Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early blues singer Beulah "Sippie" Wallace. Enjoy!

“America is Troy. Trump is a Trojan Horse.”

-- A.K. Kuykendall

News and Opinion

Americans Should Be Very Skeptical Of Calls For New “Terrorism” Laws

Two mass shootings have rocked the United States in less than 24 hours, leaving dozens dead and many more wounded. The first in El Paso, Texas was allegedly perpetrated by a white supremacist whose racist motives are outlined in a rambling “manifesto”, the second allegedly by a self-described “leftist” whose motives, like the 2017 Las Vegas shooter, are presently unknown. These incidents occurred a week after another mass shooting in Gilroy, California.

All the usual US gun control debates have of course reignited, which is understandable. Alongside this debate, however, we are seeing another, far more pernicious agenda being raised that I would like to address here. In an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, notorious liar and propagandist Malcolm Nance claimed that existing laws aren’t sufficient for prosecuting the El Paso shooter, because there are no laws designating his act of mass murder as “domestic terrorism”.

“I think that Congress needs to take up right away a series of domestic terrorism laws,” Nance said. “It’d be very simple: just match them to the words ‘international terrorism’, so that a member of al-Qaeda and a member of a white nationalist terrorist cell or a militia that thinks they’re going to carry out international acts of terrorism are equal all the way around. Right now there are no laws called ‘domestic terrorism law’. They can get you for firearms, they get you for hate crimes, but you are not treated as a terrorist. This act in El Paso was clearly by all definitions a terrorist attack in the United States, but of course by the nature of the person being white and American he can’t be treated like a member of ISIS or al-Qaeda. He can’t even be detained, he can only be treated as a murderer.”

(The accused, for the record, is in fact under arrest currently, and prosecutors say that they are treating it as a domestic terrorism case for which they are seeking the death penalty. This is in Texas, so he’ll be dead before the next Fast & Furious movie. Nance’s notion that prosecutors’ hands are somehow tied here is silly.)

Years of misguided alarmism over "Islamic terrorism" resulted in the erosion of civil liberties, militarization of police, and a host of other bad outcomes. Applying the same alarmist logic to "white nationalist terrorism" is likely to produce a host of similarly bad outcomes

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 4, 2019

Political commentary is flooded with the word “terrorism” today. People are demanding that the El Paso shooter in particular and white supremacists in general be labeled terrorists by the narrative-making commentariat, and you know what? I totally get it. The push since 9/11 to tar Muslims as “terrorists” has been extremely obnoxious and fueled by hate and bigotry, so it makes sense for progressive-minded people to push for the egalitarian usage of that term. But before doing so, please reflect on what lessons we learned from the post-9/11 “Islamic terrorism” scare. ...

“I am telling you now that the government will use the violence that Trump himself has rallied as an excuse for more militarization, more surveillance, more violations of civil liberties — and a lot of people are going to welcome these things because they are afraid,” tweeted Truthout’s Kelly Hayes. “I’m not guessing or being creative here. This is about having a sense of history and a sense of how these systems function in the present. I would love to be wrong. I would celebrate being wrong. But I’m not.” ...

Indeed, it is an established fact that the US government will use the narrative about the need to fight terrorism to advance pre-existing agendas. The first draft of the massive USA Patriot Act was introduced a week after the 9/11 attacks, far too fast for anyone to have gathered the necessary information from all the relevant government bodies about what changes were necessary and typed out the hundreds of pages of the bill. Legislators later admitted that they didn’t even have time to read through the densely worded bill before passing it the next month, so to believe that it could have been written in a week would be childish.

In 2011 then-Congressman Ron Paul told Politico that “the Patriot Act was written many, many years before 9/11,” adding that the attacks simply provided “an opportunity for some people to do what they wanted to do.” Paul was serving in Congress when the Patriot Act was passed. The Act has since been used to erode human rights at home and abroad by destroying Fourth Amendment protections and legalizing Orwellian surveillance, and it’s safe to assume that the opaque and unaccountable government agencies who were greatly empowered by it had already wanted this to happen.

