Staff (2019-08-06). Parents of Parkland Victim Planned to Unveil a Mural in El Paso. Then Another Mass Shooting Happened. democracynow.org During this weekend\'s deadly gun violence in El Paso, Texas, Manuel and Patricia Oliver were in the vicinity because they were planning on commemorating what would have been the 19th birthday of their son, Joaquin Oliver. Joaquin was one of the 17 people gunned down during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine\'s Day last year. Manuel and Patricia had traveled to Ciudad Juárez, across the U.S. border into Mexico, to visit an immigrant shelter in honor of their deceased son, saying no child should ever be separated from their parents by either gunfire or immigration ag…

Susan Gosman (2019-08-06). New Year\'s Eve reminiscing with lifelong communist Mary Gosman Scarborough. peoplesworld.org My great-aunt Mary Gosman Scarborough was born in Russia \"at the time of the Czar\" and was sent by her parents to America with a man, a family friend, when she was only twelve. They neglected to tell her that he was to be her husband, which exacerbated an already difficult life. Mary was a …

RT (2019-08-06). US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman submits resignation. rt.com US Ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, has resigned from his post effective October 3. Huntsman has been ambassador since 2017.

Staff (2019-08-06). \"Fascism Will Not Go Away by Itself\": George Ciccariello-Maher on Confronting White Supremacy. democracynow.org Just before the mass shooting at a crowded El Paso Walmart this weekend, the gunman wrote in a lengthy manifesto saying that the massacre was in response to what he described as a \"Hispanic invasion of Texas.\" He also prompted a white supremacist conspiracy theory known as \"great replacement\" that has been cited by other mass shooters. From Mexico City, we speak with George Ciccariello-Maher, visiting scholar at NYU\'s Hemispheric Institute. In December 2017, Ciccariello-Maher resigned from Drexel University after a year of harassment and death threats from right-wing white supremacists. The threats stemmed from a…

Staff (2019-08-06). \"We Can\'t Wait for McConnell\": Advocates Call for Bold Action to Curb Gun Violence Epidemic. democracynow.org The death toll in Saturday\'s anti-immigrant shooting rampage at a Walmart in El Paso has risen to 22, after two more injured victims died Monday. Just before the shooting, the gunman published a manifesto claiming his actions were being done in response to what he described as a \"Hispanic invasion of Texas.\" Most of the dead in El Paso were Latino, including eight Mexican nationals. Thirteen hours after the massacre in El Paso, a gunman in Dayton, Ohio, killed nine people, including his own sister, after opening fire outside a bar. We speak with Kris Brown, president of Brady, formerly the Brady Campaign to Preve…

Jack Rasmus (2019-08-06). China-US Trade War: From Buenos Aires to Osaka and Beyond. counterpunch.org This past June 29, 2019 Trump and China president, Xi, met again at the G20 in Japan in the midst of a potential further escalating trade war. Has anything changed as a result of their meeting? Or is it just deja vu of their prior G20 meeting in Buenos Aires on December 2, 2018? In More

Michael Hudson (2019-08-06). Global Warming and U.S. National Security Diplomacy. counterpunch.org Control of oil has long been a key aim of U.S. foreign policy. The Paris climate agreements and any other Green programs to reduce the pace of global warming are viewed as threatening the aim of dominating world energy markets by keeping economies dependent on oil under U.S. control. Also blocking U.S. willingness to help stem global warming is the oil industry\'s economic and hence political power. Its product is not only energy but also global warming, along with plastic pollution. More

Eric Draitser (2019-08-06). Fear and Loathing at the Pow-Wow. counterpunch.org It\'s summertime but the living feels too urgent. There\'s something heavy about the air; humidity and fear, the sweat of not knowing. You can see the heat radiating from the rocks and loose gravel as you drive up the makeshift rows in the stony parking lot at Harriman State Park in New York\'s Hudson Valley. More

