25 November 20
Lacking for November: Larger Donors
So far for November larger donations, even those of one hundred dollars or more have been scarce. The volume of donations is actually up, but the dollar figures are down.
Not everyone can make a larger donation. But it would really help.
For your consideration, respectfully.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
25 November 20
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Reader Supported News
Juan Cole | Did Israeli PM Netanyahu Meet Saudi Bin Salman in Bid to Thwart Biden Plan to Restore Iran Deal?
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Netanyahu and Bin Salman have a lot to talk about."
he Israeli news site i24 Arabic reports from the Hebrew press that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the head of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service, Yosef “Yossi” Meir Cohen, flew to Saudi Arabia’s new planned model city, Neom, and met with crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
They are said to have had the use of a private plane owned by Israeli businessman Ehud “Udi” Angel, CEO of the Ofer Brothers Group, a close friend of Netanyahu’s. i24 says that a Saudi source confirmed the story. It says that the Hebrew news site Walla! reported that it was a five hour trip, and that Netanyahu met with Bin Salman.
Al Jazeera reports that Israeli education minister Yoav Galant confirmed that the meeting occurred.
An Israeli cabinet meeting on the government coronavirus response was postponed so that the meeting could take place.
Still, the report was denied by Saudi foreign minister Faisal Bin Farhan, though he only said that Netanyahu did not meet the crown prince.
Paul Goldman and Rachel Elbaum at NBC point out that the tracking site FlightRadar24.com showed a flight from Tel Aviv to Neom on Sunday.
The Israeli site i24 points out that the Wall Street Journal is reporting that two Saudi cabinet officials confirmed the meeting, which dealt with normalization and Iran, but said that no essential understandings were reached.
Netanyahu and Bin Salman have a lot to talk about. Both are frightened that president-elect Joe Biden will restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which normalized Iran’s place in the world economy and lifted the sanctions that keep the country weak. Iran has 81 million people, while the Saudi citizens population is probably on the order of 21 million, and Israel is about 8.8 million. They are thus militarily at a disadvantage with regard to demography, but have been able to count on the US financial and trade blockade to keep Iran from having a robust economy and from being able to buy the latest generation of weapons. It is actually not clear that Iran has aggressive intentions. Its small presence in Iraq and Syria came at government invitation, and its military budget is tiny, somewhere around that of Norway or Singapore. Perhaps as part of the reflection fallacy, however, Tel Aviv and Riyadh see Iran as seeking regional hegemony.
As for Neom, Bin Salman envisages it as a high tech corridor, and he may be attempting to attract Israel companies to do business there. Saudi Arabia’s primary source of income, petroleum, is a stranded asset and the electrification of global transportation will rob it of most of its value. Bin Salman, for all his faults, knows that Saudi Arabia must transform itself into a manufacturing and services economy if it is to survive. A high tech sector could be a cash cow, and a fruitful avenue of cooperation with Israel.
King Salman, 84, opposes throwing the Palestinians under the bus, as his son is inclined to, and it may be that the relationship of Saudi Arabia and Israel will have to remain clandestine until Salman passes from the scene.
Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera that if the meeting took place, it was “heart-breaking.”
Al Jazeera reports that Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN, Abdallah Y. al-Mouallimi, said Tuesday that normalization with Israel was possible, but only if it ended the Occupation of the Palestinian territories. The United States has for decades justified its close relationship to Israel despite the latter’s Apartheid policies on the ground that it was working toward a two-state solution (which certainly has not been true for the past two decades). Saudi Arabia may be poised to take up this American piece of misdirection.
An officer in riot gear stands between supporters of President Donald Trump and counterprotesters as the groups yell at each other outside of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Nov. 21, 2020. (photo: Ben Gray/AP)
Trump Supporters Want to Boycott the Georgia Runoffs. Is Their Threat Genuine?
George Chidi, The Intercept
Chidi writes: "As a longtime observer of Georgia politics, I am at a point where I can no longer distinguish trolling from earnest madness."
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'The vaccines could begin to be distributed as soon as mid-December to those in high-risk groups.' (photo: Artyom Geodakyan/Tass)
What You Need to Know About the AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines
Carolyn Y. Johnson and Aaron Steckelberg, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "All three have said they will seek regulatory clearance to offer their vaccines to millions of people."
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Immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala who entered the US illegally board a bus in 2015. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)
ICE Expelled 33 Immigrant Children Back to Guatemala After a Judge Said They Couldn't
Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed
Aleaziz writes: "The Trump administration expelled 33 children who came to the US without a parent back to Guatemala after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the controversial practice that same day."
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District Attorney Chesa Boudin. (photo: Jeff Chiu/AP)
Rookie Cop Prosecuted for Homicide for the First Time Ever in San Francisco
Trone Dowd, VICE
Dowd writes: "District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who ran on a progressive platform, announced the charges."
former San Francisco rookie police officer has been charged with the shooting of an unarmed Black man in a historic decision that marks the first time the city’s district attorney’s office has prosecuted a member of law enforcement for homicide.
