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Kaine sides with Sanders, calls for eliminating superdelegates

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee, is siding with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in advocating for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to end the use of superdelegates, saying that they have “undue influence” over the primary process.

Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate last year, sent a letter to the DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday pushing the party to no longer use the powerful, unelected delegates, who overwhelmingly sided with Clinton against primary rival Sanders.

“I have long believed there should be no superdelegates. These positions are given undue influence in the popular nominating contest and make the process less democratic,” Kaine wrote in the letter, obtained first by Politico.

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Kaine, a former DNC chairman and superdelegate himself, urged the Unity Reform Commission, a group reviewing and recommending changes to the system, to do away with superdelegates altogether and said he would protest the rule by voting strictly in accordance with his home district in the future.

7 ways Democrats are misreading the November 7 results

If you’re a Democrat, there’s a name for that unfamiliar emotion you were feeling last Tuesday night. It’s called happiness. But there is a serious risk that the party will draw the wrong lessons from last week’s results.

Here are seven important lessons from the November 7 results that a lot of Democrats seem to have missed.

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2. Hatred of Trump won’t save the Democrats.
Last week’s victories offer only a temporary distraction from the Democratic Party’s ongoing troubles. Voter approval of the party is at a 25-year low, down to 37 percent from March of this year. Perhaps even more significantly, approval is down markedly among nonwhites and young voters, two groups the party needs for long-term success.

The fact that Republicans are even more unpopular should offer little comfort, since these numbers point to increasingly low turnout. That will benefit the GOP, which has gerrymandered itself into near-perpetual incumbency over much of the country.

The media always need a narrative, and this time around it chose “Trump repudiation.” But it would be a mistake for Democrats to build their 2018 or 2020 campaigns solely around Trump’s manifold flaws. They did that in 2016, and it didn’t work out too well.

If there was an overarching message to last week’s results, it may well have been that nontraditional candidates — including ex-Republican physician Northam, first-time political candidate Murphy and the newly elected Virginia delegates — were more attractive to voters than “career politicians.”

Democrats Will Need More Than Resistance to Govern (And that means running candidates who do more than oppose Trump.)

Tuesday’s elections give Democrats obvious momentum. Democratic committees can expect a surge of fundraising. Candidate recruitment will get easier. Republican retirements have already accelerated.

With the architects of Democratic failure still in control of the party’s apparatus—the DNC, the party committees, the consultants, and contractors all remain pretty much the same—resistance is a tempting default position. It’s possible, as Ron Brownstein has suggested, that the furious reaction to Trump and the failed Republican Congress will suffice to let Democrats take back the House.

But resistance alone won’t suffice to consolidate a governing majority, much less provide a mandate for the reforms this country desperately needs. That coalition can only be built if Democrats work to enlist working people across lines of race, reflect their anger at an economy rigged against them, challenge business as usual, and build an agenda for real change. A recent in-depth study of the 2016 results found that 45 percent of the electorate were whites without a college degree. Democrats can’t write off that vote and hope to build governing majorities. The challenge, as David Leonhardt aptly phrased it, is that Democrats have to “get the white working class to focus on the working-class part of their identity rather than the white part.” And that won’t happen without a populist economic message and an agenda with real bite.

The fight about the party’s direction that began in the wake of defeat won’t end in the wake of Tuesday’s victories. Insurgent candidates—supported by organizations like Our Revolution, the Working Families Party, People’s Action, Democrats for America, and others—enjoyed remarkable success in down-ballot races on Tuesday. Centrist Democrats—like California Senator Dianne Feinstein and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin—already face primary challenges from the left. The party pros will decry the internal divisions, but the fact that grassroots activists are putting energy into electoral politics as well as protest movements, and are operating inside the party rather than outside in third parties, may well be the best hope for the Democratic Party’s renewal.

‘Ready to Resist’: Progressives Rally Ahead of Crucial GOP Tax Scam Vote

With House Republicans gearing up for a “make-or-break” vote on their plan to deliver massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans on Thursday, progressive lawmakers and activists rallied outside of the Capitol building Wednesday to denounce the GOP’s legislation as a “class bait-and-switch” that takes money from crucial safety net programs in the service of rewarding mega-donors and massive corporations.

The #NotOnePenny demonstration came just 24 hours after Senate Republicans unveiled a new provision of their own tax bill that would scrap the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which the Congressional Budget Office has said would strip healthcare from 13 million Americans.

