It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, November 16, 2024
'Inhumane' conditions at Atlanta's main prison: Justice Dept
Agence France-Presse November 15, 2024 Bars Prison Jail - Dan Henson:Shutterstock.com
Conditions at Atlanta's main prison are "inhumane, violent, and hazardous," a Justice Department official said Thursday following an investigation into the Fulton County Jail.
"Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said.
"We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent, and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail," Clarke said. "At the end of the day, people do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door."
In a report last month, the Justice Department said prisons in Georgia, of which Atlanta is the capital, are plagued by assaults, murder and sexual violence and officials in the southern state are "deliberately indifferent" to the horrible conditions.
The latest report focused on conditions at the Fulton County Jail, where former US president -- and now president-elect -- Donald Trump famously had his mug shot taken after being charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Justice Department said living conditions in the Fulton County Jail do not meet basic constitutional standards and inmates are not adequately protected from threats of serious violence.
Prison guards routinely use force against inmates "without adequate justification" including the use of Tasers, the report said.
The Justice Department cited the case of an inmate who was "neglected to death" and died alone in a filthy cell in the mental health unit of the jail in September 2022.
Lashawn Thompson, who had a history of mental illness, was arrested for spitting at a police officer and then held on an outstanding warrant. He was found dead in his cell three months later, malnourished and infested with body lice.
According to the report, Black people are overrepresented in the jail, accounting for 91 percent of the inmates while making up only 45 percent of Fulton County's population of more than one million.
Georgia has the fourth-largest incarcerated population in the United States with nearly 50,000 people behind bars in 34 state-operated prisons and four private prisons.
The Georgia Department of Corrections reported a total of 142 homicides in its facilities between 2018 and 2023.
'We are unafraid': In face of Trump win, champions of working class vow epic fight
Julia Conley, Common Dreams November 15, 2024 United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain speaks at a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, on October 4, 2024. (Geoff Robins/AFP)
The results of last week's U.S. elections were cataclysmic for the Democratic Party, which lost control of the White House and Senate as the Republicans gained a trifecta, but economic justice advocates on Wednesday said that for many working people, the fight for a better standard of living and a political system that places people over Wall Street profits remains the same.
United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain acknowledged in a letter to members that while the election outcome was not one that "our union advocated for, and it's not the outcome a majority of our members voted for, our mission remains the same."
"We must raise the standard of living for our members and the entire working class through unity, solidarity, and working-class power," said Fain. "No matter who is in the White House."
Noting that "in a democracy, the four most important words are: The People Have Spoken," Fain suggested that the Democratic Party did not convince a key constituency—working people, including an estimated 78% of Americans who live paycheck-to-paycheck—that it represents their interests, and as a result handed the presidential victory to President-elect Donald Trump.
While the UAW endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and Fain campaigned with her, he said, "for us, this was never about party or personality. As we have said consistently, both parties share blame for the one-sided class war that corporate America has waged on our union, and on working-class Americans for decades."
Trump ran an openly xenophobic campaign, but won the support of low-income voters from a range of ethnic backgrounds as he demonized undocumented immigrants and made outlandish, racist claims about Ohio residents from Haiti, sticking to his longtime narrative that immigration—not corporate greed—is to blame for the country's housing crisis, economic inequality, and stagnant wages.
"The task for the Democrats is what it should have been all along: remaking the party into the party of the bottom 90%... the party that rejects Elon Musk and the entire American oligarchy."
As numerous progressives have pointed out since the election, the Biden administration has introduced a host of pro-worker policies and Harris unveiled numerous economic justice proposals during her brief campaign—but her decision to campaign with billionaire businessman Mark Cuban and unveil a more Wall Street-friendly tax proposal have been criticized moves that highlighted the Democratic Party's close ties to rich donors and muddied her message to working families.
With the Democratic Party still taking part in the "one-sided class war" referenced by Fain, the UAW leader said that the union "stand[s] today where we stood last week."
"We stand for bringing back American jobs," said Fain. "We stand for taking on corporations that break their promises to American workers. And we stand against the same things we've always stood against. We will never support the destruction of the union movement. We will never support efforts to divide and conquer the working class by nationality, race, and gender. We will never support handouts to the ultra-wealthy or paying for it by cutting crucial federal investments."
"We are unafraid to confront any politician who takes actions that harm the working class, our communities, and our unions," he said.
Fain's comments came as progressive lawmakers including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke at an event titled Delivering for the Working Class.
While the caucus is set to be in the minority in the House and Senate for at least the next two years, the senators used the event to rally Democratic leaders to "learn the right lessons" from Trump's victory.
