Biden administration picks to labor board could change the outlook for unions
Meghan McCarty Carino

Jul 15, 2021

A Senate committee will today consider two appointees of President Biden’s to the National Labor Relations Board, and the Senate itself is preparing to consider a Biden-appointed general counsel for the board. The five-member NLRB enforces federal laws that grant workers the right to organize and collectively bargain through a union.

If President Biden’s picks are confirmed, the board will go from Republican control to Democratic control, which could affect how it interprets the law, said Harvard Law School’s Benjamin Sachs.

“They decide which workers are entitled to the protections of Federal Labor Law, and what exactly those protections look like,” Sachs said. The current board has tended to favor employers, he added.

“For example, the Trump NLRB ruled that workers don’t have a right to use company email for the purposes of union organizing,” said Sachs. “That’s a big deal.”

A Democratic-controlled board could reverse that and speed up the union election process, said Celine McNicholas with the Economic Policy Institute.


“Standard timelines, preventing unnecessary litigation from occurring before an election actually is held … those would make real differences,” McNicholas said.

Almost 11% of workers belonged to unions as of 2020. In the private sector, the rate was just over 6%.

Line 3 pipeline opponents appeal to Minnesota Supreme Court


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tribal and environmental groups opposed to Enbridge Energy's Line 3 oil pipeline project asked the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a lower court decision affirming the approvals granted by independent regulators that allowed construction to begin last December.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The legal move came as protests continue along the route in northern Minnesota. More than 500 protesters have been arrested or issued citations since construction on the Minnesota leg of the project began in December, but they have failed so far to persuade President Joe Biden's administration to stop the project. Meanwhile, opponents have been demanding more transparency about a spill last week of drilling mud into a river that the pipeline will cross.


The White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, the Sierra Club and Honor the Earth petitioned the state's highest court to hear the case after the Minnesota Court of Appeals last month ruled that the Public Utilities Commission correctly granted Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge a certificate of need and route permit for the 337-mile (542-kilometer) Minnesota segment of a larger project to replace a crude oil pipeline built in the 1960s that can run at only half capacity. Two other groups — Friends of the Headwaters and Youth Climate Intervenors — made similar but separate filings.

The state Commerce Department was part of that earlier appeal but decided not to ask the Supreme Court for further review. One of the central issues in the earlier appeal was the Commerce Department’s contention that Enbridge’s long-range oil demand projections failed to meet the legal requirements. But the appeals panel ruled 2-1 that there was reasonable evidence to support the PUC’s conclusion that the forecasts were adequate.

The department said that while the Court of Appeals disagreed with its position, the court’s opinion provided clarity for similar future proceedings. The remaining parties still argue that the PUC failed to demonstrate the need for the oil that Line 3 would transport. And they said in their petition that the appeals court should have considered whether there was enough evidence to back up the PUC's finding that the existing Line 3 poses a real and immediate safety risk.

The Commerce Department's involvement had posed a thorny political problem for Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. The Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate expressed its displeasure last summer by firing then-Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley. And the Senate GOP reaffirmed its readiness to fight the Walz administration on environmental disputes last week when it forced out Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Laura Bishop over other matters.

The Line 3 replacement would carry Canadian tar sands oil and regular crude from Alberta to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The more than $7 billion project is nearly done except for the Minnesota leg, which is more than 60% complete. Opponents say the heavy oil would accelerate climate change and risk spills in lakes, wetlands and streams where Native Americans harvest wild rice, hunt, fish, and claim treaty rights. But Enbridge says the replacement, made of stronger steel, will better protect the environment while restoring capacity and ensuring reliable deliveries to refineries.

Opposition groups have stepped up pressure for authorities to disclose more details about their response to the July 6 drilling mud spill near Palisade where the pipeline will cross under the Willow River, a tributary of the Mississippi River.

“It was a bright yellow or orange color and it was bubbling up from the river bed,” said Shanai Matteson, who lives nearby and was part of a group that spotted the spill the morning it happened.

They saw no immediate efforts by officials to monitor or contain the spill, Matteson said. Crews later brought in a pump truck and placed booms in the river, she said.

MPCA spokeswoman Cori Rude-Young said the spill was inadvertent and involved around 80-100 gallons of mud made up of bentonite clay, water, and an approved, nontoxic additive made from xanthan gum, a common food ingredient.

“Upon identification of the release, all drilling activities at the location were suspended and containment and cleanup activities were started,” Rude-Young said. She said the investigation was continuing.

