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The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington

Mother Jones

The biggest election-related scandal since Watergate occurred last year, and it has largely disappeared from the political-media landscape of Washington.

According to the consensus assessment of US intelligence agencies, Russian intelligence, under the orders of Vladimir Putin, mounted an extensive operation to influence the 2016 campaign to benefit Donald Trump. This was a widespread covert campaign that included hacking Democratic targets and publishing swiped emails via WikiLeaks. And it achieved its objectives. But the nation’s capital remains under-outraged by this subversion. The congressional intelligence committees announced last month that they will investigate the Russian hacking and also examine whether there were any improper contacts between the Trump camp and Russia during the campaign. (A series of memos attributed to a former British counterintelligence officer included allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.) Yet these behind-closed-doors inquiries have generated minimum media notice, and, overall, there has not been much outcry.

Certainly, every once in a while, a Democratic legislator or one of the few Republican officials who have bothered to express any disgust at the Moscow meddling (namely Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio) will pipe up. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi days ago called on the FBI to investigate Trump’s “financial, personal and political connections to Russia” to determine “the relationship between Putin, whom he admires, and Donald Trump.” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), responding to Trump’s comparison of the United States to Putin’s repressive regime, said on CNN, “What is this strange relationship between Putin and Trump? And is there something that the Russians have on him that is causing him to say these really bizarre things on an almost daily basis?” A few weeks ago, Graham told me he wanted an investigation of how the FBI has handled intelligence it supposedly has gathered on ties between Trump insiders and Russia. And last month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pushed FBI Director James Comey at a public hearing to release this information. Yet there has been no drumbeat of sound bites, tweets, or headlines. In recent days, the story has gone mostly dark.

Look at the White House daily press briefings. Since Trump entered office, there has been far more back-and-forth between reporters and Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the inauguration crowd size, Trump’s bathrobe, and Melissa McCarthy than the Russia scandal. Trump associates are perhaps being questioned by House and Senate intelligence committee investigators, and the FBI, which according to news reports has looked at possible ties between Trump advisers and Russia, might also still be on the case. Yet this has not been a top priority for White House reporters.

Here are two questions that could have been posed to Spicer at his first briefing:

* Have any past or present Trump associates, inside or outside his administration, been contacted or questioned by the intelligence committees, the FBI, or any other government body investigating the Russian hacking or interactions between Trump’s circle and Russia?

* During the presidential campaign, did Trump or any of his political or business associates have any interactions with Russian officials or Russian intermediaries?

That did not happen. At Spicer’s first briefing, Anita Kumar of McClatchy did ask, “Has the president spoken to any of the intelligence agencies about the investigation into the Russian connections? And will he allow that to go on?” Spicer replied, “I don’t believe he has spoken to anyone specifically about that and I don’t know that. He has not made any indication that he would stop an investigation of any sort.” This was an important question that warranted a response that was less equivocal—and reporters could have pointed that out.

At the next day’s briefing, on January 24, Margaret Talev of Bloomberg asked Spicer about reports that Comey was remaining in his post and whether Comey and Trump had discussed “the Russia investigation and the parameters of that.” Spicer responded, “I don’t have anything on that.” Spicer’s nonresponse didn’t prompt any news.

In the fortnight since, the key twin questions—what is Trump doing regarding the Russian hacking, and are Trump associates being investigated for interactions with Russia?—have not been regular items on the agenda during the White House briefings. When Trump spoke to Putin by phone on January 28, subsequent media reports noted that the call focused on how relations could be improved. There was no public indication that Trump had said anything to Putin about the Russian intervention in the US election. And in the following days, White House reporters did not ask Spicer about this apparent omission.

