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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Willie Dixon

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues songwriter and bass player Willie Dixon. Enjoy!

^{Willie Dixon - I Can't Quit You Baby}

"Nations have no command over their governments, & in fact no influence over them, except of a fleeting & rather ineffectual sort."

-- Mark Twain

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News and Opinion

Caitlin Johnstone:

Biden Will Likely Be Worse Than Obama. The Left Must Lead The Backlash, Or The Right Will.

It is clear that Trump’s election was the result of the easily exploited dissatisfaction caused by years of neoliberal austerity at home and neoconservative bloodshed abroad which Obama forcefully expanded and facilitated throughout two terms as president. Trump voters famously defended opting for the reality TV star over the anointed establishment favorite Hillary Clinton as a middle finger to the Beltway orthodoxy which did nothing but enrich the “swamp” Trump pretended to oppose on the campaign trail while ordinary Americans suffered.

And from all appearances it looks like Biden is going to be worse.

Unlike Obama, Biden did not campaign on hope and change, he campaigned on opposing the socialist inclinations of Sanders progressives and an aggressive foreign policy of planetary domination. He assured rich donors that nothing will fundamentally change under his presidency and his transition team is full of corporate sociopaths, war pigs and propagandists. Biden has been a corporatist warmongering authoritarian throughout his entire career, and as his mental capacity continues to deteriorate he will function as nothing more than an empty vessel for his establishment handlers to advance their most pernicious agendas through. The empire has not gotten less desperate since Obama was in office, it has gotten more desperate.

If I prove right about this, the Biden administration will generate backlash just like that which arose in response to the Obama administration, and that backlash will be more severe than its previous iteration. This is absolutely guaranteed. You can only oppress, neglect and enrage a population so much before the discontent begins to grow.

There is absolutely nothing American leftists can do to prevent this backlash from coming. They will have absolutely no say in this administration’s policies or behavior; BidenCorp has no reason to listen to them, has made no pretense of having any interest in listening to them, and is even freezing Sanders and Warren out of cabinet roles already.

All US leftists will have any control over is whether this backlash will break to the left, or if it will break to the far right.

Contrary to what many mainstream liberals seem to have been imagining, American racism and far right extremism did not begin with Trump, and will not end with Trump. The white supremacists, xenophobes, ethnonationalists, QAnon cultists and right wing militias are not going anywhere after Biden takes office, and the backlash against his administration and its worst impulses will be inflamed and co-opted by mainstream Republican narrative managers. This will set the stage for something a lot uglier than Trump down the road if it’s successful.

What the left can do is get ahead of the game. Take control of the anti-Biden, anti-establishment pushback by leading the charge–sooner, more aggressively, and more compellingly than the far right does. Use the awfulness of the Biden administration to ignite a true leftward zeitgeist in mainstream America that is so strong it eclipses the inevitable rightist backlash in energy and appeal.

We already know the American left has the ability to pull this off. The grassroots, populist support for Bernie Sanders during his two primary campaigns has been one of the most energized and inspired political forces I’ve ever witnessed, consistently forcing aggressive responses from the establishment narrative managers to contradict the damage it did to their preferred candidates.

The problem with Bernie Twitter and the rest of his powerful support base is that it only exists for a few months at a time, fizzling out when it becomes clear that their candidate has had the door shut to him and then reluctantly diverted into support for the establishment candidate under the guidance of Sanders himself.

But imagine if that did not happen. Imagine if the US left realized how extremely urgent it is to control the unavoidable backlash against the Biden/Harris administration so that the right does not and built momentum in a healthy direction instead, not for a few months but for years on end. Seizing every disgusting, ridiculous and hilarious thing this government does and attacking it, lampooning it, mocking it, creating funny and interesting content absolutely wrecking it, and taking control of the dominant narrative.

An actual, energized counterculture could be created which could reshape US culture as a whole. The Breitbart crowd recognizes that politics is downstream from culture while the left has generally failed to make this connection, which is arguably why their guy is in the White House right now and the left’s guy isn’t. A Biden administration will provide ample fodder for attacks against status quo politics, and this can be used to galvanize America’s hidden progressive impulses into a movement vastly greater than any one candidate.

