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This evening's music features Creole blues singer Lizzie Miles. Enjoy!

"If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

-- Henry A. Wallace

News and Opinion

The Democratic Party is now the party of racists and religious bigots.

Keith Ellison Loses DNC Race After Heated Campaign Targeting Him for His Views on Palestine

Minnesota Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison lost his bid to become the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday after  a scorched-earth smear campaign targeting  his religious faith, his affinity for the Nation of Islam in his youth, and his support for Palestinian rights alongside a secure Israel.

Instead, the majority of the DNC’s voting members chose former labor secretary Tom Perez to lead the party. After two rounds of voting in Atlanta, Perez netted 235 votes to Ellison’s 200. ...

Ellison — a black man, a Bernie Sanders supporter, and the first Muslim elected to Congress — earned initial support from many Democrats until a strong backlash from the Obama and Clinton camps and prominent pro-Israeli activists.

Haim Saban, the entertainment tycoon who is one of the Democratic Party’s largest donors, called Ellison both “anti-Israel” and anti-Semitic. The Anti-Defamation League called on Democrats to reject him.  On the eve of the vote, prominent Democrat Alan Dershowitz proclaimed that he would leave the party if Ellison were elected chair; Jack Rosen, who leads the American Jewish Congress, emailed DNC members the day before the vote decrying Ellison’s views on the Middle East, concluding that he threatened the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Ellison 4 2 state solution, voted to give $$ to Israel, against BDS, gets backing of respected Jewish Ams = still not enough to remove smear

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 25, 2017

Keith Ellison Loses DNC Chair Race After Smear Campaign over His Support for Palestinians Rights

By Electing Perez, The DNC Has Officially Taken Sole Responsibility For Trump’s 2020 Win

By electing Perez, the DNC has told us in no uncertain terms that its addiction to corporate funding and corporatist power is more important to it than we are, and it has absolved us of all responsibility we may have once felt toward the Democratic party. Which is great, really; we’re now free to build something new and better, without any sense of guilt or obligation to help the party out when it crashes and burns.

We already knew that the Democratic establishment is opposed to most of the things we stand for, like economic justice, massive changes in environmental policy, peace, military non-interventionism, ending exploitative trade deals and getting money out of politics, but the Republicans are so crazy we’ve often felt obligated to help the Dems out against them. We no longer need to do this; the Democratic elites have now accepted sole responsibility for the spectacular losses they’re going to take in the 2020 elections and the 2018 midterms. We can free up our energy and creativity to figure out something bright and beautiful to replace the smoldering donkey carcass and give the Republicans a real fight. ...

What we have now is a media war, a war of ideas, a war for the soul of the nation, and it won’t move like anything the old power structures are built for. Be prepared to improvise and expect the unexpected, because things are going to get shaken up mighty hard soon. The group with the most thrust and the most viral ideas will be the one to achieve dominance in the upheaval, and we can easily step into that spot as long as we feel completely unbound by any loyalties to the old and the obsolete.

In case you have any doubts about who is running the Democratic Party, here's a very telling indication:

DNC Members Vote Down Corporate Money Ban

Democratic National Committee members on Saturday voted down a resolution that would have reinstated former President Barack Obama’s ban on corporate political action committee donations to the party.

Resolution 33, introduced by DNC Vice Chair Christine Pelosi, would also have forbidden “registered, federal corporate lobbyists” from serving as “DNC chair-appointed, at-large members.”

A majority of the 442 eligible DNC members rejected the resolution after roughly a dozen members rose to speak for and against it. Supporters of DNC chair candidate Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) could be heard cheering loudly during arguments in favor of the resolution from their seats in the section of the auditorium open to the public.

New #DNCChair Tom Perez: 18 Podesta Emails show him working for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders https://t.co/o0XxbtSnK2

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 25, 2017

Labor Secretary New DNC Chair Advised Clinton To Cast Sanders As Candidate Of Whites To Turn Off Minorities

Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who has spent a considerable amount of time boosting Hillary Clinton’s campaign, offered advice in February on how to change the narrative so people of color were discouraged from supporting Bernie Sanders.

The advice was sent in an email to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, which was published as part of a third batch of emails released by WikiLeaks.

“Nevada is an opportunity to fight back on so many levels,” Perez argued. “First, the current storyline is that she does not connect well with young voters. Given that Nevada is far more demographically representative of America, I am confident that HRC can do well with all African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans (don’t forget the sizeable [sic] population of Asian Americans in Nevada, including Filipinos.).”

