Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

#UK should cut #vehicle use to hit #zero-carbon target, say MPs | #Environment | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/22/uk-must-reduce-personal-vehicle-ownership-meet-zero-carbon-target-mps-report

#GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #GreenhouseGases #FossilFuels #Health #Pollution

#Cuadrilla halts #fracking after biggest #tremor yet at #Lancashire site | #Environment | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/22/cuadrilla-halts-fracking-after-biggest-tremor-yet-at-lancashire-site-preston-new-road

#England #UK #FossiFuels

Kashmir is Cut Off

After decades of border disputes, Muslim-majority Kashmir is under a strict crackdown by India’s Hindu nationalist government.

Say A Little Prayer

At First-Ever Native American Presidential Forum, Candidates Answer to Centuries of Injustice

“‘We the people’ has never meant ‘all the people,’” said Independent presidential candidate Mark Charles of the Navajo Nation at the first-ever Native American presidential forum, held August 19 and 20 in Sioux City, Iowa. 

Charles was enthusiastically received as the only member of a tribe currently running for president, and his remarks echoed a theme of the night: the mistreatment and neglect of Native Americans by the federal government.

Named for the revered Winnebago activist Frank LaMere, who died in June, the event presented a series of serious, hour-long discussions with Charles and ten 2020 Democratic presidential candidates: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D.–Mass.), Bernie Sanders (D.–Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D.–Minn.), Kamala Harris (D.–Calif.), Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Marianne Williamson, former Rep. Joe Sestak, former Rep. John Delaney and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

“History-making” was how event organizer and Rosebud Sioux tribal member OJ Semans described the rare spotlight on Native issues during a presidential primary.

Semans, who runs the voting-rights group Four Directions with his wife, Barb, believes the candidates took part because they understand that Native Americans are an increasingly powerful voting bloc. Voter turnout is growing in Indian country, and “in an election that’s likely to be close, there are several states where Native American voters can provide a winning margin,” Semans says. He cites Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona, which have substantial Native populations that Four Directions is seeking to register and get to the polls (as it did on North Dakota reservations in 2018 when the state imposed ID voting requirements that were particularly difficult for Native people to meet.)

Each candidate was individually questioned by some six to eight panelists. They sat on a stage lined with tribal and U.S. flags, before an auditorium filled with members of tribes from around the country. 

After panelists offered greetings in their traditional languages, they shifted to English to ask about topics of interest to Native people, many related to historic injustices: the struggle to renew traditional languages decimated by the boarding schools, protection of Native children’s right to stay in their families and communities, upholding voting rights, protecting sacred sites threatened with desecration, federal-tribal consultation and U.S. Census undercounts of Native people. Other high-priority topics were economic development, housing, education, healthcare and climate justice.

The new president must support tribal governments’ sovereignty, said De Blasio. As mayor of New York City, he well understood, he said, that “the governments that are closest to people serve them best.”

Marcella LeBeau, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and recipient of the French Legion of Honor and other awards for front-line service as an Army nurse during World War II, asked many if they supported the Remove the Stain Act. This proposed Congressional legislation would rescind medals given to soldiers for the Wounded Knee massacre. Each candidate wholeheartedly agreed.

Charles, for his part, highlighted how, despite the expansion of some rights—like suffrage for women, Native Americans and African Americans—prejudices that date back to the country’s founding remain woven into our political and legal system. He said that the next president must understand how U.S. law remains skewed by the U.S. Constitution’s protections of the rights of white, Christian, land-owning men. 

For example, the high rate of murder and other violence against Native women is compounded by the Supreme Court’s denial of Indian nations’ right to prosecute non-Indians for on-reservation crimes. Charles also noted the ongoing power in U.S. law of the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old papal policy encouraging the subjugation and seizure of non-Christian lands and people. Many may be startled to learn that as recently as 2005, the Supreme Court cited this doctrine in deciding against a tribe in a lawsuit it heard.

