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On Colbert’s Late Show, Bernie Sanders responds to Hillary Clinton, tries to say something nice on Trump

On Thursday’s Late Show, Stephen Colbert asked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) if he missed the cheers from crowds, now that he’s no longer campaigning for president. He said yes, but he is promoting a book, Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution. Instead of talking about it, Colbert asked about the book coming out from Hillary Clinton, who will be on The Late Show Sept. 19. He read Sanders some of Clinton’s comments about him and the lasting damage she said Sanders did to her campaign, making it harder to unify progressives.

Sanders disagreed with that assessment, saying “the progressive movement today and grassroots activism is stronger than it has been in many, many years,” and crediting his campaign for getting younger people to vote and run for office. “We have got to stand together against [President] Trump’s efforts to divide us up, take on the billionaire class, and make that political revolution,” Sanders said. Then he took a stab at unity: “Look, you know, Secretary Clinton ran against the most unpopular candidate in the history of this country, and she lost, and she was upset about it, and I understand that. But our job now is really not to go backwards. It is to go forward.”

Colbert agreed, then turned back to 2016 with a wink, asking about Clinton’s line about Sanders promising ponies. Sanders said none of his promises were “pipe dreams.” His campaign “broke through a box” and “helped transform politics in America,” he said. Colbert asked Sanders for some suggestions on what he should ask Clinton about those ponies, and Sanders said she should join the progressive crusade. “We need her help to go forward, let’s not keep arguing about 2016,” he said. “Let’s get together, take on Trump’s desire to divide us up, let’s go forward with a progressive agenda. Ask her if she’ll do that.”

Heres have another chuckle after watching Sanders on Colbert…

Bernie backers’ attacks on Democrats infuriate the party

Prominent Democrats are increasingly riled by attacks from Bernie Sanders’ supporters, whose demands for ideological purity are hurting the party ahead of the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, they say.

But it’s not just the outside agitators that Democratic lawmakers, operatives, and activists are annoyed with: They’re tired of what they see as the senator’s hesitance to confront his own backers, either in public or through back channels.

Tensions boiled over recently when a handful of Sanders loyalists bashed freshman Sen. Kamala Harris — a rising star in the party and potential 2020 hopeful — as an establishment tool. Democrats were also rankled that other prominent Sanders allies said support for single-payer health care should be a litmus test for candidates.

In response, Democratic senators and outside groups have begun telling Sanders and friendly intermediaries that if he wants to be a leading figure for Democrats ahead of 2020’s presidential election, he needs to get his supporters in line — or at least publicly disavow their more incendiary statements.

The confrontations, they insist, threaten party unity ahead of a critical midterm election cycle, when Democrats have a shot at winning the House and several governor’s offices.

“The Democratic Party has treated Senator Sanders exceptionally well. We collectively let him run in our primaries when he declared he wasn’t a Democrat — I count that as a great favor, and an opportunity almost no one else has ever received,” said former Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler, who has called for the independent Sanders to formally join the party.

Bernie Sanders’ revolution is still alive — but is democratic socialism a realistic goal?

Since Bernie Sanders’ historic presidential run ended last year, the senator from Vermont has attempted to keep his “political revolution” alive in order to bring about lasting change. Though he lost his Democratic primary run against Hillary Clinton more than a year ago, today Sanders is the undisputed face of progressive politics in America, and consistently ranks as the most popular politician in the country. He is in a very good position, then, to promote his cause and continue his political revolution.

Yet even as Sanders has become a household name in America, some uncertainty has lingered about his political revolution and what it truly represents. Is, for example, Sanders a democratic socialist — as he calls himself — or is he more of a social democrat? And just how radical — and revolutionary — is his political revolution? The word revolution does, after all, historically denote the abrupt and often violent overthrow of a government and/or social system.

In one interview with Rolling Stone last year, Sanders was explicitly asked by Tim Dickinson whether he supported an “overthrow of the capitalist system” like one of his political heroes, five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs. The senator’s response was unequivocal. “No, no, no. Now you’re being provocative,” said Sanders, who went on to lay out what he actually meant by political revolution:

What we have got to do is not only overturn Citizens United, but we have got to move, in my view, to public funding of elections. We have to pass universal legislation that makes everybody in this country who is 18 or older eligible to vote, so we do away with the Republican voter suppression around the country.

This, of course, is what one would call a reformist agenda rather than a revolutionary one — which is essentially what the Sanders campaign was all about. Though Sanders identified as a “democratic socialist” and advocated a “political revolution,” in reality the Vermont senator was more of a social democrat who espoused a bold though decidedly moderate agenda. Sanders did not advocate an overthrow of the government or the collective ownership of the means of production, but a nonviolent popular movement fighting for progressive reforms akin to the New Deal legislation of the 1930s.

Bernie Sanders Wants You

Gabbard Leads OFF Act to End Reliance on Fossil Fuels

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard introduced legislation seeking an end to the nation’s reliance on Fossil Fuels, and a transition to a clean energy economy by 2035.

