Intrepid Report: Week of March 27, 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 Trump unleashes American vermin, war declared on US society By John Stanton Jefferson held that a little revolution now and then in a democratic republic was a necessary evil, not unlike severe seasonal storms that come each year. Those storms can cause extensive damage to life and property but communities rally and rebuild. Often they develop improved protocols to deal with storms ranging from disaster response to revised building codes that might withstand the next big storm. Trumpcare down but not out? By Stephen Lendman On Friday, one of Trump’s signature domestic programs was defeated, at least for now. Gorsuch shouldn’t be confirmed until we know the person who picked him is cleared of wrongdoing By Robert Reich Neil Gorsuch shouldn’t be confirmed until Trump comes clean. Let’s call it the democracy movement By Jack Balkwill At first I thought they were trying to kill me. I’d come home to find a bullet hole through my front window. Immediately I guessed who it was. ‘There’s a smell of treason in the air’ By Michael Winship Last Monday’s hearing of the House Intelligence Committee was proof positive of the absolute need for both a special prosecutor and an independent, bipartisan commission with subpoena power to conduct a full investigation of the Trump campaign’s connections with Russian intelligence—as well as Russia’s multipronged attack on our elections and Trump’s business connections with that country’s oligarchs. Tuesday Master spider David Rockefeller passes By Stephen Lendman On March 20, billionaire predatory banker David Rockefeller died in his sleep at age 101. In an era of fake news, fake security threats By Wayne Madsen Fake air travel security threats have joined the current fake news fad. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration, as well as their British counterparts, have announced a ban on laptop computers, tablets, cameras, Kindles and other e-readers, DVD players, and game consoles in carry-on baggage on the flights of certain airlines originating from or destined to a series of predominantly Muslim nations. Passengers flying from the designated airports are required to pack laptops and tablets in their check luggage. The decision has resulted in criticism from technical experts in the fields of communications, information technology, and improvised explosive devices or IEDs. Unlike the American ban, the British ban on carry-on items includes certain types of cell phones. Stealing from the citizenry: How government goons use civil asset forfeiture to rob us blind By John W. Whitehead In jolly old England, Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. Integrating Karl Marx and Abraham Maslow By Roger Copple The most important lesson that Karl Marx taught us is his surplus theory of value, which essentially says that if workers create wealth for a company, then it is only right that they should share in the increased profits. Richard Wolff is probably the most prominent Marxist economist today. Do a YouTube search of his name and you will find entertaining and educational videos of his Marxist message. Richard Wolff argues that when technology doubles the profits, it would be possible to have workers work half of the time instead of laying off half of them. What still happens is that the extra profits go to CEOs and corporate shareholders, not the workers. Postcard from the End of America: Atlanta, Georgia By Linh Dinh Knowing you can’t run from their jokes, bus drivers will crack a few, so on the endless leg from Washington to Atlanta, the driver intoned, “I don’t believe in Lost and Found, ladies and gentlemen, only eBay. If you forget something on this bus, you can find it on eBay.” Later, he chastised us all because someone had pissed on the toilet’s floor. Wednesday Republicans demand the impossible in a healthcare bill By Eric Zuesse Republicans demand a healthcare bill (or medical system) that will simultaneously (and without sacrificing quality of healthcare) reduce their total expenses on medical care—including their insurance premiums and their out-of-pocket costs—and that will also be more free-market (with less government involvement and regulations) than in existing U.S. healthcare policy (both before and after Obamacare began); they want more free-market, and less cost, and also no sacrifice on quality. No, Paul, it wasn’t because of ‘growing pains’ By Robert Reich House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his press conference following the demise of his bill to replace Obamacare, blamed Republicans who had failed to grasp that the GOP was now a “governing party.” Lost privacy rights in America By Stephen Lendman America is a total surveillance society. Big Brother is no longer fiction. ‘Decolonizing the mind’: Using Hollywood celebrities to validate Islam By Ramzy Baroud When Terry Holdbrooks Jr. converted to Islam in 2003, he was inundated with death threats and labeled a ‘race traitor.’ A couple of things about Jimmy Breslin By Michael Winship Last Wednesday, I sat down to write a piece about the late Jimmy Breslin, the newspaper columnist whose blunt yet eloquent and crafted prose captured New York and its environs as no one has since Damon Runyon. Thursday A public, non-profit healthcare system? Really? By Dave Alpert Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced to constituents at a town hall meeting this past Saturday that he’ll introduce a single-payer health care bill in Congress “within a couple of weeks.” Trump and the GOP in sickness and ill health By Bill Moyers The day after Republicans pulled the plug on Trumpcare (or was it Ryancare?), the front-page headline of the tabloid New York Post asked: “Is There a Doctor in the House?” Trump’s new plan: Govt as company, citizens as customers, Kushner as CEO Presidential son-in-law to head new innovation office tasked with reforming and privatizing federal government By Lauren McCauley Bringing President Donald Trump’s notion of government as corporate enterprise to fruition, the White House on Monday announced that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be leading a sweeping government overhaul, leaning on business leaders to solve pressing national issues while looking to privatize key government functions.      Snow, death, and the bewildered herd By Edward Curtin As I write these words, the house is being buried in a snowstorm. Heavy flakes fall slowly and silently as a contemplative peace muffles the frenetic agitation and speed of a world gone mad. A beautiful gift like this has no price, though there are those who would like to set one, as they do on everything. In my mind’s eye I see Boris Pasternak’s Yurii Zhivago, sitting in the penumbra of an oil lamp in the snowy night stillness of Varykino, scratching out his poems in a state of inspired possession. Outside the wolves howl. Inside the bedroom, his doomed lover, Lara, and her daughter sleep peacefully. The wolves are always howling. Laptop ban is irrational and discriminatory By Linda S. Heard As you are no doubt aware, travellers flying direct to the US or the UK from a raft of Muslim-majority countries are no longer permitted to take tablets, laptops, e-readers, DVD-players and cameras into the cabin based on supposed intelligence suggesting terrorists plan to convert them into incendiary devices. The new regulation may sound like a sensible precaution until one digs deeper when it begins to look highly suspect. Friday ‘False flag,’ another weapon in the US arsenal By Dave Alpert Now hear this . . . Noam Chomsky, respected intellect and political guru of the “left,” a man that ridiculed and denounced the efforts of the 9/11 Truth Movement, has joined the ranks of the conspiracy theorists. Death at your door: Knock-and-talk police tactics rip a hole in the US Constitution By John W. Whitehead It’s 1:30 a.m., a time when most people are asleep. Rwanda indicts French generals for 1994 genocide By Thomas C. Mountain Late in 2016, the Rwandan government indicted several senior French Army generals for crimes against humanity, including genocide for their role in the 1994 Rwandan holocaust. Freedom Rider: Is Trump the DNC hacker? By Margaret Kimberley The Democratic Party is going all out with its charge of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. In doing so they achieve two very important goals. First, they distract their voters from asking why Hillary Clinton lost and why they are perennial losers at every level of government across the country. Secondly, they can wage war by other means as they attempt to exact regime change in Russia. That is the desired endgame as they attempt to crush the sovereignty and independence of that resource-rich nation which spans Eurasia. Trump’s business of government By Robert Reich The White House has announced that Trump will name his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to run a new Office of American Innovation—described as a SWAT team of strategic consultants staffed by former business executives, designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington and help make government work more like a business.