DoomsdaysCW

Former Journalist📰 and occasional Librarian 📚 living on #Wabanaki land🌄
#NoNukes☢️ Anti-#Oligarchy🎩 #NoWar☮️ #GetMoneyOut💰#HumanRights🕵️‍♂️ #BLM✊🏿 #IndigenousRights 🌿 #WaterIsLife💧Anti-#Corruption🔍 #ClimateCrisis🌍 #RightToRepair 🪛
#Green🌳 #Socialist🤝 Student of #Archaeology 💀 & #History 📜
Pronouns: They, them, per, person, human.

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npub1fp2ulqq56du7lfdhcdmvyjg78zynqjlxn556u2pecngsg2lljzlq7pzf96

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1fp2ulqq56du7lfdhcdmvyjg78zynqjlxn556u2pecngsg2lljzlq7pzf96

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Last Notes

2024-07-29 02:31:12

So, it's probably too late in the season to try again, but does anyone have tips on how to get #PussyWillow branches to root? I've done it with other plants, but I'm having a devil of a time getting keeping them alive. Shade? Sun? What's the secret?
#Gardening #GardeningQuestion

2024-07-18 22:54:23

20 books that have had an impact on who you are. One book a day for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just book covers (don't forget the alt text).
#20books20days 15/20 #Bookstodon #RayBradbury #Fahrenheit451 #Bookburning #Censorship
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/809/467/105/072/097/original/aaaa748ce40c89d7.jpg

2024-07-16 00:52:34

20 books that have had an impact on who you are. One book a day for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just book covers (don't forget the alt text).
#20books20days 12/20 #Bookstodon #KleeBenally #NoSpiritualSurrender #IndigenousAnarchy
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/792/928/001/774/390/original/493b2f324c8187f0.jpg

2024-07-11 01:03:21

20 books that have had an impact on who you are. One book a day for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just book covers (don't forget the alt text).
#20books20days 7/20 #bookstodon #GretaThunberg #TheClimateBook
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/764/680/111/684/305/original/8b5e08d07a79a5ab.png

2024-07-10 03:51:58

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@npub16a0…ghcl Secrecy Act, crafted by the CIA, was put in place in Japan after Fukushima to hide what was going on.

2024-07-05 00:10:34

Why people shouldn't talk to me in the grocery store. The fellow behind me made a comment while I placed the separator between our groceries. "If we use more of these at the borders, we wouldn't have a problem with immigrants." I responded with, "I'm sorry, but the way I see it, we are all humans here on Earth who should help each other and the planet." That shut him right TF up. Good!

2024-07-03 01:44:56

Highlights from today's walk -- #Milkweed that I had "seed bombed" on some nearby barren land has taken hold!
#RenegadeGardening #Rewilding
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/719/550/614/787/023/original/f04e338ed3bd0799.jpg

2024-06-21 19:05:44

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@npub1wpj…7m4z And that's just the humans. I'm already seeing some species migrate further north here in New England.

2024-06-21 18:56:44

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@npub1wpj…7m4z And I'm sure you saw the news articles about bats dying and falling out of the sky in India. 😢

2024-06-18 02:42:46

TY, #JohnOliver. #Project2025 has solidified my vote for #BidenHarris -- even if I catch flack from Greens/Socialists for doing so, and NOT because I've been bullied by Dems. I've looked into the Project 2025 plan. It's a total blueprint for a #ChristoFascist state, and we will ALL suffer!
#Election2024 #Fascism #ChristoFascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HandmaidsTale

2024-06-16 00:46:46

[Thread] Some highiights from today's #Pride Parade in #PortlandMaine. Here are some queer witches supporting #Palestine!
#CeasefireNow #MainePride #LiberationForAll
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/623/056/945/241/100/original/55ef3f79fb4cf179.jpeg

2024-06-11 01:29:31

[video] #Landslide Sends Cars, Trees Crashing Into A River
June 10, 2024
"A home’s security camera captured the moment huge trees and a carport seemed to get swallowed up by the earth in #Thailand. Watch what happened as a second collapse took people by surprise."
https://weather.com/news/trending/video/cars-and-trees-dragged-into-river-in-thailand
#ClimateChange #ClimateCatastrophe

2024-05-27 23:26:44

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@npub1uul…dkn7 When I first saw your post, I thought you were exaggerating. This is very bad. Wow...!

2024-05-26 17:11:11

[Paywall] Our nights are getting brighter, and Earth is paying the price
Electric lights have revolutionized our lives, but as illumination increases, the toll on #wildlife and human health is becoming harder to ignore.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/nights-are-getting-brighter-earth-paying-the-price-light-pollution-dark-skies/
#LightPollution #DarkSkies #LEDs

2024-05-23 16:51:17

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@npub1jq9…jqnl Thanks for posting this? I almost posted it last night, but needed to try and get some sleep.

2024-05-12 21:02:02

Just a reminder for #MothersDay, Mother #Gaia is the #Lifegiver of us all! A living #Biosphere is pretty rare. We need to show Her some love! #LoveYourMotherEarth 🌍 🌏 🌎 ❤️
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/429/649/273/154/330/original/e71052c84def1384.jpg

2024-05-10 17:03:00

Something wicked this way comes?
Even though #AR3664 is almost out of view, it looks like something big is about to take its place! Yikes! (I think the new area will be designated AR3673, but I'm not 100% certain of that).
https://www.solarham.com/aia131.htm
#Solarham #SolarFlare #SolarFlares #SolarCycle25

2024-04-30 02:25:14

Anyone out there near the #NewJerseyCorrectionalFacility in #NewarkNewJersey? We could use some eyes and ears to let us know what's going down. BUT BE SAFE!
cc: @npub1tcf…lzj4
#NewJersey #Situation

2024-04-03 17:13:08

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@npub1jq9…jqnl Ooooh...! Homeric Greek was what I majored in. I wonder if they "sing" the syllables? I've gotten into quite a few debates with one of my professors about that.

2024-03-24 16:58:13

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@npub1fx4…mytg To quote the late #KarlWallinger: "Is it like today?" Yes, yes it is. Unfortunately...
Atmospheric CO2 during the Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period and the M2 glaciation
"By better constraining the upper levels of CO2 during the mPWP we conclude that, given current rates of CO2 increase, we will very likely surpass mPWP values within 4 to 5 years, meaning that, by 2024/2025 levels of atmospheric CO2 will be higher than any point in the last 3.3 million years."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67154-8
@npub1qzc…yetl

2024-03-24 16:46:36

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@npub1fx4…mytg
After reading the Climate Report, folks should check out this... It was pretty eye-opening!
How much carbon was in the atmosphere when you were born?
https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/carbon-by-birth-year/
cc: @npub1qzc…yetl

2024-03-23 21:22:36

The #KirchmeierFile at #StandingRock --'The Perfect Storm' was the Perfect #HumanRights Disaster
by #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
March 23, 2024
"In the typical 'good ole boy' style, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier claims he was honoring #WaterProtectors rights to free speech, and just trying to keep the peace, in his deposition in the current case, North Dakota v. United States of America.
"Kirchmeier, however, also reveals that only a couple of his sheriff's deputies were trained in the use of less-than lethal weapons. He also reveals that among the first people that he called on for backup was Paul Laney, president of the North Dakota's National Sheriffs Association.
"Kirchmeier also says they don't deal in Treaties at the Sheriffs Department.
"It comes as no surprise that #EnergyTransfer offered from the beginning to pay off the cops."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-kirchmeier-file-at-standing-rock.html
#ACAB #NativeAmericanActivists #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #HonorTheTreaties #WaterIsLife #Lakota #WaterProtectors #SupportIndependentJournalism #IndigenousNews

2024-03-11 23:16:34

Ignoring science, #environmental protection and international law – #G7 endorses Japan’s #Fukushima water discharge plans
Legacy of #FukushimaDisaster shows #NuclearEnergy is no solution to energy and #ClimateCrisis
#GreenpeaceInternational, April 16, 2023
Sapporo, Japan – "The nations of the G7 have chosen politics over science and the protection of the #MarineEnvironment with their decision today to support the Japanese government’s plans to discharge Fukushima #RadioactiveWaste water into the Pacific Ocean.
"The 1.3 million cubic meters/tons of radioactive waste water at the #FukushimaDaiichi plant, currently in tanks, is scheduled to be discharged into the Pacific Ocean this year. Nations in the Asia Pacific region, led by the Pacific Island Forum, have strongly voiced their opposition to the plans. Some of the world’s leading oceanographic institutes and marine scientists have criticised the weakness of the scientific justification applied by #TEPCO, the owner of the #NuclearPlant, warned against using the #PacificOcean as a #DumpingGround for radioactive contaminated water, and called for alternatives to discharge to be applied.
“'The Japanese government is desperate for international endorsement for its Pacific Ocean radioactive water dump plans. It has failed to protect its own citizens, including the vulnerable fishing communities of Fukushima, as well as nations across the wider #AsiaPacific region. The aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is still strongly felt, and the Japanese government has failed to fully investigate the effects of discharging multiple #radionuclides on #MarineLife. The government is obligated under international law to conduct a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, including the impact of transboundary marine pollution, but has failed to do so. Its plans are a violation of the UN Convention Law of the Sea.
"'The marine environment is under extreme pressure from #ClimateChange, #overfishing and #ResourceExtraction. Yet, the G7 thinks it’s acceptable to endorse plans to deliberately dump nuclear waste into the ocean. Politics inside the G7 at Sapporo just trumped science, environmental protection, and international law,' said Shaun Burnie, Senior Nuclear Specialist at Greenpeace East Asia.
"'#GreenpeaceEastAsia analysis has detailed the failures of liquid waste processing [ALPS] technology at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and the environmental threats posed by the releases. There is no prospect of an end to the nuclear crisis at the plant as current decommissioning plans are not feasible. Furthermore, the report finds the nuclear fuel debris in the reactors cannot be completely removed and will continue to contaminate the ground water over many decades. Claims that the discharges will take 30 years is inaccurate as in reality, it will continue into the next century. Viable alternatives to discharge, specifically long term storage and processing, have been ignored by the Japanese government.
"'The Japanese government’s attempt to normalise the Fukushima nuclear disaster is directly linked to its overall energy policy objective of increasing the operation of nuclear reactors again after the 2011 disaster. 54 reactors were available in 2011 compared to only ten reactors in 2022, generating 7.9% of the nation’s electricity in FY21 compared to 29% in 2010. Meanwhile, five of the other six G7 governments led by France, the US and the UK are also aggressively promoting nuclear power development.
"'The idea that the nuclear industry is capable of delivering a safe and sustainable energy future is delusional and a dangerous distraction from the only viable energy solution to the climate emergency which is 100% #RenewableEnergy. The global growth of low cost renewable energy has been phenomenal – but it has to be much faster and at an even greater scale if carbon emissions are to be reduced by 2030. Approval for nuclear waste dumping and nuclear energy expansion sound like the 1970’s but we have no time for such distractions. We are in a race to save the climate in the 21st century, and only renewables can deliver this,' said Shaun Burnie.
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/59193/science-environmental-protection-international-law-g7-japans-fukushima-water-discharge/
#FukushimaAnniversary #FukushimaIsntOver #RethinkNotRestart
#NoNukes #Japan #TEPCOLies #WaterIsLife #Bioaccumulation

2024-03-03 21:57:38

GOOD!
State agency in Maine rejects #Canadian #mining company’s rezoning application
February 14, 2024
BREWER, #Maine (AP) — A state agency on Wednesday rejected a Canadian mining company’s zoning application for a proposed mine on #PickettMountain in northern Penobscot County, near #BaxterStatePark and the #KatahdinWoods & Waters National Monument.
"The Maine Land Use Planning [#LUPC] Commission voted 5-2 against #Wolfden's request to rezone on 374 acres (150 hectares), which would've been the first of several hurdles to building a #MetallicMine in the #Katahdin region.
"The panel had numerous concerns including the economic feasibility of the proposed mine. The panel also considered the impacts on #TribalLands, #wildlife, #water resources, the outdoors economy and other factors.
#EnvironmentalGroups and the #PenoboscotNation opposed the project.
"'This ruling is a great victory for the precious waters and lands of the Katahdin region and the people that rely upon them for sustenance and well-being,' said Penobscot Tribal Chief #KirkFrancis.
"Wolfden withdrew its first application after the commission’s staff pointed to multiple errors and inconsistencies with its proposal. It was resubmitted in January 2023 with a goal of addressing the concerns."
Source:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/state-agency-in-maine-rejects-canadian-mining-company-s-rezoning-application/ar-BB1iigrF
#WaterIsLife #WabanakiNations #Environment #CorporateColonialism #NoMining #ZincMining

2024-03-03 18:47:44

We interrupt today's topics (Maine mining, environmental destruction and debates over tribal sovereignty) to bring you a #SilentSunday #MarshMadness picture of the #SacoHeath in #Maine. Enjoy! (And now back to my usual posts...)
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/033/002/461/035/198/original/f14928955c4d8907.jpg

