Independent News
Newsmax reporter reassigned after saying COVID vaccines track you with ‘bioluminescent marker’
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Emerald Robinson is to ultra-conservative propaganda machine Newsmax what Steve Doocy is to ultra-conservative propaganda machine Fox News. She is one of two (occasionally three) people in the White House press briefings who ask truly oblique questions and then are served with reality papers by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. In recent months, Robinson has made headlines by acting like a gossipy high school teen from a badly written after-school special, openly creating “facts” on the fly in the hopes of making conservative fanboys squeal.
On Thursday, multiple outlets reported that Robinson has been pulled off the air after making a bizarre enough claim about COVID-19 vaccines that even Newsmax had to do some damage control. According to the Daily News, Robinson went to her already over-the-line-bizarre Twitter account and posted: “Dear Christians: the vaccines contain a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked.” Robinson’s brand includes being conservative Christian, so making connections between the devil and Luciferase (Lucifer anyone?) was a short walk through her tiny mind, I guess.
However, just because words sound similar to other words does not make you right. Then again, Ronald Wilson Reagan has six letters in each one of his full names. 666! Just sayin’!
The Daily Beast reports that an employee at Newsmax told them their newsroom (which I imagine just consists of people doing shots of Jagermeister and watching old clips of Donald Trump firing people on The Apprentice) said that people were very happy that Robinson had been put on the sidelines. “It’s really buzzing the newsroom. I think it’s a good idea. If we are going to be viewed as a news organization, we have to act like one.” I hate to be the one to tell this staffer that ship sailed long ago.
This news comes just one day after it was reported that Smartmatic, a voting technology company, was suing both Newsmax and One America News for defamation in their inaccurate reporting on claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That was a few months of time when Newsmax could have made the argument that they were a “news organization,” but instead decided to repeatedly and willfully lie about the nature of the elections.
Newsmax released a statement about Robinson’s trip to quiet town in order to stay under the radar long enough for things to pass. “Newsmax strongly believes and has reported that the Covid 19 vaccines are safe and effective. We do not believe the vaccines contain any toxic materials or tracking markers, and such false claims have never been reported on Newsmax. The many medical experts appearing on Newsmax have supported the use of the vaccine.” Sounds like someone just got word that people dying of COVID-19 and their families might consider class action cases against outlets that misinform them about important public health information.
But before we all pretend that Newsmax is doing the right thing here for any other reason than someone in their legal department pressed a red button, let’s just remember that Robinson was given a short break starting Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021.
That’s from a little over two weeks ago. This is the tweet pinned to Robinson’s account as of the writing of this story.
And this is her on Halloween.
Robinson worked at OAN before she brought her brand of conservative Christian misinformation to Newsmax.
Police reform measure fell short in Minneapolis, but this is why we still won
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On Nov. 2, Minneapolis residents voted on an innovative proposal to reshape community safety: de-center police in public safety, employ more capable first responders, and only deploy police when absolutely necessary. Nearly 45% of voters supported this bold change, but it sadly was not enough… for now. But there is so much to celebrate.
It’s been 17 months since George Floyd was brutally murdered in broad daylight, during a call that in no way warranted police restraining Floyd. For too long, police have shrugged off these needlessly deadly encounters as collateral damage of a tough job. Getting Question 2 on the ballot was already victorious in putting police on the defensive, forcing them to justify their role.
Even in the face of a well-oiled, fear-mongering disinformation machine, funded largely by wealthy interests outside the city, people power prevailed and inspired nearly half of Minneapolis voters to dream bigger than a notoriously violent police force. And many people who rejected the measure were not endorsing police; they simply wanted to know more about how a Department of Public Safety would protect them.
More clearly articulating a new public safety vision is a critical next step, and there are already successes to point to. Minneapolis residents now have more options for non-police interventions because of groups like Relationships Evolving Possibilities mounting a community emergency hotline, training dozens of people as street medics, and creating non-police emergency response guides. This bump in the road will not stop progress.
Backlash and fear-mongering are classic reactions to people-centered radical organizing. Integration, voting rights for Black Americans, food benefits for families in poverty, and the basic right of LGBTQ people to public life were all met with violent pushback. The backlash didn’t stop us then, and it won’t stop us now. Despite failing to pass Question 2, Minneapolis and the entire nation is one step closer to a broad reimagining of public safety.
We CAN shift the responsibility of emergency response away from police, and we CAN keep each safe. This fight is not over, and we need you to keep it going. One way you can do that is to chip in to support these organizations mounting resistance to police abuse and advancing community alternatives.
