NO EXCEPTIONS

American corporations today are entitled to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, the same as American citizens. How exactly did corporations come to be “people” bestowed with the most fundamental constitutional rights? The answer can be found in a grotesque series of lawsuits over 130 years ago, involving a lawyer who lied to the Supreme Court, an ethically challenged justice, and one of the most powerful corporations of the day.

Today that law is known as the law governing “The Civil Rights of Corporations.”

But if corporations are people, it’s time we understood that all persons are accountable—no exceptions. PGE is guilty of manslaughter with 7 dead in the 2010 San Bruno explosion and 81 from the Camp Fire—so far.

Now picture it for the moment.  What if the fires that obliterated Paradise had had a nuclear component, say, on the magnitude of Fukushima, where a nuclear installation and all its contaminants had burned to the ground. Far greater a swath of landscape would have to be condemned— most of Northern California in fact.  And the folks camping out in the Walmart campground would be lots more unhappy. As it stands, although they would much have preferred to have a roof over their heads and a refrigerator of rotten food, now they have no roof at all, and no rotten food.

But, thank heavens, they skirted the ultimate tragedy: a nuclear plant was not on fire.

Or wasn’t it? With 2 dead, the Woolsey Fire burned up at least half of the mountaintop where the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, now owned by Boeing Corporation, with a set of yet-to-be decommissioned and cleaned up experimental reactors without containment vessels are located. It burned up some of the most lethal radioactive elements known to humankind in the vegetation that had taken them up, and the soils into which they had leached, lofted them into the air, and spread them over Southern California. 

 

Santa Susana, 35 miles from Los Angeles, is a site heavily contaminated with radioactivity and toxic chemicals originally developed in the 40s in a low density population area, which over time has become surrounded people, half a million of them. And unremarkably, some wildly dramatic and horrifying cancer clusters have been documented within a 2-mile radius, with cases of rare childhood leukemias and brain cancers in particular. (For more details on this subject, hear archived KPFA.org broadcast with Dan Hirsch on 11/21/18 “Talkies” program.)

Right now, as Gov. jerry Brown is termed out, and Gavin Newsome takes his place, Boeing and the government agencies that own Santa Susana Field Laboratory are racing to get the EIR certified, and tie Newsome’s hands so that clean up of  the site, promised by 2017 but never done, can be reduced by 98% and Boeing can wash its hands by donating the land  to the State as a wildlife refuge (for picnicking-but only on Sundays!)

What you can do: You can contact Newsom at https://gavinnewsom.com/get_involved and leave a message calling on him to (1) stop the Dept. of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) from taking any action on the Santa Susana Field Laboratory until he takes office, such as certifying the EIR or other steps that would restrict the cleanup, (2) committing to vigorously carrying out the cleanup agreements requiring cleanup of SSFL to background, and (3) appointing a strong reformer to run DTSC and perform a top-to-bottom fix of that dysfunctional agency.

And sign the petition demanding no bailout for PGE at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-pge-bailout?fbclid=IwAR0HW85QoV6snVwgVo97WLzEhddEds6SVy5wT-vCTI3eS7eIVBgljj-AtCg

And instead of another criminal bailout of PGE, you can read about a citizen’s take over at https://popularresistance.org/pge-dont-break-it-up-take-it-over/

And about converting our fossil-fuel culture into something more earth sustaining at https://popularresistance.org/confronting-the-carbon-capitalists/

And about the yet to happen Santa Susana Field Lab  cleanup at https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/LA-Nuclear-Secret-Santa-Susan-Field-Lab-450098253.html

And the 55–page PSR report about the corporate capture of Santa Susana regulating agencies at  https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/report/inside-job-how-boeing-fixers-captured-regulators-and-derailed-nuclear-and-chemical-cleanup

And meantime, besides stripping Citizens United from U.S. law, how about de-Peopling Corporations? both subjects the new progressive wing of the Democratic Party needs to take up as part of its platform. And Nancy Pelosi, with her pretensions as putative Speaker, needs to get on board before she becomes fodder for the La Brea tar pits, along with the other dinosaurs.

(I have purposely not hyperlinked but left the links in as they stand in this edition because, should you wish to forward this newsletter, the links will still be available.)

Resistance

U.S. Green Party urges International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel for crimes against Palestinians.

Calling for ‘corridor of life and culture,” indigenous Amazon groups propose creation of largest protested area on Earth.

In Montreal 50,000 people march demanding more climate action.

At Portuguese left block convention, Portugal gears up for year of crucial fights to up wages, up welfare payments and stop privatization, and halve unemployment to 6.3%.

