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Four Reasons Why the Freddie Gray Case Isn’t Going Away Any Time Soon

by SalvatoreForrest Posted on August 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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In late July, Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped all remaining charges against two officers awaiting trial in the Freddie Gray case and decided not to retry a third, after a judge acquitted three other officers on all counts related to Gray’s death. The decision closed a chapter on a case that was a focal point for the Black Lives Matter movement. But although the criminal case is over, both the state’s attorney’s office and Baltimore police officers are still grappling with the consequences of the failed prosecution. Here’s how:

The six officers charged in Gray’s death will now face an internal affairs review. Led by the Montgomery County Police Department, the reviews—which can move forward now that the criminal cases have been concluded—will determine whether the officers’ actions violated department policy, and whether the officers can return to patrol duty. Such reviews can take several months to complete, however, and an analysis of cases by the Baltimore Sun found that nine of ten misconduct allegations investigated by Montgomery County Police Department do not result in officers being reprimanded. The officers will remain on paid administrative duty until the reviews are complete.

Several officers have sued Mosby for defamation and false arrest. At least five of six officers charged in Gray’s death have filed civil lawsuits against Mosby and Major Sam Cogen, the Baltimore sheriff’s commander who signed the charging documents in the case. Collectively the lawsuits seek more than $3.5 million in damages for charges including defamation, false arrest, false imprisonment, and federal civil rights violations—among their allegations is that Mosby charged the officers in order to appease Black Lives Matter protesters. They also allege that Mosby did not investigate the case as thoroughly as she had initially claimed, and that she deliberately made false statements about officers’ culpability at the press conference where she announced the charges. (Legal observers have said the chances of the suits succeeding are slim because prosecutors generally enjoy immunity from being sued, and the bar the officers’ attorneys would have to meet—showing that Mosby acted with malice—is high.)

Some people want Mosby banned from practicing law in the state of Maryland. At least two complaints have been filed against Mosby with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission in an effort to have her disbarred. Ralph Jaffe, who ran for a Maryland democratic US senate seat earlier this year, wrote in a recent Baltimore Sun Op-Ed that he filed a complaint last May because Mosby’s decision to “placate the liberal agitators” reflected “recklessness and a lack of judicial responsibility” and had strained the relationship between the Baltimore police department and the state’s attorney’s office. (A George Washington University law professor who filed a separate complaint against Mosby in June was previously involved in a successful effort to have a North Carolina district attorney disbarred after the failed prosecution of three Duke University athletes in a 2006 rape case.)

The Baltimore police union nearly doubled its membership dues this year to cover legal expenses for the officers charged in Gray’s death. The local Fraternal Order of Police spent around $800,000 last year on legal fees—the vast majority on the Gray case—and was “quickly becoming insolvent” as a result, FOP president Gene Ryan said. Although charges have been dropped and related expenses are expected to fall sharply, according to Ryan the union will continue collecting the increased dues as a precaution against future “malicious prosecution” of other officers by Mosby’s office.

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Four Reasons Why the Freddie Gray Case Isn’t Going Away Any Time Soon

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Voting Rights Advocates Score a Huge Win in North Carolina

by Renate60Xaoeqq Posted on July 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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A federal appeals court struck down a restrictive voting law in North Carolina on Friday, ruling that the state legislature acted with the intent to limit African American voting in enacting the measure. The law, which took effect in March, contained provisions that created new ID requirements, eliminated same-day voter registration, reduced early voting by a week, blocked a law that allowed 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and prevented ballots cast in the wrong precincts from being counted.

The law, originally passed in 2013 after the US Supreme Court gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act, was immediately challenged by a lawsuit but was upheld at the district court level in April. Friday’s decision reverses the lower court’s ruling.

“In holding that the legislature did not enact the challenged provisions with discriminatory intent, the court seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees,” wrote Judge Diana Gribbon Motz for the unanimous three-judge panel. “This failure of perspective led the court to ignore critical facts bearing on legislative intent, including the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina.”

