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“The mystery of what happened to Easter Island’s civilization has haunted generations of writers and scientists.

There are no trees on Easter Island because the Easter Islanders cut them all down. They deforested their island in the building and transportation of those giant stone heads. In the process of deforesting the island, they also started a downward spiral that drove their civilization to collapse.

Easter Island serves as an object lesson for the interaction between an isolated, habitable environment and a civilization using that environment’s resources: they did it to themselves.

The parallel to our current situation on Earth seems clear. In his 2007 bestseller, Collapse , anthropologist Jared Diamond unpacked that parallel. His work explored the trajectories of a number of human civilizations that disappeared at the height of their vibrancy and power. Diamond’s examples included the Anasazi of the American southwest, the Maya, and the Norse colony on Greenland.

In each case, the civilization overshot the carrying capacity of its environment. Their populations grew as the society became ever more ingenious at extracting resources from its surroundings. Eventually, the limits to growth were hit. A short time after running into those limits, each civilization fell apart.”

-- Adam Frank

News and Opinion

Worth a full read:

Ecocide Should Be Recognized As a Crime Against Humanity, But We Can’t Wait for The Hague to Judge

As millions of workers and students filled city streets around the world last week, there was no shortage of bold and inventive protest signs. While many expressed broad concerns about the burning planet and an imperiled future, a number, like the CEO puppets, were unambiguous in their antagonism towards the fossil fuel industry and its political enablers. With the stakes of global heating intolerable, and the fanglessness of international climate agreements undeniable, it is little wonder that activists are calling for the major perpetrators of environmental decimation to be seen as guilty parties in mass atrocity, on a par with war crimes and genocide. The demand that ecocide — the decimation of ecosystems, humanity and non-human life — be prosecutable by The International Criminal Court has found renewed force in a climate movement increasingly unafraid to name its enemies. ... Efforts around the recognition of ecocide, spearheaded for decades by environmentalist lawyers and advocates like the late British barrister Polly Higgins, reflect the desire to see environmental degradation formally recognized as the highest order of atrocity. Equally, appeals to the ICC suggest an understandable (if Sisyphean) scramble to find an authority, some authority, capable of holding the fossil fuel industry and its state partners accountable. ...

When it comes to narratives about environmental degradation, the greatest lie of all is that people are not responsible. The second greatest lie is that people are equally responsible. Last year, the New York Times Magazine published an entire issue dedicated to one extended essay by novelist Nathaniel Rich. It was framed as a devastating and overdue exposure of how we could have prevented climate catastrophe in the 1980s, given available scientific understanding, but “we” did not. “All the facts were known, and nothing stood in our way,” wrote Rich. “Nothing, that is, except ourselves.” Rich’s story conveniently ignores the ferocious capitalist hierarchies, which decimate natural resources for profit, while state militaries and police forces help quash environmentalist and indigenous resistance — just think of the militarized police assaults and swathes of criminal charges faced by the Water Protectors who took a stand at Standing Rock.

“It’s hard to think of a problem more widely attributed to ‘abstract entities’ than global warming, allegedly the product of some unquenchable, ubiquitous human thirst for new stuff,” wrote Kate Aronoff in a recent, convincing Jacobin essay, which argued for trying fossil fuel executives for crimes against humanity, starting with with Rex Tillerson and other ExxonMobil executives, who knowingly covered up evidence of climate change devastation and reaped the profits. “We do all create demand for fossil fuels. But supply creates demand,” Aronoff wrote, adding, “In the case of the climate crisis, it’s the industry itself that is driving crimes against humanity, and states that are complicit in issuing everything from drilling and infrastructure permits to generous subsidies — $20 billion per year in the United States alone.” ...

As Genevieve Guenther, founder and director of digital activist group End Climate Silence, put it, “to think of climate change as something that we are doing, instead of something we are being prevented from undoing, perpetuates the very ideology of the fossil-fuel economy we’re trying to transform.” The threat of international criminal prosecution is thus meant to act as a deterrent and a threat to the most powerful drivers of ecocide, clearly delineating that there are nameable perpetrators to hold accountable. Whether the ICC would be willing or able to create material, deterring criminal justice consequences for fossil fuel executives and their in-pocket politicians is, however, another issue.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi says House is launching ‘official impeachment inquiry’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, acquiescing to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an election year clash between Congress and the commander in chief.

