Trump supporters shouted ‘go home’ at Native Americans protesting Mount Rushmore rally on their land: report

 July 3, 2020 By Bob Brigham



Oglala Sioux protesters were arrested protesting against President Donald Trump’s Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore on Friday.

The protesters argued that it is their land after the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate.

The Black Hills of South Dakota, where Mount Rushmore is located, was among the lands the tribes received to bring about an end to Red Cloud’s War, which is also known as the Bozeman Trail War.

MSNBC’s Cal Perry was interviewed by Ali Velshi about what he saw.

“It is their land according to the U.S. government, according to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in 1980 that the original Laramie Treaty of 1868 was not held up by the U.S. government, the U.S. government did not hold up their end of the bargain,” Perry reported. “That treaty ended a lot of the conflict in the northwestern part of this country, it wasn’t even fully formed at that point, but these Black Hills were given to the Lakota people, and it was less than ten years later when people searching for gold came across these hills and the Lakota people were starved and killed and run out of these hills, and ever since then they’ve been on reservations and they’ve been fighting for their land back.”

“So you had this very ugly and frankly, very sad scene where, as folks were being taken away and they were under arrest, you had Trump supporters yelling at them, ‘Go home, go home!’ and you had these Native American protesters, activists yelling back, ‘This is my home, this is my land!’ and I think there’s just not a common understanding between the two groups of each other,” Perry explained.

Watch:

WATCH: Native American protesters ‘reclaimed the road’ to Donald Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore

 July 3, 2020 By Bob Brigham

Police in camouflage fatigues and riot gear faced off against protesters in South Dakota on Friday evening.

“More than 100 protesters gathered on a highway leading to Mount Rushmore on Friday ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech at the monument,” Indian Country Today reports. “Native women in ribbon skirts created a line across the highway, behind them members of NDN Collective, a nonprofit Native advocacy organization, parked white vans across the road.”

Officers have threatened arrest protesters who do not disperse, in violation of the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868, which was ratified by the United States Senate.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism toda
Nick Tilson of NDN Collective said the group had “reclaimed the road

“We don’t need them to give us permission to do this on our land; we intend to stay here indefinitely throughout the night,” he explained.
Said by Nick Tilsen of the NDN Collective.
— Erin Bormett (@EEBormett) July 4, 2020

All people staying to get arrested are told to meet in the middle. One of the military lines has moved to the side. pic.twitter.com/IYPRC2foTO
—Erin Bormett (@EEBormett) July 4, 2020

“The Black Hills are part of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and the country’s highest court ordered compensation in the millions of dollars to the Lakota for the illegal seizure of the Black Hills, an offer the Lakota have refused for decades. They instead want the Black Hills returned to tribal authority,” Indian Country Today reminded.

I was showing how media is blocked by military from the arrests, and a sheriff’s department employee responded to a question of why he wasn’t in a mask during a pandemic with “I am immune” pic.twitter.com/PqseOjVSkX
— Erin Bormett (@EEBormett) July 4, 2020


Some more people got arrested nearby. Unclear why. pic.twitter.com/tOP77JanBT
— Arielle Zionts (@Ajzionts) July 4, 2020


Protesters put three vans in the middle of one of the two entryways into the park and disabled them which has stopped traffic for two hours. pic.twitter.com/03zpH40mxN
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) July 4, 2020

SEE MORE VIDEOS AT NDN FACEBOOK PAGE

https://www.facebook.com/ndncol/videos/312524243247578/

Trump’s Thinks 2020 Will Be a Repeat of 1968
Nixon’s call for “law and order” resulted in a resounding victory. That may not work this time around.
by Nancy LeTourneau July 2, 2020

The White House/Flickr

On the day that Trump staged his photo-op in front of a church, Tucker Carlson ranted that the president should return to his instincts when it comes to responding to the protests against police brutality. There is one person in particular that Carlson blamed for the fact that Trump strayed from that path.

