Gary Leupp (2019-07-23). Minnesota, White People, Lutherans and Ilhan Omar. counterpunch.org Interesting that Trump\'s current opportunistic vilification campaign focuses on a congresswoman from Minnesota. My late mother was from Minnesota. Daughter of an immigrant Swedish father and a mother born of Norwegian immigrants, she had a kind of Ingrid Bergman look. The hospital record describes her as \"comely\" (as though this were a technical term) at More

John Kendall Hawkins (2019-07-23). Assange and His Wiki Wicked leaks. counterpunch.org \"But all the same,\" insisted the Savage, \"it is natural to believe in God when you\'re alone—quite alone, in the night, thinking about death…\" \"But people never are alone now,\" said Mustapha Mond. \"We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it\'s almost impossible for them ever to have it.\" Brave More

Patrick Cockburn (2019-07-23). Why Boris Johnson is Even More Dangerous Than Trump. counterpunch.org Is the rise of Boris Johnson to be the next prime minister the product of a soft coup? Does Donald Trump\'s racist demonisation of four non-white congress members prove him to be a \"fascist\" leader like Mussolini and Hitler? The two questions should be answered together because political developments in Britain tend to emulate those in the US, More

Thomas Knapp (2019-07-23). Peckerwood Populism is About Political Strategy, Not Personal Belief. counterpunch.org The controversy around President Donald Trump\'s recent tweets targeting \"The Squad\" — four Democratic members of Congress who are all women, all people \"of color,\" and all of whom Trump seems to think aren\'t \"from America\" (one came from Somalia as a young woman and became a US citizen at 17; the rest are \"natural More

Christopher Ketcham (2019-07-23). The American West as Judeo-Christian Artifact. counterpunch.org I. It is fair to say that most people in the modern world regard nature as a collection of \"resources\" that exist solely for our aggrandizement. Even the foremost putative \"progressives\" now on the national stage (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, et al.) argue that we should continue to exploit resources to keep the capitalist growth More

Jack Heyman (2019-07-23). Whitewashing American History: the WPA Mural Controversy in San Francisco. counterpunch.org There has a been a controversy percolating the last couple of years over protests against the \"Life of Washington\" murals painted in 1935-36 by Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Victor Arnautoff that are on display at George Washington High School in San Francisco. These murals dared to challenge the patriotic stereotype of Washington, instead portraying More

Juan Cole (2019-07-23). How John Bolton Tricked Clueless UK Tories Into Confrontation With Iran. commondreams.org National security advisor John Bolton has tricked London into an adversarial posture toward Iran, with ratcheting tensions. And that is a big win for Iran War hawks around Trump. (Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/oil_0_0.jpeg …

teleSUR (2019-07-23). US Sanctions Chinese State-Run Energy Company Over Iranian Oil. telesurenglish.net The Trump administration announced on Monday that they were sanctioning the Chinese state-run energy company Zhuhai Zhenrong Co Ltd. for allegedly violating restrictions imposed on Iran\'s oil sector. | RELATED: | Iran Says Arrested 17 CIA Spies, Some Sentenced to Death | The announcement, which was made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, addressed the prohibition of Iranian oil without a waiver provided by Washington. | \"We\'ve said that we will sanction any sanctionable behavio…

John Nichols (2019-07-23). Trump Cannot Declare War—Especially on Iran—Without Congress. thenation.com Trump Cannot Declare War—Especially on Iran—Without Congress…

Tyler Durden (2019-07-23). \"Electromagnetic Attack\" Sparks Massive Blackouts Across Venezuela. theantimedia.com (ZH) — Widespread power blackouts were first reported on Monday evening across 15 Venezuelan states and Caracas, as per a report from Reuters Caracas newsroom. Central #Caracas (#Chacao) right now #apagón #blackout #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/6Pvp3QdPPW — Adriano Mérola Marotta (@AdrianoMerola) July 22, 2019 Venezuelan information minister Jorge Rodrigues said an \"electromagnetic attack caused the nationwide blackout\" and power companies along with …

Paul Dobson (2019-07-23). Non-Aligned Movement Condemns US Sanctions Against Venezuela. venezuelanalysis.com The 120-member movement held a ministerial meeting in Caracas as a US spy jet reportedly violated Venezuelan airspace.

