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"An oligarchy of private capital cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society because under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information."

-- Albert Einstein

News and Opinion

Chris Hedges asks the question that all progressives should be asking themselves right now, "what will we do if the oligarchs in the Democratic Party once again steal the nomination from Sanders?"

The Democrat Party is clearly plotting the theft. Progressives should offer them a preview of what will happen to them if they try to pull it off.

Class: The Little Word the Elites Want You to Forget

Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx grounded their philosophies in the understanding that there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the rest of us. The interests of the rich are not our interests. The truths of the rich are not our truths. The lives of the rich are not our lives. Great wealth not only breeds contempt for those who do not have it but it empowers oligarchs to pay armies of lawyers, publicists, politicians, judges, academics and journalists to censure and control public debate and stifle dissent. Neoliberalism, deindustrialization, the destruction of labor unions, slashing and even eliminating the taxes of the rich and corporations, free trade, globalization, the surveillance state, endless war and austerity—the ideologies or tools used by the oligarchs to further their own interests — are presented to the public as natural law, the mechanisms for social and economic progress, even as the oligarchs dynamite the foundations of a liberal democracy and exacerbate a climate crisis that threatens to extinguish human life. ...

There are few substantial differences between the two ruling political parties in the United States. This is why oligarchs like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg can switch effortlessly from one party to the other. Once oligarchs seize power, Aristotle wrote, a society must either accept tyranny or choose revolution.

The United States stood on the cusp of revolution—a fact President Franklin Roosevelt acknowledged in his private correspondence — amid the breakdown of capitalism in the 1930s. Roosevelt responded by aggressively curbing the power of the oligarchs. ... [H]eavy government intervention lifted the country out of the Great Depression. It also made Roosevelt, who was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, and the Democratic Party wildly popular among working and middle-class families. The Democratic Party, should it resurrect such policies, would win every election in a landslide. But the New Deal was the bête noire of the oligarchs. They began to undo Roosevelt’s New Deal even before World War II broke out at the end of 1941. They gradually dismantled the regulations and programs that had not only saved capitalism but arguably democracy itself. We now live in an oligarchic state. The oligarchs control politics, the economy, culture, education and the press. Donald Trump may be a narcissist and a con artist, but he savages the oligarchic elite in his long-winded speeches to the delight of his crowds. He, like Bernie Sanders, speaks about the forbidden topic — class. But Trump, though an embarrassment to the oligarchs, does not, like Sanders, pose a genuine threat to them. Trump will, like all demagogues, incite violence against the vulnerable, widen the cultural and social divides and consolidate tyranny, but he will leave the rich alone. It is Sanders whom the oligarchs fear and hate. ...

What will we do if the oligarchs in the Democratic Party once again steal the nomination from Sanders? Will we finally abandon a system that has always been gamed against us? Will we turn on the oligarchic state to build parallel, popular institutions to protect ourselves and to pit power against power? Will we organize unions, third parties and militant movements that speak in the language of class warfare? Will we form community development organizations that provide local currencies, public banks and food cooperatives? Will we carry out strikes and sustained civil disobedience to wrest power back from the oligarchs to save ourselves and our planet?

In 2016 I did not believe that the Democratic elites would permit Sanders to be the nominee and feared, correctly, they would use him after the convention to herd his followers into the voting booths for Hillary Clinton. I do not believe this animus against Sanders has changed in 2020. The theft this time may be more naked, and for this reason more revealing of the forces involved. If all this plays out as I expect and if those on the left continue to put their faith and energy into the Democratic Party, they are not simply willfully naive but complicit in their own enslavement. No successful political movement will be built within the embrace of the Democratic Party, nor will such a movement be built in one election cycle. The struggle to end oligarchic rule will be hard and bitter. It will take time. It will require self-sacrifice, including sustained protest and going to jail. It will be rooted in class warfare. The oligarchs will stop at nothing to crush it. Open, nonviolent revolt against the oligarchic state is our only hope. Oligarchic rule must be destroyed. If we fail, our democracy, and finally our species, will become extinct.

