Tips, Comments, Complaints, Etc!

Sanders blasts proposed Medicare cuts: These ‘will kill people’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) berated his Republican colleagues on Thursday over proposed cuts to health spending that he said would “kill people.”

“These are cuts that will kill people, these are cuts that will hurt people, and these are cuts that should not in a humane society be allowed to take place,” Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said during a markup of the Senate budget.

The exchange came over an amendment sponsored by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) that would prevent the budget’s proposed cuts to Medicare.

The Republican-penned budget resolution outlined $473 billion in cuts to Medicare’s current spending path over a decade and about $1 trillion in reductions to Medicaid’s path.

Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) pointed out that the resolution would not enact the cuts or have the force of law, but critics note that Republicans rely on such cuts for their 10-year budget plan to balance.

Did Berniecrats just score their first major victory in Los Angeles?

o how did the Bernie Sanders-style progressive movement fare in Tuesday’s special Assembly election in Los Angeles?

Great. Or, maybe not so great. It all depends on how you look at it.

The question matters in this progressive stronghold of northeast and east-side Los Angeles neighborhoods that strongly favored Sen. Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary last year, yet leaned toward traditional party candidates in a recent special election for Congress.

At the surface, it appears like a straight-up victory for the progressive arm of California’s Democratic party, which has been gaining power since Sanders’ presidential run last year — and came close to winning the chairmanship of the state Democratic Party a few months ago. Both of the top two vote getters in the race for this legislative seat have legitimate progressive claims.

Wendy Carrillo is the front-runner at the moment with 21% of the vote. (Ballots are still being counted, but with such low turnout it is unlikely it will change the projected winners.) She was one of a handful of “Berniecrats” who ran unsuccessfully this spring to replace Xavier Becerra in Congress after he was appointed state attorney general. Coming in second with 19% of the vote is Luis Lopez, a Planned Parenthood board member who also swings progressive, supporting issues such as single-payer healthcare and curbs on corporate money in politics. He also had the distinction of being endorsed by the East Area Progressive Democrats club.

fake news on the internet is a thing and it has always been a thing. Normally fair and balanced news networks have even been known to put out misinformation. Unfortunately people will do stupid things, and stupid things will get spread. But we do not need corporations, the government, etc.. choosing what is ‘real’. Instead we just need better ‘real news’.

YouTube alters search algorithm over fake Las Vegas conspiracy videos

YouTube has made changes to its algorithms after it was strongly condemned for promoting offensive and false conspiracy theory videos about the Las Vegas shooting.

The move to shift the way it delivers search results contradicts YouTube’s earlier statements defending its performance during breaking news.

After a gunman inside the Mandalay Bay hotel fired on a music festival, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more, videos claiming that the shooting was a hoax and a “false flag” spread like wildfire on YouTube, earning millions of views.

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YouTube’s initial statements, followed by its readjusted algorithms, speak to the broader ethical challenges technology companies face regarding their role in providing major platforms for fake news and propaganda. Facebook and Google were both caught promoting rightwing blogs and conspiracy sites hours after the Las Vegas shooting, forcing the corporations to admit that they had made mistakes in spreading misinformation about the identity of the shooter.

Silicon Valley has faced heightened scrutiny over the last year for allowing political propaganda and fake news to reach wide audiences, possibly playing a part in Russia’s efforts to interfere with the US presidential election.

‘We’re walking down a dark path’: Biden hammers Trump in scathing speech

Joe Biden, the former US vice-president, has taken off the gloves with a scathing denunciation of Donald Trump and the existential threat he poses to the post-war international order.

Passionate and pugnacious, his voice sometimes erupting in anger, Biden warned on Thursday that the US was heading down “a very dark path” and urged Washington’s foreign policy establishment to take a stand.

It is rare for ex-presidents or vice-presidents to criticise their successors’ actions. So far Barack Obama has carefully picked his targets, issuing a few pointed remarks or written statements. But Biden, 74, speaking to an invited audience at a thinktank, decided to let rip.

“I really feel incredibly strongly that the women and men sitting before me, who have been the intellectual backbone of the foreign policy establishment in this country for decades, have to start to speak out,” he said. “President Obama and I have been very quiet and respectful, giving the administration time, but some of these roots are being sunk too deeply. I believe it’s time to challenge some of the dangerous assumptions that are attempting to replace that liberal world order.”

