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This evening's music features singer and piano player Big Al Downing. Enjoy!

"I've learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of chemical dust
If fire them, we're forced to
Then fire, them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side"

-- Bob Dylan

News and Opinion

We’re Sleepwalking Into Nuclear War

Every day there’s more propaganda banging the drums of war between nuclear-armed nations a little louder. Western media are churning out reports about Russia preparing to invade Ukraine any minute now and China preparing to invade Taiwan any minute now, saying the response to each is obviously to move a lot of high-powered weaponry to both of those locations, and none of them are questioning whether these allegations are true or whether those responses are wise.

This is so dangerous. This whole two-front nuclear brinkmanship game is so very, very dangerous, and they keep finding ways to make it more dangerous. And hardly anyone notices it, because the news media outlets that people look to to understand the world aren’t telling them it’s dangerous.

The only danger you’re allowed to discuss in mainstream western reporting about Russia and China is their scary aggressive expansionism, like this new Newsweek propaganda piece here. Nowhere are you allowed to question if it’s true, or to even breathe a word about the possibility of detente.

It’s official empire doctrine that the borders of Russia and China will necessarily keep expanding unless militantly held in place by The Good Guys. It’s taken as a given that those nations are essentially mindless cancers that can only metastasize to other parts of the body unless aggressively treated. At no point is it permissible to ask if perhaps we are heading in a direction that could literally end the world and if that could not be easily avoided by simply working to scale down tensions. At no point is it permissible to question if these nations might be reacting defensively to western aggressions and discuss the possibility of working toward detente.

Australian journalist John Pilger was already sounding alarms about this years ago. This article about the shocking escalations against Russia and China by western powers was written all the way back in 2016, and it’s gotten so much worse than that since then. Yet it’s still taken as a given by Serious News Reporters in the west that Russia and China are these reckless aggressors and the US is responding defensively to their aggressions.

You can tell people who freak out about Russia and China are either acting in bad faith or regurgitating propaganda because they all act like detente is not a thing. They don’t even acknowledge the existence of that concept. Many literally don’t even know the meaning of the word.

At no time does it ever even enter their minds that hey, maybe these nations might be acting defensively to blatantly imbalanced military realities like the one illustrated below, and that the sane thing to do would be to move toward de-escalation.

People think this way because they are programmed to, and they are programmed to think that way because easing off of aggressions rather than escalating them would permit the end of US planetary hegemony and a move into a multipolar world. The empire cannot tolerate such a thing.

It was established after the fall of the Soviet Union that another multipolar world must be avoided at all cost; even if it means imperiling the whole world to maintain supremacy. Easing tensions would mean ceasing to do everything you can to prevent the rise of China as a global superpower. That’s what all the hysterical shrieking about Russia and China has really been about these last few years: manufacturing consent for this aggressive campaign.

If things were permitted to take their natural course, China would rise and the US would officially move into post-primacy and we’d have a proper multipolar world. This has been deemed so undesirable that they’re willing to risk the life of every terrestrial organism to stop it.

There are no checks or balances on this insane agenda. It’s supported by all mainstream parties and all mainstream media outlets. We’re sleepwalking into nuclear war. Nobody’s awake to the danger. Not the public, not the media, and most frighteningly not the empire managers actually driving these agendas.

U.S. Says 'All Options' on the Table Over Russian Troop Buildup Near Ukraine

All options are on the table in how to respond to Russia's "large and unusual" troop buildup near Ukraine's border, and the NATO alliance will decide on the next move following consultations next week, the State Department's top U.S. diplomat for European affairs said on Friday.

"As you can appreciate, all options are on the table and there's a toolkit that includes a whole range of options," Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried told reporters in a telephone briefing.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was concerned about the situation in Ukraine, repeated Washington's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and added that he will "in all probability" speak with his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin.

The comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Latvia and Sweden next week to attend meetings of NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Donfried said Moscow's "large and unusual" troop buildup would top the agenda at the NATO summit. ...

