Monthly Archives: June 2017

Alarm Raised as Trump Election Panel Requests Detailed Data on All US Voters

‘This meritless inquisition opens the door for a misguided and ill-advised Commission to take steps to target and harass voters and could lead to purging of the voter rolls.’

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-29-2017

Voting line i Brooklyn, 2008. Photo by April Sikorski from Brooklyn, USA (vote here) [CC-BY-SA-2.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Voting and civil rights advocates are ringing alarm bells on Thursday after it was learned that an election commission established by Donald Trump—one which critics feared from its inception would be used to suppress, not protect, voter access—had sent requests to all fifty states demanding personal and detailed information about voters.

According to The Hill, a letter was sent from Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State in Kansas and vice chairman of Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, asking the states for “several pieces of information about voters, including their names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.”

Continue reading →

With Nation’s Attention Elsewhere, Trump Quietly Intensifies War on Workers

Leave a reply

Trump has nominated two corporate lawyers to the NLRB as Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch gears up to rule on a key labor case

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-28-2017

If Trump’s nominees are confirmed by the Senate, Republicans will control the NLRB for the first time in nearly a decade. (Photo: AFSCME/Twitter)

In a little-discussed move that could spell disaster for unions and workers in the near future and over the long-term, President Donald Trump on Tuesday night announced the nomination of William Emanuel—a lawyer for a firm that represents large corporations—to fill a vacant seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Emanuel, as Reuters noted, is a member of the Federalist Society, an ultra-right-wing group of lawyers and donors that has been credited with producing the list of possible Supreme Court nominees the Trump administration flaunted during his presidential campaign.

Continue reading →

EPA Head’s Plan to Gut Popular Water Rule Condemned as Gift to Polluters

Leave a reply

Environment advocates rail against Pruitt’s plan

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-27-2017

The EPA’s intended rollback of the Clean Water Rule could impact the drinking water of 117 million Americans. (MajJar/Flickr/cc)

Stirring criticism from environmental groups, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt said Tuesday that the Trump administration will take steps to roll back the Clean Water Rule, the Obama-era regulation that grants clear protections to America’s waterways and drinking water supplies.

The Clean Water Rule requires oil companies to develop oil spill prevention and response plans, demands that states identify and develop plans to clean up protected waters that don’t meet standards, and bans companies from dumping waste into protected waters, among other provisions. Continue reading →

Seymour Hersh: US Lied About Syrian Chemical Attack Then Bombed Them Anyway

Leave a reply

Editors’ note: As we were posting this article, the White House made an announcement about Syria and chemical weapons. We think we see a pattern…

Photo: Activist Post

By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 6-26-2017 by The Anti-Media

Never one to accept the U.S. government’s official explanation of events without question, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has investigated Donald Trump’s decision to strike the al-Shayat Airbase in Syria in April of this year, which the president launched amid widespread allegations that the Syrian government committed a chemical weapons attack.

In a report entitled “Trump’s Red Line,” published Sunday in the daily German newspaper Die Welt, Hersh asserts that President Donald Trump ignored important intelligence reports when he made the decision to attack Syria after pictures emerged of dying children in the war-torn country. Continue reading →

UN Expert Touts Universal Basic Income as “Bold and Imaginative Solution’ to Poverty

Leave a reply

“In today’s world of severe economic insecurity, creativity in social policy is necessary.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-23-2017

U.N. special rapportuer Philip Alston says a “basic income offers a bold and imaginative solution to pressing problems that are about to become far more intractable as a result of the directions in which the global economy appears inexorably to be heading.” (Photo: Generation Grundeinkommen/flickr/cc)

Amplifying the call for a universal basic income, a United Nations expert has presented a report describing the idea as “a bold and imaginative solution” at a time of growing economic insecurity.

“People feel exposed, vulnerable, overwhelmed, and helpless and some are being systematically marginalized both economically and socially,” Philip Alston, U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, told the Human Rights Council. “But the human rights community has barely engaged with this resulting phenomenon of deep economic insecurity,” he said. Continue reading →

What happens when the federal government eliminates health coverage? Lessons from the past

Leave a reply

Simon Haeder, West Virginia University

After much secrecy and no public deliberation, Senate Republicans finalized release their “draft” repeal and replace bill for the Affordable Care Act on June 22. Unquestionably, the released “draft” will not be the final version.

