August, 23 2018, 12:00am EDT
Big Oil Wants Taxpayer-Funded Protection From Climate Change Crisis of Its Own Making
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the oil industry is pushing for the federal government to fund construction of a 60-mile "spine" of concrete seawalls and levees along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project, which would cost taxpayers at least $12 billion, is designed to protect petrochemical facilities and oil refineries from flooding and extreme weather caused by climate change.
The news comes as Texas organizers are putting on a People's Tribunal on Harvey Recovery to uplift stories and testimonials from the most vulnerable populations impacted by the storm and the inevitable storms to come.
In response, Sierra Club Gulf Coast Organizer Bryan Parras released the following statement:
"The irony of a main driver of the climate crisis asking the government for protection from it seems to be lost on Senators Cornyn and Cruz, both of whom support spending billions of taxpayer dollars to fund this project. Neither senator has recognized the reality of climate change, or taken any action to stop it or protect communities. Apparently, as long as their true constituents -- the oil companies -- are protected, that's good enough for them."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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Fed Gov. Lisa Cook Sues Trump Over 'Unprecedented and Illegal' Firing
The suit alleges a "pretextual" bid to oust Cook in order to "vacate a seat for President Trump to fill and forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve."
Aug 28, 2025
US Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook on Thursday filed an anticipated lawsuit in response to President Donald Trump's contentious attempt to fire her—something no president has ever done in the 111-year history of the central bank's governing body.
"This case challenges President Trump's unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Gov. Cook from her position which, if allowed to occur, would the first of its kind in the board's history," says the lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, and names Trump, the Fed Board of Governors, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell as defendants.
The suit contends that Cook's termination "would subvert the Federal Reserve Act... which explicitly requires a showing of 'cause' for a governor's removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Gov. Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not."
The US Department of Justice last week launched a criminal investigation of alleged mortgage fraud committed by Cook. The DOJ referral accuses Cook of misrepresenting her primary residence information on mortgage documents for two properties in 2021 in order to secure more favorable loan terms.
Cook—who has not been criminally charged—denies any wrongdoing.
"The unsubstantiated and unproven allegation that Gov. Cook 'potentially' erred in filling out a mortgage form prior to her Senate confirmation does not amount to 'cause,'" the lawsuit argues. "Allowing the president to remove members of the board over policy disagreements would also render illusory the board's independence."
"The mortgage allegations against her are pretextual, in order to effectuate her prompt removal and vacate a seat for President Trump to fill and forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve," the filing adds.
Cook's suit asks a federal judge to declare that Trump's bid to remove her is an illegal violation of her due process rights, that Fed governors may only be fired for cause, and that the unproven mortgage fraud claim does not constitute such cause. She is also seeking an injunction to bar Powell and the Fed board from firing her.
Trump's effort to fire Cook has been condemned by critics as another attempt to bully the Fed and Powell as the White House pressures the central bank to cut interest rates. Powell signaled last week that the Fed is inclined to lower interest rates during its meeting next month.
Cook is the third Trump political foe accused of mortgage fraud by his administration.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte, a Trump appointee, has also targeted Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued the president and the Trump Organization for fraud, as well as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was the lead manager in the first of Trump's two House impeachments.
Cook, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, has served on the Fed Board of Governors since 2022. Her term is not set to expire until 2038. She is the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor.
Responding to Cook's lawsuit, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement that Trump had cause to fire the governor because she was "credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions."
However, Cook's alleged offense occurred the year before she joined the Fed board.
The president's bid to oust Cook could backfire—for him and Pulte—as the discovery process of her lawsuit may reveal "if the White House ordered a Trump loyalist to move against her," according to journalist Greg Sargent.
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'Shut Up... You Should Be Fired': RFK Jr. Sparks Backlash With CDC Purge, School Shooting Remarks
"He is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation," said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
Aug 28, 2025
Some US elected officials are now calling for the firing of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid mass resignations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and comments he made about Wednesday's mass shooting at a Catholic school.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) was the first Democratic lawmaker to call for Kennedy's firing on Wednesday night, shortly after news broke that he had ousted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, who had just been confirmed by the US Senate weeks ago. Monarez's firing subsequently triggered several other high-profile resignations at the agency.
"If there are any adults left in the White House, it's well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr.," she said. "He is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation—leaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while he's at it."
