Intrepid Report: Week of April 17, 2017

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate  Monday War and the State: Business as usual Part 3 of 6 parts: Origin of the State: Barbarians at the gate By Arthur D. Robbins The State is a modern invention. It was conceived in violence and has been true to its origins ever since. Rome was in its decline. The barbarians were at the gates. Beginning in the 5th century, Germanic tribes descended from the North, via Scandinavia. Germanic tribes with names like Franks, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals plundered their way across Europe, destroying and killing at will, lending their names to the plots where they settled. “From these raw, belligerent kingdoms rose the first modern nation-states . . .”(Simons, 13). Their society was a simple one, “explicitly organized for one activity, the making of war.” (Simons, 16) Trump threatens healthcare for poor in effort to cut healthcare for poor President Donald Trump appears to be pursuing Republican strategy of sabotaging Affordable Care Act By Deirdre Fulton Displaying deal-making skills that employ vulnerable citizens as bargaining chips, President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut off subsidies that help poor people afford health coverage in order to get Democrats to the negotiating table on repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The truth about Trumponomics By Robert Reich When Donald Trump spoke at Boeing’s factory in North Charleston, South Carolina—unveiling Boeing’s new 787 “Dreamliner”—he congratulated Boeing for building the plane “right here in the great state of South Carolina.“ A financial toll tax: Transform, not reform, the tax system By William John Cox I recently awoke from a rather pleasant dream in which members of Congress and the president embraced the unique proposition that they had been elected to serve the People of the United States. Congress had determined that healthcare was a matter of right (by simply reducing the age at which a person qualified for Medicare to birth) and that every child should have free access to a college education. F the USA By Missy Comley Beattie I fold the dinner napkins and place them on the dining table. This life, my life, is just as it was yesterday and the day before. Tuesday The Pentagon and CIA are the cause of the Korean crisis By Jacob Hornberger Given that we all have been born and raised under the type of governmental structure known as a “national security state,” naturally many Americans are unable to imagine life under a different structure, such as a limited-government republic. If we don’t stop this insanity, then who will? By Dave Alpert There are so many things happening on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep up. ‘F-ing horrifying’: Sessions outlines immigration crackdown in ‘Trump era’ Meanwhile, Trump appoints immigration hardliners to key agency posts By Deirdre Fulton In “the Trump era,” as Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it last Tuesday, immigration officials will undertake a harsh crackdown on undocumented migrants—a campaign one veteran federal prosecutor described as “fucking horrifying.” ‘F-ing horrifying’: Sessions outlines immigration crackdown in ‘Trump era’ Meanwhile, Trump appoints immigration hardliners to key agency posts By Deirdre Fulton In “the Trump era,” as Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it last Tuesday, immigration officials will undertake a harsh crackdown on undocumented migrants—a campaign one veteran federal prosecutor described as “fucking horrifying.” Palestine retold: Palestine’s tragic anniversaries are not only about remembrance By Ramzy Baroud For Palestinians, 2017 is a year of significant anniversaries. Wednesday What the U.S. aristocracy is demanding By Eric Zuesse Donald Trump has reversed his national-security policies 180 degrees, and is now focusing it around conquering Russia, instead of around reducing the threat from jihadists. The reason for this drastic change is in order for him to be able to win the support of the U.S. aristocracy, who had overwhelmingly favored Hillary Clinton during the presidential contest, and who (and whose ‘news’media) have been trying to portray Trump as “Putin’s fool” or even as “Putin’s Manchurian candidate” and thus as an illegitimate president or even traitor who is beholden to ‘America’s enemy’ (which to them is Russia) for Trump’s having won the U.S. presidency—which they had tried to block from happening. What a perverse presidential incentive system! By Sheldon Richman All I can say is we’ve got a hell of a political system on our hands when the surest way for a president to win the adoration of those who thought him a dangerous, ignorant, narcissistic, erratic, and bullshitting blowhard yesterday is to drop a bomb or fire a cruise missile