(2018-08-29). Chile OK's Decontamination Plan after 300 Poisoned by Toxins. telesurtv.net Quintero and Puchuncavi remain on yellow alert after high levels of toxicity were registered and some 300 people poisoned.
(2018-08-29). Brown's Last Chance activists arrested at State Capitol – photo essay. indybay.org 17-year-old Nalleli Cobo, a Los Angeles resident who was sickened by toxic emissions from the oil drilling site, AllenCo., near her home, said the Governor has it in his power to issue an executive order to protect communities from oil extraction that state scientists identified as being toxic in 2015.
(2018-08-29). Disney stands by firing of James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy. wsws.org The Walt Disney company has remained firm in its decision to dismiss director James Gunn over tweets unearthed by right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich.
(2018-08-29). Fundraiser for a Lakota Elder's Roof 6-25-2018. indybay.org The event was held at the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz California on Saturday, August 25 from 5 PM to 8 PM. and hosted by Romero Institute, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Lakota People's Law Project…
(2018-08-28). 'Not in Our Name': Tribal voices in defense of grizzly. peoplesworld.org 
Over the past two years, hundreds of Tribal Nations across North America have come together to oppose removal of Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region, and to fight trophy hunting. The grizzly bear is integral to Tribal Nations' religious and cultural practices. " The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization and Restoration" is the most-signed treaty in history, and calls for grizzlies to be restored to biologically-suitable habitat on Tribal lands in the grizzly's historic range, rather than senselessly hunted for trophies. | Since September 23, 2016, some 170 Tribal Nations have signed this document of inter-tribal solidarity, only the third of its kind in 150-years. In terms of representation, with leaders from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), it translates to over 700 Tribal Nations.
(2018-08-28). Trump Administration Helped Banks Rip Off Student Borrowers, Official Alleges. truthout.org The Trump administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) suppressed a report with "new evidence" that some of the nation's largest banks were saddling students "with legally dubious account fees," according to the bureau's outgoing ombudsman for student loans. | The ombudsman, Seth Frotman, made this allegation as part of a broad critique included in his resignation letter, which he sent to director Mick Mulvaney on August 27. The bureau has "turned its back on young people and their financial futures" while "protecting bad actors" in the lending business, the letter alleges. | "You have used the bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America," Frotman wrote, addressing Mulvaney. "The damage you have done to the bureau betrays these families and sacrifices the financial futures of millions of Americans in communities across the country."
(2018-08-28). These 16 States Are Urging the Supreme Court to Rule They Can Fire People Just for Being LGBT. alternet.org 
An amicus brief filed last week claims that under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "sex" only means assignment at birth or biological sex. | From Maine to Texas 16 states across America are asking the U. S. Supreme Court to rule that firing someone for being LGBT is perfectly legal. The states, mostly represente. . .
(2018-08-28). Contrary to the NYT, the Next Financial Crisis is Not Just Around the Corner. counterpunch.org The NYT had a major editorial arguing against the rush by Republicans (and some Democrats) to selectively deregulate the financial sector. (It is important to note that the industry doesn't want to eliminate government protections that benefit it, like deposit insurance or the Fed's support in a crisis.) The gist of the piece is that More
(2018-08-28). China and the Planetary Environment, Climate Change. globalresearch.ca During its 5,000 years in existence as a nation, China has created a cultural and technological legacy of global significance. Within the past century alone, China valiantly resisted and overcame the …
(2018-08-28). Will John McCain Be the Last Republican Leader in the Senate to Address the Reality of Climate Change? alternet.org 
McCain, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman were the first to bring climate legislation that aimed to reduce emissions. | "He was just doing his job. "When I asked a longtime staffer to Sen. John McCain why the senator battled to address climate change in the early 2000s, that was his answer. A simple answer, but one essential to understanding how McCain led those early efforts to combat the challenge when no one else would ste. . .
