Arctic Could Be Ice-free A Decade Earlier Than Thought

By Marlowe HOOD

June 6, 2023

The Arctic could be virutally 'ice-free' in summer within 15 years, a new study shows

Kerem Yücel

The Arctic Ocean's ice cap will disappear in summer as soon as the 2030s and a decade earlier than thought, no matter how aggressively humanity draws down the carbon pollution that drives global warming, scientists said Tuesday.

Even capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris climate treaty will not prevent the north pole's vast expanse of floating ice from melting away in September, they reported in Nature Communications.

"It is too late to still protect the Arctic summer sea ice as a landscape and as a habitat," co-author Dirk Notz, a professor at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Oceanography, told AFP.

"This will be the first major component of our climate system that we lose because of our emission of greenhouse gases."

Decreased ice cover has serious impacts over time on weather, people and ecosystems -- not just within the region, but globally.

"It can accelerate global warming by melting permafrost laden with greenhouse gases, and sea level rise by melting the Greenland ice sheet," lead author Seung-Ki Min, a researcher at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, told AFP.

Greenland's kilometres-thick blanket of ice contains enough frozen water to lift oceans six metres.

By contrast, melting sea ice has no discernible impact on sea levels because the ice is already in ocean water, like ice cubes in a glass.

But it does feed into a vicious circle of warming.

About 90 percent of the Sun's energy that hits white sea ice is reflected back into space.

But when sunlight hits dark, unfrozen ocean water instead, nearly the same amount of that energy is absorbed by the ocean and spread across the globe.


Both the North and South Pole regions have warmed by three degrees Celsius compared to late 19th-century levels, nearly three times the global average.

An ice-free September in the 2030s "is a decade faster than in recent projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)", the UN's science advisory body, said Min.

In its landmark 2021 report, the IPCC forecast with "high confidence" that the Arctic Ocean would become virtually ice-free at least once by mid-century, and even then only under more extreme greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.


Sea ice extent at the polesJonathan WALTER, Sophie RAMIS


The new study -- which draws from observational data covering the period 1979-2019 to adjust the IPCC models -- finds that threshold will most likely be crossed in the 2040s.

Min and his colleagues also calculated that human activity was responsible for up to 90 percent of the ice cap's shrinking, with only minor impacts from natural factors such as solar and volcanic activity.


The record minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic -- 3.4 million square kilometres (1.3 million square miles) -- occurred in 2012, with the second- and third-lowest ice-covered areas in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Scientists describe the Arctic Ocean as "ice-free" if the area covered by ice is less than one million square kilometres, about seven percent of the ocean's total area.

Sea ice in Antarctica, meanwhile, dropped to 1.92 million square kilometres in February -- the lowest level on record and almost one million square kilometres below the 1991-2020 mean.

© Agence France-Presse

Canadian wildfires cause unhealthy air conditions in large parts of United States

Several states, including New York, are facing unhealthy air conditions Tuesday under the haze produced by Canadian wildfires while dry conditions are raising more fire concerns. The Manhattan skyline is barely visible hours before sunset on Tuesday as it is enveloped in smoke from the fires. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

June 6 (UPI) -- Several states are facing unhealthy air conditions Tuesday under the haze produced by Canadian wildfires.

Alaska, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Michigan are among the states that are under warnings from the National Weather Service because of hot and dry conditions that could produce even more fires.

The agency warns that the combination of wind, low relative humidity, warm temperatures and "extremely dry fuel moisture -- will contribute to extreme fire behavior."

In northeast Pennsylvania, there is concern that lightning from isolated thunderstorms could spark a fire in the driest areas.

RELATED Smoke from unprecedented Canadian wildfires casts haze over western U.S.

Residents in these at-risk areas are urged to avoid activities that could lead to stray embers causing a fire, such as grilling. Activities that produce friction -- such as using a chainsaw -- also might create a spark that could ignite a fire.

For the second day in a row, much of the United States east of the Missouri River is experiencing substandard to poor air quality because of smoke produced by wildfires in Canada in recent weeks.

Alberta, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and now Quebec have become wildfire hot spots, as well.

According to AirNow, a government resource that reports air quality data, the worst air quality is in the northeastern United States. New York and New Jersey are in unhealthy air conditions with air quality index ratings of more than 150. An AQI reading over 100 is considered unhealthy.

The air quality in states such as Pennsylvania and Missouri is rated as unhealthy for sensitive groups, including people with respiratory illnesses.

Canada's wildfire season is expected to be among its worst, with 413 active wildfires across nearly the whole country. About 26,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. Wildfire season usually lasts from May to September.

New York shrouded in smog as Canada wildfires rage

Issued on: 07/06/2023 - 

01:30

Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. The smoke has traveled into the United States as far south as New York City, resulting in a number of air quality alerts and warnings of the health risks posed by the pollution.

Quebec The New Epicenter Of Canada's Raging Wildfires

By Mathiew LEISER, Anne-Sophie THILL

AFP

June 6, 2023

A haze linked to smoke from nearby wildfires blankets Montreal, 

Canada's second-largest city

ANDREJ IVANOV

Canada's Quebec province, not used to the huge number, scale and strength of wildfires ravaging the rest of the country, has become the latest hotspot with about 160 fires burning on Tuesday, most of those out of control.

In the hardest-hit Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of the province, more than 650 kilometers (400 miles) north of Montreal, fires that have disrupted mining and forestry operations are "worrying," said Quebec Premier François Legault.

"We are experiencing a situation never seen... everywhere in Quebec," warned Francois Bonnardel, Quebec's public safety minister, stressing that a large number of these fires were sparked by human carelessness.

"Western Canada usually sees a lot of wildfire activity. Quebec doesn't," he noted. "But right now everything is on fire."

Some 4,400 evacuees were permitted to return to their homes in the northern city of Sept-Iles on the shores of the St. Lawrence River as rains arrived to help stall advancing blazes.

"We are very, very happy to see rain," Legault told a news conference.

But further north, he added, there's "a huge fire which will take weeks to extinguish completely, so we must remain cautious."

Canada has been hit repeatedly by extreme weather in recent years, the intensity and frequency of which have increased due to global warming.

After major flare-ups in the west of the country in May, notably in the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, firefighting shifted in recent weeks to Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast, before turning to Quebec.

Dozens of fires are still burning in the west of the country: 62 in Alberta, 76 in westernmost British Columbia and 24 in Saskatchewan.

Quebec, meanwhile, has recorded 424 wildfires since the spring thaw -- more than double the average annual count over the past decade.

About 100 firefighters from France were scheduled to arrive by Friday to help fight the Quebec wildfires. This is on top of nearly 1,000 firefighters from Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States who have arrived or were en route to bolster firefighting efforts across Canada.

Wildfire smoke on Tuesday strangled the capital, Ottawa, prompting severe air quality alerts, and darkened skies above Montreal and Toronto. Officials urged residents to limit outdoor activities and said the smoke would not likely clear for another few days.

In Parliament, lawmakers complained about the smell of smoke and ash coating surfaces.

Ottawa resident Abe Bourgi told AFP he woke up to a yellowish haze over the city, and the sun a deep orange color.

"The smell of smoke is very strong," he said. "Many people are wearing masks in the streets and you have to close the doors and windows otherwise your apartment will smell like an ashtray."

Similar smoke conditions -- stemming from the Canadian fires -- were reported down the US Atlantic seaboard, triggering air quality alerts. In New York, the Manhattan skyline was barely visible from other boroughs.

© Agence France-Presse

U$A

On This Day: Susan B. Anthony fined for voting, refuses to pay

On June 6, 1872, feminist Susan B. Anthony was fined for voting in an election in Rochester, N.Y. She refused to pay the fine and a judge allowed her to go free.

By UPI Staff

Portrait of women's suffragist Susan B. Anthony taken by renowned photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston between 1900 and 1906. On this day in 1872, Anthony was fined for voting in an election in Rochester, N.Y. She refused to pay the fine and a judge allowed her to go free.

 File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

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Concessions made for bipartisan debt limit deal proving costly to many


The provisions of the new Fiscal Responsibility Act are becoming clearer, and they could end up negatively affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans relying on government assistance for food and for repaying their student loans. 

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo


June 6 (UPI) -- The provisions of the new Fiscal Responsibility Act are becoming clearer, and they could end up negatively affecting thousands of Americans relying on government assistance.

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law over the weekend, avoiding what would have been the United States' first-ever debt default.

The bill to temporarily suspend the U.S. debt ceiling passed the Senate by a vote of 63 to 36 before landing on Biden's desk.

Concessions made to gain Republican support in order to pass the bill will see interest payments restart on what had been temporarily halted student loan payments. Additionally, those concessions also will change the eligibility requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, affecting hundreds of thousands of needy recipients.

RELATED Biden signs Fiscal Responsibility Act, officially ending the debt limit crisis

"We're cutting spending and bringing deficits down," Biden said at the time of the agreement's approval.

"And we protected important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy," he said.

However, more than a half million Americans could lose their access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the budgets of needy families.

RELATED In speech to nation, Biden praises bipartisanship on deal that averted financial crisis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., estimates about 750,000 Americans between the ages of 50 and 54 are at risk of losing their assistance. The new legislation expands working requirements for those seeking food assistance.

Those in that age group must prove they are working or attending training for 20 hours a week.

Work requirements already exist for those between 18 and 49 seeking SNAP benefits.

"Numerous studies have shown that this requirement does not improve employment or earnings, but it does take away SNAP's food assistance from a substantial share of people who are subject to it," the report reads.

People who are homeless, veterans or were in the foster care system are exempt from the reporting requirements.

"You're not going to balance the budget, much less pay down the debt, through these kinds of changes," the center's Ed Bolen told NBC News in an interview.

"On the other hand, you're going to affect up to 750,000 low-income older Americans who need food assistance," he said.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans with student debt now have a date for when their interest rate payments will begin anew.

Payments including interest were initially paused in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic by then-president Donald Trump.

That grace period has continually been extended, most recently by Biden, despite growing calls to end the temporary stoppage.

The Biden administration agreed to hold off on further payment pauses as part of the debt ceiling deal.

That means millions of former students will need to resume paying those debts and interest payments, beginning in August.

As much as the debt-limit agreement affects average Americans, it has a political cost, too.

Across the aisle, several Republican lawmakers also are unhappy with the compromises made to reach a deal between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

On Tuesday, a number of Republicans belonging to the House Freedom Caucus voted against moving McCarthy's legislative agenda forward.

"Today we took down the rule because we're frustrated at the way this place is operating," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

"We took a stand in January to end the era of the imperial speakership. We're concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal, and, you know, the answer for us is to reassert House conservatives as the appropriate coalition partner for our leadership, instead of them making common cause with Democrats."

Republican leadership was not aware how the vote would unfold ahead of time, CNN reported.

At a time when his House leadership position is again being questioned by some members in his own party, McCarthy also brushed off suggestions of creating a defense supplemental to bypass the debt ceiling legislation to increase military spending.

The idea was floated as a way to appease some Republicans that pointed out defense spending is actually decreasing when factoring in inflation.

"Why do you move to a supplemental when we just passed [an agreement]. If the idea of the supplemental is to go around the agreement we just came to, I think we've got to walk through appropriations," McCarthy told reporters Monday at the U.S. Capitol.

"There's a lot of places for reform where we can have a lot of savings," he said.

Global economy in a 'precarious position,' the World Bank finds

The U.S. economy, the world's largest, could see expansion drop below 1% next year, the World Bank said on Tuesday 

June 6 (UPI) -- Global economic growth is on a sharp decline and the severity of the situation could easily trickle down to emerging markets, the World Bank said Tuesday.

The bank on Tuesday said the global economy is on pace to contract by 1% from 2022 to expand by only 2.1% this year. For emerging markets and developing economies, not including China, growth could drop from 4.1% last year to 2.9% this year.

Both of those forecasts represent deep downgrades from previous World Bank estimates.

"The world economy is in a precarious position," said Indermit Gill, the banks chief economist and senior vice president.

RELATED Australia hikes interest rate by 25 basis points, warns of heightened inflationary risks

Most major economies are facing headwinds from inflationary pressures that have lasted for more than a year. Energy prices last year were buoyed by sanctions targeting Russia's energy sector in response to the war in Ukraine, though prices for food and rents also spiked.

Meanwhile, some support programs designed to help lower-income families during the COVID-19 pandemic have ended. While that's certainly the case for developed economies with the means to fund such programs, developing economies are also seeing a trickle-down impact from global inflation.

