting criticism after it removed a post last week in which he called for revenge against “those monsters” following the fatal shooting of two Israeli soldiers by a Palestinian at a bus station in the West Bank.

The prime minister’s son also called in his Facebook posts last week for the expulsion of Palestinians, writing that he would prefer all Muslims to leave Israel.

Anti-BDS Laws Challenged as Unconstitutional After Speech Pathologist Loses Job at Texas School for Refusing to Sign Pro-Israel Pledge

Bahia Amawi was born in Austria, but is a U.S. citizen and has lived in the country for the past three decades. Fluent in English, German, and Arabic, the mother of four earned a master's degree in speech pathology in 1999. In 2009, she started working for the Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas on a contract basis to assess and assist children aged 3 to 11 as the region saw an influx of Arabic-speaking immigrants.

However, this year, after Amawi refused to sign the pro-Israel oath included in her contract renewal, she lost her job. As Greenwald, who is also a constitutional attorney, concluded, "The language of the affirmation Amawi was told she must sign reads like Orwellian—or McCarthyite—self-parody, the classic political loyalty oath that every American should instinctively shudder upon reading."

One of the most remarkable elements of the oath Amawi refused to sign is just how specific and unusual it is. As Greenwald outlined:

This required certification about Israel was the only one in the contract sent to Amawi that pertained to political opinions and activism. There were no similar clauses relating to children (such as a vow not to advocate for pedophiles or child abusers), nor were there any required political oaths that pertained to the country of which she is a citizen and where she lives and works: the United States.

In order to obtain contracts in Texas, then, a citizen is free to denounce and work against the United States, to advocate for causes that directly harm American children, and even to support a boycott of particular U.S. states, such as was done in 2017 to North Carolina in protest of its anti-LGBT law. In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world—except Israel.

"It's baffling that they can throw this down our throats, you know, and decide to protect another country's economy versus protect our constitutional rights," Amawi said of American officials who pass anti-BDS measures, in a video published Monday by The Intercept. Speaking of the example she hopes to set for her kids, she added, "I knew something had to be done and I couldn't just let it pass by."

Trump names Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff

The president has a new acting chief of staff: Mick Mulvaney.

Mulvaney, who proudly embraces the nickname “right-wing nutjob,” has juggled various positions across the Trump administration and has reportedly eyed the president’s chief of staff position for months. He’s served as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and currently serves as the director for the Office of Management and Budget. He’ll now be the president’s third chief of staff.

The pool of potential nominees had quickly dried up in recent days. Former New Jersey governor and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie was initially tapped to replace outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly. But after Christie said he didn’t want the job, the president began eyeing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a possible candidate. Nick Ayers, the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, declined the job after Trump offered it to him last week.

Ralph Nader on Single Payer, Climate Devastation, Impeachment & Why Mulvaney Is a “Massive Outlaw”

Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional

Obamacare, which currently insures almost 12 million people through marketplace plans and made Medicaid expansion possible, was struck down by U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor. He wrote that Congress’ decision last year to remove the individual mandate — a tax penalty lodged against those who fail to carry health coverage as required by law — invalidated the act. The lawsuit to dismantle the program was led by political leaders from 20 conservative-leaning states that filed a complaint in February, arguing the law couldn’t constitutionally stand without the tax.

Democratic attorneys general are likely to file appeal. In the meantime, the ruling won't go into effect — people can continue to sign up for Obamacare plans, and the health care marketplace should function normally. The sign-up period known as open enrollment, which allows people to choose their Affordable Care Act coverage for 2019, closes at midnight on Saturday. ...

In all likelihood, the Affordable Care Act will wind up back in the Supreme Court for the third time. The bench is now skewed conservatively after the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Woman who climbed Statue of Liberty in immigration protest found guilty

An activist has been found guilty of a series of federal crimes after she climbed on to the base of the Statue of Liberty this summer to protest against the US policy of separating migrant families and holding children in detention. Magistrate judge Gabriel Gorenstein convicted Therese Patricia Okoumou, who goes by Patricia, on Monday afternoon after a one-day bench trial in New York, asserting that the protester’s political and moral motivations did not trump the law.

Okoumou had grown teary on Monday as she told a judge in New York about how the treatment of children at the US-Mexico border prompted her to scale the statue in a high-profile protest on the Fourth of July this year. “I wanted to send a strong statement that children do not belong in cages,” said Okoumou, on Monday morning at the start of her trial at the Manhattan federal court.

Okoumou, a Congo-born naturalized US citizen who lives in Staten Island, faced charges of trespassing and interfering with government agency functions, as well as disorderly conduct, in relation to her climb. She pleaded not guilty. She was subject to a bench trial, not a jury trial, after Gorenstein ruled there was no entitlement to a jury trial for petty offenses. The charges collectively carry punishment of up to 18 months behind bars.

A raped migrant teen asked Trump officials for an abortion. She got counseling with Bible verses and coloring.