Even if the drilling mud was primarily clay, Matteson said, the silt can still harm sensitive aquatic organisms. And she said the spill made opponents even more worried about what could happen if the pipeline were to leak near that spot, since the heavy oil the pipeline will carry could sink and go undetected for some time.

Rita Chamblin, an activist from the Bemidji area, said she got few answers last week when she tried contacting the MPCA to see how officials there were going to respond.

“Would we have ever known about it had we not had people there?" Chamblin asked.

Melissa Lorentz, an attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said Enbridge's permits specifically prohibit the discharge of drilling mud into waters along the route.

Enbridge spokeswoman Juli Kellner said the cleanup is complete. She said the company reported the spill immediately.

“There were no impacts to any aquifers nor were there downstream impacts because environmental control measures were installed at this location,” Kellner said.

Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

4,000-year-old city discovered in Iraq
A group of Russian archaeologists made an impressive discovery in Iraq’s Dhi Qar governorate, where an ancient settlement was uncoveredf

July 9, 2021
A group of Russian archaeologists discovered June 24 an ancient settlement about 4,000 years old in Dhi Qar governorate in southern Iraq. The discovery was made in the area of Tell al-Duhaila, which is home to more than 1,200 archaeological sites, including the Great Ziggurat of Ur site from the Sumerian era, and the royal tomb. Treasures similar to the ones that were found in the tomb of Egypt’s Tutankhamun’ tomb were unearthed.

Alexei Jankowski-Diakonoff, head of the Russian excavation mission, told Al-Monitor, “The works started in April 2021, which was the first full round of field archaeological research in southern Mesopotamia. The first two rounds took place in 2019 and 2020.”

He said, “The discovered city is an urban settlement in Tell al-Duhaila, located on the banks of a watercourse. According to initial speculation, the city could be the capital of a state founded following the political collapse at the end of the ancient Babylonian era [around the middle of the second millennium B.C.], which caused the systematic destruction of the Sumerian civilization’s urban life.”

Commenting on the significance of research in the area, he noted, “Researching the cities of southern Mesopotamia at the end of the ancient Babylonian era — and the Tell al-Duhaila site in particular — opens the secret of an unknown page in the history of the oldest civilization on the planet. The area of Tell al-Duhaila and the ancient city of Mashkan Shabir survived the mass robberies that began in 1991.”

Jankowski-Diakonoff added, “This site also reveals the first development in agriculture using silt in Mesopotamia. The site contains remains of the material from the period that preceded the emergence of the Sumerian civilization."

He expects a real opportunity to “find cuneiform documents in an undisturbed archaeological context, which will be extremely important not only to Russian scientists but Mesopotamian archaeologists as well.”

The mission also discovered an ancient port where ships used to anchor and the remains of a temple wall about 4 meters (13 feet) wide. “We also discovered an oxidized arrowhead, traces of tandoor stoves and clay camel statues dating back to the early Iron Age,” he said.

Talking about the history of the discoveries, the Russian archaeologist said, “According to the study of the oldest architectural building in the city and based on the design features and huge construction blocks, the edifice was most likely built during the ancient Babylonian era. It mainly reflects slave culture, the Neolithic period and Early Copper ages.”

Jankowski-Diakonoff said, “In 2019, the joint Russian-Iraqi mission obtained an official permit from the Directorate of Antiquities within the Iraqi Ministry of Culture to conduct archaeological research at two sites in southern Iraq — in the governorates of Maysan and Dhi Qar, which cover the modern delta area in Mesopotamia, the cradle of the most ancient history on earth.”

Amer Abdel Razak, antiquity director in Dhi Qar, told Al-Monitor, “The discovered city is located 70 kilometers [43 miles] southwest of the city of Nasiriyah [in the south] in the Sulaibiya depression, which is home to a large number of unexcavated archaeological sites. It is close to the city of Eridu — the oldest and greatest city where kings are said to have descended from heaven, according to Sumerian legends.”

He said, “The site was discovered before the arrival of the Russian mission. It was registered in the Dhi Qar Antiquity Department as an extremely significant archaeological site."

Abdel Razak noted that, despite the hardships and obstacles in working on-site because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian mission was able to make important discoveries.

“Land surveys showed that the site dates back to the ancient Babylonian era. The mission, however, believes that it might go back to more ancient ages given the pottery pieces and statues in the form of camels and other animals that were found on-site,” he said.

Abdel Razak added, “Dhi Qar is expecting visits by international universities and museums in October, including 10 Italian, American, French, British and Russian missions that are set to explore this vast area.”

