#CRIMESAGAINSTHUMANITY

Immigrant Rights Attorneys Sue DHS and ICE for Information on Terror Tactics Used in Arrests

ICE’s Operation Palladium Sparked Wave of "Supercharged Arrest Operation[s]" in Sanctuary Cities.

WASHINGTON - The Immigrant Defense Project and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to demand access to arrest records and related information for a wave of ICE raids in sanctuary cities across the U.S. this year.

The lawsuit seeks to compel both government agencies to release policy guidances, memos, and trainings as well as records regarding the process ICE uses to determine “targets” pertaining to “Operation Palladium,” an aggressive immigration surveillance and policing initiative that advocates say has dramatically increased the use of force and other aggressive tactics by ICE since it began in early 2020. ICE and DHS refused to release information on the program in response to an urgent FOIA request, filed in June 2020, over concerns about the program. The lawsuit filed today seeks a court order to immediately release the requested documents.



“Since this administration came to power almost four years ago, they have made it a priority to attack and try to destroy immigrant communities,” said IDP Interim Executive Director Mizue Aizeki. “‘Operation Palladium’ is clearly another bullying tactic by the federal government against cities like New York due to policies that protect immigrants. In February and March of this year, ICE policing in NYC included not only intensive surveillance of immigrants and their loved ones but also an escalation in violent tactics by ICE. This included ICE agents shooting a witness during a raid, and brandishing an assault rifle in the street and inside an apartment building. We filed the FOIA to shed light on how DHS and ICE policing tactics threaten safety and stability in our cities. As the public, we have a right to know this information to protect our communities.”

“Operation Palladium” was implemented in “sanctuary” cities across the country in February 2020. As part of the operation, the Trump administration has deployed Customs and Border Protection agents – including officers from BORTAC, a militarized unit normally deployed at the southern U.S. border – in cities to support ICE in their surveillance and arrest of immigrants. The New York Times described Operation Palladium as a “supercharged arrest operation,” and today’s lawsuit alleges it has led to a drastic increase in the extent and aggression of ICE arrest practices – including the shooting of a bystander during an ICE arrest in February. Attorneys say the program was coupled with the Trump administration’s use of DHS personnel and technology to surveil the Movement for Black Lives protests in many cities.

In the first 11 weeks of 2020, Immigrant Defense Project has reported a 400 percent increase in the number of sightings of ICE agents and of arrests as compared to what was reported in the last 11 weeks of 2019, and since the beginning of this year, thousands of immigrants have been arrested by ICE at their homes, on the street, and at their workplaces. This escalation of immigration policing has continued despite the global COVID-19 pandemic and the dangers it poses to people that ICE refuses to release from jails and detention centers despite the rapid spread of COVID at these facilities. IDP and the Center for Constitutional Rights say that information about the policies, procedures, and data regarding Operation Palladium is of vital public interest, given concerns about privacy and other constitutional rights, as well ongoing debates about funding for DHS and ICE.

“ICE and DHS have refused to produce even one document regarding their surveillance and enforcement tactics and policies,” said Ian Head, coordinator of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ Open Records Project. “It should not take a court order to force federal agencies to meet their obligations under FOIA, particularly on topics of urgent importance to the public."

For more information, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page.

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Organization Profile: 
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

Sunrise Movement Staff Form Union with Communications Workers of America

With Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) Serving as Sunrise Movement’s Third-party Validator, More than 95% of Staff Vote in Support of Forming Union with CWA Local 1180;

Sunrise Workers Take Important Step Towards Stronger and More Accessible Workplace with Recognition and Support from Management;

Sunrise Movement Becomes Latest Nonprofit to Organize, with Less than 5% of Nonprofit Workers in Unions Nationally

WASHINGTON - Today, workers with Sunrise Movement, a youth-led movement organization advocating to stop climate change and create millions of American jobs, voted to form a union with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1180 in New York. More than 95% of Sunrise Movement staff members voted in support of forming a union with CWA, and management has agreed to recognize the staff union.

