(2018-12-04). Why the Migrant Caravan Story Is a Climate Change Story. counterpunch.org 
Less than a mile south of the U.S.-Mexico border, in Sasabe, Mexico, a Guatemalan man named Giovanni (whose first name is used to protect his undocumented status) propped up his feet while an EMT applied antibiotic ointment to his feet in the shade of a cottonwood. Giovanni left his home country because of a catastrophic More
(2018-12-04). The Latest Victims in a Dark Story of How Northern Ireland Deals with Its Past. globalresearch.ca In August two Belfast journalists were arrested in dawn raids involving up to 100 police officers for exposing state protection of the perpetrators of a notorious sectarian massacre. This Thursday they will speak at a special screening of their documentary …
(2018-12-04). Climate Crisis Made Worse by "Presidential Mis-Leadership": Protecting Big Oil, From Bush-Cheney, Obama to Trump. globalresearch.ca Barack Obama, speaking to the Baker Institute, made sure the audience of wealthy Texans, many in the oil business, gave him credit for making the United States a world leader for oil and gas production. He said, "American …
(2018-12-04). On Climate Change. zcomm.org The bold moral leadership of newly elected members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has me feeling more optimistic about our collective chances of averting climate breakdown than I have in years…
(2018-12-04). Sorry To Bother You offers rich lessons in seeking radical social change. greenleft.org.au 
Sorry to Bother You
| Written & directed by Boots Riley
| In cinemas now | This review includes mild spoilers. | As an Australian living abroad, incidents of Australians being racist and/or misogynistisic that attract attention from international media outlets are frequently forwarded to me in anticipation of a seething refrain. | My response is typically motivated by a mix of rage and embarrassment, as well as a deep concern for how racial capitalism has been almost completely normalised. I am deeply concerned by the fact that not only is our social and political climate ill-equipped to address racism, i…
(2018-12-04). Showing Up for Racial Justice in Oakland. indybay.org On November 25 after a few migrants tried to breach a fence between the U.S. and Mexico, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency fired tear gas and shot rubber bullets across the border. On December 1 protesters reacted to this injustice in front of the Grand Lake Theater. | Photos by Charlie Moehle. Please credit the photographer.
(2018-12-04). Australian school kids stood against the climate apathy of their adult leaders. indybay.org I still have goosebumps. 15,000 kids. 8 capital cities. 20 regional towns. Last week, kids across Australia made headlines across the world, taking to the streets to demand action on climate change. They walked out from school to protect their future. To stand against the climate apathy of their adult leaders. To rally against the politicians deliberately destroying their future for their own short-term self-protection. To fight for a better world.
(2018-12-04). Santa Cruz City Council Special Meeting: Renter Protections. indybay.org City Hall: 809 Center St, Santa Cruz…
(2018-12-03). LIVE: Solving Our Climate Crisis, a National Town Hall. thenation.com 
pm | today for a town-hall event featuring Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Shailene Woodley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and more! | The post LIVE: Solving Our Climate Crisis, a National Town Hall…
(2018-12-03). U.N. Chief Issues Dramatic Climate Appeal to World Leaders. truthdig.com KATOWICE, Poland — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the climate summit in Poland by issuing a dramatic appeal to world leaders Monday to take seriously the threat of global warming and act boldly to avert a catastrophic rise in temperatures before the end of the century. | Guterres named climate change as "the most important issue we face." | "Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption," Guterres told representatives from almost 200 countries ga…
(2018-12-03). Climate Jobs for All. counterpunch.org Building Block for the Green New Deal It was an iconic moment: Young people occupy Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office demanding a Green New Deal to put millions of people to work making a climate-safe economy — when suddenly newly-elected Congressional representative and overnight media star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins them with a resolutionin hand to establish a More
(2018-12-03). Want the Youth Vote in 2020? Champion the Green New Deal Now. thenation.com 
This is just the beginning—a generation of climate voters is ready to engage with every part of the democratic process to confront this crisis. | The post Want the Youth Vote in 2020? Champion the Green New Deal Now.
(2018-12-03). Jonathan Franzen's Birdbrain Climate Pessimism. thenation.com Jonathan Franzen's Birdbrain Climate Pessimism…
(2018-12-03). In the Face of Extinction, We Have a Moral Obligation. truthout.org Researching and writing about the impacts of runaway climate change, as I've been doing now for too many years, I've watched several patterns recur. | One of these is evident in a recent warning from the UN. Biodiversity chief of the UN Cristiana Pa»ôca Palmer warned that if governments around the globe don't work to bring a halt to the loss of biodiversity and succeed in implementing a plan to do so within two years, humans could face our own extinction. | Palmer said, according to
(2018-12-03). NSW law will 'lead to a new stolen generation'. greenleft.org.au 
Another stolen generation appears certain to be created in NSW, after the Coalition government passed a new adoption law making it easier for a child to be adopted by a foster family without parental consent. | The new adoption law, Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment Bill, passed on November 22 despite fierce opposition, imposes a two-year limit on fostering a child. The Children's Court now has the power to decide whether a birth parent should be rei…
(2018-12-03). US Military Contractor Posts Job Offering for "Classified Contingency Operations" in Ukraine. theantimedia.com 
(ZHE Op-ed) — The geopolitical analysis site SouthFront has unearthed from the pages of LinkedIn an incredible public job offering by a US defense contractor which reveals potentially sensitive information. The job posting mentions "classified Contingency Operations" in Ukraine and was posted a mere 15 days ago — just prior to last Sunday's incident between the Russian and Ukrainian navies in the Kerch Strait. Writes SouthFront, the US-based …
(2018-12-03). Video: Naomi Klein Interviews Bernie Sanders on Climate Change. theintercept.com The bold moral leadership of newly elected members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has me feeling more optimistic about our collective chances of averting climate breakdown than I have in years. But a whole lot of things need to happen very quickly if the political tide is going to shift in time — including finding new ways to engage the public in this fight. In this hopeful moment, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the few politicians who has consistently focused on this issue — Sen. Bernie…
(2018-12-02). Debunking the Times on Bush I:s foreign policy record. zcomm.org Below is a list of the most blatant pieces of deception concerning George H.W. Bush's foreign policy record, reported in Adam Nagourney's commemorative NYT piece. Nagourney writes that "Environmental groups praised Mr. Bush's record on climate change and the environment. As president, he signed the United States to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Read more…
(2018-12-02). Just like a real riot: US border cops stage massive readiness drills (VIDEO). rt.com 
Dozens of US Customs and Border Protection officers in full riot gear have been marching, running and tossing fake tear gas amid loud bangs, as they trained to repel illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.
(2018-12-01). Eight new books for ecosocialists. greenleft.org.au 
Climate and Capitalism editor Ian Angus offers up eight new books as recommended reading for ecosocialists. Inclusion does not imply agreement with a book's contents. | ***
1. The Biofuels Deception: Going Hungry on the Green Carbon Diet
| By Okbazghi Yohannes
| Monthly Review Press, 2018 | Eliminating fossil fuels is essential, but biofuels have far more to do with sating profit-hungry corporations than saving the Earth. Combining meticulous scientific narrative with devastating economic analy…
(2018-12-01). A true people's artist. greenleft.org.au 
Rock & Roll Harbour
| Exhibition by The Shop Gallery
| 112 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
| Thurs January 3 — Wed Jan 9 | Peter Gow is the people's artist. | His ouvre is driven by his down-to-earth, inner-city environment such as boathouses and the heritage-listed Sydney Harbour Bridge in various attitudes, all of which feature prominently in this exhibition. | Gow is a qualified electrician and builder as well, very handy for making the frames in his spare time that embrace his art. | His deep, rich, contrasting colours leap from his palette onto the canvas. His short brush strokes create a palindrom…
(2018-11-30). In Major Threat to Due Process, Marsy's Law Gains Ground Nationwide. aclu.org A growing movement wants to amend the US Constitution and weaken its due process protections in its ill-advised pursuit of victims' rights. | Alongside the major criminal justice reform headlines that came out of the midterm elections, a quieter trend also gained momentum through the ballot box: a budding, national threat to due process and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. | On Nov. 6, six states adopted, through ballot initiatives, what is known as "Marsy's Law," which e…
(2018-11-30). Massive Class Action Launched Against Canada's Trudeau Government for Failure to Address Climate Crisis. therealnews.com 
Catherine Gauthier of ENvironnement JEUnesse says Justin Trudeau's government has failed to take meaningful action on climate change
(2018-11-30). Climate justice clashes with an increasingly intolerant Poland. amnesty.org This weekend world leaders arrive in the Polish city of Katowice for the COP24 climate summit, where they will set out plans for implementing the Paris Climate Agreement. Over the course of two weeks governments are expected to make decisions which could move us closer to limiting global warming to 1.5 ∞C above pre-industrial levels. Failure to achieve this would have serious consequences and crossing this threshold by even half a degree will trigger catastrophic and unprecedented climate-related events. |
(2018-11-30). WA Labor opens the gate to fracking. greenleft.org.au 
The Western Australian Labor government announced it is opening up 5.2 million hectares — an area roughly the size of 75% of Tasmania — to potential fracking operations on November 27. | The decision follows advice from an inquiry carried out by the WA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that said fracking in the Kimberley, Mid-West and Gascoyne regions would not pose a serious threat to people, agriculture or the environment. | Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a dangerous process that involves fracturing rock with pressurised liquid to mine unconventional gas. | Prior to last year's state ele…
(2018-11-30). New maps of land destruction show why people flee Central America. greenleft.org.au 
A new map developed at the University of Cincinnati illustrates one motivating force behind migrant caravans leaving Guatemala and Honduras to reach the United States. | UC geography professor Tomasz Stepinski has turned high-resolution satellite images from the European Space Agency into one of the most detailed looks so far at how people are reshaping the planet. | Stepinski said: "Right now there are caravans of people walking to the United States. Many of them are coming from Guatemala." | News agencies such as The Guardian have called some of the Central American migrants "climate-change refugees" since many…
(2018-11-30). US condemned for tear-gassing refugees, children. greenleft.org.au 
Legal experts and human rights advocates have denounced the tear gassing of children and other asylum seekers by US forces at the Mexico border on November 25. | "The migrants at our southern border include mothers and small children exercising their legal, human right to seek asylum," declared the ACLU in a tweet on November 26. It told the US Customs and Border Protection agency: "Tear gassing children is out…
(2018-11-30). "No Deal" Brexit predictions, GDP, average incomes, austerity and the CLIMATE CRISIS. zcomm.org If Bill Gates walks into a room full of factory workers then the average income of everybody in the room skyrockets. It would skyrocket even if everybody else in the room were going bankrupt as Gates entered. Similarly, the average income of the people in the room would plummet as Gates walked out the door even Read more…
(2018-11-29). An Excerpt from Green Earth. mronline.org 
Kim Stanley Robinson describes himself as "a patriot of the genre" of science fiction, writing at the intersection of science and politics for over three decades. His work is striking for its warmth and realism. | Source
(2018-11-29). George Monbiot: Ending Meat & Dairy Consumption Is Needed to Prevent Worst Impacts of Climate Change. democracynow.org 
We look at the link between climate change and meat consumption on the heels of a series of damning reports that say if humans don't act now to halt climate change, the results will be catastrophic. A new study by the World Meteorological Organization shows the past four years have been the hottest on record. On Tuesday, the United Nations reported that carbon emissions reached record highs in 2017 and are on the rise for the first time in four years. Radical reductions are necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, the level that would prevent the worst effects of catastrophic climate change. Livestock fo…
(2018-11-29). DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers in Their Own Land. thenation.com DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers in Their Own Land…
(2018-11-29). In Foreign Policy Speech, Elizabeth Warren Takes Aim at Global Corruption. theintercept.com In a 35-minute speech on Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., laid out a foreign policy vision, linking corruption to the global rise in authoritarianism and calling for U.S. engagement that aggressively fights climate change and corporate power. | Warren, a leading expert on bankruptcy law whose work led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before being elected senator in 2012, is a favorite of many progressives. In 2016, she joined the Senate Armed Services Committee and last year traveled to Afghanistan — signs to many that she was burnishing her foreign policy credentials in…
(2018-11-28). Headlines for November 28, 2018. democracynow.org U.N. Report Warns World Falling Far Behind on Paris Climate Goals, Mexico Agrees to U.S. Demand to Hold Asylum Seekers While Claims Are Decided, Trump Administration Defends Tear Gas Use at U.S.-Mexico Border, Border Patrol Fired Tear Gas Dozens of Times Under President Obama, U.S. Waived Background Checks for Staff at Jail for Migrant Children, Mississippi: GOP's Cindy Hyde-Smith, Who Posed as Confederate Soldier, Wins Senate Seat, Ukraine's President Warns of "Full-Fledged War" with Russia, Trump "Not Even a Little Bit Happy" with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Trump Says "We're Not Necessarily Such Believers" in Cli…
(2018-11-28). How Tear Gas Became a Favorite Weapon of U.S. Border Patrol, Despite Being Banned In Warfare. democracynow.org 
As the Trump administration continues to defend firing tear gas into crowds of asylum seekers, we look at the history of tear gas, which is banned in warfare but legal for federal authorities and police to turn on civilians. Border authorities' use of tear gas has spiked under the Trump administration, with the agency's own data revealing it has deployed tear gas over two dozen times this year alone. Customs and Border Protection told Newsweek Tuesday it began using tear gas under the Obama administration in 2010. The agency's use of tear gas has now reached a seven-year record high. We speak with Stuart Schrader…
(2018-11-28). 'Republicans Just Don't Want All the Votes to Count' – CounterSpin interview with Ari Berman on 2018 voter suppression. fair.org 
Janine Jackson interviewed Ari Berman about 2018 voter suppression for the November 16, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…
(2018-11-28). How Trump Weaponized the Government's Refugee Resettlement Agency. aclu.org The Office of Refugee Resettlement was supposed to protect vulnerable immigrant children. Now it's an arm of Trump's deportation force. | Back in April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both under the Department of Homeland Security, entered into a memorandum of agreement with an obscure government agency known as the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The office, known by its initials ORR, had traditionally served vulnerable immigrant youth coming to the United States without an adult. The agency took custody of those c…
(2018-11-28). NAACP Statement on Recent Criminal Justice Reform Compromise Introduced in Senate. naacp.org NAACP released the following statement in support of the Crimianl Justice Reform Compromise: Our American criminal justice system is broken. Sentencing is disproportionately weighted against African Americans, and the current political climate continues to devalue black lives by reviving the same failed policies of the war on drugs that fueled mass incarceration," said NAACP President […]
(2018-11-27). Headlines for November 27, 2018. democracynow.org Trump Defends Tear Gassing of Migrants, Blames Parents and "Grabbers", GM To Cut 15,000 Jobs Across North America, Trump Denies Findings of National Climate Report, Turkey Searches Saudi-Owned Villas for Jamal Khashoggi's Body, Saudi Crown Prince May Meet with Erdogan as G20 Host Argentina Mulls Criminal Charges, Report: Kushner Urged Administration to Inflate Saudi Arms Deals, CNN: U.S. "Slams Brakes" on U.N. Yemen Ceasefire Resolution, Afghanistan: IED Kills 3 U.S. Soldiers, Ukraine Declares Martial Law over Russian Naval Attack, Mueller Says Paul Manafort Lied in Russia Inquiry After Plea Deal, Rep. Mia Love B…
(2018-11-27). How a Climate Change-Fueled Drought & U.S.-Fed Violence Are Driving Thousands from Central America. democracynow.org 
President Trump is urging Mexico to deport the thousands of Central American migrants who are at or approaching the U.S. border in an attempt to seek asylum, days after U.S. border authorities fired tear gas into a crowd of asylum seekers as some tried to push their way through the heavily militarized border near San Diego. Trump tweeted, "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!" T…
(2018-11-26). Trump Admin Tries to Bury 1,656-Page Climate Report Warning of Devastating Health Impacts of Warming. democracynow.org 
The White House released an alarming climate change report on Black Friday, attempting to bury a 1,656-page government assessment that directly contradicts President Trump's history of climate change denial. The damning report, known as the National Climate Assessment, says that the consequences of climate change will leave no part of the U.S. untouched and that the warming climate will increase wildfires, crumble infrastructure, worsen air quality, destroy crops and lead to more frequent disease outbreaks. It also finds that global warming could shrink the U.S. economy by as much as 10 percent by the end of the…
(2018-11-26). Bill McKibben: New Report Reconfirms Climate Change is Shrinking Inhabitable Parts of the Planet. democracynow.org 
On the heels of yet another alarming climate change report—this time released by a White House that openly denies global warming—we speak with 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and public health scholar Kristie Ebi about President Trump's environmental policies, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal and what it will take to fight the growing threat of climate change.
(2018-11-22). Elected Constituent Assembly in Venezuela provoked International Outrage, not the illegal handpicked one in Ecuador. zcomm.org "CONAIE and CREO direct the new National Electoral Council" announces a headline yesterday in the rightwing Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo. CONAIE is a self-declared "left" federation representing indigenous peoples in Ecuador. CREO is the party of the "defeated" right wing presidential candidate in 2017. I put "defeated" in quotes because CREO's electoral defeat — which they stupidly Read more…
(2018-11-05). Maduro: Venezuela Sitting on 2nd Biggest Gold Reserve on Earth. venezuelanalysis.com President Nicolas Maduro described the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela as "crazy" and "criminal."
(2018-10-18). Nuclear Power & Climate. zcomm.org The great environmental challenge of our time is to understand that the many sources of biodestruction are interconnected and must be confronted simultaneously, rather than disparaging one danger to focus on another…