Home away from House

Downstairs Seabreeze, Cob on Wood. Say their names.  Like the names of so many of our dead, they are the names of two California Bay Area homeless encampments.  But to say their names is to remember their history.

 

Downstairs Seabreeze

Last  Monday morning I received this SOS:

“Live from the eviction happening NOW at Downstairs Seabreeze. There is an abundance of COPs but no one from the #CityofBerkeley. No one from #MentalHealth. No one from the new shelter in #HorizonTransitionalVillage. There is no one here offering hope, options, or shelter.” You can watch what happened Monday at University and 2^nd in Berkeley.

https://twitter.com/Copwatch411/status/1424775528444137475

 

                                                            Say their name.

 

Cob On Wood

End of July one of many articles appeared describing Cob on Wood, the homeless encampment at the intersection of Wood Street near Beech St. under the 880 freeway. It is state owned land, but it is the place where cops bulldozing other encampments tell homeless people to go so they can be left alone.  Cob on Wood is an indigenous type of construction. The encampment was started by a local activist whose organization Essential Food and Medicine teamed up with a tiny home building group, Artists Building Communities, and a local construction business called Living Earth Structures who began building Cob on Wood on a former junk yard piled high with torched abandoned cars, illegally dumped building materials and trash. It housed its own medical clinic, shower, kitchen, free store, garden and pizza ovens.

It restored dignity and will to live to countless homeless people. You can read about it here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oakland-homelessness-cob-on-wood-b1881628.html

 

Cob on Wood

But the land is the property of the State. The State saw no reason to clean up when it was a dump, and now that people were on it, the State in its mighty wisdom  came to tear it down. No one sent me an SOS.

 

                                                            Say their name.

 

On August 4, WaPo reported Cori Bush slept on the wind whipped steps of the U.S. Capitol as rain fell.  After three nights during which she was joined by activists and fellow Democratic lawmakers, the White House suddenly remembered that, altho Congress was happy to award the Pentagon trillions of “defense” dollars to kill more people and thereby hasten planetary climate collapse the IPCC has just described as close to the tipping point, it would adjourn having done nothing to extend the eviction moratorium, putting millions of Americans at risk of homelessness during a pandemic.

 

Everyone in Congress needs to live homeless for a month to begin to understand why a nation that can allocate trillions for war and weaponry must manage to house its people, feed and clothe them, and restore their dignity and will to live, and provide them with living wage jobs.

 

 Cori Bush

Cori Bush describes her time living homeless with her children: “When I was living out of my car, I did not know where we were going to eat, use the bathroom, rest or enjoy a quiet moment. I used McDonald’s bathrooms to mix baby formula and wash my body because I had no other options. I received food from food pantries, but I could not eat the items that had to be refrigerated or cooked. This never ending instability, combined with the constant fear of interacting with the police, losing custody of my children, having my car impounded—even losing my life—left me stressed, traumatized and exhausted.” 

 

Now imagine Nancy Pelosi with her 2 gelato-full freezers writing that. 

 

If you could write to Cori Bush, what would you want to say to her? See sample letter  provided below:

 

Rep. Cori Bush

563 Cannon House Office Bldg.

Washington D.C. 20515

 

Dear Cori,

 

Thank you for doing what I could not join you doing.  It’s not everyone—and almost no one in Congress—who would choose to sleep on the Capitol steps in the wind and rain, inside a soaked-through sleeping bag to make a point.  Thank you for representing us, the millions of Americans at risk of homelessness during a pandemic and for those millions more living in encampments along the railroad rights of way throughout the United States. Homelessness is very much a part of California life.  The attitudes of housed people ranges from “call the police” to genuine grief to see our fellow beings reduced to lives that challenge their very existence.  To my own way of thinking, our entire society suffers from the misery of its few.

 

Thank you for breaking the Congressional tradition of suits and red ties and pearls to get right to the point: impoverished Americans have had only a tiny minority representing us since the Democratic party chose to become a second business party aping the old Republican party, which seems to have morphed into a separatist movement.

 

As long as money and politics are linked, as long as Congresspersons can move their investment money providing they make their financial maneuvers public, as long as they are beholden to corporations for moneys that allow them to conduct the campaigns that keep them in office, impoverished Americans will never again have the representation we had under the old Democratic party before it discovered greed. I hope that you and the other members of the Progressive Caucus will fight to get money out of politics, and to restore some sense of balance where CEO pay does not exceed 1000% of ordinary worker’s wages.

 

I hope that you and the Progressive Caucus will motivate our government to allocate some of the trillions it invests in militarism, war, and the consumption of fossil fuel that military activities entail in caring for its people, housing, clothing, feeding and educating them.

 

Thank you for your good example in getting right to the point. Camping out is worth hours of empty rhetoric.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

DONATE to Cori Bush.

 

 

 

It should be unthinkable’: EU nations told to immediately end deportations to Afghanistan.

 

After decades oil giant Shell agrees to pay $111 millions for destruction in Nigeria.

 

Mexico: indigenous communities take over the Bonfont  water-bottling plant in Cuanala, Peubla.

 

Paraguayans take to streets to reject President Abdo.

 

Extinction  Rebellion launch plans for UK rebellion to coincide with release of IPCC.

 

Indigenous group accuses Bolsonaro of ‘genocide’ and ‘ecocide’ at the Hague.

