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Truthout Daily Digest | Friday, 17 April 2015

Fighting a Low-Intensity War, Indigenous Tupinamba Recover Their Land in Brazil

Santiago Navarro F., Renata Bessi and translated by Miriam Taylor, Truthout: While Brazilian state forces were sent to Tupinamba territories to guarantee law and order, the indigenous people became determined to do something the government refused: demarcate the borders of indigenous land. After self-demarcation, the Tupinamba reclaimed and occupied their territory.

Read the Article and View the Photos

Jordan Downs: Toxic Cleanups Underway, but Many Fear It’s Too Little, Too Late

Daniel Ross, Truthout: Jordan Downs, a subsidized housing project in Watts, Los Angeles, sits in one of the most heavily polluted regions in California. Although three separate toxic cleanups in and around Jordan Downs are underway, environmentalists, community advocates and residents fear the worst of the damage has already been done.

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Diversifying the Environmental Movement Isn’t Enough

Olivia Aguilar, Truthout: Recent calls to diversify the environmental movement often ignore the racist complexities associated with the history of the movement. Environmentalists don’t have a diversity problem, they have an identity problem. And it’s rooted in a racist history and unchecked biases.

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A Trade Rule That Makes It Illegal to Favor Local Business? Leak Shows TPP Would Do That and More

David Korten, YES! Magazine: A leaked document substantiates claims by opponents that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate-rights agreement designed to facilitate the export of US jobs, allow corporations to sue governments for enacting labor and environmental protections and make it illegal for governments to favor local businesses.

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Reparations in Chicago: The Homestretch

Kelly Hayes, Transformative Spaces: Tuesday was a historic day in Chicago. The movement for reparations for survivors of police torture is on the brink of a tremendous victory, as Chicago’s City Council now stands ready to pass the first legislation in US history that provides reparations for police violence.

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What Did Democrats Win in the Cardin Compromise on the Corker Bill?

Robert Naiman, Truthout: Democrats supported the amended Corker bill not because they think the bill is perfect, but because the “coach blew the whistle on the play.” You don’t want to be like a soldier who thinks he’s still fighting a war after his government has already signed a deal.

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Khalil Muhammad: To Stop Police Killings, Transform the Political Culture That Threatens Black Lives

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: Protests were held from coast to coast Tuesday in a day of action against police violence and racial profiling. Amy Goodman is joined by Khalil Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry Speaks at a San Fransciso McDonald’s Protest for $15 an Hour

Staff, Labor Video Project: Protests of fast-food workers were held throughout the US and globally April 15. SEIU President Mary Kay Henry called on Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and other candidates to support the $15 an hour campaign.

Watch the Video

Four Reasons Why the Transition From Fossil Fuels to a Green Energy Era Is Gaining Traction

Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch: Don’t hold your breath, but future historians may look back on 2015 as the year that the renewable energy ascendancy began, the moment when the world started to move decisively away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

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Five Corporations That Probably Didn’t Pay Taxes This Year

Kevin Mathews, Care2: While the average US taxpayer tends to dread April 15, not every person needs to get upset about Tax Day. These people (or, well, “people”), better known as corporations, have found that the existing tax rules actually work in their favor.

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The Storm Is Over

Kathy Kelly, teleSUR: Just about everyone longs to raise their children in a world where drought, storms and brutal want won’t loom as insoluble, inevitable catastrophes. But other storms will come, and we will have to see how we weather them. What if our terrible fear of each other could pass us by?

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It’s Not Easy for Obama to Prove He’s Green

Emily Schwartz Greco, OtherWords: Just as cutting back from two packs of cigarettes a day to one pack won’t do away with your personally inflicted cancer risks, all President Obama’s great steps toward a lower-carbon future won’t paint his legacy green.

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BuzzFlash

A Fourth of All Part-Time College Instructors Require Government Financial Aid

Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: The populist protests for livable wages have spread far beyond the most visible recent public actions that were focused on the fast-food sector.

Read the BuzzFlash Commentary

Loretta Lynch Supporters Stage Hunger Strike to Urge Confirmation

Read the Article at Politico

We Need to See Realistic LGBT People on Our Screens, Not Toxic Caricatures

Read the Article at The Guardian

Petcoke in Chicago: A Toxic Gift From the Koch Brothers

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

House Votes to Repeal Estate Tax

Read the Article at The Hill

Small Aircraft Lands on Capitol Hill Lawn, Pilot Taken Into Custody

Read the Article at Huffington Post

Overfished Stocks at All-Time Low

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Marines Set for New Mission in Troubled Central America

Read the Article at Marine Corps Times


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Truthout Daily Digest | Saturday, 17 January 2015

Life, Liberty, Happiness: Health, Food, Shelter

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: Health care in the United States is a for-profit industry, and that’s just crazy. Even with “Obamacare” delivering us into the warm embrace of the insurance industry in order to give us all “options,” the whole process is a rank offense to the national ethos we allegedly hold so dear.

