Brazil sets new Amazon deforestation record for October

Agence France-Presse
November 11, 2022

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest increased 75 percent under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro MICHAEL DANTAS AFP/File

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest broke the monthly record for October, with the destruction of 904 square kilometers (350 square miles), official figures showed Friday.

The grim news comes less than two months before far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's four-year term ends.

The former army captain is a climate change skeptic and has been heavily criticized over policies seen as encouraging deforestation.

The DETER satellite observation system detected a three percent increase in the deforested area of the world's largest tropical rainforest compared to October 2021, making it a record for that month, according to the INPE space research institute.

The newly deforested section stretches an area just over half the size of Sao Paulo.

With two months still to go, 2022 is already the worst year for Amazon deforestation since DETER began monitoring it in 2015.

However, far higher figures of deforestation were recorded in the early 2000s.

So far this year almost 9,500 square kilometers have been destroyed, compared to the total 9,200 square kilometers deforested in 2021.

The Brazilian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said deforestation and wildfires had "exploded" since last month's presidential election, in which Bolsonaro was defeated by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula, who was also president from 2003-2010, has pledged to eliminate deforestation.

"The increase in deforestation (in October) was expected, but even so, the numbers for the first days of November are frightening, they show an unbridled race for destruction" before the change of government on January 1, said the WWF.

Under Bolsonaro, average annual deforestation increased 75 percent compared to the previous decade.

Lula confirmed on Thursday he would attend the COP27 climate summit in Egypt next week.

"The new government will have its work cut out to repair the situation, to end the perception that the Amazon is a lawless land," said WWF specialist Raul do Valle in a statement.

However, Bolsonaro's environmental policies will keep "causing damage for some time yet," said Andre Freitas from Greenpeace in Brazil.

© 2022 AFP

West Coast Blue Wall still intact after close race for governor in Oregon

Michael Kohn
November 11, 2022

Betsy Johnson's campaign website www.RunBetsyRun.com

BEND, OR — Outside the Kevista Coffeeshop in this Central Oregon city on the morning after the election, a fresh layer of snow covered the ground, the drifts building around a row of political yard signs supporting Republican candidates.

Inside the cozy shop, voter Matt Bryant bucks the majority voter sentiment in this part of the state, declaring his relief that the Red Wave ended up being more of a ripple in Oregon.

“I am happy to see some of the Democrats have won,” said Bryant, who describes himself as a progressive. “Republicans in my opinion don’t have any policies that try to help actual people.”

Bryant, 44, lives in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, which may go red as Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leading Democrat Jaime McLeod-Skinner in a tight race. But he’s glad the Governor’s Mansion will remain occupied by a Democrat. Tina Kotek beat Republican Christine Drazan in a close race for governor, the Associated Press declaring her the winner late on Thursday.

As of Thursday evening, Kotek had 47.1% of the vote compared to Drazan’s 43.5%, with 86% of the votes counted. Unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat who tried to run a middle-of-the-road campaign, saying she would take the best ideas from both parties, won 8.6% of the vote.

The results have been somewhat slow to come this year because ballots can still be counted if they were postmarked by 8 p.m. on election day, per the state’s vote-by-mail system. In previous elections, ballots had to be received on election day.

Although not all races have been finalized, the results in Oregon and nationwide were surprising, said David Bernell, an Oregon State University professor of political science.

“The Democrats outperformed expectations,” said Bernell. “They bucked what is one of the few solid predictions people can make in politics — the law of political gravity that says that the party in the White House tends to lose pretty significantly in the midterm elections, especially in the second year of a new president.”

In the Oregon gubernatorial race, it was Johnson’s campaign, and her surprisingly high poll numbers during the race, that attracted attention over the summer and into late fall.

A month before the election, Johnson held 20% voter support, according to polls. Democrats worried she would play the role of the spoiler, pulling votes away from Kotek, who was in a dead heat with Drazan. For much of the past month, it looked like Drazan — a former leader of the Republican minority in the Oregon House — had a chance to be the first Republican elected governor of Oregon in 40 years.

The tie going into November prompted President Biden to make a campaign appearance with Kotek in Portland.

All three candidates had amassed large war chests to sway voters on hot button issues, which in Oregon focussed squarely on inflation, crime, homelessness, abortion rights, and access to guns.

The total funds spent reached nearly $69 million, a record for an Oregon governor’s race. Kotek led the funding spree, raising $29.4 million, followed by Drazan’s $22.5 million and Johnson’s $17.5 million. Their coffers overflowing, voters were subjected to relentless political attack ads, which painted Drazen as a far right extremist and Kotek as a reason for Oregon crime and housing woes.

The dynamics of the race changed in the final few weeks, said Jim Moore, a political science professor at Pacific University, as voters gravitated toward the mainstream candidates.

“Betsy Johnson turned into a regular third-party candidate, taking a bit more from Kotek than Drazan, but not having a tremendous impact at less than 9% of the vote,” said Moore.

Kotek’s victory keeps the West Coast “Big Blue Wall” intact. She takes the reins from Kate Brown, who served since 2015 but could not run again due to term limits.


During her term in office, Brown had forged an alliance with fellow West Coast Democrat governors – including California’s Gavin Newsom, and Washington’s Jay Inslee – to cooperate on COVID lockdowns, climate change regulations, abortion access, and other issues of regional and national importance.

On Tuesday Newsom beat back a challenge from Republican challenger Brian Dahle. Inslee’s term as Washington governor ends in 2025.

Kotek, the longest-serving Speaker of the House in the Oregon state legislature, is eager to show that she is different from Kate Brown, ranked in some polls as America’s least popular governor. She campaigned on a platform of distancing herself from Brown and has vowed to deal with Oregon’s homeless crisis and rising urban crime, two problems that festered under Brown’s leadership.