In a virtual meeting today with Sunrise Movement staff and management, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) verified the union vote count as Sunrise’s third-party validator, announcing support from 79 out of 82 workers.

“As a youth-led grassroots organization dedicated to climate justice and bringing millions of living-wage jobs to the American workforce, forming a union was a clear step of action for us at Sunrise, and one that we believe embodies our movement’s values and will guide its growth,” said Gabbi Pierce, Internal Communications Coordinator at Sunrise Movement and member of CWA Local 1180. “We know that workplaces are stronger when workers have a voice and are empowered through unionization, and we are thankful for the recognition of our union by Sunrise management, who has supported our organizing efforts from the start. This is a huge step for our movement in our fight against climate change, and for nonprofit organizations everywhere which are increasingly advocating in support of worker rights.”

“The organizing efforts by Sunrise workers show that unions are essential in creating a foundation for a strong, equitable environment that elevates the voices of all workers,” said Senator Markey. “I’m proud of these passionate young people who embody the true value of unions in the strongest traditions of the labor movement and are stepping out as advocates for workers’ rights and good American jobs. Their dedication to empowering their team with strong support from management sets an important precedent for our country's workplaces.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought national attention to the need for unions due to increasingly precarious and unsafe working conditions, workers with the Sunrise Movement saw organizing as an opportunity to strengthen their relationship with management while creating a more accessible environment for their growing team. Sunrise workers will join a number of nonprofit workers as members of CWA Local 1180, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Open Society Foundations, Century Foundation, and StoryCorps.

“We’re incredibly proud that our employees exercised their right to form a union, and we look forward to a productive bargaining relationship with our staff that furthers our mission to organize for a world where everyone has the right to meaningful, safe, and dignified jobs,” said Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement Executive Director. “Sunrise Movement unequivocally supports, and fights for, the right of any and all workers to unionize, including and especially at Sunrise. When we talk about creating millions of good jobs through a Green New Deal, we mean jobs where people get paid well, with the protections they deserve and that the labor movement fought for. We are confident that this new union will make our movement even stronger and more capable of fighting to expand the rights of working people everywhere.”

Sunrise is the latest nonprofit to organize, with the industry largely non-union. While there are no official federal statistics on the number of unions in the nonprofit industry, recent census data shows that the percentage of union members in this space has remained around 1% to 3% over the past decade. Sunrise’s young, diverse workforce reflects the growing trend for nonprofits and youth-led organizations to support union organizing and ensure a voice for all workers on the job.

“We’re excited for Sunrise Movement staff to join Local 1180 and the thousands of nonprofit workers CWA represents across the country,” said Gloria Middleton, President of CWA Local 1180. “Sunrise workers’ decision to organize speaks to the real impact unions have on strengthening the workforce at its core and creating a more equitable environment for workers. We look forward to working with Sunrise to continue to promote good jobs and fair contracts for all hard working Americans”

THIRD WORLD USA



Tenants Across the Country Announce

They Will Not Leave Their Homes

Amid the Impending Mass Eviction Crisis



WASHINGTON - On Dec 31, the CDC National Eviction Moratorium will expire putting up to 40 million renters at risk of eviction for nonpayment of rent. In response, on December 17th, mothers from across the country who are at risk of eviction will announce that they will not leave their home when eviction protections expire and urge the CDC and in-coming Biden Administration and HUD Secretary-designate Marcia Fudge to take immediate action by extending and expanding the eviction moratorium and rent and mortgage forgiveness. These tenants, supported by CPD Network affiliates and local Eviction Defense networks, will defend their homes through direct action, eviction defense and community support.