In Maryland community 'made for Black people,' homeowners report appraisal discrimination
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A Maryland realtors’ association is investigating after homeowners in a majority Black community reported multiple cases of alleged appraisal discrimination, leaving home values in the area thousands of dollars lower than what similar properties in nearby communities are worth. The Prince George’s County Association of Realtors sent surveys to more than 3,000 realtors in the county to assess their experiences with appraisal bias. Although fewer than 500 of those surveys have been turned in, Black homeowners in the community shared their individual experiences with alleged appraisal discrimination with local news station WUSA9.
Homeowner Jacqulyn Priestly told the news station her almost 9,000 square-foot home in Bowie, Maryland, that her family built from the ground up ended up appraising for lower than the cost to build it. “In neighboring counties, we’re seeing the exact same builder with the same style home, and [their] homes are worth twice as much,” Priestly said.
She told the news station that her family decided to build to get “more space, multi-generational living with mom and my stepdad living with us too.”
“We looked in other counties in Maryland and then decided to stay in Prince George’s County because we recognize the fact you can’t put a price tag on community,” Priestly told WUSA9.
Appraisers, however, tried. After one appraisal report came back with errors, a second came in at $1.3 million, almost $500,000 lower than construction costs, Priestly told WUSA9. “How is it that the wood and the walls and the nails that were used … how are they worth less than what they cost us?”
Homeowners Derrick and Roshaunda Ingram-Harvey reported a similar experience to WUSA9. They said they were preparing to sell their five-bedroom home for $1.275 million and move to Texas, but their home appraised some $60,000 lower than expected at $1.19 million. “We lost about $60,000,” Roshaunda said. “I think it’s biased because of the stature. How often do African American people buy million-dollar homes … they look at Prince George’s County as an area that’s made for Black people.”
“Every realtor said, we don’t know that your house will sell for that price, because it’s not going to appraise for that in Prince George’s County,” Roshaunda said. “Houses in Prince George’s County don’t appraise for over a million dollars, and they definitely don’t sell.”
Appraisers involved in the sale of the Ingram-Harvey and Priestly homes didn’t return WUSA9’s requests for comment.
What they reported, however, aligns with reports in Black communities throughout the nation. Erica and Aaron Parker, a Cincinnati family, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when their four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home complete with a finished walkout basement appraised more than $40,000 less than a buyer was willing to pay, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
In their situation, an appraiser acknowledged errors in the report but refused to adjust the home’s appraised value. “We saw homes sell for much more than the asking price. It didn’t make sense. What was so different about our house? Why were we being told we had to sell for so much less?” Aaron asked the Cincinnati Enquirer. When the family borrowed a white neighbor’s photos to display in their home and had it appraised again, the value came in almost $100,000 higher, the Parkers told the Enquirer.
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge assembled a task force, the Interagency Task Force for Property Appraisal Valuation Equity, to address appraisal discrimination earlier this year. “PAVE will join forces with businesses and local leaders to forge a more equitable America; where every person gets a fair chance at building their wealth,” Fudge tweeted in July when she announced the task force.
Andre Perry, a Brookings fellow working on a study about the effects of racial bias in housing on Black communities, told the Cincinnati Enquirer homes in Black areas are undervalued by an average of $48,000, totaling $156 billion in losses. “If we can detect how much racism depletes wealth from Black homeowners, we can begin to address bigotry principally by giving Black homeowners and policymakers a target price for redress,” Perry and other researchers said in the study. “Laws have changed, but the value of assets—buildings, schools, leadership, and land itself—are inextricably linked to the perceptions of black people. And those negative perceptions persist.”
RELATED: Black family hangs photos of white neighbors and appraisal comes back nearly $100,000 higher
RELATED: A tale of two appraisals: White man gets $100K higher value than Black woman
RELATED: Black family hides photos, Toni Morrison books in order to get fair real estate appraisals
This 27-year-old ran on a campaign to defund the police—and defeated longtime incumbent
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As we process results from the elections on Tuesday, Nov. 2, it’s all too easy to fall into despair and frustration about the races that didn’t go our way. While work absolutely remains to be done, it’s also important to acknowledge victories where we had them, including in some surprising instances. One example? 27-year-old Indira Sheumaker, a Black Lives Matter activist who campaigned on defunding the police, beat out an incumbent for a seat on the Des Moines City Council, representing Ward 1.
According to the Des Moines Register, Sheumaker will be the first Black city council member in Des Moines since 1985. As of the Jan. 10 swearing-in, she will also be the youngest person to serve on the council (coming in as the only person under 30) and the only person of color. Sheumaker, a first-time candidate, defeated 69-year-old longtime incumbent Bill Gray, who had served in the office since 2014 with 542 votes.
