DECEMBER 11 THROUGH 21
 December
21, 2017 The
criminalization of environmental protest in Trump’s America. ... Environmental
protesters had a successful 2016. Then came the crackdown. ThinkProgress
U.N.
Special Rapporteur Says Tax Bill Will Make the U.S. “World Champion of Extreme
Inequality” DemocracyNow
Tax Cuts,
Growth and Debt.
CounterPunch Jill
Stein Targeted in Senate 'Russiagate' Investigation. ... Stein, the Green Party’s
presidential nominee in 2016, has become a target of the Senate’s “Russiagate”
investigation. Some Democrats blame Stein for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald
Trump, and now Stein is under scrutiny for attending a 2015 dinner in Moscow with
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former former
national security adviser. TruthDig
Jill
Stein Says Senate Request for Docs on Russia Probe is “New McCarthyism”.
DemocracyNow
We Will Not Be Erased. ... Last week's lunatic, Orwellian announcement that the
Orange Cheeto's minions have barred the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
from using seven words in official documents - “vulnerable,” “entitlement,”
“diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based”
and “science-based,” which, duh, is what saves our lives - isn't going
over so well in a country that, by ornery tradition, doesn't ban words. CommonDreams
More
Legal Warfare: How Critics of Israel Are Being Subjected to Aggressive Lawsuits.
TruthOut
December
20, 2017NM:
Pearce is one of them:
Here Are the 227 GOP House Members Who Just Voted to Raise Taxes on 90 Million
Working Families to Give Tax Breaks to Millionaires and Corporations CommonDreams
The
Woman Democrats Love to Hate. The Green Party’s presidential candidate Jill
Stein has been widely attacked by Democrats simply for running for president.
Some blame her for Hillary Clinton’s loss. This week on Intercepted: Stein
strikes back at her critics and discusses what she calls severe vulnerabilities
in the U.S. voting system.
Intercept
Trump’s
Jerusalem Announcement Sparked Deadly Violence - From Israel. Intercept
A
guide to the billions in giveaways to special interests buried in the Senate tax
bill.
LA
Times FCC
chairman jokes about being a Verizon shill, days before forcing an FCC vote that
would be a boon for Verizon. LA
Times
December
19, 2017The
Permanent Lie, Our Deadliest Threat. TruthDig/Hedges
Cracks
in the House of Sand: the Pratfalls of the Crown Prince.. CounterPunch/Cockburn
CEOs
Aren’t Waiting for the Tax Bill to Pass — They’ve Already Started
Pocketing the Windfall. ... U.S. corporations are already beginning the process
of pocketing the winnings from the tax bill jackpot they expect to hit any day
now, undercutting, in a remarkably public fashion, the pretense that the corporate
tax cut will lead to greater investment in job creation. Intercept
“CorkerKickback?”:
Sen. Supports Tax Bill After Last-Minute Provision Would Personally Enrich Him.
DemocracyNow
Kali Akuno:
Tax Bill is One of Greatest Transfers of Wealth from Working Class to Rich in
History. DemocracyNow
Robert Reich: American Oligarchs' Day of Reckoning Is Nigh . ... The GOP
tax bill is a triumph for the 1 percent, but recent election results suggest it
won't last. AlterNet
More
Legal Warfare: How Critics of Israel Are Being Subjected to Aggressive Lawsuits.
TruthOut
December
18, 2017 The
Republican tax reform bill will live and die by this obscure Senate rule. ...
Remember the Byrd Rule? Vox
Increasingly
a Necessity: A 15-Point Guide to Surviving Authoritarianism. ... Rule #1: Always
think critically and fight ignorance with facts.
Moyers Trump
Is an Eerily Perfect Match With a Famous 14-Point Guide to Identify Fascist Leaders.
... Celebrated novelist Umberto Eco’s guide has breathtaking parallels to
Donald Trump.
AlterNet
A
Journey Throught a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America. ... The UN’s
Philip Alston is an expert on deprivation – and he wants to know why 41m
Americans are living in poverty. The Guardian joined him on a special two-week
mission into the dark heart of the world’s richest nation. Guardian
Medics,
Observers & a Journalist Face 50 Years in Prison in First Trial of J20 Inauguration
Protests. Final arguments are underway today in Washington, D.C., in a case that
could shape the future of free speech and the right to protest in the United States:
the first trial of the nearly 200 people arrested during President Donald Trump’s
inauguration. DemocracyNow
Trump
judicial nominee stumped on basic law questions at Senate hearing. ... Matthew
Petersen, whom Trump nominated for the circuit court of the District of Columbia,
struggled with a line of questioning on some key legal principles.