 

Germany rejects calls for troops to return to Bush-folly Afghanistan.

 

Salish and Kotenai First Nations win National Bison range, part of their homeland.

 

Ottawa implements historic fisheries agreement with First Nations.

 

In Chhattisgarh, India, mining company shifts from coal to forest fruits and flowers.

 

Council of Haida Nation, feds and province sign historic agreement setting stage for reconciliation negotiations with respect to their geographic area.

 

Group of doctors and nurses launch billboard campaign targeting British Columbia ferries burning liquefied natural gas threatening world’s climate system..

 

China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous Region criticizes US for notorious rights record on forced labor, border detention centers.

 

An global anti-Olympics movement rises.

 

On eve of hearing, Amnesty again demands US end effort to extradite Assange.

 

Kids as young as four can now change gender in Scottish schools without parental consent.

 

DC circuit court remands radiofrequency case to FCC challenging the agency‘s RF standards rules, and ordering it to ‘provide explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer.’

 

Pipeline fighters lock themselves to drill equipment at crossing of I-64.

 

Appalachian defenders of homes, hills, and neritage unite against Mountain Valley Pipeline.

 

Medicare for All movement to file human rights violation complaint with the UN.

 

Dems in Congress urged to ‘go big’ as Biden endorses bold reforms to slash drug prices.

 

Dems introduce Right to Vote Act to beat GOP voter suppression.

 

Protesters resist militarized gentrification of  public beaches in Puerto Rico,

 

75 groups ask DOJ to oppose ‘racist’ anti-protest laws.

 

Supremes hearing likely as ‘reckless’ Bayer loses third appeal over glyphosate use.

 

Commission on Capitol attack contemplates requesting Jan. 6 #45 call logs.

 

Biden administration opens new review of 9/11 documents. Maybe they’re contemplating too.

 

Biden urges Californians to fight Newsom’s recall.

 

Majority of US voters want Biden to fight for key voting rights bill.

 

Family of John Lewis, National Progressive Groups & Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton too deliver petition to White House calling on Biden to urge Senate to end filibuster and pass voting rights legislation.

 

Sanders unveils final $3.5 trillion reconciliation package alongside infrastructure bill.

 

Sanders says, ‘instead of giveaways to the rich, we will use reconciliation to serve working people and heal the planet.

 

‘Our caucus is clear’: House progressives say no bipartisan deal without reconciliation bill. 

 

Without single GOP vote, Senate approves $3.5 trillion budget blueprint.

 

Census shows unprecedented diversity, but GOP gears up for gerrymandering.

 

Round one of Democrat’s child tax credit payments slashed hunger rates, US data shows.

 

Santa Fe will send some parents $400 per month, N. Mexico may follow.

 

House’s Hyde amendment vote advances abortion justice and racial equity.

 

New Warren bill proposes taxing real company profits, not what’s reported to IRS.

 

Warren writes wealth tax and IRS funding could pay for entire $3.5 bill.

 

A path to citizenship could soon be within grasp for millions of undocumented workers.

 

Whistle blowers step forward with new complaints of abuses at Ft. Bliss TX, site for immigrant children.

 

Biden must fire climate skeptic from key financial stability council, 223 organizations say.

 

Fearing government whitewash, scientists leak draft IPCC report urging bold emission cuts.

 

New Oregon climate plan protects coastal habitats.

 

Workers are saying minimum wage jobs just aren’t worth it anymore.

 

Tax beak on union dues added to Senate Democrats’ budget plan.

 

Hundreds of NYT tech workers walk off the job.

 

More than one thousand miners are on strike at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Al.

 

Workers shut down luxury butcher shop after investor demands removal of BLM and pride signs.

 

Protesters including the FANG Collective, Resist and Abolish the Military Industrial Complex block entrances to Raytheon plant over weapons sales to Israel and killing of civilians.

 

AIPAC accused of Islamophobia after vitrolic ads against Ilhan Omar.

 

Activists launch petition calling on Facebook to remove AIPAC’s dishonest, Islamophobic and dangerous ads against Representative Ilhan Omar.

 

Over 130,000  petitioners sign letter from 350, and Lead Now to call on Chubb multinational insurers to drop their policy on Trans Mountain pipeline.

 

Water protectors headed for Minnesota Capitol to protest Line 3.

 

Housing memorandum provides much needed understanding to uphold federal fair housing policies during pandemic.

 

Patriotic millionaires launch ‘tax the rich” mobile billboard campaign in Philadelphia for Can’t Wait live concert.

 

Va State U. unveils student debt cancellation plan.

 

AZ schools sue state government over classroom mask mandate ban.

 

ACLU sues DC, cops over attacks on journalists at 2020 racial justice protests.

 

Brooklyn billboard calls for Sen. Schumer to end Big Oil handouts.

 

Five Miami Beach officers charged after police swarm, attack suspect and bystander who recorded it.

 

Activists protest project for new jail costing an estimated $28 million in Winona City, MN.

 

Renters call for direct cash assistance as evictions loom.

 

Solar-powered refrigeration trucks to cut pollution.

 

 

Something New

Dear readers: Our most recent issue was devoted to encapsulating the startling development that #45 enlisted Jeffrey Clark of the DOJ to be his water carrier during the 2020 election cycle to suggest that voting results in Georgia could be overturned. I asked my readers to compose their own letters of concern to their congress persons, and other people in high office.

