Drones Fly, Children Die

Last week, marking the 17^th anniversary of the Afghan War, I joined my friends and colleagues at Creech Air Force Base at Indian Springs, Nevada, home of the Predator (formerly Reaper) Drones to protest extra judicial killings in all the countries drones operate: including Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Mali, Syria, and Somalia,  We were a varied crew from places as far distant as Iowa, Salt Lake, Reno, Indiana, Colorado, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Mexico, including professors of anthropology and linguistics, a Menonite activist who walks Palestinian children safely to school past the Israeli checkpoints two months a year, and a former U.S. diplomat and participant in the Gaza flotilla delivering a boat load of medicines intended for Gaza but detained till further notice by the Israeli government. Our week of protest was organized by Code Pink, in collaboration with Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence and local groups. Some of us protest in the hope that eventually we will shut down Creech and the military machine that now consumes over 62% of the national budget to the detriment of infrastructure maintenance, environment, health, welfare, and education, which receive percentages in the meager single digits. Some of us think we cannot change a waroholic government, but we don’t want that government to change us. We are a motley but cheerful crew of Code Pink organizers as our goofy picture shows.   

 

(For Creech religious practices see: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7218921764613108785#editor/target=post;postID=3754103717847685258;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=41;src=postname)

Valiantly we displayed our banners (Kill by Drone, Reap the Whirlwind) from 6 to 9 AM and from 3 to 5 PM as hundreds of cars streamed past us entering and leaving the base, most operated by their single drivers hailing from 70 miles away in Las Vegas. We sustained  seven arrests, one of them unintended because no warning was given, one public stripping of a female organizer, and jail holds lasting in excess of 30 hours in the Clark County Detention Center, one of the worst jails in the United States. Said one detainee: “Not a place for human beings., A place for slaves.” And while children are killed, the drones drone on from sun up to sunset, and we protest in a barren landscape under its vast skies and towering thunderheads in a weather system building up from storms as far south as Baja, with gale force winds, and rain, lightning and thunder in the desert. 

 

Asymmetrical  Warfare

The U.S. drone program dates from the events of 9/11, growing exponentially by 2018 with drone bases scattered as far as Niger and Chad. Its rationale was to prevent our “brave young men and women” from the inconveniences of combat, in favor of shedding blood other than theirs, a system which has proved to have unfortunate consequences: it facilitates extra judicial killings, without trial judge or jury, it destroys societies unable any longer to conduct weddings and funerals out of danger, or to shop, go to school, attend evening prayer, herd goats, or farm; for every “terrorist” it takes out, statistics show that it spills the blood of innocent civilians, many of them children; it creates more enemy-terrorists than it is designed to kill, and perhaps worst of all: its pilots still suffer from PTSD.

 

Destabilization

While we were at Creech, we entertained the company of Ray McGovern, former intelligence analyst for the CIA in the good old days before spooks scurried under its umbrella, corrupting an organization by inherent conflict of interest, namely in its tendency now “fixing” the intelligence to justify military action.  Among other things, he brought to our attention an article uncensored by the New York Times of Sept. 6, 2018, in which Jodi Rudoren quotes Nathan Thrall, a Jerusalem-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, quoting him as saying “The perpetuation of the [Syrian] conflict is absolutely serving Israel’s interest,” because destabilization of the middle East countries surrounding Israel keeps their threat to manageable levels. Drone warfare is encouraged by Israel with the help of the United States acting as its enforcer state.

Profit

But a third factor keeping the skids of dronewar greased is that of profit for such corporations as the two leading drone manufacturers, Northrup Grumman, maker of the  Global Hawk with a flight time of 32 hours, and a unit cost of $131.4 million, and General Atomics, a privately held corporation, and maker of the Predator, now rebranded as Reaper drone, with a stay in the air capability of 14 hours, at a unit cost of  $16.9 million. Figures for the privately held company are hard to establish, but Northrup Grumman showed $22.8 billion in sales in 2018. Basking in an income tax rate of just 19.5 %, its profits for Q2 of 2018 stand at  $7.l billion. As George Bush famously advised  President Kirchner of Argentina, when that country was on the verge of economic collapse. “War is good for business.”

Racism

Yet a fourth irrationalization for the use of drones applies, such that with the exception of Germany in World War II, the United States’ preferred enemies are always people of color, especially people of color whose territories and resources it covets. 

 

The chief dysfunction guiding the U.S. military/industrial/prison complex is the racism it publicly displays with the election of its current administration by a huge proportion of its voters. 