John O\'Kane (2019-08-06). Reparations and the Student Debt Wars. counterpunch.org The public college and university system in California was tuition-free during the sixties and into the seventies when the baby boomers were attending college in record numbers. Favorable budgets helped stoke the demand and new campuses were built to accommodate this explosion, propelled by an inclusive ethos special to this left-liberal era where a different More

Robert Hunziker (2019-08-06). Pounding Heat Clobbers Greenland. counterpunch.org Greenland is one of the biggest targets for global warming, in part, because it\'s so big it\'s hard to miss. And sure enough, only recently crazy halting weather with inordinate hot temperature hit Greenland bull\'s-eye, dead-on with one helluva meltdown. That\'s bad news for pretty much everybody on the planet. On the hottest days, the More

Tony Pecinovsky (2019-08-06). 2020 elections and organizational questions dominate Democratic Socialists of America convention. peoplesworld.org ATLANTA—Over 1,000 members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the fastest growing and largest socialist organization in the United States, convened their 2019 National Convention here over the weekend. Their goal: To forge a path forward for 2020 and beyond. DSA has seen dramatic growth since Bernie Sanders\' 2016 campaign to win the Democratic Party\'s …

Staff (2019-08-06). \'John Bolton Tried to Assasinate Me\'. truthdig.com In a new interview with The Grayzone Project\'s Max Blumenthal, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sits down to discuss Washington\'s plots against him, crippling U.S. sanctions on food distribution and allegations of corruption within his administration. He also reflects on what he considers a campaign within corporate media to malign his democratically elected government. Watch the full video of their conversation above.

Kevin Zeese (2019-08-06). On Medicare\'s 54th Birthday, Another Year Closer to Winning Medicare for All. globalresearch.ca In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act. Within a year, and without the aid of computers, the United States provided more than 19 million seniors with health coverage. Before the law existed, over half of the elderly in …

Andrew Korybko (2019-08-06). Trump\'s Firearm and Immigration Reform Proposal Is a Risky Political Gamble. globalresearch.ca Trump\'s trying to portray himself as the Uniter-in-Chief following two devastating terrorist attacks over the weekend, but his proposal to marry firearm and immigration reforms into a single bill is a risky political gamble, though one that might ultimately pay …

Frank Edwards (2019-08-06). Police are more likely to kill men and women of color. nationofchange.org Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, five years ago. Since then, U.S. police have killed more than 5,000 people. | Researchers and activists only know about these deaths because journalists do what the federal government has not: collect detailed information on police-involved fatalities. | Because the government has not collected systematic data on police killings, the public doesn\'t have definitive numbers that, once interpreted, will show how likely people are to be killed…

teleSUR (2019-08-06). War With Iran Will Be \'Mother Of All Wars\': Rouhani. telesurenglish.net Any war with Iran will be the \"mother of all wars,\" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday in a speech broadcast live on state TV, warning once again that shipping might not be safe in the Strait of Hormuz oil waterway. | RELATED: | Iran Says Will Not Tolerate \'Offenses\' in Gulf as UK Joins US-led Maritime Security Patrol | \"Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, war with Iran is the mother of all wars,\" Rouhani said at the Foreign Minis…

Staff (2019-08-06). Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison Dead at 88. truthdig.com NEW YORK — Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in \"Beloved,\" ‚Ä≥Song of Solomon\" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88. | Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Morrison\'s family issued a statement through Knopf saying she died after a brief illness. | \"Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,\" the family announced. \"She wa…

Ted Rall (2019-08-06). Here is Exactly Why Congress Won\'t Act on Gun Violence, Climate Change, Impeaching Trump or Anything Else. counterpunch.org I\'m from Dayton so I\'m thinking about this today: Why hasn\'t Congress done anything to address our national epidemic of mass shootings, namely reviving the assault weapons ban? People—Democrats and not a few Republicans—ask me that all the time. I bet all left-leaning pundits get that question. The answer is simple. But it\'s not something most people want to More

Pepe Escobar (2019-08-06). An Attack on Iran Would be an Attack on Russia. globalresearch.ca Russia is meticulously advancing Eurasian chessboard moves that should be observed in conjunction, as Moscow proposes to the Global South an approach diametrically opposed to Western sanctions, threats and economic war. Here are three recent examples. | Ten days ago, via …

