mark
Common Dreams
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[l] at 9/9/24 1:15pm
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today released additional results from its August 25-27 presidential election survey of 1,155 American Muslim voters showing Muslim voter preferences varying somewhat based on sex, age, race, party affiliation and location, with Muslim voters favoring Dr. Jill Stein in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin while Vice President Kamala Harris leads among Muslim voters in Georgia and Pennsylvania and Donald Trump leads in Nevada. Conducted in partnership with Molitical Consulting LLC, the additional survey results also show how Muslim voter preferences differ based on gender, race, party affiliation, age and likelihood of voting. CLICK HERE: READ CAIR NEW SWING STATE ELECTION REPORTWATCH THE VIDEO. Key Survey Findings: Overall: CAIR’s initial August 25-27 survey revealed that 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, virtually tied with Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who follows closely with 29.1%. At the same time, Donald Trump of the Republican Party garners 11.2% of the vote, and Dr. Cornel West of the People’s Party receives 4.2%. Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party has less than 1% support, with 16.5% of respondents remaining undecided.Battleground States: Dr. Stein is leading Harris in Arizona (35%) Michigan (40%) and Wisconsin (44%), while Harris leads Stein in Georgia (43%) and Pennsylvania (37%). Trump’s highest support is observed in Nevada (27%), just ahead of Harris (26%).Gender: Kamala Harris leads among Muslim male voters with 29%, while Dr. Jill Stein holds a stronger position among Muslim women at 34%. Donald Trump has similar levels of support among men (14%) and women (10%). Additionally, a higher proportion of men (17%) are undecided compared to women (16%).Racial Demographics: Kamala Harris is supported by 55.3% of Black Muslim voters, 28% of Asian Muslims, and 25.6% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims. Dr. Jill Stein is supported by 32.7% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslim voters, 25.7% of Asian Muslims, and 11.2% of Black Muslim voters. Donald Trump is supported by 12.8% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims, 12.6% of Asian Muslims, and 9.8% of Black Muslim voters.Party Affiliation: Harris slightly leads among Democrats (33%) and Independents (30%), while Dr. Stein also garners significant support from these groups (32% and 28% respectively). Donald Trump’s highest support comes from Republicans (48%).Likelihood of Voting: Harris attracts a higher proportion of high-likelihood voters (33%), whereas Dr. Stein has a significant share of moderate-likelihood voters (65%). Trump’s support is concentrated among high-likelihood voters (13%).Support for Third Parties: Overall, support for third-party candidates (Stein and West) comes from both Muslim Democrats and Republicans, indicating discontent with both parties’ platforms on the issues that Muslim Americans prioritize. “These new survey findings make it clear that American Muslim voters have the potential to determine the outcomes in several key battleground states and that they are still up for grabs in the 2024 election,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw. “Candidates running for office cannot afford to overlook the issues that matter most to Muslim Americans. Ignoring this community or taking their votes for granted could be a costly mistake, particularly in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin, where elections are often won by narrow margins. It’s time for candidates at every level of government to invest more time and resources in understanding the concerns of Muslim voters.”Methodology: Conducted in partnership with Molitical Consulting LLC, the survey was conducted through an SMS text message sent to a proprietary, randomized national list of 40,000 registered Muslim voters from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and military members serving overseas. The survey was conducted from Sunday, August 25, to Tuesday, August 27, and received 1,478 responses, 1,155 of which were verified and matched to the national voter file. This follow-up report delves into the preferences and trends among Muslim voters following Harris’s entry onto the Democratic ticket. The findings demonstrate significant demographic splits and offer key insights into how Muslim voters are shaping up ahead of the November election.Why Muslim Votes Matter: As the 2024 national general election approaches, America’s estimated 2.5 million Muslim voters are positioned to once again play a crucial role in shaping the political landscape. With their significant presence in key swing states, Muslim voters have the potential to influence the outcomes of not only the presidential race but also numerous congressional, state, and local elections. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Muslim voters’ political inclinations and voting intentions in this pivotal election year.Muslims.Vote: As the November election approaches, CAIR plans continue to provide updates on Muslim voter preferences and trends on Muslims.Vote, CAIR’s voter empowerment website.NOTE: As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, CAIR does not endorse or oppose candidates for office, and makes no claims as to the favorability of one candidate being elected over another.The Council on American-Islamic Relations is America’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
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[l] at 9/9/24 8:59am
More than 250 groups called on the Department of Energy today to reject pending liquified natural gas, or LNG, export permits. The move comes after a federal judge lifted the hold on LNG exports but did not mandate new approvals.Proponents of fossil fuel expansion are using the ruling to push for more LNG approvals, citing in part a need to support United States allies in Europe. But European consumption of LNG is at a 10-year low, expected to peak in 2025, and several LNG export facilities unaffected by the pause are already under construction. Meanwhile the federal government acknowledges worsening climate change as a threat to national security.“After the hottest summer on record, on track to be the hottest year, it’s clear that expanding climate-heating gas exports is not in the public interest,” said Lauren Parker, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “There’s no reason on Earth to approve more LNG exports that lock in decades of damage to the climate, human communities, and imperiled species like Rice’s whales. The Department of Energy must reject every single one.”Global gas production was projected to have begun declining in the last few years. But the U.S. fracking boom reversed this trend, making it harder for the world to transition away from fossil fuels in time to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.The energy-intensive process of exporting LNG, along with methane leaks along the supply chain, may make it more climate-harming than coal. Exporting LNG also has devastating consequences for people and nature on the Gulf Coast exposed to flaring, toxic air pollution, and other environmental harms.“As a mom living in a community surrounded by industry, I feel the weight of every decision made about our environment,” said Roishetta Ozane, founder and director of the Vessel Project. “With climate-induced disasters becoming a regular part of our lives, it’s hard to understand how anyone can prioritize fossil gas exports over our health and safety. The Department of Energy has the power to reject these LNG export permits, and it’s crucial they do so. We deserve a future that protects our families and our planet, not one that fuels further destruction.”
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[l] at 9/9/24 7:40am
World Health Organization (WHO) member countries negotiating a new international agreement to address pandemics need to ensure that the agreement reflects their domestic and international obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill all human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Negotiators will meet in Geneva for two weeks starting September 9, 2024. The draft WHO Pandemic Agreement, which negotiators hope to finalize before the next World Health Assembly in May 2025, proposes to fundamentally alter the international system of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. After two years of negotiations, the draft still risks repeating the profound failures of the Covid-19 pandemic by failing to align with international human rights law standards and principles.“The WHO Pandemic Agreement is a rare opportunity to establish guard rails to prevent a Covid-19-like human rights catastrophe from happening again,” said Matt McConnell, economic justice and rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But by failing to clearly require governments to align their responses with their human rights obligations, it ignores Covid’s lessons.”Four-and-a-half years after the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, more than 7 million deaths have been reported. The harm caused by both the virus and governments’ responses will be felt for decades to come.During the pandemic, governments weaponized public health responses to target activists and opponents and violate the rights of asylum seekers. Wealthy governments hoarded healthcare resources and privileged private profit over people’s lives by blocking efforts to waive intellectual property rules. Pharmaceutical companies refused to share their technology widely, limiting global production of lifesaving health products, especially in low- and middle-income countries.Many governments closed schools without adequate alternatives, which affected children unequally and led to widespread, devastating learning losses. Others rushed to endorse online learning platforms without regard to how intrusive they were or how they surveilled children. Governments frequently failed to ensure the rights of older peopleand people with disabilities. They also failed to address the deep impact of the pandemic on women and girls, and aglobal surge in violence against women. Despite the pandemic, many governments still failed to meet vital public healthcare spending benchmarks, leaving many people unable to access needed health care. While some governments like the United States made major investments in programs to keep people housed and in social security to protect people’s livelihoods, resulting domestic reductions in inequality proved as temporary as these programs. Recognizing many of these failures, the WHO’s World Health Assembly in December 2021 established an intergovernmental negotiating body to draft and negotiate an international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. This negotiating body consists of representatives from all 194 WHO member countries, but the process has been guided by representatives from six countries, one from each of the six WHO regions. Tasked with completing these negotiations by June 2024, the group’s process was widely criticized by civil society organizations as inadequately transparent, participatory, or consultative. Hampered by the short timeline, immense complexity, diplomatic tension, and substantive disagreement, negotiators requested a one-year extension for the process, which they received. But negotiators may now aim to conclude their work as soon as December. At the Geneva meeting, the negotiating body will need to address major substantive and procedural concerns remainingabout how the negotiations are being conducted and what is and is not reflected in the draft agreement under discussion. This includes financing, the transfer of technologies, the equitable distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and how the agreement will ensure its efficacy.When the body previously gathered in November 2023, Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement with Amnesty International, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Commission of Jurists calling on negotiators to enshrine core human rights standards protected under international law in the agreement. The organizations highlighted that international human rights law provides a framework to guide the resolution of outstanding concerns in a way that complies with governments’ existing human rights obligations. As member countries meet in Geneva, they should ensure that human rights guides negotiations by:Reflecting core principles of human rights law essential to an effective and equitable pandemic response: Reinstate (e.g., in Article 3) fundamental principles of human rights law that appear to have been removed from the current draft, including