#Keystone XL pipeline

[probablyasocialecologist]

According to documents obtained by Grist and Type Investigations through a Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI’s Minneapolis office opened a counterterrorism assessment in February 2012, focusing on actions in South Dakota, that continued for at least a year and may have led to the opening of additional investigations. These documents reveal that the FBI was monitoring activists involved in the Keystone XL campaign about a year earlier than previously known.  Their contents suggest that, long before the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines became national flashpoints, the federal government was already developing a sweeping law enforcement strategy to counter any acts of civil disobedience aimed at preventing fossil fuel extraction. And young, Native activists were among its first targets. “The threat emerging … is evolving into one based on opposition to energy exploration related to any extractions from the earth, rather than merely targeting one project and/or one company,” the FBI noted in its description of the Wanblee blockade. The 15-page file, which is heavily redacted, also describes Native American groups as a potentially dangerous threat and likens them to “environmental extremists” whose actions, according to the FBI, could lead to violence. The FBI acknowledged that Native American groups were engaging in constitutionally protected activity, including attending public hearings, but emphasized that this sort of civic participation might spawn criminal activity.  To back up its claims, the FBI cited a 2011 State Department hearing on the pipeline in Pierre, South Dakota, attended by a small group of Native activists. The FBI said the individuals were dressed in camouflage and had covered their faces with red bandanas, “train robber style.” According to the report, they were also carrying walking sticks and shaking sage, claiming to be “Wounded Knee Security of/for Mother Earth.” “The Bureau is uncertain how the NA group(s) will act initially or subsequently if the project is approved,” the agency wrote.  The FBI also singled out the “Native Youth Movement,” which it described as a mix between a “radical militia and a survivalist group.” In doing so, it appeared to conflate a specific activist group originally founded in Canada in the 1990s with the broader array of young Native activists who opposed the pipeline decades later. Young activists would play an important role in the Keystone XL campaign and later on during protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, but the movement had little in common with militias or survivalists, terms typically used to describe far-right groups or those seeking to disengage from society.  The FBI declined to respond to questions for this story. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis field office said the agency does not typically comment on FOIA releases and “lets the information contained in the files speak for itself.”

[...]

Environmental activists and attorneys who reviewed the new documents told Grist and Type Investigations that law enforcement’s approach to the Keystone XL campaign looked like a template for the increasingly militarized response to subsequent environmental and social justice campaigns — from efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock to the ongoing protests against the police training center dubbed “Cop City” in Atlanta, Georgia, which would require razing at least 85 acres of urban forest.  The FBI’s working thesis, outlined in the new documents, that “most environmental extremist groups” have historically moved from peaceful protest to violence has served as the basis for subsequent investigations. “It’s astonishing to me how such a broad concept basically paints every activist and protester as a future terrorist,” said Mike German, a former FBI special agent who is now a fellow at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.

[taylor14firefly]

"Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist."

—Winona LaDuke, "Canadian Oil Companies Trample on Our Rights" (2013)

[winwinwinterb]

This happened an hour and a half north of my alma mater. I find it hard to believe that there was "no impact" on the local drinking water. This was the exact thing Indigenous Peoples were fighting to prevent. They knew this was only a matter of time.

[overlyemotionalbreakfastcereal]

ok with all the good things biden's administration has been doing or tried to do yall americans BETTER fucking not pull out that same motherfucking 'both sides are equally bad' bullshit when voting comes around.

[opencommunion]

"Colonialism in the United States was not an episode of history that ended hundreds of years ago. It is an ongoing process and set of institutions that continually infringe on the pre-existing sovereignty of Native people, sovereignty they never relinquished in the many treaties signed with the United States. A recent example is the debates over the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, which the Rosebud Sioux and the Standing Rock Sioux nations have vigorously opposed, the Rosebud Sioux declaring the routing of the pipeline through their territory as an 'act of war.' The structural nature of settler-colonialism means that any discussion of U.S. empire in the twentieth or twenty-first-century needs to acknowledge ongoing colonialism as the precondition for the existence of an expansive and powerful U.S. state. Historians have to avoid what Vine Deloria Jr. calls 'the cameo theory of history' wherein 'indigenous peoples make dramatic entrances, stay briefly on the stage, and then fade out.'"