The court’s decision notes that North Carolina’s law was initiated by state Republicans the day after the Supreme Court gutted a key portion of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. That decision, Shelby v. Holder, ruled that the mechanism used to determine which states needed pre-clearance for voting law changes due to a history of racial discrimination was outdated. This ruling cleared the way for states like North Carolina—which previously had to have all voting law and procedural changes reviewed by the US Department of Justice or a federal judge—to enact any voting changes they wished.

Marc Elias, one of the lawyers who fought the law on behalf of a group of younger voters in North Carolina, told Mother Jones Friday that the decision represented a strong rebuke of race-based voting legislation.

“The Fourth Circuit decision is a milestone in the protection of voting rights,” Elias said. “It is a great day for the citizens of North Carolina and those who care about voting rights. Significantly, the court put down an important marker against discrimination in voting when it wrote, ‘We recognize that elections have consequences, but winning an election does not empower anyone in any party to engage in purposeful racial discrimination.'”

Rick Hasen, a national expert on election law, wrote Friday that the decision reversed “the largest collection of voting rollbacks contained in a single law that I could find since the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act.” Hasen noted that this was the third major voting rights victory of the past two weeks. On July 19, a federal court weakened Wisconsin’s strict voter ID law; the next day, a panel of federal judges ruled that Texas’ strict voter ID law violated federal law.

The state of North Carolina could now seek to have the case reheard before the entire Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, or it could appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

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Voting Rights Advocates Score a Huge Win in North Carolina

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Suspected US Coalition Airstrikes In Syria Kill Scores of Civilians

by ArnoldMidgett Posted on July 19, 2016

Mother Jones

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Suspected airstrikes by the United States-led coalition in Syria recently killed at least 56 civilians, including 11 children, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The death toll from airstrikes targeting two villages near the Islamic State-controlled city of Manbij could be as high as 200, which would make it the coalition’s deadliest attack in two years.

In an interview with the non-profit journalism outlet Syria Direct on Tuesday, a local citizen journalist said the school housed displaced people and that 124 dead had been counted so far. A day earlier, 21 people were killed in raids also believed to be carried out by coalition aircraft north of Manbij. The airstrikes coincided with a ground offensive launched by ISIS against the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces, according to the New York Times.

In a statement, Amnesty International stated that the United States needs to do more to prevent civilian casualties. “The bombing of al-Tukhar may have resulted in the largest loss of civilian life by coalition operations in Syria,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty’s interim deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program. “There must be a prompt, independent and transparent investigation to determine what happened, who was responsible, and how to avoid further needles loss of civilian life. Anyone responsible for violations of international humanitarian law must be brought to justice and victims and their families should receive full reparation.”

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has not commented on the latest reports of civilian deaths. The Pentagon’s estimates of civilian casualties from its anti-ISIS campaign have long been at odds with those of reputable monitoring groups.

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Suspected US Coalition Airstrikes In Syria Kill Scores of Civilians

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Donald Trump Has Nice Things to Say About Megalomaniac Autocrats

by John Parks Posted on July 13, 2016

Mother Jones

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When Donald Trump recently praised former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at a rally in North Carolina, it was not his first time expressing admiration for dictators and despots. In the past, he has complimented North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. His top political operative, Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican lobbyist and consultant, has made millions of dollars working the system on behalf of corporations seeking government favors as well as Third World strongmen and kleptocrats.

In fact, the two men have been involved with an unusual number of the world’s autocrats and despots. Here are a few whom Trump has praised or for whom Manafort has worked, and some of their most notable abuses of power.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: During Saddam’s reign in Iraq from 1979 to 2003, human rights groups documented numerous instances in which the regime engaged in brutal torture, systematic rape, arbitrary executions that included beheadings, and other abuses. After Saddam was captured in 2003 by US forces, the New York Times estimated that his regime had contributed to approximately 1 million deaths in Iraq’s prisons and in the war he had launched against Iran.

