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"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of the press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves."

-- Howard Zinn

News and Opinion

An interesting article worth a full read:

Can Silicon Valley workers rein in big tech from within?

An unprecedented wave of rank-and-file rebellion is sweeping Big Tech. At one company after another, employees are refusing to help the US government commit human rights abuses at home and abroad.

At Google, workers organized to shut down Project Maven, a Pentagon project that uses machine learning to improve targeting for drone strikes – and won. At Amazon, workers are pushing Jeff Bezos to stop selling facial recognition to police departments and government agencies, and to cut ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At Microsoft, workers are demanding the termination of a $19.4m cloud deal with ICE. At Salesforce, workers are trying to kill the company’s contract with Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The media has been following this story closely. But so far it has missed an important part of the picture. Journalists have largely described these campaigns as examples of “employee activism”. That isn’t quite right. The reason these campaigns have gotten traction isn’t because they’re led by activists. It’s because they’re led by workers. They’re labor actions, in other words – and that’s what gives them their power. Workers have power because of the central role they play in the productive process, and their capacity to disrupt it. Google workers flexed this power to force their bosses to abandon Project Maven, just as their counterparts at other companies are flexing it now. Big tech firms can ignore activists. They can lobby Washington into submission, and bribe thinktanks and nonprofits into serving their interests. But when their own workers take collective action – workers who are expensive to hire and expensive to train – management has to listen. Because workers in revolt threaten the profit engine itself. ...

Amazon was not built by Jeff Bezos, any more than the transcontinental railroad was built by Leland Stanford. They were built by the people who were paid to build it. They were built by the workers who did the work. By neglecting the labor dimension of the rising tide of tech worker unrest, the media has also overlooked the broader goal of the emerging movement it represents. In my own conversations with its participants, they’ve explained that they don’t want to just keep pressuring their CEOs into dropping certain contacts. Rather, they want a seat at the table where decisions are made. They want to help determine how the technologies are built – and if they’re even built in the first place. As a letter written by Amazon workers explains: “We demand a choice in what we build, and a say in how it is used.”

The reason is simple: they’ve learned that management can’t be trusted to make these decisions alone. Management must always prioritize one thing: the bottom line. That’s not because specific executives are greedy, but because the position they occupy compels them to place profitability and shareholder value above all else – even if it means selling technology that helps ICE lock children in cages. This puts management on a collision course with the workers who care about the destructive effects of the tools they’re building. “Before the campaign, a lot of Googlers had never considered the fact that their values might not be aligned with the values of leadership,” one of the Google organizers who fought Project Maven told me. That misalignment is now being acutely felt at many companies, as workers are discovering the distance between them and their bosses.

Tech workers are also tech users. They also have to live in the world that their technologies help create. They may earn more than most, but very few of them are rich enough to insulate themselves from the dystopian implications of algorithmic warfare, algorithmic policing, and algorithmically enriched billionaires hoarding so much of society’s wealth that they have to burn it in outer space. When Silicon Valley says it’s building the future, this is the future it means. Other futures exist. Tech workers have the power to make them possible.

Torture at CIA black site run by Gina Haspel detailed in newly released documents

The CIA believed Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national, was an al Qaeda terrorist who possessed critical information on plots against America. So they subjected him to forced nudity, sleep deprivation, loud noises, physical abuse, and “water treatment” (waterboarding), according to newly released CIA cables. All of this happened at a secret prison in Thailand in 2002. The person in charge of this so-called black site: current CIA director Gina Haspel, who was the “chief of base” at the site from October 2002 until it closed in December of that year. The documents that detail these torture techniques would have been written and authorized by Haspel, according to the New York Times.

These newly-released details once again call into question Haspel’s confirmation as director of the CIA, an appointment that has been plagued by controversy since her nomination earlier this year.

The heavily redacted cables detail brutal treatment of Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian man and the suspected mastermind of an attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors, including his confinement to a small box and being slammed against a wall. All of this happened even though Nashiri cried and pleaded with agency interrogators, promising them that he would comply with any demands that they had, according to the newly released cables. During one interrogation, Haspel wrote that Nashiri “whimpered that he would do anything the interrogators wanted.” The interrogators warned Nashiri that if he lied, he would “suffer the consequences” and his life would become “infinitely worse.” Nashiri was repeatedly waterboarded, which involves restraining an individual on their back and pouring water into their mouth and nose to simulate the sensation of drowning. ...