Manny and Renee Iron Hawk, who attended the forum from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, appreciated candidates’ thoughtful responses but wanted more detail in some areas. They wanted to know candidates’ specific plans for protecting water sources and for cleaning up already-contaminated tribal ones. “It’s great to talk about water rights,” Renee says. “But let’s hear something tangible.” 

She also wonders about candidates’ declarations that they would “honor the treaties.” It’s not a simple concept, in her analysis. Some treaties must be honored—full stop—and others may need reconsideration.

“Some treaties had purposely misconstrued and mistranslated provisions and were not upheld anyway,” Renee says. “We need a president who can lead a thorough re-think of the federal-tribal relationship, so we can become fully self-sustaining nations.” 

The New York Times and NPR led their pieces on the forum with Senator Warren’s apology for trying to prove Cherokee ancestry via a DNA test. Her mistaken assumption that test results might convey identity or even tribal affiliation—and end the current president’s Native-oriented slurs against her—became controversial in Indian country. 

But the panelists and attendees seemed not to focus on the misstep by Warren, who was greeted with a standing ovation. In introducing her, first-term U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D.–N.M.), from Laguna Pueblo and one of the first Native women elected to Congress, described her as a valued collaborator on numerous bills and initiatives, and “my sister in the struggle.” 

Haaland added that centuries of displacement mean many Natives spend generations finding their families and tribes. “What I’m saying is, she has found us,” said Haaland, who described media focus on the issue as supporting the current president’s racism. Other Natives present described Warren as consistently involved in Congressional Native matters and referred to her with traditional honorifics like “grandmother.”

Warren described a series of plans unveiled Friday—yes, she has plans—for solving the many systemic challenges in justice, economic development and other areas that continue to plague Indian country. “Big structural change, that’s what Congresswoman Haaland and I are fighting for,” she said, “so that everyone has a chance to build a strong future.” 

“We don’t need to hear about the DNA test; we need discussion of the Presidents’ slurs,” Renee said. “Are we invisible people? Our feelings matter. We are still here. In fact, we wouldn’t be if we weren’t such determined people. We will decide this election. Try telling us we can’t, and you’ll see, we will.”

As Native people both vote and, like Haaland, get elected to office themselves, “We are going from protest to power,” says Judith Le Blanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance, a co-host of the forum.

Environmental Groups Just Sued the Trump Administration Over Its Endangered Species Act Rollback

Environmental and animal rights groups are taking the Trump administration to court over rules finalized last week by the departments of Commerce and Interior weakening the Endangered Species Act’s protections. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Earthjustice on behalf of seven groups including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Defenders of Wildlife, alleges […]

Communities Across the Country Reject Automated License Plate Readers

Recent months have seen a wave of cities and counties around the country rejecting the use of automated license plate readers in their communities, citing privacy concerns posed by the technology. Added to recentlocal levelvictories barring the use of face recognition technologies, it is encouraging to see local governments across the nation lead the way in proactively stemming the tide of invasive surveillance technologies.

Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are camera systems that scan vehicle license plates and build a searchable database of drivers’ historical travel patterns. ALPRs, often installed on patrol vehicles, streetlights, freeway overpasses and the like, indiscriminately scan every vehicle in a given area and collect data on all drivers regardless of whether their vehicle is under suspicion. Location-based information collected over time can reveal intimate details of a person’s life, such as where they work and live, where they pray, where they seek medical treatment, and who their friends or romantic partners are.

In June, the California State Auditor launched a probe into the use of ALPRs by local law enforcement agencies, which is a valuable step towards improved information about how government agencies are collecting, using, and storing ALPR data. Even better, there’s been a recent surge of cities and counties rejecting ALPRs. This shows the power that local governments and residents have when they speak up and voice concerns over threats to their privacy. That’s how a community can curb the spread of this dangerous technology.

Half Moon Bay, California

In July, the City of Half Moon Bay, California halted considerations regarding ALPRs until the state’s audit is complete. As reported by the Half Moon Bay Review, the City Council began considering the adoption of ALPRs in May. But as planning unfolded, and in light of the state’s audit announcement, many members of the public, as well as city officials, raised privacy concerns. Of particular concern to city councilmembers was the possibility of data collected by local ALPRs being accessed by federal immigration enforcement officials.