Gaith Salem, professor of ancient history and civilization at Al-Mustansiriya University, told Al-Monitor, “There are many cities that have been discovered in southern Iraq over different periods of time but there has not been much talk about them.”

He called for “the development of systematic work within a fixed program to unearth the treasures of history, which are not important only to Iraq, but all humanity.”

He said, “This recent discovery is of paramount importance because it introduces the world to one of the Sumerian cities overlooking the seaports. Most cities used to have a view to the sea but have turned today into a vast desert."

Karrar al-Rawazeq, an archaeologist and member of the Muthanna antiquity rescue team, who participated in several excavations, told Al-Monitor, “Exploration and excavation works in the area will yield economic and cultural benefits only if the site was turned into a tourist and investment destination, which would attract funds and tourists.”

In this regard, Sumaya al-Ghallab, head of the Culture, Tourism and Antiquity Committee in the Iraqi parliament, spoke to Al-Monitor and called for “securing the necessary funds and protection for excavation teams, and following a strategy for an excavation and research process covering the entire archaeological map in Iraq.”

MORE FROM ADNAN ABU ZEED

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/07/4000-year-old-city-discovered-iraq#ixzz70i3YYvfC

Democrats Agree On $3.5T Tag For Go-It-Alone Infrastructure Bill

By IBTimes Staff Reporter
07/13/21 AT 10:09 PM

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says former president Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen is spreading like a 'cancer' among Republicans Photo: AFP / SAUL LOEB

KEY POINTS

The deal agrees on a top-line price tag of $3.5T for the infrastructure bill

It is not clear if all Dem senators support the deal

Deal would prohibit raising taxes on individuals earning less than $400k: Report

Senate Democrats have agreed on a top-line price tag of $3.5 trillion for a Democrat-only infrastructure package.

"The budget committee has come to an agreement. The budget resolution with instructions will be $3.5 trillion," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said late Tuesday after a meeting with Budget Committee Democrats led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The deal greenlights the reconciliation process that will allow Democrats to advance the sweeping social welfare and family aid programs that President Biden has promised, sidestepping a GOP filibuster.


"Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way," Schumer said. Biden wiill meet with Senate Democrats on Wednesday.

A formal text of the budget resolution is yet to be released, Politico reported. Democrats will need all their 50 votes to pass the budget resolution and the infrastructure bill. It was not immediately clear if the deal had the support of all Dem senators. Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., warned earlier Tuesday that he wants a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a Democrat-only bill to be fully paid for.

The Hill quoted an unnamed Democrat aide familiar with the deal as saying the budget resolution will include language that prohibits raising taxes on individuals who make less than $400,000 or small businesses. 

Stand-off With Poland, Hungary Threatens EU Legal Order


By Dave CLARK, Anne-Laure MONDESERT
07/15/21 AT 12:25 PM


The legal warfare between the European Commission and Poland and Hungary over LGBTQ rights, asylum rights and judicial reform raised concerns Thursday that the EU legal order is under threat.

Brussels has launched a series of challenges to its prickly eastern members over what EU officials see as their challenge to European values and the rule of law -- and won some early victories.

But Warsaw and Budapest have fought back just as hard, leaving some to wonder whether a battle is building over the very principle that EU law holds sway over the member states

"There could be a spillover effect, where we could see a whole series of EU countries questioning these principles in a more or less aggressive way," EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.

"If we allow this to develop, it is obviously a challenge to the union itself."

Reynders' warning came as Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted with fury to the announcement that Brussels had launched a legal challenge to his so-called "anti-paedophilia" law.

"If the European Union wants to interfere in matters and laws covered by the constitutions of other countries, that could shatter the entire EU," Orban's cabinet chief Gergely Gulyas said.

Separately, Poland's prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejected a ruling by the European court of Justice that found that a central part of Poland's judicial reforms was a breach of EU law.

"I cannot allow Poland to be treated in a separate, less favourable way, to be discriminated against," he declared, alleging that the European Commission had exceeded its authority.

"Nowhere in the treaties have the powers to reform a legal system been transferred ... to the level of the European Union," he argued.

A "deeply concerned" European Commission, the Brussels-based guardian of the treaties, vowed to "make use of its powers" and ensure that Poland accept the primacy of European law.

Poland has also been targeted over LGBTQ rights, with Brussels opening a case on Thursday over its so-called "LGBTI ideology free zones" that could also end up in court.

