Jill Abramson | Robert Mercer Invested Offshore Dark Money to Sink Clinton. He Must Be Delighted

Robert Mercer is currently running attack ads in Massachusetts targeting Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Many of the negative comments on the Senator's facebook page are FAKE POSTERS or BOTS.

Robert Mercer's offshoring means he never paid local, state or federal taxes - he's not contributing his fair share, just a FREELOADER! 

Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson and others are included in the PARADISE PAPERS.
Instead of WEALTHY WELFARE provided in the GOP TAX SCAM, isn't it time to stop OFFSHORING?

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Jill Abramson | Robert Mercer Invested Offshore Dark Money to Sink Clinton. He Must Be Delighted 

Jill Abramson, Guardian UK
Abramson writes: "According to the Paradise Papers, billionaire Robert Mercer achieved his political objectives while making very nice tax savings."
READ MORE

Return Armistice to Veterans' Day
Madeleine Mysko, The Baltimore Sun
Mysko writes: "Few people care that the 11th day of the 11th month wasn't always called Veterans Day, that it used to be Armistice Day. Few people see the irony."
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'Blind Loyalty': Papadopoulos Lied to the FBI to Protect Trump - and Is Now Upset He's Been Abandoned
Brad Reed, RawStory
Reed writes: "According to sources, Papadopoulos lied to the FBI because he had 'blind loyalty' to Trump and didn't want to contradict what the president was saying publicly about his campaign's contacts with Russia throughout the 2016 election."
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Report on Inequality Finds 3 Richest Americans Wealthier Than Bottom Half
The Wisconsin Gazette
Excerpt: "A disproportionate share of America's income and wealth gains has flowed to the top of the economic spectrum, confirms a report from the progressive Institute for Policy Studies. Americans at the other end of our economic spectrum, meanwhile, watch their wages stagnate and savings dwindle."
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Roy Moore's Staunchest Defenders Are Attacking and Threatening His Alleged Victims
Adam Peck, ThinkProgress
Peck writes: "The Alabama judge's allies are threatening his purported victims with prosecution."
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Questions Mount After Wisconsin Cop Kills 14-Year-Old Native American Boy
Rafi Schwartz, Splinter
Schwartz writes: "Family and members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe are questioning why a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a 14-year-old Native American boy in northern Wisconsin on Wednesday morning."
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Palm Oil Producer Destroying Critical Elephant Habitat With Impunity
Rainforest Action Network
Excerpt: "Between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5, conflict palm oil grower PT. Tualang Raya cleared another 18 hectares of critical lowland rainforests inside the Leuser Ecosystem. This rogue actor has continued razing forests with impunity despite Rainforest Action Network exposing its ongoing destruction since September 2015."
READ MORE

Here's How to Support Puerto Rico as It Recovers From Devastating Hurricane Maria
Remezcla
Excerpt: "With the island expected to go without power for months, Puerto Rico now needs our help. The US territory is in the midst of a financial crisis and already struggling in many ways."
READ MORE

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CorpWatch: Goodhope Asia Accused Of Land Grabbing In West Papua For Palm Oil

Goodhope Asia Accused Of Land Grabbing In West Papua For Palm Oil by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog November 7th, 2016

Flooding in Nabire as a result of logging. Photo courtesy of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency The Yerisiam Gua indigenous community of West Papua filed a complaint six months ago against a Sri Lankan owned conglomerate for taking over their land to create a palm oil plantation. To this day, the industry body charged with oversight has yet to formally respond to their concerns. The charges were filed against PT Nabire Baru, a subsidiary of Goodhope Asia, which in turn is majority owned by a subsidiary of Carson Cumberbatch, a conglomerate based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 2012, the company was reported to have cleared 32,000 hectares in Nabire province on the island of New Guinea on which they intended to plant four million palm trees. (One half of the island is the country of Papua New Guinea while the other half is the Indonesian province of West Papua, where Nabire is located) This PT Nabire Baru plantation encroaches on the customary lands of the Yerisiam Gua peoples, who have written letters and protested peacefully against the project for the last four years. On April 12, 2016, Enos Abujani, a member of the Yerisiam Gua community, spotted PT Nabire Baru bulldozers felling sago trees in the Manawari grove, which the indigenous people consider sacred. After Abujani informed the rest of the community, a small group arrived to protest. "I felt my stomach churning as I watched them work," Gunawan Inggeruhi, a community human rights advocate, told awasMIFEE!, an activist group based in the UK. "I feel sorrow, as if I have been stripped naked," Mama Yakomina Manuburi added. "[The grove] is our livelihood. If I pound the sago inside the trunk, I can get 100,000 Rupiah, I can buy the things I need, such as salt, MSG, soap." The bulldozers were accompanied by Brimob, the Indonesian police mobile brigade, whom the local community have often accused of violence against customary land owners. “We have never asked Brimob to come here. Actually their presence makes us feel nervous, not safe”, Karel Maniba told told awasMIFEE! "How could we have asked for them? How could bringing in Brimob to work as security guards be anything to do with us?" One week later, the community members filed an official complaint with the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry group that PT Nabire Baru belongs to. (The RSPO was created in 2004, mostly by industry, to certify palm oil companies on mutually agreed standards including on responsible land management.) "To this day there is no clear agreement between the indigenous community and PT Nabire Baru, yet our forest continues to be transformed into bare earth as expansion continues. The company stubbornly and unilaterally cleared the sago grove, going against the community opposition," wrote Roberthino Hanebora, the secretary of the Yerisiam Gua Wider Ethnic Group. "The sago groves in question have existed naturally since ancient times, and are sacred sago groves which have provided food for the people of Sima village from generation to generation up to the present day." Goodhope staff say they have since met with the Yerisiam Gua community to discuss their complaints. "Not even point one percent we will abandon them if it is not personal but the interest of the whole community," Sanjaya Upasena of Goodhope Asia told community members, according to a company transcript. "100 percent support the community ... as long as they are not self-centered." Palm oil plantations have been a source of controversy for over 20 years, ever since agribusiness companies started to set them up in Indonesia and Malaysia. Many such plantations have set up on land carved directly out of primary rainforests in order to meet demand for the oil, which is a key ingredient in a number of household products from cosmetics like shampoo and lipstick to foods like icecream and snacks. "For an industry like palm oil, already known as controversial and high-risk in areas of environmental degradation and human rights violations, the need for RSPO to have a credible and transparent redress mechanism is simply magnified, if this organization wants to show that it is serious," Andrew Ng, a founder of the consultancy Grassroots, told the MongaBay website. "[But] in a secretariat of 60+ people they have one person handling complaints as the coordinator." The RSPO has often investigated member companies but it has only taken serious action once. Earlier this year the industry body suspended IoI, a Malaysian company following activist complaints. But five months later, the suspension was lifted. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=16099

If You Have A Heart Please Don’t Ignore This Post – We Need To Let The Whole World Know What’s Happening

A primate genocide and ecological catastrophe on an industrial scale is occurring in some of the most valuable, sensitive and diverse ecological habitats on Earth – all thanks to a cheap cooking oil we find in our supermarket products everyday.

Palm oil is a cheap and common ingredient in many foods and household products, but as with everything apparently ‘cheap’ – it comes at a terrible cost. Vast swathes of pristine rainforest are razed to the ground every minute to clear the way for palm oil plantations in countries such a Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia and Malaysia. The scale and speed of this deforesting operation is staggering.

It tragically appears those people who are managing the palm oil business and the workers carrying out the forest clearing work do not care if they destroy the abundant and endangered wildlife that lives in the forests. In fact deforestation workers are told to dispose of any wildlife that gets in the way – no matter how inhumanely – which includes running over orangutans with logging trucks.

Because of forest clearing for palm oil, in just the last 20 years 90% of orangutan habitat has already been destroyed. It’s a difficult reality to let sink in.