This new wrinkle, denounced as “disgusting” by critics, added a new sense of urgency to Wednesday’s rally, as speakers emphasized that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are attempting to use budget space saved by healthcare cuts to pay for a gift to the richest Americans.

“The Republicans are trying to do a little three step dance,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). “Step one: transfer trillions of dollars of wealth from the middle class and low-income families to the wealthiest one percent and corporations. Guess what step two is? Explode the deficit, and when they do that, use it to trigger both automatic spending cuts and a rationale to cut every program we believe in, from education and transportation to Medicaid and Medicare. We have to say no way, not on our watch, this is not going to happen.”

Declaring ‘Train of Injuries Must End,’ House Dems Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against Trump

A group of House Democrats on Wednesday introduced five articles of impeachment accusing President Donald Trump of obstructing justice, violating the foreign emoluments clause, undermining the freedom of the press, and other constitutional breaches.

“The time has come to make clear to the American people and to this president that [Trump’s] train of injuries to our Constitution must be brought to an end through impeachment,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who introduced the articles alongside Al Green of Texas, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Brad Sherman of California, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, and John Yarmuth of Kentucky.

“Given the magnitude of the constitutional crisis, there’s no reason for delay,” Cohen added, calling for hearings to begin immediately.

Trump admin. to reverse ban on elephant trophies from Africa

The Trump administration plans to allow hunters to import trophies of elephants they killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the United States, reversing a ban put in place by the Obama administration in 2014, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official confirmed to ABC News today.

Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a provision in the act allows the government to give permits to import these trophies if there is evidence that the hunting actually benefits conservation for that species. The official said they have new information from officials in Zimbabwe and Zambia to support reversing the ban to allow trophy hunting permits.

Richard Cordray, Who ‘Held Big Banks Accountable,’ Announces Resignation From CFPB

Richard Cordray, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced his resignation on Wednesday.

The Obama-appointed consumer advocate announced the decision in an email to CFPB employees, saying he will step down “before the end of the month.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who helped create the agency, said on Twitter of Cordray: “He’s a dedicated public servant and a tireless watchdog for U.S. consumers—& he will be missed.”

In his statement to CFPB staff, Cordray applauds the work the successful and broadly-supported watchdog has done since it began operations in 2011.

“Together we have made a real and lasting difference that has improved people’s lives, notably: $12 billion in relief recovered for nearly 30 million consumers; stronger safeguards against irresponsible mortgage practices that caused the financial crisis and hurt millions of Americans; giving people a voice by handling over 1.3 million complaints that led to problems getting fixed for vast numbers of individuals, and creating new ways to bring financial education to the public so that people can take more control over their economic lives,” he wrote.

The statement does not mention Cordray’s next steps; however, there’s been speculation that he would run for governor of Ohio.

House Dems Introduce ‘Groundbreaking and Much Overdue’ Bill on Palestinian Rights

A group of 10 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday introduced “groundbreaking and much overdue legislation” that would attempt to prevent U.S. tax dollars from supporting Israel’s abuse of Palestinian children.

The Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, or H.R. 4391 (pdf), is reportedly the first bill on Palestinian human rights ever to be introduced in Congress, and would “require the Secretary of State to certify that United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes.”

In September of 2016, the United States signed a new 10-year deal (pdf) with Israel agreeing to provide $38 billion in military aid. The deal, which encountered significant pushback from pro-Palestinian groups, “constitutes the single largest pledge of bilateral military assistance in U.S. history,” the State Department said at the time.

Noting that Israel has signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the bill points to findings from Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF (pdf), that Palestinian children have been subjected to “chokeholds, beatings, and coercive interrogation” by Israeli authorities, and that the “ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process.”

“Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year,” according to a report by Defense for Children International – Palestine, which has endorsed the bill. Several other religious groups and human rights organizations have expressed support for the proposed law, including Amnesty International, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).

Watch @docdanielle debunk one of Fox News' most pathetic single payer myths: pic.twitter.com/ayYA4k46x7

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 15, 2017

Today we celebrate #GeographyAwarenessWeek & #GISDay2017! Wonder what I do as a #geoscientist? Well, I’m a new age #geographer! We do fieldwork, work odd hours, but we get to #travel & work outdoors while studying the physical aspects of the Earth! https://t.co/aWVX0bp34q pic.twitter.com/WghZnLKAms

— Roza Calderon (@rozacalderon) November 16, 2017

Capitalism Is Not the Only Choice

We have opportunities every day to build economies that lift each other up and spread joy.

