October 2020 – Page 4

GOP rep Duffy considering Senate run in 2018: report

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

Rep. Sean DuffySean DuffyBottom line McCarthy blasts Pelosi’s comments on Trump’s weight Overnight Health Care: Trump says testing may be ‘overrated’ | Ousted official warns national virus plan needed | NIH begins studying drug combo touted by Trump MORE (R-Wis.), an early supporter of President-elect Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE, is considering a Senate run in 2018, several Republican operatives told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A handful of Republicans are already weighing a run to unseat Sen. Tammy BaldwinTammy Suzanne BaldwinBiden launches program to turn out LGBTQ vote We need a ‘9-1-1’ for mental health — we need ‘9-8-8’ Democrats introduce bill to rein in Trump’s power under Insurrection Act MORE (D-Wis.) in the wake of Trump’s stunning victory in Wisconsin, where Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Republicans release newly declassified intelligence document on FBI source Steele Democrats demand Republican leaders examine election challenges after Georgia voting chaos MORE (R) also pulled off an upset win last month.

These Republicans include state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, state Sen. Leah Vukmir, businessman and Marine veteran Kevin Nicholson and Eric Hovde, who unsuccessfully ran in the 2012 GOP Senate primary, according to the Journal Sentinel.

“The names swirling around are very strong candidates,” Mark Graul, a political operative, told the publication.

He added that it’s too early to predict the next cycle and that Republicans need to focus on delivering for voters after the November election.

Duffy, who’s served in Congress since 2010, raised his national profile as an early backer of Trump and has served on the president-elect’s transition team.

If he enters the race, Fitzgerald told the Journal Sentinel, “the party should unify behind him.”

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Baldwin will likely have a tough reelection, but she will also be formidable opponent.

She served in the House from 1999 to 2013 before she was elected to the upper chamber. She was the first openly gay person elected to the Senate and she will join Democratic leadership next year as Senate Democratic Conference secretary.

Senate Democrats have a rough 2018 Senate map. They need to defend 23 seats, in addition to two seats held by Independents who caucus with the party. Republicans, meanwhile, only need to protect eight seats.

Ten of the seats Democrats must defend are states carried by Trump in the November election and many of them are Midwest and Rust Belt states.

Poking Russia with a Stick? NATO Approves Military "Spearhead" for Eastern Europe

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

Citing what it termed “Russian aggression” on Friday, NATO leaders gathered at a summit in Newport, Wales gave official approval of what’s been called a “rapid response force” for eastern Europe, a so-called “spearhead” aimed at countering Moscow that would include an influx of as many as 5,000 soldiers, backed with new weaponry.

“This is a demonstration of our solidarity and resolve,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as he announced the move by the western military alliance. “This spearhead will include several thousand land troops ready to deploy within a few days with air, sea and Special Forces support.”

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Part of a larger “Readiness Action Plan” meant to bolster NATO’s military footprint in Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia—Russian leaders have repeatedly said that such a NATO expansion along the former Iron Curtain would be seen as a threat to its security and have angrily asserted that such moves by the west, led by the U.S. and the U.K., are a betrayal of key agreements long ago reached.

In addition to repeated pledges that NATO would not seek to expand eastward following the end of the Cold War, other treaties between Europe and Russia have now been brought back into question as the U.S. and Europe have imposed repeated economic sanctions against Russia for its move to re-incorporate Crimea earlier this year and the active support it has shown rebels in eastern Ukraine.

As the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reports:

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Friday’s decision by NATO to approve new military forces for eastern Europe comes at the exact moment that representatives from Russia, the Ukraine government in Kiev, rebel factions from eastern Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are meeting in Minsk, Belarus on Friday in an attempt to finalize a negotiated settlement to the ongoing military conflict and political crisis in Ukraine.

Critics of NATO have accused it of repeatedly undermining efforts for a political solution in Ukraine and charging that high-level hypocrisy has been repeatedly evidenced regarding outside influence when it comes to overt western backing of the Kiev government while calling Russia support for those in eastern Ukraine “illegal” interference.

