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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Kansas Joe McCoy

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Delta blues musician Kansas Joe McCoy. Enjoy!

^{Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy - I Called You This Morning}

“Our freedom to say or write whatever we please in this country is holy to me. It is a rare privilege not only on this planet, but throughout the universe, I suspect. And it is not something somebody gave us. It is a thing we give to ourselves.”

-- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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News and Opinion

Trump’s ‘War On Journalism’ Takes Centerstage At Julian Assange’s Extradition Hearing

In the last half-century, journalists James Bamford, Ben Bradlee, Seymour Hersh, and Neil Sheehan were each threatened with prosecution under the Espionage Act. But the U.S. government never followed through with Espionage Act charges against a journalist until 2019, when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and charged. Trevor Timm, the executive director for the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), told a magistrate court judge, “[President Donald] Trump’s administration is moving to explicitly criminalize national security journalism, and if this prosecution is allowed to go forward, dozens of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere would also be in danger.”

FPF is a nonprofit organization that Timm said “protects, defends, and empowers public interest journalism in the 21st century.” It developed SecureDrop, an “open-source platform for secure communications between sources and media organizations.” ... The system that FPF developed is available in 10 languages. “More than 70 media organizations worldwide, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, USA Today, Bloomberg News, CBC, and the Toronto Globe and Mail” are using the system to “solicit” or accept leaked documents. ... Dropboxes for leaks are even advertised by news organizations on social media platforms.

It is these common newsgathering practices that the United States Justice Department’s prosecution of Assange explicitly criminalizes. However, James Lewis of the Crown Prosecution Service, who represents the U.S. government, attempted to undercut testimony from Timm. Lewis stated it was the prosecution’s position that Assange is “not a journalist.” Timm acknowledged this position but maintained “it doesn’t matter whether the U.S. government considers Assange a journalist.” The New York Times does not need an “issued press pass to have First Amendment rights.” Plus, it is beside the point whether Assange is a journalist because he “engaged in First Amendment activities.”

Timm refused to accept the prosecution’s argument that the indictment against Assange is carefully tailored to only criminalize the publication of documents that contained the names of informants working for the U.S. government. Three of the charges deal specifically with U.S. diplomatic cables that allegedly endangered informants. But other charges relate to all documents and assert that Assange’s possession of the documents was a crime. If Assange committed a crime, so have other journalists, Timm added.

[See article at link for considerably more detail. -js]

Amazon Puts Former NSA Chief On Board Of Directors

'Reducing Troops Not the Same as Ending Wars': Peace Activists Say Trump Drawdown in Iraq Not Nearly Enough

The U.S. military's announcement Wednesday that thousands of troops will soon withdraw from Iraq was met with skepticism by peace activists, who were quick to note that a reduction in troop strength is not the same thing as ending the war.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Frank McKenzie said Wednesday that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will be reduced from 5,200 to 3,000 during the month of September, but critics said this should not be seen as President Donald Trump fulfilling his campaign promise in 2016 to end the nation's wasteful overseas wars.

In recognition of the great progress the Iraqi forces have made and in consultation and coordination with the Government of Iraq and our coalition partners,
the U.S. has decided to reduce our troop presence in Iraq from about 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September.

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 9, 2020

"This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat," McKenzie said in a statement, referring to the militant group Islamic State.

McKenzie added that the drawdown decision is the result of U.S. "confidence in the Iraqi security forces' increased ability to operate independently."

The decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq has long been expected. The Trump administration also plans to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan from 8,600 to 4,500, the lowest number since the earliest days of the 19-year war. 

At the height of the Iraq War during the George W. Bush administration, there were over 160,000 U.S. troops in the country. U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan peaked (pdf) during President Barack Obama's surge in 2011, when there were over 100,000 American personnel there. It was the Obama administration that first withdrew most U.S. troops from the Iraq War in 2011, but then resumed fighting there in 2014 as leaders of the anti-ISIS coalition.

Peace activists reacted to Wednesday's news of the drawndown by the Trump administration with skepticism. In an email to Common Dreams, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said that while her group "welcomes" the troop reduction as a move in the proper direction, the ultimate goal should be an end to the war that began in 2003.

"Any time U.S. troops are brought home from ill-conceived overseas adventures is a step in the right direction," wrote Benjamin. "But the American people want an END to these endless wars, not a reduction."

Trump names three sitting senators among 20 possible supreme court picks

Donald Trump named three sitting senators as people he would consider nominating to the US supreme court if he is re-elected. Trump announced 20 names on Wednesday that he said would be added to his previously released list of potential supreme court picks.

He said one of three conservative Republican senators with law degrees – Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri – could be his next selection to the nation’s top court.

“Over the next four years, America’s president will choose hundreds of federal judges” and “up to four supreme court justices”, Trump said – both probably exaggerated figures. The new justices could “fundamentally transform America without a single vote in Congress”, Trump said. ...

Hawley ruled himself out of the running to be a potential nominee, tweeting he had “no interest in the high court”. Cruz appeared to also rule himself out, saying it was “humbling and an immense honor” to be included on Trump’s list but indicating he would remain in the Senate for the time being. Cotton, however, seemed more interested, saying he would always “heed the call for service”, and tweeting: “It’s time for Roe v Wade to go.”

Saagar Enjeti: Ruling Class DOOMS Us To 2008 Collapse. Young Adults, Working Class May Never Recover

Saying 'Underlying Premise' of For-Profit System Out Loud, GOP Staffer Punished for Telling Constituent People Don't Deserve Healthcare They Can't Afford

A staffer for Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has been disciplined for straightforwardly telling a North Carolina constituent and three-time cancer survivor that a person's inability to afford health insurance means they don't deserve it, an argument that critics said accurately summarizes the callous and inhumane healthcare agenda of the entire GOP—and, in fact, many leading Democrats too.

When Bev Veals recently called Tillis' Washington, D.C. office seeking help over concerns that she could lose her insurance during the pandemic, the staffer who answered said obtaining healthcare in the United States is "just like if I want to go to the store and buy a new dress shirt."

"If I can't afford that dress shirt, I don't get to get it," said the staffer, whose remarks Veals recorded on her cellphone.

"Well, you got to find a way to get it," the staffer said after Veals replied that "healthcare is something that people need, especially if they have cancer."

In response to the exchange, journalist David Klion tweeted, "By all means, get mad at this sociopathic Tillis staffer, but he's just saying out loud what the underlying premise of our healthcare system has been and will be until we remove the profit motive from it, which all Republicans and most leading Democrats oppose doing."

Wow.

The message from Sen. Thom Tillis’ office to a three-time cancer survivor looking for help getting health insurance:

“Sounds like something you’re going to have to figure out.”

Sadly, that’s an accurate summary of the GOP health care plan. pic.twitter.com/Kjh2GVDxWy

— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) September 8, 2020

While appalled by the Tillis staffer's uncaring tone, observers characterized the substance of his comments as a concise and factual depiction of the practical consequences of Republican healthcare policy.

Tillis, who is up for reelection in November, has voted seven times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the law's expansion of Medicaid, a move that would strip healthcare coverage from tens of millions of Americans.

"Thom Tillis staffer sums up his boss' views on healthcare: If you get sick without health coverage then tough luck," tweeted North Carolina state Sen. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat.

Podcast host and Crooked Media founder Tommy Vietor echoed Nickel, writing, "This isn't a story about a rude person in Thom Tillis' office, this is a staffer accurately describing the Republican approach to healthcare."

But as Klion noted, Democrats who continue to oppose Medicare for All in favor of a for-profit system that determines access to quality care on the basis of a person's ability to afford it are hardly immune from the same line of criticism.

"If you think Obamacare with modest tweaks is an adequate system then you agree with this guy," tweeted Klion, "you're just too polite to say what he said."