But the ball needs to start rolling on this now. Not after the Georgia runoffs, not after Biden takes office, not after the midterms: now. The longer US leftists wait to start pushing this thing forward, the less of a head start you’ll have on the rightists while they’re fixated on Trump’s recounts and legal challenges. You’ll only be able to lead the backlash if you get in early and hit the ground running as fast as you can.

If we know anything for certain, it’s that US power structures find it infinitely preferable to deal with a right-populist movement that can be appeased by some obnoxious tweets and an 8chan psyop than with real leftist populism. They’re more than happy to throw the far right a tax cut and some immigration restrictions, but real revolution can only come from the left. There is an opportunity to create an opening for that to occur, but it needs to happen before this thing can be steered rightward.

BIDEN Stuffing Cabinet with Anti-Labor Big Tech Lobbyists!

Trump reportedly plans to withdraw nearly half of US troops in Afghanistan

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to cut the US military presence in Afghanistan by almost half, before Joe Biden takes over the presidency in January. The intended troop cuts, according to several US news organisations, would almost halve the force in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500, and the presence in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500.

The reports come a week after a purge of senior Pentagon officials and their replacement by Trump loyalists with little relative experience. Critics said that an accelerated withdrawal could further destabilise an already tenuous peace deal with the Taliban, encouraging the rebels to believe they can take power, and demoralising the Afghan government.

The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, said a hasty withdrawal would “hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm”.

“The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011, which fueled the rise of Isis and a new round of global terrorism,” McConnell said.

Some analysts suggested however, that it is unclear whether the orders will be implemented as fast as Trump would like in order to secure his legacy on ending America’s “endless wars”, and that it would have only symbolic significance weeks, or even days before Biden enters the White House on 20 January.

CNN Pushes SHAMELESS Pro-War Propaganda

Wow, looky, other countries can investigate war crimes committed by their troops. Too bad the U.S. is too exceptional utterly incapable of doing that.

Report into alleged war crimes by Australians in Afghanistan to show extent of illegal violence

The findings of a highly secretive probe into allegations of serious misconduct and potential war crimes by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan will be "shocking" and "disturbing", according to an expert on Australia's military culture. The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) has spent more than four years investigating accusations Australian troops broke the rules of war in Afghanistan. ...

The IGADF report has focused on more than 50 separate allegations of war crimes being committed by Australian troops, and has specifically not looked at incidents which could be described as having occurred in the "heat of battle". In other words, the incidents are likely to relate to things such as the alleged murder of unarmed civilians or the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, rather than people being killed as "collateral damage" in ADF missions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced last week a special investigator would be set up to deal with the IGADF's findings, preparing evidence for any potential prosecutions.

Trump Floats Troop Draw Down In Afghanistan, Republicans FREAK Out

Anti-Nuclear Pacifists Get Federal Prison Terms for Nonviolent Protest

Each weekend, while New York City’s East Village packs into sidewalk tables for brunch, activist Carmen Trotta leads a vigil for ending the U.S.-backed war in Yemen in Tompkins Square Park. He only has a few more Saturday mornings before he must report to federal prison, along with fellow activists from Plowshares, the anti-nuclear, Christian pacifist movement. Despite a lethal pandemic ravaging prison populations, Trotta, Martha Hennessy, Clare Grady, and Patrick O’Neill are due to report to prison within the next few months for activism against a suspected nuclear weapons depot.

More than two years ago, Trotta and Hennessy, two of seven activists known as the Kings Bay Plowshares Seven, peacefully broke into the naval base in Brunswick, Georgia — risking their own lives to protest the suspected nuclear arsenal housed within. Armed only with vials of their own blood, hammers, GoPro cameras, spray paint, protest banners, and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s book, the activists symbolically attempted to disarm the nuclear weapons located on the Trident submarines at the base. ...

