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"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."

-- Potter Stewart

News and Opinion

Matt Taibbi: PayPal’s IndyMedia Wipeout

In the last week or so, the online payment platform PayPal without explanation suspended the accounts of a series of individual journalists and media outlets, including the well-known alt sites Consortium News and MintPress.

Unlike many on the list, Consortium editor Joe Lauria succeeded in reaching a human being at the company in search of details about the frozen or “held” funds referenced in the note. The PayPal rep told him that if the company decided “there was a violation” after a half-year review period, then “it is possible” PayPal would keep the $9,348.14 remaining in Consortium’s account, as “damages.”

“A secretive process in which they could award themselves damages, not by a judge or a jury,” Lauria says. “Totally in secret.”

Consortium, founded by the late investigative reporter Robert Parry, has been critical of NATO and the Pentagon and a consistent source of skeptical reporting about Russiagate, as well as one of just a few outlets to regularly cover the Julian Assange case with any sympathy for the accused. Ironically, one of the site’s primary themes involves exploring disinformation emanating from the intelligence community. The site has had content disrupted by platforms like Facebook before, but now its pockets are being picked in addition.

This episode ups the ante again on the content moderation movement, toward the world hinted at in the response to the Canadian trucker protests, where having the wrong opinions can result in your money being frozen or seized. Going after cash is a big jump from simply deleting speech, with a much bigger chilling effect. This is especially true in the alternative media world, where money has long been notoriously tight, and the loss of a few thousand dollars here or there can have a major effect on a site, podcast, or paper.

Biden Official's ROBOTIC Lies On Ministry Of Truth

Most EPIC CNN Meltdown Over Free Speech On Twitter

Pelosi says Russia’s war merits the ‘strongest possible’ response.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine merits the strongest possible military response and the toughest sanctions, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday, adding that the West should not be deterred by the threat of retaliation from Moscow. Following her visit to Kyiv over the weekend, Ms. Pelosi held talks on Monday in Poland with President Andrzej Duda, a meeting aimed at deepening Washington’s partnership with a key NATO ally as the United States significantly escalates its involvement in Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces. ...

After becoming the most senior American official to visit Kyiv since the war began, Ms. Pelosi on Sunday vowed to back Ukraine “until victory is won.” She will soon return to Washington, where members of Congress from both parties have called for swift approval of President Biden’s request for more artillery, antitank weapons and other hardware for Ukraine. ...

Ms. Pelosi said she also discussed with the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw, Mark Brzezinski, the possible enlargement of NATO’s military presence in Poland as part of “an ongoing conversation about how we support global security.”

Sociopath Neocons Sacrifice Ukrainians and Global Poor – Economist Michael Hudson

[Here's a piece of the transcript -js]:

KATIE HALPER: Professor Michael Hudson, thank you so much for joining us. We’re really excited to have you.

We wanted to start off by asking you if you could provide an overview of what the economics driving this conflict are—and by conflict, I mean the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and, of course, with the rest of the world, or really the conflict between Russia and US, and the economic fallout.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, it depends on what side you’re looking at. From the Russian side, I don’t think the economic factors were primary. They were threatened by NATO’s expansion and really a plan to attack the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine. So, I think Russia’s calculations were simply military. The West’s calculations were quite different.

And if you looked at what the results of the conflict are, you have to assume that everybody was talking about the results [as] were known. They’re very clear. The results are a very large increase in fuel prices, oil, and energy prices, a very large increase in agricultural prices with declining supplies. This will leave most of Africa and Latin America—third-world countries, the Global South—unable to pay their foreign debts, which is going to result either in a massive debt default or it will result in a debt repudiation.

Countries are going to have to choose. Are they going to have to operate their homes without energy, their factories without energy—and energy consumption per capita is directly connected to GDP for the last 150 years. Every chart shows energy use, GDP, and personal income go up together.