Biden, who spent four decades serving in high public office, was receiving the Zbigniew Brzezinski annual prize at the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank. The auditorium was packed, with many people standing, and hushed as he offered a damning verdict on the Trump presidency.

Acknowledging that many Americans feel left behind by globalisation, he said: “The appeal to populism and nationalism is a siren song, a way for charlatans to aggrandise their power, raise themselves up, break down those mechanisms that were designed, whether in our constitution or internationally, to limit the abuse of power, and destabilise the world.

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/916102159300567040?s=03

House GOP Passes Budget That ‘Should Not Be Allowed in a Humane Society’

By a vote of 219 to 206, the House on Friday approved a GOP-crafted budget resolution that proposes more than five trillion dollars in cuts to key safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid to pave the way for massive tax cuts for the wealthy and massive corporations.

No Democrats voted for the budget, and 18 Republicans voted against it.

Crucially, the resolution includes parliamentary language that eliminates the possibility of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and will allow the GOP to “fast-track” their tax cuts with only 51 votes instead of the typical 60—the same procedure Republicans utilized in their failed attempt repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), denounced the GOP budget resolution in a statement following Thursday’s vote, arguing it is “the first step toward an immoral tax scheme that will hand trillions of dollars to millionaires and corporations at the expense of America’s working families, many of whom will actually see a tax increase.”

“These tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will ultimately be paid for by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, education, disability services, and other national priorities,” Clemente added, “while the expansion of the deficit will further threaten Social Security.”

What I Saw in Puerto Rico by Tom Perez

This week, I witnessed the worst devastation I’ve seen in my life. I’ve been to Puerto Rico several times before; I have family there. But this trip was unlike any other.

I spent most of my time on the southern part of the island in Ponce, Puerto Rico’s second-largest city, with Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, Mayor María Meléndez and a delegation of Florida Democrats, bringing supplies to those in need and surveying the destruction. We passed homes that had been wiped clean off their foundations. We saw a queen-sized mattress impaled at the top of a telephone pole. And the lines of communication were so damaged that we couldn’t even use a satellite phone to reach the outside world.

The island I know is gone, washed away by one of the most vicious hurricanes in American history. But one of the few things that wasn’t washed away is Puerto Rico’s American identity. In fact, just above a row of homes that was destroyed by the storm was a flagpole with the stars and stripes still waving in the wind.

The 3.5 million people in Puerto Rico are American citizens. They deserve fair and equal treatment as Americans. Unfortunately, we have a president who has shown a disturbing disregard for their well-being. President Trump waited more than a week after the hurricane to lift the Jones Act, despite issuing a waiver for Florida and Texas before Hurricane Irma even made landfall in the continental U.S. There was no excuse for Trump’s delay, which only caused more unnecessary suffering as ships couldn’t get supplies to the island quickly. What’s more, FEMA has yet to authorize all the disaster relief tools it has at its disposal.

Not my idea of stars… but its definitely the establishment.

Democratic stars to come out for N.J. governor candidate Murphy

Some of the biggest names in the national Democratic Party are headed to New Jersey to campaign for Democrat Phil Murphy in the final few weeks before voters pick who will succeed Chris Christie as governor.

The list includes former vice presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and current Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.

But it does not include a planned appearance by former President Barack Obama.

Murphy’s campaign said last month that Obama would host an event sometime this fall for Murphy, who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany under Obama from 2009 to 2013. But details are still not available, said Daniel Bryan, a spokesman for the campaign.

‘Calm before the storm’: Donald Trump set to abandon Iran nuclear deal

Donald Trump has accused Iran of not living up to the “spirit of the agreement” of its nuclear deal amid reports that he plans to withhold endorsement of the landmark agreement with the international community.

At a meeting of military leaders, Trump warned cryptically that those present were witnessing “the calm before the storm”. When asked by reporters what he meant, the president, a former reality TV host, said: “You’ll find out.”

Several media outlets on Friday confirmed what has been suspected in Washington and foreign capitals for some time: that Trump will not certify the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, on the grounds it does not serve US security interests.

That would trigger a period of 60 days in which it would be up to a delicately balanced Congress whether to reimpose sanctions. A decision to do so could trigger a collapse of the deal and a return to a tense standoff in the Middle East over the Iranian nuclear programme.