Meantime, we occupy the highway outside Creech AFB, wondering how many casualties, how many prosthetic arms and legs the drone whirlwind may reap during the scant hours we maintain our vigil, banners aloft, (17 years in Afghanistan. Enough!) and the ingeniously constructed stanchions and ballast holding them against the occasionally

hurricane force winds that compete with them, wonderstruck at the immense skies surrounding us, the swales of sunlight radiating between menacing thunderheads, breakthrough sunlight firing the surrounding mountains in bright colors, and the endless stretch of desert, all reminders that this Earth is an island, one of millions of similar islands marking their trajectories throughout the universe, some of them perhaps peopled by more peaceful and intelligent life than ours.

End the war in Afghanistan.

Urge your Representative to sign on to end the war in Yemen.

Give journalists access to immigrant detention centers.

Submit your comments to the National Park Service why you oppose charging fees for protests, making scheduling impossible and restricting White House sidewalks.

Stop a new nuclear warhead.

 

International

In 1989, Brazil’s Porto Allegre became the world’s first city where residents participate in budgetary decisions, Three decades later the practice has become widespread in over 3000 municipalities.

Indonesia bans new palm oil plantations.

Chile convicts 20 Pinochet-era intelligence agents for their role kidnapping and murdering 12 victims of CIA-backed Operation Condor.

International Court investigates the U.S. and U.K.’s mass expulsion of  the indigenous Chagossian people, from Diego Garcia.

Green Party endorses letter to the ICC requesting that it investigate crimes committed  by Israel.

Fighting for the poor and disenfranchised, Renata Souza steps into the role of assassinated  councilwoman, Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro..

AMLO’s landslide election raises hopes for Mexican labor.

Environment

Ohio hospital treats whole neighborhood as ‘patient,’ diagnosing the cause as “unstable housing.”

Pakistan plants more than a million trees.

Australian real estate developer Lendlease is supporting a 200 MW solar power project which has secured a town approval and a tax abatement in East Texas.

Putting world on notice, Dutch court orders government to move faster on emissions cuts.

Cleveland, Ohio aims for 100% renewables as it sheds its fossil fuel past.

Federal judge strikes down the administration’s decision to remove the greater Yellowstone grizzly bear from the endangered species list, thereby reinstating federal protection for the bears.

Black residents of  Greensborough, N.C. open food co-op, the first of its kind in the nation.

Kentucky’s Mountain Association for Community Economic Development announces energy conservation jobs have come to coal country.

Denver requires “green” rooftops on all new  buildings exceeding 25,000 square feet.

Zero emission buses move a giant step loser to becoming commonplace in California.

Solar United launches Solar for All to provide free local solar to all of Washington D.C.’s low income families over the next fifteen years.

Justice

Dallas police officer who killed an innocent unarmed black man in his own home is fired.

Officials in Hartford Connecticut roll out ordinance preventing deceptive advertising in faith-based pregnancy centers that use anti-choice messaging to target those seeking abortion and contraception services.

California is first in the nation to ensure water or milk comes standard with children’s meals at restaurants.

John McDonnell of the UK Labour Party unveils policy requiring large corporations gradually to place 10% of their equity into an inclusive Ownership Fund owned by workers.

Two whistleblower attorneys announce that a joint client received a whistleblower award from the IRS of $13.6 million dollars by providing information leading to the government collecting over $52.6 million dollars in taxes, penalties, and interest.

Jury finds police officer Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder in the 2014 murder of black teenager, Laquan McDonald..

Amazon whose CEO is richest man in the world, concedes $15 hour floor wage.

Across the U.S. states and 92 cities, among them San Francisco and Cincinnati, ditch Columbus Day to honor indigenous peoples.

Governor Brown signs A.B. 829 and 2162 to eliminate local barriers to housing homeless people.

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

U.S. won’t appeal court order freeing pizza delivery man from ICE custody.

Citing shithole countries slur, judge blocks administration from ending immigration protections.

Udall and 12 other democrats introduce bill to battle suppression of the American Indian vote.

Colorado, Michigan,  Missouri and Utah vote on redistricting reforms in November.

Senate Democrats introduce bill mandating body cameras at ICE.

At last Feds arrest SoCal racists for violence in Charlottesville.

Resistance

Dozens of students, faculty, and community members demonstrated at John Hopkins University demanding the university end its relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Charges dismissed for Roman Catholic woman priest and others who sat in Rep. Steny Hoyer’s office demanding he speak out against U.S. involvement in Yemen. 

Workers at Diamond Freight in Yakima band together to sue a local trucking company for wage theft.

Rapid Response pro-immigrant networks spread nationwide.

Medea Benjamin of Code Pink confronts official at hearing on Iran.

Yale cancels some classes as law students protest Brett Kavanaugh nomination.

Los Angeles puts city-owned bank on the ballot.

Peace

UN court issues interim order to U.S. lifting some Iran sanctions.

House resolution directs the president to end U.S. support for Yemen War.

The House and Senate in a rare display of partisan accord, pass measure to address the opioid epidemic.  

South Korea’s leader urges U.S. to end the Korean war.

Pyongyang agrees to start denuclearization process.

