 David Koch, billionaire conservative activist and philanthropist, dies at 79 David Koch, billionaire conservative activist and philanthropist, dead at 79.The brothers were tied as 11th richest in the world in a ranking by Forbes. At the time of his death, David Koch was worth $42.4 billion.With the wealth from their business, the Koch brothers helped to build a massive conservative network of donors for organizations that work to mobilize voters and sway elected officials in support of liberta... |
 Terrorist Watch Lists Expanding Under Trump The use of “watch lists” to harass dissidents and journalists—as well as Muslims—appears to be growing, as the author discovered when he recently got caught in the net. By Dave Lindorff According to Ramzi Kassem, a professor at CUNY School of Law and founding director of CLEAR, a legal clinic that assists those caught up in the government’s Terrorist Watch List net, “The number of peo... |
Is the Meat Industry Fueling Amazon Wildfires?
Why has the largest rainforest on Earth—the Amazon—experienced record-breaking fires for more than three weeks? As the hashtag #PrayForAmazonia continues to trend on Twitter, we should address the leading culprit in global deforestation: animal agriculture.
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Brazil's Bolsonaro Denounced as 'Sick' and 'Pathetic' for Blaming Amazon Forest Fires
The Amazon rain forest—the lungs of the world—have been on fire for several weeks, and Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro suggested Wednesday, without evidence, that the fires were started by non-governmental organizations."Maybe—I am not affirming it—these [NGO people] are carrying out some criminal actions to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil," Bolsonaro&... |
 Bob Johnson: Ed Smart, Father of Elizabeth Smart, Announces He Is Gay and Reveals Truths About Religion and Gay People When Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, recently came out and announced he is gay, he also revealed some important information about religion and its impact on gay people. 1 |
 "Sanctions" are deadly in Iran "What do you say to a parent whose child has cancer, that the drug is available outside Iran but not inside Iran?" asked Tyab.Doctors couldn't say how many children have died because of the inability to bring in medicine. But the charity's CEO told CBS News with 80% fewer drugs coming in you only have to do the math. 2 |
 President Trump says he could support Russia's return to G8 Whenever Russia becomes friends with Western countries, it is BAD news for weaker countries. Russia will have a free hand to plunder weaker countries even take their lands such as Crimea. What was the real reason behind Ukraine support?One could bet that UK/France also would join because they have plundered other countries too. |
Federal Reserve Nips Bank Rules; Critics Warn of Back sliding.
"The Fed is slowly, but steadily, making a series of regulatory changes that chips away at new requirements put in place to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown. The end result is that a portion of bank financial activities will no longer be captured and judged by regulators.The Fed is expected to soon approve bank-friendly changes to the Volcker Rule , . Fed officials worry that the central bank & its regulators a... 1 |
 Greenland's leader rips Trump: Idea of buying territory 'not something to joke about' Trump shared an edited picture depicting a Trump Tower on the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Kim Kielsen's comments came Trump shared the image on Twitter late Monday amid discussion from his administration about purchasing Greenland, stating, "I promise not do this to Greenland!" Denmark's prime minister made similar remarks on Sunday after reports began to surface that Trump wanted his administration to look into... 2 |
 Norfolk, VA sues in hopes of removing Confederate monument, cites free speech Norfolk, Virginia is claiming in a lawsuit that its free speech rights are being violated because a state law won’t let it remove a Confederate monument from its downtown area. This lawsuit employs a relatively novel and untested legal strategy in the federal court system regarding whether cities have free speech rights. The city filed suit Monday in a U.S. District Court which targets a Virginia law that prevents the r... 2 |
Trump Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci says Trump is "unstable"
Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director who has recently withdrawn his support for President Donald Trump, said Monday that he is putting together a coalition of former Trump Cabinet officials to denounce the President ahead of the 2020 election.OK, the guy is unstable. Everyone inside knows it, everyone outside knows it. Let's see if we can find a viable alternative," Scaramucci told CNN's Alisy... 1 |
An EPIC Case of Fraud in Oklahoma by John Thompson: ; at Diane Ravitch blog
"Fraud after fraud is associated with virtual charter schools, created by entrepreneurs with the purpose of making money. Epic's David Chaney & Ben Harris, split at least $10 million in profits from 2013 to 2018. The Epic scandal offers some unique insights into both the for-profit charter’s culture and the nature of the school privatization movement, as well as the downsides of online instruction in an a... 2 |
 Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling Falls off Forbes Billionaire List Due to Charitable Giving The only thing bigger than the success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, is the size of her compassionate heart. J.K. Rowling, the world’s first billionaire author, is one of the first, if not the first, billionaire to fall off of the Forbes billionaire list due to her large amounts of charitable giving: “You have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need... 2 |
 "We Have an Obligation" - Ilhan Omar Calls on Lawmakers to Visit Israel Representative Ilhan Omar called on her colleagues to visit Israel to prevent Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us”.Meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear.” Omar said Israel’s decision was “not consistent with democracy... 1 |
Colorado: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. by Diane Ravitch
The state board of education in Colorado has decided to turn over schools in 3 districts to a for-profit management corporation that claims it can turn the schools around, at a cost of millions of dollars. The political connections of the firm are not in doubt, but their 'turn-around' success is! Read here about the story and a deep dive into the history of MGT Consulting." Learn what is afoot in the nation,&nb... 3 |
