Racist Morons 'R Us
There's so much malignant idiocy abroad in the land we don't usually bother to stop and smell the stench. But the travesty of insensate Tom Cotton channeling his inner Joe McCarthy during a Senate hearing ostensibly about children's online safety - in order to mindlessly badger Tik Tok's Singaporean CEO on his alleged ties to Chinese Communists because all Asians look kinda the same and are probably Communist spies, right? - was Just Too Much. Have you no sense of decency, sir? Clearly, not.
Cotton's deeply stupid, even more deeply racist hissy-fit came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," during which lawmakers grilled five tech big-wigs - including TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, X's Linda Yaccarino, and a craven Mark Zuckerberg - about protections for young people on their platforms. The hearing comes in the wake of last year's report by the Tech Oversight Project finding that Google, YouTube, Twitch, Apple et al are rife with multiple offenses, from violating children's privacy to sexual harassment to complicity in pornography and drug sales even as Congress has repeatedly failed to pass laws that would actually protect kids online. Because Republicans love grandstanding and commie-baiting - and hate Tik Tok for being based in China and popular with generally liberal young people - several zeroed in on Chew.
But none came close to the bullying Sen. Cotton of Arkansas, who sees Marxists everywhere and whose wee little brain seemed to struggle with the fact that Chew could be Asian but not Chinese. Ominously noting it was "a hell of a coincidence" Chew was appointed CEO of Tik Tok shortly after the Chinese Communist Party bought a stake in the site’s parent company ByteDance, Cotton went in for the idiotic kill. Noting that, "You often say you live in Singapore" - a small, independent, Asian nation that is not and never has been part of China - Cotton asked, "Of what nation are you a citizen?" Chew, matter-of-fact: "Singapore." "Are you a citizen of any other nation?" "No, Senator." After determining that, yes, Chew has a passport from Singapore, and no, he doesn't have any other passports, Cotton wildly, repeatedly pivoted to the ever-lurking-in-his-wee-little brain "Chinese Communist Party."
Had he ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party? Chew, getting exasperated, "No, I'm Singaporean." Had he ever been "associated or affiliated with" the Chinese Communist Party? Chew, more exasperated, "No, Senator, again, I'm Singaporean." Etc etc. After a while, Cotton made several other crackpot pivots: To the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square - where Chew likely had something to do with it even though he was 6 or maybe nothing to do with it but wasn't it terrible? - and to the Chinese genocide of the Uyghur people and does Chew agree yes or no it's genocide yes or no. Chew (Harvard Business School 2010) is stunned by the stupid and ugly. We are in the Red Scare of the 1950s, and special counsel Joseph Welch, likewise stunned, is lashing out at Joe McCarthy for his senseless, power-mad malevolence: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” Still, not.
One final pivot: Amidst such toxic goings-on, we mark the 130th birthday of iconic director, Maine native, New Dealer, sometime reactionary, four-time Oscar winner and resolute crank John Ford, whose politics, like his now-classic movies, veered all over the place. He fought the blacklist - the FBI dubbed him a "fellow traveler” - but joined a right-wing film alliance, called himself "a liberal Democrat and rebel" but voted for Goldwater, made jingoist westerns but also the pro-IRA The Informer, the pro-unionHow Green Was My Valley, the "apology Western"Sergeant Rutledge,the Trail of Tears Cheyenne Autumn, albeit with Latino actors.He wrote his nephew, fighting with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, praising him for sharing the family's "peculiar passion for justice," and he made The Grapes of Wrath, honoring empathy, community, "the one big soul that belongs to everybody." Except Tom Cotton, and his loathsome ilk.
Edinburgh_Clip Tom Joad Speechwww.youtube.com
'Startling Confirmation': Big Oil Funded Climate Research as Early as 1954
The fossil fuel and automotive industries knew that their products could destabilize the climate as early as 1954, new research published by DeSmog on Monday reveals.