Moon and Kim stage exuberant summit in Pyongyang.

Koreans begin removing land mines from the DMZ to ease military tensions.

Inside Out with the Climate Summit

The Global Climate Summit held in San Francisco from Sept. 11 – 14^th, 2018, showcased Jerry Brown who had just signed the bill which mandates that California’s becomes a carbon free economy by  2045. Outside, a gathering of nearly a thousand activists, some locked down to barricade the main entrance to Moscone Center, connected to each other by mock ups of oil barrels. They, and their fellow demonstrators, were drawing global attention to the governor’s hands, because while his right may have signed the bill, his left continues to grant leases and otherwise support fracking and drilling for oil in the State of California, the world seventh greatest economy.

The two-faced Janus game played by this governor does not reflect that time is running short. With California plagued by mega fires reducing whole towns to moonscapes, with mega storms affecting the coast of the Carolinas, waiting is no longer an option. More than 4,000 people. businesses, activists and officials convened at the Global Climate Action to step up climate action for Mother Earth. At last, it seems that the do-it-yourself movement of climate change may be reaching critical mass. For example, Mayor Garcetti proposed a program of discounts for electric cars; a fleet of hydro-buses, and scaled up public transportation, setting the benchmark for cities nation- and world-wide. The French group, Charbon 14 and EcoVia dissected corporate behavior, emphasizing shareholder and political pressure tactics. Indigenous people and folks from Polynesia streamed live, many of them deeply concerned by sea-level rise.  Nordstroms top floor housed an exhibit by Dutch designers displaying solutions including roadway solar panels. Other groups addressed agricology, carbon sequestration, ocean carbon sink, and agroforestry, framing their discussions around eco-friendly approaches to soil, forest, and water remediation.

Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji and COP23 president, and Jerry Brown hosted a high-level Talanoa Dialogue on the rapid transition to net-zero emission societies. Fiji has sold a substantial area of its lands to Kiribati, (the Gilbert Islands) in some places a mere 2 feet above sea level, which are preparing for the necessary evacuation of their home as sea levels obliterate their islands. Twenty-nine philanthropists pledged $4 billion, including $600 million by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, over the next five years to combat climate change, their giving primarily directed to cities and states propounding new initiatives, and with the anticipation that their movement will inspire on-going action toward climate mitigation.

Road-based solar panels

Powering Past Coal Alliance announced 10 new members, among them New York State, Minnesota, Connecticut, and the cities of Honolulu, and Los Angeles, as well as  whole territories in 4 foreign countries. UN climate change presented a revamped version of its Climate Action Portal. For example, some studies indicate that already by 2030, global greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered by as much as 1.5. to 2.2 gigatons of CO2 every year.

Agricology

Continued global leadership includes:

Over 100 mayors, state and regional leaders and CEOs committing to becoming emissions neutral by 2050 at the outside and in line with the 1.2 degree goal of the Paris Agreement;

488 businesses setting science-based targets to ensure they are part of the climate solution;

 

More than 60 CEOs state and regional leaders and mayors committing to delivering a 100% zero-emission transport future by 2030, putting us on an irreversible road towards decarbonization;

38 cities, major businesses, state and regional governments committing to net-zero carbon buildings, cutting emissions equivalent  to more than 50 coal-fired power stations;

More than 100 indigenous groups, state and local governments, and businesses launching a forest, food, and land-focused coalition to deliver 30% of climate solutions needed by 2030; and

Nearly 400 investors, with $32 trillion under management, working to ensure a low-carbon transformation of the global economy with the urgency required to meet the challenge.

The top solutions heard at the Global Climate Action Summit:

Empowering young people to fight for their future.

Respecting indigenous rights.

Many U.S. States stepping up commitments to the Paris Agreement.

Pushing businesses to go green.

Accelerating momentum for electric vehicles.

Harnessing forests and lands to meet the Paris Agreement.

Record-breaking investing for climate action.

Inside, both at the Moscone Center venue, and at the affiliate event venues about town, notably those in the Mission District where Soil Not Oil held its two-day events, we heard another story. It was the narrative of people belonging to associations and groups which seem finally to have realized Governments weren’t going to lift much weight other than adjusting their microphones, and that despite all the fine talk at Doha, and other venues as the years of climate devastation continue to take their toll, waiting for them to take decisive steps is not an option.

Sign the petition to #seizethegrid for 100% clean energy by 2030.

Sign the petition  to the Senate supporting the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Sign the petition to the Representatives in Congress supporting the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act.

Contact your Senators and Representatives urging them to reign in support for the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.

Make sure you are on the voter rolls in time for the 2018 election.

Nuclear

Oyster Creek, nation’s oldest decaying NPP shuts down permanently.

San Clemente City demands answers to “serious near miss” at San Onofre.

