While Trump pumps his private gestapo into cities like Portland and Seattle, Ohio’s homegrown fascist legions launched a blitzkrieg of their own. Continue reading
Sections
-
Recent Posts
Category Archives: Special Reports
Human rights defenders: Palestinian eyewitness testimony of the execution of Abdul Fattah al-Sharif by Israeli soldier Elor Azaria
As illegal Jewish settlers increase their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the people of the Palestinian city continue to mount a campaign of popular resistance. Continue reading
Big tech giants are forcing their way into America’s public health system
A consortium of the most powerful tech players like IBM, Microsoft and Facebook are teaming up with hospital networks with links to the Vatican and tech lobbying groups to shape the conversation about the future role of technology in the public sphere.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a Big Tech lobby group has just launched a “working group” called the Public Health Tech Initiative (PHTI) to explore the ways in which technology can help in future pandemics. The coalition of companies that form part of the “broad coalition” include tech giants like Facebook and Microsoft, transnational behemoths like Philips, as well as U.S. pharmaceutical retail chain CVS Health. Continue reading
‘History will not judge this kindly’: DNC Platform Committee votes down Medicare for All amendment
‘It's like opposing the New Deal during the Great Depression. Unforgivable
A Democratic National Committee panel on Monday voted down an amendment that would have inserted a plank supporting Medicare for All into the party’s 2020 platform, a move progressives decried as out of touch with public opinion and a slap in the face to the millions of people who have lost their health insurance due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading
GOP let ‘em eat cake stimulus plan
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the so-called Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act. Continue reading
Trump’s worst attacks on workers
Donald Trump campaigned as an insurgent outside of the political establishment who would restore the long-neglected working class. That was a lie. As president, he’s turned his back on working people, governing instead as a lackey for billionaires, CEOs, and corporations. Even during a public health and economic crisis, Trump has left working people in the dust. Continue reading
Friends of the IDF lobby group secures forgivable US COVID loans for Israeli soldiers
A non-profit organization that supports IDF soldiers received a $2.5 million PPP loan under the guise of a ‘religious organization,’ but adds up to a mere pittance of the continued bonanza of American tax-payer dollars flowing to the apartheid state.
A non-profit organization that “that provides for wellbeing of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)” was awarded a $2.5 million forgivable PPP loan by the (Small Business Administration) SBA. The Friends of Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF) is the only organization “authorized to represent the IDF across the United States and Panama” where they claim to operate 20 regional offices, with a P.O. Box in New York. Continue reading
Bribed Ohio’s $60 million radioactive uproar rocks the 2020 vote
Ohio’s biggest-ever bribery case is rocking America’s reactor industry … and the fall election. Continue reading
GOP coronavirus relief package to include Romney bill that would ‘fast-track Social Security and Medicare Cuts’
‘They will use every opportunity and every crisis—including the mass death and economic carnage from COVID—as cover for their sick desire to destroy our Social Security system.’
Shortly after publicly ditching one attack on Social Security—the payroll tax cut—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed Thursday that the Republican coronavirus relief package will include legislation sponsored by Sen. Mitt Romney that one advocacy group described as an “equally menacing” threat to the New Deal program. Continue reading
Maine letter carriers allege USPS leadership ‘willfully delaying’ mail to sabotage Postal Service from within
‘We're watching the deliberate destruction of the Post Office unfolding in front of us,’ said one journalist.
A formal complaint filed last week with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General by a Portland, Maine letter carrier alleges that city Postmaster James Thornton is unlawfully mandating the delay of first-class mail in order to prioritize the delivery of Amazon packages. Continue reading
Stirring fears of pre-crime policing, DHS head Chad Wolf confirms federal agents in Portland making ‘proactive’ arrests
‘Welcome to 2020: Minority Report Edition.’
Critics unloaded on acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf after the agency head revealed in an interview on Fox News Tuesday evening that federal law enforcement officers in Portland, Oregon are “proactively” arresting demonstrators in the city. Continue reading
Despite surging need amid pandemic, GOP moves to roll back SNAP when food assistance ‘matters now more than ever’
‘SNAP delivered. Like it always does.’
Pointing to the success of the SNAP food assistance program during the coronavirus pandemic, economists on Monday said Republicans’ plan to end the expansion of the aid would be “unconscionable.” Continue reading
Oregon senator vows amendment to bar Trump from sending ‘paramilitary squads onto America’s streets’
‘We won't let these authoritarian tactics stand.’