Bloomberg $ Turns LA Times Into Bloomberg Pamphlet

Sea change?

Poll Shows Democratic Voters in Texas and California View Socialism More Positively Than Capitalism

Likely Democratic presidential primary voters in Texas and California—the two states with the most pledged delegates to award on Super Tuesday—view socialism more positively than capitalism, according to a CBS News/YouGov tracking poll released Sunday.

The survey showed 56% of Democratic primary voters in Texas and 57% in California have a favorable view of socialism. Just 37% of Democratic voters in Texas and 45% in California have a positive view of capitalism, the poll found, signaling widespread discontent with the vastly unequal economic status quo.

"I care more about advancing class struggle and a political program that can help working people than how an undefined 'socialism' and 'capitalism' polls, but this is still an absolutely remarkable development," tweeted Bhaskar Sunkara, publisher of the socialist magazine Jacobin.

The same survey showed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-identified democratic socialist, leading the presidential primary field in both Texas and California, which will award a combined 643 pledged delegates on Tuesday.

"While Sanders has come under criticism from some opponents because he identifies as a democratic socialist, majorities of Democratic primary voters in California and Texas have at least a somewhat favorable view of socialism, and it is viewed more positively than capitalism," CBS reported. "This is related to vote: Sanders' supporters have generally more positive views of socialism than do Biden's."

Inside the Assange courtroom: Kevin Gosztola explains the US-UK assault on press freedom

Amnesty International Condemns Greece's Measures to Block Migrants at Turkish Border

Amnesty International on Monday condemned "inhumane" measures that Greek authorities have taken toward migrants since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that Turkey would no longer stop refugees and asylum-seekers—many of whom have fled the ongoing war in Syria—from crossing by land and sea into Greece.

Turkey eased restrictions at the western border it shares with Greece in response to thousands of migrants from Syria who have poured into Turkey in recent days amid a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive into Syria's Idlib province and escalating violence between Syrian and Turkish forces.

Greece has deployed military forces to the border. As of late Saturday, International Organization for Migration (IOM) staffers observed upwards of 13,000 migrants in the area. Greek authorities, who have reportedly stopped over 24,000 attempted crossings and arrested 183 people since Saturday, have used water canons, tear gas, and stun grenades against the migrants.

The Greek government announced Sunday that it would suspend asylum applications for one month and deport migrants who have illegally entered the country. The New York Times noted that "neither move announced by Greece is permitted by European Union law, but the Greek government said it would request special dispensation from the bloc. International protocols on the protection of refugees, of which Greece is a signatory, also prohibit such policies."

Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office, declared Monday: "Everyone has a right to seek asylum. Deporting people without due process could mean sending them back to the horrors of war or expose them to grave human rights violations, breaching the fundamental principle of non-refoulement."

"The reckless measures being taken by the Greek authorities are a blatant breach of E.U. and international law that will put lives at risk," she said. "People seeking asylum are once again being used as bargaining chips in a callous political game."

Greece accuses Turkey of using migrants as ‘pawns’ to pressure EU

Assad joins forces with Libya's rogue general Haftar to combat 'Turkish aggression'

Damascus and parallel Libyan authorities opposed to the UN-recognised government in Tripoli agreed on Sunday to exchange diplomatic missions and confront Turkish "interference", state media said.

A delegation representing eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus, state news agency SANA said.

"A memorandum of understanding was signed... for the reopening of diplomatic and consular missions," SANA said.

The two sides also pledged to coordinate to "confront Turkish interference and aggression against both countries"

Human Rights Watch Took Money From Saudi Businessman After Documenting His Coercive Labor Practices

Human Rights Watch accepted a sizable donation from a Saudi billionaire shortly after its researchers documented labor abuses at one of the man’s companies, a potential violation of the rights group’s own fundraising guidance.