COVID Vaccine Trials Seek Black, Latinx Participants But History of Medical Apartheid Sows Mistrust

Woodward Bombshell: Are Trump's Comments Unforgivable?

'Reckless Homicide': Audio Tapes Reveal Trump Knew Covid-19 Was 'Deadly Stuff' for Months While Publicly Downplaying Threat

Though unsurprised at the news that President Donald Trump deliberately lied about and downplayed the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic, political observers on Wednesday were outraged following the release of audio recordings of interviews veteran journalist Bob Woodward conducted with the president in February and March in which Trump openly admitted he didn't share with the public his own understanding that the pandemic was "deadly stuff."

Ahead of the release of his new book about Trump's presidency, "Rage," Woodward leaked audio interviews from February 7 and March 19, in which the president shared his knowledge that the pandemic was a serious threat to Americans' lives—and his intention to keep that a secret.

Trump told Woodward in February—10 days after being told by his national security team that the coronavirus was "the biggest national security threat" he would face—that the coronavirus was an airborne virus and "more deadly than even your strenuous flu."

"You just breathe the air and that's how it’s passed," Trump said. "This is deadly stuff."

Publicly at the time, the president vehemently denied that the coronavirus was something Americans needed to worry about. On February 24, he tweeted that the virus was "very much under control in the USA." On March 11, when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, Trump told the public that for "the vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low"—a month after telling Woodward the virus was easily spread through aerosols.

While the president understood Covid-19 to be airborne days after being warned about the pandemic in January, he allowed confusion and debate over how to prevent the spread of the disease to persist for months. Trump downplayed the CDC's recommendation, released April 3, that Americans wear face coverings to prevent transmission; he told the public, "You don't have to do it... It's only a recommendation." The president himself didn't wear a face mask in public until July 11, and his campaign has not required masks at his campaign rallies.

On March 19, Trump again spoke with Woodward, telling him he had learned "some startling facts" about Covid-19, including that "it's not just older people, it's plenty of young people" who are vulnerable to the disease.

"I wanted to always play it down," Trump said. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." ...

Meanwhile, critics noted that while Trump chose to lie to the public about the pandemic, he had help from Woodward. On March 19, when the president told Woodward he was intentionally downplaying the coronavirus crisis, 200 people in the U.S. had died of Covid-19 in the United States. Six months later, as the recordings were made public on Wednesday, the death toll approached 190,000.

'I don't want to create panic': Trump defends coronavirus remarks he made to Bob Woodward

Donald Trump said he was 'trying to avoid panic' by not revealing the severity of Covid-19, despite CNN audio published on Wednesday from an interview in February in which he acknowledged the virus was 'deadly'.

The president, who defended his comments to the journalist Bob Woodward for Woodward's book Rage, insisted his strategy was focused on encouraging Americans to remain calm, as the virus spread across the country

A guy whose entire re-election campaign is based on engendering fear and panic is saying that he lied to prevent panic is an interesting plot twist.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 9, 2020

Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci

A Trump administration appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, from speaking about the risks that coronavirus poses to children. Emails obtained by POLITICO show Paul Alexander — a senior adviser to Michael Caputo, HHS’s assistant secretary for public affairs — instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Fauci should say during media interviews. The Trump adviser weighed in on Fauci’s planned responses to outlets including Bloomberg News, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and the science journal Cell.

Alexander’s lengthy messages, some sent as recently as this week, are couched as scientific arguments. But they often contradict mainstream science while promoting political positions taken by the Trump administration on hot-button issues ranging from the use of convalescent plasma to school reopening. ...

“I continue to have an issue with kids getting tested and repeatedly and even university students in a widespread manner…and I disagree with Dr. Fauci on this. Vehemently,” Alexander wrote in one Aug. 27 email, responding to a press-office summary of what Fauci intended to tell a Bloomberg reporter. And on Tuesday, Alexander told Fauci’s press team that the scientist should not promote mask-wearing by children during an MSNBC interview.