As leaders of NATO member states have repeatedly demanded that Russia move its troops further away from its border with Ukraine, those same voices have continued to push for re-positioning their own forces closer to Russia while stepping up their efforts to back the Kiev government financially, diplomatically, and militarily.

As noted—if subtly—in a piece in the New York Times on Friday, the other piece of the puzzle regarding NATO expansion in eastern Europe is the question of military spending itself. In addition to offering the eastern members a more robust NATO presence along their borders with Russia, the larger and more powerful states (ie. U.S., U.K., Germany, and France) are specifically pushing for those countries to increase their level of annual military spending. The Times reports:

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Alberta's Tar Sands Lobbyist: We're Just One 'Devastating Lac-Mégantic Experience' Away from Keystone Approval

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

The Alberta tar sands have a new man in Washington.

Alberta MP Rob Merrifield announced on Wednesday he was resigning his seat in parliament to serve as Alberta’s envoy to D.C., where he will focus on gaining approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, among other issues. The appointment is an effort by Alberta Premier Jim Prentice “to get Alberta’s resources to key markets,” CBCNews reported.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Merrifield—who already has extensive contacts in D.C. from his previous role as a representative in Washington for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government—revealed what he thinks is required to sway American support toward Keystone approval:

The Lac-Mégantic disaster to which Merrifield referred occurred in July, 2013 when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken formation crude oil ran away and derailed, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars. The derailment killed 47 people.

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Environmentalists have repeatedly pushed back against the idea that oil-by-rail accidents mean we should build more pipelines to transport fossil fuels.

“[T]he recent spate of rail accidents and pipeline leaks and spills doesn’t provide arguments for one or the other,” Canadian scientist David Suzuki wrote earlier this year. “Instead, it indicates that rapidly increasing oil and gas development and shipping ever greater amounts, by any method, will mean more accidents, spills, environmental damage—even death. The answer is to step back from this reckless plunder and consider ways to reduce our fossil fuel use.”

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Suzuki continued:

Friday marks six years since TransCanada began its approval process with the U.S. government to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Scientists and activists strongly oppose the project due to its public health and environmental risks. NASA’s leading climate scientist, James Hansen, has called the pipeline “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet” and has said that if all the carbon stored in the Canadian tar sands is released into the earth’s atmosphere it would mean “game over” for the planet.

In an interview with the Nebraska Radio Network on Thursday, senior manager of American Petroleum Institute’s Refining and Oil Sands Program Cindy Schild criticized the long delay, saying: “There has been a small vocal minority that the Obama Administration has been catering to at the expense of national interest and the wishes of the vast majority of the American people. So, if President Obama is not going to exercise leadership and not look at the findings of his own State Department then we fully support Congress acting on this.”

Given the controversial nature of the debate, no one expects any developments until after the November elections.

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Daily Pro Wrestling History (10/12): Bret Hart wins his first WWF World title

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

1941

Waterloo, Iowa:

– Orville Brown defeated Joe Dusek

1943

Wichita, Kansas:

– NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ede Virag beat Jack Nasworthy in 2 out of 3 falls

1945

St. Joseph, Missouri:

– Orville Brown beat Cowboy Roy Graham

1951

St. Louis, Missouri:

– NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz defeated Yukon Eric

1972

Chattanooga, Tennessee:

– The Interns (Tom Andrews & Jim Starr), managed by Dr. Ken Ramey, defeated Ken Lucas & Ox the Ripper (Ox Baker), managed by Dennis Hall with the Interns’ Masks at stake in a no time limit and No DQ match

– Dennis Hall & Kevin Sullivan, managed by Joey Rossi, defeated Bobby Hart & Lorenzo Parente, managed by Don Duffy

– Danny Dusek defeated Jimmy Kent

– Roy Lee Welch defeated Gene Morton

Amarillo, Texas:

– Terry Funk & Ricky Romero beat Black Gordman & Tapia (substituting for Great Goliath) in 2 out of 3 falls

– In a Loser Must Unmask match, Mr. Wrestling beat Red Devil. Red Devil was unmasked as Dick Beyer (The Destroyer)

– Hank James beat Dory Funk Sr.