Perez continued, “Emmy and the team have a good plan to attract all minority voters. When we do well there, then the narrative changes from Bernie kicks ass among young voters to Bernie does well only among young white liberals—that is a different story and a perfect lead in to South Carolina, where once again, we can work to attract young voters of color. So I think Nevada is a real opportunity, and I would strongly urge HRC to get out there within a couple days of [New Hampshire].”

Like others in Clinton’s campaign, he described Nevada as Clinton’s “firewall” and was unconcerned about how minorities would feel if they were described in such an exploitative way.

Clinton only won African Americans decisively in the Nevada caucus, according to entrance polls. But more Latinos voted for Sanders so Nevada did not make it abundantly clear that Sanders was incapable of attracting support from people of color.

Regardless, the Clinton campaign relied on the weaponization of identity and a politics of division to cast Sanders as a campaign for angry white people.

Great job DNC. Why swirl around the toilet when you can go down the pipe? #DNCChair pic.twitter.com/jn6OAafpLg

— Tim Black ™ (@RealTimBlack) February 25, 2017

Perez Chosen As DNC Chair

[T]he most important thing, for those who control the liberal party, is retaining control over the liberal party.

I note also that they genuinely believe in neoliberalism. ... They want Americans poor. They want the poor to stay poor. They want the middle class to decline.

I mean this exactly as I say it: the policies they prefer make the middle class poor, and make the poor poorer and have for 40 years.

This is who they are. This is what they want.

They are the enemy of all people who prioritize any form of kindness to other human beings. Whether they are better than Trump is irrelevant, they’re just another group of enemies.

Father of Navy Seal killed in Yemen calls for investigation into 'stupid mission'

The father of a Navy Seal killed in a raid in Yemen last month has demanded an investigation into the planning and timing of what he called a “stupid mission”.

Bill Owens also told the Miami Herald he refused to meet Donald Trump when he and the president went to Dover air force base in Delaware to receive the casket carrying his son, William “Ryan” Owens. ...

Speaking to the Herald, Owens said the family requested a private repatriation ceremony and questioned why the president approved the raid a week after taking office. “Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration?” he said. “Why? “For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen – everything was missiles and drones – because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?’’ ...

The White House has consistently portrayed the raid as a success. On 8 February, Spicer told reporters the raid was “absolutely a success, and I think anyone who would suggest it’s not a success does disservice to the life of Chief [Petty Officer] Ryan Owens”. ...

Bill Owens told the Herald that Trump should not “hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation”.

US drone strike in Syria kills top al-Qaida leader, jihadis say

One of al-Qaida’s most senior global leaders has been killed by a US drone strike in north-west Syria, jihadi leaders have said.

Abu al-Khayr al-Masri – who has been part of the global jihadi organisation for three decades and was a son-in-law of its founder, Osama bin Laden – was killed on Sunday when a missile fired from a drone hit the small car in which he was travelling. Masri had also been a close aide to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a fellow Egyptian.

On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed it had carried out a strike in north-west Syria, but did not say whom the attack had targeted. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the al-Qaida-inspired group that Masri had worked alongside in Syria, acknowledged the death, as did individual jihadi leaders.

Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based writer on Islamic groups, said Masri’s death was a serious blow to al-Qaida. “His death is no less significant than that of Bin Laden [who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan in May 2011],” Hashimi said. “He was the ideological leader of the group in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and the number two in the organisation overall.”

Iraqi jets hit targets across the border in Syria for first time

The Iraqi military deployed F-16 fighter jets to hit targets near the country's western border with Syria on Friday, according to an air force commander cited by the AP news agency.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the airstrikes in a statement, saying the air force hit the towns of Boukamal and Husseibah across the border.

"We are determined to chase terrorism that tries to kill our sons and citizens wherever it is found," al-Abadi said in a statement, saying that IS forces in the region were "responsible" for last week's bombings in Baghdad that killed over 50 people. ...

The long and complicated war in Syria has seen warplanes from the US, Russia, Turkey, Israel and several other countries hitting targets on the ground. The Friday strikes, however, marked the first time the Iraqi air force has acknowledged bombing the neighboring state.

