Showing posts with label tax code fairness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tax code fairness. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

To Die On The Job Is To Die For America

To Die On The Job Is To Die For America
by C. A. Matthews

The only things certain in life are death and taxes--and dying struggling to make ends meet while paying those taxes.

Okay, I made up that last part, but it works, particularly for Americans. We've been indoctrinated (programmed) to believe we must give everything of ourselves to our employer--our time, our creativity, our talent, our family life, our social life, our health. It's sad when you consider that in other parts of the world workers don't have to make such difficult choices. They don't have to decide between whether to keep the heat on this winter or pay for a family member's vital medications like Americans routinely do. Workers in most other countries can do both and still have money left over to spend on their guaranteed six weeks of yearly paid vacation.

How did it ever come to this? When did Americans become so brainwashed that they actually believe their employers have their best interests at heart? Why are Americans willing to work until they drop over dead in their tracks? This odd behavior didn't happen overnight. It was centuries in the making. But now that the corrupt economic system called "capitalism" has become a part of American secular religion, why haven't more apostates cropped up?

My thought is that our limited public educational system has made sure young Americans are taught that "democracy" is synonymous with "capitalism," but perhaps the confusion between these words is changing in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The propaganda line that our employers (and our government) are somehow always looking out for us has crashed and burned in the most spectacular fashion over these past two years of needless death and illness. 

Waking up from centuries of brainwashing in such a rough manner has thrown lots of people for a loop. But it's not as hard to convince workers in the year 2022 that their bosses are selfish, greedy bastards. The news--or at least the social platforms--abounds with stories of bosses firing workers for not reporting in to work while suffering from a potentially lethal illness. The Centers for Disease Control blithely changing their "tested positive, stay home 10 days policy" to only five days at the request of Delta Airlines (among others corporations) further demonstrates that the federal government exists only to serve the capitalists at the expense of the workers.

"Essential" workers like nurses, janitors, daycare workers, teachers, grocery cashiers, restaurant workers, etc., have discovered they are "expendable" workers now that mandatory lockdowns are a thing of the past. If employers can't make the profits they'd like from their workers, then bosses threaten to hire other workers to take their place. Forcing sick employees back to their stations while forcing young students back into plague pits (a.k.a. "schools") so their parents can go back to work in person has only fueled the pandemic and sent more adults and children into ICUs. 

Is it any wonder why the US hasn't vaccinated 100% of our population? Why should American workers trust government officials who change COVID policy at the whim of an airline CEO whose lobbyists keep stuffing filthy cash into these same government officials' pockets? Why should anyone trust private Big Pharma corporations who are making billions selling life-saving drugs and vaccines when they won't even share the formulas with the rest of the world, especially the Global South? Are workers simply guinea pigs to test out new forms of pharmaceuticals and new forms of work coercion on?

The only bright side to this horrible mess we're still in after almost two years is this: More and more Americans clearly see how capitalists do not care one measly bit about the welfare of their workers or their workers' families. And more and more Americans want to see the capitalists pay their fair share of taxes, stop exploiting their workers, and stop destroying the planet with their insane need for profits over peace and life itself. And there are some Americans who are willing to share their skills to provide a patent-free vaccine with the world.

That it had to come to this to open so many eyes is sad, but at least perhaps now we can all rest easy knowing that the almost one million American COVID-19 victims didn't die in vain.


 The CDC Says It's Okay For Workers To Die...

The “individual responsibility” narrative of vax, mask, shut up, and work is beneficial for the ruling class as it exploits our labor and our deaths for profit. In addition to vaccination, there are other safety measures that could reduce risk of infection in a pandemic, such as providing people with housing, workers’ democratic organization of their own schedules and working conditions, and paying workers to stay home if exposed. The ruling class, however, would never allow any of these options because they would cut into their profit margin. --Ending a Global Pandemic Should Not Rely On Individual Responsibility, Mike Pappas and Adnan Ahmed https://truthout.org/articles/ending-a-global-pandemic-should-not-rely-on-individual-responsibility/

Politicians of both parties have jumped on the COVID-19 money train. According to Business Insider, “as the pandemic raged, at least 75 lawmakers bought and sold stock in companies that make COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests.” That includes Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who grandstands as an anti-vaxxer while buying vaccine manufacturer stocks. --Should Biden Resign Over COVID-19 Deaths? Peter Dao  https://peterdaou.substack.com/p/daou-memo-should-biden-resign-over

