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This evening's music features soul singer Garnet Mimms. Enjoy!

"Politics, as hopeful men practise it in the world, consists mainly of the delusion that a change in form is a change in substance."

-- H. L. Mencken

News and Opinion

Bernie Sanders: Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly announce a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than 1,000 of the 2100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be transferred to Mexico. Let’s be clear: It is not good enough to save some of these jobs. Trump made a promise that he would save all of these jobs, and we cannot rest until an ironclad contract is signed to ensure that all of these workers are able to continue working in Indiana without having their pay or benefits slashed.

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad?

In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.

Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives. Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be re-evaluating their stance this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.

Cornel West: Unlike Bernie Sanders, I'm Not Convinced the Democratic Party Can Be Reformed

Corporate Welfare Will Bring Back Jobs vs. Jobs Will Never Come Back

The Carrier company’s announcement that, after exhortations from Donald Trump, it was going to move a thousand jobs overseas—rather than the 2,000 that it had previously planned to move—led New York Times reporter Nelson Schwartz (11/29/16) to declare that “Mr. Trump is a different kind of Republican, willing to take on big business, at least in individual cases”:

Just as only a confirmed anti-Communist like Richard Nixon could go to China, so only a businessman like Mr. Trump could take on corporate America without being called a Bernie Sanders–style socialist. If Barack Obama had tried the same maneuver, he’d probably have drawn criticism for intervening in the free market.

The story went on to say that Trump and Vice President–elect Mike Pence had promised Carrier they would be “friendlier to businesses by easing regulations and overhauling the corporate tax code.” Probably more to the point from Carrier’s point of view, Schwartz noted that the state of Indiana, where Pence is still governor, “also plans to give economic incentives to Carrier as part of the deal to stay.”

So Trump’s job program involves cutting business taxes and regulations, plus a corporate-welfare package whose cost will presumably be declared after media attention wanders. This makes Trump “a different kind of Republican” how, exactly?

If you’re looking for a way to protect factory jobs that doesn’t involve making wealthy corporations even wealthier, you’re out of luck. The Times‘ “other side” takes the form of liberal economists saying that there’s really no way to save workers.

Senate Intel Dems Push Obama to Declassify Details of Russia Hacking Probe

In a two sentence letter to President Obama, the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D – OR) have urged the declassification of more information on the investigation into allegations Russia attempted to hack the US election.

Details are scant, but Wyden’s letter claimed there was “additional information” that should be made public. It also makes reference to a second, secret letter from the same Senate Dems that offers more specifics on exactly what they want released.

With Hillary Clinton campaigning heavily on the narrative that Russia intended to hack the election for Trump, Democrats repeatedly demanded more and bigger investigations, along with demanding that the FBI affirm their allegations. In reality, officials said they didn’t turn up anything connecting Trump and Russia.

William Blum:

Cuba, Fidel, Socialism

The most frequent comment I’ve read in the mainstream media concerning Fidel Castro’s death is that he was a “dictator”; almost every heading bore that word. Since the 1959 revolution, the American mainstream media has routinely referred to Cuba as a dictatorship. But just what does Cuba do or lack that makes it a dictatorship?

No “free press”? Apart from the question of how free Western media is, if that’s to be the standard, what would happen if Cuba announced that from now on anyone in the country could own any kind of media? How long would it be before CIA money – secret and unlimited CIA money financing all kinds of fronts in Cuba – would own or control almost all the media worth owning or controlling?

Is it “free elections” that Cuba lacks? They regularly have elections at municipal, regional and national levels. They do not have direct election of the president, but neither do Germany or the United Kingdom and many other countries. The Cuban president is chosen by the parliament, The National Assembly of People’s Power. Money plays virtually no role in these elections; neither does party politics, including the Communist Party, since all candidates run as individuals.

Again, what is the standard by which Cuban elections are to be judged? Is it that they don’t have private corporations to pour in a billion dollars? Most Americans, if they gave it any thought, might find it difficult to even imagine what a free and democratic election, without great concentrations of corporate money, would look like, or how it would operate. Would Ralph Nader finally be able to get on all 50 state ballots, take part in national television debates, and be able to match the two monopoly parties in media advertising? If that were the case, I think he’d probably win; which is why it’s not the case.