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BDS, Academic Freedom and Self-Censoring Debate on Campus

David Palumbo-Liu, Truthout: When safely tenured academics decide to self-censor, employing the alibi that they lack expertise in the topic of debate, as is so often done in regards to Israel, the Palestinians and the BDS movement, they have essentially given up their academic freedom.

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Blood on Their Hands: The Racist History of Modern Police Unions

Flint Taylor, In These Times: Reactionary actions by police unions are not new, but are a fundamental component of their history, particularly since they came to prominence in the wake of the civil rights movement. These organizations have played a powerful role in defending the police, no matter how outrageous and racist their actions.

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Searching for Radical Democracy in the Ruins of Capitalism’s Economic Depravity

Chuck Mertz, This is Hell!: The future demands a new political consciousness, and we can’t wait for the current neoliberal economic system to tear apart society, says public intellectual Henry Giroux.

Listen to the Interview

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: A Modern, Militarist Parable

Niall McLaren, Truthout: These days, even children’s books become thundering dioramas of violence, ensuring an endless flow of eager recruits to the ghastly reality of war. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is, in fact, blatant militarist propaganda. Everybody must believe this one point: Violence is why we exist.

Read the Review

Justice in Guatemala Deferred, Again

Christy Thornton, NACLA: In Guatemala last week, the historic trial of the country’s former dictator, Efraín Rios Montt, was set to resume. In a previous trial, he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, but that decision was overturned. Jo-Marie Burt, director of the Latin American studies program at George Mason University, discusses what happened during last week’s trial.

Listen to the Interview and Read the Transcript

The War on Hen-Pecking

Jill Richardson, OtherWords: All states should follow California’s example and make egg producers treat laying hens better. Instead of living in cramped cages with less room than a sheet of paper, California birds are going to get enough space to lie down, stand up, stretch their wings and turn around.

Read the Article

The Sterling Trial: Merlin Meets Curveball

Marcy Wheeler, Expose Facts: In this update on the trial of CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, it is revealed that efforts by the CIA to “get its reputation back” have been rather unsuccessful.

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France Puts Off Delivery of Mistral to Russia “Indefinitely”

Gene Zbikowski, L’Humanité: The Mistral helicopter carrier, which was initially to be turned over to Russia in October, will remain at quay for the time being in accordance with recommendations made to the French president by the Americans over the “situation in the eastern Ukraine.”

Read the Article

BuzzFlash

The Buzzflash commentary for Truthout will return soon.

Majority of US Public School Students Are in Poverty

Read the Article at The Washington Post

Supreme Court to Decide if States Can Ban Gay Marriage

Read the Article at Reuters

Mexico Arrests Suspect in Disappearance of 43 Students

Read the Article at The Huffington Post

#MLKShutItDown Protests Aim to “Reclaim” Martin Luther King’s Legacy

Read the Article at Al Jazeera

2014 Officially the Hottest Year on Record

Read the Article at The Guardian

Mitt Romney Has a Huge New Conflict-of-Interest Problem

Read the Article at Mother Jones

Holder Limits Seized-Asset Sharing Process That Split Billions With Local, State Police

Read the Article at The Washington Post


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Common Dreams Highlights Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

News & Views | 12.17.14

Featured…

US and Cuba to Restore Diplomatic Relations in Historic Overhaul
by Nadia Prupis
“Obama’s announcement is a recognition that the new generation of Cubans agree with the majority of Americans that the embargo is a relic of the Cold War that should be put to rest.”

News…

‘Biggest Fracking Victory Ever!’ as New York Bans Dangerous Drilling in State
by Jon Queally
“Fracking has no place in New York or anywhere,” says prominent activist after announcement by Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Amid Grief, Warnings That Pakistan Gov’t Retaliation Could Violate Human Rights
by Sarah Lazare
As Pakistan holds vigils and mass funerals, across the border, people in India stage moment of silence.
Despite Warnings of Future War, Obama to Impose New Russian Sanctions
by Jon Queally
Instead of negotiations designed to end crisis over status of Ukraine, White House says president will sign quietly passed bill that critics says will solidify new Cold War.
Out of Control Fracking Well Forces Evacuations
by Andrea Germanos
An out-of-control natural gas fracking well in Monroe County, Ohio forced more than two dozen families from their homes and may pose the threat of an explosion.