Related articles:  

Texas Team Applauded for Giving What Big Pharma Refuses: A Patent-Free Vaccine to the World https://popularresistance.org/texas-team-applauded-for-giving-what-big-pharma-refuses-a-patent-free-vaccine-to-the-world

Delta Cuts Paid Sick Leave for Workers With COVID After Lobbying for CDC Change  https://truthout.org/articles/delta-cuts-paid-sick-leave-for-workers-with-covid-after-lobbying-for-cdc-change

Flight Attendant Union Criticizes CDC For Decision Pushed by Corporate America  https://popularresistance.org/flight-attendant-union-criticizes-cdc-for-decision-pushed-by-corporate-america

Seen on Twitter:

***

You’re in good company.

You are standing with fellow parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles around the country, committing to protect our families and kids.

We are part of a large majority of Americans who are worried and support meaningful action to stop pollution and address global warming.

Together, we have the power to make our elected leaders act with the speed and scale required to protect a safe future for kids.  

Families For A Future will help you connect with resources and opportunities for meaningful action, however much (or little) time you have. There are many we can have an impact if we come together in our communities, and across the country.

But it’s up to you to be a part of building a call for action that is so visible and loud, it is impossible for lawmakers to ignore.  

Here are four things to know, right now.

  • Global warming is simple. There’s too much heat-trapping pollution from burning oil, gas, and coal to make energy. Lawmakers have the power to stop pollution by rapidly replacing fossil fuels with clean energy. They need to act immediately!

  • We have the technology to create a future without pollution. And it will be vastly better. Transitioning to clean energy will save lives, save money, and provide huge economic benefits, without sacrificing the lives we lead today.

  • It’s ok to feel confused. Polluters spent 30+ years and billions of dollars lying to us and blocking solutions. They want us to feel guilty, overwhelmed, and paralyzed. But every one of us can take action and make sure others know they can, too.

  • It’s not just about what you do, it’s about who you bring. We need more people creating loud and visible pressure on lawmakers. You know lots of people who care about their kids’ future! Talk to them. Get them involved.

Here are two things to do, right now:

  • Follow @afuturedotorg on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Like and share, but most importantly, be part of this conversation.

We can do this. We have to.

- Families For A Future 

***

From Friends of the Earth:

The Biden administration has given Big Oil permits to drill on our public lands at a rate of 334 permits per month. That’s a higher monthly rate than the Trump administration gave out in his last two years in office. Take action now.

Candidate Biden promised to stop all new oil and gas leasing on our public lands and protect the people and wildlife that call it home. But President Biden broke his promise to the people that elected him.

There’s still time to reverse course, C.A.. I’m counting on you to remind President Biden who put him in office. You have the power to stop oil and gas leasing on our public lands -- starting with next month’s proposed sale. Will you use it? 

Hold President Biden accountable to the people: Demand he keeps Big Oil off our public lands! 

Sign Now

Soaring mountains. Singular rock formations. Desert landscapes. Countless geological wonders. These are just some of the marvels that make up our public lands. And right now, they’re all under threat. 

On your next trip to see America’s impressive landscape, you might find a massive oil rig blocking your view of the mountain peaks. Rock formations may be roped off to keep people out of a drilling site. You might notice the wildlife that lives on our public lands has been scared off by loud fossil fuel projects. 

Our public lands from Alabama to Montana are at risk of Big Oil’s destruction. But this fight isn’t over yet. It’s not too late for President Biden to stop oil and gas leasing. The only way to make sure he acts is by ramping up public pressure ahead of the next 300,000-acre lease sales in February. 

Demand the Biden administration stop selling off our public lands to Big Oil!

Sign Now

If the fossil fuel industry takes over our wild places, they will never be the same. Bulldozers will uproot and destroy native trees and terrain. Wildlife will be displaced. And the air and water will be polluted. 

More drilling = more fossil fuels being burned = worsening the climate crisis. There’s no excuse for leasing public lands to the fossil fuel industry while wildfires, storms, and flooding are devastating communities -- and we’re running out of time to stop it.  Demand that President Biden put wildlife, people, and the planet ahead of Big Oil.

Tell President Biden to keep Big Oil’s destruction out of our public lands!