Delano, California

The City of Delano, California, recently determined it will no longer pursue using ALPRs, after a series of meetings between law enforcement officials and community members. Kern Sol News reports that for the past several months, the city’s police chief  had been considering ALPRs. The chief held a series of community meetings to discuss residents’ privacy concerns. Delano residents and privacy advocates, including the ACLU, voiced concerns about the data being accessed by ICE. They explained that primary ALPR vendor, Vigilant Solutions, has an active contract with ICE that enables the agency to access data collected by the systems. Community members objected that the technology would make the county’s undocumented immigrants vulnerable to deportation. At a city council meeting on July 1, the police chief announced the department would no longer seek ALPRs, because losing public trust outweighed any possible benefits the technology would offer. 

Michigan City, Indiana 

Also last month, Michigan City, Indiana, chose not to advance a local ordinance that would have allowed the city’s police department to purchase ALPR systems, due to opposition from city residents. 

According to the La Porte County Herald-Argus, the ordinance would have allowed the Michigan City Police Department to purchase ALPRs. When the ordinance was brought up for discussion at a city council meeting, nearly every speaker opposed ALPRS. Residents objected that the technology is invasive, and would be used to disproportionately profile and harass people of color. 

During these deliberations, members of the city council asked local law enforcement to identify the policies that would regulate the access, retention, and purging of the collected ALPR data. Their response? There weren’t any such controls. The city council voted unanimously to amend the proposed ordinance to cut ALPR authorization.

Suffolk County, New York 

In New York, Suffolk County postponed accepting a million-dollar state grant for the purchase of approximately 70 new ALPR cameras, after listening to concerns from local civil liberties groups and residents. Newsday reported that the ALPRs were to be installed in two communities that have seen high rates of gang violence in the past, though gang activity has decreased in these areas in recent years. Local civil liberties groups questioned how collecting and storing data on every car on the road would help combat gang violence. They also objected that it could be used as a dragnet to target low-income residents, people of color, and immigrants. In early July, county officials postponed accepting the grants, citing questions about how data would be stored and the adequacy of ALPRs in reducing crime.

Pima County, Arizona

In Arizona’s border region, the Pima County Board of Supervisors, responding to pressure from privacy advocates, recently rejected federal funds designated for ALPRs. A $1.8 million package of federal Operation Stonegarden grants for border enforcement included funds to purchase ALPRs, according to the Tucson Sentinel. The county already uses several ALPRs for their drug interdiction and auto-theft units, but the new federally-funded ALPRs were intended for indiscriminate collection of location data. Privacy advocates objected that increased use of these technologies could strengthen the ability of private companies, advertisers, debt collectors, and ICE to target vulnerable communities. While the supervisors approved the overall package, it excluded funding for plate readers.

These scenes from around the country demonstrate a growing public awareness of the threats to privacy and civil rights posed by tools of mass surveillance. The actions taken in these five forward-looking cities and counties also show the increasingly powerful role that concerned residents can play in thwarting the spread of invasive technologies in our communities. 

Related Cases:  Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)

When ICE Comes for Their Neighbors, These Community Defense Brigades Will Be Ready

Faced with president Donald Trump’s escalation of some of the country’s worst immigration policies—massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, the Muslim ban, and tearing migrant children from their families at the country’s southern border—activists and community organizers have rallied behind immigrant communities. One key element of the fightback is the community defense patrol, a rapid response tactic designed to quickly react to ICE activity. Following the recent mass workplace ICE raid in Mississippi, in which 680 people were arrested, the critical need for community education and rapid response to ICE is all the more evident.

Although the specifics of the tactic may vary at different times, community defense patrolling involves groups of activists walking, biking or driving around specific locations where people endure high risk of being arrested by ICE. With the threat of ICE ever-present in immigrant communities, patrol participants organize to monitor areas where raids and arrests may happen. Their physical presence in vulnerable locales facilitates a rapid response to help defend people targeted by ICE. Community defense patrols have been common historically, though new instances of these patrols are emerging again in response to Trump’s repeated threats of large-scale ICE raids this summer.