Guardian
Turkey's
President Erdogan says he will open an embassy in East Jerusalem. ... The Muslim
leader has led calls for world to recognise city as the capital of an independent
Palestinian state. Independent
In
Gaza, Israel is shooting fish in a barrel. ...A man with no legs, shot in the
head, is the perfectly harrowing metaphor for life in Gaza, and for Palestinians
on a whole. Helpless, Static. Stunted. 972mag.com
'Making
America Stupid Again': Outrage Over Forbidden 7 Words You Can't Say at Trump's
CDC. ... The existence of a list of reportedly banned words—including "vulnerable,"
"entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus,"
"evidence-based" and "science-based"—was described by
Sen. Kamala Harris as "downright ridiculous." CommonDreams
Weekend
of December 15-17, 2017 Weekend
Read:
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. ... The
Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that
overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not
unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century.
Amazon
That Net Neutrality
Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Was Written By a Comcast Attorney. ... In the
face of widespread opposition, the Federal Communications Commission rolled back
net neutrality protections that prevented internet service providers from charging
websites for faster download speeds. Intercept
Net Neutrality
Fight 'Not Over': Web-Wide Campaign Launched to Overrule FCC CommonDreams
The
U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was. ... One of the most steadfast beliefs regarding
the United States is that it is a democracy. Whenever this conviction waivers
slightly, it is almost always to point out detrimental exceptions to core American
values or foundational principles.
CounterPunch
Cecile
Richards: Mike Pence is “Orchestra Master” of Assault on Women’s
Rights Under Trump. DemocracyNow
The
US Military Is the Biggest "Big Government" Entitlement Program on the
Planet . TruthOut
'Travesty
of Justice' as Trump DOJ Lifts Threat Prosecution Threat for Banking Giant HSBC.
... Original agreement had been criticized as "the world's largest wrist
slap." CommonDreams
Henry
A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation ...
Confronted with the rise of an authoritarian society affecting all institutions
and individuals, there is a need for resistance based on radical transformation,
says Henry A. Giroux in this interview about The Public in Peril. TruthOut
Paul
Ryan says American women need to have more babies. ... "I did my part, but
we need to have higher birth rates in this country," said the father of three.
ThinkProgress
Leaked
Documents Expose How Corporations Use Spies to Subvert People's Movements Worldwide.
... Given what "these companies have gotten away with," concluded Naomi
Klein, it is "no wonder they fear our power." CommonDreams
"Cheated
and Lied to": How Insurers and Manufacturers Mask the Truth About High Drug
Prices TruthOut
Noam
Chomsky: Antifa is a gift to the far right and US state repression. ... Exclusive:
Renowned academic says antifascist movement has initiated the use of force in
ways that are ‘completely unacceptable’ Independent
Surveillance firms spied on campaign groups for big companies, leak shows. ...
Targets included grieving family of Rachel Corrie, environmental activists and
local campaigners protesting about phone masts.
Guardian
December
14, 2017How
We Prepare to Be Ungovernable in 2017. ... A conversation with Kali Akuno, organizer
with Cooperation Jackson and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. AlterNet
Cecile
Richards: Mike Pence is “Orchestra Master” of Assault on Women’s
Rights Under Trump. DemocracyNow
The
US Military Is the Biggest "Big Government" Entitlement Program on the
Planet . TruthOut
'Travesty
of Justice' as Trump DOJ Lifts Threat Prosecution Threat for Banking Giant HSBC.
... Original agreement had been criticized as "the world's largest wrist
slap." CommonDreams
Henry
A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation ...
Confronted with the rise of an authoritarian society affecting all institutions
and individuals, there is a need for resistance based on radical transformation,
says Henry A. Giroux in this interview about The Public in Peril. TruthOut
Leaked
Documents Expose How Corporations Use Spies to Subvert People's Movements Worldwide.
... Given what "these companies have gotten away with," concluded Naomi
Klein, it is "no wonder they fear our power." CommonDreams
"Cheated
and Lied to": How Insurers and Manufacturers Mask the Truth About High Drug
Prices TruthOut
December
13, 2017Robert
Reich Reveals the Biggest Threat to American Democracy You've Never Heard Of.
