Posted by progressivenewsviews | Filed under Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Hallow’s Eve
31 Wednesday Oct 2018
28 Sunday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on Volume XXVI – Number 43
Russian Electoral Interference: 2018 Midterms Edition
Lawfare – October 19. 2018 – Victoria Clark, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn and Benjamin Wittes
https://www.lawfareblog.com/russian-electoral-interference-2018-midterms-edition
The FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security on “Combating Foreign Influence in U.S. Elections,” warning—among other things—of “ongoing campaigns” to “influence vote perceptions and decision making in the 2018 and 2020 U.S. elections.” It is not explicit that the actions were coordinated—but it doesn’t seem like a coincidence either.
Lessons From the Gilded Age
The New Republic – June 19, 2018 – Sarah Jones
https://newrepublic.com/article/149005/lessons-gilded-age
The late nineteenth century “was a time of exploding economic inequality, stagnant living standards, growing concern about monopolies, devastating financial crises … brazen political corruption, frequent pronouncements that the American republic was doomed, and seemingly unending turmoil over race and national identity.”… You’ve got that again today. You saw income inequality spike. The last time it was as high for the top 10 percent as it is today was the Gilded Age… In 2018, we aren’t witnesses to a new industrial revolution, but we are experiencing a digital one… The struggle to prevent another Gilded Age doesn’t suffer from a lack of political imagination. It suffers from a lack of political will.
Bloody Strikes Created the America We’re Now Losing to the Super Rich
Portside – Vice – October 22, 2018 – Philip Eil
https://portside.org/2018-10-22/bloody-strikes-created-america-were-now-losing-super-rich
Here’s how hard workers had to fight to have a semblance of dignity in a country obsessed with the gospel of frontier capitalism… As Erik Loomis explains in his recently-released “A History of America in Ten Strikes”, Ronald Reagan’s mass firing of striking air-traffic controllers in 1981 launched a fit of union busting across the country, helping usher in what Loomis calls “the New Gilded Age.”… We just have to break down this idea that somehow capitalism and America are the same thing. America is many different things. America may be capitalism, in part. But America is also the Civil Rights Movement. America is also a strong socialist tradition. America is also people standing up over 200 years to fight for justice.
Rampant, Racist Voter Suppression in Georgia Goes to Federal Court
Reader Supported News – October 23, 2018 – William Boardman
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52973-rsn-rampant-racist-voter-suppression-in-georgia-goes-to-federal-court
As a secretary of state running for governor, Kemp has a clear conflict of interest, since any of his decisions about voting rights could help his campaign. Many of them already have. Previous secretaries of state who ran for governor have taken themselves out of the voting rights conflict. Kemp has refused to do so. His corruption is so blatantly transparent, his spokesman dishonestly proclaims that “Kemp is fighting to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that only legal citizens cast a ballot.” The claim of illegal voting by non-citizens has been a Republican Big Lie for a long time now. It works, it scares people who don’t know any better, but it’s not true and has never been true.
“I Am a Nationalist” – Donald Trump Apes Mussolini in Drive to Destroy America
Informed Comment – October 24, 2018 – Juan Cole
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/nationalist-trump-mussolini.html
It is not an accident that Benito Mussolini called his party “Nationalist Fascism.” The two go together. Trump performs the “fascist” part of this two-part term every time he does a rally, so he doesn’t have to say “I am a Nationalist Fascist,” i.e. a Mussolini-ist. But that is what he is… It is important that everyone understand how dangerous what Trump said is… He intends to move the country to Fascism. That is what he means when he says, “I am a nationalist.”
Shouting Fire in Crowded Theatre, President Courts Votes With Lies
Reader Supported News – October 25, 2018 – William Boardman
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/53017-rsn-shouting-fire-in-crowded-theatre-president-courts-votes-with-lies
The madness of the day is this: thousands of peaceful migrants are headed toward the US to seek humanitarian asylum and the US president reacts by inciting panic, rage, and hate. The president warns hysterically of a “national emergency” as his deceitful ranting works like a self-fulfilling prophecy, stoking a real emergency from the fevered imaginings of his soul-deep bigotry… These are asylum seekers. They have standing under international law to seek asylum in another country. The irony is that they’re seeking asylum in the country most responsible for creating the conditions that drove them from their homes.