She has also promised to address the state’s housing shortage and affordability. As Speaker, she helped pass legislation that allowed some cities to increase their housing stock by building more duplexes and triplexes. She also passed statewide bills on rent control.

And while it hasn’t figured as a talking point in Oregon, Kotek makes history as America’s first out lesbian elected governor along with Maura Healey, the newly elected governor in Massachusettes. Kotek is married to Aimee Wilson, a social worker.

Down the road from the Kevista coffee shop, at a McDonald’s restaurant, 34-year-old Michael Hagert was having breakfast alone during the chilly post-election morning. Hagert, a Walmart greeter in Bend, does not belong to a political party and said he votes for whoever he thinks will do the best job. This time he gave his vote to Drazan.

“I didn’t really care for Kotek, I think (Drazan) was a better person,” said Hagert, a native of Medford in southern Oregon.

But Hagert isn’t surprised that Kotek won, he’s lived in Oregon most his life and watched the state change, getting bluer each election cycle. While saying “hello” to folks walking through the door at Walmart he can tell there is a demographic shift going on in the Beaver State.

“A lot of people are moving here from California and other states, the East Coast, everywhere, they bring their politics. It’s becoming more Democrat, it’s not surprising it’s Kotek (winning).”

Beyond the governor’s race, slavery was also on the ballot in Oregon, with Measure 112 asking voters if they want to remove constitutional language allowing for slavery and involuntary servitude when used as a punishment for a crime. While the measure passed 56% to 44%, Moore was surprised more than 740,000 people voted against the measure.

“In other states where this passed, it was not even close, 80-20 or 70-30. I fear the result will just contribute to the narrative about deep-seated and unacknowledged racism in Oregon,” said Moore.

Measure 114, which calls for stricter firearms regulations, is too close to call but was leaning “yes” with 51% wanting to adopt the measure, and 86% of the votes counted as of Thursday. If passed, the measure will make Oregon one of the most difficult places to purchase a firearm, an unusual twist in a state where “Ore-gun” bumper stickers are a common sight in rural areas.

The new rules for buying a gun include submitting fingerprints, taking a safety course, passing a background check, and paying a fee before the individual can obtain a five-year permit for all gun purchases. In addition, the sale of high-capacity magazines, which contain 10 or more rounds, is banned. Bryant at the coffee shop voted to support the measure.

“Go to a gun range if you want to shoot off a large clip. But you don’t need a 30-round clip to defend your house, there is no army coming to get you,” he said.

NRA supporters call it the nation’s most extreme gun control initiative. Supporters say it will save lives. Political watchers say both sides could politicize the issue.

“Measure 114 will probably give a shot in the arm to advocates of greater gun control, showing them a pathway to get stronger restrictions in place,” said Bernell, the OSU political science professor.

“It will certainly galvanize the pro-gun advocates and the GOP to strengthen their efforts, as they have a real example of the quote-unquote, liberals coming to take your guns away,” he added.

Controversy over the law is unlikely to go away. At least one sheriff in Oregon has already declared she will not enforce at least one part of the law.

Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan declared on Facebook the day after the election that the measure was “poorly written” and “a terrible law for gun owners, crime victims, and public safety." She declared that she would not enforce the limit on magazine capacity. Passage of the law will result in a lawsuit, she added.

In other key Oregon races, the state’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Ron Wyden easily defeated Jo Rae Perkins, 56% to 41%. Perkins has a background in the financial services industry but had never held an elected office.

Perkins denies the 2020 election results, has voiced support for QAnon conspiracy theorists, opposes abortion for any reason, and opposed mask and vaccine mandates during the pandemic. But she received little backing from her own party, raising just $92,000, a fraction compared to Wyden's $13.8 million war chest.

In congressional races. Democrat Andrea Salinas is leading her Republican rival Mike Erickson in a close race in Oregon’s newly created 6th Congressional District, awarded to Oregon because of population growth reflected in the 2020 census. The new district is one of the most diverse in the state, including both rural areas that support agriculture and timber, as well as urban areas with mixed demographics.

In the 5th Congressional District race, current leader Lori Chavez-DeRemer is a former mayor of Happy Valley, a Portland suburb with a population of around 24,000. If she hangs on to win, Chavez-DeRemer will have flipped the seat out of Democrat’s hands — it had been held by Democrat Congressman Kurt Schrader since 2009 until he was ousted by McLeod-Skinner in the May primary.

If DeRemer and Salinas are declared winners, they will be the first Latinx community members to represent Oregon in Congress.

Moore says that the proportion of registered Democrats to Republicans in Oregon is around 60% to 40% and the state’s congressional delegation should vaguely reflect that. The results of this year’s election could make the delegation go from 80% Democrat and 20% Republican to 67% Democrat and 33% Republican.

“Pretty close to the partisan breakdown in the entire state,” said Moore.

The closeness of the gubernatorial race and the 5th and 6th congressional district races shows that Oregon is more purple than most people realize, he said.

“It has always been purple but that is now more obvious to national observers who have not really looked carefully at Oregon politics as we reliably voted for Democrats for statewide office and our congressional delegation,” said Moore.

Other states could take a close look at the results of the election in Oregon to get a clear read on the direction the country is taking.

“We will simply be part of the tea leaves that prognosticators use to look at the 2024 presidential election,” said Moore. “Democrats hanging onto overwhelming control gives them hope that the 2024 battles will take place in Republican states, not defensively in Democratic states.”

Back at the Kevista Coffee Shop in Bend, the progressive voter Bryant takes another sip of coffee and laments that he could not withhold his vote from Democrats as a way to protest both mainstream parties.

In the end, he supported Kotek and other Democrats to try to prevent any Republican candidate from winning. “The majority of them believe in complete and utter nonsense,” he said of Republican candidates. He believes that most people who vote Republican have been misled by politicians and “crazy” election deniers.