The activists were charged with three felonies — conspiracy, destruction of government property, depredation — and misdemeanor trespassing. The sentencing — sending aging activists to federal prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic — fits squarely within the long history of the U.S. government throwing the book at people of conscience who dare to dissent. President Donald Trump’s acceleration of heavy-handed federal charges against protesters have drawn critical media attention. ...

Trotta, 58; Hennessy, 65; along with Grady, 62, were sentenced by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in individual virtual court sessions. Trotta got 14 months, Grady was given 12 months and one day, and Hennessy was sentenced to 10 months; all were ordered to pay restitution and were given years of supervised release. As cases of Covid-19 engulfed Georgia, the defendants reluctantly agreed to proceed with their sentencing without appearing in person. Only Mark Colville, 59, has yet to be sentenced. Colville refuses to travel to Georgia because of the coronavirus and will not give up his constitutional right to an in-person sentencing before the court.

Prison is a barbaric punishment, and the possibility of death and major illness from Covid-19 has only made incarceration all the more brutal. The U.S. surpassed 11 million cases of coronavirus just last week, and officials continue to mishandle containing the pandemic in prisons across the country.

How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps

The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include a Muslim dating app, a popular Craigslist app, an app for following storms, and a "level" app that can be used to help, for example, install shelves in a bedroom.

Through public records, interviews with developers, and technical analysis, Motherboard uncovered two separate, parallel data streams that the U.S. military uses, or has used, to obtain location data. One relies on a company called Babel Street, which creates a product called Locate X. U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a branch of the military tasked with counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and special reconnaissance, bought access to Locate X to assist on overseas special forces operations. The other stream is through a company called X-Mode, which obtains location data directly from apps, then sells that data to contractors, and by extension, the military.

The news highlights the opaque location data industry and the fact that the U.S. military, which has infamously used other location data to target drone strikes, is purchasing access to sensitive data. Many of the users of apps involved in the data supply chain are Muslim, which is notable considering that the United States has waged a decades-long war on predominantly Muslim terror groups in the Middle East, and has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians during its military operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Motherboard does not know of any specific operations in which this type of app-based location data has been used by the U.S. military. ...

Some app developers Motherboard spoke to were not aware who their users' location data ends up with, and even if a user examines an app's privacy policy, they may not ultimately realize how many different industries, companies, or government agencies are buying some of their most sensitive data. U.S. law enforcement purchase of such information has raised questions about authorities buying their way to location data that may ordinarily require a warrant to access. But the USSOCOM contract and additional reporting is the first evidence that U.S. location data purchases have extended from law enforcement to military agencies.

USSOCOM bought access to Locate X, a location data product from a company called Babel Street, according to procurement records uncovered by Motherboard. A former Babel Street employee described to Motherboard how users of the product can draw a shape on a map, see all devices Babel Street has data on in that location, and then follow a specific device around to see where else it has been. The Locate X data itself is anonymized, but the source said "we could absolutely deanonymize a person." Babel Street employees would "play with it, to be honest," the former employee added.

Spain’s PSOE-Podemos government imposes internet censorship

The Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government has advanced plans to censor the internet across Spain.

The “Procedure for Intervention against Disinformation,” approved last month by Spain’s National Security Council (CSN) and published this month in the Official State Gazette (BOE), allows the state to monitor and suppress internet content under the pretext of combating “fake news” and “foreign intervention.”

The document makes legal provision for constant state surveillance of social media platforms and the media more broadly to detect “disinformation” and give a “political response” to such campaigns, including retaliatory measures if there is supposedly foreign involvement. The government will counter “disinformation” by pushing its own communication campaigns and also suppress oppositional views.

The new protocol is a dangerous attack on freedom of speech with grave implications for the democratic right to access and use the internet freely. It gives the Spanish state complete decision-making power to determine what does or does not constitute “fake news,” without any involvement from journalists or public oversight.

A Permanent Commission will operate the censorship apparatus; it will be coordinated by the Secretary of State for Communication and directed by the National Security Department, with the aim of “ensuring inter-ministerial coordination in the area of disinformation.” Members of the committee will come from the Foreign Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (National Intelligence Agency, CNI), among others.