 

Since then as a result of valuable feedback from a number of readers, I hope to try something new: I offer you the sample letter below.  It may not necessarily be the best sample letter, but if, like me, you are squeezed for time, such sample letters may make things lots easier. From now on whenever possible the newsletter will offer sample letters. I hope you may find them useful.  The one you read below went to the following:

           

POTUS 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. D.C. 20500

Rep. Nancy Pelosi 1236  Longworth H.O.B D.C. 20515

Rep. Barbara Lee 2470 Rayburn House Office bldg., D.C. 20515

Sen. Alex Padilla BO3 Russell Senate Office bldg.., D.C. 20510

Sen. Diane Feinstein 331 Hart Senate Office bldg.. D.C. 20510

V. Pres. Kamala Harris  1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. D.C. 20500

 

Your sample letter can also be addressed to The New York Times editorial; and to other papers of record. Be sure to include your address and telephone.)

 

Dear (your congresspersons of choice):

 

I am writing because I am very alarmed about efforts on the part of Republican lawmakers to hijack the next presidential election.

 

Already over 400 voter-suppression laws have been passed in state legislatures under Republican control. This week facts have emerged about #45 selecting Clark as his water carrier to try influence the vote count in Georgia, and 6 other states, and his threats to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark when Clark’s first efforts failed.

 

Two decades later, SCOTUS radical reading of the Constitution in Bush vs. Gore, undergirds many of the court changes on behalf of [#45]….At that time the Justices argued that state legislatures have the plenary power to run elections and can even pass laws giving themselves the right to appoint electors. Today the so-called Independent Legislature Doctrine has informed #45 and the Right’s attempts to use Republican-dominated state legislatures to overrule the poplar will. It gives intellectual respectability to an otherwise insane, anti-democratic argument.  

 

Attention must be paid.  Clark’s letter to Gov. Kemp suggesting that the legislature could refuse to accept the outcome of the election and select electors for #45 instead,

is a blue print for GOP plans to overturn the national election of 2024.

 

John Stoehr writing for the Editorial Board

https://www.editorialboard.com/p/the-next-time-the-gop-attempts-a

points out that Republicans already have a plan for stealing the next election. Reviewing the background of Clark’s letter to Gov. Kemp he states “in the coup-to-come, the letter will become the roadmap for overthrowing the will of the voters. From what I understand,” he  continues, “they have all made arrangements for the state legislators to step in when state election authorities are not producing desirable results.” 

 

Trump’s call to Rosen to “leave it to me…” ought to trigger section 3 of the 14^th amendment, which bars anyone from holding office ‘who engaged in insurrection’ against the United States….

 

Signature

Address

Phone

 

 

Voting rights  will not die. Today’s news offers updates. Congress failed again to pass the For the People Act, (now S. 2093) as well as the Districting Reform Act (S. 2670) and the DISCLOSE Act (S. 2671) before going on recess. Obstruction came from the usual suspects who used the filibuster to impede constructive legislation on this issue.  You can read the full details at https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/11/five-alarm-voting-rights-fire-senate-urged-fight-back-after-gop-blocks-people-act

 

And should you wish to see the magnitude of 2021 election enactments state by state, go to
https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2021-election-enactments.aspx

 

 

Back to School

We Americans are about to crash into that little red school house brick wall, learning our three Rs.: reading, ‘rithmetic and Righting.  Here’s why: Democratic controlled states number 15; Republican controlled states number 28, and divided states number 13.  Translated into electoral college votes, that guarantees Democrats just 188 votes out of a 538 total.

 

 

 

Why is that important? Because Jan. 6, we experienced a coup that showed all the finesse and subtlety of a wad of chewing gum stuck under a school house chair, but the next coup is gonna be a silent, stealthy one, and here’s how that’s going to happen.  You may have read (and ignored) that over 400 anti-voting rights bills have already been passed in state legislatures.

 

To better understand the implications, some serious background is needed. According to Heather Digby Parton writing for Salon, as early as 2020, #45 pressured AG Jeffrey Rosen to declare that the “election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and Republican Congressmen.”  Despite both Barr and Rosen telling him there was no fraud, #45 wanted the DOJ to back him in his Big Lie. On that very same day, a faceless GOP lawyer named Clark who had worked in the Bush administration and had been head of the DOJ civil division since Sept. 2020, circulated a letter addressed to Gov. Brian Kemp, notorious of Georgia, (as well as six other states) dishonestly claiming that the DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.” The letter went further: it recommended that the Georgia legislature “convene in special session so that its legislators are in a position to take additional testimony, receive new evidence, and deliberate on the matter.” He further suggested that the legislature could refuse to accept the outcome of the election and select electors for #45 instead.

 

Rosen and his deputy took notes and turned them over to Congress. Rosen rejected Clark’s maneuvers to overturn the election. At which point Clark went directly to #45 who threatened to replace Rosen with Clark! Only the counter threat that the entire top leadership of the DOJ would resign if #45 tried such a gambit prevented #45 from replacing Rosen.