non-discrimination, gender equality, and the need to protect people in vulnerable situations. Where human rights are currently mentioned in the agreement (e.g., in Article 3.2), they should encompass the full scope of governments’ obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights, both domestically and extraterritorially. Expanding equitable and affordable access to pandemic-related health products: Where the agreement discusses access to testing, vaccines, and therapeutics during health emergencies (e.g., in Articles 10, 11, and 12), it should reflect governments’ obligations to ensure that such access is also affordable. This should be accomplished by facilitating technology transfers consistent with governments’ international obligations to provide international assistance and cooperation, and to ensure that everyone can access the applications of scientific progress. It should also prohibit retaliation against governments that take advantage of “flexibilities” under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).Reaffirming governments’ obligations to ensure any restrictions on human rights in the context of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response are consistent with international human rights law: Reaffirm (e.g., in Article 3 and throughout Chapter II) governments’ obligations to demonstrate that any measures that have the effect of restricting the realization of human rights are evidence-based, legally grounded, nondiscriminatory, and necessary and proportionate to a legitimate purpose, such as the protection of others’ rights. It should also reiterate that, whenever such restrictions undermine the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, governments should provide appropriate relief.Improving governments’ implementation: Include (e.g., in Chapter III) a system of monitoring and periodic review that draws on the best practices of other international instruments to ensure its rights-aligned implementation, including continually expanding affordable access to testing, treatments, and vaccines during health emergencies. Additionally, the agreement should reaffirm (e.g., in Article 3) that domestic laws may not be used as an excuse for falling short of international standards, and specify more clearly the bases upon which a party may make reservations (e.g., in Article 27). Negotiators have not addressed these and similar recommendations calling for a rights-based agreement, including those raised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and major coalitions of civil society groups and experts, such as the People’s Medicine Alliance, Civil Society Alliance, Global Health Law Consortium, and Geneva Global Health Hub. The negotiators’ unwillingness to address these issues is more than just a missed opportunity, Human Rights Watch said. Should the agreement proceed without addressing these concerns, it may fail to prevent many of the disastrous domestic and international policies that motivated its creation. It would muddle international human rights law, international trade law, and global health law, and possibly reinforce the failed idea that governments should rely on voluntary efforts by private companies to respond to a global health crisis.“Negotiators meeting in Geneva still have the chance to draft an agreement to ensure that governments and companies respect, protect, and fulfill all human rights when the next pandemic comes around,” McConnell said. “But if governments rush to enact something that falls short of their existing human rights obligations, there is a real danger that the agreement could instead serve as a tool to justify rights violations.”
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[l] at 9/9/24 7:39am
The international treaty banning cluster munitions is making demonstrable progress, but is being tested by new use and transfers of cluster munitions by countries that have not joined it, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing an annual monitoring report on cluster munitions.The 100-page report, “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024,” details the policy and practice of all countries with respect to the international treaty that prohibits cluster munitions and requires destruction of stockpiles, clearance of areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants, and victim assistance.“The Convention on Cluster Munitions provides a vital framework for ending the immediate and long-term harm and suffering caused by these abhorrent weapons,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch, and editor of “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024.” “All countries should join and adhere to the convention if they are serious about protecting civilians from these weapons in the face of rising conflict.”Cluster munitions can be fired from the ground by artillery, rockets, missiles, or mortars, or dropped by aircraft. They typically open in the air, dispersing multiple submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Many submunitions fail to explode on initial impact, leaving unexploded duds that can indiscriminately injure and kill like landmines for years, until they are found and destroyed.During 2023 – the latest year covered by the report’s casualty statistics – 93 percent of cluster munition casualties recorded by the Monitor were civilians. Children made up 47 percent of those killed and injured by cluster munition remnants in 2023.Cluster munitions were used in Ukraine by Russian and Ukrainian forces in 2023 and through July 2024, while new use was also recorded in Myanmar and Syria. Russia has used stocks of old cluster munitions and newly developed models in Ukraine since 2022. Between July 2023 and April 2024, US President Joe Biden approved five transfers to Ukraine of US cluster munitions delivered by 155mm artillery projectiles and by ballistic missiles. None of these countries are party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has 112 members. Click to expand Image The "Cluster Munition Monitor 2024" cover depicts AO-1SCh submunitions prepared for destruction in Pisco, Peru. © Santiago Ocampo/Norwegian People’s Aid There have been no confirmed reports or allegations of new use, production, or transfers of cluster munitions by any state party since the convention was adopted in Dublin, Ireland on May 30, 2008. However, new use and transfers by states that have not signed the convention are testing its norms and universality. And the convention’s provision banning any assistance with prohibited activities is being put to the test, raising interpretive issues and questions over compliance with national laws. A July 2024 report shows that cluster munitions stored at a US military base in Germany, which has ratified the convention, have been transferred to Ukraine since July 2023, transiting across Germany in the process. The US removed its stockpiled cluster munitions from Norway and the UK during 2010, but it may still hold stocks at its military bases in member countries such as Italy, Netherlands, and Spain.All members of the convention should be clear in opposing foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions and the transit of cluster munitions across their territory, airspace, or waters, Human Rights Watch said. In December 2023, the convention reached a major milestone when Peru completed the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions, as it was the last state party with declared stocks to complete this obligation. Bulgaria, Slovakia, and South Africa announced the completion of the destruction of their respective cluster munition stocks in September 2023. These developments mean that member countries have collectively now destroyed 100 percent of their declared cluster munition stocks, destroying 1.49 million cluster munitions and 179 million submunitions. According to “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024,” 28 countries and other areas are contaminated or suspected to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants. Cluster munition attacks caused civilian casualties in Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine in 2023; while people were killed or injured by cluster munition remnants in these countries and in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mauritania, and Yemen. Member states altogether cleared more than 83 square kilometers of affected land in 2023, destroying at least 73,348 unexploded submunitions and other cluster munition remnants. Bosnia and Herzegovina completed clearance of cluster munition remnants in August 2023, becoming the ninth state party to meet its clearance obligations under the convention. In an alarming development, however, Lithuania enacted a law in July 2024 approving its withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The withdrawal will take effect six months after the United Nations and the convention’s member states are notified, unless Lithuania retracts this measure or goes to war. “Lithuania’s ill-considered move to leave the Convention on Cluster Munitions stains its otherwise excellent reputation on humanitarian disarmament and ignores the risks of civilian harm,” Wareham said. “It’s not too late for Lithuania to heed calls to stop its planned withdrawal.”“Cluster Munition Monitor 2024” is the 15th annual monitoring report by the Cluster Munition Coalition, the global coalition of nongovernmental organizations co-founded by Human Rights Watch. The report will be presented to countries attending the 12th meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions at the United Nations in Geneva on September 10-13.
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[l] at 9/9/24 7:36am
An overwhelming majority of likely voters agree that the plastics and fossil fuel industries bear the greatest responsibility for the plastic waste crisis and would support legal action to hold them accountable for their role in deceiving the public about the viability of plastic recycling, according to a new nationwide survey from Data for Progress and the Center for Climate Integrity. The findings, first reported by the Guardian, come as the California Attorney General’s Office is investigating the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry’s role in the plastic pollution crisis and the Federal Trade Commission is considering tightening the rules around recyclability claims in marketing. Earlier this year, the Center for Climate Integrity released a report featuring new evidence of how Big Oil and the plastic industry have deceived the public for decades about the recyclability of plastics. The survey of 1,231 likely voters across the U.S. found that: 70% of likely voters, including 54% of Republicans, would support their state taking legal action against the plastics and fossil industries for their role in plastic pollution and for deceiving the public about the viability of plastic recycling. Voters on average guess that just under 45% of plastics in the United States are recycled. In reality, this number is far lower — only about 5% of plastics in the United States are recycled in any given year.85% agree — and 62% strongly agree — that it's deceptive to put the “chasing arrows” symbol on a plastic product that cannot be recycled. 54% agree that the actions of the plastics and fossil fuel industries are “yet another example of big companies lying to their consumers.” A vast majority of voters think the plastic and fossil fuel industries are responsible for plastic pollution, and voters strongly believe that the plastics (68%) and fossil fuel (59%) industries have a great deal of responsibility to address the plastic waste crisis. “As we’re watching to see what comes from California’s investigation, it’s clear that the public is very concerned about the plastic waste crisis and would support holding Big Oil and the plastics industry accountable for the fraud of plastic recycling,” said Alyssa Johl, vice president of legal and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity. “Any attorney general or public official who is considering action on this issue should know that both the law and public opinion are on their side.” “Regardless of your politics, no one is really OK with a corporation lying to consumers,” said Davis Allen, an investigative researcher at the Center for Climate Integrity and the lead author of The Fraud of Plastic Recycling. “What jumps out here is the overwhelming agreement among voters that it’s deceptive and wrong for companies to label a product as recyclable when it’s not. The industry has told us that we can do our part by putting all of our plastics in the bin, but they shouldn’t be allowed to keep deceiving the public about where the vast majority of those plastics actually end up: in landfills, incinerated, or in the environment.”Read a polling memo and the crosstab results here.