The probe centers on whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government for his reelection. Pelosi said such actions would mark a “betrayal of his oath of office” and declared: “No one is above the law.” ...

After more than two and one-half years of sharp Democratic criticism of Trump, the formal impeachment quest sets up the party’s most urgent and consequential confrontation with a president who thrives on combat — and injects deep uncertainty in the 2020 White House race. Trump has all but dared Democrats to take this step, confident that the specter of impeachment led by the opposition party would bolster his political support

Trump, who was meeting with world leaders at the United Nations, previewed his defense in an all-caps tweet: “PRESIDENTIAL HARRASSMENT!” ...

Ahead of Pelosi’s announcement, Trump authorized the release of a transcript of his call with Ukraine’s president, predicting it would show no evidence of wrongdoing. The transcript is to be made public on Wednesday.

“We’ve Reached Critical Mass”: Rep. Al Green on Pelosi Vow to Impeach Trump for “Dastardly Deeds”

Krystal Ball: Dems screw everything up on impeachment

Trump’s Ukraine Transcript Damn Sure Won't Be Enough to Stop the Impeachment Train

Democrats pressed forward with an impeachment even though they “never even saw the transcript” of the now-infamous call with Ukraine’s leader, President Trump fumed Tuesday. But that transcript marks just the tip of the impeachment iceberg, now that Democrats have gotten clearance to proceed with an official inquiry on the possibility of booting Trump out of office from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats will now set about combing through every inch of the scandal to build their case to the American public that this time Trump really has gone too far. That will mean hearings, witnesses, documents, subpoenas, legal briefs and heated arguments before judges about vexing Constitutional questions of the separation of powers.

Even Senate Republicans aren’t satisfied with Trump's offer to share the transcript. On Tuesday evening, in a rare show of bipartisanship, they joined with Democrats in unanimously asking for the release of the whistleblower's complaint, in order to better understand the scandal now engulfing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ...

Democrats want to hear from the whistleblower himself. And they may be able to do just that within days. House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff announced Tuesday that his panel is in touch with the whistleblower’s lawyer, and that the unnamed official could come forward to testify as soon as this week. ...

But House Dems want a lot more paperwork than just the transcript, now that an official impeachment inquiry is underway. They’ve also demanded six categories of documents from the State Department, including copies of any State Department correspondence mentioning Hunter Biden or Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and the names of any official who assisted with the July 25 call.

Billy Bragg: What the U.K. Supreme Court’s Historic Ruling Against Boris Johnson Means for Brexit

Boris Johnson flies back to face MPs' fury after court ruling

A humiliated Boris Johnson has been forced to cut short a set-piece visit to New York and fly back to face furious MPs, after his decision to shut down parliament was dramatically quashed by the supreme court. After Lady Hale delivered a crushing unanimous verdict in which she said Johnson’s advice to the Queen to suspend parliament was, “unlawful, void and of no effect”, the prime minister struck a defiant tone.

“Let’s be absolutely clear that we respect the judiciary in our country and we respect the court. I disagree profoundly with what they had to say,” he said, before pressing ahead with a planned speech on the business links between the UK and the US. But a No 10 source criticised the 11 supreme court judges, saying they had made “a serious mistake in extending its reach to these political matters.”

The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who travelled to Balmoral to formalise the decision to suspend parliament with the Queen, reportedly told colleagues on a cabinet conference call that the supreme court judgment was a “constitutional coup”.

Opposition MPs are determined to force Johnson to face questions in parliament, after the Speaker, John Bercow, announced from College Green in Westminster that the House of Commons would reconvene on Wednesday morning. Jeremy Corbyn was consulting with fellow opposition leaders on Tuesday evening about how to exert maximum pressure on the prime minister and ensure he cannot escape the legal obligation set out in the Benn bill to delay Brexit if he hasn’t passed a deal by 19 October.

Stephen Miles on War Fever for Iran

The Saudi FM seems to have a troubling knowledge of the limits of U.S. tolerance for Iran's continued existence.

US patience with Iran not inexhaustible, warns Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has said that US patience with Iran is not inexhaustible and warned that military options are still being considered following the attack on the Aramco oil facilities earlier this month. The Saudi foreign affairs minister, Adel al-Jubeir, also said the UN-commissioned report into the origins of the attack will be available fairly soon, and described the EU’s Monday statement ascribing responsibility to Iran as “very significant”.