And yet another front in the conflict was opened on Thursday when the commission announced it was taking Hungary to court over its decision to tighten rules for refugees and migrants seeking asylum.

Citing the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hungary has said asylum-seekers must register with an embassy outside the country before arriving, a move Brussels' says is an illegal breach of refugees' rights.

Brussels has launched a series of challenges to its prickly eastern members over what EU officials see as their challenge to European values and the rule of law Photo: AFP / ATTILA KISBENEDEK

Orban's international spokesman Zoltan Kovacs dismissed the argument.

"The European Commission made it clear that it wants Hungary to allow migrants in, so that they can submit their asylum claims here," he tweeted.

"If we comply with the EC's decision, instead of leaving, these migrants will want to stay in Hungary.... We won't let Hungary become a country of immigrants."

Both Hungary and Poland are ruled by right-wing, socially conservative governments whose policies have raised rule-of-law questions

Hungary's "anti-paedophilia" law, which among other things bans the "promotion" of homosexuality and gender reassignment to under-18s, came into force last week despite many warnings from Brussels.

EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the EU executive would force Hungary to repeal or modify the law.

"Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatised: be it because of whom they love, because of their age, their ethnicity, their political opinions, or their religious beliefs," she told MEPs.

Hungary's legislation was billed as a way to protect children, but opponents argue that it conflates paedophilia with homosexuality and stigmatises the LGBTQ community.

In Poland, around 100 towns and villages have adopted the "anti-LGBT" resolution, which some describe as a "charter for family rights".

They cover about a third of Polish territory and are mainly located in the country's east and southeast, traditionally very Catholic.

"The commission considers that Polish authorities failed to fully and appropriately respond to its inquiry regarding the nature and impact of the so-called 'LGBT-ideology free zones'," a statement said.

The Polish law on reforming the judiciary, which came into force in February last year, prevents judges from referring questions of law to the European Court of Justice.

It set up a "disciplinary chamber" to oversee Polish judges, with the power to lift their immunity.

The government argues the reforms tackle corruption and end Communist-era legacies in the judiciary.

But the European Commission says they undermine judicial independence, and Poland could now face financial penalties after the Court of Justice ruled Thursday it had "failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law".

Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.

Haitian Police: President's Killing Planned In Dominican Republic


By AFP News
07/15/21 
The assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise by a group of armed mercenaries was planned in the Dominican Republic, according to Haiti's police chief.

A photograph circulating on social media identifies two suspects -- both later arrested -- meeting former Haitian opposition senator Joel John Joseph, who is wanted by police.

According to Haitian national police director Leon Charles, the picture was taken as the trio were planning the assassination of Moise in Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic.

"They met in a hotel in Santo Domingo," Charles told reporters. "Around the table there are the architects of the plot, a technical recruitment team and a finance group."

The investigation into the death of the Haitian president, who was killed by an well armed hit squad in his private residence on July 7, remains shrouded in mystery.

"Some individuals in the photo have already been apprehended, such as Dr. Christian Enmanuel Sanon and James Solages," Charles added.

President Jovenel Moise was killed by an well armed hit squad in his private residence on July 7 Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / ALEX WONG

Police accuse Solages -- one of two Haitian-Americans implicated in the killing -- of coordinating with Venezuelan security firm CTU, whose chief can be seen in the photograph and who allegedly visited Haiti several times to plan the attack.

Florida-based financial services company Worldwide Capital Lending Group funded the attack, Charles said, adding that its boss Walter Veintemilla also appears with plotters.

Police say many of the Colombian commandos who raided Moise's Port-au-Prince home arrived in Haiti on June 6, about a month before the attack. Four attackers were already present in the country.

"(Mercenaries) went through the Dominican Republic," said Charles, whose team traced a credit card believed to have been used to buy their plane tickets.

Three Colombian mercenaries have been killed and 18 arrested by Haitian police.

"They are former Colombian special force operatives," the Haitian police chief said. "They are experts, criminals. This was a well-planned attack."

Four members of the slain president's security detail, including the head of security for the presidential palace, have been placed in solitary confinement by the nation's Inspector General as investigations examine internal collusion.

Infographic: The Countries Where Vaccination Is Mandatory

By Niall McCarthy
07/15/21 

During a speech on July 12, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the introduction of compulsory vaccination for healthcare workers in hospitals and a number of other establishments. The new measures have proved controversial and are expected to impact around 700,000 people. The step was taken as part of a new phase of France's plan to curb the pandemic amid the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.

