October 2020 – Page 6

UK Greenlights World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Posted on October 11, 2020 by bamdj

In a major advance for the country’s green energy future, the United Kingdom on Tuesday approved the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

The Dogger Bank Creyke Beck wind project will include up to 400 wind turbines and will be situated 131 km (roughly 81 miles) off the coast of Yorkshire, England. Compromising two seperate wind farms, the project boasts an overall maximum capacity of 2400MW, which officials estimate will generate enough electricity to power almost 2 million homes.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey called the approval a “great boost” for the region, adding that the development has the potential to support up to 900 green jobs.

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“Making the most of Britain’s home grown energy is creating jobs and businesses in the U.K., getting the best deal for consumers and reducing our reliance on foreign imports,” Davey continued, adding that wind power is “vital” to the country’s green energy plan.

Once complete, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck is expected to be one of U.K.’s largest power generators.

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In a press statement, Tarald Gjerde, General Manager of project developer the Forewind consortium said that approval of the project “will help confirm the U.K.’s position as the world leader in the industry.” Forewind is owned by international energy companies RWE, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil.

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Bowe Bergdahl, US Soldier Held by Taliban, Charged With Desertion

Posted on October 11, 2020 by bamdj

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was released from Taliban captivity in a prisoner swap last year has been charged with desertion, the U.S. military announced during a short press conference at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Wednesday.

Bergdahl, who went disappeared from his Army outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 and later ended up in the Taliban custory, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy under Articles 85 and 99 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, his lawyer, Eugene Fidell, told the Washington Post on Wednesday.

However, as an unnamed Defense Department official told the New York Times, the charges do not necessarily mean that Bergdahl will be tried or face jail time.

“Just being charged with desertion doesn’t mean he’s going to go to court-martial, there are a lot of more steps in the process,” the official said.

Bergdahl disappeared on June 30, 2009. Some questioned whether he had become disillusioned with the ongoing war and the U.S. military’s occupation of Afghanistan. In a move that President Obama’s critics have used against him, the White House held secret negotiations and then traded Bergdahl for five Taliban soldiers, held at the infamous offshore prison at Guantanamo Bay, in May of last year.

Military officials had several options on how to address Bergdahl’s case, including dismissing him of all wrongdoing or charging him with being absent without leave (AWOL). Desertion was the most serious charge he faced.

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Sanders reaffirms support for Ellison after Biden backs rival

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) took a shot at former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon 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 Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE on Wednesday, as two of the party’s biggest names backed different candidates in the race to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

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Sanders said in a statement that in terms of the next DNC chair “the question is simple: Do we stay with a failed status-quo approach or do we go forward with a fundamental restructuring of the Democratic Party?”

The public split between Sanders and Biden highlights a rift between the progressive and more mainstream wings of the party. Democrats have sought to squash the notion that the DNC chairmanship race is a proxy war between the two wings, fearing a replay of the bitter 2016 presidential primary.

But the internal divisions were in the spotlight once again on Wednesday after Biden announced that he would back former Labor Secretary Tom Perez to be the next DNC chair.

The endorsement brought to light what many Democrats have long suspected: that top Obama administration officials prefer Perez, an Obama administration alum, over Ellison, a progressive and early supporter of Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid.

“We have a lot of good people vying for this important job,” Biden said in a statement. “But I do think for this moment and in this time, Tom Perez is our best bet to help bring the party back. I’ve watched him work. I think I know his heart.”

Ellison responded by praising Biden for showing “loyalty to people he has worked with” but saying that the decision “must be the choice of the rank-and-file Democratic Party members.”

Sanders, who endorsed Ellison for chair early on and has campaigned for him, went further in criticizing the party’s “failed status-quo approach.”

“I say we go forward and create a grassroots party which speaks for working people and is prepared to stand up to the top 1 percent. That’s why we have to support Keith Ellison,” Sanders said.

As Smoke and Flames From Latest Derailments Wane, Calls From Both Sides of the Border to Halt 'Bomb Trains'

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

With the flames from the most recent oil train derailment just extinguished, a spotlight hovers over the risks associated with what some have dubbed “bomb trains.”