Barred From Testifying for ‘Valve Turners,’ Renowned Climate Scientist Speaks Out

A district court judge in North Dakota has barred climate change scientist Dr. James Hansen and other experts from testifying in the landmark trial of Michael Foster, one of the 11 climate activists with the group Climate Direct Action who temporarily halted the flow of tar sands bitumen from Canada into the U.S. in a #ShutItDown action last October.

Working simultaneously in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Washington, five of the activists “entered fenced-off areas and closed the emergency valves” for five pipelines—operated by Enbridge, Spectra Energy, Kinder Morgan, and TransCanada—as Foster, a Seatte-based mental health counselor in his 50s, described in a Newsweek column published Tuesday. The five activists have been nicknamed “valve turners.”

“I shut off the valve on TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline in North Dakota. We called the pipeline companies in advance to notify them, livestreamed our action to prove it wasn’t a hoax, then peacefully waited for arrest,” he wrote. Foster, whose trial started Monday, has been charged with two Class B felonies and two misdemeanors, and faces up to 22 years in jail. He has pleaded “not guilty,” and his team is asking to present what is called a necessity defense.

As Jeremy Brecher explained in a Common Dreams op-ed in March: “To make a necessity defense, the accused must prove that they believed their act was necessary to avoid or minimize a harm; that the harm was greater than the harm resulting from the violation of the law; and that there were no reasonable legal alternatives.” To achieve that, the defense “will have to prove to the court that the harm of climate change is greater than that of shutting a pipeline,” which they planned to do by calling “expert witnesses who will have no difficulty laying out the catastrophic current and future effects of fossil fuel emissions.”

However, they hit a roadblock on Wednesday, when the judge barred Hansen—a former NASA scientist who has been called “the father of modern climate change awareness”—and other key climate witnesses from testifying. The judge, according to Foster’s representatives, claimed “presentation of climate change testimony and evidence would confuse the jury and mislead them.”

Are those my words coming of out Steve Bannon’s mouth? by Thomas Frank

There’s was a moment in Steve Bannon’s recent 60 Minutes interview when the former presidential advisor was asked what he’s done to drain “the swamp,” the Trumpists’ favorite metaphor for everything they hate about Washington DC. Here was Bannon’s reply: “The swamp is 50 years in the making. Let’s talk about the swamp. The swamp is a business model. It’s a successful business model. It’s a donor, consultant, K Street lobbyist, politician … 7 of the 9 wealthiest counties in America ring Washington, DC.”

With a shock of recognition I knew immediately what Bannon meant, because what he was talking about was the subject matter of my 2008 book, The Wrecking Crew – the interconnected eco-system of corruption that makes Washington, DC so rich.

The first chapter of my book had been a description of those wealthy counties that ring Washington, DC: the fine cars, the billowing homes, the expense-account restaurants. The rest of the book was my attempt to explain the system that made possible the earthly paradise of Washington and – just like Steve Bannon – I did it by referring to a business model: the political donors and the K Street lobbyists, who act in combination with politicians of the Tom DeLay variety.

My critique of Washington was distinctly from the left, and it astonished me to hear something very close to my argument coming from the mouth of one of the nation’s most prominent conservatives. But in fact, Bannon has a long history of reaching out to the left – you might say, of swiping its populist language and hijacking its causes.

‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

Google, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet. Paul Lewis reports on the Silicon Valley refuseniks who worry the race for human attention has created a world of perpetual distraction that could ultimately end in disaster

California adopts ‘sanctuary state’ immigration law in snub to Trump

California has adopted the most expansive “sanctuary state” law in the US with the goal of obstructing Donald Trump’s deportation agenda by prohibiting police in the country’s most populous state from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

The landmark bill, signed into law on Thursday, restricts police from questioning people about their citizenship status and detaining foreign-born residents on immigration violations. The law, which also prohibits police from transferring certain inmates to immigration authorities, could lead to a major legal showdown between the White House and California and is the latest example of the liberal Golden State creating roadblocks to Trump policies.

The legislation is more far-reaching than an existing sanctuary state policy in Oregon and could help shield immigrants from aggressive deportation efforts in a state home to more than two million undocumented people, nearly a quarter of all unauthorized immigrants living in the US.

