Kyle Rittenhouse & Sheepdog Mentality | How Viruses Shape the World | Hurricane Katrina: Man-Made Disaster, and more

If Trump and Biden Agree There Shouldn’t Be a Nuclear Waste Site at Yucca Mountain, Can’t We All? (David Klaus, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Believe it or not, there is an issue on which Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree: Both have announced their opposition to building an underground repository to permanently store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. With the presidential candidates on record, it is time for everyone else to accept that Yucca Mountain is finally off the table, and for the United States to begin to seriously consider realistic alternatives for safely managing the more than 80,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel currently sitting at 72 operating and shut-down commercial nuclear reactor sites across the country.
US policy regarding spent fuel disposal has been hung up for decades on whether to build a repository at Yucca Mountain. The site has been controversial since 1987, when Congress designated it as the future home for high-level radioactive waste – provided, of course, that it meets all technical requirements and is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Thirty-plus years and more than $15 billion later, all technical work to assess the site’s suitability has stopped and the licensing review is dead in the water. The US Congress has refused to appropriate funds to the project for years. And because the government has not met its commitment to begin accepting waste for disposal in 1998, it is forced to pay utilities more than $600 million every year to store their spent fuel on site. Moreover, the most realistic approach for managing the tons of spent fuel—an interim storage facility—is held hostage to progress on Yucca Mountain. Current law requires that the NRC issue a license for Yucca Mountain before a consolidated interim storage could begin to accept spent fuel.
The sooner everyone agrees to pull the plug on Yucca Mountain, the sooner the United States can move forward on consolidated storage for the next 40 to 50 years, since this is likely the amount of time it will take to bring a long-term repository into operation. This will give the government time to find a new site using a consent-based process.

The Fight against Anti-Semitism Faces a New Enemy: QAnon(Jackson Richman, JNS)
Adherents to the conspiracy theory claim that the “liberal elite,” including Democratic politicians and Jewish billionaire George Soros, are part of a secret faction to overthrow the president.

Russian-Backed Organizations Amplify QAnon Conspiracy Theories(Al Jazeera)
Researchers believe the Kremlin is highlighting a conspiracy theory that Trump is battling satanic politicians.

Inside QAnon’s Bizarre Hollywood Invasion—and the Civil War Brewing Within Conspiracy-Land(Tarpley Hitt, Daily Beast)
A number of QAnon conspiracy theorists descended on Hollywood for a rally on Saturday, blindsiding the LAPD and even some of their own members. And the aftermath has been messy.

Confessions of a Trump Troll(Charles Bethea, New Yorker)
“I like chaos. I thrive in it”: a Georgia lawyer with too much time on his hands and ties to the G.O.P. describes how he used twenty fake Twitter accounts to disseminate political disinformation.

Defunding the Police Might Leave Americans More Surveilled and Less Secure(Sushma Raman, Foreign Policy)
Technology in policing might appear more benign than rogue cops or racist judges, but a look at global trends gives pause.

Why Hurricane Katrina Was Not a Natural Disaster(Nicholas Lemann, New Yorker)
Fifteen years ago, New Orleans was nearly destroyed. A new book suggests that the cause was decades of bad policy—and that nothing has changed.

The Broken Algorithm That Poisoned American Transportation(Aaron Gordon, Vice)
For the last 70 years, American transportation planners have been using the same model to decide what to build. There’s just one problem: it’s often wrong.

Young Britons Increasingly Lured by Far-Right, Says Report(National)
The rise in support is among white British men from low income households, according to campaign group HOPE not hate

Right-Wing Extremism and Islamic Extremism Spreads Online in Similar Ways, New Study Says(Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Those crazy memes you keep seeing? Hate groups are using them to attract online recruits into small, intense groups — and beat Facebook’s censors.