His remarks suggest Saudi Arabia is still putting private pressure on Donald Trump’s administration not to limit his response to the 14 September attack to further sanctions and the deployment of additional troops to defend the oil facilities.

Jubeir said: “We want to mobilise international support, and we want to look at a whole list of options – diplomatic options, economic options and military options – and then make the decision.” Speaking on the margins of the UN general assembly in New York, he said: “This action will have consequences and Iran must know this.” He added: “When push comes to shove, there comes a point when even America’s patience runs out – and Iran must be aware of that.”

Half of EU countries refused to condemn Saudi rights abuses in UN vote

Only 15 of the European Union's 28 member states signed a UN statement condemning human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia on Monday. The joint statement, read out at the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva, criticised the Gulf kingdom over reports of torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and unfair trials, a follow-up to a statement made in March condemning Riyadh's treatment of women activists and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Among the 24 countries leading the censure of Saudi Arabia were the UK, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Peru. Notably, however, was the silence of 13 EU countries, including France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Greece, to sign the statement, which a leading human rights group described as "highly disappointing".

U.S. invokes state secrets privilege to block American journalist’s challenge to alleged spot on drone ‘kill list’

A U.S. judge Tuesday dismissed an American journalist’s lawsuit challenging his alleged placement on a “kill list” by U.S. authorities in Syria, after the Trump administration invoked the “state secrets” privilege to withhold sensitive national security information. U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of Washington, D.C., last year had opened the way for Bilal Abdul Kareem, a freelance journalist who grew up in New York, to seek answers in his civil case from the government and to try to clear his name after what he claims were five near-misses by U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

Collyer in June 2018 ruled that Abdul Kareem, who said he was mistaken for a militant because of his frequent contact with militants linked to al-Qaeda, was exercising his constitutional right to due process in court. But after talks between Abdul Kareem’s lawyers and U.S. authorities broke down, the government tapped the rarely invoked state secrets authority, saying Abdul Kareem sought information revealing “the existence and operational details of alleged military and intelligence activities directed at combating the terrorist threat to the United States.” In a 14-page opinion, Collyer said she was bound to agree, saying the government’s right to withhold information in such instances is “absolute.”

“What constitutional right is more essential than the right to due process before the government may take a life? While the answer may be none, federal courts possess limited authority to resolve questions presented in a lawsuit, even when they are alleged to involve constitutional rights. This is such a case,” Collyer wrote, adding, “Despite the serious nature of Plaintiff’s allegations, this Court must dismiss the action pursuant to the government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege.” ...

In a statement, Abdul Kareem’s attorneys said, “We are very disappointed in today’s decision,” which they said “renders the right to due process effectively meaningless for Mr. Kareem.”

“For the first time ever, a United States federal court ruled that the government may kill one of its citizens without providing him the information necessary to prove that he is being wrongly targeted and does not deserve to die,” attorney Tara J. Plochocki said. “The U.S. Government could have provided this information but chose not to and the Court found that the Government’s assertion of national security trumps his right not to be killed.”

Video of police beating protester sparks outrage in Hong Kong

A video showing Hong Kong police officers beating a man who had been attempting to protect young protesters has given rise to another wave of outrage at police.

Two widely shared videos filmed over the weekend show a man in a yellow high-vis vest laying on the ground while being repeatedly kicked and hit by a group of officers.

On Tuesday, members of “protect the children”, a group of middle-aged and elderly residents who try to act as human barriers between the police and protesters, said one of their group was the person being kicked in the videos, contradicting police claims that officers were only kicking a “yellow object”. ...

The videos have prompted outrage. The police suggested they were doctored and said officers were kicking a “yellow object” as opposed to a person, with Twitter users saying the video appeared to clearly show a human being lying on the ground.

A 'nightmare scenario' if Trump pulls US out of global postal union, agency warns

Donald Trump’s threat to pull the United States out of the global postal system could lead to a “nightmare scenario” of mail going undelivered, packages piling up and American stamps no longer being recognised abroad, the UN postal agency has warned.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has been holding an emergency meeting in Geneva to persuade Washington not to follow through on a threat to quit the agency, which sets rules to ensure mail gets delivered around the globe.

