TRNN (2018-03-14). Anti-Pipeline Indigenous 'Mass Mobilization' Has Begun. The Real News Network In what may become the 'Standing Rock of the North', thousands protest Kinder Morgan's Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion, which would carry more toxic tar sands through First Nation territories…

J. Whitfield Larrabee (2018-03-14). Challenging Trump's Greatest Crimes. counterpunch.org One of the best responses to Donald Trump's energy and environmental policies, that are destroying the Earth by accelerating severe climate change, is for the International Criminal Court ("ICC") to promptly charge him with several crimes against humanity. On February 26, 2018, I filed a complaint with Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, asking her to prosecute Trump and EPA administrator More

Saul Elbein, AlterNet (2018-03-14). How the Oglala Sioux Are Freeing Themselves From Fossil Fuel. AlterNet.org Native-owned solar energy is powering remote water protector camps. | It's high summer in South Dakota and a cruel sun beats down with an endless floodtide of photons that burns skin through T-shirts and tinted car windows. That's the way Henry Red Cloud likes it. To Red Cloud, a descendant of a great Lakota insurgent chief, founder of Lakota Solar and self-proclaimed "solar warrior," that July sun is key to the independence of his fellow Lakota and native peoples across America. It also embodies a hot business opportunity. It's July 5, the tail end of Red Cloud's Energy Independence Day weekend, first announced in the wake of the Trump inauguration, and meant to spread off-grid skills throughout Indian country—possibly with radical purpose. I walked out of the sun and indoors to find Red Cloud leading a solar workshop, holding forth to a group of. . .

Democracy Now! (2018-03-13). Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters. Democracy Now! In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana's wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who've set up a protest encampment along the pipeline's route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to "prevent further irreparable harm" to the region's delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade.

Truthout Stories (2018-03-13). In Ruling Called "Victory for Everyone Who Breathes," Federal Judge Says Scott Pruitt Violating Clean Air Act. Truthout Stories Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaks at the 2017 Concordia Annual Summit at the Grand Hyatt New York on September 19, 2017, in New York City. (Photo: Riccardo Savi / Getty Images for Concordia Summit) | Resulting in what environmentalists called a "victory for everyone who breathes," a federal district court in California on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency is violating the law by not implementing crucial smog protection guidelines mandated under the Clean Air Act. | According to Judge Haywood Stirling Gilliam Jr. of the federal District Court for the District of Northern California, EPA chief Scott Pruitt broke the law by not listing areas in the country that are failing to comply with air pollution standards — a violation of "his nondiscretionary duty under" the federal law — and gave him until…

Truthout Stories (2018-03-13). In Texas, Teachers and Students Already Pack Heat in Classrooms. Is This Where the Nation Is Headed? Truthout Stories The deep problems with Texas' programs provide a cautionary tale. (Image: andrea crisante / Shutterstock) | President Trump's seemingly improbable proposal to arm and train teachers to intercept school shooters actually isn't such a fantasy: In Texas, such programs already exist. Their shortcomings provide a cautionary tale for the rest of the country.The deep problems with Texas' programs provide a cautionary tale. (Image: andrea crisante / Shutterstock) | President Trump's seemingly improbable proposal to arm and train teachers to intercept school shooters actually isn't a fantasy: In Texas, two such programs already exist — and their shortcomings provide a cautionary tale for the rest of the country. | Just after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the state passed the 2013 Protection of Texas Children Act, allowing police to deputize up to one teacher or staffer as a…

Sophia Tesfaye, Salon (2018-03-13). Senate Democrats Are Just Openly Antagonizing Their Progressive Base Now. AlterNet.org A "Bank Lobbyist Act" threatens to tear the party asunder ahead of the 2018 mid-terms. | A dozen Senate Democrats are threatening to torpedo any semblance of a unified economic message from the opposition party ahead of this fall's midterm elections, trampling over the fiercest progressive voices in the party to do so. "I don't think a bill like that is good for anybody in America," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. , on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, referring to a Republican effort to roll back rules meant to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis that struck 10 years ago. Warren is the Senate's strongest consumer protection advocate, elected in 2012 in a crusade against big Wall Street bailouts. Democrats in the Senate joined the Republican majority to end debate on an amendment to a broad financial deregulation package late Monday, advancing the. . .

