Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues singer and guitarist J.B. Lenoir. Enjoy!

"If you want something to work well powerful and rich people must be forced to use it. They must have the same experience as ordinary people.

It takes an especially bad dose of capitalist ideology (or aristocratic or oligarchic ideology) to not get this point. If the powerful aren’t affected by how they run society (except to get richer and more powerful); if they don’t experience how the society runs for ordinary people, then society will be shit, AND if you want society to be good you can’t allow rich and powerful people to opt out of ordinary experiences.

They must have the same health care as everyone else, including the same odds of not receiving care, being bankrupt by it or getting bad care. They must go thru the security lines at airports and be groped. Their kids must have the same odds of having shitty schools. They must have the same odds of dying of Covid-19. They must be given rifles after voting for a war in the Senate and sent to the front lines (or at the least their kids must be,though I see no reason why they shouldn’t be, and if they’re too physically weak to fight, they shouldn’t be allowed to vote on a war they won’t be involved in.)"

-- Ian Welsh

News and Opinion

To take seriously Biden’s claim to moral leadership in foreign policy, he should apologize to the victims of the post-9/11 wars.

If there has been a silver lining to Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s that it’s been an impetus for some form of national self-reflection in the liberal establishment. That urge has manifested itself in Joe Biden’s campaign, which has gone to great lengths to portray itself as one of moral renewal after the degradation of the Trump years. Promising a return to a more familiar style of U.S. foreign policy, Biden’s platform claims that under his leadership, the United States can “reclaim our longstanding position as the moral and economic leader of the world.” It is no defense of Trump to say that a straightforward “return to normal” is in no one’s interest. A major legacy of the governing establishment of which Biden is a champion are the post-9/11 wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Greater Middle East, wrecked entire societies, and caused great trauma to the minority of Americans who have sacrificed their lives, family members, or mental and physical well-being in combat.

Biden himself has played a role in this dismal history. As a U.S. senator, Biden voted in favor of the disastrous 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, later floating a plan to partition the country along sectarian lines that many warned would have plunged it into even greater chaos. Making matters worse, he has often equivocated on his decisions rather than honestly confronting them under questioning. There is not much to gain by dwelling forever on the wounds of the past. But in order to take seriously Biden’s claim to moral leadership in foreign policy, there is a minimum debt that he — and other U.S. political leaders responsible for the post-9/11 wars — owes to those who have paid the price for their destructive fantasies: an apology.

American leaders are famously averse to apologizing, viewing it as something that degrades rather than ennobles a powerful nation. “I will never apologize for the United States, I don’t care what the facts are,” former President George H.W. Bush affirmed in a 1988 speech delivered to a group of Republican leaders. Bush père stuck to his no-apologies policy even while overseeing serious moral outrages during his term. These types of acts may not have penetrated America’s innocent self-image. But they’ve hardly escaped notice abroad.
It is often argued that the United States had good intentions behind even its worst foreign policies. But outcomes also matter. After all the death and destruction wrought by the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq today is an even worse place to live than it was under Saddam Hussein: a chaotic mafia state where ordinary people live in fear of a hundred petty tyrants rather than one great one. In Afghanistan, after two decades of war, the United States is preparing to make peace with the Afghan Taliban — something that it could have spared Afghans much suffering by doing on far more favorable terms as far back as 2002. Rarely in history has so much toil been expended to make people worse off than when they began, including Americans.

U.S. governing elites have coped with these incredible failures by generally either ignoring or denying them. Insulting the American public by refusing to honestly acknowledge the reality staring them in the face, that the wars begun with grand promises had ended in total calamity, helped open the way for Trump’s presidency. However disingenuously, Trump was able to call out something that was glaringly obvious to average Americans but that political leaders refused to acknowledge. This is no defense of Trump, who has continued the worst traditions of the same elite establishment that he once harried — including by pardoning a war criminal. But returning to the exact status quo that made his rise possible in the first place hardly makes sense. It took a toxic brew of selfishness, greed, decadence, and sectarianism to elevate someone like him to the White House. But it also took a lot of killing and dehumanization of innocent people around the world.

