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"What I'm getting at is, you know, if we really want to get serious about helping all the people living in the street and getting people jobs, we could just hire half the people in the country to spy on the other half."

-- Jello Biafra

News and Opinion

Facing Growing Encryption, Law Enforcement Recommends More Informants

As the widespread use of encryption starts to make surveillance more challenging, one of the nation’s fusion centers has a proposed solution: More informants.

That’s the message behind a new document created by the Wisconsin Statewide Information Center, a designated intelligence fusion center, with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The document, which was obtained by The Intercept, is marked For Official Use Only and titled “Going Dark – Covert Messaging Applications and Law Enforcement Implications.” ...

This new document outlines the different encryption apps, giving information on what sort of data is retained, and the type of user registration required. The authors acknowledge, however, that in many cases, the apps will frustrate law enforcement attempts to obtain data, and may require other methods. “Knowledge that the subject of a law enforcement investigation is using covert messaging may also enable decisions about alternative investigative techniques such as confidential informants or undercover operations,” it says.

The use of confidential informants has exploded in recent years; exact numbers are hard to come by, but the New York Times reported in 2008 that the FBI maintains more than 15,000 covert informants, and the Drug Enforcement Agency about another 4,000.

World's biggest tech companies get failing grade on data-privacy rights

Tech firms including US giants Facebook, Google and Microsoft, Europe’s top mobile companies Vodafone and Orange, China’s Tencent, and South Korea’s Daum Kakao (which makes the 140 million-user-strong KakaoTalk) were among the public companies surveyed in an ongoing project called Ranking Digital Rights.

All of the firms failed to offer their users basic disclosures about privacy and censorship, according to the survey, which was conducted by the New America Foundation thinktank. One didn’t even provide user agreements in the proper language.

“There are no ‘winners’,” said the group in its executive summary. “Even companies in the lead are falling short.”

Given a percentage grade on privacy, freedom of expression and their commitment to those value based on an exhaustive analysis of their user agreements, no single company scored an aggregate grade above 65%. “On the one hand, it’s not like nobody’s trying at all, but the best-scoring company got a D,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, who runs the ranking project.

The low scores, each out of a possible 100%, highlight serious deficits at a time when data breaches frequently attributed to carelessness affect entities from married dating site Ashley Madison to CIA director John Brennan. They also illustrate how little control users have over the posts and videos they create on tech companies’ platforms.

Anonymous denies releasing incorrect Ku Klux Klan member information

The hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has denied involvement in a data-dump on Monday that incorrectly outed several politicians as being members of the Ku Klux Klan.

On 29 October, the group said on a Twitter account called Operation KKK and through a YouTube video that it had obtained a list of names of KKK members which it said it had obtained through a hacked Klan-linked Twitter account, and pledged to release them.

However, someone claiming affiliation with Anonymous began publishing a list of names through the website Pastebin on Sunday afternoon, which was quickly discredited.

In an email to the Guardian from the address linked to the Operation KKK Twitter account, around which the ‘operation’ has coalesced, Anonymous disavowed involvement in Sunday and Monday’s release, saying its data will be released on 5 November.

“We did not release this list that circulated social media today and we do not vouch for the content of any work we did not complete ourselves,” the statement read.

The 57 phone numbers and 23 email addresses published before the original release date of 5 November – which Anonymous said was aimed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the grand jury’s not guilty verdict in the Michael Brown case – are largely not linked to the Klan.

[links to stories about the release below in blog posts of interest section - grain of salt department. - js]

No doubt he died of a broken heart because he didn't get to be the dictator of Iraq:

Neocon flim-flam man Ahmed Chalabi dies of heart attack

Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who played a role in persuading the US to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, has died of a heart attack, according to state television.

Haitham al-Jabouri, the secretary of parliament’s financial panel, which Chalabi had chaired, said attendants found him dead in his bed in his Baghdad home.

The Iraqi interior ministry issued a statement paying tribute to Chalabi’s work for the “salvation of the Iraqi people from dictatorship”.