Trump connection: At a rally in North Carolina in July, Trump said of Saddam: “He was a bad guy—really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. It was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Since returning to power in 2012, Putin has passed laws and instituted policies that crack down on freedom of expression and assembly. A 2012 law targeted groups that accept foreign funding—often NGOs with social justice causes. Authorities have arrested hundreds of activists at opposition rallies across the country. Under Putin, the Russian parliament also unanimously passed several pieces of anti-gay legislation, including the “gay propaganda” bill, passed in the run-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, that emboldened vigilante gangs to torment gay people. Some Russia researchers and Putin opponents suggest a link between Putin, one of his allies, and the 2015 killing of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition activist, as well as the deaths of other opposition figures.

Trump connection: “I think Putin’s been a very strong leader for Russia,” Trump said during a GOP debate in March. “He’s been a lot stronger than our leader, that I can tell you.” A few months prior, Trump said in an interview with ABC, “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has.”

Former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi: Gaddafi’s 42-year reign in Libya was marked by the arrest, imprisonment, disappearance, or torture of thousands of government critics, protesters, and civilians perceived to be in cahoots with the political opposition. The regime also sanctioned televised public hangings and mutilation of political opponents. In 1996, security forces fatally shot more than 1,000 inmates at a Libyan prison.

Trump connection: In a February GOP debate, Trump said, “We would be so much better off if Gaddafi were in charge right now.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Last week, the US government issued sanctions against the North Korean leader as well as 10 other North Korean officials for their complicity in human rights abuses. “Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture,” said Adam J. Szubin, acting undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a press release. The Treasury Department singled out Kim Jong Un’s Ministry of State Security, which maintains a network of prison camps that hold 80,000 to 120,000 people. Egregious abuses in these state-run camps are common, according to the Treasury Department, and include “torture and inhumane treatment of detainees during interrogation and in detention centers. This inhumane treatment includes beatings, forced starvation, sexual assault, forced abortions, and infanticide.”

Trump connection: At a January rally in Iowa, just days after North Korea said it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, Trump said, “If you look at North Korea, this guy, he’s like a maniac, okay? And you got to give him credit. How many young guys—he was like 26 or 25 when his father died—take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it. How does he do that? Even though it is a culture, and it’s a culture thing, he goes in, he takes over, he’s the boss. It’s incredible.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: According to a 2016 Human Rights Watch summary on Syria, Assad’s government has been carrying out “deliberate and indiscriminate” attacks on civilians while doing little to end the ongoing civil war. “Incommunicado detention and torture remain rampant,” Human Rights Watch noted. A UN Human Rights Council report found that many detainees in Syrian prisons had been beaten to death or died as a result of injuries sustained during torture or due to inhumane living conditions. “The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts,” the UN concluded.

Trump connection: On a June 2015 episode of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, Trump discussed his Middle East policy shortly after announcing his run for president. “So we’re helping the head of Syria, who is not supposed to be our friend,” Trump said, “although he looks a lot better than some of our so-called friends.”

Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych: Yanukovych served as Ukraine’s president from 2010 to 2014 before being ousted in February 2014, following mass protests against his regime in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. His rule was marked by a slide from democracy to a more authoritarian style of government. Yanukovych’s regime jailed officials of the previous administration, including the former prime minister. Following Yanukovych’s ouster, a warrant was issued for his arrest due to involvement in the “mass killing of civilians,” related to the deaths of at least 82 people, primarily protesters, in Kiev earlier that winter.

Trump connection: Manafort was first hired to work for Yanukovych on his 2004 presidential campaign. Yanukovych was momentarily victorious but lost power after allegations of massive electoral fraud led to the Orange Revolution and a revote in which Yanukovych lost. He was appointed prime minister in 2006 and soon hired Manafort again to help his party win that year’s parliamentary elections. Manafort then stayed on as a general consultant. He worked on Yanukovych’s messaging and brand, trying to help the strongman and his party improve their image in the eyes of the Ukrainian people. After the 2010 presidential election, which Yanukovych won, Manafort continued working for him as an adviser. A former associate familiar with Manafort’s earnings told Politico that his total pay from work with Yanukovych ran into the seven figures.