If deforestation continues at this pace, orangutans could be extinct in the wild as early as 2015, and their jungle habitat could be completely gone in 20 years from now.

If this information makes you angry it should – but there is something we can do to help stop this disaster. It’s as easy as stop buying products with palm oil as an ingredient, and help reduce the insane demand for this massively unsustainable product.

Palm oil is found in loads of everyday products – from breadsticks to anti-dandruff shampoos (you know the one) – so please check the label every time you buy, especially if the products come from the big ‘discount’ supermarkets where supplier corners are cut. Palm oil is not even healthy food for you – it’s bad for the heart.

You could also help greatly by writing to companies and stores who source or sell palm oil and indicate you will boycott their products unless they pledge to eliminate palm oil from their source chain and products.

http://brainsauce.net/interesting-stories/heart-please-dont-ignore-post-need-let-whole-world-know-whats-happening/

RSN: America's Funding of Honduran Security Forces Puts Blood on Our Hands, 4 Latinos Killed by US Cops This Week - and Media Ignored It, Sick of Police Shootings? America Asked for Them

Honduras is another Obama FAIL! 
Hillary Clinton's sticky fingers are all over this! 
A legitimately elected government that would have uplifted many was OVERTHROWN! 

Killary Clinton has never met a country she didn't want to de-stabilize and impoverish! 


This is being done in your name!


The murder of Berta Cáceres illustrates a bleak state of affairs in Honduras. 
(photo: Orlando Sierra/Getty Images)

Article below: 

America's Funding of Honduran Security Forces Puts Blood on Our Hands



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ATTENTION RSN FAITHFUL, FUNDRAISER IN PROGRESS! - Not getting any attention to the July fundraiser at all so far. Your attention - as in "yours" - would be fantastic. No interest at all in getting dire here. / Marc Ash - Curator, Reader Supported News

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Sick of Police Shootings? America Asked for Them

Jeb Lund, Rolling Stone
Lund writes: "You could begin yesterday by watching video of a black man in Louisiana killed by police as he lay on the ground. You could end it by watching another black man, this time shot by police in Minnesota, slowly bleed to death in a car as a seven-year-old girl looked on from the back seat, while the man's girlfriend prayed to God not to take him."
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Dallas Shooting Suspect Identified
Merrit Kennedy, NPR
Kennedy writes: "The name of the suspected gunman killed in Dallas is Micah Xavier Johnson, two federal law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation tell NPR."
READ MORE

4 Latinos Killed by US Cops This Week - and Media Ignored It
teleSUR
Excerpt: "As the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling occupy the news waves, the death of four Latinos this week slipped by."
READ MORE

The Pot Law That Could Be 'Deal-Breaker for the Drug War'
Madison Margolin, Rolling Stone
Margolin writes: "Last week California's pot legalization initiative, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, qualified for the ballot in November, setting the stage for a vote that will have ramifications far beyond California's borders."
READ MORE

Lifting the Burden on Abortion Access
Dianne Feeley, Jacobin
Feeley writes: "On June 27 the US Supreme Court, in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, not only struck down key provisions of a 2013 Texas law restricting abortion, but also set a standard by which similar legislation can be measured."
READ MORE

America's Funding of Honduran Security Forces Puts Blood on Our Hands
John James Conyers, Jr., Keith Ellison, Hank Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Jan Schakowsky and Jose E Serrano, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Until the Honduran government protects human rights and holds its security forces responsible for their crimes, we should not be working with its police and military."
READ MORE

If the Democratic Party Is Serious About Climate Change, They Must Reject the TPP
Sarah Rasmussen, Greenpeace
Excerpt: "Right now, Congress is considering approving an international trade agreement that would lead to more fracking here in the U.S., more burning of rainforests for palm oil and fewer protections for American workers."
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RSN: The Case Against Bombing ISIS, Entering Uncharted Territory in Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio: We Must Save the Last Place on Earth Where Orangutans, Tigers, Rhinos and Elephants Coexist