So, what are countries going to do when they can’t afford to pay the higher prices for energy? Well, Janet Yellen, who was the Federal Reserve head and [now] the Secretary of the Treasury says, ‘Well, what we’re going to do is use the International Monetary Fund to preserve America’s unipolar hegemony.’ I think she used almost those words. We have to keep American control of the world and we’re going to do it through the IMF. And that means in practice using the IMF to create special drawing rights, which will be sort of like free money, the bulk of which will go to the United States to support its military spending abroad for all of this huge military escalation. And it will enable the IMF to go to countries and say, ‘We will help you pay your debts and not be foreclosed on and get energy, but it’s conditional.’ On usual conditions: you have to lower your wages; you have to pass anti-labor legislation; you have to agree to begin selling off your public domain and privatize.

The energy and food crisis caused by the NATO war against Russia is going to be used as a lever not only to push privatization, largely under control of US investors and banks and financiers, but it’s also going to lock countries into the US orbit all the more, both the Global South and especially Europe.

One casualty is obviously going to be Europe and the euro. The euro has been plunging in value day after day after day, as people realize that it’s lost its export markets in Russia and much of Asia, and now at home, too, because exports require energy to be made. Its costs of imports are going up, especially energy. It’s agreed to use, I think, now $3 billion to build new port facilities to buy US natural gas—liquified natural gas at three to seven times the price that it’s paying now, which will make it almost impossible for German firms to produce fertilizer to grow crops in Germany. The euro’s plunging.

The largest plunge of all has been the Japanese yen, because Japan imports all of its energy and most of its food and is keeping its interest rates very low in order to support the financial sector. And so, the Japanese economy is being sacrificed and squeezed. And I think this is…you can’t say, ‘Gee, this is an accident.’ This is part of the plan, because now the United States can say, ‘Of course we don’t want your yen to go down so much that your consumers have to pay more. We will, of course, give you SDRs—special drawing rights—and we will give you American aid. But we do want you to rewrite your constitution so that you can have atomic weapons on your soil so that we can fight against China to the last Japanese. Just like we’re doing in Ukraine, let us do it for you.’

And, of course, the Japanese love that. The government loves that idea. They love sacrificing the population, which is what they’ve been doing ever since the Plaza Accord and the Louvre Accord of the 1980s that basically wrecked the Japanese industrial economy from this huge upswing to just a mass shrinkage.

So, those are the economic effects of the war. And in the newspaper, you think the war is all about Ukrainians and NATO fighting Russians, and it’s really a war by the United States to use the NATO-Russia conflict as a means of locking in control over its allies and the whole Western world, and in Janet Yellen’s words, re-establishing American unipolar power.

AARON MATÉ: And do you think that, assuming that this is the US strategy, taking your argument at face value, do you think that this strategy will succeed?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Ultimately, it’ll be self-defeating. And almost every US politician and military speech has the phrase, ‘Gee, we don’t want America to shoot itself.’ And obviously they’re all worried about it. It’s a huge gamble.

Apparently, the military was not even consulted in the sanctions that were put against Russian energy. And the military wasn’t consulted even on the plans by the State Department and the National Security…the neo-cons that are running the NATO war. And so, obviously, there’s a lot of doubts within the military, but they don’t speak up—that’s not what they do.

Putin signs sanctions decree. Pentagon claims Russia's progress in Donbass slow

Belarus opposition seeks US technology help

The leader of Belarus' opposition said Friday that the United States is looking at stepping up technological assistance in the struggle against strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who along with Western observers says she won a 2020 election against Lukashenko, spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior US officials and lawmakers on a trip to Washington.

"I was assured of full support for the Belarusian democratic movement," she told the State Department Correspondents' Association. "We also spoke about providing Belarusian journalists and activists with equipment and technology," she said.

She said that she discussed ways to circumvent regime disinformation including broadcasts of forced confessions.

Franak Viacorka, a senior advisor to Tikhanovskaya, said pro-democracy forces have also spoken to US technology companies to seek an end to lumping Belarus into the "Russian media ecosystem," which is closely censored.

Ukraine Virtue Signaling Mocked In Comedy Video

Democrats: The Ukraine War Is Over. Let's Talk Abortion Rights.

On day 69 the war in Ukraine fell off the top of the news pages. ...

The emotional outrage of the Democrats has now been redirected to the Supreme Court. ...