Philip Giraldi (2019-08-06). 2020 Presidential Elections: Feeding the Israel Lobby. globalresearch.ca If you have been wondering when the twenty Democratic aspirants for the presidency will begin a serious discussion of American foreign policy in the Middle East, where Washington has been bogged down in both current and impending wars, you are …

Phyllis Bennis (2019-08-06). In the US Killing Fields, We\'re Now Way Past \"Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough\" commondreams.org Yamileth Lopez holds a photo of her deceased friend Javier Amir Rodriguez at a makeshift memorial for victims outside Walmart, near the scene of a mass shooting which left at least 22 people dead, on August 6, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. Rodriguez was a sophomore at Horizon High School and was killed in the shooting. A 21-year-old white male suspect remains in custody in El Paso, which sits along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/in_the_killing_field.jpg …

Staff (2019-08-06). Elections Are Treated as Political Consumerism and Democracy Is Suffering. truthout.org | | The displacement of meaningful civic engagement by political consumerism and lurid media spectacle is suffocating U.S. democracy. In the record $6.5 billion 2016 election cycle, a total that excludes untraceable dark money, the consumerist conquest of civic life became nearly complete, with empty partisan noise reverberating 24/7 through global media echo chambers in inverse proportion to the shriveling substance of daily civic l…

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Israeli Minister To be Indicted for Shielding Pedophile Teacher. telesurenglish.net Police in Israel recommended Tuesday indictment of the deputy health minister on suspicion he tried to bolster the case of a former Australian school principal pleading mental illness as an argument against extradition to face child molestation charges. | RELATED: | Israeli Far-right Ministers Attend Event Honoring Rabbi Who Praised Palestinian Massacre | Yaakov Litzman, who is also chair of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ), is suspected of obstruc…

South Front (2019-08-06). Video: Disaster Capitalism on the Horizon? Trumponomics on the Eve of 2020 Presidential Election. globalresearch.ca By way of introduction, it should be noted that the US economy is showing many signs of a classical bubble, starting with the incredibly over-valued US stock market. Only slightly more than a decade ago, at the peak of the …

Nia Harris (2019-08-06). More Money, Fewer Jobs: The Stubborn Truth About Employment and the Defense Industry. globalresearch.ca A Marilyn has once again seduced a president. This time, though, it\'s not a movie star; it\'s Marillyn Hewson, the head of Lockheed Martin, the nation\'s top defense contractor and the largest weapons producer in the world. In …

Telesur (2019-08-06). Trump Turns Sanctions Against Venezuela into an Embargo. globalresearch.ca U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on assets of the Venezuelan government, according to an executive order published on Monday. | \"All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States … are …

David Hearst (2019-08-06). Saudi Arabia\'s \'Strategic Plan\' to Take Turkey Down. globalresearch.ca Saudi Arabia has begun implementing a \"strategic plan\" to confront the Turkish government, after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided he was being \"too patient\" with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi\'s murder. | The …

Andre Vltchek (2019-08-06). Women We Are Fighting for. globalresearch.ca There are stories that are unrelated to the news, but can explain much better than many combat reports, why people like me are fighting against the Empire and imperialism, with such determination and vehemence. Not all stories are \'big\' or …

Elijah J. Magnier (2019-08-06). From 2006 to 2019: After Failures in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen, War Is No Longer an Option for Israel. globalresearch.ca During the summer war of 2006, Israel managed to destroy a large number of Hezbollah\'s rocket and missile stocks. Most Hezbollah missile units were destroyed and, in the suburb of the capital Beirut, over 250 buildings (mainly but not exclusively …

Mark Taliano (2019-08-06). I am a Syrian Living in Syria: \"It Was Never a Revolution nor a Civil War. The Terrorists Are Sent by Your Government\" globalresearch.ca The majority here loves Assad. He has never committed a crime against his own people…the chemical attack was staged by the terrorists helped by USA and UK etc..Everyone knows that here.