Views…

Howard Zinn and the Joy of a Political Life
by Frances Fox Piven
The essays in Some Truths Are Not Self-Evident remind us that Zinn was not just a historian: he was also deeply involved in the major twentieth-century struggles for social justice in the United States.
How “Citibank Budget” Push Foreshadows “Fast Track” For Trade Deals
by Dave Johnson
What lessons can we learn from the way the “Citibank” provisions in the budget deal were pushed through? How do these lessons apply to the next big fight?
Jeb Bush v. Hillary Clinton: The Perfectly Illustrative Election
by Glenn Greenwald
Having someone who is the brother of one former president and the son of another run against the wife of still another former president would be sweetly illustrative of all sorts of degraded and illusory aspects of American life, from meritocracy to class mobility.
A Lump of Coal for Fossil Fuels
by Emily Schwartz Greco
Move your money… before it’s too late.

Newswire…

more newswire…


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Truthout Daily Digest Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Henry A. Giroux | America’s Addiction to Torture

Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: State-sanctioned torture is not just a US export; it’s part of a long history of domestic terrorism. We must connect the dots between the same lawlessness and culture that subjects foreign nationals to brutal violence, and provides immunity for killer cops at home.

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Building a Better Border Means Relating to Communities

Julie Fisher-Rowe, Truthout: Immigration advocates need to speak out and work to replace the dominant narrative around “border security” and “law and order” with a proactive, values-based story about what kind of communities we all want to live in.

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“Ban the Box” Campaigns Seek to End Discrimination Against Formerly Incarcerated College Applicants

Victoria Law, Truthout: Those who check the box on college applications asking about their criminal past can face obstacle after obstacle gaining a higher education. In New York, students who have had to check the box are organizing to ban it.

Read the Article

How the CIA Covered Up Its Lie on Torture and bin Laden

Gareth Porter, Truthout: The Senate torture report reveals how senior CIA officials concealed the agency’s false account of its torture program, focused on Osama bin Laden’s courier and used the film Zero Dark Thirty to popularize its own line while suppressing evidence that contradicted it.

Read the Article

Seeds of Truth: Vandana Shiva and The New Yorker

Dr. Vandana Shiva, Independent Science News: “A recent article in The New Yorker contains many lies and inaccuracies that range from the mundane … to grave fallacies that affect people’s lives. The piece has now become fodder for the social media supporting the biotech industry.”

Read the Article

A Warren Run Would Change Everything

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: Elizabeth Warren is a populist, and if there was one good sign from this year’s midterm elections it’s that Americans of all stripes, even those living in red states, support a populist agenda.

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CIA Torture Is Out in the Open – but Guantánamo Bay Detainees Are Still Going Nowhere

Rebecca Cordell, The Conversation: The United States and its allies complicit in the illegal, secret detention and torture program are now busily proclaiming that the torture described in the Senate report was wrong, shameful and now a thing of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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How Big Oil Got Expedited Permitting for Fracking on Public Lands Into the Defense Bill

Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog: The US Senate has approved the Defense Authorization Act of 2015. The pork-barrel legislation contains a provision – among other controversial measures – to streamline permitting for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on US public lands.

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New York State Official Raises Alarm on Charter Schools – and Gets Ignored

Marian Wang, ProPublica: A top official in the New York State Comptroller’s Office has urged regulators to require more transparency on charter school finances. The response has been, well, nonexistent.

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How State and Local Subsidies Fuel Inequality

Brendan Fischer, PR Watch: According to a new report, when a state or local government subsidizes a major corporation like Walmart or Amazon, it is doing the most to intensify economic inequality by enriching individuals at the very top of the income hierarchy while also perpetuating poor quality jobs at the bottom.

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Prosecute the Prosecutors: A Way to Justice in Staten Island, Ferguson and Cleveland

Robert Weiner and Joseph Abay, Michigan Chronicle: The families should not be faced with a brick wall of prosecutors they think are immunized from action when lawsuits are in fact possible, especially in glaring circumstances. Civil suits against the prosecutors are another route for damages for the families of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice.

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BuzzFlash

An Actual, Positive Foreign Policy Move: US to Recognize That Cuba Exists

Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: Amidst ruinous and deadly US foreign policy, the diplomatic shunning of Cuba by the United States stood as a singular act of international stupidity.

Read the BuzzFlash Commentary

Governor Cuomo to Ban Fracking in New York State, Citing Health Risks

Read the Article at The New York Times

People With Mental Illnesses Are Scapegoated as Cause of Mass Shootings

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Congress Is Finally Going to Make Local Law Enforcement Report How Many People They Kill, but How Effective Will It Be?