The war to 'weaken Russia' is going badly for the 'west' and the U.S. can do little to change that. The midterm election will likely see a huge loss for the Democrats. They need an emotional issue to incentivize their voters to go to the polls. Abortion rights may do that for a certain group of voters.

But I find it unlikely that it will, over all, be of much help.

"It's the economy, stupid" said James Carville, a strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential election campaign. Prices are rising, especially for gas and food, while the housing market is suffering from upcoming higher interest rates. The U.S. will, like Europe, likely to go into a recession.

It is also obvious that the Democrats have no real interest in protecting abortion rights. They could have done so when they held the presidency, and majorities in the House and Senate. They never launched a serious attempt to put Roe vs. Wade into federal law. It always suited them better to keep the issue open and to use it during each election for fundraising and to scare their voters to the polls.

Same-Sex Marriage, Contraception, And More At RISK If Roe V. Wade Overturned: Olayemi Olurin

Critics Warn Alito Draft Threatens Much, Much More Than Abortion Rights

The draft opinion leaked from the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night portends future attacks not just on Americans' right to obtain abortion care, said critics on Tuesday, but also on anyone whose rights the court's right-wing majority does not view as "deeply rooted" in U.S. history.

In the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito cited a number of reasons for the majority's objection to legal abortion—including a discredited theory that abortion care is a racist tool of eugenics and Alito's incorrect belief that "the costs of medical care associated with pregnancy and childbirth are covered by insurance"—but central to his argument is the claim that Roe v. Wade protects a right that is "not deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions."

The phrase encapsulates "the most terrifying argument in that draft," tweeted Oindrila Mukherjee, a professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

Judging from the draft opinion—which, Politico reported, was also supported by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett when the court apparently voted to overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this year—"everything is on the table," said writer Rebecca Traister, naming other Supreme Court decisions which affirmed rights for Americans.

In the opinion, Alito "disavows the entire line of jurisprudence upon which Roe rests: the existence of 'unenumerated rights' that safeguard individual autonomy from state invasion," wrote Mark Joseph Stern at Slate.

"The Supreme Court has identified plenty of 'unenumerated rights' that lack deep roots in American history," he added. "Most recently, the court established the right of same-sex couples to be intimate (2003's Lawrence v. Texas) and get married (2015's Obergefell v. Hodges). Alito dismissed both decisions in harsh terms."

Other legal experts also raised alarm that the court's conservative majority appears to be "a half step away from letting states criminalize same-sex sexual intimacy."

Stern wrote that Alito appeared to include language in the draft opinion which suggested the overturning of Roe would not weaken the protections that were affirmed by Loving v. Virginia, which affirmed the right to interracial marriage; Griswold v. Connecticut, which protected the right to obtain contraceptives; Skinner v. Oklahoma, which held that compulsory sterilization of people convicted of crimes was unconstitutional; and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which struck down a law requiring parents to send their children to public schools.

"But Alito actually makes it extremely clear that he is not including Lawrence or Obergefell in his category of safe precedents!" Stern said. "Instead, he appears to include them as an example of illegitimate rights like abortion, which he is overruling in this very opinion!"

"As written, the draft is quite blithe and unflinching in its disdain for the constitutional basis of gay rights," he added.

Despite Alito's claim in the draft that previous decisions pertaining to Americans' right to privacy will not be overturned, journalist Emma Vigeland said, lower courts are likely to "chip away at birth control legality, appealing it all the way up to this extremist SCOTUS."

At The Daily Beast, Jay Michaelson wrote that with abortion rights found by the court to be not "deeply rooted" in U.S. history and therefore not protected under the Constitution, marriage equality could be overturned "within a year or two."

"Unless another justice leaves the court, the constitutional right to marriage for all is going to be overturned," Michaelson wrote. "The only question is whether Republicans will have a veto-proof majority (or the presidency in 2024) to ban both abortion and gay marriage anywhere in the nation."

As Common Dreams reported Monday, with evidence emerging that the court is preparing to overturn Roe—likely making abortion illegal in more than two dozen states—Republican senators are currently developing a strategy to pass a nationwide ban on abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy, and anti-choice groups have lobbied potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates to run on passing the legislation.