Pruitt’s EPA Abandoning Duty to Protect Kids From Dangerous Pesticides

In one study of more than 600 American children 8 to 15 years old, those with detectable pyrethroid residues in their urine were twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD as other children. Biomonitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that children 6 to 11 years old have greater exposures than teens and adults. Exposures to one key pyrethroid metabolite – a chemical formed by the breakdown of the pesticide in the human body – increased by 50 percent in children between 2000 and 2010.

This week EWG submitted formal comments urging Pruitt to halt the pyrethroid safety assessment until the EPA has fully considered risks to childhood brain and behavioral development. We implored the EPA to assess the results of the six recent studies linking children’s pyrethroid exposures to brain and behavioral changes.

Ultimate responsibility for protecting children from brain-damaging pesticides rests with one person: Scott Pruitt. So far, he has used his immense power not to protect kids, but to protect the interests of chemical agribusiness. If the EPA continues on this path, it would effectively derail the agency’s pesticide program.

We hope we’re wrong. Pruitt could change course and begin taking seriously his job as chief advocate for environmental health and the safety of American children, before more kids are harmed for life by pesticides on their food. With nearly 4 million children born every year in the U.S., the stakes couldn’t be higher.

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An Arkansas Town Agrees to Criminal Justice Reform to Ensure That the Poor Are Not Jailed

For years, the city of Sherwood, Arkansas, home to about 30,000 people, had a practice of jailing people who could not afford to pay court costs incurred from bounced checks. Thousands of Arkansans were locked up—sometimes after bouncing checks in small amounts—when they could not pay crushing fees, fines, and other costs that compounded their debt by as much as 10 times the original amount.

Today, thanks to litigation brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Arkansas, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Sherwood has agreed to stop jailing people for being poor.

Under this week’s settlement, the city agreed that it will not jail or issue arrest warrants for people because they can’t afford to pay their debts. Sherwood also agreed to clearly advise defendants of their rights before sentencing, ensure that defendants have access to counsel, and offer community service and other alternatives in lieu of court fines.

This is what criminal justice reform looks like.

Before this settlement, bouncing a check could have resulted in an arrest warrant, loss of driver’s license, levying of excessive fines, and even a jail sentence.

Punishing Dissent in the Age of Trump: What’s in a Riot?

On the morning of President Trump’s Inauguration, police trapped and arrested over 230 people. Some were anti-Trump demonstrators; some were not. The next day, federal prosecutors charged them all with “felony rioting,” a nonexistent crime in DC. The prosecution then launched a sweeping investigation into the defendants’ lives, demanding vast amounts of online information through secret warrants.

Prosecutors eventually dropped a few defendants, like journalists and legal observers, but simultaneously increased the charges against everyone else. The most recent indictment collectively charged over 200 people with felony rioting, felony incitement to riot, conspiracy to riot, and five property-damage crimes — all from broken windows. Each defendant is facing over 60 years in prison.

The prosecution next obtained warrants focused on anti-Trump organizers. One sought a list of all visitors to a website that organizers used to promote Inauguration Day protests. A second sought information on all Facebook friends and related communications of two organizers, the host of a coalition Facebook page, and those who simply “liked” that page. Despite legal challenges, a court recently decided to enforce the warrants, requiring only that personally-identifiable information be redacted for “irrelevant” material.

This unprecedented prosecution follows a drastic change in local law enforcement’s response to protest. The DC Office of Police Complaints issued a report critical of the mass arrest, noting the departure from Standard Operating Procedure and the likelihood that police lacked individualized probable cause to arrest everyone. This is exactly the type of action new policies and statutes enacted in DC were meant to avoid, following a 2002 mass-arrest that caused the District to pay over $10 million in settlements.

Homeless evictions near future site of Zuckerberg-funded school spark protest

Residents of a Silicon Valley city protested on Wednesday as officials evicted homeless families and others living in RVs from their parking spots over public health concerns.

The location of the showdown was suggestive: next to the future site of a private school for low-income students that receives funding from a philanthropic initiative by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Schoolchildren living in the vehicles were among those evicted and the outcry highlighted the profound poverty in the local school district, which includes the Facebook campus in its catchment area.