“Trump and Republican leaders decided that saving corporate America and lining their pockets is more important than the 286,000 people who lost their lives and the 40 million families who will be forced into homelessness when the eviction moratorium expires,” said Dianne Enriquez, director of campaigns for community dignity at the Center for Popular Democracy. “Our people are dying and we are calling on government officials to step up and put people over profits”

Who: Center for Popular Democracy, Organize Florida, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), CASA, Action North Carolina

What: Families from the CPD Network at risk of eviction will announce that they will not leave their homes when eviction protections expire


When: December 17, 2020

Where: New York, California, Maryland, North Carolina and Florida

RSVP: Please use this link to register for the digital eviction defense rally

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Jeff Bezos, Mitch McConnell, and Killer Covid-19 Capitalism

Bezos, as well as every major employer in America, can easily afford to protect their workers.

by Robert Reich

Amazon’s workers have no union to protect them. (Throughout its 25-year history, the corporation has aggressively fought union organizing.) 

As a former Secretary of Labor, I often receive mail from workers with job complaints, who apparently believe I still have some authority. But the email I received a few days ago from a worker at Amazon’s Whole Foods delivery warehouse in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, was particularly distressing.

Bezos has accumulated so much added wealth over the last nine months that he could give every Amazon employee $105,000 and still be as rich as he was before the pandemic.

She said that six of her co-workers had tested positive for COVID since October 22, because “safe social distancing is not only being ignored but discouraged,” adding that “when we express our discomfort to management, we are yelled at about filling orders faster, or told that we can take a leave of absence without pay.”

She ended by noting “we work for a trillionaire.”

Well, not quite. Jeff Bezos is worth $180 billion, making him the richest person in the world. And his corporation, Amazon, which also owns Whole Foods, is among the world’s richest corporations.

Bezos has accumulated so much added wealth over the last nine months that he could give every Amazon employee $105,000 and still be as rich as he was before the pandemic.

So you’d think he’d be able to afford safer workplaces. Yet as of October, more than 20,000 U.S.-based Amazon employees had been infected by the virus. That estimate comes from Amazon, by the way. There’s been no independent verification, nor has Amazon revealed how many of them have died.

Decades ago, employees in most large corporations could remedy unsafe working conditions by complaining to their union, which pressured their employer to fix the problems, or to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (founded in 1970), which levied fines.

Alternatively, they could embarrass their companies by going public with their complaints. As a last resort, they could sue.

None of these routes is readily available to Amazon warehouse workers – nor, for that matter, to warehouse workers at Walmart, or to most workers in other super-spreader COVID workplaces such as meatpacking plants and nursing homes.

Amazon’s workers have no union to protect them. (Throughout its 25-year history, the corporation has aggressively fought union organizing.) Nor, for that matter, do 93.8 percent of America’s private-sector workers. Fifty years ago, more than a third were unionized.

And OSHA? Since the start of the pandemic, it’s been useless. Although receiving more than 10,000 complaints of unsafe conditions, it has issued just two citations.

Amazon employees who go public with their complaints are likely to lose their jobs. The corporation prohibits its workers from commenting publicly on any aspect of its business, without prior approval from executives. So far during the pandemic, it has fired at least two white-collar employees who publicly denounced conditions at its warehouses, as well as several warehouse workers who raised safety concerns to media outlets.

Amazon isn’t alone. A survey conducted in May by the National Employment Law Project showed that 1 in 8 American workers “has perceived possible retaliatory actions by employers against workers in their company who have raised health and safety concerns” about COVID.

The final option is to sue the company, but lawsuits against employers over COVID have been rare because of difficulties proving that the employee contracted the virus at work. A Washington Post analysis found that since the pandemic began, just 234 personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits have been filed due to the virus.

All of which reveals the utter fatuousness of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s and his fellow Senate Republicans’ demand that any new COVID relief package must include a corporate “liability shield” against COVID cases.

Even if such lawsuits were successful, corporations already have limited liability. That’s what it means to be a corporation. In the unlikely event Amazon were sued and plaintiffs won, Jeff Bezos would remain comfortable.

The heinous resurgence of COVID makes clear that corporations need more – not fewer – incentives to protect their workers from the virus.

As millions of Americans lose whatever meager income they had, they should not have to choose between taking a risky job – such as in an Amazon warehouse – or putting food on their family’s table.

