An Open Invitation to Tyranny
Institute for Political Economy – August 7, 2019 – Paul Craig Roberts
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/an-open-invitation-to-tyranny/
Challenging official explanations, such as those offered for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King or the official explanation for 9/11, can now result in monitoring by authorities with a view to finding a reason for pre-emptive arrest… The FBI has published a document that concludes that “conspiracy theories” can motivate believers to commit crimes… The FBI document says that conspiracy theories “are usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.” Note the use of “official” and “prevailing.” Official explanations are explanations provided by governments. Prevailing explanations are the explanations that the media repeats… Official and prevailing explanations do not have to be consistent with facts. It is enough that they are official and prevailing. Whether or not they are true is irrelevant. Therefore, a person who stands up for the truth can be labeled a conspiracy theorist, monitored, and perhaps pre-emptively arrested.
400 years since slavery: a timeline of American history
The Guardian – August 15, 2019 – Khushbu Shah and Juweek Adolphe
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/aug/15/400-years-since-slavery-timeline
In 1619, a ship with 20 captives landed at Point Comfort in Virginia, ushering in the era of American slavery… Though enslaved Africans had been part of Portuguese, Spanish, French and British history across the Americas since the 16th century, the captives who landed in Virginia were probably the first slaves to arrive into what would become the United States 150 years later.
Slavery in America reminds us: Trump is far from an aberration
The Guardian – August 16, 2019 – Touré
https://www.theguardian.com/news/commentisfree/2019/aug/16/slavery-anniversary-america-trump
Imagine being teleported from the early days of slavery in 1619 to Donald Trump’s America. Technological changes aside, I think the way we approach race would feel very familiar. Indeed, the president’s white supremacy would seem entirely normal. That’s because the roots of modern American racism were put down by those early European colonizers: the road to Trump begins in America’s first years… We remain a nation divided along the racial lines drawn for us 400 years ago – we are the same racist country that we were in 1619. And that’s why Trump is not an aberration: his ideas and his energy have been part of America since the beginning. He’s an ugly part, but he’s a part nonetheless.
As mass shootings rise, experts say high-capacity magazines should be the focus
The Washington Post – August 18, 2019 – Griff Witte
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-mass-shootings-rise-experts-say-high-capacity-magazines-should-be-the-focus/2019/08/18/d016fa66-bfa3-11e9-a5c6-1e74f7ec4a93_story.html?noredirect=on
Restrictions on the capacity of bullet magazines will not stop mass shootings, but they could make the attacks less deadly, giving potential targets precious seconds to escape or fight back while the shooter reloads, experts say… “The high-capacity magazine is what takes it to a whole other level of carnage,” said David Chipman, who served 25 years as a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s the primary driver for why we’re seeing more mass shootings more regularly.”
We Can’t Confront Climate Change While Lavishly Funding the Pentagon
Truth Out – August 18, 2019 – JP Sottile
https://truthout.org/articles/we-cant-confront-climate-change-while-lavishly-funding-the-pentagon/
The Pentagon is staring down the barrel of what could become the longest, hottest war in U.S. history. This titanic clash pits the largest military the world has ever seen against an omnipresent opponent that can marshal resources like no enemy it has ever encountered. That opponent is climate change… The climate crisis is itself a byproduct of 70 years of U.S. interventionism and empire… When we talk about the U.S. as the “world’s policeman,” much of the beat Uncle Sam walks is paved with oil… Every year the U.S. political system reflexively funds a world-dominating defense budget that directly benefits the oil industry, client states and the entire hydrocarbon-based economy. Basically, it’s a global protection racket that generates huge profits for defense companies that sell weapons to the Pentagon.
All the global temperature records broken in 2019, so far
Axios – August 18. 2019
https://www.axios.com/temperature-records-set-in-2019-512a1109-99ae-45aa-8953-781ff955c91d.html
Such trends are indicative of long-term global warming due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels for energy and transportation, cutting down forests for agriculture and other purposes. Only 1 of the top 20 warmest years on record since instrument data began in 1880 took place before the year 2000. With greenhouse gas concentrations in the air at their highest level in 3 million years, the odds favor more record-shattering years in the future.