2024-03-03 18:07:27

This article from the March 2024 issue of #DownEastMagazine has a lot of background behind the Maine Settlement Act. A must read!!!
What Would #TribalSovereignty Mean for the #Wabanaki?
For more than 40 years, the tribes in Maine have had to play by different rules than other indigenous groups across the country, and they have suffered in tangible ways as a result. Now, a push for greater tribal autonomy has come to a head
"18th-century treaties were never intended to deed away land. Like many American #Indigenous groups, the #Wabanaki viewed stewardship as a communal undertaking — they didn’t share European conceptions of private land ownership. Unattuned to this foreign mindset, the Wabanaki signed treaties assuming the documents outlined land use, not ownership."
By Rachel Slade
March, 2024
"The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets’ administrative headquarters, built to resemble a log cabin, sits on a small tract of tribal land in Aroostook County, just north of where I-95 intersects the Canadian border. A few steps away, the #MeduxnekeagRiver roars past, the sound of rushing water a reminder of the harm done by 19th-century log drives, when clearing the river of obstacles turned the flow fast and shallow. A decade ago, the Maliseets took it upon themselves to start a #restoration project, partnering with federal and state agencies and nonprofit groups to add boulders and bends to the Meduxnekeag. To date, they have covered a four-mile stretch, recreating conditions that will cool and oxygenate the water, in order to help insects, birds, and fish thrive. The work requires patience. So does much else. The river is hardly the only historical damage tribal leaders around the state have been attempting to repair.
"One of the four remaining Wabanaki tribes whose forebears arrived in Maine more than 10,000 years ago, the Maliseets inhabited an area now split between the United States and Canada long before the existence of an international border. Chief #ClarissaSabattis, who wears her heather-brown hair in two long, thick braids that drape over her shoulders, was elected to lead the #Maliseets in #Maine in 2017. Since then, she says, she has struggled daily with the complex legal relationships the tribes have with the state government, dictated by the 1980 #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct.
"The terms of the settlement were the result of a decade of legal wrangling (and centuries of fraught dealings before that) that resulted in the state wielding unprecedented power over tribal affairs. The tribes have come to find the arrangement both burdensome and unjust. 'Our tribal council is our governing body,' Sabattis said when I met her at the Maliseet administrative offices. 'We should have full authority to make the laws and serve our people without interference from other governments.'
"Several years ago, the Maliseets, Mi’kmaq, #Passamaquoddy, and #PenobscotNation banded together and formed #WabanakiAlliance to collectively push for #TribalSovereignty. Most of the country’s 570 other federally recognized tribes are sovereign, which in the context of tribal affairs implies a sort of quasi-independence: through a direct nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, indigenous groups can run their own communities. They administer their law enforcement, courts, schools, health care, and civil infrastructure on their reserved lands with federal assistance and funding — and, unlike in Maine, can do so without state-level interference. Sovereignty also means that if the tribes believe the state has violated their federally protected rights, they have recourse both through federal agencies and courts. It’s a system under which tribes across the nation have begun to flourish in recent decades."
Read more:
https://downeast.com/issues-politics/what-would-tribal-sovereignty-mean-for-the-wabanaki/
#LandBack #MaineSettlementAct #NoCompromise #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #Wabanaki #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #PenobscotNation #Passamaquoddy #Micmac #Miqmak #Maliseets #IndigenousNews #JanetMills

2024-02-25 19:50:13

Another reason NOT to mine in the American #Southwest! If we need "critical minerals," than RECLAIM THEM FROM CIRCUIT BOARDS AND BATTERIES!
Is the Southwest too dry for a mining boom?
Critical minerals for the #CleanEnergy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.
by Wyatt Myskow, Inside Climate News
Jan 28, 2024
"To understand mining in the U.S., you have to start with the #MiningLaw of 1872. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law as a way to continue the country’s development westward, allowing anyone to mine on federal lands for free. To do this, all one needs to do is plant four stakes into the ground where they think there are minerals and file a claim. Unlike other industries that make use of public lands—such as the oil and gas industry—no royalties are paid for the minerals extracted from the lands owned by American taxpayers.
"The #SanCarlosApache tribe has fought for years to stop #ResolutionCopper’s proposed mine. It would be built on top of #OakFlat, a #SacredSite to the Apache and other #Indigenous communities, and a habitat of rare species like the endangered Arizona #HedgehogCactus, which lives only in the #TontoNationalForest near the town of #Superior. The fate of the mine now rests with the #USDistrictCourt in Arizona after the grassroots group #ApacheStronghold filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing its development would violate #NativePeople’s religious rights.
"But for communities located near the mine and across the #PhoenixArizona metropolitan area, the water it would consume is just as big of an issue.
"Throughout the mine’s lifespan, Resolution estimates it would use 775,000 acre feet of water—enough for at least 1.5 million Arizona households over roughly 40 years. And experts say the mine would likely need far more.
"'By pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from the #EastSaltRiver alley, this project would make Arizona’s goal for #stewardship of its scarce #groundwater resources unreachable,' one report commissioned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe reads. In one hydrologist’s testimony to Congress, water consumption was estimated to be 50,000 acre feet a year—about 35,000 more than the company has proposed drawing from the aquifer.
"The Resolution #CopperMine isn’t the only water-intensive mining operation being proposed. Many of what the industry describes as 'critical minerals,' like #lithium and copper, are found throughout the Southwest, leading to a flurry of mining claims on the region’s federally managed public lands.
“Water is going to be scarcer in the Southwest but the mining industry is basically immune from all these issues,” said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney at the #WesternMiningActionProject, which has represented tribes and environmental groups in mining-related lawsuits, including the case over Oak Flat."
Read more:
https://grist.org/drought/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom/
#WaterIsLife #SaveOakFlat #Arizona #RioTinto #CopperMining #CorporateColonialism #ClimateChange #ExtremeDrought

2024-02-23 17:38:41

Abuse of process hearing for #Wetsuweten leader, blockade members to resume in June
The Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline would run from Dawson Creek to Kitimat, B.C., through traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en
CBC
19 January 2024
"An abuse of process hearing for three people found guilty of criminal #contempt of court for blocking work on the #CoastalGasLink #pipeline in November 2021 is being adjourned until June.
"Two weeks were scheduled this month in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers for a trial and abuse of process application for #Sleydo', also known as #MollyWickham, a Wing Chief of #CasYikh, a house group of the #Gidimten Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation; #ShaylynnSampson, a #Gitxsan woman with Wet'suwet'en family ties and #CoreyJocko, who is Kanien'kehá:ka (#Mohawk) from #Akwesasne, which straddles the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders.
"The accused were found guilty last Friday by Justice Michael Tammen of criminal contempt of court for breaking a 2019 injunction that impedes anyone from blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
"Tammen then began hearing the abuse of process application that alleges #RCMP used excessive force when they were arrested and that they were treated unfairly while in custody.
"The filing asks if the judge doesn't stay their charges, then it would be appropriate to reduce their sentences based on their treatment by police.
"Several RCMP witnesses have testified so far about the two-day raid in November 2021 enforcing the injunction.
"Const. Mark Freeman and Cpl. Colin Warwick, who were in charge of police dogs on scene, testified on Friday.
"They told the court that the dogs were there to look for people who may be hiding in the area or detect possible booby traps, but they found no people or booby traps.
"During two days of testimony earlier this week, Supt. James Elliott spoke about factors that played a role in deciding the resources used to enforce the injunction.
"Elliott said he was considering information about half-cut trees along the side of the forest service road that had potential to fall, a social media post that indicated weapons were hidden under the snow in the area, the possibility of booby traps along the road and use of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) warrior flag, that police thought indicated heightened #activism.
"Several other police witnesses also mentioned the potential for booby traps but no one said any were found.
"During cross-examination of the RCMP witnesses, defence lawyer Frances Mahon told the court the social media post was referring to the #Haudenosaunee great law of peace, in which five warring nations bury their weapons under a pine tree to unite.
"Mahon also played audio recordings in which officers can be heard referring to people being arrested as 'orcs' and 'ogre.' In another recording, RCMP officers can be heard laughing about an officer beating a person being arrested and grabbing and twisting their testicles.
"When the hearing resumes, the defence is expected to call several witnesses, including the three accused.
"The hearing is expected to resume in Smithers June 17-21."
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/abuse-process-hearing-wetsuweten-leader-215317616.html
#ACAB #SLAPPs #IndigenousActivism
#BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism
#IndigenousLandDefenders
#LandBack #2023PublicOrderAct #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent
#WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors
#ForestDefenders
#ClimateActivists
#ClimateJustice
#EcoActivists #HumanRightsViolations
#Article20 #RightToProtest

2024-02-09 01:08:39

Not over yet: Historic #AtmosphericRiver won’t be the last of the rain in #California
Millions of people in California won’t get a break in the stormy pattern with a renewed risk of flooding on the horizon right on the heels of a devastating system that wrecked havoc across the state.
By Renee Duff, AccuWeather meteorologist
Published Feb 6, 2024 10:30 AM EST | Updated Feb 8, 2024 5:41 AM EST
"AccuWeather estimates that the preliminary total damage and economic loss from the intense storms and record rainfall in #California this week will be between $9 billion and $11 billion.
"At midweek, the historic storm that brought devastation to #SouthernCalifornia was slowly pivoting inland across the #SouthwesternUnitedStates. Meanwhile, a new storm began to drop southward off the coast of #WesternCanada. The storm began to pummel #NorthernCalifornia first thing Wednesday morning with low-elevation rain and mountain snow."
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-forecasts/not-over-yet-historic-atmospheric-river-wont-be-the-last-of-the-rain-in-california/1619562
#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #ClimateCatastrophe #ExtremeWeather #ExtremeAtmosphericRivers

2024-02-05 02:20:49

Intense #AtmosphericRiver brings #flood danger to #California
By Antoinette Radford, Zoe Sottile and Matt Meyer, CNN
Updated 0111 GMT (0911 HKT) February 5, 2024
What we're covering
- More than half a million California power customers face outages as an intense atmospheric river lashes the state with heavy rain and strong winds. Forecasters warn that potentially life-threatening flooding and #mudslides will follow.
- A #FlashFlood warning is in effect for parts of the southern and central coast, including areas in #LosAngeles, where officials warned of one of the "most dramatic weather days in recent memory." More than a month's worth of rain could fall by the time the bulk of the storm has passed on Tuesday.
- This system comes after an earlier storm already unleashed record rainfall in some parts of the region.
Read more:
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/california-atmospheric-river-storms-flooding-rain-02-04-24/index.html
#ExtremeAtmosphericRivers #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #ClimateCatastrophe

2024-01-27 17:37:01

#Hatshepsut
by Joshua J. Mark (one of the sources for my "Women in the Ancient World" presentation)
19 October 2016
"Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 BCE) was the first female ruler of ancient Egypt to reign as a male with the full authority of #pharaoh. Her name means 'Foremost of Noble Women' or 'She is First Among Noble Women'. She began her reign as regent to her stepson Thutmose III (r. 1458-1425 BCE) who would succeed her.
"Initially, she ruled as a woman as depicted in statuary but, at around the seventh year of her reign, she chose to be depicted as a #MalePharaoh in statuary and reliefs though still referring to herself as female in her inscriptions. She was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty during the period known as the New Kingdom (c. 1570 to c. 1069 BCE) and regarded as one of the most #prosperous and the era of the Egyptian Empire.
"Although she is sometimes cited as the first female ruler of Egypt, or the only one, there were women who reigned before her such as #Merneith (r. c. 3000 BCE) in the Early Dynastic Period (probably as regent) and #Sobeknefru (r. c. 1807-1802 BCE) in the Middle Kingdom and #Twosret (r. 1191-1190 BCE) after her toward the end of the 19th Dynasty. Hatshepsut, though not the first or last, is undoubtedly the best-known female ruler of ancient Egypt after #Cleopatra VII (r. c. 69-30 BCE) and one of the most successful monarchs in Egyptian history."
Read more:
https://www.worldhistory.org/hatshepsut/
#AncientEgypt #FemaleRulers #AncientHistory #WomensRights #AncientWomen #Histodon

2023-12-30 18:25:38

#Austrian government launches repair scheme for electronic goods
29th December 2023, 08:50 EST
"Has your washing machine broken down, or is your electric kettle, laptop or mobile phone refusing to work?
"Well if you live in #Austria, the government will pay up to €200 ($219; £173) towards getting it repaired.
"The Repair Bonus voucher scheme is aimed at trying to get people to move away from throwing away old electrical appliances - and focusing on getting things mended.
"Erik's laptop is broken, so he has come to Helferline, a computer and mobile phone repair workshop in Vienna. Because of Austria's Repair Voucher scheme, he will only have to pay 50% of the repair costs to get it fixed.
"'It's an old laptop, and I'm trying to make it go again, instead of buying a new one,' he said.
The city of Vienna also has another set-up which "helps people pay for repairs to old clothes, bicycles or furniture.
"Markus Piringer, the co-ordinator of the Repair Network in Vienna, says 'if the costs of the repair are more than 20-30% of the cost of the new product, people tend to buy new. And as the Repair Bonus lowers those costs, it's a big incentive to repair more.'"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67777814
#RightToRepair #RepairReuseRecycle #Consumerism #Anticonsumerism #Consumerism #PlannedObsolescence