US imposes sanctions on top international criminal court officials

The US has imposed sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Fatou Bensouda, in the latest of a series of unilateral and radical foreign policy moves. Announcing the sanctions, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, did not give any specific reasons for the move other than to say the ICC “continues to target Americans” and that Bensouda was “materially assisting” that alleged effort.

He also announced sanctions against Phakiso Mochochoko, the ICC’s director of jurisdiction, complementary and cooperation division.

The US Treasury issued a statement saying Bensouda and Mochochoko had been deemed “specially designated nationals”, grouping them alongside terrorists and narcotics traffickers, blocking their assets and prohibited US citizens from having any dealings with them.

In June, Donald Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on ICC officials involved in investigating Americans, in response to the court’s decision to open an inquiry into war crimes committed by all sides in Afghanistan. The US also opposes ICC scrutiny of potential Israeli crimes against Palestinians as part of an investigation that also looks at abuses carried out by Palestinian security forces. ...

In a statement in response to the sanctions on Wednesday, the ICC said: “These coercive acts, directed at an international judicial institution and its civil servants, are unprecedented and constitute serious attacks against the Court…and the rule of law more generally.”

Courts Vindicate EDWARD SNOWDEN! with NSA Whistle-blower BILL BINNEY!

U.S. court - Mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal

Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans’ telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional. ...

Evidence that the NSA was secretly building a vast database of U.S. telephone records - the who, the how, the when, and the where of millions of mobile calls - was the first and arguably the most explosive of the Snowden revelations published by the Guardian newspaper in 2013. Up until that moment, top intelligence officials publicly insisted the NSA never knowingly collected information on Americans at all.

Navalny Gets Skripaled

Funny how Novichok, the "military grade", "most deadly" poison, never kills anyone. ...

Other questions one might ask (and will never get answered):

• If the Russian state or "Putin" has poisoned Navalny why was he allowed to be flown out of the country?
• No traces of any unusual substances have been found by the two Russian laboratories which analyzed the blood of the sick Alexei Navalny. Why?
• While Navalny was allegedly exposed to such stuff why was no one else around him hurt by it?
• Why was the German government so eager to get Navalny to Berlin?
• Who has the lead in this anti-Russian information operation? The MI6, the CIA or the Germany BND?

Maduro invites UN, EU observers to Venezuela election

The Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday it had invited the leaders of the United Nations and European Union to send observers to monitor parliamentary elections in December.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Twitter that a letter had been sent to UN chief Antonio Guterres and EU top diplomat Josep Borrell, outlining "the broad electoral guarantees agreed for the upcoming parliamentary elections," and inviting them to send observers.

The move came a day after Maduro pardoned more than 100 lawmakers and associates of opposition leader Juan Guaido "in the interests of promoting national reconciliation" ahead of the polls.

Guaido dismissed the move as a ploy to try to legitimize the upcoming elections, which the main opposition has said it will boycott.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

Spanish judge orders Franco’s heirs to hand over summer palace

A judge in north-west Spain has ruled that the Galician manor where Gen Francisco Franco spent his summers is the property of the state and has ordered the dictator’s descendants to hand it over after 82 years of possession.

The Pazo de Meirás, which was built between 1893 and 1907, was bought by public subscription and handed to Franco as a gift from the people of A Coruña in 1938, a year before the end of the Spanish civil war.

However, Spain’s justice ministry – which began proceedings to recover the property last summer – argued that local people had been forced to contribute to the public subscription, and that Franco’s subsequent purchase of the manor in 1941 was fraudulent.

The government stepped in after the dictator’s heirs put the property up for sale for €8m (£7m) in February 2018.