Sign Now

Standing with you,
Nicole Ghio,
Senior fossil fuels program manager,
Friends of the Earth

 

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Tuesday, June 22, 2021

A "Nothing Will Fundamentally Change" Federal Holiday

A "Nothing Will Fundamentally Change" 

Federal Holiday

by C. A. Matthews 

The white man will try to satisfy us with symbolic victories rather than economic equity and real justice. -- Malcolm X  

I was not particularly excited to hear that Biden had signed a proclamation making Juneteenth into a federal holiday recently. I read somewhere that Juneteenth is already a holiday in 47 states, so it comes across as too little, too late in regards to turning it into a federal holiday. But Biden's timing on making it a holiday really begs the question, "Why now?"

If you get your news headlines from independent news sources, the answer to that question is fairly obvious. Not everyone is so enlightened, so here is a short explanation to make things clear:

Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis, who are trying to maintain the memorials erected to George Floyd, are being pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, and shot at by police with rubber bullets. Cops across the country are still getting away with the murders of and assaults upon people of color. Violence against non-white Americans hasn't gone away just because Trump isn't in the White House.

Upwards of 11 million Americans--many of them people of color--face homelessness when the moratorium on evictions ends on June 30th. Twenty-six states are kicking 3.6 million people off the dole during a pandemic, ending the $300 extra weekly unemployment benefits. The pandemic has ended many jobs in the service sector once and for all, which affects many black and brown workers. And we're still without Medicare For All, a universal health care plan that would cover Americans no matter their work or health status.

Of course, racism is still rampant in the US, reparations for slavery have never been made, restitution for the burning down and massacre of black residents of the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma (among others), has never been made, and the differential in wealth between white and black families has never been higher. The average net wealth gap between white and black households is $800,000 according to a survey taken in 2016. According to the Brookings Institute, if black households held a share of the national wealth in proportion to their share of the total US population, it would amount to $12.68 trillion in household wealth, rather than the actual sum of $2.54 trillion.

The actual racial wealth gap in the US is $10.14 trillion. That's a lot of reparations to be made, isn't it?

Can you imagine the billionaire capitalists--who have made the majority of their  wealth from the poorly-paid labor of people of color--paying their fair share of taxes and returning that stolen wealth to African American communities? Our tax code is not blind, and people of color find themselves being penalized more often than upper-class whites.

So, why now? Why make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021? Because politicians will do anything to distract the public from considering how little they actually care about what is happening--or what will happen--to any of us.

To quote Emma Goldman: "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."  Some politicians might want to make voting more difficult for people of color, but it's not illegal yet. That's only because it does serve a purpose--it distracts many into thinking that the current governmental system actually works in their favor as they're forced to vote for the "lesser of two evils."

So, pardon me if I label June 19th as a "Nothing Will Fundamentally Change" federal holiday because nothing has been set in motion by the federal government to demonstrate that things will change for the better for African Americans and for other non-white Americans. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I have the sad feeling I won't be.

We should keep celebrating and remembering what Juneteenth signifies, but we shouldn't forget that there's still much to be done to make things right for every American. Celebrate but don't forget. It's what they want us to do, so let's not give them the confidence that they've thrown the wool over our eyes by creating another bank holiday that most poor people of color will be forced to work. Let's keep fighting for justice. Let's keep fighting for fundamental change.


https://youtu.be/LR1WejBI87U and this companion video on so-called "Race Riots" (which are massacres by any other name): https://youtu.be/U-U4HLR5HZ0

Related Articles:

 https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/69992-focus-juneteenth-is-about-freedom

https://truthout.org/articles/on-juneteenth-lets-celebrate-momentum-of-a-growing-racial-justice-movement/

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/69981-few-cops-we-found-using-force-on-george-floyd-protesters-have-faced-discipline

 https://truthout.org/articles/black-womanist-theology-offers-hope-in-the-face-of-white-supremacy/

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/70010-focus-to-james-baldwin-the-struggle-for-black-liberation-was-a-struggle-for-democracy

 ***

From Public Citizen: 

 

Some quick history:

  • Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862.
  • It said that all enslaved people in Confederate states were to be freed as of January 1, 1863.
  • But it was not until over two years later that Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.
  • And it was another two months before Union troops informed the last remaining slaves (in Texas) that they were free — on June 19, 1865.

Since then, Juneteenth (that’s June plus nineteenth) has been a day to reflect on not just the history of slavery but also its ongoing effects and the work we still have to do together to bring about racial justice.

