PEACE and PLANET

It’s never foolish to hold out some hope for peace because there’s precedent. On Christmas eve, World War I trenches disgorged their soldiers as both sides met in "no man's land" to exchange greetings and carols. Maybe they understood in that moment that they’d been sent to defend interests other than their own, and that the people that needed to be there in their place were the bankers, and corporation heads and company directors, and all the heads of state who profit off war without risking their lives.  

2019 has been a year of hand wringing for this newsletter, and for the world (excluding the .0001 precedent). But we’re not neutral. We advocate, and will always advocate for PEACE and PLANET and remind our readers the two are linked. How? Because the U.S. military consumes more fossil fuel than any country on the globe. If PEACE reigned, we’d slow down global warming.

After 8 years of publishing, for the first time this newsletter is launching a project for PEACE and PLANET. We are planting trees. Last Fall, just before we left for Creech AFB in Nevada, news sources carried the story of 200 piñon nut harvesters in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, many of them children and adolescents, hired by a local farmer to bring in the crop. A U.S. drone strike killed 30, wounded 40, with many not unaccounted for.

Piñon nut harvesters - photo credit Reuters

We want to plant 30 piñon pine saplings in Cactus Springs to commemorate those murdered harvesters. This monument and our fund-raising campaign is a tangible way to “Re-Earth” by planting trees for the planet, and for our children’s future and future generations. We are also committing an act of non-violent civil disobedience by commemorating these 30 victims and all victims of U.S. wars. We are keeping our hope alive, and joy has got to be a big part of that.

If any of our 1,000 readers would like to join us by contributing, we'd be delighted of you could help us make this happen. 

Please mail us a check to our listed address 2550 Dana Street, 5-B, Berkeley, Ca. 94704. And please be sure to include your name and address so that we can acknowledge your gift.

And please consider forwarding this newsletter to others who may want to become part of our support. Peace and planet thank you.

 

Stop big oil from destroying the Arctic at

https://action.foe.org/page/15801/action/1?ea.tracking.id=Email&ea.url.id=357803&forwarded=true,

Tell Congress: Our House is in Fire: stop wasting time and money on Nuclear Energy at

https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26943,

Everyone has a right to safe, accessible and affordable housing. Sign petition at

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/housing-is-a-human-right-sign-the-petition-demand-congress-pass-a-homes-guarantee-for-all?source=20191204_HomesGuarantee_ACRE&referrer=group-action-center-on-race-and-the-economy&link_id=4&can_id=655968a96e1bce05c463b2f640bf633c&email_referrer=email_683759&email_subject=no-more-slumlords-please-read

40% elementary Fresno children are without housing. End child poverty in California at

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/forms/join-the-movement-to-end-extreme-child-poverty-in-california-for-good?detail=emailaction&link_id=1&can_id=655968a96e1bce05c463b2f640bf633c&source=email-join-dolores-huerta-and-thousands-of-californians-to-end-child-poverty&email_referrer=email_683681&email_subject=join-dolores-huerta-and-thousands-of-californians-to-end-child-poverty

Tell U.S.D.A. stop attacks on food assistance programs for hungry Americans at

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/tell-usda-stop-the-attacks-on-food-assistance-programs-for-hungry-americans?akid=252175.675518.eVHIRE&rd=1&source=mo&t=6

South Korea gets uppity, refuses to pay U.S. military  “protection service’ fee.

Xi issues warning to U.S. not to meddle in  China’s affairs.

Italy’s ‘sardines’ climate youth movement is a wakeup call for the left.

Assange gives evidence in Spanish case against security contractor who spied on him in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Colombians launch national cacerolazo against tax ‘reform’ that would lower duties on businesses.

‘Cutting social security’ is murder: flood of public outrage greets Trump proposal to slash lifesaving disability benefits for hundreds of thousands.

City of Los Altos Council denies Verizon, and AT&T cell node appeals.

Resisting 5 G technology, City of Berkeley’s Wired flies cease and desist order.

With federal minimum stuck at $7.25 for more than a decade, 32 jurisdictions across the U .S. will raise wages to or above $15 in 2020.

After Obama tells Progressives ”go slower,” one of his insiders confirms former president ready to back whoever wins 2020 nomination—even—horror of horrors—Bernie Sanders.

 

Mr. Klein

Looking to the past as today’s guide helps people understand and recognize the present under its camouflage, for what it really is. An example in point is Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein, which he shot in  France in 1976.

Prompted by a review in  the September 9, 2019 New Yorker, I made sure to attend what turned out to be its last screening at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. (It screened earlier in New York).