Officials working for the Trump administration took a 16-year-old immigrant who wanted an abortion to a religiously affiliated anti-abortion facility for counseling about her pregnancy. There, she was provided with “appropriate drawings to color and with Bible verses,” according to a government email reviewed by VICE News.

The teen had become pregnant after being raped by a group of men in her home country, according to the email, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the government watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability. After arriving in the United States, the teenager entered the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the care of underage migrants who enter the country without authorization and without their parents.

The teen was taken to the anti-abortion facility in January 2018, during the tenure of former ORR Director Scott Lloyd, a longtime abortion opponent who wanted to personally sign off on every request for an abortion made by a teenager in his agency’s care. Lloyd, who was appointed by the Trump administration, was transferred to another position within the Department of Health and Human Services in November.

It is unclear whether the teen who visited the facility in January ever received the procedure. But four other teens ultimately sued the department for refusing to allow them to get abortions while in its care.

On Monday, the Campaign for Accountability filed a request for an investigation with the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general over the emails. “It appears Mr. Lloyd grossly misused his position as director of ORR to pursue his own personal and religious agenda, violating constitutional and federal law, and harming the teenage girls his agency is charged with protecting,” the Campaign, which supports abortion rights, wrote in its complaint.

'Indefensible': 7-Year-Old Child's 'Horrific' Death in DHS Custody Prompts Outrage

The ACLU blamed a "lack of accountability and a culture of cruelty" at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agency (CPB) for the death of a seven-year-old girl who was in immigration custody last week, calling for an in-depth investigation into the child's fate.

After crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with her father and 163 other asylum seekers, the child, whose full name was Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, was taken into CBP custody in New Mexico on December 6. She began having seizures hours later, and was taken to a hospital after she was found to have a 105.7 degree temperature. She died 24 hours later at the hospital of dehydration and shock, according to the Washington Post. The Post reported that it wasn't clear if Jakelin had been given food and water after being taken into custody.

The ACLU called the child's death "indefensible" and urged Americans to stand firmly against the Trump administration's inhumane immigration policy, which has included the separation of thousands of children from their parents and guardians as well as prolonged detentions for families.

As the news of Jakelin's death was reported, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provoked shock and outrage as it released a statement essentially making an example of the seven-year-old, noting that her fate should serve as a reminder that crossing the U.S. border is dangerous for refugees and suggesting that her father is to blame for her death.

Stephen Miller says Trump prepared to shut down government over border wall

A top aide to Donald Trump insisted on Sunday that the administration is prepared to shut down the government in order to get the funding it demands to build a long-promised wall on the US-Mexico border. Democrats, in response, flatly refused to shift position in order to help avoid such a government freeze. ...

Stephen Miller told the CBS political talk show Face the Nation on Sunday morning that such a barrier was necessary to prevent “this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration” – his characterization of migrants from Mexico, central and south America attempting to enter the United States without authorization, typically to escape poverty or seek shelter from violence in their country of origin, or both. ...

Asked about the matter on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Schumer said of the president: “He’s not going to get the wall in any form.”

Joe Biden on Donald Trump: “I Think Anybody Can Beat Him”

Former Vice President Joe Biden believes that “anybody can beat” President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. While speaking at a recent event promoting his new book, “American Promise,” Biden said, “I think I’m the most qualified person in the country to be president.” ...

Biden has said that he expects to make a decision on entering the 2020 race within the next two months. Polls have been consistently showing Biden as a frontrunner should he jump in, but that strong showing may be due to universal name identification and lingering good feelings from some Democratic voters toward the Obama administration. Biden ran twice for president previously, in 1988 and 2008, faring terribly both times.

Beto O'Rourke Is Not Sure He's A Progressive

'Not the Kind of Moral Leadership We Need': Critics Pounce After Schumer Refuses to Back Medicare for All

As Medicare for All advocates gear up for what promises to be a long and brutal fight against the powerful industry interests and corporate Democrats committed to upholding the for-profit status quo, critics accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of siding with the latter camp after he insisted in an interview on Sunday that "there are lots of different routes" to a universal healthcare system and refused to endorse single-payer.

Pressed by MSNBC's Chuck Todd on whether he thinks it's time for Democrats to unify around Medicare for All—which has the backing of 84 percent of Democratic voters—Schumer dodged, saying, "Look, Democrats are for universal access to healthcare, from one end of the party to the other."

"We want more people covered, everyone covered; we want better healthcare at a lower cost. People have different views as to how to get there. Many are for Medicare for All, some are for Medicare buy-in, some are Medicare over 55, some are Medicaid buy-in, some are public option," Schumer added. "I'm going to support a plan that can pass, and that can provide the best, cheapest healthcare for all Americans."

Schumer balks at Medicare-for-all: "I'm going to support a plan that can pass, and that can provide the best, cheapest health care for all Americans." pic.twitter.com/oK0x15v21J

— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) December 16, 2018

Single-payer advocates were quick to note in response to Schumer's interview that the "best, cheapest" way to provide healthcare for every American—as demonstrated by study after study—is Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Medicare for All plan, which was co-sponsored by 16 Senate Democrats when it was reintroduced last year. ...

