Here are some of tonight’s stories:
- President Biden was in Michigan touting American union-built electric cars.
- The infrastructure law is a “historic achievement in a time of toxic partisanship”.
- Arizona Republican Paul Gosar censured by the House.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on his first trip to Africa.
- Q-anon shaman sentenced to 41 months.
- Minneapolis cop who shot service dogs won't be shielded by qualified immunity.
- Republican gerrymandering continues unabated.
- British Columbia is being devastated by climate extremes.
- Mask-wearing cuts COVID incidences by 53% according to a new study.
- Brazil to legalize deforestation so more cattle can be farmed.
Links and details below the fold.
This is an open thread. Everyone is encouraged to share articles, stories, and tweets in your comments.
763,895 PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS IN THE U.S. 195.6 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. are fully VACCINATed
The Detroit News
Biden at GM plant promises jobs of future will be in Michigan
On the assembly plant floor of General Motor Co.'s newly renovated Factory Zero electric vehicle plant, President Joe Biden on Wednesday took a victory lap on passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and pitched the importance of further spending to accelerate EV adoption.
He painted a picture of a nation on the precipice of resurgence thanks to industrial innovation in green technology and argued it could all be done without increasing inflation or veering into significant debt.
"We're going to make sure that the jobs of the future end up here in Michigan, not halfway around the world," he said. "Here in Detroit, we're going to set a new pace for electric vehicles. This is not hyperbole. It's a fact."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The infrastructure bill is big, but it won’t transform America’s focus on cars
As the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law wound through the congressional sausage grinder, President Joe Biden often promised that the infusion of spending on roads, bridges, transit, and other projects would be transformative.
When he signed the legislation Monday, Biden compared it to a pair of epochal infrastructure investments: the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century and the Interstate Highway System in the 20th.
“Your life is going to change for the better,” he said.
While the massive law is a historic achievement in a time of toxic partisanship, some analysts, transit advocates, and environmentalists say it doesn’t go far enough in upending the fundamental emphasis on automobiles embedded in federal transportation policy.
It contains $110 billion in new spending for highways, roads, and bridges, compared with $39 billion in new spending on public transit — close to the usual ratio.
Bloomberg
House Censures Republican for Video Depicting Attack on Ocasio-Cortez
The U.S. House voted Wednesday to censure Arizona Republican Paul Gosar and revoke his committee assignments for tweeting an altered animation that depicted him striking Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and attacking President Joe Biden.
The censure, a formal rebuke, is the first such action against a House member in more than a decade. With the 223-207 vote, Gosar also will be removed from his seats on the Natural Resource Committee and the Oversight Committee, on which Ocasio-Cortez also serves.
Schumer Drops Effort to Attach China Bill to Pentagon Measure
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is abandoning efforts to attach his $250 billion legislation aimed at countering China’s rise to the annual defense bill amid stiff opposition from House Democrats and Senate Republicans.
The decision is another twist in the drawn out journey through Congress of the China bill, which includes $52 billion in incentives and grants to foster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. The bill passed the Senate in June by a wide bipartisan margin, but it’s been stuck in limbo as the House debated its own approach to bolstering U.S. competitiveness as China’s economic and diplomatic influence has grown.
The Washington Post
Pentagon inspector general raises questions about former D.C. Guard commander’s Jan. 6 account
The D.C. National Guard’s commanding general was directed twice by Pentagon leadership to send in troops as violence engulfed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a newly released investigation that appears to undercut the now-retired general’s claim that he would have responded to the riot more quickly if Trump administration officials had allowed.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy first notified Maj. Gen. William Walker by phone at 4:35 p.m. that Walker was authorized to send troops to Capitol Hill, and then called the general again “to reissue the deployment order” about 30 minutes after McCarthy “originally conveyed it,” an unidentified Army witness told investigators with the independent Defense Department Inspector General, according to a newly released report. A timeline of events that day, assembled by the inspector general’s office, also indicates separate calls were made.