Briefly the plot outline features an indifferent, ultra manicured Alain Delon who plays an art dealer happy to take advantage of anyone selling artwork, especially those Jews, fleeing 1942 German-occupied France, fearing for their lives. The arrogance with which he’s shown throwing 300 Louis d’ors at his Jewish client feels like a slap in the audience’s face.

But disaster awaits Klein when a Jewish newspaper is slipped under his door. He discovers that, if he wants to cancel his subscription, he will need to go to the collaborationist Prefecture de Police. And so doing, he becomes the author of his own destruction: a “person of interest.” His wheelchair bound father (played by a stellar Louis Seigner) assures him “We’ve been French and Catholic since Louis the XVI!” but Klein’s true roots remain remain amorphous. He discovers that Paris holds another Robert Klein, this one probably a member of the French Resistance.  His discovery is the seed of a new obsession. To rid himself of his shadow he must discover the true identity of the other Robert Klein.

Here the film takes a decidedly noirish turn, a signature of Losey’s story telling art, but in my view, it is quite enough to observe routine arrests of Jews as the unaffected population of Paris carries on its daily rounds of cafes, race courses, promenades, the opera, and so forth while in the background we see scenes where arrests, and round ups are plotted by men in suits on a wall-sized enlargement of the city, and the Gestapo’s sinister Citroens and antiquated buses go about their deadly work.

Trapped in the Vel D'Hiver

But it is the scene of their final destination where Klein is trapped alongside the original Jewish client he treated with such contempt that speaks loudest: the “Vel d’Hiver." Throughout my years-long friendships with Parisian Holocaust survivors, the Vel d’Hiver (Winter Velodrome) features prominently in their stories of survival, but I had yet to see the actual scene: rivers of humanity herded behind bars, children separated from their mothers. The Right! Left! of the Final Solution. 

Never known for anything other than its temporizing and camouflaging views, for once the New Yorker does not disappoint. Writes reviewer, Anthony Lane: “How blessed we are to live in a decent and democratic age where such things could not possibly occur.”

Some recent headlines:

William Barr says “communities’ that protest cops could lose “the police protection they need.”

Eyewitness describes troubling police shooting at 23^rd and Mission.

Video reveals police shot Jamaica Hampton while he was tuning, not while he was allegedly “assaulting officer.

Harmed by SFPD: Tana demands to see her son, Jamaica.

Why don’t more immigrants arrive legally? For many the doors are barricaded.

Homeless swept from Polk St. alley despite lack of shelter beds.

Data shows 40% of elementary kids homeless in Salinas.

U.S. government drops case against Max Blumenthal  after jailing journalist on false charges.

Edward Snowden: “If I came back to the U.S. I would likely die in prison for telling the truth.”

”‘Shameless racism’: 13 countries change long-standing position on Palestine at UN.

Reports: Israel occupation used flechette shells in Gaza.

Israeli military orders used to deprive Palestinians of human rights says HRW report.

U.S. constructing two new basses in Syria’s oil-rich region.

Nine kids dead in immigration detention. The time for immigration reform is now. Please sign at

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/the-time-for-immigration

Foreign

Iraq protesters form ‘mini=state’ in Tahrir Square.

100 doctors demand Julian Assange receive safe passage to Australian hospital ‘Before it’s too late.’

Lawyer holds in court Assange cannot be extradited to U.S. because extradition treaty bars extradition for political offenses.

Finland general strike saves postal service.

George Galloway launches workers party of Britain.

France records 391-mile traffic jam as public transport brought to halt by third week of strikes over pension changes.

ICC prosecutor says Israel committing war crimes (duh) and opens investigation.

‘Gas war’ averted as Russia and Ukraine agree to crucial transit deal.

Domestic

California DOJ cuts off ICE deportation officers from state law enforcement database.

Acting Department of Defense Inspector General Glenn Fine announces that his office will investigate the president’s use of troops at the Southern border.

Washington state attorney general sues Trump administration over courthouse immigration sweeps.

In win for native rights, Hawaii governor order cops at Mauna Kea to stand down.

New Jersey state legislature votes to grant all immigrants licenses.

Deportation relief extended for teen with cystic fibrosis.

Supreme Court leaves ruling barring prosecution of homeless in place.

Federal court uphold abortion access.

New Jersey restores voting rights of people on parole and probation.

Media taking notice as Sanders surges in new polls.

Moms reclaim vacant home amid national attacks on Homeless.

Atlanta moms show up when cops arrest mother of son with Down Syndrome.

Center for Constitutional Rights urges court to change ground rules for Guantánamo cases.

