Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is The tax reform plan of wonder:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Please, Secretary Zinke: Just steal our money, not our lands, by Susan Grigsby
- It makes sense for Progressives to go after the Trump voter, by Egberto Willies
- How corporate special interests socialize costs: Moral hazard, by David Akadjian
- As people march in DC for Puerto Rico, which politicians stand up in defense of our island citizens, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Abortion rights and free speech wrongs, by Jon Perr
- Did you know Trump just made it easier for banks to get away with screwing the poor and minorities, by Ian Reifowitz
- International Election Digest: Spain in crisis after violent crackdown on Catalonia secession vote, by Daily Kos Elections
• First known depiction of human hunters with leashed dogs seems to date back at least 8,000 years: An article in Science magazine notes:
Carved into a sandstone cliff on the edge of a bygone river in the Arabian Desert, a hunter draws his bow for the kill. He is accompanied by 13 dogs, each with its own coat markings; two animals have lines running from their necks to the man’s waist.
The engravings likely date back more than 8000 years, making them the earliest depictions of dogs, a new study reveals. And those lines are probably leashes, suggesting that humans mastered the art of training and controlling dogs thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
“It’s truly astounding stuff,” says Melinda Zeder, an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. “It’s the only real demonstration we have of humans using early dogs to hunt.” But she cautions that more work will be needed to confirm both the age and meaning of the depictions.
• Trump Organization plunges 37 places on list of private NYC companies in just one year: According to Crain's New York Business latest list, the family biz, currently headed up by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., 10 percent of what was claimed for it last year, when it supposedly made $9.5 billion in sales. This year’s sales: $600 million to $700 million, which moves it from the number 3 spot to number 40. But in an interview with NPR, Crain reporter Aaron Elstein said, "It was obviously important to Donald to have his company at the top of the list, and I don't know why he felt that way but the numbers that he presented are just flagrantly untrue."
• Italian doctor says human head transplant “imminent.” He plans to perform the operation in China because, he says, medical establishments in Europe and the United States won’t allow it. "Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it," said Dr. Sergio Canavero.
Canavero would not divulge the identity of the Chinese donor or recipient. The donor will be the healthy body of a brain-dead patient matched for build with a recipient's disease-free head.
Canavero estimates the procedure will cost up to $100 million and involve several dozen surgeons and other specialists.
• New York Times finds many more civilian deaths than U.S. admits for airstrikes against ISIS:
We found that one in five of the coalition strikes we identified resulted in civilian death, a rate more than 31 times that acknowledged by the coalition. It is at such a distance from official claims that, in terms of civilian deaths, this may be the least transparent war in recent American history. Our reporting, moreover, revealed a consistent failure by the coalition to investigate claims properly or to keep records that make it possible to investigate the claims at all. While some of the civilian deaths we documented were a result of proximity to a legitimate ISIS target, many others appear to be the result simply of flawed or outdated intelligence that conflated civilians with combatants. In this system, Iraqis are considered guilty until proved innocent. Those who survive the strikes, people like Basim Razzo, remain marked as possible ISIS sympathizers, with no discernible path to clear their names.
• Dakota Access Pipeline company paid TigerSwan mercenaries to build RICO conspiracy case against protesters. The lawsuit, filed in August by pipeline building Energy Transfer Partners, labels as terrorists the protesters against the pipeline:
The case was filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, passed in 1970 to prosecute organized crime — primarily the mob. Greenpeace says it amounts to a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP, designed to curtail free speech through expensive, time-consuming litigation.
“It grossly distorts the law and facts at Standing Rock,” said Greenpeace general counsel Tom Wetterer. “We’ll win the lawsuit, but it’s not really what this is about for ETP. What they’re really trying to do is silence future protests and advocacy work against the company and other corporations.”
• Economic Policy Institute posts map showing states’ campaign to suppress worker rights.
• You know that reversal of the U.S. ban on importing animal “trophies” that was announced this week? It actually happened quietly last month:
Although the USFSW announced Wednesday it was lifting a ban on the import of elephant trophies, the new guidelines for importing sport-hunted lions have been quietly in effect and permits have been accepted since Oct. 20. Due to a 45-day waiting period, it's unclear if any permits have been granted so far. The decision is touted as "contributing to the conservation of lions in the wild" on the USFSW website.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: We’re not done with Moore just yet, while the Gop wants your eyes on Franken, instead. Lots to learn from both, some parts of it more discouraging and gross than others. Then, a quick roundup of weekend chatter news, and Zinke is the new Schock.