Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b and soul singer Wilson Pickett. Enjoy!

"They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own,
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine."

-- English Nursery Rhyme, circa 1764

News and Opinion

Technology giants hold censorship meeting with US intelligence agencies

The New York Times and Washington Post this week published reports of a private meeting last month between eight major technology and social media corporations and the US intelligence agencies, to discuss their censorship operations in the lead-up to the November 2018 mid-term elections. The meeting was convened at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters on May 23, and was attended by representatives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Twitter and Oath, owner of Yahoo! and a subsidiary of the telecommunications giant Verizon, along with agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. ...

The meeting is yet another testament to the increasing integration of the technology giants with the US military/intelligence apparatus. These companies, which provide a growing share of the technical infrastructure for the repressive apparatus of the state, increasingly see the censorship of left-wing, anti-war, and progressive viewpoints as an integral part of their business strategy. ... [T]he real target of the censorship campaign is popular access to left-wing news sources not controlled by the corporate media, and the proliferation of oppositional social media content, such as videos of police killings, mass roundups of immigrants, military interventions, protests and exposures of corporate malfeasance and government criminality.

Since the beginning of the year, Facebook has rolled out a series of changes to its News Feed, including demoting political content in favor of so-called “personal moments,” and prioritizing content from so-called “trustworthy sources”—in reality pro-establishment propaganda outlets—including the Times and the Wall Street Journal. The social media giant has also changed its algorithms to reduce the spread of “viral videos,” which CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared are “not good for people's well-being and society.”

Last Thursday, Facebook published an announcement by its Head of News Integrity Tessa Lyons, announcing a further expansion of these measures, including the introduction of “fact-checking” for videos and photos. The post also stated that Facebook is introducing “machine learning to help identify and demote foreign Pages that are likely to spread financially-motivated hoaxes to people in other countries.” These will work alongside Facebook's army of “fact checkers”—i.e., censors—many of them former security and intelligence agents, who belong to the 20,000 people employed in its “security” and “moderation” department.

Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted ‘propaganda.’ It was the Declaration of Independence.

For about 20 minutes Tuesday, NPR traveled back to 1776. To echo its 29-year on-air tradition, the public radio network’s main Twitter account tweeted out the Declaration of Independence, line by line. There — in 113 consecutive posts, in 140-character increments — was the text of the treasured founding document of the United States, from its soaring opening to its searing indictments of King George III’s “absolute tyranny” to its very last signature.

Who could have taken issue with such a patriotic exercise, done in honor of the nation’s birthday?

Quite a few people, it turned out.

Twitter users reacted angrily to the thread, accusing NPR of spamming them — or, worse, trying to push an agenda. ... The blowback increased when the tweets reached the portion of the Declaration that outlined, in unsparing detail, all the ways Britain’s George III had wronged the then-Colonies. ... Some people — presumably still in the dark about NPR’s Fourth of July exercise — assumed those lines were references to President Trump and the current administration.

So, NPR is calling for revolution.
Interesting way to condone the violence while trying to sound "patriotic".
Your implications are clear.

— D.G.Davies (@JustEsrafel) July 4, 2017

Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US, New Zealand appeal court rules

New Zealand’s court of appeal has ruled that internet entrepreneur and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom could be extradited to the United States to face racketeering and criminal copyright charges.

The court’s written decision rejected Dotcom’s appeal and upheld a lower court ruling in 2017 that the extradition could take place.

The six-year legal saga is widely seen as a test for how far the United States can reach globally to apply American firms’ intellectual property rights.

US authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500m and generated more than $175m by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material. ...

Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken told Reuters via email that his client would appeal the decision in the country’s highest judiciary body, the supreme court. “We look forward to seeking review with the New Zealand supreme court. We think that ultimately Kim Dotcom will prevail,” Rothken said.

Is the US-Kurdish Alliance Over? New Agreement Between Kurds and Assad Could Spell End for U.S. Role in Syria

For over a year, much of northeastern Syria has found itself under de facto occupation by the United States and its military proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The occupied territory, accounting for nearly a third of Syria’s total landmass and including large portions of the al-Hasakah, al-Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zor regions, has largely been overseen by the SDF, an umbrella group of militias dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which allied with the U.S. early in the conflict.