Bezos, as well as every major employer in America, can easily afford to protect their workers. And as Mitch McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans should know, the richest nation in the world can easily afford to provide every American adequate income support during this national emergency.

That they’re not doing so is disgraceful.

Robert Reich, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. His book include: "Aftershock" (2011), "The Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and, "Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.

BYE BYE LOSER

An Embarrassing Situation

by Abby Zimet, Further columnist
Tuesday, December 15, 2020


Twitter photo

Poor Donnie is really doing this whole lame duck thing bigly. Even as his court cases continue to crash and burn - the latest in Wisconsin means he's lost the election like 274 times, or at least 60 - the chaos and blood-letting of our once-peaceful transfer of power go on apace. With the GOP still proving "our lack of shared reality," Stephen Goebbels Miller has now invented alternative electors along with real ones to argue "we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result"; the mad king can't stop babbling about locking up Georgia's leaders and the "tremendous evidence of voter fraud pouring in"; and his partner-in-crime is taking off her mask while visiting at a children's hospital, because she really doesn't care, still. For all these reasons and OMFG so many, many more, he thus richly deserves the gold-plated, take-no-prisoners lame duck treatment so much of the populace is now eagerly embracing. There's the shiny hashtag #TrumpIsALaughingStock, trolls redirecting “loser.com” to...well, go look, comedians The Good Liars launching his “donaldjtrump2024.com” campaign aptly headlined and repeatedly stressing, "I Lost The 2020 Election!”; and, if the mayhem he's currently provoking isn't prosecutable, he's at least gotten his own Lame Duck Temper Tantrum website to track "the final, vindictive actions of this hateful administration," from killing to scamming.

Because nobody's in the mood for mercy toward such an evil POS, there's more. People are devising Yiddish insults for him: "May you be like a high-school student trying to read Faulker - struggling to make it to the end of an impossibly long sentence...May you be like a Blockbuster gift card - irrelevant and irredeemable." George Packer wrote an epically searing political obituary by the numbers - 300,000 COVID dead, millions lost health insurance, 666 children lost parents, slashed numbers of refugees, reversed 80 environmental rules, appointed most "not qualified" judges of last 50 years, grew national debt $7 trillion, signed one, bad piece of major legislation, made/scammed millions, told 25,000 lies that "contaminated the minds of tens of millions of people...poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive dust" - to conclude, "America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional." Which is maybe why, now that it's almost moving day, even his Mar-A-Lago neighbors don't want him there. In an attorney's letter to Palm Beach officials, long- irritated residents have asked the town to notify Trump he cannot claim Mar-A-Lago as both a residence and a club. "He's playing a dead hand," warns one neighbor. "He’s not going to intimidate or bluff people, because we’re going to be there.” If the town fails to take that step, they warn, they may have to force him out, which could lead to "an embarrassing situation” - and a joy to behold.


“He wasn't a complete human being at all. He was a tiny bit of one, unnaturally developed; something in a bottle, an organ kept alive in a laboratory. I thought he was a sort of primitive savage, but he was something absolutely modern and up-to-date that only this ghastly age could produce. A tiny bit of a man pretending he was the whole.” - Evelyn Waugh on Brideshead Revisited's Rex Mottram.

Coming January 20th, 2021... or should I say, LEAVING. #TrumpDerangementSyndrome #TrumpIsALaughingStock pic.twitter.com/HpTpssrQ9m

— Paul Lee Teeks (@PaulLeeTeeks) December

A Public Option Won’t Save Us. 

The Sick and Disabled Need 

Medicare-for-All

Medicare and Medicaid are rife with complicated formulas for exclusions, exceptions, and limitations. The cruelty that is imposed by the constraints of these programs cannot be overstated.

by

Maggie Mills

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

by

Common Dreams

The most comprehensive and economically efficient solution for the abuses of the for-profit system and safety net programs is, of course, expanded Medicare-For-All.(Photo by Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

I have multiple sclerosis. It is a painful, often debilitating, ever-progressing disability and disease with no cure. I don’t have a viable plan for what will surely be a lifetime of extensive healthcare. No one in my situation could. It would be impossible for me to maintain long term care under the for-profit insurance system. Over the last ten years, insurance deductibles have risen 111%, premiums have risen 55%, and workers’ earnings only 27%. I currently work full time to maintain my very expensive employer-based healthcare. When working full time renders me too disabled to continue working full time, I will promptly lose this healthcare.