Venezuelanalysis (2019-07-23). Nationwide Blackout in Venezuela, Third since March — VA\'s on the Ground Coverage Affected. venezuelanalysis.com A government communique states that the probable cause was an \"electromagnetic attack.\"

Tim Weiner (2019-07-23). Mueller Gave Congress All It Needs to Defend the Rule of Law. thenation.com Mueller Gave Congress All It Needs to Defend the Rule of Law…

Binoy Kampmark (2019-07-23). Lunar Narratives: Landing on the Moon, Politics and the Cold War. counterpunch.org Anniversaries are occasions to distort records. The intoxicated recounting of the past faces a record in need of correction. Couples long married hide their differences before guests. Creases are covered; the make-up is applied generously. Defects become virtues, if, indeed they were ever there to begin with. In historical commemoration, the same is true. The More

Aidan Smith (2019-07-23). The Overlooked Difference Between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. thenation.com The Overlooked Difference Between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren…

Howard Lisnoff (2019-07-23). What Has Happened to the U.S. Since the Kids Left Woodstock? counterpunch.org A next-door neighbor recently said that she can\'t remember much about being at Woodstock, although she was there. I watched from afar at a camp for disabled kids near New London, Connecticut. I was a kind of cultural voyeur, looking on jealously at the photographs on the covers of major weekly magazines. For many of More

Richard Ward (2019-07-23). Free La Donalda! counterpunch.org The Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting, \"Off with his head!\" or \"Off with her head!\" about once in a minute. For whom sleep is possible comes a measure of solace, only to awaken each day to a nightmare that far exceeds anything our dreamscapes can manufacture. It\'s not More

David Mattson (2019-07-23). Through the Climate Looking Glass into Grizzly Wonderland. counterpunch.org Strangely enough, grizzly bear researchers and managers seem to have integrated a faith-based version of climate-change-denial into their collective world view. In fact, these ostensibly well-educated men and women bring to mind well-schooled ecclesiastics professing a belief system: \"Grizzly bears are omnivores. Grizzly bears are adaptable. Grizzly bears are unaffected by changes in habitat and More

Victor Grossman (2019-07-23). \"How Could They?\" Why Some Americans Were Drawn to the Communist Party in the 1940s. counterpunch.org Kevin Baker, reviewing \"A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father\" by David Maraniss for the New York Times, asks \"…what were his parents, and especially his father, doing in the Communist Party in the first place?…\" This moved me to ask myself the same question: How in the world could I too More

Michael Steinberg (2019-07-23). California Has Its Faults. indybay.org Two big recent earthquakes shook up all things nuclear in the state, and beyond too…

Staff (2019-07-23). Uncertainty Looms Over Boris Johnson\'s Response to Iranian Seizure of British Tanker. therealnews.com Could Trump and Bolton push Britain out of the Iran nuclear treaty? Eksandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi discusses whether Boris Johnson could act as the U.S.\'s errand boy if he assumes power as prime minister…

Kate Zeller (2019-07-23). Credit Suisse Banker Pleads Guilty in Mozambique Loan Scandal. indybay.org On Friday, former Credit Suisse banker Andrew Pearse pled guilty in US Federal Court for accepting millions of dollars in a fraud scheme that led to a $2 billion Mozambique loan scandal and debt crisis in the East African country.

Andre Vltchek (2019-07-23). March of the Uyghurs. dissidentvoice.org Important note: The Uyghurs have managed to create a very old and deep culture. Most of them are good, law abiding citizens of the PRC. Also the great majority of followers of Sunni Islam are peaceful people. This work is addressing terrible problems related to extremism and terrorism, most of them crafted and then fueled …

Fridays For Future Sacramento (2019-07-23). Peace Strike for Climate & Amazon Rainforest in State Capital. indybay.org California State Capitol Museum, West Steps | 1315 10th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814…

RT (2019-07-23). Black helicopters over DC? Pentagon accidentally reveals \'classified\' domestic Black Hawk mission. rt.com The US Army apparently plans to swarm the nation\'s capital region with Black Hawk helicopters as part of an ongoing \"classified flight mission\" that the Pentagon accidentally exposed while requesting funds from Congress.

teleSUR (2019-07-23). India Denies Trump\'s Claim About Mediating Kashmir Dispute. telesurenglish.net India has firmly denied U.S. President Donald Trump\'s claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to help mediate with Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir, saying there could be no talks until Pakistan ended cross-border terrorism. | RELATED: | India Flood Victims Hungry, Desperate: \'Nobody Cares About Us\' | Trump said on Monday that Modi had asked him to help resolve the decades-old dispute over the Himalayan region that has been the heart of two of three wa…

Eds. (2019-07-23). Cuba witnesses Nation\'s first transgender marriage. mronline.org Cuba witnessed the nation\'s first transgender legal union this week when a couple was married at the Palace of Marriages of San Francisno de Paula in Havana, the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex) reports. | Source

WSWS (2019-07-23). Iran accuses 17 of spying for CIA as tensions escalate. wsws.org Iran\'s arrest of 17 alleged CIA agents follows weeks of intense US pressure that brought the Trump administration within 10 minutes of bombing raids.