Dark Money: How the Supreme Court’s 6-3 Anti-Choice, Conservative Majority Was Shaped

‘Betrayal’: chief justice orders inquiry into leak of draft abortion ruling

John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.

Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence.

In a statement on Tuesday, Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the document written in February and said: “To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed.” He added: “I have directed the marshal of the court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.” ...

Some said it was probably a law clerk for one of the court’s liberal justices who wants to put Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the public domain in the hope that, witnessing the fierce backlash, one of the conservatives on the court might change his or her vote.

Others guessed it might be a source on the conservative side wanting the justices to be on record so they will feel locked in and unwilling to change in case they been seen as caving in. A third possible motive was floating the decision early to take the sting out of the final, incendiary announcement expected next month.

Hunt For The Leaker: SCOTUS Investigating Abortion Memo Breach As Protests Mount Across US

US states could ban people from traveling for abortions, experts warn

As abortion bans proliferate in states around the US, some state legislatures are likely to go even further than just ending abortion in their jurisdictions – taking aim at the growing numbers of people seeking procedures and medications out of state, experts warn. ... A fresh wave of restrictions will probably center around patients who leave their state to obtain legal abortions in other states, or who order medications to manage their abortions at home.

Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation early this year that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines for an abortion. The law was ultimately blocked in the state’s legislature, but experts expect such legislation to gain more support if Roe is weakened or overturned.

“I think states are not going to rest with just saying ‘there won’t be abortions in our state.’ I think they’re going to want to ban abortion for their citizens as much as they can, which would mean stopping them from traveling,” said David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and lead author of a forthcoming article on cross-state legal issues that could arise in the abortion context.

“We’re going to see state-against-state battles that are really going to divide this country even deeper on this issue,” he said. If the supreme court overturns abortion protections, such travel bans might also be permitted to stand, Cohen said. “The supreme court does not have well-developed case law regarding extraterritorial application of state law,” he added in an email. A court that has gone so far as to overturn Roe, he said, “would likely take that unclear precedent in the direction that is most anti-abortion.”

Dems WANT Abortion Chaos For Fundraising Gains

Abortion to become key fight in US midterms after stunning court leak

The stunning revelation that the US supreme court has privately voted to overturn Roe v Wade immediately thrust one of the most polarizing issues in American life to the forefront of the national political debate, and now abortion rights promises to reshape the dynamics of the coming midterm elections. ...

As the revelation reverberated across Washington, protesters gathered in front of the supreme court on Tuesday morning, shouting loudly enough to be heard by the members of Congress arriving for work at the Capitol. From the White House, Joe Biden urged voters to elect political leaders who would act to protect abortion access and reproductive rights, irrespective of the supreme court’s final decision. ...

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation to the floor that would codify abortion access in federal law. But the measure is unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. A similar measure passed by the Democratic-controlled House last year does not even have the support of all 50 Democratic senators.

“A vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise. This is as urgent and real as it gets,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “We will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose and every American is going to see which side every senator stands.” ...

In a flurry of statements and fundraising emails, Democrats argued that the erosion of reproductive rights was a reason to support them in the November midterms.

Abortion-rights protesters rally in US, spurred by draft Supreme Court opinion

If Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Lied About Roe, Group Challenges Susan Collins to Lead 'Call for Impeachment'

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a self-styled moderate who postures as a defender of reproductive rights, has said repeatedly in recent years that she would not support a Supreme Court nominee who demonstrates "hostility" to Roe v. Wade.

But late Monday, Politico reported that right-wing Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh—Trump picks who Collins voted to confirm—supported a 67-page draft opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito that, if finalized, would spell the end of Roe v. Wade and imperil abortion rights across the United States.

While abortion rights advocates, citing the judges' records, vocally warned at the time of their confirmation hearings that both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh posed an existential threat to Roe, Collins brushed such warnings aside when it came time to usher them through the Senate, pointing to their private assurances to her that they would not vote to overturn the 1973 decision.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Collins finally conceded that, perhaps, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were not being fully honest with her in their closed-door conversations about Roe.