2023-12-26 22:52:22

Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight against #CopCity
Six More Months in the Movement to Defend the Forest
2023-12-12 via #CrimeThinc
"Escalating Repression: #RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy
"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the 'tactics of organized criminals' language Governor Kemp used on July 2 was not just boilerplate copy drafted by an intern, nor was the August 2 press conference simply propaganda to assure backers that the state could still protect their investments. These phrases and statements were shaping operations, carefully crafted interventions designed to position the government for their next operation: the blanket criminalization of the entire movement.
"On August 29, the Attorney General of #Georgia, Christopher M. Carr, filed an indictment with the Fulton County Superior Court, bringing charges against 61 people under Georgia’s version of the Rackeeter-Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act O.C.G.A. § 16-14-4. The indictment became public on September 5. The document, which is over 100 pages long and very poorly written, claims that the 'conspiracy' (which it names 'Defend the Atlanta Forest') was 'founded' on May 25, 2020—the day that #MinneapolisPolice officers murdered #GeorgeFloyd, precipitating a nationwide #uprising.
"This was a serious escalation. It did not catch everyone by surprise: the #AtlantaSolidarityFund has been braced for such charges since February. The authorities and their extreme-right proxies had been demanding a full-scale crackdown on the movement for over a year, spreading a conspiracy theory that the movement was a mafia controlled by a shadowy and well-connected group (a narrative some activists also reproduced, apparently with no sense of irony). According to one version of this conspiracy theory, circulated by far-right trolls, the Network for Stronger Communities (a Georgia-based nonprofit organization) operates a number of financial enterprises, including the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, that coordinate acts of terrorism in order to accumulate wealth and influence. Of the 61 accused, three were members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The 42 people already facing #DomesticTerrorism charges were also indicted, as well as a number of other people whose connection to the movement was unclear. The indictment alleged that some people had committed acts in 'overt furtherance of the conspiracy' such as buying #GlueSticks for #SignMaking. [UK is using similar tactics, arresting people for just having #Superglue or #BikeLocks in their possession.]
"The RICO indictment was not a legal procedure but a political act. It was not a judicial intervention to suppress criminal activity but a government measure to crush what the text describes as '#anarchism,' '#collectivism,' '#SocialSolidarity,' '#MutualAid.”
"It is not simply 61 people who are on trial. By dating the case to the murder of George Floyd, the prosecution showed that their real target was the entire population of millions that participated in the consequent revolt. This is not an unusual court case, but a new chapter in the fight between those who seek to preserve the hierarchies of a structurally white supremacist society and those fighting to destroy it root and branch. The indictment does not present a list of crimes. It describes the contours and values of a rival society emerging within the movement to stop Cop City, aspiring to reinvent the world according to a different logic.
"The Fulton County Judge assigned to the RICO case immediately recused himself. Until then, judges had not recused themselves from cases related to the movement even when they possessed obvious ties to the Atlanta Police Foundation."
Full article:
https://crimethinc.com/2023/12/12/dont-stop-continuing-the-fight-against-cop-city-six-more-months-in-the-movement-to-defend-the-forest
#JusticeForTort #StopCopCity #ACAB #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SLAPPs

2023-12-25 18:02:31

#Greenpeace Stands Up Against #SLAPPs And Wins
By Joe Mullin
April 26, 2023
"The U.S. litigation system is meant to resolve serious disputes. Unfortunately, the high cost of litigation can be weaponized as a means of #harassment and #censorship. That’s become all too common, and the last few decades have seen the rise of what’s known as a #StrategicLawsuitAgainstPublicParticipation, or #SLAPP.
"At #EFF, as more speech of all types has moved online, we’ve seen SLAPPs proliferate over #DigitalSpeech. SLAPPs get filed against #protesters who oppose #OilPipelines, and regular people doing everyday things like sending #emails to local officials, or even posting an online review.
"Five years ago, together with Greenpeace and other environmental nonprofits, EFF helped create the #ProtectTheProtest coalition, or #PTP. It’s a group of nonprofits that supports its members and others in their fights against SLAPP lawsuits.
"One of the lawsuits that spurred the formation of PTP was #ResoluteForestryProducts v. Greenpeace. In this case, a #logging company claimed that Greenpeace’s advocacy for #CanadianForests amounted to a 'global #fraud' that should be punished under civil #RICO laws—U.S. federal laws that were originally intended to go after organized crime.
"Following a summary judgment hearing last week, the Resolute v. Greenpeace case has finally been put to rest, with a complete victory for Greenpeace. This baseless lawsuit, which lasted seven years, should never have been brought in the first place. We hope Greenpeace’s victory against #Resolute sends a strong message to corporate SLAPP plaintiffs—you won’t win, and your targets won’t stay silent."
Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/greenpeace-stands-against-slapps-and-wins
#DigitalFreeSpeech #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas

2023-12-06 03:04:07

via @npub1esg…qfua
Revealed: #Sellafield #nuclear site has leak that could pose risk to public
Safety concerns at #Europe’s most #hazardous plant have caused diplomatic tensions with US, Norway and Ireland
Anna Isaac and Alex Lawson
Tue 5 Dec 2023
"Sellafield, Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site, has a worsening leak from a huge silo of #RadioactiveWaste that could pose a risk to the public, the Guardian can reveal.
"Concerns over safety at the crumbling building, as well as cracks in a reservoir of toxic sludge known as B30, have caused diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to get a grip of the problems.
"The leak of radioactive liquid from one of the 'highest nuclear hazards in the UK' – a decaying building at the vast Cumbrian site known as the Magnox swarf storage Silo (MSSS) – is likely to continue to 2050. That could have 'potentially significant consequences' if it gathers pace, risking contaminating #groundwater, according to an official document.
"Cracks have also developed in the concrete and asphalt skin covering the huge pond containing decades of nuclear sludge, part of a catalogue of safety problems at the site.
"These concerns have emerged in #NuclearLeaks, a year-long #Guardian investigation into problems spanning cyber #hacking, #radioactivecontamination and toxic #workplace culture at the vast nuclear dump.
"Sellafield, a sprawling 6 sq km (2 sq mile) site on the Cumbrian coast employing 11,000 people, stores and treats nuclear waste from weapons programmes and nuclear power generation, and is the largest such facility in Europe."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/05/sellafield-nuclear-site-leak-could-pose-risk-to-public
#NoNukes #NoWar

2023-12-05 23:04:47

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@npub1typ…c8hh I have a couple of friends who are working on trying to retrofit old cars and trucks as hybrids or EVs. They are made tough and last for years if maintained properly. My late uncle used to restore old cars and trucks right up until he couldn't do it anymore.

2023-11-28 00:46:49

Threat of massive drinking #WaterCrisis looms over American regions: ‘There will be parts of the U.S. that run out’
Story by Wes Stenzel, November 27, 2023
"A new study from The New York Times has revealed that substantial, consistent damage is being done to the #groundwater supply in the United States, which has massive negative implications for #agriculture, #DrinkingWater, construction, and more.
"What’s happening?
"In the past four decades, more than half of all American groundwater sites have been substantially depleted, as more water has been taken out than replenished naturally.
"Additionally, 40 percent of all locations have hit an all-time low.
"Pumping out groundwater disrupts layers of different substances below the Earth’s surface, as the ground can settle into the area where the water is taken out and take up space where it would ordinarily replenish.
"The New York Times sees a lack of regulation as one of the biggest issues regarding groundwater use. Additionally, The Times claims there is very little significant research and data tracking on a countrywide scale.
"Why is groundwater use important?
"Groundwater is essential to agriculture, and the depletion of the resource could fundamentally disrupt crop yields in the coming years in states such as Kansas, where the natural groundwater cannot support the agricultural industry anymore, according to The Times. Meanwhile, more arid states like California, Texas, and Utah are seeing widespread infrastructural damage to roads and the ground due to overpumping. Phoenix does not have enough groundwater in certain areas to construct new homes."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/threat-of-massive-drinking-water-crisis-looms-over-american-regions-there-will-be-parts-of-the-u-s-that-run-out/ar-AA1gYFLz?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=971c8e943db148f9f5b2886e53bb3cf4&ei=6
#WaterIsLife #WaterExtraction #BlueTriton #Nestle #PolandSpring #BigWater

2023-11-26 21:59:17

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Heh. So, my grandparents bought this for me because it was cheaper than replacing all the electronics I kept taking apart! 😉

2023-11-25 21:16:37

A proposed #lithium mine presents a #climate versus #environment conflict
By David Boraks
November 12, 2022
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - “As world leaders meet for another climate summit in Egypt, the U.S. is pushing to mine more lithium for electric vehicle batteries at home. #EVs will help cut pollution from transportation, the nation's largest source of #GreenhouseGas emissions that cause global warming. But there's a tradeoff, as residents have learned near #CharlotteNC, where a big #OpenPit mine is proposed.
“A company called #PiedmontLithium wants to build a mine and processing operation on 1,500 acres in northern Gaston County, about 30 miles west of Charlotte.
“Emily Winter, a community relations coordinator and geologist for Piedmont, leads the way to a large rock outcrop near what someday might be the mine's South Pit.
“'So within this rock, it contains spodumene, the mineral. And that mineral spodumene contains lithium that we can convert to lithium hydroxide that then goes into batteries,' Winter explains.
“Lithium deposits run through the county in a mile-wide north-south band, known as the Carolina #Tin-#Spodumene Belt. For decades in the 20th century, mines here supplied most of the world's lithium, until cheaper sources were found in #SouthAmerica and #Australia. Now the element is in high demand for electric vehicle #batteries, and #investors see an opportunity.
“'There is very little production of lithium raw materials, or any battery raw materials, in the US. The potential's there, but it'll take time to bring it online,' says Piedmont Lithium CEO Keith Phillips.
“When Piedmont Lithium dedicated its new headquarters in the nearby town of Belmont this summer, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis was there. The North Carolina Republican said the U.S. needs its own sources of lithium and lithium processing to counter #China.
“'The Chinese have a stated strategy of being the world's economic and military superpower by 2050. And they don't intend to do that through a great war. They intend to do it by putting their tentacles around the globe, economically,' Tillis said. 'They intend to make sure that the western world is dependent upon them for lithium, for tantalum, for #RareEarthMinerals, so that they can literally beat us by never firing a shot.'
“Tillis said that's why he supports Piedmont Lithium's efforts to open a new mine - as long as it's done in an #EnvironmentallyResponsible way. But that's the catch.
“Piedmont's plans call for four open-pit mines 500 feet deep. That means demolishing houses, digging up #farm #fields and #woods, and disrupting #streams. Some neighbors have sold their land to the company. But others whose property borders the site aren't happy.
“Locke Bell owns 120 acres backing up to the planned South Pit. 'Relative to the proposed mine, I have 4,160 feet of common boundary,' he says.
“Bell is a former district attorney and has been following Piedmont's plans since 2017, when the company approached him about mining on his land. He declined the offer after seeing a detailed map of the proposed mine.
“'Suddenly, I saw these massive mines - open pits... We have enough of that around here that's #toxic already,'' he says.
“He's talking about old lithium mines nearby that closed in the 1980s and 1990s and are now contaminated with arsenic, which occurs naturally in the area's soil and rocks.
“A few miles away on the other side of the mine site, Warren Snowdon has similar concerns. His family's old farm is just across a stream, about 600 yards, from the planned #EastPit. He's helping to lead an opposition group called #StopPiedmontLithium.
“'Our issue is on every front: It's water. It's air. It's light pollution. It's noise. It's traffic. Get us a solar farm. Get us a wind farm,' says Snowdon, who is quick to say he's not opposed to the country's transition to #renewable energy.
“State and local officials still must approve the mine
“Piedmont Lithium still needs key approvals, including state air and mining permits. Both are delayed while the company responds to requests for more information from North Carolina agencies. Piedmont also faces local political opposition.
“Chad Brown chairs the Gaston County Commission, which will have to approve a rezoning for the mine.
“'With the information I have right now, I probably would not call for a vote on this,' Brown says. 'I would have to have tons of more information just for the environmental side, and as far as #AirQuality, #WaterQuality, different things like that.'
“Last year, the commission adopted a 60-day moratorium so it could update its zoning rules to allow a mine. The ordinance has some teeth - it limits blasting and truck traffic, Brown says. But he's not sure Piedmont will be able to get the electricity and water it needs for mining and processing.
“Asked if he thinks the mining project will happen, he says, 'I think right now, you're still at 50-50, just for the simple fact of it's a long way out.'
“Still, Piedmont Lithium's CEO Keith Phillips is optimistic.
“'So the permitting process is more involved, and it will take longer. And our plan, our hope, is that we'll be in production in Carolina in 2026, and will be fully permitted and approved and funded sometime in 2024,' he says.
“While it pursues that goal, the company has a backup plan: It's building a processing plant in #Tennessee with help from a $141.7 million federal grant. And it's counting on mines in #Quebec and #Ghana to supply lithium ore.
“Piedmont's North Carolina neighbors are rooting for that backup plan instead of the open-pit lithium mine in their community."
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/12/1131365516/a-proposed-lithium-mine-presents-a-climate-versus-environment-conflict
#ExtractiveMining #WaterIsLife