“We just won our campaign on a platform centered on Defunding the Police for Safety and Justice. It can be done,” Sheumaker said in a campaign statement. “My goal for this city has always been to work from the bottom up. Not the top down.” In her campaign, Sheumaker also stressed the importance of making food and housing accessible, flood preparedness, rent control, decriminalizing cannabis, tenant rights, and combating corporate greed.
“I want to be the kind of leader who is part of the community, the kind of leader people can talk to you,” Sheumaker told the crowd at a cafe in downtown Des Moines the night election results rolled in, according to Iowa Public Radio. She said given that she’s a protester and activist herself, she can’t tell people not to “show up” on her lawn.
Sheumaker became involved in politics after the police killing of George Floyd when she organized marches for racial justice in Des Moines. Since then, she’s worked steadily with the Black Liberation Movement (which supported her campaign) and advocated for defunding the police.
“I already told all these people: if you don’t like what I do, you better be banging on my door with 500 people on my lawn,” she told the group as music played and people celebrated her big win.
Sheumaker really credits local, individual support for her win, and wants to stay true to herself and her community. “I didn’t look for big donors, didn’t look for donations from developers, landlords — and I didn’t get any,” Sheumaker told the Register. “It was very much a campaign for the people.” She has received more than $30,000 in campaign donations since February. According to Iowa Public Radio, Sheumaker said most of her contributions came from individual donors, and her grandparents were her biggest donors. They were in the crowd the night she won, too.
You can check out an interview with Sheumaker here. And if you want to read up on some other exciting victories from Tuesday that haven’t gotten nearly enough national media attention, check out our coverage of State Rep. Ed Gainey and Aftab Pureval, too.
Anti-vaxx Chronicles: This guy REALLY thought Ivermectin was the answer
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Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric. But I hadn’t really fully understood just how horrifying that combination of right-wing extremism, Facebook, and a killer virus was until I became a regular at the Herman Cain Awards subreddit. This series will document some of those stories, so we are aware of what the other side is doing to our country.
Today’s cautionary tale thinks Ivermectin is the solution, but it’s all China’s fault anyway.
Literally no media reported on a poll that claimed that 9% of respondents had died of COVID, because no such poll exists. Sheesh, doesn’t even pass the smell test. (And of course, there’s no sourcing on that meme.)
“If you don’t believe that one thing I believe, then ALL SCIENCE is suspect” — conservatives.
These kinds of memes are extra stupid, because we can just as easily say: “if you believe that COVID is a hoax and that Ivermectin is a cure and that masks don’t work, then. you do not believe in science. You believe in a political ideology.” And this formulation would be far more valid.
If you really believe China infected the world … why would you be opposed to countermeasures to protect us from that supposed attack?
Their logic is literally 1) China attacked us, so 2) we won’t wear masks or get vaccinated to protect ourselves, so 3) … profit!
Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden are saying “NOPE” to the virus by wearing a mask. Ben Shapiro is like “please infect me.”
“China attacked us with COVID, and Biden is letting in millions of more people with COVID, so let’s not protect ourselves with masks and vaccinations!”
COVID is either scary and we need to deploy countermeasures, or it’s not. YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.
Given Tuesday’s results, it’s clear it’s in Republicans’ interest to keep this pandemic going as long as possible, frustrating people who want a return to normalcy and creating supply chain issues that have led to higher inflation and a shortage of some goods.
The vaccinated aren’t falling into any abyss, but the unvaccinated are dying and prolonging the national and global COVID misery. It’s working out great for the Republican Party, and they’ll sacrifice tens of thousands more of their supporters to keep the misery going.
It’s just like that one time when Germany was trying to save their people with free vaccines against a global pandemic. Exactly like it.
Imagine crying about “censoring speech” and “silencing opposition” when your entire political apparatus is hysterically trying to silence Toni Morrison and the critical race theory boogeyman?
Dear god, do they want people with ebola and other diseases hanging around them out in the world? No, you shouldn’t be traveling with most of this stuff!
Thank science that many of those diseases have become so rare because, you know, vaccines.
“Hey you, this medicine won the Nobel PEACE price, you stupid person!”
Oh my.
Meanwhile, Ivermectin did win a Nobel in medicine for, you guessed it, deworming and killing other parasites.
Half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Campbell and Ōmura for discovering avermectin, “the derivatives of which have radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, as well as showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases”.
It’s a dewormer. It won a Nobel for deworming. Nobel in medicine. Not peace. Ivermectin didn’t bring peace anywhere. And certainly didn’t bring peace to parasites.
Parasites are bad. Killing them is good.
COVID isn’t a parasite. Buying the horse dewormer version at your local feed shop is, indeed, so dumb, that you should sit the next few rounds out.
