09 August 20
We Are Going to Fight for Funding Now
We cannot ignore the need for basic funding. RSN is 100% Reader Supported - there are no other sources. When donations are insufficient bad things happen quickly.
The time has come to fight for funding the same way we fight all our other battles.
Glad you’re here. Give us a hand.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
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08 August 20
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News
Garrison Keillor | Gradually a Man Comes to Accept His Limitations Probably
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "I ordered a nice office chair online last week because I'm a writer - this is me, writing this - and I've written a truckload of stuff on an assortment of cranky kitchen chairs, some designed by federal agents to torture confessions out of suspects."
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Bernie Sanders. (photo: Antonella Crescimbeni)
After Elon Musk Criticized Bernie Sanders' Brand of Socialism, Sanders Took Him to Task for Taking Billions of Dollars in Government Support
Troy Wolverton, Business Insider
Wolverton writes: "Bernie Sanders showed Friday he isn't afraid to call out hypocrisy - particularly when it comes from someone like Tesla CEO Elon Musk."
Musk on Friday tweeted out a meme critical of Sanders and his brand of socialism. The tweet was in response to an article about a bill Sanders introduced Thursday that would place a 60% tax on the wealth gained by billionaires such as Musk during the coronavirus pandemic. The meme, dubbed the "Official Bernie Sanders drinking game!" showed a picture of Sanders along with the text: "Every time the Bernster mentions a free government program, chug somebody else's beer."
Sanders, who's no neophyte when it comes to defending his leftist views and programs, wasn't about to back down from such criticism. In a tweeted response, he called out Musk for benefiting to the tune of billions of dollars from government subsidies and linked to an article from The Los Angeles Times that detailed the assistance Musk and his companies have received.
"Every time Elon Musk pokes fun at government assistance for the 99%, remember that he would be worth nothing without $4.9 billion in corporate welfare," Sanders wrote. "Oh, Elon just l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else."
According to The Los Angeles Times article, Musk and his companies — Tesla, SolarCity, which is now owned by Tesla, and SpaceX — had received an estimated $4.9 billion in government support through May 2015. That assistance came in a variety of forms, including grants, tax breaks, subsidies for construction, environmental credits, and discounted loans.
The amount of that assistance has only gone up since then. For example, Tesla garnered $428 million from selling regulatory credits in its most recent quarter. The company receives those credits from California for selling electric cars and sells them to other automakers who don't sell enough to meet the state's requirements.
Sanders' bill would raise billions from billionaires
Sanders' bill was cosponsored by senators Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY. The bill would tax any wealth gained by any of the 467 billionaires in the US between March 18 and January 1 of next year and use the amount raised from the tax to pay for the out-of-pocket health expenses of every American for a year.
Millions of US residents have lost their health coverage during the pandemic after losing their jobs. Even those with insurance have sometimes faced steep bills after contracting the coronavirus.
The co-sponsors estimated that those billionaires had seen their wealth increase by $731.8 billion between March 18 and Aug. 5. Musk, according to a fact sheet from them, had seen his own wealth go from $24.6 billion to $70.5 billion. He would face a tax bill of $27.5 billion under the measure
Much of the wealth gains cited by the bill's sponsors are a result of soaring prices. In order to pay such tax bills, the billionaires would almost certainly have to sell large numbers of shares which could undermine their companies' stock prices — and their wealth.
Activists and relatives of Andres Guardado, who was shot and killed by an LA County sheriff's deputy in Gardena, called for justice last month. An independent autopsy has found Guardado was shot five times in the back. (photo: David McNew/AFP/Getty Images)
18-Year-Old Andres Guardado Shot 5 Times in the Back by LA Police
Laurel Wamsley, NPR
Wamsley writes: "Andres Guardado was killed on June 18 after multiple shots were fired by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy."
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A parking lot turned shelter in Las Vegas. (photo: ANSA)
America Could Have 'Great Depression' Levels of Homelessness by Year's End
Emma Ockerman, VICE
Ockerman writes: "As many as 40 million Americans could face eviction by the end of the year if the federal government doesn't come up with significant financial assistance and tenant protections, according to research published Friday."
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During the next two months, vaccine makers hope to recruit 60,000 Americans to roll up their sleeves to test two vaccines. (photo: Thana Prasongsin/Getty Images)
Thousands Volunteer for COVID-19 Vaccine Study
Phil Galewitz and JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News
Excerpt: "Dr. Eric Coe jumped at the chance to help test a COVID-19 vaccine. At his urging, so did his girlfriend, his son and his daughter-in-law. All received shots last week at a clinical research site in central Florida."
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Venezuela's Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab. (photo: Manaure Quintero/Reuters)
Venezuela Sentences US Mercenaries to 20 Years in Prison
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab Friday reported that the two former U.S. military officers Luke Denmnan and Airan Berry, who participated in the failed invasion attempt in Venezuela, were sentenced to 20 years in prison."
Denmnan and Berry tried to force their way into Venezuela along with 50 other citizens of the Caribbean country to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro's government.
"The U.S. former military officers confessed to the crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking of war weapons and terrorism," Saab tweeted.
These crimes appear in Venezuela's Penal Code, and for them, the mercenaries were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
"The former U.S. soldiers, who admitted their responsibility in the events, were accused by the prosecutors in the case of serious crimes," Saab explained.
The U.S. Silvercorp former members were detained in the second attempt of an attack against the Venezuelan coast.
At least eight people died and half a hundred more were arrested during the search and capture of the mercenaries.
Last May, Venezuela's justice system ordered preventive detention for 40 people due to their involvement in the failed invasion attempt.
A jaguar. (photo: Steve Winter/National Geographic)
Indigenous Forest Defenders Turn to High-Tech Tools to Protect Amazon and Its Iconic Jaguar
Louise Boyle, The Independent
Boyle writes: "In a remote corner of Brazil's Amazon, the dense rainforest territory of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau tribe appears in stark contrast to the parched and barren surrounding lands."
The indigenous community of around 300 people, along with hundreds of others spread across the continent, are the main defenders of such biodiversity hotspots which are being razed for farming, cattle ranching, logging and mining at alarming rates.
Along with the risk to their ways of life, rampant deforestation erases the rainforest as a critical carbon-absorber in fighting the the climate crisis, along with threatening complex ecosystems of which the jaguar is the culturally revered, apex predator.
Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau, 20, coordinator of the Association of the Indigenous People Uru-eu-wau-wau told The Independent: “When they kill a jaguar it is the same as they will do with indigenous people in the future. Killing the jaguar, they also kill us like deforestation, mining, intoxication.
“It gives me deep sadness to receive the news that a jaguar has been killed. We don't kill the jaguar. When we see the jaguar in his habitat it is a beautiful thing to see, we just admire the presence.”
A conservation crisis is brewing across Central and South America, home to around 40 per cent of the world’s plant and animal species. The illegal wildlife trade is an emerging threat on a continent that has historically lacked the large-scale conservation efforts of Africa and Asia.
Jaguars teetered on the verge of extinction in the mid-20th century after being hunted prolifically for their skins until, in 1975, international trade in the species was banned.
The threat is once again on the rise. Populations have declined by around a quarter in three generations and have been wiped out across almost 50 percent of their historic range.
Our Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign, launched by The Independent's largest shareholder Evgeny Lebedev, is calling for an international effort to clamp down on the illegal trade of wild animals, which remains one of the greatest threats to future biodiversity.
An estimated 130,000 jaguars are left in the wild, where the solitary cats roam alone across 18 range countries, largely in the Amazon basin.
The species are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss from accelerating deforestation and wildfires set by illegal land-grabbers to expand farming, logging and mining.
Following last year’s record deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon, last month was the worst June for blazes in 13 years.
Slashing and burning through the rainforest is a twin threat to jaguars: Both destroying their habitat and providing easier access to trophy hunters, criminal trafficking gangs and opportunistic poachers.
The chopping up of “forest corridors” leave jaguars particularly vulnerable. The solitary cats require expansive areas of land in which to roam, with males often travelling hundreds of miles to find a mate.
Trapping jaguars in isolated pockets of shrinking forest reduces their ability to hunt, reproduce and remain genetically diverse.
Karina Berg, regional manager of Latin America conservation at WWF UK told The Independent: “The extent of the trade in jaguar parts is still emerging but there are indications poaching is on the increase, particularly in the Amazon.
“As the rainforest is destroyed for road building, mining, illegal logging or land grabbing, humans encroach deeper into the jaguar’s habitat, exposing it to hunting and bringing it into conflict with communities.
“Protecting the forest is key to securing the jaguar’s future, which means connecting jaguar habitats and establishing wildlife corridors to allow them the space they need to thrive.”
Indigenous communities are increasingly turning to modern technology to better protect their forest homes.
Aerial drones prove a meaningful solution for monitoring the vast and difficult terrain, and are already being deployed by indigenous communities in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru as the tech becomes more affordable and ranges improve.
The Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe live on territory of more than 1.8million hectares along with a number of other indigenous communities, including three uncontacted tribes.
The highly diverse ecosystem is critical habitat not just for jaguars but squirrel monkeys, tapirs and harpy eagles, and is known as the “state water tank” as the source of twelve river systems.
The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau tribe’s first contact with the outside world began three decades ago and since then, they have slowly integrated aspects to modern technology into their lives.
One of their nine villages has a temperamental Wifi connection, while four villages are hooked up to grid electricity.
The drones were funded by supporters of WWF UK, while WWF-Brazil and Kaninde Association of Ethno-Environmental Protection, a local non-profit which works with a number of indigenous communities, trained younger members of the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe in how to fly them.
Kaninde also built out the tribe’s high-tech observation kit with a laptop, HD camera, waterproof camera, walkie-talkies and a GPS device.
“Arrival of technology, such as drones, helps people to monitor an area that we did not know was being deforested. It helped to discover deforested areas and we will check in the field. It also helps to have the real dimension of the invasion and destruction that is being practised within the indigenous territories,” Bitaté said.
The equipment allows the tribes to detect and report illegal land grabbing, without putting themselves in harm’s way of the armed gangs involved in the land grabbing and poaching.
Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has weakened environmental protections and espoused anti-indigenous rhetoric while effectively encouraging loggers and miners onto protected lands.
The drones have already proved valuable. In January, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau drone operators discovered almost 500 acres being deforested on their reserve, Reuters reported.
In total, 15 indigenous territories across 7 states have been provided with drones and training and firefighting equipment and training.
Drone images can be submitted in court as evidence of illegal activity and as internet connectivity grows in remote regions, there will be greater possibility to alert authorities more quickly.
But to upload the images requires a long drive to the nearest town, where tribal members pay for wifi out of their own pocket.
Bitaté says that the fates of indigenous peoples are inextricably intertwined with the survival of the rainforest and jaguars.
“One cannot live without the other,” he said. “The jaguar is the main feline that lives within the indigenous territory and is a good symbol. Where there is a jaguar there is an abundance of food within the territory. There is plenty of food for us and for them, which also feeds on pigs and other animals.
“But, in recent years, invasions are more intense and constant, threatening our lives and everything that lives inside the territory. I ask people to see our side and help us to take out the invaders.”
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