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For Immediate Release
August, 06 2024, 10:32am EDT
Contact:
Valentina Stackl, valentina@priceofoil.org
OCUS reaction to Kamala Harris Selecting Tim Walz as VP
In response to reports of Kamala Harris’s selecting Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate, Collin Rees, Political Director of Oil Change U.S., said:
“Kamala Harris picking Tim Walz as her running mate is an encouraging sign that she’s willing to listen to the Democratic base. Walz’s collaboration with a progressive legislature in Minnesota has led to significant wins for working people, including important climate victories with a 100% carbon-free by 2040 law and a $2 billion climate spending program. At the same time, his lack of action to stop the Line 3 pipeline shows a troubling deference to fossil fuel interests. This campaign is an opportunity for Walz to put people before fossil fuel profits.
“The Harris-Walz campaign must continue to be bold and put forward a visionary agenda to address the climate crisis and end fossil fuels with a just transition. Our future hinges on leaders who will prioritize transitioning away from fossil fuels and tackling the climate crisis with urgency.”
Oil Change U.S. is dedicated to supporting real climate leadership, exposing the true costs of fossil fuels, and building a just, equitable, and renewable energy future in the United States.
LATEST NEWS
Walz and Harris Kick Off Swing State Tour With Philly Rally
"Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future," said Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. "Pennsylvania, I'm here today because I found such a leader."
Aug 06, 2024
Just 91 days away from the November election, Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday held a rally in Pennsylvania to introduce her running mate and "the kind of vice president America deserves," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
While blasting the policies embraced by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Harris stressed to a cheering crowd that she and Walz are not just running against the Republicans, but "our campaign, this campaign is a fight for the future."
"Since the day that I announced my candidacy, I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future, a leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward, a fighter for the middle class, a patriot who believes as I do in the extraordinary promise of America—a promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice not just for some but for all," she said. "So Pennsylvania, I'm here today because I found such a leader."
Harris took time to introduce Walz to the national audience—he is a political leader most Americans aren't familiar with, according to polling released Tuesday. Before becoming governor, the 60-year-old Nebraska native served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Army National Guard, and as a high school social studies teacher, football coach, and gay-straight alliance faculty adviser.
Walz met his wife Gwen when they were teaching at the same school. As Republican policymakers across the United States have attacked reproductive freedom—including in vitro fertilization (IVF)—he has shared how fertility treatments enabled them to have their children, Hope and Gus. In Philadelphia, he recalled their efforts to grow their family and told those who try to limit reproductive healthcare, "Mind your own damn business!"
The vice presidential candidate also took aim at Trump—who he said "sows chaos and division"—and his criminal history. The Republican nominee was recently convicted in New York and faces dozens of charges for three ongoing cases, two of which stem from Trump's refusal to accept his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden and another related to classified materials.
"Donald Trump would damn sure take us backward—let's be clear about that. And don't believe him when he plays dumb" on Project 2025, Walz warned, referring to a Heritage Foundation-led initiative that includes a sweeping policy agenda for the next right-wing president.
"His running mate shares his dangerous and backward agenda for this country," Walz said. The governor expressed his enthusiasm for debating Vance and called out the senator for "trashing" where he came from in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
"These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell," Walz said, leaning into a now-widely embraced descriptor. "That's what you see."
The rally featured chants such as "We will win" and "We're not going back." It also featured promises of what Walz and Harris would prioritize in office, from abortion rights to paid family leave and gun control.
After the event in Philadelphia, the pair plans to visit Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada. The Associated Pressreported that "a scheduled stop in Savannah, Georgia, was canceled due to the expected effects of Hurricane Debby."
Before Harris and Walz took the stage on Tuesday, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro—who was on the
short list of potential vice presidential picks who interviewed for the job over the weekend—delivered a passionate speech to the packed arena. As Walz later put it, "Holy hell, can this guy bring the fire."
Others who were vetted to be Harris' running mate—including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and JB Pritzker of Illinois—welcomed Walz's selection, as did other governors, members of Congress, Biden administration leaders including the president, and climate, labor, and reproductive rights groups.