True Publica (2019-08-06). Black Sites, Secret Prisons, Rendition: More British Complicity Exposed in Latest \'CIA Torture Unredacted\' Report. globalresearch.ca The latest report about kidnappings, rendition, \'black sites\' and torture is a remarkable piece of investigative work. It provides us with nothing less than a litany of shocking evidence and testimony and at 403 pages it makes for truly grim …

True Publica (2019-08-06). Leaked: UK\'s New Trade Secretary Met with US Pressure Groups to Discuss Weakening Regulations. globalresearch.ca In \'off the record\' meetings last September, Liz Truss sought lessons from Donald Trump\'s radical program of deregulation and tax cuts. The new international trade secretary, Liz Truss, met with hard-right pressure groups in Washington DC last year to …

Alice Slater (2019-08-06). Hiroshima Unlearned: Time to Tell the Truth About US Relations with Russia and to Ban the Bomb. commondreams.org Let us tell the truth about what happened between the US and Russia that brought us to this perilous moment and put the responsibility where it belong. (Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/trump_vlad_0.jpeg …

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Trump Won\'t Allow S-400 Deal to Harm Turkish-US Ties: Erdogan. telesurenglish.net Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated on Tuesday that he believes his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump will not allow Turkey\'s S-400 deal with Russia to harm Washington\'s relationship with Ankara. | RELATED: | US Removes Turkey from International F-35 Fighter Jet Program | Part of Washington\'s concern with Turkey\'s acquisition of the S-400 is the latter\'s membership in NATO and the threat posed by the missile system towards the new F-35 jets. | \"There is no concrete evidence sh…

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Arreaza: US Blockade Violates Rights But Won\'t Break Venezuela. telesurenglish.net Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza deplored Tuesday the total economic blockade imposed by the U.S. government of Donald Trump a day earlier in an executive order. | RELATED: | Venezuelan VP Rejects US Blockade, Calls for Unity | At a press conference, Arreaza said that the order includes seven decrees and makes them into law in order to restrict the commercial, financial and economic capacities of the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolas Maduro, in a bid to oust him from p…

Winslow Myers (2019-08-06). We Need to Talk. counterpunch.org Big media today is all about monetizing the non-conversation of outrage and division and using them to consolidate power. The Limbaughs and Hannitys have been strategically intensifying ginned-up divisions for decades, encouraging an uncivil public square and shredding a shared vision of national purpose that might otherwise surface. Discourse is cheapened by their model of More

Paul Edwards (2019-08-06). Tainted Meat Market. counterpunch.org The Democratic Livestock Sales signal the start of our Presidential election root canal with its pimps and whores money scramble, evoking the pathos of a 4H sale of prize hogs and heifers. 4-H stock is pure blue ribbon, though, which can\'t be said of this sad herd of pampered bipeds, bawling and bellowing through their More

John Feffer (2019-08-06). The GOP\'s Sinister New Nationalism. counterpunch.org The worst thing you could be in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s was a \"rootless cosmopolitan.\" The epithet sometimes came with a death sentence. The Soviet Communist Party, under the strong guiding hand of Joseph Stalin, had long turned its back on the internationalism of its founders and their commitment to world revolution. More

William Gudal (2019-08-06). Rolling Snake Eyes? counterpunch.org The endless blather about previous and potential software fixes to the Boeing 737 Max seems absurd to the point of disbelief. Can any software be expected to save this airplane? Do fliers really believe software is the way to fly an airplane? Boeing, responding to intense competitive pressures in the race to develop new commercial More

Habib Ahmadzadeh (2019-08-06). This Iranian War Vet Has Some Advice for Trump: Don\'t Play Checkers with the Grandmasters of Chess. commondreams.org Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on August 5, 2019. (Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/iranians_trump_zarif.jpg …

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Venezuelan VP Rejects US Blockade, Calls for Unity. telesurenglish.net The Venezuelan government has rejected the blockade ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said Tuesday and defined the blockade as an attack against the entire country. | RELATED: | Venezuela Denounces the \'Imperialist\' Total Blockade by US | \"He has taken the most dangerous steps against our country to lay the foundations for absolute suffocation against Venezuela,\" Vice President Rodríguez warned. | She went on to say that although the o…

United Nations (2019-08-06). Colombia offers nationality rights to Venezuelan children born there: UN hails \'very important step\'. un.org The UN migration agency, IOM, has welcomed Colombia\'s decision on Monday to grant nationality status to more than 24,000 Venezuelan babies born inside the country after their parents fled across the border.