The Trump administration says it wants to charge other countries more than UPU rules now permit to have letters and packages delivered in the United States, arguing that the current system unfairly benefits China. It has set a deadline of next month for rates to be raised or it will quit.

“It is really a nightmare scenario,” the UPU’s secretary-general, Bishar Hussein, told a news conference, noting that no country had ever left since the agency was founded nearly 150 years ago. It now has 192 members. ... Were the United States to quit the UPU, US stamps would no longer be valid abroad, he said.

Google contract workers in Pittsburgh vote to form union

A group of Google contract workers in Pittsburgh voted to unionize on Tuesday, a historic development within the labor movement and a remarkable return to the city’s industrial roots.

About 90 tech workers who are employed by the Indian outsourcing firm HCL America, but work on Google projects at Google’s offices, will form a union with the United Steel Workers (USW), a labor union born in Pittsburgh.

The vote to unionize passed with 49 voting in favor of unionization and 24 voting against. The group of tech workers will organize under the name Pittsburgh Association of Tech Professionals (PATP).

The newly unionized workers are just a small portion of the temps, vendors and contractors (TVCs) who make up an enormous “shadow” workforce at Google, outnumbering direct Google employees by around 135,000 to 115,000. Contractors who spoke recently with the Guardian have complained of low pay, stingy time off, a lack of responsiveness from management and a constant sense of precariousness.

Robert Hunter, lyricist for Grateful Dead, dies at 78

Robert Hunter, the man behind the words for many of the Grateful Dead’s finest songs, has died at age 78. ...

“It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night,” Hunter’s family announced in a statement. “He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand. For his fans that have loved and supported him all these years, take comfort in knowing that his words are all around us, and in that way he is never truly gone. In this time of grief please celebrate him the way you all know how, by being together and listening to the music. Let there be songs to fill the air.”

Bernie Sanders Just Proposed the Campaign's Most Aggressive Wealth Tax

If millionaires and billionaires are squirming at the prospect of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax, wait until they get a look at what Sen. Bernie Sanders has in store for them. Warren has made a two-cent tax on every dollar earned over $50 million a signature campaign promise — so much so that two of her aides dressed up as a pair of pennies at the Polk County Steak Fry in Des Moines over the weekend.

Not to be outdone, Sanders’ presidential campaign released a wealth tax proposal Tuesday morning that goes even further than Warren’s. It may not be as easy to create a costume or catchphrase around, but it is pretty easy to understand.

Sanders’ plan includes the same 2 percent tax on every dollar earned over $50 million. But it would also include a lower wealth tax bracket as well, instituting a one-cent tax on every dollar earned over $32 million.

Warren’s plan would increase the levy only once, at the $1 billion income threshold, with a 3 percent tax on every dollar beyond that. But Sanders would institute a progressive tax structure: 3 percent from $250 to $500 million, 4 percent from $500 million to $1 billion, 5 percent from $1 to $2.5 billion, 6 percent from $2.5 to $5 billion, 7 percent from $5 to $10 billion, and 8 percent on wealth over $10 billion. ...

Sanders also enlisted the two economists who helped design Warren’s plan to review his. Berkeley University economics professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman wrote in a letter that a progressive wealth tax is the most direct tool to curb runaway wealth concentration.

“Senator Sanders' very progressive wealth tax on the top 0.1 percent wealthiest Americans is a crucial step in this direction. We estimate that Sanders’ wealth tax would raise $4.35 trillion over a decade and fully eliminate the gap between wealth growth for billionaires and wealth growth for the middle class,” they wrote.

A small handful of billionaires should not be able to accumulate more money than they could spend in 10 lifetimes while millions of Americans are living in poverty and dying because they can't afford health care.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 24, 2019

Everything That’s Wrong With Elizabeth Warren

I guess it's time to see how much of Jay Inslee's platform was pure, unadulterated hypocrisy.

After Climate-Focused 2020 Bid, Inslee Faces Indigenous Campaigners' Demand to End All Fossil Fuel Projects in Washington

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee won praise during his now-ended, five-month presidential campaign for setting the tone of the climate debate in the 2020 Democratic primary and forcing other candidates to propose bold climate action—but on Tuesday, indigenous residents of his own state demanded the governor make his commitment clear at home. Indigenous Protectors of the Salish Sea assembled in Olympia on Tuesday outside the Washington State Capitol—a building that stands on Nisqually tribal land—and called on Inslee to declare a climate emergency in the state and end all fossil fuel projects in the state.

