Truthout Daily Digest | Thursday, 22 January 2015

Supreme Court Upholds Auto Stop With No Traffic Violation

Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: The latest in 15 years of continuous Supreme Court decisions effectively enlarging police powers and restricting Forth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures, Heien v. North Carolina upheld a traffic stop where there was no traffic violation.

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Economist Leonidas Vatikiotis: Syriza’s Proposals Don’t Go Far Enough for Greece

Michael Nevradakis, Truthout: Economist Leonidas Vatikiotis, previously a European Parliament candidate with Greece’s Antarsya political party, shares his take on the upcoming elections in Greece, the economic proposals put forth by main opposition party Syriza, and the need, in his view, for Greece to depart from the eurozone.

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Interim Settlement Reached in Lac Mégantic Oil Train Disaster, but Culprits Say “It Wasn’t Us”

Roger Annis, Truthout: Amid continuing official support for oil trains in Canada, an initial financial compensation agreement for some victims of the 2013 Lac Mégantic, Quebec oil train disaster has been reached with some of the oil and transportation companies responsible for the tragedy.

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New Year, Same as the Old Year? 2015 Reproductive Rights Preview

Katie Klabusich, Truthout: The GOP-led 114th Congress declared its legislative priority by opening with assaults on reproductive healthcare access from all angles, choosing the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade as the day to vote on new abortion restrictions.

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State of the Black Union: The Shadow of Crisis Has Not Passed

Staff, Black Lives Matter: We the people, committed to the declaration that Black lives matter, will fight to end the structural oppression that prevents so many from realizing their dreams. We cannot, and will not stop until the United States recognizes the value of Black life.

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Supreme Court’s Latest Race Case: Housing Discrimination

Nikole Hannah-Jones, ProPublica: This week, the Supreme Court will take up one of the most important civil rights cases of the last decade – Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. Many fear the case could gut the landmark Fair Housing Act.

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Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition

Staff, Brave New Films: This documentary delves even deeper into where the Koch brothers’ money is going, who their money is hurting and how much they made during the whole process leading up to the 2014 elections.

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Is John Boehner a Traitor?

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: By inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress, Speaker of the House John Boehner may have broken any number of laws, and the Department of Justice needs to investigate.

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In SOTU, President Punts on Income Inequality

Michael Winship, Truthout: Much of the buildup to President Obama’s State of the Union address made it sound as if he was going to have a “Piketty moment.” Yet, with a president too often bold in words but timid in action, facing a Congress more Republican and obstructionist than ever, little will get done to fix inequality.

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The 1% Dine in Davos as Latin America Pulls People Out of Poverty

Cyril Mychalejko, teleSUR: Billionaires and political elites have swooped into Davos this week for the annual World Economic Forum. The biggest risk the world faces may be the Forum’s continued neoliberal economic policies its members advocate that have created the crises it supposedly seeks to redress.

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Inequality Is Costing Us Big-Time

Sam Pizzigati, OtherWords: If the United States had been as equal in 2007 as it was in 1979, that average income would have been $94,310. In other words, inequality is costing the average American family about $18,000 a year.

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More and War: The Tao of Washington

Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: The visibly Orwellian nature of US intelligence is now widely accepted, at least in Washington, as a necessity of our age, of our need for (you guessed it) safety and security. As a result, its bureaucratic expansion, secret wars, global kill lists and other activities are largely beyond challenge.

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Why the CIA Is So Eager to Demolish Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling

Norman Solomon, Expose Facts: The CIA is on a quest for more respect from anyone willing to defer to its authority, no matter how legally hypocritical or morally absent. Demolishing the life of Jeffrey Sterling is just another means to that end.

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BuzzFlash

The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return soon.

New Jersey Officers Shoot and Kill Unarmed Black Man With Hands Up

Read the Article at The Chicago Tribune

Inequality in the Air We Breathe?