El Paso Shooting Probed as Domestic Terrorism After Anti-Immigrant Gunman Kills 20 People

FBI faces skepticism over its anti-domestic terror efforts

The FBI insists it is fully engaged in combating the threat of violence from white supremacists, but some former federal officials charge that the government is still coming up short in the face of a strain of American terrorism that now seems resurgent. The weekend massacre at a Walmart in El Paso has focused public debate once again on the issue, after federal prosecutors called it an act of domestic terrorism. ...

"Our focus is on the violence," FBI Director Christopher Wray insisted at a congressional hearing two weeks ago. "We, the FBI, don't investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant. . . . When it turns to violence, we're all over it." That poses particular challenges in the world of white supremacists, who often do not belong to specific groups but find congregations of similar-minded people online, and feed each other's anger and hate.

That general lack of centralized groups or leaders among many white supremacists presents legal challenges to investigators, according to law enforcement officials. And in some cases, it shortens the time period from which a person may adopt extremist views and then commit violence - what terrorism investigators call the "flash to bang."

"The current racially motivated violent extremist threat is decentralized and primarily characterized by lone actors," Michael McGarrity, an FBI assistant director, told lawmakers at a hearing in June. So far, that appears to be the case for the accused gunman in El Paso, who investigators believe wrote a screed before his attack professing admiration for other white supremacist killers. Detectives have not yet found evidence indicating he was part of a larger group of conspirators, though they are still investigating. ...

Dave Gomez, a former FBI supervisor who oversaw terrorism cases, said he thinks FBI officials are wary of pursuing white nationalists aggressively because of the fierce political debates surrounding the issue. "I believe Christopher A. Wray is an honorable man, but I think in many ways the FBI is hamstrung in trying to investigate the white supremacist movement like the old FBI would," Gomez said. "There's some reluctance among agents to bring forth an investigation that targets what the president perceives as his base. It's a no-win situation for the FBI agent or supervisor."

Ex-FBI Agent Speaks Out: Federal Authorities Have Downplayed White Supremacist Violence for Too Long

So, this is obviously not an incitement. Gosh, what could it be?

Trump Just Stooped to a New Low in His War with Elijah Cummings

Trump just can’t stop ragging on Elijah Cummings. The Maryland congressman’s latest transgression? Having the audacity to be … the victim of a break-in.

The Baltimore Police Department reported late Thursday that detectives are investigating a break-in that took place at the senior congressman’s Madison Avenue home last Saturday morning. Though it’s not known if there was any property taken or if Cummings was home at the time, the seriousness of the situation didn’t stop the president of the United States from chiming in with his signature brand of apathy.

“Really bad news!” Trump tweeted Friday morning. “The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!”

Mr. President, can you think of ANY reason the El Paso shooter might have railed against an "invasion" of migrants in his manifesto?

Oh.#ElPasoShooting #gunreformnow #domesticterrorism pic.twitter.com/m0Uh2p8H0K

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 4, 2019

Words matter. #gunreformnow #guncontrolnow #elpasoshooter #domesticterrorism #massshooting #elpasostrong pic.twitter.com/4u0cj2RqjO

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 4, 2019

After El Paso, We Can No Longer Ignore Trump’s Role in Inspiring Mass Shootings

On Saturday morning, a gunman at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, shot and killed at least 20 people before surrendering to the police. By all accounts, Patrick Crusius, the 21-year-old alleged shooter, is a fan of President Donald Trump and his policies. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a “Twitter account bearing the suspect’s name contains liked tweets that include a ‘BuildTheWall’ hashtag, a photo using guns to spell out ‘Trump,'” and more. Incredibly, the nation woke up to more grim news on Sunday, with reports that a man suited up in body armor and bearing a rifle with high-capacity magazines had carried out a rampage in Dayton, Ohio, killing at least nine people and injuring 26. ...

