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“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.”

-- Bertrand Russell

News and Opinion

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Senior Saudi prince says CIA cannot be trusted on Khashoggi conclusion

A senior Saudi prince cast doubt upon the reported CIA finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, saying the agency could not be counted on to reach a credible conclusion.

“The CIA is not necessarily the highest standard of veracity or accuracy in assessing situations. The examples of that are multitude,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, a senior member of the royal family, told journalists in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The prince, a former Saudi intelligence chief who has also served as ambassador to the United States, said the agency’s conclusion that Iraq possessed chemical weapons before the U.S. invasion in 2003 showed it could be unreliable.

“That was the most glaring of inaccurate and wrong assessments, which led to a full-scale war with thousands being killed,” he said, speaking at an event hosted by the Beirut Institute think tank. “I don’t see why the CIA is not on trial in the United States. This is my answer to their assessment of who is guilty and who is not and who did what in the consulate in Istanbul.”

White House prevents Gina Haspel from briefing Senate on Khashoggi murder

The White House is preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, or any other intelligence official from briefing the Senate on the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi.

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defence secretary, James Mattis, are due to give a briefing on US relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could cut off US support for Riyadh’s military campaign in Yemen.

On a national security issue of such importance, it would be customary for a senior intelligence official to take part. On this occasion, the absence of the intelligence community is all the more glaring, as Haspel travelled to Istanbul to hear audio tapes of Khashoggi’s murder provided by Turkish intelligence, and then briefed Donald Trump.

Officials made it clear that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House. ...

Bruce Riedel, a veteran CIA official and an expert on the US-Saudi relationship at the Brookings Institution, said: “Gina [Haspel] has been the case officer on this. She traveled to Turkey and she is the one who listened to the tapes and is reported to have briefed the president multiple times.

“This is further evidence that the White House is trying to outdo the Saudis in carrying out the worst cover-up in modern history,” Riedel added.

Argentina prosecutors considering charges against Mohammed bin Salman at G20

Argentine prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman with war crimes and torture if he flies to Buenos Aires for the G20 summit this week.

The move comes after advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote to a federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should invoke a universal jurisdiction statute in Argentinian law, to seek prosecution of the Crown Prince for mass civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalition’s campaign in Yemen, and for the torture of Saudi citizens, including Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

The writ presented by Human Rights Watch was received at the court of federal judge Ariel Lijo, who forwarded it to federal prosecutor Ramiro González. The prosecutor must now decide if the principle of universal jurisdiction, enshrined in Argentina’s constitution, applies in the case of the crown prince. Judicial sources were quoted as saying that the likelihood that this will happen “is very difficult”, the newspaper Clarín reported, adding that Khashoggi’s murder might not qualify as a “crime against human rights.” However, the HRW submission is based on a wider pattern of torture as well as military operations in Yemen. ...

Kenneth Roth, HRW’s executive director, said in a written statement that “Argentine prosecutorial authorities should scrutinise Mohammed bin Salman’s role in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in Yemen. The crown prince’s attendance at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires could make the Argentine courts an avenue of redress for victims of abuses unable to seek justice in Yemen or Saudi Arabia.”

Speaking of war crimes ...

Israel has injured 24,000 Gaza protesters

Palestinians have paid a great price for their call for life with dignity during mass protests held along Gaza’s boundary with Israel over the past eight months. Some 180 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces and nearly 6,000 others injured by live fire during the Great March of Return. “The vast majority of casualties were unarmed, and were fatally shot from a distance while in the Gaza Strip itself,” according to a new report by the Israeli group B’Tselem, confirming previous findings by other rights organizations.

In addition to injuries by live fire, 2,000 cases of injury by tear gas inhalation have been recorded, along with hundreds of injuries by rubber-coated metal bullets. Injuries to 90 protesters – 17 of them children – have resulted in amputation, nearly all of the lower limbs. Altogether, a staggering 24,000 Palestinians have been injured during the Great March of Return protests – more than one percent of the territory’s population. ...