As Democrats decide who they answer to, Warren asked, "Is it going to be a handful of billionaires? We know what kind of policy they want to set. Or are we going to show voters that Democrats are the ones who are willing to unrig this economy?"
Sanders suggested that Fain's rallying of the UAW's more than 400,000 members will also be a key to fighting Trump's agenda, including Republicans' plans to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare and his likely reversal of Biden's pro-worker policies.
"The antidote to enormous economic and political power on the part of the few is mass organizing at the grassroots level among working people—to stand up and fight for an economy that works for all," said Sanders.
Just after the election last week, Sanders became one of the first members of the Democratic caucus to release a statement on the party's major losses, driving home the same message he has repeated during his decades in public service: "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them."
On MSNBC on Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the election results in several red states proved that many of Trump's supporters prioritized working class issues.
"Voters actually want the populist, popular ideas that we have been pushing at the Progressive Caucus, certainly, for quite some time," said Jayapal. "They went to the ballot in three states that voted for Donald Trump... and they voted for a higher minimum wage, they voted for paid sick leave."
Voters in Alaska and Missouri approved ballot measures requiring a higher minimum wage and demanding that employers provide paid sick leave; Nebraska voters also supported a measure allowing workers to earn paid sick leave.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on Thursday also took a close look at voting figures, writing at his Substack newsletter that the election didn't deliver "a very big mandate" to Trump as the president-elect claimed, or even "a 'red shift' to Trump and the Republicans."
"It was a blue abandonment," he wrote. "We now know that 9 million fewer votes were cast nationwide in 2024 than in 2020. Trump got about a million more votes than he did in 2020 (700,000 of them in the seven battleground states). That's no big deal... The biggest takeaway is that Biden's 9 million votes disappeared... So what happened to the 9 million?"
Reich posited that 9 million potential voters refused to vote for Trump, but also didn't turn out for the Democratic Party because they were left thinking, "They don't give a damn about me."
"The task for the Democrats is what it should have been all along: remaking the party into the party of the bottom 90%—the party of people who don't live off stocks and bonds, of people who are not CEOs or billionaires like Mark Cuban, the party that rejects Elon Musk and the entire American oligarchy," he wrote. "Instead, the Democratic Party must be the party of average working people whose wages have gone nowhere and whose jobs are less secure."
He continued: Blue-collar private-sector workers earned more on average in 1972, after adjusting for inflation, than they are earning now in 2024. This means today's blue-collar workers are on average earning less in real dollars than their grandparents earned 52 years ago.
Yet the American economy is far larger than it was 52 years ago. Where did the additional money go? To the top. So what's the Democrats' task? To restructure the economy toward more widely shared prosperity.
In his statement on Wednesday, Fain said the lives and daily struggles of many working class voters are unchanged after the election.
"Today, our members clock in to the same jobs they clocked into last week," said Fain. "You face the same threats—corporate greed, Wall Street predators, and a political system that ignores us. And we are driven by the same force, as outlined in our UAW Constitution generations ago: 'The hope of the worker in advancing society toward the ultimate goal of social and economic justice.'"
Fain urged union members to get involved in "political action on every level of government, in every state, in every sector has an impact on every contract, every organizing drive, and every standard we win as a union," while Sanders implored the Democratic Party to urgently "determine which side it is on in the great economic struggle of our times."
"It needs to provide a clear vision as to what it stands for," wrote Sanders in a Boston Globe op-ed on Tuesday. "Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of our country, or you stand with the working class. You can't represent both."
'Conditions are ripe' for Trump's friends 'to loot the place from top to bottom': analysis
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks as Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump reacts during a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
In particular, Sargent notes that this time Trump didn't even make a pretense of obeying any kinds of ethics rules, which he believes he will interpret as a green light to blatantly enrich himself at the public's expense.
"There are several reasons to fear this could amount to a level of oligarchic corruption that outdoes anything Trump did in his first term," Sargent explains. "In short, conditions are ripe for right-wing elites to try to loot the place from top to bottom."
Sargent says that Democrats' loss of control of the United States Senate means that they now no longer have investigative tools to dredge up embarrassing dirt on the administration, and in particular will close up probes into the promises that Trump made to oil executives and into Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's firm receiving a massive influx of foreign investment from countries such as Saudi Arabia.
“The next four years are going to be a smash and grab under Trump,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told Sargent. “Special interests who put Trump back in office expect a return on their investment."
Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, pointed to the way that Trump is letting X CEO Elon Musk push a policy agenda as evidence that there will be no guardrails on corruption and looting.
"Trump is showing that he will reward people who help him by giving them tremendous influence over his administration,” he said. “This will encourage more people to direct their largesse Trump’s way. We expect government to look out for the public interest. Trump is open about the fact that government is meant to serve his supporters, business partners, and friends.”