While the SDF has seemingly had complete control of the occupied territory — which boasts most of Syria’s oil, gas, freshwater and agricultural resources — it seems that increased local resistance to the SDF’s control of the region, as well as the U.S.’ failure to protect its allies elsewhere in Syria, has now pushed the YPG to reconsider its alliance with the United States and instead consider allying with the Syrian government, led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The clearest indication yet that the YPG’s relationship with the Syrian government is set to change dramatically came on Monday, when Al Masdar News reported that the YPG and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) had reached a preliminary agreement in the al-Hasakah region that is set to lead to increased SAA influence in areas under YPG control. Per the agreement, the YPG has announced that it will remove all posters of Abdullah Ocalan — one of the founding members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is associated with the YPG — from areas under its control and will also allow the SAA to reopen recruitment offices throughout the region. The agreement came as a result of recent negotiations between Kurdish and Syrian government officials in both Damascus and Qamishli.

However, this agreement is hardly the end of future YPG and SAA cooperation in the area, as negotiations continue. ... The agreements are part of a wider effort by the Syrian government to convince Kurdish factions in Syria’s northeast to abandon their alliance with the United States. Those negotiations are aimed at convincing the Kurds to join forces with the SAA throughout Syria and to give control of key border crossings into Iraq and Turkey to the SAA. In exchange, the Syrian government has offered to include the Kurdish language in the Syrian educational system, consider military service in the YPG as analogous to service in the SAA, and create a permanent post for a Kurdish official in the Syrian state oil ministry.

Trump repeatedly suggested invading Venezuela

Donald Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of invading Venezuela in talks with his top aides at the White House, according to a new report. Trump brought up the subject of an invasion in public in August last year, saying: “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.” But the president’s musings about the possibility of a US invasion were more extensive and persistent than that public declaration, according to the Associated Press.

The previous day Trump reportedly took his top officials by surprise in an Oval Office meeting, asking why the US could not intervene to remove the government of Nicolas Maduro on the grounds that Venezuela’s political and economic unraveling represented a threat to the region. Quoting an unnamed senior administration official, the AP report said the suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, which included the then national security advisor, HR McMaster, and secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Both have since left the administration.

The administration officials are said to have taken turns in trying to talk him out of the idea, pointing out that any such military action would alienate Latin American allies who had supported the US policy of punitive sanctions on the Maduro regime. ... McMaster finally succeeding in persuading Trump of the dangers of an invasion, the report said, and the president’s interest in the notion subsided.

Wiltshire novichok poisoning investigated by counter-terror police

An urgent investigation is under way to discover how a British couple have been left critically ill by the nerve agent novichok, the same military grade poison that nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter four months ago. Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, announced that expert scientists in chemical warfare at the world famous Porton Down laboratory had established that novichok had caused the collapse in Wiltshire of British nationals Dawn Sturgess, 44, from Salisbury, and Charlie Rowley, 45, of Amesbury. ...

Initially police thought that drugs had caused Sturgess and Rowley’s severe illness. But British security officials said the Porton Down test results on Wednesday showed novichok, developed by the Russian military, was to blame for the poisoning. They believed the danger to the public posed by the highly toxic materials used in March had been cleaned up and had thus passed. Basu said investigators and scientists did not know how the British couple had been exposed to the nerve agent. Paramedics were first called to a home on Muggleton Road in Amesbury at 10.15am on Saturday after Sturgess collapsed. Five hours later Rowley was taken ill.

On Thursday night a senior Government source told the Press Association it was believed there was cross-contamination of the same batch of nerve agent involved in the “reckless” Salisbury attack, as opposed to a secondary attack. “They [the authorities] have never been able to ascertain the item used to deposit the Novichok and it’s possible the pair have come into contact with that item”, the source said. It is understood investigators are working on a theory that the pair came into contact with the substance in a part of Salisbury city centre that was outside the original clean-up area. ...

Basu said there was nothing in the backgrounds of Sturgess or Rowley that would suggest they would be a target for a deliberate attack – they have no connections to the intelligence or security communities.

Novichok II: What''s behind new nerve agent poisoning in England?