Eric Ortiz (2018-03-13). New Banking Bill Presents Choose-Your-Side Moment. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists A new banking bill shows the division of the United States. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho and co-sponsored by a dozen Democratic senators, would weaken financial regulations and expand loopholes, actions that could hurt many Americans. | "This is a bad bill," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told The Huffington Post. "No Democrat and no Republican should support it." | The bill's Democratic co-sponsors are Tim Kaine and Mark Warner (both from Virginia), Michael Bennet (Colorado), Gary Peters (Michigan), Doug Jones (Alabama), Joe Donnelly (Indiana), Jon Tester (Montana), Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota), Joe Manchin (West Virginia), Claire McCaskill (Missouri), and Christopher Coons and Thomas Carper (both from Delaware). | Backers say the bipartisan reform legislation would ease some of the tough rules of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, thereby helping

Paul Street (2018-03-13). Notes on Terminology. counterpunch.org Climate Crisis, Not "Climate Change" My next-to-last CounterPunch essay ("Someone Tell a Reporter: the Rich Are Destroying the Earth") elicited a smart criticism from a senior scientist: "Please stop using the phrase 'climate change.' I am a 78-year-old, Ph.D. physicist who has been talking about the CLIMATE CRISIS for more than 35 years. To me, More

Mel Gurtov (2018-03-13). Trump Attacks Earth, Resistance and Innovation. counterpunch.org In 1992, 1700 scientists from around the world signed a "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. The statement argued that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course," and urged immediate, dramatic to reverse the trend. Last fall the statement was updated. This "second notice" has now been signed by 20,000 experts. As you would More

Staff (2018-03-13). Palestinian Prime Minister Escapes Injury in Gaza Bombing. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists JABALIYA, Gaza Strip — A roadside bomb on Tuesday struck the convoy of the Palestinian prime minister during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, causing no serious injuries but throwing an already troubled reconciliation process between rival factions into deeper turmoil. | Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had just arrived from his West Bank headquarters to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water-treatment plant when the bomb went off. Although there was no claim of responsibility, Palestinian officials accused Gaza militants of trying to assassinate Hamdallah. Gaza's ruling Hamas group denied involvement. | The blast took place at a time of deadlock in reconciliation efforts between Hamdallah's Fatah party and Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since ousting Fatah forces in 2007. It also cast a shadow over a special White House meeting where international donor nations were set to discuss the dire…

Alleen Brown (2018-03-12). From North Dakota to Puerto Rico, Controversial Security Firm Profits From Oil Protests and Climate Disasters. The Intercept TigerSwan, the mercenary security firm that worked to suppress the NoDAPL movement, is promoting its disaster response efforts in Houston and Puerto Rico. | The post From North Dakota to Puerto Rico, Controversial Security Firm Profits From Oil Protests and Climate Disasters appeared first on The Intercept.

Human Rights Watch (2018-03-12). Singapore: Reject Sweeping Public Order Bill. Human Rights Watch News A general view of the Parliament House in Singapore June 2, 2016. | © 2016 Reuters | (New York) — Singapore's proposed public order law would further empower the government to repress freedom of assembly and speech, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should revise the Public Order and Safety (Special Powers) bill, introduced in Parliament on February 27, 2018, to ensure that protection of public safety does not violate fundamental rights. | "The Singaporean government's history of persecuting dissenting voices makes the proposed public order law particularly frightening," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Public protests are not a threat that justify the wholescale repeal of basic rights." | While international law permits government restrictions on certain rights for reasons of national security or public order, they…

WSWS (2018-03-12). Rising anger over aid delays in Papua New Guinea's catastrophic quake disaster. World Socialist Web Site The humanitarian crisis resulting from the earthquake exposes the inadequate response of the PNG and Australian governments.

