Common Dreams - breaking news & views for the progressive community

National Iranian American Council (NIAC) led more than 80 organizations representing diverse American communities in sending a letter to President Biden urging that he halt Israel’s march to regional war. This call comes in the wake of heightened regional tensions following Israel’s expansion of the war in Gaza into Lebanon and Iran’s missile strike on Israel, with U.S. officials indicating they may be working to moderate Israel’s response and reduce risks of regional war. Some of the national organizations signing on to the letter include Just Foreign Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, IfNotNow, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), CODEPINK, Peace Action and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The primary ask behind this letter is that the Biden administration utilize the significant leverage it has to rein in Netanyahu as he continues to proceed with a consistently failed “de-escalation through escalation” approach throughout the region that has cost countless civilian lives. As stated in the letter:

“It is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran by Benjamin Netanyhu’s government in Israel. It is in the strong national interest to utilize diplomacy, backed by full American leverage – including withholding further offensive weapons transfers to Israel’s military – to move all the parties back from the brink and toward a ceasefire that ends the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon and reverses the slide to regional war.”

This strong anti-war letter underscores the urgent need for the Biden administration to de-escalate and respect Congressional war powers, abstaining from introducing American soldiers into an unauthorized conflict that would be devastating to U.S. interests.

The full text of the letter is included below:

A federal district court in California has issued a preliminary injunction against a California state law, supported by Public Citizen, that aimed to curb deceptive AI-generated deepfakes that could influence the outcome of elections.

The court said that the law doesn’t take an adequately narrow approach to restricting such content, thereby infringing on First Amendment-protected speech or compelling unduly burdensome speech to avoid liability.

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“The court’s decision misses the fundamental problem with deepfakes, which is not simply that they make false claims but that they show candidates saying or doing things that the candidates did not say or do. The court suggests that a targeted candidate can just respond with counter speech – but that is not true, where the candidate has to ask the public not believe their eyes and ears. For this unprecedented kind of fraudulent deception, disclosure *is* the least speech-restrictive solution that can advance the government’s compelling interest in preserving election integrity.

“There are particular features of the California law – such as the requirement to label satire and font size required for disclosures – that appeared to color the court’s decision. And the court recognized that labeling requirements, if narrowly tailored, could pass constitutional muster. This decision therefore should not become an excuse for inaction against the threat of deepfakes.

“There’s nothing about the First Amendment that ties our hands in addressing fraud and a here-and-now threat to democracy.”

A peer reviewed study published today provides conclusive evidence that liquefied natural gas (LNG) has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than coal, dealing a major blow to claims that LNG can serve as a "bridge fuel" to a clean energy future.

The study, conducted by Dr. Robert Howarth of Cornell University, found that the total lifecycle emissions of LNG are 33% higher than coal when analyzed over a 20-year timeframe. Even over a 100-year period, which understates methane's short-term climate impact, LNG's emissions are equal to or greater than coal.

"This should be the final nail in the coffin for the false narrative that LNG was somehow a climate solution," said Jamie Henn, executive director of Fossil Free Media. "This now peer reviewed paper demonstrates that LNG is worse for the climate than coal, let alone clean energy alternatives. Approving more LNG exports is clearly incompatible with the public interest."

The study comes as the Biden administration is conducting a review of the climate and environmental justice impacts of new LNG export facilities. In January, President Biden announced a pause on approvals for new LNG export terminals pending this assessment.

Key findings from the study include:

• LNG has a larger climate impact than any other fossil fuel, including coal. Its greenhouse gas footprint is 33% greater than coal when analyzed using a 20-year global warming potential.
• Upstream methane emissions are the largest contributor to LNG's climate impact, accounting for 38% of total emissions.
• The energy-intensive process of liquefying natural gas adds significantly to its greenhouse gas footprint.
• Even the most efficient LNG tankers result in substantial methane emissions that offset their improved fuel economy.

Climate advocates are calling on the Biden administration to make its pause on new LNG export approvals permanent in light of this new evidence.

"The science is clear: there's no place for LNG in a clean energy future," said Cassidy DiPaola, Communications Director at Fossil Free Media. "It's time to double down on truly clean alternatives like wind, solar, and energy efficiency."

If you somehow missed it - staying in the cave is so enticing - there was a vice-presidential "debate" Tuesday night. What you missed: Walz did fine, Vance lied about everything - Trump saved Obamacare, no abortion ban here - working overtime not to say anything weird or hateful about women, migrants, children, house pets or cat ladies while still appearing creepy as hell, because "a smooth lie is still a lie." Maddow: Vance was "much slicker," and the other guy won.

Commentators at MSNBC offered a pretty cogent analysis of what was a performance, not an actual policy discussion, and as such marginally useful. Noted Lawrence O'Donnell, "There was one person on stage who's actually capable of dealing with reality, and one who will say anything, whatever is necessary, to thread the Trump needle." Again and again, Vance declined to answer questions, dodging and weaving in service to the historic revisionism his daddy-god-king relishes. Chris Hayes was blown away by Vance's "astounding gaslighting" on health care - Trump allegedly "worked in a bipartisan way" to "salvage" Obamacare," when in fact he did everything he could to kill it and was famously thwarted by John McCain - and on Trump "peacefully handing over power," that is after "the coup failed, the cops’ brains had been bashed in, and there were dead bodies and blood on the Capitol."

Nicole Wallace described Vance “building an intricate and beautiful fort out of toothpicks. And it was perfect. And at the end, he sneezed on it, and the whole thing fell apart." The sneeze was the vital moment Walz asked Vance point-blank if Trump lost the 2020 election, he tried to squirm away by intoning, "I'm focused on the future," and Walz pounded him with, "That is a damning non-answer" - now featured in killer Harris ads. "He lost the election. This is not a debate," Walz declared, and if anyone forgot about the gallows built by rioting yahoos on Jan. 6 he added, "That's why Mike Pence isn't on this stage." Right then, Walz was a Minnesota-nice-dad, straight-talking good guy; Vance was a power-grabbing weirdo who said he was "proud" to have the support of "great leaders" like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., a boast, one viewer noted, "so off-the-wall crazy I startled the cat with my laugh."

Still, many felt Vance's most brazen lies came as he tried to white-wash his longstanding opposition to abortion. Thus did the "100% pro-life" guy so obsessed with American birth rates he argues child-car-seats decrease fertility, who's supported a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks, said he'd "certainly like" abortion to be banned nationally, and charged anyone who disagrees would be "making the United States the most barbaric pro-abortion regime anywhere in the entire world" - this guy dismissed the idea of a national abortion ban as "kind of a ridiculous hypothetical," much like hysterical Dems fear-mongering about the repeal of Roe v Wade, and never mind the women now bleeding out in parking lots. All he wants is a “minimum national standard." Oh, and just ignore the rabid policy declaration appearing on his website, until it was magically scrubbed in July, titled "END ABORTION."