Medicare and Medicaid are not independent sources of compassionate care, but rather parts of a larger system that condemns the sick and disabled to a life of devastating health and wealth disparities.

The Democratic party and its complicit well and abled voters have determined that the suffering of millions under our healthcare system is part of an acceptable bargain to oust Trump from office. The refrain that we would “push Biden left” on healthcare after the election has quickly pivoted to “It’s time to unify,” “Let’s not dampen enthusiasm,” and “Why are you so angry?” The well and abled have abdicated responsibility to protect the sick and disabled from the brutality of a for-profit healthcare system, while demanding that we vote for a candidate who wants to continue it.

Around 26% of Americans have a disability, 60% of us have a chronic illness, and 100% of us are bound to age if illness or trauma doesn’t kill us first.  The pledge that Joe Biden’s “public option” would provide the medically needy with a healthcare safety net is based on the premise that our safety net programs operate with a degree of benevolence that is separate from the for-profit system. But like our existing safety net programs, Medicare and Medicaid, a public option is far from a panacea for the sick and disabled. Medicare and Medicaid are not independent sources of compassionate care, but rather parts of a larger system that condemns the sick and disabled to a life of devastating health and wealth disparities.

This myth of a benevolent safety net presumes that Medicare provides comprehensive care for age and disability. Yet to be eligible with a disease like MS, I would first need to qualify for social security disability. To qualify for social security disability, I would be required to earn less than $1,260 per month and have “significant limitations in performing basic work” for at least a year. After proving my disability through poverty and a documented history of attempting to do work that causes me too much discomfort to complete, I would have to wait five more months to receive the average $1,258 per month SSDI benefit. Then I would have to wait an additional 24 months to qualify for Medicare. Three-and-half years of waiting for treatment for MS would cause a lifetime of irreversible damage. And this is the best-case scenario. Americans with disabilities are often denied full disability status and have to fight for years to be approved, further delaying Medicare eligibility and essential healthcare. 

Once enrolled, people with progressive diseases like MS have historically been denied therapeutic services for failing to demonstrate “restorative potential” under Medicare definitions. This is an absurd standard, considering that someone with a progressive disease needs consistent therapy just to tread water. A 2013 court settled in favor of protecting people like me from this unjust denial of services, but like so many regulations around disease and disability, it is difficult to enforce. Those who are already exhausted from illness, and are often low-income as a result, rarely have the resources to fight for these services.

Unbelievably, Medicare does not cover any long-term custodial care costs. If my disease and disability required placement in a nursing home, the expense would be my responsibility. Here in Pennsylvania, that’s a staggering average of $9,977 per month for a semi-private room. This would certainly be prohibitive for someone who has to survive on a monthly SSDI payment of $1,258.

The alternative to Medicare is an underfunded, unevenly administered, state-allocated Medicaid program. In Pennsylvania, there are currently 14,647 people waiting for a Medicaid disability waiver to receive services. Pennsylvanians can expect to wait seven years to receive services to navigate communities that are otherwise inaccessible. People with multiple disabilities can receive a waiver and services for only one category of disability. There are no bridge programs to fill these gaps.

A restriction of $16,971 on annual income and a $2,000 cap on assets obligate Medicaid medical assistance recipients to remain very poor in order to receive their healthcare. If I needed skilled nursing care but did not have upwards of $5,000 a month to pay for it, I’d have to “spend down my assets” to qualify for Medicaid approved facilities. This would prevent me from receiving care at home with my family and could prevent me from being placed in a facility anywhere near my home and family. This could also deprive me of the appropriate care for my needs; the care that is necessary to sustain my health and my life.