A tale of two Washingtons, one a slave, the other a master
The Washington Post – August 19, 2019 – Richard Cohen
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-tale-of-two-washingtons-one-a-slave-the-other-a-master/2019/08/19/ce08b2a6-c2d1-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html
The American Revolution itself was a challenge to slavery. If all men were created equal, then how could some be enslaved? The Founding Fathers wrestled with this contradiction. Some such as Jefferson and Washington retained their slaves until death. Others had long before come to acknowledge their unacceptable hypocrisy and freed their slaves. The Quakers adamantly condemned slavery. That tinkering Pennsylvanian, the ever-wise (and once-slaveholding) Benjamin Franklin, became an abolitionist… We were shaped by slavery, and by the two Washingtons — one a slave, the other a master, and both Americans.
The 1619 Project and the far-right fear of history
The Washington Post – August 20, 2019 – Ishaan Tharoor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/20/project-far-right-fear-history/
The “1619 Project” takes this arrival as a seminal event with which to reframe the history of the United States. It charts how — from prison systems to land laws, the origins of capitalism to the evolution of the American diet — there’s little that defines the United States that doesn’t somehow have the legacy of slavery at its foundation… Those who engage with history more seriously than politicians understand that recognition of a national darkness need not be an impediment to national pride. “This America is a community of belonging and commitment, held together by the strength of our ideas and by the force of our disagreements,” wrote Harvard historian Jill Lepore in her latest book, “This America: The Case for the Nation.” “A nation founded on universal ideas will never stop fighting over the meaning of its past and the direction of the future…. The nation, as ever, is the fight.”
“Just Following Orders”: Conversations With Concentration Camp Guards at the Southern Border
The American Prospect – August 19, 2019 – Charli Carpenter
https://prospect.org/article/just-following-orders-conversations-concentration-camp-guards-southern-border
Americans can engage these guards and remind them of the Nuremberg principles. We can remind them they are vulnerable to prosecution if they follow orders, but have power—and moral courage—when they resist. Activists can laud heroes like former CPB agent-turned-activist Jenn Budd, who resigned her post due to the cruelty she witnessed and has been speaking out ever since. Citizens can consider the other kinds of assistance that would make it easier for people working in these places to speak out—or turn in their badges— rather than remain loyal to a regime bent on violating the human rights of civilians fleeing conflicts in their home countries.
Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies
Common Dreams – August 9, 2019 – Steven Rosenfeld
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and
A new book by one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers powerfully describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances are being pushed to the brink by a president who is consciously following Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s—when the Nazis took power in Germany… The author, Burt Neuborne, is one of America’s top civil liberties lawyers, and questions whether federal government can contain Trump and GOP power grabs… A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet, Neuborne noted. The English edition of My New Order, published in 1941, also had analyses of the speeches’ impact on his era’s press and politics. “Ugly and appalling as they are, those speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation,” Neuborne says.
Trump administration revives public charge clause that kept Nazi-era refugees from the US
The Conversation – August 20, 2019 – Laurel Leff
http://theconversation.com/trump-administration-revives-public-charge-clause-that-kept-nazi-era-refugees-from-the-us-121849
During the Nazi era, roughly 300,000 additional Jewish refugees could have gained entry to the U.S. without exceeding the nation’s existing quotas. The primary mechanism that kept them out: the immigration law’s “likely to become a public charge” clause. Consular officials with the authority to issue visas denied them to everyone they deemed incapable of supporting themselves in the U.S…. As someone who has studied European Jews’ attempts to escape Nazi persecution and immigrate to the U.S., the administration’s evocation of the public charge clause is chilling.
Having an Inclusive Approach to Undocumented Immigrants Can Help Families & States Prosper
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – August 21, 2019 – Erica Williams, Eric Figueroa and Wesley Tharpe
https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/inclusive-approach-to-immigrants-who-are-undocumented-can-help
In sharp contrast to the Trump Administration’s harmful rhetoric and administrative actions targeting immigrants, which have created a climate of fear — especially among families with immigrants who are undocumented — a number of states have adopted pragmatic policies designed to treat all people fairly and give all individuals an opportunity to thrive. This inclusive approach makes sense and holds true to our nation’s often-stated ideals, ideals which United States immigration policies have not always respected, and evidence shows it can foster community well-being and improve state economies. Harsh anti-immigrant policies, in contrast, harm workers and their children and likely weaken the economy.
‘Nuclear Weapons Arms Race Is Here’: Russians, Anti-Nuke Experts Denounce US Missile Test
Common Dreams – August 20, 2019 – Jessica Corbett
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/20/nuclear-weapons-arms-race-here-russians-anti-nuke-experts-denounce-us-missile-test
In the aftermath of the INF Treaty collapse in early August, Putin said that “if Russia obtains reliable information that the United States has finished developing [new intermediate-range nuclear missiles] systems and started to produce them, Russia will have no option other than to engage in a full-scale effort to develop similar missiles.”
#PrayForAmazonia Goes Viral as Twitter Users Call Attention to ‘International Emergency’ of Fires Devastating Brazil’s Rainforest
Common Dreams – August 20, 2019 – Jake Johnson
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/20/prayforamazonia-goes-viral-twitter-users-call-attention-international-emergency
The Amazon rainforest has been burning for three weeks! We are on the verge of losing it completely if the fire isn’t put out. The loss of trees, the loss of biodiversity is what is accelerating climate change… It is unclear whether the fires were caused by agricultural activity or deforestation. Both have accelerated rapidly under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who made opening the Amazon to corporate exploitation a key plank of his election campaign.
Media Blackout on Brazil’s Anti-Bolsonaro Protests
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) – August 17, 2019 – Brian Mier
https://fair.org/home/media-blackout-on-brazils-anti-bolsonaro-protests/
The problem is bigger than individual flaws with foreign correspondents. Like Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro represents what George Monbiot refers to as a “killer clown.” According to Monbiot, clowns like Bolsonaro provide distraction and deflection for elites. “While the kleptocrats fleece us,” he says, “we are urged to look elsewhere.” While the commercial media distracts us with horror stories about Jair Bolsonaro the killer clown, their corporate advertisers are making billions from the deregulation of pesticides and mining, petroleum and pension fund privatization in Brazil… Regardless of the motives, one thing is for sure: Downplaying and ignoring organized resistance supports Bolsonaro’s sub-fascist project for Brazil, and the US corporations that benefit from it.
March for Our Lives unveils sweeping gun reform agenda: ‘The time is now’
The Guardian – August 21, 2019 – Abené Clayton
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/21/march-for-our-lives-reform-peace-plan
March for Our Lives, the organization created by survivors of the February 2018 mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, released an audacious policy agenda calling for far-reaching reform. The proposal released on Wednesday, Peace Plan for a Safer America, includes plans to reduce the number of firearms in civilian hands by 30%, create a mandatory federal gun buyback program for assault weapons, and re-examine the Heller decision – the 2008 supreme court ruling allowing private citizens to keep handguns in their homes.
Can there be democracy without nonviolence?
Metta Center for Nonviolence – August 8, 2019 – Stephanie Van Hook
https://wagingnonviolence.org/metta/podcast/can-there-be-democracy-without-nonviolence-a-conversation-with-jamila-raqib/
I think people are realizing that democracy is not just a constitution and a piece of paper and voting every four years, that democracy is a process. That nonviolent action is a very, very important piece of that process. That it really ensures that it’s a recognition that our systems are not self-enforcing. They’re not self-correcting. They really depend on us.
An Ecosocialist Green New Deal
Howie Hawkins for President – August, 2019
https://howiehawkins.us/ecosocialist-green-new-deal/
The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will not only build a 100% clean energy system by 2030, but will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation. The Economic Bill of Rights will be realized through ongoing programs of public provision. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will be realized through a plan of public capital investments of 10 to 20 years depending on the sector. Implementing the Green New Deal will require ecosocialism—social ownership in key sectors in order to democratically plan the coordinated reconstruction of all economic sectors for ecological sustainability.
70 mayors reject Trump food stamp proposal, saying it puts kids at risk
NPR – WHYY – August 22, 2019 – Bobby Allyn
https://whyy.org/npr_story_post/70-mayors-reject-trump-food-stamp-proposal-saying-it-puts-kids-at-risk/
The Trump administration’s proposal to push millions of people out of the federal food stamp program would punish some of the country’s neediest, including children, seniors and people with disabilities, according to mayors of 70 American cities who have sent a letter to an administrator for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program… Citing the USDA’s own statistics, the mayors wrote, “during times of economic downturn, every additional $5 dollars in SNAP benefits generates up to $9 dollars of economic activity.”
The Terrifying Legacy of David Koch
Common Dreams – August 23, 2019 – Ryan Cooper
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/23/terrifying-legacy-david-koch
David Koch was one of the most powerful people in the world over the last three or so decades, and he did his level best to stymie any effort to stop the biggest threat to human society…. The Kochs were… key players in the successful effort to beat back a cap-and-trade bill in 2010, the closest the U.S. government has ever come to any kind of emissions policy. The main reason they did all this, of course, was to protect and expand their gigantic fortunes — which were and are heavily based on fossil fuels.
Video Games and Killing
Justice Initiative – August 22, 2019 – Heather Gray
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Video-Games—Killing.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=zBAs2as1gFI
It appears there are relatively few statements made by Donald Trump that have credibility. However, there is one statement he made after the recent tragic mass killings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that does have credence. This was his statement regarding the role of video games in encouraging violence and/or desensitizing individuals and our youth. Regarding this issue, below are portions from an article I wrote in the past about the book by psychologist Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman entitled ” On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society “.
Puerto Rico: The Shift from Mass Protests to People’s Assemblies
Portside – NACLA – August 24, 2019 – Jacqueline Villarrubia-Mendoza and Roberto Vélez-Vélez
https://www.portside.org/2019-08-24/puerto-rico-shift-mass-protests-peoples-assemblies
In the wake of the massive demonstrations that forced the resignation of Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rossello, dozens of people’s assemblies have sprouted across the island to discuss the critical next stage in the struggle for popular democracy… Different sectors of civil society have convened these assemblies with the mission of reflecting on how to provide continuity to the mobilized citizenry and entering into deep conversations about governance… While many of the assemblies have participants with experience in assembly procedures—and the intricate parliamentary process—a significant number of participants are new to the scene, making for a space of innovation and experimentation within the democratic exercise… In some towns, those present at the assemblies have proposed workshops that educate people on what constitutes participatory democracy and provide them with the necessary tools to broadly participate in the island’s decision-making processes.
Workers of the World Unite (At Last)
Portside – Working-Class Perspectives – August 22, 2019 – Ronaldo Munc
https://www.portside.org/2019-08-22/workers-world-unite-last
Our world order, globalized from above, cries out for a globalized response from below, a new international fit for the purpose of system transformation in the twenty-first century… Transnational labor organizing still faces many contradictions and pitfalls. The mismatch between the unlimited scale and complexity of the challenge and the limited resources available remains a chronic problem… These problems are not insurmountable for a nimble and strategic labor movement, but they must be addressed head-on… The tradition of labor organizing known variously as community unionism, “deep organizing,” or “social movement unionism” has been making a comeback. Making that tradition transnational could open a new chapter in labor’s ongoing struggle against capitalism.