During her confirmation hearings to become director of the CIA, Haspel expressed regret over the use of such interrogation tactics at the CIA black site, although she maintained that torture had provided valuable intelligence to the U.S. But her opinion is not necessarily reflective of the larger intelligence community.

Though "Too Late" Now, Cables From Secret CIA Black Site Read Like Gina Haspel's "Torture Journaling"

Government cables reported in the New York Times on Friday "read like torture journaling," critics said after reviewing the "loud noise, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, wall-slamming, and waterboarding" that CIA interrogators used on an al-Qaida suspect in 2002 at a secret prison run by Gina Haspel, whom the Senate confirmed as agency chief in May despite widespread outrage over her torturous record. ...

While human rights advocates vocally protested President Donald Trump's appointment of Haspel to run the CIA earlier this year—as well as the "robust" public relations campaign which some said amounted to "domestic propaganda" ahead of her confirmation—they pointed to these newly released cables as further evidence "that she is totally unfit to lead the agency."

Some Haspel critics responded by calling out the six Democrats—Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), and Joe Donnelly (Ind.)—who joined with nearly all of the Senate's Republicans to confirm Haspel.

Have Sens. Warner, Heitkamp, Donnelly, Manchin, Shaheen and Nelson apologized yet for voting to confirm Gina Haspel? https://t.co/PvKAL4qGP8 pic.twitter.com/yCkGlvOZdp

— CREDO Mobile (@CREDOMobile) August 10, 2018

As Israeli airstrikes persist and the living situation gravely worsens, Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of a full-blown humanitarian crisis due to Israel's 10-year siege. Everyday life in besieged Gaza is shaped by Israeli policy. pic.twitter.com/SaANiOElKn

— The IMEU (@theIMEU) August 9, 2018

Three dead as Israel and Hamas trade heavy fire across Gaza border

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 180 rockets and mortars into southern Israel and the Israeli military has launched 150 airstrikes, as weeks of on-off violence came to a head. Three Palestinians were killed, including a pregnant woman, a toddler and a Hamas fighter. Several Israelis were wounded, along with a 30-year-old Thai woman living in Israel.

The Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza named two of the dead as Enas Khammash, 23, who was pregnant, and her 18-month-old daughter, Bayan. It said 12 others were injured. ...

Late on Thursday, Palestinian officials said that Hamas and Israel had reached an agreement to end the violence. “Egyptian efforts managed to restore calm between Palestinian factions and Israel that will end the current escalation,” a Palestinian official told Reuters. “Palestinian factions will respect calm as long as Israel does.” There was no formal comment from Israel.

The bloodshed was the third severe flare-up in the past two months, during which the two sides have traded their most intense attacks since the 2014 war. There have been warnings of a possible fourth conflict in 10 years.

Who will be held responsible for Saudi strike that killed dozens of children?

German government plans reintroduction of military conscription

Germany’s grand coalition government of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats wants to reintroduce general military conscription. This was reported by various media outlets over the past weekend, including Spiegel Online, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Tagesschau. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party conference in autumn is scheduled to adopt a resolution to reintroduce military service and include this in its joint programme with the Christian Social Union (CSU). ...

Some politicians—both in the opposition, as well as in the ranks of the CDU and SPD—have expressed reservations about the reintroduction of compulsory military service. They fear this will damage the building of a professional army, which was introduced seven years ago. Professional soldiers, who serve for several years, are far more effective and less subject to the pressure of public opinion than conscripts who leave after 12 months. They therefore support the introduction of universal conscription, for men and women, with an option for either military of civilian service. After finishing their school education, adult German citizens should “serve Germany” for 12 months—either with the Bundeswehr or with the Agency for Technical Relief, in the health system, or in old age care. ...

However, the introduction of such compulsory service would require a fundamental change in the constitution. The Armed Forces Commissioner, Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD), was skeptical about the legality of the proposal. He told Bild am Sonntag: “That falls under the ban on forced labour”. He considers it “quite unlikely that 700,000 young men and women will be compulsorily conscripted annually for one or other task, however sympathetic the idea may sound”.