Stefan Aune, "American Empire," in At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, 2018

[kp777]

By JON QUEALLY

Common Dreams

Sep 09, 2023

"The Corps' covering for the pipeline company's outrageous safety record and the reviewer's serious conflict of interest have now resulted in a failed effort," said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire. "They need to start over with adult supervision."

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire is leading a fresh demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers throw out an ongoing environmental review process of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and start again from scratch alongside a superseding call for the pipeline to be shuttered completely.

Following Friday's release of a revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), ordered by a federal court, the tribe said the document reveals the entire process has been a failure and that the pipeline—currently operating across their land without consent in what they consider an "illegal" manner by the Energy Transfer company—should be shut down once and for all.

"We're furious that the Army Corps has addressed none of our major concerns during the review process," Chairwoman Alkire said in a statement.

"The pipeline is an imminent threat to the Missouri River, sensitive habitat, and sacred burial sites along the riverbank," she continued. "The oil company's emergency response plans are inadequate, its safety track record is horrendous, and there's been a stunning lack of transparency with Standing Rock throughout the environmental review process, including inaccurate characterizations of tribal consultation."

The Army Corps did not make any recommendations or indicate preferences among the alternatives presented in the new EIS report, which included keeping it in operation, possible rerouting, removing the pipeline by excavation, or abandoning it in place. The Corps said its final recommendations will accompany a final report once the review process is complete, but the Standing Rock Sioux said the process has been seriously flawed.

The tribe said the draft EIS fails to "account for the existence of criminal charges and a host of fines and serious citations" from regulators faced by Energy Transfer. Alkire accused the Corps of "doing all it can to ignore the company’s poor safety record and the high risk" of the pipeline. According to the statement by the tribe:

the entirety of the environmental review process hasn't been taken seriously and is compromised because the Corps selected a company with a clear conflict of interest to prepare the just-released draft EIS. Environmental Resources Management — which also produced a sparkling environmental review for the Keystone XL pipeline, later shelved due to environmental concerns — is a member of the American Petroleum Institute. That organization previously filed a legal brief in support of DAPL in Standing Rock’s suit against the Army Corps. Moreover, Environmental Resources Management has contracted with at least five separate companies with an ownership interest in DAPL.

The release of the EIS triggers a 45-day public comment period and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is now requesting public support in opposition of the project.

"The Corps' covering for the pipeline company's outrageous safety record and the reviewer's serious conflict of interest have now resulted in a failed effort," said Alkire of the current process. "They need to start over with adult supervision."

Amy Mall, senior advocate at NRDC, said her group stands "in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in opposing this dirty and dangerous pipeline that harms the climate and threatens the primary water source for the Tribe."

"The Army Corps must consider all of the risks of this pipeline, make all significant environmental information available without redactions, and honor the Tribe’s treaty rights," Mall added. "We call on the Corps to shut it down."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

JON QUEALLY Jon Queally is managing editor of Common Dreams. Full Bio >

[busterballsblog]

Keystone pipeline canceled after Biden revokes key permit

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 9 June 2021, it was announced that the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have carried petroleum over 1000 miles from tar sands in Canada to Nebraska, was to be scrapped. First Nations peoples in Canada had resisted oil extraction in the region for years, and were joined by Native Americans in the United States in opposing the pipeline. These included the Sicangu Lakota Oyate, Assiniboine, Aaniiih and Nez Perce peoples. Native American protests also inspired resistance from other environmentalists, who began a campaign of civil disobedience against the project. The pipeline was first scrapped by the administration of Barack Obama, but then resurrected by later president, Donald Trump. Following renewed protests, the project was finally scrapped by the administration of Joe Biden. The campaign was one of many Indigenous struggles over land, sovereignty, and the environment which has contributed significantly to the fight against climate change. One study found that Indigenous resistance in United States and Canada has helped prevent 12% of the combined carbon dioxide equivalent pollution of the countries. Learn more about Native American resistance in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/500-years-of-indigenous-resistance-gord-hill To access this hyperlink, click our link in bio then click this photo https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=641244214715464&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[1americanconservative]

The real Bidenomics

🔴 Jan 2021 Biden inauguration, cancels the Keystone XL pipeline. Inflation rate 1.4%

🔴 March 2021 Biden signs $1.9 Trillion Covid relief bill Inflation rate 2.6%

🔴 July 2021 Democrats propose $3.9 Trillion budget plan. Inflation rate 5.4%

🔴 November 2021 Biden signs $1 Trillion infrastructure package. Inflation rate 6.8%

