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This evening's music features soul singer, best known for her work with James Brown, Lyn Collins. Enjoy!

"We have three cold war fronts that are fraught with the possibility of hot war, in the Baltic region where NATO is carrying out an unprecedented military buildup on Russia’s border, in Ukraine where there is a civil and proxy war between Russia and the west, and of course in Syria, where Russian aircraft and American warplanes are flying in the same territory. Anything could happen.”

-- Stephen Cohen

News and Opinion

We Are Inches From A New World War, And Clintonists Are To Blame

American military provocations against the pro-Assad coalition in Syria are fast becoming a daily occurrence. In response to the US air force’s gunning down of a Syrian military plane on Sunday, Russia has cut off its hotline with which it was coordinating operations with America to avoid aerial collisions, and has warned that all US aircraft west of the Euphrates river will now be tracked and treated as potential targets. Today, 25 miles northwest of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, a US reconnaissance plane was intercepted by an armed Russian aircraft which came within five feet of the plane’s wingtip. This on the same day that the US shot down yet another Iranian military drone in Syria.

Clintonists have been working tirelessly since the election to manufacture these new Cold War tensions. Stephen Cohen, easily America’s foremost authority on US-Russia relations, has warned again and again that the political pressures being placed on the Trump administration to maintain escalations with Russia without conceding an inch has placed our species in a situation that is in some ways even more dangerous than those we faced at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. ...

It wasn’t enough for these Democratic neocons to try and elect a woman who had been pushing for dangerous escalations with Russia since long before any hacking allegations and who campaigned on a promise to invade Syria and seize control of an airspace wherein Russian military planes were conducting operations. No, once their initial bid to start World War 3 failed, these deranged death cultists began attacking Trump for any movement away from escalations with Russia or regime change in Syria and showering him with praise when he launched a missile strike against a Syrian airbase. ...

War cannot happen without the consent of the governed, which is why the corporate media works so very hard to manufacture that consent. The brazen Russophobia and relentless lies about the Syrian government which have been saturating establishment media airwaves have gone a long way toward accomplishing this, but it wouldn’t have worked without the direct cooperation of these idiotic vagina hat-wearing McResistance Maddow muppets. If these idiots had learned the lesson of Iraq instead of picking up the establishment narrative and not just running with it but holding actual parades for it, the warmongering would have fallen flat and we’d be seeing an intensely critical response toward any aggressive moves the Trump administration makes against Russia, Syria and Iran. Instead, these psychotic death cultists are still babbling about Russia collusion and attacking Jill Stein.

Resist This: the United States is at War With Syria

The United States is at war with Syria. Though few Americans wanted to face it, this has been the case implicitly since the Obama administration began building bases and sending Special Ops, really-not-there, American troops, and it has been the case explicitly since August 3, 2015, when the Obama administration announced that it would “allow airstrikes to defend Syrian rebels trained by the U.S. military from any attackers, even if the enemies hail from forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.” With the U.S. Air Force—under Trump, following Obama’s declared policy—shooting down a Syrian plane in Syrian airspace, this is now undeniable. The United States is overtly engaged in another aggression against a sovereign country that poses no conceivable, let alone actual or imminent, threat to the nation. This is an act of war.

As an act of war, this is unconstitutional, and would demand a congressional declaration. Will Trump ask for this? Will any Democratic or Republican congresscritter demand it? Is the Pope a Hindu? Would it make any difference? Why should Trump bother? Obama set the stage when he completely ignored the War Powers Act, the Constitution, Congress, and his own Attorney General and legal advisers, and went right ahead with a war on Libya, under the theory that, if we pretend no American troops are on the ground, it isn’t really a war or “hostilities” at all. Which I guess means if the Chinese Air Force starts shooting down American planes in American airspace in defense of Black Lives Matter’s assault on the White House, it wouldn’t really be engaging in an act of war.

It’s impossible to overstate the danger in these executive war-making prerogatives that Obama normalized—with the irresponsible connivance of his progressive groupies, who pretend not to know where this would lead: In 2012, referring to the precedent of Obama’s policies, Mitt Romney said: “I don’t believe at this stage, therefore, if I’m president that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now.” Following Obama, for Trump, and every Republican and Democratic president, it now goes without saying.