On first Africa trip, Blinken confronts questions of U.S. leverage in deepening crises
More than a year after Ethiopia tumbled into a civil war that has killed thousands, left nearly a million people on the brink of famine and threatened to destabilize a wide swath of eastern Africa, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region for his first visit to the continent since taking office.
Speaking about Ethiopia at a news conference on Wednesday in Nairobi, he said, “We are deeply concerned about escalating violence, the expansion of fighting throughout the country and what we see as a growing risk to the unity of and integrity of the state.”
Later this week, he will travel to Nigeria, where he is expected to give a speech on U.S.-Africa relations before visiting Senegal.
AP News
Two men set to be cleared in the 1965 killing of Malcolm X
Two of the three men convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X are set to be cleared Thursday after insisting on their innocence since the 1965 killing of one of the United States’ most formidable fighters for civil rights, their lawyers and Manhattan’s top prosecutor said Wednesday.
A nearly two-year-long re-investigation found that authorities withheld evidence favorable to the defense in the trial of Muhammad Aziz, now 83, and the late Khalil Islam, said their attorneys, the Innocence Project and civil rights lawyer David Shanies.
Aziz called his conviction “the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar” even today.
Jan. 6 rioter who carried spear, wore horns, draws 41 months
Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying Jan. 6 rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the assault on the Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison.
Chansley, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, was among the first rioters to enter the building. He has acknowledged using a bullhorn to rile up the mob, offering thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for having the chance to get rid of traitors and scratching out a threatening note to Vice President Mike Pence saying, “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!”
Los Angeles Times
Since he took office in 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reactivated coal plants, halted new renewable energy projects and dismissed wind farms as ugly “fans” that muck up the landscape. As part of his quest for “energy sovereignty,” he has spent billions building a state-owned oil refinery and has pushed legislation that would require Mexico’s electric company to take more power from state-run plants, which are fueled largely by crude oil and coal.
López Obrador’s energy policies couldn’t be more different from those of President Biden, who has pushed for historic investments in clean energy and is seeking to wean the nation and world off fossil fuels.
But when the two leaders meet in person for the first time as presidents on Thursday in Washington, Biden may not be in a position to press his counterpart to address climate change, no matter how central it is to his agenda. That’s because Biden’s desperately counting on López Obrador’s cooperation in reducing migration to the United States, which has become a recurring challenge for his administration.
California, Arizona and Nevada in talks on new plan to save Colorado River water
Two and a half years after signing a deal aimed at averting a damaging crisis along the Colorado River, water officials from California, Arizona and Nevada are discussing plans to take even less water from the shrinking river and leave it in Lake Mead in an effort to prevent the reservoir from falling to dangerously low levels.
Representatives of water agencies from the three states said they are firming up the details of a deal that would leave an additional 500,000 acre-feet of water in the reservoir next year, and the same amount again in 2023 — about double the quantity of water used annually by Las Vegas and the rest of southern Nevada.
For California, the deal would mean participating in water reductions prior to Lake Mead reaching levels that would otherwise trigger mandatory cuts.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Federal appeals court: Minneapolis cop who shot service dogs won't be shielded by qualified immunity
A Minneapolis police officer who shot two service dogs in 2017 acted unreasonably and should not be protected under qualified immunity, a federal appeals panel ruled this week.
Qualified immunity shields police officers and other public officials from being sued if they are acting reasonably within the duties of their jobs. But officer Michael Mays lost this protection when he hopped the fence that day, responding to an accidentally triggered home alarm system, and repeatedly shot two pit bulldogs who greeted him, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit decision.
The appeals court's decision, which affirms a previous ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, means a lawsuit against Mays and the city of Minneapolis can move forward.
Houston Chronicle
Beto O’Rourke’s border problem and how he aims to fix it as he runs for governor of Texas
Beto O’Rourke was barely into the second day of his campaign for governor when he headed for Laredo and the Texas border.