"Many developing economies are struggling to cope with weak growth, persistently high inflation, and record debt levels," said Ayhan Kose, a deputy chief economist at the bank. "Yet new hazards - such as the possibility of more widespread spillovers from renewed financial stress in advanced economies - could make matters even worse for them."

For developing economies, the World Bank found the pandemic and the shocks from the war in Ukraine have been a setback and economic activity is on pace to drop by 5% relative to the start of the pandemic in late 2019.

"In low-income countries -- especially the poorest -- the damage is stark," the bank said. "In more than one-third of these countries, per capita incomes in 2024 will still be below 2019 levels."

In the advanced economies, meanwhile, growth in the United States, the world's largest economy, could dip below 1% by next year due in large part to the hike in lending rates from the Federal Reserve.

In Europe, the contraction is already apparent in a forecast for a 0.4% expansion in 2023, down from the 3.5% growth rate last year.

Utah tribe says state conspired to stop purchase of ancestral land

About half of the more than 3,000 Ute Indian Tribe’s members live on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah. The tribe owns the rights to the minerals on some of Tabby Mountain’s parcels and oversees significant oil and gas deposits. 

Photo courtesy of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources/Facebook

SALT LAKE CITY, June 6 (UPI) -- The Ute Indian Tribe of the Ouray and Uintah Reservation has filed a lawsuit alleging Utah state agencies conspired to stop it from buying Tabby Mountain, a 28,500-acre piece of its ancestral land, even though it submitted the high bid of $47 million.

The suit claims the defendants arranged in 2019 for the Utah Department of Natural Resources, which was the only other bidder, to submit a second bid that was higher than the tribe's but also a sham because the agency did not have enough money to make the purchase.

DNR and Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration officers "immediately began working behind the scenes to try to figure out a way to stop the sale to Indians," the suit says.

"That behind-the-scenes response was quintessential discrimination based upon race, ethnicity, national origin and religion," the tribe alleges in the suit, which was filed in May in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.

If the sale had gone through, the tribe's intent was to allow its members to use the land for cultural and religious purposes and to hunt and trap there, according to the suit.

SITLA is an independent administrative agency that manages Utah's trust lands to generate revenue that funds the state's public schools and some higher education organizations.

The suit seeks a declaration by the court that SITLA's decision not to sell the land to the tribe was based on unlawful discrimination, an order requiring the agency to sell the land to the tribe and an award of unspecified monetary damages.

SITLA and DNR deny the suit's allegations.

"The 2019 sales effort was suspended in the face of criticisms from our beneficiaries about the appraisal and marketing process on such a large and unique block, along with questions concerning the state's desire to ensure continued public access to the land," SITLA said in a statement.

"SITLA greatly appreciates its relationship with the Ute Tribe and its interest in this block. SITLA retains the property and continues to evaluate potential win-win outcomes."

The DNR said it has worked cooperatively with the Ute Tribe for many years and is "saddened" the tribe feels mistreated in the Tabby Mountain matter.

"Preserving public access and maintaining habitat for wildlife have been and continue to be the singular goals of acquiring this property," the agency said in a statement.

"Racial discrimination did not play any role. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources currently has a Tabby Mountain Wildlife Management Area. This proposed purchase would have added this land to the WMA to provide public access for wildlife-watching and hunting. DNR's bids were made in good faith, and the money pledged in those bids would have been paid to SITLA had the property been transferred to DNR."

About half of the more than 3,000 Ute Indian Tribe's members live on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah. The tribe owns the rights to the minerals on some of Tabby Mountain's parcels and oversees significant oil and gas deposits.

If the tribe had acquired the surface estate, the land would have been open to use by all members equally, based on its collective ownership law, the suit says.

Tabby Mountain and the plants, natural resources, springs and medicines found on that property have unique religious and spiritual significance to the tribe and to tribal members, according to the suit.

"Members of the Ute Indian Tribe have a distinct religious/spiritual history, and all or many Ute members continue to practice that religion to varying extents," the suit says. "The tribe's religious practices are independent from the Abrahamic religions or any other religions which originated outside of the Americas."

The suit says the SITLA Board of Trustees concluded unanimously in December 2018 that selling the land for a minimum bid of $41 million was in the best interests of the trust. All eligible bidders had until 5 p.m. Feb. 15, 2019, to mail a sealed bid, signed order of purchase and $1 million earnest money deposit to the agency.

The Ute Tribe's bid was $46,976,000 and DNR's bid was $41 million, the suit says. The tribe said in a press release that it obtained documents cited in the suit through Utah's state open records laws.

"DNR disclosed in its bid that it did not even have the resources to pay the amount it had bid, and that its bid was therefore contingent on it receiving money from both the United States and the Utah legislature," the suit says.

A few days later, members of the Land Trust Protection and Advocacy Committee expressed concerns that if the tribe owned Tabby Mountain, "Indians would control access to the land and could prevent non-Indians from accessing the land," the suit says.

SITLA allowed DNR to submit a new bid of $50 million, then publicly announced it was temporarily suspending the sale to review questions about marketing and appraisal, the suit says. After that, records show the only substantial action SITLA allegedly took was to seek to find other ways to sell the land to a buyer other than the tribe.

Citing the documents it had obtained, "the tribe alleges that SITLA's claimed reason for 'suspending' the sale was transparent pretext, to attempt to hide from the tribe and the public the fact that SITLA was refusing to sell to the tribe based upon obvious and unlawful discrimination against the Ute Indian Tribe," the tribe's press release says.

The suit alleges SITLA is holding the sale in a suspended status because canceling it would be a final agency action, which would permit the tribe or trust beneficiaries to appeal to state courts.

"The tribe and its members reasonably relied upon the expectation that SITLA's representation to the public and to the tribe, that SITLA was only temporarily suspending the sale while it reviewed appraisal and marketing issues was truthful," the suit says.

"The tribe and its members have been harmed by their reasonable reliance."

Read More Utah school district that removed Bible from libraries now reviewing Book of Mormon

US halts food aid to Ethiopia over diverted supplies

AFP
June 8, 2023, 


Last month, USAID and the World Food Programme said they were freezing food aid to Tigray over diverted food shipments

Addis Ababa (AFP) - USAID halted food aid to Ethiopia Thursday, citing "a widespread and coordinated campaign" to divert donated supplies from the needy as Addis Ababa vowed to hold perpetrators to account.