The discussion about the reintroduction of conscription fits seamlessly into the right-wing and militaristic course of the grand coalition. Ever since being sworn into office on March 14, the SPD and the CDU have been demonstrating daily that they are pursuing a stubborn agenda of warmongering and great power politics, with the aim of strengthening the interests of German business on a global level. ...

At the end of July, in an interview with Spiegel, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen revealed the vehemence with which the German bourgeoisie is upgrading its military capabilities. Asked by Spiegel about the relationship with US President Donald Trump, von der Leyen stated, “We Europeans are challenged—in our own best interests, and not to please the US president”. ... One searches in vain for any fundamental criticism among the opposition parties. In words that sound remarkably similar to those of von der Leyen’s, the parliamentary leader of the Left Party, Sahra Wagenknecht, recently called for a “self-confident foreign policy”, a strengthening of the “German internal market” and more funding for the police and the judiciary. The Greens, under Anton Hofreiter, also accuse the government of being unable to “equip soldiers with the necessary basic equipment” and to enforce German interests abroad.

Turkey’s currency is tanking — and Trump just made it much, much worse

Turks don’t need money — they have God. That was the message from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday as the Turkish lira fell 13 percent in a single day, bottoming out at a record low.

The lira is now down 35 percent down against the dollar this year, making it the world’s worst performing currency in 2018 — outpacing even the much-maligned Argentine Peso. And with Turkey’s currency in free fall, President Donald trump added fuel to the fire Friday by announcing a new set of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, warning: “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time.”

Yet according to Erdogan, the burgeoning economic crisis should be of little concern to his supporters. “If they have dollars, we have our people, our righteousness and our God,” he said Thursday at a rally in the Black Sea province of Rize. Alluding briefly to the nation’s currency woe, the president instructed the crowd not to pay heed to “various campaigns” under way against Turkey.

Brazil sets new record for homicides at 63,880 deaths

Brazil broke its own record for homicides last year, according to new figures which showed that 63,880 people were killed in 2017 – a 3% increase from the previous year. Data from the independent Brazilian Public Security Forum said that an average of 14 people died at the hands of police officers every day – an increase of 20% from the previous year.

Rapes also rose 8% to 60,018, while murders of women increased 6.1% to 4,539. “It is a devastating scenario,” said Renato Sérgio de Lima, director of the forum, who said the homicide figures had been exacerbated by antiquated laws and police procedures and the growth in organised crime. Most victims were young, black men from poor urban areas, he said. ...

The chilling statistics are likely to play into October’s elections where crime is a key issue for many voters. Rightwing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro leads some polls on a platform that includes loosening gun controls and giving police more licence to kill.

Medtronic, a manufacturer of pacemakers and implantable insulin pumps, won’t fix security vulnerabilities in its products

A range of implanted medical devices with nine newly discovered security vulnerabilities won’t be fixed by the manufacturer, despite the possibility that, if abused, the weaknesses could lead to injury or death.

In new research presented at the Black Hat information security conference, a pair of security researchers remotely disabled an implantable insulin pump, preventing it from delivering the lifesaving medication, and then took total control of a pacemaker system, allowing them to deliver malware directly to the computers implanted in a patient’s body. Jonathan Butts of QED Secure Solutions and Billy Kim Rios of Whitescope.io demonstrated the hacks in a live session, warning anyone with an implanted medical device to leave the room before issuing the disabling command to the insulin pump. ...

The pair criticised Medtronic, the manufacturer of the devices, for its response to the discoveries. “We first reported this to the manufacturer 570 days ago,” Butts said. “About 155 days ago we told them how someone could actually take it over,” Rios added. The pair shared specific proof-of-concept attacks with the company, highlighting the damage that could be done. “Months ago, we hit a turning point and said ‘enough’s enough’,” he said, prompting them to go public with their experience at the conference. ...

Medtronic has said it will not fix the flaws discovered, instead recommending patients and doctors take extra care with the networks they connect the devices to. The company says the flaws pose a “low (acceptable)” risk to patient safety.