Incidentally, “The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 was awarded to National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”
Could you imagine if they were this excited about something that actually worked, like the vaccines?
Everything would be different.
Literally no government says that. None.
Meanwhile, there are governments that have controlled this virus from spreading. Looking at Australia, New Zealand, and Portugal to name a few. But their people aren’t as insufferably stupid as red America.
Why is the right okay with unfettered gun access, but requires a voter ID to exercise an even more fundamental right?
We can play this stupid game all day.
People have to register to vote. There are requirements to exercise that right.
So yeah, to function in society in the presence of a deadly pathogen that has killed millions worldwide, a COVID card should be required.
OH OH … why don’t we require a COVID Card for voting? Would that work for them?
If the argument is that everyone should require vaccination to receive government benefits, then sure! Sign me up.
Will that also include driving on government-funded roads, attending government-funded schools, and partaking in every other facet of life which is funded or subsidized with government dollars? Because that’s an even better idea!
October 9, talks shit about welfare recipients not “contributing to society” in an anti-vaccination meme.
October 20-ish, his dad dies of COVID
October 27-ish, his mom dies of COVID.
Doesn’t mention their illnesses on Facebook. That would step on his narrative.
November 3, he dies of COVID.
Turns out horse dewormer might not have been the cure after all.
Still, I don’t understand what the praying is for. Aren’t Christians about loving thy neighbor and helping those in need? This guy literally posted a meme mocking the idea of “the common good.” Then took up a hospital bed with a ventilator, which we will pay for out of our own taxed pockets, and stressed our overburdened medical system. Let’s just hope no one else worthy died because of that lack of a bed.
His ignorance killed him and his family. I just hope he doesn’t have any kids or anyone else who financially depended on him. That would be the silver lining to yet another unnecessary tragedy.
Earth Matters: Unmet emissions pledges imperil planet; many local eco-advocates elected on Tuesday
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Back in 1972, the Club of Rome-commissioned “The Limits of Growth,” a report that argued the world’s economic system could not continue its current rate of growth because of resource constraints and environmental matters. The report presented various outcomes for what could happen when the growth of industrial civilization collided with finite resources. Without big changes of direction, the authors argued, civilization might collapse. The report caught immediate, blistering criticism—some of which was accurate and some decidedly myopic.
While the club’s analysis wasn’t focused on climate change, one buried chart showed that an astonishingly steep and rapid rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was already underway and would continue soaring even more steeply in coming years. When the report was published, atmospheric CO2 was running at 328 parts per million and the prediction was that it would hit 380 ppm by the year 2000. It actually took until 2005. The chart made no mention of rising temperatures as a consequence. (You can see a more readable copy of the chart at this link—scroll to page 72).
Not all climate activists are completely in tune with every note of teenaged eco-warrior Greta Thunberg’s “blah, blah, blah” assessment of climate summits in general and specifically the COP26 get-together happening this week and next in Glasgow. Nonetheless, among activists, the overall sentiment is one of low expectations for what will come out of this latest summit. Not when it comes to words—as Thunberg laments. Plenty of those, plenty describing our climate predicament, plenty about the failure so far to turn those words into serious, immediate action to cut off the accumulated spew of human-generated greenhouse gases that are heating the planet toward average temperatures not seen since Homo sapiens emerged 300 millennia ago.
In a report released in September, the United Nations warned that the world is on a trajectory to reach an increase of 2.7 degrees Celsius—or 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit—in warming above the pre-industrial average over the course of the 21st century. Well past the two-degree increase that scientists say would be disastrous, much less holding the increase to the so-called “aspirational” 1.5 degrees above which the most vulnerable nations will suffer profound, even apocalyptic impacts.
As Harry Stevens and Brady Dennis report, nations collectively aren’t living up to the non-binding pledges they made under the Paris agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Rich countries also aren’t providing the $100 billion they pledged to help developing nations cope with climate change. Even if all the pledges were being met, they wouldn’t be adequate to the task, according to the report.
There’s some good news on this front from Glasgow: 100 nations signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions of this potent greenhouse gas by 30% over the next eight years. But pledges are words, and there’s no guarantee that this one will fare any better than those that aren’t already being fulfilled. For one thing, some of the worst offenders—Russia, for instance—aren’t on board. And in the United States, the attempt to impose a new methane emissions rule may collide with a Supreme Court majority far more likely to stomp on it than the majority that ruled 5-4 in 2007 that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate greenhouse gases—and is required to do so.