House spending package includes clear intent to keep fossil fuels out of clean energy program.

House approves first increase to public media in more than ten years.

Most Americans believe basic human rights under siege.

House Democrat from red district explains who she’s voting to impeach even if it ends her career.

Judge reverses vote in controversial first amendment case.

Anti-robocall bill passes.

Rep. Jeff Drew plans to make it official that he’s a Republican; staffers resign en masse.

After gaining full control of Virginia government, Democrats unveil bills to expand voting rights.

Goldman Sachs rules out funding for new coal projects, arctic oil drilling, making explicit mention of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

New ag bill includes first-ever national factory farm moratorium.

New lawsuit challenges Trump failure to update slaughterhouse pollution guidelines.

California gives state protection to foothill yellow-legged frogs.

Diane Wilson wins $50 million lawsuit against cancer alley polluter Formosa, setting major legal precedent.

Nestlé’s go at privatizing town water shot down by Michigan appeals court.

Eastbayhills wins court victory  against pesticide sprayers.

Rainy day victory: homeless man shatters window to go to jail to escape the cold.

Poles Apart

Could looking at much less elaborated ways of living, and unsnarling the complications raised by our intensely overwound culture reveal something about our encounter with global warming which seems to have escaped us so far?

This writer has been reading ethnographies, ethnographies of the Ju/wasi, (some refer to them as the San) the world’s oldest people (that is, people descended directly from the original human inhabitants of  Earth), who once occupied almost all of East Africa, and more recently the Kalahari Desert; and ethnographies of the inhabitants of Zanskar, one of the world’s most inaccessible people living poles apart in the high Himalayas.

Uncomplicated living in Zanskar

 Why read about people living distantly from our supremely dominant global, “civilized” cultures in the great cities of London, Washington, Rome, Paris, Berlin, and other Great Capitals of the Western World? What can they possibly teach us that we don’t already know, and that we don’t need to know? What is to be learned there? And why does this writer keep gnawing away at the question: Why is it that Western Culture (and that includes coal-burning countries like China) seems hell-bent on destroying the home in which it lives?

What would it take for the dominant global culture to reverse itself 180 degrees? And what kinds of reversal are we talking about? And how can anyone refer to a dominant global culture monolithically, when it includes kids who “get it?” Are those kids a separate culture?  Why does it matter? If we are talking about the clash of fundamental ideas of being in the world, why do we talk about the proponents of those ideas in the same breath?

The Ju/wasi have inhabited Botswana for a known period of 60,000 years. Their oral cultural memory of the skies of 58,000 B .C. tell them where to look for constellations which the unschooled eye cannot possibly find (because over a geological time period, far beyond the scope of human time, the skies shift infinitesimally slowly). Gift exchanging is a huge part of their daily lives, a practice which guarantees that no individuals can ever amass great wealth to the imporverishment of others. They lived happily this way for 60,000 years.

Ju/Wasi building a fire from scratch

If the human race had lived an existence as uncomplicated as the Ju/Wasi have, the climate of this planet might still have been able to cradle human existence in a more benevolent way. 

Zanskar Buddhist monastery

The Buddhist inhabitants of Zanskar weave the fabric which becomes their one suit of clothes, which they patch, and re-sew over a lifetime. At 16,000 feet, well above the tree line, the inhabitants mostly subsist on a diet of barley and peas, wild and  cultivated; some onions, radishes, cucumbers and potatoes (grown in tiny kitchen gardens) and their yaks give them yak butter.  Of these they make tea (served with butter); tsampa (barley flour moistened and kneaded with water to make cakes, often eaten cold); and chang, a drink made of fermented barley which makes the drinker warm and quite happy. To guard their animals from wolves, they occasionally sleep outdoors in temperatures of minus 40 degrees. To plant grains above the snow line, they build piles of soil which they spread over the snow in early Spring. The darkness of that earth forces the snow to melt allowing them to plant their grains early enough to harvest them before the first freeze. In other words, they make use of the very feed back loop that’s now over heating our Earth such that, as polar ice melts exposing the dark sea to sunlight, it further warms an already overheating planet. They live happily this way and have lived happily for as long as they have inhabited their kingdom.

If the human race had lived an existence as simple as the Zanskaris, the climate of this planet might still have been able to cradle our existence in a more benevolent way.

What does all this suggest?