Claiming good planets are hard to  find, Extinction Rebellion shuts down London bridges Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark  to protest global lack of climate action.

Parents deliver ashes of deceased diabetic children to  Sanofi, the price-gouging pharmaceutical corporation.

Chiliean workers observe national strike demanding labor rights.

Thousands march in Rome protesting against climate of hatred.

Activists disrupt Jamie Dimon speech to hand deliver IPCC report sending message that Chase must stop banking on fossil fuels.

The media fails to cover six recent U.S. antiwar demonstrations.: George Bush receiving the Philadelphia Liberty Medal; Women’s March on the Pentagon; Hudson Institute disrupted by Medea Benjamin; demonstration against war criminal Kissinger; demonstration against Pompeo and Bolton at the United Against a Nuclear Iran Summit; and Cindy Sheehan’s hunger strike against the Saudi destruction of Yemen. 

Students at Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland demand their universities end contracts with ICE.

Veterans for peace urges U.S. border troops to follow their conscience and disobey orders.

Sanders urges Democrats in new congress to embrace detailed progressive agenda from which Peace is still absent.

  

Saying ’we are not robots’, Amazon workers across Europe walk out on black Friday over low wages and ‘inhuman conditions.’

Stacey Abrams will fight as a private citizen to hold Brian Kemp accountable for undermining voting rights in Georgia.

First paraeducator-led strike of the teacher uprising takes off in Pacific Northwest.

Led by women of color, network initiative connected by hashtag #BlackFridays results in symbolic walkouts across country.

After four weeks of non-stop police sweeps of homeless people trying to survive winter, Denver citizens convene in outcry demanding such displacement end.

Organizers with the FANG Collective and other community members demonstrate outside home of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson over county’s 287g agreement with ICE.

Royal family of Kardashains calls for clean-up of Santa Susana on Facebook.

And Noam Chomsky announces indigenous people are our only hope for planetary survival.

The courts

Sea change in criminal justice around country includes Florida restoration of voting rights to ex-felons,  Louisiana repeal of racist jury law, Colorado ending prison slavery without pay, Washington holding cops accountable for unreasonable use of force, and Michigan legalizing marijuana.

In response to a lawsuit filed by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, federal labor officials to release diversity numbers, formerly blocked, for government contractors.

Nation’s largest environmental group says catastrophic wildfires show need for stronger, faster action on climate change.

Democratic AGs successfully sue DeVos in federal court to stop her from rolling back protections for students from abusive, for-profit colleges.

Senators sue to block Whitaker from serving as AG, accusing #45 of subverting the Constitution to protect himself.

GITMO prisoner Guled Hasssan Duran has his case heard before Periodic Review Board.

As the result of activist pressure, AIRbnb announces it will remove all vacation rentals on its site located in Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank.

ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center  to challenge #45’s asylum ban in court.

The Standing  Rock Tribe renews lawsuit against the U.S. Corps of Engineers, challenging the approval of the Dakota Access Pipelines.

ACLU wins release of 90-page account of the CIA’s Office of Medical Services role in the CIA torture program.

In Pennsylvania, 9-jury panel reconsiders life without parole is unconstitutional for sentencing 18 year olds.

NYT investigation reveals #45’s ‘empire’ laundered $500 million in taxes over decades.

Detroit environmental justice organizer Siwatu-Salama RA, pregnant, and with toddler at home, freed after controversial ruling.

Following requests from Appalachian Mountain Advocates, attorneys from Norfolk, Huntington, and Pittsburgh district of the Army Corps of Engineers have each suspended its authorization of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

  

The elections

New Hampshire Democrats set to oust secretary of state notorious for backing GOP voter suppression.

In New Mexico, another Democrat wins Congressional seat after 8,000 votes are found in a warehouse.

A U.S. district court judge orders ICE to release within 30 days more than 100 Iraqis held in Michigan detention centers and jails for more than a year.

Democrat Ned Lamont wins Connecticut governor’s race.

Voters approve Prop C plan to tackle homeless crisis in San Francisco.

Florida voters pass offshore drilling ban. 

Treasury Department announces it’s slapping sanctions on 17 Saudi government officials over the torture, murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi.

Democrat Andy Kim defeats Tom MacArthur who killed his own career when he tried to kill Obamacare.

Democrats sue over North Carolina GOP legislative gerrymanders.

Over 700 union members win seats in the midterm elections.

Democrat pediatrician Kim Schrier wins in Washington State.