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[l] at 9/7/24 1:27am
Again. Four people were murdered in a Georgia school shooting in a blood-soaked country that fixates on the unborn, spends $840 billion on defense, bans books despite zero mass reading deaths yet somehow can't protect their children from routine, rampant slaughter. It was the 8th school shooting of a shiny new school year; it happened on the 2nd day of school; the killer was 14 years old. Fucking unreal. Cue witless thoughts and prayers. From the deceased: "Thanks." Wednesday's rampage at Apalachee High school, in the small city of Winder northeast of Atlanta, killed two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two math teachers, Christina Irimie, and Richard Aspinwall; at least nine others were wounded and taken to the hospital. Less than shockingly, authorities said the baby-faced killer, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was armed with a “black semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle,” which his father had bought him for Christmas; given Colt's tender age, some bitterly wondered how he even managed to get the bulky weapon into the school: "Surely, his Spiderman backpack must have sagged a little?" Colt surrendered to police, including two resource officers, minutes after the shootings. He has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder, and authorities say more charges will be coming. At the scene, Sheriff Jud Smith offered "our sympathies" to the community, adding, "Obviously, what you see behind us is an evil thing today."Evil, yes. Rare, no. The killing fields that are now America's schools have seen so many shootings and gun deaths in the past two decades the awful data can't keep up with them. According to the Gun Violence Archive, this is the 385th mass shooting in the US this year with over 11,500 people killed by guns, excluding suicide. It was the 45th shooting on school grounds in 2024 - though the number soars to 218 including more varied situations - causing at least 38 deaths and 81 injuries in a country where, said Joe Biden, students now learn "how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write." It's also a country of barricaded schools and bulletproof backpacks where four people gunned down barely made the news, shooting drills are universal, firemen and first responders wear body armor, classrooms can boast sawdust-filled buckets in case of an extended lockdown, and surreal debates rage about the wisdom of arming underpaid, over-worked teachers who never signed up for this.That's especially true of Georgia, ranked 46th with some of the country's weakest gun laws. Gun-control advocates give the state an "F" and its gun violence - at least 1,927 people killed each year - is well over the national average thanks to Gov. Brian Kemp, who loves guns so much he once ran an ad where he held a shotgun on a kid. Kemp and God-fearing GOP pols oppose red flag laws but passed a law requiring colleges to allow guns on campus; you can buy an assault rifle without a permit or background check, carry a concealed weapon without a license, leave guns out for your kids to find, shoot and kill someone even if you can walk away instead. Kemp has bragged he wears his "F" gun-safety rating ''as a badge of honor" and touted a $103.9 million plan to "harden" schools, with a $10,000 bonus to teachers willing to carry. On Wednesday, he said he was "heartbroken" by the shooting, urged thoughts and prayers, and called it "a day every parent dreads" by dint of his murderous actions.Also, of course, Colt Gray's, though as a sick kid he's far less culpable. It turns out he'd been on the FBI's radar since last year, after they got several anonymous tips he was making online threats about shooting up a school. They interviewed him and his father, who said he had guns in the home for hunting but his son didn't have access to them; Colt, then 13, denied making the threats, and the FBI determined there was "no probable cause for arrest" or other action. This week, fellow students said Colt was quiet and reserved - "he never really talked" - and he often skipped classes. On Tuesday, the first day of school, he reportedly left classes early to go to a counselor's office because he was anxious. Wednesday, he left math class still going; when he tried to re-enter - killing fields/school doors lock automatically - a classmate started to let him in, saw his gun, and backed away. As she and other kids dropped to the floor, crawled to the back and huddled together, she heard him open fire in the hallway.Later, dazed students described the bedlam: The screams, blood, terror, crying, teachers frantically yelling to get down, hands shaking as they tried to text family, 10 or 15 thunderous rounds of gunshots. Harrowing details emerged. His family thought and hoped Mason Schermerhorn, who had mild autism, "had just run away to get away from everything." Christian Angulo's father said they'd moved there from California "in search of peace.” Teacher Christina Irimie, a joyful, beloved member of the Romanian community, had baked a cake and brought pizza to school to celebrate her birthday with "her kids." Richard Aspinwall, also a football coach, was "as great as they come. Would do anything for anyone." He was teaching math when he heard the turmoil; he told his kids to stay put and went into the hallway to try to protect them. A few minutes later, they found him lying prone and bloody at the door of the classroom. Said one student, "He was trying to crawl back to us." Christmas cards sent out by gun-fetishist GOP lawmakers and their families. Photos from TwitterThere's been so much carnage - so much bloodshed, anguish, rage, grief - it's unfathomable that nothing has changed, that no substantive gun control measures have passed, that none of the morons and sociopaths who send out Christmas cards of their smirking kids cradling fucking assault weapons have stopped doing it, that none of these witless gun freaks have seen slaughter follow slaughter and not come even this excruciatingly slowly to the realization that, in the words of one gun-control advocate, "There is no world in which this is acceptable." Hell, even a Fox News host, in an interview after the Georgia shooting, exclaimed to his guest, "To be honest, this is so frequent it's almost surreal." Almost? In truth, many Americans have come to the sorrowful conclusion that if Sandy Hook didn't change any hearts and minds - those 20, small, shredded, shattered bodies - then nothing would. Which is why, even now, the inane thoughts and prayers and platitudes are still flowing. "Let us join together in prayer for the victims," nattered Marjorie I'll-Take-Whatever-Publicity-I-Can-Get Greene, who's opposed a federal program to help states pass "red flag” laws, filmed herself accosting Parkland survivor David Hogg, pushed bonkers conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook and other tragedies, and made campaign ads featuring her shooting or giving away massive assault weapons. "This you?" asked multiple people re-posting those horrors. "Hey MTG," wrote John Pavlovitz. "How do you type with so much blood on your hands?" "And the guns?" asked another critic. "Or is this a bad time to mention them?" As always, probably. On Fox, a Blue Lives Matter spokesman argued it's all the fault of violent video games: "Human life has less value because many of the social mores have changed...It hardens the heart, if you will." Actually, experts say they won't, citing studies finding "absolutely no causal evidence" of a link between video games and "gun violence in real life.”As mainstream news did a quick, deep, thoughts-and-prayers dive into the Georgia killings, they naturally entirely ignored those in Gaza City, where an Israeli air strike killed more children, including Tala Abu Ajwa, 10, hit minutes after her mother gave in to her pleas to let her go outside to roller blade. Seeking her body after the blast, her father recognized the pink skate on her foot. In this country, we have technology to aid in that search: Officials praised school faculty as "heroes" who likely saved lives by using a new panic button alarm that notifies police of an "active situation." Still, students were spooked and angry about being left to fend for themselves in a hapless, bloodied country, echoing a 10-year-old Onion headline: "No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." "I really don't want to go back," said one girl. "I want to go to school worrying about my GPA (and) my career. I feel like I shouldn’t have to go back to school worrying about dying.”Of course teachers also were and will remain traumatized in a mix of grief, guilt, rage. Writing online about "planning no teacher should ever have to plan for and fear no one (teacher, child, parent, or anyone else) should ever have to experience," Jennifer Carter wrote, "I lied to my kids today in second period. I told them it was just a drill. I told them to get behind my couches (thank GOD I ditched desks and have bulky furniture!) and be quiet...The more quiet we are, the faster the drill will end." Trauma on trauma, victim after victim. In back-to-back hearings Friday, Colt Gray appeared in court - small, blank, bleach blond - followed shortly after by his father Colin Gray, 54, who wept and rocked in his seat as the judge calmly spoke. Colin is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Behind them sat victims' families and other supporters; court workers had set out tissue boxes at intervals.Away from court, the story of Colt Gray's broken, "hostile," gun-obsessed home, where a Stars and Stripes flies and child services often visited, emerged. His mother Marcee has a long rap sheet spanning 17 years for buying/selling drugs, mostly meth and fentanyl, with arrests for domestic violence, bad checks, vehicle misdemeanors. With the parents locked in an ugly separation and custody battle - she has the two younger kids, he had Colt - Marcee charges Colin with abuse, and they were evicted. Neighbors describe "devastating," "constant" abuse: no food or clean clothes, Marcee driving drunk to take the youngest to day care, passing out in the driveway, locking the kids out of the house in winter, them banging on the door, crying, screaming, "Mom!" A former landlord said Colin was "trying (to) be a stand-up guy - I think the man really went through it." As to Colt, "This child has fallen between the cracks." Colt's aunt said he'd been "begging for help for months, but the adults around him failed him."In response to Georgia's shootings, Dems offered empathy and cogent calls for gun control measures most Americans support. The GOP, short on empathy or cogent calls for anything and not up to domestic tragedies, stall in their thoughts-and-prayers shtick. In another dreadful speech, Vance, who took $493,000 from the NRA to declare school shootings "a fake problem," said it 's too bad about kids and teachers being gunned down, but with schools "soft targets, we’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to." He doesn't like school shootings but they're "a fact of life," says "the coward ass bitch guy standing behind bulletproof glass" who doesn't seem to get that "lots of horrible things were once facts of life until the government did something about them." So: women should both have kids and accept they might be shot dead at school. Give this guy a bulletproof Spiderman backpack, pray for the dead, fight for the living."Here's the smell of the blood still. What, will these hands ne’er be clean?" - Lady Macbeth - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 9/6/24 9:41am
