Tag Archives: pipelines

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Religious Leaders Oppose Enbridge Pipeline & Anti-Terrorism Agencies Monitoring Mountain Valley Protesters & More

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Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters lock themselves to drilling equipment Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline tried a new tactic Monday: chaining themselves to construction equipment. West Virginia state police arrested three people who were trying to slow down workers in Lindside, a community in Monroe County, West Virginia. They delayed construction for a few hours on Route 219. Police cut them out around 10 a.m., about two hours after they received a call. Police said Maxwell Shaw, 24, Evin Ugur, 21, and Sydney White, 18, are all from Massachusetts and are out on bond. Court documents showed they’re each facing … Continue reading →

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Federal Court Halts Atlantic Coast Pipeline Work, Raw Crude Oil Spews in Oklahoma City & More

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Federal appeals court orders halt to work on Atlantic Coast Pipeline A federal appeals court has ordered a halt to construction of Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, finding that restrictions against harming wildlife are inadequate for the controversial 600-mile natural gas project. Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in a ruling issued late Tuesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to set clear limits for impact on threatened or endangered species. The judges said that “the limits set by the agency are so indeterminate that they undermine . . . the enforcement … Continue reading →

3/28 News Roundup – Pipeline Protestors ‘Not Guilty’ After Claiming ‘Legal Necessity”; Support For Medicare-For-All Surges & More

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Anti-pipeline campaigners found not guilty by judge because ‘protest against climate change crisis’ was legal ‘necessity’

More than a dozen protesters who clambered into holes dug for a high pressure gas pipeline said they had been found not responsible by a judge after hearing them argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal “necessity”.

Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was among more than 198 people who were arrested because of their 2015 actions protesting the pipeline in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Thirteen people were to go on trial this week, though prosecutors downgraded their original criminal charges to one of civil infraction.

On Tuesday, Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court, found all 13 defendants not responsible, the equivalent of not guilty in a criminal case. She did so after each of the defendants addressed the judge and explained why they were driven to try and halt the pipeline’s construction.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Ms Gore, 44, Director of the Centre for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, said the court’s decision was historic. “What happened today was really important,” she said.

“The people….were found not responsible by reason of necessity. The irony is that we are making ourselves responsible. We’re part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won’t let this go by on our watch. We won’t act like nothing’s wrong.”

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The environmentalist and academic Bill McKibben, who was to appear as a defence witness for the defendants, said on Twitter: “Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America.”

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3/21 News Roudup – 55 Senators Vote To Allow U.S. Role In Yemen War To Continue, Why Teens Love Sanders So Much & More

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‘Blood of Thousands on Their Hands’: 55 Senators Vote To Continue US-Backed Carnage in Yemen

While 44 U.S. Senators on Tuesday were applauded by peace groups for voting in favor of a resolution that would have allowed Congress to begin reclaiming its war-making authority and ended the U.S. military’s backing of Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen, it was ultimately not enough to overcome entrenched opposition from the 45 Republicans and 10 Democrats who voted against it.

Introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the resolution (SJ Res. 54) would have ended the tacit military support—including targeting assistance, refueling, and intelligence sharing—of the Saudi’s campaign to wage war on Yemen, a nation currently embroiled in a civil war and experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet.

The final tally was 55-44 against the resolution, with only Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) not casting a vote. While five Republicans voted for the measure, the 10 Democrats senators who joined with the Republican majority to block it were: Coons (D-DE); Cortez Masto (D-NV); Donnelly (D-IN); Heitkamp (D-ND); Jones (D-AL); Manchin (D-WV); Menendez (D-NJ); Nelson (D-FL); Reed (D-RI); and Whitehouse (D-RI).

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Anti-war groups, while disappointed with the outcome, celebrated the vote and heralded it as an important step in terms of getting congressional lawmakers to final assert themselves against an executive branch that has been allowed to wage war with nearly no restraint over the last 17 years.

“Because of the leadership put forth by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Mike Lee, and Chris Murphy — and the tireless advocacy of hundreds of thousands of Americans — the U.S. Senate was today finally forced to confront America’s unauthorized role in Yemen’s deadly civil war,” Kate Kizer, policy director for Win Without War, in a statement.

“We commend the 44 Senators who agreed that U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition is unconstitutional, counterproductive, and doesn’t serve U.S. national security interests,” she added. “Today’s vote should serve as a sober reminder to Saudi Arabia that it must immediately move to resolve this conflict diplomatically, and that American support for its war in Yemen is not unlimited.”

Prior to the vote Bernie Sanders spoke on the chamber floor to outline his position and to note the 15th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War:

Afterwards he tweeted his disappointment with the final tally:

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3/19 News Roundup – Sanders Is Telling The Story Corporate Media Fails To; Indigenous Leaders Begin A Week Of Civil Disobedience & More

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Bernie Sanders Wants to Tell the Story That Corporate Media Fails To Tell

For decades, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has objected to the failure of major media outlets to cover the growth of economic inequality in America. As a presidential contender in 2016, he used every opportunity that was afforded him in the media to address poverty, plutocracy and the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of “the billionaire class.”

Now, he’s doing something to tip the balance of the popular discourse away from the agendas of the super rich and toward the real life concerns of working-class Americans. Something big. On Monday, from 7 to 8:30 pm ET, he will host a livestreamed town hall meeting on “Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class.” With Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, filmmaker Michael Moore, economist Darrick Hamilton and others, Sanders will lead a discussion about the “growing power of corporate interests and how we can build economy that works for all Americans.” Livestreamed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Sanders, Warren, Moore, The Guardian, NowThis, The Young Turks and Act.tv, the initiative will reach social media sites with a combined following of close to 50 million Americans.

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The Nation: You say there are two fundamental issues with inequality. What’s the first?

Sanders: The first one is that this country is moving into oligarchy. The three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. The top one-tenth of one percent now owns as much wealth as the bottom ninety percent. And then, politically, what we have seen since the Citizens United decision (by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010) is billionaires like the Koch brothers and a few of their friends pouring hundreds and millions of dollars into the political process to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. That is an issue of huge consequence to the future of America – in terms of the economic life of this country and the collapse of the middle class, and a political system which is being corrupted by big money and Citizens United.

And the second issue has to do with how the first is covered?

The second issue deals with the fact that we have a corporate media, which is not as Donald Trump defines it “fake news.” That’s not the issue. It’s not that you have people on CNN, or writing for The New York Times, who are deliberately lying or trying to destroy politicians – that’s not the case. Everyday there are very good and important articles that appear in The Washington Post and The New York Times, on CBS News and everywhere else.

The problem is that, to a very significant degree, corporate media ignores, or pays very little attention, to the most important issues facing working people. That is the problem with corporate media today.

If you look at just the issue I described to you – the movement in this country toward oligarchy – you will find very, very little discussion about that. Stormy Daniels will get ten times more print and video coverage than will the movement toward oligarchy in this country. You will see very little discussion about poverty in this country. “Poverty” is just not a word that is used on television very often.

Bernie also spoke to Ana Kasparian of TYT about inequality and his upcoming national town hall:

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2/19 News Roundup – Students to Take to Streets of Washington, Infrastructure Plan Will Make It Harder to Fight Pipelines & More

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“The Time Is Now”: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Students to Take to Streets of Washington

Among growing calls for gun control legislation, students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School continue to deliver some of the most powerful statements in the wake of the tragedy, and on Sunday a group of them declared that “now is the time for us to stand up” and announced plans for a march in Washington, D.C.

The students, Jaclyn Corin, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind, made the statements to NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Gonzalez, who on Saturday gave a moving speech that went viral, told NBC, “This is our opportunity to talk to President Trump, Gov. Rick Scott, and state [sic] Senator Marco Rubio to make sure that they know we are talking directly to them and all other members of the United States government that are being funded by the NRA to tell them now is the time to get on the right side of this.”

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A call to action for the March 24 event, March For Our Lives, declares, “It doesn’t have to be this way…Refuse to allow one more needless death.”

“March For Our Lives,” its mission statement explains, “is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.”

“The mission and focus of March For Our Lives,” it adds, “is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.”

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12/20 News Roundup – Sanders: “Tax Bill A Victory For Corporate Campaign Donors” & More

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Sanders: Passage of GOP tax bill a ‘victory’ for Koch brothers, campaign donors, corporations

Sen. Bernie SandersBernard (Bernie) SandersSchumer: Franken should resignFranken resignation could upend Minnesota racesAvalanche of Democratic senators say Franken should resignMORE (I-Vt.), on Tuesday, blasted the GOP tax overhaul bill, arguing that its expected passage is a “victory” for the Koch brothers, Republican campaign donors, large corporations and even some lawmakers.

“Today marks a great day for the Koch brothers and other billionaire, Republican campaign contributors who will see huge tax breaks for themselves while driving up the deficit by almost $1.5 trillion,” Sanders said in a video posted on Twitter.

“Today is also a victory for the largest and most-profitable corporations in this country like Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer and General Electric, who, despite record-breaking profits, will now see hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks,” he added.

Sanders also indicated that some of his own colleagues had a personal financial interest in passing the bill, pointing to lawmakers who have real estate investments and will benefit under the new plan.

“Today is also a victory for a number of members of the United States Congress who have significant investments in real estate who, with this vote, will substantially lower the taxes that they pay and will further enrich themselves,” he said.

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12/11 News Roundup – Bernie Sanders On “Meet The Press”, Leading Economists Demand End to All Fossil Fuel Investments & More

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Starting off the News Roundup today with Bernie talking taxes, impeachment & resignations on ‘Meet The Press’:

https://youtu.be/Z5lWSEyWWIw

In wake of Al Franken’s resignation, 3 senators — including Bernie Sanders — call on Trump to step down

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and two of his Democratic colleagues have suggested that President Donald Trump should consider resigning, after a run of sexual harassment scandals that has driven out some members of Congress.

Sen. Al Franken “felt it proper for him to resign,” Sanders said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, referring to the Democrat from Minnesota. “Here you have a president who has been accused by many women of assault, who says on a tape that he assaulted women. He might want to think about doing the same.”

Sanders’ comment, which built on a tweet he’d sent last week, came after Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley, Ore., and Cory Booker, N.J., suggested that the “#MeToo moment” should prompt another look at the women who accused Trump of sexual harassment during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“The president should resign because he certainly has a track record with more than 17 women of horrific conduct,” Merkley said last week in an interview for the weekday version of “Meet the Press.”

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