The California Values Act builds on the sanctuary city policies that Trump aggressively targeted during his 2016 campaign and which exist in hundreds of municipalities. Studies have challenged Trump’s claims that sanctuary jurisdictions attract crime; some research suggests cities with sanctuary policies have significantly lower crime rates than comparable municipalities that allow local police to enforce immigration laws.

Climate change in the Caribbean – learning lessons from Irma and Maria

Increasingly unfamiliar and unpredictable weather events mean that business as usual is not an option for these islands to survive

The “Center-Left” Had Its Chance; It’s Time For Something New

An ideology that has become complacent and complicit: complacent in its power, and complicit in its relationship to corporate power.

Sessions Denounced for ‘Appalling Assault’ on Transgender Workers’ Rights

LGBTQ advocates on Thursday fiercely denounced a leaked directive from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that reversed a federal government policy protecting transgender workers from discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“While scores of Americans are dying from natural disasters and gun violence, the Trump administration, instead of helping our nation come together, is continuing to try and tear it apart,” said David Kilmnick, president and CEO of the New York LGBT Network. “This despicable action of reversing protections for transgender people in the workplace is just another example of attempts by the Trump administration to deny tens of thousands of Americans equal rights.”

“Yet again, the Trump-Pence administration continues to unleash shameful attacks against the transgender community in an effort to promote their disgusting agenda of hate,” said Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign legal director. “Sessions is openly directing the [Justice] Department to ignore their responsibilities in protecting the civil rights of all Americans. Transgender workers deserve to know their government will have their back when they’re faced with discrimination.”

Zinke Caught Raising Political Funds During Taxpayer-Funded Trips

Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, who is being investigated for his use of private planes on the taxpayer dime, is under fresh scrutiny for “mixing political gatherings … during official business.”

According to Interior travel records and other documents seen by POLITICO, the secretary has met with GOP donors and political groups more than a half-dozen times while on taxpayer-funded department trips, including a local Republican Party fundraiser in the U.S. Virgin Islands where donors paid up to $5,000 per couple for a photo-op with Zinke.

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“Ethics watchdogs say Zinke is combining politics with his Interior duties so frequently that he risks tripping over the prohibitions against using government resources for partisan activity,” POLITCO reports.

Zinke’s trips do not appear to break the law. For instance, his visit to the U.S. Virgin Islands from March 30 to April 1 was an official trip related to the Interior Dept.’s role overseeing the U.S. territory.

But House Democrats criticized the secretary in a letter sent Tuesday that stated that Zinke’s travels “give the appearance that you are mixing political gatherings and personal destinations with official business.”

While Puerto Rico Fights For Aid, This Long-Forgotten Island Remains ‘Slum of the Pacific’

Once a pristine and sparsely populated sandbar island, Ebeye is now one of the most densely populated places in the world with over 15,000 residents crammed into less than 80 acres of land (31 hectares). Many of its residents are refugees from other islands throughout the Marshall Islands—islands that were rendered uninhabitable or completely destroyed by the U.S. government’s tests of 67 atomic bombs over a twelve-year period, following its seizure of the territory from the Japanese after World War II.

Some of those islands have since been cleared by the federal government as “safe” to inhabit. However, local leaders remain skeptical that this is the case, given that the government made such assurances to the Marshallese before, only to have the inhabitants unwittingly become part of a massive human experiment on the effects of environmental radiation exposure over time. In the meantime, the displaced make their living in “a shameful slum,” as Ebeye was once called by author and journalist Simon Winchester.

Since assuming control of the island in 1944, the U.S. government was tasked with administering the governing body of the Marshall Islands, of which Ebeye is part. Though the Marshall Islands ostensibly gained “independence” in 1986, since 1983 its sovereignty has been dictated by a “Compact of Free Association,” which did little to change its status. Per this compact, the Marshall Islands leased most of its land to the U.S. military for bases and other installations in exchange for U.S. economic assistance to the islands.

Lurking below these technicalities and legalities is the reality that Ebeye has essentially been rented to its populace by the U.S., primarily to serve the needs of the U.S. military and its base on neighboring Kwajalein. Independence means little without the resources or wherewithal to provide for the needs of one’s people. Ebeye’s sewer system has not worked for nearly four decades—it did not work prior to “independence,” and it has not worked subsequent to “independence.” As a result, raw sewage often pools in the streets while human waste is often pumped into a lagoon near where children swim. Lesions and sores on islanders are common, as are periodic outbreaks of cholera and dengue fever.