In a victory for the movement, the police have withdrawn all the major restrictions on tomorrow's march. The coalition that organise the national demonstrations for Palestine have released the following statement: With less than 24 hours to go, the Metropolitan Police has dropped its attempt to frustrate our national march for Palestine. Tomorrow we will march to the Israeli Embassy as planned. Following a week of argument and attempts to bully and intimidate the demonstration organisers, the police have now agreed that protesters will assemble from 12noon, at Regent Street St James’s as we had originally intended. Previous conditions that were imposed in a wholly unjustified attempt to prevent us from doing so have now been rescinded.This debacle has caused serious disruption to our organising efforts. The constant imposition of conditions on our marches are an unacceptable curtailment of our right to demonstrate peacefully and we will continue to challenge them. Nevertheless, this is a major victory in defence of the democratic right to protest. We are thankful to everyone in the movement who has stood firm in the face of these threats and to the MPs, members of the House of Lords, trade union leaders and many others who have made representations to the police. We call on people to turn out in huge numbers in solidarity with Palestine tomorrow.We are marching to bring an end to Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the continuing complicity of the British government in those crimes. We will not allow repressive tactics to distract us. We call on everyone to join us from 12noon, at Regent Street St James’s.Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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[l] at 9/6/24 7:32am
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August jobs report which showed that the U.S. economy added 142,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%. Groundwork Collaborative’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens reacted with the following statement: “Today’s jobs report confirms that the Federal Reserve is late to the game. Chair Powell needs to get on with it and deliver a sizable rate cut this month or we are going to be staring down an ugly winter.”
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[l] at 9/6/24 6:12am
In an interview with Danish national public radio broadcast station DR, Bavarian Nordic CFO Henrik Juuel reacted to public calls for the company to lower the price of its mpox vaccine. In late August, Public Citizen sent a letter to CEO Paul Chaplin urging Bavarian Nordic to prioritize public health amid the global mpox emergency and lower the price of Jynneos, the biotech company’s mpox shot. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates mpox vaccines will cost $50 to $75 each, but the definite price of Jynneos remains unknown. The letter outlines how concealing and refusing to lower the price of Jynneos appears to be a move to exploit the latest global health crisis. According to the DR article, Henrik Juuel denounced criticism of Bavarian Nordic’s pricing practices, but the company has still not divulged the exact price of its vaccine. Previous Public Citizen research found multiple global manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries using similar manufacturing processes as Bavarian Nordic’s selling vaccines for $4 or less per dose – a fraction of the estimated price of Jynneos. Public Citizen Access to Medicines director Peter Maybarduk says despite push back, we must hold companies like Bavarian Nordic accountable for unfair pricing. “During health crises like these, access should be based on science and public health need not the ability to pay inflated prices. Lives are at stake,” said Maybarduk. “We plan to keep the momentum going on the international stage to push for fair and transparent price negotiations of Jynneos and, by extension, broaden vaccine access to countries that need them most. For too long pharmaceutical and biotech giants have been able to price gouge because of high demand for life-saving treatments and preventive measures. We cannot let that kind of behavior continue.”
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[l] at 9/4/24 2:27pm
Today, Common Cause, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, and a number of other concerned organizations, filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in a rulemaking urging the agency to address disclosure and transparency of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content in political advertisements on the nation’s airwaves. The groups warn of the dangers posed by the new technology in an era when political disinformation is widespread and the public has trouble identifying AI-generated content.The other organizations joining in the comments include, Access Now, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Japanese American Citizens League, National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Public Citizen, Sikh American Legal, Defense and Education Fund, and The Trevor Project.“AI deepfakes represent a clear and present danger when it comes to political advertising and the FCC is rightfully taking it very seriously,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO of Common Cause. “The American people deserve disclosure and transparency not only regarding who is bankrolling the political ads but whether the content itself is real or AI-generated. There are simply too many bad actors – both foreign and domestic – seeking to manipulate voters and election outcomes not to address deepfakes now.”“It is gratifying to work with these civil rights organizations on the intersection of media accountability and artificial intelligence,” said Cheryl A. Leanza, UCC Media Justice’s policy advisor. “The long-standing work to ensure transparency and responsibility in political advertising should be fully applied to artificial intelligence in advertising. The viewing and listening public has every right to know by what means, and by whom, they are being persuaded.”The groups emphasize that deepfakes and other AI-generated content have the potential to dramatically increase election disinformation, further threatening the integrity of our elections. They further stress that Black, Latino, Asian, and other communities of color have traditionally been targets of voter suppression and disinformation and that those trends will continue with the use of AI deepfakes.The comments highlight the critical need for public disclosure of these advertisements, and the need to create a database that is easy-to-use for both journalists and members of the public.“Disinformation has evolved and so must the regulations to combat it and protect the public interest,” said Ishan Mehta, Common Cause Media and Democracy Program Director. “AI deepfakes represent the newest generation of disinformation and voter suppression and to safeguard our democracy, Chair Rosenworcel and the FCC are to be commended for moving forward with new rules and a new database at a time when Congress and the Federal Election Commission has thus far failed to act.”The comments point to the fact that the Commission has the authority to adopt the proposed rules in the public interest and that they are in compliance with the First Amendment.To read the comments, click here.
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[l] at 9/4/24 2:23pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today issued the following statement after the CEO of Steward Health Care, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, refused to appear before the Committee despite a bipartisan subpoena compelling his testimony: I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Steward Health Care, who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and health care providers, is refusing to testify in the HELP Committee in defiance of a subpoena. Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit health care system. Working with private equity vultures, he became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals across the country with billions in debt and selling the land underneath these hospitals to real estate executives who charge unsustainably high rent. As a result, Steward Health Care, and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states, were forced to declare bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt.I am now working with members of the HELP Committee to determine the best path forward. But let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America. This Committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care. It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages.