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Barrett Brown | I Do Not Care to Finish Reading This Mediocre Kissinger Biography by Niall Ferguson 
 
Barrett Brown, The Intercept 
Brown writes: "I'd made it 375 pages into Niall Ferguson's newish first volume of a planned two-volume life of Henry Kissinger before receiving in the mail a copy of Greg Grandin's review of same, in which the author of last year's excellent Kissinger's Shadow sums up Ferguson's tome as follows: 'The irony is that it has been Kissinger's sharpest critics who have most appreciated his acute sense of self, who have treated him, however disapprovingly, as a fully dimensional individual with a churning, complex psyche.'" 
READ MORE

A Narrow Escape for Public-Sector Unions 
Matt Ford, The Atlantic 
Ford writes: "The U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 in Friedrichs v. CTA on Tuesday, thwarting a legal challenge that labor activists feared would deal a crippling blow to public-sector unions throughout the country." 
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Tom Engelhardt | Entering Uncharted Territory in Washington 
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch 
Engelhardt writes: "You can be sure of one thing: never in the history of television, or any other form of media, has a single figure garnered the amount of attention - hour after hour, day after day, week after week - as Donald Trump. If he's the O.J. Simpson of twenty-first-century American politics and his run for the presidency is the eternal white Ford Bronco chase of our moment, then we're in a truly strange world." 
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Donald Trump's Campaign Manager Was Just Arrested and Charged With Battery 
David A. Fahrenthold and Wesley Lowery, The Washington Post 
Excerpt: "The campaign manager for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump was charged Tuesday in Florida with battery for allegedly grabbing and yanking the arm of a Breitbart News reporter who had been trying to ask Trump a question." 
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Trial and Error: Report Says Prosecutors Rarely Pay Price for Mistakes and Misconduct 
Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica 
Sapien writes: "The Innocence Project released a report Tuesday alleging that prosecutors across the country are almost never punished when they withhold evidence or commit other forms of misconduct that land innocent people in prison." 
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The Case Against Bombing ISIS 
Greg Shupak, Jacobin 
Shupak writes: "When ISIS claimed responsibility for the horrendous attacks in Brussels last week, President Obama was unequivocal: the US and its allies, he said, 'can and will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.' More bombing, it hardly needed to be said, was on the way. For their part, the presidential candidates only disagree on the scale of military action needed to stamp out ISIS - not on the appropriateness of yet more American warfare." 
READ MORE

Leonardo DiCaprio: We Must Save the Last Place on Earth Where Orangutans, Tigers, Rhinos and Elephants Coexist 
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch 
Chow writes: "Leonardo DiCaprio is using his clout to protect the struggling Leuser Ecosystem, a precious rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia that's under threat from industrial development for palm oil." 
READ MORE

RSN: A Mole in the Koch Machine?, Big Banks Suffer Rare Fail as Congressional Deal Cuts Nearly $1 Billion a Year in Handouts

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Glenn Greenwald | Court Ruling Against Chicago Sheriff Proves Thuggish Anti-WikiLeaks Blockade Was Unconstitutional 
 
Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept 
Greenwald writes: "The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago issued an excellent written ruling on Monday that has broad implications for rights of free speech and political activism in the U.S." 
READ MORE

A Mole in the Koch Machine? 
Jonathan Swan, The Hill 
Swan writes: "Hillary Clinton's well-financed ally David Brock has a team that claims to be coordinating with moles inside the corporate and political empire of the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch." 
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San Bernardino Shootings: What We Know, One Day After 
Camila Domonoske, NPR 
Domonoske writes: "After a mass shooting, a police chase and a shootout, a violent day in San Bernardino, Calif., ended in the death of two suspects, authorities say. There's much that remains unclear, including the motives of the shooters and the identities of the victims." 
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Big Banks Suffer Rare Fail as Congressional Deal Cuts Nearly $1 Billion a Year in Handouts 
David Dayen, The Intercept 
Dayen writes: "Big banks will lose a portion of a multibillion-dollar government handout they've enjoyed for over 100 years, thanks to a compromise highway bill released Tuesday." 
READ MORE

