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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Sidney Bechet

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz multi-instrumentalist Sidney Bechet. Enjoy!

^{Sidney Bechet - Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me}

"What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice."

-- Albert Einstein

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News and Opinion

Supporters Of Capitalism Are Victims Of Their Own Cognitive Biases

People who believe capitalism is working out great are just sloppy thinkers who’ve fallen victim to survivorship bias and the just-world fallacy.

Survivorship bias is when your analysis focuses on those who made it while ignoring those who didn’t. You got a decent job, bought a house, and are now living comfortably, which means the system works fine and there must be something wrong with anyone who can’t thrive under it.

All the people who work just as hard as you do but still find themselves struggling go completely missing from your perspective. All the people who are just as clever and resourceful as you but haven’t found financial stability are conveniently overlooked. Everyone whose business venture failed instead of thriving, everyone who got laid off instead of promoted, everyone whose family circumstances were less fortunate than yours, everyone who has a race, gender, disability, or socioeconomic situation which makes their life harder than your own, simply doesn’t factor into your understanding of the way things work.

You got lucky, and you can point to other people who got lucky, and you use those examples to hide from the inconvenient reality that it could just as easily have been you who got the shit end of the capitalism stick. You see a guy out your window sleeping on the sidewalk and you tell yourself there’s a perfectly good reason why you’re in here while they’re out there, and in order to make that cognitive tango work inside your head you have to tell yourself a fairy tale.

That’s where the just-world fallacy comes in. The just-world fallacy is a cognitive bias which assumes that everyone gets what they deserve: that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.

The appeal of this fallacy is that it gives us a sense of control. It allows us to believe that nothing bad will happen to us if we just do the right thing and avoid making stupid mistakes. It also allows us to believe that we deserve all the good fortune life has brought us, and that the poor exist because they’re not as virtuous and wise as we are.

The trouble with the just-world fallacy is that it only works if you don’t think about it too hard. Anyone who’s been alive for a few years knows that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. We’ve all seen it countless times, with people we know personally. The world simply is not fair. If you are doing well under the current system, it’s only because your luck has held out. You have what you have because of sheer dumb luck.

If you can get real with yourself about this, you will understand why the system needs to change. A system which insists upon maintaining a very large tier of society who must stress and struggle throughout their lives is not a just or moral system. It cannot be defended by anyone with a rational mind and a well-formed conscience.

People who oppose the movement toward a more equitable society often accuse socialists of “jealousy” and “greed”, but that’s just projection; it is their own greed and selfishness which prevents them from sincerely reckoning with the unjust nature of the society they coincidentally wound up on top of. It is true that those who support socialism are frequently less economically privileged than the average capitalism proponent, but that’s only because they have a reality-based perspective on the abusive nature of the capitalist status quo.

Those who have been fortunate under capitalism often have a harder time forming a reality-based understanding of the system they live under, because they have to fight their way through all the comfortable cognitive biases which insist that everything’s more or less fine the way it is. If they still insist that capitalism is great, it’s only because their own intellectual laziness, ego, and moral cowardice have prevented them from getting real about their circumstances.

Iran UNLEASHES on 20 U.S. Military + NSA Targets for Wedding Party MASSACRE | Laith Marouf

US launches new airstrikes on Iranian targets as hostilities flare

The US launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets on Tuesday, quashing hopes that an exchange of fire last ⁠weekend might not presage a ⁠wider renewal of hostilities. Oil prices had ​already risen after that first exchange of direct attacks since July and after reports of two tankers being hit leaving the strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping.

Tehran remained defiant, warning ⁠that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by Donald Trump to hit Iran “hard” in response to the renewed Iranian strikes, and a warning from Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, that Washington was about to ⁠impose new sanctions.

“Today at 12 p.m. ET (1600 GMT), U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran,” US Central Command posted on X. “The strikes follow ​recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of ‌Hormuz and against American service members deployed to ‌the region.” Iran’s state broadcaster said there had been reports of explosions on Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait. The state-linked news agency Nour ‌News said there had been reports of explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Chabahar, a port on the southern coast.