Living in exile as head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which opposed Saddam Hussein, Chalabi became a White House favourite after he provided information that supported the US justification for invading Iraq in 2003.

But he lost favour after the invasion when much of his information regarding Saddam Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaida turned out to be false.

AKP Wins Majority in Turkey, but Not Enough Seats To Secure Constitutional Changes

Turkey arrests dozens of people with links to Erdoğan critic

Police officers and bureaucrats loyal to an exiled cleric based in the US are among dozens of people who have been arrested by Turkish authorities in an ongoing crackdown on a group whose members have become bitter rivals of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Dawn raids on Tuesday targeted figures allied to a wide-ranging movement that pledges allegiance to Fethullah Gülen, a preacher who is set to stand trial in absentia for allegedly working to topple Erdoğan. They come just a day and a half after the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) founded by Erdoğan secured a sweeping victory in snap elections that will see it return to single-party rule.

The prosecutor’s office in the western city of Izmir said it ordered the arrest of 57 people believed to be members of the “Gülenist terror group”. ...

Security services last week seized a company with supposed ties to Gülen that operates a number of media outlets including Bugün TV, which hosted several opposition politicians in the run-up to the November elections, including Selahattin Demirtaş, the charismatic leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.

Next week, the White House spokesdroid will undoubtedly announce that all Special Forces troops deployed in Syria have been issued sneakers, thus there will from that point forward be no "boots on the ground."

White House Admits US Troops in Syria Will Go on Combat Raids

During a speech at the Defense One Summit in which he repeatedly insisted that the US troops heading to Syria won’t have a “combat mission,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes conceded that the troops will be going out on raids against ISIS forces, during which they’ll engage in combat. ...

On Friday, after the announcement of the deployment, officials were feverishly insisting it would be totally “non-combat” in Syria, and suggested the troops would stay at a “quasi-headquarters” instead of going out on missions themselves, keeping the operation purely advisory.

This narrative was ditched almost immediately, however, and Rhodes says now that they’ll be going out on raids involving combat sometimes, but that the troops wouldn’t be on raids more often than not, meaning the combat is not going to be “the norm.”

This suggestion that more than half of the time the ground troops won’t be engaged in combat and subsequently it’s a “non-combat mission” is another dramatic revisionist shift for the administration, after ruling out “boots on the ground” at all, and repeatedly insisting there would never be a US ground presence inside Syria.

New U.S.-Backed Alliance to Counter ISIS in Syria Exists in Name Only

Weeks after the Obama administration canceled a failed Pentagon program to train and arm Syrian rebels to combat the Islamic State, American officials announced a new effort to equip ground forces in Syria to fight the jihadists.

But 10 days of interviews and front-line visits across northern Syria with many of the forces in the alliance, called the Syrian Democratic Forces, made clear that so far it exists in name only, and that the political and logistical challenges it faces are daunting.

Beyond the early logistical factors, the new alliance faces what is perhaps a more serious challenge in the long term: Though it is intended to begin clawing back territory from the Islamic State in mostly Arab areas, nearly all of the group’s fighting power comes from ethnic Kurdish militias.

That demographic reality is likely to further alarm Turkey, a vital American ally that considers Kurdish autonomy near its southern border a security threat. It also limits the forces’ ability to strike the jihadists in predominantly Arab communities — Kurdish fighters have less motivation to fight for those areas, and could deeply anger residents by doing so.

Ergodan Vows to Stop US-Backed Kurds Advancing in Syria

Fresh off his election victory, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again stepping up the rhetoric against the Kurdish YPG, the largest Kurdish faction in Syria, vowing “all necessary measures” to keep them from advancing deeper into ISIS territory. ...

Though Turkey’s Syria policies have centered on trying to prevent increased Kurdish autonomy, the policy has become much more aggressive since the resumption of the war against the PKK inside Turkey and Iraq, with Erdogan insisting the YPG is effectively part of the PKK, and confusingly that ISIS is also the same group, somehow.