Farmers at Gaza’s Edge Try to Make Ends Meet Between Economic Squeeze and Israeli Sniper Fire

In late March, Amr Samour and his friend Ahmed al-Shami left their homes at 2:30 a.m. to harvest parsley in fields not far from the city of Khan Younis, in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip. ... By about 4 a.m., they had already filled a number of boxes of freshly cut parsley when they heard a loud boom from the east, where just a kilometer away, Israeli troops are permanently positioned. Al-Shami recalled Samour asking what the sound was before the early morning’s dark blue sky exploded in a flash of red. Both men were knocked to the ground.

Al-Shami, covered in shrapnel, managed to get up and check on Samour, who had suffered more severe wounds on his abdomen and head. Moments later, another shell exploded near them. Al-Shami was knocked to the ground again. Not long after, both men were taken to the hospital where al-Shami would learn that Samour had succumbed to his wounds. Israel later said that its army fired on men who it said were engaged in “suspicious activity” near its border fence with Gaza. ...

Farming in Gaza became a dangerous profession during the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, when Israel, citing security concerns, created a “buffer zone” of 1000 meters into the Gazan side of the armistice line. More than one-third of Gaza’s farmlands are located in this area, and in an immensely overcrowded and blockaded territory, that’s agricultural land that’s too valuable to not use. ... Despite the economic pressures and Israeli sniper fire, Palestinian farm workers continue to spend their days in the fields, not knowing if each might be their last.

Woman calls the police on a black representative campaigning in Oregon

A black Oregon state representative says someone called the police on her while she was canvassing door-to-door in her district. Rep. Janelle Bynum represents District 51, which includes the area of Clackamas County, where she was campaigning.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, the Democrat wrote that a woman notified police that Bynum was suspicious because she was "spending a lot of time typing on my cell phone after each house." Bynum is running for reelection in the fall, and said she takes notes when she's visiting her constituents to keep an account of what her community cares about.

She praised the deputy who responded for being professional, and said she asked him if she could meet the woman who made the call, but she was not available.

Concentration Camps in the U.S.: Andrea Pitzer Decries Tent Cities for Detaining Kids Without Trial

Woman climbs Statue of Liberty in Fourth of July protest

Police have arrested a woman who climbed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in a Fourth of July protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The climber huddled at the base of the monument, about 30 meters above the ground, and engaged in a four-hour standoff with police before two New York Police Department officers climbed up to the base and apprehended her.

Unidentified climber scales the Statue of Liberty as part of an apparent protest against @ICEgov https://t.co/l9CtEdBYU8 pic.twitter.com/P1OdGXG5ck

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 4, 2018

Earlier in the day at least six protesters were arrested at the monument after hanging a banner from the pedestal emblazoned with a message about abolishing Ice, the US immigration enforcement agency. Activists with the group Rise and Resist said they had hung the banner to protest against the Trump administration and its “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which has caused families to be separated at the border.

Occupy Ice: protest camps expand across US amid calls to shutter agency

Occupy Ice protests have spread across the US, with new occupations and encampments growing outside federal immigration facilities in San Francisco and Philadelphia this week.

The demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) are escalating as progressive activists and some Democrats are calling for the abolition of the federal agency carrying out the Trump administration’s xenophobic agenda and widely condemned deportation machine.

“We will be here as long as we can,” said Imri Rivas, a 25-year-old camped outside a San Francisco Ice building on Tuesday. “What’s important for me is the active disruption of Ice operations. I hope people do it everywhere.” ...

In Philadelphia, activists set up Occupy Ice encampments this week, leading to a response from US counter-terrorism officers, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and local law enforcement. Officers arrested nearly 30 people and cleared more from the area, police said.

Members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group invigorated by the recent stunning victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Democratic Congressional primary, are helping fuel the Occupy Ice actions, with language and tactics that echo the Occupy Wall Street movement that took hold in the US in 2011. The DSA has been involved in a number of high-profile demonstrations, including the protest against Kirstjen Nielsen, homeland security secretary, while she dined at a Mexican restaurant last month.

Occupy Ice demonstrations have also emerged in Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit and New York.

Asylum Seekers Win in Court as Federal Judge Rules Against Indefinite & Arbitrary Detention

Immigrant Mothers Were Moved Outdoors During Kirstjen Nielsen’s Secretive Visit to Detention. They Shouted for Help to No Avail.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made a series of secretive visits to South Texas immigrant detention centers on Friday. One of the facilities the secretary visited, in Los Fresnos, houses parents whose children were taken from them under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy. Many of the detainees there are women, and many desperately wanted to speak with Nielsen. Instead, they were moved to a distant soccer field, where they shouted to Nielsen for help but were too far away for her to hear them.