There have been plenty of significant topics for journalists to press Spicer and the administration on—the travel ban on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Trump’s plan to dump Obamacare, various nominations and a Supreme Court pick, Trump’s fact-free charge of widespread voter fraud, Steve Bannon’s participation on the National Security Council, Trump’s contentious calls with foreign leaders, the president’s erratic behavior, and much more. But the lack of media attention to the Russia story, at the White House briefings and beyond, is curious. It is true that the intelligence committee probes are being conducted secretly, and there are no public hearings or actions to cover. (Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, hoping to confine this scandal, succeeded in preventing the creation of a special committee or an independent commission to probe this affair—either of which would have probably sparked more coverage than the highly secretive intelligence committees.) Still, in the past, pundits, politicians, and reporters in Washington have not been reluctant to go all-out in covering and commenting upon a controversy subjected to private investigation.

In this instance, the president’s own people may be under investigation, and Trump has demonstrated no interest in holding Putin accountable for messing with US elections in what may be considered an act of covert warfare. Still, there has been no loud demand from the DC media (or most of the GOP) for answers and explanations. This quietude is good news for Putin—and reason for him to think he could get away with such an operation again.

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The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington

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Should You Pee On Your Compost?

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Should You Pee On Your Compost?

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Soundtrack for Your Séance: Cate Le Bon’s "Mug Museum"

Mother Jones

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Cate Le Bon
Mug Museum
Wichita Recordings

Languid Welsh chanteuse Cate Le Bon (no relation to Duran Duran’s Simon) practices an eerie kind of pop magic, effortlessly mixing intimacy and unease with the entrancing grace of early, Nico-era Velvet Underground. From the spooky shuffle “Are You with Me Now” to a duet with Perfume Genius on the gorgeous ballad “I Think I Knew,” the low-tech garage-folk of this hypnotic successor to 2012’s habit-forming Cyrk often seems on the verge of collapse, but Le Bon’s elegant melancholy holds everything together, barely. Occasional bursts of energy—the careening “Sisters,” or the unholy shriek that caps “Duke”—only underscore her otherworldly charisma. Play Mug Museum at your next séance and see what happens.

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Soundtrack for Your Séance: Cate Le Bon’s "Mug Museum"

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What It’s Like To Sneak Across the Border To Harvest Food

Mother Jones

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For most anthropologists, “field work” means talking to and observing a particular group. But for Seth Holmes, a medical anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, it also literally means working in a field: toiling alongside farm workers from the Triqui indigenous group of Oaxaca, Mexico, in a vast Washington State berry patch. It also means visiting them in their tiny home village—and making the harrowing trek back to US farm fields through a militarized and increasingly perilous border.

Holmes recounts his year and a half among the people who harvest our food in his new book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. It’s a work of academic anthropology, but written vividly and without jargon. In its unvarnished view into what our easy culinary bounty means for the people burdened with generating it, Fresh Fruit/Broken Bodies has earned its place on a short shelf alongside works like Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating, Barry Estabrook’s Tomatoland, and Frank Bardacke‘s Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers.

I recently caught up with Holmes via phone about the view from the depths of our food system.

Mother Jones: What sparked your interest in farm workers—and how did you gain access to the workers you cover in the book?

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What It’s Like To Sneak Across the Border To Harvest Food

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From backyard farm to 400 acres of organic production

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Warhammer 40,000: The Rules – Games Workshop

There is no time for peace. No respite. No forgiveness. There is only WAR. In the nightmare future of the 41st Millennium, Mankind teeters upon the brink of destruction. The galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by ravening aliens and threatened from within by Warp-spawned entities and heretical plots. Only the strength of the immortal […]

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Izzy & Lenore – Jon Katz

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jon Katz’s Going Home . In his previous books, New York Times bestselling author Jon Katz introduced us to the delightful menagerie at Bedlam Farm, including Izzy, the unforgettable border collie rescue. Now, in Izzy & Lenore, Katz delves deeper into his connection with the beautiful, once-abandoned […]

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Cat Sense – John Bradshaw

Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. In Cat Sense , renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using […]

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Index Astartes: Stalkers and Hunters – Games Workshop