Eight Months In, Saudis Still Struggle for Gains in Yemen War

Back in March, when Saudi Arabia announced its intention to begin airstrikes against the Shi’ite Houthis in Yemen, it was presented as a quick intervention aimed at reinstalling former President Hadi, who resigned back in January and had relocated to the southern port of Aden.

Now in November, Saudi ground troops and troops from other allies have been in Yemen for months. ... Pro-Saudi leaders have been predicting a decisive victory looming over the horizon which would “liberate” the entire country into their hands, but with those big advances never coming, they seem to be hanging onto unrealistic expectations of absolute victory as a substitute for a plan to end the conflict.

The Censored Reality Of The Refugee Crisis

Tripoli Govt Warns of Refugee Deluge if Europe Doesn’t Recognize Them

Jamal Zubya, the foreign media spokesman for the Tripoli-based Libyan government, one of two major factions vying for recognition as the real government of Libya, has warned the European Union that it’s refusal of recognition could eventually mean a deluge of Libyan refugees crossing the Mediterranean.

Zubya says the Tripoli government has been spending tens of millions of dollars annually trying to stem the flow of migrants, and that in the absence of formal recognition they should feel no obligation to continue “protecting the gates of Europe.” He says he has personally advised the government that, barring recognition, they’d be further ahead just renting boats and sending the migrants abroad instead of spending so much money trying to prevent them leaving.

Winter is coming: the new crisis for refugees in Europe

Record numbers of migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in October – just in time for the advent of winter, which is already threatening to expose thousands to harsh conditions.

The latest UN figures, which showed 218,000 made the perilous Mediterranean crossing last month, confirm fears that the end of summer has not stemmed the flow of refugees as has been the pattern in previous years, partly because of the sheer desperation of those fleeing an escalating war in Syria and other conflicts.

The huge numbers of people arriving at the same time as winter is raising fears of a new humanitarian crisis within Europe’s borders. Cold weather is coming to Europe at greater speed than its leadership’s ability to make critical decisions. A summit of EU and Balkan states last week agreed some measures for extra policing and shelter for 100,000 people.

But an estimated 700,000 refugees and migrants, have arrived in Europe this year along unofficial and dangerous land and sea routes, from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, north Africa and beyond. Tens of thousands, including the very young and the very old, find themselves trapped in the open as the skies darken and the first night frosts take hold. Hypothermia, pneumonia and opportunistic diseases are the main threats now, along with the growing desperation of refugees trying to save the lives of their families. ...

Peter Bouckaert, the director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, said that all the way along the route into Europe through the Balkans “there is virtually no humanitarian response from European institutions, and those in need rely on the good will of volunteers for shelter, food, clothes, and medical assistance.”

Europe has found itself ill-prepared to deal with its biggest influx of refugees since the second world war. It is hurriedly improvising new mechanisms so that it can respond collectively as a continent rather than individual nations, but it is a race against time and the elements – a race Europe is not guaranteed to win.

Human-rights groups sound alarm about Canada selling arms to Ukraine

Two human-rights groups have teamed up to oppose a plan by the outgoing Conservative government to allow the sale of so-called prohibited weapons to Ukraine, including automatic assault rifles and armoured vehicles.

Amnesty International Canada and Project Ploughshares have written to the Department of Foreign Affairs expressing concern about the potential consequences of adding the embattled eastern European government to the list of countries to which Canada can sell automatic firearms.

There are 39 countries on Canada’s automatic firearms country control list, including Saudi Arabia, to whom General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ont., recently sold $13-billion in armoured vehicles despite the opposition of human rights groups.

Foreign Affairs has been in the process of consulting on the Ukraine proposal since it was introduced last summer, around the time Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed a free trade agreement with the country’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The move was seen at the time as opening the door for Canada to expand its support for Ukraine, which to this point has only received non-lethal defensive equipment and medical supplies to offset its losses in the ongoing conflict with Russian-backed rebels.