Read the Article at Mother Jones

Abolishing the CIA

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

How Congress Snuck Changes to US Environmental Policy Into New Budget Bill

Read the Article at Scientific American

Bolivia to Host 2015 Meeting of Social Movements to Fight Climate Change

Read the Article at The Bullet

Glenn Greenwald: US TV Provides Ample Platform for American Torturers, but None to Their Victims

Read the Article at The Intercept


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Truthout Daily Digest Monday, 17 November 2014

Dahr Jamail | Climate Disruption Depression and 2013 Emissions Set New Records

Dahr Jamail, Truthout: In spite of announced clean-energy policies, the world isn’t moving anywhere near fast enough to have a chance at mitigating the ever-more alarming impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption in any real way.

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I Love a Paranoid Country

Niall McLaren, Truthout: The Anglophone world has recently erupted into rage over the threat of fanatical jihadist terrorists trying to overturn our way of life. However, our tightly interwoven governments fail to see how we have contributed to the rise of Islamist fanaticism.

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Egg Freeze vs. Wage Freeze? Family Choices Complicated for Working Women

Kate Baldwin, Truthout: Some say Facebook’s and Apple’s policy of paying for egg freezing for women employees reveals an increasing submission to inflexible work structures that prioritize manhood over momhood.

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Two Detroits, Separate and Unequal: A Journey Across a City Divided

Laura Gottesdiener, TomDispatch: Detroit is really two cities. One is comprised of wealthy enclaves. The other is made up of the rest of the 139-square-mile urban expanse, populated by longtime residents who have fought for decades to survive in an environment that has become increasingly uninhabitable.

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Dean Baker | The Problem of “Stupid” in Economics

Dean Baker, Truthout: There is something grating about seeing a prominent economist refer to the US public as “stupid.” After all, the country and the world have suffered enormously because the leading lights of the economic profession were oblivious to the largest bubble in history.

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The Pentagon Wants $5 Billion for Iraq-Syria War? Three Reasons to Oppose

Robert Naiman, Truthout: Though the war is three months old, Congress still has not debated and voted to authorize use of military force in Iraq and Syria. Now, the Pentagon wants $5 billion.

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Why the Mainstream Media Is Gung-Ho on War and Silencing Antiwar Voices

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: Know that when you see an ex-general on the air, or an advertisement for a company that makes weapons of war, it’s all about influencing the US public to support wars, not for the good of the country, but for the profits of the weapons industry.

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Richard D. Wolff | System Change, or There and Back Again: Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism

Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: Traditional capitalism yields recurring crises of unemployment and deepening economic inequalities, which often have provoked transitions to traditional socialism and fascism. Yet most societies that opted for the latter systems have transitioned back. Today‘s crisis capitalism moves again toward those transitions, but something different is emerging.

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Citizens Protest Fracking Permit in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish

Julie Dermansky, DeSmogBlog: On November 13, more than 600 people filled the Lakeshore High School gym for a public hearing on a drilling permit for the first hydraulic fracturing site in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. It was the first public hearing for a drilling permit that anyone can remember.

Read the Article

Finding Justice at Guantánamo: An Interview With a Former Military Lawyer

Aisha Maniar, One Small Window: Former. Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari, a remaining Kuwaiti prisoner held at Guantánamo, speaks about what the release of another Kuwaiti prisoner means and what lies ahead for Al-Kandari and the other 147 Guantánamo prisoners.

Read the Interview

How We’re Failing Black Girls

Sikivu Hutchinson, The Feminist Wire: The disfiguring images and messages that young black girls consume are ones that we as black women – feminist, womanist or somewhere in between – have not been vigilant enough in challenging on the ground.

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Investigation Uncovers “Culture of Impunity” for Chicago Police Department

Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network: A recent Truthout investigation has uncovered systemic abuse by police officers who’ve remained on the force while the city has paid out millions in settlements. Chicago police have one in a thousand chance of being held accountable for alleged abuse.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

BuzzFlash

James Risen Says He Will Not Reveal a Confidential Source Whatever Supreme Court Rules

Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: Risen understands that to release the name of a confidential source is to eliminate any journalistic checks and balances on the governmental abuse of power.