HR 3671, also known as the OFF Act, short for Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future, puts the US on a pathway to replace fossil fuels with 100% clean energy generation and use within 18 years.

The legislation eliminates tax giveaways to the fossil fuel industry, and provides support to transitioning workers who would be impacted by the generational change.

Rep. Gabbard said the measure builds on progress made in Hawaiʻi and other states that have committed to address climate change while improving the health and well being of the public from toxic pollutants, asthma and environmental degradation.

The bill is currently supported by environmental advocates and co-sponsors including Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13), Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-33), Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), and Keith Ellison (MN-05) and has been endorsed by over 100 clean energy, climate change, and environmental justice organizations.

Chris Murphy’s stealthy single-payer pitch

While Bernie Sanders readies a single-payer health care bill that the GOP is itching to attack, one of his Democratic colleagues is proposing a step toward that goal that could give cover to the party’s vulnerable incumbents.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a potential presidential contender, is working on legislation expected this fall that would let every individual and business buy into Medicare as part of Obamacare’s exchanges. As Sanders and other potential challengers to President Donald Trump flock to “Medicare for all,” embracing a top liberal priority before 2020, Murphy is taking a conspicuously more pragmatic approach designed to get Democrats closer to that lofty but potentially unobtainable goal.

In the process, it could give vulnerable Democrats loath to attach themselves to Sanders a more politically palatable alternative that still satisfies the party’s base.

The first-term senator is also raising his national profile by wading into the hot-button single-payer debate — though the Connecticut Democrat has tamped down talk that he might take on Trump in 2020. It’s not about competing with Sanders, Murphy says, but rather offering a complementary path toward the creation of a single-payer system.

“Bernie is setting a really important marker for where he and many people in our party think the health care system needs to be,” Murphy — one of the Affordable Care Act’s staunchest defenders since its earliest days — told POLITICO.

Centrist Dem: Maybe we should look at single-payer health care

Sen Jon. Tester (D-Mont.) on Wednesday said Congress should perhaps take a “solid look” at a single-payer health care system.

Tester’s comments during a bipartisan hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee come at a time when more Democrats are getting on board with the idea of government-funded health care.

Tester, a centrist, spoke about how his parents lived without health insurance for most of their life, until they went on Medicare.

“My folks never had health insurance on the farm. They retired in 1970. Never had health insurance ever.”

“Their first insurance they had was Medicare. There’s a reason for that: In the mid-60s when that happened, it was $400,” said Tester, who is up for reelection in what is likely to be one of the most competitive Senate races in 2018.
“So the question is, there’s been a lot of debate, there’s been amendments offered on single payer for political purposes, but maybe not. Maybe it’s something we should, quite frankly, take a solid look at.”

Baucus backs single-payer health system

It’s time for America to consider seriously a single-payer, government-run health system, says Max Baucus, Montana’s longest serving U.S. senator, former ambassador to China and one of the chief architects of Obamacare.

“My personal view is we’ve got to start looking at single-payer,” Baucus said Thursday night at Montana State University. “I think we should have hearings…. We’re getting there. It’s going to happen.”

It was a startling turnaround for Baucus, who eight years ago was chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and a key Democratic leader in the political battles that ultimately passed the Affordable Care Act.

Back then, Baucus said, he felt adamantly that Congress wouldn’t pass a government-run system like Canada’s. So it was the one alternative he refused to put “on the table” for consideration.

But you can see the difference, Baucus said, when you visit hospitals on either side of the border. In Montana, half a rural hospital will be dedicated to processing medical insurance claims. In Canada, he said, just one small room is needed to verify that patients are residents.

And Americans pay much higher drug prices, he said, because the government can’t negotiate better prices with the drug industry, so U.S. patients end up subsidizing drug prices for the rest of the world.

As Planet Rages With Fires and Storms, Ire Aimed at Murderous Climate Denialism

As Houston begins its long recovery from Hurricane Harvey, epic wildfires burn throughout the western U.S., and Irma charges toward Florida after devastating several Caribbean islands, while two other storms build strength in the Atlantic basin, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is among those helping to expose the deadly consequences of climate change denialism by claiming threats posed by such global warming-related events are being exaggerated.

And so while climate activist Bill McKibben on Thursday morning warned that “we’ve never had anything quite like” the current fires and storms now being experienced, it was The Nation’s Mark Hertsgaard who argues, in a piece titled “Climate Denialism Is Literally Killing Us,” that those who have made it public policy to downplay the threat of man-made climate change should be held to account for the deaths that such denialism is now causing.

During his show on Tuesday, Limbaugh told his listeners: “There is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it…. All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and dangerous, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”

He also alleged that reporting about hurricanes results from a “symbiotic relationship between retailers and local media” that “revolves around money,” adding: “The media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales, and the TV companies benefit because they’re getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers.”

But these comments—which arrived as people in the Caribbean made emergency preparations for landfall and officials in Florida began announcing mandatory evacuations—were immediately decried as irresponsible.