The six-month conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, in which US forces attacked Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching missiles at two US airbases in Jordan. Although he warned of a US response to the Iranian strikes, the US president also told reporters on Monday that they did not signal a return to full-scale war, and a senior Iranian source told Reuters they were a “limited ‌and contained confrontation”.

Iran RAZES US Marine Barracks! Trump's FATAL Mistake | Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar: Secretary Rubio Admits Critical Shortage in Interceptors Amid Iran War

Trump Issues New Mass Murder Threat, Warning Iran of ‘Biggest Attack of Them All’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued yet another unhinged threat to commit mass murder as the US military restarted its illegal bombing campaign against Iran.

In a Truth Social post, the president warned Iran against striking back at the US shortly after American forces began bombing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in the country.

“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level,” Trump wrote, then ominously added that “it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!”

Iran appeared undeterred by Trump’s saber-rattling, however, as The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the country retaliated by launching missiles and drones shortly after the US attack.

On Monday, a reporter in the Oval Office asked the president if he would consider using nuclear weapons against Iran, and he appeared to rule it out.

“There’s no reason for it,” Trump said. “What a stupid question that is, actually. Here they are, they’re totally defeated militarily, so now I defeat them and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of them?”

"Have you ruled out using a nuclear weapon against Iran?"@POTUS: "They're totally defeated militarily — so I defeat them and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of them? What a stupid question." pic.twitter.com/Gv9dXAJ9Zu

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 31, 2026

In April, Trump issued a similarly unhinged threat to commit mass murder in Iran, warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” unless Iran surrendered to the US. Trump backed down from that threat hours later and agreed to a since-expired ceasefire agreement with Iran.

Brett Erickson, managing partner at Obsidian Risk Advisors, warned in a Tuesday social media post that the president’s threats should not be dismissed simply because he hasn’t followed through on them in the past.

“Throughout this entire war, I have been incredibly skeptical of any claims that President Trump is so much as DISCUSSING the use of nuclear weapons,” Erickson wrote. “This reads to me clear as day that they are on the table now.”

Fmr. Marine Matthew Hoh: Oil Prices, Allies, and War: What Iran’s Retaliation Means Now

US Launches Airstrikes Across Iran’s Coast

The US began a series of airstrikes against Iran’s coast on Tuesday, attacks that came after Axios reported that President Trump was considering a Hormuz Strait bombing campaign aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to target commercial shipping that one US official described as “mowing the lawn.”

Iranian media has reported explosions in Iranian cities and towns on the Strait of Hormuz, including Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, and also as far southeast as the city of Konarak on the Gulf of Oman. Iranian officials reported that US strikes killed five people attending a wedding ceremony near the city of Sirik.

The term “mow the lawn” is a term Israel used for its bombing campaigns in Gaza in the years preceding the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in the Strip. The language suggests the US is digging in for an open-ended conflict with Iran despite reports of Hegseth being warned by senior military leaders that the current US posture in the Middle East is unsustainable.

U.S. Empire in Decline: Richard Wolff on Iran War, Rising Inequality, $40T National Debt & More

Iran War Has Cost the Average American More Than $1,200 Over Six Months, Economist Estimates

As President Donald Trump’s war with Iran crosses the six-month mark without an end in sight, a new analysis calculates that it has cost the average American household at least $1,200 more than they would have paid if it had never started.

That is according to Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, who was quoted by New Yorker columnist John Cassidy on Monday as he sought to look beyond military costs to determine the true extent to which the war has impacted Americans’ pocketbooks.

Cassidy wrote that the task of reaching a solid number is “far from straightforward,” especially since, in his assessment, the Pentagon has been “less than forthright about many aspects of the conflict,” including the cost.