“It is no accident that not even 48 hours after we announced this campaign we are right here in your community,” the El Paso Democrat told a packed crowd at Jett Bowl in Laredo on Tuesday night. […]
O’Rourke won the five counties between Laredo and Brownsville that have long been Democratic strongholds. But the turnout in 2018 was just 39 percent along that stretch compared to the statewide average of 53 percent. O’Rourke may have done better in Texas statewide than Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden did in 2016 and 2020, but he did worse than both of them in those border counties. It’s a weakness he knows he must address to have any shot of upsetting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Georgia congressional map aims to increase Republican seats
A new political map of Georgia released Wednesday would help Republicans gain at least one seat in Congress, using redistricting to reverse Democratic gains and flip a district held by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath.
The long-awaited map could increase Republicans’ 8-6 majority in Georgia’s congressional delegation by stretching a suburban Atlanta district into much more conservative areas to the north in Cherokee, Dawson and Forsyth counties. […]
Because Republicans control both the Georgia House and Senate, they have enough votes to pass the congressional map over Democrats’ objections that representation should more closely reflect the state’s even split between the two political parties.
The News & Observer
New gerrymandering lawsuit targets NC maps, and proposes some of its own
Another lawsuit is challenging North Carolina’s new district maps for both Congress and the state legislature, alleging both racial and partisan gerrymandering.
Numerous outside analyses of the new maps have found that if Republicans and Democrats split the statewide vote roughly 50-50, Republicans would likely win 10 of the state’s 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives due to the way the district lines are drawn.
A GOP candidate could also flip an an 11th seat that’s considered highly competitive and could go either way. That seat, represented by Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield, used to be one of two majority-minority districts in North Carolina but lawmakers redrew it to be majority-white.
Republicans would also be nearly guaranteed to keep a majority in the state legislature in future elections under the new maps, The News & Observer has reported, due to the number of safe seats that lawmakers drew for themselves.
CNN
Biden announces two new circuit court selections in first-year sprint to fill judicial openings
President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced two new selections to serve as circuit judges as the push to name -- and confirm -- a raft of judicial nominees stays a central focus of the White House and Senate Democrats, according to a White House official.
Biden has selected Andre B. Mathis as his nominee to serve on the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the official said. Judge Alison J. Nathan will be nominated to serve on the 2nd US Court Circuit of Appeals. Nathan is currently presiding over the criminal trial of former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The selections mark the latest effort to fill critical appeals court openings, which are viewed as exceedingly important in the effort to shape the second-highest courts in the country. Biden's two latest picks will bring his total number of circuit court nominees to 16 so far.
Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have made quickly filling openings across the federal judiciary a focal point of the first 10 months of Democratic control of the White House and Senate, and have already secured the confirmations of nine circuit judges and 19 district judges. Biden's latest picks will mark the 63rd and 64th judicial nominees of his first year in office.
Vancouver Sun
The desperate rush to save thousands of B.C. livestock, with trailers, ropes and Sea-Doos
As floods ravage British Columbia, scenes have emerged of cattle being pulled through the floodwaters by people riding on Sea-Doos, while on social media, many have issued pleas for assistance, seeking trailers or boats to help evacuate animals — from horses to dogs to rabbits.
There are posts asking for water for thirsty cows, or seeking someone to check on thousands of chickens in a barn, or offering to help muck out stables where rescued animals are being held. […]
Many farmers ignored the order and desperately tried to pull their animals to higher ground. Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun, who had urged residents to save their own lives and abandon their animals, said he watched farmers trudge through water that was 1.5 metres deep to get the livestock out.
The Globe & Mail
Death toll in B.C. expected to rise after record flooding devastates province
Premier John Horgan has declared a state of emergency in British Columbia, granting the province extraordinary powers to deal with the devastation of this week’s historic rainfall and flooding, which has displaced thousands from their homes and crippled the province’s highway system.
Thousands of farm animals have died, grocery store shelves are bare, and Abbotsford, a city that produces much of the province’s dairy and poultry, is largely submerged in water. At least one person died in a mudslide, three others have been reported missing, and confirmation of additional fatalities is expected in coming days, the Premier said.