"We made the difficult but necessary decision that we cannot move forward with distribution of food assistance until reforms are in place," said the US government's main international aid agency.

"Our intention is to immediately resume food assistance once we are confident in the integrity of delivery systems to get assistance to its intended recipients," the statement added.

The decision will affect millions of Ethiopians facing severe food shortages due to a devastating war in the northern region of Tigray as well as a punishing drought in the south and southeast that has also struck Somalia and parts of Kenya.

The US agency has discussed the matter with Ethiopia's government, and the two parties said Thursday that they were committed to addressing the "deeply concerning revelations of food aid diversion".

"The two governments are conducting investigations so that the perpetrators of such diversion are held to account," USAID and Ethiopia's foreign ministry said in a joint statement.

The decision comes on the heels of an announcement by USAID and the World Food Programme (WFP) last month to freeze food aid to Tigray after the agencies discovered that shipments were being diverted to local markets.

Neither USAID nor WFP have identified those responsible for taking the aid and reselling it.

Famine warnings

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue with Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen on the sidelines of a ministerial gathering in Saudi Arabia.

Blinken "welcomed the Ethiopian government's commitment to work together to conduct a full investigation into the diversion of US food assistance and to hold accountable those found responsible", State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

Nearly 32 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in the grip of the worst drought in decades, and aid agencies have raised famine warnings unless more funding is made available to help the affected regions.

In addition to the crisis in the drought-hit south, northern Tigray suffered from dire shortages of food, fuel, cash and medicines during the two-year conflict between forces loyal to Ethiopia's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

A peace deal signed on November 2 just passed the seven-month mark, implementation of the accord has progressed slowly without a major return to fighting, and some basic services have resumed to the region of six million people.

But media access remains restricted, and it is impossible to independently verify the situation on the ground.

Michael Ryan, emergencies director at the World Health Organization, told a press briefing in Geneva that although humanitarian access had improved in Tigray and other parts of Ethiopia, "significant gaps" remained.

"There are still some areas that are not accessible," he said, pointing to the contested region of western Tigray, which is controlled by militias from neighbouring Amhara and claimed by Amharas and Tigrayans.

"We estimate that in Ethiopia as a whole, about 17.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance," Ryan added.

According to a USAID statement published in March this year, the US "remains the single largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, providing more than $1.8 billion in lifesaving assistance since fiscal year 2022".

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'Shocked and deeply offended': 9/11 families condemn PGA deal with Saudi-backed golf group LIV

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
June 6, 2023,

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

The men's PGA agreed to merge with the LIV Golf tour in a huge announcement Tuesday – much to the chagrin of families of 9/11 victims that have spoken out against the Saudi-backed LIV group for months.

A statement posted by Semafor reporter Max Tani revealed the group is "shocked and deeply offended" by the merger. They explained that the LIV Golf league is "bankrolled by billions of sports washing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf."

"PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA's unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia's reputation," said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada.

"But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget."

Last summer, Monahan made it clear that he was standing in solidarity with those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the statement continued. He even "wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now — as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money — it was never to honor the great game of golf."

Last summer, the families also protested Donald Trump bringing the LIV tournament to his country club. Trump said he'd never heard of the 9/11 families and claimed that no one officially knows who was involved with the hijacking of the planes.

The 9/11 report from the Commission report revealed 16 pages that were declassified in 2021 by President Joe Biden, showing that the hijackers had ties to Saudi nationals living in the U.S.

"The document, written in 2016, summarized an FBI investigation into those ties called Operation ENCORE," said a 2021 NPR report. "The partially redacted report shows a closer relationship than had been previously known between two Saudis in particular — including one with diplomatic status — and some of the hijackers. Families of the 9/11 victims have long sought after the report, which painted a starkly different portrait than the one described by the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004."

"We have not found evidence that Thumairy provided assistance to the two hijackers," the Commission wrote about Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy. Ten years later, the FBI said that Thumairy "tasked" someone else to help the hijackers once they arrived in Los Angeles. About a year before the attacks, they were referred to as "two very significant people."

Mark Meadows testified before grand jury and could be part of Jack Smith's probe into Trump: report

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
June 6, 2023, 5:54 PM ET

Mark Meadows on Facebook.

Former chief of staff Mark Meadows has been largely quiet recently, New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, and they wondered why that might be.

As it turns out, Schmidt explained, it's been discovered that Meadows, a "potentially key figure in inquiries related to Mr. Trump, has testified before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the investigations being led by the special counsel’s office, according to two people briefed on the matter."

There are two investigations under Smith – one relates to the classified document scandal and the other goes to the Jan. 6 attack and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Meadows has been a large part of the latter, though it isn't clear which investigation he testified in.

The Times characterized Meadows as a polarizing figure in the Trump White House, who served as nothing more than a glorified gatekeeper. Lately, Trump's aides and allies have been confused about why Meadows has kept his head down. "Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers believe he could be a significant witness in the inquiries," Schmidt said.

Trump himself has asked about Meadows, those familiar with the president's conversations told the Times.

Meadows' lawyer George Terwilliger, said, “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”

Read the full report at the New York Times here.

'Certainly not going to make Donald Trump happy tonight': MSNBC host on bombshell Mark Meadows report

Sarah K. Burris

RAW STORY
June 6, 2023, 

Mark Meadows. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)

The New York Times published a bombshell report that former Donald Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has appeared before the grand jury for both the 2020 election probe as well as the classified documents probe. This could reportedly make Trump very upset.

MSNBC host Ari Melber explained that Meadows was among those on the Trump staff to serve as a representative to the National Archives in the final days of the presidency.

"Then there's this," Melber read from the Times. "And this is new as well. Mark Meadows' lawyer, telling The New York Times that Meadows maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so. The answer is no, not in MAGA land, not with a president who demands that everyone basically attack everything as a witch-hunt. The obligation to tell the truth, the signal he's sending to people in the probe as well as certainly any prosecutor who might ever judge him is 'I'm on board cooperating.'"

The Times also mentions that, when it comes to the coup plot, Meadows remains a key witness to the special counsel.

"His lawyer seems to think it's a good time to remind everyone he's cooperating, which isn't going to make Donald Trump happy tonight," Melber also said. "And this is all coming out on one of the busiest weeks we've ever seen in the special counsel probe."

Renato Mariotti, former U.S. attorney, told Melber that a key piece of the Jan. 6 Committee's investigation came from Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified last year that she observed many conversations between Meadows and others in the White House ahead of and on Jan. 6. She also testified she witnessed Meadows burning documents once or twice a week.