At the beginning of the month, Gaza’s central pharmacy “was completely out of 226 essential drugs, and had only a one-month supply left of another 241,” B’Tselem states. Stocks of more than 250 types of medical disposables had been depleted. “The blockade places restrictions on replacing worn-out, broken medical equipment, on importing advanced medical equipment and drugs, and on travel by physicians for professional training outside Gaza,” according to B’Tselem. “In addition, Gaza’s intermittent power supply, again largely Israel’s doing, also disrupts hospital functions.” ...

“The high number of casualties at the protests is not an unavoidable fact of life,” B’Tselem states. “It is the result of a deliberate policy by the Israeli security establishment.”

“Manifestly unlawful” open fire orders “permit the use of live fire against unarmed protestors who pose no danger to anyone and are on the other side of the fence, inside the Gaza Strip.”

French riot police assault mass protests in Paris

On Saturday, as hundreds of thousands joined “Yellow Vest” protests against French President Emmanuel Macron, riot police viciously attacked protesters on the central march on Champs-Elysées avenue in Paris. Interior Ministry sources claimed that 106,000 people participated in 1,600 protests across France, including 8,000 on the Champs-Elysées. Police had banned protests on the eastern end of the Champs-Elysées, near the presidential palace. When protesters reached the first roadblocks, they were attacked by police units armed with assault rifles who fired water cannon, rubber bullets and thick clouds of tear gas and assaulted marchers with truncheons. Police then repeatedly marched up the avenue, attacking the protesters or trying to surround them, or tearing up the pavement and restaurant chairs to set up makeshift barricades.

Protesters responded by throwing pavement stones and fireworks; clashes continued throughout the day, as marchers chanted “Macron resign” or “Macron get out” and sang the French national anthem calling the citizenry to arms. Police made 103 arrests. Yesterday, 101 people were still being held in 48-hour preventive detention after the protest. The Paris police prefecture's claims that “violent ultra-right and ultra-left networks” infiltrated the march in order to violently attack each other or the security forces are a pack of lies. The police began and were responsible for the bulk of the violence.

The “Yellow Vest” protest was sparked by Macron's planned fuel taxes hike that disproportionately hit suburbs and rural areas. It has a heterogeneous character, bringing together workers, contractors and small businessmen, who claim to be “apolitical” and to want to build a “popular” movement. However, their growing focus on opposition to social inequality, militarism and to Macron is striking a political chord with broad layers of workers in France and internationally. ...

The outpouring of demands reflecting the concerns of people outside the top 10 percent of society is staggering the ruling elites in France and internationally. Claims that the protests are just a tax revolt demanding smaller government are a fraud. In fact, the criticisms of social inequality and war reflect opposition to European Union (EU) policies of austerity and militarism that are reviled by workers in Europe and internationally. Macron's apparently gratuitous attack on the Paris protest is a class issue. As it defends its wealth and privileges, the financial aristocracy is consciously hostile to the workers. Well aware that social anger and political opposition are primed to erupt, they are preparing war and militarism, including the return to universal military service in France, in an attempt to strangle social opposition.

France "yellow vest" movement: "Macron doesn't know how to talk to them"

Macron acknowledges plight of ‘gilets jaunes’ but won't cut fuel tax

Emmanuel Macron has said he understands the complaints of anti-government protesters who have blockaded French roads and petrol depots over fuel tax rises, but insisted he would not change his policy. In a speech on France’s transition to renewable energy on Tuesday, the 40-year-old president addressed accusations that he had failed to listen to the hundreds of thousands of people who over 10 days had blockaded roads across France and who marched last weekend in Paris, where barricades burned on the Champs Élysées.

“We must listen to these protests of social alarm,” Macron said, acknowledging that workers in areas where people were forced to use their cars were struggling to make ends meet. ...

In a rare display of humility and deliberate empathy with the anger among voters living outside of France’s big cities, Macron said his administration needed to be smarter in its policymaking to avoid a “two-speed France” emerging, where workers in outer-urban areas felt left behind. “I have seen, like many French people, the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month,” he said. He acknowledged the increase in diesel tax, which kicked in just as pump prices were rising, had inflicted more pain than anticipated.