"If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office," Collins said. "Obviously, we won't know each justice's decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case."

Asked if she believes she was misled by the judges, Collins told CNN, "My statement speaks for itself."

Marie Follayttar, executive director of Mainers for Responsible Leadership—a group that has long targeted Collins over her right-wing voting record—told Common Dreams that it "looks like it's time for her to call for impeachment" of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

"If Senator Collins believes that both Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh lied to her and to the public during the confirmation processes, we demand that she lead the charge calling for their immediate impeachment," Follayttar added. "We cannot let public trust in our judicial system—the final check and balance of our democracy—become eroded."

Indivisible, a national progressive advocacy group, quipped in response to Collins' statement, "If only there had been some warning signs about Kavanaugh's dishonesty."

After Politico published its story on Alito's far-reaching draft opinion—which the Supreme Court confirmed as authentic on Tuesday while stressing that it's not final—a video compilation resurfaced of Collins declaring on multiple occasions in 2018 her belief that Kavanaugh would not vote to overturn Roe:

The Daily Beast's Eleanor Clift argued in a column Tuesday that "the one person most responsible for the looming loss of abortion rights—aside from the president who appointed three anti-Roe justices—is Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who in October of 2018 became the 50th and deciding vote in the Senate for Brett Kavanaugh."

"He would not have been confirmed if it weren’t for Collins, who wanted women to believe as she did that he would keep his word to her," Clift wrote. "Maybe his fingers were crossed because whatever he said to Collins, it was a lie. Kavanaugh's confirmation on a bare 50 to 48 vote was the beginning of the end for Roe v. Wade, and everybody knew it except maybe Collins."

"Susan Collins told the women of America that they could trust her to protect their reproductive freedom," Clift added. "She let us down."

Charges filed against Philadelphia police officer for execution-style killing of unarmed 12-year-old

Former Philadelphia police officer Edsaul Mendoza has been charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of 12-year-old Thomas Siderio Jr. Mendoza shot Siderio in the back on March 1, killing the boy where he lay.

Philadelphia’s Democratic District Attorney, Larry Krasner, announced the charges at a press conference on Monday. In his remarks, Krasner made clear that the grand jury decided to press charges on the basis of a video showing the brutal murder. This video has yet to be publicly released, however the presentment issued by the grand jury details the video evidence shown to them.

It states that the four police officers involved were driving in an unmarked car and circled the block before deciding to pull over Siderio and his 17-year-old companion, referred to as NK in the presentment. The police did not turn on the vehicles lights until roughly the moment when a shot is fired into their vehicle and they exit it wearing plain clothes. In all likelihood Siderio and NK, living in a neighborhood wracked by violence, thought they were about to be mugged.

The presentment then details that Mendoza chased Siderio down most of a city block before shooting him in the back from 10 feet away while he lay prone. It shows that Mendoza approached Siderio incautiously, suggesting he did not believe the 12-year-old, 5-foot-tall child to be armed or a threat to himself. After shooting, Mendoza indicated to a fellow officer that Siderio had dropped his gun midway down the block, almost 40 feet behind where he was killed.

In his statements to the press Krasner was at pains to emphasize how egregious the act was and how there was essentially no room for doubt that Mendoza murdered Siderio, having no reason to fear for his or another’s life. He emphasized that, in most police shootings, an argument can be made that the police officer genuinely feared for their life before shooting a civilian. Mendoza’s conduct, Krasner explained, was “completely inconsistent with Mendoza believing Siderio was armed.” The murder was conducted execution-style, while the boy “was essentially facedown on the sidewalk.”

Republicans Threaten To Break Up Google & Facebook

Progressive Champion Nina Turner Loses Ohio Primary Race After Dem Party “Set Out to Destroy” Her

Top House Democrats Under Fresh Fire for Backing Anti-Choice Cuellar

In the wake of the bombshell leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion likely signifying the reversal of Roe v. Wade, progressives on Tuesday blasted the three ranking House Democrats for voicing support for reproductive rights while continuing to back anti-choice Rep. Henry Cuellar's bid for reelection in Texas.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) all expressed alarm over the prospect that the landmark 49-year-old Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the right to abortion will be overturned, while affirming their support for reproductive rights.