Podemos general secretary Pablo Iglesias sits on the board of the Intelligence Affairs Commission, which directs and supervises the activities of the CNI spy agency. The “left populist” Podemos party will thus play a leading role in implementing the attacks on democratic rights.

EU faces crisis as Hungary and Poland veto seven-year budget

The EU is facing a crisis after Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc’s historic €1.8tn (£1.6tn) budget and coronavirus recovery plan over attempts to link funding to respect for democratic norms. The move unravels months of negotiations over the scale and terms of the EU’s spending and sets the stage for a stormy videoconference meeting of the bloc’s leaders on Thursday.

Without agreement among the 27 member states, projects financed by the bloc’s seven-year budget will go without funds and the €750bn plan to rebuild Europe’s shattered economy will not be activated. ...

Hungary and Poland had announced their intentions shortly before ambassadors of the EU’s member states met on Monday to vote on various parts of the financial settlement. ...

In a previous warning to fellow governments, Orbán, whose government has been accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian in style and substance, had written that he could not agree to a “proposed sanction mechanism … based on legally vague definitions such as ‘violation of the rule of law’.” He wrote: “Such difficult to define concepts create opportunities for political abuses and violate the requirement of legal certainty.”

Researchers confirm human-to-human transmission of rare virus in Bolivia

Researchers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered human-to-human transmission of a rare virus in Bolivia belonging to a family of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola.

The news is a reminder that scientists are working to identify new viral threats to humankind, even as countries around the world battle a new wave of Covid-19 outbreaks.

Scientists said that in 2019, two patients transmitted the virus to three healthcare workers in Bolivia’s de facto capital, La Paz. One of the patients and two medical workers later died. Only one small outbreak of the virus has been previously documented, in the Chapare region 370 miles east of La Paz in 2004.

“Our work confirmed that a young medical resident, an ambulance medic and a gastroenterologist all contracted the virus after encounters with infected patients,” said Caitlin Cossaboom, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s division of high-consequence pathogens and pathology. Two of the healthcare workers later died. “We now believe many bodily fluids can potentially carry the virus.”

The virus is believed to be carried by rats, which in turn may have passed it to humans. In general, viruses spread through bodily fluids are easier to contain than respiratory viruses such as Covid-19.

With COVID Vaccines on the Horizon, U.S. Urged to Help Ensure Equitable Distribution Across Globe

California’s governor pulls ‘emergency brake’ on reopening amid Covid surge

California will dramatically roll back its reopening efforts, the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Monday, saying he was pulling the “emergency brake” amid a troubling surge in cases.

The changes, which take effect Tuesday, will see more than 94% of California’s population and most businesses across the state return to the most restrictive tier of rules aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. The state is also strengthening its guidance on masks; Newsom announced face coverings would now be required outside people’s homes with limited exceptions.

The move comes as daily case rates have doubled in California over the last 10 days. The first week of November saw the fastest rate of increase in cases in the state since the start of the pandemic – 51.3% – Newsom said. The state reported 9,890 cases in the last 24 hours, with a seven-day average of 8,198.

Last week, California became the second state to surpass 1m total cases.

“Every age group, every demographic, racial, ethnic, every part of the state, we are seeing case rates increase and positivity rates increase,” Newsom said in a press conference on Monday. “It’s no longer concentrated in just a handful of counties. We are seeing community spread broadly throughout the state of California.”

Thinking about all the people who promised this doesn’t happen under capitalism. https://t.co/tPeozMhi7J

— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) November 16, 2020

Michigan Governor Rebukes Trump Aide's Call for Uprising Over Covid-19 Measures

"It actually took my breath away, to tell you the truth."

So said Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday morning after Scott Atlas, a member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, urged the state's residents to "rise up" against new Covid-19 public health measures the governor ordered on Sunday as a way to curb the pandemic's surging infection rate.

Whitmer pointed out that "we are in the midst of the worst weeks of this pandemic. We've been going through this for nine months, and right now, the numbers are as bad as they've been at any given time."