Jonas Savimbi, former Angolan guerilla army leader: Savimbi and his guerilla army, UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), tried for decades to overthrow the Angolan government. In the process, they maimed or killed tens of thousands of civilians with land mines, and a Human Rights Watch report described men being forcibly recruited to fight, girls held in sexual slavery, and random killings or beatings of suspected government sympathizers.

Trump connection: With Angola in the middle of a civil war in 1985, Savimbi paid Manafort’s DC lobbying firm $600,000 to help him get funds and other support from the US government for UNITA’s work to overthrow the government. The lobbying effort led Sen. Bob Dole to encourage the United States to send additional arms to UNITA and the Reagan administration to funnel $42 million to UNITA from 1986 to 1987. Several sources, including Sen. Bill Bradley, have credited Savimbi’s continued willingness to pay large sums to Manafort’s firm, and the continued US funds that Manafort’s firm lobbied for, with delaying a cease-fire and protracting the violence in Angola.

Mobutu Sese Seko, former ruler of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo): Mobutu seized power of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a 1965 coup. He renamed the country the Republic of Zaire in 1971 and would remain its president until 1997. Mobutu established a political structure that kept most power in his hands, and he used his power to steal a fortune from the state for himself, while the rest of the country floundered economically. His regime was also marked by brutal treatment of its citizens: widespread torture of political opposition, illegal searches, military looting, beating, rapes, and arbitrary arrest and detention, often without a fair trial.

Trump connection: In 1989, Mobutu hired Manafort’s firm to orchestrate a PR campaign to clean up his image. Mobutu paid the firm $1 million a year for this service.

Sani Abacha, former president of Nigeria: Abacha became the head of Nigeria in 1993, when he overthrew a transitional government. The following year, he formally assigned absolute power to his regime, issuing a decree that placed his jurisdiction above that of the courts. His rule ended in 1998 with his death, but in the intervening years Abacha’s regime engaged in brutal treatment of Nigerian citizens: He arrested or executed his opponents, shut down democratic institutions, and reportedly stole nearly $500 million from the government for his own personal coffers.

Trump connection: Abacha hired a firm run by Manafort in 1998 to help him orchestrate a PR campaign that would convince Americans that he was the leader of “a progressive emerging democracy,” wrote the New York Times in 2000. The Times reported that the Abacha account was handled primarily by Manafort himself.

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Donald Trump Has Nice Things to Say About Megalomaniac Autocrats

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Explosive oil trains are feeling some serious heat this week

by RodgerHayman16 Posted on July 6, 2016

off the rails

Explosive oil trains are feeling some serious heat this week

By on Jul 6, 2016 6:29 pmShare

Exactly three years ago from this Wednesday, a 74-car freight train carrying 30,000 gallons of crude oil rolled into the sleepy town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, at 1:15 p.m. It caught the wrong edge of a turn, exploded, and in seconds became the worst Canadian rail accident since 1864, killing 47 people.

Despite this disaster, Canada and the U.S. continue to ship flammable crude through major cities all across the country — but this week, protestors are trying to end that practice.

On Wednesday, environmental and climate activists delivered a letter addressed to President Barack Obama demanding companies stop transporting crude oil by train, signed by 144 emergency responders, officials, and public interest groups. Dozens of cities across North America will play host to demonstrations aimed at stopping crude oil trains throughout the week. Already, the tag #StopOilTrains, kicked off by the environmental group Stand.earth, is populating with images from thee demonstrations.

