Morning Reads: Facebook Folds Under Putin Pressure; Ape Wins Landmark Case

Good morning — and Happy Festivus! Make sure to air all of your grievances…

Corporate social media –> Amar Toor reports for The Verge that “Facebook has blocked a page calling for a protest in support of a prominent opposition leader in Russia, apparently at the request of Vladimir Putin’s government.”

Cooking the books –> Earlier this month, we warned that the GOP was likely to try to change the way Congressional Budget Office calculates the cost of legislation in such a way that the budgetary impacts of tax cuts are hidden from the public. Now, Daniel Strauss reports for TPM that the GOP-controlled Congress is dumping the agency’s respected director, Doug Elmendorf, to pave the way.

Big difference –> Heather “Digby” Parton compares and contrasts the reactions to the assassination of two NYPD officers over the weekend to the ambush killings of two Las Vegas police at the hands of right-wing extremists who had been active at the Bundy Ranch standoff. She writes that, unlike today, with politicians and media blaming the murders on people protesting police shootings, “they pretty much blandly reported [the Vegas shootings] without any context or commentary.” AND: According to Gawker, a Fox News affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland, selectively edited video of a group of protesters chanting, “We won’t stop… ’til killer cops are in cell blocks!” so it sounds like they were screaming, “We won’t stop…So kill a cop!”

“This is compelled speech” –> A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down a North Carolina law that requires women seeking an abortion to view ultrasound images of the fetus and undergo a mandatory lecture. Jessica Mason Pieklo has the details at RH Reality Check.

“A conservative institution’s uneasy social revolution” –> At Military Times, Stephen Losey writes that while Obama is “a deeply unpopular” president, he has forced a series of profound changes to longstanding military traditions and, as such, “is etching a deep imprint on the culture inside the armed forces.”

Marijuana causes confusion –> The DOJ said last week that it will treat American Indian tribal lands the same way that it does states that have legalized recreational marijuana, paving the way for tribes to grow and sell marijuana. But Julie Bykowicz reports for Bloomberg that the move has a number of tribes confused, saying that growing pot is a right they didn’t ask for and weren’t consulted about before the announcement.

Revenge? –> Nobody knows who the culprit is — or even if there is a culprit — but North Korea’s already sketchy InterNet appeared to suffer an unprecedented, ten-hour cyber-attack yesterday. The US State Department issued “a coy non-denial.” Cecilia Kang, Drew Harwell and Brian Fung have the story at the WaPo.

Revenge –> In the week since the Taliban sent shockwaves across the country with a brutal massacre of schoolchildren, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty and hanged six alleged militants. Masroor Gilani reports for AFP that in the coming months officials promise another 500 executions.

Ready for Warren –> BuzzFeed’s Ruby Cramer looks at the “sprawling, complicated draft effort that could define the progressive movement — and prove rewarding or risky for [Elizabeth] Warren.”

Can Jeb pull off a Romney? –> Patrick O’Connor and Beth Reinhard report for WSJ that Jeb Bush’s cozy relationships with key GOP funders could threaten “years of painstaking spadework by other Republicans who have cultivated many of the wealthy donors loyal to the former Florida governor’s family.” In 2012, Mitt Romney won the “money primary” long before cementing the GOP nomination, making other candidates’ fundraising efforts more difficult.

They’re (almost) people too –> In what’s being hailed by animal rights activists as a landmark decision, a court in Argentina ruled that an orangutan named Sandra is a “non-human individual” who is “deserving of some basic rights.” Among them, is the freedom to not be locked up in a Buenos Aires zoo. Joshua Barajas has that story at the PBS News Hour’s blog.

R.I.P. –> Legendary British rock singer Joe Cocker, 70, died on Monday at his Colorado home. Cocker was fighting lung cancer. The NYT has an obit by Ben Sisario. And below is arguably his most famous moment, covering the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” at Woodstock in 1969…