1973

Denver, Colorado:

– AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat The Crusher & Red Bastien in 2 out of 3 falls

– Pepper Gomez beat Buddy Wolff by DQ

– Geoff Portz beat Tokyo Joe

– Ric Flair drew Tony Rocco

1976

Macon, Georgia:

– Andre The Giant won a Battle Royal

– Non Title Match; Jos Leduc beat AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel

– Mongolian Stomper beat Rick McGraw

– Roberto Soto beat Stan Stasiak

– Paul Orndorff beat Jim Lancaster

1977

Raleigh, North Carolina:

– Baron Von Raschke defeated Ricky Steamboat to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic TV Title

1979

Knoxville, Tennessee:

– Dick Slater beat Toru Tanaka (substituting for Jack Brisco) in a No DQ match

– Jimmy Golden beat Robert Fuller

– Mongolian Stomper beat Alexis Smirnoff

– Norvell Austin & The Angel beat Ron Fuller & Paul Orndorff

1980

St. Paul, Minnesota:

– Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon beat AWA Tag Team Champions Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura by DQ

– Ray Stevens & Pat Patterson & Nick Bockwinkel beat Greg Gagne & Dino Bravo & Super Destroyer Mark II

– The Crusher beat Jerry Blackwell to win World Brass Knucks Title

– Buck Zumhofe drew Steve Regal

– Tito Santana beat Chris Markoff

1981

Atlanta, Georgia:

– Terry Gordy defeated Michael Hayes in a taped fist match

Greenville, South Carolina:

– Buddy Landell beat Charlie Fulton

– The Grappler & Super Destroyer beat Paul Jones & Jake Roberts

– NWA U.S. Champion Sgt. Slaughter beat Sweet Ebony Diamond (Rocky Johnson)

– Ivan Koloff beat Ricky Steamboat

Memphis, Tennessee:

– Stan Lane fought Steve Keirn to a no contest

– Bill Dundee beat Chick Donovan

– Ricky & Robert Gibson beat The Nightmare & Speed via DQ in a “Hospital Elimination” match

– Southern Champ Dream Machine beat Dutch Mantel

– Sweet Brown Sugar beat Jerry Lawler in a No DQ match

1984

Houston, Texas:

– Cage match: Jose Lothario beat Buddy Landel

– The Rock N’ Roll Express beat The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette

– Steve Williams & Hercules Hernandez beat Hacksaw Duggan & Bill Dundee

– George Wells beat Ernie Ladd

– Hector & Chavo Guerrero beat The Fantastics

1985

Nashville, Tennessee:

– AWA Champion Rick Martel beat Jerry Lawler by DQ

– Rock & Roll Express beat Ivan Koloff & Nikita Koloff

– Hospital Elimination Match; Fabulous Ones beat Sheepherders

– Bill Dundee beat Mongolian Stomper

– Ron Garvin beat Black Bart

1986

Orlando, Florida:

– Kendall Windham beat Kendo Nagasaki in a kendo stick on a pole match

– The Fabulous Ones drew the Sheepherders

– Southern champ Lex Luger beat Hacksaw Higgins

– Barry Windham drew Ron Bass

1987

Memphis, Tennessee:

– Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee beat Soldat Ustinov & Doug Somers to win AWA Tag Title

– Carl Fergie & Black Prince & Don Bass beat Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee & Steve Keirn

– Nasty Boys beat Lord Humongous & Big Bubba

– Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka beat Tracy Smothers & John Paul

– Bobby Jaggers beat Rocky Johnson

– RPMS beat Jeff Jarrett & Billy Travis

1991

Atlanta, Georgia:

– Big Josh (Matt Borne) & Dustin Rhodes, & Tom Zenk defeated Richard Morton, Thomas Rich & Terrance Taylor

– WCW World TV Champion Steve Austin pinned Steve Armstrong

– WCW World Tag Team champions The Enforcers, Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyzsko defeated The Freebirds, Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin

– WCW U.S. champion Sting & Rick Steiner defeated Cactus Jack & Abdullah the Butcher in a steel cage match

1992

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada:

– Bret Hart defeated Ric Flair to win the WWF World Heavyweight Title

1992

Memphis, Tennessee:

– Butch Reed defeated Junkyard Dog for the USWA Unified Heavyweight Title

1998

Uniondale, Long Island:

– Ken Shamrock defeated X-Pac in a tournament final to win the WWF Intercontinental Title

1999

Birmingham, Alabama:

– Mankind & the Rock defeated The New Age Outlaws to win the WWF World Tag Team Title

2002

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada:

– WWE World Champion Brock Lesnar pinned Chris Benoit

– Lance Storm pinned John Cena

– Chris Jericho defeated Matt Hardy via submission

– No DQ match: Edge pinned Eddie Guerrero

2008

TNA Bound for Glory: Chicago, Illinois:

– Eric Young and Sojournor Bolt defeated Lance Rock and Christy Hemme

– Jay Lethal defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Curry Man, Jimmy Rave, Johnny Devine, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt and Super Eric in a Steel Asylum match

– ODB, Rhaka Khan and Rhino defeated The Beautiful People (Angelina Love, Cute Kip and Velvet Sky)

– Sheik Abdul Bashir defeated Consequences Creed to retain the TNA X Division Championship

– Taylor Wilde defeated Awesome Kong (with Raisha Saeed) and Roxxi to retain the TNA Women’s Knockout Championship

– Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) (with Jacqueline) defeated Abyss and Matt Morgan, The Latin American Xchange

(Hernandez and Homicide), and Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) to retain the TNA Tag Team Titles

– Booker T defeated AJ Styles and Christian Cage

– Jeff Jarrett defeated Kurt Angle

– Sting defeated Samoa Joe to win the TNA World Title

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The Gravity of Climate Change: How Melting Ice Affects Planetary Pull

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

Satellite measurements show that West Antarctica’s gravitational pull measurably decreased over three years because of lost mass due to melting ice, according to research published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Data from the European Space Agency’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), combined with “coarser” measurements from the NASA–German GRACE satellite, allowed scientists to look at changes in ice mass in small glacial systems and compare those to high-resolution measurements of Antarctica’s gravitational field.

“They have found that the loss of ice from West Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 caused a dip in the gravity field over the region,” according to a GOCE press release.

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A study earlier this year showed that the world’s two largest ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting at the fastest rates ever recorded. Another study, published in August, found that human-caused climate change has become the primary driver of glacial melt.

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According to the European Space Agency, the rate at which ice is been lost from the West Antarctic ice sheet has increased by a factor of three each year since 2009.

“The gravitational fluctuation over the Antarctic Peninsula is small, but it’s further evidence that melting ice is fundamentally changing parts of the planet,” Carl Engelking writes at Discover magazine’s D-brief blog.

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How Long Before Another Soma Mine Disaster?

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

Six days a week, Tahir Cetin spends seven and a half hours hundreds of feet underground on a narrow ledge, mining coal near Soma, Turkey. He breathes in dust that is destroying his lungs, and digs into walls that could collapse on top of him. With one false step, he could fall to his death.

After five years of these conditions, and the low quality of life he faces due to little pay and poor treatment, the father of three says with resignation that it does not matter if he is alive or dead.

“It is slavery,” says Cetin, who lost his nephew in May this year, when an explosion at the Soma coal mine in Manisa in western Turkeycaused an underground fire, killing more than 300 people in the worst mine disaster in the country’s history. “As workers, we are valuable, but we are despised and mistreated by our country.”