Both Amnesty and Project Ploughshares say exporting weapons should be withdrawn until the human rights situation in the country improves, citing brutal police tactics used to suppress the anti-government protests in the fall of 2013 – something that led to the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych’s government the following year.

A Big Bank Regulator and a Big Bank: Both Warn of Financial Risks

It’s not every week that the regulator of the biggest banks in the U.S. and one of those biggest banks are both warning of growing financial risks.

On Sunday, Bank of America – the parent of Merrill Lynch and its more than 15,000 financial advisors – released a report calling the outlook for markets next year “perilous” and warning that “markets have not priced in quantitative failure.” The report came from Michael Hartnett, Bank of America’s Chief Investment Strategist and his team.

Yesterday, Thomas Curry, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) which regulates all national banks in the U.S., gave his second speech in a week and a half, using both occasions to warn of increasing credit risks at the biggest banks. ...

There is no question that deflation is gripping much of the globe. According to Bloomberg data, the average yield on sovereign debt in Europe due within five years just clocked in at a minus 0.025 percent, the lowest on record.

The view that the U.S. might have to throw in the towel on central bank monetary policy riding to the rescue of the economy in 2016 stems from two realities. First, the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has no bullets left in its gun. It can’t cut interest rates further because it’s already at the zero interest rate bound range. Secondly, its balance sheet is already at an unprecedented $4.485 trillion as a result of past quantitative easing programs.

Then there is the fact that a populist fervor is engulfing the race to the White House – suggesting that those who don’t get on board rebalancing the interests of the country to help Main Street and away from the Wall Street-centric Fed will be joining the ranks of the unemployed.

'Ed Snowden of Banking' Refuses to Appear in Swiss Trial

'SwissLeaks' Trial of Fugitive Whistleblower Hervé Falciani Begins in Switzerland

On December 26, 2008, a former systems engineer from HSBC Private Bank — the Swiss subsidiary of banking giant HSBC — sat down with a French tax official in the busy airport of the French Riviera city of Nice, and handed over information that would lead to what has since been dubbed "the biggest banking leak in history."

That day, Hervé Falciani gave Jean-Patrick Martini, an official at the French National Directorate of Tax Investigations, five DVDs containing confidential data on 106,000 HSBC PB bank clients. According to the files, these clients had squirreled away $100 billion in their Swiss accounts, thereby avoiding domestic taxes.

In disclosing the files, Falciani had just revealed the names of 75 percent of his former employer's biggest clients, triggering an international banking scandal and the ire of tax authorities in 203 countries. He was eventually accused of industrial espionage and violation of banking secrecy. ...

In June, HSBC PB agreed to pay Swiss authorities 40 million Swiss francs ($40.5 million) to settle an investigation into allegations of suspected "aggravated money laundering." But the case against Falciani has gone ahead. ...

Last week, Falciani addressed reporters at a press conference in the French town of Divonne, less than a mile from the Swiss border. During the event, which has organized by the Geneva Press Club, the fugitive whistleblower — who has been upfront about breaking the law — announced that he would not attend the court date in Switzerland because conditions for a fair trial had not been met.

Here are two articles about a new study that shows rising death rates among white, middle-aged Americans and most especially among those with a high-school education or less.

Rising deaths among white middle-aged Americans could exceed Aids toll in US

A sharp rise in death rates among white middle-aged Americans has claimed nearly as many lives in the past 15 years as the spread of Aids in the US, researchers have said.

The alarming trend, overlooked until now, has hit less-educated 45- to 54-year-olds the hardest, with no other groups in the US as affected and no similar declines seen in other rich countries.

Though not fully understood, the increased deaths are largely thought to be a result of more suicides and the misuse of drugs and alcohol, driven by easier access to powerful prescription painkillers, cheaper high quality heroin and greater financial stresses.