In the past month alone, there have been four such disasters in the United States and Canada:

On February 14, a CN Rail freight train carrying crude from the Alberta tar sands derailed near Timmins, Ontario, causing seven of the cars to burst into flames.
On February 16, a CSX train carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota derailed Mount Carbon, West Virginia, triggering an explosion and fire.
On March 5, the fiery derailment of a BNSF train carrying crude struck near Galena, Illinois.
On March 7, a fiery derailment involving a train carrying tar sands crude hit northern Ontario again, this time near Gogama.

Further highlighting the risks is a recent analysis by the Department of Transportation predicting an average of 10 derailments per year.

The incidents—and exponential increase in the transport of oil by rail—have sparked calls for more stringent regulation and safer ways to transport fossil fuels. But environmental voices on both sides of the border say that is a fundamentally flawed way to approach the problem, and that the derailments should serve as a wake-up call for ending our fossil fuel addiction.

Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, stated that the Obama administration has failed to take the necessary action to prevent these trains from harming wildlife and communities.

“The fact that these trains are still moving on the rails is a national travesty,” said Matteson. “The next explosive wreck — and there will be more, so long as nothing changes — may take lives, burn up a town or level a city business district, and pollute the drinking water of thousands of people. Enough is enough.”

And the answer is not to use the rail disasters as motivation for more pipelines, said Matt Krogh, ForestEthics extreme oil campaign director. “There is no safe way to transport extreme tar sands or Bakken oil by train or pipeline,” he stated.

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Henry Henderson, Midwest Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and former Commissioner of the Environment for the City of Chicago, agrees. He called the “fiery mess in Galena… one more wake up call for Americans” and said that industry’s seizing the derailments to call for more pipelines “reflects a cynical, false choice.”

“If we are serious about reducing the risk of moving oil through our communities—we need to focus on using a lot less of it,” Henderson said.

The Council of Canadians stated that the federal government needs to put a halt of these “bomb trains,” noting that even those car models deemed to be safer shown themselves ot be no safeguard to these fiery disasters.

Mark Calzavara, Ontario, Québec and Nunavut organizer for the Canadian organization, said, “It’s time to put people’s lives ahead of profits, and for the government to stop allowing unsafe trains to travel through our communities, neighborhoods and environment.”

David Dayen writes at Salon that such oil train disasters “haven’t ruined a major population center yet only through dumb luck; and we haven’t cracked down on this treacherous practice only because of the enormous power of the industry.” And that power, he adds, has allowed the fossil fuel industry to externalize its true costs—like those resulting from damages from oil train derailments.

“Oil appears ‘cheaper’ than solar or wind, because these costs never come into account. But solar power doesn’t blow up while being carried through a major city on a train. And if we want to seriously talk about what kind of energy we can afford in the future, that has to enter the conversation,” Dayen concludes.

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Candy Cartwright files lawsuit against Matt Riddle, WWE, EVOLVE

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

This story was updated at 10:20 PM Eastern.

Image: Anthony Vasquez / Chicago Sun-Times

Candy Cartwright is suing Matt Riddle, WWE, EVOLVE, and Gabe Sapolsky for $10 million per defendant in a sexual assault lawsuit.

In a press conference in Chicago Thursday, Cartweight (real name Samantha Tavel) and attorney John Chwarzynski of Hale & Monico discussed her side of the story that first emerged in mid-June during the #SpeakingOut movement.

While working for EVOLVE in May 2018, Cartwright said she and Riddle were in a van with three other wrestlers. After the others had fallen asleep while traveling, Riddle overtly propositioned her for sex. She refused, but said Riddle grabbed her throat and threatened her with “What if I just made you?” She said she eventually gave him oral sex to get out of the situation.

Chwarzynski said Thursday that incident was one of “a multitude of sexual assaults committed by Matt Riddle against my client, Candi Cartwright” from 2017 through January 2020. In April 2017, it alleges Riddle raped Cartwright after an EVOLVE show in Brooklyn, New York, while in a parked vehicle and that he bragged about it to Sapolsky and others. The suit says the EVOLVE co-founder “tacitly approved of this conduct” and allowed it to happen, even encouraging it.