WSWS (2019-07-23). How the pharmaceutical companies, Congress and the DEA made the opioid epidemic a billion-dollar industry. wsws.org Previously undisclosed government information shows how drug manufacturers and distributors responded to the emerging opioid epidemic by pumping more pills into the hardest-hit regions.

Saul Foster (2019-07-23). U.S. economic warfare and likely foreign defenses. mronline.org Keynote Paper delivered at the 14th Forum of the World Association for Political Economy, July 21, 2019. Today\'s world is at war on many fronts. The rules of international law and order put in place toward the end of World War II are being broken by U.S. foreign policy escalating its confrontation with countries that […] | Source

Stephen Lendman (2019-07-22). Anglo-Persian Confrontation. Britain\'s Impounding of Iran\'s Grace Supertanker. Former UK Foreign Minister on Britain\'s \"Mistreatment of Iran\" globalresearch.ca On Sunday, former Labor Foreign Secretary Jack Straw wrote a London Daily Mail op-ed on why Iranians will never trust Brits. | The same goes for their US counterparts Straw didn\'t address in his opinion piece. More on this below. | ***…

Eds. (2019-07-22). Hubris before the fall. mronline.org Hubris is usually a forewarning of impending calamity. Extreme arrogance blinds the hubristic person to the limits of their power. So, blindly, they push on with reckless excess, leading to potentially disastrous results. | Source

United Nations (2019-07-22). UN peacekeeping in Mali boosted with addition of 250 UK troops. un.org The United Kingdom is to send a contingent of 250 troops to Mali next year, to support the UN\'s peacekeeping operation in the country, MINUSMA.

Mike Garrity (2019-07-22). Emergency Alert For the Wild Rockies. counterpunch.org We need your help to keep fighting Trump, we are desperate. Inspired by Yellowstone grizzly bear scientists Frank and John Craighead, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies formed in 1988 to protect the whole ecosystems and connecting wildlife corridors that comprise the Wild Rockies bioregion. Our mission is to protect habitat, especially the unprotected roadless/undeveloped More

David Swanson (2019-07-22). U.S. Troops Back in Saudi Arabia: What Could Go Wrong? counterpunch.org The First Gulf War back in 1990 was a big huge success. One of the things it accomplished was a major U.S. troop presence in Saudi Arabia. Muslims around the world were outraged. Bombs were repeatedly set off at Khobar Towers where troops were stationed. In 1998 Osama Bin Laden declared: \"For over seven years More

Stephen Lendman (2019-07-22). Pentagon Angst over China-Russia Strategic Unity. globalresearch.ca Sino/Russian unity represents a vital anti-imperial alliance. A DOD/Pentagon white paper called Russia a strategic US threat, especially united with China. | NYT editors addressed the issue, falsely calling both countries \"adversaries.\" Indeed they\'re \"growing closer,\" both nations portrayed as strategic …

Kim Petersen (2019-07-22). Never Again: What about the Palestinians? dissidentvoice.org concentration camp: a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc., especially any of the camps established by the Nazis prior to and during World War II for the confinement and persecution of prisoners.1 The people seeking a new life in the United States are mainly an …

teleSUR (2019-07-22). Powerful Explosion Hits Somalian Capital, Gunfire Reported. telesurenglish.net A powerful explosion was heard inside the Somalian capital city of Mogadishu on Monday morning, prompting local civil defense units to quickly emerge on the scene. | RELATED: | Ilhan Omar Was Right on \'Black Hawk Down\' Events in Somalia Despite Right-wing Media\'s Lies | Following the explosion, the Mogadishu police forces told the Reuters News Agency that heavy gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the explosion. | No one immediately claimed responsibi…

Michael Hudson (2019-07-22). U.S. Economic Warfare and Likely Foreign Defenses. counterpunch.org Today\'s world is at war on many fronts. The rules of international law and order put in place toward the end of World War II are being broken by U.S. foreign policy escalating its confrontation with countries that refrain from giving its companies control of their economic surpluses. Countries that do not give the United More

Staff (2019-07-22). \"If Not Now, When Will We Stand?\" Native Hawaiians Fight Construction of Telescope on Mauna Kea. democracynow.org A historic indigenous resistance is unfolding on the Big Island of Hawaii, where thousands have descended on Mauna Kea, a sacred Native site, to defend it from the construction of a $1.4 billion telescope. Scientists say the Thirty Meter Telescope will help them peer into the deepest corners of space, but indigenous resisters say the construction was approved without their consent and will desecrate their sacred lands. Last week, police arrested 33 people—most of them Hawaiian elders—as they blocked a road to prevent work crews from reaching the site of the telescope being planned atop Mauna Kea. And…