While our planet gets trashed, please ask this airline to reduce its carbon footprint with carbon offsets at

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/612/635/544/?z00m=32173990&redirectID=2961857305

Support Sunrise with your generous dollars by buying from their offerings at

https://sunrisemovement.myshopify.com/?link_id=0&can_id=655968a96e1bce05c463b2f640bf633c&source=email-picture-it&email_referrer=email_680877___subject_891580&email_subject=picture-it

Help the Union of Concerned Scientists sustain clean energy's winning streak while contributing at

https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/39PV17WhS02ClDcns6IuJA2?emci=65209166-a516-ea11-828b-2818784d6d68&emdi=c8046dcc-f01c-ea11-a601-2818784d6d68&ceid=1885334

Did you know 40% of  Fresno’s school children are unhoused? Please tell the USDA to stop the attacks on food assistance programs for hungry Americans at

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/tell-usda-stop-the-attacks-on-food-assistance-programs-for-hungry-americans?akid=252175.675518.eVHIRE&rd=1&source=mo&t=6

Extra credit. Release an innocent black man from Missouri’s attorney general’s determination not to free him at

https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/lamar_johnson?t=3&akid=39700%2E1663833%2EjBlROA,

 

Can’t be stopped: young climate activists storm  COP 25 stage.

Thunberg named Time’s person of the year.

Calling for “Climate President,” more than 500 groups demand next administration take immediate action.

Timed to COP 25, and decrying EU proposal to address climate collapse by 2015 as too little, too late, Greenpeace activists stage spectacular House on Fire spectacle in Brussels.

Greenpeace sets the world on fire

Lavrov states Russia ready to extend new START treaty.

More war lies debunked: UN unable to link Saudi, Aramco attacks to Iran.

Supreme Court rejects “free speech” challenge by Wireless Association CTIA against Berkeley’s cell phone right to know about how cell phones harm you law.

House Democrats pass bill restoring Voting Rights Act after Supreme “Court” decision guts it.

Coal resupply train blocked in two states.

World’s big sleep out (some of it in rainy LA) as thousands world over spend night outside in solidarity with the homeless.

Environmental Health trust to take legal action challenging FCC that 20^th century techniques can't evaluate 21^st century technology.

Boston  suburb of Brookline first East Coast city to ban oil and natural gas infrastructure in new construction projects.

Do they know something we don’t:  100 Italian municipalities pass resolutions against 5G.

Never in America: Mexico’s government launches massive seized assets auction for “Robin Hood” program benefitting the very poor and destitute.

Indonesian steel craftsmanship revives as builders demonstrate the superior strength of bamboo.

Six hundred kilometers of roads blocked as French strikes urging withdrawal of pension “reform” draft law continue.

100 California cities reject PG & E’s bankruptcy proposal, demanding it be broken up.

Seven men sentenced for murder of visionary Honduran social movement leader Berta Cáceres.

NRA investigation widens as New York AG delivers new subpoena.

After House progressive push to strengthen drug pricing billPelosi eats crow.

Chipping away at the Little King: North Dakota county votes to accept refugees, defying #45 executive order.

School fights back after ICE detains Connecticut high school sophomore.

Small, predominantly black Georgia town gets election officials to reopen polling station closed in disenfranchising effort.

Houston cop gets in McConnell’s face: “You’re either here for women [victims of domestic violence] or you’re here for the NRA."

Texas sheriff’s deputy arrested for conducting unlawful strip searches of six women.

Packed Berkeley tenants union, reconvening on short notice, endorses Bernie Sanders.

After non-profit college forgives $141 million in student debt, Sanders points out there’s only $1,685,456,413,335 more to go.

U.S. government drops prosecution of Max Blumenthal after jailing journalist on false charges [covering Venezuelan Embassy protection events.]

Journalism is not dead yet as rank-and-file news writer wins CWA News Guild presidency.

Brian Eno launches Julian Assange campaign.

President of National Nurses United testifies at health care Congressional hearing re: passing Medicare for All!

Following budget cuts, S. F. City supervisors move to save CCSF classes. 

Methodist church nativity scene depicts Mary, Jesus and Joseph as separated and caged family.

ICE Nativity

Wisconsin high school senior opens mosque doors, sheltering over 100 peers during school shooting.

Pawn shop worker in Hurricane, Utah, saves falling infant while mom's busy shopping for shotguns.

Commodifying Coups

This week while turkeys nationwide meet their fate, we get to rectify a myth, because colonization was such a crap shoot, for once, the White Man had to listen to Native folks who knew how to grow food in a climate the colonizers found less than hospitable. It’s the right time to highlight what’s happening to indigenous people world over, and especially in Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine.

