PBC News & Comment: Do Something, Congress; But Don’t Expand the Police State!

Unfocused demands for action after mass shootings could lead to bad laws expanding the police state without improving safety....

--Trevor Aaronson at The Intercept makes the case that we already have enough laws and unrestrained law enforcement authorities

--Daryl Johnson, who was purged from Homeland Security by Obama administration for his report on the rise of white supremacist violence, says his critics have blood on their hands

--FBI has been monitoring activists opposed to LNG terminal in Coos Bay, OR

--Monsanto has its own "fusion center" to monitor and undercut critics of Roundup, from author Carey Gillam to singer Neil Young

--investigation widens into CPB database of journalists and advocates crossing the border

--when Max Blumenthal and crew returned from interviewing President Maduro in Caracas, Sergio Torrez was detained, grilled, and told "you have no rights"

--in new interview, activist, human rights lawyer and author Dan Kovalik talks about his new book, The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela

--Puerto Rico Supreme Court bars Pierluisi from governor's office, Wanda Vasquez is sworn in

--India's Prime Minister Modi offers rationales for unilateral change to Kashmir status, as clampdown continues and Pakistan threatens war

--US envoy Khalilzad claims progress in talks with Taliban

--new UN study shows world food supply is shrinking due to climate change

--major ICE sweep in Mississippi targets 680 undocumented workers; no word of employers being arrested

--in strange move, Twitter suspends account of top GOP leader--McConnell, not Trump

--journalist John Pilger visited Julian Assange, and tweets grim report

--Jeffrey Epstein's sugar daddy, Les Wexner, says Epstein stole "vast sums'

--you choose Hatriot of the Day: Kris Kobach of Kansas (KKK), now running for US Senate, or the Montana man who pummeled teen who wouldn't remove his hat during national anthem