Richard Gale (2018-03-12). Global Warming and Climate Instability: One Last Chance to Save Ourselves. Global Research The year 2017 was a record-breaking year for extreme weather and environmental catastrophes since records started to be kept in the 19th century. The Arctic experienced temperatures up to 70 degree F above normal. | Many countries were baked in unusual …

Robert Hunziker (2018-03-12). Fixing Global Warming is Bigger Than Paris '15. counterpunch.org The worldwide effort to harness, slow down, lessen, reduce, remove the threat of global warming is epitomized by the Paris '15 climate accord. This agreement calls for nations of the world to implement plans to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, specifically CO2 from fossil fuels, and to take other remedial actions necessary to hold global temps below 2 ∞C but preferably 1.5 ∞C relative to the start of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago. More

Prof. Patrick Bond (2018-03-12). New Evidence of Africa's Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank. Global Research Featured image: Nchanga copper mine, Zambia (Source: Wikimedia Commons) | A brand new World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet …

Truthout Stories (2018-03-11). Massive Protest in British Columbia as Thousands March to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline. Truthout Stories Harriet Prince, 76, of the Anishinaabe tribe, marches with Coast Salish Water Protectors and others against the expansion of Texas-based Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada on March 10, 2018. (Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images) | You can fuel thoughtful, authority-challenging journalism: Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout. | Disregarding an injunction won by the pipeline company a day before the planned protest, thousands of people marched in Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday to protest the expansion of a Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and export terminal that First Nations and climate justice campaigners say would threaten local waterways, erode Indigenous rights, and increase planet-warming carbon emissions. | #protecttheinlet and #stopKM. Go home to Texas, #KinderMorgan. We don't want you here. #cdnpoli #waterislife #blackfish

Truthout Stories (2018-03-11). Massive Protest in British Columbia as Thousands March to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline. Truthout Stories Harriet Prince, 76, of the Anishinaabe tribe, marches with Coast Salish Water Protectors and others against the expansion of Texas-based Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada on March 10, 2018. (Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP / Getty Images) | You can fuel thoughtful, authority-challenging journalism: Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout. | Disregarding an injunction won by the pipeline company a day before the planned protest, thousands of people marched in Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday to protest the expansion of a Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and export terminal that First Nations and climate justice campaigners say would threaten local waterways, erode Indigenous rights, and increase planet-warming carbon emissions. | 10,000 walk behind Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and leaders from across Turtle Island to #protecttheinlet and #stopKM. Go home…

Truthout Stories (2018-03-11). At New Health Office, Civil Rights Mean Doctors Can Say No to Patients. Truthout Stories At Truthout, we refuse to subject you to ads or "sponsored content" — we believe in producing journalism with integrity. If you agree, please support us with a donation today! | The Trump administration is embarking on a sweeping effort to redefine civil rights in health care, with critics accusing the Department of Health and Human Services of sidestepping the rights of patients to soothe a far smaller constituency: conservative nurses, hospitals and other caregivers. | The department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been greatly strengthening and expanding protections for health care providers who have religious- or conscience-based objections to procedures such as abortion. By way of explanation, officials cite 36 complaints OCR received from, or on behalf of, those working in the health care system from President Donald Trump's election through early January of alleged affronts to religious beliefs…

April M. Short, AlterNet (2018-03-11). Noam Chomsky and Danny Glover Condemn U.S. and Canada Over Venezuela Sanctions . AlterNet.org Chomsky and Glover are among 154 signatories asking the U. S. and Canada to reconsider the sanctions. | After the U. S. and Canada imposed sanctions on Venezuela's socialist government Friday, Noam Chomsky and Danny Glover joined 154 signatories in an open letter to Washington and Ottawa condemning the sanctions. The letter explains that the sanctions will worsen political tensions and make life harder for Venezuela's poor and urges the governments to reconsider. "Sanctions merely complicate efforts by the Vatican, Dominican Republic, and other international actors to mediate a resolution to the deep polarization in Venezuela," the letter states. While the letter points to an attempt by the U. S. and Canada to topple Venezuela's leadership, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has said he believes the sanctions are part of an international right-wing conspiracy intended to remove him and take control of the OPEC nation's oil. . .