 

The NYT’s Jane Mayer writes “in Bush v. Gore, Chief Justice Rehnquist along with Scalia and Thomas, hinted at a radical reading of the Constitution that, two decades later, undergirds many of the court changes on behalf of [#45]….The Justices argued that state legislatures have the plenary power to run elections and can even pass laws giving themselves the right to appoint electors. Today the so-called Independent Legislature Doctrine has informed [#45] and the Right’s attempts to use Republican-dominated state legislatures to overrule the poplar will.” They gave intellectual respectability to an otherwise insane, anti-democratic argument.”  

 

Concludes Parton: “Jeffrey Clark was no rogue. He was doing a dry run for a coup long in the making.”

 

Writing for the Editorial Board, John Stoehr amplifies Parton’s message. Stoehr points out that Republicans already have a plan for stealing the next election. Reviewing the background of Clark’s letter to Gov. Kemp claiming the legislature could simply call itself into session to make a determination contrary to the will of the people, he states that in the coup-to-come, the letter will become the “roadmap for overthrowing the will of the voters. From what I understand,” he  continues, “they have all made arrangements for the state legislators to step in when state election authorities are not producing desirable results.” 

 

“Seeing the danger posed by a  Republican Party that acts more like a separatist movement than a good faith bargaining partner,” he concludes, “citizens themselves might not be as alarmed as they should be about a separatist movement that is, as we speak, threatening to rend the world’s oldest federation of free states.”

 

Not to forget that after #45 attempted unsuccessfully to sway Rosen, he told Brad Raffensperget, Georgia’s Secy of state, to “find” votes to change the election outcome.

 

Robert Reich in RawStory writes: #45’s call to Rosen in which he pleads ‘Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me’ should trigger section 3 of the 14^th amendment, which bars anyone from holding office ‘who engaged in insurrection’ against the United States….#45’s proto-fascism poses the largest internal threat to American democracy since the civil war." 

 

Brett Wilkins writing in Common Dreams offers some respite: “The Right to Vote Act, introduced by  Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Padilla (D-Calif.) would establish for the first time a statutory right to vote in federal elections, shielding Americans from laws making it harder to cast ballots.  But will it also prohibit state legislatures from making their own voting laws to skew the results. 

 

 

COMPOSE  a letter to your Congresspersons summarizing this newsletter to bring this issue to their attention. This writer intends doing the same. Bring it to the attention of POTUS as well: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

 

Climate activists demand COP26 reduce military carbon emissions.

 

Chinese government announces it has abolished extreme poverty among its 1.4 billion people, that is to say  70% of the world’s poor.

 

‘We are owners’: Palestinians refuse to conceded land rights to Israelis in Sheikh Jarrah.

 

14 African states agree to reject Israel’s membership in th African Union.

 

Israel’s standing in America is now far weaker than it seems.

 

Mexico files historic lawsuit against U.S. gun companies fueling cartel carnage.

 

Bolivia and Peru open ‘binational cabinet’ with social movements.

 

In Japan, nuclear-contaminated ‘black rain’ victims finally win in court.

 

Colombia’s ex-army chief to be charged over extrajudicial killings.

 

Families of 9/11 victims tell Biden to release classified info or stay away from memorials.

 

Democrats introduce Right to Vote act to beat GOP voter suppression blitz.

 

100+ state lawmakers join Texas Dems in DC to demand passage of For the People Act.

 

MLK’s family and civil rights leaders call for voting rights march on Washington.

 

Hundreds protest in DC, demanding voting rights, end to poverty, and death of filibuster.

 

Alaska court upholds new top-four primary and ranked choice general election.

 

For the first time in 40 years, the House eliminated the racist and discriminatory Hyde Amendment denying abortion access to Medicaid patients, from the federal budget.

 

Peace: After decades-long grassroots push, key Senate panel votes to repeal Iraq War Authorization.

 

Peace, religious and community groups call for ‘No first use of nuclear weapons’ policy.

 

100+ state lawmakers join Texas Dems in DC to demand passage of For the People Act.

 

Activists demand N.Y. close groups backing settler genocide in Palestine.

 

Block-the-Boat hits New Jersey.

 

218 organizations say no to water privatization.

 

After 100 years, Nez Perce People celebrate reclaimed land.

 

Coal miners hit NYC streets to protest corporate greed.

 

Job recovery is happening far more quickly than it did after Great Depression.

 

D.N.C. staff to join union, in a milestone for..

 

ACLU dues over ‘illegal and inhuman’ migrant transportation order in Texas.

 

Citing ‘irreparable injury to the United States, judge temporarily halts Texas Gov. Abbott’s order targeting migrants.

 

Amid allegations of child endangerment, HHS inspector general to probe Fort “Bliss” Detention facility.

 

Lawsuit initiated against #45 for ‘illegal’ deportations resumes under Biden.

 

Groups welcome Biden’s review but demand Congress permanently protect Arctic Refuge from drilling.

 

Nearly 100 grassroots organizations across the country push for community investments in lead pipe removal, public transit, and EV charging.

 

Congressional Democrats are seeking to tax roughly two dozen oil, gas, and coal corporations to ensure that the carbon polluters most responsible for fossil-fuel-driven climate emergency pay for some of the destruction.

 

California cites technical reasons for denying 42 more fracking applications.

 

Cori Bush and progressive lawmakers and activists hailed for new CDC eviction Moratorium affecting 11 million Americans.

 

Related: ‘Give the money back,’ demands Tlaib after revelation of $1 million donation to House Dems from real estate titan.

