September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Activists in southern Louisiana kicked off a five-day march on Thursday that aims to bring environmental justice to Cancer Alley—the 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that’s home to poverty-stricken communities in the shadow of scores of petrochemical facilities.
The march was organized by the Coalition Against Death Alley (CADA), which formed earlier this year and began planning “non-violent protests to pressure industrial giants and governments to stop the ongoing poisoning of majority-black communities” in the region, also known as Louisiana’s Petrochemical Corridor, which runs along the Mississippi River.
Marchers began Thursday morning in St. John the Baptist Parish at an elementary school near the Ponchartrain Works facility, which the American chemical giant DuPont sold to the Japanese company Denka in 2015.
A study released by the Environmental Protection Agency that same year determined that the plant—the only one in the United States that manufactures neoprene, synthetic rubber made from chloroprene—put nearby residents at the highest risk for developing cancer from airborne pollution of anywhere in the country.
Denka reached an agreement with the state’s environmental agency in 2017 to scale back the facility’s high emissions of chloroprene, which the EPA classifies as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” However, readings from last year show that the company has failed to reach its reduction targets, and activists are demanding bolder action for the sake of public health.
In an interview with The Guardian Thursday outside the elementary school by the facility, local activist Robert Taylor called for the plant to be shuttered.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“We are demanding not only the saving of our children at this school, we are demanding the salvation of this entire area,” he said. “Up and down this river they are poisoning our communities with impunity. We have implored [the factory] to get down to at least what the EPA says is a safe level. They have refused to do that and based on that, they need to shut down.”
CADA’s broader demands, detailed on the coalition’s website, are:
- No new petrochemical projects in the river parishes;
- Ban industrial emissions within five miles of public spaces;
- Either curb production at Denka to stay under the EPA-recommended limit for chloroprene emissions or shut Denka down;
- Shut down Mosaic and remove the toxic radioactive gypsum waste material that is posing a public health risk;
- Cover healthcare costs incurred by residents due to pollution exposure; and
- End the industrial tax exemption program.
The marchers took a detour from their planned route on Friday to attend a court hearing in Baton Rouge for a lawsuit filed earlier this week over state officials’ refusal to grant activists permission to march across the Interstate 10 bridge in Baton Rouge and the Sunshine Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River.
“We see the act of crossing these bridges as symbolic,” Rev. Gregory Manning, one of the march’s organizers, told The Louisiana Weekly earlier this week. “We want to bring attention to how this is an issue that impacts both sides of the river, and we also want to bring attention to specific plants like Denka Dupont, and the recently approved Formosa plant in St. James.”
The newspaper reported that in addition to signs, marchers planned to carry photos of loved ones lost to cancer and other illnesses that they believe were tied to regional pollution from the petrochemical industry.
“What we are seeing illustrated now is intentional genocide, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the governor are very conscious of what is happening with the uncontrolled amounts of poison and toxins filling the air in this sacrificial zone, where the ancestors of those enslaved became sharecroppers and worked hard to purchase property, now worth pennies on the dollar,” Manning added. “The government is complicit, and this behavior will not be tolerated any longer.”
According to the LA Bucket Brigade, the judge was expected to rule on whether the marchers will be allowed to cross the bridges sometime Friday afternoon. Members of the coalition spoke outside the courthouse about the suit as well as the march, which is set to conclude at the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol on Monday.
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
As the White House continues to stonewall efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a confidential IRS draft memo that leaked late Tuesday appeared to completely undercut Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s justification for withholding the documents.
“Because no amount of legal advice will stop the lawlessness and lies, Congress should use all of our powers to enforce compliance, including fines and confinement.”
—Rep. Lloyd Doggett
First obtained by the Washington Post, the memo states that federal law “does not allow the secretary to exercise discretion in disclosing the information provided the statutory conditions are met.”
Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS, has refused to release the president’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee on multiple occasions on the grounds that “the committee’s request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
But the 10-page IRS memo (pdf)—reportedly prepared last fall “by a lawyer in the Office of Chief Counsel”—makes clear that the “secretary’s obligation to disclose return and return information would not be affected by the failure of a tax writing committee… to state a reason for the request.”
“The memo writer’s interpretation is that the IRS has no wiggle room on this,” Daniel Hemel, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, told the Post. “Mnuchin is saying the House Ways and Means Committee has not asserted a legitimate legislative purpose. The memo says they don’t have to assert a legitimate legislative purpose—or any purpose at all.”
The draft memo points to one possible way in which the White House could justify withholding Trump’s tax returns: executive privilege.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“But,” the Post reported, “the IRS memo notes that executive privilege is most often invoked to protect information, such as opinions and recommendations, submitted as part of formulating policies and decisions. It even says the law ‘might be read to preclude a claim of executive privilege,’ meaning the law could be interpreted as saying executive privilege cannot be invoked to deny a subpoena.”
While the IRS told the Post that the memo was never forwarded to Mnuchin, former IRS commissioner John Koskinen said in an interview with the New York Times that it would be “stunning” if the Treasury Secretary did not know about the document.
Click Here: gws giants guernsey 2019
In response to the leaked memo, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)—a member of the House Ways and Means Committee—said in a statement that Congress must take action, including possible imprisonment of Mnuchin, in the face of the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with the law.
“Because no amount of legal advice will stop the lawlessness and lies, Congress should use all of our powers to enforce compliance, including fines and confinement,” Doggett said. “‘Shall’ means ‘shall,’ and ‘stall’ means ‘stall.’ It’s long past time for Congress to stop letting the Trump administration run out the clock on any accountability for its continued abuse of power.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
The anti-war group CodePink is hoping that it can host the now famous ‘Baby Trump’ blimp—which first garnered international attention during protests against the U.S. president in the United Kingdom—during July 4th demonstrations scheduled for this summer in the nation’s capitol.
According to the Washington Post:
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“The president is shifting the 4th of July festivities to celebrate his administration,” said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the group, in a statement. “We will bring together people opposed to the pain and suffering caused by this administration, from family separation at the border to supplying weapons used by Saudi Arabia to kill Yemeni children.”
With Trump slated to hold a large “Solute to America” rally and deliver a speech on the National Mall, Ariel Gold, CodePink’s co-director told the Post that the plan will be to get the blimp as close to the official activities as possible and that the 30-foot-high inflatable baby would be a fitting attendee at any demonstration against the sitting president and his policies.
“We see it as an image of Trump’s behavior, which is, as we all know, unpredictable and prone to tantrums about things that are really, really dangerous,” Gold said. “It’s a way of saying, we really need an adult in the White House.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: essendon bombers guernsey 2019
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
The United Nations’ top health envoy warned Monday that inequality and austerity are fueling a global mental health crisis that can only be solved by government interventions to reduce economic insecurity and increase funding for crucial public services.
Dr. Dainius Pūrasa, a Lithuanian psychiatrist and the U.N.’s special rapporteur on health, said in an interview with The Guardian that purely “biomedical” approaches to treating mental illness are not sufficient because they ignore the social and economic conditions that exacerbate depression, anxiety, and other conditions.
“At this point, there’s no denying what a complete catastrophe austerity has been for the poor and vulnerable in our society.”
—Momentum
Measures to redress inequality, poverty, and discrimination, Pūrasa said, “would be the best ‘vaccine’ against mental illness and would be much better than the excessive use of psychotropic medication which is happening.”
“The best way to invest in the mental health of individuals is to create a supportive environment in all settings, family, the workplace,” said Pūrasa. “Then of course [therapeutic] services are needed, but they should not be based on an excessive biomedical model.”
Pūrasa’s interview with The Guardian came just before he delivered a major new report (pdf) on mental health to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.
While it does not single out any country in particular, the report slams as damaging to mental health “[c]uts to social welfare, laws, and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health information, and services, the criminalization of drug possession or cultivation for personal use, laws that restrict civil society space, and corporal punishment of children and adults.”
