Brazil: The rise and risks of 'green' eucalyptus charcoal

Astrid Prange de Oliveira

DW

January 20, 2024

In an era of climate change, Brazil's eucalyptus plantations are no longer seen as harmful monoculture but as climate-friendly CO2 sinks. But locals say they exacerbate rural water shortages.

Tall, spindly eucalyptus trees, a species not native to Brazil, are a common sight in Jequitinhonha

Image: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS

There's green, as far as the eye can see. In the Jequitinhonha Valley, eucalyptus plantations stretch to the horizon. But in this region of eastern Brazil, swathes of green can't necessarily be equated with protecting the environment.

For Valmir Soares de Macedo, director of the Vicente Nica Center for Alternative Agriculture (CAV), an NGO in the Turmalina municipality of the state of Minas Gerais, eucalyptus plantations are far from environmentally friendly.

"The roots of the trees are sucking up the water," he told DW. "The ground and the underground veins of water are drying up."

Soares de Macedo blames the plantations for increasingly scarce waterImage: Florian Kopp

Soares' organization helps advise local small farming businesses on the construction of cisterns and biogas systems. CAV gets support, among other things, from the German Catholic aid group Misereor.

Sources of water running dry

The deputy mayor of Turmalina is also skeptical about the proliferation of the tall, slender tree in the region. "After 40 years of eucalyptus cultivation, only 40 of the 481 water sources in and around Turmalina still provide water," Warlen Francisco da Silva said.

A study from the Minas Gerais State University supports this claim. According to researchers from its agricultural studies center, the region's groundwater level has sunk 4.5 meters (14.8 feet) in the past 45 years.

The high water consumption of eucalyptus plantations has dried up many springs and water veins in the 'Cerrado,' the wet savannahs of southeastern BrazilImage: Florian Kopp

Charcoal for the climate?

Much of the eucalyptus grown in Brazil ends up as charcoal for use in the steel industry, providing a renewable alternative to fossil fuel. With an annual production of 6.5 million tons of charcoal, Brazil is the world's largest charcoal producer, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Domestic demand is enormous because Brazil is one of the world's largest iron ore and steel producers. The state of Minas Gerais is home to 70% of Brazil's steel production facilities.

Chimneys smoking in the forest

Not far from Turmalina, at a charcoal production facility belonging to Brazilian firm Aperam, site boss Ezio Santos is doing his utmost to step up output. From his control center at the Palmeiras plant, he looks out with satisfaction at a huge clearing.

Noise fills the air: humming, rattling and steam. Heavy goods vehicles loaded with logs keep pulling up. In the evening sun, chimneys smoke and airborne coal dust lingers in the twilight.

Cranes head towards piles of eucalyptus logs, picking up the wood with their booms. The cranes take their cargo to the nearest kiln and in go the long, narrow logs until they are packed to the roof.

A total of 55 ovens, each of them 4 meters wide and 26 meters long, are stuffed full around the clock. It takes four hours to load one oven, and later, it will take 2 1/2 hours to unload it. The cooling off process for the freshly made charcoal takes 10 to 12 days.

One generation of eucalyptus has been harvested, but seemingly endless generations wait in the backgroundImage: Florian Kopp

The process of turning wood into charcoal, known as pyrolysis, takes more than 100 hours. "The aim is to use as little oxygen as possible; that helps the process," Santos explained. Otherwise, the wood just burns up.
Steel without fossil fuel

In the near future, the already huge capacity of Palmeiras' ovens is set to quadruple. The kilns should soon measure 16 meters in breadth. Aperam, one of Brazil's biggest charcoal companies, has already applied for a patent for the new mega-ovens, hoping to position itself as a leader in the field.

Santos sees huge market potential. "At the moment, around 60% of charcoal is made manually in small ovens," he said. This production is not only inefficient, Santos tells DW, it is also often done under very poor working conditions.

As well as making charcoal, Aperam is also one of the world's largest producers of stainless steel. Its charcoal is used for smelting in the Timoteo steelworks, some 300 kilometers from the eucalyptus plantations.

Small farmer Jose Carlos Xavier Santos in front of his charcoal oven: 60% of charcoal in Brazil is still laboriously produced by hand in small igloo ovens. Aperam wants to change thisImage: Florian Kopp

The company employs almost 10,000 people and was formed in 2011 as a spinoff from steel giant Arcelor-Mittal. It has six production sites in Belgium, France and Brazil.
Forestry granted sustainable label

Aperam bills itself on its website as an "environmental champion." One of the company's engineers, Benone Magalhaes Braga, explained the company's approach: "Charcoal is better than fossil fuels. We don't just burn. Every year we plant trees that absorb 8 million tons of carbon dioxide."

According to Magalhaes, the company also wants to improve efficiency with genetic optimization, making their eucalyptus trees grow quicker and require fewer pesticides and water.

