Robert Reich | 9 Ways to Stay Sane During the Primaries

01 September 19

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Robert Reich | 9 Ways to Stay Sane During the Primaries 

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "As the presidential primaries get underway, it’s easy to get burnt out or overwhelmed by all the candidates and their platforms. Here are 9 ways to stay sane through the madness of the presidential primaries."
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Law enforcement officials surrounding a white van behind the Cinergy Odessa entertainment complex in Odessa, Tex., where the suspect was confronted by the police and was killed. (photo: Tim Fischer/Midland Daily News/AP)

At Least 5 Dead, Several Injured in West Texas Shooting
Shannon Van Sant, NPR
Van Sant writes: "Police say a man hijacked a postal truck and began shooting people at random in the Midland and Odessa areas of Texas on Saturday in a chaotic afternoon that ended with police shooting the gunman dead."
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The Trump International Hotel in Washington. Trump has abandoned some of his pledges about self-restraint when it comes to his company while he is in office. (photo: Amr Alfiky/Reuters)

Trump Pledged Not to Use His Office to Help His Business. Then He Pitched His Club for the Next G-7.
Jonathan O'Connell, Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "When President Trump decided to keep ownership of his company and continue to do business with foreign governments, he said nobody could stop him."
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Staff escort immigrants to class at the U.S. government's holding center for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, on July 9, 2019. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)

Medical Care for Detained Migrants Violates Doctors' Oath, Says Physician in JAMA Commentary
Nicole Acevedo, NBC News
Acevedo writes: "As the administration of President Donald Trump gears up to hold more migrants in detention facilities for longer periods of times, health care and medical professionals are raising concerns and proposing changes to the way federal agencies provide medical treatment to immigrant detainees."
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Madeleine Westerhout. (photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

Top WH Aide Resigns After Reportedly Dishing About Trump's Family to the Media
Rafi Schwartz, Splinter
Schwartz writes: "Madeleine Westerhout, the longtime personal assistant to President Donald Trump, abruptly resigned on Thursday after the president reportedly became aware she blabbed about the president's family and West Wing business to members of the media, the New York Times reported."
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Colombian president Ivan Duque. (photo: Reuters)

Colombia: President Duque Announces Major Attack on Former FARC
teleSUR
Excerpt: "On Friday, the Colombian government announced it had killed nine former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including a commander, during a bombing raid in southern Colombia."
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The effects from a hurricane. (photo: EcoWatch)

Hurricanes and the Climate Crisis: What You Need to Know
The Climate Reality Project
Excerpt: "Hurricane season is upon us — and this one could be a doozy."
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FOCUS: Beto O'Rourke on Texas Shooting: 'This Is F*cked Up'

YOUR VOTE CAN CHANGE THIS! 



01 September 19
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FOCUS: Beto O'Rourke on Texas Shooting: 'This Is F*cked Up' 

Anna Kaplan, The Daily Beast
Kaplan writes: "Former Texas representative and 2020 hopeful Beto O’Rourke railed against Congress late Saturday for not doing enough to stop gun violence after yet another mass shooting." 