2023-11-21 00:29:51

The #Arctic #permafrost is 1,000 years old. As it thaws, scientists worry what it might unleash
Story by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY • November 20, 2023
"WASHINGTON — Deadly pathogens lying dormant in centuries-old Arctic permafrost could become the latest threat from global climate change.
"The potential release of the pathogens has seized the attention of federal government scientists, medical professionals and Pentagon officials. Pathogens – disease-causing organisms – have been trapped for centuries in frozen ground across the Arctic, including vast swaths of #Alaska, #Canada and #Russia. #ClimateChange has had a big impact on the far north, where temperatures have risen at two to four times the rate of the rest of the world.
"In one troubling case, dozens of people were sickened − and thousands of reindeer were killed − when #anthrax spores emerged from the thawing permafrost in an Arctic region of #Siberia and caught local human and animal populations by surprise, researchers say.
"Warming temperatures across the globe could unleash a slew of microbes whose impact on humans, plants and animals is unknown.
“'We know there’s #bacterial, #fungal and #viral #pathogens that are in permafrost,' said Jill Brandenberger, climate security research lead at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. 'We know that upon thaw, all three of those classes of pathogens could be released. What we don’t know is how viable it is for them to stay alive and then infect.'"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-arctic-permafrost-is-1-000-years-old-as-it-thaws-scientists-worry-what-it-might-unleash/ar-AA1k8iZg?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=4e1fc8e28bee4c3a95bafddfc614025b&ei=5
#GlobalWarming #ClimateCrisis #MeltingPermafrost #AncientPathogens

2023-11-19 00:10:27

I started reporting about #PeabodyCoal and #BigMountainResistance in my online 'zine back in the 1990s. I tried my best to get the word out about what was going on from my email buddy Brenda Norrell (founder of Censored News), as well as folks on the ground via written correspondence. I even sent care packages with supplies to help out grandmothers who were resisting the #BIA and #PeabodyCoal (now #PeabodyEnergy). I wish I could say that humans have evolved and changed, but alas, we've taken steps backward! #Colonialism is far from dead, and we must defend #IndigenousPeoples against #CorporateColonialism!

2023-11-18 17:59:07

Prosecutors add #HateCrime allegations in shooting over Spanish conquistador statue
AP, November 3, 2023
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — "State prosecutors added hate-crime allegations Thursday to charges of attempted murder against a New Mexico man accused in the shooting of a Native American activist amid confrontations about aborted plans to reinstall a statue of a Spanish conquistador in public, at a court hearing Thursday in northern New Mexico.
"Defendant Ryan David Martinez pleaded not guilty to all charges at the arraignment overseen by a district court judge from a courthouse in TierraAmarilla.
"Assistant District Attorney Tony Long indicated that his office will pursue sentence enhancements based on the use of a firearm and try to prove that the shooting was motivated by bias against a particular social group.
"Martinez was arrested on Sept. 28 after chaos erupted and a single shot was fired at an outdoor gathering in Española over canceled plans to install a bronze likeness of conquistador Juan de #Oñate, who is both revered and reviled for his role in establishing early settlements along the Upper Rio Grande starting in 1598.
"The shooting severely wounded #JacobJohns, of Spokane, Washington, a well-traveled #activist for #environmental causes and an advocate for Native American rights who is of #Hopi and Akimel #Oodham tribal descent.
"He had joined other advocates for #NativeAmericanRights as they celebrated with song, prayer and speeches the county's decision not to install the statue that day.
"Under state law, a hate-crime sentence enhancement could extend prison time by up to a year. The firearm-related enhancements could add up to eight years in prison.
"Initial felony charges against Martinez carry possible sentences of up to 16 years and six months in prison, along with possible fines and parole, Long told the court. A misdemeanor charge of reckless driving could add up to 90 days in prison.
"State District Court Judge Jason Lidyard scheduled a jury trial for May 2024. He has ordered that Martinez remain in jail pending trial."
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/03/prosecutors-add-hate-crime-allegations-in-shooting-over-spanish-conquistador-statue/71438113007/
#ClimateActivist #ClimateJustice #IndigenousActivists #NewMexico #MAGA #Conquistadors

2023-11-18 16:15:41

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@npub1vs7…a6g3 The shelves are red and the books are read!

2023-11-17 21:10:47

How the #NativeAmerican Vote Continues to be Suppressed
by Patty Ferguson-Bohnee
February, 2020
"The right to vote has been an uphill battle for #NativeAmericans. The #VotingRightsAct of 1965 helped to secure and protect that right for many Native Americans and #AlaskaNatives. With the Voting Rights Act, voter participation among Native Americans increased. However, the Supreme Court invalidated the Section 5 preclearance formula in 2013 (Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013)), removing one of the most powerful tools to ensure equal access to the ballot, including Alaska and Arizona, and two jurisdictions in South Dakota with significant Native American and Alaska Native populations. Since the Shelby County decision, efforts to suppress the vote have increased. For Native Americans, these voter suppression efforts can and do have devastating impacts.
"Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, many Native Americans living on reservations continued to be excluded from the democratic process. In 1948, Native Americans in #NewMexico and #Arizona successfully litigated their right to vote. #Utah and #NorthDakota became the last states to afford on-reservation Native Americans the right to vote in 1957 and 1958, respectively. When the right to vote was finally secured, voter suppression laws kept Native Americans from voting and seeking elected office. In Arizona, for example, Native Americans could not fully participate in voting until 1970 when the Supreme Court upheld the ban against using literacy tests (Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970)). Today, the right to vote continues to be challenged through the passage of new laws and practices that either fail to consider, disregard, or intentionally target Native American voters.
"In order to understand the challenges faced by Native American voters, one must recognize the vast differences in experiences, opportunities, and realities facing on-reservation voters as compared to off-reservation voters.
"I will never forget the #Navajo grandmother who spoke only Navajo and could not vote after Arizona passed its voter ID law in 2004. She tried several times to obtain an Arizona ID on her own but was denied because she was born at home in a hogan, and the boarding schools changed her Navajo name to English. She lived in a modest home on the Navajo Reservation without electricity and running water, and lived a traditional lifestyle taking care of her sheep. She was embarrassed and devastated when she was turned away from the polls for not having an ID. Working with her, a team from the Indian Legal Clinic traveled five hours to meet her at multiple agency offices to obtain her delayed birth certificate; we then went to two separate Motor Vehicle Division Offices. The first one did not issue same-day photo IDs, and the other initially denied her request. The office rejected her delayed Navajo birth certificate, until I was able to intervene and demonstrate to them that it was an acceptable document. The system failed to consider her reality as a Navajo woman and failed to value her as a voter. Fortunately, she was persistent in exercising her right to vote, but not all voters are, nor should they have to be.
"This example helps explain why voting can be difficulty for Native American voters. Turnout for Native Americans is the lowest in the country, as compared to other groups. While a number of issues contribute to the low voter turnout, a study conducted by the Native American Voting Rights Coalition found that low levels of trust in government, lack of information on how and where to register and to vote, long travel distances to register or to vote, low levels of access to the internet, hostility toward Native Americans, and intimidation are obstacles. Isolating conditions such as language barriers, socioeconomic disparities, lack of access to transportation, lack of residential #addresses, lack of access to #mail, and the digital divide limit Native American political participation. Changes to voting processes further frustrate the ability of Native Americans to vote."
Read more:
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/voting-rights/how-the-native-american-vote-continues-to-be-suppressed/
#RightToVote #VoterSuppression

2023-11-13 23:45:30

Oh, this ought to help the #homeless problem in the #UK...NOT!
#Welfare cuts worth billions planned by ministers
By Michael Buchanan and Judith Burns
BBC News
November 12, 2023
"Ministers have drawn up large benefit changes for people who are unable to work due to health conditions, the BBC has learned.
"The changes, affecting hundreds of thousands of people from 2025, would save £4bn from the welfare budget.
"The proposals would see many more people forced to find work despite suffering from a range of physical and mental health conditions."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67385385
#EndCorporateWelfare #BasicIncomeForAll #HousingForAll #Disabled #Homelessness

2023-11-13 23:23:06

Um, Happy #Diwali?
#Delhi AQI: Toxic #haze in #India capital after Diwali festival
November 13, 2023
"People in the city burst crackers late into Sunday night despite a ban on fireworks due to high #pollution levels.
"Delhi has been battling #ToxicAir for weeks, with the government announcing an early winter break for schools in an effort to protect children.
"The city has high pollution through the year due to factors including #vehicular emissions and dust.
But the problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighbouring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants - such as those produced by firecrackers - in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.
"On Monday afternoon, according to the federal government's Safar app, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 445, with some places recording readings above 520. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 - fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases - in the air.
"Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate, while those between 201 and 300 are poor. Between 301 and 400 is categorised as 'very poor' and a figure higher than 400 is considered 'severe'.
The World Health Organization's guidelines say that exposure to PM 2.5 over a 24-hour-period should be limited to 15 micrograms per cubic metre - but Delhi's AQI in some parts is 30 times higher than the recommended level.
"Lung specialists say breathing the capital's toxic air is akin to smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day.
"Prolonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause discomfort and breathing difficulties for people. It can also trigger skin and eye irritation and cause severe neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, lung capacity loss, emphysema, cancer, and increased mortality rates.
"India's Supreme Court has banned the use of firecrackers during Diwali, only allowing 'green crackers' or those with reduced emissions. The Delhi government has also banned firecrackers during Diwali for the past few years, but there is little enforcement of the rule.
"The ban on fireworks has also developed political tones, with some arguing that it is an attempt to target Hindu festivals.
"On Monday, Delhi's environment minister Gopal Rai alleged that leaders from the #Hindu #Nationalist #BharatiyaJanataParty (#BJP) - which is in power nationally but in the opposition in Delhi - had 'incited' people to light firecrackers."
Full article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-67400426

2023-11-12 02:25:30

Anti-Defamation League Maps Jewish #PeaceRallies With #Antisemitic Attacks
American Jews have mobilized several thousand #Jews across the U.S. to call for a #ceasefire in #Gaza. #ADL calls these Jewish organizations 'hate groups.'
Micah Lee
November 11 2023, 6:00 a.m.
“On October 27, several thousand Jews and their allies shut down the main terminal of Grand Central Station during rush hour in New York City, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the activists at the peaceful sit-in wore black T-shirts that read 'Not In Our Name.' 'It’s the largest sit-in protest the city has seen in over two decades,' Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman said. About 400 people were arrested, including rabbis.
“The Anti-Defamation League has classified the event — and dozens of other protests led by Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow — as 'anti-Israel,' according to an analysis by The Intercept, and added them to their database documenting rising antisemitism across the U.S.
“’We’re seeing a genuine rise in antisemitic attacks and white nationalist, white supremacist, antisemitic hate and violence,' Eva Borgwardt, the national spokesperson for IfNotNow, told me. 'When white nationalism is on the rise, to cheapen the accusation of antisemitism by applying it to Palestinian rights advocates, including Jews, is incredibly irresponsible and dangerous.'
“Since Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack on southern Israel where Palestinian militants killed over 1,400 Israelis — most of them civilians — and took over 200 hostages, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group that tracks antisemitism and extremism, has been keeping track of the alarming rise of antisemitic incidents.
“In 2020, over 100 #progressive organizations — including the #MovementForBlackLives, #DemocraticSocialists of America, and Center for Constitutional Rights — signed an open letter asking the progressive community to not partner with ADL because the group 'has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking #SocialJustice movements led by communities of color, #queer people, #immigrants, #Muslims, #Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with #police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence.' Now, ADL is targeting a new group of people: #ProgressiveJews.
“Israel’s indiscriminate massacre of civilians in Gaza — killing over 10,000 Palestinians so far in the densely populated Gaza Strip, including over 4,000 children — has led to the largest anti-war protests in the U.S. since the Iraq War, including a surge of renewed activism from progressive Jewish groups. Israel has bombed Gaza nonstop since the October 7 attack, ordered the relocation of over 1 million civilians, launched a ground invasion, and is blocking food, water, medical supplies, and fuel from making it into Gaza, triggering a #HumanitarianCrisis and leading to what legal scholars call a #genocide against #Palestinians.
"While the ADL told The Intercept that it does not consider the ceasefire protests 'antisemitic,' just 'anti-Israel,' its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, has said otherwise. After several thousand Jews and their allies marched on the U.S. Capitol on October 18 calling for a ceasefire, ADL DC released a statement equating #antiZionism with antisemitism. Greenblatt piled on, calling the groups that organized the protest, including Jewish Voice for Peace, 'hate groups.'"
Full article:
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/11/palestine-israel-protests-ceasefire-antisemitic/
#JVP #CeasefireNow