Human Rights Watch recently returned the gift from Saudi real estate magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, which came with the caveat that it could not be used to support the group’s LGBT advocacy in the Middle East and North Africa. The controversial donation is at the center of a contentious internal debate about the judgment and leadership of Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth. ...

Roth was himself involved in soliciting the donation, according to an internal Human Rights Watch email sent last month and obtained by The Intercept. The email was written on behalf of the group’s international board of directors and signed by the board’s co-chairs, Amy Rao and Neil Rimer.

In 2012, Roth signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Jaber containing language that said the gift could not be used for LGBT rights work in the region. He was later pictured next to Al Jaber at a 2013 ceremony to memorialize the funding. ...

In an email to The Intercept, Roth said that he and others discussed the labor abuses at Jadawel “with the employer, who pledged to address them and later provided documentation to that effect. HRW and the employer then discussed a possible gift to HRW’s work, pending confirmation that the abuses had been resolved.” Roth also said the fallout from returning the donation has not impacted his management role at Human Rights Watch.

Benjamin Netanyahu defeats Gantz, but is still short a majority

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on track to win 59 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties in Monday’s election, down by one from the 60 predicted by the initial exit polls. The new prediction leaves him two short of a majority in the Knesset. ...

The numbers are expected to change overnight. The votes of soldiers, who tend to lean to the right, have not yet been counted and the Joint List tends to go down a seat when the soldiers’ votes are added. But, if the Right does not obtain its 61st seat, it could end up being because the far-right Otzma Yehudit refused Netanyahu’s repeated requests to quit the race. ...

The outright victory in the third election in under a year is expected to enable Netanyahu to quickly form a right-wing coalition after having headed a caretaker government since December 2018.

How the Senate Paved the Way for Coronavirus Profiteering, and How Congress Could Undo It

Before a vaccine to combat the coronavirus pandemic is within view, the Trump administration has already walked back its initial refusal to promise that any remedy would be affordable to the general public. “We can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest,” Alex Azar, Health and Human Services secretary and a former drug industry executive, told Congress. After extraordinary blowback, the administration insisted that in the end, any treatment would indeed be affordable. President Donald Trump on Monday morning tweeted that he would be meeting with “the major pharmaceutical companies today at the White House about progress on a vaccine and cure. Progress being made!” The federal government, though, under the Clinton administration, traded away one of the key tools it could use to make good on the promise of affordability.

Gilead Sciences, a drugmaker known for price gouging, has been working with Chinese health authorities to see if the experimental drug remdesivir can treat coronavirus symptoms. World Health Organization officials say it’s the “only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy.” But remdesivir, which was previously tested to treat Ebola virus, was developed through research conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with funding from the federal government. That’s how much of the pharmaceutical industry’s research and development is funded. The public puts in the money, and private companies keep whatever profits they can command. But it wasn’t always that way. Before 1995, drug companies were required to sell drugs funded with public money at a reasonable price. Under the Clinton administration, that changed.

In the 1994 midterms, the Republican Revolution, built largely around a reaction to Bill Clinton’s attempt to reform the health care system, swept Democrats out of Congress. On its heels, in April 1995, the Clinton administration capitulated to pharmaceutical industry pressure and rescinded the longstanding “reasonable pricing” rule. ... The move was controversial, and a House member from Vermont, independent Bernie Sanders, offered an amendment to reinstate the rule. It failed on a largely party-line vote, 242-180. Then in 2000, Sanders authored and passed a bipartisan amendment in the House to reimpose the “reasonable pricing” rule. In the Senate, a similar measure was pushed by the late Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. ... Then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware voted to table Wellstone’s amendment, and it was defeated 56-39. ...

With Congress set to contemplate a round of funding to mitigate the pandemic, the Sanders-Wellstone amendment could make a comeback.