Senator Demands More censorship From Facebook & Youtube

Apple booted Alex Jones’s podcasts. But his Infowars app is now No. 3 in the App Store.

Apple removed Alex Jones’ conspiracy-laden podcast this week — but downloads for the Infowars iOS app are booming. The official Infowars app is currently ranked third among the most-downloaded news apps in the App Store after Jones sent his fans to the app, and to Twitter, which also has not banned Jones or Infowars.

The conservative commentator was kicked off YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Pinterest and other tech behemoths this week for violating community guidelines. And it all started when Apple purged all but one of Jones’ podcasts from iTunes. So what gives with the app? Well, Apple told Reuters that it doesn’t violate any of their current policies against hate speech.

Alex Jones Popularity Spikes After Being De-Platformed

Infowars’ Alex Jones claims 5.6 million extra subscribers since being censored, so did he win?

Alex Jones and his right-wing conspiracy platform, Infowars, have been wiped off YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pinterest, among others. The big beasts of social media who constantly insist they are independent, appeared to work in a coordinated way to censor the bizarre but undeniably popular conspiracy theorist.

“Infowars has had the highest traffic it’s ever had – 5.6 million new subscribers in the past 48 hours – and so has my radio show,”Jones told the Daily Mail, referring to his newsletter and podcast.

That claim means over 5 million extra subscribers, in just a matter of days, may have signed up to watch him and his Infowars organisation deliver their little nuggets of hate and conspiracy. Not exactly the outcome the would-be censors were looking for. The blowback from attempting to stifle ideas and speech has a long history, matched only by the history of people failing to learn from it. ...

Censoring Jones could help achieve the unlikely task of making him seem like a serious political figure who is taking on the established elite. That can be a powerful message, even from figures that appear to many to be laughable, just ask Donald Trump.

Judge threatens Sessions with contempt over deportation of mother and daughter

A federal judge threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of court after the Trump administration deported a woman and her daughter during their own court case. “This is pretty outrageous,” U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said after he heard about the removal, according to the Washington Post. “That someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?”

The ruling blocks the Trump administration from deporting multiple women and their children while they fight for their right to stay in the country. But the woman the administration deported, referred to as Carmen in court documents, is the plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit that challenges an earlier Trump administration decision to stop granting asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence.

The DOJ previously agreed to delay removing Carmen and her daughter until 11:59 p.m. Thursday, so they could make their arguments to a judge, according to the ACLU. But during the hearing, ACLU lawyers heard that the mother and daughter had been taken from their family detention center in Dilley, Texas, and were headed to a deportation flight to Central America.

“I’m not happy about this at all,” Sullivan said, according to the Post. “This is not acceptable.” Sullivan threatened to hold Sessions in contempt and called the deportation order “unacceptable.” ... Sullivan ordered the Department of Justice to “turn the plane around,” according to the Post. And that’s just what DHS did. “We are complying with the court’s order, and upon arrival in El Salvador, the plaintiffs will not disembark and will be promptly returned to the United States,” a DHS official told VICE News.

Here’s DC’s plan to prevent Nazi vs antifa chaos at the “Unite the Right” rally

Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police say they’re determined not to repeat the mistakes of Charlottesville, as they prepare for white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters to descend on the nation’s capital Sunday for the anniversary of last year’s violent “Unite the Right” rally, which left one dead and dozens injured. ...

City officials said that that the National Park Service has issued three different permits for events in D.C. on Sunday. Jason Kessler, a lead organizer behind Unite the Right, was officially issued his permit Thursday for his so-called “white civil rights” event. He’s reserved a space in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, to accommodate anywhere from 100 to 400 people, which he will march to from Foggy Bottom (although his route may change between now and Sunday).

A coalition of anti-fascists have reserved a portion of Lafayette Park to accommodate 1,500 people, as well as two other spaces in D.C., which each accommodates 500 people. Another activist coalition, including Black Lives Matter, have reserved Freedom Plaza, half a mile from Lafayette Park, for 1,000 people. ...