2023-11-11 17:50:24

Revenge of the #Renter
Hundreds of #tenants, struggling to afford skyrocketing rents, are refusing to pay their #landlords at all. They call it a #RentStrike. The landlords say it’s illegal. An inside look at the frontier of a growing #ClassWar
Jason McBride November 9, 2023
"33 King was an inexpensive, aging highrise, but it was a bastion of affordability in a city that seemed to grow more expensive every year. In 2010, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor that rented for less than $1,000. Two years later they had their first child, Xavier. [Their rent initially was $700 a month. It has more than doubled!]
"Then, in 2013, the landlord, a company called Realstar, informed Henry that her rent was going up that year by 5.5 per cent. She was confused. 33 King was rent-controlled—increases were capped in 2013 at 2.5 per cent. But there was a loophole: in Ontario, landlords can apply for what’s called an above guideline increase, or #AGI, to make major repairs. Realstar fixed the roof and elevators that year, so Henry thought it might be a one-off. When it happened again the next year, with an increase of 3.8 per cent, well above that year’s 0.8 per cent guideline, she and her neighbours were incensed. They’d long talked about deteriorating conditions in the building and regular maintenance that seemed to go undone. Some felt the AGIs were simply a way for #Realstar to boost the value of its asset by squeezing extra money out of its tenants.
"In 2017, Henry started working on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant in nearby Brampton, and became a member of Unifor. It was the first time she’d joined a union, and it was exciting to be part of a group of people banding together to fight for their rights. Energized by that experience, in 2018, she helped form a tenants’ association at 33 King to fight future AGIs. Still, they kept coming—in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
That year, a company called #DreamUnlimited, a #realestate giant with $23 billion worth of assets, bought 33 King. Because the 2019 and 2021 AGIs were still pending approval by Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board, or LTB, Dream inherited the applications. Henry and other tenants wasted no time making their feelings about them known to the new owners. Working with the York South-Weston #TenantUnion, or YSWTU—an umbrella organization for 13 tenants’ associations in the area—they staged protests, called Dream’s president, Michael Cooper, and went to the media in a bid to have the AGIs cancelled.
"The movement hasn’t come without consequences. Dream has initiated eviction proceedings for more than 70 tenants at 33 King, and Starlight has started them for 75 in Thorncliffe Park. More are likely to come, but the strikers have remained resolute, the fear of losing their homes outweighed by the impossibility of continuing the status quo.
"Their fights are just beginning. Tenant #activism is flaring across the country as renters face skyrocketing rents and deteriorating living conditions in the most brutal #housing market in memory. Whatever their outcome, the Toronto rent strikes are the latest, loudest volley in a brewing class war."
https://macleans.ca/longforms/rent-strikes-canada/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
#Toronto #TenantActivism #Canada #HousingMarket #UnaffordableHousing #TenantsRights #CorporateLandlords #Greed

2023-11-05 17:40:56

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For this event, I hand-painted some #GuyFawkes masks, which I raffled off to raise money for a homeless shelter.
#Anonymous #GuyFawkesDay #PaintedMasks
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/358/918/870/045/843/original/77cdcee4f81b1747.jpg
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/358/919/955/211/350/original/b8523eb21c7bae05.jpg
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/358/919/968/332/734/original/7d331118054dd040.jpg
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/358/919/979/161/259/original/04128e84cfc49fae.png

2023-11-05 17:05:09

The flyer from a food drive and fundraiser I organized back in 2016. It felt good to help others, but now there are so many more in need. Something needs to change. The current power structure isn't benefiting humans or the planet...
#OpSafeWinter #PortlandMaine #StopTheSweep #Evolution #Revolution #Anonymous #GuyFawkesDay #BonfireNight #GeneralStrike
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/358/776/765/361/229/original/ce772e399665d314.jpg

2023-11-04 18:09:09

#JustStopOil #protesters arrested after 10 minutes under UK’s ‘repressive’ new #AntiProtestLaws
The #UK is following in other #European countries footsteps with new powers to break up the #climate group's slow marches.
By Euronews Green
Published on 31/10/2023
"More than 60 #CimateActivists have been arrested in #London under the UK’s 'repressive' new anti-protest laws.
"Just Stop Oil protesters were taking part in a ‘slow march’ around Parliament Square yesterday morning (30 October), demanding an end to new #oil and #gas licenses.
"Within 10 minutes, Metropolitan police arrived - blocking their path and forcing activists off the road. When this proved unsuccessful, videos and photos show police kneeling on and handcuffing protesters, before carrying them into vans.
"This is the first time that the Met have made arrests under section 7 of the #PublicOrderAct 2023, which bans any activity that 'interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in #England and #Wales.'
"It’s part of a wider European crackdown on #DirectAction protests. #France and #Germany have taken an #AntiTerror approach to some #demonstrations; toughening #surveillance and #detention laws and even launching dawn raids on the homes of #LastGeneration members."
Read more:
https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/10/31/just-stop-oil-protesters-arrested-after-10-minutes-under-uks-repressive-new-anti-protest-l
#BigOilAndGas #Fascism #Corporatocracy #ClimateJustice #OilAndGasIndustry #Environment #HumanRights

2023-11-02 15:43:36

From 9/11 to Benjamin #Netanyahu: The world is learning that #ToxicMasculinity can't keep us safe
Feminists have long warned about men who hide incompetence with belligerence — #Israel proves them right
By Amanda Marcotte
"As feminists have long argued, that's one of the most maddening aspects of toxic masculinity: It dupes people into confusing big talk for real action. #Authoritarian men like Netanyahu — or like #DonaldTrump — love to preen about how strong and powerful they supposedly are. It's all a lie, of course, and they often expose themselves as cowards who cringe away from real challenges. But what's alarming is that sexism tricks large swaths of the public into voting for them, supporting them or otherwise putting their trust in men who brag loudly but fail to show any real competence."
Read more:
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/02/from-911-to-benjamin-netanyahu-the-world-is-learning-that-masculinity-cant-keep-us-safe/

2023-10-28 21:24:17

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No biased #algorithms! And being able to #EditPosts! That right there is worth the learning curve! The only feature I wish we had here is the ability to share #lists. Perhaps in a future update?
#WelcomeNewUsers #Fediverse #feditips

2023-10-15 01:51:57

Um, my old conspiracy-watching self is getting the heebie-jeebies with this story. Are they planning on making room for #ClimateActivists and #HumanRightsActivists? Especially since standing up for #ClimateJustice and #HumanRights seems to becoming a crime.
Billion-dollar supersize prisons are slated to be built across the U.S. But do they help or hurt public safety?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/billion-dollar-prisons-built-across-us-public-safety-090001432.html
#Orwell #ClimateProtests #Fascism #ACAB #Oligarchy

2023-10-14 23:53:46

Thousands of #Jewish Americans and Allies Demand Cease-Fire in #Gaza
"We as #AmericanJews believe that 'never again' means never again for anyone, and that includes #Palestinians," said #JewishVoiceForPeace
Julia Conley
Oct 14, 2023
"As the Biden administration's intent to silence dissent against the United States' backing of the Israel Defense Forces' onslaught in Gaza became increasingly clear Friday night, at least 80 Jewish Americans and other supporters of Palestinians' #HumanRights were #arrested for #protesting outside the homes and offices of a number of Democratic lawmakers, where they demanded the U.S. government join growing calls for a cease-fire.
"The U.S. group Jewish Voice for Peace (#JVP) organized the mass action, along with calling on Americans to contact their representatives in Congress and demand that they speak out against the air assault Israel launched this week in retaliation for #Hamas' brutal attack last weekend.
"At least 2,215 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes this week, and at least 8,714 people have been injured. The death toll in Israel has reached 1,300, according to Al Jazeera.
"Human rights advocates have warned that a looming ground offensive by the #IDF in Gaza could rapidly push civilian casualties far higher.
"On Friday, JVP led more than 2,000 protesters in five U.S. cities—#NewYorkCity, #SanFrancisco, #LosAngeles, #Chicago, and #Seattle—in demanding that senators and members of the U.S. House act to halt the '#genocide of Palestinians.'
''We as American Jews believe that 'never again' means never again for anyone, and that includes Palestinians," said JVP, referring to the refrain repeated by the Jewish American community regarding the need to prevent genocide. "'Never again' is this very moment."
"Thousands of people gathered at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and marched to Senate Majority Leader Chuck #Schumer's (D-N.Y.) home, where they blocked the road. Approximately 60 people were 'dragged away by police,' JVP said.
"New York state Assemblymembers #ZohranMamdani (D-36) and #MarcelaMitaynes (D-51) were among those arrested."
Full article:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-americans-protest-gaza

2023-10-14 21:25:14

2019: #BernieSanders wants to tax companies that pay their #CEOs way more than their #workers
Bernie Sanders has a new corporate tax plan.
By Tara Golshan Updated Oct 1, 2019
"There are striking pay disparities between those in the C-suites of the biggest companies in the United States and the average workers.
"An average American #CEO at a S&P 500 company earned $14.5 million in 2018, the same year an average worker made $39,888. Over the last decade, CEOs’ average pay has increased by $5.2 million. In ten years, the average American worker’s pay hasn’t even increased by $10,000, according to the AFL-CIO labor federation’s analysis of the federal data.
"A new IPS study found only five S&P 500 firms had CEO-to-worker pay ratios of less than 25 to 1. More shockingly, 49 of the 500 largest publicly traded firms have a median worker pay below the U.S. poverty line for a family of four. The median 2018 CEO pay at these 49 firms is $12.3 million.
"Publicly held companies are required to file their CEO-to-worker pay ratios with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
"These filings showed #Walmart paid its CEO 1,076 times more than the median Walmart worker last year — $23.6 million to $21,952. #JeffBezos gets paid 58 times the median #Amazon worker. The CEO of #TheGap makes a staggering 3,566 times what the clothing retailer’s median worker makes. These are the companies that would get hit by Sanders’s Income Inequality Tax. His plan would direct the Treasury to collect CEO-to-worker pay ratio data from privately held companies — and make it public — and also issue regulations around tax avoidance."
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/30/20890172/bernie-sanders-ceo-corporate-tax-plan-2020
#CorporateTaxDodgers #Oligarchy
#OilAndGasIndustry
#Oiligarchy
#Corporatocracy
#Corporatism

2023-10-14 20:46:02

2022: #BernieSanders wants a 95% tax on #BigCorporations' pandemic-era profits to bring down rising prices
by Joseph Zeballos-Roig and Juliana Kaplan
Mar 25, 2022
- Sanders wants to hit all large firms with a 95% windfall tax on their revenue.
- Under the plan, #Amazon would have paid $28.6 billion in 2021.
- Its reach goes far beyond the #OilAndGasIndustry.
- Deemed a "temporary emergency measure," the tax would only be in place from 2022 to 2024. The levy would bring in $400 billion in just one year.
Sanders: "We cannot allow #BigOil companies and other large, profitable corporations to continue to use the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the specter of #inflation to make o#bscene profits by price gouging #Americans at the gas pump, the grocery store, or any other sector of our economy."
https://www.businessinsider.com/sanders-windfall-tax-large-companies-cut-high-prices-2022-3?op=1
#CorporateTaxDodgers #Oligarchy
#OilAndGasIndustry
#Oiligarchy
#Corporatocracy
#Corporatism

2023-10-13 20:58:41

WTF!
#Israel Accused of 'Blatant War Crime' as #HRW Confirms White Phosphorus Used in #Gaza
"Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering"
by Brett Wilkins, Oct 12, 2023
24
"Human Rights Watch on Thursday said it has confirmed reports that Israeli military forces unleashed white phosphorus munitions during artillery attacks on targets in #Lebanon and Gaza this week, including over a heavily populated civilian area of the besieged #Palestinian strip—an apparent war crime.
"HRW said it has interviewed witnesses and verified video footage shot in Lebanon and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday 'showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white #phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.'
"The HRW announcement came as Israeli forces continue to bombard Gaza from air, land, and sea in an assault that has killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, including at least 500 #children, in retaliation for #Hamas' surprise infiltration of #Israel and killing of over 1,300 #Israeli soldiers and civilians."
Full article:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-white-phosphorus
#WhitePhosphorus #WarCrimes #HumanRights