Macron has deliberately tried to set himself apart from previous French presidents by insisting he would never make a U-turn on policy because of street protests. He said the street demonstrations would not force him to change tack on taxing fuel as part of a drive for cleaner energy. “We must not change course, because the policy direction is right and necessary,” he said. “But we need to change how we work because a number of our citizens feel this policy course is imposed on them from above.” He added: “I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution.”

The protests, which opinion polls show have significant support among the French public, have worried the government as it gears up for the next phase of Macron’s policy programme to overhaul French pensions and the welfare state. Protestors at the barricades have railed against what they see as Macron’s unfair move to ease taxes on the very wealthy and on businesses, accusing him of ignoring the working poor.

France fuel protests: 'Address social inequality before environmental transition'

Ukraine imposes martial law as tensions with Russia flare

The United Nations has held an emergency session on what Ukraine has called "an act of aggression" off the coast of Crimea, following the seizure by Russia of three Ukrainian ships during a naval clash in the Black Sea. ... Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree imposing martial law in response to the the naval standoff with Russia. The move was approved by parliament on Monday night.

Poroshenko ordered for an emergency session of Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's lower house of parliament, to take place on Monday during which legislators voted on the decree. The law will be imposed for 30 days from Wednesday onwards. Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Kiev, said there was a "palpable anger" throughout the country but Poroshenko's call for martial law had raised some eyebrows given the decision could affect upcoming elections.

"(Poroshenko) has to do something pretty special to regain popularity in these elections, the cynics and members of his own coalition are suspicious of his motivations in calling for martial law."

Addressing fears of heightened tensions between Kiev and Moscow, the 53-year-old also said on Monday that the step did not mean a declaration of war against Russia. "Ukraine is not planning a war against anyone," he told the National Security and Defence Council.

Lots of good info in this Moon of Alabama post:

Russia Blocks Ukrainian Navy From Militarizing The Sea of Azov

With Crimea back in Russian hands, the Kerch Strait is solely Russian territorial water. The Treaty on the Legal Status of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, signed in 2003 by Russia and the Ukraine, provides that military ship entry into the sea is only allowed with mutual consent. Ukraine disputes the status of the sea in an arbitration court. (For a legal discussion of the case see 1, 2, 3.)

The Ukrainian government, urged on by the U.S., wants to establish a new military harbor in the Sea of Azov. Two of its navy ships, a rescue vessel and a tug, passed through the street on September 23. In October the Russian government warned that it will not allow any further militarization of the sea. Some U.S. hawks even want NATO ships to enter the Sea of Azov. The Sea of Azov has a maximum depth of 7 meters. Typical U.S. frigates have a draft of 10+ meters. What NATO or U.S. ship could even go there? As Russia firmly controls the sole entry point into the sea and can easily attack any ship in the Sea of Azov from within its borders the idea is incredibly stupid. ...

Ships can pass the strait but are required to take on a pilot and to undergo inspections if the Russian coast guard demand such. The Ukrainian side understands that these are legal measures. In a report by the U.S. government outlet RFL/RE published in August the Ukrainian side admitted as much:

[The Ukrainian Sea Guard and the squadron's spokesman] Poliakov said that, while Russia's actions are "provocative," because of a controversial 2003 agreement on cooperation and shared use of the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, "everything Russia is doing here is technically legal."

The three Ukrainian ships tried to pass Russian waters without informing Russian authorities and without taking on pilots. Since Russia build the $3.7 billion Kerch bridge which connects Crimea with Russia, U.S. commentators and Ukrainian politicians threatened to blow up the bridge:

“The Kerch Bridge is an enemy’s infrastructure. It connects the occupied territory with the mainland of the aggressor country, that is why it is an enemy’s infrastructure,” Mosiychuk said on air of 112 Ukraine channel.

According to him, “any normal country” in a state of war strives for destroying enemy’s infrastructure. Answering a question whether he personally would destroy the bridge, he said that he would do it if he were the defense minister.

The Russians are understandably careful with any traffic near to it.

Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is “100% false”. His lawyers declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits.

In a series of tweets WikiLeaks said Assange and Manafort had not met. Assange described the story as a hoax.