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ACTION ALERT: NYT Presents Murder of a Palestinian Boy as ‘National Trauma’—for Jewish Israelis view post on FAIR.org The New York Times (8/27/19) takes up the complaint of “some Israelis” that an HBO series “unfairly focuses on the killing of a Palestinian teen by Jews when Palestinian terrorism is more common.” by Jim Naureckas HBO has a series based on a real-life crime in Israel—a 2014 case involving (in the New York Times‘ words) “a Palestinian teenager snatched off a Jerusalem street by Orthodox Jews, choked, bludgeoned and burned to death in a forest at dawn.” And how does the Times headline its report (8/27/19) on this series? HBO Drama Revives a National Trauma for Israel For Israel? Yes, and by “Israel,” Times Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner means Jewish Israelis; in her eyes, they are the ones for whom the murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Abu Khdeir was a “national trauma”: It was the extraordinary coldbloodedness of the murder that made it true-crime movie material in the first place…. But Our Boys, a 10-part series that started this month on HBO, is under attack in Israel largely because of that singularity. Some critics have accused the creators of skewing reality and ignoring what they say is the more common scourge of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, creating a false equivalency between the two and tarnishing Israel’s image. Let’s stop here for a reality check: There are, in fact, statistics on who’s killing whom in Israel/Palestine. The Israeli human rights group group B’Tselem reports that since January 2009, there have been 95 Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians—and at least 1,771 “Palestinians who did not take part in hostilities…killed by Israeli security forces.” (This latter number does not include Israeli assassinations—labeled as “targeted killings”—or Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians.)  There have been 13 Israeli minors killed by Palestinians since 2009, and 785 Palestinian minors killed by Israeli security forces; in other words, a child killed in the conflict is 60 times more likely to be a Palestinian child than a Jewish child. Kershner might have pointed out that the accusation that Palestinians murdering Jewish Israelis is a “more common scourge” is an absolute inversion of reality. Instead, to cite an example of “some critics” who think it’s “skewing reality” to focus on a single Palestinian death, she turns to Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Twitter (8/21/19): The series tells the whole world how the Israelis and Jews are cruel and bloodthirsty murderers, and how the Palestinians are badly done by and oppressed. The tweeter’s father, as prime minister since March 2009, is responsible for nearly every one of those 785 Palestinian children killed by his security services. After quoting the younger Netanyahu, Kershner acknowledges that Palestinians watching the series “also had painful memories.” As an example, she offers the parents of the murdered boy, who no doubt felt at least as bad watching a TV show about their dead child as the prime minister’s son did. Did somebody say “false equivalency”? ACTION: Please tell the New York Times not to treat the murder of a Palestinian child as chiefly a “national trauma” for Jewish Israelis. CONTACT: Email: letters@nytimes.com Twitter: @NYTimes Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread of this post. Featured image: A recreation of a crime scene on HBO‘s Our Boys.

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Mark Trahant on Indigenous and the Election; Tea Party Revisionism view post on FAIR.org MP3 Link This week on CounterSpin: An article in the New Republic about this month’s historic Native American Presidential Forum ends by citing OJ Semans from the organizing group Four Directions, who says the event was ultimately less about the candidates than about the 5 million Natives across the country, and the possibility of their seeing government as representing rather than oppressing them. We’ll talk about electoral issues in indigenous communities with Mark Trahant, moderator of that presidential forum and editor of Indian Country Today. MP3 Link (cc photo: Fibonacci Blue) Also on the show: The saying that journalism is the first draft of history serves to underscore the harm of misremembering, as the New York Times did recently with a look back on the Tea Party that presented it as a sincere, homespun effort to “tame” federal deficits and “hold Washington accountable.” The paper has since tried to make up for its erasure of the racism at the Tea Party’s roots, but who’s buying? We’ll look at the facts about the Tea Party the Times would have us forget, with CounterSpin conversations with Sikivu Hutchinson, Jodi Jacobson and Rick Perlstein. MP3 Link Featured image: New Republic depiction of Native rights protest on the National Mall (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty)

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Dan Rather | Beware of Trump Fatigue

31 August 19

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Dan Rather | Beware of Trump Fatigue 

Dan Rather, Dan Rather's Facebook Page
Rather writes: "Beware fatigue. It is easy to say, of course, much harder to achieve. Memories jump to mind of fourth quarter huddles with my high school football team and a coach exhorting us to dig deeper."
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On Tuesday, the government reportedly ended its 'medical deferred action' program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. (photo: TIME)

"All-Out Attack": Trump's Anti-Immigrant Policies Target Children, Cancer Patients and Servicemembers
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "On Tuesday, the Trump administration reportedly ended its 'medical deferred action' program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment."
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A Straight Pride Trump float. (photo: John Atwater/WCVB)

How 'Straight Pride' Parades Like the One in Boston Today Mask a Far-Right Agenda
Casey Quinlan, ThinkProgress
Quinlan writes: "During Pride Month, an organization with ties to violent hate groups, Super Happy Fun America, announced it would host a Straight Pride Parade in Boston."
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The New York Stock Exchange. (photo: Ben Hider/NYSE Euronext)

Trump Wants to Cut Taxes for Rich People Yet Again
Dylan Matthews, Vox
Matthews writes: "On Friday, President Donald Trump used his favorite public platform to hint at a policy change that his administration has been weighing for at least a year: using presidential power to unilaterally lower taxes for investors." 

EXCERPT: 

Beyond the gaming concerns and the legal problem, the change would also be plainly regressive. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a respected tax and budget model at the University of Pennsylvania, estimates that indexing to inflation would cost $102 billion over 10 years, and 86.1 percent of the benefit would go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Nearly two-thirds would go to the richest 0.1 percent. Capital ownership and capital gains are incredibly concentrated, meaning that cuts like this overwhelmingly redound to the rich.

