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.

COMPLICITY

Despite my lack of training as an ethicist, I know complicity when I see it, to wit: $735 million additional dollars in U.S. weaponry aid given to Israel, a nation-by-fiat, that is in fact a settler colony with a genocidal instinct baked into it as it aims to clear more and more land for settlement, regardless of who else might happen to live there.

 

Despite massive demonstrations around the world, both in major cities in the U.S. and abroad in solidarity with Palestinians living in occupied Israeli territory, the Biden administration quietly managed to transfer $735 million of military aid, in addition to the $3.8 billion ponied up yearly by U.S. taxpayers which beleaguered Israeli PM, Netanyahoo immediately crowed was the U.S. endorsement of that country's apartheid regime.

 

Netanyahoo happens to be under fire, facing trial for corruption and an election season where he faces defeat after twelve years of his murderous  administration. That he may have ordered this latest Nakba as a distraction may be disputed, but certainly he has benefitted from its smokescreen.

 

People who live in this country, some of whom still care deeply about what happens to other people, many of whom do not resemble them, know the Biden administration could have ended this Nakba the day it began. Instead, it has brought us the gift of nausea with which we are forced to live day by day. We are complicit as long as we tolerate an administration that walks in the footsteps of all our warmongering, foreign-dictator-propping administrations before it.

 

 

We are also at dire risk of seeing those dictator-chickens come home to roost. They may not necessarily wear rows of medals on elaborate uniforms; dictators are also known to favor pin striped suits.

 

 

DEMAND Biden hold Israel’s apartheid government accountable        

 

SIGN ON to Boycott & Divest

 

DONATE to deliver essential supplies to Palestinian elders in Gaza and West Bank.

 

 

UN opens Israeli war crimes probe following war on Gaza, calls for embargo.

 

China to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Palestine.

 

Outrage over Israel’s human rights violations fuels global BDS movement.

 

Bennett receives support from party to join govt. that will oust Netanyahoo.

 

Chile is reborn: a political earthquake emerges from the streets.

 

Mexican Supreme Court rules in favor of Humún Mayan community.

 

Ireland supports landmark motion to condemn Israel ‘de facto annexation’ of Palestine.

 

In UK activists shut down second Israeli arms factory in a week.

 

200,000 protest against Israel in London.

 

Despite massive losses, Palestinians have altered the course of history.

 

In Netherlands court rules shell must cut CO2 emissions 45% by 2030.

 

Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Founder Satyarthi, a Nobel winner urges world leaders to waive vaccine patents.

 

Across India, protestors mark six months historic farmers’ agitation.

 

Welsh court rules Government has a duty to protect the young from the harms of climate change.

 

Qatar sends rare disease drug to Iran amid U.S. sanctions.

 

Workers at Canada’s steel giant ArcelorMittal go on strike.

 

Canada’s Trudeau orders flags lowered for indigenous childrens’ remains found at site of residential school in British Columbia.

 

UK university students demand end to university complicity with Israeli Apartheid.

 

UK animal rights group blockades McDonalds.

 

Hundreds of musicians in UK and U.S. sign onto BDS letter.

 

CPJ calls for immediate release of seriously ill Egyptian journalist Gamal Al-Gamal.

 

Environmentalists warn Biden not to abandon climate plans to appease GOP.

 

Dockworkers boycott Israeli ships until total liberation of Palestine.

 

Activists delay Israeli ship Volans trying to dock in Port of Oakland.

 

U.S. Jews increasingly breaking with Israel to support Palestinian liberation.

 

Sanders calls for ‘hard look’ at billions in annual U.S. military air to Israel.

 

Not fast enough department: As frustration grows over GOP obstruction, progressives intensify demands to kill filibuster,

 

500+ former Biden campaign staffers urge president to denounce Israeli violence.

 

Biden EPA reverses #45 ‘secret science’ rule.

 

Climate activists want $10 trillion for infrastructure.

 

Bill saying #NoMuslimBanEver passes the House.

 

Senate Finance Committee advances clear energy for America Act with $12,000 electric vehicle credit.

 

Tech workers at Google, Apple and show solidarity with Palestinians.

 

Tech corporations Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s parent Company Alphabet face rising pressure from shareholder activists.

 

In ’seismic shift for big oil’ activist investors score surprise win with ExxonMobil board seats.

 

Kristen Clark confirmed.