“Republican leaders are not looking out for people’s best interests, they are looking out for corporate interests, for their own interests,” said Byant. “Democrats can be the same sometimes but for the most part they are going to try to help people.”

DEMOCRATS HAVE HISTORIC MIDTERM WIN OVER GOP

Voices: In Alaska, things look surprisingly bad for Sarah Palin — and for Republicans in general

Opinion by Summer Koester - TODAY - Anchorage Daily News

This week, the day after a full moon, lunar eclipse, and even a showing of aurora borealis, Alaskans went to the polls to rank their choices for the US House of Representatives. By Wednesday morning, Congresswoman Mary Peltola, the incumbent Democrat, was leading Alaska’s US House race by a wide margin in a red state that hasn’t elected a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964.


Election 2022 House Alaska

Peltola had already garnered 47% of first-choice votes. Her opponents — former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin and Nick Begich, both Republicans — placed at 27% and 24%, respectively. Mail-in ballots are still being counted in the 49th State, and if Mary Peltola reaches 50% of the vote, she automatically wins reelection. If that doesn’t happen, she will have to wait until November 23rd, when tabulation of ranked-choice ballots are finalized. As of Friday morning, Peltola is at 47.3% (and Palin has dropped a little lower, to 26.6%.)

Steve Jennette teaches English Language Arts in Russian Mission, Alaska, a Native Yup’ik village of 323 souls on the banks of the Yukon River. “Bethel, Ms. Peltola’s hometown,” he tells me, “is our ‘urban hub,’ and some of my students have family there who know Mary.” Steve’s students organized their government class around the 2022 election and conducted a mock election in which students gave speeches supporting either Mary or her opponent. “Needless to say,” Steve says, “no one wanted to campaign for the opposition.”

In the days leading up to Election Day, various groups around Alaska ran ads online and on the radio encouraging Alaskans to vote. Without explicitly reminding them who to vote for, the NEA sent home mailers reminding citizens to vote for the candidate that will advocate for students. On the radio, a woman representing the Alaska Federation of Native Alaskans reminded listeners to vote for candidates that will defend Alaskan Native rights. Social media filled up with “I VOTED” stickers, many of which were created by artists commissioned by the Peltola campaign.

As I wrote earlier, Peltola branded herself as a true Alaskan undefined by a political party. And few people here were surprised that the first Alaskan Native in Congress out-ranked her opponents by a wide margin, placing even better in the preliminary round than her first round in the special election. Peltola ran a positive, pro-labor campaign, running on fish, family, freedom of choice, and Second Amendment rights. Even staff members of former Representative Don Young — a Republican and the longest-serving member of Congress — rallied behind the congresswoman and fundraised for her.

Peltola received endorsements from electrical workers with IBEW, postal workers with APWU National, laborers in AKAFLCIO, educators in AFT Union, service workers with SEIU, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, and Santa Claus, who originally ran against her for Don Young’s vacated seat. As of Wednesday, Peltola was ranking higher than Murkowski herself, a Republican Senator who has held the position since 2002. Meanwhile, Palin’s campaign seemed confused on its issues and settled on the oil-centric slogan “Drill, baby, drill!”

“Mary Peltola is the best-performing Alaska Democrat in a decade or more,” Robby Hockema of Anchorage tells me. “She did it by proving you can run for statewide office by uniting Alaskans by our values instead of our party affiliation. Filling the shoes of Don Young seemed nearly impossible just nine months ago. Now, Alaska will be better off if we have Mary for even half the time we had Don.”

Chelsea Foster, also in Anchorage, adds, “As Peltola continues to gain votes for our congressional seat, it appears that Alaskan voters chose nuance and action over political party and lip service. Mary Peltola is the beginning of much-needed healing in our great state of Alaska; she represents all of Alaska and does not make decisions based on a political party. She leads from the middle, and her actions in Congress thus far affirm that to be the case.”

Libby Bakalar, a Juneau resident, humor blogger, and city attorney of Bethel, an area that Peltola represented for ten years, agrees that Mary was always the standout candidate. “She represents the best of Alaska’s past, present, and future,” she says. “She was the only person in the race with any experience in elective legislative office, and it shows. Her kindness and warmth are contagious, but she’s also powerfully effective — much more than people realize just yet, I think.”

One Twitter user wrote: “We struck political gold with Peltola. She’s the Alaskan GOAT.” Another called her “THE QUEEN IN THE NORTH.”

On the conservative MustReadAlaska website, commenters mused that after this election, Alaska seems to lean more Democratic than Florida, and some predict that Alaska will vote to the left of Florida in 2024. One user wrote: “Alaska’s voting population is no longer blood-red. Hate to be a negative Nancy, but I really think Alaska is going the way of Washington and California. The conservative ship has sailed.” Others blamed the “selfishness” and “blind ambition” of Palin and Begich, and “the stupidness of the Republican party” in recent years for this phenomenon.

“Palin was the spoiler,” wrote another user in the MustReadAlaska comments. “She sucked away from Begich, handing the race to a leftist who will basically have no clout in the new Congress anyway. Silly Palin-bots! You [Palin voters] blew your chance to elect a true conservative representative who would have had clout, and gave your votes to a woman who has no loyalty to you.”

On Friday morning, the “Last Frontier” still did not have an official representative to the US House, but most agree that Mary Peltola is likely to win after ranked-choice votes are tabulated. Palin, realizing her defeat must be imminent, went nuclear on the Republican party itself and blamed “the dark, dysfunctional GOP machine” for her loss before telling supporters they should stop making donations to the party. “They opposed me every step of the way in my congressional bid, which is par for the course,” she said.

On Wednesday, Steve’s class of Yup’ik students went over the initial election results. “Then we had free time and cake,” he reports, “to celebrate the first Yup’ik Native to serve in the United States Congress!”