Read the Article at The New York Times

Maureen Dowd’s Clueless White Gaze: The “Selma” Backlash

Read the Article at Salon

US Senate Again Fails to Admit Human Role in Global Warming

Read the Article at The Guardian

The Narcissistic Fantasy of Mitt Romney

Read the Article at The Week

Pelosi Slams Netanyahu Invite

Read the Article at The Hill

Toxic Tanneries Poisoning Workers in Bangladesh

Read the Article at Vice News

Truthout Daily Digest | Monday, 22 December 2014

The Privatization of Infrastructure Is Costing Us All

Ellen Dannin, Truthout: We must ask: Who actually benefits from and pays for infrastructure? How is privatization affecting our roads and bridges – and our pocketbooks?

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Hands Off Assata: Protests Can Protect the Revolutionary Fugitive in Cuba Again

David Goodner, Truthout: In 1998, a nonbinding resolution called the Joanne Chesimard Fugitive Act passed both houses of Congress. The protest movement that erupted at the time points the way forward for how activists today can win a #HandsOffAssata campaign.

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Dean Baker | The Trade Agreement Piñatas

Dean Baker, Truthout: Many labor, environmental and consumer groups have stepped up their criticisms of the Obama administration’s plans for pushing fast-track trade negotiating authority recently. The purpose of fast-track is to allow the administration to negotiate to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact.

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The Hunger Games-ification of Police and the Community

Dr. Jason Michael Williams, Truthout: American policing began with the slave patrols, and yet, today, as then, the response to the outcries of Blacks on this issue is non-acknowledgement and condemnation – on par with the storyline of The Hunger Games, no?

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Labor Law for the 0.01%

John Logan, Truthout: The United States desperately needs labor law reform – but not the “Employee Rights Act” labor law for the 0.01% supported by Rick Berman and Newt Gingrich. Under existing law, unscrupulous corporations and their “union avoidance consultants” effectively choose whether a workplace gets a union.

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We Shouldn’t Blindly Worship Authority Figures

The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: There’s a direct line leading from our hero worship of cops, to the arming of local police forces with weapons of war, to the killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The US is not yet an authoritarian state, but if we want to avoid that, we need to keep these dangerous trends in check.

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Cromnibus Pension Provisions Gut 40 Years of Policy, Allow Existing Pensions to Be Slashed

Lambert Strether, Naked Capitalism: The Kline-Miller amendment, passed by the House, and part of the Senate bill forwarded to Obama for his signature, is one provision that could do immediate harm to working people who made their retirement plans based on the belief that their pension rights were secure.

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Citizens Take Monitoring Into Own Hands as Eagle Ford Shale Boom Continues Undaunted

Julie Dermansky, DeSmogBlog: During the past two years, Hugh Fitzsimons lll, a buffalo rancher on the outskirts of Carrizo Springs, Texas, has watched the fracking boom transform a rural locale into an industry hub. Desolate dirt roads are now packed with truck traffic and commercial development to service the growing industry.

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The War to Start All Wars: The 25th Anniversary of the Forgotten Invasion of Panama

Greg Grandin, TomDispatch: It was George H.W. Bush’s invasion of that small, poor country 25 years ago that inaugurated the age of preemptive unilateralism, using “democracy” and “freedom” as both justifications for war and a branding opportunity. The road to Baghdad, in other words, ran through Panama City.

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Let Us Speak! Let Us Speak! Let Us Speak! Voices From Ferguson to Sharpton

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Black Agenda Report: Al Sharpton’s assertion that the people from Ferguson would be violent is more consistent with the position of the police than with the people of Ferguson. It is precisely this assumption that Black people are violent that is getting Black folks all over the country killed.

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Under Fire for Negligence, North Carolina Prisons Chief Seeks New Funding for Mental Health Treatment

Lisa Dawson, Solitary Watch: North Carolina corrections chief David Guice wants more than $20 million to improve the treatment of people with mental illness in the state’s prisons. His request comes on the heels of two recent reports showing neglect and abuse of prisoners with psychiatric disabilities in North Carolina.