 

Mark Meadows is the 'single most important witness' — on multiple federal cases: legal expert

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
June 6, 2023

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified to a grand jury in the federal investigations of Donald Trump, according to a bombshell report on Tuesday. He could reportedly be a very important witness.

Speaking to CNN, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig outlined just how valuable a witness Meadows is, in not one but both of the federal investigations into the former president.

"Pretty big win for the special counsel, Jack Smith, to secure the testimony of Mark Meadows," said anchor Jake Tapper.

"Yeah, Jake, this is significant in a few respects," said Honig. "First of all, Mark Meadows was one of the last remaining major witnesses who we knew was outstanding, who, until this point, we did not know had testified. Now he has testified. If it's in a grand jury, he has testified under oath. He obviously was very close to Donald Trump throughout the lead-up to and during January 6th. I think he's the single most important witness as to January 6th and, as you said, he would have relevant information, potentially, as well about the retention of sensitive or classified documents that underlies the Mar-a-Lago examination and investigation. So Mark Meadows is a crucial witness on both of the matters that the special counsel has before him right now.

"I personally, as a journalist, have a lot of questions for him about these conversations," said Tapper. "One of the questions is, what exactly did he convey to the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, if anything, leading up to that time? There's talk of them reaching out to Meadows and Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who are the individuals that have the relationships with those far-right paramilitary groups."

"I think that's the issue with Mark Meadows: he seems to have been a fulcrum of communications," said Honig. "Everything went through him, and Meadows did cooperate briefly with the January 6th Committee and turned over those hundreds or thousands of very revealing text messages where we saw members of Congress and members of Donald Trump's family and White House advisers reaching out to him saying, you've got to do something, you have to get him to do something. Now Mark Meadows then suddenly hit a wall and basically said, I'm not cooperating then, and he was held in contempt by the January 6th Committee, although DOJ declined to prosecute him."

"One big question I have about the testimony that we're now learning Mark Meadows gave is, under what conditions did he give that testimony?" Honig added. "We know that he raised an executive privilege objection, basically saying, I can't testify about these confidential communications with the president, but he lost that fight. He and Donald Trump lost that fight in court. I wonder whether Mark Meadows took the Fifth and had to be given immunity in order to testify, and it's really important to know, did he have any agreement in place with prosecutors that underlied his testimony?"

Elie Honig weighs in on Mark Meadows testimony

'Shameless greed': Pharma giant Merck slammed for trying to kill Medicare drug price negotiations

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
June 6, 2023, 

Merck applies for U.S. emergency authorization of COVID-19 pill

Merck on Tuesday became the first pharmaceutical company to sue the Biden administration over a recently enacted law that empowers Medicare to directly negotiate the prices of a small number of high-cost prescription medicines with drug makers—a change that could threaten Merck's bottom line.

Filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C., Merck's lawsuit characterizes the drug price negotiation policy established by the Inflation Reduction Act as "tantamount to extortion" and claims the "singular purpose of this scheme is for Medicare to obtain prescription drugs without paying fair market value."

The lawsuit against the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also alleges that the drug price negotiations make "a mockery of the First Amendment" by "conscripting companies to legitimize government extortion."

The suit asks the court to "declare that the program effects compensable takings under the Fifth Amendment, and enjoin its compelled 'agreements' under the First Amendment."

Patient advocates and lawmakers responded with disdain to Merck's lawsuit, which likely won't be the last from an industry that fights aggressively to maintain its power to drive up prices at will. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data last week showing that more than 9 million Americans are delaying medication refills, skipping doses, and taking smaller dosages than prescribed due to high costs.

"Merck is doing everything it can to protect its profits at the expense of patients who need their prescriptions to stay healthy and get treatment for everything from cancer to diabetes," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. "While big drug companies may not want to be at the negotiating table, the American people are sick and tired of giant pharmaceutical corporations putting their executives' paychecks above patients."

Keytruda, Merck's cancer drug, carries an annual list price of $175,000, and the U.S. government has spent billions helping patients cover the cost of the medicine in recent years.

"Merck is claiming the U.S. Constitution requires the U.S. government and people to be suckers. That's not true," Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement Tuesday. "This lawsuit is a desperate attempt by the industry to beat back popular legislation that would curtail Big Pharma's ability to price gouge Medicare and secure monopoly profits. Full stop."

"While Big Pharma's litigation gambit plays out, it is critical that the federal government continue its preparation for price negotiations," Weissman added. "Delay in the commencement of long-overdue negotiations will result in billions of dollars in excess costs for taxpayers and consumers."

"No one needs to read Merck's fancy lawyer talk or PR spin to know what this is all about—it is about them wanting to continue to fleece taxpayers and gouging seniors."

In September, CMS is expected to release a list of the first 10 Medicare Part D drugs that will be subject to direct price negotiations. Manufacturers of the selected drugs will then have until the following month to sign an agreement to conduct negotiations, and the agreed-upon prices will take effect in 2026.

Dozens of additional prescription drugs covered by Part D or Part B will be subject to price negotiations in the years following 2026. Though the prices of just a small number of drugs will be negotiated under the Inflation Reduction Act provisions, the policy could have a significant impact given that a sliver of medicines accounts for a large percentage of Medicare's prescription drug spending.

The Congressional Budget Office concluded earlier this year that "price negotiation will lower average drug prices in Medicare and will reduce the budget deficit by $25 billion in 2031."

As The New York Times noted Tuesday, Merck's Keytruda "could be among the first products targeted when negotiations begin in 2028 on drugs administered in a healthcare setting."

"Merck had been expecting to bring in significant revenue from a new formulation of Keytruda it is developing that can be more easily given under the skin," the Times reported. "That could be subject to negotiation, too, under the government's plans for the program."

Margarida Jorge, head of the Lower Drug Prices Now campaign, said Tuesday that Merck's lawsuit is "nothing but a political stunt motivated by the same shameless greed that we're used to seeing from drug corporations that have made decades of inflated profits at the expense of patients' health and taxpayers' hard-earned money."

"No one needs to read Merck's fancy lawyer talk or PR spin to know what this is all about—it is about them wanting to continue to fleece taxpayers and gouging seniors so they can keep sky-high profits and soaring executive pay," said Jorge. "It's time for big drug corporations like Merck to give up their monopoly control over prices and negotiate fair prices for the medicines we need."