Full house for .@AbdulElSayed at Umich pic.twitter.com/JTorx0kxiH

— Anthony Borden (@AnthonyRBorden) October 6, 2017

Detroit neighborhoods threatened by constant evictions

Detroit’s high eviction rate is uprooting thousands, destabilizing neighborhoods and schools, and threatening the health and safety of residents.

The Detroit News analyzed nearly 285,000 eviction cases since 2009 and found that families in one out of five Detroit rentals face eviction annually.

City ordinance requires all rentals be registered, livable and inspected yearly. But most landlords have operated without city enforcement for over a decade.

Officials said the lack of enforcement contributes to an eviction cycle in which many tenants live in dangerous and unfit homes. They said tenants who withhold rent as a way to compel home repairs consequently have faced eviction. The newspaper found families facing eviction in homes with hazardous electric systems, missing windows and mice infestations.

“How is this possible?” said Latasha Tucker, who stopped paying her rent when the landlord refused to fix a basement filled with sewage and black sludge. “I am being evicted from a place that I shouldn’t even be living in … But we have nowhere else to go. I am lost.”

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Housing experts said that evicting thousands of families a year creates neighborhood blight, worsens health problems and can distress children when they’re forced to transfer schools because of housing changes.

“This is one of those problems that is foundational,” said Abdul El-Sayed, a former health department director for the city. “The problem touches everything.”

I'm proud to be endorsed by @NationalNurses. They represent more than 150,000 nurses on the front lines in Maryland.

— Ben Jealous (@BenJealous) October 5, 2017

Mayor-elect Woodfin wants a process, not a ‘sledgehammer,’ as he eyes office

Birmingham Mayor-elect Randall Woodfin said it’s “premature” to discuss any possible personnel changes at city hall.

“At this point, as it relates to personnel it is important for me to start talking to everybody and getting a feel for what is going on in each department,” he said in an interview with AL.com.

Woodfin said he will do an assessment to determine what departments are understaffed, overstaffed or too top-heavy. He spoke previously about reducing the number of employees in the mayor’s office.

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“You don’t come in with a sledgehammer to issues that you, first, need to actually take a deep dive and look at, to not only assess and understand, he said.

Woodfin said one of his first orders of business will be having an external audit conducted to determine the state of Birmingham’s finances.

Is there really a $67 million increase in revenues, and what happened to the bond money approved by voters five years ago?

New wave of protest leaders emerged after Ferguson

Young people thrust into activism by the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson are leading a new wave of civil disobedience in St. Louis, mentored by a civil-rights movement veteran and driven by the belief change won’t happen until the entire region is confronted with the uncomfortable reality of racism.

Protests have been plentiful in St. Louis since the mid-September acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former officer who fatally shot a 24-year-old black drug suspect, Anthony Lamar Smith, in 2011 while still on the city’s police force. The demonstrators have blocked traffic on a major highway, marched through shopping malls and filled the streets of upscale suburban neighborhoods.

The locations are not accidental: Leaders say all of St. Louis and its suburbs must understand the pain and frustration of the black community over police shootings and economic and educational disparities.

“Change hasn’t happened yet,” protest organizer Cori Bush said. “That tells us we have to keep pushing.”

Bush is part of what’s called the Frontline movement. It’s organic enough that there are no designated leaders, but clearly some have emerged. At the top of the list are Bush, a pastor and registered nurse, and Bruce Franks Jr., one of Missouri’s youngest state representatives.

3rd Congressional District candidates campaign hard heading into final election stretch

The general election is only one month away.

For candidates in the 3rd Congressional District race, it’s the final stretch. It’s their last chance in this shortened election cycle, caused by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s resignation in June, to get their message out and win over undecided voters.

Though the election takes place Nov. 7, the timeline is even shorter considering the vote-by-mail nature of the election. Ballots will be mailed on Oct. 17, according to the official election timeline.