Is Cuba a dictatorship because it arrests dissidents? Many thousands of anti-war and other protesters have been arrested in the United States in recent years, as in every period in American history. During the Occupy Movement of five years ago more than 7,000 people were arrested, many beaten by police and mistreated while in custody.

Russia: UN’s Syria Aid Shipments Politicized, Mostly Going to Rebels

The Russian Foreign Ministry today issued a statement complaining that the UN’s humanitarian aid to Syria is becoming increasingly politicized, and that the vast majority of the shipments being made are going into rebel territory, leaving the government-held areas under siege short on aid.

As an example, the foreign ministry cited the situation in Deir Ezzor, where an estimated 200,000 Syrians are trapped in government-held districts surrounded by ISIS, and in need of supplies, but that only about 1% of the UN’s overall aid to the country is actually going there.

Instead, they say the aid is mostly going into places held by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front. It’s not well documented where the UN is actually managing to deliver aid, as the UN officials responsible mostly just complain about not being able to get access to some places.

3,976 Killed in Iraq during November

The war with the Islamic State militants left at least 3,976 people dead in Iraq during November, and another 1,571 wounded. The fighting has slowed in Mosul, as has the number of casualties. In October, 5,930 people were killed and 2,463 were wounded. The Iraqi government will not release their casualty figures, so these numbers are rough estimates.

At least 1,533 civilians were killed and another 1,113 were wounded across Iraq. These figures are likely low as some witnesses are
estimating that over 100 civilians are wounded in Mosul everyday. Many of
the dead in Mosul are being buried in gardens and going unreported.

EU Plans Big Military Spending Increase

The European Union today unveiled their “European Defense Action Plan,” which aims at a major military spending increase alliance-wide, with some $5.8 billion a year being set aside to acquire more weaponry, including attack helicopters and drones.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker argues that the spending is needed to ensure that Europe’s military industrial base remains “competitive” enough to give them strategic autonomy. Alliance-wide, the EU member nations spend over $210 billion on their military every year.

A lot of the effort seems focused not on building or buying equipment anyone actually wants, but rather in ensuring that EU-based companies have the capability of doing so, and funding research into more future weapons that they will also buy, but not actually want.

François Fillon is on course to be the next French president despite his hard-right agenda

In a matter of weeks, former Prime Minister François Fillon – a devout Catholic conservative with aims to slash social programs and the man Nicolas Sarkozy liked to call “Mr. Nobody” – has shot to the forefront of French politics. His surprise success introduces an increasingly likely presidential standoff between two conservative extremes: the very conservative Fillon and the far-right National Front’s Marine Le Pen.

It is now widely assumed he will become France’s next president following the general election in May 2017. ...

His unexpected victory in the Republican primaries, against centrist Alain Juppé and former President Nicolas Sarkozy, shows two things. It highlights the inexorable rise of the hard right in Western democracies, mostly recently seen in the U.S with Trump’s surprise victory. It also signals a shift in the center of political gravity in France. His win revealed the desire of the conservative French electorate — a group who often feel they are ignored by the rest of the country — to be more vocal about their beliefs and convictions.  ...

Much like Marine Le Pen, Fillon is an admirer of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who he knows personally. On foreign policy, Fillon argues that France should talk to anyone involved in the Syrian conflict – President Bashar Al-Assad included – and opposes Europe’s sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

Colombia's government formally ratifies revised Farc peace deal

Colombia’s government has formally ratified a revised peace agreement with the Farc leftist rebel group, capping four years of negotiations, a referendum rejection, last-minute compromises and two signing ceremonies.

The initial pact was narrowly rejected by voters last month, and Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, decided to skip a referendum on the new version and go directly to congress, where the deal’s supporters hold a majority. Opponents, led by former president Álvaro Uribe, boycotted the legislative votes, which resulted in unanimous approval by the senate on Tuesday and by the lower house late on Wednesday.

The new 310-page accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) introduced 50 changes to the initial deal in an attempt to mollify opponents as the government seeks to end a 52-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven almost 8 million from their homes. ...

Santos said ratification would set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the Farc’s 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors. “Tomorrow a new era begins,” he said on Wednesday.

But the rebels insist their troops won’t start demobilising until politicians pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail. “D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented,” the rebel leader Pastor Alape, part of the Farc’s 10-member secretariat, said last week after the new accord was signed. ...

There is also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the Farc in the 1980s. At that time, thousands of former guerrillas, labour activists and communist militants were killed by rightwing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

UN panel: WikiLeaks' Assange a victim of arbitrary detention

A U.N. panel is sticking by its opinion that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention, rejecting a request by Britain to review the case.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Britain had not presented enough new information to merit a new examination. The panel made the decision at a meeting last week, the U.N. human rights office said Wednesday.

In February, the panel found that Britain and Sweden had "arbitrarily detained" Assange, saying he should be freed and entitled to compensation.

Expanded Federal Hacking Authority Goes Into Effect Despite Last Minute Efforts in Senate

Thanks to a federal rule change, which passed through several judicial panels before being approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in April, FBI employees can now seek warrants from magistrate judges to remotely access computers even when targets might be outside those judges’ districts, including when the targets’ location is disguised by anonymity software like Tor. Additionally, FBI employees can now search computers infected by malware that makes them part of a botnet— a method used by criminals to disrupt Internet service, distribute spam, or spread viruses on a mass scale.

The argument over the modifications, while described by the Department of Justice as simple amendments necessary to facilitate investigations in the modern age, has been contentious.

Privacy advocates like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the impending rule change “one of the biggest mistakes in surveillance policy in years” as he fought on the Senate floor the day before it was scheduled to take effect, joined by colleagues Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Steve Daines, R-Mont. “Law-abiding Americans are going to ask ‘what were you guys thinking?’ when the FBI starts hacking victims of a botnet hack. Or when a mass hack goes awry and breaks their device, or an entire hospital system and puts lives at risk,” he said in a statement.

Libraries promise to destroy user data to avoid threat of government surveillance

Public and private libraries are reacting swiftly to the election of Donald Trump, promising to destroy user information before it can be used against readers and backing up data abroad.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) changed its privacy policy on Wednesday to emphasize its data-collection policies. Last week, the NYPL website stated that “any library record or other information collected by the Library as described herein is subject to disclosure pursuant to subpoena, court order, or as otherwise authorized by applicable law”.

Now, the page reads: “Sometimes the law requires us to share your information, such as if we receive a valid subpoena, warrant, or court order. We may share your information if our careful review leads us to believe that the law, including state privacy law applicable to Library Records, requires us to do so.”

The NYPL also assures users that it will not retain data any longer than is necessary. “We are committed to keeping such information, outlined in all the examples above, only as long as needed in order to provide Library services,” the librarians wrote.

Meanwhile the digital library Archive.org, which keeps a searchable database of public websites, announced on Tuesday that it would create a new Canada-based backup of its huge information repository in order to respond to the increased threat of invisible government scrutiny. The group’s services include the Internet Archive and a search engine cataloguing it, called the Wayback Machine.

Maine police using a controversial tool to monitor what you say online

Maine police have been using a controversial computer program developed to monitor the public’s social media posts.

The program, known as Geofeedia, works by pinpointing the location of people who are posting publicly on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Geofeedia was developed with financial support from the CIA. As it has gained traction with police who use it to track protests and look for danger signs like the word “gun” online, it has also become the center of a national debate over privacy and government surveillance.

“People don’t realize that the government is monitoring the personal information they share,” said Zachary Heiden, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. “This isn’t just the police standing in a public square. This is the police standing in our bedrooms and living rooms.” ...

The South Portland Police Department began using Geofeedia in 2014 and recently renewed its subscription for a third year, said officer Kevin Gerrish, who coordinates the program for Maine’s fourth most populated city. The Maine State Police also purchased a license for the program, according to Gerrish and State Police officer Kyle Willette, although neither could provide details.

But thousands of dollars later, the South Portland police say that, at least for their department, the high-tech surveillance hasn’t led to any arrests.

Trump's Administration Poised to Be Wealthiest in Modern US History

Despite his populist appeals, President-elect Donald Trump is putting together the wealthiest administration in modern U.S. history, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The collective wealth of Trump's appointees is astronomically larger than the previous richest cabinet under George W. Bush, whose administration had an "inflation-adjusted net worth" of about $250 million combined, as the Post's Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson point out. Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has roughly 10 times that wealth alone.