🔴 March 2022 Biden delivers his first SOFU. Inflation rate 7.9%

🔴 April 2022 Announces student loan forgiveness. Inflation rate 8.3%

🔴 May 2022 acknowledges baby formula supply problem Inflation rate 8.6%

🔴 June 2022 gas prices surge. Inflation rate 9.1% We can't afford any more "building back better"

[lilithism1848]

Atrocities US committed against NATIVE AMERICANS

In 2016, the US army corp of engineers approved a Energy Transfer Partners’ proposal to build an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, sparking the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, evoking a brutal response from North Dakota police aided by the National Guard, private security firms, and other law enforcement agencies from surrounding states. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe believes that the pipeline would put the Missouri River, the water source for the reservation, at risk, pointing out two recent spills, a 2010 pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, which cost over billion to clean up with significant contamination remaining, and a 2015 Bakken crude oil spill into the Yellowstone River in Montana. Police repression has included dogs attacking protesters, spraying water cannons on protesters in sub-freezing temperatures, >700 arrests of Native Americans and ~200 injuries, a highly militarized police force using armored personnel carriers, concussion grenades, mace, Tasers, batons, rubber bullets, and tear gas. In November 2017, the keystone XL pipeline burst, spilling 210,000 gallons of oil in Amherst, South Dakota. 

In 1975, FBI agents attacked AIM activists on the Pine Ridge Reservation, in the ‘Pine Ridge Shootout’. Two FBI agents, and an AIM activist were killed. In two separate trials, the U.S. prosecuted participants in the firefight for the deaths of the agents. AIM members Robert Robideau and Dino Butler were acquitted after asserting that they had acted in self–defense. Leonard Peltier was extradited from Canada and tried separately because of the delay. He was convicted on two counts of first–degree murder for the deaths of the FBI agents and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison, after a trial which is still contentious. He remains in prison.

In 1973, 200 Oglala Lakota and AIM activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, called the Wounded knee incident. They were protesting the reservation’s corrupt US-backed tribal chairman, Dick Wilson, who controlled a private militia, called Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs), funded by the government. FBI, US marshals, and other law enforcement cordoned off the area and attacked the activists with armored vehicles, automatic rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and gas shells, resulting in two killed and 13 wounded. Ray Robinson, a civil rights activist who joined the protesters, disappeared during the events and is believed to have been murdered. As food supplies became short, three planes dropped 1,200 pounds of food, but as people scrambled to gather it up, a government helicopter appeared overhead and fired down on them while groundfire came from all sides. After the siege ended in a truce, 120 occupiers were arrested. Wilson stayed in office and in 1974 was re-elected amid charges of intimidation, voter fraud, and other abuses. The rate of violence climbed on the reservation as conflict opened between political factions in the following three years; residents accused Wilson’s private militia of much of it. 

In Nov. 1969, a group of 89 Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island for 15 months, to gauge the US’s commitment to the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), which stated that all abandoned federal land must be returned to native people. Eventually the government cut off all electrical power and all telephone service to the island. In June, a fire of disputed origin destroyed numerous buildings on the island. Left without power, fresh water, and in the face of diminishing public support and sympathy, the number of occupiers began to dwindle. On June 11, 1971, a large force of government officers removed the remaining 15 people from the island.

From its creation in 1968, The American Indian Movement (AIM) has been a target of repression from law enforcement agencies, and surveillance as one of the FBI’s COINTELPRO targets. This includes the wounded knee incident and the pine ridge shootout. 

In 1942 the federal government took privately held Pine Ridge Indian Reservation land owned by tribal members in order to establish the Badlands Bombing Range of 341,725 acres, evicting 125 families. Among the families evicted was that of Pat Cuny, an Oglala Sioux. He fought in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge after surviving torpedoing of his transport in the English Channel. Dewey Beard, a Miniconjou Sioux survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre, who supported himself by raising horses on his 908-acre allotment received in 1907 was also evicted. The small federal payments were insufficient to enable such persons to buy new properties. In 1955 the 97-year-old Beard testified of earlier mistreatment at Congressional hearings about this project. He said, for “fifty years I have been kicked around. Today there is a hard winter coming. …I might starve to death.”