The Supreme Court Is Going to Determine Whether Obamacare Survives — Again

The Supreme Court will once again determine the survival of the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to a Republican-backed lawsuit that’s been toiling in the courts for years, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to finally consider a case on whether the law — often called Obamacare — can continue to exist without its individual mandate. The mandate was a key — but often attacked — part of the law until it was zeroed out by Congress’ tax reform package in 2017. This is the third time the Supreme Court has heard a challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

There won’t be a ruling on the law until well after the presidential election in November, however. That leaves the 2010 health care law in effect, but essentially on life support. The Trump administration has no clear alternative to Obamacare, despite several past Congressional attempts to create new health care programs with weaker coverage requirements.

The lawsuit, which legal experts have long argued relies on a shaky argument, could land before a newly conservative Supreme Court. A group of Republican states, led by Texas, sued in 2018, soon after the tax reform package passed, to argue the health care entire law was essentially null without the individual mandate. The Trump administration declined to defend the law in court, so several Democrat-controlled states — led by California — jumped in as defense. In the meantime, the Supreme Court confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Ken Cuccinelli unlawfully appointed to lead US immigration agency, judge rules

A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and as a result lacked the authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews.

Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and an immigration hardliner, was named to a new position of “principal deputy director” in June, which made him acting director because Lee Francis Cissna had just resigned. The agency grants green cards and other visas and oversees asylum officers.

The US district judge Randolph Moss in Washington found Cuccinelli’s appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 law governing who is eligible to lead federal agencies in an acting capacity.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Cuccinelli said Donald Trump’s administration would appeal the ruling and his agency would take steps to try to prevent the invalidation of other decisions.

The ruling, issued on Sunday, was at odds with Trump’s penchant for temporary appointments. At the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf is acting secretary. The heads of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and Citizenship and Immigration Services are also in acting roles.

'I will shoot you': husband of LA district attorney pulls gun on Black Lives Matter activists

The husband of Los Angeles’s top prosecutor pulled a gun on Black Lives Matter activists outside his home and said, “I will shoot you,” while directly pointing his firearm at them, video shows.

David Lacey, the husband of the LA county district attorney, Jackie Lacey, opened his door Monday morning and threatened demonstrators with his gun, saying: “Get off of my porch. I will shoot you … I don’t care who you are … We’re calling the police right now.”

The footage captured the husband going back inside, at which point Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter LA organizer who had knocked at the door, said: “He pulled a gun and pointed it at my chest.” He appeared to have his finger on the trigger.

An LA police spokesperson said police responded to a call for a disturbance and became aware of a “possible assault with a deadly weapon”, which is now under investigation.

“We were shocked,” Abdullah told the Guardian after the incident, which happened just after 5.30am local time. “We were extremely polite. We are clearly peaceful folks. She knows who we are. We’ve never engaged in any violence against her.”

Jackie Lacey is facing a tough re-election fight this week and has long faced scrutiny for her refusal to prosecute police officers who kill civilians, her aggressive pursuit of the death penalty and other tough-on-crime strategies.

ICE’s New York Office Uses a Rigged Algorithm to Keep Virtually All Arrestees in Detention. The ACLU Says It’s Unconstitutional.

In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly began using a software tool to recommend whether people arrested over immigration violations should be let go after 48 hours or detained. The software’s algorithm supposedly pored over a variety of risk factors before outputting a decision.

A new lawsuit, however, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders, alleges that the algorithm doesn’t really make a decision, at least not one that can result in a detainee being released. Instead, the groups said, it’s an unconstitutional cudgel that’s been rigged to detain virtually everyone ICE’s New York Field Office brings in, even when the government itself believes they present a minimal threat to public safety.

The suit, which asks that ICE’s “Risk Classification Assessment” tool be ruled illegal and the affected detainees reassessed by humans, includes damning new data obtained by the NYCLU through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The data illuminates the extent to which the so-called algorithm has been perverted. Between 2013 and 2017, the FOIA data shows, the algorithm recommended detention without bond for “low risk” individuals 53 percent of the time, according an analysis by the NYCLU and Bronx Defenders. But from June 2017 — shortly after President Donald Trump took office — to September 2019, that number exploded to 97 percent.