Reporters could not talk to Nielsen either, even though, as confirmed to The Intercept by a DHS press secretary on Monday, she toured two Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers for adults in South Texas and a shelter in Brownsville that houses young children separated from their parents. Additionally, ICE confirmed to The Intercept on Tuesday that more than 60 women were moved during the secretary’s visit, though the agency claimed the move was for the purpose of “recreation.”

Indianapolis church "detains" Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a cage in protest over Trump admin.'s zero-tolerance immigration policy. https://t.co/2iJ6q826XZ

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 3, 2018

Private prison companies thrive as thousands of immigrants detained

The Trump administration’s attack upon immigrants has resulted in windfalls for private prison companies, which are rapidly changing their business model in order to exploit incarceration. More and more, detention centers and prisons are being funded, not by municipal bonds or federal monies, but with private investment. Companies such as CoreCivic and GEO Group have increasingly used so-called “public-private partnerships” to shift from the role of independent contractors and managers to that of prison landlords. ...

Both CoreCivic and GEO became Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in 2013, a move that required them to derive most of their profits from real estate and to distribute the majority of their income to shareholders each year. ... Contracts made through CoreCivic and GEO can involve the companies either constructing and financing the prison facilities, then leaving the management of those companies to the public sector, or acting as a turn-key service that constructs, finances, and runs a facility for an agreed-upon price per prisoner. “In both these variations,” the report specifies, “the private company owns the facility, but, unlike with speculative prisons built in the past, they are guaranteed occupancy for the life of the contract.”

This stipulation has serious implications for public policy, not only for immigrants, but for the American public at large. Perhaps most alarmingly, it gives the government a greater incentive to incarcerate people. ... With a high-interest loan to pay off, states are driven to fill the prisons up to maximum occupancy. Both CoreCivic and GEO Corp have spent millions of dollars lobbying for harsher penalties at both the state and federal levels, supporting, for instance, mandatory sentencing and three-strike laws. They also push for greater funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which are well known for hounding, harassing, and abusing immigrants.

When Democrats Aren’t the Least-Worst

What will Democrats do when they can’t campaign as the “least-worst” option, then shame and blame anyone who dares to vote Green? Greens are running against incumbent Democrats in three California congressional races with no Republican bogeymen in sight. The names of all three Greens will appear right alongside the Democrats’ names on the November ballot, so voters will readily see that they have a choice besides writing in their cat, their cousin, a Green, or some other marginalized candidate. In Districts 13, 34, and 40, there’ll be no Republicans, no least-worst Democrats, and no excuse for shame and blame. In these races Democrats have to make their case on its own merits instead of arguing that Green voters risk electing a Republican and should therefore suffer eternal damnation.The argument that anyone to the left of Donald Trump owes their vote to a Democrat, no matter how despicable, has always been stupid and arrogant, but in these races it’s not even relevant.

Want Medicare-for-All? Free public college tuition and the cancelation of student debt? Sustainable energy and agriculture? Economic human rights? The end of homelessness, gentrification, mass incarceration, and police and border militarization? Want to stop the wars, close the empire of bases, radically cut the military budget, and repurpose resources to meet human needs and build sustainable infrastructure? Want to live in a world where everyone has dignity and purpose, and society respects and protects the life of every individual? No problem if that’s what you’d like to say with your vote in November and you live in the Golden State’s Districts 13, 34, and 40. There’s no need to vote for the least of what you want or against the worst of what you fear. You can vote your conscience by voting Green—for Laura Wells in D13, Kenneth Mejia in D34, or Rodolfo Cortes Barragan in D40. ...

So how will the incumbent Democrats in these three congressional districts campaign? They are Barbara Lee, who faces Laura Wells in California D13, Jimmy Gomez, who faces Kenneth Mejia in D34, and Lucille Roybal-Allard, who faces Rodolfo Cortes Barragan in D40. Most likely they’ll refuse to debate or even acknowledge the existence of their Green challengers, though I still hope for better from Barbara Lee. They have nothing to gain by admitting that they’re beholden to the oligarchical and corporate interests who fund their campaigns, that they don’t support much of the Green Party platform, or that there’s plenty of money to pay for it. If asked where they’ll find the money, any of the Green candidates will readily point out that a 50% cut to the military budget could pay for everything they advocate, provide a basic income to every American, and fully employ all those now employed by the Masters of War.