European Parliament Bans Single-Use Plastics in Historic Vote
The Real News – October 25, 2018 – Dimitri Lascaris
https://therealnews.com/stories/european-parliament-bans-single-use-plastics-in-historic-vote
In a historic vote, the European Parliament has just approved, by a huge margin of 571 to 53, a complete ban on a range of single use plastics across the union in a bid to stop pollution of the oceans. One member of the parliament said if no action was taken, “by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans.”… It gets into the food that you’re likely to eat. So, for example, animals that you eat will be consuming these plastics and then they will get into their stomachs. The other is that it disrupts the ecological chain. Even if you don’t eat turtles or whales, they are necessary for the proper functioning of those ecosystems. So, we depend on these organisms one way or another.
All America’s Quagmires: Why We’re still at War in so Many Countries
Informed Comment – October 26, 2018 – William J. Astore
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/americas-quagmires-countries.html
Honestly, isn’t it time Americans gave a little more thought to why their leaders persist in waging losing wars across significant parts of the planet? So consider the rest of this piece my attempt to do just that… Let’s face it: profits and power should be classified as perennial reasons why U.S. leaders persist in waging such conflicts. War may be a racket, as General Smedley Butler claimed long ago, but who cares these days since business is booming?… America’s self-professed warriors know they’re right. But the wrongs they’ve committed, and continue to commit, in our name will not be truly righted until Americans begin to reject the madness of rampant militarism, bloated militaries, and endless wars.
5 Major Crops in the Crosshairs of Climate Change
NPR – October 28, 2018 – Dan Charles
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/25/658588158/5-major-crops-in-the-crosshairs-of-climate-change
The plants that nourish us won’t disappear entirely. But they may have to move to higher and cooler latitudes, or farther up a mountainside. Some places may find it harder to grow anything at all, because there’s not enough water. Here are five foods, and food-growing places, that will see the impact.
The Synagogue Shooting and the Return of Mainstream Anti-Semitism
The New Yorker – October 27, 2018 – Alexandra Schwartz
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-tree-of-life-shooting-and-the-return-of-anti-semitism-to-american-life
For a time after Donald Trump’s election, I collected screenshots of racist and anti-Semitic hate speech I came across. Then I stopped. The proof was everywhere, plain as day. It seems clear that anti-Semitism has burrowed into the American mainstream in a way not seen since the late nineteen-thirties and early nineteen-forties, when it also fused easily with conservative isolationist fervor and racism.
Climate Change and Its Staggering Refugee Crisis
Yes! Magazine – October 17, 2018 – Todd Miller
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/mental-health/climate-change-and-its-staggering-refugee-crisis-20181017
Serious impacts of climate change are already happening and can be projected into the future with certainty… Current estimates for climate refugees are wide-ranging, and go as high as 1 billion people displaced by 2050. No matter what the final number may be, it is worth remembering that most of those making projections say that human migration in the 21st century will be “staggering.”… Renowned human rights advocate Angela Y. Davis said that “the refugee movement is the movement of the 21st century. It’s the movement that is challenging the effects of global capitalism, and it’s the movement that is calling for civil rights for all human beings.” And it is, dare I add, the movement that will challenge fossil fuel consumption and its contamination of the living biosphere.
26 Friday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on House of Trump
House of Trump, House of Putin, a review
https://tfthinkspeak.blogspot.com/2018/10/i-thought-of-just-making-list-of-dire.html
21 Sunday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on Volume XXVI – Number 42
Has the Dark Side of American Conservatism Taken Over?
Reader Supported News – George Lakoff’s Facebook Page – October 14, 2018
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52828-has-the-dark-side-of-american-conservatism-taken-over
Upon closer examination, it’s obvious that the history of modern conservative is permeated with racism, extremism, conspiracy-mongering, isolationism and know-nothingism.” But conservative bigotry goes beyond racism. It extends to every aspect of social life. An understanding of the conservative moral hierarchy – the way strict conservatives see the world – helps you understand everything about today’s Republican Party. It explains why Republicans forced the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, why they put immigrant children in baby jails, why they’re committed to destroying the Earth and its natural resources, etc.
Future of Climate Activism: Dutch Court Orders Government to Reduce CO2 Emissions Dramatically
Informed Comment – October 13, 2018 – Juan Cole
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/activism-emissions-dramatically.html
The falsehoods spewed by the tobacco industry that smoking was good for you rather than causing lung cancer were refuted in the public mind by the 1980s, and at that point the industry began losing lawsuits. The same thing is now starting to happen with regard to heat-trapping gases and the climate emergency. Since law in capitalist societies is extremely sensitive to torts against property, climate damage from CO2 emissions could be especially vulnerable to court challenge.