As an aggressive, unprovoked war, this is also illegal under international law, and all the political and military authorities undertaking it are war criminals, who would be prosecuted as such, if there were an international legal regime that had not already been undermined by the United States.

Trump Risks War with Russia and Iran in Syria

Spoiling for a Wider War in Syria

The U.S. mainstream media’s near universal demonization of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin – along with similar hatred directed toward Iran and Hezbollah – has put the world on a path toward World War III. Ironically, the best hope for averting a dangerous escalation into a global conflict is to rely on Assad, Putin, Iran and Hezbollah to show restraint in the face of illegal military attacks by the United States and its Mideast allies inside Syria. ...

In this upside-down world of American hegemony, Assad becomes the “aggressor” when he seeks to regain control of Syrian territory against armed insurgents, dominated by Al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS), or when he protests the invasion of Syrian territory by foreign forces. When Assad legally seeks help from Russia and Iran to defeat these foreign-armed and foreign-backed jihadists, the U.S. mainstream media and politicians treat his alliances as improper and troublemaking. Yet, the uninvited interventions into Syria by the United States and its various allies, including Turkey and Israel, are treated as normal and expected.

The preponderance of U.S. media criticism about U.S. policy in Syria comes from neoconservatives and liberal interventionists who have favored a much more ambitious and vigorous “regime change” war, albeit cloaked in prettier phrases such as “safe zones” and “no-fly zones.” So, you have Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal editorial, which praises Sunday’s U.S. shoot-down of a Syrian military plane because it allegedly was dropping bombs “near” one of the U.S.-backed rebel groups – though the Syrians say they were targeting an Islamic State position. ...

The editorial concludes: “The alternative would be to demonstrate that Mr. Assad, Iran and Russia will pay a higher price for their ambitions. This means refusing to back down from defending U.S. allies on the ground and responding if Russia aircraft or missiles attempt to take down U.S. planes. Our guess is that Russia doesn’t want a military engagement with the U.S. any more than the U.S. wants one with Russia, but Russia will keep pressing for advantage unless President Trump shows more firmness than his predecessor.” So, rather than allow the Syrian government to restore some form of order across Syria, the neocons want the Trump administration to continue violating international law, which forbids military invasions of sovereign countries, and keep the bloodshed flowing. Beyond that, the neocons want the U.S. military to play chicken with the other nuclear-armed superpower on the assumption that Russia will back down.

White House Officials Push for Widening War in Syria Over Pentagon Objections

Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council, and Derek Harvey, the NSC’s top Middle East advisor, want the United States to start going on the offensive in southern Syria, where, in recent weeks, the U.S. military has taken a handful of defensive actions against Iranian-backed forces fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Their plans are making even traditional Iran hawks nervous, including Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has personally shot down their proposals more than once, the two sources said. ...

Despite the more aggressive stance pushed by some White House officials, Mattis, military commanders, and top U.S. diplomats all oppose opening up a broader front against Iran and its proxies in southeastern Syria, viewing it as a risky move that could draw the United States into a dangerous confrontation with Iran, defense officials said. Such a clash could trigger retaliation against U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Syria, where Tehran has armed thousands of Shiite militia fighters and deployed hundreds of Revolutionary Guard officers.

France 24 reports from war torn city of Raqqa as jihadists launch counter-offensive

Secret Government Report: Chelsea Manning Leaks Caused No Real Harm

In the seven years since WikiLeaks published the largest leak of classified documents in history, the federal government has said they caused enormous damage to national security. But a secret, 107-page report, prepared by a Department of Defense task force and newly obtained by BuzzFeed News, tells a starkly different story: It says the disclosures were largely insignificant and did not cause any real harm to US interests.

Regarding the hundreds of thousands of Iraq-related military documents and State Department cables provided by the Army private Chelsea Manning, the report assessed “with high confidence that disclosure of the Iraq data set will have no direct personal impact on current and former U.S. leadership in Iraq.” ...

The June 15, 2011 report, written a year after the leaked documents were published by Wikileaks and an international consortium of news organizations, was obtained by BuzzFeed News in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed in 2015. Classified SECRET/NOFORN, meaning it was not to be shared with foreign nationals, the document was selectively cited by government prosecutors during Manning’s court-martial. Defense lawyers were not allowed to read it. More than half the report was withheld by the government. ...

