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12/12 News Roundup & Open Thread

Posted on December 12, 2019 by LieparDestinDecember 12, 2019

In this episode of Studio B: Unscripted, US artist and activist Patrisse Cullors meets British Iraqi rapper and campaigner Lowkey, to talk race, politics, activism and protest.
In 2013, Cullors co-founded the Black Lives Matter activist movement which campaigns against violence and systemic racism. She helped to propagate the cause globally and in 2016 she published her book When They Call You a Terrorist – A Black Lives Matter Memoir – which became a New York Times bestseller.
Lowkey rose to fame in London’s underground hip-hop scene, releasing several mixtapes which chronicled the harsh realities of life for many working-class people in the UK. His work also dissects the synergies between the “War on Terror”, global imperialism and racism. He is an avid activist as a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War coalition.
In this discussion, Cullors and Lowkey share their experiences of activism and protest, dissecting the relations between power and politics in constructing definitions and narratives about those challenging the status quo.

More news/videos/tweets/etc. in the comments.

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12/11 SuperPAC Ads by Koch Bros Attack GND With Sanders as Target in Iowa; Evening OT

Posted on December 11, 2019 by BennyDecember 11, 2019

Koch is going after Bernie Sanders in Iowa for elevating climate change as a top issue across the state.
The fossil fuel industry is going to lose and we are going to make the Green New Deal a reality. https://t.co/FadeVUzGF6
— Bill Neidhardt (@BNeidhardt) December 11, 2019

Koch-Backed Groups Target Bernie Sanders’ GND Support

n an advertisement released on Facebook and Instagram near the end of October, the American Energy Alliance made at least six buys of ads depicting the Vermont senator speaking to three scientists in white lab coats with tape over their mouths and text saying “The Debate is Over.”

According to Federal Election Commission filings, the conservative, largely Koch-funded group last spent money on an election in 2012, funding attack ads against political candidates using messages such as “stand with coal” and “vote no on Obama’s failing energy policy.”

The AEA calls itself a “not-for-profit organization that engages in grassroots public policy advocacy and debate concerning energy and environmental policies.” The group spent nearly $1.4 million on electioneering communications ads — with Obama as their subject — during the 2012 election cycle.

Since May 2018, the AEA has spent $68,363 on Facebook and Instagram ads that feature other campaigns against the GND. One includes a cartoon of a thermostat, coins and dollar bills saying, “You might think the Green New Deal is funny, but you won’t be laughing at your new energy bill.” The post then urges people to sign an AEA-created petition demanding lawmakers reject the deal.

“It looks like a pretty standard fossil fuel industry front group attacking clean energy,” Josh Mandelbaum, an attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said of the ads.