RSN: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Retreating at a Much Higher Rate Than Previously Thought, Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gap Created by His Tax Cuts,

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A DISDAIN FOR CONTRIBUTION: We are still struggling with a readership that values what we do but is, on the whole, looking for any way to avoid contributing financially. No it's not the ten dollars a month. That is for most of our readers easily manageable. Donations will grudgingly be given if the situation appears dire, but only then and reluctantly so. Often with significant resentment. Our overall rate of participation in the funding drives remains illogically poor, based on the enthusiasm the readers show for the content and issues. People seem to accept paying for telecommunication services, internet services and cable entertainment services. Not yet for a news agency that serves the public good. The future of Reader Supported News depends on our ability to change that. We will try. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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Interview With Chelsea Manning | Why Speaking Out Is Worth the Risk

Amnesty International
Excerpt: "In an ideal world, governments, corporations, and other large institutions would be transparent by default. Unfortunately, the world is not ideal. Many institutions begin a slow creep toward being opaque and we need people who recognize that.'
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Treasury Fight Escalates: White House Won't Bow to Progressives on Weiss Nomination
Ben White, Politico
White writes: "Fresh from quelling the progressive uprising against the 'cromnibus' spending bill, the White House isn't backing down on its other major fight with Democratic progressives: the nomination of a Wall Street banker for a top Treasury job."
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Why Won't Barack Obama Prosecute CIA Torturers?
Raf Sanchez, The Telegraph
Sanchez writes: "The graphic and unsparing report released this week on the CIA's use of torture has prompted widespread calls for criminal charges to be brought against American spies involved in the agency's detention programme. But while the White House has said it condemns the use of so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' it is steadfastly refusing to prosecute those who ordered the torture or carried it out."
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David Sirota | Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gap Created by His Tax Cuts
David Sirota, International Business Times
Sirota writes: "In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a landmark bill that delivered big tax cuts to high income earners and businesses. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state's income tax revenues plummeted by a quarter-billion dollars - and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees' pensions to instead cover the state's ensuing budget shortfalls."
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Americans Are 40 Percent Poorer Than Before the Recession
Quentin Fottrell, MarketWatch
Fottrell writes: "The Great Recession is officially over, but Americans are still 40% poorer today than they were in 2007, the year before the global financial crisis."
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The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Retreating at a Much Higher Rate Than Previously Thought
Sarah Jane Keller, VICE News
Keller writes: "The world has a lot at stake in keeping the West Antarctic ice sheet from melting. Should the frozen expanse fully disintegrate, scientists say, it could raise global sea levels by an average of four feet, submerging coastal cities, like Miami, Florida."
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"...a person who gives a damn.”....New York, Sept. 20/21

From Bill McKibben:



Dear Friends,

 

Earlier this spring the chaplain at Harvard joined students sitting-in outside the Harvard president’s office to demand climate action. He took the bullhorn for a minute, and thanked the organizers for “giving me the chance to be the person who I purport to be—a person who gives a damn.”

 

We’re all going to get that chance Sept. 20 and 21, when the biggest demonstration in the history of the climate movement takes place in New York City. We need you there, you and everyone you can think of to bring. Here’s the somewhat more formal invitation that I wrote out, for the current issue of Rolling Stone. Please share it—it’s the most important call we’ll send you this year.

And if you're ready to say you'll be there, RSVP on Facebook.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has summoned the world’s leaders to the city in late September to consult about climate change. Because we think those leaders have done a lousy job, and because we’re tired of fancy words and ready for real action, we’re going to go to New York too, in our thousands and tens of thousands.

 

Marching doesn’t solve anything by itself. But movements can shift political power—in fact, little else ever does.

 

We need to show just how big and unified our movement has grown, from the environmental justice advocates fighting fossil fuel pollution in our communities to the students demanding divestment on our campuses, from the scientists who have seen their warnings so far ignored to the clergy now showing real moral leadership.

 

If you’re wondering how to react to the devastating news that the Antarctic is melting out of control: New York. If you’re scared like I am by the pictures of the fire and drought across the West: New York. If you’re feeling like it’s time to change the trajectory of this planet: we’ll see you in New York.

Sept. 20/21. Tell everyone.

  
Bill McKibben

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Read & Share Bill McKibben's Rolling Stone Article

RSN: Grey Wolf Appears in Iowa for First Time in 89 Years - And Is Shot Dead, Conservatives Praise Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt as Beautiful Expression of Free Market, et al

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YOU ARE EVEREST, I MUST CLIMB YOU: This mailing list has everything we need to fund the project a hundred times over, without straining anyone's budget in the slightest. We do not need people to donate more, we need more people to donate. I have failed. I am a bad fundraiser. This is on me. If I can find a way to bring this home to you we will be secure for a decade. This list and the people on it are our Everest. I must make it to the top. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Andy Borowitz | Conservatives Praise Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt as Beautiful Expression of Free Market

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "A delegation of conservative members of Congress paid a visit to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melt today to witness firsthand what one of them called 'the most beautiful expression of the free market I've ever seen.'"
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Ken Auletta | Why Jill Abramson Was Fired
Ken Auletta, The New Yorker
Auletta writes: "Abramson discovered that her pay and her pension benefits as both executive editor and, before that, as managing editor were considerably less than the pay and pension benefits of Bill Keller, the male editor whom she replaced in both jobs."
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Tom Hayden | Bernie Sanders Could Be the 2016 Democratic Candidate We've All Been Waiting For
Tom Hayden, The Nation
Hayden writes: "Nothing is decided until it is officially decided, of course, and pressures from the Democratic establishment are building quickly against the independent Vermont senator."
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Guardian Challenges Lethal Injection Secrecy in Landmark Missouri Lawsuit
Ed Pilkington, Jon Swaine, Guardian UK
Pilkington and Swaine report: "The lawsuit argues that under the first amendment of the US constitution the public has a right of access to know 'the type, quality and source of drugs used by a state to execute an individual in the name of the people'."
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The Biggest Fast Food Strike in World History Has Started
Alice Speri, VICE Magazine
Speri reports: "Workers and labor organizers across the globe have united in a campaign that aims to advance workers' specific demands in each country, while also showing solidarity with the US-based push for a $15 hourly wage and workers' right to unionize."
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Thousands Flee California 'Fire in the Sky'
Agence France-Press
Excerpt: "Thousands of people fled raging wildfires in southern California which destroyed homes and triggered evacuations at a nuclear power plant, a military base and a Legoland amusement park."
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Grey Wolf Appears in Iowa for First Time in 89 Years - And Is Shot Dead
Jeremy Hance, Guardian UK
Hance reports: "Although wolves remain a protected species in Iowa, the hunter was not cited, because he believed the animal to be a coyote and has cooperated with authorities."
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