News Feeds | ecology.iww.org (2024)

Resilience - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 03:40

Categories: B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Resilience - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 03:19

Categories: B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Resilience - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 03:03

Categories: B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Allegheny Front - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 03:00

The MVP will start transporting gas from West Virginia to Virginia in June. So far, 42 complaints in Virginia allege pollution from construction.

The post As Mountain Valley Pipeline nears completion, some residents say their concerns are being ignored appeared first on The Allegheny Front.

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Oil Change International - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 02:45

DOWNLOAD THE DATA ANALYSIS

Data compiled by Data Desk, commissioned by Oil Change International

March 2024

Download the data analysis.

In February 2024, Oil Change International commissioned Data Desk to provide an overview of the supply chains that are currently bringing crude oil and refined products to Israel, focusing on fuel supplies to the country’s armed forces.

The research comes in the context of Israel’s 2023 invasion of the Gaza Strip and in the wake of a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s actions may have violated the terms of the Genocide Convention.

The primary aim of the analysis was to determine:

• Which are the main countries supplying fuel to Israel?
• What are the major international oil and gas companies supplying fuel to Israel and the Israeli military?

The data was last updated March 8, 2024.

Click here to download the data analysis.

The post Investigating the countries and companies behind Israeli crude oil and fuel supply chains appeared first on Oil Change International.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Oil Change International - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 02:45

Contact:
fuel-research@priceofoil.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Washington, DC] – New data compiled by DataDesk, commissioned by Oil Change International, sheds light on the devastating role of oil fueling the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. By tracing the supply chains of crude oil and refined products to Israel, the research exposes the various countries and companies whose fuel supplies are perpetuating this humanitarian crisis – and thus have an opportunity to help compel a ceasefire by turning off those taps.

According to the findings, the US is the Israeli military’s key direct source of imported jet fuel. Oil majors, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Eni, and TotalEnergies, are also complicit in fueling atrocities in their ownership stakes in and operations of projects supplying oil to Israel, particularly via Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Brazil and Saudi Arabia are also implicated in supplying Israel with fuel for its war machine. Countries and companies continuing to provide fuel to Israel are playing a part in enabling the ongoing violence and oppression against the Palestinian people.

Key findings:

• • Israel has received three tankers of JP8 Jet Fuel since the war started as part of U.S. military aid for Israel. JP8 Jet Fuel is specifically formulated for military jets. One shipment left the United States before the war started, while two have been sent since. The latest tanker was seen docked at Israel’s Ashkelon terminal on March 6.
  • Israel receives relatively small but regular shipments of crude via the Sumed pipeline. The pipeline receives crude oil from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, and from Egypt, through which the pipeline also travels. All of these countries have condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
  • Other countries with more friendly relations with Israel supply the majority of crude oil delivered since the war began, including Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Gabon is also a major source of crude oil delivered. Crude from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is supplied by pipelines owned or operated by major international oil companies, including BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, and Eni.
  • Russia continues to supply a steady stream of vacuum gas oil (VGO) for one of the key refineries in Haifa. VGO is generally upgraded into gasoline and diesel.
  • Two shipments of Brazilian crude oil totaling 260,000 tons have been delivered to Israel since December 2023. This crude was supplied from offshore fields co-owned by Shell and TotalEnergies together with Brazil’s Petrobras.

Palestinian groups and their allieshave calledfor an energy embargo and are demanding governments and companies cease all fuel shipments to Israel until it ends the genocide and its regime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. Specifically, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movementcallsfor a consumer boycott of Chevron-branded gas stations. Countries, as well as oil and gas companies, must be held to account for their role in perpetuating violence and human rights abuses.

Statements:

Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International US Program Manager, said:
“Countries and major oil companies fueling Israel’s war machine are complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. With growing public outrage, including massive protests across the globe, the demand for an end to this genocide is resounding. By directly fueling Israel’s military, on top ofover a hundredother weapons sales, the U.S. in particular must be held accountable for potential violations of international law. We call on nations to leverage their oil supply as a means to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation. Fossil fuel companies, like BP, Chevron, and Exxon, driven solely by profit, are willing to fuel conflict against innocent civilians. This must stop today. We demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation in Palestine.”

