A Huge Win for Keeping Water Systems under Public Control
Next City – August 17, 2018 – Dharna Noor
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/a-huge-win-for-keeping-water-systems-under-public-control
Baltimore is poised to become the first major U.S. city to prohibit privatization of its water system and the first to do so by amending its city charter… “Water privatization is simply unethical, immoral, and dangerous,” said Rianna Eckel, Maryland organizer with Food and Water Watch and convener of the Right to Water Coalition… Eckel attributes the presumed success of the charter amendment to the support of a diverse coalition, including groups like the AFL-CIO… “Everyone is impacted by water,” she says.
Special Report from U.S.-Mexican Border
Atlanta Progressive News – August 16, 2018 – Gloria Tatum
http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2018/08/16/apn-special-report-from-u-s-mexican-border/
The Grannies Respond Caravan, a group of grandmothers who are mad about the Trump Administration taking immigrant children away from their parents, converged in the border town of McAllen Texas, for a protest. Grannies Respond started out as twelve people, mostly self-described “Grannies,” in a van going from New York to Texas; and it turned into a small army of grandmothers from across the country. Several caravans converged on Texas… “This is a statement about morality. Are we the type of people who put children in cages and who hire rapists to take care of children in the government’s custody?” Beth Yeager, another grannie from Kentucky, asked.
American History Is Full of Immigrant-Haters Like Stephen Miller
The Daily Beast – August 17, 2018 – Clive Irving
https://www.thedailybeast.com/american-history-is-full-of-immigrant-haters-like-stephen-miller
America’s record as a haven for refugees has often been tarnished by people all too ready to forget any obligation to their own family’s experience.
Trump backed ‘space force’ after months of lobbying by officials with ties to aerospace industry
Los Angeles Times – August 18, 2018 – David S. Cloud and Noah Bierman
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-trump-space-20180817-story.html
The concept had been pushed unsuccessfully since 2016 by a small group of current and former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems. The idea of a space force “is not a new thing,” said Stuart O. Witt, an aerospace executive and a member of the White House’s National Space Council Users Advisory Group. “The president just acted upon it.”
The Racist Roots of Felony Disenfranchisement
The Marshall Project – August 20, 2018 – Jennifer Rae Taylor
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/08/20/jim-crow-s-lasting-legacy-at-the-ballot-box
According to the Sentencing Project, more than 6 million Americans cannot vote due to unprecedented mass incarceration and a patchwork of laws in 48 of the 50 states. Increasingly, debates over the practice of conditioning voting rights on criminal record reference the laws’ historically racist motivations… A denunciation of disenfranchisement is not an ode to democracy. Voting alone will not save us. But the dissonance of idealizing freedom and democracy while maintaining an electoral caste system and the world’s highest incarceration rate will leave us little worth saving.
If you already like Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, you just might fall in love them now
The Daily Kos – August 21, 2018 – Leslie Salzillo
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/8/21/1789682/-If-you-already-like-the-Jimmy-and-Rosalynn-Carter-get-ready-to-love-them
Always telling the truth was a promise he made and has kept—starkly different from Donald Trump who is caught in lies every single day. Usually, Mr. Carter doesn’t comment much on Trump, but in this interview he lets lose. “I think [Trump] is a disaster in human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal.”… Mrs. Carter believes Trump’s lying “hurts everything.” [see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/08/17/feature/the-un-celebrity-president-jimmy-carter-shuns-riches-lives-modestly-in-his-georgia-hometown/ ]
Michael Cohen Nails the Casket Shut on His Former Boss
Vanity Fair – August 22m 2018 – Emily Jane Fox
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/donald-trump-directed-him-to-commit-a-crime-michael-cohen-nails-the-casket-shut-on-his-former-boss
A statement released by Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, after the hearing… “Today [Michael Cohen] stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” the statement read. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
How the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act allows states to disenfranchise black voters
Slate – August 22, 2018 – Mark Joseph Stern
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/randolph-county-georgia-2018-election-how-the-supreme-courts-gutting-of-the-voting-rights-act-allows-states-to-disenfranchise-black-voters.html
For decades, Randolph County—a majority-black jurisdiction with a history of racist voter suppression—could not unilaterally alter its voting rules. It was covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, compelling the county to obtain federal permission, or “preclearance,” before changing its election procedures. In 2013, however, the Supreme Court kneecapped Section 5, effectively abolishing preclearance. The result has been a dramatic escalation of voter suppression across the country, a trend that’s vividly illustrated by the direct assault on the franchise in Georgia. [The international response to closing 7 of the 9 voting precincts has resulted in the precincts remaining open.]
