Reuters Exclusive: Russian hackers targeted California, Indiana Democratic parties

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The group of Russian hackers accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election earlier this year targeted the email accounts of Democratic state parties in California and Indiana, and influential think tanks in Washington and New York, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The attempted intrusions, many of which were internally flagged by Microsoft Corp MSFT.O over the summer, were carried out by a group often nicknamed "Fancy Bear." The hackers' activity provides insight into how Russian intelligence is targeting the United States in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.

The targets identified by Reuters, which include the Center for American Progress, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said they had not seen any evidence of successful hacking attempts.

Fancy Bear is controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency and was responsible for hacking the email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s staff in the run-up to the 2016 election, according to a Department of Justice indictment filed in 2018.

News of the Russian hacking activity follows last month's announcement here by Microsoft that Fancy Bear had attempted to hack more than 200 organizations, many of which the software company said were tied to the 2020 election. Microsoft was able to link this year's cyber espionage campaign to the Russian hackers through an apparent programming error that allowed the company to identify a pattern of attack unique to Fancy Bear, according to a Microsoft assessment reviewed by Reuters.

Microsoft declined to comment on Reuters’ findings.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cyber-russia-exclusive/exclusive-russian-hackers-targeted-california-indiana-democratic-parties-idUSKBN27F1CP

Voting news out of TX keeps getting better

Maddow just now: Early voting in TX just surpassed all the votes cast in 2016, wow. nt

Improving Healthcare in Rural Areas Significantly Improve Climate Change Problems

Science Times: Oct 27, 2020

Climate change and healthcare are major world problems that are interconnected. In a recent study led by the University of California Santa Barbara, researchers discovered that improving healthcare in Indonesia's rural areas results in decreased illegal logging, directly affecting carbon emissions.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealing a link between affordable health care and deforestation. Since healthcare has improved in the past 10 years in Borneo, Indonesia, deforestation decreased by 70% as well.

More than 28,400 residents in rural areas have access to healthcare services. The most reduced logging activity in the nearby national park was most observed in the nearby villages.

Linking Healthcare and Climate Change
Andrew MacDonald from the university's Earth Research Institute said that the results show "a strong link between human health and conservation in tropical forests in the developing world." UC Santa Barbara also worked with several other universities across the United States and two NGOs.

For healthcare to be more affordable for the locals, the clinic accepts barter payments while giving discounts to those from villages where logging has significantly reduced. The bigger picture is the preservation of forests, Earth's natural carbon sinks while reducing poverty and health issues.

Susanne Sokolow from Stanford shared that the intervention method is a good example of "how to design, implement and evaluate a planetary health intervention that addresses human health and the health of rainforests on which our health depends." Around the world, more than one-third of protected areas are associated with Indigenous and local communities. Scientists have increasingly partnered with locals to study forests such as the Amazon, combining science and knowledge passed on from many generations by the tribes.

The innovative model has implications on global health as well, said Michele Barry from the Center for Innovation and Global Health. Climate change and health can be addressed together "and done in coordination with and respect for local communities."

In 2007, a healthcare clinic near Gunung Palung National Park was established by the NGOs Alam Sehat Lestari and Health In Harmony. Bartered items for payments included tree seedlings, handicrafts, or labor. Moreover, intervention from the NGOs included training in sustainable and organic agriculture as well as a chainsaw buyback program.

With available services for more than a decade, there was also a significant decline in illnesses including diabetes, malaria, and tuberculosis. The national park that had once lost nearly 60% of its trees had significantly less logging activity.

Everyone involved in the work is hopeful for the long-term effects of preserving and restoring ecosystems by creating healthcare programs. For example, scientists are working on natural filtering systems to avoid waterborne bacteria or diseases.

The study has important conclusions, said Monica Nirmala from Health in Harmony. First, healthcare and nature conservation go hand in hand. Second, rainforest communities guide the best ways to live in balance with the forests.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/27905/20201027/improving-healthcare-rural-areas-significantly-improve-climate-change-problems.htm#:~:text=Since%20healthcare%20has%20improved%20in,observed%20in%20the%20nearby%20villages.

