06 March 21
Brother (or Sister) Can You Spare a Donation?
One thing you can say for the wing-nuts, they do support their causes. We are going to try to build a funding model that puts us in a competitive position with the, so-called conservative oracles. Get behind us with a donation, you'll be impressed by what we do with it.
Thanks for the opportunity,
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
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06 March 21
Folks, We Have Nothing Coming In!
So far for Saturday we have not received a single donation, not one. This has to lead to a crisis quickly.
Donate what you can afford, but donate something.
Trouble brewing at this pace.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
It's Live on the HomePage Now: The 8 Senate Democrats Who Voted Against Raising the Minimum Wage Are Collectively Worth Over $43 Million
Sanders' proposal defied a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian that a minimum wage increase could not be included in President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. At least seven of the eight Democrats, which includes an independent who caucuses with Democrats (Angus King), are millionaires. Collectively, these lawmakers are worth more than $43 million. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen billionaires add $1.3 trillion to their net worths, these wealthy lawmakers rejected raising wages for American workers. Here are the eight Senate Democrats who voted against raising the minimum wage to $15, along with their individual net-worths based on the latest available information (the numbers come from Open Secrets, a non-profit research group that tracks money in politics):
The federal minimum wage currently stands at $7.25 an hour. The last time it was raised was 2009, though some individual states have raised minimum pay above the federal rate. There were 392,000 workers earning the federal minimum wage as of 2019, while 1.2 million earned less, according to an April 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. It now seems likely that if Biden hopes to make good on his campaign pledge to raise the minimum wage to $15, he'll have to bring it up via other legislation in the future. Those who oppose raising the minimum wage — with Republican lawmakers among the most vocal opponents — often cite concerns that it would hurt businesses or employment. But many top economists have thrown cold water on such fears, while underscoring how life-changing a minimum wage increase would be for many American workers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during her confirmation hearing in January said an increase would have a "minimal, if anything" impact on jobs. "Boosting the federal minimum wage would lift millions out of poverty and serve as a huge additional pandemic stimulus boost for the entire economy," Chuck Collins, the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Insider labor reporter Juliana Kaplan in February. "We have seen how many frontline essential workers are poorly paid and most vulnerable. Boosting their pay is both morally right and economically smart."
In Alabama, Workers at Amazon Warehouse Are Poised for Union Vote
ALSO SEE: Trump Appointee Arrested in Connection Proud Boys Member Was in Contact With the White House in the Days Before 1/6 A leader of the far-right group separately said he had been in touch with Roger Stone, but an official said it was not the same contact investigators found through electronic communications records.
Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The F.B.I. has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party. The connection revealed by the communications data comes as the F.B.I. intensifies its investigation of contacts among far-right extremists, Trump White House associates and conservative members of Congress in the days before the attack.
Biden Signals Support to Replace War Power Authority
Laid-Off Oil Worker on Fox News Was Recruited by Group That Denies Climate Change
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ight Senate Democrats broke from the majority of their party on Friday to vote against 
member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
laid-off Keystone XL pipeline worker who was interviewed on Fox News appeared on the network thanks to a group that has disputed the science of climate change, spent decades fighting against the green economy, and is closely affiliated with the Republican Party.
Haitians gather in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to stage a demonstration against President Jovenel Moïse, who refuses to step down. (photo: Sabin Johnson/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Haiti's Massive Protests Are a Repudiation of Authoritarianism and US Intervention
Kim Ives and Arvind Dilawar, Jacobin
Haiti’s corrupt, US-backed president is facing massive demonstrations after refusing to step down. US intervention has stifled Haitian democracy and impoverished its people — and the protests are an effort to fight back.
ince February 14, thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets every weekend in the capitol of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere to protest President Jovenel Moïse’s refusal to abdicate power. Moïse, who was elected with the backing of the United States in November 2016, has exploited a supposed loophole in Haiti’s constitution stating that the duration of the president’s term is five years. The constitution clarifies that terms must begin in February, but Moïse insists that his election in November — the delay stemming from previous US meddling — entitles him to more time in office. Thousands of Haitians disagree, but their demonstrations have been met with police violence, leaving dozens dead.
