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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Georgia Tom

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues piano player Georgia Tom. Enjoy!

^{Georgia Tom w/Scrapper Blackwell - Maybe It's The Blues}

“I propose that the forces of corporate totalitarianism are deliberately destroying this entire world in order to sell their simulated version of it back to us at a profit.”

-- Diane Harvey

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News and Opinion

'We blew it': U.S. reaches 'explosive' COVID-19 spread as virus is nearly impossible to control, experts say

With COVID-19 cases increasing in 46 states, 10 of which broke single-day records for new cases on Thursday, America has officially entered what experts refer to as the “exponential” phase of spread — a rapid multiplying of cases that can’t be contained through traditional measures. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw 160,000 new cases of the virus, more than any day since the pandemic began. ...

The current spike in cases — which some states are calling a third wave — has brought more than 100,000 new cases a day since Nov. 4. But that’s not counting those that may be going undetected. “We have widespread, uncontrolled COVID-19 in many parts of the country,” says Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And we know the cases reported are an underestimate of what is out there ... we’re missing many cases because people aren’t getting tested. So the true number is much higher than what we’re actually seeing.”

The cases are going vertical pic.twitter.com/7Ugyw6ZlDS

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) November 12, 2020

Adalja says that exponential spread means a virus is no longer increasing on a linear scale but is instead spiking at a rapid rate. Dr. Oguzhan Alagoz, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who models the spread of infectious diseases, agrees, saying exponential spread refers to an “unbelievably high growth rate.” In this case, that means new COVID-19 cases in many parts of the country are doubling or tripling each week. Part of this, he says, is due to the fact that COVID-19 seems more contagious than other viruses.

With influenza, for example, the R0 (basic reproductive number) — or the average number of people to whom someone spreads a virus — is one to two. With COVID-19, the R0 number has hovered around three. “So say if I infect three people, those three people are going to each infect another three people, and those three are going to infect another three,” Alagoz explains. “This is why it’s multiplying in such a short time.” ...

Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious disease expert and head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, says it may be too little too late. “We are now exponential. You cannot control exponentiality. We blew it; we’re past that,” Poland tells Yahoo Life. “Now the only options are that something happens with the virus where it dies out, we lock down like many places in Europe are doing, or we find a vaccine that’s highly effective that virtually everybody takes. Those are our only options at this point.”

We sure did round the corner like Trump said. Unfortunately, we rounded the corner in the wrong direction.

— Michel de Nostradame — (@MdeNostradame) November 12, 2020

US records 166,000 new Covid cases as states implement new restrictions

The US recorded 166,555 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, down from more than 184,000 on Friday but still its second-highest daily total and a 12th day in a row above 100,000.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the overall US caseload is now nearly 10.9m and more than 245,000 have died. On Saturday, 1,266 people died. Hospitalisations are rising. ...

Across the country, particularly in the hard-hit midwest, states are implementing tighter controls. On Saturday, California, Minnesota and Maryland were among states reporting rapidly rising case numbers and healthcare systems under serious strain. Oregon and New Mexico implemented new social restrictions, while North Dakota introduced a mask mandate and Arkansas established a Covid taskforce. From Monday, the Navajo Nation will enter a three-week stay-at-home advisory period.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee ordered sweeping restrictions and shutdowns starting at 11.59pm on Monday. Restaurants and bars were ordered to stop indoor service and keep outdoor service to groups of five or less. Gyms, movie theaters, museums and bowling alleys were ordered closed, the Seattle Times reported. Indoor gatherings involving multiple households are barred, unless those present have quarantined for two weeks. Alternatively, participants can quarantine for one week and test negative within two days of the get-together. Inslee’s mandates will be enacted for a minimum of four weeks.

2nd virus vaccine shows overwhelming success in US tests

Damage to multiple organs recorded in 'long Covid' cases

Young and previously healthy people with ongoing symptoms of Covid-19 are showing signs of damage to multiple organs four months after the initial infection, a study suggests.

The findings are a step towards unpicking the physical underpinnings and developing treatments for some of the strange and extensive symptoms experienced by people with “long Covid”, which is thought to affect more than 60,000 people in the UK. Fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness and pain are among the most frequently reported effects.