"We have to take aggressive measures," she continued. "With the vacuum of leadership in Washington, D.C., it's on the states' governors to do what we can to save lives and to follow epidemiologists and public health experts."

"They're telling us not to gather indoors, as our temperatures plummet and we're on the brink of flu season," she added. "The modelling... shows that we'll lose another 20,000 people just here in Michigan between now and the middle of February."

In response to Whitmer's announcement of an emergency order that enacts a three-week pause on indoor dining, recreation, and in-person learning, Atlas, a radiologist with no background in public health who has parroted Trump's baseless and anti-scientific views on infectious diseases since joining the White House in August, wrote on Twitter: "The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept." He included the hashtags #FreedomMatters and #StepUp. 

Soon after Atlas attacked Whitmer for attempting to preserve lives, the governor told CNN: "I'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals."

Whitmer's message was reinforced by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who described Atlas' remarks as "disappointing, irresponsible, and the reason why the United States finds itself in such desperate circumstances regarding Covid-19." ...

Atlas' call for an uprising came just over a month after the FBI foiled a plot by right-wing domestic terrorists to kidnap Whitmer and overthrow Michigan's government, an attempt at violent insurrection that, as Common Dreams reported at the time, many observers said was connected to Trump's intimidating, all-caps tweet to "Liberate Michigan!" in April. 

Shortly after federal agents thwarted the far-right threat against Whitmer, Trump at a mid-October rally in Muskegon, Michigan told the cheering crowd: "You've got to get your governor to open up your state," ranting against what he called the "draconian, unscientific" lockdowns that public health experts have recommended to stem severe coronavirus outbreaks and get the pandemic under control. 

In response to chants of "Lock her up!" Trump amplified the crowd's authoritarian spirit, saying "Lock them all up," an apparent reference to other Democratic lawmakers who have taken stronger steps than their Republican counterparts to curb the spread of Covid-19 and protect the public's health. ...

Whitmer noted last month that "this is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials' lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans."

On Sunday night, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University, denounced Atlas' statement, pointing out that "actual public health professionals do not incite violence in response to guidelines or policy that they disagree with."

Ryan Grim: Obama Thinks His Only Mistake Was Being Too Nice

Obama openly defends his murderous drone wars in his new book.

He also praised parts of Bush's bogus "War on Terror," writing, "Unlike some on the left, I’d never engaged in wholesale condemnation of the Bush administration’s approach to counterterrorism" https://t.co/73kiSL4MNp

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 17, 2020

Here are some excerpts from an article with a lot of what you might expect from Obama:

Obama scolds 'petulant' Trump but reveals conservative sympathies

In an interview with the Atlantic to mark publication of his memoir A Promised Land, Barack Obama ponders Joe Biden’s chances of working with Republicans in Congress, comes close to admitting to being a never-Trump conservative himself – and compares America under Trump to Central Asia under Genghis Khan. ...

“… You mentioned earlier that I’m in some ways a never-Trump conservative. That’s not quite right, but what is true is that temperamentally I am sympathetic to a certain strain of conservatism in the sense that I’m not just a materialist. I’m not an economic determinist. I think it’s important, but I think there are things other than stuff and money and income – the religious critique of modern society, that we’ve lost that sense of community.” ...

Genghis Khan came up in response to a questions about a visit to the Pyramids. The Mongol warlord would “slowly boil you in oil and peel off your skin”, Obama said. But “compare the degree of brutality and venality and corruption and just sheer folly that you see across human history with how things are now. It’s not even close.”

“This was not meant to be commentary on the Trump presidency – not directly, at least,” Goldberg wrote. “In any case, Obama has more respect for Genghis Khan than he has for Donald Trump.”

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Krystal Ball: Exposes Centrist LIES About Why They FAILED

Trump campaign abandons part of legal challenge to Pennsylvania election results

President Donald Trump’s campaign has withdrawn a central part of its lawsuit seeking to stop the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump to capture the state and help win the White House. Ahead of a Tuesday hearing in the case, Trump’s campaign on Sunday dropped the allegation that 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots were illegally processed without its representatives watching.