Exacerbating his "smooth bland lies" was Vance's whining, self-righteous indignation on the (rare) occasions he was called out on them. When he persisted in peddling his racist, much-debunked fiction that Haitian "illegals" who'd invaded Springfield, Ohio were eating their neighbors' cats and dogs, CBS moderator Margaret Brennan stepped in to clarify the non-cat-and-dog-eating Haitians are legally there, with "temporary protected status.” At that, a petulant Vance bleated, "The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check"; when he tried to gripe and mansplain his point, moderators cut his mic with a curt, "Thank you for explaining the legal process.” Only then did he lose what Steven King called "that snotty little half-smile -the expression of a used-car salesman who just convinced a potential buyer the CHECK ENGINE light on the used Toyota he’s trying to get off the lot is a computer glitch."

Meanwhile, his Orange Highness gave a play-by-play of "the Brilliant J.D. Vance and the Highly Inarticulate ‘Tampon’ Tim Walz," which was mostly random, all-caps shrieking, perhaps with ketchup-throwing: "EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT,” "FULLY DEBUNKED RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA," "COMPLETE VICTORY FOR 'PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.'” The next day the rants got even louder - "PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!" "ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" - after "deranged" Jack Smith's bombshell, 165-page court filing was released with new details of Trump's "increasingly desperate" efforts to stay in office: "The defendant resorted to crimes." Trump also took time out to mock Jimmy Carter on his 100th birthday; Carter has said he's “only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris."

On Wednesday, Vance doubled down, refusing to concede Trump lost the 2020 election - "The media is obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago" - and vowing to uncover all the imaginary “election integrity” issues due to all the imaginary non-citizens, probably black, voting illegally. But alas, he was still weird. Not helping with the whole weird thing was a "perfected" image of Vance posted by totally normal Georgia GOP Rep. Mike Collins on Twitter. It shows the pudgy Vance "yassified" - made more feminine and glamorous - into a chiselled exemplar of a ripped, hot master race, which we don't think is what American pols are supposed to be doing with their time and our money. Responses: "I am weeping" and "Republicans are insane." But slick. Farah Stockman, a NYT editorial board writer, on a slippery debate: “Vance did an excellent job of impersonating a decent man."

American International Group (AIG)’s contribution and exposure to climate risk in the face of market-wide insurance disruptions poses a significant and structural risk to the U.S. financial system, according to a letter sent today to members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) by Public Citizen.

In the letter, Public Citizen urges regulators to designate AIG a systemically important nonbank, which would subject the insurer to a deeper evaluation of the company’s operations by the Federal Reserve. While AIG was designated as “systemically important” after the 2008 financial crisis and the passage of the Dodd Frank Act, FSOC rescinded the designation in 2017.

Hurricane Helene has demonstrated that no community is safe from climate disasters. The ongoing economic fallout from the hurricane has further highlighted the need for a federal regulatory response to the climate-driven insurance crisis impacting communities across the country. This disaster bolsters the need for regulators to use all available authorities to manage this crisis, including designating large insurers as systemically important.

“In examining AIG’s suitability for designation, FSOC should consider the risks AIG has taken on in the absence of regulatory scrutiny, following its dedesignation in 2017,” writes Public Citizen in the letter to FSOC. “AIG has not abandoned its role as an outsized risk taker. It has simply swapped one set of risky activities for another. Instead of threatening its own financial viability and creating risks to the financial system through credit default swap exposure and securities lending, AIG is creating risks for its own business model and threatening financial stability through its underwriting and investment in fossil fuel projects and assets.”

Each year, AIG receives approximately $550 million in premiums from insuring fossil fuel projects, and AIG is the largest insurer of U.S. coal, the most carbon-intensive source of energy and the largest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions, insuring at least 30% of U.S. production, according to estimates from Insure Our Future.

“While AIG contributes to the climate crisis through both its underwriting activities and its investments, the company has failed to mitigate the risks the climate crisis will have on its own solvency and long-term viability,” Public Citizen argues. “To date, AIG’s primary strategy to address the physical risks of climate change has been to transfer them back to the consumer by increasing rates and withdrawing coverage. (…) But this practice has its limits. AIG and other insurers can erode their market share only so much before they sacrifice their long-term viability; destroying and retreating from one’s own markets is an inherently perilous practice.”

In 2023, property insurance rates increased by 11% nationwide. In May 2023, State Farm announced that it would stop selling new property insurance policies to home and business owners in California. That same month, AIG announced it would stop selling property insurance in 200 ZIP Codes across the United States, including in New York, Delaware, Florida, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

“FSOC must use its full authority to address the growing financial stability threats present in the insurance industry, including by moving to designate AIG and other large U.S. insurers contributing to and impacted by the climate crisis as systemically important,” the letter concludes. “Failure to address climate-related risks in the insurance industry will threaten numerous financial sectors and markets, creating a cascade of risks that will negatively impact property values, tax revenues, and local economies.”

CODEPINK condemns Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the ongoing U.S. support for Israel’s military actions. This escalation will lead to more death and devastation. Despite knowing the potential for humanitarian disaster, the Biden-Harris administration and Congress continue funding Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen, and now Lebanon. In attacks where most of the victims are civilians, we are witnessing state-sponsored terrorism carried out by one of the most advanced militaries in the world.

Israel claims its operation in Lebanon is "targeted," but like in Gaza, civilians are the real victims. Make no mistake: the Biden Administration is providing cover for Israel as it invades a neighboring, sovereign nation. U.S. taxpayers fund Israel’s military, providing billions annually and supplying weapons used to kill innocent people.

“While the US sends billions in “aid” to a genocide and a larger regional war, people in North Carolina are dying without adequate aid from their own government,” stated CODEPINK National Co-Director Danaka Katovich. “The official U.S. policy is one of death and destruction everywhere. The people of the world deserve better,” she continued.

The Biden administration and Congress could halt this escalation by cutting military aid, demanding a ceasefire, and holding Israel accountable, but instead, they allow continued aggression across the Middle East.

Our demand is the same as always: divest from war and genocide and invest in the needs of the people.

We encourage everyone in the United States to ask your senator to block the newest $20 billion weapons shipment to Israel. Israel.

Following news that the FTC has identified more illicit price fixing between an American energy company CEO and Middle Eastern oil producers, spokesman for Accountable.US Chris Marshall released the following statement:

“Americans who are struggling to make ends meet cannot afford any more price fixing collusion between Big Oil CEOs and foreign countries. They should beheld accountable to make sure consumers pay a fair price at the pump.”

The FTC previously alleged that Pioneer Natural Resources CEO similarly attempted to keep energy prices artificially high, blocking him from joining the board of ExxonMobil. Accountable.US recently participated in a House Natural Resources Committee roundtable on big oil CEOs colluding to keep energy prices high. You can view more on the the ties between Pioneer and top political leaders at these links:

• Big Oil Price Fixing CEO Backs Project 2025 Group
• Top House Republican Took Campaign Cash from Price-Fixing Big Oil CEO

Today, the Federal Trade Commission alleged in a filing that a second U.S. oil CEO communicated with OPEC and Saudi Arabia to coordinate cutting oil production to keep gasoline prices for Americans higher than they would be, a revelation that Public Citizen said must be followed by a congressional inquiry.