On Sunday, the NHS announced it would launch a network of more than 40 long Covid specialist clinics where doctors, nurses and therapists will assess patients’ physical and psychological symptoms.

The Coverscan study aims to assess the long-term impact of Covid-19 on organ health in around 500 “low-risk” individuals – those who are relatively young and without any major underlying health complaints – with ongoing Covid symptoms, through a combination of MRI scans, blood tests, physical measurements and online questionnaires.

Preliminary data from the first 200 patients to undergo screening suggests that almost 70% have impairments in one or more organs, including the heart, lungs, liver and pancreas, four months after their initial illness.

COVID VACCINE? Big Pharma Profits We're Paying For!

Trump’s new defense secretary signals troop drawdown ahead: ‘All wars must end’

President Donald Trump’s new defense secretary signaled to the military in a late Friday message that he may be there to carry out one of the president’s early campaign promises, an overseas drawdown of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership to supporting role,” acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said in a memo obtained by McClatchy. “We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end.”

It was the first signal after a tumultuous week at the Pentagon of what the new acting secretary and other newly installed senior defense officials may be working on in the president’s final weeks in office. ...

In the memo to the Defense Department workforce, Miller described at length the respect he has for the institution and the sacrifices made by thousands of men and women who have deployed to the Middle East since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said, “ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home.”

It was the first indication of what direction the Pentagon may take in Trump’s final weeks in office, the uncertainty of which has raised concerns among career defense officials and the incoming Biden administration about what the changes mean — whether he is rewarding loyalists or trying to force through policies the department has resisted over the last four years.

Swiss report reveals new details on CIA spying operation

The CIA and German intelligence jeopardized Switzerland’s historic reputation for neutrality by using a Swiss company as a platform for a global espionage operation for decades, according to a report released Tuesday by members of the Swiss parliament.

Investigators concluded that Swiss authorities were aware of, and at times complicit in, an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA covertly owned and controlled a Swiss company, Crypto AG, that secretly sold rigged encryption systems to foreign governments. ...

The Crypto operation exploited “Switzerland’s image abroad as a neutral state,” according to the report, which also said that Swiss authorities had effectively allowed the CIA and its German counterpart, the BND, to carry out “intelligence operations to the detriment of other states by hiding behind a Swiss company.”

The probe marks the first public accounting by a foreign government of an espionage operation so successful and extensive that a classified CIA history referred to it as “the intelligence coup of the century.” The CIA did not respond to a request for comment, and the BND previously declined to comment. ...

By exploiting hidden vulnerabilities in the machines’ algorithms, U.S. and German spies read the diplomatic cables and other communications of adversaries as well as some allies. The operation was known internally by code names including “Thesaurus” and “Rubicon.”

Brazil local elections: Candidates backed by far-right Bolsonaro shunned

Interim president of Peru steps down after two protesters killed

The interim president of Peru, Manuel Merino, has stepped down amid nationwide fury over the killing of two protesters in a brutally heavy-handed police clampdown on huge pro-democracy demonstrations on Saturday. In a televised address to the nation, Merino announced his resignation and insisted he acted within the law when he was sworn into office as chief of state on Tuesday, following congress’s removal of the elected president in an impeachment vote.

News of the resignation was followed immediately by the sound of honking car horns, pot banging and cheers in neighbourhoods across the Peruvian capital. The death of two men in their 20s from gunshot wounds on Saturday boosted the public clamour for Merino’s resignation. ...

Peru’s human rights coordinator reported that more than 40 people were missing following Saturday’s march amid multiple reports of heavy-handed police repression against largely peaceful demonstrators. The health ministry reported that more than 90 people were being treated for injuries.

Images from the protests on Saturday showed hundreds of riot police using batons and shields against largely peaceful protesters, teargas and buckshot being fired directly at crowds or individuals and tanks using water cannon. There were even reports of teargas being fired from helicopters flying overhead in downtown Lima, from where protesters reported street lights being switched off and mobile phones blocked during the march.

Daily protests mounted during the week, culminating in nationwide demonstrations demanding the resignation of Merino, the former speaker of congress, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of Lima and dozens of towns and cities.

Ceasefire Ends in Occupied Western Sahara After U.S.-Backed Moroccan Military Launches Operation

Ro Khanna CONFRONTED Over Vote to Transfer Wealth Upward During Pandemic!