2023-10-13 01:24:49

A Secretive Network Is Fighting #IndigenousRights in #Australia and #Canada, Expert Says
It’s all part of a global playbook from the U.S.-based #AtlasNetwork to protect the profits of #FossilFuel and #mining companies, argues a Sydney researcher.
By Geoff Dembicki
Oct 10, 2023
"A campaign to deny #IndigenousPeoples a voice in Australia’s national Parliament is using tactics similar to an earlier conservative legal battle against #FirstNations communities in Canada, a new research paper argues.
"That’s no coincidence, according to the paper’s author Jeremy Walker, because think tanks linked to these efforts in Canada and Australia belong to a secretive U.S. organization called the Atlas Network that’s received support from #oil, #gas and #coal companies and operates in nearly 100 countries.
"'The coordinated opposition to Indigenous constitutional recognition by the Australian arm of the Atlas Network we can assume is motivated by the same intentions underlying the permanent Atlas campaign against climate policy [globally],' writes Walker, a senior lecturer in social and political sciences at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.
'That is, to minimise the possibility of democratic government challenging the ever-expanding frontier of fossil fuel extraction,' he argues, a charge one conservative Australian advocacy group strongly denies.
"On #October14, Australians will vote 'yes' or 'no' in a referendum that would amend the country’s constitution to create a permanent First Nations advisory body in the country’s Parliament.
"'Most Australians understand that generations of Australian government policy have failed First Nations peoples,' UNSW Sydney professor Megan Davis, who is a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation, told the Guardian earlier this year. 'The voice referendum is an opportunity for all of us Australians to make the difference.'
"Earlier this spring national support for the 'yes' position was over 60 percent but by September it had collapsed to 40 percent or less, polling cited by Walker suggests.
Walker attributes that largely to the efforts of a #conservative advocacy group called #Advance, which has led an extensive media campaign urging people to vote 'No' in the referendum. 'The ‘Indigenous Voice to Parliament’ will wreck our Constitution, rewire our democracy, and divide Australians by race. It’s divisive, it’s dangerous, it’s expensive and it’s not fair,' reads a website created by Advance.
The campaign’s main spokespeople are Indigenous – Warren Mundine and Australian Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – and they have been interviewed frequently in the country’s mainstream media. Yet few Australians are aware of Mundine and Price’s connections to the wider Atlas Network, Walker argues.
"Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is another ‘No’ campaigner with Atlas ties.
Both 'No' campaigners are long-time contributors to the Centre for Independent Studies, Walker’s paper explains, a conservative think tank founded in 1976 with grants from resource extraction companies such as #Shell, #RioTinto and #WesternMiningCorporation.
The Center for Independent Studies is in turn a member of the Atlas Network, a Virginia-based organization whose members include hundreds of conservative think tanks and organizations across the world, many of whom are active spreaders of doubt about the severity of climate change.
One of the Center for Independent Studies’ first board members, Maurice Newman, was revealed as an early backer of the organization Advance in 2018, which is now leading efforts against the Indigenous referendum. And Advance’s lead 'No' campaigner Mundine is chairman of LibertyWorks, a conservative group also associated with the Atlas Network.
"Despite these connections, Advance strongly disputes any association with Atlas.
'We have never heard of the Atlas Network and absolutely reject the incorrect assertion we have any connection to them at all,' a spokesperson for Advance wrote in an email to DeSmog. 'The idea that our referendum campaign is being conducted or coordinated by ‘fossil-fuel corporations and their allies’ or the Atlas Network is wrong and frankly bizarre.'
"In addition to Australia and dozens of other countries, several Atlas Network members are based in Canada. And they too have led efforts attempting to undermine greater recognition of Indigenous legal rights. An Ottawa-based think tank and Atlas member called the MacDonald Laurier Institute spent years advocating against Canada’s federal government adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, otherwise known as #UNDRIP.
"That’s because UNDRIP contained clauses that could potentially give Canada’s Indigenous peoples greater say over fossil fuel and natural resource projects on their territories. 'It is difficult to overstate the legal and economic disruptions that may have followed from such a step,' read documents produced by the Atlas Network and the Macdonald Laurier Institute that were obtained by DeSmog.
"The think tank has actively cultivated #ProIndustry Indigenous representatives as the face of its advocacy efforts on this and other natural resources issues in order to provide 'a shield against opponents that is hard to undermine,' according to the documents. First Nations critics refer to such strategies as '#redwashing.'
"'It’s a way of [industry] making their claims about their relationship with Indigenous peoples sound better than they actually are in reality,' Kris Statnyk, a #Gwichin First Nation lawyer based in British Columbia, told Drilled this summer.
"Walker sees a parallel between those tactics, and the current effort in Australia to prevent First Nations from having greater representation in that country’s Parliament. The 'No' campaign led by the group Advance prominently features Indigenous Australians arguing against the referendum, despite polling commissioned by advocates suggesting that 80 percent or more of First Nations people in the country support the initiative.
Like in Canada, some Australian fossil fuel and mining projects are located in or adjacent to the traditional territories of First Nations.
"Several Indigenous communities have led legal challenges against gas and coal expansion. 'Should an Indigenous Voice be constitutionalised in Parliament, First Nations representatives might raise objections to such fossil and mining projects,' Walker writes.
He argues that this is what’s at stake in the upcoming referendum vote.
"'The effort to deny Aboriginal Australians a voice is part of a global playbook from Atlas and its allies,' Walker told DeSmog. 'They’ve also used it in Canada and likely anywhere else that greater Indigenous rights could impact fossil fuel and mining profits.'"
https://www.desmog.com/2023/10/10/a-secretive-network-is-fighting-indigenous-rights-in-australia-and-canada-expert-says/
#VoteYes #Yes23 #VoteYesAustralia

2023-10-13 00:46:29

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1981-90: #Nicaragua
"The United States has a long history of meddling in Nicaragua. Between 1912 and 1933, the U.S. military occupied the country.
"Between 1981 and 1986, President #RonaldReagan’s administration secretly and illegally sold arms to #Iran in order to fund #Contras, a group the #CIA had recruited and organized to fight the #socialist #Sandinista government led by #DanielOrtega. In 1986, details of the #IranContra Affair became public, resulting in congressional investigations.
"#Ortega’s Sandinista government ended in 1990 with the election of opposition candidate #VioletaChamorro as president amid reports that the United States had provided funding to help her win."
https://www.history.com/news/us-overthrow-foreign-governments
#HumanRights  #Covert  #Corporatism  #Corporatocracy  #Corruption  #Capitalism  #Colonialism

2023-10-12 18:23:11

[Thread] 10 Times America Helped Overthrow a Foreign Government
The #US has long facilitated #RegimeChange to support its own #strategic and #business interests.
By: Becky Little
Published: June 7, 2022
"Throughout its history, the United States has used its military and covert operations to overthrow or prop up foreign governments in the name of preserving U.S. strategic and business interests.
"U.S. intervention in foreign governments began with attacks on and displacement of #sovereign #TribalNations in North America. In the 1890s, this type of imperialist activity, fueled by the idea of #ManifestDestiny, expanded overseas when the U.S. overthrew the #HawaiianKingdom and annexed its islands. As America annexed more overseas territories for its empire, it began to intervene frequently in other countries’ governments—particularly those in its backyard.
"'During the early 20th century, the United States intervened relentlessly in the #CaribbeanBasin,' says Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and author of Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from #Hawaii to #Iraq.
"After World War II, the United States began using the newly established Central Intelligence Agency [#CIA] to overthrow governments all over the world in a more covert manner. U.S. leaders rationalized many of these interventions as necessary for preventing the spread of communism according to the Cold War domino theory. Similarly, 21st-century leaders would later defend U.S. #MiddleEast interventions as necessary for fighting terrorism."
https://www.history.com/news/us-overthrow-foreign-governments
#HumanRights #CIA #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism

2023-10-11 02:25:46

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@npub1mle…e375 @npub1s7w…sevu "Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day, every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay, I'll be watching you"
- The Police, 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs

2023-10-09 18:16:50

How to observe #IndigenousPeoplesDay in #Maine
Dan Neumann October 6, 2023
"Tribal members and supporters will rally outside the Maine State House in Augusta on Indigenous People’s Day for #Wabanaki self-determination and transparency around Maine’s #treaty obligations toward tribal nations.
"The rally, organized by the #WabanakiAlliance, a coalition that includes representatives from hundreds of organizations and businesses that support #Wabanaki inherent sovereignty, will start at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 9 outside the capitol and conclude at 11:30 a.m.
"Participants will be able to make signs and learn more about the 'Yes on 6' campaign ahead of the rally.
"Question 6 on the November ballot asks whether voters support requiring 'that all of the provisions of the Maine Constitution be included in the official printed copies' distributed by the state.
"The tribes are supporting the ballot measure because, since 1876, printed copies of Maine’s Constitution have omitted three sections of the original document, including one pertaining to Maine’s treaty obligations toward the tribes.
"Monday’s Indigenous People’s Day marks a crossroads for the tribes and their allies, after legislation recognizing Wabanaki sovereignty was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills last summer.
"The law would have amended the jurisdictional arrangement between the tribes and the state that Indigenous leaders have long criticized for leaving the #WabanakiNations with less authority over natural resources, gaming, taxation, criminal justice and economic development on their lands than 570 other federally recognized tribes.
"Celebration at Redbank in South Portland
"Also on Monday, the #SouthPortlandMaine #HumanRights Commission will be hosting an Indigenous People’s Day celebration from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Redbank Community Center, located at 95 MacArthur Circle West in South Portland.
"The celebration will feature speaker Corey Hinton, a citizen of the #Passamaquoddy Tribe at #Sipayik and a lead lawyer on tribal issues in Maine.
"The Cape Elizabeth Rotary will also be serving pancakes and maple syrup sourced from #PassamaquoddyMaple, a company that is '100% tribally owned, with a mission to provide a high-end, small batch, product that will not only sustain our tribal land, but also create jobs for our people.'
"South Portland’s Indigenous People’s Day event is free, family friendly, and open to the public.
"Other events
"The #AbbeMuseum in #BarHarbor is holding a week long series of events through Oct. 9 called “#Indigenous2023 – Celebrating Our Sovereignty“, including #storytelling, a #concert and free museum admission.
"University of Maine, #Farmington [#UMF] is holding events from Oct. 16-19 including a food tasting, storytelling, a film showing and a panel discussion on how to be an ally."
Source:
https://mainebeacon.com/wabanaki-to-rally-on-indigenous-peoples-day-for-self-determination/
#IndigenousAlly #GovernmentTransparency #RespectTheTreaties #PenobscotNation #PassamaquoddyNation #Maliseet

2023-10-07 22:59:24

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@npub1n5k…rquc The extreme radiation keeps frying the robots.

2023-10-07 22:11:16

#Environmentalists suffer another setback in fight to shutter California's last #nuclear power plant
Story by By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press, October 5, 2023
"LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal regulators Wednesday rejected a request from two environmental groups to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant.
"#FriendsOfTheEarth and #MothersForPeace said in a petition filed last month with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that long-postponed tests needed to be conducted on critical machinery at the #DiabloCanyon Nuclear Power Plant, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They argued the equipment could fail and cause a catastrophe.
"In an order dated Tuesday, the NRC took no action on the request to immediately shut down the Unit 1 reactor and instead asked agency staff to review it.
"The NRC also rejected a request to convene a hearing to reconsider a 2003 decision by staff to extend the testing schedule for the Unit 1 pressure vessel until 2025. The vessels are thick steel containers that hold nuclear fuel and cooling water in the reactors.
"According to the groups, the last inspections on the vessel took place between 2003 and 2005. The utility postponed further testing in favor of using results from similar reactors to justify continued operations, they said."
Source:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/environmentalists-suffer-another-setback-in-fight-to-shutter-californias-last-nuclear-power-plant/ar-AA1hHUoE
#California #Nuclear
#NuclearPlants
#RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes

2023-10-07 17:21:36

Here's a recipe I came up with when I was on a #Macrobiotic diet. It's a hearty and warming soup on cool nights!
Lentil Soup with Kombo Seaweed
The most expensive ingredient in this soup is the seaweed, but if kept dry, a package of dried Maine Sea Vegetables lasts a long time. Doesn't have to be Kombu -- I've used other seaweeds successfully. Other than the initial Seaweed investment, this stuff is cheap, filling and has gotten me through many a fallow period during my Boston days.
8 oz lentils
6 inch (15 cm) strip of kombu seaweed (or any other seaweed)
2 onions, diced
2 pints water (or more if needed)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 lb carrots, diced
Pinch of sea salt or 1 tablespoon tamari/shoyu soya sauce
Brown rice elbow pasta (optional)
1. Rinse the lentils.
2. Place the kombu on the bottom of a heavy soup pot and cover with the onion, lentils and water.
3. Cover and bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes
4. After 20 minutes add the remaining vegetables and the seasoning.
#VeganRecipes #VeganOnABudget #Lentils

2023-10-07 17:12:31

Made one of my favorite "vegan on a budget" dishes last night (I'm not vegan, but I don't eat a lot of meat). I cooked up a tomato-based sauce -- heated up olive oil, sauteed an onion, a couple cloves of garlic, and mushrooms, then added a couple of cans of tomatoes (fresh can work as well), a can of tomato paste, a smidgen of sugar, salt and pepper, and lots of fresh and dried savory herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano). Then I added chopped yellow squash and zucchini, sliced black olives -- and chickpeas as the protein! I served it over brown rice pasta since I can't do gluten. My partner added parmesan cheese, which then made it not vegan. Chickpeas are so versatile! We'll have to make a falafel meal soon.
#VeganRecipes #Chickpeas #VeganOnABudget

2023-10-07 17:00:52

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@npub10ly…wwx5 @npub1cy0…ggw4 Or pumping us full of embalming fluid.

2023-10-07 15:59:07

@npub1ly7…jlz6 👋🏿

2023-10-07 01:00:19

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@npub1ej6…pvaa Excellent!

2023-10-06 20:25:54

As Waters Rise, a Community Must Decide: Do We Stay or Go?
Faced with more frequent flooding and worse to come, the Philadelphia community of Eastwick is grappling with difficult questions about its future: Will levees and flood walls protect them, or should residents abandon their homes and move to higher ground?
By Jon Hurdle • September 28, 2023
"Across the United States, low-lying communities face similar hydrological challenges: how to protect people and property from rising seas and increased inland flooding. Many of these places are low-income communities of color. But low-lying Eastwick, with a majority Black population and a history of pollution, has long-standing socioeconomic challenges that make adaptation especially urgent and difficult."
Full article:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/chronic-flooding-eastwick-philadelphia?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentalRacism #Pennsylvania #EnvironmentalJustice

2023-10-06 17:06:07

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@npub15cz…5fvs Heh. I just pawed through my cable collection the other day because a friend forgot his. Lol!