If you think taxes on capital are just way too high, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense. But from every other perspective, it looks like an effort to redirect upward of $100 billion to the richest people in America.

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Members of the Independent Drivers Guild drive across the Brooklyn Bridge in protest against Uber and other app-based ridesharing companies on May 8, 2019 in New York City. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A Chance to Defend Gig Workers' Rights in California
Jeremy Gong, Jacobin
Gong writes: "A new bill in California would end the legal loophole that allows Uber and Lyft to pay drivers incredibly low wages and avoid paying benefits."
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Berta Cáceres' mother, Austra Berta Flores, right, and daughters, Olivia, center, and Berta Zuniga Cáceres, left, leave a meeting with House speaker Nancy Pelosi on 10 August. (photo: Orlando Sierra/Getty Images)

Family of Slain Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres Appeal to US Court for Help in Her Murder Trial
Nina Lakhani, Guardian UK
Lakhani writes: "The children of murdered Honduran activist Berta Cáceres have applied to a US federal court to subpoena bank records linked to a $1.4m luxury house in Texas purchased by the alleged mastermind of the crime just months after the killing." 

EXCERPT: 

In November 2018, seven men were convicted of carrying out the murder, which the court in Tegucigalpa ruled was ordered by executives of the Agua Zarca dam company Desa because of delays and financial losses linked to protests led by Cáceres.

One of the executives identified in court was David Roberto Castillo Mejía, the CEO of Desa. In March 2018 Castillo was indicted as an “intellectual author”, who is alleged to have coordinated with, and provided funds to, the killers. He vehemently denies any involvement.

Castillo, a US-trained former intelligence officer and former government employee, bought the luxury five-bedroom, five-bathroom detached home in Houston in November 2016, thanks to a $400,000 down-payment and $1.04m mortgage from the Hancock Whitney Bank in Mississippi, Louisiana.

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In research published last year, scientists in Beijing found that inhaling particulate matter robbed people of their smarts, leading to lower verbal and math test scores. (photo: Peter Parks/Getty Images)

Air Pollution Linked to Declines in Mental Health
Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic
Gibbens writes: "Air pollution takes a massive toll on our health. The World Health Organization links it to deadly diseases like lung cancer and stroke, and new research suggests that polluted regions see more cases of neurological disorders like depression and bipolar disorder."
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FOCUS: The Best Movie Ever Made About the Truth Behind the Iraq War Is "Official Secrets"

31 August 19

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FOCUS: The Best Movie Ever Made About the Truth Behind the Iraq War Is "Official Secrets" 

Jon Schwarz, The Intercept
Schwarz writes: ""Official Secrets," which opened Friday in New York and Los Angeles, is the best movie ever made about how the Iraq War happened. It's startlingly accurate, and because of that, it's equally inspiring, demoralizing, hopeful, and enraging. Please go see it." 

EXCERPTS: 

This was the most fruitful line of attack on the Observer’s story. As “Official Secrets” shows, American television was initially quite interested in putting one of the Observer reporters on air. These invitations quickly evaporated as the Drudge Report splashed claims that the email was obviously fake. Why? Because it used British spellings of words, such as “favourable,” and hence couldn’t have been written by an American.

The little attention the story got was largely thanks to the journalist and activist Norman Solomon, and the organization he founded, the Institute for Public Accuracy, or IPA. Solomon had traveled to Baghdad just months before and co-written the book “Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You,” which came out in late January 2003.

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ALSO SEE: 

Film Official Secrets Is Tip of Mammoth Iceberg

 Now-leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden—who not only voted for the Iraq invasion, but presided over rigged hearings on it in 2002—has recently repeatedly falsified his record on Iraq at presidential debates, with hardly a murmur. Nor is he alone; those refusing to be held accountable for their Iraq War lies include not just Bush and Cheney, but John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi .

FOCUS: DNC Tampering Alert

31 August 19

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FOCUS: DNC Tampering Alert 

ALSO SEE: The Democratic Establishment Is Pressuring Consultants Not to
Work with Leading Progressive Candidate in Colorado

Eren Orbey, New Yorker
Orbey writes: "On August of 2018, the Democratic National Committee enacted reforms to make its Presidential-nomination process more inclusive."
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