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Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance, 402-705-3622, jane@boldnebraska.orgÂ
Lorne Stockman, Oil Change International, 540-679-1097, lorne@priceofoil.org
In a series of events this week, the "Cowboy and Indian Alliance" that defeated the Keystone XL pipeline traveled to meet landowners and Tribal Nations in Virginia and West Virginia and plant "Seeds of Resistance" of Ponca Sacred Corn on land that lies in the paths of the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley fracked gas pipelines.
The first "Seeds of Resistance" were planted in 2014 in Neligh, Nebraska, on the Tanderup farm, which crossed both the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and the historic Ponca Trail of Tears. The corn was planted as medicine to protect the land from the tar sands pipeline and as an act of solidarity among the unlikely alliance that came together to protect land and water and fight the pipeline.
At each of this week's six events, members of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance planted the seeds, met with local landowners, and discussed lessons learned from the Keystone XL fight and winning strategies to fight these dangerous pipelines.
For more background and event details, visit
https://boldnebraska.org/seeds
Quotes from Cowboy and Indian Alliance members attending the "Seeds of Resistance" events:
Lorne Stockman, Research Director with Oil Change International and resident of Staunton, Virginia, close to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route: "The story of the Ponca corn 'seeds of resistance' has resonated deeply with pipeline fighters in Virginia and West Virginia, and Oil Change International is honored to be able to work together with the Bold Alliance to bring these events to the region. All over the United States today, people are standing up to the bullying tactics of Big Oil and Gas. This movement is reaching across the country to form alliances and build our strength; this is just one of many acts of solidarity and unity."
Art Tanderup, a Nebraska farmer whose land was on the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and the historic Ponca Trail of Tears, where the first "Seeds of Resistance" were planted in 2014: "Our family was honored to have sacred Ponca corn seed planted on our Nebraska farm. The people of Neligh, in 1877, assisted the Ponca by burying White Buffalo Girl who died on the Ponca Trail of Tears. Over one hundred years later, that spirit of humanity continued as we joined with our friends and neighbors in replenishing their sacred corn and fighting against Keystone XL. We now travel to other states to stand with fellow pipeline fighters showing we the people can stop these risky projects."
Mekasi Horinek Camp, Ponca Nation member; Bold Oklahoma Coordinator; son of Casey Camp-Horinek, a long-time Native rights activist and environmentalist: "We're going to stand together with the cowboys--the ranchers and farmers," said. "Together our families will plant sacred Ponca corn as seeds of resistance to these risky fracked gas pipelines. As the corn grows it will stand strong for us, to help us protect and keep Mother Earth safe for our children. We stand with the pipeline fighters."
Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance President: "Actions, like planting the Ponca corn, show the strength and commitment of people standing up to Big Gas and their reckless pipelines. Using eminent domain for private gain is something the Cowboy and Indian Alliance stands against. We plan on using actions, prayer and all legal tools available to stop these risky pipelines."
Spokespeople from Atlantic Coast Pipeline events:
Virginia Davis, owner of the Stuarts Draft Farm Market, Stuarts Draft, VA: "Growing up the daughter of a farmer, I was taught to respect the land. Dominion disrespects our land, our communities, and our great Augusta County. I can think of no better way to pay respect to our land than to plant the sacred corn that the Ponca have shared with us in the proposed path of this incredibly destructive pipeline."
Nancy Sorrells, co-chair Augusta County Alliance: "We are holding this ceremony because we want everyone to understand the real effects of this proposed pipeline on the people in its path and on the land underneath our feet. None of us really owns the land. We are here to respect it, protect it, and make it better for future generations who will be here. This pipeline takes all that away. By planting this corn, we are giving back...to the land and to the people who are a part of it."
Joanna Salidis, Friends of Nelson: "Friends of Nelson is deeply honored to join the pipeline warriors who defeated the Keystone XL pipeline in this sacred act of resistance, solidarity, and hope for the future. Planting this sacred corn today in the path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline gives us a tangible way to express our connection with the land and people in Dominion's crosshairs. These corn seeds are 'seeds of resistance' but the true seeds were sown by generations of people in Nelson and elsewhere as they learned to love their home and recognize the life it supports. Rooted love like that never gives up and neither will we."
Spokespeople from Mountain Valley Pipeline events:
Steve and Anne Bernard, Boones Mill, VA: "We're sick and tired of the games MVP has continued to play with landowners in our region. In our discussions with various surveyors, we have uncovered erroneous info on their parts, and a downright lie in one instance. Our family history in the county with the indigenous peoples' inclusion brings us great joy to take part in this ritual of Ponca corn planting. Participating in this action is a visible sign of our resistance to the very industry that hopes to steal our land as well as our connection to it."