Aperam bills itself as a 'global player' and an 'environmental champion'Image: Florian Kopp

Back in 2020, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified the sustainability of Aperam Bioenergie's forest management on the 126,000 hectares of land it cultivates in the region. That seal of approval is valid until 2025.

In its most recent monitoring report from May 2023, FSC said the company's forest management had "implemented aims to conserve biological diversity and its associated values, water resources, soils, and fragile ecosystems and landscapes."

"There are safeguards to protect rare and endangered species, and their habitats," FSC wrote. "There are procedures to control erosion, minimize forest damage during harvesting, road construction and protection of water resources."

A cash injection from the UN

With its goal of using "green" charcoal to produce "green" steel, Aperam is hitting a growing market. Brazil's steel industry is a partner in an internationally backed charcoal initiative implemented by the UN Development Program (UNDP).

The project for "production of sustainable, renewable biomass-based charcoal for the iron and steel industry in Brazil " received $43 million (€40 million) from the Brazilian government, private donors, the UNDP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) between 2014 and 2021.

The GEF, set up after the 1992 UN climate conference in Rio, brings together international funds to support climate protection projects in developing and middle-income countries.

International donors have supported the production of renewable charcoalImage: Florian Kopp

The GEF's final report on the project, compiled in 2022, gave a positive evaluation, "The most important result was development, validation and introduction of new low-emission technology for sustainable charcoal production.

"Even a project that involves cutting trees and emitting GHGs can be part of climate change mitigation," the auditors wrote. "What should be considered is the alternative, in this case the use of mineral coke."

The rise of "green" charcoal, therefore, seems unstoppable. However, the effects on the water supply and falling groundwater levels are not only a problem for the local rural and urban population.

Aperam itself is now addressing the topic. The company has announced its intention to reduce water consumption by 40% by 2030 compared to 2015.
'It's not going to stop'

For agricultural workers' union member Heli de Souza Nunes, the future of small farmers in the region depends first and foremost on the climate.

"The past two years have been good. There has been enough rain," he said. But before that came more than five years of drought.

Trade unionist and local councilor Heli de Souza Nunes has seen many small farmers give up and sell land to investorsImage: Florian Kopp

"It was bad; many people gave up," he said. De Souza said he believes the economic uncertainty will continue to force many small farms to give in. "If someone offers just a little more money for the land, many are prepared to sell," he said, predicting that eucalyptus cultivation will continue to grow.

"Anyone who earns money with eucalyptus wants to invest and buys up more and more land," he said. "That's how the business works; it's not going to stop."

This report was produced on a press trip organized by the Catholic aid organization Misereor.

This article was originally written in German.

 

Astrid Prange de Oliveira DW editor with expertise in Brazil, globalization and religion

The US Is Still Not Beyond Getting 'Beyond Vietnam'

“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit," Martin Luther King Jr. famously said.


Soldiers of the United States Army 9th Infantry Division 3 Battalion, armed with M16A1 rifles, as they walk through long grass during a patrol in Tan An, South Vietnam, 23rd January 1970.
(Photo by Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)


ROBERT C. KOEHLER
Jan 20, 2024

Common Dreams

“And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak.”

Take a day, pore over a few of his words. I’m talking about Martin Luther King, of course. His “day” is over, but his message still pulsates. We must speak! The world is bleeding with the wounds of war and poverty and racism, just as it was 57 years ago, when he spoke — infamously, you might say — at Riverside Church in New York City. He defied LBJ and stared directly into the muzzle of the Vietnam war, declaring it to be moral savagery, declaring the United States to be “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”

We’ve given King a national holiday, made him a national hero — but that’s not the same thing as listening to him. It may be the opposite. Deifying him, turning him into a statue, revering his image, could amount to simply shutting him up.

A world that has truly transcended war? A world that embraces “unconditional love for all mankind”? I think not.

So I devoted a few hours of his national holiday (actually, the day after) to rereading “Beyond Vietnam,” the speech he gave on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before his assassination. His words aren’t merely critical of the cruelly pointless colonial war, or of the irony of the American public “watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools.”

His words stir together love and hell, despair and hope. His words are deeply prescient:

“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality . . .” Oh my God! Our wars will go on and on and on, unless we change as a country: fundamentally, spiritually.

No wonder J. Edgar Hoover (and so many others behind the scene) saw him as a danger to the nation who needed to be shut up, if not eliminated. He had already helped defeat segregation and had begun undoing systemic racism. Now he was taking on military-industrialism and American hegemony:
“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, ‘This is not just.’ It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, ‘This is not just.’ The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”

What scared the nation’s leaders weren’t simply MLK’s words but the fact that he wielded remarkable power — a kind of power incomprehensible in political and military circles, a power that acknowledged humility and human oneness. What the hell is he talking about?

“Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us.”