Walz has the support of anti-Trump Republicans like former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as well as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The caucus' political action committee enthusiastically endorsed the Harris-Walz presidential ticket. In a joint statement, Jayapal and her PAC co-chairs—Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)—said that "a true champion for working families, Tim Walz represents the best of the Midwest. As a teacher, coach, union member, veteran, and lifelong public servant, he has done more to help middle-class families get ahead than any other statewide leader in recent memory. And it is these Midwestern values and conviction in fighting for everyday Americans that will make him an excellent vice president to Kamala Harris."
"A hero to Minnesotans as the leader of the Democratic Farm-Labor Party, Gov. Walz has proven that progressive policies like paid family and medical leave, universal background checks, investments in clean energy, an expanded child tax credit, and lowering healthcare costs are not only popular—they're possible," they said. "A father and husband, he knows that reproductive freedom—including IVF—is a right that must be guaranteed to all Americans."
The trio emphasized that "he knows LGBTQ+ Americans deserve to live without fear of discrimination or mistreatment. He knows that rural and marginalized communities have been left behind, and fought to pass the largest tax cut in Minnesota history to give working people much-needed relief. And he has done so by building a broad and diverse coalition that rejects extremism, hatred, and the radical MAGA agenda."
"For these reasons and more, the Progressive Caucus enthusiastically endorses the Harris-Walz Democratic ticket and applauds Kamala Harris for selecting a leader who will strengthen and expand our movement," they added. "Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz will unify the country around a popular agenda that is focused on meeting the urgent needs of everyday people and rebuilding the American dream for the poor, working, and middle class. Now it's time to put in the work and make our vision a reality."
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Sudan Famine a 'Shameful Stain on Our Collective Conscience,' Says Top UN Official
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan. But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Aug 06, 2024
In an urgent appeal for financial and other resources, two top United Nations human rights officials on Tuesday condemned the world's inadequate response to a nascent famine in Sudan.
The U.N. Famine Review Committee announced last week that famine now exists in the Zamzam refugee camp near al-Fashir in North Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese are sheltering amid 15 months of a civil war that's displaced more than 10 million people and cut off delivery of desperately needed food and other aid.
Other parts of Sudan—including Greater Darfur, South Kordofan, and Khartoum—are at risk of famine.
"This announcement should stop all of us cold because when famine happens, it means we are too late," Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said Tuesday.
"It means we did not do enough. It means we, the international community, have failed," she added, pointing to the numerous warnings of imminent famine over recent months. "This is an entirely man-made crisis and a shameful stain on our collective conscience."
As U.N. News reported:
The Sudanese National Army and a rival, formerly allied military, known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been battling since April 2023, pushing "millions of civilians into a quagmire of violence and with it, death, injury, and inhumane suffering treatment."
A staggering 26 million people are facing acute hunger... More than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including some 726,000 displaced from Sennar state following recent RSF advances.
Sudan's once vibrant capital, Khartoum, now lies in ruins, the national healthcare system has collapsed, and recent heavy rains in Kassala and North Darfur have increased the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. An entire generation of children is missing out on a second straight year of education.
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan," Wosornu stressed. "But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Justin Brady, who heads OCHA's Sudan office, toldU.N. News on Monday that "if we don't have enough resources and we don't have enough access, it is going to be very difficult to stop famine conditions from taking hold" in other parts of Sudan.
"Access continues to be a major problem," he continued. "And some donors have seen that and said, well, we'll give you funding when you get access."
"Second of all, when we do get access, we need to take advantage of those openings very quickly," Brady added. "If we don't, they will close very quickly. So not having enough resources... Our appeal for this year is only a third funded, under $900 million received."
Echoing Brady, Wosornu said that "we are pushing from every possible angle to stop this catastrophe from getting worse, but we cannot go very far without the access and resources we need."
Wosornu outlined the humanitarian community's four key demands:
- Warring parties must end the conflict;
- They must uphold their obligations under international law;
- They must allow rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access across all possible routes; and
- The international community must provide adequate funding—OCHA is seeking $2.7 billion—to support aid operations.
"Assistance delayed is assistance denied for the many Sudanese civilians who are literally dying of hunger during the time it takes for clearances to come through, permits to be granted, and flood waters to subside," Wosornu warned.