Space Marines use specialist anti-aircraft tanks like the Stalker and the Hunter to cover their assaults and keep the skies clear of foes. The Stalker employs fearsome twin icarus cannons capable of a prodigious rate of fire, while the Hunter carries skyspear missiles, each one incorporating the desiccated remains of a savant to guide it unerringly to its ta […]

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Embroidered Effects – Jenny Hart

Now in ebook for the first time ever! Embroidery empress Jenny Hart taught her legion of fans the basics with the best-selling Stitch-It Kit and Sublime Stitching . Now, for the first time ever in digital format, she takes stitchers one step further with instructions and diagrams for more than 35 stitches. This very special ebook includes the text from the p […]

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Cesar Millan’s Short Guide to a Happy Dog – Cesar Millan

After more than 9 seasons as TV’s Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan has a new mission: to use his unique insights about dog psychology to create stronger, happier relationships between humans and their canine companions. Both inspirational and practical, A Short Guide to a Happy Dog draws on thousands of training encounter […]

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Codex: Space Marines (Enhanced Edition) – Games Workshop

The Space Marines are the chosen warriors of the Emperor, and the greatest fighting force of the Imperium. Each Space Marine is a genetically enhanced super soldier, easily a match for a dozen lesser men, armed with some of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy and encased in formidable power armour. This codex explores the formations and Chapters of the Space […]

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Marijuana Horticulture – Jorge Cervantes

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible is the most complete, thorough, and comprehensive cultivation book available on the market today. This book has been dubbed the “bible” by its readers because it explains every aspect of cultivating marijuana and yielding high quality and abundant crops. It explains […]

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Munitorum: Grav-guns – Games Workshop

An ancient relic of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the graviton gun turns a targets mass against it, crushing them in their armour or causing their bones to snap under their own weight. When turned again a vehicle the gun’s effects are even more terrible, its gravity beam crumpling even the heaviest tank into little more than a pulverised wreck. About this Series: […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]

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From backyard farm to 400 acres of organic production

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Urban Beekeeping Bad For Bees?

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Urban Beekeeping Bad For Bees?

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The Best Place for Solar Power is… New Jersey?

Solar panels hang over a New Jersey Parking Lot. Photo: Flickr/Armando Jimenez, U.S. Army Environmental Command

Written by John Platt, Mother Nature Network

The Arizona desert may enjoy nearly endless sun, but is it the really best place for solar panels? Maybe not.

A new study suggests that cloudier New Jersey is actually the state that will get the most value from switching to photovoltaics, not because of the amount of sunlight in the Garden State but because adding solar power capacity there would result in the greatest reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous pollutants.

The same might hold true for wind turbines: the most value could come not from the places with most wind but the areas that have the dirtiest air. “A wind turbine in West Virginia displaces twice as much carbon dioxide and seven times as much health damage as the same turbine in California,” explains Siler Evans, a Ph.D. researcher in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the lead author of the new study, published earlier this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A wind turbine in W Virginia displaces 2x the CO2 as the same one in CA.

The difference in West Virginia’s case comes from reliance on coal as its current source of energy. Transitioning from coal to wind in West Virginia would generate electricity while also improving residents’ health and help to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Altamont Pass wind farm. Photo: California Energy Commission

In addition to health and climate concerns, the paper also addresses the economic factor. The researchers argue that the federal Production Tax Credit, which subsidizes wind energy, would have a greater social impact if it varied by location, instead of being implemented in the same manner across the country. “It is time to think about a subsidy program that encourages operators to build plants in places where they will yield the most health and climate benefits,” co-author Ines Lima Azevedo, executive director of the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making, said in a press release about the new study.

Outside of federal subsidies, state subsidies have resulted in the rapid growth of solar and wind power in the Southwest and Midwest. The authors argue that these might not be the best places. Using their criteria of providing the most social value, they say the best sites for future wind and solar would be Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, all of which rely heavily on coal.

The Carnegie Mellon study is accompanied by a related commentary by authors from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and other organizations who say the “co-benefits” of using solar and wind to reduce CO2 and sulfur dioxide emissions present “a compelling narrative” for policy makers. The authors argue that there are “synergies between renewable energy policy and health and climate protection” that governments could put to good use both in the U.S. and the European Union.

More from Mother Nature Network:
Sebastopol is second Californian city to require solar on new homes
20 amazing wind farm photos
9 ingenious wind turbine designs
Researchers develop world’s most accurate solar potential software

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The Best Place for Solar Power is… New Jersey?

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Snowden and Assange Targeted by Mysterious Hacker "The Jester"

Mother Jones

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A shadowy, self-described “patriot” hacktivist has launched a series of cyberattacks against Ecuador and says he plans to direct a similar onslaught against any country considering granting asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The hacker, who calls himself the “th3J35t3r” (the Jester) and in the past has identified himself as a former soldier, has also taken aim at Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has been assisting Snowden in his efforts to seek safe haven.

More on Edward Snowden and the NSA’s electronic surveillance program.


Snowden and Assange Targeted by Mysterious Hacker “The Jester”


Why the Story on Snowden and the NSA Doesn’t Add Up


5 Intriguing New NSA Revelations From Edward Snowden


The Domestic Surveillance Boom, From Bush to Obama


NSA Yanks Fact Sheet Containing Dubious Information About PRISM

On Monday, the Jester launched denial-of-service attacks against Ecuador, which is considering an asylum request from Snowden. He targeted the primary email server for the second biggest Ecuadorean stock exchange and the country’s official tourism website. Gabrielle Murillo, a spokeswoman for Ecuador’s tourism site, could not confirm the attack and said only that “the internet was working,” but the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Dave Maass, who follows the Jester, told Mother Jones that he was unable to access the tourism website after the infiltration occurred. Officials at the stock exchange did not respond to questions sent by Mother Jones.

The Jester, who has one of his computers on display in the International Spy Museum, is famous for launching cyberattacks against WikiLeaks and Al Qaeda-linked web sites. According to a May story in Newsweek, he’s also sought to reveal the identities of jihadists recruiting online and affiliates of the hacktivist group Anonymous. The Jester told the magazine that he views his hacking as an extension of his former military service (he claims that he was affiliated with a “rather famous” unit in Afghanistan), but he said that he has “no official relationship with law enforcement agencies.” On his website he describes himself as “pro OUR Military, LEA law enforcement agencies, & Intel Communities who do the same job no matter who is sitting in the big seat.”

In a June 26 blog post, the Jester writes that Snowden “is not a goddam hero, here to save Americans from ‘the government’ because of privacy infringements and breaches of the 4th amendment, he is a traitor and has jeopardized all our lives.” He launched a similar tirade against Assange, who has been living in London’s Ecuadorean Embassy for more than a year to dodge extradition, writing, “Let’s not forget Assange isn’t seeking asylum because he’s some heroic whistleblower or do-gooder. He’s wanted for questioning on a rape charge.”

On July 1, the Jester tweeted this:

In a subsequent series of tweets, the Jester alluded to hacking into the embassy’s fire alarm system to force Assange out of the building. If Assange were to leave the embassy compound, he would face extradition to Sweden—where he’s under investigation for sexual assault—or potentially to the United States, where Assange fears he could be prosecuted in connection with the publication of classified information allegedly leaked by Bradley Manning.

Yesterday the Jester tweeted photos of what he believed to be fire alarms on the exterior of the Ecuadorean Embassy, asking locals to crowd-source the name and logo of the alarms. The Jester also tweeted the following map, isolating what he says are the wifi networks that Assange may be using within the embassy.

In addition to targeting Assange and Ecuador, the Jester circulated a list of 52 servers used by the Venezuelan government, which Snowden has reportedly also petitioned for asylum. The hacker told FoxNews.com on Tuesday that he would treat countries that consider housing Snowden as “enemies” (Snowden is requesting asylum in at least 21 countries). The Jester did not respond to an interview request from Mother Jones.