'A searing indictment of the Republican Party': Fox News host calls GOP midterm performance a disappointment

Tiffany Terrell
November 09, 2022

Donald Trump (Photo via AFP)

When Election Night arrived on Tuesday, November 8, Republican strategists were hoping for a massive red wave like the ones the GOP enjoyed under Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994 and Democratic President Barack Obama in 2010. But on Wednesday morning, November 9, with votes still being counted, it was up in the air which party will control a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in 2023.

One conservative Republican who was willing to admit that the red tsunami didn’t materialize in the 2022 midterms was Marc Thiessen. Some pundits on Fox News have insisted that November 8 was a great night for Republicans, but Thiessen, on the right-wing cable news channel, candidly described the 2022 midterms as a disappointment for Republicans, watch below:

Some of Thiessen’s GOP talking points about Biden can easily be fact-checked and debunked. For example, calling Biden “the least popular president since Harry Truman” is hard to back up in light of what Pew Research’s Amina Dunn reported on October 20, 2022: “Biden’s job rating is fairly comparable to Ronald Reagan’s (42%) and Bill Clinton’s (41%) at this stage of their presidencies, but lower than Barack Obama’s (46%). Those three presidents lost ground over their first two years in office.”

President Joe Biden publicly savored the results of the midterm elections on Wednesday after Democrats defied expectations and held off a Republican “red wave” that pollsters and analysts had been forecasting for weeks.

With several races still too close to call, Biden said at a White House news conference that voters spoke clearly. They're still frustrated about the economy, but they like the progress Democrats have made. They voted "to preserve our democracy and protect the right to chose."

"It was a good day for America,” he said.

Regardless of which party ends up controlling Congress, Biden said, he’s “ready to compromise with Republicans where it makes sense." He said he will invite the leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from a multi-nation foreign trip.

But Biden also made clear he's not looking for a course correction.

"I’m not going to change anything in any fundamental way," he said.

Even a small Republican majority in either chamber would prevent President Biden and Democrats from passing sweeping legislation along party lines. Bipartisan standoffs over government funding and the debt ceiling could be common, but major legislative breakthroughs will be rare.

A GOP takeover of the Senate would also force Biden to find Republican support for his next slate of administration nominees.

 

GOP on 'the cusp of an internal war' and Trump is 'willing to burn it all down': Maggie Haberman

Travis Gettys
November 11, 2022

Donald Trump (Photo of Trump via Agence France-Presse)

Former President Donald Trump is more vulnerable than he has been since shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but he survived that to remain the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, and he seems to think he can do it again.

The former president's hand-picked candidates fared poorly in Tuesday's midterm election, and the GOP stands poised to win narrow majorities, at best, in the House and Senate, and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman examined Trump's position as party leader.

"The party," Haberman tweeted, "is in the cusp of a broader internal war and not clear how that plays out."

The Department of Justice continues to investigate Trumps role in the insurrection and his handling of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago, and the pause leading up to the election could be over.

READ MORE: 'Welcome to Republicans in disarray': GOP tearing itself apart after Trump tanks another election

"Trump has extremely few major donors who want to do anything for him right now and a number of them are having active conversations about the best way to stop him," Haberman said. "But. Again…sound familiar? Trump has made clear he’s willing to burn it all down if he doesn’t get what he wants, which is maintaining his grip on the product line he’s been developing for six years: The Republican Party."

GOP lawmakers and other elected officials will be forced to choose sides, she said, but some of Trump's strongest allies in Congress aren't particularly influential.

"Anyone not a [prosecutor] who claims to know definitively what DOJ is going to do on either J6 or documents case is pushing a line," Haberman wrote. "The special master was the only play Trump had, and it’s brought some short term embarrassment. But also bought him time."

Some Republicans love losing as much as they love Trump

by Zachary Faria, Commentary Writer |
November 11, 2022 

After the GOP’s underperformance in the midterm elections, the question remains whether Republicans will learn their lesson or be content as year-in, year-out losers.

Former President Donald Trump showed in 2020 and 2018 — and probably also in 2016 — that he is a drag on GOP candidates down the ballot. He oversaw a loss of 40 House seats in the 2018 midterm elections, and he went on to lose to bumbling old “Sleepy Joe” Biden in 2020 even as Republicans outperformed him. In both his 2020 loss and his 2016 win, Trump was a drag on GOP candidates in tight races, who consistently finished with higher vote totals. He probably only won the presidency because Hillary Clinton managed to be more unlikable and incompetent than he was.

REPUBLICAN WHO SCORED UPSET NY VICTORY PRODS PARTY TO MOVE ON FROM TRUMP

Trump showed that he was a loser once again on Tuesday, costing Republicans several races thanks to the terrible candidates he backed in party primaries or candidates who crafted their campaigns in his image. Trump’s terrible candidates in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire cost Republicans down-ballot House races as well as definitive control of the Senate. In fact, Republicans may lose the Senate outright thanks to Trump’s picks in Arizona and Georgia.

But some Republicans are content to just keep losing. Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who wants to become the House GOP whip, declared he supported Trump. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz unsurprisingly wants Trump to be the nominee in 2024.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican conference chairwoman who oversaw the disappointing midterm results, outright endorsed Trump for 2024 to the New York Times. “I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2024,” Stefanik said in a statement. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”

Trump left office with an approval rating of 34%. He is nowhere near being “the most popular Republican in America.” He isn’t even the most popular Republican in the state of Florida.

It is an utterly embarrassing commentary on the Republican Party that Stefanik is “proud” to endorse this level of mediocrity. Republicans such as Stefanik seem content with losing the House, Senate, and White House in a span of three years while falling on their face time and time again trying to win them back. Trump gave away the Senate in 2021, gleefully, and was cheerleading the demise of some Republican candidates who were trying to win it back.