The Southern California Air Pollution Foundation, whose contributors included major oil and car companies, helped to fund the early climate research of Charles David Keeling, who went on to create the famous Keeling curve tracking the rise in global concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, DeSmog reported. The foundation was also informed of the potential implications of Keeling's research.
"This pushes back the fossil fuel industry's knowledge of the climate crisis a full two decades," Jamie Henn of Fossil Free Media posted on social media in response to the news. "Think of the damage and lives that could have been saved if we started researching and moving to clean energy back then."
"These findings are a startling confirmation that Big Oil has had its finger on the pulse of academic climate science for 70 years—for twice my lifetime—and a reminder that it continues to do so to this day."
The revelations were based on documents found in the California Institute of Technology Archives, the U.S. National Archives, the Charles David Keeling papers at the University of California, San Diego, and Los Angeles newspapers, which established that the foundation helped finance Keeling's early measurements of carbon dioxide levels in the U.S. West from 1954-56.
The Southern California Air Pollution Foundation was established in 1953 to help address the problem of smog in Los Angeles. Its members included 18 car companies such as American Motors, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors. It also received funds from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Western Oil and Gas Association, now the Western States Petroleum Association. What's more, representatives from the Southern California Gas Company, the Southern California Edison Co., Chrysler, General Motors, and Union Oil—now Chevron—sat on its board of trustees, and beginning in 1955, that board was updated on findings by a "technical advisory committee" staffed with one API member and Richfield Oil Corporation—now BP—and Chrysler scientists.
In a November 1954 research proposal from Keeling's research director Samuel Epstein, the foundation was informed of the potential implications of Keeling's measurements of carbon dioxide levels.
"The possible consequences of a changing concentration of the CO2 in the atmosphere with reference to climate, rates of photosynthesis, and rates of equilibration with carbonate of the oceans may ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization," Epstein wrote.
DeSmog noted that this makes 1954 the earliest known date at which the fossil fuel industry both funded climate research and was informed of the possible consequences of its products. It comes five years before physicist Edward Teller spoke to API about global heating and around 25 years before ExxonMobil's research into climate change in the 1970s and '80s. In total, the foundation funded Keeling's early work for a total of $13,814, which would be around $158,000 today.
In reporting the news, Rebecca John pointed out that many of the same companies and industry associations that funded Keeling's early research would go on to fund a campaign denying climate science 35 years later, among them API, the Automobile Manufacturers Association, Chevron, and BP.
"It's important to know that the oil industry sponsored climate science research in the 1950s because it reveals a picture of a much more nuanced, closely connected world of science and the frontiers of scientific discovery than the oil industry has admitted to," John wrote.
Geoffrey Supran, who studies the history of climate disinformation at the University of Miami, toldThe Guardian that John's revelations "contain smoking gun proof that by at least 1954, the fossil fuel industry was on notice about the potential for its products to disrupt Earth's climate on a scale significant to human civilization."
"These findings are a startling confirmation that Big Oil has had its finger on the pulse of academic climate science for 70 years—for twice my lifetime—and a reminder that it continues to do so to this day. They make a mockery of the oil industry's denial of basic climate science decades later."
The Center for Climate Integrity put it more succinctly on social media.
"They knew. They lied. They need to pay," the group said.
UAW Chief Says Billionaires—Not Migrants—Are Real Threat to Working Class
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated what the PATCO acronym stood for and the year the strike was busted. Those errors have been fixed.
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain argued that the current fear-mongering around the U.S. border with Mexico is an attempt by the wealthy and political elites to divide workers.
The remarks came in a wide-ranging speech at the UAW's National Community Action Program Conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday, in which Fain repeated the union's call for a cease-fire in Gaza, confirmed plans for a 2028 general strike, and laid out a vision for a wider U.S. political movement led by the working class.
"They try to divide us nationally by nationality," Fain said. "Right now, we have millions of people being told that the biggest threat to their livelihood is migrants coming over the border. The threat we face at the border isn't from the migrants. It's from the billionaires and the politicians getting working people to point the finger at one another, when in reality, we're all on the same side of the war against the working class."