In the US and Canada, indigenous people are in the frontlines of our planetary battle targeting climate change, something the coal industry knew about as early as 1966. As the US withdraws from the Paris Climate Accords, we keep warm in our memories the Sioux engaged in the New Indian  Wars at Standing Rock, being water cannoned in below freezing temperatures, so cold icicles formed along the rows of barbed wire the guardians of capital had raised.

And in Central and South America, Indians have been defending the democracy of the Bolivarian Revolution which has reduced poverty, stamped out illiteracy, provided housing, a more robust economy, and medical care for the most disadvantaged of the population, namely the Indian sector. Some call this brand of democracy socialism. 

In Bolivia especially, Evo Morales, the president legitimately elected by the Bolivian people, and forced to flee, represents the first-time elevation of an Indian leader in that nation’s history. This is especially galling to the white elite, as emblemized by puppet Jeanine Añez who referred to Indian culture as “satanic.”

Evo Morales against Mexico City background

“Some do not accept that the Indians govern,” said deposed president, Evo Morales. Bolivian native tribes number 41, of which the Aymara and Quechua are the most numerous. As they risk massacre before police firing squads, who have been given carte blanche by the de facto government of Añez, to fire indiscriminately without risk of prosecution, and members of the press have been shot and tear gassed, blockades have been set up throughout the country in a national strike which calls for the resignation of her US- sanctioned puppet government.

La Paz funeral of masssacre victim passses through police lines

The Bolivarian Revolution, with its emphasis on the Right to Vote, and the leveling out of the steep inequality which dominated the country in the past, has never been in the U.S. interest.  But Bolivian lithium for battery manufacture, and indium for liquid crystal displays needed for computers, smartphones, and TVs are, because Bolivia’s lithium and indium happen to be under their soils, not ours. And ours is the US imperative.

"Satanic:" Jeanine Áñez

Currently, through US imperial machinations, color revolutions have either been attempted or occurred in Venezuela, and Bolivia respectively, and to this list we might add Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Colombia.

But from the perspective of the US voter, the issue has nothing to do with whether or not we “like” Morales, or whether we “like” Maduro (of Venezuela); it pertains to constant, unrelenting US interference in the legitimate policies and activities of other countries. (what the US-government likes to call “regime change.”)

The US itself does not exactly lag behind harboring its own criminal leaders. It may be time once again to stop exporting coups, and import the coup home to roost.

Sign  Code Pink’s invitation for a UN presence in Bolivia at

http://www.codepink.org/bachelet?recruiter_id=7859 

Sanctions kill, too: Sign to denounce US imposed sanctions at

https://sanctionskill.org/

Don’t get pushed into the oven of climate change: Join XR at the S.F. Opera House, 391 Van Ness in S.F. at 1:30 PM Saturday Nov. 30, and Sunday, Dec. 1 at 1:30 PM at

https://www.facebook.com/events/1133921546813890/?event_time_id=1133921553480556

Join Extinction Rebellion Thanksgiving Hunger Strike and climate emergency rallies at House Speaker Pelosi’s office and home

Wednesday, Nov. 27, 12-1:30 90 7^th st. to deliver demand letter.

Thursday, Nov. 28, 11 AM-3 PM Pelosi mansion: 2640 Bway @Scott ST., S.F.

Demand Congress pass the Climate Equity Act to address environmental racism at: 

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-the-petition-demand-congress-address-environmental-racism-and-climate-equity?source=2019ClimateEquity_DK&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.actblue.com%2Fdonate%2Fdkclimate2019%3Frefcode%3D20191030ClimateEquitySW&link_id=1&can_id=447ac5b0d7a5124338b20f2bb702d0f8&email_referrer=email_663784&email_subject=sign-the-petition-demand-congress-pass-the-climate-equity-act

Demand Rep. Eliot Engel hold a Defund Occupation of Palestine now at

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-representative-eliot-engle-hold-a-defundoccupation-hearing?link_id=1&can_id=4d8abb95a7895a1648b41bfa1ad2bb3b&source=email-we-need-to-get-louder-fwd-the-first-step-to-defundoccupation&email_referrer=email_669073&email_subject=we-need-to-get-louder-fwd-the-first-step-to-defundoccupation

Remove racist Stephen Miller from office at:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-stephen-miller-is-a-white-nationalist-he-must-be-removed-from-office?source=2019RemoveMiller_PFAW&referrer=group-pfaw

Block Keystone XL Pipeline at

https://action.foe.org/page/14806/action/1?ea.tracking.id=Email&ea.url.id=331901&forwarded=true

In Bay Area, Join Women in Black Friday Nov. 19, at 11:45 at Powell BART, march to Union Square at

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/11/14/18828119.php

International

Brazil Federal Supreme Court trules inmates who’ve not exhausted their appeals should not be incarcerated, releasing Lula da Silva, and at least 5,000 more.