Matt Stoller lectures the corporate Dems who probably don't give a rats ass.

Democrats can't win until they recognize how bad Obama's financial policies were

During his final news conference of 2016, in mid-December, President Obama criticized Democratic efforts during the election. “Where Democrats are characterized as coastal, liberal, latte-sipping, you know, politically correct, out-of-touch folks,” Obama said, “we have to be in those communities.” In fact, he went on, being in those communities — “going to fish-fries and sitting in VFW halls and talking to farmers” — is how, by his account, he became president. It’s true that Obama is skilled at projecting a populist image; he beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa in 2008, for instance, partly by attacking agriculture monopolies.

But Obama can’t place the blame for Clinton’s poor performance purely on her campaign. On the contrary, the past eight years of policymaking have damaged Democrats at all levels. Recovering Democratic strength will require the party’s leaders to come to terms with what it has become — and the role Obama played in bringing it to this point.

Two key elements characterized the kind of domestic political economy the administration pursued: The first was the foreclosure crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts. The resulting policy framework of Tim Geithner’s Treasury Department was, in effect, a wholesale attack on the American home (the main store of middle-class wealth) in favor of concentrated financial power. The second was the administration’s pro-monopoly policies, which crushed the rural areas that in 2016 lost voter turnout and swung to Donald Trump.

Obama didn’t cause the financial panic, and he is only partially responsible for the bailouts, as most of them were passed before he was elected. But financial collapses, while bad for the country, are opportunities for elected leaders to reorganize our culture. Franklin Roosevelt took a frozen banking system and created the New Deal. Ronald Reagan used the sharp recession of the early 1980s to seriously damage unions. In January 2009, Obama had overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress, $350 billion of no-strings-attached bailout money and enormous legal latitude. What did he do to reshape a country on its back? ...

Many Democrats think that Trump supporters voted against their own economic interests. But voters don’t want concentrated financial power that deigns to redistribute some cash, along with weak consumer protection laws. They want jobs. They want to be free to govern themselves. Trump is not exactly pitching self-government. But he is offering a wall of sorts to protect voters against neo-liberals who consolidate financial power, ship jobs abroad and replace paychecks with food stamps. Democrats should have something better to offer working people.

Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti suggests run against Trump in 2020

Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents pornographic actor Stormy Daniels in her ongoing legal dispute with Donald Trump, said in a tweet Wednesday that he would consider running against the president in the 2020 election.

“IF (big) he seeks re-election, I will run, but only if I think that there is no other candidate in the race that has a REAL chance at beating him. We can’t relive 2016. I love this country, our values and our people too much to sit by while they are destroyed,” Avenatti tweeted on the Independence Day holiday.

During a CNN appearance later in the day Avenatti stood by his tweet, saying he had “three things” that he believes Trump lacks: “brains, heart, and courage”.

Finally! 'Victory for People and the Planet' as EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Resigns

The White House announced Thursday that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has resigned, following months of mounting scandals regarding his misuse of taxpayer funds for his lavish travel expenses, the extreme secrecy with which he ran the agency, his treatment of his staff, and other ethics controversies.

While Pruitt's management style and ethics-free behavior frequently threatened to distract from his activities as the nation's top official ostensibly in charge of safeguarding the environment, climate action groups and other green campaigners have repeatedly pointed to his aggressive efforts to undermine the EPA's stated mission while spearheading the Trump administration's overall effort to execute a massive giveaway to the fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests.

Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week

From the normally mild summer climes of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week. Large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures.

No single record, in isolation, can be attributed to global warming. But collectively, these heat records are consistent with the kind of extremes we expect to see increase in a warming world. ...