Three Colliding Problems Leading to a New Economic Disaster
Rolling Stone – October 15, 2018 – Matt Taibbi
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/stock-market-slump-trump-737792/
The sell-off last week was likely just a mild preview of what will happen once the blunt contradictions of Trump’s major economic moves — crazy even by his standards — set in. “We’re fucked,” a market analyst friend of mine put it this weekend. “It’s all baked in the cake already.” You don’t have to be a financial expert to see the irreconcilability of these three problems:
As Khashoggi Case Highlights Saudi Crimes, UN Warns Famine Driven by US-Backed War in Yemen Could Kill 13 Million People
Common Dreams – October 15, 2018 – Jessica Corbett
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/15/khashoggi-case-highlights-saudi-crimes-un-warns-famine-driven-us-backed-war-yemen
While the U.S. faces pressure to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia, the United Nations estimates that if current conditions continue, Yemen could face “the worst famine in the world in 100 years.”
Donald and the Deadly Deniers
The New York Times – October 15, 2018 – Paul Krugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/opinion/trump-climate-change-deniers-republican.html
We’re now ruled by people who are willing to endanger civilization for the sake of political expediency, not to mention increased profits for their fossil-fuel friends… One way to think about what’s happening here is that it’s the ultimate example of Trumpian corruption. We have good reason to believe that Trump and his associates are selling out America for the sake of personal gain. When it comes to climate, however, they aren’t just selling out America; they’re selling out the whole world.
The American Economy Is Rigged
The Scientific American – October 18, 2018 – Joseph Stiglitz
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-american-economy-is-rigged/
President Donald Trump was right in saying that the system is rigged—by those in the inherited plutocracy of which he himself is a member. And he is making it much, much worse… A vicious spiral has formed: economic inequality translates into political inequality, which leads to rules that favor the wealthy, which in turn reinforces economic inequality… As more of our citizens come to understand why the fruits of economic progress have been so unequally shared, there is a real danger that they will become open to a demagogue blaming the country’s problems on others and making false promises of rectifying “a rigged system.” We are already experiencing a foretaste of what might happen. It could get much worse.
Michael Moore: ‘We Have the Power to Crush Trump’
The Guardian – October 18, 2018 – Owen Jones
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/18/michael-moore-we-have-the-power-to-crush-trump-fahrenheit-11-9
The director’s latest film, Fahrenheit 11/9, is a broadside against both the president and the Democratic establishment that failed to defeat him. He explains why a leftwing comeback is on the cards… Whether Trumpism can be defeated will surely, in part, depend on who wins the battle for the soul of the Democratic party: its rootless, corporate-backed wing or a new insurgent left offering an alternative to a broken system. If the latter triumphs, history will surely record that Moore, now in what he wistfully calls “the final third of my life”, played a significant role.
Bernie Sanders on Saudi Arabia: US Can’t Have an “Ally That Murders in Cold Blood”
Newsweek – October 18, 2018 – Tim Marcin
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-saudi-arabia-us-ally-murders-cold-blood-relationship-re-1177209
Sanders added, “We cannot have an ally who murders in cold blood, in their own consulate, a critic, a dissident. That is unacceptable by any government, but especially by one so closely supported by the United States.” Much of the video [a video posted to Twitter] from Sanders also focused on the ongoing crisis in Yemen. The senator said Saudis are currently “devastating” Yemen with a “catastrophic war” with U.S. support. The senator called it a war that has caused a humanitarian disaster.
‘When a debt is paid, it’s paid’: Florida group pushes for voting rights
The Guardian – October 20, 2018 – Adam Gabbatt
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/20/florida-group-pushes-for-voting-rights-former-felon
Florida is one of three states in the US which bars people with prior felony convictions from voting. It’s a group that encompasses 1.5 million people in the state, and the Fair Elections Center and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition are leading the charge to give these people the right to vote. “If Amendment 4 [which would grant former felons the vote] is carried, it could endow the franchise to the largest single group since women’s suffrage in 1920,” the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland reported from Tallahassee this week.