Pepe Escobar: Rise of a Post-Western World at the SCO Summit

Democrats warn of ‘hollowed out’ leadership after army chief resigns amid clashes with Hegseth

A senior Senate Democrat accused Pentagon secretary Pete Hegseth of having “hollowed out” the army’s senior ranks after its top civilian leader resigned after months of internal clashes with Hegseth.

No official reason was given for army secretary Daniel Driscoll’s departure after 18 months on the job, while thousands of US soldiers are deployed in the Middle East. In a statement on Monday night, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Driscoll had been “highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda”, citing his work on “readiness and lethality” and his role in Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

Democrats and Republicans alike praised Driscoll’s leadership, but in a statement, Senator Jack Reed, the ranking member on the Senate armed services committee, said he did “not welcome” it.

“It is far past time for President Trump to recognize the lasting harm that Pete Hegseth is inflicting on the Department of Defense,” Reed said. “In the Army alone, he has fired and blocked the promotions of dozens of senior officers without explanation, including Army Chief of Staff General Randy George and half of all four-star generals. “Secretary Hegseth is cultivating a culture where dissent is punished and competence is secondary to personal allegiance.”

Driscoll’s exit adds to a string of senior departures under Hegseth, including navy secretary John Phelan, Southern Command chief Adm Alvin Holsey, and Gen Chris Donahue, who commanded US army forces in Europe and Africa. Sean Parnell, Hegseth’s chief spokesperson, had privately expressed interest in the army secretary post before it became vacant, the Hill has reported, and is among those reportedly under consideration to succeed Driscoll.

US lawmakers demand investigation into Trump administration’s secret surveillance of Americans

Two congressional Democrats asked a government watchdog on Tuesday to investigate the Trump administration’s use of an obscure law to secretly collect records on journalists, non-profits and unions without judicial oversight. The request from the Oregon senator Ron Wyden and the representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington seen by the Guardian comes amid mounting scrutiny over the way the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently used its power to issue administrative summonses related to customs matters to make extraordinary unilateral demands for information. They sent their request to the government accountability office (GAO), the non-partisan congressional watchdog.

The Guardian reported this week that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of the DHS, has used the summonses to secretly obtain six months’ worth of telephone records for Georgia Fort, a Minneapolis journalist. In one particularly stunning episode, it issued an administrative summons to Google requesting information on the YouTube accounts of Fort and Don Lemon after a judge had twice rejected a search warrant application for the information, telling the government Fort and Lemon needed to have a chance to contest the request.

The DHS has used administrative summonses to successfully obtain financial information on labor unions and Venmo transactions for a non-profit group. The DHS has also issued a slew of administrative subpoenas to tech giants such as Meta, X and Reddit to try to unmask anonymous DHS critics. Wyden and Jayapal asked the GAO to investigate the way that the DHS was using the summonses outside of customs matters. It also asked the GAO to investigate language in each summons requesting that the recipients of the summons not notify the user of its existence because it would “impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal law”.

“Crucially, the recipients of these subpoenas – often third-party companies and service providers – maintain a First Amendment right to notify their customers of the demand, allowing the actual targets of the subpoenas the opportunity to assert their own legal rights or challenge the demand in court,” they added. “We request an audit of HSI’s use of non-disclosure language in immigration subpoenas and customs summonses, as well as the circumstances under which HSI has used customs summonses unrelated to import violations or customs duties.” A GAO spokesperson confirmed the office received the request and was examining it.

Global Bond Market IN CHAOS As Bessent DESPERATELY FLAILS

The Beef is About To Get Weaker...

Mark Carney tells US to ‘start being serious’ amid escalating trade war

Mark Carney has rebuked Donald Trump’s administration and urged officials in Washington to “start being serious” amid escalating trade tensions between the US and Canada. Days before Canada is due to retaliate against Trump’s sweeping tariffs with its own duties on US goods, the Canadian prime minister criticized US officials for insulting his country. “It is beneath their office,” he said. “When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions” about trade, Carney said.