McConnell Readies Lame Duck Push to Further Pack Courts With Trump's Judicial Appointees

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is under renewed fire from progressives for refusing to act on a pandemic relief package for struggling Americans while moving to advance more of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees.

"Today marks six months since the House passed the HEROES Act, but guess what McConnell is focused on this week: judges," Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, tweeted Sunday.

"He's lined up votes on SIX Trump judicial nominees (for lifetime seats) instead of passing meaningful Covid relief. That's his priority as the pandemic rages on," added Gupta.

Newsweek reported last week on the pending confirmations, noting that the president "could still appoint a dozen or more judges during his final months in office"—actions that would further the "steady stream of judicial confirmations [that] has flowed through the Senate Floor under Trump's presidency."

"Instead of focusing on helping Americans during this devastating public health crisis, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Republicans only care about confirming more anti-choice, anti-healthcare Trump judges," tweeted NARAL Pro-Choice America on Saturday.

As Law360 put it, "Trump has reshaped the federal judiciary at a staggering rate." By the outlet's count, Trump has already seen 53 of his picks for circuit judges and 164 district judges confirmed. That tally is in addition to the confirmations of Trump's three right-wing Supreme Court justices, with Amy Coney Barrett being the latest addition. And with the judicial appointees being younger on average than the last several administrations and "because these are lifetime appointments, they're poised to serve for decades to come, shaping American law and politics long after Trump leaves office," reported ProPublica. 

McConnell has made no effort to hide his intention to advance the reshaping of the judiciary, including through the final days of the Trump administration—in contrast to his obstruction during the Obama administration.

"We're going to run through the tape. We go through the end of the year, and so does the president," Mr. McConnell said last month. "We're going to clean the plate, clean all the district judges off as well," he said.

Jurists Shocked by Justice Alito's 'Wildly Inappropriate' Attack on LGBTQ Equality, Reproductive Rights, and More

Critics accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito of departing from ethical rules requiring judges to be impartial and to refrain from appearing biased after he delivered an extraordinarily politicized public speech Thursday night.

In an unusually inflammatory virtual address to this year's Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, Alito railed against Democrats—including five sitting U.S. senators—LGBTQ civil rights, the progressive movement, the nation's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and more.

In a hyper-partisan speech to The Federalist Society last night, Justice Samuel Alito showed he can't be trusted to put the law ahead of his partisan politics.

Here he is attacking the Supreme Court decision that protects marriage equality: pic.twitter.com/RMsTUC9luZ

— Demand Justice (@WeDemandJustice) November 13, 2020

Perhaps the most alarming of Alito's remarks concerned Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage equality nationwide. While civil rights advocates hailed the 5-4 decision as an historic milestone and the most important civil rights case of the century, Alito—who voted against equality—sees things a bit differently. Citing his dissent in the case, he told the convention:

I wrote the following: "I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes. But if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots, and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools." That is just what is coming to pass. One of the great challenges for the Supreme Court going forward will be to protect freedom of speech. Although that freedom is falling out of favor in some circles, we need to do whatever we can to prevent it from becoming a second-tier constitutional right.

Alito lamented that "religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right," citing as one example a Washington state law requiring pharmacies to offer emergency contraception pills. In attacking the requirement, Alito falsely claimed the pill—sold under the brand name Plan B—"destroys an embryo after fertilization."

Regarding public health measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Alito decried "previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty," a hyperbolic and historically mendacious comment that ignores the SCOTUS-sanctioned practices of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, the genocidal conquest and confinement of Native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps, and other more recent events including President Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban—which Alito voted to uphold.

Jurists and journalists specializing in the law reacted with shock and disgust to Alito's speech. Writing in Slate, Mark Joseph Stern, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, said the justice is behaving like "a bitter partisan out to settle scores" with the nation's political left.

"Flouting his ethical obligations, Alito waded into fierce political debates over public health during a pandemic, reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, and other issues that routinely come before his court," wrote Stern. "It is wildly inappropriate for a justice to assume the role of Fox News commentators, and unwise in light of progressives' mounting doubt about the Supreme Court's legitimacy."