International Energy Agency annual report list, although decrying slow progress in transportation and equity, reported solar and offshore wind installation progress.

European Ivestment Bank to end fossil fuel financing within the next two years.

Protesters block Iraq port as general strikes take hold.

Ecuador lawmakers reject president’s proposed economic measures calculated to pay for  IMF $4.2 billon loan..

French yellow vest resisters celebrate first birthday with planned labor strikes.

Now that the UK government holds Assange. Sweden drops bogus sex charges against him.

Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority forces US Army jet to quit Pakistani airspace.

Chile: Human  Rights violations may lead to Piñera’s impeachment.

Youth shut down OAS Secy General Luis Almagro’s talk in Paraguay.

National Layers Guild condems military coup in Bolivia.

Israeli PM Netanyahoo indicted for bribery and fraud.

UN Security Council rebukes US stance on Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements.

31 US organizations denounce violent repression in Bolivia.

Triggered by President Duque’s labor reforms and cuts to pension system, hundreds of thousands people join national strike in Colombia.

In Brazil, lula vows to battle for democracy against Bolsonaro push to destroy progress in Brazil.

Sixty doctors demand immediate medical attention for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Pope calls for world without nuclear weapons claiming they are “an affront crying out to heaven.”

National

Feeding the hungry and slaking their thirst is not a crime: Scott Warren found not guilty of all charges rescuing people in the desert.

Bureau of Land Management temporarily suspends 130 oil and gas leases because it forgot to factors in climate change before leasing them.

Over 120K public comments on Keystone XL submitted to US State Department.

After recanvass, Ky Governor Matt Bevin concedes race to Democrat Andy Beshear.

Hunger strike by Extinction Rebellion continues in Speaker Pelosi D.C. office.

Conservationists intervene against effort to dam Little Colorado River half a mile from the Grand Canyon.

Harvard students walk out of Israel envoy talk.

Shouting “OK boomer,” hundreds of activists delay Harvard-Yale football game in climate protest.

Sanders fastest presidential candidate in history to reach 4 million donations.

Regardless of party affiliation, poll shows 66% of key early state voters support ending production of fossil fuels.

Nearly 100K petitions delivered to PBS backing call for prime time impeachment hearings.

Bernie calls it in Bolivia: “when the military intervenes” a coup pure and simple.

Massive Cricket Valley fracked gas plant shut down by NY protesters.

Tulsi Gabbard criticizes own party for fossilism during Democratic debate.

Atlanta rail line tied to Turkish State shut down in solidarity with Rojava Kurds.

Judge halts all scheduled federal executions, effectively freezing Trump effort to resume death penalty.

Billboards for World Children’s Day call for freedom of detained children in the US.

UN condemns US for world’s highest rate of children in detention.

Veteran Congresswoman Betty McCollum introduces legislation prohibiting US funding to any foreign military that detains children, including Israel.

Top Navy SEAL Rear Admiral Collin Green defies Donald Trump’s pardon of Eddie Gallagher for shooting Iraqi civilians.

Federal court rules that Trump administration was at fault failing to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

US journalists sue Trump DHS over “coordinated attack” on press freedom.

Citing white nationalist e-mails, over 100 Dem lawmakers sign letter demanding Stephen Miller resign.

Bill transitioning US to 100% clean energy by 2050 introduced in Congress.

BDS campaign targeting Portland Trailblazers partnership with Leupold & Stevens, manufacturers of rifle scopes used by Israeli occupying army wins.

Brookline, Mass. bans natural gas and oil in new home construction.

Court rules against “Secure Communities” dragnet fueled by ICE reliance on massive data collection.

Federal Court blocks Trump’s asylum ban

Shareholders urge 5 major banks to act now on climate.

26 health organizations, led by Physicians for Social responsibility, submit comments to EPA opposing rollback of new source performance standards for oil and natural gas industry.

California

Times Up! Extinction Rebellion occupies Pelosi office, launching global hunger strike for climate action at Thanksgiving.  

22 mayors want PG&E to become customer owner coop.

Gov. Newsome signs bill allowing California cities and towns to establish public banks.

Climate groups applaud Gov. Newsom’s temporary fracking ban.

Lawsuit launched against Trump EPA for failing to enforce smog rules in California.

Cops put GPS tracker on man’s car, charge him with theft for removing it.

IN THEIR OWN VOICES

This week the newsletter highlights the voices of three other women.