And King was one of the carriers of that spirit — helping to implant it within the social core:

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

It’s one thing to blather about America’s star-studded “official” values — life, liberty, blah blah blah — but it’s something else entirely to speak about transcending, indeed, “conquering” the (secretly) real values of the ruling class.

“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”

A world that has truly transcended war? A world that embraces “unconditional love for all mankind”? I think not.

“When I speak of love,” he goes on, “I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.”

And my imagination — my sense of possibility — reopens. This is what MLK still brings to humanity: a vision of the future that is profoundly different from the present moment, but also present, desperately present, in this moment. “Tomorrow is today.” His words unite every religion on the planet. They tear the deepest values we espouse out of the holy books and bring them aboard the bus, across the bridge, into the halls of Congress and into every war room on the planet.

Their spirit still rises.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


ROBERT C. KOEHLER is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. Koehler has been the recipient of multiple awards for writing and journalism from organizations including the National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspapers of America, and the Chicago Headline Club. He's a regular contributor to such high-profile websites as Common Dreams and the Huffington Post. Eschewing political labels, Koehler considers himself a "peace journalist. He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, a chain of neighborhood and suburban newspapers in the Chicago area. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Born in Detroit and raised in suburban Dearborn, Koehler has lived in Chicago since 1976. He earned a master's degree in creative writing from Columbia College and has taught writing at both the college and high school levels. Koehler is a widower and single parent. He explores both conditions at great depth in his writing. His book, "Courage Grows Strong at the Wound" (2016). Contact him or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
Full Bio >

Editorial: Mark Robinson ‘doesn’t recall’ past statements on abortion. Here’s a reminder

2024/01/19

Mark Robinson speaks during a press conference in Raleigh 

 Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer/TNS

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has said he’d like abortion to be banned in all circumstances, including rape and incest. He has frequently likened abortion to murder and said that once a woman is pregnant, her body is no longer her own.

Now, as a candidate for governor, Robinson wants you to forget he ever said that. And he doesn’t seem to have much memory of it himself.

New reporting from CNN — which recently joined the growing list of national news stories about Robinson’s extremism — details how Robinson’s past statements on abortion contradict what he is saying now.

Robinson doesn’t want to talk about abortion much anymore, and if he does, he does so much more carefully. According to CNN, Robinson “denies ever supporting abortion bans without exceptions” and has stopped using what he calls “the a-word” in favor of more euphemistic words like “life.”

From the CNN article: “At a public event in August, Robinson said he didn’t recall making statements in support of a total ban on abortion and said that he always struggled on the issue.”

Didn’t recall? Well, here’s a reminder: Robinson once said “there is no compromise for me on abortion,” regardless of why or how a person becomes pregnant. He also said that if he were governor and had a willing legislature, he would pass a bill saying you can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason. He also paid for his now-wife to have an abortion back in the 1980s, but wants to deprive others of that same choice.

That doesn’t sound like someone who has “always struggled” with his position on the issue.

Of course, Robinson is far from the only Republican who has quietly tried to soften their stance on abortion since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Ted Budd, for example, did the same when he was running for U.S. Senate in 2022 — largely avoiding the subject despite previously hinting that he’d like to ban abortions in nearly all cases. Republican congressional candidate Bo Hines scrubbed his website of all references to abortion while running in a swing district in 2022.

Let’s be clear, though: Robinson might be trying to ease up on abortion, but he’s nowhere close to seeming moderate on the issue. His office now says he supports legislation that bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions. That’s only marginally less extreme than banning it entirely. It’s still wildly out of step with the majority of voters, who were happy with abortion laws under Roe and don’t want to see them restricted much further.

Robinson can run from his extremist past, but he can’t hide from it. He may have “forgotten” where he once stood on abortion, but voters might have a much better memory.

© The Charlotte Observer

Here are the details of the new bipartisan border security bill Trump doesn’t want passed

Carl Gibson, AlterNet
January 26, 2024 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US Senate negotiators have reached a framework on a border security bill that will be unveiled as soon as next week, with a vote before the election likely despite former President Donald Trump's efforts to delay it.

According to CNN, Sens. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) have agreed on a border package aimed at curbing the flow of migrants at the Southern border. The framework stipulates that the Department of Homeland Security would be granted emergency powers to shut down the border outside of all legal points of entry if there are more than 5,000 encounters at the border in one week. Special considerations would still be in place for migrants who can prove that they're fleeing torture or persecution in their home countries.

In addition to the strict measures at the border, the bill would also drastically shorten the period of time in which asylum cases can be considered from 10 years to just six months. And even under the new emergency powers, there would still be a mandatory minimum of 1,400 asylum applications to be processed for migrants coming through ports of entry. President Joe Biden voiced support for the framework on Friday and has said previously that he would sign a bipartisan bill if it made it to his desk.

If the bill were currently in effect, the border would already be shut down as there were a record 300,000-plus border crossings in December alone. Many of those crossings were in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) is currently defying a Supreme Court order to cut razor wire along the Southern border. Abbott argues the razor wire is necessary to stop an "invasion," but the Court reiterated in its ruling that the federal government — not the states — has jurisdiction over national borders.