“The order will preserve basic access to services and supplies for communities across the province,” Mr. Horgan added as he announced the declaration on Wednesday. “We will bring in travel restrictions and ensure that transportation of essential goods and medical and emergency services are able to reach the communities that need them.”
First fire, now floods: Why B.C. is trapped in a world of climate extremes
The past few months will not soon be forgotten in Merritt, B.C.
During a record-smashing heat wave that devastated British Columbia this past summer, its population of more than 5,000 people endured temperatures reaching 44.5 C. Soon after, it was racked by drought conditions and was the subject of an evacuation alert because of nearby forest fires. And on Monday, an evacuation order for the entire B.C. Interior city was issued in the face of epic flooding.
These climate-change-fuelled extreme weather events are connected: With intense heat comes wildfires, and with wildfires come changes to the soil and vegetation that can exacerbate the effects of heavy rainfall.
Similar scenes played out across B.C. Other communities that have suffered extreme flooding and landslides include Princeton, Abbotsford and Hope.
Al Jazeera
‘We will all die’: In Kenya, prolonged drought takes heavy toll
As if in a macabre parade, cattle carcasses line the two sides of the dusty road leading into Biyamadow, a sleepy village in northern Kenya’s Wajir county.
The grisly spectacle of dismembered animals rotting beneath the scorching sun is the result of a prolonged drought that has been pushing pastoral communities here – and the livestock they exclusively rely on – to the brink of disaster.
“In 72 years of life, I have never seen something like this,” said Ibrahim Adow, a Biyamadow resident.
Since September, much of Kenya’s north has received less than 30 percent of normal rainfall – the worst short-rain season recorded in decades, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. The lack of rainfall has wiped out pastures, and exacerbated food and water shortages.
US warns Iran-backed hackers are targeting critical US sectors
Hackers linked to the Iranian government have been targeting a “broad range of victims” inside the United States, including by deploying ransomware, according to an advisory issued Wednesday by American, British and Australian officials.
The advisory says that in recent months, Iran has exploited computer vulnerabilities exposed by hackers before they can be fixed and targeted entities in the transportation, healthcare and public health sectors. The attackers leveraged the initial hack for additional operations, such as data exfiltration, ransomware and extortion, according to the advisory. The group has used the same Microsoft Exchange vulnerability in Australia, officials say.
The Guardian
Mask-wearing cuts Covid incidence by 53%, says global study
Mask-wearing is the single most effective public health measure at tackling Covid, reducing incidence by 53%, the first global study of its kind shows.
Vaccines are safe and effective and saving lives around the world. But most do not confer 100% protection, most countries have not vaccinated everyone, and it is not yet known if jabs will prevent future transmission of emerging coronavirus variants.
Globally, Covid cases exceeded 250 million this month. The virus is still infecting 50 million people worldwide every 90 days due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, with thousands dying each day.
Brazil’s Amazon beef plan will ‘legalise deforestation’ say critics
For many, the overriding image of agriculture in the Amazon is one of environmental destruction. About 80% of deforestation in the region has been attributed to cattle ranching, tainting beef exports.
Brazil’s beef industry hopes to tempt buyers back to the Amazon region, which covers about 40% of the country’s total area, with a new deforestation-free pledge. But critics are concerned it could effectively legalise deforestation in the region.
In May, government officials began fleshing out the details of the so-called Amacro sustainable development zone, which it is hoped will lead to a massive intensification of agriculture in the Amazon. The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, is expected to greenlight the project later this year.
Deutsche Welle
Belarus: Lukashenko agrees to EU talks on ending migrant standoff
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko agreed Wednesday that the crisis on the Belarus-Poland border needs to be solved by dialogue between EU and Belarusian representatives, Belarus' state-run Belta news agency reported.