Net neutrality supporters score major victories in  House with Democrats supporting reversal of administration’s FCC 2017 net neutrality ruling.

One hundred twenty-three Congresspeople sign on to co-sponsor HR 676, single payer legislation, and sixteen Senators endorse S 1804, the Senate version.

Immigration

City of Tucson passes resolution banning the privatization of its jails and detention centers.

Cosecha wins Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey campaigns to get licenses for all residents, regardless of immigration status.

Cosecha wins in Georgia to end collaboration between the sheriff and ICE, and in NYC, Boston, and Philadelphia with #nobusinesswithICE campaigns.

The Ninth Circuit upholds a January 2018 order allowing renewals to continue for certain DACA recipients.

Federal judge blocks asylum ban for migrants entering illegally from Mexico.

Twenty-nine asylum-seeking families ordered released from Dilley Detention Center in South Texas.

Court grants temporary relief to desperate families seeking asylum.

Along the border, Texas volunteers open homes and heart to asylum seekers.

Miscellany

Calling for end of Western Imperialism, First International Conference Against U.S./NATO Bases is held in Dublin.

Reversing his $210 million pre-electoral stunt, #45 recalls troops from the U.S. Mexico border just as migrant caravan arrives.

Parkland students’ activism honored with international peace prize from Desmond Tutu.

Huge farm releases 100 turkeys to activists facing felony charges for investigating it.

Scientist unveils blueprint to plant wild flowers, saving bees and enriching farmers.

INCINCERATING OUR KIDS' FUTURES

Arden, 215; Chico, 242, Concord, 174, Davis, 196, Gridley, 367, Livermore, 203---The airnow.gov site is so overloaded now, you only get to see California as a whole, and this list isn’t even past the Ls.   But in case folks need to know, Yuba City registers 369.

Butte County

What do these airnow.gov AQI readings mean besides measuring pollutant concentrations in a community’s air? Zinke says now is not the time to point fingers, especially with 66 recorded deaths so far. But those deaths require more, lot’s more than the bromide “our thoughts and prayers etc. etc.”

We need to point fingers at PGE, a corporation so addicted to its bottom line, according to the New York Times, it was responsible, for “several” of last year’s wildfires, at least 17 of them caused by power line, pole, and other poorly maintained PGE infrastructure. PGE’s recent incident report states that a  power failure occurred on a transmission line in Butte County at 8:15 AM, exactly 15 minutes before the fire was reported as starting.

And we need to point the finger at the Supreme Court which is still trying to put off hearing Juliana vs. U.S., the youth lawsuit that argues kids should have a future, and at Congress and a White House, god forbid, that withdrew from the Paris Accord.

Juliana vs. United States

And at the fossil-fuel-based economy and the fracking industry, and the pipe line corporations, and other fossil-fuel-culture-maintaining enterprises.

And at the authorities who failed to decontaminate the Santa Susana reactor, which spread radiation over SoCal as the fires burned.

And at a long-term drought which has left the ground parched, and over a billion California trees dead, and misguided people who know nothing about fire management logging out whole areas where the flames could sweep through the dried weeds and grasses like the hurricane force winds that drove them.

photo credit: Michael Kerr

And the military and its more than seven wars, both foreign and now domestic, that are the world’s largest consumer of fossil fuels, and its domestic occupations, now busy reinforcing our own border with retrofitted concentration camps designed to hold 200,000 immigrants.

And all the State governments that have overlooked declaring driving on alternate days of the week, based on even and odd numbered license plates.

And the mayor of your city and your city council who have not prohibited all city center vehicle use.

And any of the citizens who have ignored putting pressure on them.

What’s the answer? Nothing comfortable, any more than the over 7,000 people who have lost 8.650 homes to the Camp fire are finding running out of hotel money, and camping out in pauperizing-wage Walmart’s parking lots comfortable.

In 2011 Fukushima happened. It happened because of the energy addiction that rationalized the building of nuclear reactors, a technology that is way over any human ability to control.

That day, I was so aggrieved, I should not have been on the road. And sure enough, I was involved in an accident by a woman making a blind left turn directly in my path, totaling my car.

I gave up driving on the spot. Since then I have reflected on privilege. How everyone driving does so because they’re in a hurry. How everyone driving feels entitled to getting there faster and more CONVENIENTLY. My own conclusion—because I don’t like bean counting and budgets—is to try embracing poverty.  I’m doing it in every small way I can, knowing full well that whole countries of very poor people are scrambling their way out of it: China, India, for example. Although I don’t think what I don’t do makes much of a difference delaying the final trumpets of global warming, I do it because in my own delusional way, I assume it might actually be the right thing to do.  And I do it for the kids. They need a future, too.