The turnaround reverses decades of falling mortality rates achieved through better medical care and lifestyle choices that continue to improve public health in other groups in the US and in other nations around the world.

A Shocking Rise in White Death Rates in Midlife -- and What It Says About American Society

A second potential cause highlighted by Case and Deaton (and possibly related to the first) is stress from economic change resulting from slower economic growth and rising inequality. “Many of the baby-boom generation,” they note, “are the first to find, in midlife, that they will not be better off than were their parents. Growth in real median earnings has been slow for this group, especially those with only a high school education.” But they also observe that some other rich countries have seen “even slower growth in median earnings than the United States, yet none have had the same mortality experience.”

Here is where the stronger systems of social protection in other countries may play a role in both reducing inequality and cushioning people from the adverse social psychological consequences of wage stagnation. One key difference potentially affecting people in midlife, as Case and Deaton point out, is that the other rich countries have maintained defined-benefit pensions, while employers in the United States have shifted increasingly to defined-contribution pensions (such as 401(k) plans) that do not provide the same degree of security. As a result, many Americans with only a high-school education not only lack the skills in midlife to find good jobs or even to stay employed but also face the likelihood of destitution in old age.

These trends put new light on current debates about disability insurance and retirement policy. Contrary to those like Murray who attribute the growth in Social Security Disability Insurance to a decline in the work ethic, Case and Deaton’s data suggest that the increased number of beneficiaries reflects a real deterioration of health in middle age. Raising the Social Security retirement age may seem to be no problem for the educated and affluent who are in good health and do little physical labor, but delaying retirement poses a much bigger problem for workers who are experiencing increased burdens of pain and disability in midlife.

The declining health of middle-aged white Americans may also shed light on the intensity of the political reaction taking place on the right today. The role of suicide, drugs, and alcohol in the white midlife mortality reversal is a signal of heightened desperation among a population in measurable decline. We are not talking merely about “status anxiety” due to rising immigrant populations and changing racial and gender relations. Nor are we talking only about stagnation in wages as if the problem were merely one of take-home pay. The phenomenon Case and Deaton have identified suggests a dire collapse of hope, and that same collapse may be propelling support for more radical political change. Much of that support is now going to Republican candidates, notably Donald Trump. Whether Democrats can compete effectively for that support on the basis of substantive economic and social policies will crucially affect the country’s political future.

Detroit's infamous 'RoboCop' faces trial for beating black man during traffic stop

He has been accused in lawsuits and a federal indictment of planting evidence, wrongfully killing civilians, falsifying police reports and conducting illegal arrests. His conduct has cost the city of Detroit millions in legal settlements. He’s well-known by his nickname, “RoboCop”.

And this week, William Melendez, the former officer in the town of Inkster near Detroit goes to trial for pulling a man out of his car during a routine traffic stop and repeatedly punching him in the head – a move caught on video.

Melendez, 47, now faces his starkest punishment yet in the trial on three felony charges, after decades during which he continued to serve as a police officer.

The trial centers on his conduct during a 28 January arrest of Floyd Dent. Dent was pulled over around 10pm, after he had failed to use a traffic signal and disregarded a stop sign, according to a police report of the incident. He continued to drive at roughly the same speed for about three-quarters of a mile to a well-lit area where, Dent said, he felt more comfortable.

Police have said Dent, who was unarmed, was driving with a suspended license – a point the 58-year-old has acknowledged. After Dent pulled his Cadillac over near an old police station, he opened his door and put both his hands out of the window.

But as Melendez approached with his firearm drawn, the officer said he believed Dent was reaching for a gun. Moments later, Melendez dragged Dent out of his vehicle and, almost immediately, placed him in a chokehold. The officer then punched Dent’s temple more than a dozen times.

“At one point, I just gave up,” Dent told the Guardian earlier this year. “I thought that was it for me.”