According to Hurriyet Demirhan, a board member of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, nearly every miner in Turkey works under such conditions, which are chronic and widespread, and many wonder if or when another Soma disaster will repeat itself.

Both Demirhan and Arzu Cerkezoglu, Secretary-General of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), the union that now represents the Soma workers, believe that this will inevitably happen in one or more of the 450 mines facing exactly the same threat as Soma unless drastic changes are made.

DISK, as well as the Chamber of Mining Engineers, has filed reports about all of them, warning the government of their lack of safety. In 2010, Demirhan even filed a report on Soma, listing it as the most dangerous, but no changes were introduced.

While a fire that knocked out power at the mine and shut down ventilation shafts and elevators caused the Soma disaster, Cerkezoglu blames the government for the accident, and she points her finger at privatisation as the biggest problem with Turkey’s mining sector.

“The reason these people died is because of the government’s neoliberal policies of subcontracting and making profits,” she argues. “The people really responsible are those in the government who allow privatisation.”

Privatisation of Turkey’s mines began in the 1980s, when there was widespread agreement that the state was incapable of running mines efficiently. Now, private companies apply for permits through the Ministry of Energy and when they are approved, they hire auditors, engineers and safety personnel, all of whom are supposed to ensure the safety of the mines and fair treatment of the workers.

However, according to Demirhan, because it is the company that hires these personnel, they do little when they find something amiss. Add to this a mentality of high production at low cost, and the result is extremely poor conditions and abysmal pay.

It is through this process, says Demirhan, that workers lose their rights – and death is the consequence. “All of this is the responsibility of the state,” he adds, “and it is only through policies written by the state that workers can regain their rights.”

Immediately after the Soma disaster, DISK began working directly with mine workers and the families of the deceased to compile a file listing their demands for Soma and mining safety in general, which they presented to the Ministry of Energy in early July.

These demands include greater job security, higher pay, shorter and fewer shifts, an earlier retirement age, and compensation for the families of workers who died in the disaster, including new homes, double salaries, and forgiven debts, according to Tayfun Gorgun of DISK.

Gorgun is currently stationed in Soma and is working with the state to ensure that these demands are met for the 8000 workers still mining in the Soma area. But while the government has made promises to meet these demands, he says, progress has been slow.

The biggest promise the government has made so far has been to do away with subcontracting in the mining sector, which would stop many of the problems caused by privatisation. However, this issue, along with several others, has not even made it into the draft legislation phase.

According to Gorgun, “the government’s strategy is to decrease rights by letting time pass until people forget. The only way to make these changes happen is for the public to continue to care.”

Demirhan agrees, saying: “The state knows we will forget. We have forgotten before, and we will again.”

Cerkezoglu is confident that change will come, saying she believes that “the resistance of workers will lead to a change of living conditions and collective work agreements.”

For his part, Cetin wryly acknowledges that workers have been displaying this resistance. “We have asked for our rights, we’ve gone on strike and we’ve marched,” he says, but then he describes the violence that workers have faced for their efforts, including being beaten with batons and gassed by riot police.

“We have always known the taste of dynamite dust in our lungs, but we had never known the taste of pepper gas. Thanks to the state, we now know that as well.”

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For-Profit Healthcare Under Fire As Ebola Spreads to Second US Healthcare Worker

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

Update:

The Centers for Disease and Control announced Wednesday that the second Dallas healthcare worker infected with Ebola flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, the day before Amber Vinson, 29, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was confirmed to have Ebola. Vinson had a temperature of 99.5 Fahrenheit before she boarded her flight. The CDC said they will interview all 132 passengers on the flight, Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, which landed at 8:16 p.m. CT Monday.

Earlier:

A second healthcare worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who helped treat the late Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has now tested positive for the virus, state health officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The unidentified worker reported having a fever on Tuesday and was immediately isolated. A preliminary Ebola test confirmed the presence of the disease and confirmatory testing is now being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, officials are in the process of interviewing the patient to identify individuals who may have had contact or potential exposure to the virus.