In a blog post earlier this week, the Jester wrote that he didn’t fear prosecution: “Before you start slinging mud at me about my own activities. Two things to note. I never target the US and If I am arrested, and convicted in due process by a jury of my peers I will consider that justice will have been served.”

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Snowden and Assange Targeted by Mysterious Hacker "The Jester"

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Sequester Guts Wildfire Prevention, Sets Up Bigger Blazes

Mother Jones

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“Tree coming down!”

Skyler Lofgren shouts above a din of buzzing chainsaws, leans into his own, and with a final heave topples another 40-foot Ponderosa pine. Lofgren, 27, a forest firefighting crew boss with Flagstaff, Arizona’s fire department, felled a dozen trees on Monday, overseeing an outdoor classroom for a new crop of seasonal recruits who will spend the summer patrolling the Coconino National Forest with three-foot chainsaws at the ready. The crew will fight wildfires when they come, but the vast majority of their time will be spent on prevention or, as Lofgren puts it, “working ourselves out of a job.”

In a stand of trees ten minutes outside downtown Flagstaff—a tight cluster of low-slung brick buildings peppered with Route 66 paraphernalia—Lofgren and his fellow firefighters are hard at work on a new project that local officials say is the first of its kind in the nation. Funded by a $10 million bond that voters approved by a three-to-one margin in November, the program puts local tax dollars to work clearing trees and brush, and lighting carefully-managed fires, in an effort to stave off the devastating, astronomically expensive megafires that have become increasingly common in the West. If successful, the project could also untether the community from a withering federal firefighting budget.

Last year saw the third-worst wildfire season in five decades; the Southern California fire that threatened thousands of homes earlier this month looks to be only the first flash of what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week will be an above-average season for much of the Southwest. But the sequester took a 7.5 percent bite out of the Forest Service’s budget, nearly half of which is spent fighting wildfires. That means there will be 500 fewer pairs of boots on the ground and 200,000 fewer acres treated to prevent fires; the agency’s next proposed budget cuts preventative spending by a further 24 percent. It’s all part of what fire ecologists, environmentalists, and firefighters interviewed by Climate Desk describe as an increasingly distorted federal budget that has apparently forgotten the old adage about an ounce of prevention: It pours billions ($2 billion in 2012) into fighting fires but skimps on cheap, proven methods for stopping megafires before they start.

Firefighting greenhorn Jake Hess, 23, practices his chainsaw control on a fallen tree. Tim McDonnell/Climate Desk

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Sequester Guts Wildfire Prevention, Sets Up Bigger Blazes

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Sen. Roy Blunt: Monsanto’s Man in Washington

Mother Jones

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As I reported a couple of weeks ago, a recent Senate bill came with a nice bonus for the genetically modified seed industry: a rider, wholly unrelated to the underlying bill, that compels the USDA to ignore federal court decisions that block the agency’s approvals of new GM crops. I explained in this post why such a provision, which the industry has been pushing for over a year, is so important to Monsanto and its few peers in the GMO seed industry. (You can also hear my talking about it on NPR’s The Takeaway, along with the senator who tried to stop it, Montana’s Jon Tester, and see me on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.)

Which senator pushed the rider into the bill? At the time, no one stepped forward to claim credit. But since then, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has revealed to Politico’s ace reporter David Rogers that he’s the responsible party. Blunt even told Rogers that he “worked with” GMO seed giant Monsanto to craft the rider.

The admission shines a light on Blunt’s ties to Monsanto, whose home office is located in the senator’s state, Missouri. According to OpenSecrets, Monsanto first started contributing to Blunt back in 2008, when it handed him $10,000. At that point, Blunt was serving in the House of Representatives. In 2010, when Blunt successfully ran for the Senate, Monsanto upped its contribution to $44,250. And in 2012, the GMO seed/pesticide giant enriched Blunt’s campaign war chest by $64,250.

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Sen. Roy Blunt: Monsanto’s Man in Washington

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