The report describes inequality as “a key obstacle to mental health globally” and states that action to curb inequities should be considered “a human rights issue.”
“Given the deep connections between inequality and poor health,” the report says, “states are required to act on structural interventions far upstream, including in the political arrangements that allocate resources.”
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“Reducing inequalities,” the report continues, “is a precondition for promoting mental health and for reducing key risk factors, such as violence, disempowerment, and social exclusion.”
Pūrasa’s report comes as global inequality continues to soar. As Common Dreams reported in January, an Oxfam analysis found that 26 billionaires own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people combined.
Meanwhile, the right-wing governments of major countries like the United States and the United Kingdom continue to push austerity policies while putting more money into the pockets of the wealthy.
Jeremy Corbyn, the U.K. Labour Party leader, tweeted Monday that he is not surprised by Pūrasa’s assessment of the impacts of austerity.
As Common Dreams reported last month, Philip Alston—U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights—issued a report condemning the British government for years of austerity policies that have gutted social services and exacerbated suffering throughout the country.
Corbyn said Monday that austerity “has caused insecurity across the country in people’s housing, employment and access to public services, like healthcare.”
“We must end austerity,” said Corbyn, “and start investing in people and communities.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: geelong cats guernsey 2019
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg turned to Twitter Thursday to thank a key fossil fuel leader for suggesting that climate campaigners—including youth who have joined the global “Fridays for Future” movement Thunberg inspired with her school strikes outside Sweden’s parliament last year—greatly threaten the oil sector.
“Thank you!” tweeted Thunberg, whose climate leadership earned her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. “Our biggest compliment yet!”
Earlier this week, after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, the organization’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo reportedly claimed that “unscientific” attacks by climate activists are “perhaps the greatest threat to our industry going forward.”
According to the Agence France-Presse report which Thunberg linked to on Twitter:
Although he did not mention any specifics, Barkindo also said that “we believe this industry is part of the solution to the scourge of climate change.”
OPEC’s mission “is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.”
The energy organization’s 14 member nations are Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
Bill McKibben, co-founder of the advocacy group 350.org, tweeted a message to activists Thursday in response to the OPEC chief’s remarks: “Wow! Wow! Wow! …Thanks everyone for your good work!”
Barkindo’s comments come as the youth movement—also commonly called #SchoolStrikeForClimate—is planning a worldwide strike for September, and amid mounting research on how the fossil fuel industry endangers the planet. A study published in the journal Nature on Monday warned that existing dirty energy infrastructure jeopardizes the Paris climate agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“The new study reiterates that visionary climate solutions must justly transition away from fossil fuels, starting with an acknowledgement that 1.5°C carbon budgets must account for planned and new emitting projects,” Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, North America director for 350.org, said in a statement Wednesday.
“This report reinforces the need for complete economic restructuring by way of a Green New Deal that creates millions of jobs for workers in a 100 percent renewable economy and actively keeps fossil fuels in the ground,” she added. “We stand by the science, and furthermore demand that fossil fuel billionaires pay for the damage they have caused to people and planet.”
This post has been updated with comment from Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org.
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Click Here: Maori All Blacks Store
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Warning signs that the U.S. economy could be barreling toward a recession quickly became alarm bells Wednesday after the Treasury bond yield curve—a key indicator that has preceded every major downturn over the past five decades—inverted for the first time since the Wall Street crash of 2007.
As the Washington Post reported, “the yields on short-term U.S. bonds eclipsed those of long-term bonds” on Wednesday, a phenomenon that “suggests investors’ faith in the economy is faltering.”
Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, told the Post that “yield curves are all crying timber that a recession is almost a reality, and investors are tripping over themselves to get out of the way.”
CNBC described the inverted yield curve as the “strongest recession signal yet.”
Economists and other commentators were quick to place at least some of the blame for worsening market volatility on President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, the world’s second-largest economy behind the U.S.