U.S., NATO and Ukrainian officials have raised the alarm in recent weeks over what they say are unusual Russian troop movements closer to Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow may be poised to launch an attack on its neighbor, accusations Russia has rejected as fear-mongering.

Iran nuclear talks restart after five-month hiatus, said EU

The US Military Does Not Truly Care About Civilian Casualties

As The New York Times reported on November 13, 2021, a U.S. attack jet unleashed its payload on the civilian encampment. “As the smoke cleared,” the article noted, “a few people stumbled away in search of cover. Then, a jet tracking them dropped one 2,000-pound bomb, then another, killing most of the survivors.” At least seventy civilians died. ...

The Baghuz massacre was one the last of the 35,000 airstrikes the United States launched over a five-year period in Syria and Iraq that ostensibly targeted ISIS. According to Pentagon rules, U.S. forces could call in airstrikes without checking to see if civilians were threatened, so long as it was deemed necessary for self-defense. What constitutes “self-defense” for the Pentagon, however, is not just when its forces are under fire. The authorization of deadly force can also be granted if enemy troops are simply believed to be displaying “hostile intent,” which the Pentagon defined so broadly in the case of U.S-backed ground operations in Syria that it constituted 80 percent of all U.S. airstrikes.

The New York Times article also noted that the Pentagon failed to keep track of the numerous reports of civilian casualties and usually failed to follow through with investigations. In the rare cases where an investigation was ordered, it was later squashed. An email shared with the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed that the only time an investigation was allowed to move forward was when there was “potential for high media attention, [or] concern with outcry from local community/government, concern sensitive images may get out.”

So far, the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee has refused to open an investigation into the Baghuz attack or any other possible war crimes by U.S. forces in the war against ISIS. ...

With virtually no negative reaction in Washington, D.C., or coverage in the mainstream media, there should be no surprise that the Pentagon thought they could get away with the 2019 massacre in Baghuz. There appears to be a sense that, given the horror of ISIS, the killing of large numbers of civilians may be necessary to ensure their defeat, so it’s important to keep such tragedies quiet.

The problem, however, goes well beyond ISIS. Even when it involves another extremist militia (and even if a U.S. attack on civilians does get in the news), the U.S. government has little reason to worry. For example, after its belated acknowledgment that a drone missile attack in Kabul this past August had targeted a car driven by an Afghan aid worker, killing him and nine others, including seven children, the Pentagon insisted there was no misconduct or negligence. ...

And there appear to be few political costs. Not only have leading Republicans defended killing civilians in the name of fighting terrorism, but many Democratic members of Congress who have defended Israeli bombings of civilian targets in Gaza have been repeatedly endorsed as “bold progressives” and “peace leaders,” sending the message that the killing of civilians in the name of “self-defense against terrorists” is not considered a problem even within the Democratic left.

US Media’s BLATANT Lies About Cuba & Colombia

US Legal Observers Report 'Balanced and Transparent' Election Process in Venezuela

A delegation of observers from a New York City-based progressive legal group on Wednesday pushed back against the Biden administration's claims about Venezuela's recent regional elections in which allies of President Nicolás Maduro's socialist party were largely victorious.

Allies of Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) secured 20 out of 23 governorships in the November 21 elections. The opposition coalition United Democratic Table (MUD) candidates succeeded in the Cojedes and Zulia states while Neighbors Force (FV) won in the Nueva Esparta State.

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) delegation—among various international observers who traveled to Venezuela for the elections—shared its findings in a statement that began, "We observed a balanced and transparent voting process which voters expressed confidence in."

Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the more conservative American Bar Association, the NLG sent eight observers to 12 sites in the Venezeulan capital Caracas as well as provinces in Miranda and La Guaira states.

"Overall we observed a climate of political energy grounded in an understanding that the voting day process, regardless of one's individual political ideology, functions fairly and is received as legitimate," the group said. "Also, we observed that the level of voter participation—almost 42% of registered voters in the context of a nonpresidential election, Covid-19, and severe economic sanctions—is significant and worthy of note."

The NLG said that "from a technical point of view, we observed an electoral system that was fundamentally transparent and facilitated by a workforce (poll workers, coordinators, table presidents) with strong technical competence regarding the functioning of the machines and the integrated election systems."

After speaking with voters at all sites, the NLG observers found that those "aligned with opposition parties also expressed confidence in the voting system. Additionally, the participation of opposition parties at polling sites, including as witnesses in opening and closing processes, strengthened the process and underscored the legitimacy of election results."

The NLG statement continued:

At a number of points throughout the day we witnessed voters frustrated with the heat, "wait times," some technical malfunctions, and occasionally with some confusion finding themselves on the voter rolls. These instances were not the norm at the sites we visited and therefore do not find that these incidents amount to systemic flaws or election "irregularities." Instead, they appear to be part of a complex, far-reaching, and broad election system intended to be accessible in all corners of a country of almost 29 million people, while under U.S. sanctions.

"We are clear that in all parts of the world, including in the United States, there exist Election Day dynamics which can complicate the electoral process, but which do not undermine or delegitimize an open and free process such as this," said NLG delegate Vladimir Martinez.

The European Union also sent election monitors to Venezuela. They expressed concerns about the disqualification of some opposition candidates and the death of a voter in a shooting near a polling station but also highlighted improvements, according to the Associated Press.

"The regional and municipal elections of November 21 were a first and crucial test for the return of most of the opposition parties to the elections in Venezuela," the E.U.'s initial report said. "The electoral process showed the persistence of structural deficiencies, although electoral conditions improved compared to the three previous national elections."

In a lengthy statement Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that "the Maduro regime deprived Venezuelans yet again of their right to participate in a free and fair electoral process."

"Fearful of the voice and vote of Venezuelans, the regime grossly skewed the process to determine the result of this election long before any ballots had been cast," Blinken said. "Arbitrary arrests and harassment of political and civil society actors, criminalization of opposition parties' activities, bans on candidates across the political spectrum, manipulation of voter registration rolls, persistent media censorship, and other authoritarian tactics all but quashed political pluralism and ensured the elections would not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people."

The NLG delegates said they "reject" the Biden administration's characterization of the elections in Venezuela, which is enduring an economic crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions.

NLG President Suzanne Adely, a member of the delegation, suggested Blinken's comments were motivated by justifying the administration's policies, which include maintaining sanctions imposed under former President Donald Trump and continuing to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the South American country's "interim president."

"The U.S.'s consistently false narrative of elections in Venezuela is formulated to legitimize the continuation of U.S. sanctions, which are violations of international law and amount to economic warfare," said Adely. "The U.S. sanctions harm the Venezuelan people and aim to undermine and destabilize Venezuela in order to further U.S. interests in the region."

Sunday's elections were the first since 2017 in which main opposition parties participated. Voters elected not only governors but also 253 state legislators, 335 mayors, and 2,471 municipal councilors.

Writing Monday for Common Dreams, Leonardo Flores, a Latin American policy expert and campaigner with the anti-war group CodePink, outlined five reasons for the Venezuelan left's success over the weekend:

1. Good governance in health, housing, and food;
2. The economic situation is improving;
3. The left is united (mostly);
4. The opposition is divided; and
5. The opposition is deeply unpopular.

According to Flores, "These elections should put the Biden administration on notice that continuing to support the MUD, and in particular, the fiction of Guaidó as 'interim president,' is a failed policy."

EU Joins Rights Group in Condemning Israel's 'Day of Destruction' of Palestinian Homes

The European Union on Friday joined a prominent Israeli human rights group in condemning last week's demolition of multiple homes in occupied East Jerusalem, an illegal action that displaced 22 Palestinians including 15 children.

"We reiterate our call to halt demolitions and any other unlawful practices that coerce Palestinians out of their homes," the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians (DPAL) tweeted.

"Demolitions are illegal under international law and significantly undermine the prospects for peace," DPAL added.

According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem:

At around 6:00 am [on November 23], civil administration personnel and border police officers arrived at the neighborhood of Wadi al-Humos, an eastern extension of Zur Baher in East Jerusalem. The forces bulldozed three buildings: a two-story building that was home to a family of five, including three minors, and a building that was home to one person. From there, the forces moved to the other side of the separation barrier and demolished a four-story building under construction that included three apartments.

"The wave of demolitions expresses the perception of the Israeli regime, which holds that land is a resource intended primarily to serve the Jewish population," B'Tselem said. "This regime uses a variety of administrative, planning, and bureaucratic tools to implement this concept. Governments come and go, but the apartheid regime remains untouched."

In September, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that Israeli demolitions and seizures of Palestinian homes in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem increased by 21% so far this year. The agency said that 28% more Palestinians were displaced during the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period last year.

The EU condemnation came a day after the Israeli government notified the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden that it was shelving a highly controversial plan to build 9,000 housing units for the exclusive use of ultra-Orthodox Jews on the site of what was formerly Jerusalem's international airport. According to Israeli media, the move was the result of pressure from the Biden administration.

NYTimes Tells Dems: Do Nothing to Help People

To put this piece in perspective, here is an interesting discussion on inflation that's worth a click and a quick scan.

Democrats need to admit that inflation is real – or voters will turn on them

Inflation is rapidly becoming a problem for the Democratic party and President Joe Biden. They need to get a grip on it before it imperils their wider agenda and sinks their chances of keeping control of Congress in the midterm elections next year. As they think about how to address it, one thing is certain: what they’ve been doing so far isn’t working. A recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Biden is handling inflation, and the same number consider the issue “very important” in their evaluations of his presidency. Among those Americans concerned about the state of the economy, nearly nine in 10 ranked inflation as a reason why. Clearly something has to change.

But inflation, a complicated product of economics and mass psychology, is also devilishly difficult to understand, and even more difficult to control. Presidents have few tools to tame it, and the ones they do have can backfire. The inflation of the 1970s crippled Gerald Ford’s presidency and was doing the same to Jimmy Carter until he opted for an extreme cure – installing a chair of the Federal Reserve who dramatically raised interest rates, stopping inflation but also plunging the economy into a deep recession which handed the White House to Ronald Reagan. These experiences left inflation with a reputation as a presidency-killer, with either the disease itself or the medicine taken to combat it ultimately killing the patient.

Despite this, Democratic party elites have been slow to take the latest round of inflation as seriously as they should. American policymakers have not had to deal with levels of inflation as high as this for 30 years, and it shows. Many latched on to the message that inflation was “transitory”, a temporary consequence of the economy revving back into high gear as the country emerged from the coronavirus pandemic. Some liberals have even lashed out at those warning about rising prices, characterizing their concerns as an attempt to undermine support for Democrats’ plans to spend more to advance social welfare and combat climate change. ...

There are already signs that Democrats from the president on down are starting to get it. Biden recently gave a speech on the topic and announced the release of 50m barrels of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve, an attempt to bring down gas prices at the pump. He also pointed the finger at oil companies for charging consumers high prices even as the wholesale price of oil has dropped over the past few weeks.

But Democrats should also be doing more to point the finger at the businesses who are helping to foment the problem. The Wall Street Journal reports that companies in many different sectors are using this inflationary spike as a cover to raise prices faster than their costs, essentially betting that consumers won’t object when they already see prices rising all around them. According to the report, nearly two out of three big, publicly traded US companies have seen larger profit margins this year than in the same period in 2019. Inflation might be hurting consumers, but it’s a boom year for corporate America.

How Manchin and Sinema’s status as Senate holdouts is proving lucrative

Two Democratic senators threatening to derail Joe Biden’s agenda have been condemned by anti-corruption watchdogs for accepting a flood of money from Republican and corporate donors. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema present the last hurdle to the US president’s social spending and climate package after it was passed by Democrats in the House of Representatives earlier this month.

Having already pressured colleagues to cut the cost of the Build Back Better plan in half, the conservative duo continue to raise concerns about its $1.75tn price tag and sprawling ambition. Manchin and Sinema’s status as holdouts in a Senate evenly divided between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans has guaranteed outsized influence and attention. It also appears to be lucrative.