'Blueprint of destruction': Experts outline 'chillingly clear' view of Trump's next term
Donald Trump's political career has closely tracked the trajectories of autocratic leaders Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin, whose rise to power offer a "chillingly clear" picture of where his second term could lead, according to historians.
The former president and his supporters are tremendously hostile to civic institutions like the judiciary, the media, universities, many nonprofits and even some religious groups, and Trump will likely follow the lead of those autocratic leaders in Hungary and Russia by sidelining experts, regulators and other civil servants, wrote New York Times columnist M. Gessen.
"When Orban was re-elected, he carried out what [Hungarian historian Balint] Magyar calls an 'autocratic breakthrough,' changing laws and practices so that he could not be dislodged again," Gessen wrote. "It helped that he had a supermajority in parliament. Trump, similarly, spent four years attacking the Biden administration, and the vote that brought it to the White House, as fraudulent, and positioning himself as the only true voice of the people. He is also returning with a power trifecta — the presidency and both houses of Congress. He too can quickly reshape American government in his image."
Magyar described the disorientation that accompanied Orban's return to power after eight years spent consolidating support from his base, and said he quickly unleashed an agenda that gathered autocratic powers for himself – which Gessen expects Trump to attempt from the start.
"We all remember it from Trump’s first term, this sense of everything happening all at once and the utter impossibility of focusing on the existentially threatening, or distinguishing it from the trivial — if that distinction even exists," Gessen wrote. "It’s not just what the autocrats do to stage their breakthrough, it’s how they do it: passing legislation (or signing executive orders) fast, without any discussion, sometimes late at night, in batches, all the while denigrating and delegitimizing any opposition."
Trump starts his second term with a sprawling road map for transforming the U.S. government to reflect his priorities, even if many of the policies conflict one another.
"Much has been written about Project 2025 as a sort of legislative blueprint for the second Trump presidency," Gessen wrote. "Consistent with Magyar’s theory of autocracy, the document is more a reflection of the clan of people who empower Trump and are empowered by him than an ideological document. It is not a blueprint for coherent legislative change, but it is a blueprint still: a blueprint for trampling the system of government as it is currently constituted, a blueprint of destruction."
Trump picks Big Oil ally and drilling enthusiast Doug Burgum for Interior Secretary
Common Dreams November 15, 2024 North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 17, 2024.(Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP)
President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has chosen billionaire North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry and vocal proponent of oil drilling, to serve as head of the Interior Department in the incoming administration, a critical post tasked with overseeing hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and water.
Burgum, a friend of oil billionaire Harold Hamm, served as a kind of middleman between Trump's presidential campaign and the fossil fuel industry during the 2024 race. The Washington Post reported that Burgum's selection as interior secretary will "give Hamm expansive influence over policy related to drilling on public lands, at a time his company stands to benefit from the rule changes Trump envisions."
Burgum and Hamm have already worked to shape Trump's energy policy during the presidential transition, with Reutersreporting Thursday that the pair is leading the push for a repeal of electric vehicle tax credits—a key component of the Biden administration's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
During a fundraiser over the summer, Burgum said Trump could "on day one" move to unleash "liquid fuels," accusing the Biden administration of waging war on "American energy."
"Whether it's baseload electricity, whether it's oil, whether it's gas, whether it's ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels," Burgum declared.
"We're ready to fight Burgum and Trump's extreme agenda every step of the way."
Trump campaigned on a pledge to "drill, baby, drill" in the face of a fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is wreaking deadly havoc in the United States and around the world. While the Biden administration has presided over record oil and gas production and approved many new drilling permits to the dismay of climate advocates, Trump has made clear that he intends to take a sledgehammer to any guardrails constraining the fossil fuel industry.
"We're going do things with energy and with land—Interior—that is going to be incredible," Trump said late Thursday.
Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that "Burgum is an oligarch completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans who cherish our natural heritage and don't want our parks, wildlife refuges, and other special places carved up and destroyed."
"We're ready to fight Burgum and Trump's extreme agenda every step of the way," Suckling added.
In his current capacity as North Dakota governor, Burgum is pushing a 2,000-mile carbon pipeline project set to be built by Summit Carbon Solutions with the stated goal of capturing planet-warming CO2 and storing it underground. Climate advocates have long derided carbon capture and storage—a method boosted by the fossil fuel industry—as a dangerous scam that can actually result in more emissions.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that "the blowback in North Dakota to the Summit project has been intense with Burgum caught in the crossfire."
"There are fears a pipeline rupture would unleash a lethal cloud of CO2," the outlet noted. "Landowners worry their property values will plummet if the pipeline passes under their land."