Claiming Trump will lose in November if he doesn’t ratchet up his response to the protests, Carlson blamed Kushner for not understanding the gravity of the situation and advising Trump not to address the situation.

“No one has more contempt for Donald Trump’s voters than Jared Kushner and no one expresses it more frequently,” Carlson said.

Adding that Trump’s “law and order” worldview remains “fundamentally unchanged” since he first ran for president, Carlson insisted that the president’s “famously sharp instincts” have been “subverted at every level” by Kushner.

While Trump appears to sense that Kushner is leading him in the “wrong direction,” Carlson said, Kushner convinced the president to pass criminal justice reform in order to win over black voters.

“Several times over the past few days, the president signaled he was very much liking to crack down on rioters,” he continued. “That is his instinct. If you watch it—you believe it. But every time he’s been talked out of it by Jared Kushner and by aides that Kushner has hired and controlled.”

That is the context for a report from Jonathan Swan that Trump regrets taking advice from Kushner.

President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.

…One person who spoke with the president interpreted his thinking this way: “No more of Jared’s woke s***.” Another said Trump has indicated that following Kushner’s advice has harmed him politically…

Trump has made clear he wants to support law enforcement unequivocally, and he won’t do anything that could be seen as undercutting police.

We can all enjoy the spectacle of Trump taking Carlson’s advice over Kushner’s. But not many of us have a dog in that fight. The more salient point is that, even though Trump has consistently touted criminal justice reform whenever the topic of Black voters comes up, he now seems to have decided that it hurt him politically. That is because, as one person told Swan, “He truly believes there is a silent majority out there that’s going to come out in droves in November.”

All of that talk about “law and order” and a “silent majority” makes it clear that Trump’s instincts are to assume that he can do a repeat performance of Nixon’s victory in the 1968 election. It also tells us that the president’s instincts are racist. In a confrontation between African Americans and police brutality, Trump is clear about which side he stands on.

Numerous people have weighed in on the question of whether 2020 is a repeat of 1968. I recently watched the PBS documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and many parallels were striking, not the least of which was then-California Governor Ronald Reagan objecting to the efficacy of the Panthers protesting at the state capital while armed. One has to wonder what he would have said about white people doing to same thing to protest precautions taken during a pandemic.

But the documentary is a good reminder of the fact that the Black Panthers were founded in Oakland, California for the specific purpose of protecting African Americans in that city from police brutality. They did so armed and unapologetically, which is why they were viewed as such a threat.

When it comes to comparisons to 1968, the centrality of police brutality hasn’t changed. But is there a “silent majority” out there ready to support a president who vows to impose “law and order” by supporting law enforcement unequivocally? Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn’t think so, which is why he is uncharacteristically hopeful.

I don’t want to overstate this, but there are significant swaths of people and communities that are not black, that to some extent have some perception of what that pain and that suffering is. I think that’s different.

In the 1968 presidential election, voters gave Nixon’s “law and order” response a resounding victory. It’s clear that Trump’s instincts are to attempt a repeat performance in 2020. In about four months we’ll find out whether America has changed over the last 52 years.

Nancy LeTourneau is a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly. Follow her on Twitter @Smartypants60.

Trump’s Bungled Pandemic Response Is Crushing American Incomes

New data shows the costs of the administration’s failure to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

by Robert J. ShapiroJuly 1, 2020

The White House/Flickr

Donald Trump may have normalized cognitive dissonance for many of his supporters and some young people. But wishing away the pandemic does not affect reality. The May data on personal incomes released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is a serious case in point. The data show that our nearly singular failure to wrestle the pandemic to manageable proportions has cut quickly and deeply into wage and salary income across the country. The only force staving off desperate conditions for many households was the one-time checks the government sent most Americans and the temporary expansion of jobless benefits.