On July 14, after the Trump administration threatened massive ICE raids in major cities, locals patrolled neighborhoods the north and south sides of Chicago. In the Albany Park neighborhood, the office of 33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez-Sanchez, a Democratic Socialist, and neighborhood groups such as Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) and the Albany Park Defense Network, joined together to organize community defense brigades. In Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, local groups—among them Pilsen En Defensa and the Pilsen Alliance—also organized patrols. In each neighborhood, organizers created a volunteer schedule with three shifts, ensuring that crews patrolled the areas for most of the day.

Lilia Escobar, the neighborhood services coordinator for Rodríguez-Sanchez in the 33rd Ward, says that the office wanted to have an “immediate response to an attack” on people who live in the neighborhood. Locals who signed up to participate in the patrols were given a training hosted by the group 33rd Ward Working Families, divided into smaller groups, and sent to walk or bike around specific sections of the neighborhood to monitor for ICE activity. No verified ICE activity was spotted that day, but participants were instructed to record any incident involving ICE, alert the 33rd Ward Working Families Office and an Illinois hotline designated for reporting suspected ICE activity, and also to inform anyone being arrested of their rights if possible.

“The most immediate goals of the defense patrols is to inform the community of their rights and to build a trained network of community members on standby to monitor and respond to any potential ICE, Homeland Security Investigations or Customs and Border Protection activity as quickly as possible at all times,” Diego Morales, an organizing member of Pilsen En Defensa, tells In These Times. “We want to ease the fears of our undocumented neighbors by showing them that the community they live in has their backs.”

This tactic has also been used this summer in New York City. One organizer with the rapid response group OPERATION ICE POP, who wished to remain anonymous, says that they have been helping to put community defense patrols together to counter ICE acti­vity because “standing around and doing nothing is no longer an option” given the Trump administration’s heightened anti-immigrant policies.

In early June, the group had patrols monitoring for ICE activity in all five of the city’s boroughs. Members of the patrols used various means of transportation including driving in cars, riding on public transit, walking around the streets and even cruising around on skateboards. The organizer says that on one occasion during this time, ICE agents attempted to arrest people, but failed to do so because the targets of the arrest asserted their right not to allow ICE inside their residence. After the community was alerted to the presence of ICE, members of the New Sanctuary Coalition, a group that offers various kinds of support such as accompanying immigrants to court dates and rapid response, arrived to the scene to hand out flyers.

In the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Morales tells In These Times that “much of the inspiration for these patrols was taken from the cop-watching neighborhood patrols the Black Panther Party of Chicago organized in the 60’s to protect their people from racist police brutality.”

Indeed, community defense patrolling has been a popular tactic for marginalized groups under siege in the past. In the 1960s the Black Panther Party—originally named the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense—famously organized armed patrols in cities from Oakland, California and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to defend Black people against police brutality. Members of Queer Nation later created the Pink Panther Patrol of New York City, also inspired by the Black Panthers, to deter anti-gay violence in the city’s East and West Village neighborhoods in the 1990s. This patrol model spread to San Francisco as well.

Community patrolling has also lately been in use abroad in response to deportations. The Anti Raids Network in the UK facilitates an expanded version of community defense patrolling. Rather than using organized groups that take shifts patrolling specific locations, this model encourages vigilance against deportation forces at all times. The Network mainly consists of a website and a Twitter account, the latter of which is set up so that anyone who sees an immigration vehicle can alert the account, which then blasts the information out on social media. The Anti Raids Network has published a number of reports from bicyclists who have successfully thwarted deportation activity in the last few years.

Broad education around how to intervene during arrests or raids at any time is an important component for the sustainability of the community defense patrolling. It’s not necessarily feasible to always have large enough groups of people in every vulnerable area at all times, but it is possible to organize and educate communities so that a vast number of people will know what to do in the moment when raids or other arrests occur, announced or otherwise.

Chicago organizers have an eye toward expanding community defense in similar ways. Chris Poulos, the chief of staff for Rodríguez-Sanchez, explains that their office wants to grow the definition of neighborhood services so that it includes things like a rapid response to ICE activity. In the Pilsen neighborhood, Morales says that Pilsen En Defensa wants to increase the use of community patrolling to the extent that it becomes common practice whenever someone is out and about in a vulnerable area. “With a sizable amount of the community educated on rapid response as part of our network, a walk to the bodega becomes a patrol. A morning commute becomes a patrol. A barbecue at the park becomes a lookout,” he says.

While patrols aren’t ubiquitous at this point, various forms of rapid response have become more common in the Trump era in large cities, and smaller suburban and rural areas as well. Around the country, immigrant rights organizations have established hotlines that people can call if they are subjected to or witness ICE activity. In Washington State, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN), a coalition of immigrant rights organizations and activists, established a hotline for reporting ICE activity. Since the creation of the hotline, the coalition has trained people in verifying ICE activity and addressing the situation accordingly.

Ann Reeves, a board member of Pacific County Immigrant Support (PCIS) in southwest Washington, says that 28 members of the organization have participated in trainings with WAISN so that they can provide a rapid response to activities reported to the WAISN hotline. Beyond rapid response, PCIS supports immigrants and the families of immigrants who are suffering due to anti-immigration policies. The Trump administration’s ever-changing and accelerated attacks on immigrants has presented immigrant communities and their allies with significant challenges. But Reeves says, “Seeing the large outpouring of support and good wishes from the community gives us hope for the future.”

Disease-carrying mosquitoes push northern limits with time-capsule eggs

Invasive mosquitoes at the northern limit of their current range are surviving conditions that are colder than those in their native territory. This new evidence of rapid local adaptation could have implications for efforts to control the spread of this invasive species.

Plant protection: Researchers develop new modular vaccination kit

Simple, fast and flexible: it could become significantly easier to vaccinate plants against viruses in future. Scientists have developed a new method for this purpose. It enables the rapid identification and production of precisely tailored substances that combat different pathogens.

Taliban Peace Talks Must Not Ignore CIA-Funded Afghan Militias, Report Says

“If cut loose by the CIA,” the report notes, militias “may be reborn as private armies or ‘security guards’ in the service of powerful individuals.”

The post Taliban Peace Talks Must Not Ignore CIA-Funded Afghan Militias, Report Says appeared first on The Intercept.

Doomed to Repeat It

A news package looks back at the last 400 years of American history.

Suck It Up

How Republicans turn every single thing into a stupid scandal.

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders Are Leading the Democratic Candidates on Criminal Justice Reform

On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled her plan to reform the criminal justice system, just two days after Sen. Bernie Sanders revealed his own. Both presidential candidates are proposing similar changes that would have been unimaginable several years ago—banning private prisons, and ending policies like mandatory minimum sentences, cash bail, solitary confinement, and the death […]

#Nasa mission to #Jupiter #moon #Europa moves step closer to launch | #Science | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/20/nasa-mission-to-jupiter-moon-europa-moves-step-closer-to-launch

I’m Palestinian. Like Rashida Tlaib, I Am Barred From Seeing My Family.

Israel’s treatment of U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has made Israel’s complete control over Palestinian lives clear. Rep. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American with family in the occupied West Bank, was forced to make a choice between her right to visit her grandmother and her right to political speech against Israeli oppression. She ultimately chose the collective over the personal: She refused Israel’s demeaning conditions that would have granted her a “humanitarian” exception to enter Palestine, so long as she refrained from advocating for a boycott of Israel during her visit. Rep. Tlaib explained in a press conference in Minneapolis on August 19, “My grandmother said it beautifully when she said I am her dream manifested. I am her free bird, so why would I come back and be caged?”

Rep. Tlaib’s experience is familiar to many Palestinians, including myself. I, too, was barred from seeing my family in Palestine because of my advocacy for freedom and justice for Palestinians. In May 2012, I traveled to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to participate in an interfaith delegation and to attend my cousin’s wedding in Ramallah. I presented my U.S. passport to Israeli authorities. At least five Israeli interrogators asked for the names of my father and grandfather; the names likely sounded too “Arab” for the interrogators, who asked me numerous questions about where my father was born. I was taken aside and questioned at least five times.