A four-page manifesto authorities believe was written by Crusius and posted shortly before the El Paso attack is full of the kind of hateful rhetoric and ideas that have flourished under Trump. The manifesto declares the imminent attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion,” accuses Democrats of “pandering to the Hispanic voting bloc,” rails against “traitors,” and condemns “race mixing” and “interracial unions.” “Yet another reason to send them back,” it says. ...

That there could be a link between the attacker and the president should come as no surprise. But it might. Over the past four years, both mainstream media organizations and leading Democrats have failed to draw a clear line between Trump’s racist rhetoric and the steadily multiplying acts of domestic terror across the United States. Some of us tried to sound the alarm — but to no avail. ... Let’s be clear: In an age of rising domestic terrorism cases — the majority of which are motivated by “white supremacist violence,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray — Trump is nothing less than a threat to our collective security. More and more commentators now refer, for example, to the phenomenon of “stochastic terrorism” — originally defined by an anonymous blogger back in 2011 as “the use of mass communications to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.” ...

On Tuesday, just days before this latest act of terror in El Paso, the leaders of the Washington National Cathedral issued a scathing, and startlingly prescient, rebuke of Trump:

Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.

These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover, to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America. They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.

Thanks to his hate-filled rhetoric, his relentless incitement of violence, and his refusal to acknowledge the surge in white nationalist terrorism, the president poses a clear and present danger to the people, and especially the minorities, of the United States.

"Our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy," says Trump

Video games aren’t causing mass shootings, white supremacy is.

Sadly the GOP refuse to acknowledge that, bc their strategy relies on rallying a white supremacist base.

That‘s why the President hosts stadiums of people chanting “send her back”& targets Congress-members of color. https://t.co/8F51h46bOO

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 4, 2019

Far-Right Extremists Are Threatening to Burn Down German Kindergartens for Taking Pork Off Their Menus

Two kindergartens in the German city of Leipzig have been receiving death and arson threats after they announced plans to remove pork from their menus out of consideration for Muslim children.

Far-right extremists seized on the proposed menu changes, targeting staff with violent threats and railing against the kindergartens on social media, turning the administrative decision into a national talking point.

The incident, which saw the kindergartens placed under police guard for their safety, is the latest striking illustration of how unhinged the debate around immigration, identity and Islam has become in Germany under the influence of far-right agitators.

Despite briefing by Julian Assange’s lawyer, Australian politicians still refuse to defend him

This week has provided an important experience for those hoping that stepped-up lobbying of parliamentary leaders would produce a shift in the Australian establishment’s refusal to oppose the US-led persecution of Julian Assange, an Australian citizen. On Wednesday, Assange’s London-based lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, had meetings in Canberra with politicians, including a “working dinner” with Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese. It followed a 10-minute private meeting the previous week between Albanese and Assange’s father, John Shipton.

Inside parliament house, Robinson gave a detailed briefing to about 30 members of parliament and staff members, explaining in the clearest possible terms what is at stake for media freedom and democratic rights in the Trump administration’s Espionage Act charges against the WikiLeaks founder. The briefing reportedly included MPs from the ruling Liberal-National Coalition, as well as Labor, Greens and “crossbenchers.”

This week’s intensive efforts in Canberra, however, failed to convince any of the politicians to oppose the Trump administration’s application to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to face charges that could see him jailed for life, or even executed, for revealing US crimes. ...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office informed the media on Wednesday that he would not raise the issue of Assange when he hosts US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mike Esper at annual Australia-United States Ministerial (Ausmin) talks in Sydney this weekend.

Iran claims it has seized third oil tanker in Gulf as tensions with US rise

Iran claims it has seized a third foreign oil tanker in the Gulf in a further escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington and its regional allies, who continue to stare each other down over crippling economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

Iranian state media claimed the tanker was Iraqi and was seized on Wednesday in a northern part of the strait of Hormuz with a cargo of 700,000 litres of oil bound for neighbouring Arab states. ...