While the final details of the legislation are still forthcoming, the bill would represent the most significant immigration-related legislation in decades if passed. However, Trump has been lobbying Republicans to not support any border legislation until they get a "perfect" bill, which means its passage is not likely in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives even if it passes the Democratic-run US Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) had been pushing for funding for border security to be included in a larger foreign aid package that would also include new appropriations for Ukraine's ongoing war against Russia, Taiwan's defense of its own borders in the face of threats from China and Israel as it continues its bombing of Gaza. But this week, McConnell acknowledged that the politics of the November presidential election had complicated efforts to pass a bill, which suggests Trump is in the ear of McConnell's caucus.

On Thursday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) accused the former president of sabotaging a legislative solution to border security in order to reap political rewards in November, saying Trump wants an indefinite delay "because he wants to blame Biden."

Mitt Romney accuses Trump of delaying border legislation 'because he wants to blame Biden'

(Image: Screengrab via X / @mkraju)
Carl GibsonJanuary 25, 2024

One Republican senator says former President Donald Trump is making the problems at the Southern border worse by pressuring other Republicans to stop any legislative fixes until after the election in November.

In a recent interview with CNN, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) — who ran for president as the 2012 Republican nominee — slammed Trump for exacerbating problems in the US immigration system.

"I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump," Romney told congressional reporter Manu Raju. "And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn't want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling."

"We have a crisis at the border. The American people are suffering as a result of what's happening at the border," he added. "And someone running for president ought to try to get the problem solved as opposed to saying 'hey, save that problem, don't solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later.'"

According to the department of Customs and Border Protection, there were more than 300,000 border crossings in December — a record high. The Rio Grande River crossing at Eagle Pass is particularly dangerous, with three migrants — including two children — drowning there earlier this month. Alicia Barcena, who is Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs, said last month that the traffic at the US/Mexico border can be attributed to root causes like "poverty, inequality, violence and family reunification."

A legislative solution to the US' border security is still in the works, as some members of Congress want to tie funding for Ukraine's ongoing defense of its own borders against Russian aggression with US border funding. However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said the politics of the November election has complicated that approach — a possible reference to Trump's meddling in legislative negotiations. Democrats have argued that border security should instead be addressed by revising the US' antiquated immigration system.

"Our country has failed our immigrant neighbors," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). "Our immigration system is so broken that many families are waiting 10 to 20 years to get interviews scheduled. It has been 28 years since Congress passed immigration reform. We have a responsibility to act."

READ MORE: 'I will not help the Democrats': GOP rep says he'll torch border deal to deny Biden a win

Watch the video of Romney's remarks below, or by clicking this link.

TRUMP THE RAPIST PAYS UP

Trump could be on the hook for $240 million in E. Jean Carroll damages: expert

Tom Boggioni
January 26, 2024 

Donald Trump frowning (Mandel Ngan:AFP)

Right after lawyers on both sides delivered closing arguments in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial taking place in a Manhattan courtroom, CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen explained that Donald Trump could be ordered to pay over a quarter of a billion dollars in total damages.

Speaking with hosts Boris Sanchez and Briana Keilar, Eisen pointed out that Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan asked for compensatory damages of "up to $24 million," but that is not where it ends.

Pressed by the hosts about punitive damages that likely will be tacked on, Eisen said it was beyond the realm of possibilities that the jury would come back with a number in the billions, but there is a rule of thumb when it comes to "multipliers" used based on the compensatory amount.

And it could be very bad news for the former president.

ALSO READ: Behold: Donald Trump the chosen son — and religious con

"Damages are calculated into categories," he began. "There are compensatory damages, and we've just seen a request to make Carroll whole, things like hiring consultants, having a campaign to repair her reputation, the pain and suffering that she has endured: that's 24 million."

"Then to send lesson when a defendant is found to have acted with bad intent or malice, that he wanted to hurt E. Jean Carroll, you multiply that compensatory damages number by an X-factor," he continued.

"The factor can be quite high but there is a limit, they couldn't order billions in damages. Normally, the upper ceiling is about ten times compensatory. So, you could be looking here, if there is a true home run, and the proof is coming powerfully, the argument has been strong, and Trump wasn't allowed to speak. You could be looking at a multiple many times of $24 million. And that would send a message."

Watch below or at the link.

 

E. Jean Carroll's lawyer puts Trump on notice about a new potential lawsuit

M.L. Nestel
January 26, 2024 

Barry Willilams/New York Daily News/TNS

Trump's accuser hit him where it hurts — his bottom line.

Roberta Kaplan, attorney for E. Jean Carroll, believes money may talk, but it also silences.