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Hiroshima Survivors Warn Against Nuclear War 79 Years After US Bombing
"The world needs to stop nuclear war from ever happening again," said one hibakusha. "But when I turn on the news, I see politicians talk about deploying more weapons, more tanks. How could they?"
Aug 06, 2024
As the number of people who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki rapidly dwindles 79 years after the attacks, hibakusha—the Japanese word for the survivors—and others are imploring humanity to do everything possible to avert another nuclear war.
"People still don't get it. The atomic bomb isn't a simple weapon. I speak as someone who suffers until this day: The world needs to stop nuclear war from ever happening again," Shigeaki Mori, who was an 8-year-old boy on his way to school on the morning of August 6, 1945,
toldThe New York Times. "But when I turn on the news, I see politicians talk about deploying more weapons, more tanks. How could they? I wish for the day they stop that."
Keiko Aguro was also 8 years old and standing on a road near her home in Hiroshima when a U.S. B-29 Superfortress dropped one bomb over Hiroshima that exploded with the force of 16 kilotons of TNT. The explosion destroyed nearly everything and everyone within about a 1-mile (1.62 km) radius. As many as 90,000 people died from the heat, blast wave, and ensuing inferno. Tens of thousands of others were injured, many of them mortally. Tens of thousands more would perish from radiation over the following weeks, months, and years.
"As survivors, we cannot do anything but tell our story," Aguro said. "'For we shall not repeat the evil'—this is the pledge of survivors. Until we die, we want to tell our story, because it's difficult to imagine."
"Now what survivors worry about is to die and meet our family in heaven," Aguro added. "I heard many survivors say, 'What shall I do? On this planet there are still many many nuclear weapons, and then I'll meet my daughter I couldn't save. I'll be asked: Mom, what did you do to abolish nuclear weapons?' There is no answer I can tell them."
Three days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki was obliterated in a 20-kiloton air burst that killed as many as 75,000 people that day, with a similar number of people wounded and tens of thousands more dying later from radiation.
The authors of the Times piece—Kathleen Kingsbury, W.J. Hennigan, and Spencer Cohen—wrote that "as another anniversary of August 6 passes, it is necessary for Americans—and the globe, really—to listen to the stories of the few human beings who can still speak to the horror nuclear weapons can inflict before this approach is taken again."
However, they note that "countries like the United States, China, and Russia are spending trillions of dollars to modernize their stockpiles," while "many of the safeguards that once lowered nuclear risk are unraveling and the diplomacy needed to restore them is not happening."
"The threat of another blast can't be relegated to history," the trio wrote. But they added that nearly eight decades later, many Americans still hail the bombings as "necessary and heroic acts that brought the war to an end."
But the prevailing U.S. historical narrative—which portrays the bombings as critical to ending the war—ignores the lack of consensus and grave misgivings among senior military commanders about dropping the bombs. Seven of the eight five-star generals and admirals at the time opposed its use. One of them, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, later said as president that "the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)—which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—marked this year's ignominious anniversary with a report focusing on how children are affected by nuclear war and the threat thereof.
The report contains graphic descriptions of the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, and of nuclear weapons testing on children around the world. It also explains how fear of thermonuclear annihilation affected children during the Cold War and how humanity can protect children by disarming.
"Today, several thousand nuclear weapons still exist in the arsenals of nine countries, posing a unique existential threat to people everywhere, especially children. Many have vastly greater explosive yields than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," the ICAN report states.
"To protect humanity from the catastrophic harm that nuclear weapons are designed to inflict, governments must act with urgency to eliminate them completely—the only guarantee against their further use and testing," the publication continues. "This would be a great service to the current generation of children and to all future generations, who would grow up free from the threat of nuclear war."
"The alternative is to pass on to them a world still teetering on the brink of catastrophe," ICAN added. "Or, quite unthinkable, a world reeling from the horrors of another nuclear attack, perhaps with a death toll orders of magnitude greater than that of the atomic bombings of 1945."
Echoing ICAN, Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki said during the annual commemoration of the bombing at Hiroshima Peace Park that "as long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again someday."
"Nuclear weapons abolition is not an ideal to achieve far in the future," Yuzaki stressed. "Instead, it is a pressing and real issue that we should desperately engage in at this moment since nuclear problems involve an imminent risk to human survival."
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