 

Dems reintroduce SANE Act to slash $73 billion from ‘insane’ spending on nuclear arsenal.

 

Fed up with GOP games, Dems say they’re ready to move ahead on legislation.

 

Warren bill would nearly triple IRS budget to go after wealthy tax cheats.

 

Warren and progressives mount major push to break up Facebook and Amazon.

 

Warren slams Jamie Dimon over overdraft fees amid pandemic/

Sanders says no way to $10 billion taxpayer handout to Bezos’ space company.

 

‘Stop monopoly madness’: Biden urged to block Amazon’s $8.5 billion purchase of MGM.

 

DC AG sues Amazon for alleged monopolistic price-fixing.

 

Rashida Tlaib demands social media companies stop censoring Palestinians.

 

Advocates hail ruling striking down ‘unconstitutional’ Georgia anti-BDS law.

 

San Francisco teachers union endorses BDS mission.

 

Growing International movement calls for a “people’s vaccine.”

 

Advocates applaud state AG’s call for review of proposed ‘cancer alley’ petrochemical plant.

 

Human Rights Watch categorizes Israel as an apartheid state guilty of ‘crimes against humanity.’

 

New York State legislature introduces “Dignity Not Detention Act” to end ICE detention.

 

Washington Spectator major exposé reveals how state health authority downplayed Wi-Fi health risks to school kids and omitted scientific research showing harm.

 

Marijuana legalization profits boom for state governments.

 

Georgia-based disability rights groups join fight against Georgia’s anti-voter law S.B. 202.

 

DA drops charge against N. Carolina reporter arrested wile covering march to polls.

 

Decrying ‘catastrophic harm’ ACLU files challenge against Arkansas transgender healthcare ban.

 

Economic study shows why ‘saving the planet’ is not a jobs killer.

 

Paterson N.J. activists push to invest in community, not police.

 

Restaurant workers say they won’t return to work without a living wage.

 

Snowden hails court ruling as progress on acknowledging ‘devastation’ of mass surveillance.

 

Both fishing and environmental groups join Winnemem Wintu tribe opposing Shasta Dam raise.

When is a Ceasefire Not a Ceasefire?

Brokered by Egypt to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine, a ceasefire was announced to the world to go into full force and effect at 2 AM May 21^st. To celebrate, Israel attacked the worshippers in this Friday’s mosque at Al Aqsa, one of Islam’s holiest places, using stun grenades and gas bombs, wounding at least 20 worshippers.

 

More sophistry than ceasefire, this Have-Your-Cake-and-Eat-It kind of dodge is one of Israel’s favorite gambits.

 

Every year Israel receives $3.8 billion from the U.S. in military aid. Additionally Biden has asked for $735 million more, allowing Israel to purchase weapons with the money the U.S. gives them. (Does this sound to you like a touch of onanism?)

 

Let’s see what your tax dollars bought in this latest war (which the media whitewashes as “clashes”):

 

• World Press, Aljazeera  and Associated Press multi story al-Jalaa building in Gaza completely destroyed.

 

•Some 243 Palestinians slaughtered, including at least 66 children in just 11 days..

 

•Wounding at least 6,300 Palestinians.

 

•74 Government buildings, 3 mosques, 66 schools, 16,800 housing units destroyed, displacing more than 120,000 Palestinians who are now homeless.

 

•Eviction of 13 long established families from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood., who are now homeless.

 

It’s a lot of bang for your buck (what Netanyahoo hails as “exceptional success”):

 

News building goes down in flames

 

Gaza house destroyed, people displaced

 

Gaza housing units destroyed

6-year-old-child rescued from collapsing building

If you share my views, you might prefer your tax dollars go to more life-sustaining line items such as schools, hospitals, after-school playgrounds, the arts such as music, dance, theater, visual art, etc. healthcare, housing for the homeless., and other benefits that restore meaning and dignity to human life.

 

 

BLOCK military aid to Israel.

 

RESPECT Palestinian Human Rights.

 

BAR all military aid that enables human rights abuses.

 

DEMAND Biden hold Israel’s apartheid govt. responsible.

 

BEND your congresspersons’ ears to cut off all aid to Israel.

 

DONATE to provide food, hygiene kits to Gaza..

 

 

 

Canadian activists pour ‘river of blood’ on Israeli Consulate Steps to symbolize devastation across Palestine.

 

U.S.-made bombs (only product U.S. still makes) are devastating Gaza’: Sanders resolution aims to block $735 million weapons sale to Israel.