"All he really understands is money and so you should award an amount of money that should make him stop," she said

Carroll, 80, won an $83.3 million jury verdict, proving in court that she suffered ridiculing in public again and again by former President Donald Trump, 77, years after coming forward to attest to being sexually assaulted inside of a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room back in the 1990s.

There is still a pause for Kaplan on whether the hit to his pocketbook will work as a kind of money muzzle. But she specifically didn't rule out future litigation against Trump.

Trump notably nixed Carroll's name when he responded to the steep sum imposed by the jury inside of the Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday.

"Absolutely ridiculous," he wrote in a post on Truth Social, vowing to contest it. "I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party."

Kaplan believes Trump did himself zero favors when he and his entourage stood up and stormed out of the courtroom while she was offering her closing arguments.

Kaplan was in the process of telling the jury that the 45th president had the gall to call Carroll's sexual abuse allegations against him a "con job."

"I think it hurt him terribly," she said. "Our whole case is about the fact Donald Trump is unable to follow the law, unable to follow the rules. He thinks they don't apply to him."

And she said Trump's cruelest thing Trump did to Carroll beyond the physical attack, was his effort to repeatedly cut her down in public as being a "liar" and a "whack job.

"And as bad as what he did to E. Jean Carroll was and the sexual assault was terrible and as horrifying as the defamation was back in 2019 — the most amazing shocking part of it all is he kept on doing it, and he kept on doing it even during the trial."

She added: "What other person thinks they can openly break the law over and over again? Donald Trump."

Trump’s Brownshirts: How violence has become inherent to Trumpian politics

Robert Reich
January 22, 2024 

I apologize for the length of this letter, but the subject warrants it. Donald Trump has galvanized an army of vigilantes who are casting a fearsome shadow overthe 2024 election. Please spread the word.

It’s impossible to know how large this potential army is, but last October, 41 percent of pro-Trump Americans agreed with the statement that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” (That view was shared by 22 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats.)

THE DAY AFTER MAINE SECRETARY OF STATE SHENNA BELLOWS barred Trump from the primary ballot there in late December, her home was “swatted.” As Bellows explained, “That’s when someone calls in a fake emergency to evoke a strong law enforcement response to scare the target. Swatting incidents have resulted in casualties although thankfully this one did not.”

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Along with the swatting, Bellows discussed “extraordinarily dehumanizing fake images” of her online:
“I know from my previous work that dehumanizing a person is the first step in paving the way for attacks and violence against them. These dehumanizing images and threatening communications directed at me and people I love are dangerous. We should be able to agree to disagree on important issues without threats and violence.”

Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold has also faced mounting threats since the Colorado Supreme Court in December disqualified Trump from the state’s primary ballot.

“Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats,” Griswold said. “I stopped counting after that. I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.”

Jack Smith, the special counsel in charge of two federal prosecutions of Trump, has received a number of death threats. Between April and September of last year, the Justice Department spent more than $4.4 million providing security for Smith and his team. On Christmas Day, he was swatted.

On August 4, Trump posted, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” The following day, a Texas woman left a voicemail for Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge presiding over the case charging Trump with seeking to overturn the 2020 election, threatening that “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you.”

Security has been increased for Judge Chutkan, as well. On January 7, she was swatted.

On August 6, two days after Trump’s post, a man left a voicemail threatening the lives of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat for their roles in the Georgia criminal election interference case against Trump.

Trump has also encouraged people to “go after” New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump is using the threat of violence to intimidate America as a whole. He recently warned of “bedlam in the country” if he’s disqualified from the ballot.

When asked recently if he would discourage his followers from violence, Trump simply refused to answer.

IN THE WEEKS BEFORE THE 2020 ELECTION, Trump operative and confidant Roger Stone can be heard on an audio recording telling Trump security agent Sal Greco: “Either [Congressman Eric] Swalwell or [Congressman Jerry] Nadler has to die before the election. They need to get the message. Let’s go find Swalwell and get this over with. I’m just not putting up with this shit anymore.”

Stone was the liaison between the Trump campaign and the Proud Boys, which, according to the Justice Department, “played a central role in setting the January 6 attack on our Capitol into motion.” The House Select Committee investigating the attack found that in the months leading up to it, Stone regularly communicated with Proud Boys members, including their leader, Enrique Tarrio.

In September, Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on charges related to the attack. (In July 2020, Trump issued Stone a blanket pardon.)

As of December, roughly 1,240 people have been arrested in connection with the attack. Some 170 have been convicted at trial, and 710 have pleaded guilty. So far, more than 720 have received prison sentences, ranging from a handful of days to more than 20 years.

Many have sought to defend themselves by saying they were doing what Trump asked them to do. On that fateful day, Trump told the crowd he had summoned to Washington that:
We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore … We will stop the steal … Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back … You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong … We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Afterward, the crowd stormed the Capitol.

THERE IS A DIRECT AND ALARMING CONNECTION between Trump’s political rise and and the increase in political violence and threats of such violence in America.