No, the GDP didn't go up "bigly" like trump is taking credit for, this explains it best

Brains of patients recovering from COVID-19 may age 10 years

Sounds like another good reason to lower SS age, say, to 57

A team of researchers, led by a doctor at Imperial College London, analyzed results from 84,285 people who completed a study called the Great British Intelligence Test. LONDON (Reuters) - People recovering from COVID-19 may suffer significant brain function impacts, with the worst cases of the infection linked to mental decline equivalent to the brain ageing by 10 years, researchers warned on Tuesday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N2HI38G

Thank you Jeff!

Missing From Supreme Court's Election Cases: Reasons for Its Rulings "the shadow docket"

In a series of terse, unsigned orders, the court has been deciding many election disputes on its “shadow docket” without a murmur of explanation.

By Adam Liptak
Oct. 26, 2020

WASHINGTON — At least nine times since April, the Supreme Court has issued rulings in election disputes. Or perhaps “rulings” is too generous a word for those unsigned orders, which addressed matters as consequential as absentee voting during the pandemic in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, and the potential disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of people with felony convictions in Florida.

Most of the orders, issued on what scholars call the court’s “shadow docket,” did not bother to supply even a whisper of reasoning.

“This idea of unexplained, unreasoned court orders seems so contrary to what courts are supposed to be all about,” said Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard. “If courts don’t have to defend their decisions, then they’re just acts of will, of power. They’re not even pretending to be legal decisions.”

The orders were responses to emergency applications, and they were issued quickly, without full briefing or oral arguments (hence the “shadow docket”).

Compare the shadow docket with the court’s regular docket, the one with real briefs, arguments and elaborate signed opinions. On that docket — the “merits docket” — the court ordinarily agrees to hear about 1 percent of the petitions asking it to intercede. In its last term, it decided just 53 merits cases.

If the court is going to treat emergency applications with something like equal care, it might consider explaining what it is doing. Explaining, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook wrote in 2000, is what distinguishes judges from politicians.

“The political branches of government claim legitimacy by election, judges by reason,” he wrote. “Any step that withdraws an element of the judicial process from public view makes the ensuing decision look more like fiat, which requires compelling justification.”

Terse rulings on emergency applications are not new. But “the shadow docket has truly exploded in the last few years,” Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, wrote on Scotusblog last week.

The Trump administration has been a major contributor to the trend, Professor Vladeck wrote, having filed 36 emergency applications in its first three and a half years. By contrast, the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama filed just eight such applications over 16 years.

More recently, emergency applications in voting cases have spiked. Lower courts have struggled to make sense of the court’s orders, which are something less than precedents but nonetheless cannot be ignored by responsible judges.

Is it possible to trace some themes in the court’s election orders? Sure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/us/supreme-court-election-cases.html?smid=tw-share

I'm at a whole level of mad tonight listening to Maddow who is also steaming

Talking about being 7 months into this pandemic & the numbers are worse than any time since the pandemic began while tRump is holding maskless rallies all over the country, red state govs pretending everythings alright. Also, talking about the many dirty tricks desperate tRump and repukes are pulling as they know their time is running out. I can't remember when I've been this mad. Its going to be a long 11 days.

Man arrested in Kannapolis with van full of guns and explosives, researched killing Joe Biden

Source: WBTV

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (WBTV) – A man was arrested in Kannapolis with a van full of guns and explosives with plans to carry out an act of terrorism, including trying to assassinate Joe Biden.

An order filed in federal court earlier this month outlines the plans by a man identified as Alexander Hillel Treisman, who also used the alias Alexander S. Theiss.

In the order, a federal magistrate judge outlined the reasons why Treisman should continue to be held in jail on child pornography charges.

Although, Treisman currently faces pornography charges, the order details a list of factors related to the defendant’s plans for a possible act of terror as grounds he should remain in custody.

According to the order, Treisman was arrested in late May, after employees at a bank in Kannapolis called police to investigate a white van that had been left in the parking lot.

“Through the windows, KPD officers observed an AR-15 style rifle, a box for a Taurus .380 handgun, a cannister of the explosive material Tannerite, and a box of 5.56 caliber ammunition,” the order said, referencing testimony from a FBI agent who investigated the case as part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Read more: https://www.wbtv.com/2020/10/22/man-arrested-kannapolis-with-van-full-guns-explosives-researched-killing-joe-biden/