“Can you ensure Dr. Fauci indicates masks are for the teachers in schools. Not for children,” Alexander wrote. “There is no data, none, zero, across the entire world, that shows children especially young children, spread this virus to other children, or to adults or to their teachers. None. And if it did occur, the risk is essentially zero,” he continued — adding without evidence that children take influenza home, but not the coronavirus.

Iowa refuses to close bars and require masks as Covid-19 cases surge in cities

Iowa’s governor, Kim Reynolds, is refusing to enforce a White House coronavirus taskforce recommendation to close bars and require people to wear masks after Covid-19 infections in some of the state’s cities surged.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases have risen sharply across the whole midwest in recent weeks putting the region at the forefront of America’s pandemic. The region accounted for six of the eight states with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases by early September even as infections fell in other parts of the US previously among the worst hit. North Dakota has the largest number of positive cases per capita in the country over the past 14 days. Iowa and South Dakota are enduring the highest percentage increases. Missouri has seen more than 1,300 new cases a day on average over the past week.

In Iowa, the increase was centered on university towns following the return of students to classes. By late August, two of the state’s cities, Ames and Iowa City, were enduring the worst coronavirus surges in the country. The per capita infection rates were higher than any individual country.

Amid warnings that the failure to enforce masks and social distancing was likely to cost hundreds of additional lives in the coming months, the White House taskforce said in a report on 31 August that bars “must be closed” in 61 of Iowa’s 99 counties and seating in restaurants should be limited. It also recommended restrictions on the size of gatherings in the worst hit counties along with the closure of gyms. “Community transmission continues to be high in rural and urban counties across Iowa, with increasing transmission in the major university towns,” the report warned. “Mask mandates across the state must be in place to decrease transmission.”

But Reynolds has limited bar closures to six counties including those with the universities. She would go no further than “strongly encouraging” people to wear masks, saying that they were “not a silver bullet”.

Are you feeling down? Isolated? Uncertain about the future? Worried about what comes next? Then you may be suffering from... consciousness

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) September 9, 2020

Probe Shows USPS 'Sabotage' Led to 'Potentially Life-Threatening' Medicine Delays

Mail delays caused by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's operational changes at the U.S. Postal Service are endangering the health of millions of Americans by significantly slowing deliveries of life-saving prescription medications for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other serious ailments.

That's according to new report (pdf) released Wednesday by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.), whose investigation into mail-order prescription delays revealed that major pharmacies have experienced slowdowns in the delivery of medications since DeJoy—a Republican megadonor to President Donald Trump—took charge of the Postal Service in June.

"We know Louis DeJoy is sabotaging the Postal Service—and our investigation reveals his scheming has slowed the delivery of mail-order prescription drugs, threatening health risks for millions of Americans during a pandemic," Warren said in a statement. "Our report is more evidence that Louis DeJoy's tenure has been a failure. He needs to resign and if he won't, the Board of Governors must remove him."

The senators' probe examined the impact DeJoy's mail service changes have had on five pharmacies—Cigna/Express Scripts, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, UnitedHealth/Optum, and Humana—four of which are described as "heavily reliant" on the Postal Service for deliveries to patients. The report does not specify which pharmacies largely rely on USPS.

While the one pharmacy that depends mostly on private carriers for deliveries reported "not experiencing any unusual delays," the other four pharmacies told Warren and Casey that they have "experienced an average increase in delivery time of approximately half a day or more relative to 2019 or early 2020."

"This represents a significant delay, increasing delivery times by 18-32%," the report notes. "In general, this meant that deliveries that would typically take 2-3 days were instead taking 3-4 days."

The pharmacies stressed that many patients saw "much longer delays," with some reporting "shipment delays of seven days or more." One pharmacy said it has "seen an increase in the number of prescription orders taking significantly longer to deliver than our target time frames."

"The number of orders taking over five days to deliver has risen dramatically since the onset of the pandemic," the pharmacy told Warren and Casey. "We are currently seeing an increase in our calls, complaints, and reship requests due to concerns with receiving orders in a timely fashion and/or questions about USPS issues in general."

