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“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.”

-- Emma Goldman

News and Opinion

Worth a full read to sort out who's been naughty and who's been nice:

Major Liberal Groups Sat on Sidelines as Senate Passed Historic Resolution on Yemen War

The Senate vote this month to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen marked a historic break from a bipartisan embrace of a pro-war foreign policy, yet it was accomplished without strong backing from Washington’s liberal foreign policy infrastructure. The resolution, co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., invokes the rights laid out in the War Powers Act of 1973 that assert Congress’s authority over war, and it was the result of many months of work by a coalition of progressive activists and anti-war lawmakers. ...

Backers of the effort approached the Center for American Progress, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the American Civil Liberties Union, and all declined to specifically endorse the resolution or become members of the activist coalition. And when a procedural vote on the resolution came to the House floor, it got the same kind of half-hearted support from Democratic leadership, falling just three votes short. As the momentum built toward the Senate victory, the lack of support from established groups in Washington became increasingly conspicuous. In the wake of the successful vote, the politics of war and peace in Washington are being reoriented, opening the possibility for a generational change that could have implications far beyond the Trump administration, potentially restraining the militaristic impulses of a future Democratic administration. ...

Before December 13, the Senate had never used its authority under the War Powers Resolution to force a president to end an ongoing war. ... The Senate’s passage of the resolution bestowed on it the kind of luster that allows liberal groups to support it without feeling as if they’re moving in too radical a direction. And, indeed, some insist that they’ve been strong supporters all along. Before the Senate vote, CAP, Amnesty International, and HRW put out statements condemning the war in Yemen and signaling broad backing of congressional action to end U.S military support in the country. There is no question that, to varying degrees, they’ve all been critical of Saudi Arabia. Yet none of them specifically endorsed the two parallel resolutions on the Yemen war making their way through Congress — when it came to using the War Powers Resolution as a vehicle to end the war, reluctance set in.

The issue is especially sensitive to the Center for American Progress, the most prominent Democratic think tank in Washington, because it has been criticized for accepting significant funding from the embassy of the UAE, one of the Gulf countries leading the war on Yemen. The UAE gave CAP between $500,000 to $999,000 in 2017, according to the organization’s website.

5. This is an opportunity for progressive forces to assert an alternative vision for US foreign policy.
6. Trump is a crooked charlatan. But these withdrawals would represent a dent in the armor of the bipartisan war machine.
7. This chaos presents opportunity.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 21, 2018

10. For those who somehow think this is Trump opposing the war machine, I point you to his massive escalation of drone strikes, his easing of rules for killing civilians, his use of ground troops in Yemen and Somalia and his use of criminal weaponry like the MOAB in Afghanistan.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 21, 2018

Bring the Troops Home, But Also Stop the Bombing

As our nation debates the merits of President Donald Trump's call for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, absent from the debate is the more pernicious aspect of U.S. military involvement overseas: its air wars. Trump's announcement and General James Mattis' resignation should unleash a national discussion about U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts, but no evaluation can be meaningful without a clear understanding of the violence that U.S air wars have unleashed on the rest of the world for the past 17 years.

By our calculations, in this "war on terror," the U.S. and its allies have dropped a staggering 291,880 bombs and missiles on other countries — and that is just a minimum number of confirmed strikes. ...

We are heading into 2019 with new initiatives to reduce U.S. military involvement overseas. In Yemen, that initiative is the result of massive grassroots pressure on Congress, and is being done in opposition to Trump's continued support for Saudi aggression in Yemen. In the case of Syria and Afghanistan, it is coming from Trump himself, with broad popular support but bipartisan opposition from Congress and D.C. elites.

Those who are part of the bipartisan war consensus should reflect on the growing public awareness of the murderous futility of U.S. overseas wars. A survey by the Committee for a Responsible Foreign Policy revealed "a national voter population that is largely skeptical of the practicality or benefits of military intervention overseas." Donald Trump seems to realize this public disdain for endless war, but we shouldn't let him get away with reducing U.S. troop presence but continuing—and in some cases escalating—the devastating air wars.

Turkish forces will cross into Kurdish-held Syria – foreign minister

Turkey’s foreign minister has reiterated that Turkish forces are determined to cross the Euphrates river into Kurdish-held territory in Syria as soon as possible, despite previous suggestions from both Washington and Ankara that Turkey would delay the proposed military campaign.

Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that “if Turkey says it will enter, it will”. While the foreign minister did not give a time frame, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said last week that Turkey would stall its offensive as part of coordination with the US over the planned withdrawal of US forces from the area. ...

Turkey will take over the remnants of the fight to remove Isis from its last slivers of territory and has the “strength to neutralise” Isis on its own, Cavusoglu said. The future of the international coalition remains unclear. The foreign minister also criticised the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who has said French forces will remain in Kurdish-held Syria as a buffer.

“If France is staying in Syria to protect the YPG, that will neither benefit France nor the YPG,” he said, referring to the main Kurdish militia in Syria, adding that Turkey would take its cues on the matter from Washington, rather than Paris. ...

It is widely believed the catalyst for the sudden detente is the death of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this year. The US has sought to insulate its partners in Riyadh, including the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, from blame in the case.

US Empire on the Ropes

Trump administration in question as political warfare in Washington intensifies

The year 2018 is coming to a close amidst a historic political crisis in the United States. In the past week, Washington has been convulsed by conflicts over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and reduce troop levels in Afghanistan, and the ensuing resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. This has coincided with a sharp drop on the stock market and a partial government shutdown that could extend well into next year. It is not Trump’s fascistic attack on immigrants, his war on the working class or his belligerence toward China that has triggered paroxysms of rage within the state and from the Democratic Party. It is, rather, his seeming intention to wind down the wars in Syria and Afghanistan, both of which are undeclared and illegal.

The future of the administration is being called into question. Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said on Sunday that the resignation of Mattis in protest over the troop withdrawals could be the “beginning of the functional end of this presidency.” He cited the erosion of support for Trump among Senate Republicans, who have served as a buffer against the investigations, centered on the probe by former FBI Director Robert Mueller into Trump’s personal dealings and the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. In Trump’s foreign policy shifts, the Democrats, speaking for the military and intelligence apparatus, see an abandonment of what they consider to be a fundamental premise of American foreign policy: That control over the Middle East is critical in countering Russia, which in turn is necessary in order to confront China. Democratic Senator Chris Coons declared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that “President Trump is handing a great big Christmas gift to Vladimir Putin in Russia and to the Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran.”

In the process, the Democrats are unashamedly aligning with the most reactionary forces within the state apparatus and the military. “Mad Dog” Mattis, the butcher of Fallujah, who once declared that “it’s fun to shoot some people,” has been transformed into a pillar of moral virtue. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, declared on “Meet the Press” that “it breaks my heart” to see Mattis leave. He said he begged Mattis to “stay, stay as long as you possibly can,” because “we desperately need your mature voice, your voice of patriotism.” The war criminal Mattis, still alive, is following the path to political sainthood the Democrats and the media previously laid for the deceased John McCain and George H.W. Bush. ...

The ferocious reaction against Trump’s moves in Syria and Afghanistan exposes the fraud of the “war on terror,” supposedly launched to combat Islamist terrorists. Trump justified his plan to withdraw US troops by pointing out that ISIS has been routed in Syria. But as scores of indignant opponents of the move have stated, the real issue is not ISIS, but rather the struggle against Washington’s geopolitical rivals in the Middle East and Central Asia, above all Russia and Iran. In fact, the events of September 11, 2001 were merely the pretext for the implementation of expansionist plans prepared long before, beginning with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush, followed by the war against Libya and the CIA-backed civil war in Syria under Obama. The original rationale has largely been dropped and American foreign policy exposed for what it is—the effort to control the world through military force.

US Congress just recently alarmed with AP-Xinhua relationship… which started 40 yrs ago

Pilger Says Assange Denies Meeting Manafort

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has vehemently denied that he ever met Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, according to journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, who met with Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in London last week.

Pilger said Assange told him the story published by The Guardian on Nov. 27 was a “total fabrication.” Pilger told Consortium News in an interview for the Unity4J vigil on Friday that “I personally can confirm that did not happen. He said it was a fabrication. It was not possible. The way internal security works at that embassy, it was not possible.” Pilger called The Guardian story “an indication of a kind of degradation of the media today and especially of the ‘respectable’ media.