"Take this as a 'No' on single-payer, Medicare for All from Chuck Schumer, who represents one of the most Democratic states in the country," Waleed Shahid, communications director for Justice Democrats, wrote on Twitter following Schumer's MSNBC appearance. "That's not the kind of moral leadership we need in this moment."

“To the Ramparts”: Ralph Nader on How Bush & Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency

The Extinction Rebellion’s Direct-Action Climate Activism Comes to New York

The New York chapter of Extinction Rebellion held its first planning meeting on Thursday. Incensed and terrified by the accelerating climate crisis, activists gathered in Manhattan to discuss how they might replicate some of the successes the direct-action group has had in the United Kingdom.

In London, less than a month after Extinction Rebellion activists blocked roads, occupied bridges, lay down in the street and got arrested to draw immediate attention to the climate crisis, Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a climate emergency, vowing to do “everything in our power to mitigate the risk” of climate catastrophe. Coincidence? Greg Schwedock doesn’t think so. “That was unthinkable before the Extinction Rebellion,” Schwedock told a standing room-only crowd gathered in a Manhattan co-working space on Thursday night. Dressed in office gear and “Rise and Resist” sweatshirts, accompanied by their children and at least one dog, the attendees came together with the hope that a New York chapter of the group might have similar success in sparking a response commensurate with the dire crisis.

“Getting a million people to D.C. isn’t enough. We need to escalate,” said Schwedock, who emphasized that the group will take the path of disruptive, attention-grabbing civil disobedience, rather than just marching and chanting about the importance of climate change. “We’re not the ‘Extinction Yell About It.’” The explosive growth of the Extinction Rebellion — which began in England with the support of a group of academics just a few months ago and already has 190 affiliates on five continents — is fueled by the ballooning ranks of people around the world who are frustrated, alarmed, and depressed by the failure to tackle the accelerating climate disaster.

UN climate accord 'inadequate' and lacks urgency, experts warn

The world has been put on notice that its best efforts so far will fail to halt the devastation of climate change, as countries came to a partial agreement at UN talks that failed to match up to the challenges faced. Leading figures in climate science and economics said much more must be done, and quickly, to stave off the prospect of dangerous levels of global warming. ...

Johan Rockstrom, director designate at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said: “My biggest concern is that the UN talks failed to align ambitions with science. We continue to follow a path that will take us to a very dangerous 3-4C warmer world within this century. Extreme weather events hit people across the planet already, at only 1C of warming.”

The two-week-long UN talks in Poland ended with clarity over the “rulebook” that will govern how the Paris agreement of 2015 is put into action, but the crucial question of how to lift governments’ targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was left unanswered.

Countries will meet again next year. The annual climate talks have been going on since 1992 when the UN framework convention on climate change was signed, binding governments to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. That agreement followed years of scientific predictions on global warming, culminating in a landmark report in 1988 that warned of the dangers.

Former fossil fuels lobbyist to head interior department as Zinke exits

Ryan Zinke’s exit as interior secretary elevates a former lobbyist to the job, meaning the top two US environmental agencies will now be run by people previously paid by industry.

The deputy secretary, David Bernhardt, will take over at least temporarily when Zinke steps down at the end of the year. He also could be in the running to head the department permanently. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, the acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler, who was a coal lobbyist, will be nominated to keep the post.

Bernhardt was a fossil fuels and water industry lobbyist at the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck before he joined the Trump administration. He was previously the chief lawyer at the interior department under the George W Bush administration .

In an ethics pledge, Bernhardt said he would wait until August 2019 to have certain interactions with his former firm and some major oil and gas companies he represented. But many of the industry-friendly changes he has ushered in as the No 2 official were on the wishlists of the companies who employed him.

“It’s not so much who has he helped. It’s who hasn’t he helped in industry so far,” said Bobby McEnaney, who works on western US energy issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The notion that he could extricate himself from benefiting his former clients is impossible.”

Also of Interest

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

Watch New Julian Assange Vigil Featuring Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg and Former US Senator Mike Gravel

Police Drones Expand as Media Shrink

Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

EPA’s Own Data Refutes Justification for Clean Water Act Rollback

Sen. Jeff Merkley Wants to Stop Congress Members From Insider Trading By Banning Them From Owning Stocks

At last, divestment is hitting the fossil fuel industry where it hurts

A Little Night Music

Jackie Wilson - Higher And Higher

Jackie Wilson - Lonely teardrops

Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite

Jackie Wilson - No Pity (In The Naked City)

Jackie Wilson - That's Why I Love You So

Sam Cooke & Jackie Wilson - Cha Cha Cha

Jackie Wilson - I'll Be Satisfied

Jackie Wilson - Talk That Talk

Jackie Wilson - The Way I Am

Jackie Wilson - Come Back To Me

Jackie Wilson - Shout