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[l] at 9/4/24 9:22am
Today, a coalition of over 45 groups, including environmental justice and civil rights organizations, along with community-based and grassroots groups, submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling on the agency to reject a petition filed by Republican attorneys general seeking to rescind critical Title VI protections. The attorneys general petition, referred to in the letter as the "Civil Rights Rollback," calls for eviscerating decades-old civil rights regulations and undermines protections necessary to safeguard Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities from disproportionate environmental harms. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by federal funding recipients. These regulations are essential to safeguarding environmental justice communities from the cumulative and often devastating effects of industrial pollution, biased zoning, inequitable permitting of industrial facilities, and other practices that disproportionately impact communities of color. “Title VI is key to defend communities in places like Louisiana’s Cancer Alley that have been enduring the pain of environmental injustice for far too long” said the coalition in a statement. “This petition from attorney generals to end Title VI, this coordinated attack on civil rights, will turn more communities into industrial sacrifice zones where families are left to suffer for profit. The EPA, the federal government, and states must strengthen, not weaken, its commitment to civil rights.” The coalition’s letter highlights the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice, as outlined in Executive Order 14096, which mandates federal agencies to advance environmental justice for all by implementing and enforcing the nation’s environmental and civil rights laws. It calls for the agency to center the experiences of these communities in its decision-making processes and to fully resource its Title VI enforcement efforts. The letter to EPA comes two weeks after a federal judge in Louisiana permanently blocked the EPA and Department of Justice from enforcing disparate impact regulations under Title VI in that state. Earlier that same day, EPA unveiled new Title VI guidance to ensure that state and local government entities receiving federal funding put safeguards in place that prevent discrimination in their programs and activities. Quotes from coalition member groups and partners: “In Louisiana, we have a governor who is openly hostile to civil rights protections and actively sabotaged efforts to protect Black communities from disproportionate environmental harm. Now, 23 state attorneys general are trying to follow his shameful lead,” said Robert Taylor, founder of Concerned Citizens of St. John. “The EPA needs to step up and defend our civil rights with the strength and commitment that the moment demands. This is about protecting the families and communities the agency was created to serve and ensure that our children have a future free from environmental injustice. The stakes couldn’t be higher—now is the time to take action and refuse to back down.” “Environmental racism remains a pervasive and dangerous problem across the United States, including in Florida, with our state’s heavy reliance on trash-burning incinerators,” said MacKenzie Marcelin, climate justice director of Florida Rising. “Communities of color continue to bear the brunt of toxic pollution and climate change impacts. We need the EPA to stand firm against any attack on civil rights and Title VI.” “In this critical moment of the climate crisis, we must protect our most vulnerable communities with every resource available and Title VI has been a powerful shield for every community seeking environmental justice,” said KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution. “These attempts to weaken the Civil Rights Act, when we should be celebrating and codifying the impact it has made on this country in the last 60 years, are a show of cowardice and fear.”
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[l] at 9/4/24 9:00am
Brett Edkins, Managing Director of Policy and Political Affairs for Stand Up America, issued the following statement in response to reports that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote an email thanking a right-wing group for fighting efforts to reform the Court, including term limits and creating a binding ethics code for the justices. “The First Couple of the Supreme Court – Clarence and Ginni Thomas – have once again reminded us why we need term limits and a binding code of ethics to restore faith in our nation’s highest court. In a brazen political move, Ginni Thomas praised right-wing advocates working to quash commonsense Supreme Court reforms.“Having spent countless hours on all-expense-paid vacations on superyachts paid for by right-wing billionaires with interests before the Court, it’s almost too on the nose that Ginni thanked these advocates by saying, ‘YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES.’ It’s a shameless reminder that the First Couple, and the Supreme Court broadly, must be held accountable.“Congress must act by passing term limits and a binding code of ethics. The American people deserve a Supreme Court free from corruption and political bias.”
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[l] at 9/3/24 11:28am
This Labor Day, the usual suspects eloquently appeared - or predictably disappeared. Harris urged, "Thank unions!" Biden said, "Union workers built this economy - that's just a fact." Walz righteously retorted to critics saying he's "in the pocket of organized labor" with, "I am the pocket." And the other guy went missing/golfing. "The scab is the natural-born foe of labor," said the great Eugene Debs decades ago, "a mass of moral putrescence." Still true, that.In their first joint rally, Harris and Biden illustrated why Dems hold a 15-point electoral lead among union voters when they spoke before a large, jubilant union crowd in Pennsylvania. "The facts are clear - Democrats are the party of labor," said Harris. "One path leads to a brighter, more inclusive future for all workers, a future where economic, gender, and racial justice go hand in hand. The other path seeks to turn back the clock, dismantling the progress we've made and putting corporate interests ahead of working families...We cannot go back." "Are you ready to make Donald Trump again?” a smiling Biden asked, prompting cheers. "We’ll always walk alongside you." In "remarkable contrast," Trump was nowhere to be seen in what was deemed "a real unforced error. If you want to stand with labor, you show up on Labor Day, right? That's kinda the mission." He did, though, make his toxic, slothful presence known online, offering up the dubious optics of "sitting like (old) Richie Rich at (his) golf club in Palm Beach, ringing his bell for Diet Coke." "Happy Labor Day to all of our American Workers who represent the Shining Example of Hard Work and Ingenuity," he blathered. "Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering during this Holiday weekend," he said on a day Americans set a record for one of the busiest travel days in history.In his first solo appearance, Tim Walz also spoke - in affable person! - before thousands of raucous workers in the powerful, 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. A longtime member of two public-sector teachers' unions whom he's thanked for helping make Minnesota "one of the best states for workers in the nation," he told the crowd "with as much passion as a Minnesotan can muster," that "AFSCME stands for all that’s right." During his speech, he succinctly eviscerated his rich-guy opponents and outlined what working people want - collective bargaining, fair wages, health care, safe conditions, "to be treated fairly with dignity." — (@) Among labor leaders speaking up for the Democratic ticket, one of the most vociferous has been UAW President Shawn Fain, who at last month's DNC famously stripped off his jacket, Hulk-Hogan-style, to display a "Trump Is A Scab" t-shirt now ubiquitous among union workers. "That’s not just my opinion. That’s a fact," Fain says. "All we have to do is look at the track record - when (Trump) was president, corporate America ran wild." He cites the facts: Auto plants closed: "Trump did nothing." He told workers in Ohio he'd bring all the auto jobs back: "Trump did nothing." In 2019, GM workers went on strike for a better life: "And Trump did nothing." The audience roared, "Trump’s a scab! Trump’s a scab!""It becomes our duty at this writing to discuss the “scab," wrote Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926), firebrand, Socialist, trade unionist, anti-war activist, founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) and five-time Socialist candidate for president in a livid 1888 harangue against the "moral leper" opposing workers' efforts to "advance (from) servitude to independence." The scab "sinks to the level of a loathsome reptile: he becomes a walking breathing stench, as destitute of soul as a dungeon toad," "unclean through and through, so vulgar and beastly in his instincts he is as destitute of all sense of obligation, of what is due to others, as a hungry hog with its snout in a swill tub...To call him a dog would be an insult to the whole canine race." A founder of the American Railway Union and child of a progressive mid-west that saw Milwaukee run by three Socialist mayors who instituted public works projects known as "sewer socialism," Debs did time in prison for sedition after a 1918 speech in Ohio that decried a bloody imperial World War run by "lap dogs for the billionaire class, who only serve themselves." Mostly, at a time of rampant industrialization, he spoke for workers in mines and factories victimized by the rush for profits. Joining nationwide strikes of tent colonies and marchers declaring "We Are One" and "Why Can't They Breathe?", Debs tirelessly touted Socialism as “the mightiest movement in the history of mankind."Its greatest enemy, along with captains of industry, were scabs, those loathsome "mysteries of creation" who come to steal the jobs of "honest workingmen (fighting) against oppression and injustice...ready to do their duty for such considerations as their masters may offer." Like certain insects and reptiles with no reason to exist, scabs "curse the earth, air and water...repulsive, pestiferous and poisonous...The scab is a filthy wretch." Oh, that Debs were still with us to hear The Scabby Orange One burble to his creepy fascist bestie, "You're the greatest cutter...I mean, they go on strike, and you say, 'That's okay, you're all gone.'" Moral putrescence, thy name is. Billy Bragg reminds us what to do. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 8/30/24 2:02pm
Even by "seditionist crapsack standards," Trump's grotesque fuckery at Arlington Cemetery, where he and his henchmen used dead soldiers as a campaign prop, has been reviled as "repugnant," "nauseating," and "Too Damn Much," especially after news they shoved aside a female employee to do it. The desperate "hole-in-the-soul" stunt pissed off veterans, their families, the Army and many others; some said they've never grinned thumbs-up at a grave, but now they hope to live long enough to get to do it.Trump's latest loathsome move is part of a long, inglorious slide to the bottom. As his numbers drop and his crimes resurface - thank you Jack Smith - he's ever more incoherent, vindictive, preposterous, often babbling on crumbling Truth Social. On Kamala Harris: her "FAKE NUMBERS VERSUS MY NUMBERS," how she "HAS TO PAY FOR HER FAKE ENGAGEMENT," how "WE'RE BEATING HER 'LIKE A DRUM.'" (Harris campaign: "Rent free.") Trashing Walz - RIP Minnesota! - he mourned a "state in shock, the city burned down and it was never built back, it was terrible." He says Dems want to kill newborns, Biden sleeps too much, Kim Jong Un doesn't, Hillary and Kamala gave (many) blow jobs, crime is down worldwide because the perps come here. Asked in Wisconsin what he'd do to "make life more affordable," he said, "Some people don't eat bacon anymore...This was caused by their horrible energy - they want wind all over the place." One comment: "Operation let him talk is going exceedingly well."For a five-time-draft-dodger who's heedlessly savored his escape from hell by calling those who didn't "suckers and losers" - and who famously said of wounded warriors, "Nobody wants to see that" - his imbroglio at Arlington National Cemetery was both shocking and not. Having assembled "all the assholes somehow compelled to find their way to the side of the one silver-spoon failson asshole who would reign supreme over them all" - thank you Uncharted Blue - he decided the best way to troll enemies was by "decorating your campaign with their fallen friends" on Arlington's