Trump enjoys losing. Stefanik, Banks, and Gaetz apparently do, too.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Republicans can learn the lesson from the midterm elections and move on to candidates who aren’t electorally toxic. They can run popular conservatives for president in 2024 who aren’t 76 years old and lost to Joe Biden. Or they can learn nothing and continue to be the party of losers, and continue to give Democrats everything they want in election after election.

A chilling view of Afghanistan War's end

Sophia A. McClennen, Salon
November 11, 2022

People are evacuated at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan

 on August 24, 2021(AFP)

On the first episode of "The Problem with Jon Stewart" on Apple TV+, he covered the horrifying realities of the U.S. military's use of burn pits. Burn pits are enormous craters that get filled with all kinds of garbage and debris, then set on fire, leaving a trail of toxic waste and often exposing military personnel to carcinogen-laden smoke. For Stewart, the problem with burn pits is that they show a deep disregard not only for the territory in which the U.S. military is operating but also for our troops.

Imagine, though, what happens when the burn pit isn't just filled with garbage; it is also filled with care packages, printers and maps as part of a military retrograde operation. Imagine what happens when the military is destroying valuable materials it doesn't want landing in the hands of its enemy because it doesn't trust its allies enough to protect them. Imagine burning all of those things, because you have been ordered to, even when you think it's a really bad idea.

This is the context of Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Mathew Heineman's new film, "Retrograde," which captures the final nine months of the U.S. war in Afghanistan when President Biden announced that all U.S. troops would quickly retreat from Afghanistan. Covering the story from the perspective of a team of Green Berets supporting the Afghan National Army, a young Afghan general fighting desperately to defend his country, Afghan interpreters working with the U.S. military and civilians terrified of a return to Taliban rule, the film offers an intimate, chilling portrait of the colossal failures, human costs and destructive consequences of the abrupt end to America's longest war.

The film isn't questioning whether the war should have ended. Instead, it focuses on how it ended; it is the hasty retreat of the military, the retrograde operation, that offers the film's central tension. Heineman's original plan was to offer viewers a close-up view of the operation of a Green Beret unit after almost two decades of war. Arriving in Afghanistan in 2020 around the time Joe Biden was elected, he and his crew soon learned all U.S. troops were to leave Afghanistan. What had been planned as a film about an ongoing operation now had to pivot to a film about the end of the longest war for both the United States and Afghanistan.

The Army describes retrograde as "a defensive task that involves organized movement away from the enemy." The catch, though, in this film is that as the U.S. military is engaging in organized movement away from an enemy, they are also attempting to leave their allies in the Afghan National Army prepared to defend themselves against the Taliban — and that sort of bifurcated strategy is impossible to carry out. As one of the Green Berets in the film explains to a younger soldier as he looks at computer equipment about to go up in flames, conducting a retrograde operation like this is like "s**tting in a trench."

An entirely different approach to the story of Afghanistan

At the center of the film is General Sami Sadat, the unlikely hero of a documentary that was originally about the Green Berets. As the Green Berets were organizing their retreat, Heineman and his team decided to follow their storytelling instincts and stay behind to cover Sadat, who was responsible for an army of around 15,000 Afghan fighters, as he faces the increasing encroachment of the Taliban while the U.S. sets all its equipment on fire and leaves.

If you are looking for a film that explains the background of the war, a historical critique of U.S. imperialism, or a deep dive into the complex realities of Afghan culture, this isn't it.

Unlike most coverage of the war, the focus of the film is not on the larger geopolitical dynamics, but rather on the people affected by them.

Heineman shoots most of the film in Helmand province, for example. Helmand, a stronghold for the Taliban, has notoriously been one of the most complex and volatile regions in Afghanistan, a region that has repeatedly vexed U.S. efforts. Yet viewers only learn when Sadat moves his troops to defend the city of Lashkargah that the city is considered strategically essential to resisting a Taliban takeover of the nation as a whole.

Lashkargah fell to the Taliban on August 13, 2001. Two days later Kabul fell as well. The film covers these strategic losses, but backs away from placing them in a larger context.

But if viewers are looking for a unique, intimate portrait of Afghan resilience, tenacity, camaraderie and resolve, this film is it. Unlike most coverage of the war, the focus of the film is not on the larger geopolitical dynamics, but rather on the people affected by them.

Without question, "Retrograde" is the one film that will chip away at the myriad Afghan stereotypes that have flooded the U.S. imagination since the attacks of September 11, 2011. It refuses to portray Afghans as frightening terrorists, pathetic victims, corrupt leaders or hapless opioid addicts.

Documenting the tremendous losses of the war and the risk that any gains might soon be lost, one of the Green Berets bluntly states as he packs up, "This isn't a win." While the film doesn't offer a lot of finger-pointing, it does make clear that the war on Afghanistan was a colossal tragedy for the Afghan people. And even more important, the film exposes the hypocrisy and hubris of U.S. leadership. In a series of voiceovers opening the film, we hear George W. Bush deploy the name "Operation Enduring Freedom," Barack Obama speak about how Afghans will "see the light" and Joe Biden explain how doesn't want to "repeat mistakes."

This film also completely rewrites the traditional script about U.S. military support in Afghanistan. While some might rightly find fault with the fact that it sidesteps the realities of U.S. disdain for Afghans, both systemically and individually, the film offers a rare view of a collaboration between the U.S. military and the Afghans that is built on mutual respect.

The film documents, for example, the deep fondness between Sadat, his leadership team and the Green Berets. The bonds here are not those of master and apprentice or victim and savior, though it is clear that Sadat values their guidance and leadership. Instead, the film goes to great lengths to show there were real alliances built between the U.S forces and the Afghans. The depth of these ties is underscored as the film ends and we learn that current and retired Green Berets are working along with Sadat to get Afghans they once worked with safely out of the country since the U.S. government isn't adequately coming to the rescue.