Elizabeth Warren Just Laid Out an Indictment of Our Political System
Esquire Magazine – August 22, 2018 – Charles Pierce
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22792092/elizabeth-warren-lobbying-reform-bill/
This would be the second element of her two-pronged attempt to refashion American capitalism into a more user-friendly corporate system, the first being the plan she proposed last week that already has given so many of the right people a bad case of the vapors. On Tuesday, she laid out a lengthy indictment of how Washington does business now, and an equally lengthy prescription for how to drain the swamp that the current administration* merely has filled with a different class of predatory beast.
Verizon throttled fire department’s “unlimited” data during Calif. wildfire
Ars Technica – August 21, 2018 – Jon Brodkin
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/
Fire dep’t had to pay twice as much to lift throttling during wildfire response… Verizon Wireless’ throttling of a fire department that uses its data services has been submitted as evidence in a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate federal net neutrality rules… Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in a declaration. “This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire’s ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services.”
Hundreds dead, no one charged: the uphill battle against LA police killings
The Guardian – August 24, 2018 – Sam Levin
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/24/los-angeles-police-violence-shootings-african-american
The two families, brought together by Black Lives Matter the day of Ross’s death, are now channeling their grief into a fight for justice – taking on one of the country’s deadliest police systems, where law enforcement killings of black mentally ill residents are so normalized, families struggle to be heard. They face an uphill battle in the most secretive state in the US for police misconduct, in a region where officers who shoot are never prosecuted.
Courage and Bolt Cutters: Meet the Next Generation of Climate Activists
The Grist – August 24, 2018 – Eric Holthaus
https://grist.org/article/courage-and-bolt-cutters-meet-the-next-generation-of-climate-activists/
A livable world achieved through incremental changes may have been possible in the 1980s, but it’s a fantasy now… Incremental change is not going to help on a planet that’s accelerating toward a carbon-fueled nightmare within our lifetimes… As millennials take a larger role in the discussion around climate change, some are pushing for a new political movement that prioritizes collective action. For Sydney Ghazarian, a millennial activist in Los Angeles, that means socialism.
The Trump White House Doesn’t Want Untainted Elections
Esquire Magazine – August 24, 2018 -Charles Pierce
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22822766/white-house-oppose-secure-elections-act/
As it currently stands, the legislation would grant every state’s top election official security clearance to receive threat information. It would also formalize the practice of information-sharing between the federal government—in particular, the Department of Homeland Security—and states regarding threats to electoral infrastructure… It would also incentivize the purchase of voting machines that leave a paper record of votes cast, as opposed to some all-electronic models that do not… Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, and chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, was scheduled to mark up the bill on Wednesday. Except that he didn’t… Even prior to Blunt’s taking a dive, the SEA was being criticized by election security experts as being a watered down version of what it should have been, and what it originally was. But that’s no explanation for why it wasn’t even sent to the floor for a vote.
US bombs are killing children in Yemen. Does anybody care?
The Guardian – August 25, 2018 – Moustafa Bayoumi
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/us-bombs-yemen-children-humanitarian-disaster
The war in Yemen occupies almost none of our collective political attention today. Could it be that we don’t care all that much about this war because Yemenis are Muslim, brown, and poor, and we’ve already been droning them for years on end? The reality is that the war has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe today… This is a dangerous state of affairs. A lot of bad things can happen when people aren’t looking. And our lack of attention to anything but our president or ourselves says a lot, not only about Donald Trump, but about us, too.
Incarcerated Workers Strike Against Dehumanizing Prison Conditions
Portside – August 24, 2018 – Fizz Perkal, inequality.org
https://portside.org/2018-08-24/incarcerated-workers-strike-against-dehumanizing-prison-conditions
A nationwide strike takes charge at everything from slavery to sentencing. Organizers say it could be the largest U.S. prison resistance action to date… Up until ten years ago, strikes generally happened on a prison-by-prison basis, Wright told Inequality.org. But new technology makes it possible to coordinate nationwide resistance… Organizers have a list of ten demands, which include the need for prompt improvement of prison conditions and policies. They also call for the “immediate end to prison slavery,” which is legal thanks to a constitutional loophole.
Imagining a World With No Bullshit Jobs
Portside – August 25, 2018 – David Graeber and Chris Brooks, Roar Magazine
https://portside.org/2018-08-25/imagining-world-no-bullshit-jobs
In this interview about his latest book, David Graeber discusses the role of unions, the challenges posed by automation and “the revolt of the caring classes.”
How China’s Mobile Payment Ecosystems Are Making Banks Obsolete
Global Research – August 24, 2018 – Ellen Brown
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-chinas-mobile-payment-ecosystems-are-making-banks-obsolete/5651648
Western bankers and credit-card executives who travel to China keep returning with the same anxiety: Payments can happen cheaply and easily without them… We could one day have a national non-profit digital ecosystem operated as a cooperative, a public utility in which profits returned to the users in the form of reduced prices. Users could create their own money by “monetizing” their own credit, in a community currency system in which the “community” is the nation or even the world.