 

Tlaib unveils bill to cancel $40 billion in utility debt to stop ‘life-threatening injustice of shutoffs.’

 

More than two-third of U.S. adults support mask mandates as variants spread.

 

Despite funding threat, Florida Schools defy DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates

 

NYC becomes first U.S. city to mandate proof of vaccination for certain indoor activities.

 

Poll: Seniors would cross party lines to back candidates who support medicare negotiating drug prices.

 

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Westlake Park in Seattle for the Healthcare Equity March, a protest centered around Kaloni Bolton, a 12-year-old Black girl who died tragically as a result of medical negligence. 

 

Nancy Pelosi swallows her pearls and backtracks on student debt cancellation after urging by Swig billionaire power couple.

This is Your Climate on Fossil Fuel

Mother Nature is taking the planet on a roller coaster ride lately. For any remaining skeptics who like to imagine that global warming is a hoax,  

Germany

the list starts with a freeze and snow storm in Texas midwinter, it proliferates with a giant fire from a ruptured pipeline igniting the sea in the Gulf of Mexico; a huge heat dome caused dangerously high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest,  the Amazon rainforest released more carbon than it stores, at least 191 people died in flash floods in Hunan Province, China,  and parts of Germany and Belgium, shocking even the climate experts, deadly fires in southern Europe. And Exxon’s leaked video showed use of political lobbying to undercut remedial legislation.

 

Gulf of Mexico on fire

 

Since the 60s, scientists have been warning the world’s population of freak weather events to be expected if humankind can’t radically change its fossil consuming ways, but human imagination is underwhelming compared to that of Mother Nature, and quite nakedly she is pissed. She shows this with fires in the American West and Southwest, and in the 100-year drought desiccating California and elsewhere. No one seems to take much note that excavation of California’s native shell mounds shows long periods of disuse, perhaps as long as a hundred year cycle, suggesting that California’s native inhabitants may have had to migrate elsewhere in search of water sustaining life. A recent drive behind the coastal hills, revealed reservoirs reduced to a trickle so bare they might be identified as creeks, or even brooks.  As this warming process intensifies globally, long periods elapse without any good news with which to allay the deep fears and assuage the mourning of my readers.  Given such distressing news, I am finding it increasingly difficult to write.

 

 

"Lake" Oroville

 

Just yesterday, Common Dreams points out that for the very first time on record, U.S. renewables generated more power than either coal or nuclear. And when we read that renewables exceed even oil and gas, we can relax somewhat, but not breathe any easier, because the effects of anthropologically induced global warming, even if it were to come to a complete halt today, will last at least another 200 years, longer than 3 human life spans, a world in which one can’t imagine raising children any longer.

 

Sierra Club recently announced that their 13-year-long campaign to stop Keystone XL in its tracks has paid off with TransCanada’s announcement that it was finally cancelling its plans. Indigenous water protectors and supporting activists rallied last week to halt construction on Line 3—to be brutally arrested by police. Whatcom County, Washington announced new rules against fossil fuel expansion, a possible blueprint for the entire U.S.,  and the government of Greenland decided to suspend all oil exploration, although no oil has yet been found in Greenland. Despite COVID’s persistence, the roads are filled with traffic, suggesting that humankind is in no way inclined to kick carbon, and despite militarism and war being more carbon intensive than many nations, Congress approved trillions for the military, indicating that the U.S. shows no signs of kicking its saber rattling habits, its latest target being China.

 

 

No one in power seems to pay attention to our nation’s lone Tiresias, Noam Chomsky.  His latest interview, published by Truthout. is a plea for “genuine international cooperation to tackle the climate crisis” as it edges towards the tipping point. In it he points to “the wobbling of the jet stream which effects heating of the atmosphere hitherto unconsidered in climate studies.”  He reads this as a “good side” because he speculates that it may awaken global “leaders to recognize the horrors they are creating.”

 

Criticism or denial of science on the part of so many conservative higher authorities who seem not to understand that the fate of life on the planet is at stake, condemns the quest to understand the world in which we live. On a grass roots level, many people world over are awake to the impending catastrophes of global warming and are doing what they can, but an effort on a global scale for a universally concerted program to reverse warming’s ominous consequences requires global leaders throughout the world to step up to the plate. NOW.

 

Nominations are open.

 

 

(Many actions—all about climate change— since June newsletter.)

 

LISTEN to a Belgian Parliamentarian tell it like it is.

 

SUPPORT the peace tax fund bill.

 

ENCOURAGE Congress to think big about climate.

 

OPPOSE the $7 billion anti-China bill.

 

DEMAND big tech stop the fossil fuel ads.

 

HELP The Intercept identify the big fossil fuel polluters.

 

DONATE  to Avaaz to combat climate change.

 

 

 

(Roses filtered for climate change.)

 

Global leadership groups urged permanent embers of the Security Council to affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

 

Global Alliance for a green new deal launches visionary campaign for the world.

 

Globally banks are called to stop financing fossil fuels.

 

‘Civil disobedience our duty’: Swiss climate campaigners occupy Zurich Financial Center.

 

Protesters urge Boris Johnson to take climate seriously.

 

Climate campaigners and Extinction Rebellion (XR) hold tug of war in front of Leinster House, home of the Dail.