After pledging to “defund the police,” Minneapolis City Council votes to increase police funding

On Friday, the Democratic Party dominated Minneapolis City Council voted 7-6 to approve a $500,000 funding increase to add staff to the city’s police department.

Under the plan, which was proposed by Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis will receive help from Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies and Metro Transit police officers and the city would reimburse those departments for the salaries and benefits of the officers.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo told the city council meeting leading up to the vote that he needs 20 to 40 additional law enforcement officers starting this week to deal with rising violence.

The rising violence that Arradondo refers to is the reported increase in carjackings and robberies by 55 percent in the city, as well as just over 70 homicides in the city this year, a nearly 50 percent increase over the 48 killings recorded in 2019.

Most notably, some of the council members who voted for the budget increase had pledged earlier this year to “disband” the city’s police force after massive multiethnic, multiracial, international protests broke out following the police murder of George Floyd on May 25. ...

Friday’s vote makes it clear that the Democrats’ promises were meant to disarm powerful protests by workers and young people demanding an end to police violence in the US and direct them back into the Democratic party.

Judge rules Daca suspension invalid, Homeland Security head in office illegally

A federal judge in New York has ruled that the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, assumed his position unlawfully and has invalidated Wolf’s suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, which shields young people from deportation.

“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was lawfully designated,” the US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote.

“Therefore the actions taken by purported acting secretaries, who were not properly in their roles according to the lawful order of succession, were taken without legal authority.”

About 650,000 people are part of Daca, which allows young immigrants who were brought to the country as children to legally work and shields them from deportation.

Karen Tumlin, an attorney who represented a plaintiff in one of two lawsuits that challenged Wolf’s authority, called the ruling “another win for Daca recipients and those who have been waiting years to apply for the program for the first time”.

Much more at the link:

Zoom Censorship of Palestine Seminars Sparks Fight Over Academic Freedom

A fight over Zoom’s right to censor speech is now brewing across the academic world, after the company shut down a seminar at San Francisco State University earlier this year over the participation of Palestinian activist Leila Khaled. Last month, Zoom continued its crackdown and canceled several online events organized at other universities that did not include Khaled herself but were critical of Zoom’s censorship of her.

Khaled, 76, is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a resistance group and political party that the U.S. government lists as a foreign terrorist organization. She rose to prominence after her role in two plane hijackings in 1969 and 1970 — and as the first woman to hijack a plane she has since earned global recognition, regarded as a terrorist by some and a feminist icon by others. On September 23, Khaled, who has long spoken in solidarity with liberation movements worldwide, was one of several speakers set to participate in a seminar on gender and resistance narratives at SFSU, a public university. But the seminar became the target of a coordinated campaign by pro-Israel groups, which pressured both the university and Zoom to cancel it.

In response to the pressure, Zoom argued to SFSU officials that the seminar might have violated federal laws and therefore the company’s terms of service, by providing “material support” for terrorism. It ultimately canceled the event the day before it was scheduled to take place. Zoom’s actions were followed by Facebook, which removed the livestream link, as well as a page advertising the event, and threatened to shut down the pages of the event’s sponsors, and by YouTube, which shut down the livestream 23 minutes after the event had started. The New York Post reported last week that the U.S. Department of Education is now conducting a probe into SFSU’s invitation to Khaled, on the grounds that it “violated civil rights rules and the conditions of federal grants the university received.”

In October, Zoom also shut down three seminars organized in solidarity with SFSU at New York University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. At least eight other seminars that were part of the same day of action were allowed to proceed on the platform, and Khaled did speak, on October 3, on another Zoom seminar that was unaffiliated with a university.

Reached by email, Zoom spokesperson Andy Duberstein wrote that anyone was welcome to use the company’s platform so long as they didn’t run afoul of “applicable U.S. export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws,” but declined to explain which anti-terrorism law would have applied, nor how the SFSU event would have violated it. “In light of the speaker’s reported affiliation or membership in a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, and SFSU’s inability to confirm otherwise, we determined the meeting is in violation of Zoom’s Terms of Service and told SFSU they may not use Zoom for this particular event,” Duberstein wrote. But for all its invocations of anti-terrorism laws, Duberstein also noted that ultimately the company reserves the right to bar anyone from using its services, for any reason or none at all, pointing to a section of the company’s terms of service that states “Zoom may investigate any complaints and violations that come to its attention and may take any (or no) action that it believes is appropriate, including, but not limited to issuing warnings, removing the content or terminating accounts and/or User profiles.”