In addition to Ross, who is worth about $2.5 billion, Trump's nominee for education secretary, Amway heiress Betsy DeVos, has a family net worth of $5.1 billion.

Todd Rickets, the nominee for deputy secretary of commerce, is the son of a billionaire and co-owns the Chicago Cubs.

Elaine Chao, transportation secretary appointee and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is the daughter of a shipping and trading tycoon. In 2014, following several generous gifts from the Chao family, McConnell's personal wealth stood at $22.8 million.

Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick for head of the Treasury Department, is a former Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood producer whose net worth is estimated at $40 million, much of it accrued while working in the financial industry—including profiting off the financial crisis.

Cornel West on Donald Trump: This is What Neo-Fascism Looks Like

Anti-Muslim Activist Katharine Gorka Named to Homeland Security Transition Team

Katharine Gorka, a controversial national security analyst who specializes in discussing the threat posed by Muslims to the United States, has complained bitterly that the Department of Homeland Security trains its agents — falsely, in her opinion — that Islam is a “religion of peace.”

Now, Gorka will have a chance to help Donald Trump remake the department. On Tuesday, she was selected by Trump to be part of the DHS “landing team” that will meet with Obama’s DHS officials to manage the handoff to new leadership.

Gorka, the president of a think tank called the Council on Global Security and the president of Threat Knowledge Group, a consulting firm, is a well-known figure among anti-Muslim campaigners.

Gorka argues that defeating terrorism depends “upon our being able to call the enemy by its proper name: Global Jihadism.” She has pushed legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group and impose sanctions on its “affiliates, associated groups, or agents.”

The affiliated groups mentioned in the legislation include mainstream civil rights organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America.

Public (School) Enemy No. 1: Billionaire Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Pick for Education Secretary

The Supreme Court just heard a case that could complicate Trump's deportation plans

The Supreme Court heard an immigration case Wednesday that could complicate President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of people from the U.S.

The case, Jennings v. Rodriguez, deals with how long immigrants can be locked up by the government before they receive a chance for bail. Under the current rules, immigrants facing deportation can be detained indefinitely — sometimes for months or years — even if they have a green card or are otherwise here legally. Only two federal jurisdictions, which include California and New York, place limits on how long immigrants can be held without bail.

In his first interview after the election, Trump pledged to deport or incarcerate up to 3 million people that he said “are criminal and have criminal records” and are “here illegally.” If the Supreme Court, which has been operating with only eight justices since Antonin Scalia died in February, decides to make it easier for immigrants facing deportation to get out on bail, Trump may find it harder to follow through on his promise.

Canada prepares for surge of Mexican immigrants after visa lift and Trump win

Officials in Canada are readying for a potential surge in Mexican migrants, as a promise to scrap a visa requirement comes into effect amid uncertainty over Donald Trump’s promises to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

From Thursday, Mexican visitors to Canada will no longer need visas. The move has left the government anticipating an increase in Mexican tourists and business travellers, a spokesperson for Canada’s immigration ministry said.

The visa was put in place in 2009 by the previous Conservative government to address an increase in what it described as bogus refugee claims. But the timing of the visa lift – following on the heels of Trump’s vows to expel millions of illegal immigrants – has sparked concerns among officials that Canada could again see a substantial increase in Mexican asylum seekers, government sources told the Guardian. ...

After the visa was introduced, the number of Mexican asylum seekers plunged – dropping to 120 in 2015 – but the Canadian government came under tremendous political pressure from Mexico to end the policy.

In June, the government agreed to do so, in exchange for Mexico expanding its imports of Canadian beef. “This move will make it easier for our Mexican friends to visit Canada, while growing our local economies and strengthening our communities,” Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said at the time.

At the time, few had considered the possibility that Trump – who had vowed to build a wall along the shared border between the US and Mexico and deport millions of undocumented workers and illegal residents – would win the US election.