First Responders Sue Texas Chemical Plant for ‘Gross Negligence’ After Fire and Explosions

First responders filed a lawsuit Thursday against the chemical company Arkema, whose plant in Harris County, Texas caught fire as a result of flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez claimed after explosions were reported at the plant that fumes emanating from the facility were “not anything toxic” and that inhaling them was just like “standing over a burning campfire.”

The seven first responders who filed suit against Arkema Thursday disagree, claiming they sustained “serious bodily injuries” after inhaling smoke from the fire while “manning an evacuation perimeter a mile and a half from the plant,” Reuters reported. They claim that Arkema’s “gross negligence” in preparation for Harvey and its aftermath resulted in harm to medical personnel and law enforcement.

“As a result of Arkema’s failure to prepare, its employees were forced to abandon the Crosby facility on August 29, 2017, leaving behind hazardous and toxic chemicals with no supervision,” the suit reads.

‘Unprecedented’ Lofoten Declaration Demands Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Industry

As climate scientists stress that climate change has contributed to the enormous size and strength recent storms including Hurricane Irma, which has killed at least ten people in the Caribbean and left the island of Barbuda “uninhabitable” as it heads toward Florida, a coalition of more than 220 organizations called for a “managed decline of fossil fuel production” on Thursday, with an immediate end to new oil, gas, and coal development.

The Lofoten Declaration, named for an archipelago in Norway where drilling by the oil industry has been successfully blocked by environmental groups, demands “unprecedented action to avoid the worst consequences of our dependence on oil, coal, and gas.” The document notes that new oil and gas exploration and production are “incompatible with limiting global warming to well below 2ºC,” the stated goal of the Paris climate agreement of 2016, and that countries that do not embrace clean energy will soon be left behind:

DNC Chair Tom Perez Accepts Side Gig as DNC Struggles

During the campaign for DNC chair, Tom Perez’s supporters pushed against Congressman Keith Ellison’s candidacy by claiming that the DNC chair needs to commit to the position as a full-time job. In response, Ellison promised to resign from Congress if he was elected DNC chair. Perez ultimately won the election, but so far his tenure has been far from stellar: The DNC has posted abnormally low fundraising numbers nearly every month since he took office.

On September 6, Perez accepted a teaching position at his alma mater, Brown University. The Providence Journal reported, “Perez will lead a study group called ‘Governance and Leadership in Challenging Times,’ and it will feature speakers including Denis McDonough, Obama’s former chief of staff; Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo; Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and others.” Accepting a teaching gig in a separate state isn’t going to improve the DNC’s stature with voters or help it recoup its losses across the country. To make matters worse, Perez further alienates Native Americans by accepting the gig at Brown University while the Pokanoket Tribe has been protesting and marching over a land dispute with the school since last month.

While he manages a party in disarray, Perez is taking a position usually reserved for retired elected officials. True to the course’s name, this is a challenging time for the Democratic Party. Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress, and Democrats have lost over 1,000 seats in state legislatures across the country in the last decade. In 26 states, Republicans hold the governorship in addition to majorities in the state house and senate.

Randall Woodfin had a Q@A session which for some reason was divided into like 20 youtube videos, so here are two clips. The first is quite emotional..

You can watch the rest by clicking the link at the top of the video where you can then go video by video

‘Time to Fight’: Why I’m Co-Sponsoring Bernie’s #MedicareforAll Bill by Elizabeth Warren, just incase anyone missed it.

Nature Offers Solutions to Water Woes and Flood Risks

When the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlán in 1325, they built it on a large island on Lake Texcoco. Its eventual 200,000-plus inhabitants relied on canals, levees, dikes, floating gardens, aqueducts and bridges for defense, transportation, flood control, drinking water and food. After the Spaniards conquered the city in 1521, they drained the lake and built Mexico City over it.

The now-sprawling metropolis, with 100 times the number of inhabitants as Tenochtitlán at its peak, is fascinating, with lively culture, complex history and diverse architecture. It’s also a mess. Water shortages, water contamination and wastewater issues add to the complications of crime, poverty and pollution. Drained and drying aquifers are causing the city to sink—almost 10 meters over the past century!

“Conquering” nature has long been the western way. Our hubris, and often our religious ideologies, have led us to believe we are above nature and have a right to subdue and control it. We let our technical abilities get ahead of our wisdom. We’re learning now that working with nature—understanding that we are part of it—is more cost-effective and efficient in the long run.

Democrats Need a Strategy and a Viable Candidate, Not More Excuses

Here we go again. Leaked excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming book calls Sanders’ ideas unrealistic and blames him for her loss to Trump.

It probably didn’t help that a recent Newsweek article entitled “Bernie Sanders Voters Helped Trump Win and Here’s the Proof” revealed that enough Sanders voters switched to Trump after the primaries in three key states to give Trump the electoral votes needed for victory.