At the Heart of Global Woes, 157 of World’s 200 Richest Entities Are Now Corporations, Not Governments
Common Dreams – October 17, 2018 – Jake Johnson
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/17/heart-global-woes-157-worlds-200-richest-entities-are-now-corporations-not
From massive inequality to the climate crisis, these powerful corporations “are able to demand that governments do their bidding.”… The vast wealth and power of corporations is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems—like inequality and climate change,” Dearden [Director of Global Justice Now (GJN)] noted. “The drive for short-term profits today seems to trump basic human rights for millions of people on the planet. Yet there are very few ways that citizens can hold these corporations to account for their behavior. Rather, through trade and investment deals, it is corporations which are able to demand that governments do their bidding.”
Doubt It Can Happen Here? Tell It to Berlin
Common Dreams – October 17, 2018 – Michael Winship
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/17/doubt-it-can-happen-here-tell-it-berlin
To those who still claim it odious or unjust to compare our current White House and the Republican Party to what happened in Germany 85 years ago, I would urge them to come see “Berlin 1933.” Here are the all-too-familiar seeds of a nascent totalitarian regime: the denigration and condemnation of rival political parties, the disintegration of the courts, attacks on organized labor while claiming massive job creation, the dismissal of public servants unwilling to swear undying allegiance to the leader, verbal and written slurs and smears flung against the press and opponents, inciting and legitimizing violence against anyone who dares to disagree… To those who think it can’t happen here? Let them come to Berlin. The city has seen it all before.
Human Rights Hypocrisy
The Shipler Report – October 20, 2018 – David K. Shipler
https://shiplerreport.blogspot.com/2018/10/human-rights-hypocrisy.html
In American foreign policy, human rights are often for sale… American policy toward whatever country is committing egregious violations either hits a wall and retreats, or it finds a pragmatic detour around the obstacle to continue on its way, rationalized by national security and commercial interests. The second route, returning soon to business as usual, seems likely to be taken by Washington in the case of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for the Washington Post who had exiled himself in the US to write critically of Saudi Arabia’s anti-democracy.
The Rise of the Robot Farmer
Portside – The Guardian – October 20, 2018 – John Harris
https://portside.org/2018-10-20/rise-robot-farmer
Robots could take care of every stage of the growing process: mapping the land, planting seeds, caring for the crop, forensically weeding, then harvesting. She may currently do only the first job, but prototypes for the other tasks will arrive over the next couple of years… If food-growers embrace this new way of farming, it will end their dependence on a ploughing process that reduces the fertility of the land, and huge tractors that not only compact the soil but restrict growing seasons to times of the year when big machines won’t get bogged down in mud. By tending crops at the level of the individual plant, robot farming will also lead to a big drop in the money farmers have to spend on pesticides. The developers claim they can increase arable farming revenues by up to 40%, and reduce production costs by as much as 60%. The agility of agricultural robots means small farms with compact fields will no longer be at a disadvantage; independent shops and restaurants will be able to grow their produce on smallholdings efficiently.
5 Ways New Movement Leaders Are Effecting Change
Yes! Magazine – October 16, 2018 – Michael Silberman
https://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/5-ways-new-movement-leaders-are-effecting-change-20181016
The March for Our Lives movement is only one example. From the Movement for Black Lives and 350.org to the Women’s March and the tea party, a new wave of people-powered action is flipping the script and in some ways confounding traditional organizations that have been unable to convert into nimble social movements. What all have in common is what authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms are calling “new power”—new models that are organic and grow directly from the people rather than being directed or managed by formal organizations that control what gets done and by whom… Those most directly affected by an issue can speak from the heart… The key to such agility? Agreeing on an overarching vision and message.
14 Sunday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on Tailspin Tale
Tailspin by Steven Brill – https://tfthinkspeak.blogspot.com/
14 Sunday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on Volume XXVI – Number 41
Containing the Catastrophe
Robert Reich’s Website – October 8, 2018
http://robertreich.org/post/178791856910
Even under normal circumstances, when all three branches are under the control of the same party we get a lopsided government that doesn’t respond to the values of a large portion of the electorate. But these are not normal circumstances. Donald Trump is President. Need I remind you? Trump is a demagogue who doesn’t give a fig for democracy – who continuously and viciously attacks the free press, Democrats, immigrants, Muslims, black athletes exercising First Amendment rights, women claiming sexual harassment, anyone who criticizes or counters him; who treats the executive branch, including the Justice Department, like his own fiefdom, and brazenly profits off his office; who tells lies like other people breathe; and who might well have conspired with Vladimir Putin to swing the election his way. It is now time to place a firm check on this most unbalanced of presidents, and vote accordingly.