French “yellow vest” protesters mount pre-Christmas protest against Macron

On Saturday, tens of thousands of “yellow vest” protesters demonstrated in France, amid a growing strike wave in neighboring Spain and in Portugal, where protesters also donned yellow vests. Thousands of people joined protest marches in France’s major cities, or blockaded highway intersections and France’s borders with Spain, Italy or Germany, to express their opposition to Macron and the European Union (EU). According to the Interior Ministry, there were 2,000 “yellow vest” demonstrators in Paris, where protesters divided themselves between the Champs-Élysées and Montmartre, after having tricked police into thinking they were marching on Versailles. The authorities had preemptively shut down the Versailles Palace, next to which they stationed water cannons. In the provinces, according to official figures, thousands demonstrated in Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lille, while hundreds protested in Nantes, Marseille and Lyon.

As usual, the security forces reacted with violent repression. In Paris they arrested Eric Drouet, a truck driver who helped launch the “yellow vest” protests on Facebook, alleging that he had a “sort of nightstick.” Another widely circulated video showed a policeman drawing his pistol and taking aim at protesters after throwing stun grenades unprovoked at the protesters. The mobilization was a rebuke to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who last week declared that on the “yellow vest” protests, “It’s enough,” and ordered police to smash highway blockades. After more than a month of protests and violent police repression of demonstrators, however, the movement is still very widely popular. It has 70 percent support in the French public, and various polls say that between 54 and 62 percent of French people want the movement to continue.

Citing Interior Ministry figures—showing 40,000 protesters Saturday, well less than the 125,000 it announced after the first protest on November 17—the French media are all predicting the imminent end of the movement and a return to order. It remains to be seen whether the dip in participation figures reflects Interior Ministry manipulation, protesters taking a break for the Christmas holidays, or a more lasting move away from the “yellow vest” blockades and protest marches. What is clear, however, is that political opposition and social anger to the entire Macron government and French state machine are continuing to grow in the working class.

The political situation is becoming more explosive. The government has not satisfied a single one of the demands underlying the ‘yellow vest” protests: for social equality, large wage increases, raising taxes on the rich, Macron’s resignation and the end to police repression. ... On Tuesday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced he was suspending all Macron’s concessions to the “yellow vests,” claiming they were too expensive. He flip-flopped a few hours later amid a wave of anger on social media. But these two 180-degree turns in the course of a few hours showed that the government’s promises deserve no confidence whatsoever.

Top Amazon boss privately advised US government on web portal worth billions to tech firm

A top Amazon executive privately advised the Trump administration on the launch of a new internet portal that is expected to generate billions of dollars for the technology company and give it a dominant role in how the US government buys everything from paper clips to office chairs. Emails seen by the Guardian show that the Amazon executive Anne Rung communicated with a top official at the General Services Administration (GSA) about the approach the government would take to create the new portal, even before the legislation that created it – known to its critics as the “Amazon amendment” – was signed into law late last year.

Amazon and the Trump administration appear to have an antagonistic relationship because of the president’s frequent Twitter attacks on the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. But the behind-the-scenes lobbying by Amazon officials underscores how the company has quietly amassed an unrivalled position of power with the federal government.

The 2017 correspondence between Rung – a former official in the Obama administration credited with transforming the federal government’s procurement policies before she joined Amazon – and Mary Davie at the GSA, offers new insights into how Amazon has used key former government officials it now employs – directly and as consultants – to gain influence and potentially shape lucrative government contracts. It has not yet been determined which companies will build the US government’s new e-commerce portal, but Amazon is widely expected to take on a dominant role, giving it a major foothold in the $53bn market for federal procurement of commercial products.

Amazon is also the frontrunner to win a separate $10bn cloud computing contract with the Pentagon, known as Jedi, which will in effect move the defense department’s data on to a commercially run cloud computing system. Amazon already operates a cloud service for the US intelligence community, including a contract with the CIA, and has said it can protect even the most top secret data on a cloud that is walled off from the public internet. The company’s strength in its defense and intelligence business had largely been attributed to its hiring in 2011 of Steven Spano, a former brigadier general in the air force who has since left the company.

Richard Wolff: We Need a More Humane Economic System—Not One That Only Benefits the Rich

To See Who Stands With People Over Lobbyists, Progressive Campaign Pressures Democrats to Quickly Hold Vote on Medicare for All

With a deep-pocketed coalition of industry lobbyists, former Obama and Clinton campaign officials, and establishment Democrats already crafting their talking points and formulating their strategy to undercut Medicare for All, progressive advocacy groups are ramping up pressure on the incoming Democratic House to combat these corporate forces by quickly pushing ahead with single-payer legislation in the new Congress.