Now with the resurgence of COVID-19 infections, Congress has little choice but to approve another round of checks and extend the generous unemployment benefits. If Congress does approve a lot more help, millions of American households will still face financial peril – and if Congress fails to step up again, tens of millions of Americans could confront financial ruin.

As a dose of reality, the new income data show that our current conditions are roughly three times as severe as the Great Recession. All personal income fell 4.2 percent in May and 3.0 percent over the three months from March through May. It took nine months for personal income to fall that much during the Great Recession. Wage and salary income actually increased by 3.3 percent in May, as the payroll grants under the CARES program kicked in and businesses began to reopen. Even so, wage and salary income fell 7.9 percent from March through May, again more than during the entire Great Recession.

The reason that total personal income fell “only” 3.0 percent over the three months—the steepest drop on record—while total wage and salary income fell an astounding 7.9 percent in three months was due almost entirely to those government checks and jobless benefits. After setting aside government transfers, the BEA reports that total personal income fell 7.5 percent in three months.

We seem headed now for another round of the pandemic that looks much like March through May. In March, as the virus quickly spun out of control, businesses began to shut down by mid-month and Congress expanded jobless benefits. By April, with millions of businesses shuttered or struggling, and wage and salary income falling 7.7 percent in one month, the government sent out the emergency checks. By May, as the spread of the virus slowed after physical-distancing measures were imposed across the country, many businesses began to reopen, so wage and salary income rose.

Yet through it all, the Trump administration never put in place nationwide testing and contact tracing. Lulled by the president’s baseless assurance that he had beaten back the pandemic, millions of people resumed their lives without bothering to social distance, wear masks, and take other basic precautions. So now, in late June, we find ourselves headed back to where we were in March. Across much of the country, the virus is spinning out of control again, and state governments are beginning to shut down businesses they let reopen in late May and early June. The business shutdowns will likely spread again until new cases of COVID-19 fall sharply again, perhaps in August or September.

For a measure of what this could mean for the incomes of millions of Americans, especially if Senate Republicans continue to reject another round of emergency checks, recall the recent findings by the Federal Reserve that 37 percent of households cannot handle an unexpected $400 expense on their own. The agency recommended those people either charge it to their credit card debt, sell off some possessions, or try to borrow it from family, friends, a payday lender, or a bank – and that was in good economic times.

To be sure, the 3.0 percent drop in total personal income over three months has not hit everyone. Investors are fine, thanks to support from the Federal Reserve and Treasury: The S&P 500 was nearly 100 points higher on June 29 (3,053.24) than on February 28 (2,954.22). Alas, the 58 percent of households those earning less than $50,000 account for 1.8 percent of all capital gains income. But set that aside and approach what’s happening to personal income as an average income loss of 3.0 percent for everyone. That would translate into a $1,858 shortfall for a median-income household ($61,937 in 2018)– nearly five times what 37 percent of Americans said they couldn’t handle when the economy was growing.

If phase two of the pandemic unfolds like phase one, personal income and total wages and salaries will fall substantially further. If income losses over the next three months are comparable to what already happened in March through May, a median income household could face an average income hit of $3,718 with another round of government assistance and an average hit of $6,503 if government help doesn’t come through a second time.

Congress will likely step up again, and the president will try to claim credit. But for the majority of Americans with few resources beyond their paychecks and home equity, this pandemic and the administration’s bafflingly inept response will scar their financial well-being for a long time.

Robert J. Shapiro
 a Washington Monthly contributing writer, is the chairman of Sonecon and a Senior Fellow at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He currently advises Future Majority, a Democratic strategy center, and previously served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under Bill Clinton.

Young People Really Don’t Like Donald Trump
That doesn’t bode well for the future of the Republican Party.

by Nancy LeTourneau July 3, 2020

The White House/Flickr

Pew Research published a national poll this week that showed Biden with a ten point lead over Trump, much as we’ve seen from other polls. But when they broke the responses down by age, the most startling result was that with 18-29 year-olds, Biden’s lead is 40 points (68-28). That might not be surprising. But here is a comparison to previous Democratic candidates.