The campaign’s slimmed-down lawsuit, filed in federal court on Sunday, maintains the aim of blocking Pennsylvania from certifying a victory for Biden in the state, and it maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters. ...

The remaining claim in the lawsuit centres on disqualifying ballots cast by voters who were given an opportunity to fix mail-in ballots that were going to be disqualified on a technicality.

The lawsuit charges that “Democratic-heavy counties” violated the law by identifying mail-in ballots before election day that had defects – such as lacking an inner “secrecy envelope” or lacking a voter’s signature on the outside envelope – so that the voter could fix it and ensure their vote would count, a moved called “curing”. Republican-heavy counties “followed the law and did not provide a notice and cure process, disenfranchising many”, the lawsuit said.

Cliff Levine, a lawyer representing the Democratic National Committee, which is seeking to intervene, said it was not clear how many voters were given the chance to fix their ballot. But, he said, the number was minimal and certainly fewer than the margin – almost 70,000 – that separates Biden and Trump. “The numbers aren’t even close to the margin between the two candidates, not even close,” Levine said.

Saagar Enjeti: Biden, Pelosi, McConnell Are Too Damn OLD, Historically Been A Disaster Together

Graham denies pressuring top Georgia election official to throw out some ballots

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is denying that he put any pressure on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to exclude some mail-in ballots as the state undergoes a full recount of this month's presidential election.

Raffensperger told The Washington Post in an interview that Graham questioned whether election officials in Georgia had the power to throw out all mail ballots in counties with higher rates of signature discrepancies.

Raffensperger told the Post he was stunned and doesn’t have the power to throw out ballots.

“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said of Graham.

Raffensperger also said that he and his wife have been targeted with death threats amid the recount, which comes after President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat in decades to win the state.

Kyle Kulinski Makes His PREDICTIONS For A Biden Administration

Biden’s First Climate Appointment Is A Fossil Fuel Industry Ally

Following a campaign promising bold climate action, president-elect Joe Biden’s transition team named one of the Democratic Party’s top recipients of fossil fuel industry money to a high-profile White House position focusing in part on climate issues. On Tuesday, Politico reported that Biden is appointing U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., to lead the White House Office of Public Engagement, where he is “expected to serve as a liaison with the business community and climate change activists.”

During his 10 years in Congress, Richmond has received roughly $341,000 from donors in the oil and gas industry — the 5th highest total among House Democrats, according to previous reporting by Sludge. That includes corporate political action committee donations of $50,000 from Entergy, an electric and natural gas utility; $40,000 from ExxonMobil; and $10,000 apiece from oil companies Chevron, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy.

Richmond has raked in that money while representing a congressional district that is home to 7 of the 10 most air-polluted census tracts in the country. 

Richmond has repeatedly broken with his party on major climate and environmental votes. During the climate crisis that has battered his home state of Louisiana, Richmond has joined with Republicans to vote to increase fossil fuel exports and promote pipeline development. He also voted against Democratic legislation to place pollution limits on fracking — and he voted for GOP legislation to limit the Obama administration’s authority to more stringently regulate the practice.

Overall, Richmond has received a lifetime rating of 76 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, and he scored 46 percent in 2018 — one of the lowest ratings of any Democrat in Congress.

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Hurricane Iota strengthens to catastrophic category 5 storm as it hits Central America

Hurricane Iota exploded into a catastrophic category 5 storm on Monday and bore down on a remote Central American coastal region already reeling from another major storm, Hurricane Eta, with efforts to evacuate villagers hampered by shortages of fuel for boats. Iota is the record 30th named storm of an extraordinary Atlantic hurricane season. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.

Eta was this year’s 28th named storm, tying the 2005 record. Remnants of Theta, the 29th, dissipated on Sunday in the eastern Atlantic. The official end of hurricane season is 30 November. Iota was due to collide with north-eastern Nicaragua overnight and was packing maximum sustained winds of 160mph, reaching category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Barely recovering after Hurricane Eta hit two weeks ago, Guatemala and southern Mexico were also bracing for renewed flooding on land already waterlogged from the earlier storm. In El Salvador, the government declared a “red alert” ahead of Iota, suspending school and activating emergency funding.