Republican frontrunner John Curtis, was working on getting his new website running within the week. Curtis, often lauded during his time as Provo mayor for his social media savvy and ability to communicate with residents electronically, has been without a fully-functioning website for several weeks as his campaign worked to build an updated website.

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That same poll showed Democratic candidate Kathie Allen, at under 20 percent, with a sizable amount of voters to woo in the next month if she hopes to catch Curtis.

Allen, a physician, is focusing considerably on face-to-face interaction with voters, said campaign spokesman Daniel Friend. In the next week, she plans to knock doors in Lehi and visit with faculty and students at Utah Valley University.

The well-funded Allen is also planning a “corner to corner” tour before the election comes, and will roll out a comprehensive media package in the weeks before the election.

Birmingham businessman Dan Haberman enters 11th District Congressional race

Birmingham attorney and businessman Dan Haberman announced his candidacy for the 11th Congressional District Thursday, making him the third Democrat to formally enter the primary race.

Haberman made his intentions official at a Thursday campaign event at Byte & Mortar Offices, a virtual office space where he serves as president.

He joins Haley Stevens, who served as chief of staff on the Auto Task Force inside of the U.S. Treasury Department, and Fayrouz Saad, who served as the director of Detroit’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, in formally entering the race for the Democratic primary.

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If elected, Haberman he would work to address gun violence, assist small business owners and help work towards improving the nation’s health care policy. He also said he would continue working to improve overall public health, citing his previous efforts to get smoke-free air legislation passed in Michigan.

Ive tweeted Haberman asking his specific position on MCA and the Fight For 15 as neither are mentioned on his site or in his ad, and have yet to get a response. Saad, already listed under our candidates page, has spoken in favor of MFA.

Don’t Be Fooled: The NRA Doesn’t Want to Ban ‘Bump Stocks’

Letting the ATF handle this decision probably means nothing will happen.

Trump’s Favorite Criminal Sheriff Gets Back in the Saddle

Last Friday, two days before a gunman killed at least 58 people in Las Vegas, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio schooled a crowd of California Republicans on the benefits of having a heavily armed citizenry. “Most of the time, the cops get there a little late and [the shooter] wipes everybody out,” he said. “So what’s wrong when a private citizen who has a concealed weapon and sees that happening…takes action?”

Sheriff Joe was in Fresno, California, at the invitation of the Fresno County Republican Party, for their annual fundraiser. As the keynote speaker for the event, billed as a celebration of the 1st and 2nd amendments, a crowd of 300 or so—many of California’s most passionate and influential far-right conservatives—had come out to the Sunnyside Health and Tennis Club to see Sherriff Joe in action. The tipsy crowd cackled at his gun comments.

“Why is everybody laughing?”Arpaio asked, caught off guard. He referred to a mass shooting in Colorado in 2015, after which the sheriff had urged 250,000 gun-carrying Arizonans to take action against would-be mass shooters, and said, “my point is that law enforcement can’t go at it alone. So that’s why I say build up the posse.”

Miami Beach cops arrest man for Twitter parody of police spokesman

I wonder what precedent this sets for ‘parody’ accounts say like Peter Douche or if a distinction is made in regards to direct identity theft and intent to mislead the public.

Protect indigenous people to help fight climate change, says UN rapporteur

Global leaders must do more to protect indigenous people fighting to protect their land and way of life if the world is to limit climate change, according to the UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.

Speaking ahead of key climate talks in Bonn next month she urged politicians to recognise that indigenous communities around the world were the most effective custodians of millions of hectares of forest “which act as the world’s lungs”.

“Indigenous people’s rights need to be protected in the best way possible, not just for them but because they are also able to provide solutions to many of the world’s problems from climate change to biological diversity.

“It is in the self interest of states and even corporations in the medium and long term to protect and listen to these people – the question is, will they realise this in time?” said Tauli-Corpuz.

Peru urged to ban oil firms from isolated indigenous peoples’ land

There are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon – the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national parks.

For years indigenous federations and other civil society organisations in Peru and abroad have worked for the territories of indigenous peoples in “isolation” to be made off-limits, citing Peruvian and international laws, emphasising their rights to self-determination, and stressing their vulnerability to contact because of their lack of immunological defences and the risk of epidemics and fatalities. The biggest dangers – in terms of outsiders entering their territories, exploiting resources and/or actively seeking contact – are oil and gas companies, loggers and logging roads, narco-traffickers, evangelical missionaries, Catholic priests, artisanal miners and highways.