In 1890, US soldiers killed 150-300 people (including 65 women and 24 children) at Wounded Knee (19-26 people, including two women and eleven children.) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Twenty-five soldiers also died, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded later died). At least twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor. The event was driven by local racism towards the practice of Ghost Dancing, which whites found distasteful, and the Native Americans arming up in response to repeated broken treaties, stolen land, and their bison-herds being hunted to near extinction by the whites.

In 1887, the Dawes Act, and Curtis Act, resulted in the loss of 90 million acres of native-alloted land, and the abolition of many native governments. During the ensuing decades, the Five Civilized Tribes lost 90 million acres of former communal lands, which were sold to non-Natives. In addition, many individuals, unfamiliar with land ownership, became the target of speculators and criminals, were stuck with allotments that were too small for profitable farming, and lost their household lands. Tribe members also suffered from the breakdown of the social structure of the tribes.

Starting in the 1870s, The US army, aided by settlers and private hunters, began a widespread policy of slaughtering bufallo and bison, in order to destroy many tribe’s primary food source, and to starve Native Americans into submission. By 1900, they succeeded; the bufallo population dropped from more than 30 million, to a few hundred. The country’s highest generals, politicians, and presidents including Ulysses S. Grant, saw the destruction of buffalo as solution to the country’s “Indian Problem.” By destroying the food supply of the plains natives, they could more easily move them onto reservations.

Starting in 1830-50, The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations, including Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Cherokee people and the African freedmen and slaves who lived among them, from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Native Territory. The forced relocations were carried out by various government authorities following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. “Marshaled by guards, hustled by agents, harried by contractors,they were being herded on the way to an unknown and unwelcome destination like a flock of sick sheep.” They went on ox wagons, on horses, on foot, then to be ferried across the MississippiRiver. The army was supposed to organize their trek, but it turned over its job to private contractors who charged the government as much as possible, gave the Indians as little as possible. The Cherokee removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia in 1828, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush. Approximately 2,000-6,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee perished along the way.

In 1848, the California Genocide is a term used to describe the drastic decrease in Native American population in California. The population decreased from ~300,000 in 1769, to 16,000 in 1900. 

The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars. The Second Seminole War, often referred to as the Seminole War, is regarded as “the longest and most costly of the Indian conflicts of the United States.” ~3000 seminoles were killed, and 4000 were deported to Indian territory elsewhere. 

In 1832, the Black Hawk War, was a brief 1832 conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, in Illinois. The war gave impetus to the US policy of Indian removal, in which Native American tribes were pressured to sell their lands and move west of the Mississippi River and stay there. Over 500 Native Americans were killed in the conflict.

In 1832, the Chickasaw Indians were forced by the US to sell their country in 1832 and move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the era of Indian Removal in the 1830s.

In 1813, the Creek War, was a war between the US, lead by the then notorious indian-hunter Andrew Jackson, and the Creek nation, residing primarily in Alabama. Over 1,500 creeks were killed. The war effectively ended with the Treaty of Fort Jackson, where General Andrew Jackson insisted that the Creek confederacy cede more than 21 million acres of land from southern Georgia and central Alabama. These lands were taken from allied Creek as well as Red Sticks. In 1814, Andrew Jackson became famous for his role in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, where his side killed more than 800 Creeks. Under Jackson, and the man he chose to succeed him, Martin Van Buren, 70,000 Indians east of the Mississippi were forced westward.

The Red Sticks, a faction of Muscogee Creek people in the American Southeast, led a resistance movement against European-American encroachment and assimilation; tensions culminated in the outbreak of the Creek War in 1813.

From 1785-96, the Northwest Indian War was a war between the US and a confederation of numerous Native American tribes, with support from the British, for control of the Northwest Territory. President George Washington directed the United States Army to enforce U.S. sovereignty over the territory. Over 1,000 Native Americans were killed in the bloody conflict.

In the 1800s, Indian removal was a policy of the United States government whereby Native Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River, thereafter known as Indian Territory. That policy has been characterized by some scholars as part of a long-term genocide of Native Americans. 

The Texan-Indian Wars were a series of 19th-century conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians. Its hard to approximate the number of deaths from the conflicts, but the Indian population in Texas decreased from 20,000 to 8,000 by 1875.

The Indian Wars is a name given to the collection of over 40 conflicts and wars between Native Americans and US settlers. The US census bureau reports that they have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and children, including those killed in individual combats, and the lives of about 30,000 Indians. The actual number of killed and wounded Indians must be very much higher than the number given… Fifty percent additional would be a safe estimate.