In a petition circulated this week, the grassroots advocacy group Progressive Change Campaign Commitee (PCCC) is calling on the new House Democratic majority to advance toward a vote on Medicare for All legislation as soon as possible. "Big corporation lobbyists are spending millions trying to override the will of the people and kill Medicare for All before the fight even starts. That's why it's imperative that Congress sees that Americans haven't forgotten about Medicare For All now that the election is over. This fight is just beginning," PCCC declared in an email to supporters.

"If Congress brings Medicare For All for a vote, we will see who stands with over 70 percent of Americans, and who stands with the lobbyists. Then we'll know who needs persuasion—and who needs a primary," the group continued. "Together, we'll deliver this message to House Democratic leadership so they know where the public stands."

View the full petition here.

Because—as PCCC put it—"Medicare for All doesn't have an army of corporate lobbyists," progressives are planning a massive grassroots mobilization in the coming months in an effort to overcome industry-funded lawmakers who are wedded to upholding America's deadly healthcare status quo.

In Defeat for Trump's Xenophobic Agenda, Supreme Court Rejects 'Immoral' Anti-Asylum Policy

In what immigrant rights groups celebrated as a significant victory over President Donald Trump's xenophobic agenda, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the White House cannot automatically deny asylum to those who don't enter the country through an "official" border crossing.

"The Trump administration can no longer discriminate against asylum-seekers based on how they entered the country," RAICES, the largest immigration legal services non-profit in Texas, wrote on Twitter. "This government's policy of clogging ports of entry and then punishing those who cross outside is immoral. We're glad it's beginning to crumble."

In its 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that blocked the Trump administration's asylum rule from taking effect. Conservative Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberal justices in denying the Trump administration's plea to allow the policy to move forward, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the White House. ...

While noting that the legal battle over the Trump administration's policy is far from over, Bloomberg observed that "the high court rebuff of Trump's request to block the order suggests skepticism about the administration's legal case."

Carols at Tornillo: protesters sing for children held in Trump's tent city

Singing and chanting as loud as they could, a few hundred feet from where thousands of children remain detained in a tent-like facility, activists and members of the public hoped their voices would find their way across fences and barbed wire. They wanted to let the children know people were thinking of them during this holiday season.

El Paso organizations put together the Christmas Caroling event in Tornillo, which began on Sunday and will continue daily until 1 January. The idea came from Joshua Rubin, an activist from Brooklyn who has spent the past two months at the border, monitoring the treatment of migrants held by the federal government. Rubin first visited McAllen, Texas in the summer, when the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy was in place. He came back in October, after learning about the expansion of the Tornillo facility.

“I decided to come down, sit here at the gates and watch what goes in and what goes out,” he said. “I gather what I see and report to people, and maybe if I’m here watching, the rest of the country might start watching and these kids won’t be forgotten.” As of last week, more than 2,700 minors remained in custody at the temporary facility next to the Tornillo-Guadalupe port of entry. The camp lies to the east, surrounded by pecan fields and empty lots, away from the eyes of the public.

The caroling attracted a strong contingent of locals. Supporters also came from New York, Ohio, Dallas, Houston, San Marcos and elsewhere. ... Attendees spoke about their dislike of Trump immigration policies, sang carols and chanted “No están solos” – “You’re not alone” – in an attempt to remind the migrant children they had a community behind them. ... Texas state senator José Rodriguez thanked everyone who showed up and encouraged them to keep up the pressure, to make sure the facility closes sooner rather than later. Both the children in the camp and the White House should know Donald Trump’s hardline policies do not represent the values of the country, he said.

The Texas “tent city” housing thousands of migrant kids is closing

The Texas tent city built in June to house migrant children is set to close in the coming weeks, according to officials who work for the contractor that runs the shelter. The contract between the Trump administration and BCFS, which operates the shelter in Tornillo, Texas, is set to expire Dec. 31, a BCFS official told the New York Times. By Jan. 15, the official said, all 2,500 children housed in the shelter should be heading to a parent or sponsor living within the United States. Until then, BCFS’s contract will be renewed daily.

Beto O’Rourke, a Texas Democratic congressman who fell short in his bid for a Senate seat earlier this year, said Sunday that the CEO of BCFS had told him that the shelter would no longer accept children. “He has more than 300 children who are ready to go,” O’Rourke told a crowd gathered outside the shelter to sing Christmas carols. “He said his only limitation right now is finding flights during the Christmas season.”