Staff (2019-08-06). Headlines for August 6, 2019. democracynow.org Trump Condemns White Supremacy After El Paso Massacre Despite His Own Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric, Trump Supporter Who Sent Pipe Bombs to CNN and Democrats Sentenced to 20 Years, Tensions Mount over Kashmir as Pakistan Reacts to Revocation of Special Status, Puerto Rican Senate, San Juan Mayor Sue over Pierluisi\'s Appointment as Governor, China Weakens Currency, Halts U.S. Crop Imports as Trade War Ratchets Up, U.S. Imposes Economic Embargo Against Venezuela, Drone Attack Kills 42 People in Libya, R. Kelly Charged with Prostitution and Solicitation of a Minor, Galveston Police Apologize for Shocking Photo Showing Mou…

United Nations (2019-08-06). \'€1 million\' fines for rescue boats prompts UN concern for future sea operations. un.org A move by Italian lawmakers to impose fines of up to €1 million on vessels and organizations carrying out search and rescue operations off the country\'s coastline, sparked a new warning on Tuesday from the UN that the measure risks deterring future lifesaving efforts in the Mediterranean.

United Nations (2019-08-06). \'Cataclysmic events\' in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, began \'global push\' against nuclear weapons says Guterres, honouring victims. un.org Paying homage to those who perished as the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, as well as the many others whose lives were devastated in the years that followed, UN chief António Guterres on Tuesday underscored their \"courage and moral leadership\" in reminding the world of \"the human cost of nuclear war\".

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Toni Morrison, First Black Woman Nobel laureate, Dies at 88. telesurenglish.net U.S. author Toni Morrison, whose 1987 novel \"Beloved\" about a runaway slave won a Pulitzer Prize and contributed to a body of work that made her the first black woman to be presented the Nobel Prize in Literature, has died at the age of 88, her publisher said on Tuesday (August 6). | Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf, announced the death but did not provide an immediate cause. | \"Beloved\" was set during the U.S. Civil War and based on the true story of a woman who killed her 2-year-old daughter so she would not become a slave. The woman was captured before she could kill he…

Bill Lueders (2019-08-06). Take Away My Employer-Based Health Insurance. Please. commondreams.org Don\'t pretend that most Americans have warm fuzzies for their employer-based health insurance plans. They don\'t. (Photo: The Progressive) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/bills.jpeg …

Robert Hunziker (2019-08-06). Pounding Heat Clobbers Greenland. dissidentvoice.org Greenland is one of the biggest targets for global warming, in part, because it\'s so big it\'s hard to miss. And sure enough, only recently crazy halting weather with inordinate hot temperature hit Greenland bull\'s-eye, dead-on with one helluva meltdown. That\'s bad news for pretty much everybody on the planet. On the hottest days, the …

teleSUR (2019-08-06). Trade War: China Suspends Purchases of US Agricultural Products. telesurenglish.net China\'s Commerce Ministry announced Tuesday that the Asian country will suspend the purchase of U.S. agricultural goods in response to the recent announcement that the President Donald Trump administration will increase tariffs to Chinese exports. | RELATED: | Trade War Intensifies: China\'s Yuan Weakens, Markets Hit Year-Low | \"It has been agreed that the State Coun…

Mohammed Harun Arsalai, Mohsin Khan (2019-08-06). Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Keep Climbing During the ICC\'s Summer Break. thenation.com Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Keep Climbing During the ICC\'s Summer Break…