Another officer soon arrived and proceeded to use a stun gun against Dent, three times. In a dashcam video of the incident, Dent, with blood dripping from his forehead and cheek, appears not to be resisting Melendez’s efforts to arrest him. The altercation landed Dent in the hospital for two days with a fractured left orbital, blood on the brain and four broken ribs.

The incident didn’t garner significant attention until video was obtained and released in March by a local TV news station. Activists highlighted the rough arrest as one of a number this year that have illuminated a national police brutality problem.

Historic election could return sovereignty to Native Hawaiians

In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii, yielded power to a group of businessmen backed by Marines in order to avoid the bloodshed of her people. She did so believing that the U.S. government, when presented with the facts, would eventually restore the Hawaiian kingdom. Instead, the coup led to the dissolution of Hawaiian sovereignty and the tropical archipelago's eventual admission to statehood. ...

On Nov. 1, a 30-day voting period will open to more than 100,000 Hawaiians certified by the state-sanctioned Native Hawaiian Roll Commission to elect delegates who will represent them in Honolulu this winter at an eight-week constitutional convention for self-governance. More than 200 Hawaiians on the mainland and across the islands are campaigning for 40 seats at the planned assembly, where the paramount task will be to draft a document that guides the creation of a government by and for Native Hawaiians.

Native Hawaiians are the only indigenous group in the U.S. without their own political structure. ...

The Native Hawaiian community is plagued by poverty, homelessness and the erosion of native traditions. Hawaiian students rank among the lowest groups nationally in reading. Hawaiian high school graduation and college acceptance rates fall below the national average. The high cost of living in the island chain, widely viewed by outsiders as a carefree palm tree paradise, has many native families focused on just trying to survive.

“Being native in the United States is like living a cycle of grief,” Danner said. “Because being native in the United States is to have lost something powerful. First, you're depressed. Then you're angry. Then there is some acceptance and then you get to a point where you say, 'What am I going to do about it?' As a people I think we are at the stage where we are ready to do something about it.”

Clinton meets mothers of Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown/h5>

The Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton met with a group of mothers whose black children died in shootings.

Clinton shared the “heartbreaking stories” of their children, according to a statement released by her campaign on Monday night. She also outlined her criminal justice and gun control proposals. ...

Racial issues have risen to the top of the Democratic primary agenda, largely due to the Black Lives Matter movement. On Friday Clinton was repeatedly interrupted by protesters during a speech in Atlanta.

Lawrence Lessig, Champion of Electoral Reform, Drops Bid for President

Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig announced Monday that he was dropping his bid for the Democratic nomination because the party effectively "shut him out."

Lessig's campaign, which launched in early September, primarily focused on campaign finance reform and the failed electoral process.

"I wanted to run for president as a Democrat because the values that I champion are shared by all Americans but especially Democrats," he said, adding that it is now clear to him "that the party won't let me be a candidate."

TransCanada Pushes Pause on Keystone XL Application in US

Facing a potential nail in Keystone XL's coffin, TransCanada is hitting pause in its push for the controversial pipeline project.

On Monday, the same day the White House reiterated President Barack Obama would make a decision on the controversial $8-billion pipeline proposal before leaving office, TransCanada sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to pause the company's presidential permit application. ...

The White House said Monday Obama was expected to make a decision on the project before leaving office, but TransCanada has not commented on whether the timing of their request had anything to do with that statement.

On September 23, US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said she was against the divisive pipeline project, calling it "a distraction from the important work we have to do on climate change." Meanwhile, incoming Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has voiced support for the project, calling it "an important energy infrastructure" for both Canada and the US.

Avi Lewis: This Changes Everything

Smelling a 'Rat,' Groups Tell Obama: Foil TransCanada and Ban KXL Outright

Request to suspend application makes it clear KXL has been defeated by the climate movement. Campaigners call on Obama to 'end this.'

Even as environmentalists celebrated the news that TransCanada asked the U.S. State Department to suspend its consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline, many of those same groups said they smelled a "rat," demanding that President Obama call the company's bluff and reject this $8 billion "climate disaster" once and for all.