... SLAPP lawsuits are emerging as one of the Trump administration's most dangerous
weapons.
AlterNet
D.C. cops
used ‘rape as punishment’ after Inauguration Day mass arrests, lawsuit
says
Wide array of unconstitutional tactics alleged in suit over chilling
round-up that hit peaceful protesters, journalists, and anarchists alike.
ThinkProgress
Michael Flynn: Serial Doublecrosser.
Empty
Wheel Related:
Retired Generals of Flynn-Associated IP3: “United States Mideast Strategy
Is Resourcing Conflict” Empty
Wheel A
Dubious Arrest, a Compromised Prosecutor, a Tainted Plea: How One Murder Case
Exposes the System. ... The case of Demetrius Smith reads like a preposterous
legal thriller: dubious arrests, two lying sex workers, prosecutorial fouls and
a judge who backpedaled out of a deal. TruthOut
(October
10, 2017) Schumer blasts Trump’s ‘indecisiveness’ in pushing off
embassy move. ... Democratic Senate minority leader urges president to 'show the
world' the US acknowledges Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Times
of Israel The
left shouldn't make peace with neocons - even to defeat Trump. ... Don’t
trust “woke Bill Kristol.” Vox
Trump
Treasury Dept. Analysis of GOP Tax Plan Ripped as 'Pure Propaganda'. ... One coalition
of advocacy groups concluded that the analysis shows the GOP tax plan "would
be great for the economy...in a world where unicorns exist, pigs fly, and Trump
has released his tax returns." CommonDreams
December
12, 2017Jerusalem
Decision Risks Uniting the Entire Arab World Against the US.
CounterPunch/Cockburn The
Calculated Destruction of America’s Government. CounterPunch
“They’re
Taking Everybody” — Videos Show Texas Troopers Ripping Apart Immigrant
Families During Traffic Stops. Intercept
Magical
Thinking Is Keeping a Lid on Political Protests. ... The archplutocratic tax cut
Washington politicians are working on this holiday season ought to be a call to
arms for the United States’ populace. TruthDig
The
FBI is Not Your Friend. CounterPunch
Is
Trump going to fire Mueller? 6 disturbing signs. ... Reading the tea leaves. ThinkProgress
Guantánamo
art show rattles US military and could prompt confiscation or destruction. ...
Works by detainees are making waves at a New York exhibition – but now officials
have taken away finished artworks and won’t let them leave the site. Guardian
Russophobia
Goes Comic ... the entire premise of the Russophobic “election-hacking”
conspiracy theory is simple nonsense. Craig
Murray
December
11, 20171994
- Alleged Russian Mobster Buys Condos in Trump Tower. David
Bogatin, a 38-year-old former Soviet Army pilot and Russian émigré
who arrived in America seven years earlier with just $3 in his pocket, pays $6
million for five condominium units in a luxurious new Manhattan high-rise, Trump
Tower. More
> Neoliberalism
– the ideology at the root of all our problems. ... Financial meltdown, environmental
disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump - neoliberalism has played its part
in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative? Guardian
Armageddon?
Bring It On: The Evangelical Force Behind Trump's Jerusalem Speech. ... The U.S.
evangelical community is in raptures over Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem
the capital of Israel, believing it moves the world closer to Armageddon. Haaretz
Fighting
Israeli Occupying Forces Is “Terrorism.” Boycotting Is “Anti-Semitism.”
What’s Allowed? Intercept
Related
1999
NYTimes article No
Democracy Here: Ousted Honduran Pres. Zelaya Says 2009 U.S.-Backed Coup Led to
Election Crisis. DemocracyNow
Trump’s
Russian Laundromat. ... How to use Trump Tower and other luxury high-rises to
clean dirty money, run an international crime syndicate, and propel a failed real
estate developer into the White House. New
Republic Relalated:
Scott Balber’s Latest Narrative on Trump Tower
Empty Wheel
The surprising factors driving murder rates: income inequality and respect. Guardian
Related
Database
Trump
White House Weighing Plans for Private Spies to Counter “Deep State”
Enemies.
Intercept
and
pod-cast at Intercept
US
evangelical preacher should be banned from entering UK, critics say. ... Opposition
grows to visit by Franklin Graham, who is accused of ‘hate speech’ for
remarks about Islam and gay people. Guardian
“The
Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”: Psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee on Growing Mental
Health Concerns. DemocracyNow
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