Hillary and the mainstream Democrats who supported her have been desperate to blame someone—anyone but themselves—for her defeat since November. Their excuses alternated from Comey to Russian email hacks to Sander’s voters, and, with the the release of her book, look for the centrists to go after the“misguided” Sanders voters again.

But this is a classic “dog-ate-my-homework” excuse for a much larger failing on the part of the Democrats. Basically, the people rejected the entire party, not just Hillary, as they’ve been doing so in increasing numbers for decades—and with good reason. As a recent poll revealed, most voters don’t believe the party stands for anything, other than being against Trump.

With the 2018 election already stacked against them, Democrats need more than excuses.

Here’s the reality. Gerrymandering rigs the system for Republicans in the House, and Democrats must defend 25 of their 48 Senate seats while Republicans will have only 8 of their 52-seat Senate majority up for reelection. Going against this tide with the same centrist strategy that has caused them to lose for decades, now, would be a disaster.

Dreamers and allies fight on after Trump lowers boom

Josue de Luna was brought to the U.S. at age nine from Torreoncoachila, Mexico. He’s majoring in chemical and biological engineering at the University of New Mexico and wants to enter medical school. Donald Trump won’t give him a chance.

Eric Prez now lives near the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He came to the U.S. at age 7 and now he’s among 27 people fasting to show how much they dream of staying here, which is their real home. The third-year student in business administration dreams of finishing his education, and fears Trump’s Homeland Security Department will use his information under DACA to deport him.

Brandon Diaz came to the U.S. at age five from Guerrero, Mexico. Now he’s 20, lives in Baltimore, and is an activist for Casa de Maryland , the union-backed – and unionized – group in the D.C. and Baltimore areas who help new immigrants, some of them undocumented, to adjust to life in the U.S. “I’m fasting, too, because I don’t want people to go and leave their dreams,” he says.

And Cynthia Toyco of Rogers, Ark., 33, is married to a U.S. citizen, but she came here at age seven, from Peru, walking thousands of miles with other refugees. “We were three to three and a half months on foot. We were stalked and robbed and nearly lost our lives,” she says, fleeing repression and war in Peru, where a right-wing government and opposing guerrillas both preyed on the population.

“We have been here paying taxes, and paying back taxes,” Toyco says of herself and other Dreamers – undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children. “And nothing’s been returned to us, because we’re not citizens.” Now Trump wants to return her to Peru.

Prez, de Luna, Toyco and Diaz were among the dozens of Dreamers and almost a thousand people who gathered at the White House on the morning of September 5 in the first of two protests there that day urging Republican President Donald Trump to extend former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He didn’t listen.

The brewing intra-left fight about Democrats’ big congressional deal, explained

If you read the headlines, you probably learned that congressional Democrats were the big winners of a surprise deal with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Senate and House Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi seemingly got what they wanted from Trump: emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey, an agreement to fund the government at existing levels, and a clean raise of the debt ceiling. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop noted, the deal only extends the debt limit and funds the government for three months, giving Democrats what they see as critical leverage in upcoming negotiations on the calendar.

But some progressives aren’t so sure Democrats came away with a win.

“[Schumer and Pelosi] did not use the leverage we as Democrats have. Republicans need us each and every instance — to pass the debt ceiling and fund the government, and pass Harvey relief. And what do we do? We collaborated while they devastate our communities,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), the party’s most strident voice on immigration, told Vox.

Gutierrez is one of a handful on left arguing Democrats actually gave up more than they got on Wednesday. Gutierrez says funding the government should be contingent on protecting the 800,000 young immigrants made vulnerable by Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program. Several House Democrats have privately voiced the same concern to other members, according to three House Democratic aides.

Interviews with more than a dozen House Democrats suggested most in the caucus are prepared to support the Pelosi/Schumer/Trump deal. But activists aren’t happy leaders gave up on tying a DREAM Act vote to the bargain, and a wave of resistance from the activist left — which spent much of Wednesday simply trying to figure out what was in the agreement — could change that.

Rep. Ed Royce Called Out for DACA Flip-Flop as Democrats Smell Blood in the 39th

The status of eligible DACA recipients should not change from one administration to the next,” the Brea representative said in a statement. “Congress should act now to provide a permanent, legislative solution that gives certainty to these kids. We should not deny residence to children who have only known America as their home, positively contributed to this great country, and passed a background check.”

Our story also noted that Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran, a Democrat seeking the 39th congressional district seat in 2018, reacted by bringing up Royce’s past opposition to the so-called DREAM Act, which would have allowed children of undocumented immigrants to stay, study and work in this country legally. When Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act, President Obama established the DACA policy.

We reported that Gil Cisneros, another Democrat gunning for Royce’s seat, pointed to the congressman’s past votes to defund DACA, and that another Dem challenger, Andy Thorburn, promoted his video titled “Inclusive Society” that calls for compassion to refugees and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants

Now, yet another Democrat who wants to take Royce’s seat is essentially calling the longtime congressman a hypocrite.