Thomas Frank on Fake Populism & Silicon Valley Fantasies | Useful Idiots

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AOC Revisionism About The Two Parties of WAR!

Trump tweets that Biden 'won' – but repeats baseless vote fraud claim

On Sunday morning, Donald Trump tweeted about Joe Biden. “He won,” he wrote.

He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more! https://t.co/Exb3C1mAPg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

But it was not the formal concession of the US presidential election which Trump has refused to give, despite every major media organisation calling the race for Biden with an electoral college result of 306-232 – coincidentally the same margin by which Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, a result he insisted was a landslide.

Clinton beat Trump by nearly 3m in the popular vote. Biden is more than 5m up. ...

According to NBC News, an anonymous White House official said the tweet about how Biden won “may very well” represent the start of some sort of Trump concession.

One Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, followed suit, telling NBC’s Meet the Press: “It was good actually to see President Trump tweet out that ‘he won’. I think that’s a start of an acknowledgment.” But the president disagreed, tweeting: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!”

Krystal and Saagar: MAJOR Developments In Trump Lawsuits, Path To Victory Dwindles

#BREAKING Polls are set to open in 48 hours across the US as the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump attempts to consolidate its hold over the troubled, oil-rich, nuclear-armed, north American nation. Analysts are sceptical the election will end months of political violence.

— gathara (@gathara) November 1, 2020

#BREAKING In 2001, the outgoing Clinton government put white-out on computer keyboards, smeared Vaseline over desks, unplugged refrigerators, wrote on walls and glued telephones or drawers. Some worry Donald Trump may be turning the palace into a shithole.https://t.co/MpZBjW6ZZs

— gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020

#BREAKING After days in barricaded presidential palace, US dictator, Donald Trump, hesitantly emerges to attend ceremony for fallen troops in coastal capital, Washington DC. Race is now on to get back to the palace before President-elect Joe Biden can sneak in and depose him.

— gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020

#BREAKING Rumors - hotly denied by regime officials - are spreading that US dictator, Donald Trump, who has not been seen in public since he returned to the barricaded presidential palace days ago, may have fled the crisis-torn republic for asylum in an undisclosed country.

— gathara (@gathara) November 11, 2020

#BREAKING US President-elect Joe Biden is becoming an unlikely symbol of resistance and revolution as thousands march in African capitals, including Nairobi and Lagos, demanding freedom for long-oppressed Americans and sanctions on the racist, totalitarian regime of Donald Trump.

— gathara (@gathara) November 12, 2020

#BREAKING Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, renews calls for nuclear-free north America, demands disarmament of rogue regime of US despot, Donald Trump, noting Canadians live in the shadow of nuclear weapons belonging to a belligerent neighbor that has twice invaded them.

— gathara (@gathara) November 12, 2020

#BREAKING In address to Parliament, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta says crisis-wracked US can once again be "a beacon of hope, an island of peace and stability in a volatile region, and a role model for progressive American Democracy" if it can learn to accept election results.

— gathara (@gathara) November 12, 2020

Democratic candidates say Georgia Senate elections will be decisive for US

In separate interviews on Sunday, the two Democratic candidates for US Senate in Georgia said their runoff elections in January would be decisive for America’s future.

If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock beat their Republican incumbent opponents, Democrats will regain control of the Senate, Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vice-president in a chamber split 50-50. Though precarious, that would give Joe Biden greater hope of implementing his legislative agenda.

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Sunrise Movement: What We're Prepared To Do To Hold Biden Accountable

Scientists link record-breaking hurricane season to climate crisis

Climate scientists say that this year’s record-breaking hurricane season and the “unprecedented” double blow for Central America has a clear link to the climate crisis.

“In a 36-hour period [Eta] went from a depression to a very strong category 4,” said Bob Bunting, CEO of the non-profit Climate Adaptation Center. “That is just not normal. Probably it was the fastest spin up from a depression to a major hurricane in history.”