However, critics took all three Democratic leaders to task for their endorsements of Cuellar, the House Democrat with the strongest anti-choice record.

A day after his office and home were raided by FBI agents in January as part of a federal probe relating to the country of Azerbaijan, Cuellar remotely addressed the Democrats for Life annual March for Life breakfast in Washington, D.C. and was awarded the group's Legislator of the Year Award "for his defense of life from womb to tomb."

Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, lamented that Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn "have no problem campaigning for their friend" Cuellar.

"Clyburn is literally traveling to San Antonio for a fundraiser and rally with Cuellar tomorrow—it's shameful," she said. "Our leaders on reproductive rights are actively looking the other way as Jessica Cisneros, an inspiring young Latina is fighting for our right to choose and their values."

Cisneros, a progressive immigration attorney, is seeking to unseat Cuellar in a May 24 Democratic primary runoff. On Tuesday she tweeted that Cuellar was the only House Democrat "to vote with Republicans against codifying Roe" via the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), which was approved by the House last September but failed to pass in the Senate after right-wing West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin joined GOP lawmakers in a filibuster.

In contrast to Pelosi and others, more progressive Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to social media on Tuesday to elevate their support for Cisneros.

"Right now, young people need to know Democrats are fighting for them," said Prakash, who asserted that if Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn "really want to lead in this moment, they must un-endorse Rep. Henry Cuellar and back Jessica Cisneros for TX-28."

Climate Activists Who Blocked Houston Bridge to Fossil Fuel Traffic Cleared of All Federal Charges

After two years in the court system, Greenpeace USA announced Tuesday that 22 activists who suspended themselves from a Texas bridge in a daring 2019 protest targeting key fossil fuel infrastructure reached an agreement that will allow them to be cleared of all federal charges.

The environmental group said the activists signed a deferred prosecution agreement under which the U.S. Attorney General's office will dismiss the case following a brief waiting period, pending payment of certain costs incurred by law enforcement.

"In Houston and around the world, Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples are on the frontlines of the climate crisis," Greenpeace USA activist Rico Sisney, who participated in the protest, said in a statement.

"For too long, fossil fuel companies have poisoned communities to line the pockets of a handful of billionaires," he added. "They've gotten away with it in the same way that corporations and politicians get away with dehumanizing migrants, disabled, low-income, and other marginalized people all too often. Working together, we can ensure that the clean energy revolution will leave no one behind."

On September 12, 2019, a group of Greenpeace activists rappelled from the Fred Hartman Bridge in Baytown, the nation's largest fossil fuel thoroughfare, for 18 hours ahead of a Democratic presidential primary debate in Houston. Local media reported the direct action forced the closure of the Port of Houston for approximately 24 hours.

According to Greenpeace:

On average, 700,000 barrels of oil pass through the Houston Ship Channel every single day. Cancer-causing toxic air and water pollution harm local communities every day, while the continuation and expansion of fossil fuel business harm us all as we barrel towards a point of no return in the climate crisis.

The shores of the 52-mile Houston Ship Channel are home to the second-largest petrochemical complex in the world. Refineries operated by ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and more sit dangerously close to homes and schools. Every day, these facilities threaten the health of the majority Black, Brown, and low-income communities that surround them.

"I don't want to see every single corner of this country be exploited for fossil fuels while communities are being torn apart by oil spills, chemical fires, and more extreme floods, fires, droughts, and storms," protester Piper Werle wrote at the time. "If we don't rise up and resist... the oil industry right now, we'll soon be at the point of no return."

Twenty-two demonstrators were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting obstruction of navigable waters, which could have resulted in a year in federal prison and a $2,500 fine.

Harris County prosecutors charged 31 people involved with the protest with felonies under a highly controversial fossil fuel industry-backed state law criminalizing interference with oil and gas pipelines and other "critical infrastructure;" however, a grand jury declined to indict them.

Noting that "we are in a climate emergency created by the fossil fuel industry," Greenpeace USA deputy general counsel Deepa Padmanabha warned Tuesday that "we have little more than a decade to take ambitious action to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."