The US president’s most senior trade negotiator has meanwhile downplayed the potentially disastrous effects of a US trade war with Canada, declaring the spat to be “more their emergency than ours”. The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, argued that Canada was more vulnerable after the breakdown in talks set the stage for sweeping tariffs between the two neighbors, telling Politico: “There are no negotiations happening on trade right now.”

Greer appeared to blame the escalating trade war on Canadian officials, telling Politico: “It’s not clear Canada wants a deal. If Canada believes that prohibiting and banning American goods and services is appropriate, then obviously that’s something that the United States should consider as well.”

Unacceptable asks from Canada included lighter taxes on heavy-duty trucks, according to Greer, who said such requests torpedoed the trade talks. Canadian officials, on the other hand, attributed the collapsed negotiations to a White House disagreement over who was directing trade talks.

Bond Market Warning: US Debt Crisis Is Just Starting w/ Ray Zucaro

Accused Charlie Kirk killer must stand trial and is eligible for death penalty, judge rules

A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk must stand trial for aggravated murder, a felony charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. After several hours of closing arguments in Provo, Utah, judge Tony Graf ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Tyler Robinson, 23, who has been charged with the murder of one of the US right’s most prominent figures.

Robinson pleaded not guilty after Graf’s ruling. A trial date has yet to be set. A key factor in charging aggravated murder is whether the shooter knowingly created a risk of death to anyone else as he carried out the killing. Judge Graf said: “These circumstances support a reasonable inference that defendant was aware that other individuals were positioned near Mr Kirk when he fired.”

Robinson’s attorneys had argued the shooting should not be a capital offense, as the shooter hit the “intended target” and did not put anyone else’s life at risk. Graf had the option to send the case to trial on a lesser charge of murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison, said Steve Burton, director of the Utah Defense Attorney Association.

ICE holds man with stage 4 cancer in detention despite permanent US residency

A 76-year-old man holding permanent US residency and grappling with stage four prostate cancer is reportedly being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in Tacoma, Washington. Federal immigration officials detained Loreto Javar during his US citizenship interview in Tukwila, Washington, in June. Javar, a Filipino national, moved to the US in 1995 and has lived in the country with his wife and daughter ever since. According to court documents reviewed by the Seattle Times and reported on by the outlet on Monday, federal officials allege that Javar was involved in an altercation in the Philippines in the 1970s that left one person dead. Javar told officials at the time of his arrest in June that he had served about three years in jail in the Philippines before being released on parole, according to the documents cited by the Seattle Times.

Javar, a retired hotel worker, has renewed his permanent residency – or green card – several times without issue since moving to the US more than 30 years ago, including most recently in December, his daughter, Daisy Javar, told the outlet. Loreto Javar applied for US citizenship in November 2025 and has no criminal history in the country, Daisy Javar added. Although her father had never told his family about his conviction before his detention by ICE, she said: “He’s been following all the rules, paying his taxes, everything.”

In a statement to the Seattle Times, an ICE spokesperson said Javar was arrested because he had failed to disclose a criminal conviction in the Philippines when he originally applied for a visa to move to the US in 1995 and join his father, who was already living in the country as a US citizen. The ICE spokesperson said Javar’s disclosure would have made him ineligible to enter the US at the time of his original application, adding, “He is therefore ineligible to remain in the United States now,” the Seattle Times reported.

According to Daisy Javar, her father obtained police clearance from the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation as part of the process of securing his US visa at the time, the outlet also reported. Javar as of Tuesday was being held at the Northwest ICE processing center in Tacoma, Washington. He was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in January and is prescribed two oral medications, as well as other medications for conditions including high blood pressure, the Seattle Times reported. Speaking to the outlet, Daisy Javar said her father’s meals were often delivered late, with lunch sometimes not served until 6pm and dinner at midnight. She said the delays have complicated his medication schedule.