Mahmoud Nawajaa, General Coordinator, Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
“The ICJ’s ruling of 26 January indicates that Israel couldplausibly be committing genocideagainst 2.3 million Palestinians in occupied Gaza. States and companies must immediately end any complicity in Israel’s genocidal acts, including its use ofstarvation as a weapon of war. UN human rights experts have reminded States of this obligation, calling foran “immediate” military embargo on Israel, entailing a halt to the transfer of weapons and other military supplies to it.

“States and companies that continue to provide Israel with fuel for its military forces are directly complicit in supporting its ongoing genocide. We shall never forgive them for that. The BDS movement, which is already targeting Chevron with a growing global boycott and divestment campaign, will expose and target the complic States and corporations mentioned in this valuable report.

“This complicity in Israel’s Gaza genocide is not just killing Palestinians and destroying our cities, refugee camps and villages; it is also accelerating the world’s descent into what the UN Secretary-General calls, “total impunity,” where the law of the jungle reigns.”

Mohammed Usrof, co-founder of Climate Alliance for Palestine, said:
“After the International Court of Justice ruling, it’s disheartening to see the silent complicity of international corporations in the prolonged suffering of my people and my family. These companies, by supplying oil and gas to Israel, not only fuel a machinery of conflict but also ignore the urgent calls for ethical responsibility and humanity. It’s high time we demand more than just corporate profit – accountability and justice should be non-negotiable.”

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs Director, said:
“There are urgent due diligence questions for any company with commercial ties to the Israeli military, and oil firms must ensure they’re not in the business of helping to entrench Israel’s apartheid system or fuelling war crimes and possible genocide in Gaza.

“The need to avoid being directly linked to Israeli war crimes via any of their business relationships extends to all companies which form part of the global oil distribution infrastructure. We’ve repeatedly called on the Government to ensure that no UK company can trade with Israel’s network of illegal settlements, and likewise the Department for Business & Trade must be prepared to take action to prevent unscrupulous UK firms – including in the lucrative oil sector – from profiting from Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.”

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch said:
“Israeli authorities have carried out mass atrocities in Gaza in recent months. Countries and other actors that provide support to Israel’s armed forces risk complicity in war crimes. States should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel so long as its forces commit widespread, systematic abuses against Palestinian civilians with impunity.”

Notes to the editor:

For more information and to access the full data analysis, please visit here.

Data Sets used:The main sources used are: Automatic Identification System (AIS) data on ship positions and aggregated commodity trade flows data from LSEG’s CARGO app; customs filings and bills of lading from Sinoimex Global Trade Monitor; and satellite imagery from Planet Labs and the ESA Sentinel-2 satellite. While detailed examples and evidence are provided only for the most significant flows in volume terms, we would be very happy to discuss any of the other flows mentioned in more detail.

ENDS

The post New Research Exposes Countries and Companies Supplying the Oil Fueling Palestinian Genocide appeared first on Oil Change International.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Just Transition Alliance - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 02:21

Recently closed Covanta incinerator in Long Beach, CA. Photo credit: East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice

EJ Communities force California’s last two waste incinerators to shut down

These are historic times. As the world wakes up to the intersectional nature of environmental racism, climate chaos, genocide and war, thousands of frontline communities continue to engage in pitched battle against those who are destroying people and planet. And while stepping up efforts to stop colonial genocide, we also need to take the time to acknowledge some of our hard-fought movement victories against common foes.

This year marks a couple of historic victories for environmental justice (EJ) communities in the US. After over three decades of struggle, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) and Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), in collaboration with numerous allies, have forced the closure of California’s two remaining waste incinerators. This marks a turning point in an age-old battle with an industry that still operates scores of garbage burning facilities that dump high levels of dioxins, heavy metals, acid gasses and particulate matter in Black, Brown, migrant and poor communities around the US.

Since the 1980s, EJ communities have been hugely successful in thwarting the waste incinerator industry, stopping hundreds of proposals to build these dioxin factories. Still, over a 100 were built in the late 80s and early 90s, predominantly in racialized and poor communities. Despite the severe lack of philanthropic support for EJ groups over the years, our struggles persisted. Between 2000 and 2023, our movement has been able to shut down a number of these incinerators, leveraging a growing public awareness that zero waste alternatives creates far more jobs for a fraction of the cost of building and running a billion dollar incinerator.

Detroit EJ groups and Michigan Teamsters protest the Detroit Incinerator, which was shut down in 2019. Photo credit: Brooke Anderson

In the early 2000s, in a desperate bid to survive such losses, the incinerator industry launched a clever campaign – rebranding their trash burners as “Waste to Energy” (WtE) facilities. This greenwashing ploy allowed the industry to access public subsidies by duping lawmakers into believing they produced renewable energy (RE). Despite the fact that these WtE incinerators are some of the most toxic, carbon intensive and costly energy facilities in the world, the industry has been able to keep over 66 incinerators burning, buoyed by RE subsidies from the federal government and a number of states.

Fifteen years ago, when I worked with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), I facilitated a workshop for EYCEJ who (at the time) were a relatively young collective of community organizers committed to EJ principles and serving their communities in East Los Angeles and the City of Commerce, CA. At this workshop we discussed the state and federal subsidies that had propped up the incinerator industry, and how Covanta, the largest incinerator company in the US, had been accessing energy and waste policy subsidies by targeting gullible lawmakers and even big green NGOs. East Yard organizers had long been inspired by campaigns led by veteran EJ groups, such as the Mothers of East Los Angeles, who had successfully stopped a number of incinerator proposals back in the day. Some East Yard organizer’s mothers and grandmothers had led these campaigns, so they were inspired to carry on the struggle against polluting corporations like Covanta. A similar story was playing out in Stanislaus County, where a decades-long fight against a Covanta waste incinerator had been taken up in recent years by a young EJ formation – VIP.

The intergenerational leadership of our EJ movement: Juana Beatriz Gutiérrez of the Mothers of East Los Angeles and grandson mark! Lopez, organizing to protect their communities for over 4 decades. Photo credit: mark! Lopez

In 2018, EYCEJ, GAIA and other allies were able to stop the State of California from providing RE credits to incinerators, which forced the closure of the Commerce incinerator. Then, in 2022, EYCEJ, VIP, EarthJustice and other allies, successfully passed a state bill (AB 1857) that removed waste diversion credits from the last two incinerators in Long Beach and Stanislaus County. This removal of state subsidies has forced Covanta to announce the closure of these final two facilities this year. This is a huge win for EJ communities everywhere, and a highly instructive victory, especially since 26 of the 42 state Renewable Portfolio Standards continue to incentivize waste burning.

If EJ groups and their allies in these states were to go after those perverse subsidies, we could see this dinosaur fleet of toxic smoke stacks finally toppled in the coming years! And along with reducing these pollution burdens, this direction could see communities working with local governments and waste and recycling workers to build reuse, recycling and composting infrastructure that could provide millions of well-paying jobs through local, regenerative, zero waste economies. EYCEJ and VIP and other EJ communities are presently leading the way, by working with allies to develop zero waste plans to move away from burning precious resources and move towards long-term community solutions. Now, elected officials and government agencies need to stop giving public dollars to such polluting corporations, and start following the lead of communities and workers on the frontlines of such transformative change!

Content From Burning to Building Our Future appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

Categories: E2. Front Line Community Green

This coverage is made possible through a partnership with WABE and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.

Amid a difficult year for North Atlantic right whales, a proposed rule to help protect them is one step closer to reality.

Earlier this month, a proposal to expand speed limits for boats — one of the leading causes of death for the endangered whales — took a key step forward: It’s now under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the last stage of federal review.

Fewer than 360 of the whales remain; only about 70 of them are females of reproductive age. Every individual whale is considered vital to the species’ survival, but since 2017 right whales have been experiencing what scientists call an “unusual mortality event,” during which 39 whales have died.

Human actions — including climate change — are killing them.

When the cause of a right whale’s death can be determined, it is most often a strike by a boat or entanglement in fishing gear. Three young whales have been found dead this year, two of them with wounds from boat strikes and the third entangled in gear. One of the whales killed by a boat was a calf just a few months old.

Climate change, meanwhile, has disrupted their food supply, driving down right whale birth rates and pushing them into territories without rules in place to protect them.

“Our impacts are so great right now that the risk of extinction is very real,” said Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation at the New England Aquarium. “To be able to save the species, we have to stop our direct human-caused impacts on the population.”

This is not the first time humans have driven North Atlantic right whales to the brink of extinction.

Their name comes from whaling: They were known as the “right” whale to hunt because they spend time relatively close to coastlines, often swimming slowly and near the surface, and they float when dead. They also yielded large amounts of the oil and baleen whalers were after. So humans hunted them to near extinction until it was banned in 1935.