 

Emily Amelia:  The Wall 

Yesterday I went to Al Wappia/Quitobaquito springs on Hia C’ed O’ooham land with some friends.  In the lead up to this, we’d been driving through the desert putting out water on trails and my mind wandered between the delight with the plants and humans I was spending time with, and scenes of stories of migrating here. The stories aren’t mine. They were told to me by  people I’ve met and loved, who’ve traveled this desert, and who don’t necessarily tell them publicly. They already bear the brunt of the pain plus the cost of telling their stories is total life-changing displacement and violence. They’re stories of drinking dirty water from abandoned cattle troughs, losing all supplies and companions in the rock splitting windstorm of a low-flying border patrol helicopter, thinking only of their life-threatening thirst [and] their beloveds, miles away…. 

"Twenty wall panels"

Quitobaquito is a clear blue body of water  in the Sonoran Desert. It is a ceremonial site of the Hia C’ed People and gives life to the whole [of] everything around it. Yesterday we saw a baby Sonoran desert tortoise get carried along the source stream current through pupfish territory towards green reeds and its deeper adult swimming hole. My friends and community members’ families lived here and took care of this everything before Quitobaquito Village was [purchased and erased by #organpipenationalmonument. When I visit now because I didn’t value it  fully until it was under threat and because now I finally do, and because it will be irreparably damaged when the wall goes up.

And then, driving home along the bottom half of the long loop through western organ pipe, we came upon these 20 wall panels. I don’t know when they went up—it must have just happened. I stopped breathing. Honestly, it reminded me of times in my life we I’ve heard horrible true news that I knew would change me, but that I couldn’t possibly process at the rate of its unfolding, news about death and violence. We parked the trucks and watched. I had the thoughts, what does it mean if a heart breaking thing is happening and people’s hearts aren’t breaking?

Barbara Brust: It’s cold outside

Consider The Homeless does what it can to keep people alive.
Please consider making  a tax-free contribution (see below). 

We pay, out of our own pockets, about $300 a week in order to serve a hot homemade soup (stew) every Thursday & Sunday night, to over 100 people a night. this is for the ingredients only! It does not include the gasoline, insurance, registration, inspection, etc....for the vehicle and the myriad…other expenses that come up!

In close to 5 years of doing this there has been only 2 nights we
missed. It takes six people working for between 2-6 hours, as  volunteers, to get the van out every time we do a soup run! That is 12 people a week! 48 people a month!  just for the soup run!!!!

We also fill the van with survival supplies: blankets, socks, pants, jackets, etc....And for what? So their belongings can be confiscated by CalTrans?  So the Berkeley Police Department can harass them, to have their tent [torn] down and all property in a 3’ X 3’ footprint [confiscated?] Even though they are not blocking anyone's right of way they get cited if they do not comply and are forced to be sitting unsheltered in the elements until 10 pm when they are allowed to put their tents back up, people [who] are disabled, mentally challenged, medically in need of care and no one helps! people will die!!!

How can we call this a Sanctuary City? A sanctuary for who? Housed [people] only??? What about the poor??? It is winter now!!!  Cold! I bet all of you have the heat on in your comfortable houses... I don't.  I cannot afford to pay PG&E. I am disabled and busy as hell in spite of that trying to help those in a far worse condition than mine!

Stop looking at homelessness as a problem. Cancel that study, How to solve the problem of "Homelessness." Stop wasting funds the City of Berkley has on enforcing cruel and potentially illegal laws on persecuting the un-housed. Shift your paradigm to see it for what it is...a human crisis! Stop focusing on (allegedly) trying to solve the problem of homelessness! We all know what the real agenda is. It is not getting rid of Homelessness, but rather, it is getting rid of the Homeless! The sidewalk ordinance is torture! I will never forget when Jesse [Arreguin, Mayor of Berkeley] said, and I quote: "[the sidewalk ordinance..] is not about people, but about property" I still have a copy of the video from that meeting…. It is about abuse [that] targets the unhoused... It [represents] a waste of [money] and resources to enforce it.

We (at Consider the Homeless!) cannot supply all of our neighbors on the streets with a hot meal twice a week and supply all of them with warm jackets, tents & blankets! Forty pads on the floor of Old City Hall will not protect even 4% of the un-sheltered on our streets when the rains start... and how inhumane is it to just make them leave at 7 am with no place to go?

I have sat here writing this letter while both crying and feeling my blood pressure rise. If this touched you at all, please send a check, made out to Consider The Homeless to PO Box #2771, Berkeley, CA. 94702.  I am even willing to write a receipt for tax purposes for those of you with incomes high enough to use the deduction. If you write BLANKETS in the space at bottom, I can assure you that that is what it will be used for….

