GoFundMe: Protect the National Butterfly Center from Trump border wall – $82K of $100K goal raised – UPDATE: Goal reached!

10 December 2018 (National Butterfly Center) – Congress funded 33 new miles of Border Wall in the 2018 omnibus Appropriations Act  and contracts for the first 6 miles have been awarded to SLSCO . The real kicker is, the border wall is not being built on the border, but over 2 miles inland, moving the […]

U.S. wealth concentration returns to levels not seen since the Roaring Twenties – The 400 richest Americans own more than bottom 150 million – “For the rich, wealth begets power”

By Christopher Ingraham 8 February 2019 (The Washington Post) – The 400 richest Americans — the top 0.00025 percent of the population — have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s, according to a new working paper on wealth inequality by University of California at Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman.Those 400 Americans […]

1.4 million Puerto Ricans face deep cuts in food aid without federal action – Trump administration calls funding “excessive and unnecessary”

By Nicole Acevedo 5 February 2019 (NBC News) – Nearly a million and half people in Puerto Rico face deep cuts in food assistance, or losing it completely, if the federal government doesn’t provide funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program, which is expected to run out of money on the island next month.According to an […]

Trump chooses David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist, to head the Interior Department – “David Bernhardt is the most dangerous man in America for endangered species and public lands”

By Coral Davenport 4 February 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – President Trump on Monday announced he would nominate David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist and current deputy chief of the Interior Department, to succeed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned amid allegations of ethical missteps.In a message on Twitter, Mr. Trump wrote, “David […]

National Butterfly Center to file restraining order to stop Trump border wall construction

By Beatriz Alvarado 6 February 2019 MISSION, Texas (Corpus Christi Caller Times) – Amid a legal battle to stop the federal government from erecting a 36-foot “wall system” topped with steel bollards through its property, the National Butterfly Center is conducting business as usual. On a Wednesday morning, the parking lot at the 100-acre wildlife […]

Trump State of the Union 2019: “The leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet”

6 February 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – There are many reasons to despair when Donald Trump speaks – the baseless nativist paranoia, the continuous stream of half-truths and lies, the thinly veiled appeals to bigotry – but last night, during his second State of the Union address to Congress, Trump extolled the “energy dominance” policy he […]

The glaring hole in Trump’s address: Climate change – “Trump and, more to the point, the fossil fuel interests whose bidding he is doing, have weaponized the public’s poor understanding of science”

By Ishaan Tharoor 6 February 2019 (The Washington Post) – President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night zigzagged between paeans to unity and sops to his hardcore base. He eulogized World War II soldiers and then wheeled on immigrants and leftist rivals at home. But absent amid the nativist demagoguery and partisan jockeying […]

The retreat of global democracy stopped in 2018 – Or has it just paused?

8 January 2019 (The Economist) – Democracy stopped declining in 2018, according to the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. The index rates 167 countries by 60 indicators across five broad categories: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties. It is stricter than […]

U.S. prepares to build part of Trump border wall through National Butterfly Center and Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge

By Nomaan Merchant 4 February 2019 HOUSTON (AP) – The U.S. government is preparing to begin construction of more border walls and fencing in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, likely on federally owned land set aside as wildlife refuge property.Heavy construction equipment was expected to arrive starting Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. A […]

Trump tweeted “we need” global warming to deal with record cold temperatures. Here’s why that doesn’t make sense

By Justin Worland 29 January 2019 (TIME) – President Trump has been a longtime opponent of taking action on climate change, as evidenced by everything from his accusation that the phenomenon is a “hoax” created by China to his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. There are many reasons Trump may […]

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