Meanwhile, an online petition organized by the Filipino migrant advocacy group Tanggol Migrante Movement calling for Javar’s release said: “Before his detention, [he] was actively receiving treatment for his Stage 4 Prostate Cancer, but since being taken into ICE custody, that course of treatment has been interrupted. “So far, he has missed two oncology appointments that occur on the 4th of every month and has recently developed a blood clot in his stomach. The appointments are crucial to conduct bloodwork and adjust his medication to prevent his cancer from further developing.”

Trump homeland security chief says ICE agents could be sent to polling places

US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday said that federal immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed to polling sites across the country. Speaking to reporters in New York, Mullin said: “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places. We’re there to enforce specific threats.”

For months, Democrats and voting rights groups have warned that the Trump administration might attempt to deploy federal agents to polling locations in an effort to intimidate voters and depress turnout ahead of the November midterm elections. Although the White House has downplayed such suggestions, Donald Trump has declined to rule it out while continuing to sow doubt about the integrity of past – and future – US elections.

“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Mullin said. “ICE’s job is immigration, customs enforcement. That’s their job … if we’re serving a warrant we will be where we need to be.”

Federal law prohibits military personnel or other “armed” agents from being “at any place where a general or special election is held”. In a separate statement to Politico, the homeland security department said: “ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations. ICE conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action.”

Mullin’s latest comments follow statements he made in July, when he threatened to withhold federal aid from states that refused to comply with homeland security election directives as part of the administration’s crackdown on what it alleges is widespread voter fraud. “We will scrub all election records, looking for illegal aliens and those who are ineligible to vote, including those that somehow voted, yet they were deceased,” Mullin said earlier this summer, adding: “If states want the grant funding, to recap, they must secure the election.”

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Postal Service Whistleblower Warns Trump Assault on Mail-In Voting Could ‘Derail the Midterm Elections’

An anonymous federal official warned in a whistleblower disclosure submitted to members of the US Congress that the Postal Service’s haphazard implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting could “derail the midterm elections” by preventing potentially millions of American voters from receiving ballots.

The disclosure was released in full on Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who included the document in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner—Trump’s pick to lead USPS. Blumenthal said the whistleblower’s account provides “disturbing details about USPS’ seemingly illegal plot to interfere in November’s midterms.”

The new disclosure raises “significant concerns” about the Postal Service’s “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” for establishing “an entirely new and untested set of IT systems” in compliance with Trump’s March executive order, which is at the center of high-stakes legal fights just weeks before the November midterms.

Trump’s USPS directives have been blocked in federal court, but the administration is trying to get them reinstated ahead of the midterm contests—and the whistleblower complaint suggests the administration may be violating court orders by continuing to work on the new systems. Mail-in voting for the midterms is officially set to begin this week.

Described in the disclosure as the “Portal,” the new Postal Service IT systems “will govern the delivery of ballots to voters as soon as the 2026 mid-term federal elections and beyond.” The whistleblower raises “grave concerns” that the Trump administration has “hidden the high likelihood that the new ballot mail verification processes will result in major disruptions in mail ballots ever getting delivered to voters.”

“As presently designed, if even one bar code on one single ballot in a bulk-mailing of 10,000 ballots fails to properly scan during the verification process, the entire batch is rejected and sent back to the state—effectively stopping the ballots from being mailed to voters,” the disclosure states. “The whistleblower is particularly concerned that the Portal (where the bar codes are stored) will almost certainly have significant operating problems when released to the public, due to the rushed IT development; this will contribute to failures in the verification process.”

The whistleblower filing notes warnings that the Portal system could “completely crash” during rollout and quoted descriptions from IT workers at the Postal Service who described the entire process as “a shit show.”

Theme throughout Whistleblower disclosure is how USPS IT work is complete mess, likely to "completely crash."

"Workers have described the election ballot mail development process as 'a sh*t show."

Raises stakes enormously on any state officials thinking to go along with this. pic.twitter.com/e8GrLYxu1W

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 1, 2026

Libby Liu, the CEO of Whistleblower Aid—a nonprofit representing the anonymous federal official—said in a statement that “the whistleblower’s service to our nation is warning the public that their ability to vote is in serious jeopardy.”

