January, 08 2020, 11:00pm EDT
350 Action Endorses Morgan Harper (OH-3) and Mike Siegel (TX-10) for Congress, Stephen Smith for West Virginia Governor
Brooklyn, NY
350 Action is endorsing candidates who have demonstrated their commitment to progressive action on climate change, by supporting a just transition away from fossil fuels towards 100% renewable energy that centers a Green New Deal, and advocates to keep fossil fuels in the ground. You can find 350 Action's other 2020 endorsements here.
This week, 350 Action is endorsing the following candidates:
- Morgan Harper, Democrat candidate running for the House in Ohio's 3rd DIstrict
- Mike Siegel, Democrat candidate running for the House in Texas' 10th District
- Stephen Smith, Democrat candidate running for West Virginia Governor
The following is a statement from 350 Action's Policy Director, Natalie Mebane:
"We are at the edge of a precipice when it comes to climate justice, and this election year promises to change the course of climate change, if we support the candidates who will help get us there. We need climate advocates, not deniers, to represent the needs of frontline communities and Indigenous people, when it comes to protecting our homes and families from catastrophes created by fossil fuel companies and their executives. That's why 350 Action is proud to continue endorsing candidates who see climate change for the crisis it is and are determined to take bold action during the climate decade."
350 Action endorses Morgan Harper, Democrat candidate running for the House in Ohio's 3rd DIstrict on a platform that includes Tuition-Free Public College and Medicare for All. Here is her response to the 350 Action candidate questionnaire:
"I would support the elimination of all federal oil and gas industry subsidies, and reallocate those funds to ensuring a smooth transition for workers in the coal, oil, and gas industries to careers in green energy.... I would support shifting a significant portion of the existing Department of Defense budget to building national infrastructure, including public transportation, that can both slow and mitigate the effects of climate change. I would support the elimination of subsidies to large agricultural companies, and reallocate those funds to helping local farmers shift away from livestock and towards greener food production (both in terms of lower greenhouse gas-emitting and less water-intensive)."
350 Action endorses Mike Siegel, lawyer and Democrat candidate running for the House in Texas' 10th District, on a platform that includes Pro-Choice for Abortion and a Green New Deal. Here is his response, submitted by the Senator's team, to the 350 Action candidate questionnaire.
"I will sponsor and co-sponsor legislation in support of [demands for a moratorium on fossil fuel projects] and link them with local struggles as a way to build political power. For example, across the Texas 10th Congressional District, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is issuing new fracking permits, threatening an already-polluted community with additional contamination. We have a coal plant in Fayette County, in the middle of TX-10, that is publicly owned and operated, and has been poisoning a massive aquifer for 40 years, as coal ash contamination and acid rain leach into the groundwater. I am organizing in these communities, and will continue to do so as a representative, to bring these local struggles to the national stage, and to build a national movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground."
350 Action Stephen Smith, Democrat candidate running for West Virginia Governor on a platform that includes Freedom for People with Disabilities and a Worker's Bill of Rights. Here is his response, submitted by the Senator's team, to the 350 Action candidate questionnaire.
"I will raise severance taxes and pollution fines and fees to pay for a massive clean energy jobs and infrastructure program here in West Virginia."
350 Action is the independent political action arm of the non-profit, non-partisan climate justice group 350.org.
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Defying Calls From Voters and Lawmakers, Biden Refuses to Step Aside in New Letter
"This is very obviously a letter to voters, not to Congress," said one reporter. "It reads like a campaign speech."
Jul 08, 2024
As U.S. President Joe Biden faces mounting pressure from elected officials and voters to drop out of the current contest for the White House, he remains defiant, as was on display in a Monday letter to Democratic members of Congress.
Biden's letter begins, "Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump," a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee for November.
Since Biden's poor debate performance against Trump last month, at least nine Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have called on the president to exit the race and another 18 elected officials have raised concerns about whether he is up to beating the Republican and serving another term, according toThe Washington Post's new tracker.
"I have had extensive conversations with the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank-and-file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so," Biden wrote in the letter, which he shared on social media. "I have heard the concerns that people have—their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them."
Trump is on track to get the GOP's nomination despite three ongoing criminal cases, two impeachments during his first term, a recent conviction in New York, and fears that the aspirational dictator on "day one" will impose a sweeping far-right policy agenda, aided by new king-like powers.
"Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries," wrote Biden, whose win four years ago provoked some actions for which Trump now faces state and federal charges. "I carried it in 2020 when the fate of our nation was at stake."
"We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively," he continued. "I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin."