'Secret indictment' of Assange could be made public if court challenge succeeds

An apparent criminal complaint against the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is the subject of a federal court hearing in Virginia on Tuesday. Free-press advocates want a judge to unseal the complaint after prosecutors in an unrelated case inadvertently mentioned charges against Assange, it emerged last month.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning in Alexandria.

Prosecutors oppose the motion. They argue the public has no right to know whether a person has been charged until there has been an arrest. The government also says the accidental reference to charges against Assange does not mean he has actually been charged.

The Associated Press and other news outlets have reported that Assange is indeed facing unspecified charges under seal.

New Law Could Give U.K. Unconstitutional Access to Americans’ Personal Data, Human Rights Groups Warn

Nine human rights and civil liberties organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department today objecting to a potential agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom that would give British law enforcement broad access to data held by U.S. technology companies. The possible agreement stems from the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, or CLOUD Act, for which Justice Department officials have lobbied since 2016 and which President Donald Trump signed into law in March.

In addition to requiring American tech companies to provide data on U.S. citizens when served with a warrant, the CLOUD Act allows for so-called executive agreements between the president and foreign governments. These agreements, the first of which would be with the United Kingdom, would empower foreign law enforcement agencies to order U.S. tech companies to produce data about individual users without a warrant, so long as the search target is not a U.S. citizen or resident.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the organizations that signed the letter of protest, has described a possible scenario for how a U.K. police service might obtain data under the CLOUD Act: “London investigators want the private Slack messages of a Londoner they suspect of bank fraud. The London police could go directly to Slack, a U.S. company, to request and collect those messages. The London police would receive no prior judicial review for this request. The London police could avoid notifying U.S. law enforcement about this request. The London police would not need a probable cause warrant for this collection.”

But this form of international data-sharing could put Americans’ privacy at risk and expose citizens to potential Fourth Amendment abuses, critics say. While the CLOUD Act requires that foreign police services not “intentionally target a United States person or a person located in the United States,” the law does not stop foreign police agencies from receiving communications of U.S. citizens or residents. Using the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s example of a Londoner communicating on Slack, any communications between the targeted British citizen and Americans would also be turned over to London police. “The phrase ‘intentionally target’ creates a large loophole; people in the U.S. and U.S. persons overseas could easily get caught in the dragnet,” said Sarah St.Vincent, an investigator with Human Rights Watch, another signatory to the Justice Department letter. Although such so-called minimization procedures are ostensibly in place to prevent foreign governments from ensnaring U.S. users, St.Vincent told The Intercept that she rejects the notion that they “should be reassuring to anyone,” as “procedures are not laws,” but rather safeguards. “I don’t see any mechanism in here to ensure that those are strictly applied and inspected,” St.Vincent added.

Amnesty International To Stage Worldwide Protests Against Google’s “Dystopian” Censored Search for China

Amnesty International has announced a new protest campaign calling on Google to cancel its controversial plan to launch a censored search engine in China.

The human rights group on Monday launched a petition against the search engine and said that on Tuesday, it will stage demonstrations outside Google offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Spain. Google’s plan for China would “irreparably damage internet users’ trust in the tech company,” Amnesty said in statement, and “would set a dangerous precedent for tech companies enabling rights abuses by governments.”

As The Intercept first reported in August, Google secretly developed the censored search engine as part of a project code-named Dragonfly. It was designed to blacklist words and phrases such as “human rights,” “Nobel Prize,” and “student protest.” The search platform would link Chinese users’ search records to their cellphone numbers and share people’s search histories with a Chinese partner company. The search records would in turn be accessible to China’s authoritarian government, which has broad surveillance and data-seizing powers that it routinely uses to identify and arrest activists and critics.

Trump says he isn't happy with General Motors' decision to shed 14,700 jobs

General Motors has announced it will halt production at five North American facilities and cut 14,700 jobs as it deals with slowing sedan sales and the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs. More than 6,000 blue-collar jobs will be hit by GM plans to stop production at a car plant in Canada and two more in Ohio and Michigan. Two transmission plants in the US will also be mothballed, putting the future of those plants in doubt. The cuts will also include 15% of GM’s 54,000 white-collar workforce, about 8,100 people, and come as 18,000 GM workers have been asked to accept voluntary redundancy.