Tom Berlin, Weston, WV: "We are supporting this planting project as a statement of solidarity with our brothers and sisters throughout the nation and world who are fighting against a system that is based on continuous and accelerating extraction of the wealth of the Earth to the detriment of local individuals, communities, and ecosystems and the benefit of the few powerful and wealthy."
Patricia A "Cookie" Cole, Blue Roamin Farm, Monroe Co., WV: "I have lived on or near Peters Mountain and Monroe County almost my entire life. My family's ancestral property is on Peters Mountain and in the Zenith Valley. To us, this is sacred and holy ground and pristine water. Our family has fiercely protected our freedoms and our way of life, so that we could continue to be free and enjoy the land and mountains that we so dearly love. Monroe County is a special place, and we have been fortunate to be its caretakers and defenders. I am grateful that the Bold Alliance and the Monroe Coalition have chosen my farm as a place to plant the Sacred Ponca Indian Corn--"Seeds of Resistance"."
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
(202) 518-9029"This bill isn't governance," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "This is a class war waged from Capitol Hill."
After Republicans pushed their unpopular reconciliation package through Congress last week, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson hailed the legislation as a step toward "a future where working Americans can feel relief."
But Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), argued in an op-ed Tuesday for The Detroit News that such "hollow promises" are an attempt to obscure "a brutal agenda: stripping working-class people of security, dignity, and power while lining the pockets of billionaires" with trillions of dollars in tax breaks.
"The budget reconciliation bill that the Republicans just passed isn't just bad policy—it's a full-blown attack on America's working class," wrote Fain. "For the UAW and the millions of workers we represent, four core issues define what it means to live and work with dignity: a livable wage, affordable healthcare, retirement security, and time to enjoy life beyond the job. On every one of those fronts, this bill delivers nothing but setbacks."
Fain pointed specifically to the GOP law's more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. Those cuts, combined with Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to lapse at the end of the year, are expected to strip health coverage from around 17 million Americans over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The UAW president also points to the Republican law's lesser-known attack on Medicare recipients. The legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law late last week, would restrict enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs—potentially causing more than a million low-income seniors to lose access—and force more than $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare.
"These aren't numbers on a spreadsheet," Fain wrote. "These are real people losing access to lifesaving care."
"By passing this legislation, the government is telling working-class families they're on their own while billionaires get even more tax breaks."
While the Trump White House and congressional Republicans have tried to cast the budget law's tax provisions as worker-friendly—in some cases by outright lying about what's in the legislation—Fain noted that the law's limited deductions for tips and overtime will only benefit a small sliver of Americans, and only until 2028.
"On the other hand, many of the tax benefits in this bill for the wealthy are indefinite and have no expiration date," Fain wrote. "This is the same bait-and-switch the Trump administration used to sell its 2017 billionaire tax giveaway to the American people: small, temporary tax breaks for working people, with massive, long-term benefits for the wealthy and corporate America."
"This bill isn't governance. This is a class war waged from Capitol Hill," Fain continued. "It shifts the balance of power even further toward the billionaire class and hollows out the rights and dignity of labor. By passing this legislation, the government is telling working-class families they're on their own while billionaires get even more tax breaks."
"It's a total betrayal," he added.
Fain is among many prominent labor leaders who spoke out forcefully against the Republican budget measure and warned about its potentially catastrophic impact on millions of workers.
National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses union, called the day of the bill's final passage one of "the darkest days in the history of U.S. healthcare."
"People will suffer and die because of the cuts in this legislation to fund tax cuts for billionaires—certainly in the short term and potentially for decades to come if nothing is done," the union said. "Lawmakers have effectively signed the death warrants for millions."
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said that "every member of Congress who voted for this devastating bill picked the pockets of working people to hand billionaires a $5 trillion gift."
"But if the politicians who rammed through this shameful bill think they can sneak away without anyone knowing the damage they've done and the chaos they've created," said Shuler, "they don't know anything about the labor movement."
"It is very likely that these historically high tariffs will damage the economy," writes the Tax Policy Center.
With U.S. President Donald Trump yet again ramping up international trade war tensions, a new analysis conducted by the Tax Policy Center projects that American consumers will soon be paying "extraordinarily high" tariffs on staple goods unless the president again backs down from his threats.