Biden has not faced any major challengers during this year's Democratic primary process—though voters in several states checked boxes for "uncommitted," to express outrage over the administration's support for Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Aaron Regunberg, who is part of a new campaign urging Biden to "Pass the Torch," called the primary section of Biden's letter "so breathtakingly cynical and dishonest," adding: "They blocked anyone of substance from running and refused to debate. Does anyone honestly think that if we'd seen that debate performance last fall Biden would have won a single primary?"
Responding to the letter on social media, Current Affairs similarly blasted the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for actions that have benefited Biden during the primary:
This argument is sickeningly unprincipled. The DNC did everything possible to make sure there wasn't a real primary. They refused to hold debates, rigged the calendar of elections to be maximally favorable to Biden, and pressured would-be competitors to stay out of the race.
Even as voters were overwhelmingly indicating they wanted someone other than Biden, party elites made sure they had no other viable option. And now they have the audacity to say that democracy means we have to respect their deceitful coronation of an incompetent candidate.
Biden, meanwhile, highlighted some of his administration's accomplishments on the climate, healthcare, infrastructure, jobs, and student debt relief, and proclaimed that "I have no doubt that I—and we—can and will beat Donald Trump."
"More importantly, we have an economic vision to run on that soundly beats Trump and the MAGA Republicans. They are siding with the wealthy and the big corporations and we are siding with the working people of America," he wrote, warning that the ex-president and GOP members of Congress aim to push through more tax cuts for ultrarich corporations and people while continuing to attack the Affordable Care Act, marriage equality, Medicare, reproductive rights, and Social Security.
"The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end," Biden argued. "We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump."
The president delivered similar messages in a private call with donors on Monday—a recording of which was obtained by Politico—as well as an interview last week with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos and when he called in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" early Monday and insisted that "I am not going anywhere."
The recent messaging has elicited a wide range of reactions, from Biden defenders welcoming "our marching orders from the president" to critics expressing disappointment over his determination to stay at the top of the ticket.
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"This alarming record underlines the need to urgently phase out fossil fuels, and to hugely increase climate finance," said one campaigner.
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Scientists on Monday underscored the urgent need to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy following the publication of data from the European Union's climate change monitor showing that last month was the hottest June ever recorded and that 2024 is likely to be the planet's hottest year on record.
Each month since June 2023 has been the hottest since records have been kept, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last week in its latest monthly bulletin.
According to the agency, June "was 1.50°C above the estimated June average for 1850-1900, the designated preindustrial reference period, making it the 12th consecutive month to reach or break the 1.5°C threshold."
"European temperatures were most above average over southeast regions and Turkey, but near or below average over western Europe, Iceland, and northwestern Russia," C3S noted. "Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over eastern Canada, the western United States and Mexico, Brazil, northern Siberia, the Middle East, northern Africa, and western Antarctica."
"Temperatures were below average over the eastern equatorial Pacific, indicating a developing La Niña, but air temperatures over the ocean remained at an unusually high level over many regions," the agency added.
C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement Monday that "even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm."
"This is inevitable unless we stop adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the oceans," he stressed.
In an interview with The Associated Press published Monday, C3S climate scientist Nicolas Julien called the new data "a stark warning that we are getting closer to this very important limit set by the Paris agreement."
"The global temperature continues to increase," he added. "It has at a rapid pace."
Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at the California-based nonprofit Berkeley Earth, toldReuters, "I now estimate that there is an approximately 95% chance that 2024 beats 2023 to be the warmest year since global surface temperature records began in the mid-1800s."
As Reuters reported Monday:
The changed climate has already unleashed disastrous consequences around the world in 2024. More than 1,000 people died in fierce heat during the Hajj pilgrimage last month. Heat deaths were recorded in New Dehli, which endured an unprecedentedly long heatwave, and amongst tourists in Greece.
"This is not good news at all," Aditi Mukherji, who co-authored the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, toldThe Guardian.
"We know that extreme events increase with every increment of global warming," she added, "and at 1.5°C, we witnessed some of the hottest extremes this year."
The Guardiansurveyed hundreds of IPCC authors earlier this year. Three-quarters of them said they expect Earth to heat by at least 2.5°C by the end of this century. Half of the surveyed scientists expect temperatures to rise above 3°C by 2100.
"It is a crisis," said Mukherji, and one that has a clear solution, given that burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of global heating.
Antonia Juhasz, a senior researcher on fossil fuels at Human Rights Watch, toldNation of Change that "as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, heatwaves are becoming more common, and intense heatwaves are more frequent."
"We can break the cycle, we can make oil companies stop burning fossil fuels," she added.
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Led by Left Coalition, French Election Shows 'How You Defeat the Far Right'
France's left-of-center parties held off a far-right advance in the country's parliamentary elections by building a progressive platform and forming strategic alliances, their supporters say.