The evidence of the influence of the climate crisis is not so much in the record-breaking 30 tropical storms in the Atlantic so far this year, but the strength, rapid intensification and total rainfall of these weather systems.

“The warmer ocean waters that climate change brings are expected to make the stronger storms stronger and make them rapidly intensify more frequently and at a greater rate,” said Dr Jeff Masters, a meteorologist and contributor to Yale Climate Connections. “These things have already been observed, particularly in the Atlantic, and it’s going to be increasingly so in coming decades.” ...

“Heat is energy,” said Masters. “Depending on the prevailing weather conditions you’re going to intensify those conditions.”

Hurricane Iota is 13th hurricane of record-breaking Atlantic season

Iota became the 13th hurricane of the Atlantic season early on Sunday, threatening to bring another dangerous system to Nicaragua and Honduras – both recently battered by a category 4 hurricane, Eta.

Iota was already a record-breaking system, the 30th named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday Iota had maximum sustained winds of 85mph (137km/h), making it a category 1 hurricane. But forecasters said Iota would rapidly strengthen and was expected to be a major hurricane by the time it reaches Central America.

Iota was centered about 240 miles (386km) east of Isla de Providencia, Colombia, and was moving west-north-west at 6mph. Forecasters said Iota was expected to pass or cross over Providencia sometime on Monday and approach Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday evening.

The system was forecast to bring up to 30in of rain from north-east Nicaragua into northern Honduras. Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding, the NHC said.

Michigan Gov. Moves to Shut Down Line 5 Pipeline to Protect Great Lakes

Environmental and Indigenous activists celebrated Friday after Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took action to shut down the decades-old Enbridge Line 5 oil and natural gas pipelines that run under the Straits of Mackinac, narrow waterways that connect Lake Huron and Lake Michigan—two of the Great Lakes.

Citing the threat to the Great Lakes as well as "persistent and incurable violations" by Enbridge, Whitmer and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Dan Eichinger informed the Canadian fossil fuel giant that a 1953 easement allowing it to operate the pipelines is being revoked and terminated.

The move, which Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the Ingham County Circuit Court to validate, gives Enbridge until May 2021 to stop operating the twin pipelines, "allowing for an orderly transition that protects Michigan's energy needs over the coming months," according to a statement from the governor's office.

The Great Lakes collectively contain about a fifth of the world's surface fresh water. As Whitmer explained Friday, "Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people."

"Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs," the governor said. "They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk."

"Most importantly, Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life," she added. "That's why we're taking action now, and why I will continue to hold accountable anyone who threatens our Great Lakes and fresh water."

MLive noted that the state attorney general's new filing "is in addition to Nessel's lawsuit filed in 2019 seeking the shutdown of Line 5, which remains pending in the same court." Nessel said Friday that Whitmer and Eichinger "are making another clear statement that Line 5 poses a great risk to our state, and it must be removed from our public waterways." ...

As the Detroit Free Press detailed Friday:

Enbridge was responsible for one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history—a major leak on one of its large oil transmission lines near Marshall in July 2010. That spill fouled more than 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River and took four years and more than $1 billion to clean up. Enbridge in 2016 agreed to a $177-million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency, including $62 million in penalties, over the Marshall spill and a 2010 spill on another of its pipelines in Romeoville, Illinois.

A similar spill disaster on Line 5 in the Straits would devastate the Great Lakes shoreline communities and the Michigan economy, critics of the pipeline have long contended. Enbridge officials have countered that Line 5 is safe.

"Line 5 should have never been built in the first place," Shriberg told the Free Press. "Gov. Whitmer is now bravely, and correctly, standing up for the Great Lakes."

Firing a "Vindictive, Illegal Parting Shot," Trump's Interior Proposes Sabotage of Conservation Program

The Trump administration was accused of firing a "vindictive, illegal parting shot" following Interior Secretary Bernhardt's Friday executive order sabotaging funding of a key conservation program.

At issue is the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Established in 1964, it has been hailed as the nation's most important conservation program. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), bipartisan legislation President Donald Trump signed into law in August, was to permanently and fully fund the LWCF.

More specifically, as USA Today previously noted, the GAOA was set to "dedicate billions in revenue paid to the federal government from oil and gas exploration fees through the Land and Water Conservation Fund to cover a mounting backlog of park projects now approaching $12 billion."