A redacted FTC complaint details how Hess Corporation CEO John Hess allegedly communicated with Saudi Arabian officials and OPEC to keep oil production levels low and gasoline prices artificially high for Americans. The complaint seeks to block Hess from joining the Chevron board of directors as part of Chevron’s purchase of Hess Corporation.

The complaint follows a similar FTC allegation in May against former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield, who was accused of engaging in similar improper conduct and barred from joining the board of Exxon Mobil, which acquired Pioneer.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, issued the following statement:

“We cannot allow fossil fuel companies to gouge the American public in concert with OPEC while raking in record profits. The FTC is lifting the veil on an effort, apparently by multiple U.S. oil companies, to communicate with foreign actors to artificially raise energy prices for American families and around the world. We reiterate the call for Congress to immediately hold hearings to investigate illegal conduct by Big Oil”

Over the weekend, Hurricane Helene wreaked widespread devastation in the Southeast, with high winds and unprecedented flooding killing at least 100 people with hundreds more missing and millions without power. The storm fed off record warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, supercharging the storm’s power. The National Weather Service identified Helene as “one of the most significant weather events to happen in the [area] in the modern era.”

The science is clear that the climate crisis, driven by the continued expansion of fossil fuels, is causing weather events like this one to be more frequent and more intense. Data have shown that the damage caused by hurricanes can be exacerbated by warmer ocean temperatures caused by climate change and the associated sea level rise.

The storm comes at a time when extreme proposals seek to block climate action and dismantle weather agencies critical to tracking hurricanes and coordinating disaster response.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous released the following statement:

“Our thoughts are with the communities who are dealing with the devastation of climate-driven extreme weather, and our gratitude goes out to the first responders who are risking their own safety to help others. As with many other recent and deadly storms, it is vulnerable communities that are facing the greatest risk. We need to help ensure a just and equitable recovery that leaves no one behind, and ensure that communities and critical infrastructure are made more resilient against future disasters.

“Make no mistake: the unimaginable devastation we’re seeing across the Southeast is the climate crisis in action. As long as we continue with the status quo of unchecked fossil fuel use, these disasters will only become more frequent, more severe, and more deadly. We must act with urgency to transition away from dirty fossil fuels to clean energy that cuts climate pollution, and we need to support leaders who understand that dire need for action, not those who ignore it.”

A national veterans’ organization today called for a grand jury to indict Department of State (DOS) Secretary Antony Blinken and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel for lying to Congress, violating the Export Control Act, the Genocide Prevention Act and the U.S. War Crimes Act.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, Veterans For Peace (VFP) cited published reports showing that internal DOS emails and the statements of two senior State Department officials showed Blinken lied when he issued his “Report to Congress” stating, “…we do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.” (p. 32)

ProPublica revealed a series of State Department emails, internal memos and meeting notes in which officials agreed Israel was blocking humanitarian aid which should trigger Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act which prohibits weapons shipments to any country the President has been told is blocking humanitarian aid.

In addition to the internal documents ProPublica included, from previous reports, that Samantha Power, Director of USAID and Stacy Gilbert, a former USAID bureau head had both voiced objections to Blinken’s findings as the report was being prepared.

Power stated that the looming famine in Gaza was the result of Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of U.S. humanitarian assistance” and called it “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.”

Gilbert, former senior civil military adviser in USAID’s refugees bureau, resigned in May after the DOS “Report to Congress” was released. She said then, “There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid. To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant untruths will haunt us.”

VFP human rights counsel Terry Lodge said, "The Israeli military continues detonating massive bombs in southern Beirut – bombs they would not possess but for Antony Blinken’s repeated violations of federal laws aimed at halting human rights and war crimes violations. Members of the Biden administration unwilling to rein in Israel and furthering its genocide in Gaza need to go to jail."

VFP President Susan Schnall stated, "Just last week, the U.S. gave Israel another $8.7 billion in weapons to kill and wound innocent Palestinians – in addition to the $3.8 billion we give them every year. This ‘Genocide Tax’ is a theft from millions of Americans who have none of the health insurance every Israeli enjoys; from millions of Americans living in horrific housing while Israel builds thousands of upscale homes on land stolen from Palestinians; from millions of young Americans can't afford college because America's top priorities are weapons and death, not human needs."

VFP’s letter seeking an indictment of Blinken follows one to the DOS Inspector-General February 9, 2024, alleging that Blinken and DOS officials had already violated a series of existing U.S. laws and international treaties by transferring arms to Israel, by quoting a sworn declaration from Josh Paul. Mr. Paul, former Director of Congressional and Public Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, attested to significant failures by the Department in a declaration filed in the Defense for Children International—Palestine lawsuit.

VFP’s February letter was never responded to nor acknowledged.

ProPublica also reported that:

• The head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had determined that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and that the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel,
• DOS Deputy Assistant Secretary, Mira Resnick, and the DOS acting legal adviser, Richard Visek, pressured that bureau and others to agree that Israel was not withholding U.S. humanitarian aid.

Renaissance man Kris Kristofferson - singer, actor, activist, veteran, Rhodes Scholar and "one of the greatest songwriters of all time” - has died at 88. Known for meticulously crafted songs of regret and longing - despite a voice "like a barking bullfrog" - he was also "an epic human with the biggest heart" who advocated for farmworkers, peacemakers, political prisoners, the Nicaraguan and other liberation struggles. What he wanted to emerge from his songs and shows, he said, was "a belief in the human spirit."

Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas to a military family that moved around a lot, finally settling in San Mateo, California where he was a high-achieving student and short-story writer dubbed "Straight Arrow." In 1958, he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, where he got a master’s degree in English Literature and planned to write novels; in later years, he used to joke that between him and Bill Clinton, "We've cleared up any lingering myths about the brilliance of Rhodes scholars." Returning to the U.S., he enlisted in the Army; during a three-year-tour in West Germany, he boxed, learned to be a helicopter pilot and played in an Army band. On his return, he planned to accept a gig teaching at West Point until he took a fateful side trip to Nashville, where he quickly grew enamored of its burgeoning singer/songwriter scene and decided to join it. His mother disowned him, telling him that regardless of what he might achieve, it would never match "the tremendous disappointment you've always been."