Planned Parenthood and ACLU mount abortion law challenges in three states

Reproductive rights advocates announced a significant slate of challenges to anti-abortion laws on Wednesday, taking aim at major restrictions in three states which advocates say are unconstitutional.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy group which argued a landmark abortion case earlier this year, filed three lawsuits in Alaska, Missouri and North Carolina. In Missouri, the groups will challenge a pair of abortion restrictions that have reduced the number of abortion providers to just one. They are taking aim at a similar clinic restriction in Alaska. In North Carolina, they will mount a challenge to a 20-week ban on abortion that has some of the nation’s strictest exceptions.

The two Missouri restrictions are highly similar to laws in Texas that the US supreme court struck down in June. They require abortions to be performed in expensive, hospital-like facilities and require abortion providers to have certain professional relationships with a local hospital. ...

But it is the North Carolina challenge that may have the bigger impact on abortion rights nationwide. This is only the second time reproductive rights advocates have challenged a 20-week ban on abortion in federal court – potentially setting the table for these restrictions to go before the supreme court.

North Carolina’s law bans abortions after 20 weeks except in a medical emergency where a woman’s condition is so grave that she requires an abortion immediately. That is stricter than other 20-week bans, which have health exceptions but don’t require there to be a medical emergency. ...

In their lawsuit, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights argue that the language essentially forces women having an abortion for health reasons to wait until she becomes gravely ill.

Teen becomes seventh 'faithless elector' to protest Trump as president-elect

Levi Guerra, 19, from Vancouver, Washington, is set to announce that she is joining the ranks of the so-called “Hamilton electors” at a press conference at the state capitol in Olympia on Wednesday.

The renegade group believes it is the responsibility of the 538 electors who make up the electoral college to show moral courage in preventing demagogues and other threats to the nation from gaining the keys to the White House, as the founding fathers intended. ...

Guerra is one of 12 electors in Washington state who on 19 December have been mandated to vote for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, as part of the electoral college. ... Instead of following the electoral college norm of voting for Clinton, Guerra will cast what is in effect a protest vote directed at Trump – she will write in an “alternative Republican” of a more moderate political stripe than the president-elect as a way of highlighting her deep fears about his presidency in the hope of encouraging Republican electors in red states to follow suit.

Guerra becomes the third electoral college member in Washington state to come out and proclaim they will break ranks with Clinton as part of a protest directed squarely at Trump. In addition, there are four electors from Colorado who have similarly pledged to vote against the Democratic grain as a statement that they see Trump as unfit for the nation’s highest office.

Should these seven electors go through with their pledge to vote against their state’s winning candidate when the electoral college convenes on 19 December, it would mark an outpouring of political disgust at the future president that is virtually unparalleled in electoral college history. The last time more than one elector broke ranks was in 1912, and only then because the Republican vice-presidential candidate, James Sherman, died before the vote was held.

Another data point demonstrating that the Democrats are not ready for change:

Nancy Pelosi re-elected as House minority leader

Nancy Pelosi has been re-elected as House minority leader on Wednesday, fending off an unexpected challenge from Ohio congressman Tim Ryan despite calls for new leadership following the Democrats’ crushing electoral defeat.

The party elected Pelosi, a progressive from San Francisco who has led her colleagues in the House since 2002, to another term in a closed-door vote on Wednesday. She earned 134 votes to Ryan’s 63.

An excellent article documenting Obama's toxic legacy and casual indifference to the well-being of people and the environment the world over. Here's a teaser:

Obama's dirty secret: the fossil fuel projects the US littered around the world

Seemingly little connects a community in India plagued by toxic water, a looming air pollution crisis in South Africa and a new fracking boom that is pockmarking Australia. And yet there is a common thread: American taxpayer money.

Through the US Export-Import Bank, Barack Obama’s administration has spent nearly $34bn supporting 70 fossil fuel projects around the world, work by Columbia Journalism School’s Energy and Environment Reporting Project and the Guardian has revealed. ...

Guardian and Columbia reporters have spent time at American-backed projects in India, South Africa and Australia to document the sickness, upheavals and environmental harm that come with huge dirty fuel developments.

In India, we heard complaints about coal ash blowing into villages, contaminated water and respiratory and stomach problems, all linked to a project that has had more than $650m in backing from the Obama administration.