The rallying call of Haitian demonstrators has been, “Where is the Petrocaribe money?” Ostensibly a simple question of accounting, it points to the depth of corruption in Haiti under Moïse and his predecessor, Michel Martelly, who have squandered or stolen billions of dollars’ worth of oil and funds provided by Venezuela as part of Petrocaribe, a program meant to support regional development.
The combination of corruption and repression has critics branding Moïse and Martelly “neo-Duvalierists,” in reference to Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the father-son dictators who ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986. The Duvalierists stand in contrast to Fanmi Lavalas, a social-democratic party founded by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who became Haiti’s first democratically elected president in 1991 — before being deposed by a US-backed coup later that year.
Jacobin contributor Arvind Dilawar spoke with Kim Ives, an editor at Haiti Liberte, about the current protests, the government’s brutal response, and the United States’ ongoing complicity in the repression of the Haitian people. Their conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AD: What was the spark that set off the current protests?
KI: The latest protests stem from Moïse not stepping down on February 7, 2021, as Article 134.2 of Haiti’s 1987 Constitution dictates. He had been making it clear that he was not going to step down in the months leading up to the date, but it came to pass in a very belligerent way. The people did not pour out on February 7 precisely, expecting maybe that he would step down at some point, but he did not. Every weekend since, the demonstrations are growing in size, and the tone is becoming sharper.
There is a little contradiction in Article 134, which says that the president will serve five years. But there is a clarification in 134.2 that, in fact, he will have to start his term on February 7 of the year of the election. So even though the election took place on November 20, 2016, that constitutional article insists that he start the clock on February 7.
There have been constant demonstrations throughout the presidency of Moïse, as there were for his predecessor, Michel Martelly. There were on the order of eighty-four demonstrations per month during the end of 2020, which is saying something, given that COVID was in place. So we could say that it wasn’t exactly “the spark,” but the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I don’t see these demonstrations subsiding as they have periodically in the past. Heightened demonstrations have been taking place since July 2018, when Moïse had to drastically hike fuel prices in the country due to the fact that Petrocaribe oil and money were no longer flowing into the country. The IMF, who had to step in to fill the breach, said, you have to hike the gas prices or you’re not going to get a loan. So they did. And that really began the past two and a half years of demonstrations on an almost weekly, if not daily, basis.
AD: Are there larger structural problems that have kept the Haitian people seething?
KI: The Martelly government was shoehorned in by then secretary of state Hillary Clinton in January 2011, when she traveled to Haiti to basically read the Riot Act to then president René Préval and tell him that he had to put Martelly in the runoff. He had come in third, according to the Electoral Council, so she overrode the Electoral Council and said, no, Martelly is going to be in the runoff, and he won.
That marked the beginning of neo-Duvalier rule in the county, after twenty years of alternating Lavalas [party] and semi-Lavalas rule, between Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his sometimes-called “twin,” [René] Préval. The US ushered in this neo-Duvalierist group, who brought with it all the hallmarks of Duvalierism: corruption, repression, lavish excess, complete insensitivity to the people’s demands, and complete openness to US, French, and Canadian imperialism doing as they wish in the country. In fact, that was their slogan: “Haiti is open for business” — which, not coincidentally, was the slogan of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in the early 1980s, before his overthrow. The people of Haiti have essentially been demonstrating since the arrival of the Haitian Bald-Headed party, as Martelly called his party.
This is the backdrop to all the demonstrations, which have been against corruption and repression, primarily. But the demonstrations became more ferocious and larger in 2018, because the spigot that the Petrocaribe fund that Venezuela was providing Haiti was turned off. At one point, Martelly’s prime minister said that 94 percent of the government’s special projects were being funded by the Petrocaribe fund. When that money all disappeared, Moïse, who had made all sorts of fantastic promises to the people — that they would, in the space of eighteen months, have 24-7 electricity, etc. — was left with an even more angry population.
AD: How bad is corruption in Haiti?
KI: The largest part of it, which really has become the background for this movement, is the money stolen from the Petrocaribe fund. This became the call shortly after the gas hike in July 2018, which began on social media after an artist put up a picture of himself saying, where is the Petrocaribe money?
