Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Who’s on whose side?
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- A tribute to Ethel Payne and the history of the black press, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Ten things we could buy with $25 billion (other than a wall), by David Akadjian
- Trump says his tax plan is ‘going to cost me a fortune.’ He’s lying, by Jon Perr
- This is what Democratic enthusiasm looks like, by Sher Watts Spooner
- Circling the drain of the opioid addiction epidemic, by Susan Grigsby
- DOJ proves once again that American police can be biased, bigoted and dangerous, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Right-wing identity politics: Rush says Hillary likes Muslims (them) better than gun lovers (you), by Ian Reifowitz
- It’s time for progressives to win the Democratic narrative, by Egberto Willies
- Retracing Cold War memories: Part Seven, Schloss Neuschwanstein, and Rothenburg ob der tauber, by Mark E Andersen
• It’s World Elephant Day:
Things have improved since the dark days of 2011 and 2012 when ivory poaching across Africa appeared to be spiralling out of control and conservations began to contemplate the unthinkable: the extinction of the African elephant. On World Elephant Day 2016 there are grounds for cautious optimism.
In 2016, the mean estimate of the Proportion of Illegally Killed Elephants (PIKE) dropped below 5 percent for first time since 2009, according to a report prepared for the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of CITES to be held in Johannesburg in September. PIKE is a key measure of poaching pressure and the 5 percent level is significant as this is considered to be the normal growth rate of elephant populations. So PIKE levels above 5 percent mean that elephant populations are likely to be declining; levels below 5 percent imply the possibility of recovery.
• A police killing few noticed:
The life and death of Luis Góngora occurred at the intersection of twin crises: homelessness and police killings. Amid a tech-fueled economic boom, the major cities of the US west coast have become as notable for their sprawling homeless encampments as they are for their billion-dollar companies.
• Orcas studied because only they and humans undergo menopause:
What many camera-clasping visitors want most is a glimpse of Granny — the oldest known living killer whale. Her age is an estimate, based on the age of her offspring when she and her pod were first studied in the early 1970s. She is at least 80, scientists say, and could be as old as 105.
I am here with a team of biologists who have a particular interest in her. They want to understand why J2, and the other females of this population, stop having babies in their 30s or 40s, even though they live so much longer. Biologists call it post-reproductive lifespan. We call it menopause.
• Advisory panel of scientists say EPA study claiming fracking does not taint drinking water needs revising.
• Simone Manuel claims gold medal for 100-meter swimming event and makes note of police violence:
Manuel said that her victory was extra special in the context of ongoing race issues in the U.S.
“It means a lot, especially with what is going on in the world today, some of the issues of police brutality,” Manuel said. “This win hopefully brings hope and change to some of the issues that are going on. My color just comes with the territory.”
• It's Friday, August 12, and Day 181 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 144 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy. McConnell’s last remark on the matter? "One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'"
• $16 million awarded to woman in lawsuit because this (and more) happened:
Then, suddenly, I felt a big contraction coming on and I jumped onto my hands and knees, and told them that I couldn't be on my back. My water broke and the baby's head started crowning.
The nurse told me to get on my back. I stayed on my hands and knees and breathed, trying to relax, as that is what came naturally to me. But the nurse pulled my wrist out from under me and flipped me over on to my back! Then another nurse held my baby's head into my vagina to prevent him from being delivered. The nurses were holding me down, and I was struggling — really struggling. I grabbed the side of the bed, and at one point, I even put my foot up against the nurse's shoulder and face to try and get leverage to flip back over, but was unsuccessful.
• Fiji erupts into celebration after its rugby sevens team wins Olympic gold:
The win was rare good news for this impoverished South Pacific nation of 900,000, which is still recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Winston in February when 43 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless. “I think the whole country has gone crazy,” said Maikele Seru, deputy sports editor of the Fiji Times, speaking from his office five minutes’ walk from the centre of town.
• Colorado Planned Parenthood slayer again deemed incompetent to stand trial.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, we evaluate Trump’s comedy/gaslighting of America. Greg Dworkin continues to insist that Trump sucks at winning polls. Manuel proves Simones are killing it & scores a little history, too. NCEC says the House is in play. And a weekend Trumpster fire roundup.
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