Pentagon seeks to expand fight in Somalia

The Pentagon wants to expand the military's ability to battle Al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia, potentially putting U.S. forces closer to the fight against a stubborn extremist group that has plotted attacks against America, senior U.S. officials said.

The recommendations sent to the White House would allow U.S special operations forces to increase assistance to the Somali National Army in the struggle against al-Shabab militants in the fragile Horn of Africa nation, the officials said. They said the proposal would give the military greater flexibility to launch airstrikes against extremists that appear to be a threat.

Beefing up the military effort in Somalia fits with President Donald Trump's broader request for a Pentagon plan to accelerate the U.S.-led battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and defeat other extremist groups, including Al Qaeda and its affiliates. U.S. concerns about al-Shabab escalated in recent years as young Americans from Somali communities traveled to training camps in Somalia, raising fears they might return to the United States and conduct terror attacks.

US - Trump wants sharp increase in military spending, cuts in environment protection, foreign aid

Donald Trump's first budget: enormous defense spending as most agencies cut

The White House said on Monday Donald Trump’s upcoming budget will propose a whopping $54bn increase in defense spending and impose corresponding cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid.

White House budget officials outlined the information during a telephone call with reporters given on condition of anonymity, a day before Trump’s first speech to Congress and as budget proposals were being sent out to government departments. ...

Trump’s defense budget and spending levels for domestic agency operating budgets will be revealed in a partial submission to Congress next month, with proposals on taxes and other programs coming later.

Trump and Putin are both very insecure about the size of their nuclear arsenals

Donald Trump says the United States has fallen behind and must return to the “top of the pack” in nuclear weapons capability. The president on Thursday called a recent report of a missile deployment and arms control violation by Russia a “big deal” that he would raise with Russian President Vladimir Putin if the two meet.

Moscow has a decidedly different view. From the Kremlin’s perspective, Washington has unfairly held back Russian nuclear might through arms control treaties while developing its own new weapons, wrecking the nuclear balance and fear of “mutually assured destruction” that staved off Armageddon during the height of the Cold War. ...

Russia has been pushing back against what it perceives as an imbalance in recent years, and not just through angry rhetoric. U.S. administration officials told the New York Times last week that Russia has secretly deployed a new cruise missile that violates the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark deal to limit nuclear weapons. Russian officials have denied even the existence of such a missile, while also claiming that the INF treaty is unfair and that the United States is actually the one violating it. ...

Despite Trump’s warm words for Putin, growing complaints from both parties about their nuclear capabilities could put the brakes on any rapprochement, or even spark a renewed arms race.

Trump Can Prove He’s Not a Putin Puppet by Blowing Up the World

Four weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote that “nothing he has done since the inauguration allays fears that he is in effect a Putin puppet.” The liberal pundit concluded with a matter-of-fact reference to “the Trump-Putin axis.”

Such lines of attack have become routine, citing and stoking fears that the president of the United States is a Kremlin stooge. The meme is on the march—and where it will end, nobody knows.

Actually, it could end with a global nuclear holocaust.

The incessant goading and denunciations of Trump as a Kremlin flunky are escalating massive pressure on him to prove otherwise. Exculpatory behavior would involve setting aside possibilities for detente and, instead, confronting Russia—rhetorically and militarily.

Hostile behavior toward Russia is what much of the U.S. media and political establishment have been fervently seeking. It’s also the kind of behavior that could drag us all over the brink into thermonuclear destruction.

But c’mon, why worry about that?

Germany's rightwing AfD party struggles to cope with internal crisis

Buoyed first by a Greek debt crisis and then by an unprecedented influx of refugees to Europe, the rise of Germany’s rightwing populist Alternative für Deutschland party has at times looked inevitable, leading one politician recently to predict a “total victory” for his party in the coming federal elections.

With less than seven months to go, however, the AfD engine is suddenly sputtering. Over the past week, three separate polls have shown support for the party slip below 10%, down from a record high of 15% last September. ...

The AfD’s current crisis was triggered in mid-January through a taboo-breaking speech by the rightwinger Björn Höcke, who in a beer hall in Dresden called for a “180 degree turn” in Germany’s culture of remembering and atoning for the Nazi era. In the month since, the party has dithered over whether to expel Höcke for his comments, revealing a broader division about the group’s future direction.