Thus, France has joined a list of some 15 countries that have decided to impose some of the compulsory vaccination on some level. As our map shows, the obligation is only population-wide in three countries so far - Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Vatican City Elsehwere, obligatory vaccinations are in place for healthcare workers or certain professions requiring a high level of human contact in a number of countries including the UK, Italy and Greece.

In Russia, for example, the vaccination of service sector employees is mandatory in some localities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, while in the United States, San Francisco recently announced it would require all 35,000 city employees to get the jab

The South African government has sought to deploy around 25,000 troops to curb unrest, amid fears of food and fuel shortages.

South Africa riots: Jacob Zuma's arrest and the connection with Indian community

Jacob Zuma had faced many legal challenges before, during and after his presidency, including allegations of rape, embezzlement of public fund, corruption and fraud among many others.

By hindustantimes.com | Written by Susmita Pakrasi, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
PUBLISHED ON JUL 15, 2021 


South Africa is under unrest and chaos since the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma earlier on July 7. As many as 72 people have died and more than 1,200 people have been arrested, according to news agency AFP. The Indian community living in South Africa is living in apprehensions of dangers to their homes and businesses as cases of riots, arson and violence are being reported.


The South African government has sought to deploy around 25,000 troops to quell the unrest, amid fears of fuel and food shortages. The government has said that 208 incidents of looting and vandalism were recorded on Wednesday, reports AFP.

Let's take a look at the violence in South Africa and its connection with the Indian community

Zuma had faced many legal challenges before, during and after his presidency, including allegations of rape, embezzlement of public fund, corruption and fraud among many others. Of all the corruption issues charged against him, the most significant one is the involvement of the Gupta family.

The Gupta family, with their roots in Uttar Pradesh, moved to South Africa in 1993. Among the prominent members of the family are three brothers --Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh Gupta –and Atul's nephew, Varun. Atul founded Sahara Computers. The Gupta brothers own coal mines, computer manufacturing business, newspapers and a media outlet.

The Interpol issued a red corner notice against the three brothers over a 2016 graft report.

Guptagate corruption

A chartered plane was used to transport guests for the wedding of one of the relatives of the Gupta family. The plane had landed at the Waterkloof Air Base near Pretoria in 2013. What was odd about the incident was that the airbase is allowed for use only by visiting heads of states and diplomatic delegates. The incident stirred an immediate outcry and the South African media dubbed it as 'Guptagate’.

India raises concerns with South Africa

India on Wednesday reached out to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, which assured it that the attacks were not racially motivated. Foreign minister S Jaishankar spoke to his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor on the phone.

Zulu King asks to stop riots

Zulu King Misuzulu KaZwelithini has called for an immediate end to the violence and looting between Zulus and Indians,” news agency PTI reported.

“Our Indian brothers are our neighbours and we have the second biggest population of Indians in KwaZulu-Natal outside of India and through that, we have had certain people who have come to us to say thank you to the Zulu nation and to the Zulu royal family that you are living with our Indian brothers in peace," he said.

Paralyzed man’s brain waves turned into sentences on computer in medical first

Study marks important step toward restoring more natural communication for people who can’t talk

   

Neurosurgeon Dr Edward Chang’s reflection is seen on a computer monitor displaying brain scans in a 2017 photo provided by the University of California. Photograph: Barbara Ries/AP


Associated Press
Thu 15 Jul 2021

In a medical first, researchers harnessed the brainwaves of a paralyzed man unable to speak and turned what he intended to say into sentences on a computer screen.

It will take years of additional research but the study, reported Wednesday, marks an important step toward one day restoring more natural communication for people who can’t talk because of injury or illness.

“Most of us take for granted how easily we communicate through speech,” said Dr Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the work. “It’s exciting to think we’re at the very beginning of a new chapter, a new field” to ease the devastation of patients who have lost that ability.

Today, people who can’t speak or write because of paralysis have very limited ways of communicating. For example, the man in the experiment, who was not identified to protect his privacy, uses a pointer attached to a baseball cap that lets him move his head to touch words or letters on a screen. Other devices can pick up patients’ eye movements. But it’s a frustratingly slow and limited substitution for speech.

In recent years, experiments with mind-controlled prosthetics have allowed paralyzed people to shake hands or take a drink using a robotic arm – they imagine moving and those brain signals are relayed through a computer to the artificial limb.

Chang’s team built on that work to develop a “speech neuroprosthetic” – a device that decodes the brainwaves that normally control the vocal tract, the tiny muscle movements of the lips, jaw, tongue and larynx that form each consonant and vowel.