"We fight for a political program that serves humanity, not the inhumane interest of the wealthy and corporate greed."
Fain added that the issue of immigration was personal to him because his grandparents had traveled between states to get jobs as autoworkers and become UAW members.
"They went somewhere else to find a better life. That's all these people are trying to do," Fain said.
The UAW has emerged as a major leader in a reinvigorated U.S. labor movement after its "stand up" strike won historic contracts against the Big Three automakers in 2023. As part of the final deal, the UAW negotiated a shared April 30, 2028 expiration date for all three contracts, opening up the possibility of a May Day strike. Fain has previously called on other unions to coordinate their contract expiration dates for the same date to allow the working class to "flex our collective muscles."
Fain repeated and strengthened that call on Monday, endorsing a general strike.
The U.S. has not seen a mass, cross-union walkout in decades, according to The Guardian, and Fain argued that this was a mistake.
"We have to pay for our sins of the past. Back in [1981] when Reagan at the time fired PATCO [Professional Air Traffic Controllers] workers, everybody in this country should have stood up and walked the hell out," Fain said. "We missed the opportunity then, but we're not going to miss it in 2028. That's the plan. We want a general strike. We want everybody walking out just like they do in other countries."
Fain said the union's success in 2023 gave him hope.
"We shocked the billionaires," he said, "and you know what that tells me? That if we can do things we've never tried before as a new UAW, we can win things we've never won before."
He also pointed to the 75% support the strike had from the U.S. population.
"Our issues are the public's issues," he said.
Fain said that the union's fight was larger than just its own contracts. For example, he noted that the union had failed to end the two-tiered system for retirement benefits. Those hired after 2007 receive a 401(k) with matching contributions instead of a pension and post-retirement healthcare, as The Detroit News pointed out. Fain argued that the UAW could resolve this in part by broadening the fight for retirement security to include the whole nation, though he said they would continue to push the Big Three as well.
"Either the Big Three guarantee retirement security for workers who give their lives to these companies or an even bigger player does: the federal government," he said.
He added: "We can't just fight for good contracts for our members alone. We fight for a society—from union contracts, to federal legislation, to our political system as a whole, that serves the working class and poor, that serves the people. We fight for a political program that serves humanity, not the inhumane interest of the wealthy and corporate greed."
He also criticized the wealthy for using issues like gender identity, sexual orientation, race, and nationality to divide the working class, and it was in this context that he criticized the scapegoating of immigrants. He also emphasized the UAW's history of backing civil rights and environmental justice.
"We have to, as a union, lead in the area of environmental safety," Fain said. "It does no good to bargain for another dollar an hour or another week's vacation, if on the vacation you take you can't swim in the lake, because it's dirty, and you can't breathe clean air."
Further, he emphasized the importance of international solidarity. The UAW was also the largest union at the time to officially demand a cease-fire in Israel's war on Gaza, a demand he repeated Monday to chants of "cease-fire now!"
"We don't stop our fight for justice at the workplace. We don't stop our fight for justice because it's not the right time. When and where there's a war, whether it's in Vietnam or Gaza, we call for peace," Fain said.
The UAW has not yet endorsed a candidate for president in the 2024 election. Fain criticized former President Donald Trump on Monday, telling reporters he was "pretty much contrary to everything we stand for," according to The Guardian. But he did not endorse his presumptive opponent President Joe Biden.
"We have to take the issues that matter to the working class and poor, and we have to make our political leaders stand up with us," Fain said. "Our message in doing this is simple: Support our cause, or you will not get our endorsement."
Study Finds Over 33 Million Instagram, TikTok Posts Promoting Harmful Content to Kids
As five Big Tech executives appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, the group Ekō released a report highlighting how "social media companies are not only failing to safeguard young users from harm, but actively profiting from it."
"This briefing serves as an urgent call for legislative action," says the 17-page publication from Ekō—previously called SumOfUs—which is addressed to the Senate panel on the first page and urges constituents to contact their members of Congress.