Global shipping companies had not reported a tanker missing in the Gulf, in contrast to the furore that surrounded Iran’s seizure of the British-flagged ship Stena Impero last month, or the explosions that hulled four other tankers in the weeks before. Iranian-backed television in Lebanon broadcast footage of what it claimed was the latest seizure. Tehran and Baghdad maintain a close relationship and the implications of an Iraqi ship being seized by an ally were not immediately clear. The tanker shown in the footage was smaller than those caught up in earlier attacks. The claims could not be independently verified.

Relative calm in Idlib on third day of ceasefire

There has been relative calm in northwest Syria on the third day of a conditional ceasefire.

It comes after a truce was brokered during peace talks in Kazakhstan, following weeks of air strikes and bloodshed in Idlib province, the last remaining rebel-held area.

But the most powerful rebel group Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham says it does not want to withdraw 20 kilometres, although it accepts the ceasefire.

Knot this time: Israel confiscates Gaza shoes claiming they're for 'terrorist' purposes

The Israeli military was mocked on social media after announcing that it had foiled a "terror" operation by confiscating boots headed for Gaza. The unbranded boots, which Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) claimed were "military shoes", were in a shipment of other goods entering the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military thinks Palestinians having shoes is a security threat.... https://t.co/fqrbmD37CO

— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) August 2, 2019

Pentagon Chief Wants More Missiles in Asia

Interested in taking advantage of the US withdrawing from the
Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty last week,Defense Secretary
Mark Esper told reporters he is very interested in putting some intermediate-range nuclear weapons into Asia in the months ahead.

Esper conceded that there was no specific timetable for such deployments, and that they “tend to take longer than you expect.” The Pentagon is moving to develop new post-INF missiles, but may choose to go with designs from before the 1987 treaty went into effect, just to get more nukes into Asia.

Reporters were quick to point out that China would object to this, but Esper said he didn’t see it likely to lead to an arms race, and that he believed adding a bunch of additional land-based missiles would “deter China.”

When Trump turns up the heat on trade, Americans will feel it too

The timing could not be better. On 1 September 1939, German troops crossed the border into Poland, triggering the start of the second world war. Eighty years to the day later, on 1 September 2019, Donald Trump plans to impose a 10% tariff on a fresh range of Chinese imports into the US. If that happens, it will mark the moment when trade’s cold war turns hot.

Make no mistake, the unexpected announcement threatens to have serious consequences. Up until now, the Chinese goods targeted for tariffs have been carefully selected to avoid hurting consumers. That is no longer the case. From next month, almost everything China sends to the US will be affected. In bald terms, that means Americans are going to be paying more for their smartphones, laptops and clothes. Trump boasts that the US is going to be “taxing the hell out of China” but he has got the economics completely wrong. The taxes will be paid by Americans faced with paying more for imports.

With less than 18 months to go before the culmination of the 2020 presidential election race, this is a strategy fraught with risk. ... The US president is also using the threat of a full-blown protectionist standoff between the world’s two biggest economies to bully the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, into further cuts in interest rates. Global tensions were top of the Fed’s list of concerns when it announced a quarter-point cut in official borrowing costs last week. Those tensions have just got a whole lot worse.

Trump also thinks that he will be able to squeeze more trade concessions out of the European Union if he can bring China to heel. Germany – particularly its car industry – has been served notice by the president that it is next. But the strategy relies on Beijing buckling, something that it has yet to do. China’s initial response to Trump’s announcement – that this is not the way to negotiate – signals that Xi is prepared to play the long game.

The GOP Is Flipping Out That Will Hurd and Other Moderates Are Suddenly Retiring

Republicans are reeling from Texas Rep. Will Hurd’s decision to retire — and worried he won’t be the last, as GOP House members frustrated with their newfound minority status decide to call it quits. Hurd, the only black GOP member of the House and one of the few moderates left who’s been willing to take on President Trump, announced Thursday night that he was done with the House.

The announcement sent shockwaves through a conference already staggering from a slew of other recent retirements, including two of the 13 remaining female GOP members. The House Republican conference is getting even whiter and more male-dominated, thinner in the suburbs — and even further from retaking the majority. Hurd is the ninth Republican who’s decided to retire, the sixth in just the last two weeks, the third Texan after Reps. Pete Olson and Mike Conaway, and one of four members in potentially competitive districts. ...