National Environmental Coalition files legal challenge against Holtec/ELEA mega-dump for irradiated nuclear fuel and its proposal to transport high-level radioactive waste by truck, train and barge through most states.

Feds agree to a $925.000 safety settlement, improving Hanford worker safety as they clean up the polluted Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Resistance

Following a public outcry, ACLU stops a $1 billion dollar funding increase for ICE to expand immigrant detention and enforcement.

Pressured by activists, California defeats A.B. 813, a bill that would have given up California’s control over its energy grid to outside states and to the administration.

German citizens squat in Hambacher Forest to protest the mining of coal which destroys whole villages and the health of human beings.

Immigrant rights advocates, some holding their children’s hands, others carrying babies in their arms, walked out of a Senate Homeland “Security” and Government Affairs Committee hearing in protest of the Administration’s effort to keep migrant children detained indefinitely.

Judge blocks Monsanto subpoena to collect activists’ personal information.

Landowners file constitutional challenge to Bay Bridge’s claim to eminent domain in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin.

Austin, TX becomes the latest major city to declare itself a freedom city, protecting undocumented immigrants and people guilty of minor misdemeanors.

Verizon cuts its ties with ALEC.

For the third time, community activists and indigenous leaders install solar panels in the path of Keystone XL pipeline.

Harvard students, arguing that his tenure is prejudicial to women law students, demand that the school investigate Kavanaugh before allowing his return.

A million press for independence, demanding the release of political prisoners and the return of exiles and demanding a free Catalonia.

Energy

First hydrogen trains begin rolling in Germany.

Carbon fee makes Washington State ballot.

Global Fossil divestment movement reaches $6.24 trillion in assets under management. Up from $53 billion four years ago, nearly 1000 institutional investors including insurers, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds, commit to divest from fossil fuels, .

The 2 MG prototype turbine off Orkney generates more electricity in its first 12 months than Scotland’s entire wave and tidal sector.

Ecology

Musim Mas, one of the world’s largest palm oil traders, cuts ties with Conflict Palm Oil producer, Indofood.

In the mountains of the Dominican Republic, the farming village of Los Martinez creates an innovative model for the global transition to regenerative organic agriculture.

Peace

The Canadian Peace Congress, the U.S. Peace Council, and the Mexican Movement for Peace and Development at their fourth meeting declare their opposition to foreign interference, use of economic blackmail, threats of aggression, conspiring to carry out “regime change” and direct military intervention.

Tucson, AZ, protests for peace against Raytheon Missile Systems.

Thanks to grassroots activists, the heads of government of both North and South Korea agree that the era of ‘no war’ has started, including the end of military drills, missile sites closing down, mines dug up, road and rail lines link both Koreas, and they will jointly propose hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics.

The European Parliament passes resolution calling for ban on lethal autonomous weapons.

Civil, Human and Voting Rights

Supreme Court rules that groups that have been able to hide the source of their funding for issue-based campaign ads before and during and after campaigns will have to make that information available before voters go to the polls. 

Prisoners’ Legal Advocacy Network mounts legal responses to widespread and nationally coordinated prisoner abuses in aftermath of 2018 national prison strike.

Ossining’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act is the largest expansion of rent stabilization in New York State in over three decades.

A DC District Court judge orders the FCC to disclose previously unreleased information to assist the public in understanding how millions of fake comments were submitted to the FCC using stolen names and addresses during the 2017 proceedings to repeal net neutrality.

Prompted by activists, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System unanimously adopts a surveillance transparency ordinance, the first transit agency to do so in the nation.

California is on the cusp of the nation’s strongest statewide Net Neutrality bill, requiring only the signature of Governor Brown.

Texas prosecutor targets Border Patrol Agent, Isidro Alaniz for shooting four women in the head.

In major development, as many as 1,000 migrant parents may get a second chance at asylum.

A select group of House and Senate lawmakers agreed to a spending package that includes funding for all of public media programs which the Senate subsequently approved.

Legislation in support of employee ownership names worker cooperatives as a priority for the Small Business Bureau.

Home Insurance

“Our life, tradition and culture are very much dependent on nature and its habitats, and we are determined to protect them. We don’t want our folklore [with] names of so many wild species of birds, plants, animals, and wild flowers to become meaningless to our future generations.”

Nagaland, a far north state of India, is home to the Angami tribe. Although hunting was once their important source of livelihood, and had been their practice for hundreds of years, some 20 years ago they gave up this culturally-entrenched practice. Although their muzzle-loading guns and traps were weapons requiring skill and courage, and were passed down through the generations as a sacred practice, they understood that by giving them up they could create a more stable ecosystem for future generations.

76-year-old former hunter

Not only was it their tradition; they killed animals for their own sustenance. The tragopan, a grey pheasant, especially valued for its meat, became endangered. In 1993, when they discovered its future was threatened, some tribespeople started a campaign to stop hunting altogether. Yielding to pressure, the village council decided to cordon off a 20-square-mile area now closed to hunting, which became known as the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary in 1998. Some tribal members, like Chaiyievi Zhiinyii, (see above)  a skilled hunter all his life, was able to give it up when he was 59 years of age, with years of successful hunting still left to him. 