The world has had many summits to discuss what should be done to prevent, mitigate, and adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and initiate programs to accomplish those goals. However, we have collectively ignored what scientists as early as 1988 warned us we must do. Their message then and subsequently was that delaying immediate action on climate would require that any future actions with the potential to be effective would have to be ever more draconian. As Adam Levy points out so well below, we have missed so many opportunities and now we’re on that predicted precipice where only draconian action can succeed, but that feckless politicians call outrageous and unacceptable. Republicans, for instance, have just issued their own climate plan, which calls for—you guessed it—more burning of fossil fuels.
Although it’s true that some predicted impacts of the climate crisis are already “baked into” our future for centuries no matter what we do, there is still time to make moves that will avoid some of the worst impacts of the changes that our behavior has wrought. Not much time, however. And whatever the outcome of COP26, those moves will only be launched if the grassroots activism on climate becomes even more intense, persuasive, and forceful.
SHORT TAKES
Voters elected environmental champions up and down the ballot
The League of Conservation Voters’ analysis of the Nov. 2 elections found significant good news to trumpet:
On Tuesday, while the losses in Virginia were disappointing, we saw environmental champions win in key races across the country. While LCV affiliate endorsed candidates did not win every race, young, Black, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and Arab American candidates put climate action and environmental justice front and center in their elections and won up and down the ticket.
Much of our progress on climate and clean energy has come from state and local leaders who have tackled the climate crisis head-on. As a result of their leadership, 1 in 3 people in this country now live in a place committed to 100% clean energy. These races are also vital to meet our national climate goals and will be important to implement federal climate action through the Build Back Better Act.
RAMPANT Disinformation about the climate on Facebook MOSTLY GENERATED BY 10 outlets
Just as 71% of greenhouse gas pollution since 1988 has come from only 100 companies, just 10 publishers are responsible for 69% of the digital pollution of climate science denial on Facebook, according to a study conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The outlets—the report calls them the “Toxic Ten”—include several conservative U.S. websites, as well as Russian state media. The list:
Breitbart, a far-right news site once run by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon • Western Journal, a Conservative news site • Newsmax, which has previously been sued for promoting election fraud conspiracies • Townhall Media, founded by the Exxon-funded Heritage Foundation • Media Research Center, a “think tank” that received funding from Exxon • Washington Times, founded by self-proclaimed messiah Sun Myung Moon • The Federalist Papers, a site that has promoted COVID-19 misinformation • Daily Wire, a conservative news site that is of the most engaged-with publishers on Facebook, and Russian state media, pushing disinformation via • RT.com and • Sputnik News Patriot Post
YOungest Chief in his tribe’s history leads its fight against climate change
At just 34 years old, writes Tik Root, Dana Tizya-Tramm has become the youngest leader of the Vuntut Gwitchin, a First Nation of the Yukon that mostly lives above the Arctic Circle. Tizya-Tramm has aggressively taken on what he views as his people’s most important challenge: the climate crisis.
The shifting Arctic is squeezing the Vuntut Gwitchin on multiple fronts. Tizya-Tramm says less predictable caribou migration patterns have meant some villages can go years without a successful hunt, and the spawn of certain salmon species has dropped so low that fishing has been severely restricted in recent years.
“Nature speaks to us,” he said. “Just not in English.” With Tizya-Tramm at the helm, the community is listening. In 2019, the Vuntut Gwitchin became among the first Indigenous peoples in Canada to declare a climate emergency — a move that catapulted them into the international limelight. That same year they set a target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and as they strive toward the goal, the First Nation has been working to build among the largest solar projects in the Arctic.
Tizya-Tramm hopes the Vuntut Gwitchin model will be followed by others. “We’re dropping a stone in the water and it’s creating a ripple effect,” he said.
Delays bug White House environmental justice advisers
In an executive order earlier this year, President Biden mandated the creation of a climate and economic justice screening tool to identify communities in need as part of the Justice40 initiative, a plan to ensure 40% of climate-related investments benefit historically neglected communities. July was the missed deadline for finalizing the tool. Consequently, several of the White House’s environmental justice advisers are expressing frustration because this delay could mean federal money from the bipartisan infrastructure and Build Back Better bills—if they pass—won’t go to the communities that need it most. Aides in the Office of Management and Budget’s U.S. Digital Service, charged with developing the software, have not reported on their progress.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have already funded a few pilot programs to show how Justice40 could work but without the new mapping tool. Several of the 26 members on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council indicated concerns to GreenWire over the delay and what they call a lack of transparency that they believe could lead to misuse of government dollars. “For those of us on the [council], we don’t know if there was a process that determined which pilots would get rolled out and what input was made available,” said Robert Bullard, a member of the council who is widely known as the “father of environmental justice.” He added, “It’s hard for us to understand the criteria used by these agencies in how they selected pilots. And our question is how are the pilots selected and what kind of external input [did the agencies get].”