But the good and dutiful student flourished in his new-found freedom, figuring if he didn't make it as a songwriter he'd get enough material to become a(nother) Great American Novelist. By then married with two kids, he sometimes wrote multiple songs a week, on the side working as a janitor at Columbia Recording Studios and as a part-time helicopter pilot; according to an apocryphal story, he once landed on Johnny Cash's lawn so he could hand him demo tapes of every song he'd written. His raspy "lawnmower voice" didn't help his performing career, but his songs - rich, mournful, introspective - quickly took off; starting in the 1960s, they were covered by covered by dozens of artists and earned multiple Grammys. Several became legendary: Help Me Make It Through the Night, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, and Me and Bobby McGee, with the iconic lines, "Freedom’s just another word/ For nothin’ left to lose." Tragically, he never heard Janis Joplin's version until October 1970, the day after she died.

Years later, Kristofferson said his songs' lyricism simply sprang from his experiences. As his marriage fell apart, he wrote Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down: "Cause there's somethin' in a Sunday/That makes a body feel alone." "Many of the people I admire are figments of our own imagination," he said. "I was just writing about what I was going through. One critic compared his craggy voice to the “grit and softness of ancient stone, worn smooth by time and elements." But his writing represented "a seismic shift" in country music before it got bastardized into the pop country Steve Earl calls "hip hop for white people who are afraid of black people." Many credit Kristofferson - troubadour, storyteller, member of the freshman class of "outlaw" singer-songwriters - with elevating and humanizing country music into a new and better art form. You could break down the country capital of Nashville, Bob Dylan once said, into "pre-Kris and post-Kris...He changed everything.”

- YouTube www.youtube.com

En route, Kristofferson became an actor, starting with Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie in 1971. It was a commercial and critical flop, but he went on to over 50 films in the next two decades, including Scorcese's Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore with Ellen Burstyn in 1974 and an award-winning turn in A Star Is Born with Barbara Streisand in 1976. After that role - a musician destroyed largely by alcoholism - Kristofferson stopped drinking, a move widely applauded. Alcohol, he said, had helped him feel “handsome and bulletproof"; it also almost derailed him. He went on to play, terrifically, a sadistic sheriff in John Sayles’ 1996 Lone Star. "He could dig for the simple truth of a character,” said Sayles, a deeply political filmmaker. "Just as important, Kris Kristofferson knows how to wear the boots." In 2018, he took on his final movie role as the estranged father of songwriter Blaze Foley in Ethan Hawke’s graceful Blaze. One reviewer praised Kristofferson's "a wonderful, albeit brief performance."

Kristofferson also long and consistently spoke out against injustice, beginning with a 1972 concert to benefit Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. He protested nuclear power, supported Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, did benefits for Farm Aid and Amnesty International, played and spoke up for the release of Nelson Mandela, wrote a tribute to Gandhi, Jesus, and MLK Jr., performed at Obama's White House. In the 1980s, he traveled to Nicaragua in support of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, wrote songs about other Latin American liberation struggles, decried US. support of Contra terrorism in Nicaragua and the first Gulf War; that work inspired 1990's concept Album Third World Warrior: "They’re killing babies in the name of freedom/We’ve been down that sorry road before," with what became a catchphrase, “Don’t Let the Bastards (Get You Down).” When Bush invaded Iraq, he switched up some of the lyrics: "They're bombin’ Baghdad back into the Stone Age/Around the clock non-stop."

Kristofferson happily conceded other people sang his songs better than he could, though after joining longtime friend Willie Nelson for the 1984 film Songwriter, he argued he could still "sing better than Willie Nelson says I can." The next year, he and Nelson began to record and tour with fellow outlaws Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in the supergroup The Weathermen; he once said that, when they invited him, he felt "like a little kid who'd climbed up on Mt. Rushmore and stuck his face up there." In 1991, on the brink of the Iraq War, they did an interview with New Zealand TV host Paul Holmes, who asked each what they thought was wrong with the U.S. They spoke of too much hate, bitterness, money for the military, "our obligation (to) straighten those things out." Not much, said Kristofferson, except it "reminds me a lot of the flag-waving and choreographed patriotism we had in Nazi Germany, with a lap-dog media cranking out propaganda that would make a Nazi blush. Other than that, we're doing pretty good."

Later he toured again with his band Border Lords, often playing small roadhouses. "Kris doesn’t know what the word 'commercial' means," said a friend. "He could go on stage performing Me and Bobby McGee every night. Instead (the) audience might hear 25 songs about the Sandinistas." Over time, he had triple heart bypass surgery and memory issues diagnosed as Alzheimer‘s that turned out to be Lyme disease. He released three quiet albums - This Old Road, Closer to the Bone, Feeling Mortal - and retired from it all in 2021. He died at home in Maui, Hawaii amidst his eight kids and his third wife Lisa Meyers, who helped navigate the last few years but balked at the term "manager": "He’s unmanageable. Even if someone tells him to have a good day, he’ll say, ‘Don’t tell me what to do.'" Still, he was there to console Sinead O'Connor being booed at a 1992 Dylan tribute concert after she'd ripped up the Pope's photo to protest sexual abuse in the Church. He was there to give her a hug and tell her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." "It costs nothing to be a decent human being," notes one fan. "God speed Kris Kristofferson."

The Pilgrim

And he keeps right on a changin' for the better or the worse
And searchin' for a shrine he's never found
Never knowin' if believin' is a blessin' or a curse
Or if the going up is worth the coming down
He's a poet he's a picker he's a prophet he's a pusher
He's a pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he's stoned
He's a walking contradiction partly truth and partly fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home

After a long hiatus from public life, "priceless, timeless asset" and venal, vapid, gold-digging, rent-a-wife clothes horse Melania Trump has emerged to collect six-figure pay checks for briefly speaking to fellow-fascists, sell improbable "Merry Christmas, AMERICA!” trinkets, hawk a memoir - "My story. My perspective. The truth" - and appear in a "thankfully rare interview" to blame everyone else for our "toxic atmosphere." America was unmoved: "It speaks, but makes no sense. We really don't care, do U?"

In stark, dark contrast to the Harris/Walz vision of "a nation that trusts women," the women of MAGA offer no reason whatsoever to trust any of them. Cue Kellyanne Conway, still emitting "alternative facts"; Islamophobe, "white nationalist free spirit" and Trump "emotional-support Nazi" Laura Loomer, who's so vilely charged Kamala Harris with blow-jobbing her way to the top and warning her White House will "smell like curry" she's led even Klan Mom MTG to denounce her as "appalling and extremely racist"; and witless nepo baby and wannabe singer Lara Trump, who just released "some tone deaf shit that made my dogs howl" about firefighting heroes so bad it was deemed "like someone standing on a cat." "Every note is a violation of the Geneva Convention," said one reviewer. From another, "When the Trump family is sentenced, this should add a few months."

Then, of course, there's plastic mannequin Melania, or "Malaria," widely deemed "the most disconnected, indifferent facade of a First Lady in US history," as racist, narcissistic and malignant as her husband, with whom she's "forever soiled the office of the presidency"; her added offense is being an immigrant underwear model who corruptly won an Einstein Visa, got a sugar-daddy, had an anchor baby, and used the rest of her privileged life attacking immigrants. The consensus: "Trash is still trash, even when carrying a Hermes handbag." Mostly missing on the campaign trail, in recent months she briefly appeared at the RNC and held two "speaking engagements" at fundraisers for Log Cabin Republicans for which she was paid, possibly illegally, about $250,000 each, following the generally held tradition of any Trump grifter that, "Whenever she speaks publicly, money changes hands."