UN: Over 10,000 Islamic State Fighters Active in Iraq, Syria(AP)
More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain active in Iraq and Syria two years after the militant group’s defeat, and their attacks have significantly increased this year, the U.N. counter-terrorism chief said Monday. Vladimir Voronkov told the U.N. Security Council that Islamic State fighters move freely “in small cells between the two countries.” He said the Islamic State extremist group — also known as IS, ISIL and ISIS — has regrouped and its activity has increased not only in conflict zones like Iraq and Syria but also in some regional affiliates.

Securing the United States from Online Disinformation—A Whole-of-Society Approach(Steven Bradley, Carnegie Endowment)
Disinformation is disrupting democracies. Yet responses between social media platforms lack formal coordination and investments in counter-disinformation approaches are scarce.

Anatomy of a Photograph: Authoritarianism in America(Errol Morris, The Atlantic)
When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shows up at a peaceful protest in battle fatigues, it’s time to pay attention.

Feds Warn Election Officials of Potentially Malicious “Typosquatting” Websites(Sean Lyngaas, Cyberscoop)
The Department of Homeland Security last week told election officials to be wary of suspicious websites that impersonate federal and state election domains and could be used for phishing or influence operations.
The Aug. 11 bulletin distributed by DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which CyberScoop reviewed, listed roughly 50 suspicious domains that were purporting to offer information related to voting and elections.

How Can We Plan for the Future in California?(Leah C. Stokes, The Atlantic)
The state’s heat waves, blackouts, and fires—amid a pandemic—offer a warning of our fossil-fuel future.

Fox News Editor Thought Their Disastrous Seth Rich Story Would Be ‘Vindicated’(Will Sommer, Daily Beast)
A top editor was convinced their conspiracy theory item would be proven right, weeks after it blew up in the network’s face.

The Conspiracy Theory to Rule Them All(Steven J. Zipperstein (The Atlantic)
What explains the strange, long life of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?

The Next Dangerous Front in ISIS’ Holy War(Philip Obaji Jr., Daily Beast)
Even as the Islamic State wanes in the Middle East, its offshoots are growing stronger and having their deadliest year ever in West and Central Africa.

Coronavirus Crisis Spawned More Scams than any Other Event in the Last Decade(Joseph Marks, Washington Post)
For fraudsters, the coronavirus pandemic has been like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl all rolled into one. 
Holidays and big events have long been a gold mine for those seeking to con people with phony offers and steal their money, credit card information or other personal data. But no event over the last decade – even natural disasters that hackers use to rob people looking to donate to relief efforts – has spawned nearly as many schemes or lasted as long as those related to the coronavirus pandemic. 
The pandemic has prompted more than 170,000 complaints for scams related to everything from masks, face shields and miracle cures to government stimulus payments and unemployment, according to data compiled by the Federal Trade Commission.

U.S. Says Maduro Is Blocking Americans from Leaving Venezuela(Reuters)
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is blocking U.S. citizens in the country from leaving, rebuffing efforts by Washington to arrange humanitarian evacuation flights, a State Department spokeswoman said Thursday. “We have made offers in the past that would allow U.S. citizens to leave, but all were rejected by Maduro and his cronies,” the spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, said in an emailed statement, adding that Washington was looking at all options to ensure the secure return home of U.S. citizens.

Trump Is Openly Pushing Russian Propaganda against Biden(Cody Fenwick, Salon).
It’s happening again. The Muller Investigation report concluded that “[The] investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
Trump is welcoming Russia’s help once again. On Sunday, Trump shared a tweet that included audio that U.S. intelligence has determined to be Russian propaganda.
The AP reported:

By amplifying the recording to his more than 85 million Twitter followers, Trump underscored the ease with which pro-Russian narratives can seep into American public discourse ahead of the 2020 election despite being flagged by intelligence officials as the product of a concerted Russian effort.

Russia has also published disinformation under the guise of legitimate news stories, U.S. officials say, reflecting something of a shift in tactics from 2016, when Russia relied on a social media campaign to sow discord and also orchestrated the release of stolen Democratic emails.