The report builds on Ekō research from 2021 and 2023. Again, the group focused on TikTok and Meta-owned Instagram, examining posts about "body image issues, skin whitening, mental health issues, including suicide and self-harm, as well as incel and misogynistic content."
"A handful of tech CEOs have manufactured a new public health crisis and it's harming kids with increasing ferocity."
"This updated research, conducted between January 18th-25th, 2024 provides concrete data for members of the committee on how this kind of problematic content not only remains rampant on the platforms but in some cases has increased in volume," the document states.
Ekō's investigation uncovered over 33.26 million posts on both platforms "under hashtags housing problematic content directed at young users."
Specifically, researchers found:
- 8 hashtags about suicide leading to 1.54 million posts—a 33% increase in content since the group's research last year;
- 14 hashtags about involuntary celibate (incel) and manosphere content, leading to over a million posts—a 161% increase from 2023;
- 5 hashtags about eating disorders leading to more than 1.28 million posts;
- 16 hashtags about plastic and body modification surgeries leading to over 24.84 million posts—a 67% increase from 2021; and
- 22 hashtags about skin whitening leading to 4.54 million posts.
Meanwhile, the report points, "social media giants are making a staggering $11 billion in U.S. ad revenue from ads targeted at minors, and despite promising to take action to stop directing personalized ads to children, they continue to do so."
"Health experts are increasingly worried about the role of social media platforms in fueling the child mental health crisis, while
multiple studies have exposed the growing problem of child sexual exploitation online; and academics point to the growing evidence of addiction to social media among young people," the document adds, urging "decisive actions from lawmakers."
Ekō campaigner Maen Hammad echoed that call to action in a statement, saying that "this research underscores what we've known for a very long time now—a handful of tech CEOs have manufactured a new public health crisis and it's harming kids with increasing ferocity."
"Senators can ask Mark Zuckerberg as many questions as they like, but it's not going to fix the problem unless we also get robust new laws," Hammad added, referring to Meta's CEO. "The real question is how much more evidence do U.S. lawmakers need before they act to defend our children from these predatory tech monopolies."
In addition to Zuckerberg, whose company also owns Facebook, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from TikTok's Shou Chew, Snap's Evan Spiegel, Discord's Jason Citron, and Linda Yaccarino of X, the platform formerly called Twitter and owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
Ekō—which supports a full ban on surveillance advertising, the establishment of an algorithmic oversight board, and ending Big Tech's predatory business model based on personal data harvesting—was far from alone in demanding legislative action as the panel held its "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis" hearing.
"Another hearing, more evasions and deflections from big tech CEOs," Josh Golin of the child advocacy group Fairplay said Wednesday. "If Congress really cares about the families who packed the hearing today holding pictures of their children lost to social media harms, they will move the Kids Online Safety Act. Pointed questions and sound bites won't save lives, but KOSA will."
In September, Fairplay acknowledged concerns that KOSA "will have unintended consequences and cut off LGBTQ+ youth from online resources, or expand censorship powers" of right-wing state attorneys general, but said the group had consulted with "attorneys, leading queer advocates, First Amendment experts, and platform design experts who all agreed that any attempt by conservative AGs to censor LGBTQ+ content would not succeed."
However, some digital rights advocates remain concerned about KOSA and other internet-related bills including the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act; Strengthening Transparency and Obligation to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOP CSAM) Act; Cooper Davis Act; and Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act.
"Strict privacy and antitrust legislation would... go a long way toward reducing harm and diminishing the power and dominance of Big Tech giants."
Fight for the Future director Evan Greer said Wednesday that "Big Tech is harming kids. That's not up for debate. We commend the parents and young people who are speaking up and demanding that lawmakers do something. Fight for the Future has worked for years to expose and address the harms of Big Tech monopolies and their surveillance capitalist business model."