From 1500-1900s, European and later US colonists and authorities displaced and committed genocide on the Native American Population. Ward Churchill characterizes the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 as a “vast genocide.. the most sustained on record.

[climatecalling]

In their new book, Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce ... detail seven tactics that have been successfully used to change the world: base-building, disruptive movements, narrative shift, electoral changes, inside-outside campaigns, momentum, and collective care. ... As for examples, we talk about Occupy Wall Street and the marriage equality movement. A lot of people think of Occupy Wall Street as a protest, but its largest impact was changing the narrative, changing the understanding of what was the cause of the 2008 economic crisis and what are some ways out of that crisis. ... Sometimes flashpoints are unplanned, as with the murder of George Floyd. Sometimes people can stage big moments, as environmental activists did when they organized arrests at the Obama White House to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Those moments are opportunities to gather thousands of activists together ... to train them in a vision and techniques of how to launch campaigns when they go back home. ... There is cynicism about politics because it hasn’t consistently delivered material improvement in people’s lives. ... Our book features examples where electoral strategies are driven by community groups and unions that aren’t just inviting people to vote, but are inviting people to be part of organizations to work on the issues they care most about. ... The challenges we face are so large and daunting that without many thousands of people capable of understanding the power relationships in our society and what the leverage points are, we aren’t going to win. A big hope of this book is that it ... makes strategy accessible to many more people in the years to come.

[winwinwinterb]

"The Canadian company said in a statement that it did so for safety reasons. But drone footage of the spill — the largest in the pipeline’s history — was among the only means of seeing the damage as the site is closed to press. Even lawmakers were not allowed there for a briefing."

Nothing to see here, folks. Trust us, the Oil Barons r*ping the environment.

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

50+ Good Things from the Biden Administration

Just a list of 50+ good things the Biden Administration has done in the last 4 years because I’ve been hearing too much rhetoric that it doesn’t matter who you vote for. It does make a difference. 

Increased access to healthcare and specifically codified protections for LGBTQ+ patients against discrimination. (x) 

Strengthened women's reproductive rights by increasing access to reproductive health care, improving confidentiality to protect against criminalization for patients receiving reproductive care, and revoked Medicaid waivers from states that would exclude providers like Planned Parenthood, and more. (x)

Expanded healthcare and benefits for veterans through the PACT Act (x)

Cemented protections for pregnant and postpartum workers through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. 

Improved access to nursing homes for those who receive Medicaid services and established, for the first time, a national minimum staffing requirement for nursing homes to ensure those in their care receive sufficient support.  (x) 

Lowered healthcare costs for those with Medicare which capped insulin for seniors at $35 a month, made vaccines free, and capped seniors’ out of pocket expenses at the pharmacy through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Fully vaccinated 79% of American adults against COVID-19 (I know this is old news now this is a big deal) 

Banned unfair practices that hide housing fees from renters and homebuyers when moving into a new home (x) 

Reduced the mortgage insurance premium for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages and clarified that inflated rents caused by algorithmic use of sensitive nonpublic pricing and supply information violate antitrust laws. (x) 

Increased protections for those saving for retirement from predatory practices. (x)

Helped millions of households gain access to the internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program. (x) 

Restored net neutrality (net neutrality is a standard which ensures broadband internet service is essential and prohibits interna providers from blocking, engaging in paid prioritization, and more.) (x)

Increased protections for loan holders as well as increased access to loans (x)

Cut fees that banks charge consumers for overdrawing on their accounts. (x)

Reaffirmed HUD’s commitment to remedy housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (which was– surprise, surprise– halted under the Trump administration). (x)

Rejoined the Paris Climate Accords.  

Listed more than 24 million acres of public lands across the country as environmentally protected and has channeled more than $18 billion dollars toward conservation projects. (And revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline amongst others). 

Invested $369 billion to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote clean energy technologies through the Inflation Reduction Act. Through the tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, renewable energy (such as wind, solar, and hydropower) has surpassed coal-fired generation in the electric power sector for the first time, making it the second-biggest source of energy behind natural gas. (x)

Strengthened protections against workplace assault through the Speak Out Act. (x) 

Increased protections for workers during the union bargaining process (x)

Is making it easier for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their bags, or fail to provide extra services when purchased. (x)  

Invested $1.2 trillion into roads, waterlines, broadband networks, airports and more allowing for more bridges, railroads, tunnels, roads, and more through the Inflation Reduction Act (which also added 670,000 jobs). (idk about you but I like driving on well maintained roads and having more rail options).  