Medicare and Medicaid are rife with complicated formulas for exclusions, exceptions, and limitations like these. The cruelty that is imposed by the constraints of these programs cannot be overstated.

The inefficiency and inhumanity of Medicare and Medicaid are a by-product of the insatiable appetite of for-profit healthcare. Those who can afford private supplemental Medicare plans receive a higher level of care while the rest of us live out our years rationing medicine and care not included in basic coverage. Intentionally opaque financial agreements between pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical companies determine which drugs are available to Medicaid patients and which they must go without. At every level, our healthcare system has been co-opted by private interests competing for “business”. Medicare and Medicaid, like a potential public option, are merely part of the tiered system of commodified healthcare. The survival of commodified healthcare is dependent on making the most profit with the least overhead; an entire system based on denying vulnerable people the care they need after payment has been made. Its structure requires that the people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid (and a public option) are considered only insofar as they impact profitability. They are on the bottom tier of a Machiavellian cost-benefit analysis, rather than human beings with human needs.

The media is replete with messaging from the for-profit healthcare industry. This messaging affirms the myth of scarcity and feeds the hysteria that those with good health and healthcare must hoard it in the name of "choice." We are inundated with narratives of submissive but happy people living with disease and disability, who are grateful for a life with limitations that the well and abled would never tolerate. As a member of the sick and disabled community, it is horrifying to understand that most Americans have normalized the violence that comes from making a profit off of disease and disability.

The most comprehensive and economically efficient solution for the abuses of the for-profit system and safety net programs is, of course, expanded Medicare-For-All. This has been well documented by any number of high-profile studies (including a study by Yale epidemiologists which determined that Medicare-for-All would save 68,000 lives and $450 billion annually and the most recent CBO analysis that says Medicare-for-All would save $650 billion annually), and by the example that every other industrialized nation on Earth has provided. But meaningful healthcare legislation will require that allies in the well, abled community demand full support and accessibility for all of us. The injustices that the sick and disabled suffer cannot be reconciled with our current shallow politics of decency. To refuse to take responsibility for the pain and marginalization that these programs inflict is a collective and cruel act of ableism.

I have spent the last 7 months trying to regain my strength and mobility after a seriously displaced fracture in my fibula due to neurological weakness. Multiple sclerosis has complicated a difficult recovery. I am at a higher risk for COVID-19, so I have been few places aside from doctor’s appointments and physical therapy since the pandemic began. I’ve had little support from my community and, not surprisingly, from my for-profit health insurance. I’ve accumulated a fair amount of medical debt and a greater amount of pain and stress. I’m grateful for the support and resources that the chronic illness and disability community provides.

The pandemic state has imposed limitations on resources for the well and abled that the sick and disabled are accustomed to. The well and abled could learn a lot about self-sufficiency from the sick and disabled community. But the self-sufficiency and resourcefulness of the sick and disabled are evidence of our strength despite the lack of needed support from the broader community. It is an atrocity that the well and abled haven't demanded the same level of humanity for the sick and disabled that they demand for themselves. The sick and disabled can’t wait for the specter of incrementalism. Casting a vote for the lesser of two evils and doing nothing more is not an act of decency; it is an act of violence. In this moment when everyone understands life with limitations, our well and abled allies must demand an equitable, accessible nation where everyone is cared for.  Our well and abled allies must demand Medicare-For-All.

Maggie Mills is an artist and assistant professor of art at Cedar Crest College

 

SEC’s Gift to Fossil Fuel Signals Dark Day for Global Anti-Corruption Efforts

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to authorize an extremely weak version of the oil anti-corruption rule originally authorized by Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Cardin-Lugar amendment requiring oil and gas companies to disclose payments to foreign governments established an international standard and inspired other countries to follow suit. Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president for Public Citizen, released the following statement:

“After a robust version of the rule was eliminated by Republicans in Congress, Jay Clayton’s SEC is seeking to lock in a replacement rule rife with half-measures and loopholes. The final rule bends to the fossil fuel lobby’s demands, especially in allowing companies to keep secret the tax subsidies they receive from the federal government.