The number of oil train shipments has exploded over the past decade, from 9,500 in 2008 to more than 400,000 in 2013, mainly due to the geyser of oil newly from North Dakota’s Bakken shale. But along with the trains came explosions — several of them located directly adjacent to densely populated places. Just last week, a train exploded near Mosier, Ore., closing local schools and sending a plume of smoke into the air.

A “blast zone” map created by Stand.earth can tell you if you’re one of the 25 million Americans who could be evacuated (or worse) in the event of an oil train derailment. From my apartment in Seattle, I found out that I’m located in the “potential impact zone” — and I can tell you right now, it doesn’t feel good.

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Explosive oil trains are feeling some serious heat this week

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Obama gets riled up about Trump and climate change

by KristianNeff Posted on July 6, 2016

Trumped

Obama gets riled up about Trump and climate change

By on Jul 6, 2016Share

President Obama and Hillary Clinton looked more like old friends than old rivals at their first joint campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both heaped praise on the other — she’s the most qualified candidate in history; he has a nice smile — and then got down to the business at hand: attacking Donald Trump.

Unlike at a Trump rally, where concern for climate change is considered a character flaw, the issue was front and center at Tuesday’s event. Obama in particular praised Clinton’s work setting the groundwork for the Paris Climate Accord when she was secretary of State, while noting that her opponent wants to pull the U.S. out from the hard-won agreement:

With Secretary Clinton’s help, America ultimately led nearly 200 other nations to an agreement to save this planet for future generations.

Now, maybe — maybe you don’t care about this. Maybe you think 99 percent of scientists are wrong … But the point is, we’re not done with this, so where we go from here is up to you.

You can vote with the climate deniers who want to tear up the agreements we’ve crafted and doom our kids to a more dangerous world, or you can vote to keep putting people back to work building a cleaner energy future for all of us.

It’s a message that may resonate with North Carolina voters: While Democratic presidential candidates have only won the state twice since 1970, a 2014 Sierra Club poll found more than 60 percent of voters wanted action on climate change.

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Obama gets riled up about Trump and climate change

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Arctic sea ice, did you lose weight? You look amazing!

by RusselProby Posted on June 8, 2016

Arctic sea ice, did you lose weight? You look amazing!

By on Jun 8, 2016

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

Arctic sea ice shrank to its lowest level in 38 years last month, setting a record low for the month of May and setting up conditions for what could become the smallest Arctic ice extent in history, according to National Snow and Ice Data Center data released Tuesday.

“We didn’t just break the old May record, we’re way below the previous one,” NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said.

This graph shows Arctic sea-ice extent as of May 31, along with daily ice extent data for previous years.NSIDC

Compared to normal conditions, the Arctic ice cap was missing a Texas-sized slab of ice in May. It spread across 4.63 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, and adjacent areas of the North Atlantic — an area 224,000 square miles smaller than the previous low record for the month set in 2004. May’s record low follows four previous monthly record lows set in January, February, and April.

Temperatures averaged about 3 degrees C (5 degrees F) above normal across the Arctic Ocean this spring. The warmth made daily sea-ice extents average about 232,000 square miles smaller than during any May in the 38 years scientists have been gathering data using satellites.

The Arctic, which saw unusually warm temperatures near-freezing during a severe storm in December, is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe as the climate changes. This year’s extreme El Niño may also have helped crank up the heat.

Sea ice this year is melting at a pace two to four weeks faster than normal as pulses of warm air have been streaming into the Arctic from eastern Siberia and northern Europe, and sea ice has retreated early from the Beaufort Sea.

Barrow, Alaska, on the Beaufort Sea, recorded its earliest snowmelt in 78 years last month. Normally, snow begins to retreat in late June or July, but the snow began to melt May 13 — 10 days sooner than the previous record set in 2002.

The May 21 view of Arctic sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, showing early ice thinning and melting.NASA

“The El Niño certainly had something to do with this,” Serreze said. “It can have impacts on weather conditions very far away from the tropical Pacific.”