HUFFPOST GOES FULL SPUTNIK

UFO Bombshell: U.S. Intelligence Whistleblower Says Feds Have 'Intact' Craft

David Grusch says the government has been lying to Americans for decades about what it has really found.

By Ed Mazza
Jun 6, 2023, 

HUFFINGTON POST


A whistleblower who served in the U.S. military and in several intelligence roles says the federal government has multiple craft of “non-human” origin ― and has been working overtime to cover it up.

“These are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed,” David Grusch told NewsNation on Monday evening.

In some cases, agents found more than just vehicles.

“Well, naturally, when you recover something that’s either landed or crashed, sometimes you encounter dead pilots and, believe it or not, as fantastical as that sounds, it’s true,” he said.

Earlier in the day, The Debrief reported that Grusch has told both Congress and the U.S. Inspector General that this information was illegally withheld from lawmakers, who have recently held hearings on UFO activity.

The U.S. military now prefers the abbreviation UAP, for “unidentified aerial phenomena” or “unidentified anomalous phenomena.”

Grusch ― who saw combat in Afghanistan, served several roles in the U.S. intelligence community and was the National Reconnaissance Office’s representative to the UAP Task Force ― told The Debrief the U.S. government and its contractors have been retrieving material for decades.

“The material includes intact and partially intact vehicles,” he told the website, which said the objects were analyzed and determined to be from “non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or unknown origin.”

He said he is already facing retaliation and has hired an attorney as he seeks whistleblower protection.

Grusch told NewsNation he’s not alone.

“People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program,” he said.

Grusch’s claim is backed by reports from others, including a defense contractor who The New York Times reported in 2020 had briefed Defense Department officials on a range of discoveries such as items retrieved from “off-world vehicles not made on this Earth.”

It also comes amid a remarkable period in which the U.S. military has for the first time admitted to encounters with objects that seem to defy known technology.

In a 2014 incident, a Navy Super Hornet pilot almost collided with an unidentified flying object during a mission near Virginia Beach, Virginia. Footage from 2015 shows two Navy pilots tracking an unidentified object flying off the East Coast.

“Wow! What is that, man? Look at that flying!” one of the pilots said in the clip.

Another clip released in recent years shows what has come to be known as the “Tic Tac,” or a craft that resembles the minty candies flying off the coast of California in footage first revealed in 2017 by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The Navy later verified the authenticity of the footage.

“My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone,” Luis Elizondo, the former military intelligence official who led a government UFO program, told CNN in 2017.

Grusch told NewsNation the feds have known about all this for decades ― and have been lying to the public about it.

“There is a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting the U.S. populace which is extremely unethical and immoral,” he said.

UFO'S VS HUNTER BIDEN

Comer pledges UFO hearings after bombshell whistleblower coverup allegations
Brandon Gage, Alternet
June 6, 2023, 

U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, attends a media event at the National Press Club on January 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. Comer outlined his committee's agenda for the upcoming Congress including his plan to investigate President Biden's son Hunter Biden and his overseas business deals. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Less than a week after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration held its first public hearing one year into its study into Unidentified Flying Objects or Unidentifed Aerial Phenomena, "a former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin."

According to a report published on the science website the Debrief on Monday by investigative journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal – who authored the 2017 New York Times exposé revealing the Pentagon's secret UFO division — David Charles Grusch "filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegalretaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time. Other intelligence officials, both active and retired, with knowledge of these programs through their work in various agencies, have independently provided similar, corroborating information, both on and off the record."

Grusch, "a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He served as the reconnaissance office’s representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021. From late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA's co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force," per Kean and Blumenthal.

Grusch spoke exclusively with News Nation about what he knows.

Recovery units "are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed," Grusch told correspondent Ross Coulthart. "I thought it was totally nuts and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse,” Grusch told Coulthart. "People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former, intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program."

The outlet noted that it "confirmed Grusch's credentials and resume, but has not seen or verified the alleged proof he said he provided to investigators. Grusch said he can’t show NewsNation the evidence for national security reasons. Grusch also said he has not seen photos of the alleged craft himself, but has spoken extensively with other intelligence officials who have."

Nonetheless, Grusch said that "there is a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting the US populist which is extremely unethical and immoral" and declared that "we're definitely not alone. The data points, quite empirically that we're not alone.”

'Grotesque scaremongering': Nikki Haley decried for blaming teen suicidal ideation on trans kids

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
June 5, 2023, 

File photo: Former UN Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley at the Iowa Republican Party's Lincoln Dinner, on June 24, 2021, in West Des Moines, Iowa. © Charlie Neibergall, AP

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is under fire for what some are calling “outrageous and fact-free,” and “unserious, untrue, and hateful” statements during her CNN town hall Sunday night, where at least one of her more attention-getting remarks is drawing anger and upset.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper to define the term “woke” as conservatives see it, Haley, according to Mediaite, replied: “There’s a lot of things,” which seemed to define her responses to several of the questions she was asked.

“You want to start with biological boys playing in girl sports,” said the former Trump Ambassador to the United Nations, referring to transgender girls. “That’s one thing. The fact we have gender pronoun classes in the military now.”

NCRM could find no reference to “gender pronoun classes in the military” via a Google search, although at least one right-wing website has posted what allegedly is a U.S. Military training video on pronouns.

“All these things that are pushing what a small minority want on the majority of Americans, it’s too much,” Haley continued.

That complaint could easily be applied to right-wing bans on abortion, school library books, and refusal to allow background checks on all gun purchases, to name a few.

“The idea that we have biological boys playing in girls’ sports, it is the women’s issue of our time,” Haley, a former South Carolina governor insisted, choosing that over equal pay for women, access to health care including abortion services, the economy, or gun violence.

But it was the next portion of her remarks that have many especially outraged.

“My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her. How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker room? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year.”

Georgetown University professor of policy Don Moynihan blasted Haley.

“This really is grotesque scaremongering. Research I’ve done suggests that such stigmatizing political rhetoric has mental health effects,” Moynihan writes, pointing to this piece. “Of course, Haley does not mention that trans teens have the highest suicide rates.”

Haley baselessly suggesting teens are contemplating suicide because of transgender girls participating in girls’ sports has no bearing in fact.