“As U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said at the time, ‘Too often, oil money intended for a nation’s poor ends up lining the pockets of the rich or is squandered on showcase projects instead of productive investments.’ Public Citizen agrees.

“Public Citizen calls on Chairman Clayton to halt this move by the commission that would reduce transparency and invite corrupt industry payments to foreign officials. The Biden administration also must work to restore the rule to the strong Obama-era standards and restore America’s place as a global leader in anti-corruption and transparency.”

MN Legislators Visited Line 3 Construction Area Sunday to Express Solidarity With Pipeline Opponents

Palisade, MN - Six Minnesota legislators who oppose the pipeline in Northern Minnesota, five of them newly elected, will visit a construction area near Palisade. 

Their visit demonstrates support for water protectors fighting to halt construction on a pipeline that violates Indigenous treaties and ignores tribal sovereignty. Honor the Earth leaders recently built a traditional lodge on the site. Legislators will meet with Honor the Earth Executive Director Winona LaDuke.

The Line 3 pipeline also is a climate catastrophe; it would be responsible for more carbon pollution that the entire state of Minnesota.

WHEN: Noon on Sunday, Dec. 13

WHERE: 59057 Great River Road in Palisade, MN

WHO: 

• Winona LaDuke of Honor the Earth
• Rep.-elect Heather Keeler, District 4A, Moorhead
• Sen.-elect Mary Kunesh, District 41, New Brighton
• Sen. John Marty, District 66, Roseville
• Sen.-elect Jen McEwen, District 7, Duluth
• Sen.-elect Erin Murphy, District 64, St. Paul
• Sen.-elect Lindsey Port, District 56, Burnsville

QUOTES:

“Approval of this pipeline despite years of opposition from Native communities is nothing less than yet another assault on Indigenous sovereignty. Spending thousands of pipeline workers into Northern Minnesota to build the pipeline in the middle of a pandemic is careless in a time when we should be trying to protect our communities. I join with my relatives in calling on Gov. Walz to order a halt to construction.” — Rep.-elect Heather Keeler, Moorhead

“I am pleased to meet with, and give my support to, Honor the Earth in their efforts to stop this destructive pipeline. Honor the Earth is speaking out for many whose voices have not been heard, despite the long permitting process. The perspectives of the Red Lake and White Earth Nations, who have rights to treaty lands through which this new pipeline will run, have not been taken into account. The Public Utilities Commission acknowledged that they omitted discussion of treaties from the order, believing they did not need to. The long history of abuse and mistreatment of Native communities and the unwillingness to respond to their grievances has gone on far too long.” -- Sen. John Marty, Roseville

[The growing involvement by legislators] "represents a shift in the way that we’re thinking about the climate crisis and the way we’re thinking about energy. Climate scientists have told us we have 10 years -- 10 years to remake our systems to create a clean energy-based economy. If we want to have a livable planet for our future and the generations to come, we simply cannot build new fossil fuel infrastructure. That ship has sailed. Most people understand this. The only reason the Line 3 expansion is moving forward is because a small group of powerful, wealthy interests wants to cash in before the fossil fuel industry tanks." -- Sen.-elect Jen McEwen, Duluth

###

 

CAIR Condemns Senate’s Failure to Block ‘Corrupt and Dangerous’ UAE Arms Deal, Calls on President-Elect Biden to Block Sale

WASHINGTON - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the U.S. Senate's decision to permit the Trump administration's "corrupt and dangerous" 23-billion-dollar arms sale to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and called on the incoming Biden administration to cancel the sale upon taking office.  

Last night, the Senate blocked two separate procedural bipartisan attempts to stop President Trump's arms sale to the UAE, failing to win a simple majority, 46-50 and 47-49 votes, respectively. The first resolution would have banned drones and munitions sales, while the second would have prevented the sale of F-35 fighter jets. The opposing pair of resolutions to the arms sale were introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Rand Paul (R-KY). 