Fate of 190,000-Years-Old Human Race Depends on Massive Greening Effort Over Just 30 Years
Informed Comment – October 8, 2018 – Juan Cole
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/depends-massive-greening.html
We have to go to war, folks. This challenge is like when Hitler took over all of mainland Europe and the US geared up to go defeat him. The climate crisis is also a genocidal maniac.
Final call to save the world from ‘climate catastrophe’
BBC News – October 8, 2018 – Matt McGrath
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45775309
“Scientists might want to write in capital letters, ‘ACT NOW, IDIOTS,’ but they need to say that with facts and numbers,” said Kaisa Kosonen, of Greenpeace, who was an observer at the negotiations. “And they have.”
Time to Use Our Fear as Fuel: Three Takeaways from the IPCC’s New Report
Common Dreams – October 10, 2018 – Avi Lewis
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/10/time-use-our-fear-fuel-three-takeaways-ipccs-new-report
More and more people are coming to the conclusion that this escalating crisis, ever-harder to deny, can galvanize change on the scale that is really needed. Nothing less will do.
How 20 years of stop and search has widened America’s racial divide
The Guardian – October 9, 2018 – James Forman Jr
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/oct/09/how-20-years-of-stop-and-search-has-widened-americas-racial-divide
A police push to seize guns from cars ended in disproportionate numbers of black people getting arrested for minor crimes. … This is an extract from “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America” by James Forman Jr, published by Little Brown.
Bernie Sanders: ‘Authoritarian Leaders Around the World’ Inspired by Trump
CNN – October 9, 2018 – Elizabeth Landers
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/politics/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-speech/index.html
“While this authoritarian trend certainly did not begin with Donald Trump, there’s no question that other authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the President of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy is shattering democratic norms, is viciously attacking an independent media and an independent judiciary, and is scapegoating the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society,” Sanders said in a speech focusing on countering authoritarianism.
Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Rule of Pampered Princelings
The Intercept – October 10, 2018 – Naomi Klein
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/10/donald-trump-inherited-wealth/
Boring.” That was Donald Trump’s instant verdict on the New York Times’s blockbuster investigation into the rampant tax fraud and nepotism that undergirds his fortune… Welcome to a new political PR strategy premised on the shredding of the American mind — you don’t want to even try to read that interminable article; check out my Twitter feed instead, and this viral video of me saying rabid things… What makes the Times’ revelations more important is that they are a rare window into an even larger story about the growing political and economic role of inherited money in the United States — the culmination of decades in which a handful of sons and daughters of bequeathed wealth waged a fierce and relentless battle of ideas against the very concept of equality and majority rule, all based on the same corrupting belief in their own inherent superiority.
The media today: Do journalists pay too much attention to Twitter?
Columbia Journalism Review – October 10, 2018 – Mathew Ingram
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/journalists-on-twitter-study.php
The lure of an always-on, news-heavy social network that includes access not just to an audience of consumers but direct input from newsmakers like Donald Trump is impossible to resist for many in the media. But is this a good thing? Journalists often say they spend too much time on Twitter, and wind up devoting more time than they should to stories that come to them via tweets. Should Twitter play such an oversized role in what the media chooses to cover and how they cover it?… This may have negative implications. Among those implications… is that journalists can get caught up in a kind of pack mentality in which a story is seen as important because other journalists on Twitter are talking about it, rather than because it is newsworthy.
Choosing State Judges: A Plan for Reform
Brennan Center for Justice – October 11, 2018 – Alicia Bannon
https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/choosing-state-judges-plan-reform
the Brennan Center is urging states to reform their systems for choosing judges. We recommend that states do away with state supreme court elections completely. Instead, justices should be appointed through a publicly accountable process conducted by an independent nominating commission. Furthermore, to genuinely preserve judicial independence, all justices should serve a single, lengthy term. No matter the mechanism by which they reach the bench, be it an election or an appointment by the governor or legislature, justices should be freed from wondering if their rulings will affect their job security.
Is the US forgetting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The Boston Globe – October 10, 2018 – Linda J. Bilmes
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/10/10/what-trying-achieve-iraq-and-afghanistan/vYatMdNmeO7S7ioccxDlXN/story.html
Today’s shadow budgetary process combined with easy borrowing has enabled the United States to pay for the post 9/11 wars quietly, with little political debate… There is no easy answer to the troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we should be having a national conversation about just what we are trying to achieve, and whether it is truly worth the price. As a nation we can’t possibly decide on the most important questions over war and peace if no one is paying attention.