The judge, Marta Canales, noted that the group that bought the manor in 1938 had given it “to the generalísimo of the armies and the head of the national state” – but not to Franco by name. She also ruled that Franco’s purchase of the property in May 1941 was invalid and had been a “fiction carried out with the sole intention of putting the property in his name”.

The Franco family is expected to appeal against the ruling.

Trump sets up fight with Congress over plan to cut dues to WHO immediately

The Trump administration is planning to cut its membership dues to the World Health Organization, in a legally controversial move that will be challenged by Congress.

The US issued its formal notice of withdrawal from the WHO in July, after Donald Trump accused the body of being pro-China and of failing to contain the coronavirus pandemic. However, the withdrawal does not take effect until next July, and until then – according to a 72-year-old agreement with Congress – the US is obliged to maintain its financial contributions.

By the time of the withdrawal notice, the first tranche of $58m of its “assessed contributions” – national membership dues – had already been paid, leaving a second tranche ofabout $62m.

The deputy assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs, Nerissa Cook, said on Wednesday those funds, as well as $18m owing from the previous year “will be reprogrammed to the UN to pay other assessments”. Cook said the details had to yet to be worked out, but made it clear the money would be diverted away from the WHO towards paying other UN dues. ...

Democrats in Congress have challenged the president’s right to reduce or divert funds from the WHO, saying it is a violation of the joint resolution of Congress that marked the agreement made with Congress at the time of US accession to the global health body in 1948.

Meet The Organizer Who Built A Guillotine Outside Bezos' House

The profits of August

Over 30,000 people died in the US last month from the COVID-19 pandemic, while corporations carried out mass layoffs amid soaring unemployment, hunger and poverty. At the same time, the US stock market recorded its biggest increase for the month since 1986. All three major American stock indexes have risen for five consecutive months since plunging in mid-March. The benchmark S&P 500 index has risen 65 percent, its biggest five-month gain since 1938. Last month saw the wealth of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos climb to $200 billion. Tesla became the world’s biggest car company by share value, as its market capitalization rose to $465 billion, taking the personal fortune of its chief executive, Elon Musk, to more than $100 billion. Apple became the first company in the world with a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion.

Since the Federal Reserve’s bailout of major corporations in March, Apple’s stock has more than doubled, while Tesla’s stock has risen more than six-fold. These figures underscore the nature of the Wall Street bonanza. It is taking the form of what has been called a “K-shaped recovery,” in which a group of corporate giants enjoy massive profits, driven by the run-up in stock prices, while most of the economy stagnates.

In 1914, the rolling out of the guns of August at the outbreak of World War I marked the start of a process that saw arms manufacturers rake in millions in profits amid death and destruction, the like of which had never been seen. Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought devastation to the working masses in the US and around the world, has served as the occasion for all arms of the capitalist state to be mobilised to organise the greatest-ever redistribution of wealth to the heights of society. ...

The Trump administration, backed by the Democrats, has provided some $2 trillion to bail out the corporations while cutting off what limited aid was provided to workers. At the same time, the Fed has funnelled $4 trillion into the financial system, functioning as the backstop for every financial market. These measures are being accompanied by a murderous assault on the working class. The policy of governments around the world, spearheaded by the Trump administration, is to force workers back to work, no matter what the dangers to their health and lives, in order that profit accumulation can continue. ...

In the period leading up to the pandemic, concerns were growing that the labour market was becoming “tight.” The COVID-19 outbreak has been seized upon to solve that problem. It has opened up the way for corporations to proceed with restructuring operations, based on making permanent what were initially announced as temporary layoffs, as well as lowering wages for those who remain and intensifying their exploitation.