A massive and intense heat dome has consumed the eastern two-thirds of the United States and southeast Canada since late last week. It’s not only been hot but also exceptionally humid. Here are some of the notable all-time records set:

• Denver tied its all-time high-temperature record of 105 degrees on June 28.
• Mount Washington, N.H., tied its all-time warmest low temperature of 60 degrees on July 2.
• Burlington, Vt., set its all-time warmest low temperature ever recorded of 80 degrees on July 2.
• Montreal recorded its highest temperature in recorded history, dating back 147 years, of 97.9 degrees (36.6 Celsius) on July 2. The city also posted its most extreme midnight combination of heat and humidity.
• Ottawa posted its most extreme combination of heat and humidity on July 1.

The dome of high pressure set to develop this weekend over the eastern US is IMPRESSIVE. Current foretasted strength would make this the strongest ridge of high pressure on record for this time of year over the last 30 years. pic.twitter.com/A5bTh5CvOV

— Greg Porter (@NEWeatherRants) June 28, 2018

[see article for reports of weather for rest of northern hemisphere - js]

Firm Prepares To Mine Land Previously Protected As A National Monument

A Canadian mining firm says it will move forward with plans to mine minerals from land that was previously part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

Last December, President Trump removed nearly half of the Grand Staircase-Escalante from protection, as well as part of the Bears Ears National Monument, which is also in Utah. The move was the largest reversal of national monument protections in U.S. history. Glacier Lake Resources Inc., a Vancouver-based copper and silver mining firm, says it has acquired the Colt Mesa deposit, an approximately 200-acre parcel of land located about 35 miles southeast of Boulder, Utah. Because it was nationally protected, the area was previously off limits to development and mining. In a press release the company noted that the deposit "recently became open for staking and exploration after a 21 year period moratorium."

Saf Dhillon, president and CEO of Glacier Lake Resources, called the project "a welcome addition to the company's ever growing portfolio." ...

This week, following Glacier Lake Resources' announcement of preparations to mine formerly protected land in Utah, the Wilderness Society released a statement from Nada Culver, its counsel and senior director for agency policy:

"Mining is prohibited in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and any mining claims are invalid, just like President Trump's attempt to dismantle the monument, which we are already challenging in court. This company's actions, and any others that try to mine within monument boundaries, will be scrutinized. We are monitoring this situation and will not stand by and watch mining companies rush to leave irreplaceable scars and damage the natural values of these lands.

For those who doubt the intended beneficiaries of the attack on our national monuments, we now have some more evidence of the real reason the administration is trying to sacrifice our public lands."

First test tube rhino embryos could bring extinct species back from dead

The first rhino embryos have been created in a test tube and could help save the northern white rhino, which is essentially extinct. There are just two northern white rhino (NWR) females left alive. The last male, called Sudan, died in March in Kenya, meaning the subspecies is doomed to die out unless the new IVF techniques bear fruit.

There are 21,000 southern white rhinos (SWR) and these will be used as surrogate mothers. The scientists are planning for the the first NWR calf to be born within three years. Very few frozen NWR eggs exist, so the scientists started by fertilising SWR eggs with stored NWR sperm to create hybrid embryos and to show the technique works. A critical next step is to take eggs from the last two NWR females and produce pure NWR embryos.

But even if the implantation of the pure NWR embryos does lead to the birth of healthy calves in future, the NWR faces another huge challenge: the lack of genetic diversity needed to build up a healthy population. There are a dozen samples of skin from different NWR and these are being kept alive in cell culture. Stem cell technology may be able to turn these cells into eggs and sperm which could be used to create genetically diverse embryos, although this is likely to take a decade. The scientists have already succeeded in creating rhino stem cells from SWR embryos.

Also of Interest

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

U.S. Military Surveys Found Local Distrust in Niger. Then the Air Force Built a $100 Million Drone Base.

An American Century of Brutal Overseas Conquest Began at Guantánamo Bay

Democracy Dies in the Blinding Light of Day

Freedom Rider: Ocasio-Cortez and the Left

Bronx Machine Gathers to Sort Through Post-Joe Crowley Wreckage

Climate scientists are working hard to keep the apocalypse relevant

A Little Night Music

Wilson Pickett - It's Too Late

Wilson Pickett - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

Wilson Pickett - Down by the Sea

Wilson Pickett - Don't Fight It

Wilson Pickett - Jealous Love

Wilson Pickett - I'm In Love

Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally

Wilson Pickett - Soul Dance Number Three

Wilson Pickett - Devil With The Blue Dress On