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, at least 14 million Americans enrolled in either Medicare Part D or large employer plans used mail-order pharmacies for at least one prescription in 2018, and reliance on the USPS for medicine deliveries has only grown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Casey, ranking member of the Senate Aging Committee, said in a statement "the steps that this administration and Postmaster General DeJoy have taken to undermine the Postal Service have jeopardized the health and well-being of millions of Americans who rely on timely delivery of their prescriptions via the Postal Service."

"This report shows what we have feared all along—that Postmaster DeJoy's efforts are having real, potentially life-threatening, consequences for people that depend on the Postal Service," said Casey. "The Postal Service Board of Governors must hold the Postmaster General accountable for this sabotage and Congress must provide emergency USPS funding."

'No Statute of Limitations for Felony' in North Carolina: Watchdog Group Files Official Complaint Demanding DeJoy Probe

Common Cause North Carolina filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections and Attorney General Josh Stein on Wednesday, calling for the immediate investigation of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over alleged campaign finance law violations that may have "been a means to illegally circumvent donation limits." 

Common Dreams has reported on the allegations against DeJoy as well as the Democrat-controlled House Oversight Committee's investigation into the postmaster general. 

The embattled head of the U.S. Postal Service is accused of organizing an illegal straw-donor scheme between 2003 and 2014 while serving as the CEO of North Carolina company New Breed Logistics. According to former employees interviewed by The Washington Post, DeJoy's rise to the top of the GOP fundraising world was "powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed"—a scheme that would violate federal and state campaign finance laws. 

The complaint (pdf) filed by Common Cause North Carolina could add to DeJoy's potential legal trouble because "while there is a five-year statute of limitations on federal campaign finance charges, there is no such statute of limitations in North Carolina," the pro-democracy organization said in a statement. 

North Carolina campaign finance laws prohibit making contributions in the name of another person, and state law also prohibits corporations from donating to campaigns. If he "pressured employees of his company to make political contributions" and used "his company's funds" to provide bonuses reimbursing employees for donating to his preferred candidates, DeJoy would have violated both provisions, the organization explained. 

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Bill Barr Says Insulting a Rape Accuser Was Part of Trump’s Official Duties

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice moved to replace President Donald Trump’s private legal team to defend the accused rapist in a defamation suit brought by author E. Jean Carroll. Last year, Carroll credibly accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. ... The U.S. government, rather than accused rapist Trump, would effectively become the defendant in the case. Indeed, on Wednesday morning, the government opened a federal docket titled “E. Jean Carroll v. United States of America”; the state lawsuit had been “E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump.” A federal court will decide whether to grant the government lawyers’ motion.

The New York Times described the Justice Department’s intervention as “highly unusual”; CNN called it an “extraordinary move.” But it was not out of character for Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. ... Carroll responded on Twitter to the Justice Department’s motion. She noted that it came at the moment in her civil case when the president was “required to produce documents and DNA in discovery.” The author’s lawyers requested that Trump provide a DNA sample to compare to that of a semen stain on the dress she says she wore on the day of the assault. ...

The Justice Department’s move, if successful, could put an end to Carroll’s case entirely. As University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck noted on Twitter, the “argument that Trump was acting ‘within the scope of his employment’ when he defamed E. Jean Carroll is not an effort to take over defense of the suit; it’s an effort to have the suit dismissed—because the government itself can’t be sued for defamation.”

The motion to move the lawsuit from state to federal court comes one month after Trump unsuccessfully attempted to have the case delayed in New York State Supreme Court. The judge rejected his bid and stressed that the president does not enjoy immunity from state criminal investigations. At the very least, the Justice Department’s legal maneuver will now see the case delayed, avoiding potentially damaging revelations about the abusive, misogynistic president prior to the November election. Although, to be sure, claims and evidence of past sexual assaults by both Trump and his opponent Joe Biden have done little to hinder their campaigns in the past.