(2018-08-28). Corporate Food Brands Drive the Massive Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. truthout.org 
Whole Foods bills itself as "America's healthiest grocery store," but what it's doing to the environment is anything but healthy. According to a new report, the chain is helping to drive one of the nation's worst human-made environmental disasters: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. | By not requiring environmental safeguards from its meat suppliers, the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket — and most of its big-brand counterparts in the retail food industry, like McDonald's, Subway and Target — are sourcing and selling meat from some of the worst polluters in agribusiness, including Tyson Foods and Cargill. The animal waste and fertilizer runoff from their industrial farms end up in the Gulf of Mexico, where each summer, a growing marine wasteland spreads for thousands of miles, leaving countless dead wildlife in its oxygen-depleted wake. | "The major…
(2018-08-28). The Sun Does Not Revolve Around the US. consortiumnews.com While visiting Galileo's house in Florence, Jean Ranc reflected on how America thinks the world revolves around it, as it was once falsely thought the sun revolves around the earth. By Jean Ranc Special to Consortium News On a sunny… Read more →
(2018-08-28). Rouhani Asks Europe For Guarantees On Banking Channels And Oil Sales. iranian.com Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday urged the remaining signatories to it's 2015 nuclear agreement to act to save the pact, although France's leader called again for broader talks on Tehran's missile program and its role in the Middle East region, Reuters reports. In a phone call to French President Emmanuel Macron, Rouhani said Iran wanted the […]
(2018-08-28). "Sorry to Bother You" Exposes the Danger of Bourgeois Integration. truthout.org "Who uses a 'white voice' at work?" I asked my students at the college. The class was on Black Literature and nearly every Black, Latinx and Asian, raised their hands. Even a white male did too. We curiously eyed him as he turned and said, "It's complicated." Everyone laughed. An older Black man confessed, "I put it on extra thick, so when they come to the store, they're shocked." | Talking "white" is an old skill for people of color. It is part of a whiteface tradition that is a survival mechanism and a theme in Black Art. Whiteface is in slave narratives, comedy and has been updated by Hollywood in the films Sorry to Bother You and BlacKKKlansman. Of the two, it is Sorry to Bother You (warning: spoilers ahead) that sets whiteface as part of a bourgeois, racial integration project that…
(2018-08-28). Are the US and Israel Behind the Fresh Chaos in Libya's Capital? mintpressnews.com Trump claimed last year that he would seek to establish a permanent military presence in Libya aimed at "uniting" the country under a single government, a government that would most likely have rival leader Khalifa Haftar at the helm, given his control over most of Libya's oil fields.
(2018-08-28). Confusion Looms As Iran Claims Control Over Strait Of Hormuz. iranian.com A Reuters headline early Monday sparked fears that Iran could be in control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf through which about one-third of the global supply of oil passes. Reuters reported in its story headline, Iran says it has full control of Gulf and U.S. navy does not belong there, while citing the head of […]
(2018-08-27). Why Kyrie Irving's Connection to the Standing Rock Sioux Matters. thenation.com Why Kyrie Irving's Connection to the Standing Rock Sioux Matters appeared first on The Nation.
(2018-08-27). Publicly Subsidized Climate Change Insurance for Big Oil. counterpunch.org "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow My 14 August 2018 article, "Climate Change Bites Big Business", described the now evident large financial impacts on Big Business caused by climate change, for example: + the bankrupting-level liabilities to one California electric utility company (PG&E) for causing massive wildfires in More
(2018-08-27). One Dead McCain, 2.5 Million Dead Iraqis. counterpunch.org 
The grossest thing in American society is the reactionary sentimentality that fill our gossip infected hearts with a chemical reaction every time one of our supposed war heroes moves on to a more peaceful place. The carefully rehearsed statements from useless political figures numb our minds as all those who are sane must collectively wonder what on earth has a fusty bag of bones like John McCain ever done for us? More
(2018-08-26). Children Separated Under Trump's "Zero Tolerance" Policy Say Their Trauma Continues. theintercept.com 
On August 9, several reporters took a government-led tour through America's largest detention facility for immigrant parents and their children: the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Sprawling over 50 acres of a repurposed oil field workers' camp, Dilley, as the center is colloquially known, has room for 2,400 detainees. It currently holds about 1,500 people — all mothers and their children, including babies. | No interviews with the detainees were allowed, so reporters were left to record random sounds and observations: phalanxes of baby strollers, a salad bar in the cafeteria, and, as the Wall Street Journal noted, "a speaker blasting a Jimmy Buffett song." But The Intercept has been in contact with some of the occupants of Dilley by phone — many of them children — and the circumstances they're enduring are decidedly less sanguine than Buffett's tunes.
(2018-08-25). How a DuPont Spinoff Lobbied the EPA to Stave Off the Use of Environmentally Friendly Coolants. theintercept.com 
Chemours asks in letter to the EPA for help promoting its HFO refrigerants, to stave off natural coolants that cause far less global warming.
(2018-08-25). Earth, fire & water: NASA maps atmospheric aerosols in psychedelic image. rt.com 
A new NASA image outlining the various types of aerosols in the air shows that we may be getting more than we bargained for with every intake of breath.
(2018-08-24). Some Call It Forest Management, I Call It Racketeering. counterpunch.org 
When government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management produce the danger, the propaganda hyping the danger, and the protection against it at a price, that's racketeering. The definition of a racketeer is someone who creates a threat and then charges for its reduction. War is just a racket. A racket More
(2018-08-24). Foreign Correspondent: What Has Fifteen Years of U.S. Occupation Produced? Angry Iraqis. progressive.org As militant protests roil the city of Basra in Iraq, two summer films give a fuller sense of what U.S. occupation there has wrought.
(2018-08-24). Egotopia. counterpunch.org 
Imagine Milton Friedman and Robinson Crusoe together, reminiscing about Burning Man, on a remodeled off-shore oil rig. Like the image? Welcome to seasteading. The latest in a long line of libertarian exit strategists, seasteaders aim to create self-governed, private floating platforms on the ocean. In an era of Silicon Valley excess, techno-libertarian optimism, and mainstream More
(2018-08-24). Abandoned KFC served as front for drug-smuggling tunnel from Mexico to Arizona (VIDEO). rt.com 
US federal authorities have unearthed a secret drug-smuggling tunnel that stretched from a house in Mexico to an abandoned KFC restaurant in the state of Arizona.
(2018-08-22). Trump Administration Admits 1,400+ More People Will Die Each Year Following Coal Plant Deregulation. democracynow.org 
President Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night in West Virginia to announce a massive rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. Trump's "Affordable Clean Energy" proposal would allow individual states to decide whether to curb emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency's own data shows the plan could cause up to 1,400 more premature deaths a year by 2030. The Washington Post reports the deregulation would also lead to the release of at least 12 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the next decade.
(2018-08-22). Large Earthquake Off Northern Venezuelan Coast. venezuelanalysis.com According to the Venezuelan Foundation of Seismological Research, the quake registered at 6.9 on the Richter Scale and left parts of Trinidad and Tobago without electricity.
(2018-08-21). Headlines for August 21, 2018. democracynow.org In Historic Letter, Pope Condemns Catholic Church Sex Abuse and Cover-Up, Trump to Announce Massive Rollback of Obama-Era Coal Regulations, In Racist Comment, Trump Says Hispanic Border Agent "Speaks Perfect English", Taliban Fires Rockets at Afghan Presidential Palace, India: Death Toll Rises to 400 in Kerala's Historic Flooding, French Oil Company Total Withdraws from Iran in Wake of U.S. Sanctions, Microsoft: Russian Hackers Targeting Conservative Think Tanks, Michigan Health Director Faces Involuntary Manslaughter Trial over Flint Water Crisis, NYT: #MeToo Leader Asia Argento Paid Off Her Sexual Assault Accus…
(2018-08-20). As Trump Favors Asbestos, People Die. progressive.org Donald Trump has been rolling back protections against exposure to asbestos, which kills an estimated 15,000 people each year in the United States alone.
(2018-08-16). Headlines for August 16, 2018. democracynow.org Violence Roils Afghanistan as Taliban Cracks Down on Red Cross, Trump Revokes Security Clearance of Ex-CIA Director, a Major Critic, Security Clearance Flap Comes Amid Mounting White House Scandals, Trump's Lawyer Prepared to "Unload" on Mueller "Like a Ton of Bricks", Hundreds of Media Outlets Condemn Trump's Attacks on the Free Press, Turkish Court Releases Jailed Amnesty International Chair, Brazil: Lula Registers from Prison as Presidential Candidate, Malta Allows Migrant Ship to Dock After 5 Days Stranded at Sea, ACLU Says ICE "Trapped" Immigrant Spouses at Green Card Interviews, CDC Says Record 72,000 Ameri…
(2018-08-14). What the 'Sensible Middle' Doesn't Get About Education. progressive.org There is no middle between facts and the story that the earth is flat.
(2018-08-05). Venezuela's President Maduro Survives Assassination Attack On Live TV. venezuelanalysis.com Six arrests have already been made in the dramatic foiled terrorist attack.
(2018-08-04). Fighting for a Way of Life in the Arctic. progressive.org The coastal plain, opened for oil drilling by the Trump Administration, is the birthplace and nursery for the Porcupine caribou herd, and land that the Gwich'in call, "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins."
(2018-07-26). Venezuela: Maduro Announces Economic Reforms Including Monetary Reconversion, Tax Breaks & Currency Control Changes. venezuelanalysis.com The measures also transfer an entire oilfield from PDVSA to the Central Bank.
(2018-07-20). Glimmers of Economic Recovery amid Mixed Reports about Venezuelan Oil Production. venezuelanalysis.com Lower levels of oil production have been reportedly offset by rising prices and reduced domestic consumption.
(2018-07-20). Trump Admin Closes Venezuela Sanctions Loophole in Favour of US Bondholders. venezuelanalysis.com The measure opens the way for seizures of Venezuela's US-based oil assets should the Maduro government default on PDVSA bond payments.