The NSA and GCHQ, apparently in parallel, have named surveillance programs after battles in the civil war.

Specifically, they are named after the first battle in the American civil war, and the first battle in the English civil war.

Code names for secret activities are usually chosen to be meaningless. For them to be chosen for a meaning, in the spy agencies of two countries, is definitely significant.

Others interpreted this as declaring war on the people. In other ways, such as in the prosecution of Chelsea (née Bradley) Manning, that's what the Obama regime seems to have done. However, the meaning I see in these names is that one part of the country is fighting another.

A strange attitude, given these agencies are supposed to be defending the country against foreign threats.

Cigarette butts left on the beach are toxic to wildlife.

Commercial baby foods are full of sugar and low on other nutrients.

I'm linking to Naomi Klein's speech again to urge you to read it. It is brilliant.

Klein identifies the "extractivist" regime that oppresses us, and shows how all the traditional battles that progressives fight tie together with the fight against global heating.

Human Rights Watch reports evidence that Assad's army fired rockets with chemical weapons.