Marshall Auerback, AlterNet (2018-03-10). Meet the Democratic 'Dirty Dozen' Working to Gut Financial Reforms. AlterNet.org This act of regulatory vandalism highlights everything that is corrupt about our political system. | As if to maximize the possibility of another major financial crisis, the Trump administration and the GOP have recently been busy undercutting the limited safeguards established a decade ago via Dodd-Frank. The latest example of this stealth attack on Wall Street reform is the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, appropriately sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Appropriate, because this is literally a "crapo" bill. It provides a few "technical tweaks" to Dodd-Frank in the same way in which protection payouts to organized crime provide businesses with "insurance" against property damage. In reality, it is an act of regulatory vandalism, which highlights everything that is corrupt about our political system. We have grown to expect no less from. . .

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon (2018-03-10). Trump's Freaky Week: Tough-Guy Tariffs, a Porn Star and a Strange Bromance with North Korea. AlterNet.org Trickster demon Donald Trump had one hell of a week. | If Donald Trump had been sent to Earth by a malicious deity to expose human hypocrisy in its many forms, like a trickster demon out of the mythological past, I'm not sure he could be doing a better job. Indeed, that might be a more convincing explanation than any others we have available, and it conforms neatly with Neil deGrasse Tyson's 50/50 proposition that our universe is actually a computer simulationdesigned by a superior civilization. This week alone we have seen Trump reintroduce tariffs — a seemingly antique mechanism viewed with dread by both economists and history students — halfway admit to having cheated on his current wife with a porn star, and agree in principle to a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. None of those things. . .

Truthout Stories (2018-03-09). Toxic Coal Ash Is Being Dumped in Puerto Rico, Which Already Suffers Worst Drinking Water in the Nation. Truthout Stories Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico's residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the US law. Since the storm, residents say the situation has only gotten worse. Among the sources of potential water contamination are mountains of coal ash generated by a coal-fired power plant owned by a private company called AES. For years, residents have demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash into their community, saying the waste is poisonous to their health and the environment. We speak with Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who just returned from the island and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post headlined "FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can't be true." | TRANSCRIPT | AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in…

Democracy Now! (2018-03-09). Toxic Coal Ash Being Dumped in Puerto Rico, Which Already Suffers Worst Drinking Water in the Nation. Democracy Now! Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico's residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the U.S. law. Since the storm, residents say the situation has only gotten worse. Among the sources of potential water contamination are mountains of coal ash generated by a coal-fired power plant owned by a private company called AES. For years, residents have demanded the company stop dumping toxic coal ash into their community, saying the waste is poisonous to their health and the environment. We speak with Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council who just returned from the island and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post headlined "FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can't be true."

TRNN (2018-03-09). Trump's Monumental Betrayal: Public Antiquities Gutted for Oil Industry. The Real News Network Not only did Trump shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, but the president's announcement came on the heels of one of the rarest finds of Triassic-period fossils, in an area which will now be excluded from protection…

Michael Hudson (2018-03-09). Trump's Travesty of Protectionism. counterpunch.org Trump's series of threats this week was a one-two punch. First, he threatened to impose national security tariffs on steel and aluminum, primarily against Canada and Mexico (along with Korea and Japan). Then, he suggested an alternative: He would exempt these countries if they agree to certain U.S. demands. | But these demands make so little economic sense that they should be viewed as an exercise in what academia used to call power politics. Or in Trump's world, Us versus Them, a zero-sum game in which he has to show that America wins, they lose. More

WSWS (2018-03-09). Trump, risking trade war, signs off on steel and aluminium tariffs. World Socialist Web Site Trump's tariff announcement expresses the turn by the United States to the types of protectionist measures that characterised the 1930s Great Depression.