The Venezuelans gave Haiti $4 billion worth of cheap oil, about twenty thousand barrels a day. Haiti only had to pay 60 percent upfront, and 40 percent went into this capital fund, which was supposed to pay for clinics and hospitals and schools and roads and anything that would benefit the Haitian people.
But instead of being used for that, it was pilfered and misspent and embezzled into a myriad of fake projects — from invisible stadiums to fake food distribution programs to fake home-building programs, etc. On the order of $1.7 billion disappeared in this manner, by the Martelly government. That corruption, that embezzlement of the Petrocaribe funds, is the rock that is sticking in the craw of the Haitian people.
It should be said that Haiti also reportedly received some $13 billion worth of funds for earthquake rebuilding. Ironically, they used in Haiti the same slogan they’re using [in Washington] today, “Build Back Better,” but it did not go to building back better. Not only was it frittered away and intercepted by various middlemen and NGOs, but what did get through to Haiti also seems to have been misspent by the Martelly government, which received the lion’s share of that as well.
That, though, has not been as much in the people’s consciousness as the Petrocaribe funds, which was a more appreciated solidarity fund than the earthquake fund, which was headed by Bill Clinton — which Haitians felt, almost from the get-go, was probably not going to end up doing much for them.
AD: How has the Haitian government responded to the protests?
KI: Very fierce repression. Moïse, in November, returned to service Léon Charles, who was in charge of the Haitian National Police right after the coup d’état against Aristede on February 29, 2004. His reign was characterized by very bloody and fierce repression against the rebellious masses of, primarily, Cité Soleil and Bel Air, Port-au-Prince’s two largest slums. Moise brought him back, and he has lived up to his past record — and has even been given new powers. Moïse, who has been ruling by decree since January 13, 2020, has also decreed a new Gestapo force, the National Intelligence Agency, which gives its agents the power not just to spy on the public, but to arrest them, and even kill them, because its agents are armed. On top of that, they cannot be prosecuted, they have complete immunity.
This is a force very similar to the Tonton Macoute of the Duvalier dictatorship. The Tonton Macoute had the same extrajudicial powers. They were the eyes, ears, and fists of the Duvalier dictatorship and allowed it to stay in power for three decades.
That repression has been on display in the past weeks. Dozens of demonstrators have been killed in the past months of demonstrations. Sometimes they’re hit by tear gas grenades in the head, and others have been shot by police forces who apparently act as snipers, shooting into the demonstrators.
In addition, another decree made it an act of terrorism to carry out certain forms of demonstration and street protest. This gives the so-called legal framework for the severe police repression — even though the decrees themselves are completely illegal, because, as even the US State Department has said in their dismay over the optics of this, the decrees are supposed to be used for caretaking questions and not for creating legislative initiatives of this nature.
On top of it, part of this decree mania that Moïse has exhibited has been to not only form his own new, handpicked Electoral Council, which he proposes will hold the election in the coming year, but to rewrite the constitution. Again, these are all tactics that Francois Duvalier in the early 1960s employed to establish his presidency for life.
AD: What do you think will be the results of the current protests?
KI: I will be surprised if Moïse can stay in power until February 7, 2022, as he intends to. This really is the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object right now.
The US seems to be having a little bit of doubt. Julie Chung, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric Affairs, tweeted last month that she was alarmed by the authoritarian and undemocratic moves of the government. But they stopped short of saying that they were pulling any support. They seem to be keeping the same basic policy that the Trump administration had, which is to encourage Moïse to hold elections — which he was supposed to have held in 2018 and ’19 — and pass the sash and repopulate the parliament and the mayor’s offices throughout Haiti. (There are right now only eleven elected officials in the country: Moïse and ten senators.)
The Biden government has certainly got to be seeing the size of these demonstrations. The other factor is that, as the demonstrations grow in size and ferocity, the US Congress is putting increasing pressure on the Biden administration, saying that Moïse should step down and be replaced by a provisional government.
Will all that pressure push the US to remove him? The reasons why they might balk are because the last time there was a civilian transition, the president elected was Aristide, a liberation theologian priest and anti-imperialist that the US did not approve of in any way and carried out a coup d’état against him eight months after his inauguration in 1991. Secondly, the very important role that Haiti is playing in the anti-Venezuela campaign of Washington. For those two reasons, they may feel that they should just ride out the storm, continue to pump money to him.