 

Warning of climate chaos, new 350.org campaign demands Fed ‘stop fossil fuel finance.’

 

‘A false solution’: 500+ groups urge U.S. & Canadian leaders to reject carbon capture.

 

‘Future belongs to renewable energy’: Greenland ditches all oil drilling.

 

World’s poorest nations to wealthiest: ‘no more excuses’ on urgent climate action.

 

70+ groups urge Ireland to introduce UN resolution for fracking ban,

 

U.S. peace activists in Germany join call for withdrawal of nuclear weapons.

 

Sunrise launches green new deal jobs website to celebrate future of climate-friendly work.

 

Morongo tribe now owner of the power grid.

 

Whatcom County, WA.’s new rules against fossil fuel extraction permanently banning new refineries, shipping terminals, or coal-fired plants, and imposing tougher regulations on expansion of area’s existing facilities, celebrated as ‘blueprint’ for nation.

 

Biden mileage rule to exceed Obama climate goal.

 

Biden reverses #45 rule, tightens limits on coal plant waste water.

 

Biden to restore protections for Tongass National Forest.

 

Defenders applauds Biden administration’s move to protect roadless areas in Tongass NF.

 

Forest “service’ to end logging, restore protections in Tongass NF.

 

Biden administration’s drone strike in Somalia draws fire from Senators Sanders, Lee, and Murphy and Rep. Ilhan Omar.

 

In first application of Supreme Courts “maul” clean water act test, environmental protection prevails.

 

Schumer commits to creating civilian climate corps.

 

84 Dems sign letter demanding civilian climate corps in reconciliation bill.

 

Senators introduce legislation to curb endless U.S. wars, lethal arms sales.

 

Civil society calls on Congress to end war and blockade on Yemen.

 

Jamaal Bowman unveils $1.4 trillion green new deal for pubic schools.

 

Groups demand ‘not a single dollar more to Pentagon’ in infrastructure package.

 

Victory for advocates: Company drops plans for Byhalia pipeline which would have run through mostly black Memphis neighborhoods as activists continue to mobilize  against risks to water, land, climate and community remains.

 

45+ groups say ‘future of our planet depends on ending new cold war’ between U.S. and China.

 

Rally to stop SoCalGas in Ventura unites 250+ frontline community embers, elected officials, and public health advocates.

 

Northwest Mississippi celebrates grassroots victory after plans pipeline running through wetlands are scrapped.

 

Black residents in Coastal Georgia hold polluters accountable.

 

Barbara Lee introduces legislation to allocate $350 billion of Pentagon budget to healthcare, education and green jobs.

 

Minneapolis City Council joins opposition to pipeline.

 

Over 200 activists, celebrities and Democratic donors demand Biden reject Line 3.

 

Grandparents protest Chase and pressure Biden on climate.

 

Tara Houska and Winona LaDuke representing EarthRights International and other organizations filed a restraining order against Hubbard Co. Sheriff Cory Aukes for blocking access to an indigenous-led organizing camp.

 

Just out of jail, Winona LaDuke decries militarized crackdown on Line 3 protestors.

 

‘Huge legal win’: court stops police from blockading Line 3 protestor camp.

 

Anonymous Automous Antifascists blockade blocks Enbridge Line 3 easement to the Willow River.

 

Animal extinction protesters blockade McDonalds factory.

 

Climate Power and LCV announce $10 million July paid media campaign in support of Congress delivering clean energy and climate investments necessary to meet the moment.

 

Civil rights leaders in Reading PA. one of nation’s poorest cities, launch environmental justice ecosystem rights ballot initiative.

 

NCR halts pursuit of 40-year license nuclear power plant extensions.

 

Japanese victims of radioactive black rain finally vindicated.

 

Chester, PA. battles to shut down toxic waste-to-energy plant.

 

U. of Southern California pilots project to ascertain what  tress could be planted to cool temperatures that might thrive in LA’s poor Latino and Asian neighborhoods.

 

Unsustainable farming: Family Farm Action Alliance releases report to ‘counter Big Ag’s deception.’

 

Hemp, nature’s own fuel, could save planet from greenhouse effect.

 

Power plant of the future is right in your home.

Cannibalizing 71% of Earth

As early as the 70s, James Lovelock  advanced what people still refer to as the Gaia “hypothesis,” claiming that all living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to regulate our atmosphere, and form a synergistic self- regulating complex interconnected system which maintains conditions favoring life on the planet.  He collaborated with Lynn Margulis to co-develop the discipline of endosymbiosis. Lovelock’s conclusion: living organisms, through their effect on water and on water bearing clouds, modulate the Earth’s systems in an on-going feedback loop, and that the most humble, least complex organisms, the bacteria,  attest to the unity of all things. All systems on Earth make of it a living being in its own right, every bit as alive as a tree or as you may be as a human being.

 

The proof is that Lovelock was able to predict to the US government which spent billions to determine whether or not there might be life on Mars, that lacking  the appropriate atmosphere, Mars could not possibly support life. 

