Tag: USA

Reducing Risk in California Extraction

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New research shows that low-income communities and communities of color that are most impacted by oil and gas extraction (Frontline Communities) in California are at an elevated risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, and other negative birth outcomes. This is in addition to the elevated risks of cancer; risks for respiratory, cardiovascular, and pulmonary disorders; and risks for eyes, ears, nose, throat, and skin irritation that Frontline Communities face, among others. Public health interventions including setback requirements for oil and gas drilling are necessary to address the environmental health endemics documented in Frontline Communities. This analysis shows that approximately 2.17 million Californians live within 2,500’ of an operational oil and gas well, and about 7.37 million Californians live within 1 mile.

— source fractracker.org | Dec 17, 2020

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#classwar

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US Attempt to Sabotage Mexico’s GMO Corn Ban

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Environmental groups on Tuesday accused the Biden administration of putting the profits of big agribusiness over public health and critical pollinators by attempting to obstruct the Mexican government’s ongoing push to ban genetically engineered corn. “The U.S.’s shameful efforts to strong-arm Mexico into accepting GE corn it has rejected is nothing short of 21st-century imperialism,” Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Our government is working tirelessly to pad the multibillion-dollar profits of domestic agribusiness corporations by pushing GE corn, even though our glyphosate-drenched GE cornfields are playing an outsized role in driving catastrophic declines in vital pollinator populations.”

The group’s statement came after Mexico issued a new decree earlier this week that scraps the country’s original January 2024 deadline to halt imports of GMO corn for livestock feed and industrial use, a move widely seen as a concession to the U.S., which has been pressuring its southern neighbor to drop the ban since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) first announced it in 2020. But Mexico—the largest destination for U.S. corn exports—reiterated its intention to prohibit GE corn for human consumption by 2024 in its latest decree. Mexico is also aiming to ban imports and use of glyphosate, a cancer-linked chemical that is often sprayed on genetically engineered corn.

— source commondreams.org | Feb 15, 2023

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Rail Workers Decry Biden’s Push to Impose Strike-Breaking Labor Deal

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President Biden is warning that a looming rail strike could have devastating economic consequences, and has called on House lawmakers to vote today to block the strike and force through a contract deal that raises wages by nearly 25% but includes no paid sick days and is opposed by four out of the 12 rail unions representing tens of thousands of workers. Among them is the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, which said the move “denies Railroad Workers their right to strike while also denying them the benefit they would likely otherwise obtain if they were not denied their right to strike”.

Well, you know, the railroads have historically been a flashpoint of sort of both labor activism and also sort of setting the model for labor relations, industrial relations for much more than a century. I mean, it was on the — in the 19th century, of course, there were bloody clashes between the Army and the railroad workers. Eugene V. Debs was put in jail when he led the 1894 rail strike out of Chicago. But then, also, in World War I, the eight-hour day came to the railroads via Woodrow Wilson’s intervention. So, it’s more than just a strike of a few tens of thousands of rail workers; it’s going to set a model.

— source democracynow.org | Nov 30, 2022

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Seditious Conspiracy for Plotting to Violently Overthrow U.S. Gov’t

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For the first time in nearly 30 years, a federal jury has convicted two defendants of seditious conspiracy, the crime of conspiring to overthrow, put down or destroy by force the government of the United States. Jurors in Washington, D.C., Tuesday found Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election, resulting in the deadly January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. Kelly Meggs, who led the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy. Three other insurrectionists — Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — were found guilty of other felonies.

And I would say there are — so, there are also a number of other Oath Keepers who are charged with seditious conspiracy who are going to trial next week, and members of the Proud Boys, another far-right extremist organization, are also being charged with seditious conspiracy, and they go to trial December 12th. This sends a message to those who have pled not guilty that they have a tough trial ahead of them and that a jury has already found similar insurrectionists guilty. And so, it will be interesting to see whether these defendants decide whether they want to cooperate with the federal government and prosecutors or whether they will continue to plead not guilty.

— source democracynow.org | Dec 01, 2022

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The U.S. Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II

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Let us put this in a historical perspective: the commemoration of the War to End All Wars acknowledges that 15 million lives were lost in the course of World War I (1914-18).

The loss of life in the second World War (1939-1945) was on a much large scale, when compared to World War I: 60 million lives both military and civilian were lost during World War II. (Four times those killed during World War I).

The largest WWII casualties were China and the Soviet Union:

26 million in the Soviet Union,
China estimates its losses at approximately 20 million deaths.

Ironically, these two countries (allies of the US during WWII) which lost a large share of their population during WWII are now under the Biden-Harris administration categorized as “enemies of America”, which are threatening the Western World.

— source popularresistance.org | James A. Lucas | 27 Nov 2015

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Drop Murder Charges Against Domestic Abuse Survivor

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In a remarkable courtroom scene, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked a New York judge Monday to dismiss murder charges against Tracy McCarter, who says she acted in self-defense when her estranged husband died from a stab wound in the chest in 2020. Bragg campaigned on a promise to fight to free McCarter of murder charges, though, when elected, advocates say his actions initially fell short. This comes as pressure is growing in New York to end the criminalization of domestic abuse survivors, which happens at a disproportionate rate against Black women. Advocates say 90% of women who are incarcerated in New York have been subjected to domestic violence. McCarter “had done everything we tell domestic abuse survivors to do,” says journalist Victoria Law, who has closely followed McCarter’s case, but the nurse still finds herself “in legal limbo, waiting to see if she can try to start picking up the pieces of her life or if she will be facing trial for murder.”

So, as you said, Tracy McCarter was arrested on March 2nd, 2020, a few weeks before New York went on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. She had done everything that we tell domestic violence survivors to do. She separated herself from her increasingly abusive husband. She moved out. She found her own apartment. She continued working as a nurse — and I

— source democracynow.org | Nov 29, 2022

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