As dead marine animals continue to wash up on Florida’s coasts, a campaign event for the state’s term-limited Republican Gov. Rick Scott—who is attempting to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson—was “besieged” by a crowd of protesters angry about his role in exacerbating the ongoing red tide crisis by systematically attacking the state’s environmental protection laws. Continue reading
On every anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is cycled through various talking head “news” formats to recount the events of the fateful day seventeen years ago. Giuliani’s veracity about the events of 9/11 had plenty of doubters just after the attacks. However, given Giuliani’s declaration on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on August 19, 2018 that “truth isn’t truth,” Giuliani’s lies about both the Trump administration and 9/11 should be considered holistically as coming from a corrupt liar. Continue reading
Less than a day after The Intercept reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) received a letter that purportedly details an “incident” involving Trump Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh and “a woman while they were in high school,” Feinstein announced in a statement on Thursday that she has referred the secret document to the FBI. Continue reading
By releasing new documents (pdf) previously marked “committee confidential” late on Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) doubled down on accusations that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh committed perjury in his 2006 confirmation hearing for his seat on a federal appeals court. Continue reading
With 1.5 million residents now under orders to evacuate their homes in preparation for Hurricane Florence’s landfall in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the region faces the possibility of catastrophe should the storm damage one or more of the nuclear power plants which lie in its potential path. Continue reading
When the nation’s founders selected what is now the District of Columbia to serve as the capital of the United States, engineers and architects were faced with the task of building a capital city on what was essentially a swamp. Donald Trump and his cronies and grifters have done their damnedest to turn Washington back into a swamp, one inhabited by slimy and scaly denizens eager to cash in on government access and control. Continue reading
While progressives pointed out that it would have been worthy of more applause if the offer of support had come back when he had the actual power to do something about it, Medicare for All proponents applauded the huge paradigm shift denoted by the newest high-profile endorsement of the popular proposal: former President Barack Obama. Continue reading
Before Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, was a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, White House staff secretary for George W. Bush, and a member of the Bush-Cheney 2000 legal team in the 2000 Florida presidential vote recount, he was a member of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s investigation team looking into the July 1993 suicide of Bill Clinton’s deputy White House counsel, Vince Foster. Kavanaugh also helped draft the Starr Report, which recommended the impeachment of Clinton. Continue reading
The infamous Trumputin consigliere Paul Manafort worked with the GOP operatives who stole Ohio’s 2004 presidential election at the same time they teamed up to install the Kremlin’s chosen mafia don in Ukraine. Continue reading
Three months after President Donald Trump proposed penalizing immigrants for using public assistance programs, families appear to have received his message loud and clear—likely risking the health of young immigrant children across the country. Continue reading
Hours after he launched yet another “direct attack” on workers by canceling a modest pay raise for around two million federal employees, President Donald Trump told Bloomberg on Thursday that he is considering a regressive and possibly illegal plan to use his executive power to hand the rich another $100 billion in tax cuts by indexing capital gains to inflation. Continue reading
Hanan al-Khoudari resorted to Facebook in a cry for help when Israeli authorities rejected her request to accompany her three-year-old son, Louay, to his chemotherapy treatment in East Jerusalem. Continue reading
Officially, three grand juries have been hearing testimony from witnesses in the Justice Department’s investigation of criminal activities by Trump Organizations and Trump campaign officials. These have included the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal courts in Manhattan, Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia. Continue reading
Washington, NATO and Israel need enemies to justify their indefensible actions. None exist so they’re invented. Continue reading
A new study highlights a lesser-known but serious consequence of the climate crisis for hundreds of millions of people around the world—major nutritional deficiencies that are likely to hit impoverished populations the hardest, as carbon dioxide emissions seriously affect the quality of food crops. Continue reading
Amid reports of the “devastating” impact U.S. President Donald Trump’s newly reimposed sanctions are having on ordinary Iranians’ ability to afford basic necessities and life-saving medicines, Iran accused the U.S. of “naked economic aggression” before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday and called on the United Nations body to order the suspension of the penalties. Continue reading
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, convicted in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eight criminal counts, including bank and tax fraud, was the chief promoter of Vice President Mike Pence while Trump was deciding on a running mate. Pence’s brother, Ed Pence, is a retired executive with engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. During Ed Pence’s 36 years with the firm, he was promoted to vice president in charge of strategic initiatives. Ed Pence retired in December 2017. Ed Pence was largely responsible for developing a close relationship between Cummins and Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, based in the Russian autonomous Republic of Tatarstan. Continue reading