Now, the Blair Witch woman who gave us spooky, blood-red The Shining White House decorations and famously carped, "I'm working my ass off at Christmas stuff - who gives a fuck about Christmas decorations, but I have to do it, right?" has unveiled, for "all of my passionate collectors," a new “Merry Christmas, AMERICA!” collection featuring four, tacky, brass and enamel Christmas tree decorations - $75 to $90 a pop - most of which are retreads of earlier artless gimcracks like her $245 Mother's Day “Love & Gratitude” necklace. Deemed in one review "the coldest, oddest ornaments anyone's ever seen," they manage to blend jingoism - one is called "Vote Liberty" - with the brutalist look of Nazi memorabilia. Ranking high on the grift-o-meter, each comes with her signature and a digital collectible. "Each unique piece captures the magic of the season," she boasts. "Happy collecting!"

Mostly, she's focused on promoting her memoir Melania, a "powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has carved her own path, overcome adversity and defined personal excellence.” Featuring "48 pages of never-before-seen photographs” - though oddly with no photo on a cover "strikingly similar" to an earlier book, but no plagiarism here - she vows to "clarify the facts" and "share my journey with you." Skeptics wonder if she'll produce "a riveting tale of growing up as a young black woman on the south side of Chicago," or of "how one day her husband was white and then turned orange," or how she kept the Obama birther rumors going. The book, $40 to $250 versions, will be released Oct. 1 by low-budget, right-wing Skyhorse Publishing, whose mission is to "work hard, move fast, have fun, make money and change lives for the better" with books by Roger Stone, Alex Jones, RFK Jr. and other luminaries.

— (@)

posted on social media

The promotion consists of a series of 30-second, soft-focus, weirdly opaque videos whose purpose is often unclear. Evidently made "with iMovie and a prayer" and resembling a high-school graduation slideshow overlaid with melodramatic elevator musak, they feature a wooden, make-up-slathered Melania offering banal insights - "Our lives are shaped by our experiences, challenges, and achievements" - interspersed with carefully choreographed glamor shots. She opines on the July 13 shooting: "The attempt to end my husband's life was a horrible, distressing (though it sounds like 'distracting') experience," she says before moving into Conspiracy Queen territory. "Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can't help but wonder, why didn't law enforcement arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to this story - cue frenzied violins - and we need to uncover dee truuth."

Another video unrolls with the text of the 4th Amendment - "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated" - before she appears, ghost-like, to blast the raid on Mar-A-Lago: “I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here in America. The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched through my personal belongings." She argues the raid "serves as a warning to all Americans" - or at least any who steal boxes of classified documents - "and a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected." Flag waves, music swells. There's a pink, twinkly one about motherhood - the lessons she's learned "are profound" - and a sober one about the 2020 election: "It changed out lives forever. It impacted our quality of life, cost of food, gasoline, safety, and even the geopolitical landscape."

And there's a weird one about her nude photo shoots, featuring, instead, famous works of art; they include Lady Godiva, whose husband refused to lower excessive taxes on his people unless she rode naked through town. "Why do I stand proudly behind my nude modeling work?” she asks. "The more pressing question is, why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human forrrmm in a fashion photo shoot?...Through history, master artists have revered the human shape, using art as a powerful means of self expression." Maybe tell the family-values party policing books, child-bearing, women's bodies? The Borowitz Report: notes she's just "deeply embarrassed" about her marriage: "I ask the American people to focus on my nude modeling and try to forget about the other thing. You do things for money when you're young that you regret for the rest of your life."

Thursday's promo finale was a cotton-ball-soft "interview" with Fox' Ainsley Earhardt. What did she want people to know about Trump? The guy with 5 children by 3 women who cheated on his first wife with his eventual second wife, cheated on his third wife with a porn star and sexually assaulted over two dozen women is "really a family man." Viewers complained of "eye roll cramps" but noted it could be true "in the sense he likes making multiple families." How did it feel being First Lady? "You know you have extra, extra responsibility." How was it to see the shootings (both on TV from another city, what a love story): "When I saw it, I, you know, it was only nobody really knew yet...I think both events, they were really miracles...I think something was watching over him. It's almost like the country really needs him.” Online suggestions: Something = Satan. And we need him to go away.

Infuriatingly, disingenuously, she blamed everyone else for our "toxic atmosphere." "Is it really shocking all this outrageous violence goes against my husband?” she asked of the guy who calls migrants "vermin" and political adversaries "the enemy from within," who wants to jail enemies, shoot protesters, ban Muslims, deport migrants, hang uncooperative minions, and shred democracy. People were incensed: "Slovenianhooahsezwhat? Another day, another GOP porn story. Eva Braun used the same argument. I had forgotten she existed - I liked it better that way. No shame. If TFG is going to deport all immigrants, including those with legal status, can we start with this empty sack of clothing?" And, repeatedly, ""I Don't Care, Do U?" One more time, when people show you who they are, believe them: "Dear loathsome Melania, Be best. Or for fuck's sake, a little better. Signed, America."

Actor and activist Rowan Blanchard was arrested with 25 Palestinian and Jewish New Yorkers outside of the United Nations on Thursday, disrupting the motorcade route of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he prepared to address the General Assembly.

“As Jewish New Yorkers we vehemently condemn Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assault on Lebanon and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We will continue to raise our voices in dissent until the United States government stops arming Israel and Palestinians are able to live with the full freedom and dignity they deserve,” said Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Netanyahu’s visit to New York comes a week after pagers and walkie talkies were detonated across Lebanon, killing at least 70 and maiming thousands of people. Only a few days after the attacks, Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes, killing over 500 people in a single day — one of the highest daily death tolls of any war in recent history — and injuring another 1,600.

“Netanyahu is not welcome in New York,” said actor and activist Rowan Blanchard.

Netanyahu’s visit also marks nearly a year of a relentless bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, which has led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for the prime minister’s crimes against humanity.

“Our world leaders have done nothing to stop Netanyahu and his genocidal administration from murdering over 15,000 children and several times more adults. As he plans to escalate the slaughter, we must be the ones to stop him,” said Munir Marwan of

Palestinian Youth Movement.

The protesters blockaded the Israeli motorcade route outside of the Midtown Manhattan headquarters of the United Nations, bringing traffic to a halt near the East River. They wore red shirts that read “Stop Arming Israel” and unfurled banners that read

“Stop the Genocide” and “No War Criminals Welcome in NYC.” They chanted “Stop Bombing Gaza.”