The North Dakota Public Service Commission is planning to meet Friday to vote on the project.
'Free speech is cancelled': Observers alarmed by key Trump ally's latest statement
A key Donald Trump ally on Saturday made a statement that alarmed onlookers concerned about free speech and fair distribution of justice.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the owner of social media platform X, made a comment over the weekend that was seen as opposing previous statements he has made in favor of free speech. Musk has recently found his way into Trump's new administration after serving as a surrogate for the former and incoming president on the campaign trail and donating millions to the effort to reelect him.
"There will be consequences for those who pushed foreign interference hoaxes," Musk said. "The Hammer of Justice is coming."
The response from those on Musk's own platform came quickly.
Political commentator Brian Krassenstein responded directly to Musk, writing, "Wait, are you suggesting that people should be arrested for posting their opinions or facts that point to the likelihood of foreign interference?"
"There is no doubt that there’s foreign interference in these elections. This goes for both sides," Krassenstein added.
Artist Art Candee replied with a question: "You mean you're not gonna prosecute yourself?"
Award-winning journalist Josh Marshall also chimed in:
"Tough guy on aisle 9," he wrote.
David Santoro, the author of Treating Weapons Proliferation: An Oncological Approach to the Spread of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Technology, said, "I’m confused: I thought the redline (which I like) regarding free speech was whether or not something is illegal. Not so anymore?"
Pekka Kallioniemi, an expert on social media and disinformation, said, "Free speech is cancelled, it's time for good old fascism!"
'Potentially ominous trend' for press freedom as Trump wages legal war on news outlets
Common Dreams November 15, 2024 Donald Trump talks to reporters before departing the White House on March 22, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/AFP)
"The press freedom fire is at our door step now," said one Washington Post journalist on Thursday night after news broke that two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, he has already begun to wage legal warfare against on the news media.
The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported that days before the election, a lawyer for Trump, Edward Andrew Paltzik, sent a letter to The New York Times and Penguin Random House demanding $10 billion in damages for publishing articles and a book that were critical of the president-elect, who was convicted of 34 felony counts earlier this year.
The former article covered numerous wrongdoings by the president-elect and accusations against him, pointing out that he "is the only president in American history impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors, the only president ever indicted on criminal charges, and the only president to be convicted of a felony (34, in fact)," and that he has also boasted about sexually assaulting women and spearheaded numerous businesses that went bankrupt.
The latter article detailed comments by Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly, who told the Times that the definition of fascism accurately describes Trump.
The president-elect himself said while campaigning that he planned to govern as a dictator only on "Day One" of his term in office.
"Governments and powerful figures threatening journalists and media outlets with costly legal battles and bankruptcy is a common tactic against press freedom in repressive countries."
Paltzik told the newspaper that the articles demonstrate the Times' "intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States."
The CJR reported that the Times responded to Paltzik's letter, telling him the newspaper stood by its reporting on Trump.
As Barry Malone, deputy editor-in-chief of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said on social media on Friday, Trump's legal threats may be designed not to actually win billions of dollars in damages but "to tie the media up with time-consuming and often prohibitively expensive cases."
The Times and Penguin Random House threats were reported two weeks after Trump suedCBS News for another $10 billion, claiming an interview with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the November 5 election, was unfairly edited to present her in a positive light and qualified as "election interference."
CBS said it would "vigorously defend" its journalistic practices and called the lawsuit "completely without merit"—a similar response to the one by The Washington Post, which was accused by Trump on the same day of making an illegal in-kind donation to Harris.
Anne Champion, an attorney who has represented several journalists and CNN in legal cases initiated by Trump, told the CJR that the legal threats will likely have "a mental chilling effect" on reporters and news outlets in the United States as Trump prepares to take office.
"It is both conscious and unconscious," said Champion. "Journalists at smaller outlets know very well that the costs for their organization to defend themselves could mean bankruptcy. Even journalists at larger outlets don't want to burden themselves or their employees with lawsuits. It puts another layer of influence into the journalistic process."
Trump has a longstanding disdain for the media, saying numerous times during his first term that journalists were the "enemy of the people." During one campaign rally just before the election he said he wouldn't "mind" if reporters at the event were shot, and he called the media the "enemy camp" during his victory speech last week.
During his first term he also threatened to "take a strong look at our country's libel laws"—which are actually controlled by states, not the federal government—and ensure that "when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts."
The American Civil Liberties Union pointed out at the time that the First Amendment and the lack of federal libel laws would stand in Trump's way, but on Thursday Lachlan Cartwright wrote at CJR that "the drumbeat of legal threats signals a potentially ominous trend for journalists during Trump's second term in office."
As Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah noted on the social media platform Bluesky, "governments and powerful figures threatening journalists and media outlets with costly legal battles and bankruptcy is a common tactic against press freedom in repressive countries."
London mayor says Trump attacks due to his ethnicity and religion
By AFP November 14, 2024 London Mayor Sadiq Khan has had a long-running war of words with Donald Trump - Copyright AFP/File VASILY MAXIMOV
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has accused Donald Trump of repeatedly criticising him because of his “ethnicity” and Muslim faith, in comments likely to renew his long-running feud with the US president-elect.
The pair became embroiled in an extraordinary war of words during Trump’s first presidency, initially sparked by Khan speaking out against a US travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries.
Trump then accused Khan — the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when he was first elected in 2016 — of doing a “very bad job on terrorism” and called him a “stone cold loser” and “very dumb”.
The mayor in turn allowed an unflattering blimp of Trump dressed as a baby in a nappy to fly above protests in Parliament Square during his 2018 visit to Britain.
Speaking on a podcast recorded before Trump’s re-election on November 5 and released earlier this week, Khan, a son of Pakistani immigrants to Britain, said he viewed the past targeting of him as “incredibly personal”.
“If I wasn’t this colour skin, if I wasn’t a practising Muslim, he wouldn’t have come for me,” he told the High Performance podcast, which interviews prominent people in different sectors.
“He’s come for me because of, let’s be frank, my ethnicity and my religion.”
Khan added that during this period he was “speaking out against somebody whose policies were sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist” and that he has “a responsibility to speak out”.
His latest comments on Trump are in stark contrast to those of his colleagues in Britain’s Labour party, which swept to power in July.
Several Labour MPs now in senior government posts, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, were critical of Trump while they were in opposition during his first White House term.
In 2018, Lammy labelled him a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”. But Britain’s now-top diplomat last week dismissed the remarks as “old news”.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appeared at pains to forge a positive relationship with the president-elect, promptly congratulating him on his “historic election victory”.
Starmer said their phone call was “very positive, very constructive” and the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US would “prosper” in Trump’s second term.
Brazil authorities link Supreme Court bomb attack to extremist discourse
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice linked Wednesday's failed bomb attack on the court with far-right hate speech while the country’s police chief said it is being investigated as an act of terrorism. The police director also said the Supreme Court has received fresh threats since the blasts.
A BrazilianSupreme Court justice said Thursday that he believes the explosion outside the court in capital Brasilia was the consequence of frequent far-right attacks and hate speech targeting the country’s institutions.
“It grew under the guise of a criminal use of freedom of speech. To offend, threaten, coerce," Justice Alexandre de Moraes said at an event in Brasilia.
Federal Police are investigating the explosions on Wednesday as terrorism and a violent attack on the democratic rule of law, its director, Andrei Passos Rodrigues, said at a news conference later.
He said that the man had attempted to enter the Supreme Court and that it appeared that he acted alone, though the police official indicated he also was viewing the attack in the broader context of extremism.
“Even if the visible action is individual, behind that action there is never just one person. It's always a group, or ideas of a group, or extremism, radicalism, that lead to committing those crimes,” Passos Rodrigues said. “The action, in fact, was an individual action, but the investigation will tell if there are other connections, if there are other networks, what's behind it, what drove it.”
The police director also said the Supreme Court has received fresh threats via email, without specifying when.
Security camera footage provided by the Supreme Court shows the suspect approaching a statue outside the building. As a guard nears, the man throws an explosive and retreats a few steps, then throws a second device and an explosion follows. Finally, the suspect ignites a third device near to himself, causing his death.
Passos Rodrigues said that the man was a native of southern Santa Catarina state where he previously ran for city council, and had been in Brasilia several months. Police went to his Brasilia residence Thursday and used a robot to open a drawer that triggered “a very serious explosion,” he said.
Celina Leão, the lieutenant governor of Brazil’s federal district, said Wednesday night that the man first detonated explosives in a car in a Congress parking lot, which didn't cause injuries. Then he went to Three Powers Plaza, where the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace are located.
Local media identified the man as being a member of Brazil’s Liberal Party, the same as former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has railed against the Supreme Court in the past and specifically focused his ire on de Moraes.
Bolsonaro supporters consider de Moraes their chief enemy. He has led a five-year investigation into fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices, which has led to the ban of some far-right allies and supporters from social media and even some imprisonments. He also presided over the nation’s top electoral court when it ruled Bolsonaro ineligible for office until 2030, finding that he had abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the validity of the 2022 election result.
Bolsonaro condemned the attack on social media.
