Join us here at 6 PM PT to discuss tonight’s 11th Republican debate (if you can stand it). |
• Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is What Donald Trump finds out when he researches the KKK:
• Delmar Berg, last known American who fought Spanish fascists in 1930s has died, age 100: He joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of 2,800 Americans who fought for the elected republican government of Spain after the fascists led by Francisco Franco initiated a rebellion. The U.S. was officially neutral in the fight, refusing to arm the beleaguered Spanish government, but Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union supplied weapons to opposing sides. Franco’s forces eventually won and the dictator ruled Spain until his death in 1975. Berg, who was wounded in Spain, served in the U.S. military twice, in the National Guard before going to Spain and in the East Indies during World War II. He was a lifelong communist and political activist. In Modesto, where he was born, he was the only white member of the NAACP and worked on housing discrimination and other racial justice issues. In the 1980s, he opposed U.S. policy in Central America and was active in opposition to nuclear weapons.
• Retirement report shows giant race-based gap: The report, put together by the Economics Policy Institute, and punctuated by extensive charts and graphs, found numerous inequalities. Among them is the fact that most African Americans and Latinos have no retirement savings:
The shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans has exacerbated racial and ethnic disparities. Black workers’ participation in employer-based retirement plans used to be similar to that of white workers, but black workers began lagging behind white workers in the 401(k) era, while Hispanic workers fell even further behind (Morrissey 2016; Morrissey and Sabadish 2013). Only 41 percent of black families and 26 percent of Hispanic families had retirement account savings in 2013, compared with 65 percent of white non-Hispanic families [...] Even among families nearing retirement (age 56–61), the majority of black and Hispanic families have no retirement account savings [...] Racial and ethnic gaps in retirement account balances are even larger than participation gaps—and growing. For families with retirement account savings, the median amount is $22,000 for black and Hispanic families, compared with $73,000 for white non-Hispanic familiesa.
• Off-shore U.S. wind farms may finally be headed for reality. Attendees at an industry conference this week in Boston were upbeat:
"There's a palpable sense that it's finally happening," said Bryan Martin, a managing director at D.E. Shaw & Co. That New York hedge fund is the principal backer of Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island-based company looking to launch the country's first offshore wind farm off Block Island by the end of the year. "The U.S. tends to start small and ramp up very fast. I believe that will happen with offshore wind." [...]
"To have steel in the water and to be talking about an existing domestic offshore wind industry is really critical," says Nancy Sopko of the American Wind Energy Association, referring to Deepwater Wind's Rhode Island project. "We're talking about an industry that is here, not one that is coming."
• Missouri Democrat introduces legislation that would allow St. Louis to secede and become its own state: Democratic Rep. Mike Colona has introduced two bills in the Missouri General Assembly that would let state citizens decide whether St. Louis could legally secede and urging Congress to pass a bill making the city and Missouri two separate states. The bills have zero chance of passing the assembly, according to the Kansas City Star. But, thinking out loud now, if the nation’s 100 largest cities, most of them heavily Democratic, seceded and became their own states, a new 300-member Senate would be run by Democrats deep into the 21st Century.
• Lancet report says climate change could kill half a million adults annually by cutting the supply of fruits and vegetables: Three out of four of those deaths would occur in India and China, according to the report written by population health researcher Marco Springmann and colleagues at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. The research estimated the possible number of extra deaths in 155 countries.
• Goldman Prize-winner Berta Cáceres murdered in her Honduran home: The renowned activist for indigenous and environmental rights was killed by gunmen who entered her home early Thursday morning. The murder occurred just a week after the co-founder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras had been threatened over her opposition to a major, internationally financed hydroelectric project. Police said the slaying occurred during a robbery, but members of Cáceres family said they are convinced it was the consequence of her opposition to the dam, illegal logging and human rights violations by plantation owners. She had been previously threatened with rape and murder for her activism. Honduras is a hotbed for murders of activists. A study last year showed that between 2010 and 2014, 101 campaigners were killed in Honduras. When adjusted for population, that’s a higher death toll than any other country, according to the study How Many More? by NGO Global Witness. The study showed a disproportionately high number of these killings were of activists from indigenous communities.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin reported the shift in direction to a new Stop Trump tack that won’t work. Exactly who would fight, and how, if Trump got bumped? Secret Trump supporters speak out. How to get Republicans angry that the feds won’t register & track guns.
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