President Trump Is Lying About the Medicare for All Proposal That I Introduced
Reader Supported News – Bernie Sanders’s Facebook Page – October 11, 2018
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52770-president-trump-is-lying-about-the-medicare-for-all-proposal-that-i-introduced
Donald Trump led the effort to throw 32 million Americans off of the health care they have, in order to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations. Fortunately we were able to defeat his proposal by one vote… In fact, we expand benefits. Millions of seniors today cannot afford the dental care, vision care or hearing aids they desperately need because Medicare does not cover these vitally important needs. Our proposal covers them. In addition, Medicare for All would eliminate deductibles and copays for seniors, and significantly lower the cost of prescription drugs. Medicare for All allows seniors and all Americans to see the doctors they want, not the doctors their insurance companies have a contract with.
Washington state ends ‘racially biased’ death penalty
The Seattle Times – October 13, 2018 – Rachel La Corte and Gene Johnson
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-state-supreme-court-tosses-out-death-penalty/
The ruling makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The court was unanimous in its order that the eight people presently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison.
The Georgia Governor’s Race Is Ground Zero in the Battle for American Democracy
Esquire Magazine – October 10, 2018 – Charles P. Pierce
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23711003/georgia-governor-voter-suppression-brian-kemp-stacey-abrams/
Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp are waging war over the right to vote itself. The winner may well win the governorship… Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, and someone who would be the first African-American governor of Georgia and the first female African-American governor of any state, is the daughter of civil rights activists in Mississippi, and she made her name in politics battling to maintain the advances for which her parents had fought… At the very least, in the race for governor or Georgia, the issue is right there on the center of the table. It’s central to everything we boast of being as a country, so it should be right there in the middle of the table. It is, in fact, the whole table itself. Without it, we’re all eating off the same floor.
Don’t Despair about the Supreme Court
Portside – The Progressive – October 11, 2018 – Howard Zinn
https://portside.org/2018-10-11/howard-zinn-dont-despair-about-supreme-court
No Supreme Court, liberal or conservative, will stop the war in Iraq, or redistribute the wealth of this country, or establish free medical care for every human being. Such fundamental change will depend, the experience of the past suggests, on the actions of an aroused citizenry, demanding that the promise of the Declaration of Independence–an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–be fulfilled.
What It Means to Be a Nation of Immigrants
Yes! Magazine – October 11, 2018 – Pramila Jayapal
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/purple-america/what-it-means-to-be-a-nation-of-immigrants-20181011
Pramila Jayapal writes about the Night of 1,000 Conversations, in which more than 2,500 strangers in 28 states gathered to discuss the role of immigration in the country’s past, present, and future… The conversations demonstrated the power of coming face-to-face with others who may not, at the surface, hold the same views. As we delve deeper, we begin to find common hopes and a shared vision of an America that lives up to its ideals of democracy for both citizens and immigrants.
Showtime in America: Idiots’ Delight, A Quasi Review. “It’s All A Lie”
Global Research – October 12, 2018 – Edward Curtin
https://www.globalresearch.ca/showtime-in-america-idiots-delight-a-quasi-review-its-all-a-lie/5656795
Until we see through the charade of social life and realize the masked performers are not just the politicians and celebrities, not only the professional actors and the corporate media performers, but us, we won’t grasp the problem. Lying is the leading cause of living death in the United States. We live in a society built of lies; lying and dishonesty are the norm. They are built into the fabric of all our institutions, into our psyches. In America, there’s no business but show business, and we are sham actors, amusing ourselves to death while we spread death and destruction in our war theaters all around the world. Theaters in which the tragic plays we direct hold no interest for us. We prefer our Idiots’ Delight.