Officer Chris Samayoa was charged Monday with voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, assault by a police officer, and discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, all in connection to the December 2017 shooting of 42-year-old Keita O’Neil.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who ran on a progressive platform, said his decision to bring charges reflects how he wants his administration to handle police officers who recklessly overstep the duties of the job.
“For too long, we have seen the failures of our legal system to hold police accountable for the violence committed against the members of the public they are entrusted to keep safe,” Boudin said in a statement shortly after announcing the charges on Monday. “In my administration, police officers are not above the law. Police officers are obligated to follow the law when using force—even when responding to serious crimes.”
On Dec. 1, 2017, Samayoa, who had only been on the job four days, began to follow O’Neil in his patrol car with his partner. O’Neil was suspected of carjacking a California State Lottery minivan, according to the district attorney’s office. After stopping at a dead end, O’Neil jumped out of his vehicle and began to run on foot.
As he fled, O’Neil ran past Samayoa’s police cruiser. Samayoa drew his weapon and shot O’Neil through the passenger-side window, killing him, according to the DA’s office. O’Neil was not armed, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Though Samayoa didn’t turn on his body camera until after the shooting, the incident was caught on camera as the device automatically keeps the most recent 30 seconds of footage captured before being powered on, according to the DA.
O’Neil’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department two weeks after the fatal shooting, according to San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX-5. The TV station reported that Samayoa was fired from the department in March 2018 after a three-month investigation of the incident.
While Samayoa faces criminal charges over the killing of O’Neil, he still has support from the local union, the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
Association President Tony Montoya told the Associated Press that they will stand by Samayoa.
“We are committed to ensuring that Christopher and his family are supported during this difficult time and that he is accorded his due process rights and provided with a vigorous defense against these charges,” Montoya said.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association did not return VICE News’ request for comment.
Officer Samayoa is expected to turn himself in later this week, according to the DA’s office. He will be held on $1,000 bail.
Tigray refugees who fled the conflict arriving on the banks of Tekeze river on the Sudan-Ethiopia border. (photo: Nariman El-Mofty/AP)
Ethiopia Capturing Tigray Capital May Not End Conflict
Hamza Mohamed, Al Jazeera
Mohamed writes: "Leaders in Ethiopia's northern Tigray state have rejected the government's claims that federal troops are surrounding the regional capital, Mekelle, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gives the Tigray People's Liberation Front until Wednesday to surrender."
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People gather in front of the White House during the Native Nations Rise protest on March 10, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Native tribes from around the US gathered for four days of protest against the administration of President Donald Trump and the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Biden Has Promised to Kill the Keystone XL Pipeline. Activists Hope He'll Nix Dakota Access, Too
Ilana Cohen, Inside Climate News
Cohen writes: "Climate activists hope the ascendance of President-elect Joe Biden, who has called for a transition away from the oil and gas industry, will now put an end to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines."
They’re also urging the president-elect to oppose the Line 3 pipeline through Minnesota, saying such oil infrastructure is incompatible with a new green economy.
nly a few months ago, climate activists celebrated the dawn of a "new era," with three major victories in cases involving oil and gas pipelines.
After energy companies canceled the proposed Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline in July, court rulings dealt setbacks to the contentious Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines. Both have sparked protests from climate and Indigenous groups and remained sticking points in climate policy.
Climate activists hope the ascendance of President-elect Joe Biden, who has called for a transition away from the oil and gas industry, will now put an end to the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.
The Dakota Access Pipeline, first proposed in 2014 by a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas-based company Energy Transfer Partners, is a 1,172-mile underground crude oil pipeline which would run from North Dakota, passing just a half mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, through South Dakota and Iowa to a terminal in Illinois.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted the pipeline's construction under the Obama administration in a win for the pipeline's opponents after months of heated protests. But only days after assuming office, President Trump signed an executive memorandum, instructing the Army to expedite the environmental review and approval process.
Today, the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes remain in a protracted legal battle over the pipeline, with its fate still uncertain after a hearing earlier this month in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The subject of the hearing was whether a lower court had erroneously concluded that federal regulators' approval of the project failed to satisfy the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Keystone XL project, originally proposed by the Canada-based energy company TC Energy in 2008 as an expansion of its existing pipeline system, is a 1,179-mile-long pipeline that would transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to Gulf Coast refineries. Along with the executive order he signed almost immediately after taking office to clear the way for Dakota Access, Trump also reversed Obama's 2015 decision to reject the Keystone pipeline.
Although it's received less national attention, climate activists also have their eyes on Enbridge Energy's plan to replace a 337-mile segment of its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline crossing through Minnesota. The state's environmental regulators recently issued several key permits for the project, moving it closer to construction. If Line 3 continues moving forward, climate activists hope a Biden administration would intervene.
Climate activists say the clearest path for Biden to stop Dakota Access, Keystone XL and Line 3 and deliver on his promise to deliver a transition off fossil fuels would be to issue an executive order requiring all fossil fuel projects to undergo a "climate test," mandating that federal agencies consider a project's contribution to climate change and essentially use it as a litmus test for any permitting decisions.