The depth of their tribe’s sacrifice might be akin to people in the U.S. giving up their cars. In 2011 I did just that. Now I get around on foot, by public transportation, and when the occasion requires it, either because of time constraints or the remote location of my destination, I take a cab. I admit to the sometime inconvenience  of my choice (I am now 86) but I remind myself that I made my decision because life on Mother Earth is endangered and it needs all of our attention now. And I’ve reduced my transportation costs to 33% of what they were when I maintained a car.

Khonoma Village

The Angami tribe is also known for relinquishing logging, jungle burning and the kinds of operations exploiting natural resources and the surrounding forests. Their ecological awareness is reflected in their practice of avoiding the use of pesticides and fertilizers on their exquisitely terraced farm lands, bringing them higher yields. 

Interior Decoration

What is remarkable about the Angami, who still keep the heads of hunted animals inside their homes, is that theirs is no simple sacrifice. It contradicts everything they have known for centuries about living in their world, a knowledge that has come down with them through many generations, whereas for us, the car only became an addiction some time after 1906.

What fossil-fuel-powered, water-guzzling conveniences are we prepared to sacrifice to prolong life on Mother Earth?

More photographs.

Sign.

Read.

Read and donate if you can.

Immigration

In a mere three weeks, a new GoFundMe effort raises over $80,000 for DACA renewals.

Responding to deportation policy,  Californians open their homes to asylum seekers.

Resistance

Kaepernick signed a multi-year deal with Nike as a part of their 30th anniversary celebration of the “Just Do It” campaign with the slogan: “Believe in something, even if it costs you everything.”

Nike’s sale skyrockets 31%

San Francisco guerilla gardeners are turning ornamental trees into free fruit producing surprises.

The Mexican town of Cheran, Michoacan, reverted to an indigenous form of government and kicked out the cops and politicians. Seven years later they experience the lowest crime rates in Mexico.

Pima, Arizona, the largest border county, cancels federal grant requiring collaboration with border patrol.

Atlanta mayor signs order ending relationship with ICE saying “We will no longer be complicit.”

Healthcare advocate block Chicago streets demanding care.

Supported by ILO Convention, 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, indigenous demonstrators gathered to protest the San Francisco Global  Climate Action  Summit.

Prison Strike ends on the anniversary of Attica Prison Massacre.

Protesters disrupt Gov. Jerry Brown’s San Francisco Summit pointing up his hypocrisy supporting more drilling and fracking and corporate casrbon trading.

Unionized judges and public defenders demand due process for immigrants.

Environment

Governor Brown of California signs bill mandating 100% renewables by 2045 into law.

China and California announce plan to collaborate to combat climate change.

The new Spider Solar Project puts the University of Richmond, VA., on a fast track for carbon neutrality.

San Francisco holds the largest climate march in keeping with 748 other climate events around the globe.

In a stunning victory for First Nations, Canada halts Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.

State and local officials announce a $119.5 million settlement of Aliso Canyon in SoCal with SoCalGas, which bears responsibility for a massive gas blowout that is still making people sick.

A legal challenge halts construction of Bayou Bridge Pipeline.

New York divests its pension funds from fossil fuels. Mayor de Blasio calls for unity at the S.F. Climate Summit.

Wood Mackensie Power & Renewables announces despite tariffs, solar contracts exploded in 2018.

Oxnard, California’s existing gas-fired plants have proposed to shut down decades before their expected retirement.  

The California Public Utilities Commission pressed Pacific Gas & Electric to replace three gas-fired plants with energy storage, paving the way for the retirement of the large Metcalf Energy Center in San Jose, and the Feather River Energy and Yuba City Energy Centers in Yuba City.

Federal judge extends an injunction blocking a planned grizzly bear hunt in and around Yellowstone.

Jadav Payeng nurtures 1,360 acres of forest in what was once barren landscape, planting one tree per day for forty years.

Domestic Politics

Representative Pramila Japayal launches Medicare for All PAC.

New NPR/Marist poll shows support for Congressional Republicans collapsing in the Midwest.

Booker releases ‘committee confidential’ Kavanaugh e-mail, risking suspension from the Senate.

Over two hundred national security veterans demand investigation into release of CIA operative’s file.

Ayanna Pressley defeats Rep. Mike Capuano, positioning her to become the first Massachusetts woman of color in Congress.

Following a huge Democratic turnout, Progressives John Liu, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Robert Jackson, and Alessandra Biaggi lead in the New York primaries.

Oakland Police consider less intrusive policy in an effort to reduce warrantless searches.

A student loan lawsuit brought by 19 states defeats Betsy DeVos.