As the Tax Policy Center explains, Trump has set an August 1 deadline for countries to make trade deals with the U.S. or else face the higher tariff rates he first unveiled back in early April that caused the stock market to abruptly crater. Should Trump follow through with his vow to reinstate the tariffs on the countries that have not yet reached agreements, writes the Tax Policy Center, it would mean tariffs "ranging from as high as 48% on women's clothing, 40% on books, and even 22% on baked goods, according to our estimates."
What's worse, the center adds that these are merely the average tariffs that goods imported from all nations will face. Individual products could get hit with even bigger tariffs depending on their country of origin.
"The top tariff on men's and women's clothing will exceed 77%," they write. "Tariffs on purses could be as high as 90%, and tariffs on baked goods could reach 85%. Tariffs on beer will be as high as 79%."
The center's analysis adds that consumers likely won't feel the impact of the tariffs right away since retailers have been stocking up on goods as a way to get ahead of the tariffs. However, this strategy can only work for so long since retailers will eventually have to restock their wares and will then be forced to pass some of costs from the tariff onto their customers.
"As a likely result, consumer prices will rise, employment and incomes in downstream industries will fall and profits will shrink," the Tax Policy Center warns. "The value of retirement plans that hold stocks in these industries will also likely drop... Eventually... it is very likely that these historically high tariffs will damage the economy."
Economist Dean Baker wrote earlier this week that the total impact of the tariffs on American consumers could amount to an average tax of $16,000 per household over the span of a decade, which he said would actually be an estimate on the lower end of the spectrum.
The nominees "took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" said retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath."
A network of former intelligence, military, and national security officials on Tuesday launched the Profiles in Cowardice Award and urged the public to vote for nominees who are "silent in the face of the country's descent into fascism," a march led by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"We are in a constitutional crisis," says the Eisenhower Media Network's (EMN) website for the award. "Trump is amassing power in the executive branch, ignoring Congress and the courts. Meanwhile, leaders who have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution are sitting on their hands."
The new honor is the inverse of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, created by the late president's family "to recognize and celebrate the quality of political courage that he admired most." This year's recipient is Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, "for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021," when Trump incited an insurrection and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
"We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."
Nominees for the inaugural Profiles in Cowardice Award are former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), retired Gens. David Petraeus and Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The 'Profiles in Cowardice' Award was created to call out those weak souls who are failing to engage in efforts to keep our country from sleepwalking into fascism," said EMN's director, retired Maj. Gen. (ret.) Dennis Laich, in a statement.
"These leaders, both past and present, took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" he noted. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath. We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."
The public can vote at ProfilesInCowardice.com until August 1, after which the award will be presented to the winner "at the most inconvenient time possible," according to the website.
The site lays out why people were nominated as "cowards." For example, "Bush has a long and storied history of cowardice" and "is solidifying his legacy" by retreating rather than serving as a leader in the Republican Party and standing up to Trump.
In Congress, "Mace is a one-woman culture war content machine—exactly how the military-industrial complex and mainstream media like it," the site continues. Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, "has chosen to push through Trump's agenda of unfettered militarism and confirm unqualified MAGA loyalists like Pete Hegseth," the defense secretary. Republicans on that committee also "rubber-stamped Pete Hegseth to cater to Trump and his blindly loyal MAGA cronies."
Among former military leaders, the site says, "Milley attempted to make a principled stand after the January 6th insurrection—but cowardice won out in the end," and Petraeus said at a conference that "the world was in for 'exciting times' under Trump."
"The Joint Chiefs of Staff are tasked with defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," the site notes. "But as reckless U.S. military actions push the world closer to nuclear catastrophe, they've chosen silence over service. No resignations. No public warnings."
As for Blinken, who served under former President Joe Biden, "he ignored a flood of real-time reports detailing Israeli human rights violations—and now we know his public claims of 'working overtime' on cease-fires were outright lies," the site adds. "With American diplomacy in free fall, Blinken chose complicity and cover stories over truth and action."
Christian Sorenson, EMN's associate director, said that "it takes courage to do the right thing... It takes even more courage to do the right thing when the system itself fosters militarism and war profiteering."
"Targeting 'leaders' in the nation's capital, Profiles in Cowardice highlights the craven and the pushovers, as well as those who eagerly abet authoritarianism and nonstop war for personal and professional gain," Sorenson added. "Virtue and public service will arrive in D.C. one way or another. Profiles in Cowardice is part of that broader effort."