Strengthened overtime protections for federal employees (x)

Raised the minimum wage for federal workers and contractors to $15. (x)

Strengthened protections for farmworkers by expanding the activities protected from retaliation by the National Labor Relations Act and more. (Previously anti-retaliation provisions under the National Labor Relations Act applies mostly to only U.S. citizens) (x)

Invested $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, audit the wealth, modernize its technology, and more. Additionally, created $300 billion in new revenue through corporate tax increases. (x) 

Lowered the unemployment rate to 3.5% — the lowest in 50 years. 

Canceled over $140B of student debt for nearly 40 million borrowers. (x)

Strengthened protections for sexual assault survivors, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students in schools through an updated Title IX rule. This updated rule strengthens sexual assault survivors rights to investigation– something that had been gutted under the Trump administration, strengthens requirements that schools provide modifications for students based on pregnancy, prohibits harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and more. (x)

Revoked an order that limited diversity and inclusion training. (x)

Cracked down on for profit colleges. (x)

Reaffirmed students’ federal civil rights protections for non-discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender in schools. Specifically, the Department of Education made clear students with disabilities’ right to school, limiting the use of out of school suspensions and expulsions against them. (x) (x) 

Enhanced the Civil Rights Data Collection, a national survey that captures data on students’ equal access to educational opportunities. These changes will improve the tracking of civil rights violations for students, critical for advocates to respond to instances of discrimination. 

Provided guidance on how colleges and universities can still uphold racial diversity in higher education following the Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action. (x) 

Issued a federal pardon to all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. Additionally, the DEA is taking steps to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance instead of a Schedule I, limiting punishment for possession in the future. (x) 

Changed drug charges related to crack offenses, now charging crack offenses as powder cocaine offenses. This is a big step towards ending the racial disparity that punishes crack offenses with greater severity than offenses involving the same amount of powder cocaine. (x) 

Lowered the cost of local calls for incarcerated people through the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act as well as increased access for video calls (especially impactful for incarcerated people with disabilities). (x) 

Enacted policing reforms that banned chokeholds, restricted no-knock entries, and restricted the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. (x)

Established the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) which will better track police officer misconduct. This database will vet federal law enforcement candidates who have a history of misconduct from being rehired and will make it easier and faster to charge police officers under the Death in Custody Reporting Act. (x) 

Added disability as a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. Under the law, police officers are prohibited from profiling people based on these characteristics. …It sadly happens anyway but now there’s an added legal protection which means a mechanism to convict police officers should they break the law. (x) 

Required federal prisons to place incarcerated individuals consistent with their chosen pronouns and gender identity. (x) 

Expanded gun background checks by narrowing the “boyfriend” loophole to keep guns out of the hands of convicted dating partners, strengthening requirements for registering as a licensed gun dealer (closing the “gun show loophole”), and more through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.  (x) 

Increased mental health programs within police departments to support officers experiencing substance use disorders, mental health issues, or trauma from their duties. (x)

Lifted Trump era restrictions on the use of consent decrees. The Justice Department uses consent decrees to force local government agencies (like police departments) to eliminate bad practices (such as widespread abuse and misconduct) that infringe on peoples’ civil rights. (x) 

Improved reporting of hate crimes through the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (x) 

Nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court 

Confirmed 200 lifetime judges to federal courts, confirming historic numbers of women, people of color, and other judges who have long been excluded from our federal court system. (64% are women, 63% are people of color) 

Designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) status for immigrants from Cameroon, Haiti, ​​El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sudan, and more. (x) 

Ended the discriminatory Muslim and African bans (x). 

Provided a pathway to citizenship for spouses of U.S. citizens that have been living in the country without documentation. (x) 

Expanded healthcare to DACA recipients (x) 

This one is… barely a win but not by fault of the Biden Administration. The Department of Homeland Security as of Feb 2023 has reunited nearly 700 immigrant children that were separated from their families under Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy. From 2017-2021, 3,881 children were separated from their families. About 74% of those have been reunited with their families: 2,176 before the task force was created and 689 afterward. But that still leaves nearly 1,000 children who remain tragically separated from their families from under the Trump Administration. (x)

(okay this one is maybe only exciting for me who’s a census nerd) Revised federal standards for the collection of race and ethnicity data, allowing for federal data that better reflect the country’s diversity. Now, government forms will include a Middle Eastern/ North African category (when previously those individuals would check “white”). Additionally, forms will now have combined the race & ethnicity question allowing for individuals to check “Latino/a” as their race (previously Latine individuals would be encouraged to check “Latino” for ethnicity and “white” for race… which doesn’t really resonate with many folks). (x) (I know this sounds boring but let me tell you this is BIG when it comes to better data collection– and better advocacy!).