“This dramatic drop in the release rate comes at a time when exponentially more people are being arrested in the New York City area and immigration officials have expanded arrests of those not convicted of criminal offenses,” says the groups’ lawsuit. “The federal government’s sweeping detention dragnet means that people who pose no flight or safety risk are being jailed as a matter of course—in an unlawful trend that is getting worse.”

Great Debate: Sanders Surrogate Cornel West vs. Bloomberg Co-Chair Bobby Rush, Former Black Panther

Krystal Ball: Establishment wants Bernie vs Biden, bring it on

California's rules for independent party voters could suppress the Bernie vote

In February, California mailed 3.7m primary ballots that, to the astonishment of many who received them, excluded the presidential candidates. These ballots do have candidates for all other primary races, including for Congress, but not the race for president. Within this mountain of primary ballots, artifacts of California’s arcane and complex voting system, lies the potential to cripple the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, the favored candidate among independent party voters.

Particularly at risk of losing their vote are 18- to 24-year-olds and Latinx voters, groups that strongly favor “Tio Bernie”. A quarter of independent voters, more than 1 million people, are Latinx, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Even if Sanders, as expected, wins the plurality of California’s votes, he could well be shorted out of hundreds of thousands of votes and scores of delegates. ...

How did this happen? While Californians, including independent voters, vote overwhelmingly for Democrats in general elections, 5.3 million Golden state voters register “NPP”,: no party preference. These 5 million independents legally have the right to vote in the Democratic primary, but the Democratic party has created an inscrutable obstacle course for them to do so, one that amounts to another type of voter suppression. ...

Last autumn, all 5 million NPP voters were mailed a postcard allowing them to request a ballot with the Democratic party presidential choices. However, as many states have learned, postcards with voter information largely look like junk mail and get thrown out. If the independents don’t respond to the postcards, they get a ballot without presidential choices. But they have one more chance to vote for a candidate in the primaries: at the ballot box.

At the polling station, though, things remain confusing. According to rules set by the national Democratic party, the independent voters have to bring in their NPP ballot to the polling station and request to exchange it for a “crossover Democratic” ballot that lists the candidates. However, if the voter fails to ask for the “crossover” ballot by its specific name, the poll worker is barred from suggesting it and they won’t receive it. ...

There’s another, new way NPP voters may obtain a presidential ballot: re-register from NPP to Democrat right at the polling station on election day and thereby get a presidential ballot. However, this same day registration option is little known, not advertised by the state – and I found not a single sign at the four voting centers I visited that mentioned the new option.

Can Joe Biden Stop Bernie Sanders? Establishment Lines Up Behind Former VP, But Is It Too Late?

Bernie Has a Plan to Knock Elizabeth Warren Out of the Race

As Bernie Sanders prepared to rally thousands just down the road, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign co-chair made a plea to her nervous supporters. “They are trying to erase her,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) warned a crowd of volunteers packed into a sweaty field office a mile from Fenway Park. “Don’t you dare ride the poll-er coaster.” But some of the Massachusetts senator’s most ardent supporters fear that ride is about to end.

Warren has spent the past days chasing frantically across the country in a desperate search for Super Tuesday delegates. But her biggest problem might be back at home. Warren faces the real risk of losing Massachusetts to Sanders, a blow that could knock her out of the race. And as Warren raced from South Carolina to Alabama to Texas, Sanders dropped into her home state this weekend to try to seal her fate.

“On Tuesday, if we have the largest voter turnout in the history of the Massachusetts primary, we can win here in Massachusetts,” Sanders said in Boston. Three separate polls released in recent days show he’s right. Sanders, from neighboring Vermont, has inched ahead of Warren in her home state, buoyed by his strong showing in the early states and Warren’s failure to finish higher than third place in any of them.

A home-state loss would be devastating to Warren. It’s hard to see how she would continue after Super Tuesday at that point, especially since Massachusetts shapes up as by far her best chance of winning a Super Tuesday state.