Trump, who won over voters in many of the states affected by GM’s decision by promising to save their jobs, told reporters he was not happy with the decision. “We don’t like it,” he told reporters. “This country has done a lot for General Motors. They better get back to Ohio, and soon.”

GM’s share price rose 5.5% on the news. The car plants – Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly and Oshawa Assembly – all build slow-selling cars. Trump held a rally close to the Lordstown plant in July and told workers not to sell their homes because “jobs are coming back”.

Cost pressures on GM and other car companies and suppliers have increased as demand has waned for traditional sedans. The company has also said tariffs on imported steel, imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration, have cost it $1bn. ...

Lagging US car sales has seen several car plants fall to just one shift, including its Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant and Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant. Rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler have curtailed US car production. Ford said in April it planned to stop building nearly all cars in North America.

'Corporate Greed at Its Worst': After Reaping $514 Million From GOP Tax Scam and Billions in Public Subsidies, GM to Fire Nearly 15,000 Workers

Tax justice and labor advocates were among those who expressed outrage Monday at the news that General Motors—one of the corporate giants that benefited immensely from the Republican tax plan last year—would cut 15 percent of its workforce, shuttering production facilities in three states as well as Canada to trim costs. The auto maker is closing five plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Ontario, with plans to cut thousands of office jobs in January—slashing a total of 14,700 jobs.

The move comes less than a year after the Republican Party pushed through its tax plan, which offered $514 million tax break to the company. According to the advocacy group Not One Penny, $100 million of those savings went to enriching GM's shareholders, contrary to the GOP's claims that corporate benefits of the tax cuts would trickle down to workers in the form of raises and bonuses.

"General Motors' decision to gut its workforce epitomizes the bad corporate behavior Republicans in Congress have incentivized for generations. Instead of using its massive tax savings to increase employee wages or invest in its workforce, GM is shuttering plants and cutting jobs to increase profits and further enrich shareholders," said Ryan Thomas, a spokesperson for Not One Penny. "The American people will not forget that Republicans in Congress permitted these morally reprehensible and irresponsible actions." ...

In addition to the financial windfall it enjoyed thanks to the GOP tax plan, GM has been given a total of $50 billion in government funds over the past decade as the U.S. sought to bail the company out.

Witness: “No Warning” Before U.S. Border Patrol Started Tear Gassing Central American Asylum Seekers

Shooting Pepper Spray at Children Okay, Former CBP Deputy Chief Tells Fox News, Because 'You Could Actually Put It on Your Nachos and Eat It'

Amid widespread outrage and condemnation over the tear gassing of mothers, their children, and other asylum seekers and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, Ronald Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation and former national deputy chief of the CBP, appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning and claimed the gas—which reports said led to children "screaming and coughing in the mayhem" that resulted from it—was really just a "natural" product and "you actually could put it on your nachos and eat it."

On Fox & Friends, Border Patrol Foundation president defends pepper spraying latinx migrants because “it’s natural. You could actually put it on your nachos and eat it.” pic.twitter.com/QLdQXqqNno

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 26, 2018

"These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas." via @washingtonpost we would love to see the Border Patrol president and his kids eat some pepper spray and tear gas on their nachos live on @foxandfriends then FIRE HIM AND NIELSEN #DHS who gave orders 4 this

— CSHecht (@cs_hecht) November 26, 2018

'Turn around, go back home': Trump defends use of teargas on migrants

Donald Trump on Monday defended the use of teargas against migrants at the US-Mexico border, as tensions escalated between US border patrol agents and thousands of asylum seekers from Central America. Speaking at the first of two rallies for a Republican senator from Mississippi, Trump sought to renew fears over members of a migrant caravan attempting to enter the US from Tijuana.

“We don’t want those people in Mississippi. I’m sorry,” Trump said in the north-east city of Tupelo, while describing the migrants as “tough” people.

“Democrats have become the party of caravans and crime,” he added.

“We send a strong message to the caravans and the trespassers: Turn around, go back home.”

Trump’s appearance came a day after US authorities released teargas against dozens of migrants who ran towards the border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego on Sunday.