The hurricane was located about 100 miles east-south-east of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua in the Miskito region after whipping past the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia before dawn.

'Almost an epidemic': Dead whales wash up on French beaches

Trump Administration Rushes to Auction Off Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling Rights Before Biden Inauguration

In what critics are calling a parting gift to the fossil fuel industry, the Trump administration on Tuesday will ask oil and gas companies to choose which areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska—which is the sacred homeland of the Gwich'in Indigenous people—they would like to drill.

The Washington Post reports the administration's call for nominations is a key part of a rush to lock in drilling rights before President Donald Trump leaves office on January 20. The president has made drilling on public lands and waterways a key component of what he calls his "America First" energy agenda, while President-elect Joe Biden has said he opposes such action.

The Republican-controlled Congress approved drilling in the massive, pristine ANWR in 2017. The reserve is home to the Gwich'in people, who call it "Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit," or, "the sacred place where life begins." ANWR boasts some 270 species, including all of the world's remaining South Beaufort Sea polar bears, 250 musk oxen, Arctic foxes, and hundreds of thousands of snow geese and other birds which fly there from all 50 states and around the world. 

The Gwich'in rely on the region's rich biodiversity, especially its 200,000-strong porcupine caribou herd, for their survival. "What impacts the caribou, impacts the Gwich'in," Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, told Yes!.

In addition to opening ANWR to oil and gas drilling, the Trump administration is also redefining what constitutes a "critical habitat" for endangered species, as well as when corporations are deemed liable for killing migrating birds.

While the Iñupiat—another Alaska Native people who call ANWR their home—cautiously welcome the possibility of drilling and the economic benefits they believe it will bring, the Gwichin'in and their allies, which include environmental groups and progressive lawmakers, have vowed to fight any attempts to defile the unspoiled land.

Activists Urge Biden to Eschew Fossil Fuel-Friendly Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in Transition, Cabinet Teams

A coalition of more than 70 environmental and progressive groups on Monday urged President-elect Joe Biden to give former Obama administration Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz a pass for a post in either his transition team or his Cabinet.

In an open letter (pdf), the groups praise Biden for his "ambitious climate platform," a $2 trillion blueprint for a more sustainable future that earned him the endorsement of climate champions including the Sunrise Movement and Greta Thunberg.

Furthermore, the signers said they were "deeply encouraged by the statement in the Biden-Harris Transiton Team Ethics Plan that you aim 'to ensure that those who serve are aligned with his values and policy priorties, and have not, for example, been leaders at fossil fuel or private prison companies.'"

In an unspoken implication of the hypocrisy inherent in naming a fossil fuel company executive to his administration, the letter then states in bold type: "Therefore, we... urge you to commit to ensuring Ernest Moniz holds no public or private role, whether formal or informal, in your transition team, Cabinet, or administration."

The letter continues:

Mr. Moniz's professional and financial ties fly in the face of the Biden Plan to Guarantee Government Works for the People that would "reduce the corrupting influence of money in politcs... restore ethics in government... [and] rein in executive branch financial conflicts of interest."

Mr. Moniz's employment and financial ties situate him firmly in the revolving door between government and fossil fuel corporations. For example, a profile in the New Republic details the close relationship between Mr. Moniz and the fossil gas and electric utility holding company Southern Company.

Southern Company received "$407 million in financing from the Department of Energy during Moniz's tenure for a 'clean coal' plant that was never completed. After championing the doomed project and leaving office, Moniz joined the company's board in March 2018. According to Southern's proxy statements, he accepted a combined $486,668 worth of fees and stock awards from Southern in 2018 and 2019."

Further, Mr. Moniz has been closely tied to fossil fuel behemoths like BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Eni, and Saudi Aramco.

The letter then notes the imcompatibility of Biden's acknowledgement that "climate change is an existential threat" with Moniz's fossil fuel-friendly policies and actions.