Heineman redefines the power of the documentary close-up

He has an uncanny ability to capture his subjects at precisely the moment we think they will break.

Heineman has become famous for a cinéma vérité approach that avoids both interviews and voiceovers, but this film takes that signature style to an entirely new level of art. Framing shots with extreme close-ups of his subjects in profile, Heineman manages to let the characters simply speak for themselves: frustrated, exhausted, worried yet resolved. He has an uncanny ability to capture his subjects at precisely the moment we think they will break, at exactly their tipping point, and film their quiet decision to keep on.

The fact that we see these same moments among the Afghans fighting to defend their country from a Taliban takeover and the Green Berets, who knew that their abrupt leaving would end badly, shows the complex ways these communities became intertwined.

In the final scenes, Heineman captures the devastating images of Afghans at the Kabul airport desperately trying to flee a country that fell almost immediately to the Taliban. Heineman's interest, though, isn't to interrogate whether the failure was the fault of the Afghan army or the Ghani government or the U.S. military. One of the last scenes shows a meeting among the Taliban senior officials and signals there is far more to the story of what drives Afghan history and identity than this film intends to cover.

At its heart, the film asks whether the grand narratives of history really ever tell the story, since the moving story of General Sadat and the relationship he built with his Green Beret allies doesn't fit any predictable mold. Following a similar theme to many of Heineman's films, "Retrograde" shows that if you look really closely at the people embroiled in a conflict, they won't conform to stereotypes or stark notions of good or evil, winner or loser, hero or villain. If the traditional headlines, narratives, and sound bites that have been used to understand the conflict in Afghanistan miss the point, then the film suggests that maybe they are what is truly retrograde.

"Retrograde" opens in select theaters November 11, 2022, and will stream on National Geographic Channel Dec. 8, on Disney+ Dec. 9, and Hulu Dec. 11.

Piece of Challenger space shuttle found off Florida coast
Agence France-Presse
November 11, 2022

Underwater explorer Mike Barnette and wreck diver Jimmy Gadomski explore a segment of NASA's Challenger space shuttle off the coast of Florida in a picture provided by The History Channel(AFP)

Divers searching for a World War II-era aircraft near the Bermuda Triangle have found a piece of an entirely different sort of vessel: part of the US Challenger space shuttle that exploded soon after takeoff in 1986.

The shuttle burst apart just dozens of seconds after launching from Florida, killing seven crew members, including the teacher Christa McAuliffe who had won a national screening.

The Challenger segment, preserved remarkably well at the bottom of the Atlantic, is one of the largest pieces ever discovered from the space disaster, NASA confirmed Thursday.

Images from the discovery, which was made in spring 2022, show two divers surrounded by fish, touching some of the shuttle's sand-covered tiles -- small squares that covered the entire underside of the ship to enable it to withstand extreme heat during its return to the atmosphere.

One of the two divers, Mike Barnette, told AFP that he experienced a real "roller coaster ride of emotions" when he realized what he was touching.

"When we found it, (there were) a lot of mixed emotions," said the marine biologist, who explores ship wrecks as a hobby.

"I'm used to diving on shipwrecks that are decades to centuries old, and not a piece of the space program. This is quite unique," he said.

"That turned quickly to realizing 'Yeah, this is an episode that I lived through. When this happened, I remember exactly where I was, watching this live on TV,'" he said.

After the discovery, he showed the images to an astronaut friend who confirmed it was the shuttle. A few months later, the US space agency officially confirmed it.

"They were stunned and staggered by how large of a piece it was," Barnette said.

Partly buried

The visible part of the shuttle is about 4.5 by 4.5 meters. But the piece extends under the sand and it is still unknown its total size.

One thing is certain, however: "I can certainly say with confidence, it's one of the largest we've ever found," Mike Ciannilli, a NASA employee for more than 25 years, said of the segment.

It's definitely Challenger's underside, Ciannilli told AFP, but it's hard to know exactly which part of the ship.

Analysis of the piece, he said, will not shed any new light on the accident itself. The cause of the tragedy is well established -- severe cold caused damage to crucial rubber seals. Observing how the materials have aged could still be interesting, however.

Above all, he emphasized, the discovery could help with "reigniting the lessons learned from that particular mission."


Following the January 28, 1986 accident, extensive search operations were carried out to find pieces of the ship. Ten years later, two new ones emerged on a beach after a storm. These were the last found to date.

One piece is on display at a public memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and others are kept nearby.

'Honor and remembrance'

Barnette and his diving partner were looking for a World War II plane for a documentary about disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle when they discovered the Challenger piece.

The first episode, which will air on the History Channel on November 22, in the end will have a space ship rather than a boat or plane for its subject.

"That's what I love about this endeavor, you go out trying to find one thing and you stumble upon a totally different mystery," Barnette said.

The site was chosen thanks to information from fishermen, who guessed there might be a wreck at the spot because it seemed to attract a lot of fish.

The spot in question is west of the Bermuda Triangle, not within it, but the exact location is not being revealed so as not to attract curious onlookers. Nor would the divers reveal the depth of the seafloor at the wreckage site.

According to Barnette, it would be "very easy" for NASA to recover the piece from the water, but such a move might only end up "reopening wounds."


Discussions are ongoing, Ciannilli added, but "whatever we do, our first and foremost objective is to make sure we bring honor and remembrance for the legacy of the crew, and we honor the families."

© Agence France-Presse

THEY LIE

Former FBI official charts all of the false claims by FBI heads about Jan. 6

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
November 10, 2022

FBI Director Christopher Wray tells the Senate Judiciary Committee 

that Russia is still trying to interfere in US elections (AFP Photo/Saul LOEB)

The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress uncovered a number of problems that came from the FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies that failed to work as they should have ahead of the attacks on Congress.