 

Arab Resource and Organizing Center cheers at turning Zim ship away from Oakland Port.

 

Italian dockers stop arms shipment to Israel in solidarity with Palestine.

 

Committee to Protect Journalists accuses Israel of ‘shutting down’ Gaza coverage  by bombing media outlets.

 

Ocasio-Cortez unveils resolution to block $735 million U.S. weapons sale to Israel.

 

Tlaib confront Biden over ‘unconditional support’ for Israel amid Gaza atrocities.

 

Markey’s office calls on Israel to seek an immediate cease fire in response to Israel’s plans to deploy ground troops.

 

Sanders: U.S. must take a hard look at nearly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel.

 

Coalition pressures key Dem Gregory Meeks to back resolution blocking arms sale to Israel.

 

Amnesty calls on Biden to end ‘outrageous’ U.S. weapons sales to Colombia amid police repression.

 

100+ groups condemn Israel violence in East Jerusalem and Gaza.

 

State Department spokesperson under fire for ‘spineless’ refusal to condemn Israel’s killing of children in Gaza.

 

These are not ‘clashes’: Media slammed for coverage amid deadly IDF attacks on Gaza.

 

Protests across Israel signal growing Palestinian solidarity.

 

Since Truman first backed Israel, U.S. Jews have proved they are not a monolith.

 

Dems citing ‘thuggish and Orwellian abuses of power’ demand DOJ end practice of spying on journalists.

 

Thanks to Dems, administration announces monthly checks to parent to start July 15,

 

Splintering the right,  Chilean voters elect progressive alliance to re-write Pinochet-era constitution.

 

Aussie youth target PM Morrison at Climate Strikes because ‘he only serves the fossil fuels industry. 

 

Lawmakers push Biden to end public financing for ‘dangerous’ fossil fuel projects overseas.

 

Gov. Inslee signs far-reaching plastic pollution bill.

 

Sunrise and RISE St, James Rally to demand Biden stand up to environmental racism, revoke Formosa Plastics permit and provide good jobs to all.

 

Scientists disrupt opening day of Shell-sponsored ‘our future planet.’

 

Conservations celebrate federal introduction of ‘Extinction Prevention Act.’

 

Following years of pressure from investors, businesses, diplomats, and organizations, the IEA finally released its first-ever scenario aligned with the 1.5-degree goal, taking away a huge shield from the fossil fuel industry, effectively nixing fossil fuel extraction.

 

Peace advocates urge Congress to divert Pentagon dollars after Afghan withdrawal towards social uplift, climate emergency.

 

Indigenous climate leaders launch national effort to demand Biden ‘stop #45 pipelines.’

 

Families of missing and murdered indigenous people gather in Seattle for day of prayer.

 

Activists push for charges to be dropped ag. demonstrators for Black lives.

 

Colorado bill could convene study of police protest response.

 

Nearly two-thirds of W. V, voters support citizenship for young undocumented immigrants.

 

ICE detention center shuttered following repeated allegations of medical misconduct.

 

Biden administration pledges probe after report of unaccompanied kids being left stranded in buses overnight.

 

 

To ‘end the absurdity’ of wasteful military spending, Sanders introduces bill to audit the Pentagon.

 

Amazon extends moratorium on police use of facial recognition software.

 

Mayor of Jackson, MI apologizes for 170 police killings amid student protest.

 

IESO (Ontario) outlines plans to look at a gas plant phase-out.

 

Food an d Water Watch sues EPA to protect waterways from factory farm pollution.

 

Biden EPA reveals prior approval of Monsanto roundup failed to account for risks to monarchs and other endangered species and drift harm to farmers.

 

State Department ends policy that denied citizenship to children born abroad to same-sex couples.

 

Sanders AOC join McDonald’s workers to demand $15 minimum wage amid nationwide strike.

 

Largest nurses union condemns CDC rollback on COVID protection guidance.

 

The American Families Plan will make Affordable Care Act subsidies permanent, ensuring that millions can keep their health care, and top 1% tax payers will pay for it.

 

Police not allowed to participate in Denver PrideFEst.

 

Oakland Anti-police Terror Project helps de-escalate potentially deadly situation in East Oakland.

 

Grocery store owner declares his store ‘apartheid-free zone.’

 

Dolphin mom, perhaps grieving death of her own pup, adopts a whale calf.