"But unfortunately, today's hearing shows once again that many senators are actively helping Big Tech harm kids because they're more interested in creating sound bites for TV than the actual work of legislating," she argued. "Experts have repeatedly explained why, as written, dangerous and misguided bills like KOSA, STOP CSAM, and the EARN IT Act would make kids less safe, not more safe. Hundreds of thousands of young people and others have spoken up, calling for legislation that protects privacy rather than leads to censorship."
Greer suggested that "these bills could be amended to ensure they target specific harmful business practices like autoplay, infinite scroll, and use of minor's personal data to power recommendation algorithms, rather than being a blank check for censorship and expanding surveillance. Strict privacy and antitrust legislation would also go a long way toward reducing harm and diminishing the power and dominance of Big Tech giants."
While praising the Senate panel for "bringing social media CEOs in to testify on the harms their companies cause or exacerbate for kids and families," Demand Progress corporate power director Emily Peterson-Cassin also promoted antitrust bills on Wednesday.
"As the committee considers new legislation to address online harms to youth and families, we urge them to stay open-minded about types of solutions that could address these and other harms," she said. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open Apps Market Act, she noted, "would weaken the power of large companies to command our attention and our money."
The Federal Trade Commission's rulemaking on commercial surveillance "could ensure our privacy and safety against the abuses that stem from a data-hoarding business model," she added. "These all have the potential to make the internet a better and safer place for everyone."
The U.S. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org. It offers 24/7, free, and confidential support.
With Green Light From Supreme Court, Alabama Executes Man With Nitrogen Gas
Alabama on Thursday night became the first U.S. state to execute a person using nitrogen gas, killing 58-year-old Kenneth Smith by depriving his body of oxygen after the nation's Supreme Court rejected his legal team's last-ditch appeal.
The state's notoriously incompetent executioners, who tried and failed to kill Smith via lethal injection in 2022, strapped the condemned man to a gurney and administered the nitrogen gas through a full-face mask. Smith was pronounced dead shortly before 8:30 pm after around four minutes of convulsions.
"Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backwards," Smith said in his final statement. "I'm leaving with love, peace, and light. Thank you for supporting me, love all of you."
Smith was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett in 1988, a crime committed when he was 22 years old. That conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again seven years later, with the jury recommending a life sentence.
An Alabama judge, N. Pride Tompkins, then did something that used to be relatively common in the state but was banned in 2017: He overrode the jury, sentencing Smith to death.
Alabama's decision to kill Smith by flooding his lungs with nitrogen—a method that veterinarians consider unethical for euthanizing animals—drew global condemnation, with United Nations experts warning the execution would likely violate both U.S. and international laws against torture.
"I deeply regret the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns this novel and untested method of suffocation by nitrogen gas may amount to torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.
"The death penalty is inconsistent with the fundamental right to life," he continued. "I urge all states to put in place a moratorium on its use, as a step towards universal abolition."
Earlier this week, Alabama residents gathered outside the state's Capitol building in Montgomery to protest the planned execution of Smith. One demonstrator held a sign that read, "Say no to the gas chamber!"
Capital punishment has been declining in popularity in the U.S. for decades, but states like Alabama and Oklahoma have continued executing inmates even as pharmaceutical companies and equipment manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult to obtain materials necessary for lethal injections. The Trump administration worked for years to build a "secret supply chain" for lethal-injection drugs before its 2020 execution spree.
Three U.S. Supreme Court justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan—dissented from the decision to reject the final attempt to halt Smith's execution.
"Smith is the first person in this country ever to be executed this way," Sotomayor wrote. "The details are hazy because Alabama released its heavily redacted protocol under five months ago. What Smith knows is that he will be strapped to a gurney. He will wear a nitrogen-supplying, off-the-rack mask for which the state has not fitted him or even tried on him."
"Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its 'guinea pig' to test a method of execution never attempted before," the justice added. "The world is watching. This court yet again permits Alabama to 'experiment... with a human life,' while depriving Smith of 'meaningful discovery' on meritorious constitutional claims."