“It is high time for Brazil to once again cultivate an environment suitable for different ideas to confront each other peacefully, and for the strength of arguments to be worth more than the argument of force,” he wrote.
Some accuse de Moraes of overstepping in the name of protecting Brazilian democracy from political violence and disinformation. Others view his brash tactics as justified by extraordinary circumstances.
The Supreme Court has since convicted hundreds of those involved in the uprising for crimes such as criminal association and attempted coup.
De Moraes said Thursday that the explosions outside the Supreme Court appeared to be the most serious attack on the institution since then.
“The country’s pacification is only possible with the accountability of all criminals. There is no possibility of pacification with amnesty for criminals,” de Moraes said.
Earlier this year, de Moraes ordered a nationwide ban of X after clashing with its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Musk had disparaged de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, even though his rulings, including X’s suspension, were repeatedly upheld by his peers. The platform was reinstated in October.
Brazil will host the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week. Passos Rodrigues said that the bombing shouldn’t raise any concerns, given that authorities are already implementing the highest level security possible, including with support of the armed forces.
“I am going this afternoon, shortly, to Rio de Janeiro, where I will personally accompany all actions so we can have the absolute guarantee of security,” he added.
(AP)
Brazil looking for motive after attempted Supreme Court bombing
By AFP November 14, 2024 Police block off the scene where a man died after an explosion in front of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, in Brasilia, on November 13, 2024 - Copyright AFP EVARISTO SA
Ramon SAHMKOW
Authorities in Brazil on Thursday were searching for the motive of a man who apparently tried to bomb the Supreme Court, killing himself in the process.
The Wednesday night attack comes just days before a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Brasilia, the capital where the bombing took place.
The man attempted in vain to enter the court building before setting off an explosion outside its doors, authorities said. There were no other injuries.
While a motive has not yet been determined, the bombing immediately evoked memories of last year’s attack on Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the wake of then-president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat at the polls.
There were two blasts on Wednesday, one from a vehicle, then “right after, the citizen approached the Supreme Court, where he tried to enter the building and was unable to,” said Federal District Vice Governor Celina Leao.
The second explosion “happened right there at the door.”
Leao called the death a “suicide,” based on preliminary information, and said it was possible the man acted as a “lone wolf.”
The GloboNews channel, citing police documents, reported that the man, named as Francisco Wanderley Luiz, was the owner of the car that exploded.
He was a candidate in local elections in 2020, running as a member of far-right Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.
In a post on social media, Attorney General Jorge Messias “vehemently” condemned “the attacks against the Supreme Federal Court and the Chamber of Deputies.”
The court, Congress and presidential palace all sit on the same square, Praca dos Tres Poderes, in the Brazilian capital.
Police would investigate the incident “with rigor and speed,” Messias said, adding: “We need to know the motive for the attacks, as well as restore peace and security as quickly as possible.”
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not at the palace at the time of the attack, according to the presidency.
– Bolsonaro calls for dialogue –
Bolsonaro on Thursday called for dialogue toward an “environment of unity,” writing on social media that “it is high time for Brazil to once again cultivate an environment suitable for different ideas to confront each other peacefully.”
Denouncing the violence, he called it an isolated incident, and made an “appeal to all political parties and the leaders of national institutions to take the necessary steps to advance national peace at this time of tragedy.”
On January 8, 2023, the seats of power in Brasilia were hit by an insurrection a week after Lula defeated Bolsonaro at the polls.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters angry over his defeat stormed the government buildings, causing major damage before authorities managed to reimpose control.
Alexandre de Moraes, a powerful Supreme Court justice who has drawn ire from the right, is leading the investigation into the apparent coup attempt, which resembled the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021.
Wednesday’s incident did not cause any injuries or deaths beyond the apparent attack — though police had to tread carefully in the aftermath as the body was fitted with explosives and a timer.
Officers on patrol spotted the burning vehicle, from the first explosion, and then saw a man rush out, authorities said.
The Supreme Court said that at the end of a session, two loud explosions were heard, and that judges and staff on site were evacuated.
The G20 summit is set to open on Monday in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together leaders from major world economies. On Wednesday, Lula is set to receive Xi in Brasilia.
Man with explosives dies trying to enter Brazil’s Supreme Court
A damaged car is seen near Brazil's Supreme Court in Brasilia after two blasts occurred, killing a man who tried to force his way into the court - Copyright AFP Sergio Lima
Ramon SAHMKOW
A man with explosives died Wednesday trying to enter Brazil’s Supreme Court in what appeared to be a suicide, officials said, days before the country hosts the G20 summit.
“This citizen approached the Federal Supreme Court, tried to enter, failed, and the explosion happened at the entrance,” Brasilia governor Celina Leao told reporters, adding that no one else was hurt.
