November, 01 2020, 11:00pm EDT
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More Than 50 Editorial Board Endorsements Confirm Climate Is Top Electoral Issue in Presidential Race
A new analysis of national and state endorsements from major editorial boards shows climate change has emerged this year as an often cited reason media outlets opted to endorse in the 2020 presidential election. The politics of climate change are driving voting behavior and influencing the political debate.
Across the country and in key battleground states, 51 editorial boards and outlets put climate change alongside COVID-19, the economy, and health care, as the most important issues facing the country.
WASHINGTON
A new analysis of national and state endorsements from major editorial boards shows climate change has emerged this year as an often cited reason media outlets opted to endorse in the 2020 presidential election. The politics of climate change are driving voting behavior and influencing the political debate.
Across the country and in key battleground states, 51 editorial boards and outlets put climate change alongside COVID-19, the economy, and health care, as the most important issues facing the country.
This increased focus on the climate crisis follows voters' changing attitude toward the issue -- as now a majority of voters, including Republican-leaning women, voters of color, and younger voters view climate change as a priority for both the next administration and Congress. An Economist/YouGov poll, also released last week, found that climate is the number three issue among all voters and is the number two issue for Democrats and young voters age 18-29.
This attention to the climate crisis comes as the country has been gripped with extreme weather that has cost our economy millions and put the lives and health of Americans at risk. This year alone, more than 8.5 million acres have burned on the West Coast and the Gulf Coast have been hit with back-to-back supercharged hurricanes -- including the recent Hurricane Zeta, which has left millions without power and three dead.
A clear underlying theme in these endorsements is the threat to our climate and how Trump and his anti-climate agenda can cause irreparable damage to our air, water, and public lands. The Trump administration has already rolled back more than 125 critical environmental protections -- all of which disproportionately affect Black and Latino communities.
Since mid-October, when Climate Power 2020 released its initial analysis, close to 30 media outlets, both nationally and in key battleground states, have cited clean energy, environmental racism, climate, and conservation issues as a major factor in their endorsement decision. In total, Climate Power 2020 identified 51 outlets that referenced climate change as a reason for their endorsements during the general election. The most recent endorsements are below:
National Endorsements
The Atlantic: "Trump has brought our country low; he has divided our people; he has pitted race against race; he has corrupted our democracy; he has shown contempt for American ideals; he has made cruelty a sacrament; he has provided comfort to propagators of hate; he has abandoned America's allies; he has aligned himself with dictators; he has encouraged terrorism and mob violence; he has undermined the agencies and departments of government; he has despoiled the environment; he has opposed free speech; he has lied frenetically and evangelized for conspiracism; he has stolen children from their parents."
The Guardian: "It's not just Americans for whom Mr. Biden is a better bet. The world could breathe easier with Mr. Trump gone...On climate change, Mr. Biden would return the United States to the Paris agreement and give the world a fighting chance to keep global temperatures in check. With a President Biden there would be a glimmer of hope that the US would return as a guarantor of a rules-based international order."
La Opinion: "A vote for Biden and against Trump is a vote to fight the coronavirus with the guidance of scientists and it is their most urgent task. It is a vote to respond urgently and without delay to the imminent disaster of climate change based on international cooperation. It is a vote to save health coverage from the damage caused by Trump by making a public insurance plan like Medicare, with subsidies for low- and moderate-income people, available to the uninsured."
Rolling Stone: "Biden, by contrast, believes in science, and names the "existential threat" we are facing in global warming. He has embraced the spirit of the Green New Deal, outlining a path to limit the catastrophic heating of the planet by achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This would be realized through a $2 trillion investment in America -- including clean-energy plants, solarized and weatherized homes, and carbon-free transportation networks -- that would create millions of sustainable jobs. "When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,' " Biden has said. "When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.'"
USA Today: "Beset by disease, economic suffering, a racial reckoning and natural disasters fueled by a changing climate, the nation is dangerously off course. We spoke to dozens of people in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, battleground states that helped propel Trump into the White House in 2016. Many declined to comment, citing a general disgust with the election or fear of speaking out publicly."
