No Doubt About It: The Deep State Is Real and Trump Is Its Latest Tool
Global Research – July 29, 2018 – John W. Whitehead
https://www.globalresearch.ca/no-doubt-about-it-the-deep-state-is-real-and-trump-is-its-latest-tool/5648936
The Deep State—a.k.a. the police state, a.k.a. the military industrial complex, a.k.a. the surveillance state complex—does indeed exist and Trump, far from being its sworn enemy, is its latest tool… You have no authority and no rights in the face of the shadow government no matter who is in office. As long as government officials—elected and unelected alike—are allowed to operate beyond the reach of the Constitution, the courts and the citizenry, the threat to our freedoms remains undiminished.
Trump Is Nuts. His Economic Advisors Are Bonkers.
Reader Supported News – Robert Reich’s Facebook Page – July 22, 2018
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/51320-focus-trump-is-nuts-his-economic-advisors-are-bonkers
It’s bad enough Trump is selling out American democracy to Putin. He’s also selling out the American economy to the same half-brained economic nationalism that helped bring down the world’s economy in 1930. Watch your wallets.
Donald Trump’s War on New York City Immigrants
The Marshall Project – July 23, 2018 – Geraldine Sealey
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/07/23/new-york-on-ice
For many immigrant New Yorkers, once ordinary activities are now fraught with dread… Trump’s immigration crackdown has instilled a new level of fear throughout the city. Before he took office, many immigrants who were considered low priority for deportation—because they didn’t have criminal records, for example—were allowed to stay as long as they regularly reported to immigration authorities. But soon after his inauguration, Trump expanded the number of people considered a priority for deportation, and now, people whose only offense is staying in the country illegally are being flagged for removal.
Trump’s Fake Victories
The Shipler Report July 28, 2018 – David K. Shipler
https://shiplerreport.blogspot.com/2018/07/trumps-fake-victories.html
If you lay out Trump’s various methods of appearing to win, you come up with at least three styles of fabrication… a declaration of victory that is either premature, exaggerated, or totally made up… An imagined problem that does not actually exist, made to disappear with a flick of the pen on a new law or an executive order… A manufactured conflict that becomes real when Trump creates it, only to be overcome when he solves it by reversing himself.
The Butina Indictment Isn’t About the Sex Life of an Accused Spy. It’s About Following Russian Money Into Politics.
The Intercept – Julhy 21, 2018 – James Risen
https://theintercept.com/2018/07/21/maria-butina-indictment-russia-investigation/
Butina has attracted the attention of federal investigators mainly because of her connections to this shadowy intersection of powerful Russians and right-wing Americans. In fact, it was Butina’s work for Alexander Torshin, a close political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, that made her a target of federal investigators. Torshin — not Butina — is the Russian figure whose involvement with the NRA and American conservatives brings the Trump-Russia case closer to Russian organized crime and Putin.
Race in the Writers’ Room
Color of Change – The Writers Room – July 23, 2018 – research study by Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA
https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/
How Hollywood Whitewashes the Stories that Shape America… The report demonstrates that the executives running television platforms today—both traditional networks and emerging streaming sites—are not hiring Black showrunners, which results in excluding or isolating Black writers in writers’ rooms and in the creative process.
A Tale of Two Very Different Meetings
Reader Supported News – July 24, 2018 – Bernie Sanders
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/51354-rsn-a-tale-of-two-very-different-meetings
In Columbus, Ohio. two hundred and fifty wealthy invited Democratic donors and Wall Street insiders came together at a gathering hosted by a real estate billionaire…. Make no mistake about it. The gathering in Columbus was not simply a social event… What are they concerned about? That our ideas, such as Medicare for all, tuition-free public colleges and universities, a $15/hr minimum wage and progressive taxation are now mainstream positions… The corporate Democrats are plotting how to defeat progressives the only way they know how — with big money. But you’ve shown that, together, we can overcome their brand of pay-to-play politics.
A year after Charlottesville, why can’t big tech delete white supremacists?
The Guardian – July 25, 2018 – Julia Carrie Wong
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/25/charlottesville-white-supremacists-big-tech-failure-remove
Many of the players involved in the first Unite the Right event have managed to return to the major internet platforms – if they ever left in the first place. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter remain platforms for violent white supremacists to broadcast their messages.
Jimmy Carter: The US Has ‘Lost Its Place’ as a Leader in Human Rights
CNN – July 24, 2018 – Sophie Tatum and Keith Allen
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/24/politics/jimmy-carter-human-rights/index.html
“We should be the champion of human rights. We’re a superpower, not based solely on military power; part of that definition should be a commitment to human rights,” Carter said Tuesday at an event at The Carter Center in Atlanta. “We have lost the long-term commitment to human rights,” he said… “We still have a chance to restore that position, but if we retain our current position of indifference, we only encourage human rights violators. We have abandoned our position as a government.”
The Hacking of the 2018 Election Has Begun
The Daily Beast – July 26, 2018 – Andrew Desiderio and Kevin Poulsen
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-hackers-new-target-a-vulnerable-democratic-senator
Sen. Claire McCaskill is a top target for Republicans looking to grow their slim Senate majority in 2018. Turns out, Russia’s “Fancy Bear” hackers are going after her staff, too.
