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This evening's music features blues harmonica player Steve Guyger. Enjoy!

"Yesterday was a shameful moment in American history. Law enforcement is supposed to serve and protect the people, not corporate interests. Police enacted violence on people who were armed only with prayer. ... The original peoples of this country have rights - yesterday we were treated like animals for the benefit of Dakota Access. Construction resumed as night fell."

-- Tara Houska

News and Opinion

North Dakota pipeline: 141 arrests as protesters pushed back from site

Law enforcement officials arrested 141 people in North Dakota after police surrounded protesters, deploying pepper spray and armored vehicles in order to clear hundreds of Native American activists and supporters from land owned by an oil pipeline company.

The move marked the beginning of an aggressive new phase in ongoing police efforts to thwart a months-long demonstration by hundreds of members of more than 90 Native American tribes to prevent the construction of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which they say would threaten the regional water supply and destroy sacred sites.

The confrontations marked the most intense conflict to date at the protest, which has become a flashpoint across the US for Native American rights and climate change activism.

Essentially, seeing the last 400 years of US history re-enacted again today at Standing Rock #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/hMmnnWEBkR

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) October 27, 2016

Clashes between Morton County law enforcement and protesters escalated on Thursday during a tense all-day standoff, as police pushed protesters off the private land where the pipeline is slated for construction, forcing activists to retreat back to the camps that have sprung up since the protest began in April.

Activists vowed to continue fighting the project after the arrests. More activists were in custody but had yet to be processed, Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in a press conference. ... Kirchmeier told reporters that police were planning to remain in place “as long as it takes” to keep protesters off the pipeline’s land.

As Standing Rock Protesters Face Down Tanks, the World Watches on Facebook

As #NoDAPL protesters face down tanks in Standing Rock, the world watches on Facebook: https://t.co/HjcpjMbJon pic.twitter.com/sRLKC8dCEf

— WIRED (@WIRED) October 27, 2016

“If any of these law enforcement shoot one of my people, it is going down, people,” Atsa E’sha Hoferer tells the camera on Facebook Live. “We are prayerful people.”

He gets cut off by the screaming of a long range acoustic device—a sound cannon, the kind used by police to break up protests in Ferguson, Missouri earlier this year. But even over the alarm, people watching on computers and phones can hear the soft voice of a protestor singing and strumming a guitar. The wind whips Hoferer’s bandana against his neck. A police bullhorn tells the protestors to move.

Though cellular connectivity on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota is limited, it is videos like this that first alert the world of what is going down. Twenty-six thousand people watch as the video pans out to show the front lines of the clash between law enforcement and Native Americans, who are protesting the creation of the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. They fear that if the pipeline were to break, it would destroy drinking water. On one side, a line of law enforcement dressed in black, flanking two armored vehicles. On the other side, hay bales. Within minutes, the gap between the hay bales and trucks closes. Then the service cuts out. After a few frozen minutes, the stream ends. But at 2:30pm ET there remained many others ongoing. ...

It’s a wonder any of these livestreams managed to happen at all. Cellular service at Standing Rock is reportedly abysmal. “It’s a blackout, from when it first started, because there is no communication,” Chief Looking Horse of the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Nations told WIRED last month at a meeting in New York. It wasn’t always like that, he explains. “We used to have our cell phones, but as soon as we took a stand there, they just shut us out,” he said. “You can’t even make calls from the cell phone from that camp. You have to go probably about 20 miles south to get service.” WIRED was not able to verify this claim.

Sniper rifle pointed directly at crowd. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/vGVojkVQSt

— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016

100+ Militarized Police Raiding #NoDAPL Resistance Camp Blocking Pipeline’s Path

In Cannonball, North Dakota, over 100 police with military equipment are advancing on a resistance camp established by Native American water protectors in the path of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. Photos and multiple videos posted to Facebook Live depict over 100 officers in riot gear lined up across North Dakota’s Highway 1806, flanked by multiple mine-resistant ambush protected military vehicles (MRAPs), a sound cannon, an armored truck and a bulldozer. There have also been reports from water protectors that the police presence includes multiple snipers. Police appear to be evicting the camp in order to clear the way for the Dakota Access pipeline company to continue construction — which was active at times on Thursday just behind the police line.

Cody Hall of Red Warrior Camp told Democracy Now! that behind the line of police, the Dakota Access pipeline company is carrying out construction with cranes and bulldozers on the sacred tribal burial site where on September 3, unlicensed Dakota Access security guards unleashed dogs and pepper spray against Native Americans.

PHOTO: Just behind militarized police line on Highway 1806 in North Dakota, Dakota Access pipeline company actively continues construction pic.twitter.com/CQgYXV3JGn

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) October 27, 2016

Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network reported in a Facebook Live video posted just before 2 p.m. local time that police have begun arresting water protectors in the ongoing standoff. Sacheen Seitcham of the West Coast Women Warrior Media Cooperative told Democracy Now! police have used tasers against water protectors, and that she was hit with a concussion grenade.

Brutal Police Crackdown at Standing Rock

Hillary T. Fracking-Queen makes a lame-assed response to the brutalization of Native Americans.

Clinton Campaign Responds to DAPL Face-Off

On a day that saw a large police action involving armored, military vehicles, pepper spray, high-velocity bean bags and tear gas employed against water protectors who had gathered to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign officials issued a formal statement addressing the conflict. The announcement, made on October 27, was written as a response to a letter Native leaders had sent to Secretary Clinton asking for her help.

“We received a letter today from representatives of the tribes protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects. Now, all of the parties involved—including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes—need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest. As that happens, it's important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators' rights to protest peacefully, and workers' rights to do their jobs safely.”

Something is wrong when an armed #oregonstandoff faces no consequences & #NoDAPL protestors are attacked for protecting water. Unacceptable.

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) October 28, 2016

Bundy brothers found not guilty of conspiracy in Oregon militia standoff

A jury has found that brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy were not guilty of conspiring against the government, a surprising end to the high-profile Oregon standoff trial that sparked national debates about public lands and the rights of ranchers in the American west.

The decision, unveiled in federal court in Portland on Thursday, is a blow to the US government, which had aggressively prosecuted the rightwing activists who led an armed takeover of public property to protest American land-use regulations.

The Bundy brothers, who orchestrated a 2 January takeover of the Malheur national wildlife refuge, were acquitted on a number of serious charges, along with five other defendants. Only a day earlier the court dismissed a juror over fears of bias, raising concerns that the trial would drag on for weeks. ...

In a statement, federal officials said they accepted the decision. “Although we are extremely disappointed in the verdict, we respect the court and the role of the jury in the American judicial system,” said Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. ...

Prosecutors charged the Bundy brothers and 24 other defendants with conspiracy to impede officers through use of force, intimidation or threats, and some also faced additional charges of firearm possession and theft of public property.

The defendants were acquitted on the conspiracy and firearm charges, though the jury could not come to an agreement on a property theft offense that faces Ryan.

US Fails to Defeat UN Vote on Banning Nukes

History was made at the United Nations today. For the first time in its 71 years, the global body voted to begin negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Eight nations with nuclear arms (the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, and Israel) opposed or abstained from the resolution, while North Korea voted yes. However, with a vote of 123 for, 38 against and 16 abstaining, the First Assembly decided "to convene in 2017 a United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination."

The resolution effort, led by Mexico, Austria, Brazil Ireland, Nigeria and South Africa, was joined by scores of others.

The Obama Administration was in fierce opposition. It lobbied all nations, particularly its allies, to vote no. "How can a state that relies on nuclear weapons for its security possibly join a negotiation meant to stigmatize and eliminate them?" argued Ambassador Robert Wood, the U.S. special representative to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, "The ban treaty runs the risk of undermining regional security."

Remember when the fucking hypocrite Obama said this:

Remarks By President Barack Obama In Prague As Delivered - April 5, 2009

Now, one of those issues that I'll focus on today is fundamental to the security of our nations and to the peace of the world -– that's the future of nuclear weapons in the 21st century.

The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War. No nuclear war was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union, but generations lived with the knowledge that their world could be erased in a single flash of light. Cities like Prague that existed for centuries, that embodied the beauty and the talent of so much of humanity, would have ceased to exist.

Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons. Testing has continued. Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear materials abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one. Our efforts to contain these dangers are centered on a global non-proliferation regime, but as more people and nations break the rules, we could reach the point where the center cannot hold.

Now, understand, this matters to people everywhere. One nuclear weapon exploded in one city -– be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague –- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be -– for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival.

Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked -– that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.

Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. (Applause.) And as nuclear power –- as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.
So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. (Applause.)

US Uranium Weapons Have Been Used in Syria

This month, the Pentagon admitted it has used uranium weapons in attacks inside Syria — violating its public promise last year that it would not use DU there, and contradicting the claim that US bombing is done in defense of the Syrian people, according to the Int’l Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons.

Like the Pentagon’s past denials of the dangers of the chemical weapon Agent Orange, US military officials still claim publicly that its uranium weapons are not known to cause health problems. Made from waste uranium-238 — left from H-bomb and reactor fuel production — it is called “depleted” uranium (DU) but is only “depleted” of U-235. Ironically, the best evidence that it is dangerously toxic and radioactive — contrary to press pronouncements — comes from the Pentagon itself. A June 1995 report to Congress by the Army’s Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI) concluded: “Depleted uranium is a radioactive waste and, as such, should be deposited in a licensed repository.” ...

The Army’s Mobility Equipment, Research & Development Command reported way back in 1979 that, “Not only the people in the immediate vicinity but also people at distances downwind from the fire are faced with potential over exposure to air-borne uranium dust.” This uranium “dust” is generated when DU shells hit and burn through hard targets like tanks or armored vehicles. The uranium is spread for miles by the wind, contaminating everything is its path including food, water, soil, schools, hospitals, etc., and DU is radioactive forever, or ten times 4.5 billion years, whichever comes first.

In 1990, the Army’s Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command radiological task group said that DU is a “low level alpha radiation emitter … linked to cancer when exposures are internal, [and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage.” It added that “there is no dose so low that the probability of effect is zero.”

Putin slams Western claims about 'Russian threat'

Putin: Russia Is Not Going to Attack Anyone

Complaining about Western “hysteria” surrounding repeated predictions of Russian military attacks on NATO member nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to resolve two solid years of predictions to that effect with a straightforward assurance that “Russia is not going to attack anyone.”

Putin accused Western nations of having “mythical, dreamt-up problems,” and insisted the idea that Russia was going to attack the West was “simply stupid and unrealistic.” He added that he believes the idea is being played up to justify bigger military spending.

The Russian president also sought to dismiss allegations that he is plotting to rig the US elections to his own benefit, noting that the US is a great power and not some banana republic with an easily manipulated political system. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in such plots.

US to Hold Off on Cyberwar With Russia Until After Election

While the Obama Administration has made much of its intention to start a full-scale cyberwar against Russia at a “time of their choosing,” the most recent reports suggest that the war is effectively on hold at least until the presidential election in two weeks. ...

Starting a cyberwar ahead of a Trump win would be even less wise, as Trump has opposed the idea of picking fights with Russia, and expressed strong doubts about Democratic Party “certainty” that Russia is behind hacks against them.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D – CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says that another factor is concern about provoking Russian retaliation for such a US attack before the vote, with many Democrats concerned Russia could release “forged” documents to embarrass the Clinton campaign.

John Pilger takes on the "liberal media" for the correct reasons. Here's a taste:

Selling ‘Regime Change’ Wars to the Masses

Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia – and with careers on the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post.

These organizations are known as the “liberal media.” They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT. And they love war. While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.

In 2011, Libya, then a modern state, was destroyed on the pretext that Muammar Gaddafi was about to commit genocide on his own people. That was the incessant news; and there was no evidence. It was a lie.

In fact, Britain, Europe and the United States wanted what they like to call “regime change” in Libya, the biggest oil producer in Africa. Gaddafi’s influence in the continent and, above all, his independence were intolerable. ...

Ukraine is another media triumph. Respectable liberal newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian, and mainstream broadcasters such as the BBC, NBC, CBS, CNN have played a critical role in conditioning their viewers to accept a new and dangerous Cold War. All have misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia when, in fact, the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was the work of the United States, aided by Germany and NATO. ...

The suppression of the truth about Ukraine is one of the most complete news blackouts I can remember. The fascists who engineered the coup in Kiev are the same breed that backed the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Of all the scares about the rise of fascist anti-Semitism in Europe, no leader ever mentions the fascists in Ukraine – except Vladimir Putin, but he does not count.

Many in the Western media have worked hard to present the ethnic Russian-speaking population of Ukraine as outsiders in their own country, as agents of Moscow, almost never as Ukrainians seeking a federation within Ukraine and as Ukrainian citizens resisting a foreign-orchestrated coup against their elected government.

There is almost the joie d’esprit of a class reunion of warmongers. The drum-beaters of the Washington Post inciting war with Russia are the very same editorial writers who published the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Guantanamo parole board says Abu Zubaydah will never go free

Abu Zubaydah, who was the CIA’s first war on terror captive and the guinea pig for the agency’s torture program, is too dangerous to release from Guantanamo, a parole board there has concluded. As a result, he will continue to be held by the US indefinitely “to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.”

In a three-paragraph unanimous decision posted on its website, the so-called Periodic Review Board said its ruling was based on Abu Zubaydah’s “past involvement in terrorist activity to include probably serving as one of Usama Bin Ladin’s most trusted facilitators and his admitted abilities as a long-term facilitator and fundraiser for extremist causes, regardless of his claim that he was not a formal member of al-Qa’ida.”

Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi national of Palestinian descent, is considered a high-value detainee and is held at a top secret camp at Guantanamo.

“We always expected that it would always come down exactly as it has,” Brent Mickum, one of Abu Zubaydah’s attorneys, told VICE News. “We never believed we had a chance.”

Islamic State using hostages as human shields in Mosul - UN

Islamic State fighters have taken “tens of thousands” of people hostage and are herding them towards the city of Mosul for use as human shields as the battle for the militant group’s last major Iraqi stronghold intensifies, the United Nations has said.

Isis has also shot dead at least 232 civilians, the UN said on Friday, in its latest warning of atrocities by the group that has embraced rule by terror since it swept to power across the region. More evidence of crimes is likely to be unearthed as the self-proclaimed caliphate recedes into the desert.

Some of the latest victims are understood to have refused to comply with orders to leave their homes, and others were former members of the Iraqi security forces, who Isis may have feared would rise up against the group as its enemies advanced. ...

As the offensive to reclaim the city moves on, there are growing concerns about the fate of civilians who have been living under Isis. They face a grim choice between retreating into Mosul to serve as human shields, waiting out fierce fighting in their homes, or fleeing to areas where they fear being targeted as collaborators or supporters of Isis.

UN’s Yemen Peace Plan Would Sideline Former President Hadi

Heavily backed by Saudi Arabia, former Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s ambition to return as the ruler of Yemen appears to be waning, with a new UN peace plan proposal making the rounds that would sideline him more or less entirely.

Hadi was “elected” in 2012 in a UN-mandated vote in which no opposition was allowed, Hadi was supposed to serve two years in office leading to a new constitution and free elections. The constitution never happened, and Hadi extended his reign unilaterally in 2014. He resigned in January 2015 when his anti-Houthi military offensive turned sour and he lost the capital.

The Saudis, primarily opposed to the Houthis because they’re Shi’ites, insists to this day that Hadi remains the rightful ruler. ... While the Houthis have expressed openness to a unity government that ends the conflict, they’ve also opposed it involving Hadi or his vice president Ali Mushin Ahmar, who they say were too corrupt to work with in a transitional government. The UN plan seems largely to agree, as it would require Ahmar to resign outright, and would allow Hadi to remain only as a figurehead.

Holy crap, they say that this fruitcake has a good chance of being appointed to a position of influence in the coming Clinton regime...

Clinton Adviser Proposes Attacking Iran to Aid the Saudis in Yemen

Michael Morell is a former acting director of the CIA and a national security adviser to Hillary Clinton — one who is widely expected to occupy a senior post in her administration.

He is also an opponent of the Iran nuclear agreement, a defender of waterboarding, and an advocate for making Russia “pay a price” in Syria by covertly killing Putin’s soldiers.

On Tuesday, Morell added another title to that résumé: proponent of going to war with Iran, for the sake of securing Saudi Arabia’s influence in Yemen. ...

Morell did note, per Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, that this policy “raised questions of international maritime law.”

Which is a bit like saying, “Breaking into someone’s home, putting a gun in their face, and demanding they hand over all their weapons raises questions about armed-robbery law.”

Understatement aside, Morell’s stipulation suggests that he might be dissuaded from initiating a naval war with Iran if the legal issues prove too pesky. But the fact that a person who has Clinton’s ear on national security thinks this proposal makes sense from a “policy perspective” is alarming. ...

How many Americans (whose paychecks aren’t directly or indirectly subsidized by Gulf State monarchies) think keeping Yemen within Saudi Arabia’s sphere of influence is a cause worth entering another Middle Eastern war over?

Mozilla Presses White House to Do More to Prevent Cyberattacks

Mozilla wants the Obama administration to take more responsibility for discovering and disclosing flaws in internet connected products that leave users vulnerable to hacking.

“Governments, companies, and users all need to work together to protect internet security,” wrote Heather West, public policy representative for Mozilla in a blog post on Tuesday.

Mozilla wrote in support of two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Angus King Jr., I-Maine, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who requested on Monday that President Barack Obama formalize a policy called the Vulnerabilities Equities Process. The policy brings together government agencies to discuss whether or not to disclose weaknesses in web browsers, software, phones, and other digital technologies to companies — or maintain that knowledge for intelligence purposes.

The two senators also suggested that the White House create a government-wide “bug bounty” program so that hackers could disclose online flaws they find for a reward. The Pentagon has recently established a similar program.

Spain to finally get a government after 10-month political impasse

After 10 months of bickering and failed deals, two inconclusive general elections and some of the most dramatic political upheaval since its return to democracy more than four decades ago, Spain is finally set to have a government again.

Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party (PP), is expected to be returned to office following a second investiture vote on Saturday, after the Spanish Socialist party (PSOE) chose to abstain to break the political paralysis and avoid a third election.

Although the PP took the most seats in the elections in December 2015 and June this year, it failed to win an outright majority in either. The PSOE, which came second in both, had vociferously refused to do anything to ease Rajoy’s return as prime minister, until its leader Pedro Sánchez was ousted in an acrimonious uprising that has torn the party apart.

Sánchez had dismissed pleas from parts of the PSOE to allow the PP back into government, insisting that the latter was too deeply mired in a series of corruption scandals to be allowed to retake office.

He stood down as leader this month after losing a vote that would have allowed grassroots party members to back or sack him in a leadership contest.

The PSOE’s caretaker leadership has abandoned Sánchez’s position and decided to abstain in Saturday’s investiture vote, thereby allowing Rajoy to form a minority government.

Ontario pilot project puts universal basic income to the test

The Canadian province of Ontario is pushing forward with plans for a trial run of universal basic income, making it the first government in North America in decades to test out a policy touted as a panacea to poverty, bloated bureaucracy and the rise of precarious work.

In the coming weeks, the provincial government is expected to announce consultations to hammer out the details of a C$25m pilot project, with the aim of formally launching it in spring 2017.

The government’s foray into basic income began earlier this year when it tasked Hugh Segal, a Conservative political strategist and longtime advocate of the idea, with exploring potential directions for a pilot project. ...

“What Ontario is doing is saying let’s have a pilot project, let’s calculate the costs, let’s calculate the positive and the nudge effects behaviourally,” said Segal. Any pilot would need to be in place for at least three years to obtain reliable results, he said, and would hopefully involve testing the policy in a small community to measure the effects on the population as a whole, as well as among a group in a larger community. “Then having made that assessment, let’s decide how to proceed.”

The experiment in Ontario comes as basic income, once championed by Martin Luther King Jr and Milton Friedman, is undergoing a popular renaissance. As leaders around the world struggle to strike a balance between fighting poverty, the push for austerity and the steady erosion of stable jobs with pension and benefits, basic income projects are in the pipeline in Finland, the Netherlands and Kenya. Earlier this year, American incubator Y Combinator announced it would launch its own experiment in basic income.

FBI reopening investigation of Hillary Clinton

FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Friday the bureau is reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal email server, a surprise development 11 days ahead of the election.

After recommending earlier this year that the Department of Justice not press charges against the former secretary of state, Comey said in a letter to eight congressional committee chairmen that "recent developments" urged him to take another look.

"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear pertinent to the investigation," Comey wrote the chairmen. "I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
Comey said that he was not sure how long the additional review would take and said the FBI "cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant."

Law enforcement sources say the newly discovered emails are not related to WikiLeaks or the Clinton Foundation. They would not describe in further detail the content of the emails. It's also unclear whether the emails in question are from Clinton herself.

'Don't believe the polls': Donald Trump's supporters back him against the odds

Whatever doubts gnaw at Donald Trump at dead of night, his hardcore supporters will not allow him to give up the dream of the White House.

All 18 people interviewed by the Guardian at a Trump campaign rally in the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday night challenged the basic premise that he is losing. If anything, they seemed even more convinced than he is that opinion polls and mainstream media cannot be trusted so he should not throw in the towel. ...

This view was shared by Wesley Gaul, a 57-year-old consultant. “I don’t think there’s any sign of him giving up,” he said. “Look at all the people here. I live around here and there are Trump signs in every yard and only two Clinton signs in 30 miles. I don’t believe the polls. I think the people’s vote will shock everyone.”

Then there was Devon Coffin, 24, a maintenance mechanic wearing a profane t-shirt that referenced Monica Lewinsky. He said: “He’s doing three rallies a day, seven days a week. That’s not giving up. That’s a man on a mission. We’ve got a broken system and this is our way of taking it back. ...

And if she wins? “I’m not going to burn down the White House because this is still my country,” Coffim replied. “It doesn’t mean we’re done trying.”

I'll believe this when I see it. Democrats holding a Democratic president accountable? Really? Like they did Obama?

This looks like wishful thinking at best and most likely propaganda to me:

No Post-Election Honeymoon for Clinton

As polls continue to show Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ahead of GOP rival Donald Trump, many on the left are looking to November 9th and beyond to ensure a hypothetical President Clinton adhere to a progressive agenda that bucks Wall Street influence and follows through on promises made on the campaign trail.

Indeed, several have said, as Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston did to The Hill this week, that Clinton "doesn't get a honeymoon"—she'll immediately be pressed to prove her progressive proclamations were made not just in the name of political expediency.

"A lot of people are along for the ride through November 8th and will need assurances after that with big, bold action," Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told the Washington Post on Friday. "If you lose people early on, it's hard to get them back on board." ...

Still, the Post reported, "interest groups and like-minded lawmakers are laying the groundwork to push Clinton, if she is elected, to prove her progressive bona fides through early legislation and personnel appointments."

From groups vetting "acceptable appointees for economic positions" to lawmakers advising on both personnel and legislative priorities, "[t]he activity reflects the fragile alliance between Clinton and the progressive wing of her party," the Post wrote.

Florida voters may be tricked into derailing solar energy

Floridians who think they’re voting in November to promote the spread of solar panels may actually derail it, thanks to a deceptively worded ballot measure that would change the Sunshine State’s constitution.

Amendment 1 contains language that sounds supportive of solar power but could lead to Florida’s power utilities levying fees on solar users, even when they aren’t pulling power off the grid, and prevent them from earning credit for feeding unused solar power back onto it.

The “yes” vote for the proposed amendment to the state constitution is polling around 66 percent, and its opponents are being outspent 10-1. Backed by the four major local power utilities, FPL, Duke Energy, TECO, and Gulf Power, which have poured in $21 million to date, the amendment is on its way to becoming the most expensive ballot measure in Florida history.

And yet the measure, titled “Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice,” has been opposed by the editorial boards of nearly every major Florida newspaper and was barely upheld 4-3 by the state Supreme Court. One dissenting judge called it a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that fails — deliberately — the legal requirement to state its pro-utility purpose “clearly and unambiguously.” ...

The outrage meter peaked last week after a consultant linked to the utilities was recorded at an energy conference in Nashville saying that Amendment 1 was an “incredibly savvy” feat of “political jiu-jitsu” that will, if passed, “completely negate anything they [pro-solar interests] would try to do either legislatively or constitutionally down the road.”

EU and 24 countries just agreed to create the world's largest marine park in Antarctica

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources announced that 24 countries and the European Union had reached agreement on establishing the marine protection area in the Ross Sea, a 600,000 square mile area of the Southern Ocean.

That's a big one! Huge new protected area designated in the Ross Sea - good work @WWF #conservationoptimism #Antarctica pic.twitter.com/nAfkUU3yJa

— James Borrell (@James_Borrell) October 28, 2016

The marine park will cover roughly 12 percent of the Southern Ocean, which comprises over 10,000 species, and nearly 40 percent of the world’s Adelie penguins. But the area’s importance extends far beyond its territory, with the BBC reporting that an “upwelling of nutrients from the deep waters are carried on currents around the world.”

The area, which also contains huge amounts of krill, will now be protected from commercial fishing for the next 35 years.

Also of Interest

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

Police move in on North Dakota pipeline protesters – in pictures

Armed Dakota Access Pipeline Employee Arrested After Entering Protesters' Camp

How Israel seeks to erase the region's history

Obama’s Foreign Policy: A Hostage to Bipartisan Consensus

Hacked emails show Clinton aides surprised at 2015 email revelations

Roaming Charges: Comfortably Dumb

Work Harder So Speculators Can Get More

Meet the Pirate Party

A Little Night Music

Steve Guyger w/Filthy Rich - I'm A Stranger

Steve Guyger - Lookie Here

Steve Guyger, Danilo Simi & Netto Rockfeller - Walter's Boogie

Steve Guyger - Somethin's Smellin' Good

Steve Guyger - You're So Fine

Steve Guyger and The Excellos - Next Time You See Me

Steve Guyger - Tore Down

Steve Guyger - Born In Chicago