Chief Newsham says that they’re prepared for a potentially fluid situation, and will do what it takes to keep the two sides separate, unlike police in Charlottesville. “Law enforcement’s goal during the entire operational period will be to keep the two groups separated,” Newsham said. “What we have seen in the past, when these two groups have been in the same place at the same time, it leads to violent confrontations.” Newsham said that police would ensure to keep both sides separate, especially in Lafayette Park.

A searing 220-page report published in December lay bare some of the major failures of Charlottesville Police Department during last year’s rally. In addition to the directive from the police chief “let them fight,” an independent review team concluded that authorities failed to keep both sides separate, and also failed to coordinate communication between state and local law enforcement.

A Democratic House Candidate got 30,000 Write-In Votes in Michigan

In April, Michigan officials who oversee elections kicked Democrat Matt Morgan off the congressional ballot, leaving the Republican incumbent, Rep. Jack Bergman, to run unopposed in the general election. That was the plan, at least, until primary day on Tuesday, when more than 30,000 Democratic voters cast write-in ballots in Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. That’s nearly eight times as many votes as Morgan needed to be resurrected and placed on the November ballot.

Morgan, a progressive Marine veteran, pulled off the successful turnaround without help from the national party or progressive organizations set up to support vets. Instead, he had filmmaker Michael Moore and a team of hundreds of volunteers who made sure voters knew that, even though there was nobody on the ballot, they could still vote for Morgan. ...

The candidate was booted from the ballot based on a technicality: His petitions listed a Post Office box rather than a physical address. His campaign turned the petitions in on March 6. An official got back to the campaign on April 29, explaining the address snafu, and saying that they had until the end of the day to withdraw or they were likely to be disqualified, said Joe Vanderbosch, Morgan’s spokesperson. They refused to withdraw, so the Michigan Board of State Canvassers booted Morgan. The campaign took the decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals  and lost in a 2-1 judgment. Instead of appealing further, the campaign turned to the write-in option instead. ...

Making it through the November general election will be a more challenging task, though by no means impossible. Michigan’s 1st District has been on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s battle ground since 2017 (though Morgan said he has gotten little interest from the party so far).

Democrats Complain About Green Party “Spoilers,” but Few in Congress Back a Solution: Ranked-Choice Voting

Ballots are still being counted in Ohio’s nail-biting special election in the 12th Congressional District, but it looks like Republican Troy Balderson will narrowly defeat Democrat Danny O’Connor. As of the time of publication, the vote tally is 101,772 for Balderson and 100,208 for O’Connor. But with Green Party candidate Joe Manchik garnering 1,129 votes votes, some Democrats have projected their frustration about their loss onto third parties. Of course, even with all of Manchik’s votes, O’Connor would still come up 435 votes short. But math hasn’t stopped Democrats from blaming the Green Party.

Green Party voters..no one is saying you can't vote for your candidates....but don't tell me you care about the environment if you know your vote will make the difference between a Dem winning over a Rep and you still choose to vote for your candidate who has NO chance of winning

— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) August 8, 2018

You know what sucks?

Because of our unwillingness to pass policy that protects our election integrity, I immediately think the Green Party votes tonight are Russian meddling.

Why else would anyone cast a protest vote in Ohio when there’s so much at stake?#OH12

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) August 8, 2018

If this sounds familiar, it might be because this reasoning has been deployed since America’s first elections, and especially since 2000, when Ralph Nader won more votes than Al Gore’s loss margin in Florida — the state that decided the 2000 presidential election. (Few ever raise the fact that 308,000 registered Democrats voted for George W. Bush in Florida that year, over nine times the 34,000 who voted for Nader.) But even if we were to credit the assessment that Green Party candidates are responsible for spoiling multiple presidential elections, and now, Ohio’s 12th District, it remains true that the Democratic Party has shown little interest in addressing the underlying cause of the spoiler effect: our first-past-the-post voting system.

In our current system, the person who wins the most votes wins the election. As a result, if a third-party candidate who is ideologically similar to one of the main two parties enters a race, they can split the vote, causing the less popular platform to cary the day. However, in a ranked-choice voting system, voters “rank” the candidates in order of preference. If none of the parties get to 50 percent of the vote, the least popular candidate is stricken, and their votes are allocated according to the second choice of the voter. Meaning that if Stein voters had ranked Clinton second on their ballots, the votes cast by Stein voters would have gone to Clinton once it became clear that Stein finished last.

