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Writer's pictureDon Lichterman
Aug 7, 20205 min read

Sunset TV @Roku presents, TeachKind, Make America White Again, The Khumbu Climbing Center, Vaccine!

TeachKind's 2020 Teacher Appreciation Contest

Stephanie McLaughlin, our 2019 winner, talks about teaching compassion for animals in her classroom and encourages all compassionate teachers to enter the 2020 contest.

Trump’s Reelection Playbook: Racist Tropes & Downplaying COVID Pandemic by Slowing Down Testing

“You just see this tremendous impulse to divide,” says Emily Bazelon, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. “This is what has worked for Trump in the past. He is not going to change now.”

Make America White Again: Eddie Glaude on Trump and What James Baldwin Still Has to Teach Us

Amid a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism, we speak with Princeton African American studies professor Eddie Glaude, whose new book on James Baldwin offers lessons from the iconic writer for the present. Baldwin, says Glaude, insisted that “we put aside the myths and illusions and understand what white supremacy has done in terms of disfiguring and distorting the character of this nation.” The book is titled “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.”

VIRTUAL 360 Everest Trek Part 05 The Khumbu Climbing Center

Join our virtual trek to the south side of Mount Everest and the top of Kala Patthar, in immersive 360 VR video, with this limited series from Jon Miller and The Rest of Everest! In Part 04 we get a private tour of the new Khumbu Climbing Center building in Phortse, Nepal.


View the playlist of this VR trek! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...


The Khumbu Climbing Center, or KCC, was founded in 2003 with a mission “to increase the safety margin of Nepali climbers and high altitude workers by encouraging responsible climbing practices in a supportive and community-based program.” We had been looking forward to visiting the KCC and to see the new building that had officially opened in June 2019. We were absolutely amazed by this outstanding facility and grass-roots community resource.


When we walked over to the KCC from the Phortse Guest House we were pleased to meet up with our new friend Phil Henderson who had arrived at the same time as us. Phil is a long time volunteer at the school and we had met him a few days earlier at the Panorama Lodge in Namche. He immediately introduced us to the KCC's Facility Manager Danuru Sherpa. These two men were a wealth of information about the new building and the school in general. They treated us to a lengthy tour of the Center with its indoor and outdoor climbing walls, medical clinic, mountaineering and children's libraries, meeting space, and fully-stocked gear room. All housed within a state-of-the-art building that is also earthquake-proof.


This visit was certainly one of the highlights of our Fall 2019 trip!


The School is a project of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation. For more information on the KCC (and if you'd like to make a donation) please visit https://www.alexlowe.org

Jon Miller - July 27, 2020:

While you can absolutely enjoy this series on a mobile phone or computer, for the most “you are there” immersive experience I HIGHLY recommend viewing the videos using a VR headset. Here are some suggestions that I own and have personally tested. They range in price from just a few bucks to a few hundred dollars. Buying them from these links will support this The Rest of Everest endeavor!


I Am Cardboard VR Box https://amzn.to/3d3CSu6


This is a fantastic entry-level VR viewer that can be used with the YouTube app on your mobile phone. I found this one to be superior to the less expensive versions that need to be assembled. This one comes ready to use and has a more thoughtful design and better user experience. Worth buying even if you only have a passing interest in VR content.


Pansonite 3D VR Glasses Virtual Reality Headset https://amzn.to/37s06ZJ


A real upgrade from Google Cardboard devices. This is a true headset and is very comfortable to use. Since you actually wear it, the experience is much more immersive yet still uses the YouTube app on your mobile phone for viewing which keeps it inexpensive. It is also far more adjustable than the Cardboard options. I’ve given a Pansonite unit to Dawa’s family for viewing these episodes!


Oculus Go Standalone Virtual Reality Headset - 32GB https://amzn.to/2MVhz3a

Oculus Go Standalone Virtual Reality Headset - 64GB https://amzn.to/2Ba0z6u


This entry-level Oculus is a true VR headset and is completely standalone with no phone needed. It has everything you need to view all kinds of VR content and even play VR games. It is a lot of fun!


Oculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset – 64GB https://amzn.to/2YE3oF2

Oculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset – 128GB https://amzn.to/3fnOKbN


The Oculus Quest is the best all-in-one VR headset on the market right now. Using it is like peering into the future. For viewing 360 videos it only beats the Oculus Go in terms of screen quality but if you’re interested in gaming THIS is the headset to purchase. There is NO comparison. I use an Oculus Quest connected to Adobe Premiere while I edit these episodes. Amazing device with a lot of “wow” factor.