'A Band-Aid, Not a Solution': Critics Warn Trump Eviction Moratorium Only Delays—Doesn't Prevent—Housing Crisis

While the Trump administration's announcement Tuesday of a broad moratorium on evictions for nonpayment of rent through the end of 2020 was praised by some as a positive step, critics warned that the new policy—which lacks the emergency rental forgiveness or assistance called for by progressives—only postpones a wave of displacement and urged lawmakers to pursue a coronavirus relief package that includes robust assistance for housing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's moratorium, effective upon publication on Friday, Sept. 4 through Dec. 31, is intended to "prevent the further spread of Covid-19." Tenants must apply for protection, demonstrating loss of income, attempts to pay partial rent, and proof that eviction would likely render them homeless or doubled-up.

Crucially, the measure does not relieve renters of their obligation to pay rent, meaning that millions of households will continue to accrue a debt that they will be expected to pay back on Jan. 1, 2021.

While the CDC's actions have been welcomed as a positive short-term intervention in terms of public health, several housing and health justice advocates and policy experts have pointed out that "this is a band-aid, not a solution," as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Peggy Bailey put it.

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, called the national moratorium on evictions "long overdue and badly needed. As we've said for five months, the very least the federal government ought to do is assure each of us that we won't lose our homes in the middle of a global pandemic."

Nevertheless, Yentel noted, the CDC policy provides only temporary relief.

"While an eviction moratorium is essential," said Yentel, "it is a half-measure that extends a financial cliff for renters to fall off when the moratorium expires and back rent is owed."

Bailey added that the moratorium "does little to adequately meet the needs of millions of families who are behind on their rent... it is unrealistic to think that low-income households will be able to pay the back rent, putting them at risk of eviction in December." ...

Struggling tenants are not the only ones clamoring for support. Landlords, who Bailey said could be left "in the lurch" due to the absence of aid, are also pushing for the federal government to provide rental assistance that can help them meet their financial obligations to creditors.

While White House officials have justified the move to temporarily halt evictions, which Bloomberg called an "unprecedented use of executive authority," by arguing that "the CDC Director has authority to take measures he deems reasonably necessary to prevent the spread of communicable diseases," experts still expect legal challenges from property holders who are upset about lost income.

Emily Benfer, a lawyer specializing in health and housing justice, argued that the CDC's measure must be paired with funding to "protect renters, landlords, and communities from harm."

Like Bailey and Benfer, Yentel argued that only an eviction ban combined with substantial rent relief "would keep renters stably housed during and after the pandemic." Yentel believes that a new bill must include "at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance."

In addition to pointing out the limits of an eviction moratorium that is not coupled with rent relief, other commentators have questioned President Donald Trump's motives and timing, suggesting that his administration may be acting cynically and opportunistically in the lead-up to November's election.

"Now," Says AOC, "Where's His Unaltered Calendar?" House Dems Subpoena Postmaster General Louis DeJoy

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday requesting documents from U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy—including unredacted copies of his official government calendar—as a way to compel the head of the USPS, also a major GOP and Trump donor, to come clean about possible conflicts of interest or communications with the White House related to controversial changes made under his leadership at the Postal Service in recent months.

Accusing DeJoy of "withholding from Congress" the key documents it has requested as part of its oversight authority, the committee had made clear repeatedly that it would issue a subpoena if non-compliance continued.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Oversight chair, has said failing to produce the documents was unacceptable. As CNN reported Monday:

During DeJoy's testimony last week, the Committee on Oversight and Reform requested documents on the changes made to the postal service that caused widespread delays across the country by August 26. According to a statement from the committee, no documents were produced and two days after the deadline, DeJoy sent a letter to the committee that said, "I trust my August 24 testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Reform clarified any outstanding questions you had."

The committee's request include a lengthy schedule (pdf) of documents and information for DeJoy to hand over, including his "complete, unredacted calendar from June 15, 2020, to the present."

If the USPS is surprised we are issuing a subpoena, it’s because they weren’t listening.

I said directly in the hearing that if DeJoy didn’t quickly hand over documents, we should issue a subpoena.