In their second phone call this week, the Belarusian leader and Merkel "agreed that the problem as a whole will be brought up to the level of Belarus and the EU," Belta reported, adding that officials "from both sides will immediately start negotiations."
Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that during the call the chancellor stressed the need for humanitarian aid and repatriation facilities to be organized by the UN and EU to help the affected people.
EuroNews
'Life-saving on trial': Two activists face jail in Greece for rescuing migrants at sea
Two humanitarian activists go on trial in Athens on Thursday for providing life-saving aid to migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Greece.
Sean Binder and Sarah Mardini have been charged with misdemeanour counts of espionage, forgery and unlawful use of radio frequencies and face a maximum eight-year sentence, convertible into a fine.
They are also under investigation for felonies, which could see them face up to 25 years in jail.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) have described the proceedings as "life-saving on trial".
Reuters
Philippines condemns Chinese coast guard's action in South China Sea
The Philippines condemned "in strongest terms" the actions of three Chinese Coast Guard vessels which blocked and used water cannons on two Manila supply boats on their way to a Philippine-occupied atoll in the South China Sea, its top diplomat said on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said no one was hurt during the Nov 16 incident at the Second Thomas Shoal but the Philippines boats, which were transporting food supplies to military personnel based there had to abort their mission.
"The acts of the Chinese Coast Guard are illegal," Locsin said in a statement, reminding China that a public vessel is covered by the Philippines-United States Mutual Defense Treaty.
The Atlantic
The Seven Lawmakers Who Will Decide the Climate’s Fate
It has been bizarre, over the past few weeks, to see the attention lavished on the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit was lauded as the world’s “last, best hope” and the place where the “fate of the planet” would be negotiated. And fine, it was very important.
But Glasgow was not, last week or now, the world’s most important city for staving off climate change. That title belongs to Washington, D.C.
Over the next few weeks, Democrats in Congress will make a far more influential and far-reaching decision than anything that happened at the UN conference. They will decide whether to pass President Joe Biden’s signature spending bill, the Build Back Better Act. Because of the president’s slim majorities in Congress, the bill’s fate will be decided by just seven Democrats: five moderates in the House of Representatives and two moderate senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The Nation
If You Care About the Climate, Pay Attention to Koch Cash
[…] Since 2005, Charles Koch oversaw grants of almost half a billion dollars to hundreds of colleges across the country. One university research center—with millions in Koch and ExxonMobil funding—is especially poised to combat this shift: the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. The Regulatory Studies Center leverages George Washington University’s reputation to inject academic credibility into journal articles and public comments that favor deregulation.
For 11 years, the RSC has successfully undermined federal environmental regulations, cultivated a hub of deregulatory soft power, and seen its members rise to influential regulatory positions. As a GWU student who has been researching the RSC for the better part of a year, I am here to tell you that it is so much more than just a campus issue. If you have a stake in US climate policy, pay attention to the RSC. If my research and subsequent report make anything clear, it’s that the center has been allowed to quietly disrupt regulations on behalf of the fossil fuel industry for too long.
Ars Technica
FBI raids home of Trumpist county clerk in probe of voting-system passwords leak
The FBI joined state and local authorities in reportedly raiding the homes of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and several associates yesterday as law enforcement agencies continue investigating a voting-machine security breach from Peters' office.
"The FBI carried out a court-ordered search of Peters' home in Mesa County early Tuesday morning, leaving her 'terrified,' Peters said Tuesday night in an appearance on Lindell TV, an online channel run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter and proponent of discredited claims the 2020 election was stolen," Colorado Politics reported yesterday.
Boosters for all is critical, not a luxury, Fauci says as FDA decision nears
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for all adults as early as Thursday, agency insiders told The New York Times Tuesday.
The reported timeline is remarkably fast-paced for the regulatory agency and comes as members of the Biden administration continue to suggest widespread boosting is necessary to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
"I believe... that when we look back on this, we will see that boosters are likely a very critical part of the immunization regimen and not a bonus or a luxury," top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told Reuters on Tuesday.