Many of those same characteristics are what make right whales so vulnerable to human-caused dangers today. Because they’re often near the surface in the same waters frequented by fishing boats, harbor pilots, and shipping vessels headed into port, it’s easy for boats to collide with them.

“They’ve been called an urban whale,” said Redfern. “They swim in waters that humans are using; they have high overlap with humans.”

A dead 1-year-old female North Atlantic right whale calf on a beach in Savannah, Georgia. Experts found evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with a vessel strike. Courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation / NOAA #24359

To reduce the risk of vessel strikes, ships over 65 feet long have to slow down during set times of year when the whales are likely to be around. In the southeastern U.S., the speed limits are in force during the winter when the whales are calving; off the New England coast, the restrictions are in place in the spring and summer when they’re feeding. Regulators can also declare voluntary speed restrictions in localized spots if whales are seen, known as dynamic management areas.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in 2022 proposed expanding those restrictions in three ways.

First, the new rule would cover larger geographical areas. The protection zones would extend down the coast from Massachusetts to Florida at various times of year, instead of only applying in certain distinct areas.

Second, the change would apply the speed limits to smaller craft like fishing boats, rather than only ships over 65 feet.

Third, the new rule would make the speed restrictions — the temporary speed limits where whales have been spotted — in dynamic management areas mandatory.

Since NOAA published and gathered feedback on the proposed rule in 2022, whale advocates have been clamoring for the agency to implement it. Those calls have increased in recent months as dead right whales have washed up on beaches.

“There have been three deaths, and that has been really devastating this year, and two of them are related to vessel strikes,” said Redfern. “It’s just highlighted that absolute urgency, the necessity of getting this rule out.”

A leading boating industry group is speaking out against the expanded speed restrictions, arguing they could hurt small businesses in the recreational boating industry.

“We are extremely disappointed and alarmed to see this economically catastrophic and deeply flawed rule proceed to these final stages,” said Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, in a statement. “The proposed rule is based on incorrect assumptions and questionable data, and fails to distinguish between large, ocean-crossing vessels and small recreational boats.”

Read Next How centuries-old whaling logs are filling gaps in our climate knowledge Ayurella Horn-Muller

Right whale scientists have documented in recent years that small, recreational boats can injure and kill right whales. At least four of the lethal vessel strikes since the current restrictions began in 2008 have involved boats smaller than 65 feet and thus not subject to that speed limit, according to Redfern.

NOAA estimated that, based on the size and placement of the propeller wounds, the boat that killed the months-old calf this year was between 35 and 57 feet in length — too small to fall under the existing speed restrictions, but subject to the new rule if it were to be implemented.

In his statement, Hugelmeyer also pointed to new marine technologies aimed at detecting right whales in the water to reduce vessel strikes without expanding the speed rules.

Scientists like Redfern remain skeptical, though.

The tech “offers a lot of promise,” she said, but the speed limits are proven.

“It’s really important, I think, that we rigorously evaluate the technology that’s proposed to make sure that it is going to achieve the same type of risk reduction that we see with the slowdowns in expanded areas,” she said.

Many groups, meanwhile, have raised concerns that offshore wind turbines could harm whales. There is no evidence of that, according to NOAA.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Climate change and boat strikes are killing right whales. Stronger speed limits could save them. on Mar 14, 2024.

Categories: H. Green News

Audubon Society - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 00:44

Categories: G3. Big Green

Ecologist - Thu, 03/14/2024 - 00:00

Categories: H. Green News

Ecologist - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 23:59

Categories: H. Green News

It's Going Down - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 23:58

Report from Abolition Media on recent clashes between Normalistas and police, following the police murder of Yanqui Kothan Gómez Peralta.

This Tuesday, the escape of the Guerrero police officer who murdered the 23-year-old Yanqui Kothan Gómez Peralta on March 7 on the Tixtla highway was confirmed, when three students were preparing for the 98th anniversary of the Ayotzinapa Normal School and in the framework of the intensification of the criminalization and stigmatization of the struggle for the appearance of the 43 normalistas.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported this morning that the police officer who shot the Ayotzinapa student was under administrative arrest in Chilpancingo, but that on Monday “he escaped” because “protocols were not followed.” In response to the president’s statement, students from the Federation of Socialist Peasant Students of Mexico (FECSM) protested at the Guerrero State Attorney General’s Office, where they threw firecrackers at the facilities and burned eleven vehicles.