Rescinded a Trump order that would have excluded undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census which would have taken away critical funds from those communities. 

Required the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages by passing the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.

Reversed Trump’stransgender military ban. 

Proposed investments in a lot of programs including universal pre-k, green energy, mental health programs across all sectors, a national medical leave program for all workers and more. (x) 

Last… let’s also not forget all the truly terrible things Trump did when he was in office. If you need a reminder, scroll this list, this one mostly for giggles + horror, for actual horror about what a Trump presidency has in store, learn about ‘Project 2025’ from the Heritage Foundation. I know this post is about reasons to vote FOR Biden but let’s not forget the many, many reasons to vote for him over Trump. 

So, there it is, 50+ reasons to vote for Biden in the 2024 Election. 

Check your voter registration here, make a plan to vote, and encourage your friends to vote as well. 

All in all, yeah… there’s a lot of shitty things still happening. There’s always going to be shit but things aren’t going to change on their own. And that change starts (it certainly doesn’t end) with voting. 

Go vote in November. 

[markcaron]

Here is the first. The Keystone XL pipeline in response to upset citizens of Bismarck North Dakota not wanting the pipeline that close to them decided to move that proposed pipeline closer to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation which crosses the borders of North and South Dakota. Standing Rock Nation was PEACEFULLY protesting the pipeline when the "Bought and paid for by Big Oil and the Pipeline" governor of North Dakota sent national guard troops to remove the Water Protectors. The majority Republican Congress of South Dakota past 2 bills to end the rights of the tribe to protest the pipeline the Oglala Lakota Nation banned the governor.

[kp777]

By Julia Conley

Common Dreams

June 6, 2024

[see ISDS in Wikipedia]

A week after the European Union announced its withdrawal from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty, which has been criticized for being one of many global agreements that allow fossil fuel companies to sue governments, a coalition on Thursday released an analysis showing just how lucrative such deals have been for firms whose emissions are wrecking havoc on the planet.

The Transnational Institute, the Trade Justice Movement (TJM), Power Shift, and the Institute for Policy Studies joined forces to unveil the Global ISDS Tracker, which includes data on more than 1,300 cases that have made their way to secretive tribunals set up by investor-state dispute mechanisms in treaties including the Energy Charter Treaty.

ISDS courts allow fossil fuel companies and other large corporations to sue governments for compensation over policies that harm their profits, such as regulations to curb planet-heating emissions or air pollution, which is responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide.

Many judgments made by ISDS tribunals are kept secret, but the Global ISDS Tracker revealed that $114 billion in public funds have been paid out to investors across industries, with fossil fuel companies and investors raking in $80.2 billion of that.

Another $48 billion in public money is expected to go to fossil fuel firms from ISDS disputes in the coming years if current trends continue, said the groups behind the tracker.

Tom Wills, director of TJM, said the tracker proves what trade and climate justice groups have said "for years: ISDS is the secret weapon for fossil fuel companies against climate laws."

"Corporate courts are also used to threaten governments not to give in to popular local or national demands for climate action," said Wills. "This needs to be put to an end. The data shows reform is urgently needed."

The tracker includes the $15 billion compensation lawsuit filed by TC Energy against the U.S. government when President Joe Biden canceled the company's permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil each day.

The largest ISDS claim currently being adjudicated is Zeph Investment's case against the Australian government, which the firm says "effectively destroyed" its plans for a major mine, costing it $200 billion.

As Common Dreams reported last November, civil society groups have called on the Biden administration to dismantle the ISDS system within the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, with one campaigner arguing that ISDS was "created for and by powerful, well-organized corporations, and has served their interests almost exclusively."

Lucía Bárcena, trade policy officer at the Transnational Institute, said eliminating ISDS in treaties should be a top priority for trade and climate justice campaigners in the coming years.

"In this challenging moment, when there is more climate action needed from states," said Bárcena, "it is unbearable to have corporate courts that can wash all the efforts away."