[Party co-leader Frauke] Petry appears intent on modelling the AfD on France’s far-right Front National, whose leader, Marine Le Pen, attended a summit of European “new right” parties in Koblenz organised by Petry and her husband, Marcus Pretzell, shortly after the Höcke speech. Copying Le Pen, who has attempted to soften the image of the FN, would require a symbolic break with nationalist and antisemitic elements in Petry’s party, which may have convinced the 41-year-old of the need to cut ties with the Höcke. ...

Melanie Amann, a journalist for the weekly Der Spiegel and author of Angst für Deutschland (“Fear for Germany”), a forthcoming book on the AfD, said the Höcke scandal had ended up hurting the party’s fortunes in more ways than one. “On the one hand, the speech genuinely shocked economic liberals who believed that the AfD is at heart a version of the Christian Democratic Union before Angela Merkel moved them to the political centre. On the other hand, the threat of expelling Höcke for his comments has alienated the party’s far-right nationalist support.”

Rumbling Balkans threaten foreign policy headache

The Balkans are once again dicing with crisis. Borders are being questioned, ethnic tensions are bubbling up, and land swaps are being mooted as a last resort to prevent a slide back towards violence. ... Last month, a row over a Serbian train covered in the slogan “Kosovo is Serbia” in multiple languages sent towards Mitrovica precipitated the worst crisis for years in the region. Most of Kosovo is dominated by ethnic Albanians, who make up 90% of the population.

Though the train was stopped outside Kosovo, Nato members Croatia and Albania have asked the alliance to revise its peacekeeping plan in Kosovo. The Serbian president, Tomislav Nikolić, said that he and his sons would personally take up arms if Serbs in Kosovo were threatened.

“I believe that all these tensions are nothing to do with citizens,” says Adrijana Hodžić, head of the North Mitrovica Administrative Office. “In the north of Kosovo, the hope still exists that they will get rid of fear. I’m personally sick and tired of Pristina and Belgrade, because we’ve been victimised by high politicians.”

Then there is Bosnia. Split between two federal chunks – a Serb part and a Bosnian-Croat part – after a three-year war in the 1990s, it has never healed properly. The autonomous Serb Republic regularly threatens a referendum on independence, while some Bosnian Serbs have threatened to boycott central government institutions over Sarajevo’s move to challenge an international court of justice ruling that cleared Serbia of complicity in genocide in the 1992-95 war.

Separately, there is Montenegro, subject of an extraordinary political convulsion late last year in which the government claimed that Russian institutions had tried to orchestrate a coup.

Finally, Macedonia, the most southerly former Yugoslav republic, is struggling to form a new government following a protracted political crisis in which ethnic Albanians have become increasingly restive. The country fell back into the spotlight when a congressman close to Trump suggested it should be broken up and divided among its neighbours.

Committee to Protect Journalists: Trump's Attacks on Media Will Be Felt by Journalists Around World

While Trump's War on Media Escalates, CBS Chief Praises Trump’s Deregulatory Agenda

While the Washington press corps is expressing ever-greater alarm over President Donald Trump’s mounting attacks on journalists — culminating in Friday’s banning of some leading outlets from a White House press briefing — the media executives who sign their paychecks are praising the new administration for a deregulatory agenda that would likely boost company profits.

Les Moonves, the chief executive and chairman of CBS Corporation, told investors recently that he is “looking forward to not having as much regulation and having the ability to do more.”

Moonves specifically celebrated the appointment of Trump’s new FCC chairman, former Verizon attorney Ajit Pai, calling him “very beneficial to our business.”

The media industry arguably helped Trump enormously in the early presidential campaign with extensive coverage that drowned out his competitors and left little room for discussion of the substantive policy issues facing voters. Now it has a lot to gain if the FCC begins a new wave of ownership deregulation and relaxes certain limits that currently prevent media conglomerates from controlling a large swath of local television stations, and prevent firms from owning television stations and newspapers in the same media market.

Texas county pulls out of program for local police to act as immigration agents

Oscar Hernández recalls how his uncle paid a double price when he was arrested for failing to pay road tolls: local police in Houston handed him to immigration officials who deported him to Mexico.

In the years since, Hernández, also an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, has campaigned to end a program that deputises local officials to act as federal immigration agents, potentially turning a minor infraction into a life-altering event.

The 28-year-old community organiser with United We Dream celebrated a victory this week, after the Harris County sheriff’s office announced it would end its use of this program, known as 287(g). ...