07 Sunday Oct 2018
Posted Uncategorized
in≈ Comments Off on Volume XXVI – Number 40
Gaza: Israeli Snipers Murder 7 unarmed Protesters, send 210 to Hospital, including 35 Children
Informed Comment – September 30, 2018 – Maan News Agency
https://www.juancole.com/2018/09/protesters-hospital-including.html
Political analyst Naji Zaza said that “The Great March of Return” protests sent clear messages to Israel that these crowds insist on achieving their goals, especially breaking the siege on Gaza… Maan News Agency is one of the largest wire services operating out of the Palestinian territories, publishing news 24 hours a day in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Legal Center: ‘Israeli snipers continue to target unarmed Palestinians’
Informed Comment – October 2, 2018 – Maan News Agency
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/israeli-continue-palestinians.html
The Israeli army continues killing unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters with snipers and live ammunition in the besieged Gaza Strip, with the approval of Israel’s Supreme Court, according to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Why Powerful Men can Roar, but Rape Victims are Discounted as “too” Emotional or “Calm”
Informed Comment – October 1, 2018 – Gail Ukockis
https://www.juancole.com/2018/10/powerful-discounted-emotional.html
Perhaps the Judeo-Christian tradition of denouncing women who were allegedly raped, from Potiphar’s wife making a false accusation to the stoning of victims (Deuteronomy 22), had an unconscious influence on their attitudes… First, the ancient concept of women as property continues in some cultures—thus, rape victims are “damaged goods.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration moves migrant children into desert tent camp in dead of night
The Daily Kos – September 30, 2018 – Caitlin Dickerson
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/30/1800204/-Meanwhile-the-Trump-administration-moves-migrant-children-into-desert-tent-camp
Yes, it can get worse. We are not surprised, but we are horrified. This is the United States of America under Trump: [see full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/us/migrant-children-tent-city-texas.html ]
Former Koch Staffer With Chemical Ties Appointed to Key EPA Position
Think Progress – October 2, 2018 – E.A. Crunden
https://thinkprogress.org/koch-epa-industry-david-dunlap-chemical-water-1f08cfa2fb01/
The Environmental Protection Agency has hired a former Koch Industries staffer who worked on water and chemical policy to fill a key role within the agency, continuing a Trump administration trend of appointing company insiders to oversee the industries they are meant to regulate… The Trump administration has overseen an onslaught of environmental regulation rollbacks, many directly benefiting fossil fuel industries, chemical companies, and corporate interests more broadly. Most recently, the EPA has indicated that it will propose easing limitations on the toxic chemical mercury, in a victory for the coal industry.
Why Aren’t We Talking More About Trump’s Nihilism?
Rolling Stone – October 1, 2018 – Matt Taibbi
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-white-house-climate-change-731440/
The White House now says we might as well pollute because global catastrophe is inevitable… While the press has focused in the past two years either on the president’s daily lunacies or his various scandals, the really dangerous work of Trump’s administration has gone on behind the scenes, in his systematic wreckage of the state… The world is ending, so fuck it, let’s party. As crazy as it is, it’s a seductive message for a country steeped in hate and pessimism. Democrats still don’t understand it. Trump’s turning America into a death cult, with us as involuntary members.
Trump Country
Reader Supported News – October 3, 2018 – Stephen Eric Bronner
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52623-rsn-trump-country
Trump’s administration privileges unilateral over multilateral action, coercion over diplomacy, arbitrary determination of the American national interest over international cooperation, and a crude and traditional “power politics” over human rights… Under the rule of Trump, the United States symbolizes nothing more than bluster. It is America – accept its unilateral decisions or suffer the consequences.
The preacher who used Christianity to revive the Ku Klux Klan
The Washington Post – April 10, 2018 – DeNeen L. Brown
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/04/08/the-preacher-who-used-christianity-to-revive-the-ku-klux-klan/
It was approaching midnight on Oct. 16, 1915, when Methodist preacher William Joseph Simmons and at least 15 other men climbed Stone Mountain in Georgia. They built an altar, set fire to a cross, took an oath of allegiance to the “Invisible Empire” and announced the revival of the Ku Klux Klan… Simmons believed Christianity supported white supremacy, Kelly J. Baker, author of the book, “The Gospel According to the Klan,” said in an interview. “He and other Klan leaders would look to Christianity to find support for racism… The popularity came from the combination of religion and nationalism it promoted, both of which appealed to white Protestant Americans who feared that immigration and changing social mores would overthrow their social dominance.
While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water
The Guardian – October 4, 2018 – Alexandra Shimo
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-six-nations-nestle-running-water
“Six Nations [Canadian First Nations] did not approve [of Nestlé pumping],” Martin-Hill said. “They told Nestlé that they wanted them to stop. Of course, they are still pumping as we speak.”… “The fact that Nestlé is commercializing these natural resources in a community that doesn’t have access to reliable safe, affordable drinking water is a stunning example of the disparities we see around the world in access to safe water,” Gleick said. “The rich can pay for water and the poor get shortchanged over and over again.”