“This is devastating news for House Republicans,” said former Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a close ally of Hurd’s and fellow moderate who lost a tough election battle last year. ... “We are on a path to have one party for older, white Americans and then another party for people of color and immigrants. That's not healthy for any country,” said Curbelo. “It’s a shitty time.”

Tulsi Destroys Kamala & Kamala Blames Russia!

Sanders backs Warren after Liz Cheney attacks 'no first use' nuclear policy

Bernie Sanders has defended his rival for the Democratic presidential 2020 nomination, Elizabeth Warren, after her policy against pre-emptive use of America’s nuclear weapons was attacked by the daughter of one of the architects of the Iraq war.

Warren reiterated her support for a “no first use” policy on nuclear weapons during the second round of Democratic presidential debates this week. “It makes the world safer,” the Massachusetts senator said during the debate. “The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively, and we need to say so to the entire world.”

Liz Cheney, a Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, attacked Warren’s policy on Twitter, asking “which American cities and how many American citizens are you willing to sacrifice with your policy of forcing the US to absorb a nuclear attack before we can strike back?” Cheney is the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, a key advocate of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies.

Taking national security advice from a Cheney has already caused irreparable damage to our country. We don't need any more, thanks. https://t.co/pHr5TM9UgX

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 2, 2019

Bernie Sanders Dominates as Analyses of Fundraising Data Show Vermont Senator With Widespread Support Across Nation

Individual donors to Democratic candidates for the party's 2020 presidential nomination overwhelmingly gave to Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to analyses released Friday.

The New York Times, in a map produced by the paper's reporters, found that Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, dominates most of the country as the primary or secondary recipient of nearly all donations from Americans in all states—though his support is strongest in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the eastern Great Plains, and the West.

The movement is so strong that NYT has to create a separate map that excludes @BernieSanders from it.https://t.co/59pjjZjSsl

— Faiz (@fshakir) August 2, 2019

Wow! pic.twitter.com/yromOGGFoQ

— Windy Dane (@WindyDane) August 2, 2019

The L.A. Times went into further detail in a piece which allows readers to zero in on their zip codes for hard numbers. The Wall Street Journal showed who had the most small dollar donations across the country (unsurprisingly, the majority of the country went to Sanders in that regard).

Union Leaders Rebuke Centrist Democrats for Claiming Medicare for All Would Harm Workers

Leaders of some of America's largest labor unions are speaking out against centrist Democratic presidential candidates who, in an effort to undercut Medicare for All, are pitting unionized workers against millions of uninsured Americans. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), and former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) have each argued in recent days that Medicare for All would undo the hard-won collective bargaining gains of unions by replacing employer-sponsored health insurance with a single-payer program.

As Common Dreams reported last month, the Biden campaign released an ad featuring a retired union worker named Marcy, who said she "earned" her private insurance and wants to keep it. Ryan and Delaney echoed the message of Biden's ad during the Democratic presidential debate in Detroit on Wednesday, accusing Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) of throwing union workers under the bus by backing Medicare for All.

"We have all our union friends here tonight," said Ryan. "This plan that's being offered by Senator Warren and Senator Sanders will tell those union members who gave away wages in order to get good healthcare that they're going to lose their healthcare because Washington's going to come in and tell them they got a better plan."

HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson said Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Mary Kay Henry seemed "genuinely angered" when asked about the argument that Medicare for All would hurt union workers. "I think it's a false choice," said Henry, "and I really resent the 16 million workers who joined together and bargained for better health plans being pitted against millions of Americans struggling to get healthcare coverage."

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Vox that she found Ryan's argument "offensive."

Democratic opponents of Medicare for All neglected to mention the fact that National Nurses United (NNU), America's largest nurses union, is leading the grassroots organizing for single-payer across the country. NNU tweeted during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night that "Medicare for All would put money back into union members' pockets in the form of wages and other benefits."

