Category: self-authored

Steven Donziger, an American environmental attorney, went after Chevron. His focus was the Lago Agrio oil field case or the “Amazon Chernobyl.”

‘He represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous Ecuadorians in a case against Chevron related to environmental damage and health effects caused by oil drilling. The Ecuadorian courts awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 billion in damages, which led Chevron to withdraw its assets from Ecuador and launch legal action against Donziger in the US.

In 2011, Chevron filed a RICO suit against Donziger in New York City. The case was heard by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who determined that the ruling of the Ecuadorian courts could not be enforced in the US because it was procured by fraud, bribery, and racketeering activities. As a result of this case, Donziger was disbarred from practicing law in New York in 2018.

After having been under house arrest since August 2019 awaiting trial on charges of criminal contempt of court, which arose during his appeal against Kaplan’s RICO decision, in July 2021 US district judge Loretta Preska found him guilty; he is now facing the possibility of a 6-month jail sentence. While under house arrest, in 2020 twenty-nine Nobel laureates described the actions taken by Chevron against Donziger as “judicial harassment” and human rights campaigners have described Chevron’s actions as an example of a strategic lawsuit against public participation. In April 2021, six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus demanded that the Department of Justice review Donziger’s case. In September 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ruled that the pre-trial detention imposed on Donziger was illegal and called for his release.’

Steven was sentenced to prison today on contempt charges. It is unprecedented.

Oil companies own us. The level of corruption in our judicial and political systems is deeply depressing. We will drive our gas guzzling American trucks and Humvees into extinction, and take the rest of the world with us.

While Modi is gallivanting in the US, with Kamala Harris talking about the ‘Indian people’s commitment to democracy and freedom’ (such empty words), this is what is happening in Modi’s India:

“Hindu Mobs, anti-Muslim Boycotts: In Modi’s India, the Echoes of 1930s Germany Are Growing Louder

Modi is talking to world leaders about the threat of Islamist radicalization. But the real threat to India comes from a radicalizing Hindu majority fueled by the increasingly brazen, violent anti-Muslim bigotry of Modi’s own party.”

for a poor country that can’t afford universal healthcare for its people, the US found 1 billion dollars for israel’s effing iron dome (meant to protect an illegal genocidal occupation). this is on top of the 500 million dollars we give them annually already. if this doesn’t get ur goat, nothing will. 420 members of congress voted yes, only 9 voted no. remember their names: cori bush, andré carson, chuy garcía, raúl grijalva, marie newman, ilhan omar, ayanna pressley, and rashida tlaib. just goes to show how this system is beyond repair, beyond electoral politics, beyond common sense. its corruption is absolute, its racism and colonial aggression foundational. it needs to go.

i don’t have an opinion on AOC’s appearance at the met gala, but hey, do i have an opinion on the met gala itself. it is obscene. i just met a brilliant young woman the other day. she has three jobs (three!). one of them is teaching as an adjunct at columbia university. she’s in her early forties. she makes enough to just barely live in brooklyn and she’s constantly under stress because she has no health insurance. it’s criminal. and this isn’t even the worst of what this country offers. the rich are not rich because they work harder or are smarter, they’re rich because they know how to use/scam/milk a system that’s inherently unjust and meant to perpetually exacerbate inequities. i couldn’t care less for their antics or charity. they shouldn’t have that kind of money in the first place. eat the rich.

they are not the texas ‘taliban’ for heaven’s sake. the 6-week abortion ban in texas is quintessentially american. they’re texas cowboys, christian zealots, right wing conservatives. keep it within the realm of american evil pls. the level of casual islamophobia on the left is amazing.

thinking about the people of afghanistan – their strength and perseverance in the face of unimaginable horrors and deprivations for 42 years. the soviets invaded in 1979 and left in 1989, this was followed by a cruel civil war, a taliban takeover that devolved into tyranny, and then a brutal american invasion and military occupation which lasted twenty years (2001-2021). as american troops leave, people’s lives have been thrown into a tailspin, once again. the taliban controlled most of the country anyway and now they are back in power. it’s 2001 all over again. and what does american imperialism (with all its talk of democracy and women’s rights) leave behind except for torture sites and malnutrition? nothing. kabul falls like saigon fell in the 1970s, and it’s up to the people of afghanistan to pick up the bombed-out shards of their lives. shame on all those who used afghanistan as a ploy for their great games, proxy wars, and neocon experiments. no more imperialism, war or military occupation. open all borders and allow people to move freely, wherever they feel safe. unequivocal solidarity with all our friends and neighbors in afghanistan who have suffered too much and for too long already.