These warm conditions at the beginning of the summer melting season have set up the Arctic sea ice to shrink below its all-time record lowest extent set in 2012, he said.

The extent to which the ice cap will melt this summer is entirely dependent on summer weather patterns that scientists have no way to predict more than 10 days in advance, he said.

“If we had a summer that is kind of cool and stormy, that will lead to less melt through the summer,” Serreze said. “That could keep you from reaching a new record.”

“Will we end up with very low sea-ice extent this September? I think pretty much absolutely,” he said.

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Arctic sea ice, did you lose weight? You look amazing!

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Louisiana Is Getting Worse and Worse for Women

by AmeliaPierce Posted on June 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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The Louisiana legislature continues to pass anti-abortion bills. The most recent one was signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards Tuesday night, and it bans the dilation and evacuation procedure, the safest and most common abortion method for women in their second trimester.

The law, known as the Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act, was sponsored by Rep. Mike Johnson (R), who said in a statement that the legislation reflects “who we are as a people.”

“In Louisiana, we believe every human life is valuable and worthy of protection, and no civil society should allow its unborn children to be ripped apart,” Johnson said after Edwards signed the bill. “Incredible as it seems, we needed a law to say that.”

During the procedure, a physician dilates the cervix and removes fetal tissue. The law leaves abortion providers with two options: either use a less effective method at that stage of pregnancy, such as medication abortion, or stop performing abortions after 14 weeks entirely. About nine percent of women who seek abortions do so after 12 weeks, when it would be necessary to have a dilation and evacuation (or D&E) procedure. If a physician were to violate the law, they be fined up to $1,000 and face up to two years in jail. The law does include a caveat that the procedure may be performed if the woman’s life is at risk.

“In a state with extremely limited options for women seeking reproductive health care, it’s unconscionable that Louisiana politicians are working overtime to pile on additional restrictions,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Louisiana women already face countless obstacles when they have made the decision to end a pregnancy, and these measures will only drive safe, legal, high-quality care out of reach for many women.”

The Guttmacher Institute, a leading think tank that provides research on reproductive rights, reported that legislators in 13 states have proposed D&E bans, despite judges in Kansas and Oklahoma blocking the laws. In the Kansas case, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists submitted an amicus brief arguing that bans on the D&E procedure seek “to substitute the legislature’s political judgment for the medical judgment of physicians to the detriment of patient safety.”

The legislative trend comes from model legislation penned by National Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that bills itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest pro-life organization.”

For example, medication abortion is appropriate for women who are up to 10 weeks along in pregnancy, but after that it’s not considered a safe and effective method, and it could lead to complications for women in their second trimester.

Other laws that have been passed and upheld this year include those involving waiting periods and admitting privileges for physicians.

Last month, Gov. Edwards signed legislation tripling the wait time between a woman’s initial consultation with a physician and her procedure. With this increase from 24 to 72 hours, Louisiana joined Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah as states with the longest waiting periods in the country.

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Louisiana Is Getting Worse and Worse for Women

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Trump now sounds like every other right-wing Republican on energy — well, almost

by MarguerU84 Posted on May 27, 2016

Trump now sounds like every other right-wing Republican on energy — well, almost

By on May 27, 2016 12:01 amShare

Donald Trump has sold himself as a different kind of Republican, but in his first energy policy speech on Thursday, he adopted the same tired, old energy ideas that have been trotted out by the GOP establishment for years. The only difference: Trump doesn’t actually understand the issues at play, so he avoided specifics and made absurd, impossible-to-keep promises.

Trump was not the fossil fuel industry’s preferred candidate. Primary opponents who had  proven their deference to big business, such as Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, were considered a safer bet by the oil, gas, and coal barons. Trump, with no real ideology and a tendency to flip-flop, was seen as more of a wildcard. Still, I predicted in March that if Trump locked up the nomination, he would adopt the traditional Republican energy agenda, just as once-moderate Mitt Romney had in 2012. And that’s exactly what Trump has now done.