Washington Jewish Week: "As a senator, Biden led from the center, across party lines, and was universally liked and respected. As vice president to the first African American president, he demonstrated an ability to lead effectively in an increasingly multicultural America. And as president, we believe he will bring integrity, civility and compassion to the White House. He will listen to scientists and other experts when it comes to fighting the coronavirus and climate change. He will use taxation and government spending to address serious domestic policy issues. And we hope that he will use his bully pulpit in today's times of uncertainty as a platform to unite our fractured country and reform and reconstruct our civic institutions."
NY Daily News: "Still, Biden has outlined bold plans to confront major American challenges. He would strengthen, not undermine, the health-care foundation that is the Affordable Care Act. He respects what immigrants contribute to the national fabric and wants to improve gun-safety laws. He would combat climate change and ramp up renewable energy production. He has urgent, coherent plans to beat back the coronavirus."
Endorsements in States
California
- The Times-Herald: "It's time to heal and work to unite the country. To stem the spread of the coronavirus, rebuild the economy, honestly confront racial and economic inequality, aggressively address climate change and reestablish the nation as a respected world leader."
Indiana
- Tribune-Star: "Biden has focused on issues most important to Americans, issues such as health care, economic justice and climate change. His values of decency, civility, inclusion, fairness and equality for all closely reflect what America can be and should be."
- The Herald Bulletin: "But Biden also has strong convictions. His proposal to wean America off polluting fossil fuels would mitigate climate change and create millions of jobs. His promise to confront, not ignore, systemic racism would dig at the deep roots of a pervasive problem that has plagued the country for hundreds of years."
Iowa
- The Daily Iowan: "Keeping with science, Biden knows climate change is not a hoax. While he wasn't the first choice of environmental activists or ourselves, his plan to cut net carbon emissions down to zero puts us on the right track instead of running backward. While Biden must become more aggressive, the planet cannot wait another four years of Trump's do-nothing policy on the climate crisis."
- The Daily Nonpareil: "Biden will, again, listen to scientists when it comes to climate change and environmental policy.---- Rolling back environmental protections -- a USA Today report noted nearly 100 environmental rollbacks the Trump administration has pursued over the past four years to loosen regulations on everything from air and water quality to wildlife."
Maine
- The Times Record: "Biden's 36 years as senator and nine years as vice president have produced a track record showing him capable of handling a vast array of foreign and domestic issues. Today, what makes Biden most appealing to us is his willingness to listen to scientists and experts, such Dr. Anthony Fauci, in addressing our current medical and environmental crises. That's in stark contrast to the current administration, which forms policies at the whim of the president's fragile ego."
Massachusetts
- Eagle-Tribune: "We also expect Biden to refocus the United States on addressing climate change and its contributors. Apart from public health policy, no issue controlled by the White House has a more significant bearing on our coastal region north of Boston. Having quit the global effort to combat and deal with climate change, the U.S. desperately needs to return to the table."
- Gloucester Times: "We also expect Biden to refocus the United States on addressing climate change and its contributors. Apart from public health policy, no issue controlled by the White House has a more significant bearing on our coastal region north of Boston. Having quit the global effort to combat and deal with climate change, the U.S. desperately needs to return to the table."
- The Salem News: "We also expect Biden to refocus the United States on addressing climate change and its contributors. Apart from public health policy, no issue controlled by the White House has a more significant bearing on our coastal region north of Boston. Having quit the global effort to combat and deal with climate change, the U.S. desperately needs to return to the table."
- The Recorder: "Biden has plans based on science in place to help the nation heal itself from COVID-19 and to bring stronger attention to our environment."
Nebraska
- Omaha World-Herald: "The list of issues Biden has seen debated, and helped address, in the Senate is impressively long and notable. Here is a small sampling: Renewals of the federal Voting Rights Act. The extent of presidential war powers. Strategies for strengthening U.S. military effectiveness. Details of environmental regulation. Restructuring the nation's intelligence community. Support for disabled Americans."