Thanks for watching. If you’re new to The Rest of Everest, please consider checking out Episode 000 to see what this series is about and how it all started almost 20 years ago. https://youtu.be/ESyjYeCxxgc


If you’re based in Colorado, consider checking out Dawa’s Fort Collins restaurant, The Himalayan Bistro https://himalayanbistro.com

A Vaccine by November? Science Journalist in Vaccine Trial Casts Doubt on Rosy U.S. Projections

With 30,000 people taking part in the first major COVID-19 vaccine study in the United States, hopes are high that the collaboration between drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health will yield positive results as early as November. Researchers around the world are working on more than 165 vaccine candidates, though only a handful are conducting large-scale human trials. We speak with BBC science journalist Richard Fisher, who took part in the vaccine trial run by Oxford University that is among the most promising. "It was both a personal decision and a journalistic one," Fisher says of his decision to volunteer. "I wanted to do something that helps the collective effort to get us closer to a vaccine."

Who Profits & Where Is the Transparency in Trump Admin's $6 Billion Vaccine Program?

As researchers around the world race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, we speak with Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, about who is profiting from government efforts to fund vaccines, testing and treatment. The Trump administration has announced major contracts with pharmaceutical companies as part of its $6 billion program, Operation Warp Speed, including with firms that have never brought a vaccine to market. Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation shows corporate insiders from at least 11 companies working on coronavirus research have sold shares worth more than $1 billion since March. "The problem is that the companies, the executives, the hedge funds are feeding on people's hope and desperation, and it only takes a little bit of positive news to send stocks soaring," says Maybarduk. Public Citizen recently released a database that tracks the billions of taxpayer dollars supporting COVID-19 research.

Chomsky on Cuba’s “Internationalist” Response to Pandemic & Need to Make Vaccine Globally Accessible

As the world races to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Noam Chomsky says any successful treatment must be accessible to everyone, and he warns that President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization will hamper the international body’s efforts to distribute medicine in countries racked by poverty and war. “There’s at least one country in the world that is showing genuine internationalism, providing medical aid and support for people that need it,” Chomsky says, and that is Cuba.

Noam Chomsky: Decades of "the Neoliberal Plague" Left U.S. Unprepared for COVID-19 Outbreak

As the U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 150,000, we spend the hour with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky, who says decades of neoliberal policies that shredded the social safety net and public institutions left the country ill-prepared for a major health crisis. "We should understand the roots of this pandemic," he says.

Sunset TV on Roku!

Writer's pictureDon Lichterman
Jul 16, 20205 min read

Gregory J. Reiter Award, Dr. Fauci, Washington NFL Team, Tucson, Miami, more at Sunset TV on Roku!

Sunset TV on Roku!
Gregory J. Reiter Award

Each year, Gregory J. Reiter Award is given to an individual or group that demonstrates inspiring compassion and dedication to animals. Greg was a beloved member of the PETA family with his wife Alysoun for many years. Together, they gave refuge to 17 rescued animals including former race horses rescued by PETA. This year’s award recipient, Julia Novak, is a 10 year PETA veteran who has worked on PETA’s mobile clinics, participated in countless protests, delivered life changing dog houses with our Community Animal Project, and fostered PETA rescues, including Itchy who was adopted by Alysoun and Greg! Julia is shaping the next generation of animal activists as loving mother to her sweet son, West, who already advocates for everyone he meets to be vegan.

As COVID Infections Soar, Trump Attacks Dr. Fauci, CDC & Pushes Schools to Reopen at All Costs

As the world and the United States shatter the daily records of COVID-19 infections, President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continue to push for public schools to reopen in the fall without a plan to adhere to CDC guidelines. “We need to be doing this safely,” responds emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen. “We’ve already seen what happens when we use shortcuts.” Meanwhile, the White House continues to attack the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Wen says, “I fear that at this point we are not even seeing the peak of this epidemic.”

We Are Not Your Mascots: Washington NFL Team Removes Racist Name After Years of Indigenous Protests

The Washington NFL team, whose name and mascot have been a slur against Native Americans for nearly 90 years, announced Monday it will change its racist name, facing mounting pressure from corporate sponsors. The decision is a hard-fought victory for Indigenous activists who for years have demanded the team remove the R-word from its name. It also comes as the Black Lives Matter movement has forced a reckoning about monuments and tributes to racism around the country. We get response from Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo activist who has led the fight to change the name and logo of the Washington R-dsk-ns football team.