The report goes on to say that the documents the task force reviewed contained details about previously undisclosed civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, which “could be used by the press or our adversaries to negatively impact support for current operations in the region.”

Did someone illegally record Gitmo legal meetings? Southcom investigates

The commander of the U.S. Southern Command has ordered an investigation into claims that somebody was illegally recording attorney-client meetings at Guantánamo from September 2015 to April 2017, a discovery that prompted a general to warn war court defense attorneys that their privileged communications were at risk.

The episode is the latest in a long string of defense lawyers’ complaints about government interference into their privileged work — from the CIA’s having the clandestine capacity to mute court audio to FBI agents trying to turn defense team members into informants to the discovery of listening devices that looked like smoke detectors in legal meeting rooms. ...

Now Marine Brig. Gen. John Baker, who runs the Military Commissions Defense Organization, has declared his “loss of confidence” in the integrity of “all potential attorney-client meeting locations” at the remote U.S. Navy base in Cuba in a June 14 letter obtained by the Miami Herald. ...

Lawyers familiar with the current issue also said much of the information about what happened and how Baker came to learn about it was classified, suggesting something involving an intelligence agency program rather than the guard force.

At FBI, Mueller Oversaw Post-9/11 Torture

Robert Mueller III, the former FBI director who now heads the wide-ranging investigation into alleged misdeeds by President Trump and his associates, just dodged a major legal bullet himself. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court gave him and other former senior Bush administration officials legal immunity for the vicious abuses committed against more than 700 foreigners who were rounded up with little or no cause after the 9/11 attacks. The court ruled 4-2, nearly 16 years after the fact, that “national security” trumps civil liberties and that however unfounded the arrests, or intolerable their treatment, the detainees had no right to sue senior federal officials for damages. ...

Dozens of the hapless victims were held at the Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), which was the subject of two scathing reports by the Bush Justice Department’s own Inspector General in 2003. Besides documenting a wide range of abuses, the reports concluded that staff members brazenly lied about the rough treatment they meted out. ... [T]he kind of torture long associated with secret CIA detention centers and Abu Ghraib was going on right in the heart of New York City. Unlike some of the CIA’s torture victims, these detainees had nothing to do with terrorist plots; some were never even questioned by the FBI after their arrest.

Yet senior FBI and Justice Department officials were complicit in the abuse. The 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2015 ruling that the lawsuit could proceed, cited evidence that two of the defendants, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller, “met regularly with a small group of government officials in Washington, D.C., and mapped out ways to exert maximum pressure on the individuals arrested in connection with the terrorism investigation.” They “discussed and decided upon a strategy to restrict the 9/11 detainees’ ability to contact the outside world and delay their immigration hearings. The group also decided to spread the word among law enforcement personnel that the 9/11 detainees were suspected terrorists[] . . . and that they needed to be encouraged in any way possible to cooperate.” And it was the FBI that recommended housing the detainees in the maximum security facility where their rights were sure to be abused.

Such official misconduct and brutality constitutes a stain on this nation’s honor. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said “Nothing in this opinion should be read to condone the treatment to which the (plaintiffs) contend they were subjected.”

Saudi king ousts nephew to name son as first in line to throne

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has ousted his nephew as crown prince and replaced him with his son, Mohammed bin Salman, confirming the 31-year-old as heir and consolidating the kingdom’s move to reassert its influence as a regional power. The move was announced by royal decree just after midnight, stunning the Saudi establishment, which has seen Bin Salman’s profile soar over the past three years but regarded the role of the former crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, a veteran security tsar, as secure.

The upheaval follows a dizzying series of moves from the usually cautious kingdom, which in recent weeks has seen it recalibrate relations with Washington and open a diplomatic offensive against Qatar, led by Bin Salman’s office, while pressing ahead with a war in Yemen and an ambitious economic and cultural overhaul at home.

Bin Salman has been central to the changes, which have helped his profile and powers grow rapidly under the tutelage of an 81-year-old monarch who has given him an almost free hand across most aspects of society. By contrast, Bin Nayef, a former interior minister and intelligence chief, and more traditional US ally, had been increasingly marginalised and the decree removed him from all his positions.