New Hampshire
- Valley News: "Biden will need all of his empathy and grace, and all of his knowledge and experience, to build America back better, especially its pandemic-shattered economy, and also to unite and mobilize the majority of Americans who recognize the urgent need to address climate change, establish social, economic and racial justice, fix our warped and cruel immigration policies, provide all Americans with access to affordable health care, and enact common-sense measures to reduce gun violence."
New Jersey
- The Record: "We believe all Americans deserve a healthy natural environment. We believe we must acknowledge and work to slow the devastating impacts of climate change."
New Mexico
- Albuquerque Journal: "Regarding climate change, Biden has a plan similar to New Mexico's Energy Transition Act. Trump has rolled back some Obama-era climate initiatives and has in the past called climate change a "hoax." He recently acknowledged a human role."
New York
- New York Carib News: "His climate change denial is more of a threat to the people on the planet than earth itself; the earth will survive, the inhabitants will not. His blatant interference in the politics of the Region, increasing the unnecessary embargo on Cuba, trying to install his hand-picked president in Venezuela and tipping the scale in Guyana."
- The Post Standard: "Biden, who will be 78 in a few weeks, has a long list of tasks ahead should he prevail. He must get the coronavirus pandemic under control, kick-start the economy, fix or replace Obamacare, tackle the climate crisis, restore key environmental protections, address systemic racism, repair international alliances and be prepared to meet the next crisis."
- Staten Island Advance: "They'll argue he was right to play tough guy with world leaders by pulling out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which ironically takes effect the day after the election. Never mind that scientists across the globe say warming is a threat. The president labels it a hoax."
Pennsylvania
- The Patriot Press: "Not only does Biden plan to adhere to the guidance of expert scientists in regards to the coronavirus, but he also believes in the severity of climate change. The environment is in extreme danger: ice sheets are shrinking, the global temperature is rising, and hurricanes are becoming stronger and more frequent. With an increasing amount of damage from natural disasters, climate change also hurts the economy. If the president elected this November does not recognize climate change as a serious threat, the future of our country will be at stake."
- The Tribune-Democrat: "Leadership also means building for the future, ensuring a strong America for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Biden's understanding of that responsibility is embedded in his climate policies. They include installing electric vehicle refueling stations along highways, reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants, developing affordable alternative energies such as solar and wind power, protecting our eroding coastal shores. We ignore the need to address these economic and environmental realities at our peril."
West Virginia
- The Charleston Gazette-Mail: "The federal level, Trump's moves to roll back environmental regulations haven't done anything to improve the coal industry. One after another, many of the nation's largest coal companies have filed for bankruptcy."
Climate Power 2020 is putting the Trump administration on defense every single day for ignoring experts, refusing to believe in science, surrendering our government to big oil executives, and gutting public health protections, all at the expense of future generations. The 2020 presidential election is the defining moment for how our nation addresses the climate crisis--our leaders must be emboldened to take immediate action on climate change and to build a just and equitable economy. The time to act is now. Learn more: climatepower2020.org
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House Dems Unveil Sweeping Bill to Protect Worker Rights and Safety
"This bill will help level the playing field and, once again, restore the balance of power between workers and their employers," said Rep. Bobby Scott.
Jul 26, 2024
A group of Democratic U.S. House members on Friday unveiled legislation "aimed at bolstering protections for America's workers and ensuring accountability for employers who flout labor and employment laws."
The Labor Enforcement to Securely (LET'S) Protect Workers Act was introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)—the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce—and House Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).
The bill's sponsors said their legislation is based on the premise that "employment laws are a promise to our nation's workers" meant to "secure the most basic rights of work."
"That promise is broken," they contended. "Recent shocking revelations about massive increases in the number of children illegally overworked and trafficked into dangerous jobs—just over 85 years since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was enacted to eliminate that very problem—is the latest example of the ways that this promise to America's workers is broken."
Across the U.S., Republican state lawmakers have been advancing legislation to remove restrictions on child labor, despite several high-profile workplace deaths of minors. At the federal level, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) last year introduced a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in the logging industry.
The LET'S Protect Workers Act sponsors highlighted rampant wage theft and overtime violations, workplace injuries, and union-busting by employers who "know that even if a resource-starved Department of Labor catches a violation, the penalties are a mere slap on the wrist."
"People should be able to come home at the end of the day—alive, well, in one piece, and with all the wages they worked hard to earn," the lawmakers asserted. "Children should be in schools, not dangerous workplaces, and workers should be able to organize a union without interference or the threat of retaliation from their employers."
According to House Education and Workforce Committee Democrats, if passed, the LET'S Protect Workers Act would:
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- Improve mine safety and reliable funding of black lung benefits through new and increased civil monetary penalties and the option to shut down scofflaw operators;
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- Create new penalties for violations of the National Labor Relations Act, consistent with the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
"Every American should be fairly compensated and be able to return home safely at the end of the day," Scott said in a statement Friday. "Unfortunately, shortcomings in our labor laws enable unethical employers to exploit workers, endanger children, and suppress the right to organize—with little accountability."
"That's why I'm proud to introduce the LET'S Protect Workers Act, which will hold bad actors accountable and strengthen penalties for labor law violations," he added. "This bill will help level the playing field and, once again, restore the balance of power between workers and their employers."
In a joint statement, Dingell, Horsford, Norcross, and Pocan said that "the lack of meaningful enforcement makes it all too easy for bad faith actors to get away with illegally violating workers' rights—from firing workers for organizing a union, to allowing children to work overnight shifts, or jeopardizing workers' safety by ignoring workplace regulations."
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Earlier this month, nearly 50 labor organizations led by the AFL-CIO and representing a wide range of U.S. workers urged congressional Democrats to resist Republican efforts to roll back rules enacted by the Biden administration to protect worker rights amid relentless attacks by abusive employers.
Specifically, the labor groups warned that Republicans are trying to use the Congressional Review Act—which was enacted to strengthen oversight of federal rulemaking—to overturn pro-worker rules enacted by the Department of Labor and other government bodies.
Meanwhile, Republicans including former President Donald Trump—the 2024 GOP nominee—have been trying to woo U.S. workers with proposals including a tax exemption for tipped employees panned as a "
hollow promise" by experts and by inviting Teamsters president Sean O'Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention last week.
In response to Republicans' dubious courting of U.S. labor, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas)—who is a co-sponsor of the LET'S Protect Workers Act—recently called for holding what would be a largely symbolic vote on the PRO Act. The bill was revived last year by Scott and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and, if passed, would expand labor protections including the right to organize and collectively bargain.
"If Republicans wanna talk like they're pro-worker, then let's have a vote on the PRO Act next week," Casar
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Amnesty International on Friday demanded a "prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation" into the use of antipersonnel landmines, "which litter territories in Ukraine formerly and currently occupied by Russian forces."
The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor says that Ukraine is "severely contaminated" with antipersonnel landmines, which Russia's troops have used since 2014, but particularly since Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"Landmines have been documented in 11 of Ukraine's 27 regions: Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia," according to the monitor's latest update, published in November. "Russian forces have used at least 13 types of antipersonnel mines in Ukraine since February 2022."
Ukraine is a state party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction of 1997 but lacks legislation to enforce its implementation. Human Rights Watch last summer gathered evidence of the Ukrainian military's use of the banned mines. Russia is not a party to the treaty.
Patrick Thompson, a Ukraine researcher at Amnesty, said Friday that "in every region in Ukraine that was formerly occupied by Russia, we have seen evidence of civilians killed and injured by antipersonnel mines left behind by Russian forces."
"They are a daily, deadly threat to civilians. Some have been deliberately placed in civilian homes where they maim and kill," Thompson highlighted. "There must be an effective investigation into all such incidents as possible war crimes."
The group shared just one survivor's story of encountering a mine:
In March 2022, Russian forces evicted Oleksandr* (not his real name) and his mother from their flat in Snihurivka, in the region of Mykolaiv. A Russian military unit took over the entire apartment block until it was forced to withdraw following fierce fighting around Snihurivka in November 2022.