They knew the consequences of stalling. Now, where‘s his unaltered calendar? https://t.co/raNrSytmz6

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 2, 2020

Healing Needs to Happen: Kenosha Native Rep. Mark Pocan on Trump’s Visit & U.S. “Policing Problem”

More "bad apples."

New York police used ‘spit hood’ on Black man who died of asphyxiation

A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to video and records released Wednesday by the man’s family.

Daniel Prude died on 30 March after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester. His death received no public attention until Wednesday, when his family held a news conference and released police body camera video and written reports they obtained through a public records request. ...

The videos show Prude, who had taken off his clothes, complying when police ask him to get on the ground and put his hands behind his back. Prude is agitated and shouting and officers let him writhe as he sits on the pavement in handcuffs for a few moments while a light snow falls. Then, they put a white “spit hood” over his head, a device intended to protect officers from a detainee’s saliva. ...

Then the officer’s slam Prude’s head into the street. One officer holds his head down against the pavement with both hands, saying, “Stop spitting,” as Prude’s shouts turn to whimpers and grunts. Another officer places a knee on his back. The officers appear to become concerned when they notice water coming out of Prude’s mouth. “My man. You puking?” one says. Prude stops moving and falls silent. One officer notes that he’s been out, naked, in the street for some time. Another remarks, “He feels pretty cold.” ...

A medical examiner concluded that Prude’s death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint”.

Police killing of Daniel Prude comes to light

Krystal Ball: New Polls Reveal Trump's Riot Strategy Backfires

Most Democrats fear Trump could reject election defeat, poll shows

Three in four supporters of Democratic challenger Joe Biden are worried about the prospect of Donald Trump rejecting the US presidential election result if it goes against him, an Opinium Research poll for the Guardian shows.

The survey underlined fears that the president will not accept the outcome of November’s race, triggering a constitutional crisis. Last week two congressional Democrats wrote to the Pentagon seeking assurance that the military would ensure an orderly transfer of power.

Nearly half of all Americans (47%) say they are worried about the possibility of Trump losing the election but refusing to concede defeat, Opinium found. Among Biden voters, that figure climbs to 75%, whereas for Trump voters it stands at 30%. Conversely, two in five (41%) Trump voters are worried that Biden will lose but not concede, as opposed to one in four Biden voters (28%).

'Coordinated Homophobic Attack' on Alex Morse Denounced as Progressive Challenger Falls Short of Ousting Corporate Rep. Richard Neal

After progressive challenger Alex Morse fell short of ousting powerful corporate-backed Rep. Richard Neal in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' 1st congressional district on Tuesday, LGBTQ advocates decried the "coordinated homophobic attack" against Morse—reportedly orchestrated by state party leaders—that came to dominate the final stage of the race as the incumbent's lead in the polls began to slip.

"The efforts to sensationalize and weaponize Alex's sexual orientation certainly influenced the outcome of this race, but the backlash it engendered should give pause to those considering similar tactics in the future," said Annise Parker, president and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund, which endorsed Morse. "We are grateful Alex stayed in the race and took the body blows necessary to expose the double standards too often placed on LGBTQ candidates."

Morse, the openly gay mayor of Holyoke, spent much of his post-election speech Tuesday night condemning a "broken" federal government that fails to guarantee healthcare as a human right while spending trillions on war and a Democratic establishment bankrolled by corporations guilty of "exploiting the working class people of this community and of this country." Morse also hinted at a possible second run for Neal's House seat in 2022, declaring, "We're not done yet."

"We ran against one of the most powerful Democrats—not just [any] Democrat, one of the most powerful incumbents in Washington—over the last 14 months who had access to millions and millions of dollars, the vast majority from corporations," said Morse, alluding to Neal's status as the top recipient of corporate PAC money in all of Congress, Republican or Democrat. "Corporations that aren't looking out for all of you... Big pharmaceutical companies that are making you pay egregious amounts of money for insulin, for medication in this country."