Brazil’s National Indigenous Movement: resolute in times of crisis

When Brazilian indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara gave a fiery speech on environmentalism and human rights at the Rock in Rio music festival in September 2017, alongside Alicia Keys, she captured the power and authority of Brazil’s National Indigenous Movement (Mobilização Nacional Indígena, MNI). “This is the mother of all struggles, the struggle for Mother Earth!” exclaimed Sônia to a massive, cheering audience. A lifelong advocate for the rights of the country’s native peoples and the integrity of the ecosystems upon which they depend, Sônia helps to lead one of South America’s most vibrant social movements, rooted firmly in resistance to an unjust government set on slashing fundamental socio-environmental protections.

As Brazil lurches through a prolonged period of economic and political crisis, its indigenous peoples and irreplaceable ecosystems are paying a particularly heavy price. Under President Michel Temer, Brazil’s environmental safeguards and human rights standards have fallen under an attack that is unprecedented since the fall of the country’s military dictatorship in 1985. Largely dictated by powerful industry groups, his government’s policies have taken aim at the hard-fought land rights of indigenous peoples, as well as protections to the Amazon’s vast forests. Under the rubric of stimulating economic growth, Mr. Temer personally endorsed the freezing of indigenous land titling processes across the country, gutted the budget of the indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, and is poised to approve legislation that would allow extractive industry on native lands.

In July, President Temer’s Attorney General tried to impose a highly flawed legal interpretation of indigenous land rights known as marco temporal or “time limit.” The interpretation only recognised the land claims of indigenous peoples that have continuously occupied their territories since Brazil’s 1988 Constitution was enshrined, ignoring common situations in which communities were brutally driven off their lands. It also aimed to halt 748 pending cases to title tribal lands while stripping indigenous peoples of their constitutional rights to permanent and exclusive use of their territories, claiming these rights cannot overrule “national interests” such as military operations, road construction, communications infrastructure and hydroelectric dams. In August, Temer signed a decree (known as the “Renca” decree) that opened an area of 46,000 km2 of preserved Amazonian forests – approximately the size of Denmark – to industrial mining operations

Indigenous residential school records can be destroyed, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that thousands of sensitive records pertaining to horrific abuse at Indigenous residential schools are confidential and should be destroyed.

In a unanimous decision released today, the high court said the accounts that were collected for the purpose of awarding compensation was meant to be a “confidential and private process” and that “claimants and alleged perpetrators relied on the confidentiality assurance.”

The documents will be retained for a 15-year period, during which time survivors can choose to have their records preserved.

Failing that, the documents will be destroyed.

Madison Woman Elected As City’s First Native American Alderwoman

When Arvina Martin was very young, she used to proudly proclaim that one day she would be “senator in the morning, and governor in the afternoon.”

“I was a nerd back then, too,” she says.

The Madison woman was elected in April as the City Council’s first Native American alderwoman, representing District 11. It was her first time running for office, and — childhood goals aside — it’s a position she’s focusing in on.

“Right now I’m concentrated on being the best representative for my community that I can be,” Martin said. “I really want to understand and know what my constituents care about, and make sure their concerns are raised on the city level, whether that means getting a stop sign put in at an intersection that makes people nervous, or working on a citywide policy on something, I want to be able to do that.”

She grew up in a political family. Her father worked for former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Martin is a Democrat, with a history of volunteering for Democratic political campaigns. She is former Chair of the American Indian Caucus for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Matawa First Nations lands nearly $70 million for high-speed internet

Close to $70 million in government funding will be used to install fibre-to-the-home, high-speed broadband internet in five fly-in/remote Indigenous communities

The Matawa First Nations to benefit from the Oct. 6 announcement include Nibinamik, Neskantaga, Webequie, Eabametoong and Marten Falls.

The funding breaks down as follows:
•$37.1 from the federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development;
•$30 million from the Government of Ontario; and
•$2.14 million from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to conduct an archeological investigation in support of the project.

The funding will be allocated to Rapid Lynx, a regional telecommunications company established by the Matawa First Nations in January 2017 to build and administer an 881-kilometre fibre-optic cable network connecting the five remote communities together and to existing carrier locations near Wunnummin Lake and Aroland First Nations.