The man’s body was located outside the court after two explosions occurred, but suspicious objects around it prevented immediate efforts to carry out identification, she said.
The first blast came from a car in the square outside the court around 7:30 pm (2230 GMT). The second one happened a few seconds later when the man tried to enter the court, and this blast killed him, the governor said.
The incident came ahead of a G20 summit next Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro that will gather leaders from around the world. Among them will be US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After that summit, Xi is scheduled to stay on, going to Brasilia for a state visit next Wednesday.
The convergence of the G20 leaders on Brazil has been accompanied by heightened security arrangements in the country, particularly in Rio.
– Judges evacuated –
The Supreme Court said in a statement that two loud explosions rang out at the end of Wednesday’s session and that the judges were safely evacuated.
The court is located in the Praca dos Tres Poderes, which also fronts onto the presidential palace and the Congress.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not in the palace at the time of the explosions, a spokesman said.
The presidential palace was sealed off and a large police contingent deployed around the plaza.
An AFP photographer in the area said the zone was locked down as heavy rain fell.
Federal police said they had opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the blasts and any possible motive.
Police who had been patrolling the area noticed the car on fire and saw the man leaving the vehicle, said Sergeant Rodrigo Santos of the capital’s military police.
A government employee in the capital, Laiana Costa, told local media said she saw the man go by and “then there was a noise, and I looked back and there was fire and smoke coming out,” and security guards from the court rushing up.
The same area was the scene of high drama last year.
On January 8, 2023, the seats of power in Brasilia were hit by an insurrection a week after President Lula defeated the right-wing incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro at the polls.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters angry over his defeat stormed the government buildings, causing major damage before authorities managed to reimpose control.
The head of Brazil’s Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, said that rioting prompted “a change in security rules” for the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.
UK government announces ban on new coal mines
By AFP November 14, 2024 The decision comes after Britain's last coal-fired power station Ratcliffe-on-Soar closed in October, making the UK the first G7 country to end its reliance on the fossil fuel for electricity - Copyright AFP/File SETH HERALD
The UK announced Thursday that it will introduce legislation to ban new coal mines, as the Labour government ramps up its plans to make Britain a clean energy leader.
The government said it will unveil the new law to restrict the future licensing of new coal mines “as soon as possible”, in what it called a “crucial step” to tackling climate change.
It comes after Britain’s last coal-fired power station Ratcliffe-on-Soar closed in October, making the UK the first G7 country to end its reliance on the fossil fuel for electricity.
In a landmark ruling in September, British courts overturned a permit given by the previous Conservative government to a project in Whitehaven, Cumbria, which was set to become the country’s first new coal mine for 30 years.
It would have mined metallurgical coal used solely for steelmaking.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said in a statement that “consigning coal power to the past” would “pave the way for a clean, secure energy system that will protect billpayers and create a new generation of skilled workers”.
Coal has gone from generating around 40 percent of the UK’s electricity supply in 2012 to zero percent today, the government said in a statement.
Labour won the July general election vowing to be more ambitious on polices geared towards meeting Britain’s climate change commitments, promising among other things to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in Baku, Azerbaijan for the UN climate change summit, said the UK would aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 81 percent on 1990 levels by 2035, as part of government plans to reach net-zero by 2050.
The centre-left government has also ended an effective Tory ban on new onshore wind projects and ended new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea.
Russia’s exiled opposition hopes for rebirth with Berlin rally
By AFP November 14, 2024 The death of Alexei Navalny in unclear circumstances in an Arctic prison in February deprived the anti-Putin campaigners of their obvious figurehead - Copyright AFP Natalia KOLESNIKOVA
Russia’s opposition will stage a major anti-war, anti-Kremlin demonstration in Berlin this weekend, a vital test for a movement driven into exile by war and repression, and plagued by infighting.
Unable to take to the streets at home, top opposition figures hope the rally in the German capital will refresh and inspire the scattered forces that oppose President Vladimir Putin, almost three years after he invaded Ukraine and escalated a massive crackdown on dissent inside Russia.
The rally is the first organised by three of the most high-profile opposition figures — Yulia Navalnaya, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza — and comes at a critical time for the movement.
The death of Alexei Navalny in unclear circumstances in an Arctic prison in February deprived the anti-Putin campaigners of their obvious figurehead.
The release of Yashin and Kara-Murza — who were serving years-long prison sentences for criticising the Ukraine offensive — in a prisoner swap deal six months latter offered hope of reinvigoration.
But many supporters are frustrated at how entrenched Putin appears in power, as he ramps up repression and intensifies the invasion.