In September, Sinema received a cheque from Stanley Hubbard, a billionaire Republican donor who is considering a similar contribution to Manchin because of their work to reduce the bill’s price tag, the New York Times reported this week. “Those are two good people – Manchin and Sinema – and I think we need more of those in the Democratic party,” Hubbard was quoted as saying.

The newspaper also revealed Manchin, of West Virginia, and Sinema, of Arizona, travelled to an $18m mansion in Dallas for a summer fundraiser attended by Republican and big business donors who have praised their efforts to pare down the Build Back Better bill. ... The $3.3m raised by Manchin’s campaign in the first nine months of this year was more than 14 times his haul at the equivalent stage last year, the New York Times added, while the $2.6m taken in by Sinema’s campaign was two and a half times what she netted over the same period in 2020. ...

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, a non-partisan watchdog that targets government corruption, said: “What else but industry money could explain the manufactured excuses for resisting Build Back Better considering it remains extremely popular, is fully paid for, and would cut costs and taxes for most everyday people in Arizona and West Virginia?

BLM Co-Founder Alicia Garza: Ahmaud Arbery Should Still Be With Us; Biden Must Condemn Vigilantes

Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascot

Wearing suits and ties, the two men give the camera smiles and thumbs up. One is Donald Trump, former president of the United States. The other is Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people at an anti-racism protest. And behind them is a framed photo of Trump meeting the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The mesmerizing tableau emerged from the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this week. It was, in effect, the coronation of Rittenhouse as a future star of the rightwing media, Republican party and “Make America great again” (Maga) movement in their crusade against liberalism.

“Kyle Rittenhouse has become the poster child for a general feeling among some in this country that White America is under siege,” Eddie Glaude, chairman of the department of African American studies at Princeton University, wrote in the Washington Post. “Rittenhouse defended himself, this argument goes, and White America must do the same.” ...

When a jury acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges earlier this month, progressive activists urged fresh debate on gun safety and vigilantism. But Republican members of Congress wasted no time in lionising Rittenhouse as a victim turned hero. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona floated the idea of offering Rittenhouse an internship in their offices on Capitol Hill. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia trumped them by sponsoring a House bill to award Rittenhouse a congressional gold medal for protecting the community of Kenosha.

Not to be outdone, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida tipped as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, declared: “Kyle Rittenhouse did what we should want citizens to do in such a situation: step forward to defend the community against mob violence.” And in light of Rittenhouse’s meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, it would come as no surprise if the now 18-year-old is given a speaking slot at next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) or a future Republican National Convention (RNC). ...

Dan Cassino, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson University and author of Fox News and American Politics: How One Channel Shapes American Politics and Society, said: “This is where the energy in the party is. If you ask people on the right or look at rightwing media, they’ll tell you all the people Kyle Rittenhouse shot were criminals, they were terrible, they were going to kill everybody and these people are heroes for standing up, especially for using their second amendment rights. That’s a big part of this narrative, that having guns allows you to stand up to disorder and is a necessary thing to do in order to protect your community. It’s not Kyle Rittenhouse himself: he was protecting his community, and that’s what the second amendment is about as far as they’re concerned.”

DC Insiders, CNN Pundits Eye Kamala, Pete Ticket For 2024

Michael Cohen: prosecutors could ‘indict Trump tomorrow’ if they wanted

Prosecutors in New York could “indict Donald Trump tomorrow if they really wanted and be successful”, the ex-president’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said on Sunday, discussing investigations of Trump’s business affairs. Asked if he was “confident you did help Donald Trump commit crimes”, Cohen told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I can assure you that Donald Trump is guilty of his own crimes. Was I involved in much of the inflation and deflation of his assets? The answer to that is yes.”

Cohen also repeated his contention that Trump will not run for the White House in 2024, because his huge fundraising success while hinting at such a run is too profitable a “grift” to give up.