“Clinical psychologist here,” writes Heather O’Beirne Kelly, PhD. “Nikki Haley’s suggestion that trans youth are responsible for girls’ elevated suicide risks is disgusting. Let’s also be clear that the suicide rate for trans youth is sky high — they need support, not blame from a politician seeking the presidency.”

And just how many transgender girls playing girls sports in the U.S. are we talking about?

“While we don’t know the exact number of trans women competing in NCAA sports, I would be very surprised if there were more than 100 of them in the women’s category,” researcher and medical physicist Joanna Harper told Newsweek in April.

“One hundred transgender athletes would comprise an incredibly small number of the U.S. population,” Newsweek added, “and the number dwindles even further when it comes to middle school and high school athletes.”

NYU Professor Scott Galloway also criticized Haley.

“There is no data, or study (anywhere) linking teen depression to presence of trans kids,” he writes. “This mocks a serious issue, and reinforces a GOP theme of demonizing our most vulnerable. The opposite of leadership.”

Boston Globe opinion writer Renée Graham went even further: “There isn’t a shred of evidence connecting suicidal ideation in teenage girls to being in close proximity to trans girls. None. An ugly, damnable lie and exactly what one should expect from Haley.”

But Haley wasn’t done attacking transgender Americans.

“We should be growing strong girls, confident girls. Then you go and you talk about building a strong military. How are you going to build a morale and strong military when you’re doing gender pronoun classes?”

Her remarks on CNN were just part of her regular stump speech – Haley has said the exact same thing several times before.

And while she appeared to struggle for terms to define “wokeness,” back in March she had little trouble, telling attendees of the right wing conference, “wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic – hands down.”

Haley apparently does not see transgender service members as part of the U.S. Military — or part of its need to build “morale.”

“Our veterans deserve to be proud of their service,” Haley tweeted in May. “As president, we’ll ban gender pronoun classes in our military. No more ‘diversity and inclusion’ training.”

Chasten Buttigieg also blasted Haley.

“Nikki Haley suggesting that 1/3 of American teenage girls are contemplating suicide because of the existence of trans people is an unserious, untrue, and hateful thing to say. But hate is the point, isn’t it?” he asked. He also lauded CNN’s Tapper who appeared to mildly serve up some important facts to Haley.

Author, essayist, and former naval aviator Brynn Tannehill responded, saying: “Nikki Haley’s claim last night that transgender people are the reason why teen girls contemplate suicide is beyond specious, it’s actively contradicted by the actual statistics. It’s also dangerous pro-extermination propaganda.”

“Idaho leads the nation in teen suicides. It has been one of the leaders in banning trans youth from everything from sports, health care, bathrooms, government IDs, and inclusion in sex ed. It was the first to ban trans athletes,” she adds, linking to this Reuters article from 2020.

“The six states with the lowest teen suicide rates are all either blue or purple. Five of the six (CA, NJ, NY, MA, and MD) all have explicit protections for trans people codified into law. So it’s not the existence of trans kids in school,” Tannehill adds.

“Haley is also making the claim that Dylan Mulvaney being on TikTok is enough to cause teen girls to want to kill themselves,” Tannehill continues, noting her “videos are basically floof (hair, makeup, comedy, video diary). Mulvaney’s stuff is light entertainment. No one has to watch it, and she’s not telling people to go out and be a jerk to anyone.”

Haley has been using Mulvaney as a “punch line” for months, including last month, when her “joke” reportedly bombed.

“But simply by being visible, she (and any other visible trans person) is somehow responsible for the deaths of hundreds or thousands of cisgender girls,” Tannehill adds, saying Haley’s “implication is clear: tolerating transgender people causes the deaths of lots of cisgender kids.”

Journalist Emma Vigeland notes the GOP presidential candidate is “saying that trans kids’ very existence is so confusing that it’s causing cis suicide.”

“Barbaric,” Vigeland concludes.

Buttigieg: Republicans target LGBTQ people because they 'don’t want to talk about' their 'radical positions'

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
June 6, 2023

South Bend's Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during a rally to announce his 2020 Democratic presidential candidacy in South Bend, Indiana, U.S., April 14, 2019. (John Gress Media Inc / Shutterstock.com)

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg blasted Republicans attacking the LGBTQ community on Tuesday, saying the reason right-wing lawmakers have decided to target them is they don’t want to talk about their “radical positions,” including opposing President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure law and other accomplishments, like $35 insulin.

Appearing on MSNBC, Secretary Buttigieg was asked to weigh in on the Human Rights Campaign’s declaration earlier in the day, of a national emergency in the U.S. for LGBTQ people.

“We have officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year,” the organizations says on its website. “More than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year alone, more than doubling last year’s number, which was previously the worst year on record.”

HRC also published a detailed chart by state on various issues, including bans on gender-affirming care, sports participation, drag, or support for forced student outing.

And while HRC points to the more than 75 bills that have been signed into law this year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it’s currently tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.

“Our country is at a very real risk of backsliding on freedom and equality but that is exactly why we continue to push. There has been extraordinary work that’s been done just in this presidency,” Buttigieg said, responding to HRC’s national emergency declaration. He specifically pointed to “the President being able to sign the Respect for Marriage Act.”

“And if you zoom out to the progress that’s been made in the last 10 or 15 years, including the ability of somebody like me to be standing here doing this job, it’s extraordinary, and yet, now you see the attacks on the LGBTQ community, especially on the trans community and what they’re going through,” Buttigieg, who is the first out gay U.S. Cabinet Secretary, told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing.

“And I think it’s being done out of the perception that it is politically convenient to target vulnerable groups. And honestly, I think where it largely comes from is folks who don’t want to talk about why they were against the infrastructure loans, building roads and bridges. They don’t want to talk about why they were against $35 insulin that the President delivered for Medicare recipients. They don’t want to explain why they were for these radical positions that speak to what those people are worried about their everyday lives.”

“So they’re focused on targeting some of the people who already do not have a very easy time going about everyday life,” he said.

"Think about how hard it is to be a teenager to begin with. But think about how hard it is to be a teenager when you realize that you are different when you’re coming to terms with your gender identity or you’re coming to terms with realizing that you’re gay or lesbian.”

“The last thing you need in your life are politicians trying to score political points by making things worse for you. We’re gonna stand together, whether it’s pride or just on any given day and say no, we’re going to expand, not withdraw, the freedoms and equalities we won in this country, and we’re going to build on them.”