The Kremlin’s Plot against Democracy(Alina Polyakova, Foreign Affairs)

·  “As Putin positions himself to be Russia’s leader for life, undermining faith in democracy writ large is still very much in the Kremlin’s interest. … A big part of the risk is that Russia is no longer the sole danger. The lack of serious retaliation or long-lasting consequences for its behavior has effectively left the door open for others to follow Russia’s lead. To these newcomers, the Kremlin’s 2016 operation against the United States offers a handy step-by-step guide.

·  “Future elections in the United States and other democracies will face an onslaught of disinformation and conspiracy theories emanating not just from Russia but also from China, Iran, Venezuela and beyond. … The Russian playbook has been copied by others, but it has also evolved, in large part thanks to Moscow’s own innovations. After social media companies got better at verifying accounts, for instance, Russia began looking for ways to roll out its campaigns without relying on fake online profiles.” 

·  “A barrage of attacks, combined with the increasingly sophisticated methods used to avoid detection, could leave governments, social media companies and researchers scrambling to catch up. The United States is woefully underprepared for such a scenario, having done little to deter new attacks.

·  It is late, but not too late, to shore up U.S. defenses in time for the November election. The focus should be Russia, given its status as the main originator and innovator of disinformation operations.”

The Trump Campaign Accepted Russian Help to Win in 2016. Case Closed.(The Editorial Board, New York Times)
“Cooperation” or “collusion” or whatever. It was a plot against American democracy.
From the start, the Trump-Russia story has been both eye-glazingly complex and extraordinarily simple.
….
A bipartisan report released Tuesday by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee cuts through the chaff. The simplicity of the scheme has always been staring us in the face: Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign sought and maintained close contacts with Russian government officials who were helping him get elected. The Trump campaign accepted their offers of help. The campaign secretly provided Russian officials with key polling data. The campaign coordinated the timing of the release of stolen information to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The Senate committee’s report isn’t telling this story for the first time, of course. (Was it only a year ago that Robert Mueller testified before Congress about his own damning, comprehensive investigation?) But it is the first to do so with the assent of Senate Republicans, who have mostly ignored the gravity of the Trump camp’s actions or actively worked to cast doubt about the demonstrable facts in the case.
….
It’s also a timely rebuke to the narrative that Attorney General William Barr has been hawking since before he took office early last year — that “Russiagate” is a “bogus” scandal. Mr. Barr and other Trump allies claim that the Russia investigation was begun without basis and carried out with the intent of “sabotaging the presidency.” That argument has been debunked by every investigative body that has spent any time looking into what happened, including the nation’s intelligence community, Mr. Mueller’s team, the Justice Department’s inspector general and now the Senate Intelligence Committee.
….
But call it whatever you like: The Intelligence Committee report shows clear coordination between Russians and the Trump campaign, though there is no evidence of an explicit agreement. The evidence the report lays out suggests Mr. Trump knew this at the time. Whether or not it can be proved that he ordered this interference or violated the law in doing so, the fact remains that neither he nor anyone else in his campaign alerted federal law-enforcement authorities, as any loyal American should have.
….
Russia is now attempting to help Mr. Trump again this November, according to American intelligence assessments reported in The Times. For any normal president, that would be a top-of-mind concern, and he or she would be marshaling all available resources to thwart it. What has Mr. Trump done? On Sunday night, he retweeted Russian propaganda that the U.S. intelligence community had already flagged as part of that country’s efforts to skew the election.

How Viruses Shape the World(Economist)
They don’t just cause pandemics.

Suffering in the Sahel: A Coup in Mali Is Unlikely to Make Matters Better(Economist)
Western countries cannot solve African crises with military support alone.

Homeland Security Testing Lab Wants to Hear about the Best Temperature Screening Tools in the Market(Aaron Boyd, Nextgov)
The tools will be assessed and included on a list of recommended products for federal and local emergency responders and law enforcement.

Trump Cabinet Officials Voted in 2018 White House Meeting to Separate Migrant Children, Say Officials(Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff, NBC News)
“If we don’t enforce this, it is the end of our country as we know it,” said Trump adviser Stephen Miller, according to officials present at a White House meeting.