In 2017, a group of House Democrats, led by Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, introduced H.R. 3057, the Fair Representation Act, which would require every congressional district in America to use ranked-choice voting. It would also require districts to be redrawn by independent redistricting committees, which would diminish the effects of partisan gerrymandering, and it would require the installation of multimember districts — a reform that would allow voters in each district to elect multiple lawmakers instead of just one, so that more people would be represented. ... When it was introduced, the bill had a total of three sponsors: Beyer; Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. A year later, it has only gained two additional sponsors: Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.

NOAA Lowers Hurricane Season Forecast, Says El Niño Likely on the Way

The nation's hurricane forecasters have some good news about this year's projected Atlantic storm season—though they say coastal residents shouldn't drop their guard just yet. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration downgraded its forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season. Instead of the near- or above-normal season that NOAA projected back in May, they now expect a below-normal year thanks to cool ocean temperatures in parts of the Atlantic and the expected formation of El Niño.

"What's fascinating is if you look at March of last year and you look at March of this year, the Atlantic in both years looked super similar," said Phil Klotzbach, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University who studies hurricanes. But whereas the spring of 2017 created the conditions for a vicious—and deadly and costly—storm season, the opposite has happened this year.

"Back in May, the models were predicting that the temperatures would warm up maybe to near average," said Gerry Bell, NOAA's lead seasonal hurricane forecaster. That prediction led to an early forecast that saw a 35 percent chance of an above-normal season, with between 10 and 16 named storms and up to four major hurricanes.

Instead, the critical part of the Atlantic Ocean off Western Africa where major storms form has stayed cooler than usual. And NOAA is also now projecting a 70 percent chance that El Niño conditions will develop during hurricane season. "The climate models are in good agreement that if it develops, it will be strong enough to suppress the later part of the hurricane season," Bell said.

El Niño forms when ocean temperatures in the eastern half of the tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than average. That alters tropical rainfall patterns, which in turn alters wind patterns in the upper atmosphere, which can suppress Atlantic hurricanes, Bell explained. It's a different story in the Pacific, though, where there have already been 11 named storms. El Niño conditions can strengthen storms in the eastern and central Pacific.

Baobab: the magic tree under threat

Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand will ban plastic bags

New Zealand will ban single-use plastic bags over the next year, the government has announced. Retailers in the country will be given six months to stop providing lightweight plastic bags, or face fines of up to NZ$100,000 (£51,000). “We’re phasing out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand’s clean, green reputation,” said Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister.

“Every year in New Zealand we use hundreds of millions of single-use plastic bags. A mountain of bags, many of which end up polluting our precious coastal and marine environments and cause serious harm to all kinds of marine life, and all of this when there are viable alternatives for consumers and business.”

Ardern said it was clear that New Zealanders wanted action to be taken on this problem, citing a petition signed by 65,000 people who called for a ban. “It’s also the biggest single subject schoolchildren write to me about,” she said. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of urban waste production per capita in the developed world, with 750m plastic shopping bags, roughly 154 per person, used each year.

Also of Interest

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

Ten Bombshell Revelations From Seymour Hersh's New Autobiography

Who Has Profited From Your Beliefs?

“It Was All True”: Minnesota Attorney General’s Former Deputy Speaks Out About Participation in Political Work

The Hilarious Saudi-Canadian Dispute & The Less Hilarious Terrorism Threat From Saudi Arabia

How Big Oil Lost Control of Its Climate Misinformation Machine

Hacked satellite systems could launch microwave-like attacks, expert warns

Blue light from phone screens accelerates blindness, study finds

A Little Night Music

Little Junior's Blue Flames - Love My Baby

Little Junior's Blue Flames - Fussin' And Fightin' Blues

Little Junior's Blue Flames - Feelin' Good

Little Junior Parker - Dangerous Woman

Little Junior Parker - Driving Wheel

Little Junior Parker - Barefoot Rock

Little Junior Parker - You're On My Mind

Little Junior Parker - I'm Holding On

Little Junior Parker - Next Time You See Me

Junior Parker - Come Back Baby

Junior Parker - Just Like a Fish