hallowed ground. The central irony of his hope to highlight the flaws of Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan by joining with family members of a soldier killed in the Kabul airport attack: It was Bone Spurs himself who approved the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters in a widely panned deal he negotiated, ignoring warnings from sidelined Afghan president Ashraf Ghani that the move would lead to deadly chaos, which - surprise! - it did.So it was that he and his gang of thugs turned up at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the attack's third anniversary. Then, per the Army, they "abruptly pushed aside" a female public servant who tried to stop them, lumbered into Section 60's home to fallen veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan - so heavily restricted that any filming at a grave site for political purposes is a violation of federal law - and stood at a grave with his leering goon smirk and teeny thumbs-up to have his fucking gruesome, gaudy picture taken at a grave next to several others whose denizens and their pain-filled families were not consulted. Hours later, having loudly denied they were using the solemn occasion to make cheesy "badly edited propaganda for their hellscape vision of America," they released a TikTok video of cheesy badly edited propaganda for their hellscape vision of America. Several classy MAGA pols also appeared, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, now under fire for using the images for fundraising.After military police were called and wrote up a report, the Army issued an angry statement about the "unfortunate" incident - a rare move, because normal people largely obey the rules of common decency. In what was called "a stern rebuke," they said Trump staff were "made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds"; they also confirmed the woman was physically shoved, praised her "professionalism...consistent with the decorum expected at ANC," and noted they conduct nearly 3,000 public wreath-laying ceremonies a year "without incident." Calling ANC "a national shrine to (our) honored dead," they declared "its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve." Deep down, though, they probably know anything involving Cadet Orange Slimebag and his horde of scuzzy minions render the likelihood of dignity or respect pretty slim. And so it went.Responding with typical restraint and grace, Trump staffers quickly lashed out. Spokesman and piece of work Stephen Cheung sneered the worker "was clearly suffering from a mental health episode," denied any "altercation," and threatened to release video proof "if such defamatory claims are made." In a real shocker, they haven't, except for the mewling TikTok video in which a pious Trump lies, "We didn’t lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over, and that disaster, leaving Afghanistan.” Campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita called the woman they assaulted "a disgrace" and "a despicable individual"; later, "taking the team on a death spiral against America’s military," he said he hoped to "trigger the hacks" at the office of the (female) Army Secretary. After the woman employee declined to press charges, reportedly because she feared retaliation by vengeful MAGA-ites, the campaign called her fear "ridiculous," adding, "It sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome." They seem nice.Still, it kept getting worse. There were emails confirming the campaign was told about the rules, but barged in regardless. Federal law § 553.32 was cited: "Memorial services and ceremonies at Army National Military Cemeteries will not include partisan political activities." The "ripples of outrage" swiftly spread to veterans and their families, incensed at a tawdry effort to "borrow their valor." A pained, plaintive protest came from the family of Green Beret Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a father of three who earned Silver and Bronze Stars in eight combat tours before dying by suicide in 2020 after enduring PTSD; his grave, clearly visible in the video, is adjacent to that of Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover, killed in the Kabul bombing, whose family had invited Trump. "Staffers did not adhere to the rules," wrote Marckesano's sister of their trespass on "this sacred site." "Understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom," she wrote, "and that they are honored and respected accordingly." Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, whose father is buried in Section 60, called the stunt "nauseating" and "repugnant": "Someone who'd do that should never be Commander-in-Chief." A Vote Vets ad echoed him. After clips of Trump saying execrable things, they vow, "We are doing our damnedest to make sure no service member ever has to salute you as commander-in chief ever again." "Unforgivable," wrote a "pissed-off old Army wife" of his "self-aggrandizing behavior on hallowed grounds." She went on, "Every time I turn around and am virtually certain there's no more room beneath contempt for any more of Drumpfenfuehrer's egregious behavior, that malcontent motherfucker proves me wrong." Another: "I have not been able to shake the memory since that disgusting piece of sidewalk scum politicized the sacrifices (made) by those brave enough to do what his cowardice prevented him from doing." And, "If he wants to film a campaign ad at a cemetery, he should do it on the 1st hole at Bedminster."People stayed pissed when the Army said it "considers this matter closed." They noted "assaulting a federal employee in the performance of her duties is a felony (18 USC 111)." Some felt higher-ups, quoted anonymously praising the woman for keeping things from "escalating," were making her a scapegoat to avoid confronting MAGA mania. "He’s a public menace" who'd only be more menacing in power, noted a critic who cited the Army's "Be All You Can Be" boast. "Maybe try being a little more dedicated to enforcing your own friggin' RULES." They had a point, made clearer after Jack Smith re-indicted him and Trump went on a full-on fascist, bonkers, delirious QAnon social media bender with a deluge of over 50 rabid posts: Dems in orange prison jump suits, Obama tried in public military tribunals, "The World Will Soon Understand" what all these glowing orbs, lights, soldiers, lightning and fat, old, white guy in baggy suit and clown make-up mean: "Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming!" Hmm. If it is, they better get their lame act together; so far, J.D. Hillbilly isn't yet up to the task. After Arlington he tried to deflect, dismiss - "Apparently, somebody (had) a little disagreement with somebody” - and go on wildly misfired offense, telling Kamala she could "go to hell" for criticizing what she hasn't mentioned. Then, hilariously, "You guys in the media are acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a gravesite." LOL. Also: "Abbey Road!" "Hulk Hogan!", booing firefighters! Trump still yammers: "Who's Harris?", "Joe Biden killed their children." "I really don't know anything about it," he prattled on the cemetery video backlash. "We have alotta people, you know we're leading the Internet...It coulda been the parents, it coulda been somebody. If somebody did it, this was a set-up by the people in the Administration. This all comes out of Washington, just like all of these prosecutors come out of Washington...These are bad people we’re dealing with." Huh. Please just keep talking.
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[l] at 8/30/24 12:34pm
Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and Palestinians human rights groups are urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review their lawsuit charging President Biden and his aides with enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Last month, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the decision of a lower court, which dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds even as it said Israel’s assault “plausibly” constituted genocide. In an en banc petition filed late yesterday, the plaintiffs argue that courts have a constitutional duty to assess the legality of the Biden administration's actions. “Just this week, my brother’s apartment building in Gaza was completely destroyed– the second time he lost his home, after our family house was obliterated in 2009,” said Ayman Nijim, a plaintiff in the case. “The U.S. is providing the bombs for this genocide. I have lost countless friends and neighbors, so many that I couldn’t know where to start to grieve. When will the courts uphold the law and stop the horror?”If the Ninth Circuit grants the petition for en banc rehearing, the case would be heard by an eleven-judge en banc court. A case needs to meet at least one of two requirements for en banc review: it must involve a matter of “exceptional importance” or have resulted in inconsistency with other court rulings. The plaintiffs’ petition, filed on their behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Van Der Hout LLP, argues that their case fulfills both. One indication of the case’s “exceptional importance,” the petition says, is the scale of the ongoing violence. With unconditional U.S. support, Israel has killed about 40,000 Palestinians – injured more than 90,000, forcibly displaced 2 million, and pushed large segments of Gaza into famine. Israel’s actions, which followed numerous expressions of eliminationist intent by its leaders, have led many legal experts and scholars to conclude that it is committing genocide, the most serious human rights crime. In January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s assault “plausibly” amounted to genocide and ordered it to take provisional measures to prevent further harm to civilians. The following week, the federal judge in this case echoed the ICJ but ruled that the “political question” doctrine prevented courts from ruling on executive branch decisions that touch on foreign policy. Yet courts have repeatedly rejected the executive’s invocation of the political question doctrine when policy decisions cross over into violations of the law. From the founding-era to the post-9/11 “enemy combatant” cases, courts have determined whether foreign policy decisions violated domestic and international law. This failure to uphold Supreme Court precedent also qualifies the case for en banc review, the petition says. “For almost eleven months we have witnessed the intentional destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza made possible by these officials,” said Pam Spees, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “With this ruling, the panel has said our courts are too small to do the job they were assigned at the founding – to be a co-equal branch in our government and a check and balance on presidential power. If the Ninth Circuit doesn’t course correct here, it will be giving this and future presidents license to violate the law at will in the realm of foreign relations.” The lawsuit, filed in November, claims Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin violated international and federal law when they failed to prevent and were complicit in Israel’s genocide. It asked the court to enjoin the administration from supporting the assault on Gaza with weapons or other means. The case featured rare testimony from victims of the genocide, and plaintiff lawyers pointed to evidence of the massive current and historical U.S. support for Israel – including an affidavit from former State Department official Josh Paul – to make the case that Israel could not be committing genocide without its chief benefactor. The three-judge panel consisted of Consuelo M. Callahan, Jacqueline H. Nguyen, and Daniel Aaron Bress. Judge Ryan Nelson was slated to be on the panel, but recused himself following the plaintiffs’ motion highlighting his participation in a World Jewish Congress delegation to Israel that was explicitly designed to influence U.S. judges’ opinions on the legality of Israeli military action against Palestinians. Alongside the en banc petition, plaintiffs are also filing an unopposed motion to disqualify Judge Patrick Bumatay and Judge Lawrence VanDyke from participating in any deliberation in the case because they participated in the same delegation to Israel. The organizational plaintiffs in the case are Defense for Children International – Palestine and Al-Haq. The individual plaintiffs from Gaza are Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, Ahmed Abu Artema, and Mohammed Ahmed Abu Rokbeh; and Mohammad Monadel Herzallah, Laila Elhaddad, Waeil Elbhassi, Basim Elkarra, and Ayman Nijim, U.S. citizens with family in Gaza. For more information, see the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page. The San Francisco law firm of Van Der Hout LLP is co-counsel in the case.