For comparison, past Democratic performance among 18-29 year olds:

1992: Clinton +9
1996: Clinton +18
2000: Gore +1
2004: Kerry +9
2008: Obama +34
2012: Obama +23
2016: Clinton +19
Today's Pew poll: Biden +40 https://t.co/uC3XZJ5Ct0

— Brandon (@Brand_Allen) July 1, 2020

Pew also found that for Biden supporters, 67 percent said that their choice is more about opposition to Trump. I’m sure that is probably true for the subset of voters under 30 years of age. In other words, young people really don’t like Donald Trump.

We watched that play out when young people used social media to troll the Trump campaign into thinking there would be a massive crowd at his Tulsa rally. The small attendance was related to people’s concerns about the coronavirus, but the groundswell requesting tickets lured the campaign into boasting about all of the enthusiasm for the president—which crashed spectacularly. It was an excellent reminder that young people will find their own ways of making their voices heard in the political arena.

As always, the concern about young people is whether or not they will actually show up at the polls to vote. We’ve already seen that, for all of the emphasis the Sanders campaign put on that demographic group, they didn’t show up for the primaries in great numbers. So that will remain a concern in 2020.

But the Trump presidency has solidified the fact that young people are being repelled by the Republican Party. Contrary to the myth about voters getting more conservative with age, this is what the research tells us.

On an individual level, of course, many people’s political views evolve over the course of their lives. But academic research indicates not only that generations have distinct political identities, but that most people’s basic outlooks and orientations are set fairly early on in life. As one famous longitudinal study of Bennington College women put it, “through late childhood and early adolescence, attitudes are relatively malleable…with the potential for dramatic change possible in late adolescence or early adulthood. [B]ut greater stability sets in at some early point, and attitudes tend to be increasingly persistent as people age.”

The distinct political identities of Millennials and Generation Z are being formed and solidified in the Trump era. That doesn’t bode well for the future of the Republican Party.

CEO promises to eliminate 'toxic behaviours' at Ubisoft
THEY NEVER MENTION BEING A CAPITALIST 
AS A TOXIC BEHAVIOUR

Ubisoft pledged to take 'appropriate action' after investigations into the allegations are completed

The head of Ubisoft has promised a "structural shift" to eliminate toxic behaviour following allegations of sexual assault and harassment by managers at the French video game publisher.

Ubisoft, whose games portfolio includes Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's, Far Cry and Watch Dogs, and is one of the world's top gaming companies, apologised last week and launched an investigation after the claims were made on social media.

In a letter to employees on Thursday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is "not looking for a quick fix, but rather a structural shift at Ubisoft that fully aligns with our values -– values that do not tolerate toxic behaviours and where everyone feels safe to speak out."

Guillemot acknowledged that employees were eager for the probes to wrap up, but said it was important they are conducted with rigour.

"When they are concluded, all appropriate actions will be taken," he said.

Ubisoft representatives were unable to say Thursday if anyone had been suspended pending the outcome of the investigations.

The French firm which counts 18,000 employees worldwide will also conduct a survey and employee listening sessions. A senior manager has been appointed to examine the company's workplace culture.

Ubisoft is the latest player in the gaming industry to be the target of such accusations, after staff and former staff in other companies took to social media recently to denounce predatory behaviour by powerful managers.

Incidents alleged on Twitter include a Ubisoft creative director licking the face of a female co-worker during an office party, and a manager demanding oral sex from a colleague.

"I am a former employee and they swept every claim of sexual harassment under the rug," read one tweet.

Guillemot acknowledged "the situations that some of you have experienced or witnessed are absolutely not acceptable."