President Joe Biden vowed to work toward abolition of the death penalty at the federal level during his 2020 campaign, but advocates say he has done virtually nothing to fulfill that pledge. The Biden Justice Department has continued to seek the death penalty in select cases and fight efforts to reverse death sentences.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the lead House sponsor of legislation that would end the federal death penalty, called Smith's execution "absolutely unconscionable."
"We must work to abolish the death penalty and end this cruel and inhumane punishment," Pressley wrote on social media.
Israel Bombed Belgian Aid Office in Gaza After Nation Refused to Halt UNRWA Funding
Belgian officials expressed outrage Thursday after Israeli forces reportedly bombed the office building of the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation in the Gaza Strip, an attack that came after Belgium declined to join the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries in cutting off funding to the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency.
"The offices of Enabel, the Belgian development agency in Gaza, were bombed and destroyed," Hadja Lahbib, Belgium's foreign affairs minister, wrote on social media. "Targeting civilian buildings is unacceptable."
Lahbib and Caroline Gennez, Belgium's minister of development cooperation and urban policy, posted photos of the destroyed building and demanded a meeting with Israel's ambassador envoy to the country to discuss the attack, which took place on Wednesday.
Jean Van Wetter, the CEO of Enabel, said Thursday that "we are all shocked."
"As a government agency working for the common good in a framework of international humanitarian law," he added, "we cannot accept this."
None of the agency's staffers were believed to be present when Israeli forces struck the building, as Belgium withdrew Enabel employees and their families from the territory two weeks ago.
A satellite data analysis released earlier this week shows that more than half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel's U.S.-backed bombardment of the Palestinian enclave—one of the most devastating bombing campaigns in modern history.
The timing of the attack on the Belgian office building raised eyebrows, with observers pointing to the nation's status as one of the handful of Western countries not suspending aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in response to Israel's allegation that a dozen of the agency's employees took part in the October 7 attacks.
"Belgium is one of the Western countries that has refused to cut funding to UNRWA. So Israel just bombed the office of the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation in Gaza," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote on social media. "This is a direct result of the impunity Washington has provided Israel."
Sixteen countries have halted their financial support to UNRWA, compromising the aid agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gazans increasingly at risk of starvation and disease. Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA's commissioner-general, said Thursday that the agency "will most likely be forced to shut down" its operations in Gaza and across the region by the end of this month if funding isn't restored.
The U.S. State Department announced its decision to suspend funding for UNRWA last Friday, just hours after the International Court of Justice ruled that South Africa's genocide case against Israel was plausible and ordered the Israeli government to ensure the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
Questioned about the timing of the U.S. decision to suspend UNRWA funding, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing Thursday that "there was no concern" internally that the announcement would be seen as a rebuke of the ICJ's interim ruling.
Press corps teams up to question the State Department on the timing of its UNRWA announcement coinciding perfectly with the ICJ ruling pic.twitter.com/jpO2mnBNSY
— HalalFlow (@halalflow) February 1, 2024
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, whose country is among those that have declined to suspend aid to UNRWA, said Thursday that he is "reasonably optimistic" that at least some of the countries that have cut off funding will reverse course in the near future.
Eide said earlier this week that he has been "discussing the question of funding with other donors" and urged "fellow donor countries to reflect on the wider consequences of cutting their funding to UNRWA"
"UNWRA is a vital lifeline for 1.5 million refugees in Gaza," he added. "Now more than ever, the agency needs international support."
A Year After Ohio Disaster, Renewed Calls for Rail Safety Legislation
"Folks like us, who live along or near the tracks, refuse to be treated as collateral damage in the way of big railroads' profits," said Congressman Chris Deluzio.
On the eve of the first anniversary of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, residents, lawmakers, and members of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration are renewing calls for Congress to swiftly pass federal legislation boosting rail safety.
In a Friday letter, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to "bring the Railway Saftey Act to the floor for a vote before Congress adjourns for the August recess," highlighting that the bill is backed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner.
Deluzio, who introduced the House version of the bill with Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), noted that the Norfolk Southern train derailed and released hazardous materials "less than a mile from the Pennsylvania state line and the homes and farms of my constituents."