“For someone who referred to the DREAM Act as ‘another amnesty attempt,’ Ed Royce has suddenly found a need to care for ‘these kids’ (as he calls them) now that he’s in a close re-election campaign,” reads a statement from the Phil Janowicz for Congress campaign. “This is blatant hypocrisy from a desperate politician attempting to run away from his far-right immigration positions.

House Challengers Find Fundraising Success Outside Their Districts

Democrats are energized. They’re running for Congress. And they’re raising money — lots of it.

And for nearly a dozen Democratic challengers who have raised at least $50,000 in individual contributions worth at least $200 each during the first half of this year, more than 90 percent of the money raised came from outside their districts, a Roll Call review of Federal Election Commission data found.

These candidates, who are all running in districts the Democratic Congressional Campaign is targeting in next year’s midterms, could have raised much more money from inside their districts from so-called small dollar donations of less than $200, but those aren’t required to be itemized to the FEC.

Republicans raise plenty of money outside their districts, too. Republican John Chrin is challenging Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania’s 17th district and hasn’t raised any money from within it. The New Jersey resident has raised $3,000 from Pennsylvania donors.

Incumbents often have more access to outside money through PACs, which can sometimes be a liability when challengers accuse them of being out of touch with their districts. But at the end of the day, money is money. Incumbents and challengers, alike, can still use the money they’ve raised, wherever it’s from, to get their message out to voters.

The earliest fundraising quarters often reflect the low-hanging fruit — what one Democratic fundraising consultant affectionately calls “love money.” These are the big checks from family, friends and business associates that are often fully tapped after the first or second quarter.

With An Eye On the House, Democrats Turn To Veterans For 2018 Races

One ad for a 2018 congressional candidate shows him wearing a T-shirt with an unofficial Marine Corps motto, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” Another ad shows a candidate boasting, “I was the first woman Marine to fly in an F-18 in combat. And I got to land on aircraft carriers.”

But neither candidate is a Republican, the traditional party in favor of a muscular military. Instead, they’re part of a cohort of at least 20 military veterans running under the banner of an increasingly liberal Democratic party in the 2018 midterm elections.

The recruitment effort, designed to bolster Democrats’ hopes of taking the two dozen seats they need to retake the House of Representatives, revises an old strategy the party used in 2006 when roughly 50 veterans ran with mixed results. The new effort is designed to puncture Republicans’ hold on the so-called guns-and-guts vote, while also appealing to voters’ apparent desire for political outsiders.

“The old model is out, the new model is in,” said David Wasserman, of The Cook Political Report. “The old model was to recruit people who were proven vote-getters in their districts — safe legislators, mayors. That’s out in this current political environment when voters are really skeptical of politicians. We learned that in the 2016 election.”

And so far, the recruitment efforts have added intrigue to races in traditional swing districts.

Can You Win in Trump Country with a Bernie Sanders Platform?

We’re going to War,” Paula Jean Swearengin announces with a chuckle as we dip around winding roads in the thick of the Appalachian Mountains. She’s talking about War, West Virginia—population 862—but she might as well be talking about herself.

After a decade-plus as an environmental justice activist deep in coal country, the 43-year old single mother of four is running for US Senate against incumbent Joe Manchin, a former governor who is the chamber’s most conservative Democrat. Her run comes at perhaps the Democratic Party’s lowest point in West Virginian history. The onetime Democratic stronghold was won by Donald Trump by 42 points last year, Democrats lost control of both houses of the state legislature in 2014 after decades in power, and the state’s billionaire governor, Jim Justice, announced at a Trump rally he was going back to the Republican Party after being elected as a Democrat.

This movement toward the GOP comes amid the decline of coal, which has devastated the state’s economy. With many national Democrats highlighting cleaner energy sources and catering to a base that mostly lives in big cities, it’s no surprise that West Virginians would look elsewhere for leaders—especially with Trump explicitly promising to bring coal jobs back.

“People kind of see their communities not as vibrant as they once were,” West Virginia University professor of political science Patrick Hickey says. “It’s just a very simple calculation.”

Swearengin hasn’t been given much of a chance against her much better-known, better-funded opponent. “It’s like David versus Goliath if David didn’t have a sling or a rock,” says Walt Auvil, a former county Democratic Party chair who ran for the state party’s leadership in 2010.

But Swearengin and her supporters hope that by running on a left-wing populist platform that stresses economic and environmental justice, they can turn back the tide of red that’s swept over the state. It’s a stark contrast to Manchin’s middle of the roadism, and the gamble is that voters aren’t ideological conservatives so much as they are frustrated with the results of centrist Democratic control.

Environmentalists’ Surprising Ally to Save National Monuments: Hunters

Environmentalists who oppose Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke’s plans to shrink our national monuments might have an unlikely but politically powerful ally on their side—hunters.

Many hunters, anglers and other sportsmen are speaking out against the former Montana congressman over his controversial recommendation to adjust the boundaries of a “handful” of the 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration. They worry that Zinke’s move could potentially reduce land access for sport hunting and kill thousands of jobs.