Jul 08, 2024
Political figures from across the world congratulated France's left-of-center coalition following parliamentary elections on Sunday in which it gained the most seats of any group, outperforming the far-right party that many feared would take control of the National Assembly, in what The Washington Postcalled "one of the greatest political upsets in recent French history."
In the second and final round of voting, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) won roughly 180 out of the 577 seats in the assembly, far from a majority but more than President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition, which won about 160, or Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (RN), which won about 140 or 145.
Several parties including the leftist La France Insoumise (LFI), the center-left Parti Socialiste (PS), and Les Écologistes, a green party, joined forces to form the NFP after Macron announced a snap election in early June.
The parties came together out of fear of the RN, which led the polls and had the strongest showing of any party or alliance in the first round of the parliamentary elections on June 30. The NFP also opposed Macron's neoliberal agenda and supported progressive economic policies such as a lower retirement age.
Jeremy Corbyn, member of U.K. parliament and standard-bearer of the British left, said the French results provided "an urgent, valuable lesson."
"Don't concede ground to those who sow division and fear," Corbyn, who himself was reelected a few days ago, wrote on social media. "Build a bold left movement that offers an alternative of inclusion and hope. That is how you defeat the far right."
Similarly, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) argued that the French results offered confirmation of the popularity of progressive economic platforms like the NFP's.
"Here's a simple fact: If politicians stand with working families, working families will stand with you," Sanders wrote on social media. "As it turns out, lowering the retirement age and raising the minimum wage are very popular. Congratulations to the French left for taking on right-wing extremism and winning."
Ce soir, la justice sociale a gagné.
Ce soir, la justice environnementale a gagné.
Ce soir, le peuple a gagné.
Et ça ne fait que commencer !#VictoireNFP #ElectionsLegislatives2024 pic.twitter.com/3OwoRTdFTG
— Marine Tondelier (@marinetondelier) July 7, 2024
Several members of France's multiracial soccer team, currently competing in the UEFA European Football Championship in Germany, expressed joy and relief at the results of the election back home.
"The victory of the people," midfielder Tchouameni Aurélien wrote on social media.
Forward Marcus Thuram reacted similarly.
"Congratulations to all those who came forward in the face of the danger that hovered over our country," he wrote. "Long live diversity, long live the republic, long live France. The fight continues."
The effort to defeat the far right involved multiple levels of negotiation between left and centrist parties—not just the formation of the NFP, which prevented member parties from running candidates against one another, but also strategic cooperation between the NFP and Ensemble, Macron's own coalition, before Sunday's second round of voting.
Last week, going into the second round, more than 300 of the 577 legislative races had three or more candidates still in contention—in most cases, one NFP candidate, one Ensemble candidate, and one RN candidate. Because of a shared fear of the far right, the NFP and Ensemble negotiated to drop their third-place candidates from more than 220 races so that left and centrist votes wouldn't be split.
The strategy worked, with RN leaders, who last week had been openly speaking about obtaining a parliamentary majority of 289 seats, left with only about half of that figure or less—though even 140 seats marks a significant gain for the party, which had only 88 previously. The tallies are still being finalized, with different media outlets reporting slightly different totals.
Source: La Libération, based on data from France's interior ministry
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftist president of Brazil, praised the "maturity" of the groups that joined together to defeat the far right. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a centrist, expressed relief in light of the impact an RN victory could have had on the Ukraine war.
"In Paris enthusiasm, in Moscow disappointment, in Kyiv relief," Tusk wrote on social media. "Enough to be happy in Warsaw."
The coalition-building stands as a remarkable accomplishment given the challenges that it entailed: Just building the NFP alliance required tricky negotiation. Left-of-center parties, after decades of discord, formed an alliance for the first time in 2022, but it fell apart last year, and, though the PS was part of that alliance, it was not endorsed by prominent center-left figures such as former President François Hollande, who has backed the NFP.
The NFP parties didn't decide in advance whom they'd put forward for prime minister, and the different factions within the alliance are now jockeying for the position. Many of the more centrist NFP figures have declared that it can't be Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI leader, whom they view as divisive.
In any case, Macron has the power to name the prime minister, and it's not clear if he would be willing to name Mélenchon, who ran against him for president in 2017 and 2022. Macron on Monday declined to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, an ally from his own party, explaining that he should stay on "to ensure the stability of the country."
That's likely just a temporary solution: Ensemble had a near-majority in the previous parliament but, having lost more than 80 seats, will no longer be strong enough to avoid a vote of no confidence in the prime minister and his government. Macron will have to name a prime minister that a majority of the incoming National Assembly approve of or risk triggering such votes of no confidence. The newly elected parliamentarians are scheduled to begin their first session on July 18.
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