Yesterday — with legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden just last week — the United States officially observed Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the first time.

The historic legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday was introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas.

Tell Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee:

Thank you for leading the way to make Juneteenth a federal holiday!

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

***

National Domestic Workers Alliance (Logo)

Today is Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day the last American slaves learned they were free. As we celebrate it is important to remember that the abuse, dehumanization, and invisibility that characterized domestic work during the time of slavery persists today. In fact, Black domestic workers are some of the most invisible, essential, and unprotected workers in our country.

For these reasons and many more, we believe that our organizing must be led by and center the lives of Black women. Through our We Dream in Black (WeDiB) program and its Unbossed Agenda, we are committed to shaping the future in a way that lifts up the Black domestic workforce and brings value and respect to our labor and history of our struggle.

LEARN ABOUT WEDiB →

Black domestic workers are essential — to our economy, democracy, and society. They care for our children, our homes, our elderly family members, and our loved ones with disabilities.

Yet, for centuries, the systems that built and fueled America and its wealth thrived on a disregard for, and subjugation of Black women — and domestic workers are inseparable from this history.

It’s why racist leaders excluded Black domestic workers from many of the basic labor protections afforded other workers.

It’s why, before the coronavirus pandemic, Black families were one emergency away from a crisis, having been carved out of a social safety net generations ago.

And it’s why, when the COVID-19 virus hit, domestic workers were the first to lose income and the last to receive support, if at all.

And it’s also why every industry, including the care industry, must stand up and confront the reality that today — more than 150 years after the last of the enslaved Americans learned they had been emancipated — Black people in this country are still not truly free.

We have a vision for a better future — one where everyone is able to live and work safely and with dignity. And that vision pulls on the strength and power of Black domestic workers, past and present.

From enslaved women’s daily forms of resistance to the coordinated strikes of washer women in the late 19th-century to organizing initiatives pioneered by 20th-century domestic workers, there is a long and powerful tradition of Black domestic workers organizing to secure justice and dignity – in the workplace and in the broader society.

We honor these legacies by centering the voices and leadership of Black women...because Black women are who the domestic care industry was built to exploit. The Unbossed Agenda is WeDiB’s organizing directive to give power back to the visions of Black domestic workers and to root out the legacy of slavery from the domestic work industry, improving the lives of millions of domestic workers across the nation.

Because, If we can solve for Black domestic workers, we can create an economy and society that works for everyone.

A better future is possible, one in which Black people experience abundant joy, safety, and well-being. And we all have a role to play in building the future everyone deserves. Get started by learning more about our Unbossed Agenda and by investing in Black domestic workers.

UNBOSSSED AGENDA →

Thanks for all that you do,

Allison Julien
New York Chapter We Dream in Black Co-Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance

***


Juneteenth became an official national holiday, and it’s a time for gratitude. It’s also a moment to recognize we still have a long way to go. As you are well aware, the scars left on this nation by America’s original sins — the enslavement of Black People and the genocide of Indigenous Peoples — aren’t going away anytime soon. We must keep working to combat the institutionalized legacy of political, legal, and economic oppression in this country. A national holiday commemorating the freedom of this nation’s last slaves (two years after slavery was legally abolished) is a great step, and it also isn’t enough.

Racism is alive and well in the USA. Right now, in fact, rightwing lawmakers are having a field day attacking educators who want to teach the real history of this country. I encourage you to read my blog post about the necessity of teaching Critical Race Theory in our schools. From there, please sign our petition to lawmakers asking them to support the teaching of America’s true past to our children.

Lakota Law

I also encourage you to watch yesterday’s episode of my vlog, “Cut to the Chase.” I was fortunate to have an incredible conversation with Kimberly Jones, the African American author and activist who went viral last year with her powerful video decrying the violence inflicted upon America’s Black people — historically and today — by institutions set up to protect white supremacy.

As Kimberly points out, the propagation of repressive voter suppression laws is meant to keep voices of color out of the national conversation and out of the ballot box. More than a year after George Floyd’s murder — and 156 years after the Thirteenth Amendment — we must continue to have the hard conversations about what brought us here, and we should keep taking aggressive action to make good on America’s promise of justice.

I know that’s a lot of heavy stuff! But it’s part of our growth together, our journey toward true allyship and equity. We must stand beside one another, understand the anger and the pain, and help however we can. Only by actively teaching and learning about our past can we create the future we want for our next seven generations.