I cannot see this story… can someone do a blockquote?

Sen. Heitkamp Introduces “Savanna’s Act” for Protection of Native American Women

Major Canadian Pipeline Project Is Abandoned

TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States, on Thursday abandoned a plan for a pipeline that would have sent oil from the province of Alberta in western Canada to Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

The company, based in Calgary, Alberta, offered little explanation for its decision beyond citing “changed circumstances” in a brief statement. Terry Cunha, a spokesman for TransCanada, declined to elaborate.

But environmental and indigenous groups cheered the demise of the project, which would have cost 15.7 billion Canadian dollars (almost $12.5 billion).

“The world is grateful to the Canadians and indigenous peoples who organized against this project,” Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, an environmental group, said in a statement. “The climate math is sadly simple — the carbon contained in Alberta’s tar sands must stay there.”

In addition to facing opposition from advocacy groups, analysts said, the company was probably put off by an expanded review process recently introduced by Canada’s regulator, as well as by the economics of building a pipeline in what seems to be an era of extended, low oil prices.

City council wants pipeline developers on hook for any sedimentation of Roanoke River

The Roanoke City Council is calling on the state to require developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to either completely control sediment the project causes in the Roanoke River or pay for cleaning it up — at a potential cost of $36 million or more.

The council passed a resolution Thursday to be sent to the governor, the General Assembly and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

“Essentially, whoever dirties the water needs to clean it up,” Councilman Ray Ferris said.

Pipeline blasting sprayed Lebanon County home with debris, and may have spread legacy pollution

Blasting to remove rock for construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Lebanon County showered a home and its swimming pool with debris, and may have prompted the spread of existing underground contamination from a former gasoline depot, township officials said on Thursday.

Sunoco Pipeline contractors excavating the blasting site on Spangler Road near route 322 in West Cornwall Township in mid-September found a “sheen of some unknown product” on surface water, leading the Department of Environmental Protection to order 8,000 gallons of liquid to be removed and treated as hazardous material.

David Lloyd, a supervisor for the township, said he didn’t know the nature of the material removed on the DEP’s orders, or whether its presence was caused by the blasting.

But Lloyd said at a public meeting that there is a previously known “legacy issue” with MTBE, a gasoline additive, from the former Quentin Terminal, a petroleum storage facility in the township that closed in 1993, with the removal of eight above-ground tanks.

The storage facility was connected to an older gasoline pipeline that has now been repurposed by Sunoco to carry natural gas liquids, and renamed Mariner East 1.

Commission approves gas pipeline ‘abandonment’

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order last week approving part of a 2015 proposed plan by Tennessee Gas Pipeline to “abandon” 964 miles of natural gas pipeline facilities in six states, including Kentucky, and construct and operate pipeline and compression facilities in Ohio and Kentucky to replace capacity lost to the “abandonment.”

Nearly 30 miles of this line is in Barren County, from near the southwestern corner across Barren River to the northeastern corner past Hiseville and Park.

The Sept. 29 order does not authorize, however, what it acknowledged as the most-contested aspect of the proposal because it is outside FERC’s jurisdiction.

Abandoning the pipeline, in this case, means selling it to an affiliated company – Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline LLC – created expressly for the purpose of taking it over and operating the transmission of natural gas liquids, which stirred particular controversy over safety and environmental concerns.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline and UMTP have the same parent company: Kinder Morgan.

Navy cleans up oil spill from USS Dewey near South Bay

A 700-gallon oil spill caused by a mechanical failure aboard a Navy vessel may not reach land.

Navy officials previously said an oil sheen resulting from the Wednesday afternoon spill had the potential to reach the shore in Imperial Beach or Tijuana sometime Thursday.

Helen Haase, a Navy environmental public affairs officer, said about 3 p.m. the oil was moving less than anticipated and appeared to have dissipated.

“At this moment, it might not even reach shore,” she said.

The Navy is monitoring the spill, Haase said, and flotation devices are being deployed near the mouth of the Tijuana River as a precaution to protect wildlife.

The spill was caused by a mechanical failure aboard the USS Dewey, a 510- foot guided-missile destroyer, during an afternoon transit Wednesday, Naval Base Coronado spokeswoman Sandra DeMunnik said.