As COVID-19 Cases Spike, Epidemiologist Warns “The Road to an Uncertain Vaccine Is Paved in Death”

As the U.S. reports its highest one-day spike in infections and 11 states report record hospitalizations, the Trump administration is demanding states stop sending COVID patient data to the CDC, which then releases it to the public. We speak with Dr. Ali Khan, epidemiologist and the dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, about the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis and his hopes for a vaccine. “The road to an uncertain vaccine is paved in death,” notes Dr. Khan. He is the former director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, where he oversaw the Strategic National Stockpile. We also ask him about the ongoing shortages of masks and tests.

The Left Remakes the World: Amna Akbar on Canceling Rent, Defunding Police & Where We Go from Here

We look at another looming crisis for the American public: mass evictions. More than four months into a pandemic that has left millions unemployed, eviction freezes across the country are ending, even as case numbers rise and states reimpose lockdown measures. As the Cancel the Rent movement inspires rent strikes and protests nationwide, a coalition of labor unions, workers and racial and social justice groups in 25 states plans to stage a mass walkout this Monday called the “Strike for Black Lives.” We speak with Amna Akbar, law professor at Ohio State University, who wrote about how to respond to all of this in her op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times headlined “The Left Is Remaking the World.”

Tucson Mayor Romero Slams Arizona Gov. Ducey for Downplaying COVID & Hasty Reopening as ICUs Fill

As COVID-19 cases soar in the U.S. South and Southwest, we go to the hot spot of Arizona, where 88% of ICU beds are full and the family of one man accuses Arizona Governor Ducey and President Trump of being directly responsible for his death, after they downplayed the threat of the virus and obstructed local officials from requiring masks even as Arizona’s case numbers were exploding. “We have been in a state of crisis since Governor Ducey decided to hastily reopen the state,” says Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who has been standing up to Ducey and is the first Latina and the first woman to be elected mayor of Tucson, and the daughter of migrant farmworkers.

Disability Rights Activists Take on Twin Pandemics of Racist Police Brutality & COVID-19

Two months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked an international uprising, we look at the underreported but devastating impact police violence has on people with disabilities, especially Black disabled people. According to at least one study, up to one-half of people killed by law enforcement in the U.S. have a disability. “People with disabilities have always been attacked by police. And people with disabilities and poor people have our own answers,” says Leroy Moore, a Black disabled activist and artist, POOR Magazine co-founder and founder of the Krip-Hop Nation. “Our own answer is to really get rid of police.” We also speak with POOR Magazine co-founder Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia and discuss challenges they’ve faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Release Is Only Way to Save Lives”: Migrant Families Face Separation as COVID Spreads in ICE Jails

As the United States leads the world in coronavirus infections, we go behind the walls of immigrant jails, where infection rates are also soaring, and also look at how thousands more jailed migrant parents may be separated from their children starting Friday. “Release is the only way to save the lives of people in custody,” says reporter Jacob Soboroff, who went inside these ICE jails and first witnessed kids in cages in 2018, which he writes about in his new book, “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy.”

How to Stop the Next Pandemic: U.N. Report Links Outbreaks to Climate Crisis & Industrial Farming

As the unprecedented global health emergency continues to unfold, a new United Nations report says humans must lower stress on the natural environment to prevent the next pandemic. COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has a zoonotic origin, meaning it jumped from animals to humans, and the U.N. report finds that such diseases are spreading with greater frequency due to human activity, including industrial farming and the climate crisis. “Rather than focusing on the symptoms, we were looking at the causes,” says Delia Grace, lead author of the report, veterinary epidemiologist at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya and professor of food safety at the U.K. Natural Resources Institute.

Viagra? Yes. Birth Control? No. SCOTUS Sides with Trump & Limits Free Contraception Under Obamacare

The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to reproductive rights when it sided with the Trump administration in letting employers deny people access to free birth control based on religious or moral grounds, hollowing out a mandate under the Affordable Care Act that requires most private health insurance plans to provide cost-free birth control. “It’s a really deeply disappointing ruling,” says Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. “These individuals are effectively on their own to find and pay for their contraception.”

