Monthly Archives: August 2019

2019-08-26: News Headlines

JOCDC (2019-08-26). No Coal, No Gas: Climate activists remove coal from Merrimack generating station. liberationnews.org "…it is now a necessity to take matters into our own hands…"

Labor Video Project (2019-08-26). Close The Camps! Free The Children! SF Healthcare Workers Protest ICE. indybay.org Healthcare workers rallied at San Francisco ICE on August 25, 2019 to demand the closure of the camps and freeing of the children.

Sarah Lahm (2019-08-26). St. Paul Teachers Union Picks the Health Care Battle. progressive.org Skyrocketing insurance costs generated a national wave of teacher strikes last year. Now, Minnesota educators head into a new school year ready to fight for affordable health care.

Seana Sperling (2019-08-26). The Small Freedom. indybay.org We talk about protecting our freedom, however we suffer from a lack of freedom in this country. Healthcare, education and housing have all become out of reach for some living in the U.S.

Akela Lacy (2019-08-26). Before Kamala Harris Soured on Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All Bill, She Grew Her Email List From It. theintercept.com Kamala Harris distanced herself from Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All bill at an event with large-dollar donors two weeks after her campaign ran those ads.

Common Dreams staff (2019-08-26). 'About Damn Time': In First of Thousands of Lawsuits Against Big Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572M for Flooding Oklahoma With Opioids. commondreams.org In the first decided case against a corporation accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., the personal care and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered on Monday to pay $572 million in fines. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Staff (2019-08-25). Newark's Water Crisis is One of Thousands That Are Worse Than Flint's. therealnews.com Lead poisoning is a public health emergency in poor working class communities across the United States, raising crime rates, causing school dropouts, filling our prisons and creating human tragedy…

RT (2019-08-25). Apple and Samsung sued over 'cancer risk' from cell phone radiation. rt.com Apple and Samsung have been hit with a class-action lawsuit over claims that their phones expose users to radio frequency emissions up to 500 percent beyond federal limits. Meanwhile the health debate around smartphones heats up. | Filed following an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit alleges that the Radio Frequency (RF) emissions of a number of Apple and Samsung phones — among them the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Galaxy S8 — "far exceed federal guidelines." The risks of such radiati…

teleSUR (2019-08-25). Lack of Specialized Doctors Affects Care in Paraguay. telesurenglish.net The lack of specialized doctors to provide proper medical coverage is one of Paraguay"s most serious health issues, Public Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni has warned. | RELATED: | Paraguay Opposition Denounces 'Impunity Pact' Over Impeachment Rejection | The minister said the lack of resources keeps the system from providing integral and dignified health care throughout the country. 'We lack human resources and we are focused in training them,' added the official. | Maz…

teleSUR (2019-08-25). Trump Weighing Slashing Medicare, Social Security in 2nd Term. telesurenglish.net United States President Donald Trump is considering to slash Medicare and Social Security during his possible second term in the White House to tackle the ever-growing fiscal deficit, according to a report by the New York Times. | RELATED: | 'We Don't Need China', Trump Says as Wall Street Plunges | "We've brought it up with President Trump, who has talked abou…

RT (2019-08-24). Biden asks town hall 'what if Obama had been assassinated?' & internet cringes. rt.com Democratic primary frontrunner Joe Biden has raised a nation of eyebrows when he asked an audience to imagine the fallout from Barack Obama's assassination, comparing the ex-president to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. | "Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee?" Biden asked a town hall in Hanover, New Hampshire on Friday that was supposed to be focused on healthcare. "What would have happened in America?" | Joe Biden asked voters to imagine what would happen if President Obama was assassinated during the primary – then oddly…

Aída Chávez (2019-08-24). National Democrats Endorse John Hickenlooper, a Proponent of Fracking, in Competitive Colorado Primary. theintercept.com In Colorado, nearly a dozen Democrats are vying for the opportunity to take on Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020 — a race widely seen as the party's most promising pick-up in the Senate. One of the leading contenders, former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and an aggressive plan to combat the climate crisis — and his campaign has already topped $1 million in fundraising. | But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has thrown its weight behind former Gov. John Hickenlooper, a pro-fracking moderate. After months of rejecting calls…