Bone up on Juliana vs. U.S. here.

There is no planet B. Sign Greenpeace petition here.

Help First Nations speak out against tar sands expansion in Canada.

Sign Climate Change in Australia petition.

Demand more action  on Climate Change in Europe.

Sign petition arguing DHS cannot throw immigrants deeper into poverty.

Donate to the Abrams, Gillum, and Nelson recount campaigns. Even $5. helps.

 

Headlines

Under poaching pressure, elephants are evolving to lose their tusks!!!

With Tory government in shambles, Labor Leader, Jeremy Corbin demands Theresa May(not) withdraw ‘half-baked’ Brexit deal.

The backlisting of Iran from SWIFT, the international financial messaging system, by U.S. sanction will hasten the demise of the dollar.

Labor

Colorado becomes the first state to abolish prison mandatory labor, thus ending slavery. (49 more to go.)

Missouri and Arkansas  voters pass big minimum wage increases.

The Sanders-Khanna ‘Stop Walmart Act’ would outlaw stock buybacks for corporate giants that don’t pay $15 an hour.

 Peace

Anti-war groups and progressive lawmakers express cautious optimism after the administration announces it will end its policy of refueling Saudi planes engaged in assault on Yemen.

The elections

Arizona senate race no longer in doubt as  Democrat Krysten Sinema expands lead to over 30,000 votes.

Josh Harder defeats GOP Denham in California House race.

Maine announces historic victory for Dem Jared Golden after federal judge rejects GOP lawsuit to stop the country’s very first congressional ranked choice voting

Democrat Katie Porter wins in CA district 45.

Federal Courts rule against massive voter suppression in Florida and Georgia

Young and growing progressive caucus determined to fight ‘like hell’ for bold Demo agenda.

Judge orders Georgia recounts to continue.

Florida lawsuits challenge voter suppression in recount.

Just Now: Florida Secretary of State orders manual recount in U.S. Senate race.

Schools win as Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Seattle pass measures to raise moneys locally for schools. Referenda win in Georgia, Maryland, and New Jersey.

2018 Democratic wins show GOP no longer has lock on senior vote

The midterms prove progressive ideas are now mainstream.

The 2020 electorate will be even younger, better educated, and more diverse than this year’s.

And Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brian Kemp resigns after scrubbing 340,000 voters from the rolls, slamdunk sure that he’s won the governor’s race.

Anti-nuclear

Physicians work to bring back the anti-nuclear movement.

Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty could become law next year.

The Planet

Spain unveils groundbreaking plan to slash emissions and transition to 100% renewables by 2050.

Students across Europe excoriate world leaders for hiding scientific  reality of pending global climate collapse.

Backed  by Ocasio-Cortez, youth climate activists arrested at Pelosi’s office demanding Democrats embrace ‘Green New Deal.”

Oil and gas company drops all plans to drill beneath Rocky Flats following intense backlash.

Over eminent domain, landowners fight the Bayou Ridge Pipeline in court.

Judge halts further fracking off SoCal Coast until full review is complete.

Dutch stop fracking over potential earthquakes.

Co-op solar project to be owned by Brooklyn’s under poverty-line community it benefits.

Keystone XL pipeline blocked by federal judge in major blow to administration. 

Oakland terminates army base, telling Tagami coal train project is over.

Local communities turn vacant lots into thriving urban farms.

East Bay switches to community energy.

The Courts

Maryland files for injunction against Matthew Whitaker’s AG appointment.

Abrams files lawsuit to count absentee and provisional ballots in Georgia’s gubernatorial race.

Southern Poverty Law Center sues over presidential proclamation banning migrants from seeking asylum.

Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit against neo-Nazi leader moves forward.

Durham’s next DA wants to stop prosecuting students charged in school.

Administration endorses criminal justice bill mandating reduced mandatory sentences that divides McConnell’s GOP.

Emoluments lawsuit to sandbag #45.

Brooklyn Appellate Court bars local police from ICE detentions.

#45-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly orders administration to restore Acosta’s press pass. (Huckabee cries 'uncle'.)

Resistance

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and more than 70 human and digital rights groups call on Zuckerberg to add real transparency and accountability to Facebook’s content removal process.

Environmental groups up in arms about bill targeting legitimate protests.