Sanders has spent heavily on ads in Massachusetts, which borders is home state and he nearly won in 2016. Warren has barely spent any money on the state — but in a sign they’re concerned Massachusetts might slip away, a new super PAC backing Warren announced Thursday night that they’d include the Boston media market in a last-minute, $12 million ad buy.

Tulsi Drops Truth Bomb About Election Interference

This is a direct quote from Joe Biden:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created by the you know, you know the thing."pic.twitter.com/A0MRpMmIWk

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 2, 2020

'Bernie is problematic on all levels': why centrist Democrats are flocking to Biden

Centrist Democrats candidates are rapidly rallying around Joe Biden following his decisive victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday. Biden’s double-digit win effectively anointed the former vice-president as the most viable Democrat among the remaining centrist candidates in the field. And on Monday, a waterfall of endorsements poured down onto Biden’s campaign. ...

The Biden campaign sent out over a dozen press releases on Monday, each one a new endorsement. Those endorsements included the former influential Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Donors of the former candidates also flocked to Biden. ...

As Sanders rose from a second tier position within the Democratic primary to being the frontrunner, some establishment Democrats have also both publicly and privately worried that if the Vermont senator won the nomination Democratic candidates around the country would suffer in their own races by Republicans pegging them as part of a party that would nominate a Democratic socialist for president.

“Bernie is problematic on every level you can count,” said Orin Kramer, a former top donor for Buttigieg who is now backing Biden. “Why do people leave buildings which are on fire? In other words, any Democrat running in the country – it doesn’t matter if it’s governor, state legislator, senator, House of Representatives – anyone who’s election is significantly reliant on swing voters, those people are all petrified of what Bernie would mean to them.” ...

But Biden remains the underdog. According to his most recent public filing, Biden only has about $7m in his war chest, while Sanders’ own report says the Vermont senator has about $16m. And Sanders has shown he can outraise every other candidate in the field.

Krystal and Saagar: Is Obama behind the stop Bernie movement?

Health Insurance Stocks Spike After Centrists Coalesce Around Biden

As the centrist wing of the Democratic Party appeared to be consolidating around former Vice President Joe Biden's bid for president on Monday, the day before 14 states vote in the Super Tuesday primary election contests, health insurance stocks spiked.

Observers suggested the surge may be from an expectation that a Biden victory could stop Sen. Bernie Sanders and his progressive movement, which has made universal, Medicare for All healthcare a centerpiece of the race.

"People are gleefully gambling that the health insurance CEOs will be able to continue to profit off of killing our friends and family," tweeted progressive activist Christopher Jackson.

Health insurance stocks spiked after Klobuchar endorsed Biden. Traders betting that's bad news for Bernie and the fight for Single Payer https://t.co/mauWSuC6Jc pic.twitter.com/chTDWMUCBh

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) March 2, 2020

According to Bloomberg News, the spike came after reporting that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was dropping out of the race and endorsing Biden:

Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Anthem Inc. and Molina Healthcare Inc. advanced at least 1.7% each, spurring the seven-member index of S&P managed care companies toward its best day in almost three weeks. The intraday rally comes as investors leaned into bets that Klobuchar’s backers will side with Biden, and not Senator Bernie Sanders.

The contrast between Sanders and Biden—and the broader progressive and establishment wings of the party—could not be clearer, said progressive activist Jordan Uhl. In a tweet, Uhl juxtaposed the stock spike following Klobuchar's dropping out and scheduled endorsement of Biden with a January post by Sanders surrogate Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) calling for Medicare for All and noting the fact that 45,000 Americans die each year from not having health insurance.

"Which side are you on?" asked Uhl.

UN predicts above-average temperatures even without El Niño

Many parts of the world are likely to experience above-average temperatures over the next few months, even without a natural El Niño effect, according to weather experts.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the signal from human-induced climate change was now as powerful as the natural phenomenon, which drives warmer temperatures.