Inslee is "breaking all of the treaties with Washington State Tribes by contributing to climate chaos that is causing the shallowing and warming of our rivers and estuaries which in turn is causing salmon populations to go into shock and die," the Indigenous Protectors for the Salish Sea said in a statement. The campaigners erected indigenous structures outside the capitol and announced they would not leave until Inslee met their demands and demonstrated commitment to honoring treaty agreements.

The group demanded that Inslee end numerous fossil fuel projects which are moving forward in Washington, including an 8-million gallon liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank in Tacoma, a methanol refinery in Kalama, the Par Pacific Tar Sands Expansion Project, the Puget Sound Pipeline Tar Sands Expansion Project, and the North Seattle Lateral Pipeline. ... The projects, his critics charge, run counter to Inslee's public image as a climate leader and violate the trust of Washington residents, especially indigenous people, placed in him when they voted him into office in 2012. ...

"As our governor," wrote the Indigenous Protectors in a letter to Inslee, "you bear the responsibility to uphold the supreme law of the land laid out in the treaties between the U.S. government, U.S. citizens, and Washington Treaty Tribes by deescalating the largest existential threat to all life—our current climate emergency, which is resulting in the displacement and cultural genocide of indigenous peoples around the globe."

Jane Goodall: Capitalism is not consistent with saving the planet

Tiny Island Nations Are Carbon-Shaming Everyone at the UN

The Bahamas, just pummeled by Hurricane Dorian a few weeks ago, pledged to get more ambitious about reducing its carbon emissions under the Paris Climate Accord during the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit on Monday, where countries were expected to announce new initiatives to fight climate change. So did Antigua and Barbuda. A total of 15 countries, including several low-lying island nations, committed to zero-out their carbon emissions by 2050. They’re following the lead of the Marshall Islands — which is sinking — after its pledge back in June.

But the world’s biggest emitters, namely the U.S. and China, stayed mum. All in all, 67 of the 185 countries who signed the Paris agreement have so far put out more-aggressive plans to reduce their emissions.

Many of the countries that upped their commitments are tiny, in terms of size and carbon footprint. Altogether, they’re responsible for only 6.9% of the world’s carbon emissions, according to data from the World Resources Institute. They’re hoping the larger emitters will take cues from them and cut their emissions.

The young activists who helped to organize the Global Youth Climate Strike, which brought 4 million people into the streets around the world on Friday, weren’t impressed.

“To say that I am disappointed in our world leaders would be an understatement,” 16-year-old climate striker Jonathan Palash-Mizner, who protested outside the U.N.’s Youth Climate Summit this weekend, told VICE News. “At this point, it has become clear that our democracy is failing us."

Macron suggests French climate protesters turn anger on Poland

California utility cuts off power to thousands amid wildfire threat

Thousands of people in northern California woke up on Tuesday without electricity after the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to try to prevent wildfires amid windy, dry and hot conditions. PG&E cut electrical service to 24,000 customers in three counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills on Monday evening, saying power would remain off until weather conditions improve. The utility said it might restore service briefly on Tuesday before it cuts it on Tuesday night.

Butte county is where a wildfire blamed on PG&E transmission lines killed 86 people last year and virtually leveled the town of Paradise. PG&E warned it might expand the precautionary outages on Tuesday to six additional counties if gusty winds and hot, dry weather continue.

Strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures were forecast in the state through Wednesday, and authorities issued an extreme fire danger warning for some areas. Red Flag warnings of fire danger were in effect on Tuesday north and east of San Francisco, and forecasters predict a brief burst of Santa Ana winds in southern California.

East and west of Los Angeles, nearly 90,000 Southern California Edison customers were advised they could be blacked out, but no Red Flag warnings were issued.

Days After Attacking California's Efforts to Reduce Emissions, Trump EPA Threatens State's Federal Funding Over Poor Air Quality

Days after it moved to rescind California's ability to strictly regulate vehicle emissions, the Trump administration threatened the state's federal funding over its high levels of air pollution. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler sent a letter (pdf) to state Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols on Tuesday saying the state could have federal highway funds withdrawn if it does not "dramatically reduce" its backlog of incomplete plans to address air pollution, saying California has "failed to carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act" and leaving it with "the worst air quality in the United States."