Explore furtherChina's Tencent to take stake in Ubisoft games maker

© 2020 AFP
Citation: CEO promises to eliminate 'toxic behaviours' at Ubisoft (2020, July 3) retrieved 4 July 2020 from https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-ceo-toxic-behaviours-ubisoft.html

Why it’s so damn hot in the Arctic right now

Siberia’s triple-digit heat wave and wildfires are a glimpse into the future of the Arctic.

By Umair Irfan Updated Jul 1, 2020, 3:42pm EDT

A firefighter in Siberia on June 2 monitors a controlled burn to reduce the threat from wildfires. Amid record heat, the region is bracing for more blazes. Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS via Getty Images

The Arctic is continuing to swelter in a heat wave, as temperatures around the Arctic Ocean this week top 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

Extremely hot again on the fringe of the Arctic Ocean.

An astonishing + 34 °C has just been recorded at a latitude of 73 °N today in Russia. This is about + 20-25 °C warmer than normal.

Note how much open water there is compared to normal. Sea ice is taking a hit. pic.twitter.com/y0w5PLjkHx— Scott From Scotland (@ScottDuncanWX) June 30, 2020

The recent heat follows an even more stunning data point: Last month, Verkhoyansk, Russia, hit a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Researchers are still working to confirm the result, which may be recognized as a record high for the Arctic Circle. This is a town that holds the record for the coldest temperature above the Arctic Circle, -90 degrees Fahrenheit in 1892.

“That is a fantastical degree,” said Roman Vilfand, head of Russia’s weather service, during a press conference this week.

And the small Siberian town isn’t alone. Much of Russia has been facing a heat wave in recent weeks, with multiple locations reporting temperatures as high as 113 degrees on June 19. The surprising warmth was also felt in other parts of the Arctic like northern Canada and Scandinavia.

It’s part of a pattern of soaring temperatures this year in what are ordinarily some of the chilliest parts of the planet. The current searing weather of the region stands to have global consequences and foreshadows the future of the Arctic, and the planet, as the climate changes.

Russia is emerging from its hottest winter on record, and since the beginning of the year, temperatures have averaged 12.4 degrees Fahrenheit above what’s typical in Siberia.

And this polar heat has led to a string of woes for the region, from a major oil spill stemming from thawing permafrost to early wildfires north of the Arctic circle in Russia and Alaska.

Several key factors aligned in recent months to heat up the Arctic. And they’re building on top of long-term warming trends. That means more of this kind of heat is likely in the future, and so are thawing, fires, and climate disruption.
Why parts of the Arctic are searingly hot right now

The term “heat wave” is a relative measure. What temperatures count as a heat wave differ depending on the regional climate. It’s usually defined as temperatures above the 95th percentile of the historical distribution for a region.

So the bar for a heat wave in the Arctic is considerably lower than in lower latitudes. But the recent temperatures in the far north would be sweltering just about anywhere.

A heat wave begins with high atmospheric pressure building up over an area. A downward-moving air column compresses the air that’s closer to the ground, holding it still and heating it up. That high pressure also forces clouds away and around the column, creating an unobstructed line of light between the ground and the sun.

Over a period of days and weeks, the ground absorbs sunlight, and with stagnant air, heat accumulates and temperatures rise. “There’s nothing coming in and nothing going out,” explained Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. “It’s kind of like an oven basically.”

That’s the general formula for heat waves around the world. But there are also several unique ingredients contributing to the Arctic one.

In northern latitudes during the summer, there is near-continuous sunlight — even at night. That allows heat to accumulate faster than in areas that experience sunsets and can cool off in the evening.

Number of wildfires in the Arctic part of Yakutia continues to rise, with towns as high north as Chersky and Srednekolymsk reporting fires getting really close and threatening power lines #wildfires2020 #wildfires2020Siberia pic.twitter.com/cJtVbxrKox— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) June 23, 2020

Another factor this year was the lack of snow. With an unusually warm winter, less snow built up across parts of the Arctic, and with a warm spring, much of it melted away sooner than usual. “The snow is very reflective of the sunlight,” said Meier. “This year, the snow went away earlier, so then you have the bare ground that can absorb more solar energy.”