Read the BuzzFlash Commentary

Ten Illegal Police Actions to Watch for in Ferguson

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Child Homelessness Surges in the US

Read the Article at Al Jazeera

Sordid Tales of Selfishness in the Superrich

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Report: 35.8 Million People Worldwide Living in Modern-Day Slavery

Read the Article at Common Dreams

Prosecutors Troubled by Extent of US Military Fraud

Read the Article at The Associated Press

The TTIP Trade Pact Would Be Disastrous for Europe

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Day Before Vote, Activists Bring Keystone Fight to Democratic Senator’s Front Door

Read the Article at Common Dreams


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Truthout Daily Digest Friday, 17 October 2014

Sarah Jaffe | The Resurgence of the Public Education Nation

Sarah Jaffe, Truthout: Opposition to the Common Core standards is growing nationwide, and despite salacious headlines, much of it is coming from teachers and parents opposed to overtesting. But the growing movement against corporate-style education reform comes together around the question: What are we for?

Read the Interview

Filmmaker Sheds Light on “Valiant,” Greek-Born Hero of the Ludlow Massacre

Vassiliki Siouti, Truthout: Filmmaker Lambrini Thoma and director Nick Ventouras have traced the life and untimely heroic death of Louis Tikas, a legendary figure of the labor movement in the early 20th century. Truthout interviews Thoma about the film and the state of labor in Greece today.

Read the Interview

Charter School Power Broker Turns Public Education Into Private Profits

Marian Wang, ProPublica: Baker Mitchell is a politically connected North Carolina businessman who celebrates the power of the free market. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell’s chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.

Read the Article

The Future of Work, Leisure and Consumption

Staff, Dollars & Sense: Economist Juliet Schor is known worldwide for her research on the interrelated issues of work, leisure, and consumption. Her books on these themes includeThe Overworked American, The Overspent American and The New Consumer. She discusses her research on these economic trends.

Read the Interview

In Historic Police Brutality Case, Family of Homeless Denver Pastor Killed in Custody Awarded $4.6 Million

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: As Denver faces a string of police brutality cases, a federal jury has awarded a historic $4.6 million in damages to the family of a homeless preacher killed while he was in the booking area of the Denver jail.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Laura Flanders | Shifting Syria Threats

Laura Flanders, GRITtv: The US is under pressure to respond to allegations of war crimes in connection with its air strikes on Syria. But how do you assess disproportionate harm when this entire assault is disproportionate and premised on undefined threats?

Listen to the Audio Segment and Read the Transcript

War on Witches: Reagan Judge Denounces Myth of Voter Fraud

Brendan Fischer, PR Watch: Voter ID is “a mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters,” federal appellate Judge Richard Posner wrote in a scorching dissent published October 10. “If the Wisconsin Legislature says witches are a problem, shall Wisconsin courts be permitted to conduct witch trials?”

Read the Article

Economic Update: Economic Realities

Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: This episode analyzes the implications of Walmart shifting medical insurance costs onto US taxpayers, the Pew report on payday loans, US child poverty, the Obama administration’s support for Amazon against workers, and profits and death from opioids. Topics of major discussion include the medical-industrial complex, the manufacturing “renaissance” fantasy, “socialism’s” different meanings and the remarkable economics of the US securities industry.

Listen to Radio Segment

Here Come the Rain and Drought

Emily Schwartz Greco, OtherWords: A raft of new research makes it clear that there’s going to be nowhere to hide from the devastation wrought by climate chaos. Many coastal regions must start bracing for frequent floods as key freshwater sources are drying up elsewhere.

Read the Article

An Unprofitable Disease: In the Political Economy of Ebola, Who Lives and Who Dies?

Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!: Science writer Leigh Phillips is calling for a socialization of pharmaceutical research and production due to the political and economic circumstances of the spread of Ebola. Phillips says that using revenues from profitable drugs to subsidize research for unprofitable drugs would reduce the costs of vaccines and their development.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

BuzzFlash

The Poor Even Get Gouged for a Bed to Sleep in

Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout:Entrepreneurs have now figured out – through exorbitant consumer rental fees – how to financially exploit a population that is barely surviving.

Read the BuzzFlash Commentary

More Than 48 Million Americans Live in Poverty, Census Bureau Reports

Read the Article at CNN

Our Souls Turned Into Weapons

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

“More Money Than I Could Count”: Mitch McConnell’s Very Special Relationship With Lobbyists

Read the Article at Mother Jones

Ooh Rah! Republicans Bray That We Won the War

Read the Article at BuzzFlash

New Evidence Links Earthquakes to Fracking

Read the Article at EcoWatch

Leaked TPP Chapter Exposes Sweet Deals for Big Pharma and US Bully Tactics

Read the Article at Common Dreams

David Swanson | A Different War-Is-Good-for-Us Argument

Read the Article at World Beyond War