Wopila tanka — my hearty thanks for your passionate allyship with all oppressed peoples.


Chase Iron Eyes
Co-Director & Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project






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Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Billionaires-in-Spaaaace!


“There’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years, and my class has won.” -- Billionaire Warren Buffet, 2011

Last week's blog, No War But Class War, didn't seem to reach as many people as usual, and perhaps this week's blog subjects are the reason behind the shadow banning. After all, even capitalists are scared sometimes. They can't have workers and poor folks educated about who their real enemies are, can they?  They genuinely want to be viewed as "heroes," and soulless oligarchs who want to keep you slaving in an underpaid job with the hopes of health care coverage can't be seen as heroic if the truth of how they rarely (never) pay taxes is told.

 But all is not lost! Strap in and get your jet-packs ready... Are you ready to experience (for real) Billionaires-in-Spaaaace? 


Billionaires-in-Spaaaace!

by Coast Watcher

Big Money has always ruled space exploration and development. First it came from the public purse. US taxpayers funded various space missions culminating in the Apollo Project geared toward President John F. Kennedy’s order to "put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth before the decade was out."

As everyone knows it was mission accomplished. The Soviet Union was beaten to the prize, American honor post-Sputnik was saved, and prestige established. What everyone doesn’t know is that the Apollo program was entirely funded, with the equipment and expertise in place, up to and including Apollo 20. In a spectacular exercise in wastefulness, politicians eager to score brownie points with the voting public then did that public a huge disfavor by canceling the program after Apollo 17.

Some component parts were used in the Skylab program on the 1970s, and it did good science—but it wasn’t as sexy as a moon-shot. Most of the component lifting bodies and lunar modules wound up as museum exhibits. At its height the space program employed over 400,000 people, thousands of educational institutions, and thousands of manufacturers. All those employed spent their money like anyone else—on rent/mortgage payments, food, clothing, education for themselves and/or their children, and so on. The money wasn’t wasted. It really was spent here on Earth.

NASA entered something of a doldrums in the following decade. Although various highly successful missions to other planets and space probes beyond our solar system were launched, their main focus was on the "space-going truck," a.k.a. the Space Shuttle, and there’s nothing sexy about space trucking.

Forward to the 1990s, and the rise of private space ventures. Companies came and went with various projects involving space development usually focused on Earth orbital projects. Some prospered; others fell by the wayside. The field divides into three categories: Cargo transport, suborbital, and orbital.

SpaceX has the highest profile of all the private space ventures. Owned by Elon Musk, it was recently awarded the contract to provide hardware for the Artemis project which is scheduled to take humanity back to the moon beginning this year.

Blue Origin is owned by multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos. His company failed to win the contract for the Artemis project, so as "compensation" for losing out in the bidding war the government awarded Bezos’ company $10 billion in taxpayers’ money.

Bezos himself and his brother are due to lift into orbit aboard the Blue Shepherd rocket soon. It will reach an altitude of 60 miles where it’ll spend about 11 minutes before returning to Earth.

Rival multi-billionaire Sir Richard Branson plans to usurp Bezos’ private venture by a matter of days, aiming to beat him to orbit aboard his own Spaceship Two vehicle.

I’m old enough to have watched Apollo 11 lift off on its way to the moon, and remember that grainy footage of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the lunar surface coming in live. That was excitement, and the knowledge that humanity had witnessed a new dawn in human endeavor. What I see now smacks of rats deserting a sinking ship. 

I’m all for space exploration and development. I really want to see humanity expand into space. We should mine asteroids and build factories in orbit instead of mining our poor suffering Earth for ever dwindling resources and displacing yet more people from their homes to make way for polluting factories, pipelines, and strip mines. I’m just not convinced billionaire space enthusiasts really have the public interest at heart. You only have to look at the recent exposure of American billionaire tax returns to see what’s wrong here.

I believe there’s a case to be made to nationalize private ventures and use them for space development in an effort to help the human race instead of providing the means by which billionaires will reach Mars and establish their own empires free of any rules and laws bar their own. Somehow I doubt it’ll happen, and we’ll all be the sorrier for it.


BIO: Coast Watcher looks to the skies, and he doesn't always like what he sees. The heavens should belong to the people--not to elitist country club members. It's time we get the stars out of our eyes and search out those who are keeping us grounded and distribute the benefits of life in this century to all human beings. Power to the people!