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According to data gathered by the school district based on federal requirements, about 58% of its students experience homelessness, defined as couch-surfing or doubling up with other families, or sleeping in RVs and shelters, said the superintendent, Gloria Hernandez-Goff.

Fetterman takes another road less traveled

Nobody grows up wanting to be the lieutenant governor. But John Fetterman, now heading into a fourth term as mayor of Braddock, already knows something about making an obscure office a bully pulpit.

Mr. Fetterman announced Tuesday morning that he’s making a run for what might seem the political equivalent of the Maytag repairman.The lieutenant governor may rarely be needed for much, and seen for less, but he sees it as a statewide platform to advocate for better ways to stem the opioid epidemic and generally get communities such as his moving in the right direction.

How much Braddock has moved is a matter of debate, but five years after UPMC Braddock shut down in 2010, the Allegheny Health Network opened the Braddock Urgent Care Center. Restaurants, a microbrewery and a senior citizens apartment building have opened. Crime is down.

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Those who dismissed this man a dozen years ago as an egghead with a Harvard master’s degree in public policy playing at being a mayor should at least respect his commitment. He now has a wife, Gisele, and three children, and the Fettermans are entrenched in Braddock.

“We live across from a steel mill and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

Not that he intends to telecommute to Harrisburg, but there’s no way he’d live in the nation’s only lieutenant governor’s mansion. His brother lives 15 minutes from the capital and parents 20, so he expects he could find another place to rest his head at night. He’s more interested in the lieutenant governor’s seat on the state Board of Pardons, where he thinks he might be able do a little something about mass incarcerations and the “school to prison pipeline.”

The Plot to Loot America’s Wilderness

A little-known bureaucrat named James Cason is reshaping the Department of the Interior.

Congress Takes a Stand Against Saudi Arabia’s War on Yemen

On Monday, in a sign of a new and welcome assertiveness on the part of Congress, which has long shunned its mandate to oversee matters of war and peace as laid out in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution, the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for an end to the violence in Yemen.

It passed by an overwhelming majority, 366 to 30.

The resolution, which was introduced by California Democrat Ro Khanna, states that, “To date, Congress has not enacted specific legislation authorizing the use of military force against parties participating in the Yemeni civil war that are not otherwise subject to the Authorization of Use of Military Force,” which was initially passed in 2001 and granted the president wide authority to combat those who attacked us on September 11 (read: Al Qaeda, with a healthy assist from Saudi Arabia).

“This resolution makes abundantly clear that we cannot be assisting the Saudi regime in any of its fight with the Houthi regime. And we have to limit our involvement in Yemen to take on Al Qaeda and to take on the terrorists that threaten the United States,” said Khanna.

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The Saudi war on Yemen has, by most estimates, taken the lives of over 12,000 people and resulted in the destruction of the ancient Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and a cholera epidemic. According to Amnesty International, “approximately 18.8 million Yemenis today rely on humanitarian assistance in order to survive.”

Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Special Counsel Threat: “This Is Such an Abuse of Power”

Hillary Clinton responded on Wednesday to news that the Trump administration is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate her alleged ties to the Uranium One deal, calling the move “a disastrous step into politicizing the Justice Department” and “such an abuse of power.”

In an exclusive interview with Mother Jones, Clinton said such an investigation would have devastating consequences for the justice system in America. “If they send a signal that we’re going to be like some dictatorship, like some authoritarian regime, where political opponents are going to be unfairly, fraudulently investigated, that rips at the fabric of the contract we have, that we can trust our justice system,” Clinton said. “It will be incredibly demoralizing to people who have served at the Justice Department, under both Republicans and Democrats, because they know better. But it will also send a terrible signal to our country and the world that somehow we are giving up on the kind of values that we used to live by and we used to promote worldwide.”

Will Washington State Pass the Nation’s First Carbon Tax?

Last November, some environmentalists in Washington state went to the polls hoping voters would back an initiative creating the nation’s first tax on carbon pollution.

Initiative 732 went down to defeat as the country’s attention focused on Donald Trump’s shocking electoral college win. But now, one year later and buoyed by the Democrats’ pick up of a state Senate seat in last week’s elections, Washington will get another chance to pass meaningful climate policy.

The victory not only gave the party control of the State Senate, it will, along with an already Democratic governor’s mansion and House of Representatives, turn Washington solidly blue. That clears the way for a “full-scale effort in the next session of the Legislature” on climate, as Governor Jay Inslee said before the election.