California Republicans sent running for assembly exit doors as Pride event honors trans legend: report

Gideon Rubin
June 6, 2023, 

Republican members of the California Assembly walked off the floor on Monday after a Pride month celebration hosted by the house included members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The group calls itself an order of queer and trans nuns.

The Sisters (also called the Order of Perpetual Indulgence) is an LGBTQ advocacy group that uses street performances to satirize issues of sex, gender and morality and raises money for charitable causes.

The Chronicle reports that as the GOP lawmakers headed for the exit doors, Sister Roma, an iconic San Francisco drag queen, blew kisses toward them and was hailed with a standing ovation on the Assembly floor.

The California Catholic Conference was among some of the religious groups that had joined Republican lawmakers in urging Democrats to disinvite the Sisters to the event. They argued that it was an “anti-Christian” group that derides religion, especially Catholicism.

Roma told reporters that the right-wing fueled protests over the group's appearance at the Pride event reflected the national rise of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

“They’re trying to other us, they’re trying to dehumanize us, they’re attempting to criminalize us and then eventually be free to eradicate us,” Roma said.

“There are people who would just like to pretend like we don’t exist when the fact is queer and trans people have always been here and we will always be here.”

Republican James Gallagher, the Assembly’s Minority Leader, led the walkout.

The Chronicle reported that “Outside the Capitol, a few hundred people joined in a prayer vigil to oppose the Pride Month ceremony because it featured a member of the order of drag nuns. The group prayed for the ‘salvation’ of the sisters.”

“I recognize that the Sisters have done charitable work in the community,” Gallagher said in a statement obtained by The Chronicle.

“But their vulgar mockery of our Christian faith is extremely insulting and disrespectful. We cannot condone this.”

Assembly member Scott Weiner, a San Francisco Democrat who earlier this year formed an exploratory committee to run for the congressional seat currently held by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, nominated Roma to be honored at the event.

Wiener, who is gay, noted the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a long history of philanthropic work. The order was founded in San Francisco in 1979 largely to help the LGBTQ community as the HIV/AIDS epidemic killed tens of thousands of people.“I’m so proud of Sister Roma and her work in the community,” Wiener said.

“I’m proud of California for standing strong to support LGBTQ people as our community is under assault.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were at the center of a controversy last month over the Los Angeles Dodgers decision to disinvite the group from appearing at its June 16 Pride Night, a decision the team later reversed.

Far-right 'Moms for Liberty' listed as a hate group for first time

David McAfee
June 6, 2023

(Via Moms for Liberty/Facebook)

Moms for Liberty, the far-right parental group known for protesting at school board meetings, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "hate group" for the first time ever.

Moms for Liberty, which recently said it knows liberal groups are spying on its activities because it's doing the same thing to them, is among 12 parental groups added to the SPLC's list of hate groups, according to USA Today.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center is for the first time labeling Florida-headquartered Moms for Liberty and 11 other right-wing 'parents' rights' groups as extremist groups in its annual report, released today," USA Today wrote.

"Moms for Liberty and the other organizations are being designated as 'anti-government extremist groups,' based on longstanding criteria, explained SPLC Intelligence Project Director Susan Corke. Corke said the grassroots conservative groups are part of a new front in the battle against inclusivity in schools, though they are drawing from ideas rooted in age-old white supremacy."
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According to the report, Corke noted: “[The movement] is primarily aimed at not wanting to include our hard history, topics of racism, and a very strong push against teaching anything having to do with LGBTQ topics in schools. We saw this as a very deliberate strategy to go to the local level.”

The 12 new groups reportedly bring the total number of active extremist groups included in the 2022 report to 1,225 in the U.S.

The move has been protested by some on the right, including the conservative The Daily Signal.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center, which brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations as 'hate groups,' placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, added a slew of parental rights organizations to that 'hate map' for 2022 and labeled them 'antigovernment groups,'" it reported.

Southern Poverty Law Center labels parents' rights groups extremist, anti-government

Florida-based Moms for Liberty specifically cited for its efforts to ban books

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report Tuesday, saying hate groups are on the rise and targeting public education through bans on books (pictured, 2022) and protests, as the center labeled 12 right-wing parents rights groups extremist. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

June 6 (UPI) -- The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report Tuesday saying hate groups are on the rise and targeting public education through book bans and protests, as the center labeled 12 right-wing parents rights groups extremist.

The report, titled "Year in Hate & Extremism," documents 1,225 active "extremist hate groups which are stripping communities of their rights" through public demonstrations, flyers and media attention.

"Taking on the most hateful factions in our country is critical to dismantling white supremacy and advancing the civil rights of all people," Margaret Huang, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.

"We are exposing a concerted effort by hate groups and extremist actors to terrorize communities and gain control of public institutions by any means necessary," Huang said.

"These groups are descending on Main Street America and disrupting people's daily lives, too often with dire consequences for communities of color, Jewish people and the LGBTQ+ community," Huang added.

Groups mobilizing at public schools, which SPLC called "extremist," were singled out. Specifically the report documented 12 anti-student inclusion groups, which it said have attacked public education, banned books and removed curriculum focused on race, discrimination and LGBTQ+ identities.

One of those groups is Florida-based Moms for Liberty.

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"Hate and anti-government extremist groups are intent on staging public spectacles of hatred that harass, threaten and violently harm Black, Brown, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities," Susan Corke, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement.

"Schools, synagogues and LGBTQ+ businesses -- venues that have traditionally been safe spaces for our children, the Jewish community and LGBTQ+ people -- are now on the frontlines of hatred and violence," Corke added.

Moms for Liberty, which SPLC called a far-right anti-government organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and is considered part of the modern parental rights movement, says it created the group to fight the "woke indoctrination" of children.

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"I raise my children. The government does not. We do not co-parent with the government," Tiffany Justice, Moms for Liberty co-founder, said in a C-SPAN2 About Books interview.

"And there are certain sensitive subjects that we would like to be directing the conversation around for our children," Justice added. "As the teachers union pushes an agenda focused on everything BUT education for our children, American parents are rising up, taking back our school districts and putting the focus back on educating our children."

While SPLC tracked an increase in what the report called extremist groups, such as Moms for Liberty, the report found the number of active militia groups had dropped from 92 groups in 2021 to 61 active militia groups in 2022.

According to SPLC, the drop in militia mobilization follows the recent federal convictions of members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.