The students managed to overcome the fence of riot police that stood in front of the Prosecutor’s Office and protested for about half an hour to demand justice for their murdered comrade and the immediate arrest of the Chilpancingo policeman. Moments later, the police fired tear gas at the students to disperse them.

According to AMLO, the policeman’s escape took place while he was in transit through Chilpancingo so that state authorities could hand him over to the FGR. The Guerrero Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, assured that it never detained the police officers involved in the attack on the normalistas on March 7.

“During the development of the investigations, no authority made available to this State Attorney General’s Office the State Police involved in the unfortunate events, where a student of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School, in Ayotzinapa, lost his life,” the FGE published in a statement.

Previously, the parents of the 43 disappeared students from Ayotzinapa and the lawyers accompanying them denounced the irregularities in the official versions of the murder of Gómez Peralta and the attack against the students in Guerrero.

Among the irregularities is also that despite the fact that the experts showed that the bullets were only fired from the outside to the inside of the van where the students were traveling, the authorities claim that the students also fired firearms.

The Ayotzinapa normalistas, in addition to demanding justice for Gómez Peralta, accompany the parents of the 43 students who disappeared in 2014 who demand that the federal government fulfill its commitment to resolve the Ayotzinapa Case.

photo: Screenshot via Azteca Noticias

Categories: D1. Anarchism

Green Energy Times - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 23:29

Headline News:

• “First Fully Adaptive E-Bike Trail System Opens in Vermont” • A recent article at Bike Mag shared the story of the first US trail system fully compatible with adaptive bikes, or bikes that cater to the needs of the disabled. It features a total of 11 trails, and a total distance of three miles. The new trails are equally enjoyable by both abled and disabled. [CleanTechnica]

Adaptive trail (Screenshot from article’s embedded video)

• “Alberta Commission Finds Renewables Pose Little Threat To Agriculture, Environment” • Alberta’s utilities regulator released a report saying the province’s renewables industry is little threat to its agriculture or the environment. The report says the area of land needed for renewable energy is less than 1% of the area of prime agricultural land. [CTV News Calgary]
• “bp Increases Stake In 26-GW Australian Renewable Energy Hub” • Macquarie Group sold its 15% share in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub to UK energy company bp, it said. The solar, wind, and green hydrogen project is planned for Western Australia. The project’s estimated worth is $36.4 billion (US), and bp’s share is now 64%. [pv magazine International]
• “Pennsylvania Governor Unveils Plan To Cut Greenhouse Gases, Boost Renewables In Big Energy Producer” • Gov Josh Shapiro unveiled a plan to fight climate change. He will back legislation to make power plant owners pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and require utilities to buy more electricity from renewable sources. [WHEC.com]
• “Tariffs Aren’t Enough To Save US Car Makers From Chinese EVs” • Recently, US Senator Marco Rubio started pushing for more tariffs on Chinese electric cars. They have a pretty good chance of destroying vehicle manufacturing in the US. This may be a reasonable argument, but tariffs alone would only delay the inevitable. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Categories:

Common Dreams - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 22:35

Amidst a fraught political landscape where totalitarian clouds loom, we celebrate House Democrats whose smarts and prowess may yet save us. Thus did a hearing on "lying bozo" Robert Hur's hit job on classified documents - which charged Biden only with being a "well-meaning, elderly man" - turn into another hot mess for GOP hacks and yahoos after Dems laid bare Hur's flimflam and showcased their demented stable genius yammering word salad into the unseemly air.

Tuesday's hearing before a GOP-run House Judiciary Committee, like all the GOP's flops before it, quickly went sideways for Republicans hungry to find something, anything, to charge the "Biden crime family" with - this time, that Biden so "old, old, old (he) can’t remember even how old he is." Hur was already on the defensive after outrage at what many deemed his gratuitous digs at Biden's cognitive abilities, clearly a discomfiting pot/kettle set-up from the start. The Democrats' case only got stronger after newly released transcripts showed, less than shockingly, that many of Hur's conclusions were manipulative bullsh*t, a point savvy Dems repeatedly, delightedly hammered home. Under pressure, Hur insisted his unsolicited opinion of Biden's cognitive skills was "necessary and accurate and fair"; he also stood by calling him a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" and rejected the idea he "exonerated" Biden with, "That word does not appear in the report." Then again, Dems noted, another word missing from the report is "photographic," which is what he admiringly called Biden's memory in the transcript. Awkward.