“2018 is the year we’re going to push for something big in Washington,” says Nick Abraham, communications director of the Washington Conservation Voters. “Whether that goes through the legislature or the ballot is still on the table.”

The coalition of groups spearheading the climate campaign, called the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy, expects to make a more formal announcement about its plans before the end of the year. They are looking at a policy that reduces greenhouse gas pollution, but also redirects investment into a suite of programs to promote clean energy, electrifying the transportation sector, clean water, and communities of color. Their plan, similar to one that is under discussion by Democratic leadership, likely will include a tax on carbon.

The Corporate Tax Cuts Will Be Permanent. But Your Tax Cut Will Disappear in 2025.

Late Tuesday evening, Senate Republicans released a new version of their tax bill that makes their priorities abundantly clear. Under the newly-revised Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, individuals will lose essentially all of the benefits provided by the bill in 2026, while corporations get a massive, permanent cut. On top of that, about 13 million Americans would lose their health insurance because the bill now repeals Obamacare’s individual mandate.

The updated bill, which the Senate finance committee is expected to approve this week, cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent starting in 2019, while providing most individuals with temporary tax relief. If the individual cuts expire, a preliminary estimate from Ernie Tedeschi, a former Treasury Department economist, shows that 38 percent of taxpayers—including 50 percent of people making between $50,000 and $75,000—would pay more taxes in 2027. And that doesn’t include the fact that many Americans would be paying about 10 percent more for health care as a result of getting rid of the Obamacare mandate.

Republicans will almost certainly argue that they don’t actually plan to let the individual cuts expire—essentially conceding that it’s just an accounting trick designed to keep the bill’s cost under their self-imposed limit of $1.5 trillion of deficit-spending over the next 10 years. But Republicans have already changed their story on taxes many times, and there’s reason to be skeptical about whether they’ll follow through.

The Trump Administration Has Yet to Approve a Single Student Debt Relief Claim

For-profit college magnates Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute shuttered operations in recent years after facing state and federal investigations into fraudulent and predatory practices. After the school chains closed, tens of thousands of students who borrowed money to attend them found themselves with worthless diplomas and saddled in debt. The Department of Education under President Barack Obama made it easier for students to submit “borrower defense claims” to try and recoup the funds. By January 2017, the administration announced it had granted more than $650 million in relief to roughly 28,000 Corinthian and 6,300 ITT students.

Since Donald Trump took office, the approval of such claims has ground to a halt, according to a new Senate report of Education Department data released Tuesday. In 10 months, the Trump administration has yet to approve a single claim.

Senate Democrats are now calling on the Department of Education to resume helping students who borrowed loans to attend schools that defrauded them. The number of claims just keeps on rising: As of July 7, 2017, the Education Department received 65,169 borrower defense claims that were pending and under review. Since July, the number of claims jumped to more than 87,000, according to data from the Education Department acquired by the Senate Democrats.

Indigenous groups win greater climate recognition at Bonn summit

Indigenous groups claimed a victory at the UN climate talks in Bonn on Wednesday as governments acknowledged for the first time that they can play a leadership role in protecting forests and keeping global temperatures at a safe level.

Long marginalised and often criminalised in their home countries, the “first peoples” – as they often refer to themselves – also achieved breakthroughs in terms of official international recognition of their rights, autonomy and participation in negotiations.

This represents considerable progress for the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples, whose territories are estimated to contain 20% of the world’s tropical forest carbon and often have to defend it against encroachments by loggers and farmers.

“This is a victory for indigenous peoples who have always been fighting for recognition of our rights as a way to protect forests and tackle climate change. This is a big advance,” said Juan Carlos Jintiach of Coica, a group representing indigenous communities in the Amazon.

For much of the past 20 years, indigenous groups have been a disgruntled, fractious presence on the fringes of climate talks who were primarily portrayed as victims, but this has gradually changed along with a growing body of research showing that respect for the territorial rights of communal land is one of the most cost-effective ways of sequestering carbon.

For Some Native Americans, Uranium Contamination Feels Like Discrimination

From 1944 to 1986, mining companies blasted 30 million tons of uranium out of Navajo land. When the U.S. Energy Department had stockpiled enough for the Cold War, the companies left, abandoning 521 mines. Since then, many Navajo have died of conditions linked to contamination.