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[l] at 8/30/24 12:25pm
Recent reporting from the New York Times highlighted efforts by Wall Street executives and Silicon Valley donors to convince Vice President Harris to drop taxation of the ultra-wealthy from her agenda. In response, Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement: “I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you that Wall Street billionaires and Silicon Valley tech bros are trying to convince a presidential candidate to abandon her commitment to tax them, and using their own alleged brilliance to justify it. I admire their chutzpah in claiming that taxing unrealized capital gains will stifle innovation! Claiming that making a billionaire pay taxes on their second billion will reduce innovation is as absurd as the rooster claiming the sun won’t rise without his crowing. The billionaires I know were all highly motivated to earn their first billion. The only thing at stake here is the remarkably fragile egos of billionaires who are on the verge of realizing they might not be saving civilization for anyone, including themselves.In light of their silliness, the Patriotic Millionaires have taken the opportunity to rewrite the recent NYT headline (both for our own amusement and to more accurately reflect reality):Some (Silly/Misinformed) Donors Quietly (although not actually all that quietly; it was reported on the front page of the NYT after all) Push Harris to Drop (Modest Compared to What it Should Be) Tax on Ultra Wealthy While Other (Much More Sensible and, yes, More Patriotic) Donors Loudly Push Billionaires to Drop Opposition to Common Sense.
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[l] at 8/30/24 6:42am
Drop Site News and The Intercept Brasil report that they have reviewed more than 1,500 leaked text messages that appear to be between Ecuadorian attorney general Diana Salazar, hailed by the US government as an anti-corruption champion, and former member of Ecuador’s National Assembly Ronny Aleaga. The messages contain numerous bombshell allegations, including claims apparently made by Salazar that slain 2023 presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio had been a US government informant. They and other recently leaked messages also suggest that Salazar has used her position to politically target members of the Ecuadorian left, and appears to have sometimes done so with support from officials in the US embassy in Quito. “These messages appear to further confirm that ‘lawfare’ ― politicizing judicial systems to target opponents ― has been conducted in a blatant and aggressive manner in Ecuador that calls to mind the same sort of judicial persecution that had put Brazil’s now-president Lula da Silva in jail. This kept Lula ― who left office as one of the most popular presidents in the world and was widely expected to win reelection ― off the ballot in Brazil’s 2018 elections, before he was subsequently exonerated,” CEPR Director of International Policy Alex Main said. The messages mostly span March 2023 to March of this year, and were exchanged on an anonymous, private messaging platform called “Confide.” Aleaga, who leaked the messages to the US and Brazilian outlets, stated that he recorded and saved the messages (using a second mobile phone), and had them reviewed and certified by a digital forensics company. Drop Site News and The Intercept Brasil say they have reviewed the forensic report.The messages appear to show Salazar divulging her own exceedingly unlawful behavior. In a clear case of politicization of justice, “Seño,” who Aleaga says is Salazar, admits to having delayed a corruption investigation against former president Guillermo Lasso and his brother-in-law and close business associate, Danilo Carrera, because they thought the investigation would help the left-of-center Movement of the Citizens’ Revolution, of former president Rafael Correa, in the 2023 snap elections.“Seño” also made several claims regarding US involvement and political intervention in Ecuador. They boasted of their close relationship and collaboration with the US embassy and revealed that the embassy was worried that the “correistas” (supporters of former president Correa) might win in the 2023 elections, strongly implying that her actions were part of a broader strategy to stop the Left from winning in Ecuador. “They [the US] want RC’s head,” “Seño” told Aleaga. Following the Ecuadorian government’s invitation to the FBI to investigate the assassination of Villavicencio in August 2023, “Seño” claimed that Villavicencio had been a US government informant. “Seño” also claimed that several of the suspects in his murder, who were killed while in Ecuadorian government custody, were to have been sent to New York had they not been murdered. Verónica Sarauz, the slain candidate’s widow, recently appeared to confirm this, saying she had knowledge that the suspects were to be taken out of the country.Other messages appear to show Salazar complaining that the FBI, who had been given access to Villavicencio’s phone, had transferred the phone’s contents to her office in a data dump, but that she suspected the FBI had erased information, which she considered to be “procedural fraud.”In their exchanges, “Seño” unlawfully shares highly sensitive and confidential information about ongoing criminal investigations in Ecuador. The messages also suggest that Salazar used her privileged access to sensitive information, and the power of her office, to intimidate political actors or to warn them to flee imminent arrest or prosecution. In the case of Aleaga — with whom she had a “‘secretive’ relationship,” according to Drop Site News and The Intercept Brasil — the messages reveal that she warned him that his arrest was imminent, and told him to flee the country to avoid it.In their investigation, Drop Site News and The Intercept Brasil describe the messages as part of a pattern of Salazar’s abuse of her authority. As such, they examine another scandal that recently emerged concerning the testimony of a former Ecuadorian judge, Wilman Terán, whom Salazar ordered be arrested in December in what appeared to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision. In recent months, Terán has claimed that Salazar intimidated him into ruling against Correa’s 2020 appeal. In a highly politicized and expeditious court case, Correa — who has lived in Belgium since 2017 — was found guilty of exerting “psychic influence” on his collaborators to accept bribes. Terán also accused Salazar of hiding evidence from him. As in the case of Lula in 2018, this sentence prevented Correa from being a candidate in 2021. Terán also submitted his exchanges with Salazar for forensic examination, the results of which have been made public. In these messages, the attorney general displayed similar behavior as in the communications with Aleaga, sharing confidential information and warning of imminent prosecution. In a recent and blatant display of overreach that underscores her immense power, Salazar ordered raids on the offices and homes of two National Court of Justice judges for favoring Terán. These judges had ruled that Terán should be transferred to a different prison and be given greater access to his legal team after enduring “cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment.”These shocking revelations about Salazar’s unlawful conduct, politicization of justice, and numerous ethical violations, echo similar exposés, reported in 2019 by The Intercept Brasil, on the highly politicized trial against former president Lula. These disclosures led the Brazilian Supreme Court to rule that Judge Sergio Moro had been biased in his treatment of Lula. Subsequent investigative reports published by Brazilian investigative outlet Agência Pública revealed that US Department of Justice and FBI officials were deeply involved in the Lava Jato judicial operation that culminated in Lula’s jailing. US Members of Congress have twice requested that the US Attorney General share further information regarding the US role in Lava Jato, but have yet to receive a substantive response. New Revelations Raise Serious Questions about Ongoing US Support for Salazar These latest revelations raise serious questions about the United States’ potential involvement in politicized judicial processes in Ecuador and its ongoing support for Attorney General Diana Salazar, who is widely regarded as a US government protégé. In 2021, the State Department granted Salazar its annual anti-corruption award, lauding “her courageous actions” and praising her as “a role model to judges, lawyers, and prosecutors throughout South America.” In 2024, Salazar was one of the winners of the US government-funded Wilson Center’s Award for Public Service “for her commitment to justice in Latin America.” The same year, Samantha Power, the US Agency for International Development administrator, eulogized Diana Salazar in TIME, lavishing praise on the Ecuadorian attorney general, who is “now spearheading the effort to prevent violent and well-connected drug traffickers from ruining her beloved country,” and “has earned the respect and support of a population desperate for calm and safety.” During her time in office, Salazar has frequently received US authorities, such as General Laura Richardson, the commander of the US Southern Command, and special advisor to President Biden Christopher Dodd, who reportedly told Salazar “you are not alone in this fight.” While in Washington, Salazar visited Attorney General Merrick Garland, who expressed support for the “continued cooperation and partnership with @FiscaliaEcuador in combating transnational organized crime and corruption.”In Ecuador, Salazar has enjoyed the unflinching support of the US embassy, with regular public meetings and photo opportunities granting her significant political cover. When Salazar faced accusations of having plagiarized large chunks of her graduation thesis, US Ambassador Fitzpatrick responded to the accusations by posing, along with other diplomats, for a photo op alongside Salazar, and stating, “We reiterate our rejection of any violence or threat against the institutions and their representatives, and our attachment to respect for state institutions and the rule of law.” This conspicuous endorsement from successive US administrations and the US foreign policy establishment has given Salazar an aura of untouchability. But in recent months, there has been mounting criticism against Salazar for the politicization of her office. As a result, Salazar now faces impeachment proceedings in the National Assembly, where she stands accused of delaying prosecution in several high-profile criminal investigations, including the “León de Troya,” “Encuentro,” and “INA Papers” cases, which concern accusations of corruption against former presidents Lenín Moreno and Guillermo Lasso, and, in Lasso’s case, accusations of covering up his brother-in-law’s links with narcotics trafficking.“Salazar faces impeachment proceedings and multiple accusations of ethics violations, but this latest news makes it clear that she is a political actor, and may have broken the law in order to achieve political aims,” Main said. “The time has come for Washington’s unwavering support for Salazar to cease, and for this political persecution in Ecuador to come to an end.”