How One City Is Making Sure Bosses Comply With Wage Theft and Paid Sick Leave Laws 
Jake Blumgart, In These Times 
Blumgart writes: "Seattle established the Labor Standards Advisory Group, composed of representatives from unions, businesses and community groups. Knowing the $15 minimum wage was soon to pass, group members agreed on the need for a centralized office to enforce new labor standards." 
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600 Refugees Detained by Australia Say They Want to Die 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "Six hundred refugees and asylum seekers detained by the Australia government on Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea, have written a letter to the Australian prime minister saying they want assistance to die." 
READ MORE

Palm Oil's Corporate Deception: Green-Washing a Dirty Industry 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "While the industry green-washes palm oil under the guise of biofuels and so-called sustainable development, digging behind the corporate myths reveals a complex mess of deforestation, pollution, 'carbon debt,' and destruction of biodiversity, wildlife habitat, and food security, often along with grave human rights abuses." 
READ MORE

Time For Change!

MoveOn.org

Wow.

Thanks to Occupy Democrats for the image.

Center for Biological Diversity shared Post Carbon Institute's photo.

 

 

<> It takes 423 years to pay back the carbon debt from palm oil sourced from cleared peatland forests in Indonesia. <> Get... the rest of the story in images here: http://bit.ly/palmoilpicsKudos to Rainforest Action Network for their hard work on this issue: http://www.inyourpalm.org/Huge thank you to Paul Hilton for contributing your gorgeous photography to this effort.http://www.paulhiltonphotography.com/‪#‎EnergyReality‬See More

 

 

 

 

Bold Nebraska

TransCanada gas pipeline ruptures and leaks near Boyle, Alberta — the *second* leak on the same Nova pipeline system in just the last six weeks.

Pipelines leak. It's not if, it's when. ‪#‎NoKXL

 

 

 

 

TransCanada shuts Alberta gas pipeline after rupture

CALGARY, Alberta Wed Nov 27, 2013

Bold Nebraska

Keystone XL is not in our national interest. All risk and no reward for our land, water and climate.

Keystone XL pipeline threatened by U.S. oil boom

cbc.ca

A massive surge in U.S. oil output could derail plans to build the massive Keystone XL pipeline to ship Canadian oil from Alberta to refineries on the American Gulf Coast, Canada's U.S. ambassador was warned in internal emails from energy experts.

 

Bold Nebraska shared Oil Change International's photo.

‪#‎ClimateThanks‬ to everyone who helped raise this wind & solar-powered barn in Nebraska, and all the other Pipeline Fighters out there. ‪#‎NoKXL‬

More about the barn:
http://boldnebraska.org/build

 

Today -- and every day -- we thank all those fighting tirelessly for change. ‪#‎ClimateThanks

 

 

 

Energy Efficiency Increases House Prices?

Environmental News Network
or
http://www.enn.com/makepage/template5.html

always offers thought-provoking articles.

The potential of increasing a home's value by improving its energy efficiency appears not yet reflected in the U.S.......

The article below addresses the deforestation for palm oil plantation and the environmental havoc wrought.


From: Editor, ClickGreen, More from this Affiliate
Published June 17, 2013 08:49 AM

Energy saving measures boost house prices, new research reveals

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  February 25, 2013 08:47 AM
• Great Potential for Energy Efficiency Improvements in UK
  November 15, 2012 06:07 AM
• From Landfill to Energy: UK Partnership Converts Methane Gas to Electricity
  December 19, 2012 09:12 AM

Energy saving improvements made to a property could increase its value by 14 percent on average - and up to 38 percent in some parts of England - new research has shown.

From: Rhett Butler
Published June 18, 2013 08:58 AM

For an average home in the country, improving its EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) from band G to E, or from band D to B, could mean adding more than £16,000 ($25,000 USD) to the sale price of the property.

In the North East, improved energy efficiency from band G to E could increase this value by over £25,000 ($39,000 USD) and the average home in the North West could see £23,000 ($36,000 USD) added to its value. In the South West the value increases by £16,300.

The research, released today by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), takes into account over 300,000 property sales in England between 1995 and 2011 and is the most comprehensive research in this area to date.

It indicates that energy efficiency is now a key factor influencing the sale price of most residential dwellings in England.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: "We have long known the benefits of making energy saving improvements to the home, but this study is real evidence of the huge potential rewards.

"Not only can energy efficient improvements help protect you against rising energy prices, but they can also add real value to your property. This Coalition is committed to helping hardworking families with the cost of living. The Green Deal is designed to do exactly that.

"The Green Deal is helping more people make these types of home improvements, reducing high upfront costs and letting people pay for some the cost through the savings on their bills. The Green Deal is a great option for anyone wanting to improve the look, feel and potentially the value of their home."

Kevin McCloud, broadcaster and co-founder of the Grand Designs Future Living home retrofit company, said: "There are some 26 million homes in Britain, most of them about as well insulated as a rabbit hutch, and they need immediate help to be made less wasteful.

"This timely report tells us what we suspected all along: that people really value the well-insulated, energy-efficient home; that modest investment in measures to make our homes more comfortable , healthier and cheaper-to-run really pays off.

"The Green Deal is now maturing into a helpful way of financing a lot of the retrofit solutions around. Homeowners can now start to make these changes, alleviate the burden of high energy bills and improve the value of their prime asset."

Continue reading at ClickGreen.
Energy efficiency image via Shutterstock.

Singapore chokes on haze from deforestation fires

RELATED ARTICLES

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• Asian Nations to Find Ways to Tackle Haze
  October 10, 2006 12:00 AM
• Sumatra burning creates serious haze impacting Malaysia and Singapore
  October 22, 2010 07:05 AM

Singapore and Malaysian officials have asked Indonesia to take "urgent measures" to address forest fires in Sumatra that are sending choking haze northward, reports AFP.


Singapore's air pollution index is at the worst level since 2006, when Sumatra last experienced severe fires. The city-state's Pollutant Standards Index on Monday topped 150, well above the "unhealthy" threshold of 100, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA) web site.

"NEA has alerted the Indonesian Ministry of Environment on the haze situation experienced in Singapore, and urged the Indonesian authorities to look into urgent measures to mitigate the transboundary haze occurrence," said the agency in a statement. "NEA will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide further updates when necessary."

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak complained about the fires on his Facebook page: "The haze situation in Malaysia is going to worsen in the coming days with winds carrying smoke from hot spots in Sumatra."

But Indonesian officials attempted to deflect some of the blame for the fires, which are typically used by companies to clear forests and peatlands for oil palm plantations. Many of these companies are owned by firms based in Singapore and Malaysia.

"We hope the governments of Malaysia and Singapore will tell their investors to adopt proper measures so we can solve this problem together," said Hadi Daryanto, the second-in-command at Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry.

Forest fires and haze have become an annual problem in the region over the past 30 years as vast swathes of forest have been degraded by logging and converted to plantations. While the use of fire for land-clearing is illegal, the practice in nonetheless widespread, with satellites picking up hundreds of hotspots in a daily basis during the dry season, which typically runs through October.

Haze in the region has been associated with a number of ills, including increased incidence of respiratory problems. Severe haze can affect transportation networks, navigation, and tourism. The cost of the 1997-1998 haze — triggered by large-scale fires across Sumatra and Borneo that were exacerbated by dry El Nino conditions — was estimated in the billions of dollars to regional economies.

In response to the 1997-1998 crisis, ASEAN members set up the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which called for collective action to tackle forest fires. Yet Indonesia never ratified the agreement and other members have been slow to enact reforms that would hinder conversion of forests for plantation development.

Continue reading at MONGABAY.COM.
Forest fire image via Shutterstock.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/46111