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If We Bring The Good Life To All, Will We Destroy The Planet?

Nurith Aizenman NPR
rice harvesting outside Hanoi, VN
Only one country comes even close to delivering the good life in a sustainable way: Vietnam succeeds on six social indicators — including a life expectancy above 65 years and providing sufficient nutrition — while staying within its limit on every environmental threshold except carbon emissions.

Newly Released Documents Show Dakota Access Pipeline Is Discriminatory Against Indigenous People

Ardalan Raghian Truthout
Native American mother and child protesting
Records obtained through a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal that the United States Army Corps of Engineers inappropriately attempted to guide the companies funding DAPL toward providing an environmental justice analysis of the pipeline that would conclude that there was no disproportionate impact on a racial minority. Internal Corps email excerpts -- received through discovery by Earthjustice -- show the decision makers behind the pipeline wearing lenses fogged with racism.

Court: ICE and L.A. Sheriff Unlawfully Detain Thousands of Suspected Immigrants

ACLU Southern California ACLU Southern California
immigrant rights protest balloons
On Thursday, a federal court in California ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) unlawfully detained thousands of suspected immigrants on the basis of unconstitutional requests from ICE known as immigration detainers. “The court’s decision vindicates years of work by the Los Angeles immigrant community to challenge the Sheriff Department’s abuses and throws a major wrench in the Trump administration’s deportation machine,” said Jessica Bansal, litigation director of NDLON.

Defending Afrin

Rosa Burç Kerem Schamberger Jacobin
Turkey's war on Afrin is an attack not only on Kurdish self-determination, but on democracy and women's liberation in the Middle East.

Will We Ever Have as Much Money $$$$ as the Koch Brothers?

Bill Fletcher, Jr BillFletcherJr.com
Once you remember that every struggle waged by the oppressed against the oppressor class and their allies is asymmetric, it is possible to construct a strategy that holds the potential to win.  When you assume that you are fighting the oppressor on, more or less, equal terms, you are guaranteeing your own defeat.

Celebrating Women in Science

Science
Sunday, 11 February, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To mark the day female scientists from around the world were asked to reflect on their experiences and offer their advice.

Extreme Poverty in the US Is A Political Choice of the Powerful

Kenneth Surin CounterPunch
A homeless child in Bend, OR.
Following his US fact-finding mission, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights concluded extreme poverty in the US “is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.”