Bail Has Criminalized Poverty and Undermined the Tenet of ‘Innocent Before Proven Guilty’
NBC News – July 27, 2018 – Bernie Sanders
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/bail-has-criminalized-poverty-undermined-tenet-innocent-proven-guilty-ncna895056
We need to reform a broken system that punishes Americans for crimes even if they’re never convicted… In 2016, more than 65 percent of the over 700,000 people in county or city jails on any given day in the United States were “unconvicted” — meaning that more than 400,000 people were in jail who had not been convicted of a crime, often because they lack the money to pay bail. In other words, we have criminalized poverty.
“Brutal and Sadistic”: Noam Chomsky on Family Separation and the US Roots of Today’s Refugee Crisis
Democracy Now! – July 27, 2018 – Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/27/brutal_and_sadistic_noam_chomsky_on
Actually, these people are fleeing from the wreckage and horrors of U.S. policies. So, take Guatemala. No need to go through the whole history, but back in 1954, the U.S. intervened, sponsored a military coup, overthrew a mildly reformist elected government. Since then, the country has been a complete horror story… Same with El Salvador, where about 70,000 people were killed during the 1980s, almost all by the security forces, armed, trained, directed by the United States. Again, horror story since.
White Supremacy Has Always Been Mainstream
The Boston Review – July 23, 2018 – Stephen Kantrowitz
http://bostonreview.net/race/stephen-kantrowitz-white-supremacy-has-always-been-mainstream
White supremacy is organized around a dread of its own demise, and with it the white race… The myth that white supremacy is a marginal political phenomenon has proved so durable that many people find it easier to deny its overt expression than confront a more troubling reality… Three recent books explore the twentieth-century history of this… Linda Gordon’s thoughtful reconsideration of the 1920s Klan… Elizabeth Gillespie McRae’s revelatory exploration of mid-century white women’s segregationist work… Kathleen Belew’s groundbreaking account of the White Power movement from the mid-1970s to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing… White supremacy has always been at once a political movement, an armed struggle, and a long con.
The Monarchy of Fear review: Martha Nussbaum makes the case for hope
The Guardian – July 29. 2018 – Charles Kaiser
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/29/the-monarchy-of-fear-review-martha-nussbaum
Under Trump, it is easy to give in to anger. Eloquently, a University of Chicago professor shows why we should not… Nussbaum is right about this: ours is “actually a time when hope and work can accomplish a great deal of good.”… Three of the most effective leaders of modern times were fierce disciples of hope and forgiveness, and enemies of hate: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr… “Hope really is a choice,” says the author, “and a practical habit.”
The U.S. is in trouble
The Rag Blog – July 26, 2018 – Roy Casagranda :
http://www.theragblog.com/roy-casagranda-the-u-s-is-in-trouble/#more-33610
We have become so polarized that the last time it was like this, it was 1860. One way this will manifest itself is in the November 2018 elections. No matter what the results are, blue tsunami, blue wave, blue breeze, or red beaches, half of the U.S. is going to believe that there was cheating.
How Blockchain Is Poised to Disrupt the Gig Economy
Portside – July 23, 2018 – Chris Young
https://portside.org/2018-07-23/how-blockchain-poised-disrupt-gig-economy
Rapid adoption of blockchain in the next several years will have major implications for alternative work arrangements… A transparent, trusted and verifiable tech stack that drives gig work could raise pay, cut overhead, drive scalability and fair labor practices for both workers and employers…. Beyond impacting the centralized platforms that currently drive the gig economy, many enterprises are even more interested in how blockchain can help optimize the entire HR workflow. This is where enterprise blockchain can really shine. There is a myriad of issues related to workforce management that can be greatly enhanced by blockchain’s inherent transparency, trust and decentralized model.
Household Debt: How the Bottom Half Bolsters the Booming U.S. Economy
Portside – July 28, 2018 – Jonathan Spicer, Reuters
https://portside.org/2018-07-28/household-debt-how-bottom-half-bolsters-booming-us-economy
The U.S. economy is booming. But the dramatic increase in jobs isn’t increasing wages and the growth in consumer spending has primarily been fueled by the bottom 60 percent of earners, who are exhausting their savings and piling up serious debt.
The People’s Budget: A Roadmap for the Resistance FY 2018
Portside – July 28, 2018 – Congressional Progressive Caucus
https://portside.org/2018-07-28/peoples-budget-roadmap-resistance-fy-2018
In order to make these bold, necessary investments in working families, we must rewrite the rules of a rigged economy that favors billionaires and big corporations. Our budget closes tax loopholes that corporations use to ship jobs overseas, and stops CEOs from receiving millions in tax-free bonuses. Our budget tackles inequality through fair tax rates for all Americans, leveling the playing field for working people… The Republican agenda drastically cuts federal protection for working families, the environment and our health care, while giving massive tax cuts to big corporations and bloating the military budget beyond belief. The People’s Budget reinvests in American families, prioritizing funding for education, health care, jobs and clean air and water.