The other thing we have to fear, especially with the hawks and warmongers who are now populating the Biden administration, is yet a third foreign military intervention in Haiti — of course, probably dressed up as a “humanitarian” intervention. This would be like throwing a rock into a hornet’s nest, because the Haitian people, I can say without any equivocation, are fed up with foreign military occupations.
A monarch butterfly. (photo: Pedro Pardo/Getty Images)
450 Butterfly Species Rapidly Declining Due to Warmer Autumns in the Western US
Liz Langley, National Geographic
Langley writes:
A new study using citizen science data revealed a 1.6 percent drop per year since 1972, a worrisome development for the crucial pollinators.
utterflies are not only ephemerally beautiful, they’re crucial pollinators for a variety of important food crops and flowers. And in the western U.S., they’re disappearing—fast.
Over the past four decades, more than 450 butterfly species have declined at an average rate of nearly 2 percent a year, according to a study published today in the journal Science.
It’s already known that the western monarch has plummeted in population by 99.9 percent and was recently denied protection by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But the study revealed lesser-known species, like the Boisduval’s blue and California’s state insect, the California dogface butterfly, are heading toward extinction.
“The declines across species are so ubiquitous,” says study leader Matthew Forister, a biology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. “They’re all suffering.”
The scientists focused on what is likely butterflies’ biggest danger: climate change.
Analyzing both butterfly observations and climate data in 70 locations across the West from 1972 to 2018 revealed a big surprise: Warmer autumns in particular were the clearest culprit behind the drop in butterflies, Forister says. (Read why insects are plummeting in population worldwide, and why it matters.)
More than 200 cities across the U.S. are experiencing warmer fall seasons, with the biggest autumn temperature increases in the Southwest. In Arizona, for instance, fall temperatures have risen by 0.2 degree Fahrenheit every decade since 1895. That may be why the west coast lady, a vibrant orange-and-black butterfly, has declined at a rate of 3 percent a year in the state.
“We’ve been really focused on the [warming of] spring for a couple of decades now,” Forister says, but “warming at the end of the season is a really negative impact.”
Falling numbers, warmer falls
To find out where butterflies are in free fall, researchers pored over four decades’ worth of academic and community science data in 70 locations, from Seattle to Santa Fe to Tucson. The data drew mostly from observational sightings of butterflies.
The team relied on three datasets: one academic; one from the crowdsourcing data site iNaturalist, a joint project of the California Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Geographic Society; and one from the North American Butterfly Association.
The study locations, a mix of urban and wild, revealed butterflies were vanishing even in pristine areas. California’s Castle Peak, one of the more remote butterfly watching spots, is one of the homes of the anise swallowtail, which has dwindled significantly in number—though not as dramatically as other species.
That could be because “a lot of that damage is already done,” Forister says. “Fertile river valleys and riparian areas where people like to build farms and cities—they're already gone.” (Read why we haven’t seen a quarter of known bee species since the 1990s.)
As for why warming falls are so detrimental, it may be connected to butterflies’ hibernation-like diapause in the fall. Warmer temperatures could be forcing the insects, most of which live around a year, to stay awake longer and starve.
In other words, they’re “getting old and crunchy and dying sooner,” says study co-author Katy Prudic, an entomologist and assistant professor of citizen and data science at the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
An elegant call to action
Conservation biologist Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, called the study “elegant” in its combination of academic and community data.
“It adds to our growing understanding of what’s going on with insects and insect decline across the globe,” says Black, who wasn’t involved in the study. “The overall conclusion that climate is a major driver when it comes to butterfly decline is the important takeaway from this paper.”
There’s also a lot individual citizens can do to protect butterflies and other insects at home, such as planting native vegetation and avoiding pesticides. “It doesn’t matter whether you have a little tiny yard or you manage a national park,” he says. (Learn more ways you can help pollinators at home.)
And, of course, people can be curious about the world around them and record what they see, contributing to citizen science websites that have become more popular during the pandemic.
“Without all those people who are interested in taking pictures and watching butterflies and spending time in nature,” Prudic says, “this study wouldn’t have been able to happen.”
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