Hernández said that 287(g) “encourages racial profiling, it keeps a system where if law enforcement only see undocumented immigrants as people they put in jail then it makes it very difficult for the community to trust law enforcement … If you’re undocumented then you become a target.”

Los Angeles Mayor Flirts With Sanctuary Movement While Collaborating With ICE

On February 2, the American Civil Liberties Union held a press conference at the Terminal 2 arrivals gate of Los Angeles International Airport. The occasion for the press conference was the return of Ali Vayeghan, an Iranian lawful permanent resident of the United States who had been deported a few days before as a result of President Trump’s Muslim ban, to American soil. ... Earlier that day, the ACLU had received a call from the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The mayor, they had been told, wished to participate in the press conference. ...

When Garcetti stepped up to the podium, he echoed the “sanctuary city” line. “We are a city of sanctuary, of refuge,” he said, “and also of defense of our Constitution.” ...

Since Trump’s election, Garcetti has resisted the term “sanctuary city” as an appellation for Los Angeles, a city with one of the largest undocumented populations in the country. In an interview with National Public Radio a week after the inauguration, he said, “We’ve never declared ourself a sanctuary city; I’m still not sure what one is.” It has become a routine line for the mayor. He sometimes follows it by explaining that the police do, in fact, routinely cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — when it’s done constitutionally, he emphasizes, with a warrant from a judge. ...

L.A.’s main qualification as a sanctuary city is Special Order 40, an LAPD directive from 1979 that prohibits officers from detaining or questioning people solely on the basis of their immigration status. Special Order 40 sets a floor for the separation of local law enforcement from federal immigration enforcement. But it’s a pretty low standard.

Bannon-Trump Promise to Unleash Unfettered Capitalism

The GOP unveils a 'permanent save' for Social Security — with massive benefit cuts

Amid all the hand-wringing over Republican plans to eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the GOP has the knives out for Social Security too.

The latest reminder comes from Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Tex., chairman of the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee. Johnson on Thursday uncorked what he termed a “plan to permanently save Social Security.”

Followers of GOP habits won’t be surprised to learn that it achieves this goal entirely through benefit cuts, without a dime of new revenues such as higher payroll taxes on the wealthy. In fact, Johnson’s plan reduces the resources coming into the program by eliminating a key tax --another way that he absolves richer Americans of paying their fair share, while increasing the burdens of retirement for almost everyone else.

Predictably, this plan has already been hailed by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a billionaire’s front group that likes to portray itself as a neutral budget watchdog. (The foundation of hedge fund billionaire Peter G. Peterson, whose hostility to Social Security is well-documented, provided $3.3 million in funding for the committee in 2015; that’s the equivalent of about half the group’s revenue of $7.1 million in 2014)

GOP Lawmakers Duck Town Halls, But Still Make Time to Meet with Campaign Donors

Speaker Paul Ryan’s constituents in Wisconsin asked him for a town hall meeting during recess, but Ryan’s staff remained cagey about his whereabouts. The real reason he wasn’t hanging out back home in Janesville? Ryan prioritized meeting with wealthy contributors over constituents.

Ryan began the recess with a “Winter PAC Retreat” last weekend at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne in Miami, an event that welcomed donors who have given “a minimum contribution of $10,000″ to the Team Ryan joint fundraising committee. That’s Ryan’s special PAC that can raise as much as $244,200 per person.

Since the event in Miami, the speaker has toured Texas and California hosting events for the PAC in Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Menlo Park.

Wyoming residents asked Sen. John Barrasso to attend a town hall meeting with them this week while Congress is out of session, but his press secretary demurred, telling reporters that the senator already has community events on his schedule.

What the press secretary didn’t say was that Barrasso this week has a ski resort fundraiser, held Friday and Saturday in Jackson Hole. He’s asking donors to provide $5,000 per political action committee or $1,500 per individual.

[See the article for more reporting on assorted Republicans deserting their constituents to raise big money. - js]

Scott Pruitt Vows Rapid, 'Aggressive' Attack on EPA Regulations

Newly confirmed EPA administrator Scott Pruitt on Saturday vowed quick and "aggressive" gutting of Obama-era regulations addressing climate change and the nation's waterways.

"I think there are some regulations that in the near-term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way. And I think maybe next week you may be hearing about some of those," he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) taking place near Washington, D.C.. ...