"Mr. Moniz's championing of an 'all-of-the-above' energy policy goes against your commitments to tackle the climate emergency," it states. "He has been a cheerleader for 'clean' coal, the export of liquified natural gas, and the untenable expansion of fossil gas."

"Indeed, Mr. Moniz is an unrepentant founding father of the fracking industry," the letter states. "He spearheaded an influential 2010 report that helped establish the dangerous myth that fossil gas is a 'bridge fuel,' and he continues to promote expensive and unproven technologies that will extend our reliance on fossil fuels and the very companies with which he is linked."

"We have no doubt that the world needs a leader on climate action and integrity in the White House in January," the signers conclude. "We are also certain that Mr. Moniz must not have any role in guiding you there or in a Biden administration."

A youth group helped Biden win. Now they want him to fix climate crisis

Joe Biden will have to navigate a path for the most ambitious climate agenda ever adopted by a US president through not only stubborn Republican obstruction but also an emergent youth climate movement that is already formulating plans to hold him to account. A record turnout of young voters, a cohort riven by anxiety over the climate crisis, helped Biden beat Donald Trump on the 3 November election. The Sunrise Movement, the youth-led progressive climate group, reached 3.5 million young voters in swing states and now wants to see a return on these efforts.

“We will have to see if Joe Biden is true to his word when he says that climate change is his number one issue but rest assured the movement will be there to remind him every moment of the way,” said Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the group, which surged to fame last year after a viral video showed a fractious encounter between the Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein and young climate activists who had occupied her office. “We delivered for Biden, now it’s his time to deliver for us.” ...

“His ratings among young people were abysmal six months ago but, to his credit, he came back with a much better climate plan,” said Prakash. “It’s clear we don’t have time to wait. Young people are terrified of what is to come and they will push Joe Biden to do everything in his power to ensure climate action.” ...

Protests are also brewing over Biden’s cabinet appointments, with disquiet over the rumored return of Ernest Moniz, a former secretary of energy who is in favor of using gas rather than solely renewable energy. “I have the fear that the cabinet that makes it through the nomination process won’t be considered full of climate champions,” said Prakash.

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Also of Interest

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

Charles Koch Attempts an Apology Tour after He and His Father Financed a Political Hate Machine for Six Decades

America's flawed democracy: the five key areas where it is failing

Feeling Disoriented By the Election, Pandemic and Everything Else? It’s Called ‘Zozobra’ — And Mexican Philosophers Have Some Advice

You Can't Eat Civility: A Message to Joe Biden and the Democrats

The Great Revenge - How Tony Fauci F*cked Donald Trump

How Pence & GOP Senators Could Try To Steal The Election

Drawing All the Wrong Lessons From Media’s Election 2020 Failures

A Convergence of Calamities

Armenians torch their own homes outside Nagorno-Karabakh

Hillary Clinton at the UN?

The American Conservative Files Lawsuit Against State Department Over Venezuelan ‘Bay of Pigs’

Study finds ticks choose humans over dogs when temperature rises

Democracy Now: “No End in Sight”: 9 Months into Pandemic, Nurses Are Tired, Demoralized & Still Lack Adequate PPE

Biden "chief propagandist" opposes free press

Aaron Mate: Key Mueller witness exposes key Russiagate lies

Rising: Black Share Of Votes In GA PLUMMETS To 2006 Levels Undercutting Stacey Abrams Narrative

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A Little Night Music

Willie Dixon - Spoonful

Willie Dixon - Bassology

Willie Dixon - Nervous

Willie Dixon & Walter "Shakey" Horton - My Babe!

Willie Dixon / The Big Three Trio - Big 3 Stomp

Sonny Boy Williamson & Willie Dixon - Bring It on Home

Willie Dixon - I Just Want To Make Love To You

Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy & Willie Dixon - My Home Is The Delta

Willie Dixon with Stephen Stills & Norton Buffalo - Back Door Man, Seventh Son, Hoochie Koochie Man

Willie Dixon & Robbie Robertson - The Seventh Son

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