News of the infection comes four days after a nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian, identified as the 26-year-old Nina Pham, also tested positive for Ebola.

A growing number of health experts are drawing a line between this gross unpreparedness and the United States’ for-profit healthcare system, under which there is minimal oversight and no uniformity between healthcare providers.The National Nurses Union for months has warned that poor hospital training and oversight is putting U.S. healthcare workers at great risk of contracting the virus. The NNU conducted a recent survey of healthcare workers across the country and found that 76 percent said their hospital had not yet communicated to them any policy regarding potential admission of patients infected by Ebola.

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“What concerns me is that this validated what our systems say all over the country throughout the last two months, that hospitals are not prepared to take care of Ebola patients,” Deborah Burger, co-president of NNU, told ABC News.

Speaking on Democracy Now! Wednesday morning, Dr. Lawrence Gostin, faculty director at the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown University, asked: “We call ourselves the most advanced health system in the world, but what do we meant by that?”

“I think what we mean is that we have the best of the best of the world,” Gostin continued. “We also have a highly variable system: so many different hospitals, so many different emergency rooms, over 300 local health authorities with such different standards.” Gostin said that the U.S. needs to “up our game,” with more uniform systems in place, more uniform equipment and training at every institution.

The NNU is holding a national conference call Wednesday at 3 PM for a discussion about U.S. hospital preparedness. Over 1,000 nurses have already signed up for the call.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned that the number of cases of Ebola is growing exponentially as the global response continues to fall far short of what’s needed to combat the spread of the deadly virus. WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward said that if efforts do not improve there could be as many as 10,000 new cases per week within two months within those hardest hit areas in West Africa. According to the WHO, over 4,400 people have now died of Ebola—the vast majority in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Below is the complete Ebola segment from Democracy Now!

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White House Attorney General Nominee Could Be First Black Woman to Hold Post

Posted on October 13, 2020 by bamdj

President Obama was expected on Saturday to nominate U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to be the next Attorney General. If confirmed, the 55-year-old federal prosecutor would be the first African American woman to hold the position.

“Ms. Lynch is a strong, independent prosecutor who has twice led one of the most important U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the country,” read a White House press statement sent out Friday.

Lynch, who currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two children, was first appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1999 by Bill Clinton and was apppointed again by Obama in 2010. Both times her nomination had to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

According to senior government officials, “Lynch was the least controversial of the final choices before the president,” the Washington Post reports. “She has been confirmed twice by the Senate. And she was respected for the way she conducted several high-profile cases without seeking publicity.”

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The New York Times notes that “she has no personal ties to Mr. Obama or his policies, freeing her of the baggage that weighed down other candidates.”

The paper continues: “If she is confirmed, her appointment will also allow the president, questioned in recent days about what he may do differently after his party’s thrashing, to bring a fresh face into an administration many have criticized as too insular.”

Lynch, who grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, has litigated cases related to political corruption, terrorism and organized crime.

Time magazine reports: “Before she was an appointed to the top job, she worked within the U.S. Attorney’s office to helped convict the NYPD cop who assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima with a broom handle, in one of the highest-profile police brutality cases of the 1990s. Louima is black and the arrested officers were white, but Lynch said she didn’t want the case to become ‘a referendum on race’.”

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The progressive coalition Alliance for Justice (AFJ) cheered Lynch’s likely nomination. “In addition to handling major cases involving everything from police brutality to cybercrime, Lynch is a key policy adviser to Eric Holder,” AFJ president Nan Aron said in a statement. “We are confident that Lynch will build on Holder’s strong legacy of standing up for civil rights and ensuring equal justice for all Americans. We call on Ms. Lynch to take a leading role in addressing the Supreme Court’s repeated efforts to deny access to the courts and the ballot box.”