Though Trump sparked a brief rally on Tuesday with his decision to delay his planned 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods until Dec. 15, markets tanked again Wednesday in response to the inverted yield curve, wiping out the previous day’s gains and triggering fears that a major recession could be imminent.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“Amazing how many people have spent time trying to project some rationality onto Trump trade policy,” tweeted economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. “What looks like raw ignorance and prejudice is, in fact, raw ignorance and prejudice.”
Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall pointed out that while presidents are often incorrectly blamed or credited with the state of the economy, “it’ll be impossible not to point to a ruinous, needless trade war as a key cause” if a recession hits.
As markets slid on Wednesday, others noted the historic pattern of recessionary cycles that have corresponded with massive tax cuts for the wealthiest:
Further intensifying fears of a recession, said economists, is the fact that the Trump administration does not appear willing to take the steps necessary to combat a serious downturn, such as spending money on meaningful government initiatives like an infrastructure program.
“If Trump proposed a serious infrastructure plan, Dems would have a hard time saying no even though it would help him politically. But no such plan has been or will be offered, for a couple of reasons,” tweeted Krugman. “One is that [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and his wing of the party oppose any kind of government program, no matter how much good it might do.”
“Another,” added Krugman, “is that Trump and co. just can’t bring themselves to advocate anything that doesn’t include scams on behalf of their cronies.”
Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
September 13, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Valtteri Bottas enjoyed a double dose of pleasure on Friday, setting the pace in both practice sessions for the Tuscan Grand Prix and loving the experience of driving around Mugello’s fast sweeps.
Bottas echoed his fellow drivers’ positive impressions about the challenging Italian track where F1 is racing for the very first time this weekend.
“It’s a lot of fun, really cool, especially after we go into Turn 1, the first section, the old section is fantastic and the second sector is also amazing, so I really enjoyed every single lap today,” said the Mercedes driver.
“It’s one of the most physical tracks, no doubt about it. I still think we’ll only see it in the race distance, once the fatigue starts to build up, but could even see that today.
“It’s going to be a tough Sunday for everyone, but I’m definitely ready for it, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Beyond the physical challenge, Bottas also underlined Mugello’s crucial impact on tyre wear.
“It is tough, it’s a really high-energy circuit for the tyres, but it was quite a bit better than what we expected, so, that’s good news,” he added.
“Always, in the high-speed corners, we are going to be overheating and Sunday is going to be pretty hot as well.”
Hamilton just ‘not that great’ yet around Mugello
The eight-time Grand Prix winner, who edged teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.207s in FP2, is confident of holding his own at the head of the field on Saturday by unlocking the full potential of his Black Arrow.
“In the first session I struggled quite a bit with understeer, and still in some places in the second session, but it was definitely better,” said the Finn.
“There’s still quite a bit of lap time to unlock, as it always happens on a track where you and the cars haven’t been to.
“As a driver you tend to find pretty big gains from one day to the other, so I think that from the car, but even more so from the drivers, we will find performance.”
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Click Here: cd universidad catolica
September 12, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Democrat Mike Espy appears to be gunning for a rematch in his bid for Senate in Mississippi.
The former agriculture secretary and congressman filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Friday declaring his intention to run for Senate in 2020.
The filing comes just three days after he was defeated by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) in a heated runoff election. A spokesperson for Espy’s campaign did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Click Here: PuttersADVERTISEMENT
Hyde-Smith, who was appointed earlier this year to replace former Sen. Thad CochranWilliam (Thad) Thad CochranEspy wins Mississippi Senate Democratic primary Bottom Line Mike Espy announces Mississippi Senate bid MORE (R-Miss.) in the chamber, beat Espy on Tuesday by roughly 8 points.
Hyde-Smith faced criticism in that contest after footage surfaced of the Republican saying that she would “be on the front row” if she were invited to a “public hanging,” a comment that sparked strong backlash in a state with a history of lynching African-Americans.
That remark prompted several corporate donors to Hyde-Smith’s campaign, including Walmart, to pull support for the senator and demand that she return their contributions.
