https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOKvDHXapE
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Economic Update: Extremes of Rich & Poor in U.S. Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erfaekBxauw
Monday, August 30, 2021
MAINSTREAM ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT LIES
By Chris Hedges,
RT.
August 29, 2021
https://popularresistance.org/on-contact-mainstream-environmental-movement-lies/
Sanders Pitches $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill to Thousands at Indiana Town Hall
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/28/sanders-pitches-35-trillion-spending-bill-thousands-indiana-town-hall
"Never in our lifetime has there been a piece of legislation which goes as far as this does to address the long-neglected needs of the working class and the middle class of this country."
August 28, 2021
Addressing more than 2,300 people in West Lafayette, Indiana Friday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders made the case for the $3.5 trillion spending plan to invest heavily in human infrastructure, explaining how the proposed budget currently being written by Senate and House committees following passage in the House is "the most consequential legislation for working people since the New Deal."
The event was one of two town halls the Senate Budget Committee chairman is holding in Republican and swing districts this weekend, aimed at talking directly with working people who stand to gain from the legislation and its investments in child care subsidies, free community college tuition, paid family and medical leave, and a transformation of the U.S. energy system in a push to rapidly shift away from planet-heating fossil fuel production while creating jobs.
While the chair of the Senate Budget Committee typically works within the halls of Congress, the senator said ahead of the event, "I think really, the function of a budget chairman is to get out among the people."
Sanders drew applause as he opened the event by describing the Civilian Climate Corps, plans for funding "more low-income affordable housing than at any other time in this country," the inclusion of a "massive investment in home healthcare," and other provisions in the bill.
"What is fair to say about this legislation, which again, is going to be funded by demanding that the wealthy and corporations start paying their fair share of taxes," said the senator, "is that never in our lifetime has there been a piece of legislation which goes as far as this does to address the long-neglected needs of the working class and the middle class of this country."
Sanders then invited several community members to talk to the crowd about how their lives had been improved by President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, which included investments that would be continued in the spending bill.
After receiving unemployment assistance and the child care tax credit in the relief package, single father Cody Kenney said, he was able to afford hockey equipment for his son, which he had never been able to buy during his own childhood in a trailer park.
"Having that to provide for my son and...having dignity around other parents really affected my life and my kid's life," Kenney said. "When I received the pandemic unemployment assistance I was able to provide... This was the first time I had any type of government invest in me."
Mary McCloskey, a single mother, also said the enhanced unemployment assistance that Sanders fought to include in Covid-19 relief legislation last year helped sustain her family.
"When more than 2,300 people come out in the middle of the hottest summer on record in West Lafayette, Indiana to hear Bernie Sanders talk about the $3.5 trillion Senate reconciliation bill, you're doing something right," tweeted Misty Rebik, the senator's chief of staff.
Watch the whole town hall event below:
'Not What Ending a War Looks Like': Biden Vows New Strikes in Retaliation for Kabul Blast
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/28/not-what-ending-war-looks-biden-vows-new-strikes-retaliation-kabul-blast
The Pentagon reported that Friday's drone strike killed two ISIS-K targets, while an elder in Jalalabad said several civilians had been kiiled.
JULIA CONLEY
August 28, 2021
Even as he planned to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by August 31, President Joe Biden said Saturday that the drone strike that was launched Friday night in retaliation for an attack claimed by ISIS-K "was not the last."
"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," the president said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt."
The Pentagon said the drone strike killed two "planners and facilitators" of the explosion outside Kabul's airport, but according to The Guardian, in addition to targets related to the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an elder in Jalalabad reported that three civilians were killed and four were wounded in the U.S. strike.
The bombing on Thursday killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members, and prompted calls from anti-war groups and lawmakers including Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) for the U.S. to refrain from taking further military action in Afghanistan as two decades of the U.S.-led war there comes to an end.
Following the U.S. retaliatory strike on Friday, Ariel Gold of CODEPINK pointed out that even if no civilians were killed as the Pentagon is reporting, "these drone strikes help ISIS recruit."
"This is not what ending a war looks like," said CODEPINK of the president's threats of even more military action in the coming days, as he warned that more attacks are expected near the airport in Kabul in the next 36 hours.
In addition to the U.S. drone strikes, BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani reported that according to eyewitnesses, many people who were killed in Thursday's attack were shot by U.S. troops.
The New York Times reported Saturday that investigators in Afghanistan are examining where the gunfire came from during Thursday's attack.
Even as he planned to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by August 31, President Joe Biden said Saturday that the drone strike that was launched Friday night in retaliation for an attack claimed by ISIS-K "was not the last."
"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," the president said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt."
The Pentagon said the drone strike killed two "planners and facilitators" of the explosion outside Kabul's airport, but according to The Guardian, in addition to targets related to the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an elder in Jalalabad reported that three civilians were killed and four were wounded in the U.S. strike.
The bombing on Thursday killed as many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members, and prompted calls from anti-war groups and lawmakers including Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) for the U.S. to refrain from taking further military action in Afghanistan as two decades of the U.S.-led war there comes to an end.
Following the U.S. retaliatory strike on Friday, Ariel Gold of CODEPINK pointed out that even if no civilians were killed as the Pentagon is reporting, "these drone strikes help ISIS recruit."
"This is not what ending a war looks like," said CODEPINK of the president's threats of even more military action in the coming days, as he warned that more attacks are expected near the airport in Kabul in the next 36 hours.
In addition to the U.S. drone strikes, BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani reported that according to eyewitnesses, many people who were killed in Thursday's attack were shot by U.S. troops.
The New York Times reported Saturday that investigators in Afghanistan are examining where the gunfire came from during Thursday's attack.