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[l] at 8/28/24 1:20pm
International organizations are expressing severe concern over the imminent collapse of the humanitarian response in Gaza, citing ongoing operational constraints and continued forced relocation imposed by Israel. Ninety percent of Palestinian civilians in Gaza have now been displaced multiple times into a dwindling and overcrowded unilaterally-declared “humanitarian zone.” The erosion of humanitarian space is documented in a new Gaza Humanitarian Access Snapshot Report, compiled by thirty INGOs active in Gaza. See the full report here. Israel is increasing the already strict restrictions on what is allowed into and across Gaza, including medical supplies and other essential items. Forced relocation orders have pushed both civilians and humanitarian workers into an area that is now approximately 15 square miles. This alleged “humanitarian zone” is still subjected to air strikes, making it extremely challenging for Palestinian civilians to receive aid assistance. “Due to Israeli forced displacement orders, our staff in Gaza had to stop operations many times. The latest order impacted AFSC’s water distribution to four camps where we had been providing water to thousands of people,” said Hanady Muhiar, Palestine/Israel Country Representative for the American Friends Service Committee. “Palestinians in Gaza are under constant bombardment from Israeli air strikes and lack of access to food, water, and lifesaving medical supplies. We are calling on the international community to take all possible action to bring about a permanent ceasefire and guarantee humanitarian access. We must bring an end to these atrocities and allow all Palestinians who have been displaced to return to what remains of their homes and reunite with their families.”The new restrictions come at a time when the humanitarian response is already critically impeded, with July marking the lowest amount of aid entering Gaza since the start of Israel’s military offensive more than 10 months ago. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and other leading humanitarian agencies call on the government of Israel to “immediately halt the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which is causing unnecessary suffering, trauma, and severely disrupting access to essential aid. The Government of Israel must guarantee and facilitate safe, unhindered access for all humanitarian assistance, including vaccines, fuel, associated equipment (including cold chain storage), and specialist staff, through all crossing points into and within Gaza, as well as safe unfettered access for children and families to health points across the Strip.”They also demand that Israel comply with its obligations under International Law and cease all military operations, withdraw fully from the entirety of the Gaza Strip, and open the crossings for unhindered provision at scale of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance. This is consistent with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January, March and May and reaffirmed in a separate ICJ determination in July.“The UN Security Council must take concrete action to ensure an immediate and permanent ceasefire is achieved. Only then will we see unimpeded humanitarian access that ensures vital aid can reach those in need,” said Mike Merryman-Lotze, Just Peace Global Policy Director for AFSC. “Members of the international community must halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to all parties to the conflict, as these are being used to commit grave violations of International Humanitarian Law. All states should impose an arms embargo on Israel to avoid further escalation and create the possibility for peace and justice in the region.”
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[l] at 8/28/24 12:20pm
The American Civil Liberties Union released Harris on Surveillance: Protecting Individual Liberties and Rights by Constraining Executive Power today, a memo outlining steps Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris can take to rein in expansive government surveillance and protect individual rights and liberties if she is elected. The memo also details how the ACLU will work to ensure a Harris administration confronts dangers to our privacy rights head on. The executive branch has immense power and discretion to surveil and investigate, with severe consequences for individual rights. Over the past two decades, the executive branch’s surveillance powers have become even more expansive, as successive presidents from both parties have sought to maintain and enlarge these powers without meaningful judicial or congressional constraints and oversight. Our Harris on Surveillance memo urges Harris, if elected, to protect against Big Brother digital surveillance, end unjustified and discriminatory domestic surveillance, and implement safeguards for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data privacy.“Despite perennial campaign trail promises to rein in surveillance powers that violate our privacy and civil liberties, once in office, presidents from both parties have all-too-often doubled down on the same powers that consistently lead to abuse,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project. “Regardless of who is president, the ACLU will continue to shed light on the government’s warrantless spying on Americans and challenge wrongful and discriminatory surveillance in court to vindicate the rights of people who are harmed.” “As a senator, Kamala Harris had a strong record of opposing legislative efforts to expand mass surveillance powers. As vice president, she recognized the ‘moral, ethical, and societal duty’ to protect Americans from potential harms of AI. If elected president, we hope she brings that same fire to the White House in order to restore checks and balances to mass surveillance,” said Kia Hamadanchy, ACLU senior policy counsel.The ACLU’s roadmap released today outlines our plan to rein in government surveillance by: Protecting against Big Brother digital surveillance, like spying under Section 702 and Executive Order 12333, and massive government purchases of our information from commercial data brokers. These activities allow the government to obtain sensitive, private information about Americans without a warrant or privacy safeguards. The ACLU will continue to shed light on surveillance abuses, work with allies in Congress to narrow surveillance authorities, and work to restrict the flow of our private data from the states and cities to federal agencies. Ending unjustified and discriminatory domestic surveillance and investigation, including through loopholes in federal national security policies that permit bias, watchlisting, social media monitoring, and other wrongful and discriminatory targeting of people exercising their rights to free speech and association. People who are racial and religious minorities or who dissent from government policy are often unfairly targeted for surveillance and investigation by federal agencies. The ACLU will use the courts to vindicate people’s rights and expose the arbitrary nature of watchlisting and surveillance, and urge a potential Harris administration to explicitly prohibit discrimination and rein in domestic surveillance powers.Implementing strong safeguards for artificial intelligence and data privacy. National security agencies are increasingly developing and deploying powerful AI systems, which present immense risks to the rights and safety of people in the U.S. and abroad. Yet these agencies have largely been exempted from important measures to increase transparency, trust, and fairness. The ACLU will urge a Harris administration to establish robust safeguards around federal uses of AI, will use the courts to ensure greater public transparency around AI, and will work with allies in Congress to pass a federal comprehensive data privacy law that will reduce how much data is collected from us in the first place. The Harris on Surveillance memo marks the fifth of six memos the ACLU is releasing on the Democratic nominee. In addition to surveillance and privacy, the memos have focused on abortion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and voting rights, with an additional memo on the criminal legal system yet to be released. This series follows seven memos the ACLU released on policies of a potential second Trump administration, including one on surveillance that can be found here. The Harris on Surveillance memo is available here: https://www.aclu.org/publications/harris-on-surveillance
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[l] at 8/28/24 10:36am
In a new indictment, Special Counsel Jack Smith with the U.S. Dept. of Justice is working to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for election interference in 2020. In early July, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could not be prosecuted for acts within the scope of his duties as president at the time. Special Counsel Smith has revised the indictment to eliminate the illegal actions for which the Court held Trump was immune. Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said the Department of Justice is right to pursue accountability for the former president, because no one, including our highest elected officials, should be above the law.“Former President Trump has persistently tried to evade accountability for election interference in connection with the 2020 election,” said Gilbert. “And now a fifth grand jury has indicted him. Because his outrageous efforts to overturn the election were not official acts, he is not immune from prosecution. Public Citizen applauds these actions by the Department of Justice to preserve our democracy.”

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