The arrests kick off what is expected to be a daylong protest of Netanyahu, with hundreds anticipated outside the United Nations later in the afternoon. Netanyahu’s last visit to the United States, when he addressed a joint session of Congress on July 24, was also with massive protests in the streets and one of the largest sit-ins in the history of Congress that led to the arrest of over 200 people.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) today released the following joint statement after the United States Senate agreed to hold Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre in criminal contempt of Congress. The last time the Senate voted to hold someone in criminal contempt for not complying with a subpoena was in 1971 against a witness subpoenaed to appear before a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee.

This follows the committee’s bipartisan and historic vote last week to issue the contempt resolution – the first time in modern American history that the HELP Committee has taken such action.

“The Committee sought testimony about the financial decisions made by Dr. de la Torre as CEO of Steward Health Care to understand the financial downfall of the company and to inform legislative action to prevent similar events from affecting the patients and communities we represent,” said the senators. “Unfortunately, Dr. de la Torre repeatedly refused to appear before this committee even when compelled by a duly authorized subpoena. If you defy a Congressional subpoena, you will be held accountable. Today, the Senate unanimously approved our resolution to hold Dr. de la Torre in criminal contempt.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today released a new report uncovering how Novo Nordisk, as one health insurance plan described it, is using its “position of power” to “squeeze” plans, and “boost its corporate profits.”

“Today, Novo Nordisk charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic, while this same exact drug can be purchased for just $59 in Germany, $71 in France, $122 in Denmark, and $155 in Canada,” said Sanders. “There is only one reason they can justify charging Americans such outrageous prices for the drugs they need: Excessive corporate greed.”

Novo Nordisk claims that PBMs and health insurance plans are the reason for high prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, and previously stated that PBMs failed to assure the company that its products would maintain formulary access if it lowered its list prices.

Today, three major PBMs that help determine drug coverage for most of the nation – Cigna Group/Express Scripts, CVS Health/Caremark, UnitedHealth Group/Optum Rx – confirmed to Chair Sanders that a list price reduction would not negatively impact formulary placement for Ozempic and Wegovy, and affirmed that lower list prices would, in fact, make the drugs more widely available to patients in need.

1. Cigna/Express Scripts said: “No, if Novo Nordisk lowered their list price for Ozempic and Wegovy tomorrow to a price that was the same or lower than current net cost, that change by itself would not result in less favorable formulary placement.” To support this claim, the company provided an example: It did not disfavor a competing weight-loss product, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, even as it launched at a list price 20% lower than Wegovy.
   
2. UnitedHealth Group/Optum Rx said: “No. Assuming the net price remains the same or lower, lowering a medicine’s list price would not lead to less favorable formulary placement by Optum Rx – particularly for high-demand drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
   
3. CVS Health/Caremark said: “The simple answer is no. In fact, we can point to recent history as a proof point. When Novo-Nordisk drastically reduced the price of their insulin, Novolog, in 2023, it did not result in a less favorable formulary placement with Caremark.”

Novo Nordisk has also justified its astronomical prices by arguing a need to fund future research and development.

However, since launching Ozempic in 2018, Novo Nordisk has spent twice as much on stock buybacks and dividends ($44 billion) as it has on research and development ($21 billion), according to financial filings.

Novo Nordisk has also lavished cash and perks on health care providers, sending doctors on trips to Alaska, Hawaii, and Florida and paying for nearly 1.7 million meals and snacks to doctors to promote Ozempic and Wegovy, federal records show.

The report can be read here.

Today, Oil Change International released a briefing showing rich countries can mobilize well over $5 trillion a year for climate action at home and abroad by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules. The briefing is published as global leaders meet at Climate Week NYC and the United Nations General Assembly and ahead of COP29, where leaders must agree on a new global climate finance target (NCQG). Climate experts say this target must be $1 trillion annually in grants and grant-equivalent finance and that an ambitious target is essential for countries to deliver last year’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels. Only strong finance targets will unlock strong national climate plans (NDCs) due in 2025 that phase out fossil fuels.

Following global protests demanding rich countries #PayUp their share of climate damages and mitigations, the briefing, titled “Road to COP29: Shifting and Unlocking Public Finance for a Fair Fossil Fuel Phase-out,” outlines critical steps for negotiators to ensure adequate funding for global climate action. The briefing emphasizes the need for a fair and funded fossil fuel phase-out, highlighting the importance of grant-based financing for countries in the Global South facing record-breaking debt and cost-of-living crises.

Key Points:

• The success of COP29 depends on the adoption of an ambitious new climate finance target (NCQG) of at least $1 trillion annually in grants and grant-equivalent finance.
• Rich countries have the means to mobilize well over $5 trillion a year for climate action at home and for the NCQG, including by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules.
• Grant-based and highly concessional financing, not more harmful loans, is an urgent need to fulfill the landmark COP28 decision to phase-out fossil fuels, especially for adaptation, loss and damage, and key mitigation projects in the Global South.
• Countries must not get distracted by voluntary energy finance proposals or oil money funds that do little more than greenwash. Instead they should focus on delivering a strong and accountable NCQG and making polluters pay through well-designed and legislated fossil fuel levies.
• Last year at COP28, governments committed to transition away from fossil fuels. The next key step to make good on this landmark energy agreement is rich countries agreeing to a new climate finance goal (NCQG) to make this possible. This will allow countries to deliver national climate plans (NDCs) due in 2025 that phase out fossil fuels.

Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International Public Finance lead, said: “Last year countries agreed to phase out fossil fuels. Now it’s time for rich countries to pay up to turn this promise into action. There is no shortage of public money available for rich countries to pay their fair share for climate action at home and abroad. They can unlock trillions in grants and grant-equivalent climate finance by ending fossil fuel handouts, making polluters pay and changing unfair financial rules. They owe this money to Global South countries that have not caused this crisis and need fair finance to deliver strong climate plans next year that phase out fossil fuels. This is essential to avoid climate breakdown and save lives.”

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network International, said: “In the countdown to COP29, we are witnessing developed nations clinging to the remnants of a colonial past, dragging their feet in the crucial negotiations for a new climate finance goal. Let’s be clear: the Global North owes an immense climate debt to the Global South, a debt born from decades of greenhouse gas emissions for their industrialisation and that continues today at the expense of vulnerable communities in the Global South. The solutions are within reach and the resources exist – but the political will remains shamefully absent. While trillions are funnelled into militarisation and fossil fuel subsidies, these funds could be redirected to build a just, sustainable future. It’s time to stop stalling. It’s time to make polluters and the wealthy pay for the harm they have caused. The world can no longer afford excuses. We need bold, transformative action—now.”

Andreas Sieber, Associate Director of Policy and Campaigns , 350.org said: “It is a bitter irony that rich nations hide behind claims of fiscal restraint, yet trillions are still spent on fossil fuel subsidies and militarization. The truth is simple: the money exists, but the political will does not. By treating climate finance as a zero-sum game, wealthy countries not only deepen global inequality but also undermine their own futures. The energy transition isn’t charity—it’s an investment in global stability and security. Ignoring the need for support only worsens the climate crisis, which knows no borders. The real question isn’t whether we can afford to act, but whether we can afford not to.”