Sanders calls for the establishment of a new international Left.

L.A. is the first city in the nation to put establishing a public bank on the ballot.

Oakland takes a step closer to establishing  a public bank with unanimous committee vote.

Philanthropy

Research funders from 11 European countries announce plan to make scientific work free to read by 2020.

San Diego school cafeteria worker feeds homeless seven nights a week.

Bezos pledges $2 billion fund to homeless and pre-schools.

Environmental group pledges $60 million to green candidates.

A group of philanthropic organizations commits up to $459 million  in support of land-based solutions to climate change in forest restoration and in recognition of indigenous peoples’ and traditional communities’ collective land rights and resource management through 2022.

Human Rights

Indian Supreme Court rules the criminalization of gay sex unconstitutional.

There IS no Planet B

 

Full of exuberance and ingenuity, yesterday's San Francisco’s Market Street was the site of a giant stream of people marching for the climate. The day was punctuated by a 2.8 quake as some 30,000 climate marchers, lead by a contingent of indigenous people from such far flung places as the Brazilian Amazon and Exxon-befouled Ecuador, underscoring how First Nations People are spearheading the movement for recognizing and respecting the rights of Mother Earth because the very survival of their cultures is at stake. Later this week, they will participate in the Climate Summit. The crowds converged at Civic Center where all surrounding streets were painted in circular mandalas in clay, and water based non-toxic paint.

 

The street was a place where, amidst the noise and chaos, people got to embrace one another, disseminate information, and exchange ideas and addresses. Contingents from labor, the sanctuary movement, the anti-nuclear movement (led by Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, and Western States Legal Foundation) Code Pink, Refuse Fascism, and many other organizations took part. Some signs mimicked solar panels; some mimicked white dove-like wind turbines. And one solitary man cupped a papier maché Earth nested in the petals of a giant paper sunflower, balancing it precariously. 

 

But the Market Street on which we marched is a palimpsest of the historical record of a people existing at the limit: recently, green-painted bike lanes to acknowledge that the time for riding vs. driving has come at last, cratered sidewalks attesting to—as Chris Hedges puts it—of a country being hollowed out from the top.

Where are the government regulations that issue license plates allowing driving only on alternate days? Or which ban cars in the inner cities? or subsidize public transportation, or better yet, offer it “free” to all inner cities riders? If other countries can issue such regulations, why can’t the United States? And if the U.S. government can’t do it, why can’t the people of this country set up the parallel government needed to this country get organized?

Without such regulations backing them, at best, climate marches such as yesterday’s are feel good rituals lacking backbones.

You know what to do.  Now it’s up to you.

Environment

California passes a historic bill for 100% clean energy by 2045. 

California Gov. Jerry Brown signs a pair of bills that would effectively prevent new drilling projects off the state’s coasts.

Federal court dismisses pipeline corporation’s lawsuit against Earth First!

DHUMA, a Peruvian cultural and human rights organization, forces the Peruvian government to withdraw the Bear Creek permit to mine in their area.

First Nations celebrate win against Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.

South Africa’s Energy Minister announces his government will drop plans to boost electricity supply from nukes in favor of increasing renewable energy as ZA reduces its reliance on coal.

In a 'Great Victory for Indigenous Communities Everywhere': Canadian Court rescinds Trans Mountain approval.

Ugandan farmers emerge victorious after monthlong occupation of UN office.

Formerly polluted town, Vaxjo, Sweden is recognized by the EU as the greenest city in Europe.

California bans drift gillnets.

Maine South Portland’s tar sands ban upheld in a 'david vs. goliath' pipeline battle.

New Caledonia votes to protect coral reef.

New York City takes Historic Step Toward Cutting Its Top Source of Climate Pollution in big buildings.

Thirty-eight environmental, public-health and community groups called on the Senate to reject a bill provision that would lift the ban on civilian supersonic flight over U.S. soil.

Fracking makes the Colorado ballot.

California State Senate passes AJR-30 and -33, which now go to Governor, Jerry Brown for his signature. When signed and passed on to Washington, California will go on record as a supporter of nuclear disarmament and against first strike use of nuclear weapons

A California bill that would have created a new organization to run electricity grids across the West dies in the legislature as Sacramento lawmakers fear sharing control with coal-dependent states.

Politics Not as Usual

DNC strips superdelegates of first-ballot votes on presidential candidates, meaning that the grassroots CAN win.

Senator Hirono cancels Kavanaugh nominee meeting citing Trump as ‘unindicted co-conspirator.’

Center for Constitution Rights joins 78 other civil rights, environmental, labor, government reform, and other advocacy organizations in signing a letter urging 20 of the largest corporate funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to cut ties with the organization.

January Contreras win Arizona primary, bringing her one step closer to flipping  attorney general seat blue. 