Amendments and a potential, albeit not necessary, conference committee are likely to make some adjustments. However, both the House version – American Health Care Act (AHCA) – and the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) will significantly reduce coverage for millions of Americans and reshape insurance for virtually everyone. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to provide final numbers early the week of June 26. Continue reading →

Rev. William Barber Says GOP Voter Suppression the ‘Real Hacking’ of US Democracy

Leave a reply

“We would not be having this healthcare deconstruction if we had the Voting Rights Act!”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-23-2017

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber. Photo: YouTube

In an effort to bring national attention to “homegrown voter suppression” and to launch a campaign of “moral resistance” against Republican attempts to strip healthcare from millions, Rev. William J. Barber and other faith leaders marched in Washington on Friday just ahead of the anniversary of a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Writing for NBC News prior to the march, Barber—a member of the NAACP national board of directors and a key figure in the successful effort to overturn North Carolina’s racially gerrymandered districts—argued that absent deliberate efforts by Republican lawmakers to prevent minorities from voting, a Donald Trump victory “would have never been possible.” Continue reading →

Arrests of Trumpcare Protesters, Some in Wheelchairs, Outside McConnell’s Office

Leave a reply

“Don’t touch Medicaid! Don’t touch Medicaid!”

By Common Dreams. Published 6-22-2017

A Trumpcare opponent being carried from a sit-in outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Thursday morning after the Republicans released their draft version of a healthcare overhaul bill. (Photo: Screenshot/CNBC)

Soon after a draft version of the Republican’s Senate version of their Trumpcare care bill was released Thursday morning, Capitol Hill Police were systematically arresting people who staged a dramatic sit-in outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office.

Amid chants of “Don’t Touch Medicaid!” and signs suggesting the same, many of those protesting the Senate bill were either elderly or in wheelchairs, offering a stunning visual as police tried to remove them from the hallway. Continue reading →

Industry Was Doubly Generous with 13 GOP Senators Now Drafting Trumpcare

Leave a reply

While baker’s dozen of Republicans’ all-male, all-white legislative team draft bill in secret, analysis reveals giving of insurance and pharmaceutical industries

By Common Dreams. Published 6-21-2017

According to Maplight, a watchdog that tracks campaign spending, those chosen by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to draft the Senate’s version of Trumpcare legislation have collected, on average, $214,000 from companies that that will be directly affected by major changes to the nation’s healthcare system. (Photos: Getty Images (5); AP (5); Reuters (3))

As a group of 13 Republican senators—all of them both white and male—continue to craft in secret their version of a major healthcare overhaul bill, a new analysis shows these lawmakers have received approximately double the amount of campaign contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries than their Senate colleagues who have been so far excluded from the process. Continue reading →

In Major Tax Speech, Paul Ryan Lays Out Plan to Lavish Rich With Tax Cuts

Leave a reply

“Paul Ryan is not serious about tax reform. He’s serious about tax giveaways—for millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-20-2017

Photo: YouTube

After spending months selling a healthcare plan that proposed kicking millions off their insurance and gutting crucial safety net programs, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has now shifted his focus to tax reform, where he hopes to provide significant tax relief to the wealthiest Americans.

On Tuesday, after weeks of failing to offer any details on his ambitious plan to permanently overhaul the tax code, Ryan made his first major pitch to the National Association of Manufacturers—a business advocacy group that has in the past received funding from the Koch brothers. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Monthly Archives: June 2017

With Nation’s Attention Elsewhere, Trump Quietly Intensifies War on Workers

Trump has nominated two corporate lawyers to the NLRB as Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch gears up to rule on a key labor case

EPA Head’s Plan to Gut Popular Water Rule Condemned as Gift to Polluters

Environment advocates rail against Pruitt’s plan

Seymour Hersh: US Lied About Syrian Chemical Attack Then Bombed Them Anyway

Editors’ note: As we were posting this article, the White House made an announcement about Syria and chemical weapons. We think we see a pattern…

Industry Was Doubly Generous with 13 GOP Senators Now Drafting Trumpcare

While baker’s dozen of Republicans’ all-male, all-white legislative team draft bill in secret, analysis reveals giving of insurance and pharmaceutical industries