CP Editor (2018-03-09). What the Earth Would Look Like if All the Ice Melted. counterpunch.org

John Laforge (2018-03-09). Fukushima: A Human-Made Disaster Brought on by Bad Faith. counterpunch.org "Nearly seven years after the triple reactor meltdowns, this unique nuclear crisis is still underway," Greenpeace International's Shaun Burnie wrote in a blogpost last December. The word "unique" is an understatement but true. The March 11, 2011meltdowns are the world's first combined earthquake-tsunami-reactor catastrophe. Moreover, while other power reactors have run out-of-control, melted down and More

Arnold Isaacs (2018-03-09). The Trump Admins Dubious Attempts to Link Terrorism to Immigration. MintPress News When you see an immigrant or a foreign visitor, especially from a Muslim country, should your first thought be that you might be looking at a possible terrorist? | Clearly, that's how the Trump administration wants Americans to react. It was the message in the president's first address to Congress a year ago, when he declared that "the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country." At that time, he urged that the U.S. immigration system be reshaped because "we cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America." | There's a misleading omission in Trump's formulation, though: homegrown fanatics have killed many more Americans on U.S. soil than foreign-born terrorists have. | The disparity grows much wider if you include mass killings carried…

Tristan Baurick (2018-03-08). Coast Guard Responders Harmed by Chemicals Used to Clean Up BP Deepwater Oil Spill, Research Shows. Global Research Featured image: Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Leonard watches oil and gas flare during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson) | For thousands of Coast Guard members who …

Jesse Jackson (2018-03-08). Home-Grown Reactionaries, Not Russians, are Greatest Threat to Our Elections. counterpunch.org This past weekend, we once again gathered in Selma, Ala., to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," the March 7, 1965, march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that was savagely put down by police. That march — and the march from Selma to Montgomery that followed under federal protection — helped galvanize public support for the Voting Rights More

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams (2018-03-08). Elizabeth Warren Refuses to Let Democrats Off the Hook for Their Latest Cave to Wall Street. AlterNet.org "The fight over the Bank Lobbyist Act isn't over yet. " | Thanks to the help of 16 Senate Democrats and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a Wall Street deregulation measure disguised as a "community banking" bill is barreling toward passage—but Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. ) vowed Wednesday to not let the bill sail through without forcing votes on a series of amendments aimed at showing Americans whose side their lawmakers are really on. "The fight over the Bank Lobbyist Act isn't over yet," Warren wrote on Twitter, unveiling 17 amendments that, if approved, would uphold strict oversight of big banks and shield consumers from Wall Street fraud and abuse. "I'm not going to roll over and play dead for the big banks. "First introduced last November by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the officially named "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act" ( S. 2155). . .

Democracy Now! (2018-03-08). Headlines for March 8, 2018. Democracy Now! Women Across the World Mark International Women's Day, Sessions Attacks California in Escalating Feud over Sanctuary Laws, 8 Students Arrested in D.C. Sit-In Demanding Gun Control, White House Claims Trump Won Arbitration Against Stormy Daniels, French President Blasts Trump's Decision to Move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, In Reversal, WH to Exempt Mexico & Canada from Tariffs If They Sign New NAFTA Deal, 11 Nations Gather in Chile to Sign New Version of TPP, Without U.S., Appeals Court Rules Youth Suing Trump Admin over Climate Change Can Go to Trial, PA Orders Emergency Shutdown of Pipeline After Massive Sinkholes Appear, Asheville, NC: White Police Officer Resigns After Video Shows Him Beating Black Man, Vatican: Salvadoran Archbishop àìscar Romero Will Become a Saint…

Reynard Loki, AlterNet (2018-03-08). There's a Looming 'Existential Threat' to New Orleans That Should Frighten Every Sane American. AlterNet.org A proposed $210 million gas-fired power plant is on the frontlines of a national battle against fracking. | health risks as living next to fracking wells, as "an existential threat" to New Orleans. "There is no city in the United States more vulnerable to the immediate effects of climate change," Fox writes. "The facts are simple: If climate change gets worse, there is no more New Orleans. Rising seas threaten to overtake the levees, and the extreme storms we saw in 2017 make Katrina look like a walk in the park. You would think that doing anything that makes climate change worse would be impossible for city government to do, but that is exactly what the New Orleans City Council are in the process of doing. ""Mayor-elect Latoya Cantrell must vote as well," he notes. "We need these council members to understand that they. . .