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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Poverty and Inequality Are Getting Worse in the US, and More

In today‘s On the News segment: Even in the face of the so-called recovery, poverty and inequality are getting worse in our country; the National Labor Relations Board says that employees can use company email to form a union; Sen. Bernie Sanders keeps moving toward progress; and more.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

BuzzFlash Colbert’s Most Impactful Moment Was at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: Colbert decimated both Bush – who was seated just a few feet away – and the lapdog DC press corps. Read the BuzzFlash Commentary 12 Days of Christmas Apologies Political and Corporate Leaders Should Make Read the Article at BuzzFlash Former Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke: Bush, Cheney Committed War Crimes Read the Article at The Huffington Post Leaked CIA Documents Teach Operatives How to Infiltrate EU Read the Article at RT The Operators of the United States’ Largest Immigrant Detention Center Have a History of Prisoner Abuse Read the Article at Newsweek How a False Witness Helped the CIA Make a Case for Torture Read the Article at Al Jazeera America Obama Administration Aims to Create “Insider Threat” Job Specialty to Plug Leaks Read the Article at Nextgov Why Doesn’t the Right Wing Like Jeb Bush? He’s One of Them Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Truthout Daily Digest Saturday, 22 November 2014 (Warning-Triggering top headline)

Tortured and Raped by Israel, Persecuted and Imprisoned by the United States

Dahr Jamail, Truthout: The conviction of leading Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, 67, could set a troublesome precedent if evidence from a military court in a foreign country, in this case Israel, is allowed to stand in a US court.

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The History of a Dangerous Idea: Mark Blyth Talks Austerity, Greece and the Global Economic Crisis

Michael Nevradakis, Truthout: The economist and author Mark Blyth discusses the historical origins of austerity as an economic idea and the catastrophe of previous attempts to enforce austerity policies.

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The Moral Trauma of “21st Century Warriors”

Edward Tick, Truthout: Though physically not in danger, US drone operators are not safe and are in harm’s way. They have severe difficulties in their service, are in deep pain and break down with post-traumatic stress disorder to significant degrees as a direct result of their physical immunity.

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Building a Racially Just Society: Psychological Insights

Roy Eidelson, Mikhail Lyubansky, and Kathie Malley-Morrison, Psychology Today: Michael Brown’s tragic death, the anguish of his family and the turmoil within his community are all salient reminders that the United States is still far from being a racially just and equitable society.

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Want to See How Governments Are Making Real Progress? Look to the Cities Tackling Our Biggest Problems

Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine: If you’ve been looking to the federal government for action on big challenges such as poverty, climate change and immigration, this has been a devastating decade. Look instead to cities, where new energy is transforming them into hotbeds of democracy and progressive innovation.

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The Poor Suffer From Hunger – Not the Munchies

Jill Richardson, OtherWords: Drug testing for food stamps wastes taxpayer money and stigmatizes economic hardship. Very few people facing poverty have the luxury to dabble in drugs. If you’re poor enough to qualify for food stamps, you’re really poor.

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A Textbook Example of an Employer’s Campaign to Destroy a Union

Moshe Z. Marvit, In These Times: If you’d like a sense of what an employer’s campaign to try to destroy a union looks like in the 21st century, take a look at a recent National Labor Relations Board decision against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where it was ruled the hospital engaged in a series of discriminatory practices against workers who have been trying to organize a union since 2012.

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Arts Students Are Motivated More by Love of Subject Than Money or Future Careers

Anya Skatova, The Conversation: Universities should provide arts and humanities students with more focus in their undergraduate courses that can make them more structured in achieving their career goals.

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Women Rising 26: A Ride on the People’s Climate Train

Making Contact, National Radio Project: In September 2014, Women Rising radio rode the People’s Climate train coast to coast, with over 200 activists heading to New York City to join the largest climate change march in history.

Listen to the Radio Broadcast

BuzzFlash The BuzzFlash Commentary will return soon. Don’t Expect an Aztec Spring With Mexico Protests, Analysts Warn Read the Article at Al Jazeera America In a Shift, Obama Extends US Role in Afghan Combat Read the Article at The New York Times Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson Has Mastered a Disappearing Act Since Shooting Read the Article at The Washington Post The White House Will Focus on Women and Girls of Color; Here’s How to Make It Count Read the Article at The Nation GOP-Controlled Intelligence Committee Debunks Benghazi Conspiracies Read the Article at Slate Hottest October on Record Puts Planet on Track for Hottest Year Ever Read the Article at EcoWatch Five Guantánamo Inmates Are Sent to Eastern Europe Read the Article at The New York Times