Alejandra López Carbajal, Transforma Climate Diplomacy Director said: “There is an attempt from developed countries to frame the new climate finance negotiations in a context of public finance scarcity when in reality, there are enough resources to address the climate crisis, for example, in fossil fuel subsidies which are socially regressive and only deepening the climate crisis. We are calling for a true leadership package from developed nations to agree on an ambitious NCQG that enables to possibility to keep 1.5°C in reach and drives necessary transitions and investments throughout the developing world”

Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Centre for International Environmental Law said: “No more excuses, no more pretending carbon markets are climate finance, no more subsidizing fossil fuels. It is long past time for Global North polluters to step up and put the money they owe on the table for real, effective, rights compatible climate action—or face legal consequences. The money is not missing, it’s being misused. Continuing to fund fossil fuels and fossil foolery — dangerous distractions and techno-fixes that only prolong the fossil economy and perpetuate fossil fueled-climate destruction — is not just inexcusable; it’s incompatible with human rights and environmental law. At COP29 we need a climate finance goal in the trillions and follow through to deliver it.”

The briefing is endorsed by 36 organizations calling on negotiators and world leaders to prioritize these demands in the lead-up to COP29, ensuring that climate finance commitments match the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.

On Monday, much-loved Palestinian poet, teacher and mentor Refaat Alareer would have turned 45. So stubborn a friend believed "people like him never die," Refaat was killed in an Israeli air strike, leaving behind a wife and six children, and hundreds of Gazans who vow to emulate him - to speak truth, lift up others, "hold their heads high and endure like he did in his lifetime." "If I must die," he wrote, "Let it be a tale." And so it is.

A revered professor of comparative literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, with a masters from University College London, Alareer was known for chronicling Gazan experiences and nurturing young Palestinian writers to help them tell their stories. As "a reckless stone-thrower in the first Intifada," he said in an interview years ago, the stories of his mother and grandparents were "our solace, our escort in a blind world controlled by soldiers and guns and death." Those stories, he said, "make us who we are...they are one of the ingredients of Palestinian steadfastness, a creative act of resistance to oppression." A longtime believer that the pen is mightier than the sword, he urged young Palestinians to empower themselves by taking control of their own narratives. "For Palestinians, to tell a story is to remember, and to help others remember," he said. "Telling the story itself becomes an act of life."

After October 7, along with many thousands of Gazans, he and his family struggling with whether to stay in their home in Gaza City and risk death in an air strike, or to flee south with no guarantee of safety. After deciding to stay - they had "nowhere else to go" - he described "an archetypal Palestinian debate: Should we stay in one room, so if we die, we die together, or should we stay in separate rooms, so somebody can live?” (The answer is always to sleep in the living room together: "If we die, we die together.") On December 6, after Israel destroyed their home, he was moving between a school shelter and other people's homes when he was killed by an Israeli strike on a building in Shajaiya, in northern Gaza, where he was staying with his brother, sister and her four children; they were all also killed. His wife Nusayba, and six children aged 7 to 21, were sheltering in another building and survived.

A few hours before his death, he was walking along a road with his friend Asem Alnabih, telling him he was "tired of this war." "If he were alive today, I would not be writing this," notes a grieving Alnabih on Monday. Instead, they would be celebrating his birthday at al-Qalaq, a simple eatery known for having on its menu only crab - or "qalaq," which also translates to "worry" - while Refaat simultaneously worked. "If Refaat were alive right now, he would be taking care of us," writes Alnabih, who says three days before Refaat had came to his house after Alnabih's grandmother died to say, "I am always here for you. I am by your side." "He was (our) guide and mentor, and maybe that’s what frightened them - that he never hesitated to amplify the voices of those who spoke the truth," writes Alnabih. "I am still living and need to try telling his story. Dear Refaat, I miss you so much, my brother."

When he was killed, moving tributes poured in from his students, mentees, colleagues, friends. "Nothing I write could do him justice," one wrote of a scholar and activist so strong he transcends death and "comes back to us as a source of hope, strength, and belief...He was targeted because of his words and his message, and it is our duty (to) amplify it." Alareer's work itself does the same, especially Gaza Writes Back, an anthology of often harrowing short stories by 15 young Palestinian writers that Alareer spent over a year editing. "I started inviting students to write about what they had endured, to bear witness to the anguish," he recalled. "Writing is a testimony, a memory that outlives any human experience, and an obligation to communicate with (the)world. We lived for a reason, to tell the tales of loss, of survival, and of hope. They just came out. Stories in Palestine just come out."

In 2014, Alareer toured the U.S. for a month with some of the book's writers, meeting with writers and activists, both Palestinian and Jewish. The experience confirmed his belief that art is universal, that "literature breaks barriers, and returns us all to our humanity." The same year, he described how he came to the Writes Back project during Israel's 2008/2009 war against Gaza: As the bombs fell, "I had to find a way to distract my kids, by telling them stories from my childhood." He recalled his then-five-year-old daughter Shymaa asking him, "Dad, who created the Jews?", meaning Israelis. "I could not answer her question," he wrote. "But I realized the war mad her think there is a loving and merciful God, and another cruel God who created these Israeli soldiers, these killing machines (who) turn our lives into a living hell...The children pay the heaviest price, a price of fear and non-stop trauma."

In April, Israel murdered Shymaa, her husband Mohammed, and their two-month-old son Abd al-Rahman, Refaat's first grandchild, who he never had a chance to meet. They died in an airstrike on a building in Gaza City where they'd had been sheltering; it housed the international relief charity Global Communities, and was thought to be safe. Shymaa had posted a heartbreaking message to her martyred father shortly after her son's birth. "I have beautiful news for you, and I wish I could tell you while you were in front of me," she wrote. "Did you know that you have become a grandfather?” Amidst so much death, Gazans still mourning the much-loved Refaat were further devastated by the double tragedy. “I am out of words, tears and ways to comprehend this endless loss, this pain, this criminal annihilation of our people,” one wrote. "Shaymaa has joined her father Refaat after less than 5 months."

In August, The Electronic Intifada published some of Alareer's "Genocide Diaries," which OR Books will soon release in If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose, an anthology of his work compiled by Yousef Aljamal. In searing entries, Alareer documents the stages of coping with war in Gaza, his and his wife's loss of over 50 family members to Israeli terror - "We are an average Palestinian family" - and their growing numbness to the ongoing carnage. "My grandmother would tell me to put on a heavy sweater because it would rain. And it would rain! She, like all Palestinian elders, had a unique sense, an understanding of the earth, wind, trees and rain. (They) knew when to pick olives for pickling or oil. Sorry, Grandma. We have instead become attuned to the vagaries of war. 'Is it war again?' asks my youngest child, Amal, 7, previous Israeli assaults still fresh in her mind. In Gaza, Amal is already four wars old."