Reynard Loki, AlterNet (2018-03-08). There's a Looming 'Existential Threat' to New Orleans That Should Frighten Every Sane American. AlterNet.org A proposed $210 million gas-fired power plant is on the frontlines of a national battle against fracking. | With the New Orleans city council set to vote Thursday on the future of Entergy's new fracked gas power plant—a $210 million gas-fired peaking power plant in New Orleans East—filmmaker/activist Josh Fox is calling on concerned citizens to stand up and join what he called in a recent email a "crucial fight for environmental justice. " He described the proposed plant, which would expose residents to many of the same health risks as living next to fracking wells, as "an existential threat" to New Orleans. "There is no city in the United States more vulnerable to the immediate effects of climate change," Fox writes. "The facts are simple: If climate change gets worse, there is no more New Orleans. Rising seas threaten to overtake the. . .

Nafeez Ahmed (2018-03-08). US Army Docs: Plan to 'Dethrone' Putin for Oil Pipelines May Provoke WW3. MintPress News A US Army document concedes the real interests driving US military strategy toward Russia: dominating oil pipeline routes, accessing the vast natural resources of Central Asia, and enforcing the expansion of American capitalism worldwide. | The post US Army Docs: Plan to 'Dethrone' Putin for Oil Pipelines May Provoke WW3 appeared first on MintPress News.

Staff (2018-03-08). The U.S. Solar Industry Is Clouded by Uncertainty. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists The US solar industry is losing its shine. Although solar power is seen as a key way to avoid the use of climate-changing fossil fuels, US solar companies are cutting investments and laying off workers. An industry employing more than 230,000 people and with an estimated worth of $28 billion is now warning of trouble ahead. | More than 10,000 jobs in solar were lost in 2017, says a report by the Solar Foundation, a non-profit research firm. | The clouds spreading across the US solar sector are in part due to a slowdown in sales in so-called mature markets in California and the US Northeast, both areas of double digit solar growth in recent years. | However, industry analysts say the main reason for the present travails in the solar sector is the announcement earlier this year by…

Staff (2018-03-07). Administration Sues California Over State Sanctuary Laws. Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists WASHINGTON—The Trump administration on Tuesday sued to block California laws that extend protections to people living in the U.S. illegally, the most aggressive move yet in its push to force so-called sanctuary cities and states to cooperate with immigration authorities. California officials remained characteristically defiant, vowing to defend their landmark legislation. | The Justice Department argued a trio of state laws that, among other things, bar police from asking people about their citizenship status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities are unconstitutional and have kept federal agents from doing their jobs. The lawsuit named as defendants the state of California, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra. | "I say, bring it on," said California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who wrote the sanctuary state bill. | It is the latest salvo in an escalating…

Wendell G Bradley (2018-03-07). What Colorado's Informed People Want! counterpunch.org On Oil Operators' Exploration and Production (E&P) This activity has, historically, been permitted with little regard for either public health and safety, or protection of the environment. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has seen its role largely as a promoter of the industry. Recently, this position of the COGCC was challenged in More

Human Rights Watch (2018-03-07). Pakistani Film Examines Mindset of a Dictator. Human Rights Watch News This morning a friend messaged me, worried that Human Rights Watch will be screening a documentary featuring Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military dictator, at its London film festival. "You might end up glorifying a criminal," my friend warned. Promo ad for Insha'Allah Democracy screening at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London March 9-10, 2018. | © 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival | I assured my friend that Human Rights Watch's position on Musharraf is clear — far from celebrating him, we want him to be prosecuted for the serious human rights violations that he both committed and was complicit in during his rule. Under Musharraf's watch, the Pakistan government arbitrarily detained hundreds of critics and tortured alleged terrorism suspects. A number of opposition politicians were…

Jane Arscott, The Conversation (2018-03-07). 8 Ways You Can Help Women's Rights. AlterNet.org Yes, we still need to protest this crap. | International Women's Day 2018 marks a pivotal moment for women's rights, according to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez. In the entertainment industry, at workplaces, on social media, and in the streets women demand an end to oppression and discrimination, and zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment. Historical and structural inequalities that long flourished now lie exposed. Guterrez's acknowledgement that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the unfinished business of our time resounds around the world. Women's equality is among the most persistent human rights challenges of the last several generations. Globally, almost a third of the work women do is in agriculture. Much of the work is labour intensive, and poorly paid, with inadequate labour rights protection. Last year International Women's Day was the largest event. . .