Ayanna wins the Democratic ticket for Massachusetts’ 7th District unseating 20-year Democratic incumbent, Mike Capuano.

Andrew Gillum wins a stunning victory in the Florida primary.

Former combat veteran Martha McSally defeats Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio in Tuesday’s Republican primary in Arizona,

Working Families Party-endorsed David Garcia is declared the winner of his Democratic primary for governor in Arizona.

A federal court again sides with the Common Cause v. Rucho lawsuit, striking down North Carolina’s blatantly gerrymandered congressional map as unconstitutional.

Raquel Teran wins bid for Arizona State Representative.

Poverty

Ninth Circuit affirms right of homeless persons to sleep in public.

Florida court rules as constitutionally protected the Ft. Lauderdale activists who feed the homeless.

A waffling Obama now says he favors “medicare for all.”

Denver’s equity specialists, deal-makers, and policy folks equity specialists, created a first-of-its-kind initiative with $1.2 million in city funding brings hundreds of 21,000 brand-new, vacant apartment units within financial reach of severely rent-burdened families..

Student loan watchdog resigns after rebuking Trump Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for only serving the nation’s most powerful financial companies.

San Francisco erases $32 million in criminal fees for 21,000 people.

Criminal Law

Crowd blocks San Francisco Hall Of Justice to protest police brutality.

California Legislature passes major police transparency measures on internal investigations, body cameras.

Texas police officer Roy Oliver was sentenced for murdering 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, breaking a 45-year paradigm in Dallas County, which has not seen a conviction against an officer in a police-perpetrated shooting death since 1973.

Abused Asylum-Seekers Launch Legal Battle Against ICE And Its “Concentration Camp” Prisons

Texas cuts prison phone call costs by 77% in dramatic win for families of incarcerated.

Federal judge orders Trump to restore DACA.

Engineers say "no thanks" to silicon valley recruiters, citing ethical concerns over immigration.

Federal judge in Seattle grants a nationwide injunction against the Trump Administration, blocking efforts to give felons, domestic violence abusers, and terrorists access to undetectable, 3-D-printed guns. The injunction is in place as long as the case is ongoing.

Labor

NAACP wins victory in  landmark lawsuit alongside Fight for $15 activists in Alabama, where fast-food workers filed a case after the state legislature blocked the City of Birmingham from implementing a law to increase the city’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. 

Alarmed over school privatization, educators in Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the country, voted 98 percent to 2 percent to authorize their first strike in nearly 30 years.

Farm Workers Union signs contract with D’Arrigo Bros.

Privacy

California’s state Assembly approves bill that would not just restore the net neutrality protections enacted under President Obama, but go beyond them, potentially creating the strictest rules in the country. 

Landmark Seventh Circuit decision says fourth amendment applies to smart meter data.

Resistance

FANG shuts down ICE, continues campaign of escalation

Angry French farmers sow Chinese-owned field in investor protest.

Peace activists in St. Charles, Missouri block the entrance to a weapons facility run by arms manufacturer Boeing to protest of the joint US-Saudi war on Yemen.

Peace

California State Senate passes AJR-30 and -33, which now go to Governor, Jerry Brown for his signature. When signed and passed on to Washington, California will go on record as a supporter of nuclear disarmament and against first strike use of nuclear weapons

Democratic lawmakers announce new effort to revoke American support for the "catastrophic" Yemen conflict that has produced the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

International Court of Justice (ICJ) hears Iran lawsuit to have U.S. sanctions lifted.

Spain cancels  $10.6 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

Block Kavanaugh

Because it seems to me that right now, the most urgent task before us is to block Kavanaugh, I want to devote this issue of the newsletter entirely to why we need urgently to do that, and how it can be done.

 

That is what Kavanaugh’s record shows. But here is the clincher: the National Archives lacks the capability to release all the thousands pages of his records to the Senate until early October. That’s how massive they are.  But the hearing is scheduled for just after Labor Day, September 4.

If that weren’t cause enough to delay this hearing until after the November elections, there are now 132 indictments so far, implicating Donald Trump in crimes and misdemeanors, some of them in violation of election rules. He must be defanged of his “presidency” before wreaking any more disaster on this nation.

And of course, there’s the matter of the Republicans blocking Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court, not to mention that the Donald has already taken his own swipe previously in that effort.

Under the influence of Indivisible‘s post card campaign, I wrote 100 e-mail letters to the Senate yesterday. It ate up maybe one and a half hours of my time. Here’s how you can do it too, or if you are a person of busy consequence, you may want to confine your efforts to writing only to the seven wafflers in the Senate.

Here’s the link to the five column spread sheet breaking the list down (left to right) into those who oppose the nomination (26) those who “lean” toward opposing it (18), the wafflers (7), those who tend to support (14) and those who support the nomination (34).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IhksP1EBXbIxirXRILNBOjTH89drJp8im3d2ELnvlSg/edit#gid=1913565360

Please click on the names of as many Senatorial aids as you wish, then copy the name. Paste it onto a blank e-mail, putting Sir: or Madam: (or if you can’t quite determine gender from the name) Sir or Madam: on the subject line.