The man who volunteered to test the device was in his late 30s. Fifteen years ago he suffered a brain-stem stroke that caused widespread paralysis and robbed him of speech. The researchers implanted electrodes on the surface of the man’s brain, over the area that controls speech.

A computer analyzed the patterns when he attempted to say common words such as “water” or “good”, eventually learning to differentiate between 50 words that could generate more than 1,000 sentences.

Prompted with such questions as “How are you today?” or “Are you thirsty” the device allowed the man to answer “I am very good” or “No I am not thirsty” – not voicing the words but translating them into text, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It takes about three to four seconds for the word to appear on the screen after the man tries to say it, said lead author David Moses, an engineer in Chang’s lab. That’s not nearly as fast as speaking, but quicker than tapping out a response.

In an accompanying editorial, Harvard neurologists Leigh Hochberg and Sydney Cash called the work a “pioneering demonstration.

They suggested improvements but said if the technology pans out it could help people with injuries, strokes or illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease whose “brains prepare messages for delivery but those messages are trapped”.

Chang’s lab has spent years mapping the brain activity that leads to speech. First, researchers temporarily placed electrodes in the brains of volunteers undergoing surgery for epilepsy, so they could match brain activity to spoken words.

Only then was it time to try the experiment with someone unable to speak. How did they know the device interpreted the volunteer’s words correctly? They started by having him try to say specific sentences such as “Please bring my glasses” rather than answering open-ended questions until the machine translated accurately most of the time.

Next steps include improving the device’s speed, accuracy and vocabulary size, and maybe one day allowing users to communicate with a computer-generated voice rather than text on a screen.

Twitter Reacts To Dogecoin Co-Founder’s Astonishing Anti-Crypto Rant
| Published 2 hours ago By Amara Khatri




After a deafening silence, Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer has boomed against cryptocurrencies, labeling them as a right-wing and a hyper-capitalist technology.

Palmer was presumably asked if he would ever return to cryptocurrency, and the outburst is seen as a response to those questions.
The Twitter Storm

In a series of tweets where Palmer minced no words in sharing what he thought about cryptocurrency, he described it as a hyper-capitalist and inherently right-wing technology, describing it as a means for crypto proponents to amplify their wealth through a combination of means such as diminished regulatory oversight, tax avoidance, and artificial scarcity.

He further stated that the cryptocurrency industry has become like the existing centralized financial system that it set out to replace and criticized the claims of “decentralization” in an industry controlled by cartels and influential figures.
Enabler Of Financial Exploitation

In his outburst, he described the cryptocurrency industry as an enabler of financial exploitation, describing it to be purpose-built for making profiteering more efficient for those right at the top while removing key safety nets for the average investor, leaving them vulnerable.

According to Palmer, Cryptocurrency has taken the worst bits of the capitalist system and has used software to limit interventions such as taxation, regulations and audits, that act as a safety net for average investors.
Crypto Twitter Reacts

Understandably, there were sharp reactions to Palmer’s comments, with several prominent members of the cryptocurrency community sharing their reactions. User CryptoParadyme defended the technology, stating that Code and Coders don’t have politics. According to him, Bitcoin is apolitical and only tracks entries in a trustless manner.

Author of Dear Reader and The Anarchist Handbook, Michael Malice called Palmer’s rant against cryptocurrency an “odd endorsement of cryptocurrency.” Robert Leshner, CEO of Compound Finance, joked that Palmer’s description of the true nature of cryptocurrency actually made it sound pretty bad-ass.

Axia Labs founder, James Waugh, described Palmer’s outburst as ill-informed and said that what he was describing fit the description of the current economic system and not the cryptocurrency industry. However, the co-creator of Dogecoin found some support with The Thinkin Project Founder, Jim Stewartson, who extended his support to him, describing cryptocurrency as an enormous “pump-and-dump” scheme orchestrated by billionaires.
Not The First Outburst

This isn’t the first time that Dogecoin’s co-creator has spoken out against the crypto industry. Back in 2018, when Dogecoin had cracked $2 Billion, Palmer said in an op-ed in Vice that inexperienced buyers were lapping up lower-priced coins hoping that they would become the next Bitcoin. However, according to him, all this was doing was creating market hysteria.

He stated that the “get rich quick” mentality was distracting people from the real reason for cryptocurrency, which was to be used as an alternative that does away with the need to trust in financial institutions in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.