Of course this is not the first rodeo where GOP clowns fell off their steeds. In a f*ckless Congressional session on track to be the least productive of any American Congress since 1931, the GOP has become "a full-blown, corruption-riddled, nepotism-laden cult of incompetency," according to a former GOP fat cat who says he's "out" after a lifetime of giving money to candidates. "I donated to help win elections, not to maintain the lifestyle of a billionaire," he wrote. "No point donating now." And it's getting worse. A razor-thin majority in the House just got flimsier, much like Mike Johnson's support, with the resignation of Colorado's right-wing Ken Buck; wingnut losers like shrieky MTG get improbably dumber; candidates are so rabid they boast about burning books before they're even elected; another in a long line of criminals in the law-and-order-save-our-kids party was just sentenced to 410 years in prison on multiple counts of child sex abuse; and the new RNC head is a former personal trainer whose first act with her mobster father-in-law was undertaking a "bloodbath" of the faithful.

Meanwhile, he's still shooting off his mouth. He announced his "first acts as your next President" will be to "Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6th Hostages," he randomly flip-flopped on banning TikTok (now nay) 'cause maybe he can get some money toward the cool half-billion he owes, and he bleated out he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare - eloquently, "There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do" - which is the least popular thing he could do after ending women's reproductive freedom and making his lackeys kill the border bill. He tried to backpedal, but Dems quickly put up an ad quoting him - with Biden vowing, "I will stop you" - because they're so much better at this. See Jamie Raskin's grammar lessons to Boebert and Santos - "Banana Republican Party" and "the truth is resilient" - or Eric Swalwell's questions to Hunter Biden - "Did your father operate a hotel where foreign nationals spent millions while he was in office," employ family members, receive 41 trademarks from China, make a multi-million-dollar deal with the Saudis - ending with, "That's all I've got."

And so to Hur's report on senile geezer Joe Biden, where scripts were again masterfully flipped. Hur, a registered Republican who served in Trump's Justice Department, told House members that "partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work." That didn't go over well with Repubs who've never met a partisan hack they didn't like, even the weaselly Hur who they were depending on to bring charges, deserved or no. "I want to thank you for the work you did as far as you could," menaced Rep. Tom Tiffany. "But unfortunately you are part of the praetorian guard that guards the swamp here (in) DC, protecting the elites, and Joe Biden is part of that company of elites." Say what? Matt Gaetz, meanwhile, couldn't decide if Hur found "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter" because Biden was "senile," or because Biden was “a little craftier, a little more devious (than) we might otherwise think." Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerlad gave it another desperate shot. He read aloud Webster's definition of senile and asked Hur, "Did you find that the president was senile?" Life is full of disappointments: Hur said, "I did not."

The transcript showed he did, however, overstate Biden's supposed "poor memory," a finding that hinged largely on his occasionally hedging on dates - unlike the rest of us over, say, 40. Biden sometimes hesitated over the year something happened - including the death of his son Beau - but vividly recalled even painful specifics: "What year did he die? Oh God, May 30th." He was quick-witted - to one photo Hur showed him: "You can tell it's old - I have my arm around Lindsey Graham" - and lively, veering off-topic to extol electric cars he'd tried out: "Damn, they're quick!" Because Dems had come to play, Rep. Jerry Nadler was quick to contrast all that with a "sizzle reel" of Trump speeches packed with blather: Words mangled, putting Paris in Germany, forgetting who he was married to when, confusing Obama and Biden, Balkan with Baltic, North and South Korea, oranges and origins. "That is a man (who) is wholly unfit for office," Nadler concluded at the ungainly end of the linguistic carnage, "and a man who, at the very least, ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline."