In 2016, the Capitol Police recorded fewer than 900 threats against members of Congress. In 2017, after Trump took office, that figure more than quadrupled, according to the Capitol Police.

The numbers continued to rise every year of the Trump presidency, peaking at 9,700 in 2021. In 2022, the first full year of Biden’s term, the numbers declined to a still-high 7,500. (The 2023 data is not yet available.)

Data also shows extraordinarily high levels of threats against mayors, federal judges, election workers and administrators, public health officials, and even school board members.

The threats have clearly intimidated some Republican lawmakers.

Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah hired personal security for himself and his family at a cost of $5,000 a day to guard against threats on their lives after he voted to remove Trump from office for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Romney recounts (in McKay Coppins’s biography of him) that during Trump’s impeachment, a member of the Republican Senate leadership was leaning toward voting to convict Trump. But after several other senators expressed concern about their personal safety and that of their children, the senator in question voted to acquit.

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said that in that impeachment vote, “there were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security — afraid, in some instances, for their lives.” She cited how “members of Congress aren’t able to cast votes, or feel that they can’t, because of their own security.”

Just before the House vote on impeachment, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado said he heard firsthand from Republicans that fear was holding at least two of them back. “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears — saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment,” Crow said on MSNBC.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, recalls one of his House colleagues voting to overturn the election results on the evening of January 6, hours after the assault: “My colleague feared for family members, and the danger the vote would put them in.” After voting to impeach Trump, Meijer himself faced so many threats that he felt the need to purchase body armor and make changes to his daily schedule.

Meijer also noted that his colleagues who voted not to certify the 2020 election “knew in their heart of hearts that they should’ve voted to certify, but some had legitimate concerns about the safety of their families. They felt that that vote would put their families in danger.”

When announcing his retirement, former Republican congressman Anthony Gonzalez cited threats to him and his family after his vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment. Gonzalez was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. In September 2021, Gonzalez announced he would not seek another term.

The Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate explained why she signed a letter backing Trump’s attempt to overturn the results in that state: “If I would say to you, ‘I don’t want to do it,’ I’d get my house bombed tonight.”

POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS AN INHERENT PART OF FASCISM. Hitler’s SA — the letters stood for Sturmabteilung or “Storm Section,” also known as the Stormtroopers or Brownshirts — were vigilantes who did the Nazis’ dirty work before the Nazis took total power.

During the German presidential elections in March and April 1932, Brownshirts assembled Alarmbereitschaften, or “emergency squads,” to intimidate voters.

On the night of the Reichstag election of July 31, 1932, Brownshirts launched a wave of violence across much of northern and eastern Germany with murders and attempted murders of local officials and communist politicians and arson attacks on local Social Democratic headquarters and the offices of liberal newspapers.

When five Brownshirts were sentenced to death for the murders, Hitler called the sentences “a most outrageous blood verdict” and publicly promised the prisoners that “from now on, your freedom is a question of honor for all of us, and to fight against the government which made possible such a verdict is our duty.”

A chilling echo of these words can be found in one of Trump’s recent speeches in Iowa, in which he claimed that his supporters had acted “peacefully and patriotically” on January 6, 2021. “Some people call them prisoners,” he said of those who were serving sentences for their violence. “I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe [Biden]. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe.”

As I’ve said before, America is not the Weimar Republic on the eve of 1933, and Trump is not Hitler. But it is important to understand the parallels.

That Donald Trump still has not been held accountable for encouraging the attack on the U.S. Capitol, or for provoking his followers with his blatant lie that the 2020 election was stolen, continues to galvanize an army of potentially violent Americans.

Robert Reich is a professor at Berkeley and was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton. You can find his writing at https://robertreich.substack.com/.

‘Donald Trump is a scab,’ says UAW president Shawn Fain

BY LAUREN IRWIN - 01/24/24 

United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain slammed former President Trump in a Wednesday speech announcing the union’s endorsement of President Biden, calling the Republican front-runner “a scab.”

“Donald Trump is a scab,” Fain said, prompting applause from union members. “Donald Trump is a billionaire and that is who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn’t be a UAW member, he would be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker.”

“Donald Trump stands against everything we stand for as a union, as a society,” Fain continued. “When you go back to our core issues, wages, retirement, health care and our time, that’s what this election is about.”

Fain announced the union’s support for Biden at a conference in Washington, D.C., as he introduced the president to deliver remarks. He cited Biden’s solidarity with the UAW during its recent strike against major automakers.

“This election is about who will stand up with us and who will stand in our way,” Fain said of a likely 2020 presidential rematch between Biden and Trump.

“Those are the questions that will win or lose this election and will decide our fate,” he said. “Those are the questions that will determine the future of our country and the fate of the working class.”

In his announcement, Fain pointed to several examples dating back to the 2007-08 recession in which Biden stood with autoworkers. He also slammed Trump’s criticisms of the union.