Experts Warn of 'Potentially Catastrophic' Destruction as Hurricane Ida Reaches New Orleans
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/29/experts-warn-potentially-catastrophic-destruction-hurricane-ida-reaches-new-orleans
The storm is expected to be one of the strongest ever to hit Louisiana, rivaling Hurricane Laura in 2020.
JULIA CONLEY
August 29, 2021
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Weather experts on Sunday said their worst-case-scenario predictions about Hurricane Ida, which damaged homes and knocked down trees in Cuba on Friday, appeared to be coming true as the tropical cyclone made its way towards New Orleans with winds rushing at 150 miles per hour.
The hurricane made landfall Sunday afternoon in southeastern Louisiana, driving thousands of people to evacuate on Saturday.
The National Hurricane Center warned the storm could bring "potentially catastrophic" damage from winds and a "life-threatening" storm surge in the coastal area, with destruction from flooding and other effects extending more than 100 miles inland.
Meteorologists recorded 150mph peak winds, putting the storm two miles per hour short of a Category 5 hurricane.
If the peak winds remain as strong as they were at sea when the storm reaches land, according to the Washington Post, Hurricane Ida will be among the strongest hurricanes ever to hit Louisiana.
Forecasters expressed anguish on social media and in weather reports as they watched the storm approach New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
"Worst case scenario unfolding for Louisiana," said Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Absolutely sick to my stomach seeing this."
The expected ocean surge could inundate areas with up to 16 feet of water in some places. New Orleans was expected to see more than a foot of rainfall. The National Weather Service warned that "extremely dangerous flash flooding" could result if the city gets more than 15 inches of rain, which could overwhelm its system of nearly 100 pumps.
Locals who hadn't evacuated on Saturday were cautioned to shelter in place on Sunday morning, as the approaching storm's winds had already made highway travel perilous.
Meteorologists are typically hesitant to connect a single extreme weather event to the climate crisis, but as Discover Magazine reported Saturday, the planetary emergency fueled by fossil fuel extraction is "supercharging" storms like Ida.
"Monster storms cause enormous damage not only because of their winds," wrote Tom Yulsman, director of the Center for Environmental Journalism and a blogger for the magazine. "They also dump unimaginable amounts of water. And research shows that thanks to climate change, they've been getting wetter."
Yulsman continued:
That's happening for a number of reasons. First, a warmer atmosphere can carry more moisture. Research shows that for every one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more moisture. So far, the globe has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times.
On Twitter, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe said the question of whether the climate crisis "causes" hurricanes like Ida is "the wrong question."
"The right one is, 'How much worse did climate change make it?" Hayhoe said.
"Given that science has already showed that a warmer ocean and other aspects of climate change are leading to much faster intensification of hurricanes," Hayhoe added, "the question today is not, to paraphrase climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, how could climate change affect this event—but rather how could it NOT, as it is occurring over the massively altered background conditions of our 1.1C warmer planet."
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Weather experts on Sunday said their worst-case-scenario predictions about Hurricane Ida, which damaged homes and knocked down trees in Cuba on Friday, appeared to be coming true as the tropical cyclone made its way towards New Orleans with winds rushing at 150 miles per hour.
The hurricane made landfall Sunday afternoon in southeastern Louisiana, driving thousands of people to evacuate on Saturday.
The National Hurricane Center warned the storm could bring "potentially catastrophic" damage from winds and a "life-threatening" storm surge in the coastal area, with destruction from flooding and other effects extending more than 100 miles inland.
Meteorologists recorded 150mph peak winds, putting the storm two miles per hour short of a Category 5 hurricane.
If the peak winds remain as strong as they were at sea when the storm reaches land, according to the Washington Post, Hurricane Ida will be among the strongest hurricanes ever to hit Louisiana.
Forecasters expressed anguish on social media and in weather reports as they watched the storm approach New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.
"Worst case scenario unfolding for Louisiana," said Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "Absolutely sick to my stomach seeing this."
The expected ocean surge could inundate areas with up to 16 feet of water in some places. New Orleans was expected to see more than a foot of rainfall. The National Weather Service warned that "extremely dangerous flash flooding" could result if the city gets more than 15 inches of rain, which could overwhelm its system of nearly 100 pumps.
Locals who hadn't evacuated on Saturday were cautioned to shelter in place on Sunday morning, as the approaching storm's winds had already made highway travel perilous.
Meteorologists are typically hesitant to connect a single extreme weather event to the climate crisis, but as Discover Magazine reported Saturday, the planetary emergency fueled by fossil fuel extraction is "supercharging" storms like Ida.
"Monster storms cause enormous damage not only because of their winds," wrote Tom Yulsman, director of the Center for Environmental Journalism and a blogger for the magazine. "They also dump unimaginable amounts of water. And research shows that thanks to climate change, they've been getting wetter."
Yulsman continued:
That's happening for a number of reasons. First, a warmer atmosphere can carry more moisture. Research shows that for every one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more moisture. So far, the globe has warmed by about 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times.
On Twitter, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe said the question of whether the climate crisis "causes" hurricanes like Ida is "the wrong question."
"The right one is, 'How much worse did climate change make it?" Hayhoe said.
"Given that science has already showed that a warmer ocean and other aspects of climate change are leading to much faster intensification of hurricanes," Hayhoe added, "the question today is not, to paraphrase climate scientist Kevin Trenberth, how could climate change affect this event—but rather how could it NOT, as it is occurring over the massively altered background conditions of our 1.1C warmer planet."
Inside US Afghanistan pullout, CIA opium ratline, pipeline conflict, new cold war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiF3TQZSxhs
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