Because Hyde-Smith was appointed this year and elected in a special election, she will face reelection again at the end of Cochran’s term in 2020 when she’s expected to seek her first full term in the Senate.
September 12, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Former Trump campaign aide George PapadopoulosGeorge Demetrios PapadopoulosNew FBI document confirms the Trump campaign was investigated without justification Republicans plow ahead with Russia origins probe AG Barr just signaled that things are about to get ugly for the Russia collusion team MORE, who was released from federal prison last week, announced in an interview on Friday that he wants to run for office in 2020.
Papadopoulos told The Daily Telegraph that part of his initial plan to join President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s campaign and transition team in 2016 was to boost his own platform before running for congress.
“Things just took a different direction,” he said with a smile, “but my end game remains the same. I do want to run for Congress. I’m planning to run for Congress in 2020.”
Papadopoulos was released from prison in Wisconsin on Dec. 7 after serving 12 days for lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia-linked officials during the 2016 campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October of last year as part of special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) MuellerCNN’s Toobin warns McCabe is in ‘perilous condition’ with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill’s 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion with the Trump campaign.
He will now have 12 months of supervised release and will have to serve more than 200 hours of community service as well as pay a $9,500 fine.
Papadopoulos and his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, currently live in California.
“Now that Los Angeles is home, I just have to find a little Republican enclave somewhere in this part of the world — this part of the country, I should say — and run there,” he told The Telegraph.
The outlet noted that Orange County is the birthplace of former President Nixon.
Papadopoulos is already talking to potential donors before his run.
He is also slated to be the subject of a new documentary series about his relationship with his wife, in hopes to portray “a true image of ourselves to be presented for the first time since I was embroiled in the Russia investigation.”
The series, produced by Los Angeles–based FGW Productions, has already started filming last month.
Click Here: camiseta river plate
September 12, 2020 |
News
| No Comments
Republican Corey Stewart, a former Senate and gubernatorial candidate in Virginia who was an outspoken defender of Confederate monuments, said he’s leaving politics “for the foreseeable future,” according to The Washington Post.
Stewart told the Post in an interview published Tuesday that he won’t run for reelection after serving as Prince William Board of County Supervisors for 15 years. He said he’ll now focus on his international trade law practice as well as helping with his wife’s business goals.
ADVERTISEMENTHe’ll make his official announcement that he won’t seek a fourth term Tuesday afternoon during his state-of-the-county address.
Stewart told the Post he doesn’t plan to reenter the political arena “until and unless the Commonwealth is ready for my views on things, and that’s not right now, clearly.”
Click Here: New Zealand rugby store
“Politics sucks,” Stewart said in his interview with the Post. “On a personal level, it’s been a disaster.”
Stewart lost Virginia’s 2018 Senate race to Sen. Tim KaineTimothy (Tim) Michael KaineWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Senate panel passes amendment to bar using troops against protesters Defense bill turns into proxy battle over Floyd protests MORE (D-Va.) by double digits last November.
Stewart also ran for the GOP nomination in Virginia’s 2017 gubernatorial race, coming unexpectedly close to defeating establishment favorite Ed Gillespie.
Gillespie, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, went on to lose to now-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) in the 2017 general election — an election cycle where Democrats won the governor’s mansion and swept more than a dozen state legislative seats.
Stewart has been a close ally of President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE and served as the co-chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign in 2016. He’s also been a long-time opponent and frequently rails against illegal immigration.
The Virginia Republican said he’s started to discuss with the Trump administration a potential job in the White House in the arena of international trade, but “the problem with these jobs is they don’t pay very much.”
And during his Senate race in 2018, Stewart earned scrutiny over accusations of his ties to white nationalists. He reportedly fired a top aide who helped bring far-right ideas to his campaign. But he denies holding those kinds of views.
“If you look at my record, find something that I said that was racist, or bigoted or anti-Semitic. You’re not going to find it,” Stewart said.