2023-10-06 03:19:41

Significant #earthquake of magnitude 5.0 reported 86 km east of #Namie, Japan
Thu, 5 Oct 2023, 02:19 02:19 AM | BY: EARTHQUAKEMONITOR
"#Japan was shaken near Namie, Futaba-gun, #Fukushima by an earthquake of magnitude 5.0 37 minutes ago, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported.
"The quake hit at a shallow depth of 10 km beneath the epicenter near Namie, Futaba-gun, Fukushima, Japan, in the morning on Thursday, October 5th, 2023, at 10:40 am local time. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. Magnitude and other quake parameters can still change in the coming hours as the agency continues to process seismic data."
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake/news/222594/Significant-earthquake-of-magnitude-50-reported-86-km-east-of-Namie-Japan.html

2023-10-06 03:16:27

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@npub1esh…5fqz Hmmmm... A couple of quakes in Japan, but I'm not seeing anything significant on the VolcanoDiscovery website.

2023-10-06 03:02:21

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@npub1uef…a9xr My dad loved spiders and had a pet tarantula. I grew up liking both spiders and snakes.

2023-10-06 01:11:39

Center for Biological Diversity
For Immediate Release, October 4, 2023
Contact:
Laiken Jordahl, (928) 525-4433, [email protected]
#Biden Administration Waives Laws to Rush #BorderWall Construction Through #Texas Wildlands
STARR COUNTY, Texas — The Biden administration announced today that for the first time it will waive environmental, public health and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas. The administration says it will take “immediate action to construct barriers and roads” along the border, including through fragile habitat near the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
“It’s disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation’s bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls,” said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it. This is a horrific step backwards for the borderlands.”
The waiver sweeps aside 26 laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands, endangered wildlife and Indigenous grave sites. The announcement marks the first time the Biden administration has used the REAL ID Act waiver authority.
“Every acre of habitat left in the #RioGrandeValley is irreplaceable,” said Jordahl. “We can’t afford to lose more of it to a useless, medieval wall that won’t do a thing to stop immigration or smuggling. President Biden’s cynical decision to destroy crucial wildlife habitat and seal the beautiful Rio Grande behind a grotesque border wall must be stopped.”
Wall construction in Starr County could harm recovery plans for endangered ocelots, which depend on contiguous wildlife corridors of protected habitat along the Rio Grande. Two endangered plants, the Zapata bladderpod and prostrate milkweed, are endemic to the area and will likely also be threatened by wall construction with their protections stripped by the waiver.
Last month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a damning report detailing the severe damage the border wall has caused to wildlife, public lands, and Indigenous sacred sites and burial grounds along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.
Today’s action seeks to waive the following laws:
- National Environmental Policy Act
- Endangered Species Act
- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
- American Indian Religious Freedom Act
- Federal Water Pollution Control Act
- National Historic Preservation Act
- Migratory Bird Treaty Act
- Migratory Bird Conservation Act
- Clean Air Act
- National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
- Eagle Protection Act
- National Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956
- Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
- Archeological Resources Protection Act
- Paleontological Resources Preservation Act
- Safe Drinking Water Act
- Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act
- Noise Control Act
- Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
- Antiquities Act
- Historic Sites, Buildings, and Antiquities Act
- Farmland Protection Policy Act
- National Trails System Act
- Administrative Procedure Act
- Federal Land Policy and Management Act
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-administration-waives-laws-to-rush-border-wall-construction-through-texas-wildlife-refuge-2023-10-04/
#WildlifeRefuge #Biodiversity #Wildlife #DHS #Habitat #CenterForBiologicalDiversity

2023-10-04 03:28:48

In the shadow of a #nuclear plant, #PrairieIsland celebrates steps toward a green future
The Tribal Nation is about two years into an effort to cut its members’ energy costs with a solar field and other eco-friendly projects.
By Gustav DeMars, October 1, 2023
"Prairie island first contacted legislators in 2018 to get support for the project, Johnson said. It wasn’t until two years later in 2020 that Governor Tim Walz signed legislation greenlighting the project.
"The Prairie Island Indian Community reservation, which lies along the Mississippi and Vermillion rivers in and adjacent to Red Wing in southeastern Minnesota, is home to descendants of the Mdewakanton Band of Eastern Dakota.
"Johnson’s family had no electricity or running water until 1968, when the federal government built 12 homes in the community. Tribal members now live in about 150 homes. The reservation operates the Treasure Island Casino, which has operated since the 1980s.
"White Earth Tribal College becomes a bright spot for solar-energy job training.
Native-run solar firm aims to lower heating emissions and costs.
"As the community has grown, so has the need for energy. Now built atop what was once an unused pile of sand dredged from the Mississippi is a mostly complete 5.4-megawatt field of #solar panels that Prairie Island leaders hope will be a step toward what they call 'energy sovereignty.'
"The solar field is not currently in operation; it’s expected to be up and running in early 2024.
"Energy has long been a topic of conversation for Prairie Island’s community, which sits in the shadow of one of Minnesota’s two nuclear power plants. In 1973, the federal government authorized construction of the facility less than a mile from the reservation.
"Over the years, many Prairie Island tribal members have voiced dismay that the plant and #NuclearWaste storage are so close to their reservation. In March, Xcel Energy agreed to increase its annual payment to the community from $2.5 million to $10 million to compensate it for storing spent nuclear waste near its land."
Full article:
https://sahanjournal.com/climate-environment/prairie-island-indian-community-celebrates-green-future/
#NoNukes NoNewNukes #RenewablesNow #PrairieIslandIndianCommunity #EnergySovereignty #SolarFields

2023-10-04 03:03:09

#Coffee is in danger. Starbucks is working on solutions
By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN
Published Oct 3, 2023 1:58 PM EDT
"Firl thinks that in order for coffee to be sustainable, there needs to be a shift away from the industrialized coffee farm model. 'We need to bring coffee back to its forest roots,' she said, to promote a healthy #ecosystem.
"In 2021, Starbucks made a commitment to invest in forest protection and restoration and set other climate-related goals. Burns described the company’s breeding program as an 'ongoing' process, saying the company will keep trying out new varietals to adapt to #ClimateChange.
"Other coffee varieties, like #robusta and #liberica, hold up better than arabica in these difficult conditions. But coffee makers tend to avoid these varieties because consumers like how arabica tastes and smells, Cornell’s Gomez noted."
The article describes these new varieties: "One makes coffee with notes of melon, honey and sugar cane, while another boasts a citrus, herbal, floral flavor."
Both of those sound good to me!
https://www.accuweather.com/en/climate/coffee-is-in-danger-starbucks-is-working-on-solutions/1584255

2023-10-04 01:05:10

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@npub1cvx…0mvz I'm so happy for you!!!

2023-10-04 00:06:58

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@npub1esh…5fqz Plus with manual transmission, you can't be on your cell phone. One hand to steer, one hand to shift!

2023-10-03 23:32:31

UPDATE: Fundraiser for #JacobJohns is up to $213,000 ($250,000 goal)! Please share and donate if you can!
Help Jacob Johns Recover from Terrorist Shooting
"#Indigenous #ClimateActivist, #artist, #musician, and father Jacob Johns was shot in the chest this morning, Sept 28.2023, during a No Juan de #Oñate statue peaceful protest in Tewa territory (more commonly known as Española, New Mexico). Jacob put his body between women and children when the shooter charged towards the altar. He was air-lifted to a hospital in Albuquerque, and had surgery. The shooter, who was wearing a red MAGA hat, is in custody of tribal police. We ask everyone to please pray with us that he survives this surgery and doctors have’ the strength and wisdom to help him.
"Jacob, who is Hopi and Akimel O'odham, has dedicated his life to Indigenous and climate justice. He is a skilled muralist and speaker, and specializes in non-violent, peaceful 'artivism'."
Links to his work are below:
- Free The Vote Mural: https://landscouncil.org/news/free-the-vote-mural
-COP28 Indigenous Wisdom Keeper Delegation https://www.backbonecampaign.org/cop28more
-Jacob’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio_1_eleven
Link to GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jacob-johns-recover-from-terrorist-shooting
#ClimateActivist #Fundraiser

2023-10-03 19:57:01

via #DemocracyNow
Gunman Wearing MAGA Hat Shoots #IndigenousActivist at New Mexico Protest over #Conquistador Statue
October 03, 2023
"In New Mexico, a 23-year-old gunman wearing a red MAGA hat opened fire last week on #JacobJohns and other Indigenous activists opposing plans to reinstall a statue honoring the 16th century conquistador Juan de Oñate, New Mexico’s first colonial governor. Johns, the prominent climate activist, was airlifted from Española to an Albuquerque hospital and required emergency surgery. We speak with Malaya Peixinho, who participated in Thursday’s gathering, about how the statue of the colonial leader has divided the local community. 'It is a really controversial thing to talk about #Oñate,' says Peixinho, who believes funds for the statue could go to social programs instead. 'That feels more important than funding a statue being resurrected.' The shooter, Ryan Martinez, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Johns and aiming the gun at Peixinho, who calls the charges 'fair' and blames police for not intervening. 'They didn’t show up for us,' says Peixinho."
Full story: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/3/espanola_protest_shooting
#GoFundMe link:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-jacob-johns-recover-from-terrorist-shooting
#ClimateActivist #MAGATerrorism #ACAB

2023-10-03 17:16:49

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@npub1zv2…luys Truth!

2023-10-01 22:11:07

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@npub1lew…6etm Good to know. Deleting them manually has been a pain.

2023-10-01 20:23:41

Center for Biological Diversity Statement on Shooting of #JacobJohns
For Immediate Release, September 29, 2023
Contact:
Kierán Sucking, (520) 275-5960, [email protected]
Statement from Kierán Suckling, executive director, Center for Biological Diversity:
“I’m horrified and devastated by the shooting this week in #NewMexico of Jacob Johns, an #Indigenous climate and justice #activist, by a #MAGA hat-wearing bigot. The Center for Biological Diversity stands by the brave actions of Johns and with the #IndigenousPeoples of New Mexico and North America resisting the resurrection of a monument to violent #conquistador Juan de #Oñate.
“The Center’s work to end the #climate and #extinction crises is rooted in resistance to #colonial #extractivism. We honor the tireless organizing of Indigenous activists resisting all forms of settler racism, including #TheRedNation, the #ThreeSistersCollective, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, and #NDNCollective, who led this week’s peaceful gathering in Tewa Territory, Española, New Mexico. We commit to fighting for justice, because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/center-for-biological-diversity-statement-on-shooting-of-jacob-johns-2023-09-29/
#ClimateActivist #LandBack #Colonialism #ClimateCrisis #EnvironmentalJustice #IndigenousActivist #IndigenousNews

2023-09-23 19:09:47

My #bee friends enjoying the #AutumnalEquinox here in #Maine.
#BloomScrolling #Autumn #Equinox #Bees #Flowers #GardeningForPollinators
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/115/479/082/449/112/original/93eb4c7ba73ea688.jpeg
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/115/549/344/198/916/original/1b5b51de8c37e878.jpeg
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/115/560/758/607/925/original/010daec3c299bd1f.jpeg

2023-09-20 18:00:07

#US States Take Aim at Protesters’ Rights
Right to Peaceful Assembly at Risk
by Jonathan Pedneault, February 16, 2021
"#Peaceful #protests are protected by the #UnitedStates Constitution’s First Amendment as well as #international #HumanRights law. But a legislative assault aimed at eroding these protections is underway in several state legislatures.
"It’s nothing new. Various states have long-tried to curtail the right to #protest. They do so by legislating wide definitions of what constitutes an 'unlawful assembly' or a 'riot' as well as increasing punishments. They also allow police to use catch-all public offenses, such as #trespassing, obstructing traffic, or disrupting the peace, as a pretext for ordering dispersals, using force, and making arrests. Finally, they make it easier for #corporations and others to bring lawsuits against #protest organizers.
"While proportionate restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly, like creating buffer zones around abortion clinics to ensure access, may be necessary, the use of catch-all offenses against peaceful #demonstrators or the imposition of increased penalties to deter assemblies are not.
"At a time of large mobilizations across the US, attempts by states to deter and impose criminal penalties on peaceful protesters should be stopped.
"According to the US Protest Law Tracker, created by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, there are currently 51 bills under consideration in 24 state legislatures, including as many as 10 in #Oklahoma, that they warn would threaten the right to assemble peacefully.
"Among the proposed laws are nine, including three in Oklahoma, that the Tracker reports would provide civil and/or criminal immunity for drivers injuring or killing protesters unlawfully disrupting traffic and one stand-your-ground bill in #NewHampshire that would allow deadly force against protesters 'likely' to use 'any' degree of unlawful force during a riot.
"Other bills would increase penalties for participating in unlawful protests, something that happens automatically in many jurisdictions once someone marches without a permit, or for committing an offense – including jaywalking or trespassing – while in an unlawful assembly.
"International human rights law protects the right of peaceful assembly and requires authorities at all levels to facilitate such assemblies and avoid unnecessary or disproportionate restrictions on them. The mere act of planning or participating in a protest should not be criminalized. Authorities are also required to protect people participating in such assemblies – bills that encourage or allow violence against protesters are inconsistent with those obligations, and states should abandon them."
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/16/us-states-take-aim-protesters-rights
#Fascism #ClimateAction #ClimateActivism #ACAB #WaterIsLife #Oligarchy

