Government
If Any Other Country Was Shooting Civilians Like Israel, The US Would Be Calling For Invasion By Now
The death toll in Gaza increased dramatically on Monday as Israeli Defense Forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinian civilians, killing 41 and injuring at least 1,700, and the United States’ response served as a reminder that if the governments in Iran, Syria, North Korea or Russia had done the same thing, the U.S. would be calling for a full-scale invasion right now. It is hypocrisy at its finest, especially considering the fact that the U.S. has a history of cheering on and aiding protests against foreign governments. In fact, when the mainstream media began sharing reports of protests in Iran in December 2017, President Trump took to Twitter to cheer on the dissidents.
Overcoming weeks of extortionist threats and other forms of “corporate bullying” from the world’s largest retailer, Seattle’s City Council on Monday unanimously approved a new tax on Amazon—which paid nothing in federal income taxes last year—and other major companies in an effort to provide essential services for the homeless and combat the local housing crisis. Noting that the so-called “head tax” is quite modest relative to Amazon’s annual revenue and the pay of its CEO Jeff Bezos – the world’s richest man – Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant argued on Monday that “even a smaller tax is a huge victory,” given the “Goliath-like clout of Amazon.”
“This is a man who was a key adviser to President Bush, George W. Bush, in urging him to…invade Iraq because supposedly Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,” Sanders said of Bolton, who Trump selected to be his top foreign policy adviser in March. “As I think most Americans now know, that effort in Iraq was the worst foreign policy disaster in the modern history of this country.” (Plus, the death and devastation it caused in Iraq).
In the years leading up to the economic crisis in 2008, banks increased the funding for the riskiest loans (called subprime loans), from $30 billion a year to over $600 billion a year, rigged even higher interest rates on those loans, and then, while the bankers were making billions of dollars of profits off the borrowers’ high interest repayments, they made further profits betting against their customers ever being able to pay back the loans they had just been given. The FBI warned the government about this in reports as early as 2006, the IMF’s chief economist, Raghurum Rajan, presented a paper to the men in charge of all the world’s major banks, including the Federal Reserve, warning of the potential collapse of the system due to dangerous incentives, and journalist Allan Sloan published articles in Fortune magazine and The Washington Post in 2007 – nothing was done.
The blunt truth about the Iran deal is that Donald Trump rejects it because it has been working. His own administration has been forced to consistently certify Iran as compliant with the terms. The strategy appears to be to devise a deal so impossible for Iran to accept that Iran will, in the eyes of the international community, become the dangerous and untrustworthy party in major need of a military intervention.
Planned Parenthood, other organizations and a Washington state county filed lawsuits challenging a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to defund more than $200 million in teen pregnancy prevention programs.
Do you know what being Muslim in America is like? This writer tries to explain.
Donald Trump has committed what will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-sabotage in America’s modern history. He has put the United States on a path towards war with Iran and may trigger a wider regional war and nuclear arms race. This is not America first, this is Trump leasing out America’s foreign policy interests to the highest bidder. The only parties applauding this move are Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammed Bin Salman, who have consistently chosen to undermine regional security to advance their own short-sighted political fortunes. Trump’s reckless decision is a betrayal of the national interests of the United States of America that could haunt us for generations.
One former recruit said the Austin PD instructors repeatedly degraded the homeless and prostitutes, referring to them as “cockroaches” and suggesting they “find a transient” if they were bored and wanted a felony arrest. Thanks to these (and future) whistleblowers, perhaps the warrior mentality will become a thing of the past.
Concealed in regular safety helmets or uniform hats, these lightweight, wireless sensors constantly monitor the wearer’s brainwaves and stream the data to computers that use artificial intelligence algorithms to detect emotional spikes such as depression, anxiety or rage.
Once again, the Israeli military has turned its guns on Gaza—this time on unarmed protestors, in a series of shootings over the last few weeks. Gaza’s already under-resourced hospitals are straining to care for the thousands of protesters who have been injured, in addition to the 40 who have been killed.
Craigslist shuttered its personal ads section after the U.S. Senate passed Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) on Wednesday
The leaders of North and South Korea signed a historic declaration on Friday pledging “no more war” and a common goal of the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.
This month, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9-11 Inquiry, a group representing families of the 9/11 victims, filed a petition with the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to push for an investigation into the crimes of 9/11. The committee states that they have “conclusive” evidence that explosives were planted and detonated in the Trade Center buildings, and that this is the actual reason for the collapse of the towers.
The budget blueprint from the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—and titled A Framework of Unified Conservatism—says it “would take unprecedented steps to begin the deconstruction of the administrative state” and would cut $12.4 trillion over the next decade from federal spending. Among the plan’s numerous goals are the repeal of Obamacare and raising the eligibility age of Medicare and Social Security benefits to age 70.