Environmental groups, which for years have fought an impressive grassroots battle against the international project, said the request was an indication that the pipeline giant knew it would not win approval under the current administration. Thus, TransCanada is calling a "timeout," hoping to push the decision ahead to a time when the declining oil markets—and perhaps government leadership—are more in their favor.

"This is a desperate play by a company that knows it's on thin ice," states a petition launched by climate group 350.org. It continues: "By calling for a suspension, TransCanada is hoping to avoid the pre-election rejection by President Obama that many are predicting. They are playing for time, hoping that by leaving the project in limbo they can avoid losing outright—and that maybe a year from now all those pesky activists will have gone away." ...

As Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, noted, "TransCanada is just the latest rat to flee the sinking tar sands ship. Shell canceled its big tar sands project last week, and the whole sector is under stress from a combination of low oil prices and lack of market access. And when I say 'lack of market access' I mean 'a continental movement that is stopping all new tar sands pipelines and defending our land and the climate.'"

"Bottom line," Kretzmann added, "the Keystone XL pipeline has been defeated by the movement with an assist from the markets—it only remains for the President to reject the permit and call an end to this."

Melting ice in west Antarctica could raise seas by three metres, warns study

Nasa research finds ice in the region has gone into ‘irreversible retreat’ and claims effect is ‘unstoppable’

A key area of ice in west Antarctica may already be unstable enough to cause global sea levels to rise by three metres of ocean rise, scientists said on Monday.

The study follows research published last year, led by Nasa glaciologist Eric Rignot, warning that ice in the Antarctic had gone into a state of irreversible retreat, that the melting was considered “unstoppable” and could raise sea level by 1.2 metres.

This time, researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research pointed to the long-term impacts of the crucial Amundsen Sea sector of west Antarctica, which they said “has most likely been destabilized”.

While previous studies “examined the short-term future evolution of this region, here we take the next step and simulate the long-term evolution of the whole west Antarctic ice sheet,” the authors said in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They used computer models to project the effects of 60 more years of melting at the current rate.

This “would drive the west Antarctic ice sheet past a critical threshold beyond which a complete, long-term disintegration would occur.”

In other words, “the entire marine ice sheet will discharge into the ocean, causing a global sea level rise of about three meters,” the authors wrote.

Also of Interest

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

Patrick Cockburn on the state of the Syrian war

Does Hillary Clinton Support Cuts to Social Security?

A New Biography Traces the Pathology of Allen Dulles and His Appalling Cabal

Chelsea Manning: Fisa courts stifle the due process they were supposed to protect. End them

Globalization and Terror

The Browning of the World: Blame the Greed of the Rich

When Does Technological Advancement Actually Lead to Prosperity?

A surprisingly difficult question for Facebook: Do I have boobs now?

US Voters Head to the Polls for Local Elections That Could Have National Consequences

Next three links from the grain of salt department:

US Special Forces deployed as ‘human shields’ to salvage terror assets in Syria

Prominent US Senators and Mayors Outed as Members of the KKK by Anonymous

UPDATE: Here’s the Latest On the Leak of Alleged KKK Members

A Little Night Music

Howlin Wolf - Don't Laugh At Me

Howlin Wolf - Poor Boy

Howlin' Wolf - Three Hundred Pounds of Joy

Rolling Stones and Howlin Wolf - How Many More Years

Howlin' Wolf - Evil

Howlin' Wolf - Oh Red!

Howlin' Wolf - I Asked For Water

Howlin' Wolf - Shake For Me

Howlin Wolf - Highway 49

Howlin' Wolf - Meet Me In The Bottom

Howlin Wolf - Back Door Man

Howlin' Wolf - Dust My Broom

Howlin' Wolf - Sittin' On Top Of The World

The Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' At Midnight

Howlin' Wolf - Forty Four

Howlin' Wolf - If you hear me howlin'

Howlin' Wolf - Tail Dragger

Howlin' Wolf - Neighbors