Military equipment for police should require military-style oversight

President Trump’s recent move to roll back limits on military weapons and equipment to local police forces is a disturbing development. In a recent executive order, the administration removed all federal accountability and oversight of how local police departments use this deadly gear. As the former Chief of Police for the Petersburg, Va., Police Department and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, I understand the need for sensible restrictions and oversight of these weapons of war that threaten officer and community safety.

At the heart of the problem is the Department of Defense’s 1033 program and similar federal programs that transfer surplus military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies. As a former Marine, I know that armored troop carriers and Kevlar body armor protect soldiers from hidden enemy mines and sniper bullets. But the infusion of military gear and training into our local police forces contributes to an ethos that the communities we are meant to protect are war zones.

With proper training, there may be legitimate uses for some military equipment, such as during a search-and-rescue operation or in response to an active shooter. But those are exceptional circumstances. Today, the military equipment and tactics are used by police to carry out routine search warrants and to police protests protected by the First Amendment. The result is an increased likelihood of violent encounters between police and civilians. A recent report by The Constitution Project—which discusses the impact of increased militarization on constitutional rights—highlights that 85 percent of SWAT operations target private homes, waking up inhabitants with what appear to be a storm of heavily armed soldiers.

Dakota Access Pipeline Company Paid Mercenaries to Build Conspiracy Lawsuit Against Environmentalists

The private security firm TigerSwan, hired by Energy Transfer Partners to protect the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, was paid to gather information for what would become a sprawling conspiracy lawsuit accusing environmentalist groups of inciting the anti-pipeline protests in an effort to increase donations, three former TigerSwan contractors told The Intercept.

For months, a conference room wall at TigerSwan’s Apex, North Carolina, headquarters was covered with a web-like map of funding nodes the firm believed it had uncovered — linking billionaire backers to nonprofit organizations to pipeline opponents protesting at Standing Rock. It was a “showpiece” for board members and ETP executives, according to a former TigerSwan contractor — part of a project that had little to do with the pipeline’s physical security.

In August, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump’s personal attorney for more than a decade, filed a 187-page racketeering complaint against Greenpeace, Earth First, and the divestment group BankTrack in the U.S. District Court of North Dakota, seeking $300 million in damages on behalf of Energy Transfer Partners. The NoDAPL movement, the suit claims, was driven by “a network of putative not-for-profits and rogue eco-terrorist groups who employ patterns of criminal activity and campaigns of misinformation to target legitimate companies and industries with fabricated environmental claims.”

3 arrested at Enbridge Line 3 pipeline site in Wisconsin

Meet the young activists fighting Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline

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Much of the debate over Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline proposal has been framed as environmental issues against jobs and oil needs.

But for a group of 13 young people calling themselves the Youth Climate Intervenors, it’s much bigger than that.

Here’s their case: All the oil Enbridge’s replacement pipeline would carry across Minnesota would exacerbate climate change — and the youngest among us will suffer the effects the most.

Young people are leading the fight against the pipeline, said 23-year-old Brent Murcia. “And that makes sense, because it’s our fight. We are here to be a voice for the future.”

Enbridge wants to replace its aging Line 3 pipeline with a new one along a different route through northern Minnesota’s lakes, forests and wetlands. Supporters say it’ll bring jobs and private investment, and opponents say we don’t need any more oil here and that the environmental risks are too great.

Woman injured in pipeline protest still being investigated

A New York City woman who suffered a serious arm injury while protesting the Dakota Access pipeline last year is preparing for her fifth surgery, even as she faces assertions by the government that she or her fellow protesters are at fault for an explosion they blame on police.

Recently unsealed court documents indicate the government last spring sought evidence that might implicate Sophia Wilansky of federal crimes dealing with homemade explosives by searching her Facebook account.

Wilansky was injured during a violent clash between protesters and police in November 2016 that’s become the emblematic skirmish of the months-long protest in North Dakota against the recently finished pipeline that’s carrying oil to Illinois.

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“There is probable cause to believe that violations (of explosives laws) have been committed by Sophia Wilansky,” FBI Special Agent Brian VanOosbree said in an affidavit accompanying the March 28 application for a search warrant for her Facebook account.

Eight months later, Wilansky hasn’t been charged with any crimes, though the investigation is ongoing, according to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Both agencies declined to comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Trudeau interrupted by pipeline protesters: ‘It is going to poison our water’

Justin Trudeau was politely interrupted by a couple of young activists who were challenging him on why he approved the Kinder Morgan Pipeline.

Trudeau was speaking in Vancouver on Wednesday at the 2017 United Nations Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial conference, when a woman stood up, interrupting the questions from the media.

“We are here as youth who are scared for our future because of climate change,” the Hayley Zacks said.

Twenty-year-old Zacks, and 24-year-old Jake Hubley stood with signs protesting the pipeline and said they took exception to Trudeau’s choice to approve Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline – adding that it went against his promises in the 2015 election.

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“We voted for you in our first election, and we were so excited for you to be prime minister based on your comments of real action on climate change and reconciliation. But then you went and approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline,” Zacks said.

She went on to extol the negatives of the pipeline before she and Hubley were asked to leave by security.

“In Paris, you promised us a 2-degree future, and then you went and approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The Kinder Morgan pipeline is going to increase emissions from the tar sands, it is going to poison our water, our land and everything we hold dear.”

Trump’s Extreme-Vetting Software Will Discriminate Against Immigrants “Under a Veneer of Objectivity,” Say Experts

This past August, technology firms lined up to find out how they could help build a computerized reality of Donald Trump’s vague, hateful vision of “extreme vetting” for immigrants. At a Department of Homeland Security event, and via related DHS documents, both first reported by The Intercept, companies like IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Red Hat learned what sort of software the government needed to support its “Extreme Vetting Initiative.”

Today, a coalition of more than 100 civil rights and technology groups, and of prominent individuals in those fields, has formed to say that it is technically impossible to build software that meets DHS’s vetting requirements — and that code that attempts to do so will end up promoting discrimination and undermining civil liberties.

The new opposition effort, organized by legal scholars Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy & Technology and Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, includes two letters, one on the technical futility of trying to implement extreme vetting software, and another on the likely disturbing social fallout of any such attempt.

GOP Plans to Win Tax and Obamacare Fight by Opening Up Alaska’s Wildlife Refuge to Drilling

Senate Republicans plan to use the prospect of drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to get the votes needed for major corporate tax cuts and a repeal of the individual mandate, one of the key components of the Affordable Care Act.

On Tuesday night, Senate Republicans released the latest version of their tax plan and included in it a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate, which is the requirement that everybody who can afford to buy health insurance must do so or pay a fine. Repealing it would result in significantly higher premiums, as some healthy people would elect to forego coverage until the moment it was needed.

Drilling in ANWR has been one of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s longtime priorities, as it was for her father, Frank Murkowski, a giant of Alaska politics. While the elder Murkowski was never able to make the drilling dream a reality, it is now within reach.

On Wednesday, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Murkowski chairs, passed a bill to allow drilling by a 13-10 vote, with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voting in favor, alongside every Republican.

That bill was in response to what are known as budget reconciliation instructions, a Senate maneuver that allows legislation to go through the full Senate with a bare majority and not be subject to a filibuster. That means Murkowski’s ANWR bill can now be included in the broader tax package being finalized by Senate Republicans.

Anti-Abortion GOP Congress Shrugs as Program That Helps New Mothers Expires

Barney Frank once quipped that Republicans who call themselves pro-life “believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.”

Nowhere would that punchline land harder than on the current Congress, composed of lawmakers who are at once pushing past the boundaries of Roe v. Wade, while undermining a range of policies that would make life slightly less difficult for expectant and new mothers.

The GOP tax reform proposal initially came after the adoption tax credit, while Congress has allowed the children’s health insurance program to expire and, now, is doing the same for a program that funds nurses and social workers to coach at-risk new moms, beginning during pregnancy and lasting until the child turns 2 years old.

The programs have lapsed as Republicans struggle to find ways to pay for them, even as they gallop toward an unpaid-for series of corporate tax cuts that could cost the government trillions in lost revenue.

COP23: Climate Conference Tip-Toes Around Regenerative Agriculture as Solution to Global Warming

On Nov. 6, the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) kicked off in Bonn, Germany, the nation’s former capital. Germany is one of the world’s worst offenders when it comes to pollution. It’s also the largest polluter in all of Europe. But Germany is not alone in the polluting business—and countries are not the only big polluters.

The world’s top 20 meat and dairy companies emitted more greenhouse gases in 2016 than all of Germany, according to a report published by GRAIN, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Let us briefly go back to COP23, where Big Meat and Dairy are also participating. Several statements have been made so far at the meeting and there have been a few surprises. Unfortunately, it seems that COP23 will not be particularly innovative, especially when it comes to agricultural policies.

Sharks: Last on Trump’s List, First on His Plate

On his trip to Asia, President Trump ate shark fin soup in Vietnam. While this meal is considered a status symbol, delicacy and a sign of wealth in Asian culture (it can sell for over $100 a serving in restaurants), the continued consumption of shark fin soup has a devastating effect on shark populations around the world.

Shark fin soup is believed by some to have medicinal healing properties and its proponents view its consumption as a cultural right. Sharks rely heavily on international and regional treaties for protections and management measures, and in some countries domestic regulations have been adopted.
Sharks are amazing ocean predators, and they’re some of the most powerful creatures in the sea. But 25 percent of shark species are currently listed as endangered, threatened or near threatened by extinction. Because sharks are generally slow to reproduce, the constant onslaught of threats that include shark finning, bycatch and threats to the ocean ecosystem are causing a severe decline in populations that are already hard to monitor.

While it is impossible to know how many sharks are killed yearly due to illegal and unrecorded catch, it is estimated that up to 73 million sharks are killed annually by “finning” alone—a brutal practice that involves cutting off a shark’s fins, usually while it is still alive, and throwing the body back overboard where it bleeds to death, drowns or is eaten. This is clearly a cruel practice, and the fact that millions of sharks are being killed is also a main issue for wildlife conservation.

The U.S., overall a low market for shark fin soup compared to countries in Asia, still has some ways to go before it is completely removed from the shark fin trade. Especially when the president dines on shark fin soup and previously served it at his failed Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey

20-year-old Amazon employee w/ no criminal record and poses absolutely no threat to community. Yet this DACA recipient is being detained instead of going to work. https://t.co/YXKQjRyJZa

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 15, 2017

Corporate Democrat Mark Warner is opening the floodgates to predatory payday lenders to make loans at 300% annual interest or higher. With friends like these… https://t.co/PAqZ6bVcyL

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) November 16, 2017

This is not good:

Los Angeles TV host alleges Sen. Al Franken kissed and groped her without her consent

Los Angeles TV broadcaster Leeann Tweeden alleged in a 790 KABC column that Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota kissed and groped her without her consent in 2006, while she was part of a United Service Organizations tour to entertain military service members abroad.

Tweeden said that Franken had been headlining the tour and wrote a comedy skit in which Franken’s character attempted to kiss Tweeden’s character. Tweeden said she believed she could turn her head or cover his mouth with her hand “to get more laughs from the crowd.”

But during a rehearsal of the kiss that Franken repeatedly insisted on, Tweeden said, Franken forcefully kissed her.

“He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me,” Tweeden wrote. “We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.”

Tweeden said she felt “disgusted and violated” by the kiss and pushed Franken away and told him that if he ever did that again, she “wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time.”

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But Franken’s alleged misconduct didn’t end there, Tweeden said. Franken groped her breasts while she was asleep during the 36-hour trip back to Los Angeles — an incident captured in a photograph that Tweeden didn’t see until she was back in the US.

“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” she wrote. “I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated. … How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”

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In a statement sent to Business Insider, Franken apologized to Tweeden.

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it,” he said.

Texas sheriff concerned about truck with anti-Trump message

A Houston-area sheriff said Wednesday he’s concerned the driver of a truck displaying an expletive filled message against President Trump and those who voted for him is creating a situation that could lead to confrontations with people offended by the sign.

In a Facebook post, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls said he discussed with a local prosecutor the possibility of a disorderly conduct charge — a misdemeanor — against the driver.

But at a news conference later Wednesday, Nehls seemed to back down from that idea, saying he supports freedom of speech and acknowledging a 1971 Supreme Court case that overturned the conviction of a man for disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket with an expletive as part of an effort to protest the military draft and the Vietnam War.

“People have called and are offended by the language,” said Nehls, according to CBS affiliate KHOU-TV. “I simply want to talk to the owner and say, ‘Look, the last thing we need to do is have anyone have any confrontation over the language on your truck.'”

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Authorities know who the driver is but have not yet spoken with the individual. Nehls did not name the driver at his news conference, but KHOU tracked down the owners, Karen and Mike Fonseca. They said they were stunned by the sheriff’s post and said they were entitled to free speech.

“There’s no law against freedom of speech, nothing in the law book here in Texas, I’ve been stopped numerous times, but they can’t write me a ticket,” said Karen Fonseca.

Her husband said they would not remove the decal.