How a Climate Change-Fueled Drought & U.S.-Fed Violence Are Driving Thousands from Central America

Chicago police department’s “Code of Silence” goes on trial in Laquan McDonald cover-up

Three Chicago cops charged with covering up the fatal police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald went to trial Tuesday, in a case that takes the “code of silence” culture in police departments to task. Former Chicago Police detective David March, former officer Joseph Walsh and suspended officer Thomas Gaffney are all charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct stemming from the Oct. 20, 2014, encounter that left the body of 17-year-old McDonald riddled with bullets. ...

March, Walsh and Gaffney have all been accused of filing false police reports after the shooting exaggerating the threat posed by McDonald in an apparent effort to justify Van Dyke’s use of fatal force. The officers said in their report that McDonald had attacked them with a knife and would not stop even after he had been shot multiple times, testimony that was clearly contradicted by the video of the encounter.

Prosecutors also contend that the officers failed to interview key witnesses at the scene of the shooting, including Jose Torres and his son Xavier, who say they witnessed the shooting from their car. They are expected to testify against the officers, saying they were asked to leave the area and were not interviewed, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The shooting and alleged cover-up put a spotlight on an informal but universal law enforcement rule known as the “code of silence,” where officers decline to report on one another’s crimes or misconduct. But prosecutors say the officers’ conduct in this case went far beyond that. “The indictment makes clear that these defendants did more than merely obey an unofficial ‘code of silence,’” said Patrick Brown Holmes, an attorney who is serving as special prosecutor in the investigation, when the charges were announced last year. “Rather, it alleges that they lied about what occurred to prevent independent criminal investigators from learning the truth.”

Nooses found hanging on grounds of Mississippi state capitol

A day before a runoff US Senate election and as Donald Trump prepared to visit the state to stage two rallies, nooses and six signs were found on the grounds of the Mississippi capitol.

BREAKING: Nooses, hate signs found at Mississippi State Capitol https://t.co/lSIHPD0kDO pic.twitter.com/Phg7vlfV71

— WLBT 3 On Your Side (@WLBT) November 26, 2018

Chuck McIntosh, a spokesman for the state department of finance and administration, which oversees the capitol, said the nooses and signs were found on Monday shortly before 8am, on the south side of the grounds. The matter was under investigation, he said, adding that he did not know what was on the signs. ... Later on Monday, investigators said that the handwritten signs referred to the state’s history of lynchings and to the forthcoming election.

Dems Oppose Pelosi As Speaker - Demand Rule Change

Trump on own administration's climate report: 'I don't believe it'

Donald Trump has told reporters he doesn’t believe his own government’s climate change findings that the US economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution. “I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” he said outside the White House on Monday. “I don’t believe it.”

The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. Also last Friday, the government slipped out another environment internal report with bad news about emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands.

The Trump administration has tried to downplay the dire findings of the consensus analysis, which concludes climate change could cost the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives each year in future. A White House spokeswoman said the assessment was “based on the most extreme scenario”, although the report explores the differences in the impacts of climate change based on pollution levels and other factors.

The Trump administration also published another report on climate change on Friday, laying out that oil and gas produced from drilling on public land accounted for almost a quarter of carbon dioxide pollution in the US between 2004 and 2015. The information from the US Geological Survey, in the first such report, was requested in 2016 under Barack Obama’s administration. Trump officials have since moved to make it easier for companies to drill on federal land and rescinded standards for the globe-warming methane released by oil and gas operations.

'Unacceptable': Groups Urge National Archives to Reject Zinke's Request to Destroy Federal Documents Related to Drilling, Mining, Timber, and Species Protections

Warning that it could threaten the ability to hold the department accountable, a watchdog group on Monday urged the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to refuse a request (pdf) from the Interior Department to destroy records including ones related to oil and gas leases and endangered species issues.

"It's unacceptable that Interior is already turning their efforts to destroying documents when they can't even respond to the public records requests they have coming in," said Chris Saeger, executive director of Western Values Project (WVP). "Despite his claims to the contrary," Saeger added, "[Interior Secretary Ryan] Zinke is trying yet again to pull wool over the eyes of the American people by keeping the public in the dark while his department wages attacks on public lands and wildlife."

