June 8, 2021: Pipeline Protests Close Construction Site; Kamala the Cop Goes Abroad; Amazon Forces Drivers to Build Furniture

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:


Pipeline protesters seized a key construction site and carried
out numerous acts of civil disobedience on Monday in an attempt
to slow down the construction of the Line 3 pipeline route across
Minnesota.


Meanwhile, Kamala Harris gets back in touch with her roots as a
cop, delivering a staunch warning in Guatemala to any people
there who would dare to try to make a better life for themselves
in the United States.


And lastly a new report from Motherboard shows that Amazon’s
furniture delivery service is causing chaos for the company’s
already under-paid and over-worked drivers.


THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:


A new major pipeline protest is underway in Minnesota, where
native-led activists are trying to halt the construction of the
Line 3 project between that state and Canada.


The project is owned by a Canadian oil company called Enbridge.
On Monday, the Washington Post reports that dozens of cars filled
with activists had descended on a construction site operated by
the company.


They were led by a group of native american activists, and were
joined by celebrities like Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener, who
rallied the crowd as some protesters strapped themselves to
bulldozers and other equipment.


Fonda said quote: “Biden has taken a very clear and very
beautiful position on the climate crisis. But we are really
facing a potential catastrophe, and the science is very clear:
it’s not enough to do something good here ——like shutdown
Keystone XL, shut down drilling on the Arctic national refuge
——and then allow Line 3 to go through.” endquote.


And in practice, the Biden administration’s point was a whole lot
less beautiful. Reporters on the ground caught video of a
Department of Homeland Security Helicopter dangerously buzzing
another group of protesters on the ground at a pumping station,
trying to use the backwash from its rotors to scare off
activists.


According to the Post, the indigenous activists leading the
campaign see two threats from the pipeline: the existential risk
of climate change, and the direct risk of the pipeline polluting
tribal lands in the headwaters of the Mississippi River.


If Monday’s demonstrations are any indication, they’re willing to
fight to keep it from happening.


Kamala the Cop Goes Abroad


Kamala the cop is back. The Vice President is down on her first
international trip, playing enforcer for Joe Biden’s new
immigration policies in Guatemala.


She came with a carrot before the stick, of course. Harris was
acting as the ambassador of a four year plan to send more than $4
billion dollars to Central America and Mexico in an attempt to
improve the economic hardships that drive mass immigration to the
U.S.


According to the New York Times, this money will go toward things
like investing in young women entrepreneurs and creating an
anti-corruption task force for the region.


That’s all well and good, but Kamala was equally clear when she
laid out what will happen to those people who don’t place their
faith in nebulous U.S. aid, and instead seek refuge in the
country by any means necessary.


Harris said: "Do not come. Do not come. The United States will
continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.” Later, she
added quote: “I believe if you come to our border, you will be
turned back.”


While there are some differences between how that kind of policy
will play out under Biden, the core message that VP Harris is
delivering sounds pretty familiar: it’s the same one we’ve been
hearing for the past four years.


Amazon Forces Drivers to Build Furniture


Another day, another scoop by Motherboard on the dystopian Amazon
beat. Today, the website reports that Amazon has made an
unexpected foray into furniture assembly in order to crowd out
other retailers that offer similar services.


Motherboard reports that as a result, untrained delivery drivers
are being made to lug bulky items into customers houses and then
assemble them, all on a timeframe that they say is wildly
unrealistic for what’s expected.


To make matters all the more absurd, Motherboard also obtained
the training video for this service, which is a strange cartoon
narrated by a monotonous robot featuring robotic workers who
deliver lines like quote: “Thanks so much for choosing us! Could
you confirm you are satisfied with this delivery and service?”
endquote.


Meanwhile, here’s what an actual human driver told Motherboard
QUOTE:


"It has been an [EFFING] challenge. It always takes much longer
than they allow for. The times they give feel completely random
and way off. And there's been absolutely no training whatsoever.
They just said you're going to do this."


And as we well know by now, it’s almost impossible to argue with
Amazon.


AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:


While his workers are suffering, Jeff Bezos announced that he’s
going to space. The billionaire plans to be one of the crew on
the first manned flight of a Blue Origin spacecraft in mid July.
Good luck up there, Jeff! We’ll all be very interested to see how
that flight goes.


Scientists from Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration said on Monday that atmospheric CO2 levels peaked
in May, despite the slowdown in fossil fuel use during the
pandemic. Not even that respite was enough to stem the constant
buildup of CO2.


Something to watch later this week: the New York Times reports
that the Senate is preparing to pass a massive package of
industrial policy legislation with bipartisan support, aimed at
keeping the U.S. competitive with China. It’s amazing what
handouts to corporate interests and xenophobic jingoism can do to
break the Washington gridlock!


The United Mine Workers say that the bosses at Warrior Met Coal
have stepped up their physical attacks on striking workers at
coal mines in Alabama, on three separate instances hitting
picketers with vehicles, in a shocking display of aggression
against organized labor.


AM QUICKIE - JUNE 8, 2021


HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner


WRITER - Jack Crosbie


PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw


EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn