IMPORTANT READS

PLANNING DEBACLE-Housing has been a hot topic in Sacramento over the last few years. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-A fire that raged for hours in the Gulf of Mexico Friday offered the latest illustration of the climate emergency and the urgent need to end fossil fuel extraction and invest instead in burgeoning renewable energy industries.

An underwater gas pipeline controlled by Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, burst in the early morning hours, sending flames "resembling molten lava" to the water's surface.

The "eye of fire," as news outlets and observers on social media called the blaze after Pemex publicized the incident Friday night, happened about 150 yards from a drilling platform in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap offshore field. According to Bloomberg, the field produces more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

It took emergency workers about five hours to put out the flames.

"Having to put out a fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico feels just too difficult to believe," tweeted HuffPost editor Philip Lewis. "And yet..." 

"The frightening footage of the Gulf of Mexico is showing the world that offshore drilling is dirty and dangerous," Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Washington Post. "These horrific accidents will continue to harm the Gulf if we don't end offshore drilling once and for all." 

Pemex has seen production declining recently, according to Bloomberg, with output falling every year for the past decade and a half and putting the company into $114 billion in debt.  

Entrepreneur and fair wage advocate Dan Price catalogued several of the past week's climate-related emergencies, including the fire in the gulf as well as deadly heatwaves in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, which sparked outraged calls for climate action in recent days.  

"The Gulf of Mexico is on fire, it's 112 degrees in Portland, roads and rails are crumbling from the sun, wildfire and hurricane season are here in record time and people are concerned about the cost of going green," said Price. "COMPARED TO WHAT?" 

The pipeline burst days after undercover journalists released footage of lobbyists from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil, in which the lobbyists discussed their fight against climate science and their reliance on centrist lawmakers such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and Jon Tester (D-Mt.) to ensure the failure of far-reaching climate action legislation. 

The progressive advocacy group RootsAction released a version of the Gulf of Mexico fire footage with images of the centrist lawmakers.  

"This is our future," the group said of the image of the world's largest gulf on fire. "Don't forget who is responsible."

(Julia Conley writes for CommonDreams.org … where this piece was first posted.)

-cw

21ST CENTURY BANKING-When thinking of trading with Bitcoin, many people just resort to reading all of the processes that power this cryptocurrency, getting educated on how trading works, and after all of that is done, they think that they are ready to dive into this world and earn money.

RE-NEGOTIATION-Despite the best efforts of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu to disrupt the nuclear talks with Iran by attacking Iran’s nuclear computer network, the news out of Geneva is that a new agreement is close to being signed.

JEWISH REALITY-For much of the past century, America has dominated the Jewish world.

BUSINESS OR FUNNY BUSINESS-Late last summer, after churning along through the pandemic with only a two-week pause, managers at FreightCar America called hundreds of workers into the break area at the company’s factory near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to tell them that the plant was closing for good. 

CLIMATE POLITICS-The news does not get much worse than a recent scientific report that the planet is trapping twice as much heat as it did only 14 years ago.  

IMMIGRATION POLITICS-Immigration has always been a hot button issue in America, and our generation is no different. Most recently, controls on immigration have been portrayed as racist and repressive by the open-borders Left and too expansive by the increasingly nativist Right. 

The "For the People Act" has been a central legislative priority for the Democratic party, and especially its progressive wing, ever since its introduction, and passage, in 2019.

Trump may be out of office, but American politics seem more crisis laden than ever between the caretaker neoliberalism of the Democrats and the creeping totalitarianism of the Republicans.

COLLEGE SPORTS-In a 9-0 vote this week, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory to college athletes over a compensation battle that has been dragging on for years.

WORLD WATCH-Every Israeli will sooner than later realize that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only way by which Israel can protect its democracy, independence, national security, and national Jewish identity.

OTHER WORDS-The American political system is complicated but fixing it doesn’t have to be.  

COMMON DREAMS-As the mom of two children with Type 1 diabetes, I constantly worry:

COMMON DREAMS-The ACLU reacted with outrage -- and warned of potentially major implications for the right to protest -- after a Trump-appointed federal judge on Monday largely dismissed lawsuits accusing the former president and his attorney general of illegally authorizing a violent assault on peaceful demonstrators in the nation's capital last year."  

COUNTER PUNCH-United States political culture is an Orwellian nightmare. Two plus two equals five in the propaganda spectacle that passes for “democratic” news and debate here.  

PEACE VOICE-Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon resources to spending on social well-being, as progressives have long advocated? 

GUEST COMMENTARY-China’s increasingly aggressive geopolitical and economic stance in the world is unleashing a fierce bipartisan backlash in America.

COUNTERPUNCH - Years pass, and journalist Julian Assange languishes in a British jail. His crime? Truthful reporting of U.S. military atrocities in Iraq, reporting that sparked a lust for vengeance among U.S. politicos and military men.

How strong and powerful is a country if it cannot handle the slightest bit of self-reflection or self-criticism?

CAPITAL & MAIN-A powerful tidal wave is building, feeding off the primal desire to reclaim a lost sense of normalcy.