The warmer ground also dries out in the heat. With less moisture, there is less evaporation that can cool the surrounding air. “The drier ground and the air over the top of it makes it more susceptible to rapid warming when you have the right conditions like we’re seeing now,” Meier said.
The Arctic heat wave highlights the impacts that lie ahead from climate change

For Siberia’s heat wave, past may be prologue. Last year, amid temperatures that were 14 degrees Fahrenheit above the long-term average for the region, forest fires burned over a near-record area, sending choking smoke into cities like Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city. The plumes even reached the western United States.

Siberia also saw massive fires in 2018, 2017, and 2016. Forest fires naturally occur in Siberia and can occasionally spark north of the Arctic circle, often ignited by lightning in dry forests in summer months. But the blazes in recent years were unusually large and close to population centers. The fires burning in the region now could continue to spread as the summer season warms the region further.

One of the overarching trends behind the heat wave and the wildfires is climate change. Earth as a whole is warming up due to human emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. But every place isn’t warming up at the same rate; the Arctic is warming at double the rate of the rest of the planet, which is why some of the earliest effects of climate change are felt in the region. The north pole also presents a window into the future for the rest of the world.Workers in Norilsk, Russia, clean up an oil spill caused in part by thawing permafrost. Denis Kozhevnikov/TASS via Getty Images

Those higher average temperatures mean extreme heat will become even more likely and more intense, exacerbating threats like forest fires as vegetation dries out. “The wildfires definitely come from the extreme heat and the dryness,” Meier said.

The loss of these ancient, slow-growing forests will release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that will take decades to reabsorb, further warming the planet. Warming in the Arctic is also thawing permafrost, which releases even more carbon into the atmosphere.

And while it’s summer in the Arctic right now, the region has also experienced heat waves in the winter. In fact, researchers have found that in general, winters are warming faster than summers. That’s part of the reason why the Arctic is now losing sea ice at its fastest rate in 1,500 years. 

 

Christina Animashaun/Vox

Antarctica is also warming up. Earlier this year, the continent broke two high-temperature records within a week.

With average temperatures poised to rise further, more heat, thawing, melting, and fire lie ahead for the Arctic. “This year it’s in Siberia. Next year it might be in Alaska or northern Canada or it might be in Scandinavia,” Meier said. “On average, what we consider to be extreme events are going to become more and more normal.”

Human-induced climate change reversed 6,500-year global cooling trend

By Michael Irving July 01, 2020  ENVIRONMENT


A new study spanning 12,000 years shows that human-induced climate change has disrupted a long-term global cooling trend
auntspray/Depositphotos

What would Earth’s climate naturally be doing if it weren’t for human intervention? Researchers at Northern Arizona University have now analyzed over 12,000 years of climate data, and found that human-induced warming interrupted and reversed a long-term natural global cooling period.

It’s no secret that the Earth is heating up at an incredible speed, with recent months, years and decades all breaking temperature records. But this data only goes back to the 1880s, when observations began being routinely recorded. So how does the current trend compare in the longer term?

To find out, researchers have been compiling data from various sources that stretch back many millennia. A few months ago, a team of 93 scientists published a particularly comprehensive record of paleoclimate data, spanning the past 12,000 years. It includes 1,319 data records from samples like lake deposits, marine sediments, peat, cave deposits, coral, and glacier ice cores, collected from 679 sites around the world.

From that, the researchers were able to chart changes in the surface air temperature over the last 12,000 years – a time when the world was coming out of the last Ice Age. This was then compared to the average for the century between 1800 and 1900, to track how the Industrial Revolution might have changed things.