2023-09-20 17:35:23

‘They #criminalize us’: how #felony charges are weaponized against #PipelineProtesters
Twenty states have passed laws that criminalize protesting, including on infrastructure including #pipelines. In #Minnesota, at least 66 felony theft charges against #Line3 protesters remain open
Alexandria Herr for Floodlight
Thu 10 Feb 2022
"Last summer [2021] Sabine von Mering, a professor of German at Brandeis University, drove more than 1,500 miles from Boston to Minneapolis to protest against the replacement of the Line 3 #OilPipeline that stretches from #Canada’s #TarSands down to Minnesota.
"Along with another protester, she locked herself to a semi-truck in the middle of a roadway, according to a filed court brief, as a means of #peaceful #resistance. But when she was arrested, she was charged with a serious crime: felony theft, which carries up to five years in prison.
"'It’s very scary that they criminalize us like that, and to face jail time,' said Von Mering, 54, of her June arrest. 'But what can I do? I feel responsible to my kids and #FutureGenerations.'
"The felony charges come as more than a dozen states have passed laws to criminalize #FossilFuel protests, and as the federal government has ramped up its own tactics for surveilling and penalizing protesters.
"Von Mering is one of nearly 900 protesters who were arrested in Minnesota for protesting against the pipeline’s construction, with the vast majority of arrests taking place during the summer of 2021, and one of dozens facing felony charges. Construction on the Line 3 pipeline was finalized in October 2021 and carries 760,000 barrels of oil per day across northern Minnesota. But its construction for years has stoked fierce protests and legal challenges, led by #Indigenous activists in northern Minnesota who worried about potential impacts of oil spills and the pipeline’s threat to #treaty rights to gather wild rice. While most of the arrests have led to misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor charges for crimes including 'disturbing the peace' and 'trespassing', felony charges like Von Mering’s mean protesters are facing years of jail time.
"Legal advocates say that in Minnesota the elevated charges are a novel tactic to challenge protest actions against pipeline construction. They see them as furthering evidence of close ties between Minnesota’s government and the #FossilFuelIndustry. It follows reporting by the Guardian that the Canadian pipeline company #Enbridge, which is building Line 3, reimbursed Minnesota’s #police department $2.4m for time spent arresting protesters and on equipment including ballistic helmets. Experts say the reimbursement strategy for arrests is a new technique in both Minnesota and across the US, and there’s concern it can be replicated.
"'I do a lot of representation for people in political protests and I’ve never seen anything like that,' said Jordan Kushner, a defense attorney representing clients charged in relation to Line 3 protests.
"Two of Kushner’s clients were charged with felony 'aiding attempted suicide' charges for crawling inside a pipe. The charge is for someone who 'intentionally advises, encourages, or assists another who attempts but fails to take the other’s own life', according to Minnesota law and carries up to a seven-year sentence. Authorities alleged that the protesters were endangering their lives by remaining inside the pipeline."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/10/felony-charges-pipeline-protesters-line-3
#StopEnbridge #NoLine3 #Proestors #ClimateActivists #Fascism #WaterIsLife #ACAB #IndigenousNews

2023-09-20 02:20:49

Background on the #StandingRock litigation:
Standing Rock Litigation
About the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, represented by Earthjustice from 2016 to 2022, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for violating the National Historic Preservation Act and other laws, after the agency issued final permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a massive crude oil pipeline stretching from North Dakota to Illinois.
"The FAQ and timeline is currently under construction — we apologize for the inconvenience!
"Archival resources related to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline:
- Legal documents about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit
- Press releases and statements about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit
- Feature stories and videos about the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit
Links here:
https://earthjustice.org/feature/faq-standing-rock-litigation
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #BackwaterBridge #ACAB #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux

2023-09-20 02:14:26

Injured Standing Rock protesters press 8th Circuit to revive suit
Attorneys for protesters said the use of "less-lethal" munitions and firehoses in subfreezing temperatures was unnecessarily brutal despite a federal judge's ruling otherwise.
by Andy Monserud / September 19, 2023
"'Water protectors' Vanessa Dundon, David Demo, Guy Dullknife, Frank Finan, Mariah Bruce and Crystal Wilson were at a prayer camp established by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe just south of the Backwater Bridge, near a construction site for the Dakota Access Pipeline, in late November 2016. All six suffered injuries during a confrontation between police and protesters on the night of Nov. 20, when police made headlines by spraying water at the protesters in sub-freezing temperatures alongside stinger grenades, beanbag rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas.
"The protesters brought suit against two North Dakota counties and their sheriffs, plus the city of Mandan and its police chief and up to a hundred John Does, shortly afterward but were shot down first by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland and then by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, who took over the case after Hovland took senior status in 2019. Traynor, in his order granting summary judgment to the law enforcement officers, found that they had not committed a “seizure” of the protesters, that if they had they would be entitled to qualified immunity, and that the protesters’ First Amendment rights had not been infringed upon because they were trespassing on private property at the time.
"In her arguments before the Eighth Circuit Tuesday, attorney Rachel Lederman said Traynor had taken far too much of law enforcement’s side of the story at face value. 'This case is fundamentally about disputes of fact,' she said. 'The story defendants have put forth to justify their use of force is hotly disputed.'
"By cutting off the case before discovery could be conducted, Lederman said, Traynor had deprived the protesters of the chance for a jury to look at the evidence and resolve those disputes, particularly whether protesters posed enough of a threat to law enforcement to justify the use of force.
"'Defendants’ use of force caused serious injuries, such as broken bones and detached retina,' Lederman said. 'Only a single officer was even slightly injured, without requiring medical attention. There’s no evidence whatsoever that any of the named plaintiffs were threatening in any way.'
"The use of water hoses or cannons in particular raised concerns for Lederman and for attorney Michael Avery, of the National Police Accountability Project, who pointed out that the last time water cannons were used on protesters in the United States was in the apartheid south during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Officers, moreover, were “ensconced in a multi-layered barricade” of armored vehicles and concertina wire, and drastically outnumbered protesters at the time, Lederman argued. Furthermore, she said, construction had already been halted on the pipeline, neutralizing any threat protesters posed to that project."
Read more:
https://www.courthousenews.com/injured-standing-rock-protesters-press-8th-circuit-to-revive-suit/
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #BackwaterBridge #ACAB #NoDAPL #StandingRock

2023-09-16 23:55:21

@npub1e9h…ghzz Heh. You and I have a lot in common. I, too, studied Homeric Greek, and consider myself an Environmentalist Pothead. Hi there! 👋🏿

2023-09-16 18:31:15

Conditions on Earth may be moving outside the 'safe operating space' for humanity, according to dozens of scientists
By Laura Paddison, CNN
Published Sep 14, 2023 2:12 PM EDT
"The nine boundaries, first set out in a 2009 paper, aim to establish a set of defined 'limits' on changes humans are making to the planet – from pumping out planet-heating pollution to clearing forests for farming. Beyond these limits, the theory goes, the risk of destabilizing conditions on Earth increases dramatically."
Read more:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/climate/conditions-on-earth-may-be-moving-outside-the-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-according-to-dozens-of-scientists/1579399
#PlanetaryBoundaries #LimitsToGrowth #Extinction #NoJobsOnADeadPlanet #ClimateCatastrophe #Polycrisis #Colonialism #Capitalism #EndGame #Greed #NoPlanetB #LoveYourMother #ClimateActivism #CallToAction #ClimateJustice

2023-09-15 16:03:06

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@npub1vt3…dtrq
@npub1pf0…wqum

2023-09-15 15:58:34

Hello all! I hope some of you can join me at 12:00 Noon EDT today at Monument Square for #FridaysForFuture! Please spread the word! And thanks for all you do! @npub19ef…d3ft

2023-09-14 04:01:31

#Maine friends. I'm going to do my thing this Friday at Monument Square in #PortlandMaine at Noon. I hope some of you will join me. #FridaysForFuture #FridaysForFutureMaine
https://www.facebook.com/events/6729192547202325/?ref=newsfeed

2023-09-13 01:08:36

Just Released: "Mining the Sacred: #IndigenousNations Fight #Lithium Gold Rush at #ThackerPass
by Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews
Watch now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLO7ClVtlBA
"#Cree Journalist Brandi Morin said, 'We are taking back the narrative and this story about North America’s largest lithium mine being constructed while violating sacred Indigenous territories is told from the Native perspective. The 'green' energy revolution isn’t what you think it is!'
IndigiNews Media and The Real News
Go watch! @IndigiNewsMedia @TheRealNews @ricochet_en
"Follow Native journalist Brandi Morin, who came from Canada, and covered this powerful story.
"In Nevada’s remote Thacker Pass, a fight for our future is playing out between local #Indigenous tribes and powerful state and #corporate entities hellbent on mining the lithium beneath their land. Vancouver-based Lithium Americas is developing a massive lithium mine at Thacker Pass, but for more than two years several local tribes and #environmental organizations have tried to block or delay the mine in the courts and through direct action.
"The Thacker Pass Project is backed by the Biden administration, and companies like General Motors have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the project, looking to capitalize on the transition to a 'green energy economy,' for which lithium is essential. While it is a vital component in the manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries, though, there’s nothing “green” about mining lithium. Ending our addiction to fossil fuels is urgently necessary, but the struggle of the local tribes around Thacker Pass reveals the dark side of a 'green revolution' that prioritizes profit and consumption over everything (and everyone) else."
-- Mining the Sacred
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/09/just-released-mining-sacred-indigenous.html
#IndigenousNews #LithiumMining #IndigenousRights #Greenwashing #Pauite #ProtectThackerPass #EnvironmentalRacism

2023-09-12 20:36:40

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@npub1qlf…vndw We need more gleeful interaction! I think of the Waterboys' 1984 song, "Somebody Might Wave Back."
"Seven O'clock in the morning and I'm riding the overnight train
I've got ten tonnes of luggage but I left it behind when I came
I look at my watch, says September seventeen
We're riding past some place where I've never been
And I'm waving through the window as we go
Somebody says 'Well, hey, what are you waving at?'
Well what have I got to lose
Somebody might wave back..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POToCL65ETI
#80s #80sMusic #TheWaterboys #Waterboys #MikeScott

2023-09-08 01:23:40

Hundreds of #Caribbean islanders forced to abandon homes amid rising #SeaLevels
Experts worry it will put the culture and way of life of #CartiSugtupu’s #Indigenous community of fewer than 2,000 at risk
by Verity Bowman, September 6, 2023
"Hundreds of people are preparing to escape a tiny Caribbean island as rising waters threaten to engulf their homes.
"The densely populated island of Carti Sugtupu off #Panama’s north coast is under threat from climate change induced sea level rises, suffering from flooding on a regular basis.
"Experts say the sea will engulf #Carti #Sugtupu and dozens of neighbouring islands in the Guna Yala region by the end of the century.
Forty-nine of the islands are populated and are just a few feet above sea level.
Read more:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hundreds-of-caribbean-islanders-forced-to-abandon-homes-amid-rising-sea-levels/ar-AA1gkVxU?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=1112fa09f5dd4480ab5b7106462d874b&ei=5
#ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange #CaribbeanIslanders #ClimateRefugees #IndigenousNews #RisingSeaLevels

2023-09-08 00:39:10

Archeologists in Norway found an arrow that was likely trapped in ice for 4,000 years
7:15pm September 06, 2023
by Dustin Jones
"Archeologists in Norway discovered an arrow shaft that appears to be from the #StoneAge, meaning it is approximately 4,000 years old.
"The discovery was made on the side of #MountLauvhøe, which stands at just over 6,500 feet in Norway's Lom Municipality. Archeologists had found arrows from the Iron and Middle ages when they last surveyed the area in 2017. However, this arrow shaft was found after ice at the site melted away in recent years, according to Lars Holger Pilø, co-director Secrets of the Ice, part of Norway's Department of Cultural Heritage.
"He said the discovery predates earlier finds by more than 2,000 years, which adds a lot more "time depth" to the site. Researchers can determine the age of the artifact by its shape, but will submit a sample of the wood for carbon dating once the field season is over."
https://www.wfdd.org/story/archeologists-norway-found-arrow-was-likely-trapped-ice-4000-years
#History #archaeological #archaeology #Norway #Histodon

2023-09-07 03:06:10

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@npub1ycl…eptq Beautiful! And I love the idea of the #WoodlandWednesday #Hashtag. Here's my first contribution -- East Meadow Watershed, in Rocks Village, Massachusetts. This path leads to an old cemetery where a lot of my family are buried.
https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/021/176/808/671/379/original/eadcc03ac59aab10.jpeg