Writing for Just Security, former FBI agent Asha Rangappa explained that after the Sept. 11 Commission found failures, there were major changes to the government and intelligence community. In that case, however, there was no direct link to someone to blame. In the case of Jan. 6, there is a lot of evidence that federal agencies didn't sound the alarm to the U.S. Capitol, elected officials, the Capitol Police or the Washington, D.C. Mayor to warn that they were certain an attack was coming.

While the FBI has done a lot of good work since Jan. 6 in arresting militia members and thwarting attacks, there remains to be reports of a small minority of agents who think Jan. 6 is a waste of time and that the attack wasn't that big a deal.

"That’s a factor which, it stands to reason, may have played a role in the lack of proactive measures taken by the FBI in the face of multiple warnings of potential violence on Jan. 6," wrote Rangappa. "The evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee, combined with reporting over the last year, offers clues into what may be going on behind the scenes at the Bureau. If the picture painted by these sources is true, it suggests an internal, long-brewing problem that the FBI needs to investigate and nip in the bud. That, to date, FBI Director Christopher Wray has not taken action to address the problem internally also suggests that congressional oversight committees may need to get involved and demand answers."

On Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the attack, the director of the Washington field office, Steve D’Antuono “had told reporters … that the FBI had no intelligence suggesting that violence was brewing before Jan. 6.” Rangappa also recalled that neither Wray nor then Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen were around when the first press conference happened, six days after the attack. They dodged questions about what the FBI knew and when they knew it. Now it's very clear they knew well in advance.

Rangappa cited the so-called "Norfolk memo," which referenced “an online thread discuss[ing] specific calls for violence” against members of Congress on Jan. 6. The story changed when in June 2021, Wray repeated D’Antuono’s comments in speaking before Congress. He claimed that the "Norfolk memo" was shared with law enforcement, but that they had no other information other than that.

That has now been proven false.

"Wray, along with the Deputy Director for Counterterrorism, Jill Sanborn, also testified that the FBI could not, under its internal rules, monitor social media posts of people publicly advocating or planning violence, due to First Amendment concerns," Rangappa recalled. "This was not entirely accurate. The FBI had latitude to monitor social media in order to conduct threat assessments and to use evidence of planning and coordination of violence on social media to open a predicated investigation (which happened with at least four people later charged under an anti-riot statute in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd)."

So, Wray told Congress that the Attorney General Guidelines meant they couldn't monitor people online without any kind of prediction. In fact the AG Guidelines explicitly encourage the FBI to do the opposite.

The other red flag she cited came from the Aug. 2021 Reuters article claiming the FBI had “scant” evidence that Jan. 6 violence was coordinated. Sources were four “former and current law enforcement officials” with knowledge of the investigations. They claimed there was no scheme by Roger Stone or Alex Jones ahead of time. There was no evidence that Oath Keepers and Proud Boys had plans to attack. All of it was false and the truth has been a key part of the prosecutions of many of the members of the militias and it's being used in investigations for others like Stone.

The FBI didn't just lie about what they knew: they intentionally worked to mislead Americans and Congress.

Rangappa closed by including new evidence that continues to emerge in the investigation about what was known and when. There are FBI informants that flagged the attacks ahead of time that are part of the trials for Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

There has yet to be a reckoning for Wray and those who misled Congress. There also hasn't been any investigation into the FBI's internal failures, much less a probe into agents who align themselves with the insurrectionists.

Jon Stewart and advocates who pushed to aid veterans should get Presidential Medal of Freedom, Sen. Gillibrand tells Biden

2022/11/10
Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

WASHINGTON — Jon Stewart and fellow advocates who cajoled Congress into passing legislation to help veterans sickened by massive burn pits overseas deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday.

For years, Congress had failed to address the impacts of burn pits — the massive, open-air trash fires that the military used to incinerate everything from medical waste to plastic and ammunition during the global war on terror.

Some of the pits were the size of football fields, and federal officials believe at least 3.5 million members of the service were exposed to toxic fumes and dust similar to the noxious smoke from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center that sparked those wars.

Gillibrand says the talk show host and comedian deserves the honor, along with retired Army Capt. Le Roy Torres, his wife Rosie Torres and 9/11 advocate John Feal for their work pushing Congress to act.

“Rosie, Le Roy, John and Jon worked with me on this legislation from the very beginning, when the possibilities seemed dim,” Gillibrand said in her letter. “However, they continued to do the hard work, knowing that doing the right thing on behalf of our service members was worth it.”

Gillibrand wrote a key part of the law, which guarantees that veterans who get sick with any of more than two dozen conditions linked to toxic smoke and dust will be able to get care through the Veterans Administration without having to jump through hoops that barred more than three-quarters of them from getting care before.

The bill nearly failed when retiring Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey mounted a last-second challenge to the bill. But the Torreses, Stewart and other advocates spent the six days camped outside the Capitol in protest, and forced the Senate to reconsider. In the end, just 11 Republicans voted against the bill.

Rosie Torres had launched the fight for burn pit victims after her husband returned from Iraq, developed lung problems, was forced from his job as a police officer, and couldn’t get help from the VA. It took 13 years.

Gillibrand's request to Biden is something of a twofer for Feal and Stewart. It notes that they brought the high-profile attention that helped persuade Congress to pass several key pieces of 9/11 legislation.

“Because of them, the men and women who answered the call on one of the most devastating days in our country’s history are receiving the care that they deserve,” Gillibrand told the White House in her letter.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Longtime Trump executive details rampant tax fraud at NYC trial
2022/11/11

NEW YORK — A longtime Trump Organization senior executive painted himself Thursday as a lowly accountant who followed the boss’ orders and kept his head down, unaware he was engaging in rampant tax fraud.

Jeff McConney’s testimony at the Manhattan Supreme Court trial of former President Donald Trump’s family real estate business came more than a week after he tested positive for COVID-19. Judge Juan Merchan put the proceedings on ice after he got the virus, too.