today. Trump’s neocon cabal misses the boat on North Korea By Wayne Madsen Donald Trump’s neocon cabal of National Security Adviser General H. R. McMaster and his assistants Dina Powell and Fiona Hill, the latter in charge of the National Security Council’s Russia desk, are poor choices to gauge subtle messages coming out of North Korea. McMaster, a student of professional Army pencil sharpener David Petraeus, fails to grasp that there are many more methods to ascertain the policies of a secretive country like North Korea. Beyond technical products, such as imagery and signals intelligence, and neocon drivel from such outfits as the Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Heritage Foundation, there are ground reports from various defense attachés posted at embassies in Pyongyang and psychological analysis of the North Korean leader. Trump invades Somalia By Stephen Lendman Bookmakers must be wondering how many wars he’ll wage during his tenure. The Trump Doctrine By Robert Reich What’s the “Trump Doctrine” of foreign policy? At first glance, foreign policy under Trump seems inconsistent, arbitrary, and devoid of principle. Thursday To trust U.S. government & ‘news’ media is to be a dupe By Eric Zuesse Who trusts the U.S. government and American news media nowadays? Only dupes possibly can. Just look at the recent history, for the evidence on that. USA moves toward major intervention in Yemen By Thomas C. Mountain The USA, according to Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis, he who ordered the use of chemical weapons in Fallujah, Iraq, is about to take a major step towards direct intervention in support of Saudi Arabia’s war on the Yemeni people. The waters of Trump’s Washington are dark and deep By Michael Winship Years ago, I worked for a wealthy television executive in Washington, DC, who had a posh Georgetown townhouse with a courtyard. When Daesh is defeated: Who will fill the intellectual vacuum in the Arab world? By Ramzy Baroud Back in the Middle East for a few months, I find myself astounded by the absence of the strong voices of Arab intellectuals. How Big Pharma’s profit machine has evolved Thanks to drug safety scandals and new methods of marketing, the bloom had fallen off the Pharma reps’ roses. By Martha Rosenberg More than a decade ago, the job of pharmaceutical rep was enviable. Direct-to-consumer advertising pre-sold many drugs so doctors already knew about them. Medical offices welcomed the reps who were usually physically attractive and brought lunch. In fact, reps sometimes had their own reception rooms in medical offices and seemed to see doctors before waiting patients. Friday Google suppresses important news in addition to alternate media By Wayne Madsen Google’s now-infamous censorship programs and algorithms, built into the firm’s search engine software, are not merely suppressing alternate news sites, but also ignoring or diverting search results away from important news stories being reported by conventional news organizations. In an attempt to prioritize “reliable” news sites, Google News searches have been found to return as top stories links to a number of non-critical news subjects, including sports, travel, weather, and popular entertainment. The drug war: A deadly and corrupt racket By Jacob Hornberger The decision by President Trump and Attorney General Sessions to ramp up the decades-old war on drugs definitely throws down the gauntlet for those who have long advocated an end to this failed, deadly, destructive, corrupt, and immoral war. Run for your life: The American police state is coming to get you By John W. Whitehead Daily, all across America, individuals who dare to resist—or even question—a police order are being subjected to all sorts of government-sanctioned abuse ranging from forced catheterization, forced blood draws, roadside strip searches and cavity searches, and other foul and debasing acts that degrade their bodily integrity and leave them bloodied and bruised. Donald Trump’s disappearance Busy marketing his stuff to raise money, Trump leaves foreign policy to Pence and others By Paul Craig Roberts In my long experience in Washington, vice presidents did not make major foreign policy announcements or threaten other countries with war. Not even Dick Cheney stole this role from the weak President George W. Bush. Chronic pain patients ill served by U.S. medicine By Martha Rosenberg It is estimated that up to 66 percent of U.S. women and 45 percent of U.S. men live with chronic pain from spinal disorders like disc disease, pinched nerves and neck pain, to complex regional pain syndromes, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and headaches. Low back pain alone affects eight out of 10 people worldwide and is the fifth most common reason people visit a doctor.
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