"This is who funds our congressman right here in western Massachusetts," Morse continued, also mentioning the healthcare lobby and the fossil fuel industry, both of which are major donors to Neal, who late last year helped tank legislation aimed at ending the scourge of surprise medical billing.

At the tail-end of his remarks, Morse condemned the "coordinated political attack" against him that "goes all the way up to Washington, D.C, Congressman Neal, the people around him, the Massachusetts Democratic Party, corporations that invested millions of dollars in attack ads over the weekend"—a reference to a spot from the Democratic PAC American Working Families that was widely denounced as homophobic.

"This isn't just about me," said Morse. "We have to send a message loud and clear that these kind of tactics in our communities are unacceptable."

USPS Watchdog Probe Found 1 Million Primary Ballots Likely Delivered Too Late to Count

The U.S. Postal Service's internal watchdog issued in a report this week detailing a number of concerns about how prepared the service is for the upcoming November elections in which a record number of Americans are expected to vote by mail, with one Democratic lawmaker seizing the findings as further evidence of the need for reforms "to prevent serious election mail delays and voting suppression."

The audit from the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) was released Monday and probed the service's "readiness for timely processing of election and political mail." Among the findings were that 1.6 million pieces of election mail weren't delivered on time from April through June, and over 1 million primary ballots were at "high risk" of not getting back to election boards on time to be counted because they were sent out within seven days of an election.

"The Postal Service plays a vital role in the American democratic process and this role continues to grow as the volume of election and political mail increases," the OIG said.

Reviewed by the watchdog were seven processing and distribution centers (P&DCs)—Santa Clarita, California; Portland; Indianapolis; Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; Brooklyn, and Oklahoma City—that were handling materials for primary elections held in May and June 2020.

The audit was conducted before Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump campaign megadonor, took charge of the service in June and began a rollout of sweeping changes that prompted congressional hearings, demands for DeJoy's ouster, and nationwide rallies to #SaveThePostOffice.

A number of concerns were outlined in the watchdog's report: ballots mailed without barcode mail tracking technology; ballot mail piece designs that result in improper processing; election and political mail likely to be mailed too close to the election, resulting in insufficient time for the Postal Service to process and deliver the mailpieces; postmark requirements for ballots; and voter addresses that are out of date.

"An analysis of data determined the total number of identifiable election and political mail mailpieces not delivered on time from April 2020 through June 2020 for the seven P&DCs was about 1.6 million (8 percent) of 20.2 million mailpieces," the report said.

Actions by election officials were also blamed for problems with processing election materials.

"According to Postal Service management," the report said, "during the primary election season, election boards mailed over 1 million ballots to voters within seven days of an election. This put these ballots at high risk by not allowing sufficient time for delivery to voters and their subsequent delivery back to the election boards."

Pelosi BLAMES Salon Owner For 'Set Up,' Caught Violating Covid-19 Restrictions

GOP Gov Complicit In Flint Poisoning Endorses Biden

California braces for record heat even as wildfire smoke keeps windows closed

Record-high temperatures are expected across California for the holiday weekend, increasing fire risk and exacerbating poor air quality for residents yearning to go outside because of the pandemic but forced indoors because of smoke from nearby fires.

As fires continue to burn throughout the state, the National Weather Service (NWS) declared excessive heat watches in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento starting on Saturday and lasting until Monday. In Los Angeles, where temperatures of 100F to 115F were expected away from the beaches, dangerous heat was declared.

“This is an exceptionally dangerous event, especially considering the holiday weekend and the ongoing pandemic,” warned the NWS forecast office in San Diego. “This event will be hotter than the recent mid-August heat wave. Temperatures this high, and this widespread, are rarely ever seen in this area.”