EPA investigating KOCH-OWNED chemical plant accused of environmental racism
Port Arthur sits on the Lone Star State side of the Texas-Louisiana border, a processing center and overseas shipping point for energy and mining firms that includes numerous terminals for several of the nation’s major oil and gas pipelines. Since 1936, Oxbow Calcining, a plant owned by the notorious billionaire climate disinformation funder William Koch, has processed oil and gas into petroleum coke, a product used in manufacturing steel and aluminum. From 2016 to 2019, Sharon Kelly writes, Oxbow pumped into the air 22 million pounds of sulfur dioxide, a cause of lung disease. People of color make up most of the population of 2,600 who live within three miles of the plant.
Sulfur dioxide is produced when you burn hydrogen sulfide. Colin Cox, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, said the smell of hydrogen sulfide is often compared to rotten eggs, but sulfur dioxide is “a little different. Most people describe it to me as burning garbage.” He added, “[T]he people in that community have been surrounded by refineries and industry for their entire lives, breathing that stuff and smelling that stuff.”
ECO-TWEET OF THE WEEK
ECO-VIDEO OF THE WEEK
A HALF DOZEN OTHER THINGS TO READ
Are “net-zero” climate targets just hot air? Corporations and countries around the world are promising to eliminate their contributions to climate change. However, “On the road to COP26, corporations are using ‘net-zero’ to block effective climate policy and greenwash their image while maintaining business-as-usual,” according to a report from the nonprofit group Corporate Accountability. […] The core of a net-zero emissions plan that isn’t just greenwashing should therefore have large and immediate reductions in absolute emissions. By Umair Irfan
“Four Important Points About EPA’s Proposed Methane Emissions Controls for Oil and Natural
Gas Facilities.” EPA no longer believes other federal and state regulations sufficiently control methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. By Romany M. Webb
Is the Global Methane Pledge Just “Words on Paper”? More than 70 countries, including the United States, have promised to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Is it enough? By Amy Westervelt
A California law gave the people power to cut pollution. Why isn’t it working? AB 617, which was touted as a corrective to environmental injustice, has created a long-winded, bureaucratic process but resulted in little regulation — a design flaw that may be intentional. By Naveena Sadasivam
Unlocking the Transition: As Tesla, Ford and others invest billions in EVs, will the power system be ready? The White House zero emission vehicle target of 50% of new car sales by 2030 has a long way to go, a short time to get there, and big challenges along the way. By Amy Westervelt
More oil vs. climate: Can Biden have it both ways? “As we see current volatility in energy prices, rather than cast it as a reason to back off our clean energy goals, we must view it as a call to action,” said President Biden Tuesday at the global COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. But, said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, “All the negotiation in the world is ultimately hollow unless Biden acts boldly to end the fossil fuel era at home.” She said Biden could stop oil and gas leasing on public lands and end fossil fuel exports through executive action, “but he refuses to do it. Biden contradicts his own moral imperative by leaving on the shelf his own tools to literally save lives and our planet from climate catastrophe.” By Lesley Clark, Mike Lee, Ester Wells
Cartoon: The Ten Commandments
Workers continue striking as John Deere's contract offer doesn't match its record profits
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In a powerful statement that the core of a union is its workers, not its leaders, striking workers at John Deere rejected a proposed contract deal in a Tuesday vote, opting instead to continue their strike. But the company says that was its final offer and it will not resume bargaining.
Around 10,000 workers at plants in Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas have been on strike since October 14 after rejecting the first deal their union leadership brought. The second proposal was voted down by a 55% to 45% margin, a dramatically closer vote than the 90% who rejected the first contract offer. The second proposal included larger pay raises, improved the pension plan and preserved it for future employees, increased lump-sum payments to retiring workers, introduced two weeks of paid parental leave, and increased the contract ratification bonus.
With John Deere making record profits, though, and likely to benefit from any infrastructure bill Congress passes, workers could reasonably feel that the company could offer more.
“In 1997, Deere reported a net income of $817 million. In 2021, they are projected to make $5.7 billion,” Local 79 education chair Dave Parkin told members at the ratification meeting for the first proposed contract, Jonah Furman reported. “While Deere profit has grown almost 700 percent since 1997, our buying power has shrunk by 35 percent.”
The second contract proposal included a larger raise, but not a raise that came anywhere close to keeping pace with the company’s increased profits.
The workers’ determination to roll back a two-tier system introduced in 1997, with earlier hires getting better pay and benefits, was the key issue in the strike from the beginning. The first proposed offer introduced what workers called a third tier, while the second proposed deal took some steps toward equalizing the pre- and post-1997 workers. But it didn’t get all the way there—crucially, post-97 workers would still not get retiree health benefits—and the workers are willing to keep fighting on that point.