"That means starting the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy now," she continued. "We can either take the bold actions necessary to stave off the climate crisis today or suffer the radical consequences of climate-fueled disasters—more floods, more megastorms, and more fires—for years to come."

"This was a peaceful action," Padmanabha added. "The most dangerous thing about that shipping channel wasn't the activists—it was and continues to be fossil fuel executives' reckless plans to push us further towards climate chaos."

California’s new drought rules: will they be enough to halt the ‘alarming challenges’ ahead?

With little hope of reprieve ahead of the warming summer months, demand for water in parts of drought-stricken California is outpacing supply. The metropolitan water district of southern California declared a water shortage emergency last week for areas that rely on the State Water Project, a sprawling system of canals, reservoirs, and pipelines that snake across roughly two-thirds the length of the state, impacting about 6 million southern Californians in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties.

Describing the drought as “one of the most alarming challenges our region has ever faced” metropolitan issued unprecedented restrictions limiting outdoor watering to one day per week and also called on all southern Californians to cut their use by up to 30%. If conservation efforts fail to fall in line with declining supplies by September, the rules could be tightened with an all-out ban on outdoor watering.

“The reality is, this drought has left us without the water supply we need to meet normal demands in these areas,” said Adel Hagekhalil, metropolitan general manager in a statement. “To make sure we have enough water for their basic human health and safety needs, everyone in these communities must immediately and dramatically reduce their water use.” ...

More than a third of the American west is categorized in “Extreme drought” by the US Drought monitor, and water systems that supply the region are already stressed heading into another hot summer. The climate crisis is amplifying the effects and spiking temperatures typically push water levels lower as they drive demand higher. Meanwhile, the state’s snowpack – now at just 35% of normal for this time of year – is quickly disappearing.

The metropolitan water district of southern California caters to roughly 19 million people, delivering 1.5bn gallons of water a day to 26 smaller agencies through 830 miles of pipelines. Roughly a quarter of the water travels 242 miles across the desert from the imperiled Colorado River. Another 45% is sourced from local supplies – a diverse portfolio of water recycling, groundwater, desalination, and flows from the eastern Sierra operated by the city of Los Angeles. The remaining 30% is supplied by the State Water Project, owned and operated by the California department of water resources. Sourced from the northern Sierra, the system in total serves 27 million Californians and provides water for 750,000 acres of farmland at the heart of California’s agricultural sector, which grows nearly half of the nation’s produce.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

A Weird, Stupid Dystopia

The Irrational, Misguided Discourse Surrounding Supreme Court Controversies Such as Roe v. Wade

Leaked Supreme Court Draft Nothing But Right-Wing Politics Masquerading as Law

Demand for Nuclear Bunkers Soars as Russia-Ukraine War Fuels Fear in Europe

China Says NATO Has ‘Messed Up’ Europe in Warning Over the Alliance’s Role in the Asia-Pacific

These countries are willing to risk US ire over Russia-Ukraine

Thousands Flee Iraq’s Sinjar as Army Moves Against Yazidis

The Poor Peoples Campaign Dishonors Martin Luther King

Wall Street’s Biggest Secret Could Be Exposed

Ralph Nader: The Dems Are Totally Useless Against the Trumpian GOP Onslaught

Setback for billionaire Peter Thiel’s plan to build luxury lodge in remote New Zealand

FBI CAUGHT Searching MILLIONS of Americans with No Warrant

France's Socialist party and hard-left LFI form alliance for June parliament vote

Elon Musk Twitter Takeover SCARES Corporate America, Woke Companies THREATEN To Leave

A Little Night Music

Sam Lay - Maggie's Farm

Sam Lay Blues Band - Asked Her For Water

Sam Lay - Shoogie woogie

The Sam Lay Blues Band - Jelly Jelly

Sam Lay w/Siegel-Schwall - Poison Ivy

Sam Lay's Bluesband - Mean Mistreater

Sam Lay w/Paul Parello's Blues Power - Rush Hour Blues

Sam Lay - I'm the one

Sam Lay Blues Band - Ride em On Down

Sam Lay - Sloppy Drunk