The suit said Cartwright had bookings with both WWE and EVOLVE on January 31st, 2020, but that she refused to perform sexual acts on Riddle and had her bookings cancelled due to “issues with the talent.” That was because Riddle allegedly told WWE and EVOLVE that because Cartwright wouldn’t perform sexual acts on him, he didn’t want her working for either group and that both complied.

At the press conference, Chwarzynski said he is going to send copies of the lawsuit to both the state attorney’s office and the Summit (IL) Police Department where the incident allegedly took place as he wants them to open an investigation.

Riddle, who was called up to the WWE main roster days after the allegations went public, denied them on two occasions, the second in a video in which he admitted having an affair with Tavel but never sexually assaulted or abused her. When he first denied it, he said he and his lawyer were going to seek an injunction for cyberstalking but it’s unclear whether that happened.

As of this writing, neither Riddle or his attorney have made a public statement.

The suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, but in a statement to WrestlingObserver.com, a representative from WWE said they “have not been served with a lawsuit by Ms. Tavel. However, if served, we will vigorously defend ourselves and contest it.” Fightful got a quote from Sapolsky that said, “News to me.”

At the press conference, Chwarzynski said, “WWE has painted a picture over the course of the years that female performers are to comply with certain rules. The WWE, since its inception, has hyper-sexualized female performers and they’ve profited from male aggression against these female performers.”

In reading through the lawsuit, there are errors, specifically that Riddle worked for WWE on/prior to May 2018 when he didn’t sign a deal until that summer. There are also some questions regarding how WWE and EVOLVE’s relationship is portrayed in the suit.

Judge Orders US Government to Stop Suppressing Evidence of Torture and Abuse

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to release more than 2,000 photographs showing abuse and torture of people detained by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision is the latest development in a more than 10-year-long legal battle, in which the American Civil Liberties Unions has argued that disclosure of the records is critical for public debate and government accountability.

Many of the concealed photographs were taken by U.S. military service members and collected during more than 200 military investigations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some could be on par with, or worse than, those released from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

U.S. district judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled (pdf) that the government “is required to disclose each and all of the photographs” in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request from the ACLU. In the order, Hellerstein argued that the government did not adequately prove that “disclosure would endanger Americans.”

The decision gives the Solicitor General two months to decide whether to appeal.

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The ACLU has pressed for the release of records relating to torture and extrajudicial killings of prisoners in U.S. custody around the world since 2003.

The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have vigorously fought to keep these photographs suppressed, and in 2009, the White House collaborated with Congress to secretly change FOIA law to enable the concealment of the images, arguing it is necessary to protect national security.

However, ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer argued in response to Friday’s ruling, “To allow the government to suppress any image that might provoke someone, somewhere, to violence would be to give the government sweeping power to suppress evidence of its own agents’ misconduct. Giving the government that kind of censorial power would have implications far beyond this specific context.”

“The photos are crucial to the public record,” Jaffer continued. “They’re the best evidence of what took place in the military’s detention centers, and their disclosure would help the public better understand the implications of some of the Bush administration’s policies. And the Obama administration’s rationale for suppressing the photos is both illegitimate and dangerous.”

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Mayors Warn: Inaction on Immigration Reform 'Has Real Consequences'

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

Delaying President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration reform is not only hurting immigrant families but is also wrecking the local economy in U.S cities coast to coast, a coalition of more than 70 city and county leaders charged in a brief filed on Monday.

The friend-of-the-court brief, filed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Texas vs. United States lawsuit, argues that cities—where most immigrants live—are on the front lines of the country’s broken immigration system.

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“Continuing to delay implementation of the President’s executive action on immigration hurts our economy and puts families at risk,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who initiated the push under the group Cities United for Immigration Action.

Under Obama’s plan, which was announced in November of last year, as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants with longstanding ties to the U.S. may be permitted to stay and work temporarily. However, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting the action until the courts weighed a suit filed by the state of Texas with backing from 25 Republican-led states which argues that the executive order is unconstitutional. Monday marked the deadline for all amicus briefs supporting the U.S. in the case.

In their rebuke, 73 mayors and other local leaders—many of whom are defying heads of state who supported the suit—say they will not stand on the sidelines while partisan bickering continues to threaten local communities.