The Manhattan investigation of the Trump Organization, including whether Trump cheated on property valuations for tax purposes, is one of a number of sources of legal jeopardy for the former president. Trump denies all wrongdoing. Because the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, leaves office at the end of the year, some think indictments may be imminent.

Cohen, who has cooperated, said: “I really try not to talk about it because it’s their investigation, nor do I want to tip off Trump or the Trump Organization’s people about what is actually happening. “So I would rather just not answer that specific question, other than to say that you can bet your bottom dollar that Allen Weisselberg is not … the key to this. They are going after Donald. They’re going after Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka, a whole slew of individuals, family as well.” Cohen also said he was “not their only witness, and most importantly, what I gave to them are thousands and thousands of documents”.

“I’m not asking anybody to believe me,” he said. “No different than when I testified before the House oversight committee. Every statement that I make, I’ve backed up with documentary evidence. I truly believe that they can indict Donald Trump tomorrow if they really wanted, and be successful.”

Capitol attack: Schiff says Mark Meadows contempt decision imminent

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is likely to decide this week whether to charge Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final White House chief of staff, with criminal contempt of Congress, a key panel member said.

“I think we will probably make a decision this week on our course of conduct with that particular witness and maybe others,” Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chair of the House intelligence committee, told CNN’s State of the Union.

Schiff also said he was concerned about the Department of Justice, for a perceived lack of interest in investigating Trump’s own actions, including asking officials in Georgia to “find” votes which would overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.

Nobel-winning stock market theory used to help save coral reefs

A Nobel prize-winning economic theory used by investors is showing early signs of helping save threatened coral reefs, scientists say.

Researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland used modern portfolio theory (MPT), a mathematical framework developed by the economist Harry Markowitz in the 1950s to help risk-averse investors maximise returns, to identify the 50 reefs or coral sanctuaries around the world that are most likely to survive the climate crisis and be able to repopulate other reefs, if other threats are absent.

The study recommends targeting investment in conservation projects that have the “strongest potential to succeed” in protecting priority reefs. The gains go beyond positive ecological outcomes and include crucial social, economic, health and nutritional benefits for communities, according to partners, organisations and funders interviewed by Blue Earth Consultants.

Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a climate scientist at the University of Queensland, who helped lead the “50 reefs” project, said: “It’s essentially a strategy to help us make decisions about what to protect, if we are to have corals at the end of the century.”

“It is our best shot at having a long-term future for coral reefs,” he said.

Coral reefs face a dire future. Even if drastic emission reductions ensured global heating was limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – which would require almost halving global CO₂ emissions by 2030 from 2010 levels – 70% to 90% of today’s corals would vanish.

Biden Drilling Report Blasted as 'Shocking Capitulation to the Needs of Corporate Polluters'

Climate campaigners and other progressive critics on Friday called out the Biden administration for a new U.S. Interior Department report about leasing public lands and waters to oil and gas companies, slamming its proposals as far too weak given the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

The report—prepared in response to President Joe Biden's Executive Order 14008—recommends adjusting royalty and bonding rates, prioritizing leasing in areas with known resource potential, and avoiding regions where drilling conflicts with conservation, historical and cultural resources, recreation, and wildlife habitat.

"Releasing this completely inadequate report over a long holiday weekend is a shameful attempt to hide the fact that President Biden has no intention of fulfilling his promise to stop oil and gas drilling on our public lands," said Food & Water Watch policy director Mitch Jones in a statement.

Despite the president's campaign pledge to ban new oil and gas leasing for public lands and waters, the administration last week auctioned off 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. In response to legal action from Republican state attorneys general, a federal judge ruled in June that Biden could not pause new leases.

The administration's legal obligation to hold lease sales has not stopped climate campaigners from accusing the president of failing to deliver on his promises to tackle the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.

"A minor increase in the royalties paid by climate polluters will have zero impact on combating the climate crisis," Jones asserted Friday, "and will in effect make the federal government more dependent on fossil fuels as a source of revenue."