The UAW previously withheld its endorsement from Biden despite historically supporting Democratic candidates and previously endorsing him in 2020. Fain had voiced concerns about the Biden administration in the past over its policies regarding electric vehicles.

Biden joined UAW workers on the picket line after they walked out on the three major U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — last fall. He has dubbed himself the “most pro-union president” in history.

In September, Trump skipped out on the second GOP primary debate and instead joined the striking autoworkers in Detroit in hopes of appealing to union workers, who are critical to Biden’s voting base.

United Auto Workers endorse Biden; union president calls Trump a 'scab'

"Who do we want in that office to give us the best shot of winning?"

By Alexandra Hutzler

ABC
January 24, 2024

Biden joins UAW president on picket line

"Companies are doing incredibly well and you should be doing incredibly well too," President Joe Biden...

President Joe Biden received a key 2024 endorsement on Wednesday from the United Auto Workers, with the union's president using the occasion to savage Biden's likely general election opponent, Donald Trump.

Shawn Fain announced UAW's support for Biden's reelection bid at their biannual conference in Washington, D.C.

"I know there's some people that want to ignore this election," Fain said. "They don't want to have anything to do with politics. Other people want to argue endlessly about the latest headline or scandal or stupid quote. Elections aren't about just taking your best friend for the job or the candidate who makes you feel good. Elections are about power."

The backing of the Michigan-based UAW, with more than 400,000 members, could give Biden an edge in a key battleground state that has helped determine the last two political elections. He won Michigan by about 150,000 votes in 2020; Trump won it by about 10,000 votes four years earlier.

Biden also won the group’s endorsement in 2020, and it backed Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.

But Trump was successful in battlegrounds like Michigan and Ohio in that election cycle in part because of his ability to attract more union support than past GOP candidates: The UAW said at the time it believed one in four of its members likely voted for Trump based on surveys.

"The question is, who do we want in that office to give us the best shot of winning?" Fain said on Wednesday. "Who gives us the best shot of organizing? Who gives us the best shot of negotiating strong contracts? Who gives us the best shot of uniting the working class and winning our fair share once again?"

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, speaks at the United Auto Workers conference 
Bloomberg via Getty Images

Biden, who has increasingly been gearing in public to face Trump in the general election, also delivered remarks. He thanked the union for its support and praised members for inspiring the labor movement with its strike last year against the Big Three auto makers.

"Let me just say, I'm honored to have your back and you have mine, that's the deal," Biden said. "It comes down to seeing the world the same way, it's not complicated."

Fain cast the 2024 race as a choice between Biden and Trump and didn't mince words in his criticism of the former president. He specifically took issue with Trump's handling of the union's 2019 strike, arguing that Trump didn't do a "damn thing" while UAW members confronted General Motors at plants across the U.S.

"Donald Trump is a scab," Fain said. "Donald Trump is a billionaire, and that's who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in auto plant, he wouldn't be a UAW member -- he'd be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker."

Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Fain's remarks, though Trump has previously dismissed Biden's record on unions

MORE: Biden and Trump focus on wooing union workers, underlining their swing state power: Experts




Last year, Biden joined UAW members striking in Michigan against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis on the picket line in a historic show of support for workers amid their contract negotiations with the auto giants for better wages and conditions.

"If our endorsements must be earned, Joe Biden has earned it," Fain said on Wednesday.

Biden, who has touted himself as the most "pro-union" president, told members that union workers are central to his economic vision to build the economy from the middle out and bottom up.

"Together, we're proving what I've always believed," Biden said. "Wall Street didn't build America, the middle class built America and unions built the middle class."

He continued, "As long as I’m president, the working people are gonna get their fair share. ... You deserve it."

President Joe Biden speaks during a United Auto Workers' political convention in Washington D.C., Jan. 24, 2024.
Alex Brandon/AP

Trump, too, visited Michigan last September just a day after Biden to try to woo auto workers and union members. He delivered a speech at a non-unionized plant.

In that speech, Trump repeated his pitch for economic nationalism, calling himself the only candidate who wants to protect American labor -- which was a key pledge in his previous campaigns.

He also attacked Biden for the federal government's environmental regulation push on tailpipe pollution, which would encourage more electric vehicle manufacturing -- while also raising the concerns of auto workers like those in the UAW. Biden has said he wants to invest in the auto industry to spur more electric vehicle use to address climate change.

Trump took a darker view.

"You're all on picket lines and everything, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference what you get because in two years -- you're all going to be out of business," he said in September. "You're not getting anything. What they're doing to the auto industry in Michigan and throughout the country is absolutely horrible and ridiculous."

ABC News' Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.

French court scraps large parts of hardline immigration law as unconstitutional

Agence France-Presse
January 25, 2024

The entrance of France’s Conseil Constitutionnel in Paris. Photo taken on January 22, 2024. © Stéphane de Sakutin, AFP

France’s highest constitutional authority on Thursday rejected more than a third of the articles in a contentious immigration bill adopted under pressure from the right and far right.