It said there was a 60% chance of a neutral situation without an El Niño or its opposite, La Niña, between March and May. There was a 35% chance of an El Niño developing and 5% for a La Niña. ...

Despite the expected absence of an El Niño, the WMO forecasts there will be above-average sea surface temperatures in many parts of the world, which will lead to higher than normal land temperatures. Climate change would contribute to these conditions, the WMO said.

More than 80% of Indian Ocean dolphins may have been killed by commercial fishing, study finds

Dolphin numbers in the Indian Ocean may have dropped by more than 80% in recent decades, with an estimated 4m small cetaceans caught as “by-catch” in commercial tuna fishing nets since 1950, according to a study.

As many as 100,000 cetaceans – mainly dolphins – were caught in commercial gill nets as by-catch in 2006, with current annual numbers at about 80,000.

Published in the journal Endangered Species Research, the study used the changes in the numbers of dolphins caught in commercial gill nets as a way to calculate changes in the numbers of dolphins in the Indian Ocean.

The authors say gill-net fishing in the Indian Ocean is “effectively unmanaged” and potentially the biggest unresolved issue facing cetaceans today.

Canada: Wet’suwet’en and ministers agree tentative deal in land dispute

Indigenous leaders in Canada have reached a “milestone” agreement with government officials in a land dispute that has sparked widespread protests and railway blockades throughout the country. The tentative resolution follows three days and nights of intense negotiations between hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en nation in British Columbia and federal and provincial ministers – but falls short of addressing concerns over a controversial natural gas pipeline project. ...

Leaders had met in British Columbia to address longstanding frustrations among the Wet’suwet’en over a previous refusal by the federal and provincial governments to recognize both Wet’suwet’en’s governance structure, which uses hereditary chiefs instead of elected councils, and their 22,000 sq km of traditional territory. The Wet’suwet’en have never signed away the rights to their land or entered into any treaty with the Canadian government.

The text of the agreement has not yet been released, as members of the Wet’suwet’en must first approve the document.

But the draft resolution marks a significant shift in the long-simmering dispute between the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and government officials.

Trump's Interior Department Is Claiming Climate Change Is Actually Good for Plants

A climate change–denier who was promoted in Trump’s Department of the Interior has been slipping misleading claims about greenhouse gases into official reports, according to the New York Times. The language, which misleadingly downplays the effects of climate change and touts the debunked potential benefits of carbon dioxide for plants, was inserted into at least nine reports. The effort’s been led by Indur Goklany, a longtime Interior Department staffer promoted in 2017 and given the task of reviewing climate policies — even though he’s an electrical engineer, not a climate scientist. That language could justify policies that could make droughts in the West worse as the world heats up.

The paragraph that Goklany has been inserting into the department’s scientific reports became known internally as the “Goks uncertainty language,” a reference to Goklany’s nickname. More carbon dioxide, the primary climate-heating greenhouse gas, is good for plants and the world might not actually be getting hotter, the language suggests. Neither is true.

The Times reviewed emails obtained through a public records request by a watchdog group, the Energy and Policy Institute. The emails provide a record of Goklany’s successfully pushing a policy of inserting misleading language into official reports. ...

And the language that he’s introduced appears in environmental studies and impact statements affecting major watersheds, and could influence decisions the agency makes over, for example, whether to remove four hydroelectric dams in the Klamath River Basin in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Farmers are opposing the removal of the dam — they fear it will mean they get less water — but the dams block salmon and steelhead habitat.

By including language that denies the realities of climate change, Goklany could be bolstering the Trump administration’s efforts to reallocate huge amounts of water for farming and irrigation, even as climate projections of how much drier the West will get show that kind of water use to be unsustainable.

Vital Cop26 climate talks could be derailed by coronavirus

Concern is growing among campaigners that vital UN climate talks will be derailed by the coronavirus outbreak, while government officials are working to find ways round the problem.

This year’s UN talks on the climate are the most important since the Paris agreement in 2015, as the world is now far adrift of the Paris goals and the Cop26 summit – scheduled for Glasgow this November – is seen as one of the last chances to put nations back on track to avoid climate breakdown.