Back on the stand, McConney acknowledged illegal practices at the Trump Organization, like the company’s habit of paying longtime employees as independent contractors when they got their hefty Christmas bonuses — saving the staffers’ tax deductions and the company on Medicare taxes.

McConney also admitted that top executives got away without paying New York City taxes because he left company-provided rent-free apartments in Manhattan off their returns.

The balancing act was to subtract apartment costs from their sky-high salaries. McConney said Former Trump Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg once told him Trump was aware of the practice, which is illegal.

“Mr. McConney, did you try to help (employees) evade their income tax?” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass asked on direct examination.

“‘Evade’ is a very strong word. I tried to help them in any way I could,” said McConney.

The Trump Organization controller and senior vice president, who has worked at the company for 35 years, is not charged in the case. McConney testified eight times before the grand jury. Prosecutors tried in vain to declare him a hostile witness when it emerged that Trump’s company was paying his legal bills, and their lawyers were coaching him.

The Trump Organization and Trump Payroll Corp. attorneys argue that Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trumps since the 1970s, worked alone and cheated on his taxes unbeknownst to anyone.

Weisselberg is expected to take the stand next week. He was charged in June 2021 alongside the two Trump entities with orchestrating a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Prosecutors said he and the companies dodged more than $1 million in taxes through untaxed fringe benefits. The 75-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges in August for a reduced prison sentence.

On cross-examination with Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles, McConney sounded more like a witness for the defense. He said that the buck stopped with Weisselberg, whose micromanaging meant he oversaw every company transaction, no matter how small.

During one line of questioning under Steinglass, the prosecutor asked McConney if he was sure about an answer he gave last week when he said that the company cleaned up its books when Trump became president in 2017.

“Is that your testimony?” asked Steinglass, “that it was a coincidence?”

“Yes,” said McConney. “Nobody told me specifically that this change was because Mr. Trump became President Trump.”

The Trump companies have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Donald Trump has not been criminally charged.

Powerful Murdoch media dumps on Trump

AFP
November 10, 2022

Losing media support: Former US President Donald Trump at a Florida rally before the midterm elections that took place on Tuesday

Washington (AFP) - The powerful media empire of conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch appeared to turn its back Thursday on Donald Trump, labeling the former US president a "loser" who shows "increasingly poor judgement" after the midterm elections.

Just days before he is expected to announce his 2024 White House candidacy, the Wall Street Journal, the flagship of Murdoch's News Corp, declared in an editorial that "Trump Is the Republican Party's Biggest Loser," pointing to the party's disappointing performance in Tuesday's midterms.

Trump later Friday hit back at Murdoch, appearing to relish a scuffle, accusing News Corp media of falling in line to back a potential Republican rival of Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, a choice he said News Corp would rue.

The cover of News Corp's tabloid New York Post depicted Trump on a precarious wall as "Trumpty Dumpty" who "had a great fall" in the vote, blaming him for the failure of Republicans to sweep past Democratic rivals in the battle for control of Congress and governors' mansions.

And at the hugely influential Fox News television network, praise was thick for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as Trump's top rival for the party's 2024 nomination.

"The biggest winner of the midterm elections was without a doubt Governor Ron DeSantis, whose landslide victory in the state of Florida was breathtaking," wrote Fox columnist Liz Peek.

"The biggest loser? Donald Trump," she said.

Trump a 'mixed blessing'

After supporting him through his 2017-2021 presidency, Fox, a Murdoch arm separate from News Corp, did not completely abandon Trump, still the most powerful figure in the Republican Party.

But even the network's biggest star, talk-show host Tucker Carlson, assailed the Republican establishment for Tuesday's ballot box failures and at least partly blamed the ex-president.

"Many others are saying that Donald Trump is the reason Republicans didn't do as well as they thought they would. That's a more complicated question," he said late Wednesday.

"The truth is, Trump has always been a mixed blessing politically."

The Murdoch outlets are some of the most influential sources of information for US conservatives, unabashedly backing Republicans and attacking Democrats.

So blaming Trump for election disappointments while lavishing praise on DeSantis could shape public views ahead of 2024.

Trump is expected to announce his candidacy next week, whereas DeSantis, who first had to win reelection to the Florida governorship, has only hinted that he might battle for the White House.

DeFUTURE

In fact Republicans scored significant gains Tuesday in the House of Representatives and are expected to wrest control of the chamber from Democrats when the outstanding races are settled.

But the party had expected to more powerfully trounce President Joe Biden's Democrats and easily seize both the House and the Senate -- still undecided -- as well as some key governorships.

Instead, a number of candidates closely aligned with and endorsed by Trump failed to win in key races.

"Trumpy Republican candidates failed at the ballot box in states that were clearly winnable," the Wall Street Journal wrote.

DeSantis meanwhile did not tap Trump for support in his race Tuesday, and he swept to a massive reelection victory.

On the cover of its first edition after the election, the New York Post celebrated DeSantis as "DeFUTURE."

Meanwhile it told Trump: "The fate of your candidates Tuesday looks terrible for your increasingly poor judgment, which grows parallel to your desperation."

Trump appeared to confirm the divorce from the Murdoch empire Thursday.

"Despite having picked so many winners, I have to put up with the Fake News. For me, Fox News was always gone," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He issued a rambling four-paragraph statement later decrying DeSantis - whom he ridiculed as DeSanctimonious - for "playing games" about whether he will run for president in 2024.

In 2016, "Fox News fought me to the end," Trump said, until he won, "then they couldn't have been nicer."

The Wall Street Journal "loved Low Energy Jeb Bush, and a succession of other people" but Trump said he "easily knocked them out, one by one," and the Murdoch properties fell into line.

"We're in exactly the same position now," Trump asserted.