A chart demonstrating temperature changes over the past 12,000 years, relative to the 19th century average Victor O. Leshyk, Northern Arizona University
CLICK TO ENLARGE

IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER IS THE TIME LINE IT SHOWS THAT AT THE BEGINNING OF CAPITALIST INDUSTRIALISM AND IMPERIALISM, 1700 REMAINS
PART OF THE COOLING PERIOD, IT IS NOT UNTIL AFTER WWII 1950 THAT CAPITALISM BECOMES LATE CAPITALISM, MASS INDUSTRIALIZATION BEYOND EVEN WWII THOUGH BEGUN THEN. IT IS NOW IN ITS ETERNAL CONTRADICTION NOT OF BOOM OR BUST BUT OF CAPITALISM IN CRISIS DESTROYING OUR PLANET TEMPORARILY IT WILL RECOVER BUT WE WON'T 
NOR WILL THE 1500 SURVIVING BILLIONAIRES SAFELY ENSCONCED IN THEIR SECRET HIDEAWAYS (IN NEW ZEALAND)ALL IS NOT LOST THOUGH THE TECHNOLOGY AND THE PANDEMIC HAVE SHOWN US THAT SOCIALISM, WORKS BETTER THAN CAPITALISM (AMERICA), AND THAT THE TECHNOLOGY CAN BE APPLIED TO CHANGE DIRECTION FROM ENDLESS ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL 
TO ITS APPLICATION TO DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF ALL INCLUDING OUR HOME PLANET.


As expected, at the beginning of that period temperatures were much colder than the 19th century baseline. But they steadily warmed up over the next several millennia, eventually surpassing the baseline. Temperatures peaked around 6,500 years ago, and since then the planet has been slowly but surely cooling down.

“The rate of cooling that followed the peak warmth was subtle, only around 0.1 °C (0.2 °F) per 1,000 years,” says Michael Erb, co-author of the study. “This cooling seems to be driven by slow cycles in the Earth’s orbit, which reduced the amount of summer sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, culminating in the ‘Little Ice Age’ of recent centuries.”

Of course, the world is no longer cooling – human activity saw to that. Instead, we’ve raised average temperatures by as much as 1 °C (1.8 ° F) since the mid-19th century. That’s a huge spike in a relatively short time, rising even higher than that peak 6,500 years ago.

“It’s possible that the last time the sustained average global temperature was 1°C above the 19th century was prior to the last Ice Age, back around 125,000 years ago when sea level was around 20 feet higher than today,” says Darrell Kaufman, lead author of the study.

Although we’re heading into largely uncharted territory, in terms of climate change, investigating these historic patterns can help us better understand what might lie ahead, under different scenarios.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Data.

Source: Northern Arizona University

Statue of British coloniser Francis Light splashed with red paint by Penang vandals, police investigating possible BLM motive

Friday, 03 Jul 2020
BY TAN MEI ZI
 

Police are still investigating the case under Section 427 of the Penal Code for committing mischief. — Picture from Twitter/AntifaM3

PETALING JAYA, July 3 — Penang police are considering anti-colonialist and anti-slavery sentiments as possible motives for vandals who defaced a statue of British coloniser Francis Light.

George Town OCPD assistant commissioner Soffian Santong issued a media statement today saying that the statue was found splashed with red paint on the morning of June 30 by Fort Cornwallis’ operations manager, who lodged a police report yesterday.

The case is currently being investigated under Section 427 of the Penal Code for committing mischief.

Soffian also confirmed that the operations manager was not in debt to unlicensed money lenders or “Ah Longs,” who are known to use red paint as a warning to those who failed to pay up in time.

The police are looking into the possibility that the vandals were inspired by Black Lives Matter activists in the United States and Europe who tore down monuments of slave owners and white supremacists after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man who died at the hands of a white police officer in May.

The Penang vandals could face a jail term between one and five years, a fine, or both if found guilty.

The issue became a hot topic on Twitter on July 1 after user @AntifaM3 tweeted out images of Light’s defaced statue.

“Finally in 2020, the statue of a coloniser and slave owner named Francis Light in Penang, Malaysia meets the same fate as other statues around the world,” the user wrote.

Akhirnya pada tahun 2020, tugu penjajah dan pemilik hamba bernama Francis Light di Pulau Pinang, Malaysia menemui nasib yang sama dengan tugu-tugu lain seumpamanya di seluruh dunia. pic.twitter.com/vRkleKpLI5— AntifaM (@AntifaM3) July 1, 2020

A post on The Thrifty Traveller blog shows a transcript of Light’s will at the Penang state museum, which states that he did own slaves and bequeathed them to his partner Martina Rozells.

“I leave all my Caffree slaves the following choice, either to remain with Martina during her life she being willing to maintain them or each man to pay her 50 dollars and be free,” Light wrote in the document.

Light is best known for founding the British colony of Penang in 1786 and was a prominent representative of the British East India Company.

His acquisition of Penang from Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah allowed the British to expand rapidly into the Malay states and accelerate British colonisation in Southeast Asia as a whole.

Light’s statue in Fort Cornwallis was first erected in 1936 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of George Town.
The Star wrote that the monument has been cleaned since the vandalism incident but remnants of red paint remain visible.

Trump campaign spokesperson pushes Mt. Rushmore meme that adds president to monument

July 3, 2020 By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Would adding President Donald Trump to the famous Mt. Rushmore monument to four of America’s greatest president’s make it better?

A spokesperson and Trump re-election campaign “Rapid Response” official seems to think so.

Just hours before President Trump is set to travel to South Dakota’s famous 60-foot tall 80-year old carving, Abigail Marone posted a widely-circulated meme of the 45th President’s image, not only added to Mt. Rushmore, but in front of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.


Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.



Washington Post national political reporter Michael Scherer says “Democrats think the continued ego gratification of Trump is one of the best things they have going for them.”

This is being pushed out by Trump advisers today. Democrats think the continued ego gratification of Trump is one of the best things they have going for them. My story on how “I alone can fix it” no longer means the same thing amid Covid with @ToluseO https://t.co/7PXDhykK4e https://t.co/0e7SDO3f8M
— michaelscherer (@michaelscherer) July 3, 2020

I PREFER MY MEME THANKS


The President traveling to South Dakota for a fireworks show he forced to have happen despite experts warning about the pollution of local drinking water and possible wildfires it could cause is one more addition to the long list of Trump ego gratification items.


Meanwhile, this Twitter user offered up an appropriate (fact check: true) response.
Since the sculptor who created Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, was a member of the KKK and avowed anti-Semite, you’re more accurate than you dreamed. https://t.co/XkFb586d8V
— George Kaplan (@GeorgeKaplan8) July 3, 2020

AND EVERY PRESIDENT REPRESENTED WAS AN INDIAN KILLER

 SO HERE IS WHO MOUNT RUSHMORE REALLY REPRESENTS AS A SACRED SITE

WASHINGTON / JEFFERSON AS REVOLUTIONARIES AND THEN LATER AS AMERICAN ATTEMPTS TO INVADE CANADA  USED FRENCH HURON MERCENARIES AGAINST BRITISH ALLIES THE MOHAWK, AFTER THE REVOLUTION THE MOHAWK OF LOWER  CANADA AND NY WIPED OUT THE HURON OF QUEBEC.THE MOHAWK CONTINUED TO FIGHT FOR CANADA AGAINST AMERICAN INVASIONS.

THE WEEK THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION BY LINCOLN WAS MADE HE ALSO HAD DOZENS OF INDIAN'S WHO HAD REVOLTED AGAINST THEIR RESERVATIONS,

HUNG.

ROOSEVELT FOUGHT IMPERIALIST WARS AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES INCLUDING IN AMERICA WHEN HE DECLARED THEIR LANDS TO BE OWNED 

BY THE ARYAN CLASS OF AMERICA, WHITE PEOPLE AND MADE THEM NATIONAL PARKS