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley on Saturday announced plans to introduce an amendment barring the Trump administration from deploying federal law enforcement to U.S. streets as backlash continues over the White House’s use of unidentified agents to violently crack down on protests in Portland and detain demonstrators without cause. Continue reading
Trump tells Florida crowd ‘something will happen in Venezuela’ soon
‘Something will happen with Venezuela. That’s all I can tell you,’ Trump said, before not-so-cryptically adding that Washington would be ‘very much involved.’
On a trip to COVID-19 riddled Florida this weekend, President Donald Trump not-so-cryptically revealed that he had something big planned for Venezuela during a meeting with leaders of the U.S. military’s Southern Command. “Something will happen with Venezuela. That’s all I can tell you,” he said, before adding that Washington would be “very much involved” in what he was referencing. Continue reading
Trump seeks to follow North Korea’s example in covering up COVID-19 data: TeleTracking Technologies hired to do the dirty deed
“America under the Trump administration will be soon following China’s and North Korea’s tactics in which data will be concealed and the public will be kept in the dark. Soon, Americans will no longer be able to get the real data about the number of COVID-19 infected and COVID-19 deaths as President Trump signed a new order in which all hospitals and states will no longer report these figures and other critical data to the US CDC or media, but rather to a private company that is controlled by the White House, and only the White House will in turn disseminate this data. Other data that will also be controlled includes the numbers of daily COVID-19 tests, the availability of ventilators and hospital beds. As the Trump campaign comes closer to the election date, he needs to suppress the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in America and let his ignorant followers and Republicans think that he is doing a great job while they and their families [and others] die slowly.” Thailand Medical News: Bleak Future for Americans as White House Now Controls Reporting of all New Infections and Deaths, Elites are Scamming the Country. Continue reading
‘Resounding’ win for public health and climate as judge blocks Trump attempt to gut methane restrictions
‘The judge basically rejected every attempt by the Trump administration to gut these common-sense waste prevention measures on behalf of their oil and gas industry cronies.’
Green groups celebrated a “resounding victory for taxpayers, public health, and the environment” late Wednesday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from rolling back an Obama-era rule designed to limit planet-warming methane emissions. Continue reading
‘Inappropriate, unjust, and unreasonable’: 300+ groups slam Duckworth water privatization bill
‘This bill is an egregious handout to giant water corporations which would embolden them to manipulate and fleece struggling communities—particularly communities of color.’
Over 300 groups on Monday urged Senate leadership to reject a bill currently under consideration that would incentivize communities to sell off their public water supplies to private companies for pennies on the dollar. Continue reading
‘Critical win for people in Tennessee’: Federal judge immediately blocks sweeping state abortion ban
‘Abortion is an essential health service, and this law clearly violates the constitutional rights of patients and disproportionately harms communities of color.’
Reproductive rights advocates celebrated Monday after a federal judge blocked Tennessee’s sweeping new restrictions on abortion within in an hour of Republican Gov. Bill Lee signing them into law. Continue reading
Three extinction-level viruses may be traced to glacier and permafrost melting
As the world contends with the deadly pandemic of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, the Chinese embassy in the Kazakhstan capital of Almaty has issued its citizens a warning about an unknown pneumonia that has seen a spike in infection cases since last month. The novel pneumonia spikes are in Atyrau and Aktobe provinces and the city of Shymken. Continue reading
Federal court strikes down Trump’s ACA rule amounting to ‘intentional, targeted attack on abortion access’
‘It would have created a logistical nightmare for health insurers and individual enrollees and pushed abortion even further out of reach in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended our economy.’