RT (2019-08-23). David Koch, billionaire conservative & one of the world's richest people, dies at 79. rt.com US billionaire businessman and key Republican Party donor David Koch has died at the age of 79. | Koch stepped down from the family business, Koch Industries, last year amid health problems. His death has been confirmed by his older brother Charles. | "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother David," says Charles Koch in statement.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 23, 2019 | David was listed by Forbes…

Paul Street (2019-08-23). Notes on Inauthenticity in a Creeping Fascist Nuthouse. counterpunch.org The reigning corporate Democrats would rather lose to the right, even to a proto-fascistic white nationalist and eco-exterminist right, than lose to the left, even to a mildly progressive social democratic and environmentalist left within their own party. How else explain their insistence on promoting the ridiculous, right-wing arch-corporatist, imperialist, and dementia-plagued right-wing gaffe machine Joke Biden in the long march to the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries? More

Laura Hercher (2019-08-23). Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair? thenation.com Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair?

Staff (2019-08-23). Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids. democracynow.org The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.

Francisco Aviles Pino (2019-08-22). Los Angeles County Votes to Stop Construction of New Jail-Like Facility, Adding Momentum to National Abolition Movement. theintercept.com "A jail is a jail is a jail. It is not enough to change the name of the facility," said LA Board of Supervisors member Heidi Solis.

United Nations (2019-08-21). Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but not necessarily a risk to human health. un.org Tiny plastic particles known as microplastics are "everywhere — including in our drinking-water", but they are not necessarily a risk to human health, UN experts said on Thursday.

Michael Felsen (2019-08-21). Trump's Labor Pick Kept Workers in Pain. progressive.org The President has had poor luck with labor secretaries, and now he is poised to nominate Eugene Scalia, whose anti-regulatory advocacy two decades ago helped fuel today's opioid epidemic. That's not the best credential for a future labor secretary.

United Nations (2019-08-20). Negotiating legally-binding agreement to provide future generations with a 'healthy, resilient and productive ocean'. un.org While the world's oceans contain some 200,000 identified living species, the actual numbers could reach the millions ≠ ≠— all exposed to the dangers of climate change, pollution and over-exploitation. To stem these threats, the United Nations is meeting to negotiate a treaty that would protect three-quarters of the earth's surface by 2030.

The Canary (2019-08-20). Brussels rejects Boris Johnson's call for Irish backstop to be scrapped. thecanary.co Boris Johnson has been rebuffed by Brussels after demanding major changes in a new Brexit deal. | The prime minister set out his call for the backstop — the contingency plan to avoid a hard border with Ireland — to be scrapped from the divorce deal ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline. | But European Council president Donald Tusk defended the measure and warned that those seeking to replace it would risk a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland. | The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found. Those against the backst…

splcenter (2019-08-19). SPLC, allies sue ICE for ignoring medical, mental health and disability needs of detained immigrants. splcenter.org Faour Abdallah Fraihat, who ran a successful construction business for years in California, is currently in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ACLU (2019-08-15). The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person. aclu.org How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…

ACLU (2019-08-13). Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence. aclu.org Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…

ACLU (2019-08-09). Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan. aclu.org A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…

Esteban Guevara (2019-08-09). Blood money: How big pharma created the opioid crisis. liberationnews.org The opioid epidemic could only have occurred in a society where profit is king.

Ricardo Vaz (2019-07-30). Venezuela: Six Chavista Militants Killed in Fresh Rural Violence. venezuelanalysis.com Landowner violence continues to plague the Venezuelan countryside.

Paul Kawika Martin (2019-06-19). House Casts Historic Vote to Repeal Authorization for Endless War. peaceaction.org Washington, D.C. — June 19, 2019 — In response to the House of Representatives passing H.R. 2740 (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020), which includes language to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) eight months after …

2019-08-26: Social Media Postees

Close The Camps! Free The Children! SF Healthcare Workers Protest ICE
Labor Video Project | indybay.org | 2019-08-26
Healthcare workers rallied at San Francisco ICE on August 25, 2019 to demand the closure of the camps and freeing of the children.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/25/1882570…

No Coal, No Gas: Climate activists remove coal from Merrimack generating station
JOCDC | liberationnews.org | 2019-08-26
"…it is now a necessity to take matters into our own hands…"
liberationnews.org/no-coal-no-gas-climat…

St. Paul Teachers Union Picks the Health Care Battle
Sarah Lahm | progressive.org | 2019-08-26
Skyrocketing insurance costs generated a national wave of teacher strikes last year. Now, Minnesota educators head into a new school year ready to fight for affordable health care.
progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/…

The Small Freedom
Seana Sperling | indybay.org | 2019-08-26
We talk about protecting our freedom, however we suffer from a lack of freedom in this country. Healthcare, education and housing have all become out of reach for some living in the U.S.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/26/1882572…

Before Kamala Harris Soured on Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All Bill, She Grew Her Email List From It
Akela Lacy | theintercept.com | 2019-08-26
Kamala Harris distanced herself from Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All bill at an event with large-dollar donors two weeks after her campaign ran those ads.
theintercept.com/2019/08/26/kamala-harri…

'About Damn Time': In First of Thousands of Lawsuits Against Big Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572M for Flooding Oklahoma With Opioids
Common Dreams staff | commondreams.org | 2019-08-26
In the first decided case against a corporation accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., the personal care and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered on Monday to pay $572 million in fines. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/news/2019/08/26/about-d…

Lack of Specialized Doctors Affects Care in Paraguay
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-25
The lack of specialized doctors to provide proper medical coverage is one of Paraguay"s most serious health issues, Public Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni has warned. | RELATED: | Paraguay Opposition Denounces 'Impunity Pact' Over Impeachment Rejection | The minister said the lack of resources keeps the system from providing integral and dignified health care throughout the country. 'We lack human resources and we are focused in training them,' added the official. | Maz…
telesurenglish.net/news/Lack-of-Speciali…

Newark's Water Crisis is One of Thousands That Are Worse Than Flint's
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-25
Lead poisoning is a public health emergency in poor working class communities across the United States, raising crime rates, causing school dropouts, filling our prisons and creating human tragedy…
therealnews.com/stories/newarks-water-cr…

Apple and Samsung sued over 'cancer risk' from cell phone radiation
rt.com | 2019-08-25
Apple and Samsung have been hit with a class-action lawsuit over claims that their phones expose users to radio frequency emissions up to 500 percent beyond federal limits. Meanwhile the health debate around smartphones heats up. | Filed following an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit alleges that the Radio Frequency (RF) emissions of a number of Apple and Samsung phones — among them the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Galaxy S8 — "far exceed federal guidelines." The risks of such radiati…
rt.com/usa/467274-apple-samsung-cancer-l…

Trump Weighing Slashing Medicare, Social Security in 2nd Term
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-25
United States President Donald Trump is considering to slash Medicare and Social Security during his possible second term in the White House to tackle the ever-growing fiscal deficit, according to a report by the New York Times. | RELATED: | 'We Don't Need China', Trump Says as Wall Street Plunges | "We've brought it up with President Trump, who has talked abou…
telesurenglish.net/news/Trump-Weighing-S…

Biden asks town hall 'what if Obama had been assassinated?' & internet cringes
rt.com | 2019-08-24
Democratic primary frontrunner Joe Biden has raised a nation of eyebrows when he asked an audience to imagine the fallout from Barack Obama's assassination, comparing the ex-president to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. | "Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee?" Biden asked a town hall in Hanover, New Hampshire on Friday that was supposed to be focused on healthcare. "What would have happened in America?" | Joe Biden asked voters to imagine what would happen if President Obama was assassinated during the primary – then oddly…
rt.com/usa/467178-biden-obama-assassinat…