We got a hint that Trump was headed in this direction when he brought on oil-loving Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) as his energy policy advisor earlier this month. Cramer has an extremely anti-environment record, including a lifetime voting score of 1 percent from the League of Conservation Voters.

Then, last week, Trump met with and sucked up to Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy, a coal mining company. Murray is such a staunch Republican that he is alleged to have pressured employees to donate to Romney’s 2012 campaign. Massey emerged from that meeting to say he was backing Trump, but that even he thinks Trump’s grandiose promises to bring back coal are impossible. (Trump also revealed that he doesn’t know what liquefied natural gas is.)

Saying all the right-wing stuff, sorta

In his speech at an oil industry conference in heavily-fracked North Dakota on Thursday, Trump called for much less regulation and much more drilling, fracking, and mining. But, in typical Trump fashion, he took things a step further than most Republicans do. In 2012, Romney called, nonsensically, for “North American energy independence.” Trump, though, doesn’t want Canada intruding on his effort to make America great again, so he said, “Under my presidency, we will accomplish complete American energy independence.” Never mind that “energy independence,” North American or otherwise, is impossible as long as we depend on fossil fuels that can be sold on the global market. Trump said he would ensure that we are “no longer at the mercy of global markets,” but more domestic drilling won’t free us from the tyranny of international markets unless we nationalize all of the oil companies and force them to sell only to Americans. Otherwise, rising demand in Asia or supply disruptions in the Middle East will continue to affect the price of gasoline.

Trump put his own spin on the Keystone XL issue too. He got the party line right when he said that he would “absolutely” approve the pipeline, but then he added that he would negotiate “a better deal.” The U.S. should get a “piece of the profits” from Keystone, he said. “That’s how we’re gonna make our country rich again.” That sort of kickback scheme may have worked when Trump was allegedly cutting deals with mafia-run construction outfits as a New York City developer, but there is no current mechanism for it under U.S. law.

He also promised “energy reform that creates trillions of dollars in wealth.” However he came up with that ridiculous number, he might as well have pulled it out of thin air. The only source he cited for the huge economic benefits of environmental deregulation was the Institute for Energy Research, a conservative advocacy organization founded by Charles Koch and run by a former Enron executive.

Trump’s pledge that in his first 100 days in office he would, “rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan” also offered political talking points rather than thoughtful policymaking. The Climate Action Plan is not an executive action, but a collection of actions, some of which are EPA rules, like the Clean Power Plan. It’s not clear which agency would repeal those rules if he first abolished the EPA, as he proposes. And removing those rules would be vulnerable in court without Congress first getting rid of the Clean Air Act and other legislation that requires the government to regulate pollutants.

Trump’s new energy agenda is all Republican politics without even the patina of policy seriousness offered by some more experienced politicians.

Playing to two wings of the party

Trump’s energy speech was all about holding the Republican coalition together: reaching out to the fossil fuel lobby while continuing to appeal to his rural, white, Christian base. In the primaries, Trump was the candidate of the party’s unwashed masses. Now he has to win over the elite business wing, especially now that he is raising money from them for his general election campaign. In a press conference before his speech, he gave repeated shoutouts to Harold Hamm, a North Dakota businessman who has made billions in oil and gas drilling and donated heavily to Republican campaigns.

Then he made his overture to the white working class by praising coal miners and their way of life. “The miners, they’re incredible people. I asked a couple of them, ‘Why don’t you go into some other profession?’ And they said, ‘We love going after coal.’” Trump’s pro-coal stance is so transparently political rather than based on any serious policy engagement that he just says coal is great because miners are great. And miners are great because they “love going after coal.” It’s circular logic. And like Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” it defines America’s past as its peak.

Likewise, Trump’s vow to undermine international climate negotiations — “We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs” — is as much a statement of nationalist, anti-U.N. resentment as anything to do with energy or environmental policy. It doesn’t matter that he wouldn’t be able to unilaterally pull the U.S. out of the deal.