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the shelter, told VICE News in an email that there were no updates on its contract with the Tornillo shelter.

Donald Trump insists shutdown will not end unless Congress funds border wall

Donald Trump has marked Christmas Day by insisting the partial shutdown of the federal government will last until his demand for funds to build a wall on the US-Mexico border is met. The US government partially shut down on Saturday, and there is not yet any sign of tangible efforts to reopen agencies closed by a political impasse over Trump’s demand for border wall funds.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen,” Trump said, speaking after a Christmas Day video conference with US troops serving abroad. “I can tell you it’s not going to reopen until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want, but it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into the country, from drugs.” He added: “If you don’t have that [the wall], then we’re just not opening.”

Funding for about a quarter of federal programs – including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture – expired at midnight on Friday. Without a deal to break the impasse, the shutdown is likely to stretch into the new year.

Trump’s latest comments come a day after top Democrats accused the president of “plunging the country into chaos” as top officials met to discuss a growing rout in stock markets caused in part by the president’s persistent attacks on the Federal Reserve and a government shutdown. ... Trump criticized the Federal Reserve on Monday, describing it as the “only problem” for the US economy, even as top officials convened the “plunge protection team” forged after the 1987 crash to discuss the growing rout in stock markets.

The crisis call on Monday between US financial regulators and the US treasury department failed to assure markets, and stocks fell again amid concern about slowing economic growth, the continuing government shutdown, and reports that Trump had discussed firing the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell.

8-Year-Old Guatemalan Boy Dies in Border Patrol Custody Days After High Court Rejects Asylum Ban

Second Guatemalan child dies after being detained by US border agents

An eight-year-old Guatemalan boy died in US government custody early on Christmas Day, immigration authorities said, marking the second death of an immigrant child this month after being detained at the border between Mexico and the United States. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a news release that the boy died in hospital shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

The boy showed “signs of potential illness” on Monday and was taken with his father to Gerald Champion regional medical center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the agency said. Hospital staff diagnosed the child “with a common cold, and when evaluated for release, hospital staff found a fever”, the statement added.

Staff at the hospital held the boy for an additional 90 minutes, before releasing him in the afternoon with prescriptions for amoxicillin and Ibuprofen. Later that same evening, according to the agency statement, after suffering nausea and vomiting, the boy was readmitted to hospital where he died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The agency said the cause of the boy’s death has not been determined and that it has notified the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and the Guatemalan government. The hospital the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center declined to comment, citing privacy regulations.

Greenland's Rapid Ice Melt Persists Even in Winter, Study Finds

In the latest troubling study regarding how the climate crisis is affecting the world's iciest regions, a new report by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) found that the second-largest ice sheet in the world is currently melting even in winter. The study follows a report released earlier this month showing that Greenland's ice melt rate is currently faster than it's been in about 7,000 years. The island's 650,000 cubic miles of ice is melting 50 percent faster than it did in pre-industrial times.

"Greenland is a bit like a sleeping giant that is awakening," Edward Hanna, a climate scientist at the University of Lincoln, told Inside Climate News this week. "Who knows how it will respond to a couple of more degrees of warming? It could lose a lot of mass very quickly."

The ice sheet's persistent melting even in winter has come about because huge waves below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, created by unusually strong winter winds, are pushing warm water up to Greenland—creating an environment that's hostile for the country's icy ecosystem, explains SAMS. These "coastally trapped internal waves" are "pushing warm water into the fjord and towards the glacier, causing melting hundreds of metres below the ocean surface," Dr. Neil Fraser, an ocean physicist who led the study, told the BBC.

Greenland's huge ice sheet also makes it a huge contributor to rising sea levels, SAMS noted, accounting for more than 20 percent of the annual increase in sea levels. Accelerating, year-round run-off that persists even in the coldest months of the year is "the greatest contributor to sea level rise," Sarah Das, a researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told Inside Climate News.

Record Rainfall Won't Save Us From Impending Water Shortages

Even in a world with more intense rain, communities could begin to run short of water. New research has confirmed that, in a warming world, extremes of drought have begun to diminish the world’s groundwater – and ever more intense rainstorms will do little to make up the loss in the global water supply. And a second, separate study delivers support for this seeming paradox: worldwide, there is evidence that rainfall patterns are, increasingly, being disturbed. The number of record-dry months has increased overall. And so has the number of record-breaking rainy months.