As a parent, he feels "desperate and helpless." Unable to offer protection, he is focused on rationing food and water: "Instead of telling my kids 'I love you,' I have been repeating...'Kids, eat less, drink less'...I imagine this being the last thing I say to them, and it is devastating." When Israel bombs the building where they're hosting four other families, "We ran and ran," carrying the little ones, grabbing the small bags with cash and documents "Gazans keep at the door," and somehow survive. They walk to a UN shelter "in an inhuman condition," cram into classrooms. They lose their water, their food, "our last sense of safety." "In Gaza, no one is safe," he writes. "Israel could kill all 2.3 million of us, and the world would not bat an eye." Before Israel killed him, a hero and symbol of hope to so many, he wrote “If I Must Die,” urging, "You have to live/To tell my story." Heartrendingly, he wrote it to Shymaa.

If I must die
If I must die, you have to live
To tell my story, to sell my things
To buy a piece of cloth and some strings,
(Make it white with a long tail)
So that a child, somewhere in Gaza
While looking heaven in the eye,
Making it blush under his gaze,
Awaiting his Dad who left in a blaze–
And bid no one farewell
Not even to his flesh, not even to himself—
Sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
And thinks for a moment an angel is there
Bringing back love.
If I must die, let it bring hope.
Let it be a tale.

A global movement of organizations dedicated to ensuring a just transition away from industrial animal agriculture will release a white-paper roadmap to a U.S. audience on Tuesday containing guidance on shifting to equitable, humane, and sustainable food systems.

The roadmap will be released at a panel during Food Day at Climate Week NYC and includes more than 100 policy recommendations to reduce food and agriculture emissions, harm, and inequity. It comes at a time when experts agree that global emissions from animal production must decline by 50% by 2030 to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.

“There’s a growing movement uniting against industrial animal agriculture’s exploitation of workers, animals and the environment,” said Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The roadmap provides direction on stopping the global food system from driving us toward climate catastrophe.”

The roadmap was coproduced by more than 50 contributors. It represents a shared vision for transformation away from industrial animal agriculture and calls on global leaders to take action on three key levers of change for a just transition: strengthening food system governance, promoting agroecological practices, and shifting toward diets with planetary and social boundaries.

The pathways can be tailored to local and regional contexts, taking into account local legislation, cultural sensitivities, community-based solutions, meat consumption and reduction narratives, the role of plant-based diet shifts, and how entrenched industrial animal agriculture is in a given region. Efforts are already underway in Nigeria, Kenya, Togo, Southeast Asia, and the United States to create localized roadmaps.

“Industrial animal agriculture is exacting a heavy toll on animals, ecosystems, our health, and our communities. It is a system that profits from the exploitation of billions of animals, millions of workers, and our limited natural resources,” said Cameron Harsh, US director of programs at World Animal Protection. “Its only beneficiaries are the immensely powerful meat, seafood, and dairy companies who wield incredible influence over political processes. We must put ourselves on a clear pathway away from factory farming before it’s too late.”

The roadmap will be launched to a U.S. audience on Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 2-3 p.m. at a Food Day panel during Climate Week NYC. More information about the panel is available here.

Industrial animal agriculture is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, a leading driver of climate change, habitat loss, water pollution and pesticide use, and a significant source of animal suffering. Food production contributes about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution from industrial agriculture harms the most vulnerable communities.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil, the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymers, over its decades-long fraud to convince the public that recycling is a viable solution to the spiraling plastic waste crisis.

The lawsuit cites evidence from a Center for Climate Integrity report released earlier this year that shows how Exxon and other fossil fuel and petrochemical companies have deceptively promoted recycling as a solution to plastic waste management for more than 50 years despite long-standing internal knowledge that it is not technically or economically viable at scale.

ExxonMobil is facing separate lawsuits from 10 attorneys general — including Bonta — and dozens of local and tribal governments for deceiving the public about the role of its fossil fuel products in causing climate change. An August poll from Data for Progress and CCI found that 70 percent of U.S. voters — including 54 percent of Republicans — support legal action against the fossil fuel and plastics industries for deceiving the public about their role in plastic pollution.

Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:

“Big Oil and the plastic industry’s lies are the beating heart of the plastic waste crisis, which makes California’s groundbreaking lawsuit against ExxonMobil the most important legal action to date in the global fight against plastic pollution.

“ExxonMobil is now facing long-overdue legal accountability for its role in causing and lying about the two greatest environmental catastrophes facing humanity: the climate crisis and the plastic waste crisis. Just as Exxon knew and lied about how its fossil fuel products cause climate change, the polluter has also known and lied for decades about the reality that its plastic products could never be recycled at scale. From climate to plastics, Exxon’s entire business model is based on lying to the public about the harms its products cause.

“We applaud Attorney General Bonta for taking this historic action to hold Exxon accountable for the fraud of plastic recycling, and we hope to see more officials follow suit.”

CCI Report Provided Evidence of Deception

In February, the Center for Climate Integrity released a new report, “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis,” which laid out new and existing evidence that could provide the foundation for legal efforts to hold fossil fuel and other petrochemical companies accountable for their lies and deception.

Among the new pieces of evidence in the report:

• Petrochemical companies, including oil majors such as ExxonMobil, have long known that, in the words of one 1980s industry report, "recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution [to plastics], as it merely prolongs the time until an item is disposed of."
• Discussing the industry’s commitment to plastic recycling demonstration projects, an Exxon employee told staffers at the American Plastics Council in 1994, “we are committed to the activities, but not committed to the results.”

Read the report here.

Seventy-five national, state and local organizations say the recent Supreme Court ruling of Trump vs. United States, which presumably grants U.S. presidents full immunity in a court of law, should not stand.

In a letter entered into the record for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on September 24, organizations including MoveOn, Constitutional Accountability Center, StandUp America, Public Citizen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Reproductive Freedom for All, AFSCME, the National Organization of Women, Center for American Progress, SEIU and Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics, among others say the ruling of Trump v. United States “poses a significant threat to our democracy by effectively providing the president with sweeping legal immunity for criminal acts.”

Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said ahead of the committee hearing, “Our country elects our leaders through a democratic process and those duly elected leaders, including the president of the United States, must follow the law, not stand above it.”

Public Citizen’s Democracy Campaign co-director Jonah Minkoff-Zern said the variety of advocacy voices and missions unified by this letter shows how egregious this ruling is.

“The language in Trump vs. United States suggests the president, in theory, could do whatever they want, whenever they want, without facing accountability under criminal law, so long as they could claim to be carrying out ‘official acts,’” said Minkoff-Zern. “The ramifications of this ruling are not abstract, especially following the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This decision impacts everyone, because the actions of the president of the United States affect all of us. It’s telling that so many different organizations have signed onto this letter.”