The arms sale is part of the larger National Defense Authorization Act, which was approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he expects the bill will pass the Senate before the end of the year. 

The Hill: Senate rejects attempt to block Trump's UAE arms sale

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/529553-senate-rejects-attempt-to-block-trumps-uae-arms-sale  

NBC News: Senate bid to block UAE arms sales falls short 

In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: 

"Our government should not sell a single bullet to the UAE, much less billions of dollars in deadly military equipment. The UAE has committed war crimes in Yemen, bolstered dictators and suppressed democracy in the broader Arab world, and smeared Americans who dare to speak up against such human rights abuses.  

"Now that the Senate has failed to block the Trump administration's corrupt and dangerous arms deal, the incoming Biden administration should support peace, democracy and human rights overseas by cancelling the sale upon taking office." 

CAIR has previously called on the government to stop supporting other foreign governments that use American military to violate human rights, including Burma, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and India. 

SEE: CAIR Says Obama Must Act Against Massacre of Pro-Democracy Protesters in Egypt 

SEE: CAIR Action Alert: Tell U.S. Senate ‘No Military Aid to Burma’ Because of Genocide of Rohingya Muslims 

SEE: CAIR Action Alert: Support the ‘Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act’ 

SEE: CAIR Welcomes Passage of Senate Bill Ending U.S. Military Involvement in Yemen 

'Abuse of the court': Judge tosses lawsuit over Edmonton COVID-19 mask bylaw

A judge has tossed a lawsuit over the City of Edmonton’s COVID-19 mask bylaw, calling it an “abuse” of the court process.

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In August, Edmonton resident Glenn Miller filed a $565-million lawsuit against the city in an effort to overturn its mandatory face mask bylaw. Miller’s statement of claim made a variety of unsupported allegations, including that COVID-19 is a “hoax” and that Edmonton is acting as a “puppet” of “various world agencies.”

He later admitted he claimed the staggering sum to get the city’s attention, rather than to address any specific damages.

Court of Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Kenneth Nielsen terminated the lawsuit Wednesday and left open the door for the City of Edmonton to apply to have Miller deemed a vexatious litigant.

“Mr. Miller sought a disproportionate or impossible remedy,” Neilsen wrote.

“His $565-million claim has no basis in law. Even if I were to accept Mr. Miller now indicating he never sought to obtain that amount, and that aspect of his lawsuit was ‘an attention-getting tactic,’ then Mr. Miller’s lawsuit was litigation for an improper purpose, and an abuse of the court.”

City council passed a bylaw this summer requiring face coverings in all publicly accessible indoor spaces including stores, restaurants and transit facilities. The bylaw was renewed in November and will be in place until the end of 2021 .

Miller filed his statement of claim on Aug. 24, alleging the mask bylaw created a “nuisance” and that the “real health crisis” is “the accumulation in litter caused by the discarding of unsanitary used face masks” in public places.

A clerk flagged the lawsuit as “apparently vexatious” and referred it to Neilsen, the Edmonton judge charged with screening potentially abusive court filings.

In response to a series of questions from Neilsen, Miller, who was not represented by a lawyer, claimed the mask bylaw violated his Charter protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

He went on to call the bylaw a “wanton act of nonsense, depravity, and illegal abuse,” and said “we may very well see another mandatory bylaw enacted by Edmonton council stating that all Jews must wear yellow stars.”
The City of Edmonton replied that Miller’s filing was “frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of process” and asked it be struck.

Neilsen agreed, adding that “Mr. Miller does not deny that he is litigating not for himself but for a broader social purpose.”

“He is candid about the reason for his lawsuit: he is a self-declared community advocate who sued to alter policy decisions by political actors. That is a further reason why Mr. Miller’s lawsuit against Edmonton is an abuse of the court.”

Neilsen left the door open for the city to apply to have Miller deemed a vexatious litigant, which would present him from filing certain types of applications without the court’s approval.

The judge stopped short of ordering Miller to pay the city’s legal costs.

— With files from Dustin Cook