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“Too many immigrants live in fear, afraid to become members of our society, while Congress fails to take any meaningful action to fix a broken immigration system,” said Hoboken, New Jersey Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “Their inaction has real consequences for our communities.”

According to the brief, the executive action will “benefit cities and counties by providing work authorization to millions, increasing local tax revenue, stimulating local economies, facilitating the civic engagement of immigrants, keeping families together, and improving public safety by strengthening our neighborhoods and communities.”

Further, it reads, delaying immigration reform has “significant costs” for mixed-status immigrant families, who live in ongoing fear deportation and separation, “a situation that has profound emotional, educational, and health impacts on children.”

While many immigrant rights advocates said that the executive order did not go nearly far or enough, others, including Obama himself, said the order was only intended to serve as a temporary reprieve in lieu of more permanent immigration reform.

“Cities are where immigrants live, and cities are where the President’s executive action will be successfully implemented,” DeBlasio continued. “Our cities are united, and we will fight for the immigration reform this nation needs and deserves – whether in the courtroom, in Congress, or in our communities. Make no mistake about it: our voices will be heard.”

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Mental Health Experts Warn of 'Emotional Toxicity' of Neoliberalism

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

Four hundred mental health experts signed an open letter released by The Guardian on Friday warning that Britain’s austerity cuts, and neoliberalism more broadly, are profoundly damaging to quality of life and psychological well-being.

“The past five years have seen a radical shift in the kinds of issues generating distress in our clients: increasing inequality and outright poverty, families forced to move against their wishes, and, perhaps most important, benefits claimants (including disabled and ill people) and those seeking work being subjected to a quite new, intimidatory kind of disciplinary regime,” warned the letter, whose signatories included Susie Orbach—a well-known psychotherapist and social critic.

The Alliance for Counseling and Psychotherapy played a lead role in organizing the statement, which was signed by counselors, psychotherapists, and other providers associated with a broad array of groups, including Psychotherapists and Counselors for Social Responsibility and Disabled People Against Cuts.

The letter specifically took aim at a series of austerity reforms included in the chancellor’s latest budget, including the controversial “linkage of social security benefits to the receipt of ‘state therapy.'”

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But their warnings spoke to a theme with broad implications around the world, as societies from Greece to Jamaica suffer from the harrowing public health impacts of austerity.

“More generally, the wider reality of a society thrown completely off balance by the emotional toxicity of neoliberal thinking is affecting Britain in profound ways, the distressing effects of which are often most visible in the therapist’s consulting room,” the letter states.

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“This letter sounds the starting-bell for a broadly based campaign of organizations and professionals against the damage that neoliberalism is doing to the nation’s mental health.”

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Dozens Feared Dead After Fire Consumes Factory In Philippines

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

At least 65 people have been reported missing or dead after a fire consumed a rubber slipper factory in a suburb of the Philippine capital of Manila on Wednesday.

Rex Gatchalian, mayor of the suburb of Valenzuela where the disaster took place, reportedly said that it took fire fighters four hours to quell the blaze and bodies were found inside the building.

According to the mayor’s account, the explosion occurred when welding sparks near the factory entrance caused an explosion of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process.

When workers fled to the second floor in an effort to escape, they were reportedly trapped. “By the time they realized that they could pass through the main door, the flames were already engulfing the front area,” said the mayor, according to the Associated Press.

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Jun Panalo, a worker who reportedly leaped from the second floor, told Reuters, “We were all confused because almost everybody was panicking. I jumped out, and then someone followed me. I jumped through the fire. My hair was burned.”

Between 200 and 300 people worked at the factory, said owner Veato Ang.

It was not immediately clear whether fire escapes or protections were in place.

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Midwest Battlecry Goes Up Against Tar Sands as Thousands March in St. Paul

Posted on October 10, 2020 by bamdj

With the marching crowd stretching “as far as the eye can see” in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday, thousands of people from across the Midwest came together to protest the construction of new pipelines and other infrastructure projects which they say will deliver only harmful climate impacts for the planet and irreparable destruction to the region, not the jobs and energy security promised by big oil companies and their political backers.