But while the talks will take place over a fortnight in November, the frantic round of global diplomacy required to reach a settlement is already under way and is being affected by the outbreak of the virus. Campaigners fear that preparations are being hampered by both the travel restrictions and the urgent demands the outbreak is putting on governments’ time and resources.

China, the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, is the key player in the climate talks. As the US is withdrawing from the Paris accord, whether or not China takes on strong new commitments on carbon will help determine whether Cop26 (the conference of the parties) is a success. But with the coronavirus taking hold across the country, the climate is likely be much less of a priority.

World's beaches disappearing due to climate crisis – study

Almost half of the world’s sandy beaches will have retreated significantly by the end of the century as a result of climate-driven coastal flooding and human interference, according to new research.

The sand erosion will endanger wildlife and could inflict a heavy toll on coastal settlements that will no longer have buffer zones to protect them from rising sea levels and storm surges. In addition, measures by governments to mitigate against the damage are predicted to become increasingly expensive and in some cases unsustainable.

In 30 years, erosion will have destroyed 36,097km (22,430 miles) or 13.6% of sandy coastlines identified from satellite images by scientists for the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European commission. They predict the situation will worsen in the second half of the century, washing away a further 95,061km or 25.7% of Earth’s beaches.

These estimates are far from the most catastrophic; they rely on an optimistic forecast of international action to fight climate breakdown, a scenario known as RCP4.5. In this scenario of reduced ice-cap melting and lower thermal expansion of water, oceans will only have risen by 50cm by 2100.

However, if the world continues to emit carbon at its current rate, sea levels will rise by an estimated 80cm, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. If this happens, a total of 131,745km of beaches, or 13% of the planet’s ice-free coastline, will go under water.

Also of Interest

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

Democrats Craving a Brokered Convention — Including Elizabeth Warren — Should Learn the Lessons of 1968

The Democratic Establishment Is Pulling Out All the Stops for Biden

Dems Converge Around Dementia-Addled Warmonger Ahead Of Super Tuesday

Texas closes hundreds of polling sites, making it harder for minorities to vote

Democracy for America Endorses Sanders in 'Wake-Up Call to Broken, Visionless, Corporate Democratic Establishment'

Nearly 25,000 Rally for Bernie in California Ahead of Super Tuesday

Citizen App Again Lets Users Report Crimes — and Experts See Big Risks

ASSANGE EXTRADITION: The Armoured Glass Box is an Instrument of Torture

Contra-supporting CNN pundit Ana Navarro lobbied for corrupt right-wing Latin American governments

Erdogan is reaping what he sowed: Turkey is on the brink of disaster in Syria

Turkey’s Killer Drone Swarm Poses Syria Air Challenge to Putin

'He's dead wrong': Bloomberg attacks Sanders over AIPAC criticism

Democratic primary 2020: latest delegate count

Hill Reporter: Bernie has a Super Tuesday secret weapon and its been proven to work

Why Mayor Pete endorsed Biden

Ryan Grim reacts to Biden endorsement wave, AOC's power tested on Super Tuesday

TYT's John Iadarola: Is Elizabeth Warren the Bernie spoiler in California?

Saagar Enjeti: Biden can't even speak, can failed Dems save him anyway?

Rising: Would establishment rather lose to Trump than nominate Bernie?

Rising: GOP couldn't stop Trump, can Dems stop Bernie?

Earth may have been a 'water world' 3bn years ago, scientists find

A Little Night Music

Kokomo Arnold - Old Original Kokomo Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues

Kokomo Arnold (Oscar's Chicago Swingers) - Try Some Of That

Kokomo Arnold - Chain Gang Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Red Beans And Rice

Gitfiddle Jim (Kokomo Arnold) - Paddlin' Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Cold Winter Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Policy Wheel Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Black Mattie

Kokomo Arnold - Sagefield Woman Blues

Kokomo Arnold - The Twelves