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September 12, 2024

US Militarism Is a Leading Cause of the Climate Catastrophe

US military interventions are not just wars on people — they’re also wars on the climate.

This week marks 23 years since George W. Bush declared a U.S.-led “war on terror” and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are still suffering its consequences.

After the U.S. invaded Iraq, an estimated half a million Iraqis were killed and at least 9.2 million were displaced. From 2003-2011, more than 4.7 million Iraqis suffered from moderate to severe food insecurity. Over 243,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan/Pakistan war zone since 2001, more than 70,000 of them civilians. Between 4.5 and 4.6 million people have died in the post-9/11 wars.

The U.S.’s “war on terror” also escalated the climate catastrophe, resulting in local water shortages and extreme weather crises that are only getting worse. In 2022, Afghanistan had its worst drought in 30 years and it is facing a third consecutive year of drought. “The war has exacerbated climate change impacts,” Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, a professor of hydrology at Kabul University, told the New York Times.

Meanwhile in the current moment, U.S. military assistance to Israel’s genocidal campaign is also intensifying the climate crisis.

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August 28, 2024

Refusing to Certify Elections Isn’t About Fairness. It’s Aimed at Sowing Doubt.

New rules in Georgia are worrisome but safeguards prevent rogue election officials from refusing to certify the results.

After the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his allies denied that Joe Biden had won. To this day, election deniers refuse to accept that Trump lost the election. Efforts to thwart Biden from becoming president, including the Trump-inspired insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were ubiquitous. Trump’s supporters filed dozens of lawsuits to stop the certification of Biden’s win, none of which was successful.

One of the tactics the election deniers used was the refusal of local officials to certify the results of the 2020 election, based on the false claim that there was widespread voter fraud. Fortunately, safeguards built into state laws held, and they prevented Trump from stealing the election from Biden.

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August 11, 2024

Trump 2024 Victory Would Lock in Far Right SCOTUS for Generations to Come

Biden and Harris favor term limits and an ethical code for the Supreme Court and elimination of presidential immunity.

The infamous 920-page Project 2025, which provides a blueprint for a radical right-wing agenda under a second Donald Trump presidency, doesn’t recommend any reforms to the Supreme Court — and for good reason. The conservative extremists who seek to install Trump have already taken over the high court. But the reforms President Joe Biden advocates — and Kamala Harris endorses — could go a long way toward diluting the court’s unrestrained power. This also highlights the Supreme Court as a critical voting issue in the presidential election.

Trump and his supporters know that to secure and maintain power, a strongman must control the courts. During his presidential tenure, Trump solidified the radical conservative majority on the Supreme Court by appointing three right-wingers to solidify a six-person supermajority. He also installed 231 federal district court and appeals court judges. They are all serving life terms.

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August 2, 2024

Harris Must Commit to Ending Biden’s Support for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Nearly 1 million voters cast their primary ballots for “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.

During Donald Trump’s presidency, he repeatedly capitulated to Israel’s Zionist regime. He illegally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, illegally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and declared Israeli settlements on Palestinian land lawful despite international law to the contrary.

As Israel continues its 10-month genocidal campaign in Gaza, there is no doubt that if he were president now, Trump would give Israel everything it wants to “finish what they started” and “get it over with fast,” that is, ethnically cleanse all of the Palestinians from Gaza.

But this genocide is happening on Joe Biden’s watch. His administration has aided and abetted Israeli genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, killing more than 40,000 Palestinians according to the official Gaza Health Ministry count, although the real death toll is likely much higher. Besides the $3.8 billion the U.S. sends annually to Israel, it has furnished an additional $15 billion in military aid since October 7, 2023. And the U.S. has provided political and diplomatic cover to Israel by vetoing three Security Council resolutions that would have required a ceasefire in Gaza.

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July 26, 2024

Netanyahu’s Visit to Congress Underscores US Contempt for International Law

Netanyahu is getting cozy with Congress, just days after the ICJ told UN members to stop aiding the Israeli occupation.

The U.S. has long ignored many commands of international law, but its casual disregard of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has come into sharp focus this week as the U.S. Congress extends a warm welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just five days after the ICJ notified all UN member states that they have a legal “obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The World Court’s historic 83-page advisory opinion, which was issued on July 19 and held that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, was quickly hailed by Middle East political expert Nomi Bar-Yaacov as a “legal earthquake” and the strongest decision that the court had ever issued.