Bin Salman retains his role as defence minister and adds the position of deputy prime minister to his portfolio. He also chairs a weekly cabinet meeting that focuses on all aspects of Saudi society. The country’s allegiance council approved the changes by 31 out of 34 votes.

Qatar out in the cold: What's behind the diplomatic crisis?

State Department takes sudden hard line on Saudis over Qatar

It was just a week and a half ago that President Donald Trump contradicted his own secretary of state while standing in front of him in the Rose Garden, blasting Qatar for sponsoring terrorism and seeming to take credit for the Saudi-led blockade of the small Arab country. Just hours earlier, Secretary Rex Tillerson had called for restraint and an easing of the blockade.

Today, there was more whiplash. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert slammed Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others for the blockade, questioning its necessity and expressing doubt about the countries' claims.

“Now that it’s been more than two weeks since the embargo started, we are mystified that the Gulf states have not released to the public, nor to the Qataris, the details about the claims that they are making toward Qatar,” said Nauert. “The more that time goes by, the more doubt is raised about the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. At this point, we are left with one simple question: Were the actions really about their concerns about Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism, or were they about the long-simmering grievances between and among the GCC countries?” she asked, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council's six member nations.

May drops key manifesto pledges from Queen's speech

Theresa May’s minority government has dropped key Tory manifesto pledges, including expanding grammar schools and revisiting the foxhunting ban, as the Queen announced a pared-down legislative programme focused on delivering Brexit.

As she formally opened what the embattled prime minister hopes will be a two-year session of parliament, the Queen set out the government’s intention to deliver eight bills necessary for Brexit – including legislation allowing Britain to determine its own immigration, customs and trade arrangements. ...

The speech set out the new government’s domestic priorities, including sweeping changes to technical education and beefed-up plans for tackling domestic violence. But a series of controversial proposals set out in the Conservative manifesto were absent from the speech, and from the list of 27 bills the government hopes to pass.

Plans to scrap free school meals, ration winter fuel payments for pensioners, repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, and introduce what became widely known as the “dementia tax” for funding social care have been swept away by the election result. The government also appears to be willing to go back to the drawing board on its changes of the school funding formula, after Conservative MPs raised concerns about looming cuts.

Grenfell Tower 'day of rage' protest coincides with Queen's speech

Protesters calling for local housing for the displaced residents of Grenfell Tower are preparing to march against Theresa May’s government on Wednesday amid appeals to ensure that their grievances are not overshadowed by violence. A number of protests including a “day of rage” are to be held to coincide with the Queen’s speech, the formal unveiling of the government’s legislative agenda. ...

The demonstrations are to take place on the day the prime minister sets out her legislative programme for the next two years in a Queen’s speech expected to be dominated by Brexit.

Referencing the Grenfell Tower fire and “brutal austerity, cuts and anti-immigrant attacks”, the description on the MFJ event page reads: “Politicians and many community and religious leaders will be looking to divert our rage and fury into inquiries, investigations, reports, court hearings, and parliamentary processes.

“We will not accept those brush-offs and diversions, we will not settle for less than the destruction of May’s coalition of austerity and bigotry – we must bring down this government.”

Grenfell Tower families to be rehoused in flats at luxury complex

Sixty-eight flats in a luxury apartment complex where prices start at £1.6m are being made available to families displaced by the Grenfell Tower fire. Families who escaped the tower blaze will be able to take up permanent occupation in July and August in the apartments in the Kensington Row scheme about 1.5 miles south of Grenfell, where last Wednesday’s blaze left 79 people dead and missing and presumed dead.

The homes are within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea but in the more affluent south end of the borough. They have been purchased by the Corporation of London and will become part of its social housing stock. The most luxurious four-bedroom apartments are currently on sale in the development for £8.5m but the homes being released to Grenfell residents are part of the affordable quota being built and feature a more “straightforward” internal specification, but have the same build quality.

The complex includes a 24-hour concierge, swimming pool, sauna and spa and private cinema. It is not yet clear if the Grenfell residents will have access to the facilities, which are normally not included for those in affordable housing. ... The move follows calls by Jeremy Corbyn for luxury homes in the borough to be requisitioned.