At one point, an interrogator from Shin Bet turned his computer around and told me to log in to my email account. He threatened that if I didn’t comply, my employer would be contacted and would subsequently fire me. I was told that Israel and the U.S. have a close relationship and that I might not be allowed to go back home. After searching for information about me online, my interrogator asked me threateningly why I was “active.”

When I contacted the U.S. embassy to report my detention and ask for assistance, the embassy employee, whose official title I do not know, told me, “If you are not Jewish, there is nothing we can do to help you.” After eight hours, an Israeli woman I had never seen before verbally informed me that I was a threat to the security of Israel. I was taken to a detention center near the airport and kept in a cell overnight. The next day I was sent back to the United States.

Palestinians like myself have no access to our homeland except at Israel’s whim. Because of the state’s exclusionary policies, I have not seen my family in Palestine in over 10 years. A whole generation of my young cousins has grown up, gotten married and had children of their own. I only know them through photographs.

My own father, born and raised in the West Bank city of Ramallah, can only return to Palestine  as a “tourist” on his U.S. passport. Israel can deny his entry at any time. Millions of other Palestinians—whose parents and grandparents fled or were expelled from Palestine during the 1948 war—remain barred from returning home. They remain refugees. Meanwhile, any Jewish person anywhere, even those with no family connections in Israel, can travel to Ben Gurion airport and immediately acquire Israeli citizenship.

Israel’s exclusionary policies are not limited to keeping Palestinians out: They also deny return for thousands of Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship. Take the case of Salwa Copty, born in July 1948. Her family lived in the village of Ma’alul outside of Nazareth, but the village was occupied and destroyed by Israeli forces in 1948. Salwa and her family became refugees, internally displaced within the state of Israel.

Salwa’s father was killed by Israeli forces a few months before Salwa was born, and was buried near the village. That area is now the location of an Israeli military base. Since 2000, Salwa has repeatedly appealed to the Israeli authorities to allow her to visit her father’s grave inside the base. It was only after the intervention of the legal center Adalah that Salwa finally won her right to visit her father’s burial site just last week. (Full disclosure: I am the executive director of Adalah Justice Project. We are independent of Adalah the Legal Center, but we work closely to support its work.)

“Since 1948,” says Adalah’s general director Hassan Jabareen, “Israeli policy has been to prohibit Palestinian family unification, and to restrict Palestinians’ right to enter and leave their homeland freely. This policy has worked to fragment them, which has created a political disaster and a humanitarian crisis for the 12 million Palestinian people around the world.”

That policy applies as much to Rashida Tlaib and her living grandmother as it does to Salwa Copty and her deceased father. Indeed, Rep. Tlaib’s ordeal last week demonstrates that no Palestinian can escape Israel’s racism—not even an elected member of U.S. Congress.

This is what Israeli leaders mean when they call Israel a Jewish state. This racist ideology drives legislation like the Jewish Nation State Law, which declares that Jews alone have the right to self-determination in all land under Israeli control. Within this supremacist framework, Palestinians must be uprooted, disconnected and erased from the land and their identity as a people.

Despite the personal toll incurred, Israel’s latest blunder in banning Rep. Tlaib has elevated Palestinians' demands for their right of return into U.S. mainstream discourse and policy debates. Support is growing in the U.S. for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to support Palestinian rights and self-determination. This growing support scares both Israeli and U.S. leaders who are committed to maintaining the status quo of Israel’s domination over Palestinians and further territorial expansion. In Israel, support for BDS is a civil offense, and international supporters of BDS can be barred from entry into the country under a law passed in 2017. Last month, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a resolution, H.R. 246, condemning BDS. Palestinians owe Rep. Tlaib gratitude for sticking to her political principles in order to bring the Palestinian collective struggle for return, freedom and equality into sharp focus.