 YES, I am angry, I am sure you can see that. I challenge all officials of the City of Berkeley (both elected and assigned) to read this all the way through, all the way! I also ask that you acknowledge receipt of this email and show me the respect of replying.

Val Eisman: Pictures Shout Louder Than Words

Methane escaping from Siberian Arctic Ocean

Demand Congress pass The Green New Deal at

https://www.paction.us/greennewdeal/daily-kos?link_id=11&can_id=655968a96e1bce05c463b2f640bf633c&source=email-william-barr-is-racing-to-deliver-a-report-that-blows-up-the-impeachment-inquiryand-everything-else-2&email_referrer=email_660838___subject_858567&email_subject=rape-survivor-turns-down-judges-offer-of-150000-in-exchange-for-attacker-serving-less-time

Hold ICE accountable for deaths in detention at

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-asylum-seeker-nebane-abienwi-died-in-ice-custody-we-demand-answers?detail=emailLL&link_id=14&can_id=447ac5b0d7a5124338b20f2bb702d0f8&source=email-cartoon-those-woke-kids-today&email_referrer=email_662230&email_subject=cartoon-those-woke-kids-today

Rodney Reed is Innocent. No Death Penalty, not in Texas, no where. Sign at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/rodney-reed-is-innocent-free-him-now?clear_id=true&source=email-rodney-reed-update-all-eyes-on-the-us-supreme-court

Keep an innocent man alive. Attend a day of action for Rodney Reed Saturday at

https://www.mobilize.us/actionpac/?page=2&per_page=25&utm_source=frrwebsite / Search website by location proximity, and date.

Donate to Consider the Homeless at PO Box #2771, Berkeley, CA. 94702. Your check is tax-deductible.

European Investment Bank, the world’s largest public bank ditches oil and coal citing ‘Beginning of the end of climate-wrecking fossil-fuel finance.’

Sierra Club takes a brave new turn on population, climate change, and inequality.

‘No More Fossil Lovers!’  Beyond Extreme Energy disrupts hearing for new FERC commissioner.

City and County of Honolulu votes unanimously to support UN Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Back from the Brink Framework to reduce possibility of nuclear war.

Oakland Representative Barbara Lee signs on to HR-2419, the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Coversion Act of 2019.

In Detroit a new type of agricultural neighborhood emerges.

Equal Citizens wins landmark case against super PACs in Alaska.

Code Pink disrupts Jamie Dimon’s UCLA-sponsored conversation.

China announces vision for future: ‘Give Peace a Chance.’

In Brazil, Lula da Silva freed from prison in victory for movement resisting racist Bolsonaro.

Brazilians march against Bolsonaro and his ties to murder of activist.

‘We don’t want any dictators,’ waving indigenous flag, Bolivians flood La Paz streets to protest right-wing, anti-indigenous group lead by Jeanine Añez who referred to them as ‘satanic.’.

Millions of people take to Santiago’s streets demanding Piñera’s resignation.

Chilean activists sue Piñera over crimes against humanity during protests.

Resisting U.S. pressure, Thailand bans Monsanto.

Students walk out all over the U.S. to demand Supreme Court Defend DACA.

UPS workers elect progressives to lead Philadelphia local.

One thousand take NYC streets and trains in outrage over police attacks on teens.

Alliance to Mobilize our Resistance and allies protest companies invested in Wyatt prison .

South Carolina prisoners appeal to UN for relief from torturous conditions.

Inmates create a Japanese garden inside the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin, the son of two incarcerated parents, scores major victory in San Francisco DA race.

Democrats win control of major suburban  Philadelphia county first time since Civil War.

Democrats flip GOP seat in St. Louis suburbs.

Democrats win full control of Virginia government, laving way for voting rights expansion.

Citing deep commitment to Medicare for All and Green New Deal, nation’s largest nurses union endorses Bernie Sanders for president.

In ground breaking ruling, U.S. must provide mental health services to separated families.

Julián Castro accompanies refugee to one routine ICE check=ins that can now result in deportation.

Bernie Sanders releases detailed immigration plan, including vow to break up ICE and Customs and Border Patrol.

Judge blocks administration’s onerous health care mandate for immigrants.

Asylum seekers get attorney access before return to Mexico.

Sanders and AOC unveil “Green New Deal for Public Housing.’

US Judge rules suspicionless searches of travelers electronic devices unconstitutional.

Local Mayors back movement for customer-owned PG&E.

   

Mother Nature does a ‘mic drop’ as Venice City Council Chamber floods minutes after members vote down climate crisis.