“[Zinke] said he’d fight to protect public lands,” John Sullivan, chairman of the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, says in a recent television ad. “But since his Washington promotion, he’s put our public lands at risk.”

Although Zinke promised to keep the sites under public ownership, groups on the political left and right fear that the secretary wants to allow drilling, mining and clearcutting on the sites—a move in line with the Trump administration’s overall favoritism towards the fossil fuel industry.

Kentucky’s Last Abortion Clinic May Be Forced to Close This Week

Kentucky is down to its last abortion clinic, and it has gone to court in order to stay open.

EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville is in the US District Court of the Western District of Kentucky this week fighting to retain its license. In March, the clinic was notified by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration that it was failing to meet state health regulations, which require agreements with a local hospital and an ambulance service in case of medical emergencies. At that point, US District Judge Greg Stivers blocked the closure until the case could go to trial.

EMW was joined by Planned Parenthood in the federal lawsuit and contends that the regulations are not motivated by protecting women’s health, as the governor argues, but are an attempt by the Bevin administration to shut down abortion access in the state. As Donald Cox, a lawyer representing EMW, said at the beginning of the trial on Wednesday, “We have a new sheriff in town who’s vowed to get rid of abortion.”

In the federal lawsuit, EMW says their agreements are long-standing, conform to state regulations, and that the notification of any violations came “out of the blue.” The clinic has had an agreement with Mercy Ambulance since 2008 and began their transfer agreement with the University of Louisville Hospital in 2014.

Energy East Pipeline Could Be Cancelled By TransCanada

New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant says he will do whatever necessary to make sure the $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline proceeds and delivers crude — and jobs — to his province.

Gallant was responding to a surprise announcement Thursday that TransCanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) wants to suspend for now its application to build the proposed 4,500-kilometre pipeline, which would carry crude from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Saint John, N.B., and other parts of Eastern Canada.

TransCanada said it has filed a letter to the National Energy Board asking for a 30-day suspension for the project so it can study how the NEB’s decision last month to consider the Energy East’s contribution to upstream and downstream greenhouse gas emissions will affect “costs, schedules and viability.”

TransCanada is calling the changes to the regulator process “significant,” and warns that the entire project and related Eastern Mainline pipeline project could be cancelled.

Another Pipeline Blocked for Failure to Consider Climate Emissions

It might be getting harder to win approval for new fossil fuel projects without first examining their impacts on climate change. Last week, regulators in New York rejected key permits for a natural gas pipeline, saying a previous federal approval had failed to consider the resulting greenhouse gas emissions.

The pipeline in question, the 7.8 mile-long Valley Lateral Project, would supply a 680 megawatt power plant that’s currently under construction. The pipeline had already received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), but because it crosses several streams and wetlands, it needed state regulators to sign off, too.

In a letter to FERC on Aug. 30, Thomas Berkman, deputy commissioner and general counsel at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, wrote that federal regulators had “failed to consider or quantify the indirect effects” of the emissions produced when the fuel shipped through the pipeline is eventually burned.

The state cited a federal court ruling issued just one week earlier as its justification for denying the permits. In that case, a federal circuit court in Washington, D.C., rejected an approval by FERC of a separate pipeline in the Southeast, saying “FERC must either quantify and consider the project’s downstream carbon emissions or explain in more detail why it cannot do so.”

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Courts or regulators have blocked fossil fuel projects several times in the past month, at least in part because federal agencies failed to account for downstream climate emissions. On Aug. 14, a federal district judge in Montana rejected a proposed expansion of a coal mine in that state, saying the U.S. Department of Interior hadn’t adequately considered climate and other impacts.

Developers ask regulators to OK Atlantic Coast Pipeline soon

Developers of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline are asking federal regulators to approve the project this month.

Executives with Dominion Energy, Duke Energy and Southern Company Gas made the request in a letter Thursday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The 600-mile pipeline would carry natural gas across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. The letter asks the commission to issue its final approval in September so initial construction and tree clearing can begin in November.

It says the pipeline will meet a need for natural gas and boost the economy.

Environmental groups and many landowners in the project’s path strenuously oppose the pipeline.

Sit-ins, prayer circles and sidewalk rallies: Pipeline opponents plan statewide protests at environmental agency offices in Virginia

Opponents of two natural gas pipelines that are awaiting state and federal approval will stage demonstrations at Virginia Department of Environmental Quality offices next week, though the agency says only people on “official business with DEQ” will be allowed on the premises of its regional offices.

At DEQ headquarters on East Main Street in downtown Richmond, “only official business will be conducted inside the building,” said Ann Regn, a DEQ spokeswoman.

“All DEQ offices will remain open for official business (business as usual) on the days of the protest,” Regn said in an e-mail. “However, the safety of DEQ employees and people in the vicinity of DEQ offices will remain paramount.”

Calling it “the most ambitious and creative environmental protest ever organized in Virginia’s history,” organizers say the demonstrations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at seven DEQ offices across the state are expected to draw up to 1,000 people.

The protests will take aim at the agency’s intention to issue certifications that a “reasonable assurance” exists that the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines’ construction will not violate Virginia water quality standards.

Pipeline incidents include more than protests

Recent pipeline protests have attracted media attention in Douglas County, but the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project has also been the site of threats, theft and vandalism over the past two months.

About a dozen incidents have been reported to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, from sightings of suspicious vehicles to arrests.

The first took place July 22 when someone moved three excavators which were parked by the pipeline. One was moved onto a natural gas pipeline easement and sunk in the mud. The estimated cost to safely remove it was $100,000, according to the report.

A number of full-size construction road signs and stands worth about $7,000 were reported stolen from the work area July 27. The signs were owned by a subcontractor working with Enbridge.

Enbridge plans to start repairing pipeline coating gaps

Enbridge Energy plans to start fixing gaps in Line 5’s coating in the Straits this weekend, roughly 10 days after two gaps were announced by the pipeline company and a group of four state agencies.

In response to the gaps, Gov. Rick Snyder originally said in a news release that he instructed state “departments to accelerate an aggressive review of Enbridge operations and maintenance procedures throughout the state.”

“Protection of Michigan’s natural resources is of utmost importance, and I am greatly concerned by the new information regarding Line 5,” reads a release from Snyder’s office.

Ryan Duffy, Enbridge communications strategist, said there are several ways to re-coat the pipeline underwater and said the methods are often used in offshore pipelines. He said each area takes about five days to complete.

“We understand the governor and others in Michigan have concerns with the new information regarding gaps discovered on the outer protective coating of Line 5 at the Straits. And we agree with the governor’s call for aggressive action,” Duffy said in an email. “Enbridge will deploy the resources necessary to immediately begin the repairs and the additional inspections.”

Carbajal amendment to improve oil pipeline safety added to House spending bill

In an effort to prod a federal pipeline safety agency to finalize rules for safety valves on oil and gas pipelines, in the works since 2011, the House passed an amendment to a huge spending bill late Wednesday night requiring $1 million of the agency’s own budget to complete the job.

The amendment, offered by Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, is intended to prevent the kind of oil pipeline failure that spoiled Refugio Beach and other parts of coastal Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in May 2015 in part because it took two hours to detect and stop the flow.

The cleanup of that spill has so far cost $92 million, Carbajal noted in a floor speech before the voice vote.

B.C. Indigenous protesters build tiny homes in Trans Mountain pipeline’s path

First Nations protesters in British Columbia are planning to place tiny homes directly in the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, an idea drawn from an influential Indigenous movement in the United States.

Activists say the houses are symbols of sustainability in the face of what they see as an environmentally damaging project. They are based on structures built at a sprawling protest camp in North Dakota initiated by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline drew international attention and was credited with achieving a temporary halt to construction. Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc Nation in B.C. said she hopes the structures also have a powerful effect in Canada.

“Our goal is to stop this pipeline. Our goal is to stop investors from investing in this pipeline,” she said.

“If I don’t stand up for my rights and our title as a Secwepemc woman and as a mother, I’m leaving this fight even greater for my children. I love my children so much that I’ll do whatever I can to protect their water and their salmon for all of their future.”

Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, plans to begin construction this month on a $7.4-billion expansion of its 1,150-kilometre pipeline that carries crude oil from Alberta to B.C.’s southern coast.

Members of the Secwepemc Nation and Greenpeace gathered at a site near Chase, B.C., on Thursday to build the first of 10 tiny homes that they say will be moved to Secwepemc traditional territory near Kamloops to block pipeline construction.

Sit-ins, prayer circles and sidewalk rallies: Pipeline opponents plan statewide protests at environmental agency offices in Virginia

In a video originally posted in the Facebook group “Louisiana First” in early August (the page has since been deleted), a man identifying himself as “Brent Williamson” claims to be reporting from a “courthouse” located “down in Baton Rouge.” He has just returned from the Secretary of State’s office, he says, and the two-minute screed that follows is delivered in a tone of sarcasm and anger. His target is Cherri Foytlin, a Louisiana-based activist who opposes the Bayou Bridge Pipeline—the latest project from Energy Transfer Partners, the Fortune 500 corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. “Williamson” uses specious evidence to contradict the notion that Foytlin is poor, and returns again and again to the claim that she makes “six figures a year.” The idea is to paint her, and by extension the entire burgeoning protest movement in Louisiana—especially the L’eau Est La Vie camp—as a group of cynical profiteers.

“This woman is not a grassroots organizer,” he concludes. “She is being paid a shit-ton of money for her job to try to stop people here from getting new jobs. Our state needs energy infrastructure. This woman is Louisiana’s biggest enemy.”

As you might have guessed from my liberal use of scare quotes, almost all of the information in this video is fake. There is no outraged pro-oil activist named Brent Williamson—the man in the video is an actor named Roberto Bricchi (stage name: Robert Angelo), a 26-year-old registered Libertarian who lives in Chapel Hill, NC. The video itself was not shot at a courthouse in Baton Rouge—a nonsense location chosen to lend an air of authority—but at a nondescript one-story building somewhere in North Carolina. It’s a fair guess that Bricchi has never been to the Secretary of State’s office in Louisiana, has very little concern for the state’s energy infrastructure, and had never heard of Cherri Foytlin before reading the script presented to him that day. For an hour’s work, it’s likely that he made around $50, paid in cash.

Sara Netanyahu told she faces potential criminal charges

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, has been formally notified that she is facing potential criminal charges for allegedly diverting tens of thousands of dollars of state money to use for private expenses.

The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, was considering prosecuting Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife for offences that include fraudulently procuring items, fraud and breach of trust, according to a justice ministry statement.

Mandelblit, who was appointed by the prime minister, informed Sara Netanyahu on Friday that, having examined the evidence and heard the positions of the relevant authorities, he had decided to move forward.

Netanyahu will be given a last opportunity to present her side of the case at an indictment hearing – an unusual step for a person who is not a public official.

California city confiscates toilets from homeless residents – forcing them to use buckets

Somewhere in the southern California city of Anaheim, less than five miles from Disneyland, three porta-potties – two pink, one gray – are locked in a city storage facility. It’s not where they’re supposed to be.

They were meant for a dusty homeless encampment that sprawls along the west bank of the Santa Ana river, and is home to hundreds of men, women and children in tents and other makeshift shelters.

But the toilets are sitting unused after being confiscated by the city, and the residents have nowhere to relieve themselves except in the bushes, or in buckets, or in the cramped privacy of their own tents. Activists are up in arms over the primitive conditions in which camp inhabitants are living, and which, in their view, the local government appears to have sanctioned.

“This is a public health crisis for the homeless community,” said Mohammed Aly, a homeless advocate and lawyer who helped install the toilets. Not least it was a case, he said, of providing people with simple human dignity.

Oak Park approves celebration of Indigenous People Day

Following a national trend, the village of Oak Park approved a resolution authorizing Oct. 9 as Indigenous People Day within its boundaries.

The resolution was unanimously approved by the Oak Park village board at its Sept. 5 meeting.

According to village spokesman David Powers, the resolution applies only to village municipal government, and not the park district, school districts, or other governments.

“The only change will be that on the municipal website calendar,” Powers said. “The date will indicate Indigenous People Day. Village municipal government has never recognized Columbus Day as a holiday.”

Historian and author Dominic Candeloro, though supportive of the resolution, voiced his concerns over the perceived elimination of Columbus Day from the village.

“The celebration of indigenous people is a wonderful thing,” Candeloro said. “I have no problem with it. I also happen to be an Italian-American. The one problem we have with the proclamation is it ignores the 900-pound gorilla in the room and that’s Columbus Day. You’re replacing the traditions of one ethnic group with the traditions of another ethnic group.”

Colombian Indigenous Groups Denounce Exclusion from Final Peace Agreement

Several Colombian Indigenous groups have condemned their exclusion from the implementation of the final peace agreement between the government and the FARC, as a violation of their rights.

The Commission for Follow-up, Impulse and Verification on the Implementation of the Final Agreement, or CSIVI, is due to approve a framework plan for the peace process implementation without specific ethnic indicators, that are designed to account for the structural injustices suffered by the ethnic peoples as a result of “disproportionate impacts of the conflict.”

The Indigenous communities said that despite the agreement, their territories are being used as battlefields by guerrillas and paramilitaries as well as army and police forces. They maintain it is severely impacting their day to day operations lives. The clashes between the National Liberation Army, ELN, and paramilitaries have forced many to leave their homes.

“The Ethnic Commission for Peace and the Defense of Territorial Rights warn … about the exclusion of ethnic peoples from the process of implementing the Final Peace Agreement with serious consequences for the rights conquered, in particular, territorial rights,” the Indigenous people said in a statement.

The ethnic groups said that by neglecting the programs and resources which should be helping the victims of the conflict, there could be a “significant regression” of their rights.

Somehow… this is a thing.

Prosecutors seek to revoke Shkreli’s bail over threat to Clinton

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to revoke Martin Shkreli’s bail and put him in custody after the convicted former pharmaceutical CEO offered money for a lock of Hillary Clinton’s hair, CNBC reports.

Shkreli is currently out of prison on $5 million bail as he awaits sentencing on his three securities fraud convictions.

In a Facebook post, Shkreli offered $5,000 for anyone who can get a sample of Clinton’s hair.

Prosecutors characterized Shkreli’s post as a threat that could lead someone to break state and federal criminal laws. They said the Secret Service had to launch an investigation into the threats that required a “significant expenditure of resources.”

It's time for @SpeakerRyan to stand up to his extremist base & lead to pass the Senate's $15bn aid package for hurricane victims. #WI01 pic.twitter.com/4Wn3an17EW

— Cathy Myers (@CathyMyersWI) September 7, 2017