Another week, another major California heatwave. This will undoubtedly complicate ongoing wildfire situation, & may have elevated health impacts given ongoing "smokestorm" conditions that make it difficult to spend time outdoors/open windows. #CAwx #CAfire https://t.co/dV8WjpoJeQ

— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) September 1, 2020

The NWS also warned of an increased risk of power outages, as more Californians will want to use their air conditioners amid the heat – and it highlighted an increased risk of vegetation fires. “Elevated to briefly critical fire weather conditions can lead to dangerous plume-dominated fire growth,” the forecast reads. This heatwave strikes as typical air-conditioned public spaces such as malls and libraries remain closed in many locations because of Covid-19. “Those without air conditioning should make preparations now to stay cool,” the NWS said.

City of Hoboken Files Climate Suit Against Exxon

The city of Hoboken on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against multiple Big Oil players—including ExxonMobil, incorporated in New Jersey—joining an increasing number of state and local governments using litigation in efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for defrauding the public about foreseen climate crisis damages and to make companies "pay their fair share" of the costs of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a warming planet. 

The lawsuit (summary pdf) argues that the defendants—ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute—knew that "their production, marketing, and sale of fossil fuels would cause global climate change," but they engaged in a massive "disinformation campaign" to protect their profits, which would diminish in conjunction with decreased fossil fuel use. 

Big Oil began redesigning its own assets to adapt to rising sea levels at the same time it was "telling the world that climate change was a hoax," the lawsuit states. 

According to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), Hoboken is the 20th community to take fossil fuel giants to court to "recover billions of dollars in damages caused by the oil and gas industry's deception about climate change."

Richard Wiles, executive director of CCI, said in a statement that "with climate costs surging everywhere and local budgets depleted, more and more communities are turning to the courts as their only recourse to make polluters pay for their fair share of the wreckage they knew their products would cause."

Wiles continued:

Exxon and their co-conspirators can't run from this growing wave of climate lawsuits. Thanks to Hoboken, for the first time, Exxon will have to defend its shameful record of climate damages, disinformation, and denial on its home turf. It takes guts to sue the most ruthless, deceitful, and unapologetic climate polluters on the planet. Hoboken's elected leaders should be applauded. 

According to local reporters, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla's announcement of the legal action came one month after "the low-lying city suffered two flooding events that theoretically should have occurred once in 50 years." 

In addition, residents remember the devastating impact that Superstorm Sandy had in 2012, when a 14-foot storm surge overwhelmed outdated sewer systems to cause over $100 million in damage in the city.

Also of Interest

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

For Years, Journalists Cheered Assange’s Abuse. Now They’ve Paved His Path to a US Gulag

Jimmy Dore: Julian Assange SHAM Trial Starting!

Are Riots Counterproductive, and Who Decides?

The Principle Of Elite Consequences

Wall Street’s Felon Banks to Go Live with their Own Stock Exchange this Month

Massachusetts Hopeful Alex Morse Couldn’t Overcome Homophobic Smear

Ed Markey Beats Back Senate Challenge From Joe Kennedy

Nancy Pelosi says she was victim of 'setup' in hair salon mask dispute

Advocates Applaud House Democrats for Scheduled Vote on Federal Marijuana Legalization

Amazon tragedy repeats itself as Brazil rainforest goes up in smoke

'It just sounds like a thud': astronomers hear biggest cosmic event since big bang

Wildlife photographer of the year 2020, highly commended – in pictures

Keiser Report | Glorifying Plunder

JOY REID Exposes Herself Again!

Rising - Marianne Williamson: Why I Spoke At People's Party Convention

A Little Night Music

J.B. Lenoir - Lou Ella

J. B. Lenoir - Slow Down

J. B. Lenoir And his Combo - The Mojo

J. B. Lenoir with Freddy Below - The Whale Has Swallowed Me

J. B. Lenoir - Alabama Blues

J.B Lenoir - I've Been Down For So Long

J B Lenoir - How Much More

J. B. Lenoir - If I Get Lucky

J B Lenoir - Feelin' Good

J.B. Lenoir - Do What I Say