 


Related Articles:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/why-does-jeff-bezos-want-to-go-to-space/ar-AAL20hG

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/69805-the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

https://www.citizen.org/article/the-price-of-zero/ 

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/69833-doj-vows-to-hunt-down-whoever-let-the-public-know-how-little-billionaires-pay-in-taxes

 

*** 

 

Protesters holding signs that say Honor our Treaties and Stop Line 3.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)


The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is dead. TC Energy, the company behind KXL, officially cancelled the project after the Biden administration revoked key permits that were rushed through under former-President Trump.

I'm proud to say that this would not have happened without the vision, tenacity, and unflagging optimism of NRDC supporters like you who fought this hard-won battle with us over the last 12+ years.

This victory is proof that together, we can break the fossil fuel industry's iron grip on our energy supply. But there are a slew of dangerous pipeline projects around the country that still threaten our climate and clean energy progress, including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), the Line 3 and Line 5 oil pipelines, and the Pacific Connector and Mountain Valley gas pipelines.

These projects were championed by former-President Trump — and now President Biden must make sure these dangerous pipelines never see the light of day.

 Send an urgent message to President Biden right now: STOP THE TRUMP FOSSIL FUEL PIPELINES. The only way forward is towards a future free from dirty fossil fuels.

 NRDC and our members and supporters were part of the movement against Keystone XL from Day One. We stand with the Indigenous and frontline communities who are fighting to protect their lands and waterways from other dirty, dangerous pipelines that violate decades-old land treaties, circumvent bedrock environmental laws, and derail our path towards the 100% clean energy future we need to continue life on Earth.

The Biden administration shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, and they have the power to shut down DAPL, the Line 3 and Line 5 oil pipelines that would pass through large swaths of the Midwest and under the Great Lakes, the Pacific Connector gas pipeline that would cut across nearly 500 waterways in Oregon, the Mountain Valley gas pipeline that would pass from West Virginia to North Carolina, and every other climate-busting fossil fuel pipeline greenlit under the Trump administration. In this moment, our voices must be louder than the fossil fuel industry as it desperately attempts to cling to the status quo.

 Send your message to President Biden today. Every Trump pipeline, including the DAPL, Line 3, Line 5, Pacific Connector, and Mountain Valley pipelines must be stopped — for communities, for the climate, and for the future. And the Biden administration MUST block any new pipelines from being developed.

Thank you — for everything you've done to help stop Keystone XL, and for fighting alongside us now to ensure these remaining fossil fuel pipelines meet the same fate.

Sincerely,

Anthony Swift
Canada Project Director, NRDC

DAPL Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Line 3 Photo: Lorie Shaull

The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Charity Navigator 

*** 

From Friends of the Earth:

Monarch butterfly populations in the West are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Take action now.

What was once a dazzling display of monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico each year has become barely a trickle. This past winter, only 1,914 monarchs were recorded -- the lowest number in history.

Monarchs are running out of time. I need your help to push for stronger conservation efforts to save these crucial pollinators.

Demand stronger protections for monarch butterflies.

Sign Now

Our most iconic pollinator is nearing population collapse. The decline of monarchs could have a ripple effect throughout already fragile ecosystems.  

Congress could help monarch populations recover. It could provide funding for on-the-ground conservation projects and habitat protection. This would give every state the resources to stop monarch butterflies from declining further.

These precious pollinators are fading before our eyes. C.A., your voice is needed to help save the monarchs. 

Tell Congress to save these iconic pollinators.

Sign Now

Big Ag is a significant driver in the decline of monarch butterflies. Glyphosate -- the key ingredient in Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup -- kills milkweed, the only food source for young monarch caterpillars. As the use of glyphosate has increased, monarch populations have dropped.

Researchers recently found that neonic pesticides produced by companies like Bayer-Monsanto and Syngenta reduce the number of monarch eggs that hatch and survive. Millions of monarch larvae are dying each year because of these pesticides.

Every day that Congress refuses to act, monarchs are pushed closer to extinction by companies like Bayer-Monsanto. We need your help to show legislators that a groundswell of activists support protecting monarchs!

Tell Congress to stop Bayer-Monsanto from wiping out the monarchs.

Sign Now

Standing with you,
Jason Davidson,
Senior food and agriculture campaigner,
Friends of the Earth

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