After the Russian retreat, Oleksandr returned to the apartment block to assess how badly it had been damaged. Upon entering the basement, he stepped on a disguised PFM-1 antipersonnel mine that had been placed under wooden planks. The mine exploded, Oleksandr fell, and landed on other disguised mines that had apparently, had been deliberately placed to injure or kill anyone entering the building. He lost both his left leg and arm in the incident.
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Thompson called on the international community to "commit to sustained financial and technical assistance to help Ukraine get rid of a danger that continues to wreck lives and livelihoods," and to continue fighting for an end to the use of the weapons.
"Countries must uphold the ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines worldwide," he said. "There must be an end to the use of such indiscriminate weapons."
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Despite pushback from the United States delegation, finance ministers at a meeting of the G20 countries in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday agreed on the need to develop a global taxation system in which the richest in the world are taxed at a higher rate—potentially unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars annually to help close the international wealth gap.
Ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled for November, which Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government will host, the finance officials met this week to discuss economic issues and ultimately agreed to start a "dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals."
The Lula government pushed for a proposal by progressive economist Gabriel Zucman, who serves as a G20 adviser and is a professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley.
Zucman's proposal calls for a minimum 2% tax on the fortunes of the world's roughly 3,000 wealthiest billionaires, which could raise approximately $250 billion globally per year.
"With full respect to tax sovereignty, we will seek to engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed," the ministers wrote in a declaration that was viewed by Politico.
"Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share. Governments have for too long been complicit in helping the ultra-rich pay little or zero tax."
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"We don't see a need or really think it's desirable to try to negotiate a global agreement on that," Yellen said at a press conference before the ministers met Thursday evening. "We think that all countries should make sure that their taxation systems are fair and progressive."
Although the agreement only states that countries will discuss the need for the wealthy to pay their fair share to help fight poverty and fund public education and other services, the global anti-poverty group Oxfam International said the meeting represented "serious global progress."
"For the first time in history, the world's largest economies have agreed to cooperate to tax the ultra-rich," said Susana Ruiz, tax policy lead for Oxfam. "Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share. Governments have for too long been complicit in helping the ultra-rich pay little or zero tax. Massive fortunes afford the world's ultra-rich outsized influence and power, which they wield to shield, stash, and supersize their wealth, undercutting democracy and widening inequality."
An Oxfam study released ahead of this week's meetingfound that the richest 1% of people in the world increased their fortunes by $42 trillion over the past decade, while taxation fell to "historically" low rates.
Ruiz called on G20 heads of state to "go further than their finance ministers" at the G20 Summit in November "and back concrete coordination: agreeing on a new global standard that taxes the ultra-rich at a rate high enough to close the gap between them and the rest of us."
"Brazil has kickstarted a truly global approach to tax the ultra-rich. But the work is just beginning and international cooperation is crucial," said Ruiz, adding that the task of ensuring the wealthiest people in the world are taxed fairly must not be left up to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—"the club of mostly rich countries."
Zucman expressed hope that the agreement between the G20 finance ministers marked a "historic" moment, and called it "an important step in the right direction."
"Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back," said Zucman. "In its declaration, the G20 finance ministers commit to important preliminary steps. They need to do more and commit to a coordinated minimum tax on the super-rich. We know that it is practically doable—we know the solutions exist. And I'm confident, because there is overwhelming popular demand everywhere to get there."
"The status quo, in which the biggest winners from globalization are allowed to enjoy the lowest tax rates, is simply not sustainable," said Zucman.
The findings released this week by Oxfam highlighted polling that "consistently" found people across the world support raising taxes on the richest individuals.
"Eighty percent of Indians, 85% of Brazilians and 69% of people polled across 34 countries in Africa support increasing taxes on the rich," said the group. "Nearly three-quarters of millionaires polled in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth, and over half think extreme wealth is a 'threat to democracy.'"
The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) applauded the agreement and called on the G20 to "go further in [the] fight to tax the rich."
"To take this forward, G20 should support work on this at the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation currently being negotiated at the United Nations," said Jayati Ghosh, co-chair of the ICRICT.
A U.N. committee is scheduled to submit "terms of reference" regarding a tax convention framework in August, and a final vote on the framework is expected by the end of 2025.
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