With the company unwilling to return to bargaining, it seems quite likely the strike may continue into 2022.
Boston-area parents rush to get their kids vaccinated, but the local newspaper isn't reporting that
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Appointments for grade-school kids to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are starting to become available, and the media continues to send the message that this is something to fear.
Significant side effects from the Pfizer vaccine (the only vaccine that has gotten emergency use authorization for children) are much rarer than significant health impacts from COVID-19 itself, even in children. But after close to a year of the right-wing media, social media conspiracy theorists, and too many Republican politicians spreading fear and outright lies about the safety of the vaccines, a significant number of parents are opposed to or hesitant about vaccinating their kids. And of course they are all we hear about.
Less than 5% of people are willing to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated? The media is on it, giving that very small fraction of people blanket coverage. Meanwhile, around one-third of parents can’t wait to get their kids vaccinated? Crickets.
Here’s a headline from the Boston Globe: “‘In your heart, it does tug at you.’ Parents weighing COVID-19 vaccines for kids 5-11 must first battle their own anxiety.”
Here’s the reality of living in the Boston area: The earliest vaccination appointments for 5- to 11-year-olds got snapped up as quickly as they were listed. Within less than 48 hours of the CDC giving the go-ahead for that age group, you’d have been very lucky to be able to find an appointment within an hour of Boston and within the next 10 days.
The parent quoted in that Globe headline saying “In your heart, it does tug at you” has decided to get her kids vaccinated, the article went on to report. “I will trust in the science,” she said. “But it does make me nervous.”
The next parent quoted in the article said, “We are not rushing to be the first in line for [a vaccine for] a virus that our kids are not greatly impacted by, nor are they at risk of severe disease.” She does not actually know that her children are not at risk of severe disease, of course—only, at best, that they are not at high risk of severe disease—but that’s her line.
Alllll the way down at the bottom of the article, we learn this. In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a majority-Latino, heavily immigrant, low-income community that was an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, a community group—one that has done stellar work in getting adults vaccinated—got a little ahead of the ball and announced it would have vaccines for kids available on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 2. Before the vaccine clinic was set to open, there was a line of dozens of parents waiting with their kids.
”We found the majority wanted to vaccinate their kids for multiple reasons, because they lost someone, or they don’t believe their children are wearing masks in schools correctly … or their neighbors got sick and their loved ones passed away,” La Colaborativa’s Dinanyili Paulino said. “COVID devastated this small city. They don’t want to go through that again.”
Many Boston-area parents, including the ones whose communities has been hit the hardest, desperately want to get their kids vaccinated. But they’re not the ones the state’s largest newspaper is putting in its headlines. Or in its first 26 paragraphs. In fact, the article directly quotes only the two parents: one hesitant but landing on yes and the other justifying her opposition by brushing off the risks of a pandemic that has killed 750,000 people in the United States. The reporter could easily have found parents willing to talk about why they couldn’t wait to get their kids vaccinated. It is not difficult to do. The Globe chose, instead, to focus on fear.
New York welcomes five new members to city council, marking highest AAPI representation yet
This post was originally published on this site
As diverse as the United States is, that diversity is not always reflected in our leadership. The good news is, that’s slowly changing. Representation is making its way throughout the country, with “firsts” being elected nationwide. In the past five years especially, hundreds of firsts have made headlines for winning local, state, and federal-level positions. Asian Americans in particular are making moves and history by being elected in record numbers in major cities nationwide.
Not only did Boston elect its first Asian mayor Tuesday, but so did Cincinnati—and that’s not all! Five Asian Americans were elected to the New York City Council on Tuesday. According to NBC News, this is the highest number of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) representation the council has ever had; in the past, only two members of the AAPI community had served on the 51-member city council.
An added plus? They are all Democrats and include some firsts for the city, including the first Muslim woman, the first Korean Americans, and the first South Asian Americans elected to the council. New York’s City Council is finally reflecting the mega-city’s diversity.
Researchers believe that this level of representation in local politics will have a great impact on New York’s AAPI community.
“Having Asian American council members serve on various committees, advocating on behalf of Asian seniors, of Asian businesses, is really important,” Howard Shih, research and policy director for the Asian American Federation, told NBC News. “Having their voice on the inside pushing for budget changes, for resources for community organizations, for access to discretionary funds, is really important.”
Four of the five new council members will represent their home districts in Queens, which is known for being the borough with the city’s largest and most diverse AAPI population. What’s even more exciting is none of the candidates have run for office before.
Here’s a little about each of the winners.