Reuters reports that during in his comments at CPAC,

Pruitt mentioned three rules ushered in by Obama that could meet the chopping block early on: the Waters of the U.S. rule outlining waterways that have federal protections; the Clean Power Plan requiring states to cut carbon emissions; and the U.S. Methane rule limiting emissions from oil and gas installations on federal land.

Pruitt also accused he agency of overreach during the previous administration and said it was "so focused on climate change and so focused on CO2," adding that Americans would be "justified" in wanting to completely get rid of the EPA. "I think people across this country look at the EPA much like they look at the IRS. I hope to be able to change that," he said. (A 2013 Pew Research survey on public opinions of federal agencies, however, doesn't back up his claim.)

Biologists Warn Half of All Species to Face Extinction by 2100, as GOP Pushes to Destroy Protections

Today, 20 percent of all species are at risk of being wiped out, scientists at a Vatican conference on biodiversity warn, and that number may rise to nearly 50 percent by the end of the century.

"The living fabric of the world [...] is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring," warned the conference organizers.

Biologists, ecologists, and economists traveled to Rome from around the world for the workshop titled "How to Save the Natural World on Which We Depend," which begins Monday, to strategize together on how to limit the mass extinction event caused by rampant over-development, climate change, overpopulation, and unsustainable agricultural practices.

The meeting sharply contrasts with last week's U.S. Senate hearing on how to "modernize the Endangered Species Act [ESA]," during which Republican politicians vociferously complained about the 1973 law that seeks to protect critically endangered species from extinction, describing it as an encroachment on states' rights.

During his opening remarks at the Environment and Public Works Committee meeting, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) "declared that the act 'is not working today,'" wrote the Washington Post, "adding that 'states, counties, wildlife managers, home builders, construction companies, farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders' have made that clear in complaints about how it impedes land management plans, housing development and cattle grazing, particularly in western states, such as Wyoming."

Eight rangers killed in grim week for wildlife protectors

Eight wildlife rangers have lost their lives in four separate countries, in a week that highlighted the numerous hazards rangers face in protecting the world’s wild lands and species. ...

On 17 February, a young ranger with the Kenyan Wildlife Service was shot dead by elephant poachers in Tsavo national park. The ranger and a colleague were out on a de-snaring patrol when they came upon the tracks of known elephant poachers. The poacher ambushed the pair, killing one – officials have not yet released his name. ...

Not all ranger fatalities are at the hands of poachers. Three rangers also died last week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when their speed boat capsized in Virunga national park. Another three rangers were killed in Central African Republic last week, but no additional details were available on the incident.

Finally, in India, a 28-year-old forest ranger passed out while trying to stamp down flames in Bandipur national park. Officials say Murigeppa Tammangol died from asphyxiation, burns and brain damage. The local press blamed the fires on “miscreants” from nearby communities. But Bandipur national park is also in the midst of a drought, with two years of unusually dry conditions.

Also of Interest

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

Fuck Unity

Corporate Liberals Have Stolen Bernie From Us, And It Hurts

Democratic Party Orthodoxy in Action: “Hit With Some Serious Clinton Blame Cannons”

Open Guantanamo!

America’s Greatest Political Rhetoric Rewritten Using Paul Ryan’s Definition of Freedom

Warren Buffett Pens a Dangerously Misleading Letter to Americans

The Extradition Saga of Kim Dotcom

The Art of the Trumpaclysm

How ‘New Cold Warriors’ Cornered Trump

The Long History of Deportation Scare Tactics at the U.S.-Mexico Border

A Nazi Skeleton in the Family Closet

Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Took Out $19 Million in Puzzling Real Estate Loans

Video: A Closing Prayer for Standing Rock’s Oceti Sakowin

Cathedrals of power: Philadelphia's abandoned turbine halls – in pictures

A Little Night Music

Lizzie Miles - Louisiana

Lizzie Miles - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Lizzie Miles - Bill Bailey

Lizzie Miles w/Jelly Roll Morton - I Hate a Man Like You

Lizzie Miles - Some of These Days

Lizzie Miles - Eh la bas

Lizzie Miles - My Man O'War

Lizzie Miles - Salty Dog

Lizzie Miles - Make Me A Pallet

Lizzie Miles - Electrician Blues

Lizzie Miles - Memphis Blues

Lizzie Miles - Darkness on the Delta

Lizzie Miles - Basin Street Blues No. 70