A federal court late Friday struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to erect new barriers to abortion care, this time using the for-profit insurance industry. Continue reading
VenezolanosConBiden and MAGAzuela: Two sides of the same coin
The Biden campaign held an online event on Wednesday, July 8, pitched as the former vice president’s “vision for Venezuela and Venezuelans in the U.S.” Spoiler alert: his vision for Venezuela barely differs from President Trump. This event, which didn’t merit an appearance from Biden himself, was aimed at getting Venezuelan-Americans to volunteer for “Uncle Joe”, as Representative Darren Soto (D-Fl) called him. It was an hour and a half of shilling for votes and influence, and it demonstrated that when it comes to Venezuela, policies of regime change, sanctions and a refusal to engage in dialogue unite VenezolanosConBiden (the group hosting the event) with MAGAzuela (the term for Trump-supporting Venezuelans). Continue reading
TikTok could become latest victim of US war on Chinese competition
A potential US ban on TikTok comes amid a rise in anti-China warmongering that suggests the move has more to do with re-establishing American dominance over social media than concerns over privacy.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed Monday night that he is strongly considering banning the hugely popular video app TikTok. “I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but it’s something we’re looking at,” he told Laura Ingraham. When the Fox News anchor pushed him further, asking if anybody should download the app, he responded, “Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” Continue reading
Key U.S. ally indicted for organ trade murder scheme
When President Clinton dropped 23,000 bombs on what was left of Yugoslavia in 1999 and NATO invaded and occupied the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, U.S. officials presented the war to the American public as a “humanitarian intervention” to protect Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanian population from genocide at the hands of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. That narrative has been unraveling piece by piece ever since. Continue reading
Sanders calls on ‘Do-Nothing’ Senate to approve $2,000 monthly checks, cancel rent, and expand Medicare
‘This I know: nothing will happen unless the American people stand up, fight back, and demand, in overwhelming numbers, that the Senate act.’
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday slammed the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate for refusing to act to address the coronavirus-induced public health and economic crises that continue to intensify, throwing millions more out of work, overwhelming hospitals, and endangering countless lives. Continue reading
Will the ICC investigation bring justice for Palestine?
In the past, there have been many attempts at holding accused Israeli war criminals accountable. Particularly memorable is the case of the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, (known, among other nicknames, as the ‘Butcher of Sabra and Shatila’), whose victims attempted to try him in a Belgian Court in 2002. Continue reading
‘Attacking the very foundations’ of church-state separation, SCOTUS delivers ‘seismic shock’ ruling on religious schools
‘Today's ruling is perverse,’ Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a ruling civil liberties advocates warned could make taxpayers “underwrite religious education”—opening a massive crack in the bedrock principle of church and state separation. Continue reading
Trump used looted Venezuelan public money to build border wall with Mexico
Since the United States initiated a coup attempt against Venezuela’s elected leftist government in January 2019, an estimated $24 billion worth of Venezuelan public assets have been stolen by Washington and member states of the European Union. Continue reading
The ‘Palestinian Chair’: Exposing Israel’s direct role in US violence
The banning of deadly police practices by many American states and cities following the murder of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers is, once more, shedding light on US-Israeli collaboration in the fields of security and crowd-control. Continue reading
Rubio, Cruz bill would deem Cuba’s medical missions ‘human trafficking operation’
In what has already become a parody of a shrinking empire’s habit of clutching at the vestiges of its Cold-War era mistakes, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and fellow war-hungry reactionaries in the United States Senate, Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ted Cruz ((R-TX) have put a bill on the Senate floor meant to undercut Cuba’s medical missions program, which sends trained medics all around the developing world to assist in general healthcare services and emergencies in more than 60 countries. Continue reading
Quotable quotes from the Bolton book
John Bolton’s long-awaited book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” which Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr have attempted to suppress under the color of national security law, contains some very noteworthy quotes from others in their conversations with Bolton before and during the time he was Trump’s National Security Adviser. One thing is clear about the book. Bolton uses his “kiss and tell” offering to justify a boatload of discredited neoconservative policies directed against anti-imperialist nations, from Venezuela and Cuba to Iran, China, and North Korea. Bolton’s book is nothing more than a Heritage Foundation foreign policy white paper sprinkled with juicy tidbits exposing Trump and the coterie of back-biting criminals and jesters who surround him. Bolton spent a lot of ink on his favorite topics, including neocon regime change as seen in his photo with a veteran of the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Continue reading
When profits and politics drive science: Rushing a vaccine to market for a vanishing virus
More than 100 companies are competing to be first in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market. It’s a race against time, not because the death rate is climbing but because it is falling—to the point where there will soon be too few subjects to prove the effectiveness of the drug. Continue reading
Who are the secret puppet masters behind Trump’s war on Iran?
On May 6, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately need to set aside our conflicts to face down the common danger of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading
