EPA Criminal Action Against Polluters Hits 30-Year Low
STAFF | truthdig.com | 2019-01-15
WASHINGTON–The Environmental Protection Agency hit a 30-year low in 2018 in the number of pollution cases it referred for criminal prosecution, Justice Department data show. | The EPA said in a statement that it is directing "its resources to the most significant and impactful cases." | But the 166 cases referred for prosecution in the last fiscal year is the lowest number since 1988, when Ronald Reagan was president and 151 cases were referred, according to Justice Department data obtained by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility advocacy group and released Tuesday. | "You don't g…
truthdig.com/articles/epa-criminal-action-against-polluters-hits-30-year-low/

To Those Who Think We Can Reform Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis
Ben Ehrenreich | thenation.com | 2019-01-15
To Those Who Think We Can Reform Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis…
thenation.com/article/climate-change-fossil-fuel-capitalism-divorce/

Love in a Cold War Climate
Jonah Raskin | counterpunch.org | 2019-01-15
It's not a Hollywood movie. That's clear from the start. Cold War (2018), the feature film made by the Polish-born director, Pawel Pawlikowski, is in black-and-white. The characters have names like Wiktor, Kaczmarek and Mazurek, and the actors include Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot and Borys Szyc to give just a few from a large cast of characters.
counterpunch.org/2019/01/15/love-in-a-cold-war-climate/

200 Indigenous Mexicans Violently Forced out of Vacant Lot
teleSUR | telesurenglish.net | 2019-01-15
A rights group denounced the eviction of more than 200 displaced indigenous people from an empty lot in the municipality of Tlapa, Mexico, by a legal representative of the owner's property. | RELATED: | Mexico: Indigenous Chol Community Denounces Eviction Attempt | Constancio Sanchez Campos, the legal representative, showed up with two bulldozers and threa…
telesurenglish.net/news/200-Indigenous-Mexicans-Violently-Forced-out-of-Vacant-Lot-20190115-0006.html

Markets as a Fetish, Globalization and Dissent Management
Joachim Hirsch, Rainer Mausfeld, and W Raza | indybay.org | 2019-01-15
Economic inequality must be reduced and democratic participation regained. Resisting tax avoidance, financial market regulation, climate policy, and globally combating poverty must be priorities. Unlike apples and bananas, financial products are not visible but hidden. Rainer Mausfeld explains how emancipative needs for change are neutralized. Opinion management is a vital technique of control.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/01/14/18820362.php

A Farewell to Glaciers, Coral Reefs and Rainforests
Shared by Merula Furtado | truthout.org | 2019-01-15
Dahr Jamail, staff writer at Truthout, has been writing about the global emergency of climate change for nearly a decade. In his new book, The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Destruction, which is being released today, Jamail shares his firsthand accounts of returning to beloved spaces in the natural world. He observes the drastic ways in which they've been destroyed due to humanity's relentless burning of fossil fuels, and mourns over how many of them are unlikely to recover over the duration of human existence. | Anton Woronczuk: In bearing witness to the destruction of…
truthout.org/articles/a-farewell-to-glaciers-coral-reefs-and-rainforests/

As Senate Hearings Begin, Calls to Block 'Trump Enabler' William Barr From Becoming Next AG
Jake Johnson, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-01-15
"Barr may be the kind of enabler Trump desires to further skirt Congress and, through emergency decree or executive action, fund a border wall, continue to gut asylum protections, and keep rounding up, detaining, and deporting tens of thousands of migrants." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/william_barr_0.jpg…
commondreams.org/news/2019/01/15/senate-hearings-begin-calls-block-trump-enabler-william-barr-becoming-next-ag?cd-origin=rss

California Needs a 10-Year Green New Deal
Julia Stein | counterpunch.org | 2019-01-14
As global warming makes California warmer and drier, its wildfires worsen and more people have died. California has the biggest economy in the United States and now has the 5th largest economy in the world. What California does affects the globe. For three years the New York state assembly had passed the Climate and Community Protection…
counterpunch.org/2019/01/14/california-needs-a-10-year-green-new-deal/

Chilean Patagonia: an Open-air Lab to Study Global Warming
teleSUR | telesurenglish.net | 2019-01-14
In one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, the southernmost part of Chile's Patagonia region, scientists are studying whales, dolphins and algae in order to help predict how global warming will affect the world's oceans. | RELATED: | Chile Increases Protected Natural Areas by 81% | The fjord currently produces the kind of conditions that should be seen in other marine systems in the next few decades, when dramatic changes are expected in the environment due to increased carbon dioxide emis…
telesurenglish.net/news/Chilean-Patagonia-an-Open-air-Lab-to-Study-Global-Warming-20190114-0025.html

Trump's wall: A death sentence for wildlife
Blake Skylar | peoplesworld.org | 2019-01-14
President Trump's dream of a border wall is a nightmare for the U.S. Most agree it's a dangerous idea rooted in xenophobia, but should it be built, endangered wildlife might be among its first casualties. It would also pose a significant threat to the climate. In a nation already being ravaged by global warming, it …
peoplesworld.org/article/trumps-wall-a-death-sentence-for-wildlife/

Jay Inslee's Climate Change Gambit
James Nickerson | progressive.org | 2019-01-14
The issue of climate change was barely even mentioned during the last presidential race. Hopefully, Inslee's presence as a candidate will keep that from happening again.
progressive.org/op-eds/jay-inslee-climate-change-gambit-nickerson-190114/

Neoliberalism: Free Market Fundamentalism or Corporate Power?
Richard Moser | counterpunch.org | 2019-01-11
I've been hearing about neoliberalism for a long time now and never could make much sense of it. It turns out the story we tell about neoliberalism is as contradictory as neoliberalism itself. Two currents within the critique of neoliberalism offer different analyses of the current economy and suggest different strategies for dealing with the gross exploitation, wealth inequality, climate destruction and dictatorial governance of the modern corporate order.
counterpunch.org/2019/01/11/neoliberalism-free-market-fundamentalism-or-corporate-power/

Facing Mass Deportation, Haitians Sue Trump to Preserve Temporary Protected Status
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2019-01-10
A New York City trial is challenging the Trump administration's attempt to end temporary protected status–known as TPS–for more than 50,000 Haitians living in the U.S. Tens of thousands of Haitians were granted TPS after an earthquake devastated their country nine years ago this week. In November 2017, the Trump administration announced it would revoke TPS for Haitians, sparking protests and multiple lawsuits around the country. We speak with Marleine Bastien, executive director the Family Action Network Movement, or FANM, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. She testified on Wednesday as a witness i…
www.democracynow.org/2019/1/10/facing_mass_deportation_haitians_sue_trump

Pennsylvanians Should Know How the State Police Is Monitoring Social Media
ACLU | aclu.org | 2019-01-10
The Pennsylvania State Police is blocking access to its social-media-monitoring policy by claiming it could harm "public safety." | "Sunshine is the best disinfectant.", , That's a line that is used so much that it's become almost trite. But it's oft-repeated because it is so true. And here in the Keystone State, the Pennsylvania State Police is doing everything in its power to block access to its policy on monitoring social media. So we're headed to the state Supreme Court to get it. | The ACLU of Pennsylvania's attempt to obtain the st…
aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/pennsylvanians-should-know-how-state-police

NSW government to blame for Walgett water crisis
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-01-10
The New South Wales government is robbing communities of precious water by siphoning it off for cotton farms and coal and gas mines. It is doing so as the climate gets warmer and drought becomes more frequent. | These rotten priorities are being played out in Walgett, a town in the state's north-west that is home to more than 2000 people. Already affected by the long-running drought, Walgett is now suffering from a human-made disaster with residents having to truck in water after the town's bore system broke down. | In the local Gamilaroi language, Walgett means "a meeting of two rivers". Right now, the Namoi and…
greenleft.org.au/content/nsw-government-blame-walgett-water-crisis

For Owners of Amazon's Ring Security Cameras, Strangers May Have Been Watching Too
Sam Biddle | theintercept.com | 2019-01-10
The "smart home" of the 21st century isn't just supposed to be a monument to convenience, we're told, but also to protection, a Tony Stark-like bubble of vigilant algorithms and internet-connected sensors working ceaselessly to watch over us. But for some who've welcomed in Amazon's Ring security cameras, there have been more than just algorithms watching through the lens, according to sources alarmed by Ring's dismal privacy practices. | Ring has a history of lax, sloppy oversight when it comes to deciding who has access to some of the most precious, intimate data belonging to any person: a live, high-definition…
theintercept.com/2019/01/10/amazon-ring-security-camera/

Bill McKibben: The Fossil Fuel Industry Has Money, But We Have Movements
Shared by Jocelyn Dombroski | therealnews.com | 2019-01-10
At the Sanders Institute Gathering, Bill McKibben says that a Green New Deal must address climate change, immigration, and unemployment, or we're headed "if not to Hell, then to a place with a very similar temperature." | The post Bill McKibben: The Fossil Fuel Industry Has Money, But We Have Movements appeared first on The Real News Network.
therealnews.com/stories/bill-mckibben-the-fossil-fuel-industry-has-money-but-we-have-movements

Nathan Damigo, founder of white nationalist group Identity Evropa, files for bankruptcy protection
splcenter | splcenter.org | 2019-01-07
The founder of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa is seeking federal bankruptcy protection in what appears to be a pre-emptive move stemming from a lawsuit over "Unite the Right."
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/08/nathan-damigo-founder-white-nationalist-group-identity-evropa-files-bankruptcy-protection

Make 2019 the year of action on climate change
kathy_f | greenleft.org.au | 2019-01-07
Australia is sweltering through another summer heatwave, with disastrous consequences for many vulnerable people. Walgett, in north-west NSW, ran out of water and catastrophic fires are threatening communities in Victoria and Tasmania. | As we make a plan for a new year of activism, we can take some heart from the growing student movement for real climate action. They are responding to the science and showing an awareness of the scale of the pending climate catastrophe. They know what needs to be done and are demonstrating that leadership comes from those who act. | Students 4 Climate Action have already agreed t…
greenleft.org.au/content/make-2019-year-action-climate-change

A "Massive Outlaw"
Ralph Nader | zcomm.org | 2018-12-24
Interview on Single Payer, Climate Devastation, Impeachment…
zcomm.org/zvideo/a-massive-outlaw/

ANC Deputy Julio Escalona: 'The People are Angry Because They Consider that We Aren't Doing Our Job'
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-12-20
The revolutionary's criticisms came during the passing of 2019's budget, 75% of which is destined for "social protection."
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14195