#Dump45Now

 

Item: The U.S. is in full Constitutional Crisis. #45 waited till just after the election to dump Sessions whose southern accent apparently got on his imperial nerves. Immediately after 45, Jr. signaled he might be indicted, #45 plopped Matthew Whitaker in his place as the new acting AG. Who is Whitaker? Formerly Sessions’ chief of staff, after Mueller’s appointment, Whitaker called his investigation a witch hunt. No wonder: he’s loyal to #45, and he takes over the DOJ at a critical point in the investigation. He’s made it clear he intends to satisfy #45’s desire to knock the teeth out of it, including the misdeeds of the Don’s family, and the corruption of the 2016 election by Russian interference.  Now Mueller will have to run any major decisions by Whitaker, including all indictments or a report on his findings. As a result, #45 aided and abetted by Whitaker has the maximum amount of time between taking control of the investigation and the new Democrats are seated (and subpoenas fly) on January 3. 

 

Item: The Border has become #45’s racist dog whistle and election ad. But before the administration ordered 5239 troops to head there to encounter a migrant caravan due weeks from now, it already knew that very few of the migrants would make it to the border, perhaps only 1,500 desperate people asking for asylum from death-squad-plagued Honduras, whose democratically leader, Zelaya was kidnapped by the U.S. under Secretary of State’s Hillary Clinton’s watch, throwing the country into chaos.  #45 promises to send 10,000 more troops in the next few weeks, matching the troop level that now occupies Afghanistan.  And new rules give #45 the discretion of who gets asylum and who doesn’t.

 

Item: Concentration Camps. The Administration is quietly converting military installations along the Southern United States into concentration camps designed to hold immigrants. (First they came for the immigrants. I was not an immigrant…you know the drill). Targeted camps include Tornillo Port of Entry, Texas; Goodfellow AFB, Texas, Fort Bliss, Texas, Dyess AFB, Texas, Little Rock AFB, AK; Pendleton Marine Corps Air Station, CA; Navy Outlying Field Wild and Silverhill, AL; and Yuma Marine Corps Air Station, AZ, for a total capacity of 135,000 inmates, including 3,800 children. Plans for Concord Weapons Depot (formerly Port Chicago) in CA have been cancelled after local authorities and the community voiced its opposition. My source: Courage to Resist.

 

Item: Voting “irregularities.”  Florida and Georgia are still in play as “ballot submission deadlines, candidate lawsuits and preparations for recounts or runoffs all converged,” according to Laura Clawson writing for Alternet. Many other races are still too close to call. Republicans are already trying to impede vote recounts in a number of states. But election integrity in the U.S. is on the banana level: there were missing voting machines in a Detroit precinct, which turned voters away who may not have been allowed to return. In an Indiana precinct voting machines weren’t plugged in and only one volunteer was present to oversee the voting; In Arizona three polling places were unable to function, in one case because the building in which it was housed was in foreclosure! Long lines were reported caused by technical problems, forcing the use of paper ballots in three Georgia precincts, in another Georgia precinct with only three machines, and in some precincts in New York City which reported broken scanners where voters stood in line for hours.

But outright voting manipulations occurred, among other states, in Texas where at least one voting machine had wi-fi connectivity, impacting Beto O’Rourke’s race. In one Texas precinct, 133,412 ballots were cast but the list of voters who voted shows only 133,041, showing a discrepancy of 371 more ballots cast than voters who voted. And in one precinct, 55 voters cast 119 votes! In Texas and Georgia voters reported instances of voting machines blatantly flipping votes. In Florida hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots are stuck in a post office that had to be locked down because #45 devotee Cesar Sayoc sent a bomb through that facility. And after former Senator Patrick Murphy discovered that his absentee ballot wasn’t counted, Senator Nelson (Dem) of Florida with only a 15,000 vote difference as of right now, is filing a lawsuit seeking to revisit the “invalid signature” rejections and get these votes counted.  

Most egregious of all, North Dakota demanded identification of Native Americans based on street addresses, whereas everyone residing on a reservation has a P.O. Box, thereby disenfranchising thousands of Native American voters.  Said Chase Iron Eyes: “when they called on us to enlist and defend our country, they didn’t need street addresses, why now? That story has a happy ending. For that, please see the schadenfreude express below!

Already there are four good reasons to #Dump45Now when the new House of Representatives is seated in January. How many more will we have by then?

 

  

Schadenfreude department:

Democratic activists crowdfunded a massive effort to get street address IDs for all the disenfranchised Native Americans so successfully that the turnout was even higher than in 2012, and Republican Randy Boehning, whose idea this was, was unseated by Democrat Ruth Buffalo, a Native American.

After Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Secretary of State, purged over a million votes, his maneuvers bit him in the butt election day when he went to the polls to discover he was ineligible to receive a ballot.

 

Please sign and send Daily Kos petition to your U.S. senator(s): support legislation to protect the Mueller investigation before it’s too late.

Sign the petition to House Democrats to impeach #45 if Mueller is fired.

Please donate to Stacey Abram’s campaign not to concede her candidature for Governor of Alabama.

Please donate to Andrew Gillum’s recount campaign in Florida.

If you can spare the time, please phone your representatives in Congress.  Tell them this is a Constitutional Crisis, and that you demand that Whitaker recuse himself.

In California:

Kamala Harris  415   981-9369

Diane Feinstein   415   393-0707

In the East Bay:

Barbara Lee  510  763-0370

To qualify for the California November Ballot the measure to restore funding to schools needs to be on the ballot, requiring 900,000 signatures. Please go here to collect signatures.

The elections

Best rose of all: Florida restores voting rights to 1.4 million ex-felons who’ve served their time.

The House gains a Democratic majority, giving it subpoena power.

Florida Secretary of State orders a full machine recount.

Georgia’s Stacey Abrams plans legal action to insure all votes are counted.

For the first time ever, 100 women were elected to the U.S. House:

Two Muslim women Ilhan Omar (MN) and Rashidda Tlaib (MI).

Two Native American women, Deb Haaland (NM) and Sharice Davids (KS). 

Two more African American women, Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Jahana Hayes, (CT).

The first Latina members from Texas, Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia.

The youngest African American woman, Lauren Underwood (IL).

And  Lucy McBath in Georgia, Kendra Horn in Oklahoma, and Lizzie Fletcher in Texas.

N.Y. 14^th district will have the very youngest woman ever elected to Congress to represent them, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

The first Latina Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham (N.M).

The first African American woman to serve as AG of New York, Tish James.

The first African American from Colorado Joe Neguse was elected.

Colorado elected Jared Lois an open gay governor.

First ever Medicare for All PAC established by Rep.  Pramila Jayapal (D. Wash.). By issuing ID cards, Medicare for All has the power to end GOP voting violations.

Darrell Issa (Rep-CA) concedes even before polls close.

Older voters, a GOP mainstay, abandon the party in droves, a win for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Activists crowdfund an initiative procuring street addressed IDs for thousands of Native Americans otherwise denied the vote.

Students behind Everytown for Gun Safety organize a campaign to get everyone to vote.

Iowa students back campaign to send two Dem women and one man (in a  state where all representatives but one were Republicans) to Congress.

Across the country voters reject ICE loving Sheriffs.

Texas elects 19 black women judges.

Progressive attorneys general were elected: Xavier Becerra (CA), Phil Weiser (CO), William Tong (CT), Kathy Jennings (DE), Karl Racine (D.C.), Kwame Raoul (IL), Tom Iller (IO), Brian Frosh (MD), Maura Healey (MA), Dana Nessell (MI), Keith Ellison (MN), Hector Balderas (NM), Tish James (NY), Peter Neronha (RI), T.J. Donovan (VT), and Josh Kaul (WI).Aaron Ford (NV),

And more than 240 LGBTQ candidates won their primaries, with at least 14 elected. 

Throughout the U.S., activist groups such as unions, DACA, and folks in Georgia work to get out the midterm vote.

California passes Proposition 12, the world’s strongest animal welfare law for farmed animals.

Baltimore voters stand up to water privatization.

The climate

Florida amendment 9 passes banning any drilling offshore in state waters.

Peat soils, thick deposits of decomposed plant matter, as a breakthrough conservation strategy for combatting change have  been pioneered by The Nature Conservancy.

Two states launch investigations into responsibility of Exxon in causing climate change, and nine cities and counties actually sue major fossil fuel companies, seeking climate-related compensation.

In Washington State, carbon pricing initiative gains traction.

Sempervirens Fund restores redwood forests in California’s Sta. Cruz mountains.

The Nature Conservancy announces successful efforts to reforest bottomlands of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, sequestering millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

Labor

In Boston, the Ujima Project works to create economic equity for artists.

Woman activist aims to get 50 million Americans into the worker-owned economy.

The Courts

Ponca Nation of Oklahoma becomes first U.S. tribe to recognize the Rights of Nature in tribal law.

Judge Peter Messitte of the U.S. District Court for Maryland dismissed 45’s interlocutory appeal attempting to delay his trial for violation of the emoluments clause.

7 to 2 the Supreme Court denies an administration motion to stop a constitutional lawsuit filed by 21 young plaintiffs, Juliana vs. the U.S., perhaps because demonstrations upholding the lawsuit were staged in cities nationwide.

Supreme Court denies net neutrality challenges brought by the telecom industry.

Nye County, Nevada prosecutors and Sheriff’s deputies end 60 year policy of arresting protesters at the Nevada National Security Site (the Nevada test site.)

Another federal court rules 45’s decision to end DACA is wrong.

Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Ct. for Montana rules the administration ignored climate change and blocks Keystone XL pipelines from going forward, ruling that the administration violated key laws when it approved the pipeline.

Peace

Russia and the U.S. announce they seek negotiations to uphold the general prohibition of intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe, now and in future. 

Secretary of State Pompeo, never known for peace activism, calls for an end to fighting in Yemen.

And General Mattis sets a 30-day deadline for a Yemen ceasefire.

In Iraq, oil takes an independent step for the benefit of all Iraqis, but maybe not exactly for the planet.

The two Koreas halt military exercises and close gunports once aimed at each other.

The UN votes the 127^th time to end the U.S. blockade which has caused Cuba untold suffering, with 189 for, and two objections. Guess who?

Because of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, five U.S. lawmakers, led by Rubio urge 45 to suspend any related negotiations for a U.S.-Saudi nuclear agreement.

Resistance

Nationwide protests break out as Whitaker, the new AG, poses serious threat to Mueller’s investigation.

Data for Democracy harnesses powers of Big Data for civic good, tracking (for example) data on migration and family separation.

Demonstrating against the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines, Richmond residents stage a Halloween parade in full costume outside Virginia Governor’s office.

The Mexican way: as the refugee caravan travels through Mexico, it is welcomed with food, festivity, care, and clothing! Huipils and huaraches, anyone?

Marriott hotel workers stage a strike in ten cities in the U.S. and Canada. Note the transnational strike.

Undocumented black migrants build informal organizing network.

Veterans issue open letter to all active duty fully armed soldiers deploying to the border, urging them to disobey orders threatening defenseless migrants legally seeking asylum.

Eleven Honduran migrant caravan members sue 45 for violating their Constitutional rights to demand asylum.

Student groups push ‘Justice for Jordan’ at the University of Maryland.

Nuclear

Walkatjurrra walkabout opposes uranium mining in Australia.

Toshiba abandons new nuclear project at Moorside, UK.

Grand Canyon uranium ban upheld as Supreme Court declines to hear government’s challenge.

Civil  Rights

California’s Gov. Brown signs law granting parolees right to apply for licenses and certifications to support themselves using the skills they’ve learned before and during incarceration.

California passes AB 2845 setting more careful parameters for parole board hearings, and making it unlawful for employers to consider convictions for which applicants have received pardons.

Wyoming strikes down another Ag-Gag law.

Over 80 civil society organizations object to NPS “Pay to Protest” proposal.

Over 90,000 citizen comments submitted in response to NPS “Pay to Protest” proposal.

UN adopts new general comment on the Right to Life, referencing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Nine more Wisconsin communities vote to amend the Constitution, clarifying that only human beings (and not corporations) should have  human rights, and that money is not the same thing as free speech.

Suspected BuzzFeed leaker released on $100K bond.

Portugal launches world’s first ever national participatory budget.

Law Enforcement

FBI policy guide notes that ‘domestic’ terrorism’ is connected to ‘white supremacy.’ Duh. Errata: read fascism throughout.

In a Fix no 'Fix' Can Fix

 

Michael Moore’s most recent film, Fahrenheit 11/9 refers to the day following the  elections of 2016, which he equates with 9/11 as a comparable assault on the U.S. I’ve watched the film twice in less than a week. What stands out earlier, and in the most recent viewing is that the images speak even louder than its words. The first frames show you a rogues gallery of suited male heads, alongside statistics reporting how many times women have accused each of predation. But these words take on an entirely different level of meaning in the heart of the film, when we see the current White House imposter haranguing the Detroit Economic Club where the protocols forbid any questions from the floor. One by one, women protesters in the audience stand up to object to the proceedings only to be manhandled by stone-faced goons who whip them around and force them from the room. Those shots tell you infinitely more about the way women in this society are treated than any statistics can.

Through much of the film we see footage of National Conventions, and political rallies, with their abundance of flags big as aircraft carriers, five-story-high amplified images of political figures, balloons, confetti, strobe lights, cascades of water, etc. which preview the concluding shots of Hitler’s rallies with their display of flags, screaming people, and which document the autocratic body language of the presiding demagogue.  We even see the image of his U.S. counterpart projected on the Empire State Building. And by comparison, it dawns on us how subversive rock concerts can be and how they mock all our political posturings, much as the feast of the Saturnalia, with its idiot-king-for-a-day satirized the Roman empire in its day.

 

Coming to a City Near You

We see the moment when the black children of Flint Michigan are deemed dispensable as a politician presses his finger to the water gage which will shut off the waters of Lake Huron and divert the Flint River and its contamination to fill the taps of Flint, consigning everyone of its children to the lead poisoning which will  devastate their bodies and minds, and condemn each one of them to being less than human—the moment when Rick Snyder, the devil’s spawn Governor of Michigan, destroys a whole city more effectively than any so-called terrorist ever could.  But Moore doesn’t stop there. He shows a triumphant Air Force One flying Obama to the rescue. And as the people who voted for him with their whole hearts watch, he drinks or pretends to drink the contaminated water of Flint—twice—in a PR stunt Madison Avenue could only dream of. And not satisfied with his twice betrayal, he allows Flint Michigan to be bombed, strafed, and terrorized by the Army which uses the city for target practice without any forewarning to its terrified inhabitants.

At first viewing, the separate strands of Moore’s film seem like something of a hodge podge, the poisoning of Flint, the student anti-gun resistance movement originated by the students of Parkland High School in Florida, but the point Moore is making is that from Clinton on, each American president has paved the way for the Walpurgisnacht of the current Ozministration. Yes, dear children, we are in a fix. The taps of hatred have been turned on, and they can’t be turned off because the pipes are corroded, Flint’s black children’s lives have been forever blunted, and nothing can wash the stain off these lily white hands. We are in a fix, and no ’fix’  can fix it. Not even an electoral upset.

Donate so hundreds of black Georgians can cast their ballots.

Tell Congress to end U.S. complicity in the Saudi-led Yemeni war.

Sign to demand Brian Kemp who scrubbed more than 300,000 Georgia voters from the rolls take his marbles and go home.

Donate to resist GOP voter suppression of native Americans in North Dakota.

Veto troops to the border to ‘repel’ desperate men, women, and children.

Please tell San Mateo district attorney that the Okobi family deserves justice NOW.

Women

Catholic synod declares women’s inclusion in Catholic leadership is a ‘duty of justice.’

Must watch: Maggie Doyne changes lives of 200 children starting with this one thought: forget the 80 million, start with one.

Physicians for Social Responsibility honor visionary leaders, Beatrice Fihn and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Nuns on the Bus logs 5600 miles for tax justice.

A record number of women poised to win elections.

Voting rights

Florida fighting to restore voting rights to individuals with minor felony convictions.

NAACP issues dire warning about Texas voting machines that like to flip for Cruz.

U.S. Supreme Court paves way for state supreme courts to strike down GOP gerrymanders.

After GOP tries to stop one bus of elderly black voters in Georgia, ten more buses join in the fight.

In victory over GOP suppression scheme, court rules thousands of Georgians must be allowed to vote.

San Francisco grants non-citizen residents voting rights in local election.

The Courts

Free Press raises funds to sue Ajit Pai.

Mom and four-year-old sue DHS to reunite after seven months of separation under administration border policy.

U.S. citizen wrongfully detained and mocked by ICE awarded $55,000 settlement.

UK fracking protesters freed after convictions are overturned.

In the UK, hundreds are ready to go to jail over climate crisis.

Peasants’ rights declaration presented before the UN general assembly.

Puerto Rico tribunal verdict: U.S. guilty of crimes against humanity.

Lawsuit depicts First Crime Family as a ‘racketeering enterprise that defrauded thousands of people.

Gabby Gifford’s organization  sues the administration.

Tenth Circuit panel grants summary judgment bars Wyoming from enforcing Ag-Gag laws.

The Climate

Swiss philanthropist donates $1 billion to conservation efforts.

Oakland City Council adopts resolution declaring climate emergency.

San Jose, CA wins award to fight climate change.

Resistance

FedEx finally cuts ties with the NRA.

Google workers worldwide leave desks demanding end to sexual harassment and improvements to workplace culture.

Demonstrators block the White House Impostor during march for love and solidarity in Pittsburgh.

Supreme Court halt to Juliana vs. U.S. youth climate lawsuit inspires nationwide resistance.

With Mattis’ call for Yemen ceasefire, congress getting closer to forcing military to withdraw, according to Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Foremost Farms, U.S.A. and Aria Food, a European dairy coop are forming a strategic partnership.