Longtime U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican from Arizona whose pro-war record includes aggressively pushing for the illegal invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, has died. He was 81. Continue reading
Israel is fighting constantly not only against Gazans, and against Palestinians generally; it is fighting constantly against freedom-loving people everywhere, who oppose dictatorship of any type, and in any country, on principle, irrespective of nationality. Continue reading
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night rally in West Virginia, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a highly anticipated new rule that would roll back restrictions targeting greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, and enable states to set their own standards. Continue reading
Offering a stark warning to the world, a new report out Monday argues that the reticence of the world’s scientific community—trapped in otherwise healthy habits of caution and due diligence—to downplay the potentially irreversible and cataclysmic impacts of climate change is itself a threat that should no longer be tolerated if humanity is to be motivated to make the rapid and far-reaching transition away from fossil fuels and other emissions-generating industries. Continue reading
Less than a week after Argentine lawmakers rejected a bill that would have legalized some abortions, the apparent first casualty from their action has emerged: a woman died from complications from an at-home abortion. Continue reading
The white nationalist immigration policy established by Donald Trump’s policy adviser, Stephen Miller, and his former U.S. Senate boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is putting in jeopardy a number of governments-in-exile and political leaders receiving asylum in the United States. Since World War II, the United States has been one of the few countries in the world that extended a welcome to governments overthrown in coups and military invasions. However, under the Trump administration’s policy of reviewing the status of permanent resident immigrants in the United States, the welcome mat may soon be pulled out from under a number of exiled governments and their leaders. Continue reading
During a closed-door and off-the-record meeting last week, top Facebook executive Campbell Brown reportedly warned news publishers that refusal to cooperate with the tech behemoth’s efforts to “revitalize journalism” will leave media outlets dying “like in a hospice.” Continue reading
The federal arrest and indictment for insider stock trading of Representative Chris Collins (R-NY), the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president, had a familiar air about it. Indicted along with Collins were his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’s fiancee. Continue reading
Android and iPhone users may be under the impression that Google is not tracking their location data if they’ve turned off “Location History” on their devices. Continue reading
On August 9, a U.S.-supported Saudi airstrike bombed a bus carrying schoolchildren in Sa’ada, a city in northern Yemen. The New York Times reported that the students were on a recreational trip. According to the Sa’ada health department, the attack killed at least forty-three people. Continue reading
An astounding 10,000 2- and 3-year-olds in the U.S. are on drugs like Ritalin and Adderall for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder it was reported in 2014. Pediatric “psychopharmacology” treating conduct disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and more has become a gold mine for Pharma. Pre-school kids are even “diagnosed” with schizophrenia. Fifty percent of pediatricians prescribe kids insomnia drugs. Children are ideal patients because they have to do what their parents, teachers and doctors tell them. Continue reading
In a huge win for everyone concerned about the devastating effects corporate consolidation has on local media outlets and independent journalism, Tribune Media announced on Thursday that it is terminating its proposed $3.9 billion merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group and suing the right-wing media giant for “breach of contract.” Continue reading
Across Africa, outside nations are vying for influence as the economic and military power of the United States decreases on the continent. Post-colonial spheres of influence established over newly-independent African states are no longer relevant. Replacing paternalistic former colonial overseers like France, Britain, and the United States are China, Russia, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in what resembles the most frenetic “scramble for Africa” since the Congress of Berlin concluded in 1885. Continue reading
In the age of “media-bashing enthusiast” President Donald Trump—who regularly declares critical journalists and outlets “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people”—at least 43 percent of Republican respondents to a new survey said they believe “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Continue reading
Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and lobbyist for eastern European oligarchs and Third World dictators, could not have a better judge in his federal trial in Alexandria, Virginia than Thomas Selby (“T.S.”) Ellis. Manafort has been charged with tax and bank fraud by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. The charges are not related to Mueller’s probe of the Trump campaign for criminal conspiracy related to foreign involvement in the 2016 election. Continue reading
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