There is also criticism from Ukrainians who feel the Russian opposition has shown ambiguity over the invasion and could do more to put pressure on Putin.
The opposition has even been struck by accusations of violent infighting between rival factions.
– ‘No plan’ –
Navalnaya — Navalny’s widow — said the rally aims to “show that a lot of Russians are against Putin and against the war”.
A big turnout would show that there is “another Russia, that is not militaristic and is free”.
But in an interview with the exiled Russian TV station Dozhd, she also admitted there was “no plan” among the opposition on how to end Putin’s 24-year rule.
Yashin, a former Moscow city councillor, said the opposition had three main demands.
“The retreat of Russian troops from Ukraine, the trial of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal and the liberation of all political prisoners.”
The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed the group as “monstrously detached from their country”.
Russia has branded those who oppose what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine as traitors.
Since invading, it has ushered in a climate of fear that critics say scares Russians into silence.
Harsh censorship laws threaten decade-long prison sentences for criticising the campaign, while major independent news outlets have been outlawed and had their websites blocked.
Forced to operate from abroad in such circumstances, the opposition hopes some of the tens of thousands of Russians who have also gone into exile since 2022 will hit the streets of Berlin on Sunday.
The German capital has become a hub for Russians fleeing persecution.
Yashin said he wants to mobilise them around an “anti-war and anti-Putin” message — to inspire compatriots back home.
Many see that as optimistic.
“All that the Russian opposition can do right now is to demonstrate that Russians are against the war and against Putin,” said political scientist Abbas Gallyamov.
– ‘Show we can work together’ –
For many, the goals of the march are closer to home: reconciliation after months of bitter infighting.
In September, Navalny’s associates accused an opposition faction backed by former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky of ordering a hammer attack on a key associate.
Last month, another prominent figure, Maxim Katz, accused Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation of helping two bankers accused of stealing tens of millions of dollars boost their reputations in the West.
The scandals showcased how divided the opposition had become in exile.
“It is very important to show that we can work together and consolidate different forces of the Russian anti-war movement,” Kara-Murza told Dozhd earlier this month.
But questions also surround what that “Russian anti-war movement” stands for.
While forthright in opposing Putin and condemning the invasion, some opposition figures are more cautious on issues like military support to Kyiv or whether they want Ukraine to be victorious on the battlefield.
Navalnaya on Wednesday said that she was in favour of “the defeat of Vladimir Putin”, but not the “defeat of my country”.
Ahead of the march, Yashin even felt forced to push back against squabbles among supporters over what flags they should bring — Russian, Ukrainian, both or neither.
“This is not about flags but about solidarity with political prisoners, rejection of an aggressive war and resistance to Putin’s policies,” he said on social media.
“Concentrate on the posters and the slogans. Let’s become the voice of our compatriots who are being silenced in Russia.”
Op-Ed: About that drought nobody told you about
By Paul Wallis November 16, 2024 DIGITAL JOURNAL Climate change is propelling a range of threats to health, including droughts that have hit the yields of important food crops - Copyright ${image.metadata.node.credit} ${image.metadata.node.creator} Were you aware that 44 per cent of the US is in major long-term drought? That’s no coincidence. Many years of total public indifference and government inaction have a lot to do with it.
The big US droughts aren’t new, and they do actually get a lot of media coverage. The subject just doesn’t get any traction. Nobody is under any pressure to do anything about it. Who needs water, anyway? You’re not told what the consequences will be.
The decades-long drought patterns that began with the super-droughts in the southwest are still going on. New Jersey is the latest state to get hit with serious drought.
There was a lot of coverage of the super droughts in media at the time. California was on severe water restrictions. The Hoover Dam was drying up, and that barely raised an eyebrow. Since then the situation with the Hoover Dam has improved a bit, but it’s still pretty iffy.
Much more expensive water = Big hits to bottom lines.
In the US, 47 million people are in food insecurity situations. If food becomes more expensive, they’ll be significantly worse off. Water prices naturally affect food availability and volume of production.
It’s just another slow clumsy typical American disaster in progress. This drought situation has been going on for a long time. If you want appropriate musical accompaniment for these fiascos, Turkey in the Straw at 25% playback speed will do the trick.
The incoming administration, which has never mentioned any of these issues, will no doubt solve everything with a magic press release. This is a massive systemic issue, and it can’t be fixed by blaming “woke clouds” or whatever.
Maybe Americans are so used to total mismanagement at every level that whatever the current disaster may be, they assume it’s normal. In any case, it should be an interesting few years for America’s food supply. The proposed gutting of the public sector and instant loss of expertise should make agricultural production a true pinata for policy and spending.
All it needs is a little more mismanagement. Know where you can find some?
Disclaimer The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