“We are crossing the Rubicon of American elections,” said Liu. “This dangerously defective mail-in ballot process could disenfranchise millions of voters, ensnaring ballots in red tape under the guise of solving a non-existent problem. People in states that rely heavily on vote-by-mail will have a more difficult time making their voices heard in our challenged democracy this November.”

The USPS whistleblower also provided their account to the House Oversight Committee. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement Tuesday morning that the official’s account makes clear that “Trump’s attack on vote-by-mail for the 2026 election is more serious than previously understood.”

“This new secret tracking system at the US Postal Service is faulty, untested, and threatens to totally disrupt ballot delivery for millions of American citizens,” said Garcia. “We are fighting in court to protect the right to vote by mail for all and will continue to investigate. This unconstitutional and dangerous power grab must be permanently and immediately blocked.”

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Judge strikes down New York law that forced climate polluters to pay damages

A federal judge has struck down a landmark New York law that forces major polluters to pay climate damages. In her Monday ruling, Brenda Sannes, chief judge of the US district court for the northern district of New York, sided with Republican-led states and oil interests in saying the state cannot enforce its “climate superfund” law, signed by Kathy Hochul, the governor, in December 2024. The policy required big oil companies to pay $75bn over 25 years for projects to help New York pay for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Sannes’s 63-page decision said the law was “unusual and sweeping”. It relied on the second circuit’s 2021 decision in City of New York v Chevron, a case in which New York sued oil companies arguing they should pay climate damages. “This decision rests on contested precedent from a fundamentally different case, and Attorney General Tish James must appeal immediately,” said Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for Make Polluters Pay, which supports climate superfund policies.

Donald Trump’s justice department argued in support of the lawsuit against the New York policy at a hearing last month. It has also filed its own litigation against it in the southern district of New York; that suit is still pending.

“This is a major victory in the fight against liberal states, trying to balance their budgets on the backs of our hard-working men and women in the coal, oil and gas industries,” said JB McCuskey, attorney general of West Virginia, whose office led the challenge against the New York law.

Forest Service chief faces scrutiny over logging ties as Trump plans to scrap protections

Donald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the “roadless rule”, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests and Republican representatives have long lobbied for the rule’s rescission, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging.

In a statement, Schultz described the move as “the best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk, and secure the long-term health of our forests and neighboring communities”. But studies suggest it could put 400 threatened and endangered species at risk and imperil ecosystems. Industry interests will be the main beneficiaries of the change, advocates fear.

Schultz is the first-ever Forest Service chief who did not previously work within the agency itself. Before Trump tapped him for the job, he served as president of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a trade association representing companies that purchase timber from the federal government, and was also vice-president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, a major lumber manufacturer.

He is one of dozens of former extractive industry insiders Trump has placed in key environmental positions. Energy secretary Chris Wright was CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, while interior official Tyler Hassen was an oil executive. Forty-three former fossil-fuel employees and 29 former corporate executives held administration positions, an October analysis from Public Citizen and corporate watchdog Revolving Door Project found.

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Also of Interest

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

Jonathan Cook: The British State Lost the Argument

Tit for Tat US/Iranian Strikes Resume

Lebanese Speaker Threatens Legal Action as Israel Continues to Attack South

How Ukraine’s 40-Day Campaign Has Influenced Russia

US public libraries at ‘breaking point’ amid ideological attacks, report finds

Republican calls Leon Black and David Copperfield co-conspirators of Epstein

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A Little Night Music

Sidney Bechet - St Louis Blues

Sidney Bechet - Egyptian Fantasy

Sidney Bechet - Summertime

Sidney Bechet and His New Orleans Feetwarmers - Old Man Blues

Sidney Bechet - Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho

Sidney Bechet - Lazy River

Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong - Perdido Street Blues

Sidney Bechet - Blue Horizon

Sidney Bechet - Shine

Sidney Bechet - China Boy

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