"Without dwelling on the resulting health problems, environmental scare, and general lack of trust that I still regularly hear from my constituents, I instead want to empathize that we cannot accept congressional inaction, and how the February 3, 2023 derailment could have been much worse," the congressman wrote. "Folks like us, who live along or near the tracks, refuse to be treated as collateral damage in the way of big railroads' profits."
"Over the last two centuries, railroad companies have wielded their power and influence to protect their profits and avoid commonsense safety measures, allowing them to cut corners and pad the pockets of their corporate shareholders at the expense of the American people," he explained. "After the East Palestine derailment, the big railroad lobby sprang into action once again and lobbied members of Congress—directing them to do nothing to make rail safer and risk cutting into their profits."
The Railway Saftey Act—led in the Senate by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and JD Vance (R-Ohio)—contains provisions to enhance safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials, reduce the risk of wheel bearing failures, require well-trained two-person crews, force carriers to face higher fines for wrongdoing, support communities impacted by disasters, and invest in safety improvements.
Brown and Vance have also issued fresh calls for action this week.
"Over the last year, I've visited East Palestine repeatedly, and our staff is there even more often," Brown said Tuesday. "Each time, we ask residents what we can do. They want the support and the compensation they are owed, but they do not want this derailment to define them. I don't want that either, and I don't want any other community in Ohio or around the country to have to deal with a disaster like this ever again."
"As I've told the people of East Palestine—and as I keeptelling them: I'm here for the long haul," he added. "I will always fight for the people of East Palestine. I will always fight to hold Norfolk Southern accountable. And I will always fight to make our railways safer."
As Nexstar's Reshad Hudson reported Tuesday:
Vance says he's working with Brown to get the needed support for the bill.
"It's not going to eliminate every train crash, but it hopefully can make these things much less common because they happen way too often,” Vance said.
According toRoll Call, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters this week that his department has "done our part" and "we are pressing industry to do their part, Congress needs to act as well."
"Any congressional leader of any party who is serious about railroad safety should support funding for railroad safety inspections... and should support the Railway Safety Act," he said.
While the outlet noted that delays in the House are partly tied to a forthcoming national Transportation Safety Board investigation report, the bill's sponsors and Buttigieg are largely blaming industry opposition, with the secretary saying that "in the past, there have been times when Congress stood up against the railroad lobby... they should do that now."
The White House announced this week that Biden plans to visit East Palestine sometime in February "to meet with residents impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment and assess the progress that his administration has helped deliver in coordination with state and local leaders to protect the community and hold Norfolk Southern accountable."
The White House also reiterated the administration's support for the Railway Safety Act—a bill that is backed by workers but also contains loopholes that "you can run a freight train through," as Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, warned last year.
Other measures before Congress include the Railway Accountability Act—led by Brown along with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who are also fighting to pass the Railway Safety Act.
Demands for congressional action on rail safety and more have also continued to pour out of East Palestine and surrounding communities—particularly from people who remain displaced and are suffering a wide range of symptoms.
"What I've been experiencing is some of the fear that I've never known in almost all of my 70 years," Stella Gamble, a grandmother of nine who lives less than a mile from the derailment, said in a testimony shared by The Real News Network. "I am so afraid for my grandchildren and for the other children in this town. My granddaughters have rashes on their skin. They've been having female issues. They get massive headaches."
"I think that the whole thing behind everything that's happened here is the same as it is everywhere else in this country. It's all about the money," Gamble added. "Everything about it is the money, and they will gladly sacrifice a few thousand Appalachians to keep their trains going through here... We're just a sacrifice. That's how I feel. And I feel like my grandkids are being sacrificed, too."
Federal Judge Postpones March Trump Trial Over Immunity Fight
The delay sparked criticism of the D.C. Circuit that, as one legal journalist put it, "had a responsibility to Trump, the District Court, the Supreme Court, and the nation to rule expeditiously" on the immunity claims.