Unsurprisingly, however, both the Israeli and U.S. governments denounced the ICJ’s ruling and proceeded with their plans — including Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, D.C. — as if it had never occurred.

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July 19, 2024

Presidential Immunity Ruling and Project 2025 Pave Way for Trump’s Fascist State

A second Trump presidency would target immigrants, civil rights, health, safety and efforts to end the climate crisis.

As reports about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and concerns about Joe Biden’s ability to beat him dominate the headlines, we mustn’t be distracted from how Trump will govern if given another presidential term. “Project 2025” provides a roadmap for a second Trump administration to target reproductive health care, efforts to remediate the climate crisis, immigrants, unions, civil rights for LGBTQ+ people, and administrative agencies that protect our health and safety. His first administration also proved he is eager to impose huge tax cuts for corporations and the superrich.

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, whom Trump tapped to be his running mate, favors many of Trump’s white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, anti-climate policies.

A combination of Trump’s authoritarian character and the Supreme Court’s grant of absolute immunity to U.S. presidents for official acts will mean it’s open season on Trump’s perceived enemies should he secure a second term — and the policies he aims to implement are chilling.

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July 11, 2024

The Supreme Court Has Made It Official: US Presidents Are Now Monarchs

The Supreme Court’s “Trump v. United States” ruling gives Donald Trump “legal” cover for past and future lawbreaking.

On July 4, Americans celebrate Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence when the colonists threw off the yoke of King George III. When they crafted it, the framers of the Constitution established three co-equal branches of government to check and balance each other.

But the Supreme Court’s shocking decision in Trump v. United States takes us back to the bad old days of the monarchy. The reactionary supermajority held that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for core official acts, and presumptive immunity for all other official acts.

Donald Trump is charged in federal court with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote for his acts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the six right-wingers, assured us that “the president is not above the law.” But he then proceeded to carve out a zone of immunity even broader than the one Trump’s legal team had sought.

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SCOTUS Furthers Right-Wing Agenda of Deconstruction of the Administrative State

Eliminating Chevron deference will harm consumers, workers, health, safety and environment, but will help corporations.

On June 28, the six reactionary members of the Supreme Court put a final nail in the coffin of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, in the companion cases of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce.

By overruling Chevron, the court dramatically curtailed the power of federal agencies to interpret statutes they administer, ruling that courts should provide their own interpretations of ambiguous statutes. This decision will imperil the rights of workers and consumers and threaten the environment and our health and safety, while providing a boon to corporations.

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June 29, 2024

Julian Assange Is Finally Free, But Let’s Not Forget the War Crimes He Exposed

Contrary to US government claims, WikiLeaks’s revelations actually saved lives — and drove demand for US accountability.

After a 14-year struggle, including five years spent in Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in London, WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange is finally free. Under the terms of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, Assange pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain documents, writings and notes connected with the national defense under the Espionage Act. Assange was facing 175 years in prison for 18 charges in the indictment filed by the Trump administration and pursued by the Biden administration.

The Justice Department agreed to the plea bargain a little over a month after the High Court of England and Wales ruled that Assange would be allowed to appeal an extradition order. The High Court found the U.S. government didn’t provide satisfactory assurances that Assange could rely on a First Amendment defense if extradited and tried in the U.S. The Justice Department, now fearful it would lose the case, scrambled to strike a deal with Assange.

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June 25, 2024

SCOTUS’s Anti-Immigrant Ruling Imperils Marriage Equality and LGBTQ Lives

“Department of State v. Muñoz” could be used to undermine the right to same-sex marriage.

In a 6-3 ruling, the reactionary majority of the Supreme Court placed the right to marriage equality squarely on the chopping block. The court held that U.S. citizens have no constitutional right to have their noncitizen spouses enter the United States, so the government doesn’t have to give a reason for excluding them.

Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, noted in dissent that “there is no question that excluding a citizen’s spouse burdens her right to marriage, and that burden requires the Government to provide at least a factual basis for its decision.” They accused the majority of issuing an unnecessarily broad ruling that could be used to strike down the right to same-sex marriage. “The burden will fall most heavily on same-sex couples and others who lack the ability, for legal or financial reasons, to make a home in the noncitizen spouse’s country of origin,” Sotomayor wrote.

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