*Texas butterfly sanctuary forced to close after far-right threats.*

Each time these bullies force someone to bow down, they tout it as proof of their strength, and use that to recruit more bullies so they can do something more aggressive. Having forced the sanctuary to close, next they will vandalize any facilities, then burn them down.

The FBI should set a trap so as to arrest whoever tries.

A US appeals court has blocked finishing the Mountain Valley Pipeline

On the grounds that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly evaluate its impact on some endangered species.

This pipeline was the object of protests. This is not a final decision, as there remain two stages of appeal.

I support protecting endangered species, and the most important way to do that is to slow the mass extinction that is now starting.

The main cause of that mass extinction is extracting fossil fuels, and that means we must stop projects such as oil pipelines that will create more costs sunk in future extraction.

Iowa is considering a bill to require a camera in every public school classroom to monitor the teachers and ensure no forbidden education occurs.

It is not clear from the details in this article whether the cameras would allow visual monitoring of the students, but if it contains a microphone it would surely allow listening to all the students. This would tear up their privacy.

The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.

Australia is letting its native animals be wiped out by the effects of business. It pledges funds to protect koalas, because everyone finds them so cute, but has not made a plan that can achieve this.

The main threat to koalas is habitat destruction, due to human activity either directly (cutting down native forests) or indirectly (human-intensified fires that destroy entire forests). Unless Australia makes a plan to end habitat destruction, koalas and many other species will be extinct soon.

Most Americans don't know even the most basic facts about the Holocaust

(the Nazis' systematic campaign to murder all the Jews they could get their hands on).

If they don't know what was so evil about Nazis, that is likely to make them more susceptible to recruitment by today's Nazi sympathizers and neo-Nazi organizations, including the Republican Party.

When Whoopi Goldberg said that the Holocaust "was not about race," she was using the modern American conception of race. By that conception, most Jews are white, although a few belong to other racial groups.

Those who rebuked her cited the Nazis' conception of race, which was different -- they described Jews collectively as a "race." Going by their definition of "race," the Holocaust was indeed about "race."

I don't think this disagreement was about morality, only the semantics of the word "race." Can we give Goldberg a break?

*Whoopi was Wrong [that is, mistaken] and Wronged [that is, unjustly punished].*