National Democrats Endorse John Hickenlooper, a Proponent of Fracking, in Competitive Colorado Primary
Aída Chávez | theintercept.com | 2019-08-24
In Colorado, nearly a dozen Democrats are vying for the opportunity to take on Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020 — a race widely seen as the party's most promising pick-up in the Senate. One of the leading contenders, former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and an aggressive plan to combat the climate crisis — and his campaign has already topped $1 million in fundraising. | But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has thrown its weight behind former Gov. John Hickenlooper, a pro-fracking moderate. After months of rejecting calls…
theintercept.com/2019/08/24/dscc-john-hi…

Notes on Inauthenticity in a Creeping Fascist Nuthouse
Paul Street | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-23
The reigning corporate Democrats would rather lose to the right, even to a proto-fascistic white nationalist and eco-exterminist right, than lose to the left, even to a mildly progressive social democratic and environmentalist left within their own party. How else explain their insistence on promoting the ridiculous, right-wing arch-corporatist, imperialist, and dementia-plagued right-wing gaffe machine Joke Biden in the long march to the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries?
counterpunch.org/2019/08/23/notes-on-ina…

David Koch, billionaire conservative & one of the world's richest people, dies at 79
rt.com | 2019-08-23
US billionaire businessman and key Republican Party donor David Koch has died at the age of 79. | Koch stepped down from the family business, Koch Industries, last year amid health problems. His death has been confirmed by his older brother Charles. | "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother David," says Charles Koch in statement.– Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 23, 2019 | David was listed by Forbes…
rt.com/news/467142-david-koch-richest-di…

Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair?
Laura Hercher | thenation.com | 2019-08-23
Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair?
thenation.com/article/genetic-disease-iv…

Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merk…

Los Angeles County Votes to Stop Construction of New Jail-Like Facility, Adding Momentum to National Abolition Movement
Francisco Aviles Pino | theintercept.com | 2019-08-22
"A jail is a jail is a jail. It is not enough to change the name of the facility," said LA Board of Supervisors member Heidi Solis.
theintercept.com/2019/08/22/los-angeles-…

Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but not necessarily a risk to human health
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-21
Tiny plastic particles known as microplastics are "everywhere — including in our drinking-water", but they are not necessarily a risk to human health, UN experts said on Thursday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1…

Trump's Labor Pick Kept Workers in Pain
Michael Felsen | progressive.org | 2019-08-21
The President has had poor luck with labor secretaries, and now he is poised to nominate Eugene Scalia, whose anti-regulatory advocacy two decades ago helped fuel today's opioid epidemic. That's not the best credential for a future labor secretary.
progressive.org/op-eds/trumps-labor-pick…

Negotiating legally-binding agreement to provide future generations with a 'healthy, resilient and productive ocean'
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-20
While the world's oceans contain some 200,000 identified living species, the actual numbers could reach the millions ≠ ≠– all exposed to the dangers of climate change, pollution and over-exploitation. To stem these threats, the United Nations is meeting to negotiate a treaty that would protect three-quarters of the earth's surface by 2030.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1…

Brussels rejects Boris Johnson's call for Irish backstop to be scrapped
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-08-20
Boris Johnson has been rebuffed by Brussels after demanding major changes in a new Brexit deal. | The prime minister set out his call for the backstop — the contingency plan to avoid a hard border with Ireland — to be scrapped from the divorce deal ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline. | But European Council president Donald Tusk defended the measure and warned that those seeking to replace it would risk a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland. | The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found. Those against the backst…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/08/20/brussels-rejects-boris-johnsons-call-for-irish-backstop-to-be-scrapped/

SPLC, allies sue ICE for ignoring medical, mental health and disability needs of detained immigrants
splcenter.org | 2019-08-19
Faour Abdallah Fraihat, who ran a successful construction business for years in California, is currently in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/19/splc-allie…

The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person
aclu.org | 2019-08-15
How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-an…

Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence
aclu.org | 2019-08-13
Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/integrat…

Blood money: How big pharma created the opioid crisis
Esteban Guevara | liberationnews.org | 2019-08-09
The opioid epidemic could only have occurred in a society where profit is king.
liberationnews.org/blood-money-how-big-p…

Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan
aclu.org | 2019-08-09
A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-ri…

Venezuela: Six Chavista Militants Killed in Fresh Rural Violence
Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-07-30
Landowner violence continues to plague the Venezuelan countryside.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14607