"This shocking capitulation to the needs of corporate polluters is a clear sign that, when it comes to climate action, the White House does not actually mean what it says," he added. ...

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland acknowledged the climate emergency in her statement about the report.

"Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American. The Interior Department has an obligation to responsibly manage our public lands and waters—providing a fair return to the taxpayer and mitigating worsening climate impacts—while staying steadfast in the pursuit of environmental justice," she said. "This review outlines significant deficiencies in the federal oil and gas programs, and identifies important and urgent fiscal and programmatic reforms that will benefit the American people."

However, as The New York Times noted, "the long-awaited report was nearly silent about the climate impacts from the public drilling program," which frustrated climate activists.

"We expected the agency to do a programmatic review of the entire fossil fuel leasing program that takes into account not only the environmental harms of drilling at the local and landscape level, but also the impact on the global climate crisis that we're in," said Brett Hartl, director of government affairs for the Center for Biological Diversity.

"And that had never been done before," Hartl pointed out. "The agency had never taken a cumulative look at the harm that would come from burning the fossil fuels that would come out of these leases. If you wanted to accomplish what the president had promised, this was the best mechanism to achieve that promise."

As Collin Rees, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, put it: "Interior's leasing report reads as if it was written in the 1990s, and does little more than confirm what advocates and other branches of government have been saying for decades."

"The report is woefully inadequate and contains almost no new insights, despite arriving more than six months later than promised," he continued. "The government's royalty rates and bonding requirements are far too low and lead to public money subsidizing Big Oil's profits while our federal lands and waters suffer egregious harm."

"But President Biden promised to end the leasing program entirely due to its deadly threat to the climate," Rees said. "Interior's recommendations fall far short of that goal and ring particularly hollow days after the largest lease sale in U.S. history."

US north-west dodges new ‘atmospheric river’ flooding but threat remains

Though flooding expected to threaten parts of the US north-west turned out not too bad on Sunday, officials urged residents to remain alert because more rain was on the way to an area subject to lingering effects from extreme weather earlier this month. ... The NWS on Saturday warned that flooding was possible through Sunday in north-western Washington, but an “atmospheric river” – a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into the US north-west – moved farther north into Canada than expected.

Parts of Canada were also badly hit by flooding this month. Experts say manmade climate change is behind more frequent extreme weather events.

In the US, Steve Reedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle said “the impacts” as Saturday turned into Sunday “weren’t quite as bad as we were anticipating”. After a respite, rain reentered the area later on Sunday, which could cause some “nuisance flooding”, he added, and rivers could start to rise again in the afternoon.

“The flooding isn’t going to be quite as bad as we were expecting 24 hours ago but it still looks like some rivers up there could get into minor, maybe even moderate flooding,” Reedy said. ... While rain will taper off on Monday, another system is headed to the area starting on Tuesday and spilling into Wednesday, Reedy said.

Also of Interest

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

US Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships

With Democrat Back in White House, MSNBC Returns to Ignoring U.S.-Backed War in Yemen

Ethiopia Warns US Against ‘Spreading False Information’ About War

US Refuses to Engage With Marshall Islands on Damage Caused by Nuclear Weapons Tests

Fundraiser for US man exonerated after 43 years in prison tops $1.4m

Impending Planetary Disaster Should Unite Us, Yet We Remain More Divided Than Ever

Efforts To Groom Us For War With China Are Getting More Forceful

What happens when America’s coal plants die?

US Christian right group wages culture war with books, cartoon and nature doc

Dancer, singer … spy: France’s Panthéon to honour Josephine Baker

Biden Celebrates Thanksgiving At BILLIONAIRE's Mansion

Hillary BLAMES VOTERS For Biden's Falling Approval Rating

A Little Night Music

Big Al Downing - Georgia Slop

Big Al Downing - Yes I'm Loving You

Big Al Downing - Down on the Farm

Big Al Downing - Miss Lucy

Big Al Downing - Just Around The Corner

Big Al Downing - It Must Be Love

Big Al Downing - When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Again

Big Al Downing - Please Come Home

Big Al Downing - I Feel Good