The Three SCOTUS Decisions in a nushell:

Writer's pictureDon Lichterman
Jun 22, 20205 min read

A Whale of a Week...Northeast Canyons, Seamounts Marine National Monument, The Storm Whale in Winter

We can restore our oceans in 30 years

New research shows that we can restore our oceans by 2050. Once struggling populations of several marine life species around the globe are rebounding. But threats like plastic pollution, climate change and overfishing still threaten our oceans. Join Oceana to help restore our oceans: https://bit.ly/2WNmRm0

Lawsuit to Save the Atlantic's First Ocean Monument

On Tuesday the Center for Biological Diversity and allies filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump's June 5 executive order allowing commercial fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, created by President Obama in 2016. The Antiquities Act lets presidents create national monuments to protect objects of historic or scientific interest, but not to revoke protections. The still-new monument is a 4,900-square-mile marine protected area off New England harboring critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles, endangered North Atlantic right whales, sperm whales and numerous others — including fragile deep-sea corals that take centuries to grow. We moved fast to push back on President Trump's illegal order, and we'll keep pushing. Learn more and consider supporting this work with a donation to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Benji Davies reads The Storm Whale in Winter

Award-winning author and illustrator, Benji Davies, reads the story of The Storm Whale in Winter for WDC supporters. Benji’s books are available from all good retailers.


If you are purchasing on https://smile.amazon.co.uk, why not choose Whale and Dolphin Conservation as your nominated charity.


Find out more about Benji and his books at:

Whale and Dolphin Conservation are supporting efforts by local NGO, Fundacion Cethus, to carry out vital research and protect southern right whales as their numbers recover in Argentina. More at: https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins...

Take Action: Speak Up for West Coast Orcas

The alarming decline of endangered West Coast orcas continues. Despite the fact that only 73 individuals are left — and another was recently declared missing and presumed dead — the U.S. Navy's moving forward with a plan for seven years of war games in their habitat. Its proposal calls for surface and underwater exercises, explosives, and bursts of sonar along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts. These activities can deafen and kill marine mammals, as well as mask vital sounds needed for communication and feeding. In this case the Navy is seeking a permit to harm and harass these animals up to 2 million times over the next seven years. Act now: Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect West Coast orcas and other marine mammals from deadly war games.

A young North Atlantic right whale swims close to her mom as they begin their annual migration north for summer.

The mother and calf will face countless threats along their journey, including the brutal and all too common: entanglement in fishing gear.


Researchers have observed entangled North Atlantic right whales dragging heavy fishing gear for hundreds of miles. With each passing mile, the gear ropes tighten around the whale, tearing through its skin, cutting deep into bones, and creating life-threatening injuries. The whale’s fins and tail fluke can end up totally or partially amputated. Eventually, the whale can perish from exhaustion and infection.


Only about 400 North Atlantic right whales remain, and they’re dying faster than they can reproduce. There’s no time to waste. That’s why Oceana is campaigning in both the United States and Canada – the entirety of these whales’ migration route – to win impactful policies that can save these whales. But our work depends on your support.



In honor of our Summer Membership Campaign, some of you will receive our exclusive Oceana reusable utensil pack.


You’re witnessing firsthand the first extinction of a great whale species in the Atlantic Ocean in over a century. Just earlier this year, a mother whale named Dragon was seen entangled off the coast of Massachusetts. Heavy fishing lines and a large buoy wrapped around her mouth, cutting through her skin and preventing her from feeding properly.


Dragon’s not alone. At least 30 North Atlantic right whales have died in the last three years, and of the ones that a cause of death could be determined, half of these died from fishing entanglement and ship strikes. Now, fewer than 100 breeding females remain.

But we have reason for hope.


This year’s North Atlantic right whale calving season just ended with nine new calves sighted off the U.S. Southeast coast.That’s not enough to save this species but seeing those baby whales is an encouraging reminder of what we’re fighting for.

We know what needs to be done. The U.S. and Canadian governments must work together to prevent entanglements in fishing gear and collisions with ships before we lose North Atlantic right whales forever.

With the support of Wavemakers like you, we’re calling on U.S. and Canada to take urgent action, including:

  • Reducing the amount of vertical lines from fishing gear in U.S. and Canadian Atlantic waters

  • Modifying fishing gear and practices to reduce the likelihood and severity of entanglements.

  • Requiring ships to slow down where North Atlantic right whales are known to frequent.

And thanks to your support, we’re making progress.


The Canadian government is implementing closures when right whales are nearby, and the U.S. government is reviewing its speed reduction zones to ensure they are effective. But there’s more to be done, and we can’t do it alone.


Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives. Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
ANIMAL RESCUES WELFARE, CRIMES & ABUSE
PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE

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