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was stunned by the administration's suggestion that the state has neglected to reduce its air pollution, considering President Donald Trump has spent months attacking the state for its strict emissions standards. "The White House has no interest in helping California comply with the Clean Air Act to improve the health and well-being of Californians," Newsom said in a statement Tuesday. "This letter is a threat of pure retaliation. While the White House tries to bully us and concoct new ways to make our air dirtier, California is defending our state's clean air laws from President Trump's attacks."

Wheeler's letter highlighted 82 areas in California which do not meet federal standards for air pollution, threatening public health for 34 million people who live in those regions. ...

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a timeline of the Trump administration's attacks on air quality, including requiring scientists to consider non-scientific information when advising on implementation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS); dissolving the Particulate Matter Review Panel, which had advised on air pollution reduction for decades; and replacing Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) members with a group led by an industry consultant.

"The chutzpah here is really something else," tweeted Ari Zevin, an attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity, noting that the state emission standards the administration attacked last week are a key component of the state's plan to meet NAAQS.

Under Trump, another critic tweeted, the EPA "is now just a political tool."

Some political observers have posited that the administration's ongoing attacks on California are rooted in Trump's anger over California's status as a blue state, whose 55 electoral votes went to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and are likely to go to Trump's opponent in 2020. The state is a leader in resisting the president's agenda, with a number of California cities refusing to cooperate with Trump's hardline anti-immigration policies as well as rejecting the president's anti-climate regulatory rollback.

Jair Bolsonaro says 'deceitful' media hyping Amazon wildfires

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a cantankerous and conspiratorial defense of his environmental record, blaming Emmanuel Macron and the “deceitful” media for hyping this year’s fires in the Amazon. In a combative 30-minute address to the UN general assembly, Bolsonaro denied – contrary to the evidence – that the world’s largest rainforest was “being devastated or consumed by fire, as the media deceitfully says”.

“Our Amazon is larger than the whole of western Europe and remains virtually untouched – proof that we are one of the countries that most protects the environment,” Bolsonaro claimed. “Our Amazon is larger than the whole of western Europe and remains virtually untouched – proof that we are one of the countries that most protects the environment,” Bolsonaro claimed.

About 17% of the Amazon has been destroyed over the last 50 years with some scientists fearing the rainforest could reach an irreversible tipping point if that rises to 20% or 25%. ...

At the heart of Bolsonaro’s speech – which Brazilian fact-checkers said contained nine falsehoods and five imprecise claims - was a lengthy counter-attack against domestic and international criticism of his highly controversial vision for the Amazon and Brazil’s indigenous communities.

Also of Interest

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

Candidates answer CFR's foreign policy questionnaire

The U.S. Dilemma in the Middle East Isn’t Really a Dilemma

Why the House Democratic Caucus Was Able to Move So Rapidly Toward Impeachment

Trump's phone call with Ukraine's president: read the full memorandum

Donald Trump denounces 'globalism' in nationalist address to UN

Bomb-Plotting American Soldier Linked to US-Backed Neo Nazis in Ukraine

Media Continue to Push Misinformation About Venezuela and Drug Trafficking

What Has Frightened Wall Street Banks from Lending in the Repo Market?

The verdict is in: Boris Johnson is a liar. And he should pay the price

‘Betrayal’: U.N. Climate Summit Falls Short of Greta Thunberg’s Demands

Revealed: how the FBI targeted environmental activists in domestic terror investigations

Hikers, Trump, and the Capitalist Conspiracy to Ruin Public Lands

A Little Night Music

Coleman Hawkins - Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho

Coleman Hawkins - Midnight Blues

Henry Allen, Coleman Hawkins - The River's Takin' Care of Me

Coleman Hawkins with the Red Garland Trio - Red Beans

Coleman Hawkins - Soul Blues

Coleman Hawkins & His All-Star Jam Band w/Django Reinhardt - Honeysuckle Rose

Coleman Hawkins - Watermelon Man

Coleman Hawkins / Ben Webster - Blues For Yolande

Coleman Hawkins - Blue Lights

Coleman Hawkins Quintet – Disorder At The Border