Ed Rampell (2019-07-22). \'At War,\' class struggle film coming soon to a theater near you. peoplesworld.org Stéphane Brizé\'s award-winning At War (En Guerre) is a French feature about unions, strikes and class struggle being released in America shortly after Bastille Day, which commemorates that \"other\" French Revolution. In this movie a German-owned company reneges on promises to keep a factory open in an economically depressed region of France, despite the workers\' …

Staff (2019-07-22). Headlines for July 22, 2019. democracynow.org Iran Says It Has Captured and Killed Spies as Oil Tanker Standoff Intensifies, Trump Revs Up Racist Attacks on Squad as AOC Hits Back: \"We\'re Not Going Anywhere\", Heat Wave Grips U.S. as July on Track for Hottest Month Ever Recorded, Fire Breaks Out at Brooklyn Jail as Prisoners Face Dangerous Heat Without Relief, Puerto Ricans Continue Mass Protests as Gov. Rosselló Says He Will Not Seek Re-election, Boris Johnson Expected to Become New U.K. Prime Minister, Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters Face Police Tear Gas and Violent Mob, Israel Begins Razing Palestinian Homes in Occupied Territories, Mueller to Testify B…

teleSUR (2019-07-22). Protests Called Against Murder of Colombian Social Leaders. telesurenglish.net The Defenders of Peace Movement said Monday that in the last one month at least 10 social leaders were killed in Colombia and called for an international march on July 26 in protest of the murders. | RELATED: | Colombia: Revered Social Leader and Activist Killed in Colombia | \"We invite all citizens to walk with us and make a presence in the events scheduled for that day for the life of those who defend life and peace in the territories,\" the organization said in a statement.

Evaggelos Vallianatos (2019-07-22). If Japan Continues Slaughtering Whales, Boycott the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. counterpunch.org Japan is hosting the July 24 — August 9, 2020 Olympics. However, Japan is, once again, hunting and killing whales in \"Japanese waters.\" Japan used to hunt whales for years under the masks of culture and scientific research. Now, in 2019, Japan dropped those fraudulent claims and it is sending its fleets against whales. More

Eric A. Gordon (2019-07-22). Thornton Wilder says humanity must go on in \'The Skin of Our Teeth\'. peoplesworld.org TOPANGA, Calif——Picture yourself in a comfortable middle-class home on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in Excelsior, New Jersey—during the Ice Age! You meet the standard nuclear family of Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus (Mark Lewis and Melora Marshall), son Henry (William Holbrook) and daughter Gladys (Gabrielle Beauvais), and a rambunctious sexy maid named Sabina (Willow Geer)—every respectable …

Al Neal (2019-07-22). \"You a U.S. Citizen?\": Traveling under the watchful eye of the Border Patrol. peoplesworld.org People\'s World correspondent Al Neal is in the field reporting from sites all along the U.S.-Mexico border. In his dispatches, you will get a view of the towns and people caught up in Trump\'s \"border crisis.\" You will see the women, men, and children impacted by the administration\'s immigration policies as well as U.S. foreign …

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (2019-07-22). Rising Resistance And Solidarity In The Americas. dissidentvoice.org \"If there isn\'t justice for the people, there won\'t be peace for the governor.\" Protesters in Old San Juan on Tuesday call for the resignation of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who has vowed to remain in office (Thais Llorca/EFE/Zuma Press) This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Sandanista Revolution in Nicaragua. Hundreds of thousands …

teleSUR (2019-07-22). Popular Chilean Mayor Questions Omissions in Bachelet Report. telesurenglish.net One of Chile\'s most popular politicians and the mayor of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, questioned the report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Venezuela because the former Chilean President \"said nothing about the coup attempts that she supported.\" | \"Both in her first and second government, the foreign ministers of President Bachelet attempted against democracy and against the Venezuelan process. Nothing different could be expected from a report from the commissioner, \"Jadue said in an interview with La Tercera newspaper. | REL…

Staff (2019-07-22). \"All Sides Need to Begin to De-escalate\": Tensions Between Iran, U.K. & U.S. Spark Fears of War. democracynow.org In Iran, authorities say they\'ve arrested 17 Iranian citizens and charged them with being CIA-trained spies for the United States. Iranian media reports that some have already been executed. This comes as tensions in the Persian Gulf continued to mount over the weekend following Iran\'s seizure of a British oil tanker and its 23 crew members Friday in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said it seized the tanker in retaliation for the British impounding of an Iranian tanker earlier this month off the coast of Gibraltar. The Iranian National Guard released video Sunday showing the vessel flying an Iranian flag. Britain says…

Dave Zirin, Jules Boykoff (2019-07-22). The 2020 Olympics Are Likely to Be a Disaster. thenation.com The 2020 Olympics Are Likely to Be a Disaster…