The Constitutional Council ruling notably rejected measures in the bill toughening access to social benefits and family reunification, as well as the introduction of immigration quotas set by parliament.

It upheld much of the bill initially presented by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, but censured contentious additions made under pressure from the right and far right.

Among the measures rejected were those making it harder for immigrants to bring their families to France, and limiting their access to social welfare. The bill also strengthens France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable.

Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin hailed the ruling.

“The Constitutional Council has approved all the government’s text,” he wrote on X, formally Twitter.

But Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, criticised what he said was a “coup by the judges, with the backing of the president”.

He called for a referendum on immigration as the “only solution”.

Despite the court dismissing the more hardline amendments, they could still be accepted at a later stage as part of different legislation.

Macron's 'gift' to the far right

Groups who see the law as contrary to French values — and as a gift to the increasingly influential far right — protested ahead of the ruling outside the Constitutional Council across from the Louvre Museum in central Paris. Other protests were also planned, and Paris police deployed special security measures for the day.

The demonstrators accused the government of caving into pressure from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party to get the law through parliament. About 75,000 people protested across France on Sunday over the legislation, urging Macron not to sign it into law.

The dispute comes amid tensions across Europe around migration and as anti-immigration parties on the far right are rising in popularity ahead of European Parliament elections in June.

Macron has moved increasingly to the right, notably on security and immigration issues, since rising to office on a pro-business, centrist platform.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

After SCOTUS Rejected His Final Appeal, Alabama Executes Man With Nitrogen Gas

“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards,” Kenneth Smith said in his final statement.

By Jake Johnson , 

COMMONDREAMS

January 26, 2024

A protester holds a sign that reads "Execute Justice Not People!" as he participates in a vigil against the death penalty in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C.ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES


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Alabama on Thursday night became the first U.S. state to execute a person using nitrogen gas, killing 58-year-old Kenneth Smith by depriving his body of oxygen after the nation’s Supreme Court rejected his legal team’s last-ditch appeal.

The state’s notoriously incompetent executioners, who tried and failed to kill Smith via lethal injection in 2022, strapped the condemned man to a gurney and administered the nitrogen gas through a full-face mask. Smith was pronounced dead shortly before 8:30 pm after around four minutes of convulsions.

“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards,” Smith said in his final statement. “I’m leaving with love, peace, and light. Thank you for supporting me, love all of you.”

Smith was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett in 1988, a crime committed when he was 22 years old. That conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again seven years later, with the jury recommending a life sentence.

An Alabama judge, N. Pride Tompkins, then did something that used to be relatively common in the state but was banned in 2017: He overrode the jury, sentencing Smith to death.

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In a joint statement, the lawmakers invoked President Biden’s 2020 pledge to abolish use of the federal death penalty.
By Chris Walker , TRUTHOUT   January 17, 2024


Alabama’s decision to kill Smith by flooding his lungs with nitrogen — a method that veterinarians consider unethical for euthanizing animals — drew global condemnation, with United Nations experts warning the execution would likely violate both U.S. and international laws against torture.

“I deeply regret the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns this novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,” Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

“The death penalty is inconsistent with the fundamental right to life,” he continued. “I urge all states to put in place a moratorium on its use, as a step towards universal abolition.”

Earlier this week, Alabama residents gathered outside the state’s Capitol building in Montgomery to protest the planned execution of Smith. One demonstrator held a sign that read, “Say no to the gas chamber!”

Capital punishment has been declining in popularity in the U.S. for decades, but states like Alabama and Oklahoma have continued executing inmates even as pharmaceutical companies and equipment manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult to obtain materials necessary for lethal injections. The Trump administration worked for years to build a “secret supply chain” for lethal-injection drugs before its 2020 execution spree.

Three U.S. Supreme Court justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan — dissented from the decision to reject the final attempt to halt Smith’s execution.

“Smith is the first person in this country ever to be executed this way,” Sotomayor wrote. “The details are hazy because Alabama released its heavily redacted protocol under five months ago. What Smith knows is that he will be strapped to a gurney. He will wear a nitrogen-supplying, off-the-rack mask for which the state has not fitted him or even tried on him.”

“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before,” the justice added. “The world is watching. This court yet again permits Alabama to ‘experiment… with a human life,’ while depriving Smith of ‘meaningful discovery’ on meritorious constitutional claims.”

President Joe Biden vowed to work toward abolition of the death penalty at the federal level during his 2020 campaign, but advocates say he has done virtually nothing to fulfill that pledge. The Biden Justice Department has continued to seek the death penalty in select cases and fight efforts to reverse death sentences.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the lead House sponsor of legislation that would end the federal death penalty, called Smith’s execution “absolutely unconscionable.”

“We must work to abolish the death penalty and end this cruel and inhumane punishment,” Pressley wrote on social media.