"That's why major unions representing millions of workers in the U.S. are in this fight," said NNU.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who herself has voiced frustration with fellow Democrats' misleading attacks on Medicare for All, thanked union leaders for "pushing back on these falsehoods" in a tweet on Thursday. While some prominent unions—most recently the International Association of Fire Fighters, which endorsed Biden for president—have expressed opposition to Medicare for All, more than 20 unions representing over 10 million workers have endorsed Jayapal's Medicare for All legislation, including the American Federation of Teachers, the United Automobile Workers, and the United Mine Workers of America.

Drastic Changes to Food Production and Consumption Needed to Save Planet From Catastrophic Warming, IPCC Reveals

When some of the world's top scientists conclude an international summit in Geneva next week, they are expected to call for a major shift to vegetarian diets around the world in order to keep the warming of the globe under 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Simply focusing on reducing or eliminating carbon emissions from fossil fuel industries, factories, and vehicles will not be enough to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to a leaked draft of the report out of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summit.

Humans will also need to significantly change how food is produced and consumed, the draft says, according to The Guardian.

"We are now getting very close to some dangerous tipping points in the behavior of the climate—but as this latest leaked report of the IPCC's work reveals, it is going to be very difficult to achieve the cuts we need to make to prevent that happening," Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, told The Guardian in response to the leaked report. Agriculture and other land uses now account for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, while half of the methane emissions in the atmosphere are released from cattle and rice fields. Nearly a quarter of the world's land is now taken up by humans and their endeavors supporting the growing population and developing and maintaining food systems.

More on the forthcoming IPCC report:

We must change food production to save the world, says leaked report

Attempts to solve the climate crisis by cutting carbon emissions from only cars, factories and power plants are doomed to failure, scientists will warn this week. ...

The impact of intensive agriculture – which has helped the world’s population soar from 1.9 billion a century ago to 7.7 billion – has also increased soil erosion and reduced amounts of organic material in the ground. In future these problems are likely to get worse. “Climate change exacerbates land degradation through increases in rainfall intensity, flooding, drought frequency and severity, heat stress, wind, sea-level rise and wave action,” the report states.

It is a bleak analysis of the dangers ahead and comes when rising greenhouse gas emissions have made news after triggering a range of severe meteorological events. These include news that:

• Arctic sea-ice coverage reached near record lows for July;

• The heatwaves that hit Europe last month were between 1.5C and 3C higher because of climate change;

• Global temperatures for July were 1.2C above pre-industrial levels for the month.

This last figure is particularly alarming, as the IPCC has warned that rises greater than 1.5C risk triggering climatic destabilisation while those higher than 2C make such events even more likely. “We are now getting very close to some dangerous tipping points in the behaviour of the climate – but as this latest leaked report of the IPCC’s work reveals, it is going to be very difficult to achieve the cuts we need to make to prevent that happening,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Indigenous Groups Applaud Protection of Grizzly Bear as Liz Cheney Claims Rule Harms 'Western Way of Life'

Native tribes and their supporters on Friday defended their push for the continued inclusion of the grizzly bear of Yellowstone National Park on the endangered species list, after Rep. Liz Cheney claimed the protection of the bear violates the "Western way of life." The bear was officially returned to the list created by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Tuesday, nearly a year after a federal judge found that the Trump administration had exceeded its authority when it attempted to remove the species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sought to allow trophy hunters to shoot the Yellowstone bears, whose population in the park is just over 700, and to open up the public lands for fossil fuel industries. Native tribes including the Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes joined with the Humane Society and Wildearth Guardians to fight the administration.

When the bear was officially returned to the list this week, Wyoming Republican Cheney claimed that the so-called "radical" groups were "intent on destroying our Western way of life" and had pushed for a rule that was "needless and harmful to the ecosystem."