Both studies match predictions in a world of climate change driven by ever-higher ratios of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, from ever-increasing combustion of fossil fuels. But, unlike many climate studies, neither of these is based on computer simulation of predicted change. Each is instead based on the meticulous analysis of huge quantities of on-the-ground data. Together they provide substance to a 40-year-old prediction of climate change research: that in a warming world, those regions already wet will get ever more rain, while the drylands will tend to become increasingly more arid. ...

“This is something that has been missed. We expected rainfall to increase, since warmer air stores more moisture – and that is what climate models predicted too,” said Ashish Sharma, an environmental engineer at the University of New South Wales. “What we did not expect, despite all the extra rain everywhere in the world, is that the large rivers are drying out. We believe the cause is the drying of soils in our catchments. Where once these were moist before a storm event – allowing excess rainfall to run off into rivers – they are now drier and soak up more rain, so less water makes it as flow.”

Of all rainfall, only 36% gets into aquifers, streams and lakes. The remaining two thirds seeps into the soils, grasslands and woodlands. But more soil evaporation means less water is available from river supplies for cities and farms. ... “It’s a double whammy. Less water is ending up where we can’t store it for later use. At the same time, more rain is overwhelming drainage infrastructure in towns and cities, leading to more urban flooding,” said Professor Sharma.

'Deep Lack of Moral Clarity and Courage': Pelosi Accused of Moving to Kill Green New Deal Committee

In response to reports on Thursday that the Democratic leadership is taking steps to revive a defunct climate change panel, progressive groups and youth climate leaders warned that the move is an attempt by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others to kill the surging demand for a Green New Deal Select Committee and called it a failure to fight for "solutions on the scale we need" to achieve "a livable future."

"Without a mandate to create a plan and a requirement that its members don't take fossil fuel money, we are deeply concerned that this committee will be just another of the many committees we've seen failing our generation our entire lives," Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash declared after news broke that the Democratic leadership chose Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) to lead the revived climate committee. As the Huffington Post reported, Green New Deal proponents were blindsided by the Democratic leadership's appointment of Castor, and it is unclear whether Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—who led the push for a Green New Deal Select Committee—will even get a seat on the climate panel.

There's a big part of the Democratic Party that's basically indifferent about the end of human civilization but paying it some lip service. Every single one of them should face a primary challenger. https://t.co/6OIg8ywp4W

— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) December 21, 2018

They Rescued Pigs and Turkeys From Factory Farms — and Now Face Decades in Prison

In the Fall of 2017, Glenn Greenwald reported on a nationwide FBI manhunt for two pigs named Lily and Lizzie. The pigs had been removed from a factory farm in Utah by animal rights activists from a group called Direct Action Everywhere. From the perspective of the activists, the pigs were rescued. From the perspective of Smithfield Farms, the Chinese-owned multinational corporation that owns the factory farm, they were stolen. ...

Since Greenwald’s story was published, prosecutors in Utah have charged six DxE activists with multiple felonies, both for the Smithfield action and for a separate open rescue of turkeys at a Utah factory farm owned by Norbest. In Utah, stealing property worth less than $1,500 is generally a misdemeanor. But lawmakers have carved out an exception specifically for the benefit of the animal agriculture industry. If the property in question is an animal “raised for commercial purposes,” then no matter how little economic value that animal may have, the crime is a felony. Because of this exception, DxE activists are potentially facing decades in prison.

Also of Interest

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

Nothing unites our political class like the threat of ending our never-ending war

Send the Mad Dog to the Corporate Kennel

Reactions To Trump’s Syria Withdrawal Plan Say More Than The Plan Itself

Call from the Yellow Vests of Commercy Calling for Popular Assemblies

Message from Commercy: the time of the communes still rings out!

Political commentators see AMLO as a bigger threat than Bolsonaro

The IMF Is Dismantling Argentina All Over Again

Chris Hedges: Banishing Truth

Falling total fertility rate should be welcomed, population expert says

25 Ways the Canadian Health Care System Is Better Than Obamacare

A Little Night Music

The Olympics - Good Lovin'

The Olympics - Western Movies

The Olympics - The Hully Gully

Olympics - Dance By The Light Of The Moon, Dodge City

The Olympics - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

The Olympics - Peanut Butter

Olympics - Cool Short, Chicken

The Olympics - Secret Agents

The Olympics - Little Pedro

The Olympics - Dance With The Teacher

The Olympics - Well

The Olympics - Baby It's Hot