In South Africa, another huge project is set to exacerbate existing air pollution problems, deforestation and water shortages. And in Australia, an enormous US-backed gas development is linked to a glut of fracking activity that has divided communities and brought a new wave of industrialization next to the cherished Great Barrier Reef.

While Obama can claim the US is the world’s leader on climate change – at least until Donald Trump enters the White House – it is also clear that it has become a major funder of fossil fuels that are having a serious impact upon people’s lives.

Cornel West: I Am Heading to Standing Rock to Show Solidarity With Historic Indigenous Uprising

Climate change will stir 'unimaginable' refugee crisis, says military

Climate change is set to cause a refugee crisis of “unimaginable scale”, according to senior military figures, who warn that global warming is the greatest security threat of the 21st century and that mass migration will become the “new normal”

The generals said the impacts of climate change were already factors in the conflicts driving a current crisis of migration into Europe, having been linked to the Arab Spring, the war in Syria and the Boko Haram terrorist insurgency.

Military leaders have long warned that global warming could multiply and accelerate security threats around the world by provoking conflicts and migration. They are now warning that immediate action is required. ...

Brig Gen Stephen Cheney, a member of the US Department of State’s foreign affairs policy board and CEO of the American Security Project, said: “Climate change could lead to a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. We’re already seeing migration of large numbers of people around the world because of food scarcity, water insecurity and extreme weather, and this is set to become the new normal. ...

After Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, won the US presidential election in November, Cheney said he expected senior military officials to impress upon Trump the grave threat posed to national security by global warming. “I’ve got to believe there are enough folks on the national security side that we can make a dent in this.”

Goodbye Grasslands. Goodbye Birds. Goodbye Carbon Sink.

Much attention has been given to the deforestation in the Amazon and the environmental impacts that go with it.

But in 2014, the American Great Plains—an area stretching from Texas into Canada—actually lost more acreage of grasslands than Brazil lost to deforestation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says. In fact, said Martha Kauffman, WWF's managing director of the Northern Great Plains program, "America's Great Plains are being plowed under at an alarming rate."

Putting a spotlight on the regional trend, a new report from the organization finds that since 2009, an area the size of Kansas—53 million acres—has been converted from grasslands to annual crop planting like corn and soy. In 2015, 3.7 million acres were lost. Between 2009 and 2015, the first annual Plowprint Report finds, the average rate of grassland loss was 2 percent.

And with this loss come threats to the biodiversity the grasslands hold and attacks on their functions as much-needed carbon sinks and water filters.

Birds, being "highly sensitive to landscape changes," serve as bellwethers for ecosystem health, so the loss of grassland birds, which all nest on the ground, bodes ill.

According to the report, "Grassland birds, as a group, have experienced the steepest decline of all North American birds." Four key grassland bird species, including McCown's Longspur, the publication says, have declined as much as 80 percent since the 1960s, with grasslands loss playing "a major role." ...

And, according to the report, the "plow-up" ushered the release of 3.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were released into the atmosphere. That's the equivalent of about 670 million extra cars on the road.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Attention all journalists: US border patrol agents can search your phones

Official Washington’s ‘Info-Wars’

Washington Post Reporter Doubles Down, Spreads Blacklist of Independent Journalist Sites

Fascism with a Democratic Party Face

A Mother’s Appeal to the Supreme Court: “I Had to Fight to Stay in the Country for My Children”

Should we even go there? Historians on comparing fascism to Trumpism

Why the stock market’s failure to launch after the OPEC deal is ‘ominous’

Venice's black enclave buffeted by police pressure and tech-driven gentrification

Australian students recreate Martin Shkreli price-hike drug in school lab

What does a Treasury secretary do?

A Little Night Music

Garnet Mimms - As Long As I Have You

Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters - Cry Baby

Garnett Mimms - For Your Precious Love

Garnet Mimms - A Quiet Place

Garnet Mimms - Looking For You

Garnet Mimms - There goes my baby

Garnet Mimms - Prove It To Me

Garnet Mimms - A Little Bit Of Soap

Garnet Mimms - The Truth Hurts

Garnet Mimms - My Baby

Garnet Mimms - Tell Me Baby

Garnet Mimms - So Close

Garnet Mimms - Nobody but you

Garnet Mimms - Look Away