The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council (RMTLC), which testified at a congressional hearing in May on the Tribal Heritage and Grizzly Bear Protection Act, took issue with Cheney's suggestion that hunters and oil companies' desire to profit off the demise of the grizzly bear trumps the heritage of native tribes and the need for biodiversity. "So, in striving to protect our culture, our religious and spiritual freedoms, our sovereignty, and our treaty rights—all of which are encapsulated in the grizzly issue—we are 'destroying' Cheney's idea of the 'Western way of life'?" Tom Rodgers, senior adviser to the RMTLC, told Native News Online.

"I would remind the congresswoman that at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition an estimated 100,000 grizzly bears roamed from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast," he added. "That was all Indian Country. Now there are fewer than 2,000 grizzly bears and our people live in Third World conditions on meager reservations in the poorest counties in the U.S. Does she really want to talk about 'destroying' a 'way of life'?" asked Rodgers.

Liz Cheney is very upset that the people whose land was taken have interfered with the people who took the land. https://t.co/3fdDBo2MXA

— Bill Prady (@billprady) August 2, 2019

As Native News Online reported, the USFWS worked closely with the fossil fuel services company Amec Wheeler Foster—whose CEO is a former executive of Halliburton, the multinational company whose Cheney's father led in the 1990s—to conduct a peer review of its proposed rule de-listing the bear. "That puts 'harmful to the ecosystem' into its true context," Rodgers told the outlet.

This Terrifying Video Shows Just How Bad the Ice Melt Has Gotten in Greenland

Remember that massive heat wave that ripped through Europe? Well, now it’s over Greenland and melting billions of tons of ice. Greenland’s surface is usually 82% ice, but right now a decent portion of that is slush. July has been exceptionally hot, and the Danish territory’s ice sheet has been melting at near-record rates.

More than 10 billion tons of ice melted on Wednesday alone, which brought the monthly total to 217 billion tons, Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute, told the Associated Press. And it will likely get worse. “It looks like the peak will be today,” Mottram said Thursday. “But the long-term forecast is for continuing warm and sunny weather in Greenland, so that means the amount of the ice loss will continue.”

According to the AP, about 110 billion tons of ice melt equals 0.01 inches in global sea-level rise. So Greenland’s July ice melt corresponds to global sea levels rising nearly 0.02 inches.

This is a roaring glacial melt, under the bridge to Kangerlussiauq, Greenland where it's 22C today and Danish officials say 12 billions tons of ice melted in 24 hours, yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Rl2odG4xWj

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 1, 2019

Much of the ice will refreeze, but some will be lost for good. Over time, that has a very real effect on sea levels. It’s projected that by 2100 Greenland’s accelerated ice loss will add anywhere between 2 and 13 inches of water to earth’s oceans.

Also of Interest

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

Why The End Of The INF Treaty Will Not Start A New Arms Race

As Trump Fans the Flames of Anti-Abortion Rhetoric, Kansas Offers a Cautionary Tale

Pushing Out the Border: How the U.S. Is Waging a Global War on Migration

Iran’s Foreign Minister Was Invited to Meet Trump in the Oval Office

'Something resembling hell': how does the rest of the world view the UK?

Bernie, It’s Time to Audit the New York Fed

New UK trade minister Liz Truss had private talks in US with libertarian groups

Why the Arctic Fires Are So Bad for the Planet

This US heartland has been flooded for five months. Does anyone care?

WaPo Publishes Gabbard Smear Piece Filled With Blatant Lies

Another 'Russian puppet': Tulsi Gabbard's debate successes feed conspiracy theories

CNN’s Industry Spin Shows Need for Independent Debates

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff and Communications Director Will Depart Her Office

A Little Night Music

Sippie Wallace - The Flood Blues

Sippie Wallace - Buzz Me

Sippie Wallace - Women Be Wise

Sippie Wallace w/John Mayall - Shorty George

Sippie Wallace w/ Clarence Williams' Blue Five - Trouble Everywhere I Roam

Sippie Wallace - Murder Gonna Be My Crime

Sippie Wallace - Advice Blues

Sippie Wallace - I'm A Mighty Tight Woman

Sippie Wallace - A Man for Every Day in the Week

Sippie Wallace - Everybody Loves My Baby