That allocation drew cheers from "so many Americans who cherish our wide open spaces" and who believed the LWCF, "which has been an effective and popular program for decades, would no longer be underfunded," Steve Blackledge, senior director of Environment America's Conservation Program, said in statement Friday.

"But now," Blackledge continue, "Secretary Bernhardt is creating a solution to a problem that doesn't exist."

With the secretarial order, the administration has added "a litany of new arbitrary provisions," explained (pdf) environmental advocacy group The Mountain Pact. Those include: allowing state veto of federal public land protection projects; eliminating funding for Bureau of Land Management land acquisition; and restricting future LWCF funds from helping to create new units of public land. 

The order sparked a flurry of criticism.

Blackledge, in his statement, called for plan to be rescinded and touted the LWCF for having "helped conserve national treasures like Joshua Tree National Park, the Appalachian Trail, and the Great Smokeys."

Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, rebuked the proposal as "an unconscionable violation of Congress' intent," because "Congress was clear and explicit about what it wanted from the Department of the Interior—specifically calling for 40% of LWCF funds to go to federal land protection that can be used to help parks begin to meet their land acquisition needs."

'Everyone is outraged and sad': Canada shocked by killing of rare white moose

The killing of a rare “spirit” moose in Canada has shocked residents of a northern Ontario community and prompted one First Nations man to offer a reward to anyone who can help officials apprehend the suspected poachers.

Residents around the city of Timmins have long swapped stories of a ghostly white moose population occasionally spotted moving silently through forests of aspen and pine.

But poachers recently killed two female moose, including one white cow. The remains, including their heads, were left discarded along a remote service road.

“Everybody is outraged and sad. Why would you shoot it? No one needs one that bad,” said Chief Murray Ray of nearby Flying Post First Nation. “If you have a license to shoot a cow moose, you could shoot another one. Just leave the white ones alone.”

The moose are not albinos, but get their colour from a recessive gene. Among Indigenous peoples in the region, white animals like bison, raven and grizzly bears, are considered sacred and shouldn’t be harmed.

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Also of Interest

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

Caitlin Johnstone: Unelected Officials Override The President To Continue Wars (But Only Kooks Believe In The Deep State)

Farcical Coverage of Julian Assange’s Farcical Hearing

Erdogan met by protests from Turkish Cypriots during visit

Indian and Pakistani troops exchange fire, at least 15 dead

Trump Destroyed Any Hope of Israeli-Palestinian Peace — and Biden Can’t Rebuild It

What Is John Brennan So Worried About?

The Fed Says It’s Considering a Central Clearing Facility for the Treasury Market

Our immune systems can cope with Covid-19 – it's our politicians who can't

Democrats divided: Biden's election win brings end to party's uneasy truce

Biden’s transition team is filled with war profiteers, Beltway chickenhawks, and corporate consultants

In the Mercenaries’ Own Words: Documents Detail TigerSwan Infiltration of Standing Rock

DIANNE FEINSTEIN Out-Of-Touch During Economic Crisis!

Jimmy Dore: AOC is WRONG About Biden's Chief Of Staff!

Aaron Mate: The real 2020 election scandal: voter theft targeting Black people, youth

Rising: Charles Koch REGRETS Driving Partisanship With His Billions

Krystal Ball: Why Kamala's Yasss Queen Identity Politics FAILED To Deliver

Saagar Enjeti: How Biden May SCREW Working Class By Bailing Out HIS Voters, Inciting Class Warfare

Krystal and Saagar: Obama Tries To Erase All Responsibility In New Book

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A Little Night Music

Georgia Tom w/Scrapper Blackwell - Levee Bound Blues

Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom - "Gym's" Too Much For Me

Georgia Tom Dorsey - Rollin' Mill Stomp

Tampa Red and Georgia Tom - It's tight like that

Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom - Show Me What You've Got

Jane Lucas & Georgia Tom - What's That I Smell

Tampa Red & Georgia Tom - You Can't Get That Stuff No More

Jane Lucas & Georgia Tom - Come On Mama

Tampa Red and Georgia Tom - Voice Of The Blues

The Hokum Boys (Tampa Red & Georgia Tom) Beedle Um Bum

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