Krystal Ball: The Overlooked Political Revolution Which Could Transform Left Politics Forever

Ranked Choice Voting on the Ballot in Massachusetts

Ranked choice voting advocates are pointing to a crowded congressional primary in Massachusetts as the "poster child" for their cause, which, thanks to a citizen initiative, will be on the ballot in the Bay State in November.

"To me the problem is that democracy isn't creating the results [that reflect the will of the people]," Evan Falchuk, chair of the board for Yes on 2, the ranked choice voting (RCV) ballot initiative campaign in Massachusetts, told Common Dreams Monday. "The biggest structural problem we have is 'first past the post' voting," Falchuk continued. "[Which] means you can win an election with 25% of vote...that's not fair."

The RCV process allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Under the system, if no candidate wins the approval of more than half the voters after the first round of tabulation, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. When a voter's first choice is eliminated, their vote is redistributed to the voter's second choice. This process continues until one candidate gets at least 50% of vote.

Referring to a nine-way primary in Massachusetts' 4th congressional district earlier this month in which centrist Democrat and former Republican Jake Auchincloss won with less than 23% of the vote, Falchuk called the race a "poster child" for RCV.

Auchincloss, Falchuk noted, opposes Medicare for All, a policy growing in popularity amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and supported by several of Auchincloss' progressive challengers. "There's just something wrong with that," Falchuk said.

Jess Mermell, one of Achincloss' progressive challengers and a Medicare for All supporter, came in second place in the contest to replace outgoing Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), with 21.1% of the vote.

In a video following the election, Mermell said, "If the ranked choice voting campaign needs a new face, give me a call, guys. I've got some time on my hands."

Before and after the primary, critics were quick to blame the progressive slate of challengers for Auchincloss' win, arguing they "spoiled" the opportunity for a more left-leaning candidate to win by remaining in the race and not dropping out instead of throwing their support behind one progressive campaign. Criticism of candidates challenging established party-line ideas is commonplace. Establishment Democrats, for example, continuously paint Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as a spoiler in both his presidential runs.

But, Falchuk said, ranked choice voting is designed to eliminate that "spoiler effect" and promote the democratic process.

"No candidate should feel like they're at risk of splitting the vote," Falchuk said. "Go out there. Run for office. Make a difference."

Ranked choice voting is currently employed in local elections across the country. In Maine, the practice was approved via citizen initiative in 2016 and again in 2018 for use in statewide elections.

"Ranked choice voting is one of the best reforms we can make to preserve and enhance our democracy," said Betsy Sweet, a former U.S. Senate and Maine gubernatorial candidate who helped pass RCV in the Pine Tree state. "As a candidate who has run in a statewide ranked choice system of voting twice it has made a huge difference," Sweet told Common Dreams.

"Most importantly, it dramatically affects who can run, and who believes they can run. It reduces negative campaigning, and it forces candidates to focus on issues," Sweet continued. "It also provides better governance and trust in our legislators because everyone is elected with more than 50% of the vote."

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Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – report

Wildlife populations are in freefall around the world, driven by human overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture, according to a major new assessment of the abundance of life on Earth. On average, global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL)’s biennial Living Planet Report 2020. Two years ago, the figure stood at 60%.

The research is one of the most comprehensive assessments of global biodiversity available and was complied by 134 experts from around the world. It found that from the rainforests of central America to the Pacific Ocean, nature is being exploited and destroyed by humans on a scale never previously recorded. The analysis tracked global data on 20,811 populations of 4,392 vertebrate species. Those monitored include high-profile threatened animals such as pandas and polar bears as well as lesser known amphibians and fish. The figures, the latest available, showed that in all regions of the world, vertebrate wildlife populations are collapsing, falling on average by more than two-thirds since 1970.

Robin Freeman, who led the research at ZSL, said: “It seems that we’ve spent 10 to 20 years talking about these declines and not really managed to do anything about it. It frustrates me and upsets me. We sit at our desks and compile these statistics but they have real-life implications. It’s really hard to communicate how dramatic some of these declines are.”