Under the social media tag of #StopTarSands, Saturday’s was sponsored by dozens of groups, including national and local environmental organizations, Indigenous communities, and various social justice groups who all agree it will take a unified front to fight back against the pipeline companies and fossil fuel interests pushing for expanded development of tar sands, shale oil and gas deposits, and other forms of extreme energy in the region.

In a statement, the coaltion behind the march explained that the climate justice movement in the U.S. and Canada has far more targets to fight than just the Keystone XL pipeline.

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“It’s not just Keystone XL. Big Oil is trying to build and expand an enormous network of tar sands pipelines — some even bigger than Keystone XL — from Canada into the Great Lakes region. These tar sands pipelines, including the Alberta Clipper, along with crude oil trains and tankers, pose a growing risk to the Great Lakes, our rivers, our communities and our climate,” the statement said.

“The movement promoting clean energy prosperity in place of polluting fossil fuels is growing and being heard in every corner of the country,” said Terry Houle, co-chair of the Sierra Club’s Northstar Chapter, which helped organize the event. The march, said Houle, “picks up where last year’s Peoples’ Climate March in New York left off — people from all walks of life are calling on the Administration to keep dirty fuels in the ground for the sake of clean air, clean water, and a stable climate.”

According to NRDC’s Anthony Swift, “Increasing the amount of toxic tar sands crude flowing into this region is not in keeping with a much needed transition to clean energy. Rejecting tar sands means fighting for clean water, clean energy, and a safer climate. There is simply no place for dirty oil in America’s future.”

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Billed as the biggest anti–tar sands march and rally the Midwest has ever seen, Aaron Mair, board president of Sierra Club, trumpeted the coalition’s diversity and unwavering commitment as essential to its ultimate success against the pending Sandpiper pipeline and similar projects.

“With climate disruption, we face the greatest environmental challenge of all time,” Mair wrote in a blog post ahead of the march. “To meet it, we’ll need to change almost everything about how our country works. And to do that, we’re going to need everyone. It’s a big job, but it’s not impossible. We’re already gaining steam. We’re building a strong, authentic movement to confront climate disruption and to galvanize humanity’s response — and in so doing we can shift the world.”

And Tom Goldtooth, head of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said this week, “The frontline communities are strengthening the resistance. They’re concerned, and we are linking up the pipeline resisters in Canada, northern Minnesota, out east and more.”

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To help explain why the Mideast region has become such an important battleground for the climate fight both in the U.S. and Canada, the organizers behind the Tar Sands Resistance March offered these reasons:

The Midwest is a primary import zone for dirty oil from Canada. Refineries in the Midwest get virtually all of their imported oil via pipeline from Canada. The diluted bitumen transported from Canada that arrives in U.S. refineries is more corrosive than conventional crude oils and may lead to increased risk of accidents.These refineries also pose a significant risk to the climate. Refining tar sands oil emits higher levels of greenhouse gases, as such more Imports of tar sands will add to U.S. emissions.
Various efforts are being made to expand tar sands pipelines in the Midwest to be able to process more tar sands from Canada. Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline company responsible, is using illegal schemes to double the capacity of its Alberta Clipper tar sands (aka line 67), with no public notice and also by bypassing Presidential permit process. This illegal expansion would put Alberta Clipper on par with the Keystone XL pipeline and significantly increase the amount of toxic, highly polluting tar sands crude being moved into the U.S. We must stop this from happening.
Tar sands spills are also of major concern. In 2010, more than 800,000 gallons of tar sands was spilled into the Kalamazoo River, causing hundreds of residents to be hospitalized from adverse health effects, including cardiovascular, dermal, gastrointestinal, neurological, ocular, renal, and respiratory. Cleanup efforts are still ongoing.
Petroleum coke, a by-product of tar sands which has resemblances of coal and shares many of coal’s physical qualities, including a similar chemical composition, has been linked to a number of other health problems, including developmental and cardiovascular impacts. This is threatening communities like Chicago and Detroit. In Chicago’s southeast side, massive piles of petroleum coke are found near homes, leading to black dust clouds entering the surrounding air and exposing vulnerable residents to an array of health impacts.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

On Twitter:

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