Kennedy further angered his critics when he appeared on Fox News Thursday morning and not only defended the purge of the CDC, but also baselessly linked this week's mass shooting at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of drugs commonly used to treat clinical depression.
While speaking with the hosts of "Fox & Friends," Kennedy said that "we're launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence" such as the shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday that left two children dead and 17 other people wounded.
This drew the ire of Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who profanely called out Kennedy for peddling misinformation.
"I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don't kill kids, antidepressants do," she wrote in a social media post. "Just shut up. Stop peddling bullshit. You should be fired."
She then wrote a follow-up post in which she noted that "there are 400 million guns in this country," which is larger than the entire population of the US.
"In America, we are 10 times more likely to be shot in a school or playground than any other developed nation," she said.
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) didn't explicitly call for Kennedy to be fired, although he labeled the HHS secretary's actions "disgraceful."
"What is happening at the CDC is truly a five-alarm fire and not receiving nearly enough attention," he wrote. "RFK Jr.'s undermining of our public health institutions will have disastrous consequences for generations."
Democratic lawmakers weren't the only ones calling for Kennedy's firing. Pradheep Shanker, a radiologist who regularly writes for the conservative National Review, also said he'd seen enough of US President Donald Trump's HHS Chief.
"RFK is a complete failure, and is making Trump's health policy look like a complete circus," he said. "If Trump has any credibility, he'll fire RFK."
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Clear Majority of US Voters, Including 3 in 4 Democrats, Want to End Weapons Support to Israel: Poll
"Democratic politicians who continue to support sending weapons to Israel are acting in direct defiance of their own constituents' wishes," said one progressive commentator.
Aug 28, 2025
As its genocidal actions in Gaza become more brazen by the day, support for Israel among Americans has reached a record low.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, 60% of voters across all parties now say they oppose the United States sending more military aid to Israel, while just 32% say they support it. The pollster said it was the greatest amount of opposition it has recorded for the US-Israel alliance since it first asked the question in November 2023.
Opposition is even stronger among Democratic voters: 75% of them now oppose sending military aid to Israel, compared with just 18% who still support it.
Also for the first time ever in a Quinnipiac poll, more voters, 37%, said they sympathized with the Palestinians—an all-time high—compared with just 36% who said they sympathized with the Israelis—an all-time low.
In recent months, Israeli politicians have begun moving forward with a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and permanently empty it of its inhabitants, which international humanitarian organizations have described as an "ethnic cleansing."
On Wednesday, every member of the United Nations Security Council, with the exception of the United States, joined in a statement backing the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's declaration that Israel was creating a "man-made" famine in Gaza.
Meanwhile, even Israel's leaders have found it impossible to defend its "double-tap" strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday, in which the Israel Defense Forces launched a strike on the medical facility before launching another attack shortly afterward on the journalists and medical personnel who came to respond to the destruction.
That attack killed at least 20 people, adding to the potentially well over 100,000 Palestinians who experts estimate have been killed over the course of the nearly two-year military onslaught.
According to the Quinnipiac poll, 50% of Americans now agree with the international community's assessment that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. This includes 77% of Democrats and 51% of independents.
When Democrats were polled last month by Gallup, just 8% of them said they supported Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip, a dramatic decline from October 2023, when 36% expressed support.
In recent weeks, as the images of death and starvation coming out of Gaza have grown increasingly heinous and ubiquitous, some Democratic politicians have begun to take a harsher stance against Israel.
Last month, a majority of Democrats in the Senate, for the first time, voted in favor of resolutions introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to suspend US assault weapons and 1,000-pound bombs to Israel.
Twenty-seven Democrats voted for the resolution halting assault rifles, and 24 voted for the resolution to stop the sale of bombs. Notably, the top Senate Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), voted against both resolutions.
Despite overwhelming support from their voters, the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday voted down a resolution calling for the US to suspend military aid to Israel.
"Democratic politicians who continue to support sending weapons to Israel are acting in direct defiance of their own constituents' wishes," said Nathan J. Robinson, the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine, in response to news of the latest polling numbers.
Previous polls have indicated that opposition to former President Joe Biden's arming of Israel was a primary reason why Democratic voters chose to abandon the Democratic Party in 2024, potentially costing then-Vice President Kamala Harris the election.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said the poll showed that "Democrats continuing to ignore their base on the Palestine issue is insane," adding that if they continue down this path, "they will continue to lose."
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