"It's common sense that Biden must stop all of these toxic and unnecessary pipelines and transition to a 100 percent renewable regenerative economy that puts our communities first," said Kendall Mackey, Keep It In The Ground campaigner for the global climate advocacy group 350 Action. She added that the group hopes to see "a full reversal of Trump's approach to permitting."
A Promising Track Record
Although some pipeline proponents seem to be holding out hope that Keystone XL will move forward, climate activists have expressed confidence that Biden will follow through on his pledge to environmental groups to take executive action on day one in office to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
"With construction activities for the Keystone XL well underway in both the U.S. and Canada, we expect the ongoing permitting process to continue on its normal course," said a spokesperson for TC Energy in an emailed statement.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney suggested that the Keystone XL was a critical part of reinvigorating the U.S. and Canada's economies and strengthening relations between the two nations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gary Mar, former Alberta representative in Washington and current CEO of the Canada West Foundation think tank, similarly told Canada's Global News that Biden's interest in bilateralism suggested he might allow Keystone XL to move forward, especially if he could do so in exchange for achieving other policy priorities in the case of a politically divided Senate.
But Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder and president of the progressive political advocacy group Bold Nebraska, said she wasn't worried that Biden would sacrifice taking aggressive climate action, no matter what happened with Congress.
Climate activists also said they felt hopeful about Biden's positions on the Dakota Access and Line 3 pipelines, neither of which he has taken a public stance on. (Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has publicly opposed Dakota Access).
Clara Pratte, the Biden campaign's Tribal engagement director, said the Biden transition team was working hard to be "ready to go on day one."
Catherine Collentine, associate director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, said taking action on the three pipelines would serve as a way for Biden to make good on his climate platform and realize a mandate for action.
"No matter which project you're looking at, the facts point to the projects being not only not needed, but a climate disaster, and the risks are unacceptable," she said.
Janet MacGillivray, executive director of the Indigenous-led organization Seeding Sovereignty, said Biden's consistent "grounding of decisions in science" should naturally steer him toward opposing major fossil fuel projects.
When asked about Biden's position on the three pipelines, the Biden campaign declined to comment on Dakota Access and Line 3, but cited a statement issued in May by its policy director opposing Keystone XL.
"Biden strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration, stood alongside President Obama and Secretary Kerry to reject it in 2015, and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as President and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit," the statement said.
Keeping Up the Pressure
Even as they expressed optimism, climate and Indigenous activists also said they were more than ready to hold the Biden administration accountable if it failed to take a strong stance against the pipelines and the continued development of fossil fuel infrastructure.
Over the next four years, said Mackey of 350, she expected the climate justice movement to "push the Biden administration to be bolder than any other administration has been on climate."
Patrick McNully, climate and energy director at Rainforest Action Network, said there should be a "climate test" for all of Biden's Cabinet picks. A strong climate Cabinet could help safeguard against a weak follow-through on Biden's climate commitments, he suggested.
Both McNully and Kleeb said Biden's choice for Secretary of the Interior would be critical. They also both named New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, who would make history as the first Indigenous secretary if selected, as a strong candidate. The Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats have also named Haaland as their top pick for interior.
"The tribes have been treated as ornaments for too long," said Kleeb, who said she believed having a Native American head of the Department of Interior was critical for respecting tribal sovereignty and "making sure that they have full sovereign rights to say yes or no to energy projects."
Biden's openness to engaging with Indigenous leaders once in office will also represent an important test of his climate justice commitment, activists said.
Bobbi Jean Three Legs, a member of the Standing Rock Nation Sioux Tribe, stressed the importance of Biden's working directly with Indigenous communities in regard to climate and energy policy.
"I hope that they're really listening to the people that are around and live around these projects, because they're the ones that are going to be impacted the most—and that's scary," said Three Legs, who is climate justice and divestment organizer for Seeding Sovereignty, an Indigenous-led activist group.
Pratte, the campaign's tribal engagement director, said that it prioritized including Indigenous voices in policy conversations, especially around environmental justice, and would continue to do so once Biden was in office.
McNully said he felt confident that if Biden failed to shut down Keystone or Dakota Access, climate and Indigenous activists would not hesitate to mobilize. Some already have.
On Nov. 10, three activist groups, Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective, 2KC Media and 7th Defenders, shut down what they called an illegal pre-construction site near Maurine, South Dakota, for the day to remind Biden and Harris of their promise to stop Keystone XL.
A spokesperson for TC Energy denied that there had been any type of illegal pre-construction site and said that it was "unfortunate that groups continue to make false and inaccurate claims against our project.
The spokesperson said that TC Energy had signed a definitive agreement allowing the Indigenous-led company Natural Law Energy to make an equity investment of up to $1 billion in the Keystone XL pipeline project.
Only days after the Keystone XL protest, 250 Indigenous "water protectors" and environmental activists rallied at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's home on Nov. 14 to demand he stop Line 3—"or we will!"
"We know that people are watching and people are ready to continue to call for the Biden administration to make true on the campaign promises that they have put forth on the strongest climate action plan that has ever been put forth by a presidential ticket," said Collentine.
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