Democrats flip the script on Republican's sham hearing with a supercut of receiptswww.youtube.com

And so it went. One after the other, Democrats had done their homework and brought their receipts, which were glorious. Before he offered up his own super-cut of incoherence, Eric Swalwell went to the transcript, which, yes, he'd read. On the subject of a house he visited in Mongolia that Biden evidently described to Hur in detail, "You said, 'You...appear to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house.' Did you say that to President Biden?" Hur, slimy, after long pause. "Those words do appear on page 47 of the transcript." Swalwell: "'Photographic' is what you said, is that right?" Hur: "That word does appear on page 47 of the transcript." Swalwell: "It never appeared in your report, though, is that correct? The word 'photographic?'" Hur: "It does not appear in my report." Swalwell, calmly: "Now I want to show you something that is absolutely not photographic." Cue more Trump mayhem: Slurred words, the brave frontline workers on 7/11, God bless the United Shates, windmills driving driving whales a little batty etc. Ever-shameless Gym Jordan, horrified by too much masochism even for him, finally cut him off.

Rep. Jim Jordan cuts off second supercut of Trump being hot mess in disastrous committee hearingwww.youtube.com

Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean likewise brandished Hur's own words before him, this time on the vital "material distinctions" between how Biden and Trump handled the issue of classified documents improperly taken - that Biden cooperated, thus ruling out willful, criminal intent. Dean went one better by making Hur read his report aloud - and thus condemn Trump - himself. Hur kept stopping; each time, Dean said, "Go on." "The allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr. Trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts," Hur read. "Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite...He not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it. In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives (and DOJ), consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation."

— (@)

For his turn, Rep. Ted lieu went the Swalwell route, asking the reluctant Hur a series of pointed questions he knew the answers to that, cumulatively, proved deeply damning. His first question: "In your investigation, did you find that President Biden directed his lawyer to lie to the FBI?” Hur: "We identified no such evidence." Lieu: "Did you find that President Biden directed his lawyer to destroy classified documents?” Hur: "No." And on and on: Did you find that President Biden directed someone to move boxes of documents, hide them from the FBI, delete security camera footage; that he showed a classified map about on ongoing military operation to an aide, engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct justice, engaged in a scheme to conceal..." All no's from Hur. Each of those activities, Lieu noted, "describe what Donald Trump did in his willful mishandling of classified information and his criminal efforts to deceive the FBI," which is why Biden hasn't been indicted and Trump has been "in not just 1, or 2, or 3, but four criminal cases." As Hur sits silent.

REP LIEU QUESTIONS SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR IN JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARINGwww.youtube.com

Adam Schiff tangled more directly with Hur, charging him with deliberately, gratutiously taking a "deeply prejudicial" approach to the report that "you had to know would have a maximal political impact," even while declining to prosecute. Schiff blasted his old geezer language, rather than "the president did not recall" when "there is nothing more common with a witness of any age when asked about events that are years old." "You understood that you made a choice," Schiff charged. "That was a political choice. It was the wrong choice." Finally, Jamie Raskin furiously, elegantly dismissed "the spectacle (of) our colleagues...drive-by diagnoses" of Biden's memory despite his soaring SOTU speech and "devastating extemporaneous reparte with even the most skilled ninja hecklers of the Freedom Caucus." All of it, he argued, is "a desperate quest" to distract from Trump's 91 criminal charges, staggering civil court losses and "full-blown embrace (of) authoritarian dictators." "My friends, this is a memory test," he said gravely. "But it's not a memory test for President Biden. It's a memory test for all of America."

Categories: F. Left News

Renew Economy - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 22:04

EnergyCo unveils change in the proposed route of the main transmission line linking the huge New England renewable energy zone, but not everyone is happy.

The post New England transmission route revised, but not everyone is happy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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Lock the Gate Alliance - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 19:52

Categories: G2. Local Greens

Renew Economy - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 19:40

In the midst of a Sydney heatwave, my Nissan Leaf earned $100 in just two hours supporting the grid. This is the future.

The post This is the future: How my EV earned $100 in two hours supporting the grid in heatwave appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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Renew Economy - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 19:33

Victoria premier says planning delays have meant that instead of spinning turbines, "we’re too often left spinning our wheels.”

The post “It takes too long:” Solar and wind farm blockers to be weeded out to fast-track renewable projects appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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Renew Economy - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 19:27

Nextracker announces landmark deal with a company owned by Bluescope to use locally made steel and manufacturing facilities for Australian-based solar projects.

The post Nextracker in landmark deal with Bluescope unit for Australian made solar trackers appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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Renew Economy - Wed, 03/13/2024 - 19:05

Two projects backed by Australia's richest woman will get federal funding of more than $1 billion to supercharge battery supply chain.

The post Rinehart-backed lithium and rare earths projects rake in more than $1 billion in federal funding appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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