Trump’s energy speech on Thursday demonstrated two things: he’s trying to reassure the GOP establishment that he will be a team player their economic agenda but he still has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to energy policy. But if he becomes president, he’ll find out the hard way that we can’t drill our way to “energy independence.”

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Trump now sounds like every other right-wing Republican on energy — well, almost

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9 Things You’ll Miss Without Wetlands

by VelvaLMPba Posted on May 19, 2016

You probably don’t give wetlands a second thought, but you should. They’re one of the most valuable parts of our ecosystemand they’re disappearing almost faster than we can keep track.

Twenty-two states have lost at least 50 percent of their original wetlands, with the most being lost in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that between 2004 and 2009, coastal wetlands declined by 80,160 acres per year.

“It’s as if we have a best friend who is seriously ill with a treatable disease, and we refuse to help him, though we watch closely, each day, as he shakes with fever, begs for water, becomes unable to walk or stand,” lamented Field and Stream.

The U.S. EPA calls wetlands the “kidneys” of the landscape. That’s because they’re so effective at removing pollution and sediment from the water that flows through them, improving water quality, attracting wildlife and creating a beautiful place to relax and enjoy nature.

But those attributes seem to be no match for the logging, draining, filling and development going on to convert wetlands to plantations, suburbs, shopping malls and factories.

During American Wetlands Month, which is celebrated in May, I wanted to highlight nine valuable benefitswe will all lose if we continue to let wetlands be destroyed.

1) Seafood – “Wetlands are essential to fish and shellfish…and the health of the nation’s multi-billion dollar commercial and recreational fishing industries,” said March Schaefer, NOAA Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Management. What’s at stake: crab, shrimp and lobster, making up nearly 80 percent of our fish and shellfish overall reports NOAA.

2) Ducks, Geese and Many Other Birds– Though wetlands comprise less than 10 percent of the nation’s land area, they support 75 percent of our migratory birds. If you enjoy watching geese migrate in spring and fall, along with other birds, you need to support wetlands.

3) Water Purification – Wetlands can absorb pollutants from surface water. They help trap sediment, too. As long as they’re not overwhelmed, wetlands act as a buffer between rivers and streams and the larger bodies of water they empty into.

4) Flood Protection – Wetlands protect coastlines after a storm by holding excess runoff after a storm, then releasing it slowly. Wetlands cannot prevent flooding, but they can lower the size of a flood surge, and by slowing its velocity. Think of a wetland as a giant sponge. It can hold much more water than other soil types, and for a longer period of time.

5)Groundwater Recharge – Underground aquifers that help provide our drinking water and nourish plants are refilled when water seeps into them through wetlands. During that process, the wetlands help filter the water, as well.

6) Frogs and Yes, Alligators – Many species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians rely on wetlands to breed, forage and nest. Wetland animals often cannot survive anywhere else. The high rate of wetlands loss has contributed to listing many animals species as threatened or endangered.

7) Photography and Art – Many beautiful photographs have been taken of wetlands and the animals and plants they support. Wetlands have inspired artists all over the world.

8) Canoeing and Kayaking – Because wetlands are usually so placid, they’re an ideal place to kayak, canoe and get uniquely close to nature. It takes very little skill to paddle a kayak in a wetland, making the sport available to everyone.

9) Places to Hunt and Birdwatch – Ironically, wetlands are ideal for birdwatching and hunting alike, though not at the same time. In fact, hunters are some of the most avid proponents of protecting wetlands because they have seen firsthand how destroying these ecosystems can threaten wildlife.

During the month of May, get out and explore wetlands near you. If you don’t know where any are, contact your state department of natural resources, or check the U.S. Fish & Wildlife website here.

Related:
Michigan Has Lost 40 Percent of Wetlands
Habitat Loss Threatens More than 90 Percent of Migratory Birds

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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9 Things You’ll Miss Without Wetlands

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