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Trump in 2010 wanted 'death penalty' for WikiLeaks

Posted on October 12, 2020 by bamdj

President-elect Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE in 2010 blasted WikiLeaks, calling the organization “disgraceful.”

“I think there should be, like, death penalty or something,” Trump said during an on-camera exchange to preview Brian Kilmeade’s radio show, CNN’s KFile reported.

The Fox News anchor had brought up the subject of WikiLeaks after the website published hundreds of thousands of classified documents and videos leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier.

Trump’s comments stand in contrast to a tweet the president-elect sent early Wednesday that appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the intelligence community regarding Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

“Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!” Trump tweeted, referencing WikiLeaks’s publication of private documents from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and the Democratic National Committee.

The president-elect in subsequent tweets questioned why the DNC did not have “hacking defenses.”

Assange said in a Fox News interview broadcast Tuesday evening that the Obama administration was focusing on Russia’s alleged role in the Democratic hacks to “delegitimize” the election of Trump.

He also said the Russian government was not the source of the Democratic documents released over the summer, adding that the group’s source is “not a state party.”

Trump has raised doubts about the intelligence community’s assessment regarding the Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race. He has dismissed a report that said Russia intervened to help get Trump elected to the White House.

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Week of Anti-Fracking Action Culminates with Blockade, Arrests Outside Federal Building

Posted on October 12, 2020 by bamdj

As the week of climate action known as Beyond Extreme Energy came to a close in Washington, D.C. on Friday, activists blockaded the entrance to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) building for the fifth day in a row in a final push to fight the commission’s approval of fracking projects around the country.

People also marched to the D.C. Department of Transportation building to demonstrate against policies that activists say will expand the use of coal, oil, and gas exports in Pennsylvania.

Activists locked themselves to each other to form a human chain in front of one entrance to the FERC building, while others linked arms or held up massive banners displaying the faces of families living in communities affected by fracking. A special team from the Department of Homeland Security was called in to cut off locks and make arrests, according to posts on social media.

“FERC doesn’t work!” protesters chanted.

Throughout the week, people took part in various actions around the country in communities where FERC has approved fracking projects, which activists say amounts to “rubber-stamping” environmentally harmful proposals without considering their effects.

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In late September, FERC approved energy company Crestwood Midstream’s request to expand underground methane storage in salt caverns next to Seneca Lake, one of 11 Finger Lakes in New York. The commission also approved construction of fracking pipelines, compressor stations, export facilities, and underwater gas storage areas in Seneca Lake and other regions, including New York’s Myersville and Minisink, and Cove Point in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

Activists say FERC has not properly assessed the harmful effects that these gas and fracking projects have on environmental and public health, and that the burden of proof falls too often on blighted communities, rather than those who propose the project. They demanded that the commission withdraw its permits for fracked-gas export facilities and gas expansion plans and make the “rights of human beings and all life on Earth” its top priority.

“[We] call on FERC to make decisions based on the well-being of current and future generations and the protection of our shared natural resources,” Popular Resistance said in a press release. “Specifically, we call on FERC to reject the proposal to build a dangerous gas export facility at Cove Point and to place a moratorium on approvals of other export facilities.”

While Beyond Extreme Energy was scheduled to end on Friday, other environmental action groups plan to keep the movement going, with at least one organization announcing an action to take place on Monday at Cove Point.

Stopping Extraction and Exports Destruction (SEED), a coalition representing mid-Atlantic groups fighting energy extraction and exports, called for protesters to join a sit-in at a Cove Point construction site owned by gas company Dominion.

Protesters with AMP Creeks Council on Monday shut down a Dominion site on Solomons Island that is crucial to the company’s natural gas export terminal in Cove Point. Kelly Canavan, president of the AMP Creeks Council, chained herself to a piece of equipment at the site in protest of federal approval for Dominion to expand its terminal.

On Twitter, people used the hashtag #FERCblockade to update their actions:

#FERCblockade Tweets

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