The Security Council approved tighter sanctions on North Korea.

This is pointless. Sanctions, in themselves, will not stop North Korea's nuclear development, or lead to a peace agreement. Only negotiations can achieve anything.

North Korea is already eager to negotiate (though it covers this with bluster). Now we need the US to be ready to negotiate.

The US congratulated its protégé, Hernández, for his "victory" in stealing the election in Honduras. That was after weeks of pressuring the opposition to "calm down" and stop protesting the theft.

Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, permitted the military coup that ran the enabled Hernández to get "elected" president the first time. The coup overthrew President Zelaya, who had the temerity to propose a non-binding referendum (after he left office) on whether to allow a president to run for reelection.

Hernández didn't bother with a referendum. He simply ran for reelection.

The case against Cliven Bundy collapsed because prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. It was evidence of misconduct in investigating him.

Bundy was fighting for a cause — the same twisted cause that the Koch brothers fight for. They demand the right to wear out the Earth through unsustainable practices, leaving nothing for the future. These practices won't continue indefinitely, because the damage they do will eventually stop them. But things will go hard with humanity and wildlife if we don't stop them before that.

Protecting our forests by preventing overgrazing is one of the jobs we need the state for. But the US went about this in a way that started stupid and finished unjust.

It should have been easy to deal with Bundy's protest-by-overgrazing. Cancel his license to graze cattle on national forest, for violating the rules of so doing; fine him or sue him; seize some of his cattle; sell it to collect from him. There would have been no violence unless he started it himself, and he could not have got away with that. (I think he is smart enough he would not have tried it.)

Instead, the US government handled Bundy the way it handled the inauguration protesters, twisting the law in a dangerous way. Thugs shot one of the protesters, who was not violent, then covered it up with lies, much as they normally lie about killing blacks.

The real purpose of the Republican tax attacks is to eliminate the welfare programs that enable many poor Americans to survive.

Scientists are working on genetically engineering corals and their symbiotic bacteria to help them survive the heating of the ocean.

This approach is better than nothing, but I see two shortcomings:

• The technique needs to be applied to every species of coral, or it will be lost. There are over 7000 known species, and there might be more we don't even know about.
• CO2 in the air is making sea water more acid as well as hotter, and later in this century the acidity will stop corals from making their shells.