As an agency mired in scandal that has struggled to fulfill the public's FOIA requests, deleting public records is about the the last thing @SecretaryZinke's @Interior needs to do. Our full statement and comment below. https://t.co/6WJIBuXIqa #InvestigateInterior pic.twitter.com/V6UDDalhkc

— WVP (@Western_Values) November 26, 2018

In his group's letter (pdf) to the National Archives, Saeger notes that the "request covers documents going back more than 50 years from every agency within the Department of Interior," and expresses fears that green-lighting the move "could open the door for the destruction of similar types of records from the current administration, preventing the American public from ever determining whether high-ranking Interior officials, including Secretary Ryan Zinke and Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, acted in the public interest or on behalf of their own personal and political agendas."

The letter continues:

This request to destroy records is concerning but hardly surprising in light of Secretary Zinke and Deputy Secreta1y Bernhardt's history of hiding the details of their activities. Zinke's Interior Department has only fulfilled 10.53 percent of FOIA requests that WVP submitted, resulting in ten lawsuits. Of the 171 FOIA requests WVP has sent to Interior, 132 are still outstanding. Additionally, WVP discovered Secretary Zinke's use of a secret calendar to schedule meetings with industry groups, including Peabody Energy, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, and Dominion Energy, omitted from the official calendars. These efforts to hide meetings with industry groups, combined with Interior's failure to fulfill many of WVP's FOIA requests, demonstrate a culture that allows for corruption at the expense of America's public lands. Giving Interior permission to destroy its records would only push the agency further into the dark.

According to Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Interior Department's request "is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to undermine protections for endangered species for their buddies in various polluting industries."

A Green New Deal: Bill McKibben Hails Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Plan to Combat Climate Change

EPA Plans to Roll Back Water Protections Despite Climate Change Warnings

While one branch of the U.S. government issued a report last week outlining the grave threats posed by climate change, another branch was preparing a rollback of water protections that will further exacerbate some of the climate-related problems laid out in the report. “Water security in the United States is increasingly in jeopardy” warn the authors of the Fourth National Climate Assessment. Issued the day after Thanksgiving, the 1,656-page report was written by a team of more than 300 experts from the government and the private sector, and looks at the wide-ranging impacts of climate change already underway, including its effects on air quality, forests, coasts, transportation, and agriculture.

The report details the role that climate change, including increasing temperatures and more variable precipitation, has played in water quality crises across the country, such as outbreaks of harmful algae in Lake Erie, the reductions of the Pacific salmon population in the Northwest, and droughts in California. In many parts of the country, particularly the Southwest, groundwater has been seriously depleted, causing some rivers and streams to run dry for part of the year.

Yet the Trump administration is poised to issue a regulatory rollback that will make this already alarming situation much worse. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release a rule replacing water protections for many waterways across the U.S. The new rule, based on an executive order Donald Trump issued in February 2017, will likely take federal protections away from these tributary rivers, streams, and wetlands that are seasonal and rain-dependent. Though a growing number of waterways may run only a few months a year, such streams and rivers impact 58 percent of the drinking water in the continental United States, supplying more than 117 million people, according to EPA calculations.

The deregulation of seasonal waterways could also worsen flooding. The water rule put in place in 2015 by the Obama administration, now in effect in 22 states, deters the development of streams and rivers, which absorb rainwater, runoff, and pollution during storms. But without the federal protections, these waters may be more easily filled in and paved over.

Flint: Gov. Caught Faking Water Tests

Also of Interest

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

The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal

Economic Update: Why Capitalism Demonizes Government

Chris Hedges: Neoliberalism's Dark Path to Fascism

How Hungary helped make George Soros the ultimate villain to nationalists around the world

A Little Night Music

Little Son Joe - Just Had To Holler

Little Son Joe - Black Rat Swing

Memphis Minnie w/Little Son Joe - My Black Buffalo

Memphis Minnie + Little Son Joe - True Love

Little Son Joe - A Little Too Late

Memphis Minnie + Little Son Joe - When You Love Me

Memphis Minnie + Little Son Joe - What A Night

Little Son Joe - Ethel Bea

Memphis Minnie + Little Son Joe - Jump Little Rabbit