 

This week,

 

•with Common Dreams decrying the Biden Administration’s approval of ConocoPhillip’s bid to drill for more than half a billion barrels of oil in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve,

 

   Oil rig in National Petroleum Reserve

 

•and the recent news (under the radar mere days later) that Sri Lanka suffered the very worst pollution accident in its history when a container ship caught fire and sank off its coast, adding toxic chemical substances to the waters, littering the beaches with plastic pellets,

 

 

Cargo burning off Sri Lanka coast

 

•and with TEPCO, the  incompetent nuclear managers of much of Japan’s nuclear industry vowing to dump tritium contaminated water, the effluvia of the Fukushima catastrophe,  in the seas come 2024 with only vigorous opposition by Korea deterring them so far,

 

Fukushima contaminated water tanks

 

•and with the U.S. Navy, which exploded a 40,000 ton bomb registering as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake in Florida’s waters, having no intention of foregoing its sonic boom testing which basically dooms cetaceans to death because they relate to their watery world through hearing, and obtain their food by echolocation,  

 

US Navy tests carrrier with 40,000 lb. bomb

•not to mention so called oil “spills,” which might be better known as hemorrhages (in 2018 there were 137 oil spills in the US alone) or Gulf War I of 1991 when 500,000 tons of oil were dumped into the Persian Gulf and 600 oil wells were set on fire, helping to cannibalize the air

 

 

Kuwaiti oil fields on fire

(since 1960, from major spills alone, both from ships and platforms, 3.5 million tons of petroleum have been spilled into the seas) and not overlooking  the Foulwater Horizon by BP, which alone accounts for spillage of 779,000 tons, aside from the tons of proprietary and toxic “Corexit’ BP dumped, supposedly to mitigate the disaster (and where eleven workers lost their lives and American television watchers could actually see the oil hemorrhaging from its hole on the ocean floor in a show that lasted for a good 6 months, from April 20 to Sept 17, 2010),

 

 

BP Foulwater Horizon oil rig burns

 

we look at how humankind keeps cannibalizing the seas.  (full disclosure: that’s the longest sentence of my writing career.)

 

Texas-sized garbage patch

Mid-Pacific there exists a slowly swirling plastic gyre called ‘the garbage patch,’ bigger than the state of Texas which slowly revolves around its axis. Among all the other triumphs of western civilization it includes at least one television set.

           

            Stuck in the swell

            of becalmed seas

            a school of canned guffaws

            floats just below the shallows.

            Leno wisecracks

            at an empty sky,

            Carson gawks

            as horsetails track the trades:

            cathode ray reliquary

            of culture gone to brine,

            Farnsworth’s tube, its cord

            trapeze to barnacles.

 

But most damaging of all is the practice known as trawling which turns millions of square miles of sea floor to desert every year. 

 

Sea floor stripped bare by trawling

These are a few of  humanity’s well known assaults on the planet’s waters.  Additionally there is the sinking of nuclear submarines, which add a nice radiological cocktail to the mix. But alas! there is no happy hour. Mankind’s Lilliputian efforts attempt removal of plastic detritus from small areas of seas which occupy 71% of the Earth’s surface total.

 

Four technologies so far have been perfected to remove plastics which primarily flow into the seas as river discharge.

 

•Floating booms. One such is installed at the mouth of the Kifissos River in Greece. It’s called a Tactical Recovery System or TRASH, a project run by the EU.

 

                                            Greek TRASH

 

•Mr. Trash Wheel has been scooping plastic out of the Jones Fall River in Baltimore.

 

 Nope, Disney didn't design it

•The bubble barrier manages Amsterdam’s waterways, deploying 5 garbage boats that pull out 42,000 kilograms of plastic yearly.

 

•The Interceptor designed to clean up ocean plastic has suffered damage from wind and waves.

 

Interceptor at work

 

Given the magnitude of ocean pollution, the human clean up scale seems picayune.

 

 

PLEDGE never to discard plastic other than in an approved repository.

 

INCLUDE Military pollution in COP 26 climate agreements.

 

URGE Congress to pass the Break Free From Plastic Pollution now.

 

DEMAND Congress protect our oceans.

 

 

Leaked IPCC climate report ‘reads like a 4,000-page indictment’ of humanity’s failure.

 

Terrifying UN draft climate report urges total transformation of “our way of life.”

 

Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment.

 

UN set to call halt of arms to Myanmar.

 

Global call goes out to end destruction of Canada’s ancient forests.

 

Iran says US agrees to lift sanctions on oil, shipping.

 

Old growth logging protesters on day seven of hunger strike.

 

Brazilians protest against Bolsonaro’s COVID mismanagement.

 

Pedro Castillo’s victory raises hopes beyond Peru.

 

Anti-imperialists convene in Venezuela for Carabobo bicentennial congress.

 

Doctors without Borders calls on BioNTech to share vaccine tech with world.

 

680 global leaders urge Biden to end ‘Israeli oppression.’

 

14-day global campaign demands justice for victims of Bolivia coup.

 

Historic Belgian Court says inadequate climate policy a human rights violation,

 

Delegation visits Cabo Verde to #FreeAlexSaab as US flaunts international laws (as usual).

 

In Japan ‘suffocated’ art becomes form of protest against Olympics amidst COVID and radiological contamination.

 

Class action lawsuit filed alleging RCMP abuse of indigenous people in northern Canada.

 

Palestinian Canadians and supporters actively participate in rallies, pickets, and #BloclkTheBoat actions.

 

Indian farmers’ protest completes 200 days.

 

Progressive International convenes global summit to achieve vaccines for all.