Huge cavities threaten glacier larger than Great Britain

British scientists have mapped cavities half the size of the Grand Canyon that are allowing warm ocean water to erode the vast Thwaites glacier in the Antarctic, accelerating the rise of sea levels across the world.

Like decay in a tooth, the channels of warm water are melting the ice from below, threatening the stability of a glacier that is larger than Great Britain.

Using an aircraft, ship and robot submarine, the British Antarctic Survey and a US team traced the seabed terrain and the bottom of the ice shelf to measure the gaps that have opened between previously grounded sections of the glacier. They measured two old cavities that were roughly six miles (10km) across and 800 metres deep, which allow warm water to seep under the ice. These have formed over at least 10,000 years. In addition, they mapped several new, thinner fissures that have branched off from these main trunks amid the warmer temperatures of the past 30 years.

The results were published this week in the Cryosphere journal. The good news is the new channels are not yet as large as had previously been assumed, which suggests the collapse of Thwaites may not come as soon as feared. The bad news is scientists believe the cavities are widening but they do not know how fast.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. pic.twitter.com/ui8JtjJ2Wo

— Scott Denning (@airscottdenning) September 8, 2020

“This Is Climate Change”: West Coast Fires Scorch Millions of Acres & Blot Out the Sun

Winds fuel wildfires in California as blazes rage across US west

Large, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.

More than 85 significant wildfires are burning across the west. In California, high, dry winds stoked dozens of out-of-control blazes that have forced helicopter rescues and evacuations. In Washington, more acres burned in a single day than firefighters usually see all year, and the fires scorched farming town of Malden. Fires also forced people to flee in Oregon and Idaho.

“The geographic scale and intensity of what is transpiring is truly jarring,” wrote Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“What’s remarkable is that there’s so many fires,” said Chris Field, who directs the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “Even as someone whose job is to understand what’s happening, it’s really hard to keep up.” ...

Although landscapes in California and much of the west are adapted to fire, global heating is driving more frequent and extreme fires. The massive flames across the region are alarming, and unprecedented, “What we’ve been experiencing, we’ve been expecting,” Field said. Climate change has given rise to fires that behave differently, burn more intensely and explosively and “are just harder for firefighters to fight”.

Decades of fire suppression – wherein the US government put out wildfires that were beneficial to the landscape – have also driven larger blazes. The government also criminalized the Indigenous practice of setting small intentional burns to clear out brush and prevent more damaging, destructive burns. “The way we are interacting with the ecosystems across the west is dramatically different now,” Field said.

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Also of Interest

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

DAY THREE ASSANGE HEARING—Defense Witness Dismantles Key Elements of Government Case

Assange Trial Exposes False Partisan Narratives With Focus On Trump’s War On Journalism

Freedom Rider: Losers, Suckers and War

Afghan Peace Talk Spoiler Bomb Fails To Kill Its Target

Trump’s Execution Spree Continues at Federal Killing Ground in Indiana

The Wall Street Bank Selloff Yesterday Was More About Oil than Big Tech

The Sunrise Movement, a Growing Electoral Force, Faces “Painful Moment”

California skies glow orange as wildfires continue – in pictures

Krystal and Saagar: APOCALYPTIC California Wildfire Photos Compared To 'Nuclear Winter'

Krystal and Saagar: Ben Sasse's OUTRAGEOUS Proposal To Strip Senators Of Accountability

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A Little Night Music

Kansas Joe McCoy - Let's Try It Again

Kansas Joe McCoy - Pile Driver Blues

Kansas Joe McCoy - What's The Matter With You?

Kansas Joe McCoy - Evil Devil Woman Blues

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy - Mister Tango Blues

Kansas Joe McCoy - Look Who's Coming Down The Road

Kansas Joe McCoy - I'm Alright Now

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe - Wild About My Stuff

Kansas Joe McCoy - When The Leevee Breaks

Harlem Hamfats - I'm Cuttin' Out

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