And finally, if you wish, copy/paste the letter you have generated for all, except the 26 true blue Senators, sign it, include your address, mention that you are a U.S. citizen, and send it off. Please forward this newsletter to all your lists. Send as many letters as you have time and conscience (and genuine alarm) to do. And, if you prefer, please at least consider writing to the 7 Senatorial wafflers.

I include sample letters I sent off yesterday, plus one today to the Wafflers:

To Columns 2 through 5 (see link to spread sheet):

Date

Please convey this message to your Senator:

Senator:

Allow me to remind you that Sandra Day O’Connor whose pivotal vote selected George Bush as an American President, some time later speculated she may have made a mistake.

No one is infallible. For that reason it is critical for you to exercise extreme discretion in evaluating the next Supreme Court Justice, a nomination that may distort American Democracy for years to come.

Let me remind you of Kavanaugh’s qualifications:

He will protect Trump from accountability for the crimes in which he is now implicated.

He will overturn Roe vs. Wade, guaranteeing that millions of American women will be forced into back alley abortions, resulting in many deaths, among them those of women with children, creating many orphans.

He will dismantle what shredded environmental protections remain,  guaranteeing that life on this planet has a limited time left to exist.

He will sabotage the Affordable Care Act at a time when nearly 70% of Americans favor Medicare for All.

He will side with people of wealth over the well being of working people, people on whom this country’s prosperity rests.

Because I know you care about the well being of your country, I strongly urge you to do all in your power to reject his nomination.

Sincerely,

Name

U.S. Citizen

Address

and to those true blue Senators opposing his nomination:

Date

Please convey my message to your Senator:

Dear Senator:

You are one of 26 Senators opposing the nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States Brett Kavanaugh. Between now, August 30 and the hearing slated for September 4, little time remains.

My question is: why is Trump, who is now implicated in a total of 132 indictments, still empowered to nominate people like Kavanaugh to the bench? I urge you please to do all in your power to abort a nomination which will only intensify the Trump disaster that has already reduced our country to a laughing stock.

I don’t need to remind you of Kavanaugh’s qualifications:

He will protect Trump from accountability for the crimes in which he is now implicated.

He will overturn Roe vs. Wade, guaranteeing that millions of American women will be forced into back alley abortions, resulting in many deaths, among them a large proportion those of women with children, creating many orphans.

He will dismantle what shredded environmental protections remain, this in the face of the Sixth Extinction, guaranteeing that life on this planet has a limited time left to exist.

He will sabotage the Affordable Care Act at a time when nearly 70% of Americans favor Medicare for All.

He will side with people of wealth over the well being of working people, people on whom this country’s prosperity rests.

I urge you to aggressively horse trade with those Senators waffling over this critical nomination urging them to grow some spine: Donnelly, Heitkamp, Jones, McCaskill, Manchin, Collins, and Murkowski.

Because you care about the well being of our country, I strongly urge you to do all in your power to reject his nomination.

Sincerely,

Signature

U.S. Citizen

Address

and a sample letter tailored to send to the 7 wafflers:

August 31, 2018

Please convey the message below to your Senator:

Dear Senator:

I urge you to reject the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the SCOTUS. As one of seven Senators whose minds are not yet made up, I want to raise two important questions:

You will be considering a nomination proposed by a president implicated by a total of 132 indictments (so far), among them election law violation.

Doesn’t this circumstance appear ever so slightly aberrant? Or is your hesitation a matter of maintaining parlor room decorum in the face of presidential high office, even if it happens to be occupied by a racketeer?

There is also the matter of Republicans refusing to consider Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court in an election year.  Yet, 2018 is also an election year, one to whose consequences the Republicans imagine they are quite immune.

I urge you to do all in your power to oppose a nomination that will drive the decisive coffin nail in the United States’ pretensions of remaining a democratic state.

I need not remind you of Brett Kavanaugh’s qualifications:

He will protect Trump from accountability for the crimes in which he is now implicated.

He will overturn Roe vs. Wade, guaranteeing that millions of American women will be forced into back alley abortions, resulting in many deaths, among them  those of women with children, creating many orphans.

He will dismantle what shredded environmental protections remain, guaranteeing that life on this planet has a limited time left to exist.

He will sabotage the Affordable Care Act at a time when nearly 70% of Americans favor Medicare for All.

He will side with people of wealth over the well being of working people, people on whom this country’s prosperity rests.

Should the Senate, flying in the face of popular sentiment, confirm this nomination, unpleasant surprises await in 2019.

I strongly urge you to do all in your power to reject his nomination.

Sincerely,

Name

U.S. Citizen

Address