Eight World Cities That Could Be Underwater as Oceans Rise
Buzzflash – October 5, 2018 – Olivia Rosane
https://www.ecowatch.com/cities-vulnerable-sea-level-rise-2610208792.html
That is the finding of a report from Christian Aid looking at eight coastal cities especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The Christian Aid report is one of several from organizations around the world being published in anticipation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on how and if the world can achieve the 1.5° Celsius goal… The IPCC report, scheduled to be released on Monday, is expected to say that the 1.5° goal is possible with urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Christian Aid report helps illuminate what is at stake.
Why the next three months are crucial for the future of the planet
The Guardian – October 5, 2018 – Fiona Harvey
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/05/why-the-next-four-months-are-crucial-for-future-of-planet-climate-change
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) celebrates its 30th birthday this year with what is likely to be a landmark report to be released on Monday 8 October. What is expected to emerge will be the strongest warning yet that these unusual occurrences will add up to a pattern that can only be overcome with drastic action… The existence of tipping points – thresholds of temperature beyond which certain natural processes become irreversible, such as the melting of permafrost, which may release the greenhouse gas methane and create runaway warming effects – is a key concern of many climate scientists. The faster emissions rise, the sooner we may unwittingly pass some of these key points… For all these reasons, the IPCC’s special report comes at a crucial point.
‘Survivors will not be quiet’: Kavanaugh backlash boils over
The Guardian – October 6, 2018 – Sam Levin
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/06/the-resistance-now-brett-kavanaugh-protest-boil-over
Although the protests did not appear to have stopped Kavanaugh from securing his narrow victory, critics have begun discussing other steps they can take to speak out and keep the pressure on the embattled judge.
Aggression and the Meaning of Kavanaugh’s Victory
Talking Points Memo – October 5, 2018 – Josh Marshall
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/aggression-and-the-meaning-of-kavanaughs-victory
To put it more succinctly, Kavanaugh went full Trump. And it worked. That latter point is the key. It worked… This is the heart of Trumpism. Trump may be bellicose, harsh and taunting by nature. But that mood and predatory behavior fits naturally into a political movement focused on reclamation and revenge. We see this in Trump’s often imbecilic fights with foreign leaders and his menacing, vilifying way he talks about his political opposition… What this all means is that conservatism and the GOP are now Trumpism.
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Campaigners Against Sexual Violence as a Weapon
Truth Out – October 5, 2018 – Julia Conley
https://truthout.org/articles/nobel-peace-prize-goes-to-campaigners-against-sexual-violence-as-a-weapon/
“Both laureates have made a crucial contribution to focusing attention on, and combating, such war crimes,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. “Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending these victims. Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others. Each of them in their own way has helped to give greater visibility to wartime sexual violence, so that the perpetrators can be held accountable for their actions.”
In the End, Justice Will Prevail Once More
Reader Supported News – Dan Rather’s Facebook Page – October 6, 2018
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52684-in-the-end-justice-will-prevail-once-more
I will not stand by and let the forces of small mindedness, prejudice, or sanctimony tell me or, more importantly, those who have stood up with far greater courage, that our voices don’t matter. I will not allow truth to be obscured, gaslit, or mocked. This is not about politics… or policy… It’s about decency and the common bonds of humanity. And in the end, I believe that justice will prevail once more and trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
German History and Trump’s Enablers
Portside – History News Network – October 5, 2018 – Richard E. Frankel
https://portside.org/2018-10-05/german-history-and-trumps-enablers
One of the most important lessons that German history has to offer is less about Hitler than about those around him, many of whom were not even Nazis. The enablers also bear responsibility… Why is this important for us to understand today, in Donald Trump’s America? Because, among other things, it teaches us that the would-be autocrat cannot succeed alone. He needs help, and not just at the point of coming to power. Hitler—originally the most improbable candidate to lead a country like Germany—became possible because much of the ground had already been prepared by others, many of whom were not friends of Adolf Hitler.
Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel at the UN General Assembly. Global Capitalism Triggers War and Poverty
Global Research – October 5, 2018 – President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
https://www.globalresearch.ca/cubas-president-miguel-diaz-canel-at-the-un-general-assembly-global-capitalism-triggers-war-and-poverty/5656218
The Cuba on behalf of which I speak today is the proud successor of that independent, sovereign, fraternal and solidarity policy with the poorest of this world, producers of all the wealth on the planet, although the unequal global order has sentenced them with dire poverty on behalf of words like democracy, freedom and human rights, words which the rich have actually emptied of meaning.