Media Malpractice? As GOP Moves to Strip Healthcare from Millions, Press Remains Focused on Russia

Measured for Social Progress, U.S. Is a Second-Tier Nation

You can tell a lot about a nation by the kind of research reports it spews out monthly or quarterly. In the United States, we are bombarded with Federal government reports on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Durable Goods Orders, Retail Sales, Housing Starts and the like. If you want to know the price of gold or oil or thousands of corporate stock prices, you can get those numbers on a second by second basis on your laptop or mobile app.

Research releases in the United States that measure how the nation is doing in the area of social progress are far fewer and less timely. You’re not going to find such data released monthly or even quarterly. Take, for example, Federal studies that measure homelessness among students in public schools. The most recent research we could find from the U.S. Department of Education measured the data for the 2014-2015 school year. Clearly, it’s not something a rich nation wants to brag about. The report found that pre-K through 12^th grade students in the U.S. who had experienced homelessness in the 2014-2015 school year totaled 1,263,323 – double the amount from a decade ago and a stunning 34 percent increase since the economic recovery began in the summer of 2009.

This morning the annual Social Progress Index and report were released, measuring 128 countries based on Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. The United States ranked 18 and was placed in a “second tier” status. The report noted: “Traditional measures of national income, such as GDP per capita, fail to capture the overall progress of societies.”

On the component measuring health and wellness, the report found that the U.S. “performs far below countries at the same level of GDP per capita, registering relative weaknesses on all indicators in the component.” On the component measuring tolerance and inclusion, the researchers found that the U.S. “ranks just 23 in the world across this component, placing it behind less prosperous countries including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.”

"Philando Can Be Any of Us": Black Lives Matter Protests Acquittal of Officer in Minnesota Killing

It's hard to believe that somebody this stupid was issued a badge and a gun.

Philando Castile shooting: officer said he felt in danger after smelling pot in car

The Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile told state investigators that he believed his life was danger because he smelled marijuana in his car, according to transcripts released on Tuesday along with dash-camera footage. Officer Jeronimo Yanez said in an interview following the fatal traffic stop that Castile’s apparent willingness to use the drug in front of his young daughter and girlfriend led Yanez to believe that the 32-year-old posed a serious threat.

“I thought if he’s, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five-year-old girl and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke and the front-seat passenger doing the same thing then what, what care does he give about me?” he said.

The statement appeared in the transcript of Yanez’s questioning by investigators in July last year, in which the officer also failed to disclose that Castile had said out loud that he was “not reaching” for his handgun after being warned not to do so. Dash-camera footage released along with the transcript clearly picks up Castile telling the officer “I do have a firearm on me”. He was licensed to carry the gun. The officer orders Castile not to reach for it and not to pull it out to which Castile replies: “I’m not pulling it out.”

The officer reaches his left arm into the vehicle, screaming, while he draws his weapon with his right hand and, all in one motion, fires seven bullets into the vehicle, killing Castile. Castile can be heard screaming as the shots ring out and says in agony “I wasn’t reaching” as the officer begins to yell “fuck” again and again.

"Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time."

-- Harry S. Truman

Georgia special election: Republican Karen Handel beats Jon Ossoff in runoff

Democrats fell short of a special election victory yet again on Tuesday when Jon Ossoff, long the best hope of Democrats to win a special election in the Trump administration, suffered a narrow loss to Republican Karen Handel in the sixth congressional district.

The race was the latest in a series of special elections in Republican seats where Democrats managed to deliver moral victories – rather than actual victories – as they proved unable to notch a major electoral win in the Trump administration.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Handel had 52.7% and Ossoff had 47.3%.

Sporadic downpours and flash flood warnings helped to put a damper on Democratic turnout in base precincts and on the hopes of progressives to thwart Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

[Heh. Apparently The Guardian thinks that only Republicans vote in the rain. - js]

American healthcare is at a crossroads. Where is the Democrats' bold vision?

How close the Senate Republicans are to repealing the Affordable Care Act is anyone’s guess. The same holds what for a replacement bill will truly look like. ... [Senate Democrats] are preparing to block lengthy committee hearings, since any senator can stop a hearing from extending past the first two hours of the Senate’s day. They will object to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, employing various parliamentary maneuvers to call attention to Republican secrecy. ...

What’s still missing, however, is the alternative vision. It’s the fatal flaw of today’s Democratic party and one that has gone unaddressed since Hillary Clinton’s catastrophic loss. There is no argument for a new healthcare system coming from either side. Republicans, drunk on fulfilling an idiotic campaign pledge made in the heat of Obama’s presidency, are only promising to make healthcare worse for the people who need it most. Democrats are left with a mealy-mouthed defense of the status quo.

This is a problem, one that Democratic leaders in Congress and the Democratic National Committee aren’t trying to solve. It’s one thing to say you will do whatever it takes to protect a flawed but functional healthcare system that was never overwhelmingly popular to begin with, that still left plenty of people who weren’t desperately poor or sick with expensive healthcare plans. It’s quite another to start telling Americans how you plan to start fixing the system when you return to power. ...

There’s a certain comfort to being a minority party, an impotent oppositional faction scoring points on Twitter for holding the floor of the Senate. It’s easy. It’s even fun. Trump is a clown, Trump is a maniac, Trump is a Putin stooge – Democrats always win the late night shows, the internet, the memes. MSNBC is a ratings king. Everyone is buying resistance merchandise. The Democratic party is the younger party, the hipper party, the one that will tell you, again and again, in ever more creative ways, just how destructive Trump is. It just won’t tell you much else.

Canadian First Nation Battles Pipeline Expansion

Climate Groups: Don't Be Fooled, Industry-Backed Carbon Tax Just Latest Scam

Actually, no, major fossil fuel companies and "left-wing enviros" have not found common cause in an industry-backed carbon tax proposal. Though that was the misleading headline from the right-wing Daily Caller on Tuesday after it was reported that a plan by the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) to create a tax on carbon emissions would receive endorsement from ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and other large corporations—climate justice campaigners were quick on Tuesday to distance themselves from the proposal which they characterize as a scam and a distraction.

Put forward earlier this year by former secretary of state James Baker and other Republicans, the CLC plan is based on a market-driven scheme that would scrap many emission-reducing regulations while instituting a fuel tax that would be passed on to consumers. As the New York Times notes, the "proposal also says companies that emit greenhouse gases should be protected from lawsuits over their contribution to climate change."

According to Naomi Ages, senior climate campaigner for Greenpeace USA, the plan is nothing but corporate opportunism masquerading as a solution to the crisis of human-caused global warming.

"ExxonMobil will try to dress this up as climate activism, but its key agenda is protecting executives from legal accountability for climate pollution and fraud," warned Ages. "Buried in pages of supposedly 'free market' solutions is a new regulation exempting polluters from facing legal consequences for their role in fueling climate change."

Brazil's president announces plan to protect forest – after plea from supermodel

The Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen appears to have succeeded where conservationists and scientists have failed: by persuading the president, Michel Temer, to veto legislation that would have slashed protected reserves in the Amazon.

It's our job to protect our Mother Earth. @MichelTemer, please say NO to reducing protection in the Amazon! https://t.co/KkKF4MrhGg

— Gisele Bündchen (@giseleofficial) June 13, 2017

Her intervention apparently made an impact on the president, who has previously had scant regard for conservation, packing his cabinet with agro-business supporters and making deep cuts in the budget of the environment ministry.

.@giseleofficial e @WWF, vetei hoje integralmente todos os itens das MPs que diminuíam a área preservada da Amazônia.

— Michel Temer (@MichelTemer) June 19, 2017

This victory for the environment may yet prove short-lived because the pro-business government is considering other plans to reduce forest reserves and indigenous territory.

Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: Dispatch from the Dirtbag Left

It's not just Amazon coming for Whole Foods – Silicon Valley is eating the world

The Price that Julian Assange Pays

The Single Party French State … as the Majority of Voters Abstain

Theresa May Wants To Fight Islamophobia in the U.K.? You Must Be Joking.

Finding the Greater Fool — The Elite Logic Behind “Going Over the Climate Cliff”

A Little Night Music

Lyn Collins - Give It Up Or Turnit Loose

Lyn Collins - Mama Feelgood

Lyn Collins - Do Your Thing

Lyn Collins - Think (About It)

Lyn Collins - Rock Me Again

Lyn Collins - Wheels of Life

Lyn Collins - Take Me As I Am

Lyn Collins and James Brown - The Backstabbers

Lyn Collins & James Brown - You Can't Beat Two People in Love

Lyn Collins - Me And My Baby Got A Good Thing Going

Lyn Collins - Mr. Big Stuff