 

PG&E to pay $5.9 million for dumping cooling system water from Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant into ocean.

 

State court ruling called ‘big step’ toward holing ExxonMobil accountable for fudging on climate change.

 

Climate experts’ predictions come true as US heatwave.

 

Sunrise ends 400 mile climate march with arrests at Cruz’s house.

 

Biden and Putin agree to resume nuclear talks, return ambassadors to posts.

 

Biden has chance to oversee biggest river restoration project in US history.

 

Biden expands plan to return asylum seekers forced to wait in dangerous border towns.

 

70+ House Dems call on Biden to acknowledge Israeli settlements are illegal.

 

Pelosi to form House select committee to investigate Jan. 6 attack.

 

House appropriates $4.5 million specifically to pay White House interns.

 

Lawmakers tell Biden US has moral obligation to ban landmines (assuming US doesn’t have earwax).

 

Lawmakers demand Biden extend pause on student loan payments.

 

Biden extends eviction moratorium another month.

 

Done with bipartisan dithering on infrastructure, Schumer kicks off budget reconciliation process.

 

Led by Sanders, Senate Dems weigh $6 trillion infrastructure Bill as bipartisan talks fail on climate.

 

Schumer and Sanders work together on bill that could pass the Senate with just 50 votes to lower Medicare age to 60, expanding the coverage to include vision, hearing and dental.

 

Bill to grant Title 38 VA healthcare professionals full workplace rights gains momentum in Congress.

 

Sanders says Congress must combat GOP attacks on voting rights in ‘any and every way.’

 

Manchin gives Biden huge win with support for ‘human infrastructure’ plan than would undo much of ‘very unfair’ GOP tax scam.

 

Dems introduce bill to combat Republican voter suppression efforts.

 

New bill would require Biden to declare wildlife extinction crisis a national emergency

 

Biden to target ‘merchants of death’ who sell illegal guns as US homicides spike (but will he remove them from cops?)

 

Investigative journalist Palast confront Georgia operative throwing legal voters off rolls.

 

DOJ sues Georgia over state’s voter suppression law.

 

Dems introduce abolition amendment to scrap Constitution’s slavery clause.

 

Warren vows not to vote for bipartisan infrastructure plan without climate and child care.

 

Warnock gives speech of our democracy’s life on Senate floor.

 

Blue state Dems make history with big winds on voting rights, worker’s rights, and health care.

 

Criminal probe into DeJoy demanded over illegal GOP donations.

 

20 AGs urge postal commission to reject DeJoy plan to slow mail.

 

Obamacare survives third US Supreme Court challenge.

 

After SCOTUS upholds ACA  progressives set sights on Medicare for All.

 

SCOTUS reaffirms Biden’s power to remove social security commissioner Andrew Saul.

 

SCOTUS rules to protect students’ full free speech rights.

 

SCOTUS dismiss an ongoing challenge to previous administration inhumane anti--asylum “remain in Mexico” policy only because program is no more.

 

SCOTUS rules that cop who followed driver home to his garage had no right doing so without a warrant.

 

Long overdue, House passes Barbara Lee’s 2002 AUMF Repeal.

 

After Iraq War Authorization repealed, calls grow to ‘do the 2001 AUMF next.

 

DOJ finds state laws attacking trans kid’s rights ‘unConstitutional.’

 

New report shows US immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to monitor informed consent protocols use by a doctor accused of performing non-consensual gynecological procedures on women detained at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.

 

New poll shows voters believe social media profits from conspiracies and lies, driving American division.

 

Poll finds socialism increasingly seen as ‘badge of pride’ in US.

 

Growing perception that US support for Israel hampers US diplomacy.

 

Advocates cheer VA move to offer trans vets gender confirmation surgery.

 

Over-the-counter birth control give youth more control over their health.

 

Majority of voters support reconciliation to pass American Jobs & Families Plans together, blame GOP for lack of bipartisanship.

 

Ohio Republican expelled from chamber after federal indictment in $60 million corruption scheme.

 

Construction was halted on Pipeline 3 for over a day by indigenous and activist protectors at the Mississippi’s headwaters.

 

Indigenous women invite Deb Haaland to see devastation of Line 3 for herself.

 

Hoopa Valley Tribe praise Haaland for revoking Central Valley Project.

 

Drought-stricken communities push back against data centers which consume 1.25 million gallons of water each day.

 

New report shows citizenship for undocumented would boost economy and increase wages for all.

 

State lawmakers use powerful tool to mandate renewable energy use.

 

In Brooklyn, activists withhold gas bill payment to protest National Grid Pipeline.

 

Socialist and working class India Walton declare victory in Buffalo mayoral race.

 

Counseling, not criminalization bill unveiled to boot police from US schools.

 

Five Georgia officers fired, denied appeal, after 60 year old Black man dies in custody.

 

Alabama coal miners  demand better wages in 3 month long strike.

 

Coalition demands federal ban on Amazon’s punitive worker surveillance.

 

Teamsters announce coordinated nationwide project to unionize Amazon/

 

Louisville and 20 other cities plan march for Medicare for All.

 

Berkeley rent board passes resolution to condemn evictions of Palestinians  but dos nothing for its own homeless.

 

Tenants call for public housing boss to be bounced.

 

N.Y. court suspends Giuliani from practicing law over #45 lies.