 Martha Rosenberg: How Animal Researchers Stay Out of the News If you are like most people, you know a lot more about how farm animals are treated on factory farms than dogs, primates and other animals are treated in US labs. It is no coincidence. 2 |
America's Hidden Duopoly - Freakonomics Radio - Medium
"What if the Washington-is-broken idea is just a line? Maybe even a slogan that the country’s two dominant political parties approved? What if they’re just selling and we’re buying? What if it’s not broken at all? What if, instead, it’s doing exactly what it’s designed to do? Some say the Republicans and Democrats constitute a wildly successful industry that has colluded to kill... 1 |
 Garland Favorito: Georgia DRE Voting System Found Unconstitutional, Banned for 2020! The U.S. District Court of North Georgia banned the current Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system from further use in Georgia elections beginning in 2020. The court found the system impairs Georgia voters' Constitutional right to vote in any federal election 4 |
 Memo to mainstream journalists: Can the phony outrage - Bernie is right about media bias I worked in and around mainstream TV news for years, including at corporate centrist outlets CNN and MSNBC. Unlike at Fox News (where I’d also been a paid contributor), there’s almost never a memo or direct order from top management to cover or not cover certain stories or viewpoints.But here’s the sad reality: There doesn’t have to be a memo from the owner to achieve the homogeneity of coverage at &ld... 1 |
 Meryl Ann Butler: How to Finance Medicare for All: Sanders' Options Next time someone who believes that Medicare-for-All would be a bad thing argues with you, you can take a few talking points from Bernie Sanders' " OPTIONS TO FINANCE MEDICARE FOR ALL" from his website, or find them here: 20 |
 Read Ed Smart's letter announcing he is gay On Friday, Ed Smart posted the following letter to Facebook. You likely remember the Elizabeth Smart uproar, despair, hate, infinite news, your own reactions. I certainly do. I saw her hiking down City Creek Canyon with her sister some years back, and I well recall my former wife telling me she was a quiet well behaved student in one of her junior high study halls. And I'm well aware of the LDS horror of homosexuals. So I don... 6 |
 Pedophilia and Child Abuse, Widespread and Completely Out of Control You don’t need to go down rabbit holes on the internet to learn about child rape in America. You only need to go to the nearest courthouse.Pedophilia and child trafficking are embedded into every level of American society. 98% of the perps are powerful white males. You can find it in the military, law-enforcement, with judges, doctors, humanitarian leaders—the list goes on and on. We are in fact living amidst a pa... 8 |
 Shell Oil Orders Workers to Attend Trump Rally "The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for Trump to speak or take the day off with no pay. “NO SCAN, NO PAY,” a supervisor for that contractor wrote.Workers who did not show lost $700. Your attendance is not mandatory,” said the rules that one contractor relayed to employees, su... 2 |
Betsy DeVos Funds IDEA and Kipp to Saturate San Antonio with Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch
"Texas Public Radio describes Betsy Devos’s audacious plan to overwhelm San Antonio with charters created by two corporate chains: IDEA and KIPP. Some of the new charters will open in middle-class areas with good public schools. Apparently, DeVos just wants to torpedo public schools in a major Texas city. It is part of an ambitious larger plan by the Rio Grande Valley-based charter network plan to add 120 sch... 1 |
 Ted Millar: Trump's Latest Target: Legal Immigrants Requiring Public Assistance Donald Trump never had any intention of only coming for undocumented immigrants. A new policy is targeting documented ones requiring public assistance. 2 |
 Huge Win For Voters! Fed Judge Bans GA's Old Touchscreen Vote Systems For 2020 US District Court Judge Totenberg finds that GA's 100% unverifiable Diebold touchscreen voting systems, in use in the state since 2002, are not fit for US elections because they are "unsecure, unreliable and grossly outdated". They are so unsecure, in fact, that they violate the Constitutional right of voters to have their votes counted as cast."GA’s current voting equipment, software, election and voter databases are a... |
Tom Engelhardt: Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, How the U.S. Created the Central American Immigration Crisis
It's hard to believe that more than four years have passed since the police shot Amílcar Pe'rez-López a few blocks from my house in San Francisco's Mission District. He was an immigrant, 20 years old, and his remittances were the sole support for his mother and siblings in Guatemala. |
 Beating our heads against the wall Opinion — This story was written about the San Francisco experience, but the same schemes are being played out all over the country. Watch for the process to unfold in your city and neighborhood. (download doc)How many times must we make the same mistakes before we try something different?There is a lot of talk about the failures of the MTC and ABAG and the loss of trust the public has in our state government ... 1 |
 'Something dark & nefarious': Google insider leaks docs revealing search engine 'blacklist' - RT World News Google appears to have maintained a ‘blacklist’ for dozens of websites on one of its mobile apps, as well as a ‘fringe ranking’ system that scored sites for “quality,” according to documents leaked by a company insider. Published on Wednesday in a report by conservative transparency group Project Veritas, the documents appear to include hundreds of pages of technical details descr... 9 |
 Activists Censor Anti-Racist Mural as "Offensive" Peak PC logic: To shield students from ‘offensive’ image, activists opt to censor anti-racist mural at one San Francisco high school, where an ongoing campaign to remove murals depicting the life of George Washington has resulted in a decision to have the art hidden from view. The school had earlier even considered destroying the work completely.The mural, which includes images of slaves on Washington’s pla... 6 |
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