Light News Dump

Nearly 2,000 new fires have started in the Amazon in the past 48 hours despite burning ban from government | The National Space Research Institute published satellite data showing that in the 48 hours after the Brazilian government's ban on burning, issued Thursday, there were 3,859 new fire outbreaks, roughly 2,000 of which were in the Amazon, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/2000-new-amazon-fires-have-started-despite-recent-burning-ban-2019-9
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7416171/Amazon-sees-2-000-new-fires-48-hours-Brazilian-government-banned-burning.html

The US military is set to pull troops from five Afghan bases under a proposed deal with the Taliban, the US envoy leading talks with the insurgents said Monday, in some of the first confirmed details of a much-anticipated accord
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1168553921498906624
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/us-envoy-shows-afghan-president-draft-taliban-deal-140824014.html

Greta Thunberg responds to Asperger's critics: 'It's a superpower'. Teenage climate activist responds to criticism, saying ‘when haters go after your looks and differences ... you know you’re winning’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/02/greta-thunberg-responds-to-aspergers-critics-its-a-superpower

"The Group Raising An NRA-Style ‘Army Of Environmental Super Voters’ Is Expanding"-- and the Environmental Voter Project may wield a sharp edge by this time next year | A year before the 2018 elections, Nathaniel Stinnett vowed to raise an “army of environmental super voters” to rival the National Rifle Association. His nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project ultimately persuaded 58,961 eco-conscious voters in six states  ― Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania ― to cast ballots for the first time last year. Now, ahead of the 2020 election, Stinnett is doubling his effort, targeting millions of untapped voters and adding six new battleground states: Arizona, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Maine. “We’re not going to let a single environmentalist stay home on Election Day,” Stinnett said. To identify voters, the four-year-old Environmental Voter Project builds profiles based on the kind of demographic and behavioral data advertisers use, then runs a series of polls to verify the data and determine how likely voters are to list environmental issues as their political priority. It then runs the profiles through an algorithm that scores voters based on how likely they are to be “super environmentalists.” Finally, the group weeds out people whose public voting records show they turn out for most elections. What remains is a pool of registered voters who don’t need to be sold on the realities of the climate crisis ― they just need to be persuaded to turn out on Election Day. That’s where the Environmental Voter Project’s more than 3,000 volunteers come in ― to mail flyers, send text messages and knock on doors. The group deliberately avoids talking about environmental issues. Instead, it deploys classic persuasion techniques: shaming voters for missing elections that neighbors cast ballots in, reminding them when and where the next polls are, and promising to follow up. “We’re not focused on one election,” said Stinnett, a veteran campaign strategist in Boston. “We’re focused on changing the electorate.” Next year, the Environmental Voter Project is eyeing 5 million new voters ahead of local, state and presidential primaries. By the time the general election takes place in November, “we’ll still be targeting 2 million environment-first voters who’ve never voted in a single election before,” Stinnett said. “We expect that number to grow because millions are expected to register for the first time,” he said. The group raised about $475,000 in 2017. Last year, it hauled in over $1.5 million. Billionaire Jeremy Grantham, the British financier who’s pledged roughly $1 billion to climate causes, is one of the primary funders, as Grist reported last year. But about 2,000 donors gave $100 or less each over the past year, Stinnett said.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-vote-2020-environmental-voter-project_n_5d689479e4b0488c0d12103e
https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-jeremy-grantham-is-taking-on-climate-change-1529712002
https://grist.org/article/the-environmental-voter-project-knows-who-you-are-and-how-to-trick-you-into-saving-the-planet/

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash threaten $90 million California ballot fight over gig-workers’ rights: Companies say classifying its workers as employees would upend their business models
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uber-lyft-threaten-60-million-california-ballot-measure-over-gig-workers-rights-2019-08-29

Beto O’Rourke’s breaking political norms by cursing is extremely important. Political norms got us here. Political norms drained mass shootings of actual outrage and context. Political norms hid human tragedy behind useless thoughts and prayers.
https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/1168256856155918336

Forbes: 21% who support Bernie Sanders said they would vote for Trump over Buttigieg…also, 26% of those who support Sanders said they would vote for Trump over Warren, 18% would vote for Trump over O’Rourke, and 17% said they would vote for Trump over Harris.
https://twitter.com/RadioGuyChris/status/1168156372053024768?s=19

Ireland planning to plant 440 million trees over the next 20 years
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/459591-ireland-planning-to-plant-440-million-trees-over-the-next-20-years

Beto throws down the gauntlet for all the other candidates and elected officials: "This triangulation, calculation, poll-testing every move -- that's what got us here in the first place."
https://twitter.com/robsfriedlander/status/1168183628301590531/video/1

Boris Johnson vows to purge rebels who vote against no-deal Brexit
https://www.ft.com/content/92f6f320-cc87-11e9-b018-ca4456540ea6?list=intlhomepage

Xinjiang jails fill to bursting as China imprisons thousands of Muslims
https://www.nst.com.my/world/2019/09/517874/xinjiang-jails-fill-bursting-china-imprisons-thousands-muslims

Will not stop mass shootings from happening but will kill them more quickly once they commit one: During the flight to Ireland, Pence’s chief of staff said their policy team has worked with AG Barr & DOJ, which has drafted legislation to expedite capital punishment for people found guilty of mass killings, per the pool. The expectation is it will be part of a larger package.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1168547872545153024

Sure that will deter a crime in which the majority of the perpetrators die commiting the crime. Well thought out. Bravo!!!!!
https://twitter.com/wireman651/status/1168548651955867654

People who commit mass murders don’t care if they face capital punishment, in fact they’re often suicidal. What a non-solution from a non entity
https://twitter.com/TinPotDickTator/status/1168550047232880640

They will go to the ends of the earth to prevent giving up the NRA bankroll. And THAT is what this is about. This is another bullshit attempt to appease. You cannot executive order out someone's right to appeal. This will, as so many others before it, fail in the courts.
https://twitter.com/WhiteLitenyn/status/1168550420588851201

The Las Vegas shooter killed himself as police closed in. That was after he killed 58 people and seriously wounded 422 with the guns he legally bought. Is that hilarious?
https://twitter.com/Accelerationis1/status/1168555584494493697

US 'Complicit in This Nightmare,' Says Bernie Sanders, After Trump-Backed Saudi Coalition Kills Over 100 in Bombing of Yemeni Prison; "Congress has declared this war unconstitutional. We must now stand up to Trump and defund all U.S. involvement in these horrors."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/02/us-complicit-nightmare-says-sanders-after-trump-backed-saudi-coalition-kills-over

Beto O'Rourke visits Bland County — the Virginia county that voted strongest for Trump
https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/beto-o-rourke-visits-bland-county-the-virginia-county-that/article_4402d9f9-875a-56ad-b820-0e55917582c9.html

Veterans seeking mortgages will be hurt by government’s plan to hike VA home loan fees
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/09/02/commentary-veterans-seeking-mortgages-will-be-hurt-by-governments-plan-hike-va-home-loan-fees/

Labor Day parade expected to be attended by New Jersey governor canceled after explosives found
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/labor-day-parade-expected-attended-jersey-governor-canceled/story?id=65342268

The founder of Jacobin magazine, which is basically the newsletter for the "cult base" of the Bernie Sanders supporters, can't pay off 6 grand of debt in 9 years despite being able to afford to run the Jacobin. A real winner.
https://i.redd.it/1vexy6lhs4k31.png

Europe’s meat consumption has dropped by 20 percent in the space of two to three months, according to New Zealand red meat sector representative Jeff Grant. Grant is in London representing New Zealand’s red meat industry ahead of Brexit, the UK’s exit from the EU, currently set for October 31. Addressing a red meat sector conference in Christchurch, Grant named changing attitudes surrounding meat as “the biggest issue in front of us.” He revealed that many Europeans are motivated to do their bit for the environment by ditching meat. According to Rural News, Grant recalled one visit to a Kensington pub, in particular, where the main topic of conversation was an Oxford University report. The study revealed that vegan diets are beneficial for the planet. The pub-goers were likely referring to the biggest-ever food production analysis — led by Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore — published last year. Poore said at the time, “a vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use.” He continued, “it is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car. Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems. Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this.”
https://www.livekindly.co/europe-meat-consumption-dropped-20/

Poland's conservative president on Monday opposed a proposal by US President Donald Trump to reintegrate Russia into the elite G7 group, insisting that "business as usual" was unacceptable given Moscow's occupation of Ukrainian territory
https://www.france24.com/en/20190902-poland-opposes-trump-bid-for-russia-s-g7-return

The Australian Press Council has found a News Corp paper that put Annastacia Palaszczuk in the crosshairs of a rifle with the words “Anna, you’re next” had the potential to trigger violence against Queensland’s premier,
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/02/news-corp-front-page-with-palaszczuk-in-crosshairs-breached-press-standards

West Papua students 'killed by militias' as video of soldiers firing on crowds emerges
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/02/west-papua-students-killed-by-militias-as-video-of-soldiers-firing-on-crowds-emerges

Tax avoiders blocked from honours list, secret UK government memo reveals - Tax avoiders are to be blocked from receiving knighthoods and other honours as authorities clamp down on rewarding “poor” financial behaviour.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tax-avoidance-queens-honours-list-celebrities-uk-knighthoods-government-hmrc-a8517976.html

The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would reconsider its decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move last month that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/us/trump-immigration-deferred-action.html

Employers Can’t Retrain the U.S. by Themselves | "As more workplace tasks become automated, this deficit threatens to leave millions of less-educated workers behind. According to a McKinsey report, low and middle-wage workers are at greatest risk of seeing their jobs become obsolete by 2030.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-14/employers-can-t-retrain-the-u-s-workforce-by-themselves

A candid conversation with the Iowa-based writer and thinker Lyz Lenz, who believes that meeting your neighbor is the only solution | Lyz Lenz spent most of her youth immersed in the conservative subcultures of the South and the Midwest; as an adult, she carries a Feminist as Fuck keychain and describes her politics as “two steps away from joining Greenpeace.” She grew up in Baptist churches in Texas and passed her 20s in buttoned-up evangelical congregations in Iowa; now she attends a progressive Lutheran church in Cedar Rapids. But while Lenz has rejected conservatism’s earlier hold on her life—she divorced her husband in part because he supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election, showing just how far apart their values were—she says she also refuses to retreat to a liberal bubble. She has made her home in “middle America,” as she coyly calls the region in her new book, G-d Land, and is determined to confront the place, and the people, that has simultaneously shaped and vexed her life.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/rural-white-voters-trump/597160/

US border officials are increasingly denying entry to travelers over others' social media
https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/27/border-deny-entry-united-states-social-media/

YouTube Commenters Shift From 'Intellectual Dark Web' Fans to the Far-Right, Study Shows
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/pa7pvb/what-79-million-youtube-comments-can-tell-us-about-far-right-radicalization

Hong Kong leader says she would 'quit' if she could, fears her ability to resolve crisis now 'very limited'
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-hongkong-protests-carrielam/special-report-hong-kong-leader-says-she-would-quit-if-she-could-fears-her-ability-to-resolve-crisis-now-very-limited-idUKKCN1VN1DZ