Julie Won, one of the first two Korean Americans elected to the New York City Council
While Won did not seriously consider a career in politics before, the novel coronavirus pandemic changed that.
Within a year of the pandemic Won not only lost her grandparents, who both died of coronavirus within 48 hours of contracting it, but saw her family struggle financially. Both her parents lost their jobs during the pandemic which motivated Won to run for city council and advocate for issues including housing, food insecurity, and bridging the digital divide—all issues she related to her personal experiences.
“During the pandemic, what we kept on seeing is that people who don’t understand Asian immigrant stories painted us as a monolith,” Won said. “If you don’t see yourself in rooms where political decisions are made, then you’re always going to be at a loss,” she told NBC News.
Linda Lee, also among the first Korean Americans elected to the New York City Council
Like some of the others, Lee had no prior experience in politics outside of working with local officials and a committee on advocating against Asian hate crimes. Her run for office came from her passion. Issues she championed include increasing funds for senior services, improving civilian oversight of the police department, and investing in workforce training to steer post-pandemic economic recovery.
Similar to the ideology of many “firsts,” Lee noted that her identity did not matter when it came down to the issues that were important.
”I believe who we are as a community is defined by how we take care of those who paved the way for us and how we invest in improving the quality of life for future generations,” Lee told NBC News.
Sandra Ung
Born in Cambodia and raised in Taiwan, Ung immigrated to New York City at the age of 7. A lawyer, public servant, and community advocate, Ung prides herself on having devoted her life to serving the Queens community. Ung has a history of advocating for women’s rights, including survivors of domestic violence.
According to her campaign website, she previously served as special assistant to Congresswoman Grace Meng and has helped local residents navigate the complex government bureaucracy while in that role. Ung’s platform focuses on supporting small businesses and expanding in-language resources to the limited English speakers in her district.
“There’s been a greater push to raise awareness about the growth of the Asian American community and to have more Asian Americans elected,” Ung told NBC News. “It just shows the importance of continuing to engage the electorate.”
Two South Asians were elected to the city council Tuesday as firsts, including Shahana Hanif and Shekar Krishnan. Both passionate about grassroots advocacy, they told NBC News they’re committed to deploying activist tactics in office if need be, which includes protesting or getting arrested with their constituents. Both stand by their words and were recently arrested while participating in a taxi driver-led hunger strike to fight for debt relief.
Shahana Hanif
As a newly elected member of the New York City Council, Hanif is not only one of the first South Asians but also the first Muslim woman to be elected to the council.
Hanif, the only Asian representing an area outside of Queens, is of Bangladeshi descent. She decided to run for city council because she wanted to give voice to AAPI community members who were often excluded from decision-making conversations.
“I decided to run for City Council because I want to ensure the communities often excluded from the conversation have a voice at the table. With this city being home to the largest Muslim and Bangladeshi diaspora in the US, our win marks a historic moment in our City for Muslims and Bangladeshis everywhere,” Hanif said in an interview with Brown Girl Magazine. She also shared that after being diagnosed with lupus and seeing her limited English-proficient family having to navigate the health care system, she grew passionate about health care advocacy.
Her platform also focuses on making MTA and other public transit agencies more accessible to people with disabilities.
Shekar Krishnan
Krishnan is a housing attorney who is proud to bring representation to South Asians in politics, which he noted has long been neglected.
A Queens native, Krishnan is not only focused on the taxi driver medallion crisis but on housing and public health inequities. He plans to not only increase public funding for a local hospital but invest in public housing and create bilingual education programs.
“People often say that ‘representation matters.’ It’s true, in that it matters to those who have been underrepresented for so long to see someone elected who looks like them, who shares their culture and their skin complexion, or speaks their language. But it’s not just symbolic or visual representation that we as Asian American communities need,” Krishnan said in an interview with Brown Girl Magazine. “I’m proud I will be one of the first South Asians ever elected to the City Council in the history of New York City. I intend to fiercely represent my communities and ensure we get the resources, attention, support, and political power we deserve.”
These historic wins follow a string of hate crimes against the AAPI community. According to data compiled by the FBI, hate crimes against Asian Americans rose by 76% in 2020 when compared to data from 2019. Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic has increased xenophobia toward the AAPI community across the country. Data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino has found that hate crimes against Asian Americans surged in 2020 in at least 15 cities, Daily Kos reported. As the data was further reviewed, reports indicated that crimes against Asian Americans rose by 169% when comparing the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.
While these wins show change is coming, the AAPI community still needs our support. Check out this guide on resources and ways to support the AAPI community and our Asian friends.
Congratulations to these newly elected council members. We can only hope that as representation increases, the hate will decrease.