In a widely anticipated move, the judge overseeing former U.S. President Donald Trump's federal election interference case on Friday indefinitely postponed his March trial due to a pending decision from a higher court about the Republican front-runner's immunity claims.
Since Judge Tayna Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced last August that the trial would begin March 4, Trump has argued that he is immune from criminal charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, because he was still in office at the time.
Chutkan, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, rejected the immunity argument in December. The U.S. Supreme Court—whose right-wing supermajority includes three Trump appointees and Justice Clarence Thomas, who wife was involved with the GOP effort to overturn the 2020 election—declined a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith to skip over the appeals court.
A panel from the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard arguments for the case last month. While the trio—one judge appointed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush and two Biden appointees—appeared skeptical of Trump's argument, they have yet to issue a decision, which is widely expected to be appealed.
After Chutkan's move Friday, Law Dork's Chris Geidner pointed to his commentary from last week: "Sure, there are reasons why rulings—especially a ruling like this—takes time, but it's also a bit of bullshit. The D.C. Circuit had a responsibility to Trump, the District Court, the Supreme Court, and the nation to rule expeditiously. It has failed to do so."
Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that "in a lightly attended proceeding Friday... Chutkan didn't explicitly mention Trump's case. But she made clear that she's keeping her calendar flexible in the event she is able to reschedule" the election interference trial.
Trump faces 91 felony charges from four ongoing cases: one in New York, another in Georgia, and two at the federal level, both overseen by Smith due to the presidential election. He is also involved in various legal battles over whether he is allowed to be on state ballots after engaging in insurrection—an issue the Supreme Court is set to take up next week.
As The Washington Posthighlighted Friday:
The delay in the D.C. case makes it increasingly likely that the first of Trump's four criminal trials could be held this spring in Manhattan on New York state charges of business fraud in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 election. That trial has nominally been set for March 25, but the court in that case has signaled deference to Trump's federal election subversion case. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled a pretrial hearing in two weeks—Februray 15—and is expected to decide after that if the trial will go forward as planned.
The trial for the other federal case, which focuses on classified documents and is overseen by a Trump appointee in Florida, is scheduled for May but could be pushed back. A date has not been set for the Georgia case, which is also about 2020 election interference.
Despite his legal trouble, Trump is leading the dwindling GOP field of presidential candidates, with recent wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
To End 'Nightmare' in Gaza, Sanders Moves to Block Funding for Israeli Weapons
"Twenty-seven thousand dead—two-thirds of them women and children," said the senator. "This is unacceptable."
Calling on the United States to "end its complicity in the nightmare unfolding in Gaza," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday said he would introduce an amendment to remove more than $10 billion from the foreign aid supplemental requested by President Joe Biden.
The $10.1 billion has been proposed to pay for offensive weaponry funding for the Israeli government, which has killed at least 27,131 Palestinians in Gaza so far—including at least 11,500 children—and displaced 1.9 million.
"Twenty-seven thousand dead—two-thirds of them women and children," said the Vermont Independent. "Sixty-seven thousand wounded... 70% of housing units damaged or destroyed. And now, hundreds of thousands of children facing starvation."
"This is unacceptable," added Sanders. "The United States cannot be complicit in this humanitarian disaster. That is why I will be offering an amendment to the supplemental bill to ensure zero funding for the continuation of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's illegal, immoral war against the Palestinian people."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated Thursday that lawmakers are close to finalizing the text of the national security supplemental, which also includes funding for Ukraine and security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Schumer said he would file cloture on a motion to proceed with the supplemental on Monday, "leading to the first vote on the national security supplemental no later than Wednesday."
Politico congressional reporter Burgess Everett said Sanders' amendment "will spark debate" but has little chance of passing.
Despite the International Court of Justice's finding last month that it is "plausible" that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and Americans' growing opposition to the U.S. government's support for Israel, the majority of federal lawmakers continue to claim that Israel is only acting in self-defense against Hamas as it bombards Gaza.