Andrew Levine (2019-08-02). Democrats, How Do I Hate Thee? counterpunch.org How do I hate thee? Counting the ways would be a fool\'s errand; there are too many ways. They have to do with your hypocrisy, cowardice, and servility. Circumstances change, but these traits have been constant themes in Democratic Party politics seemingly from time immemorial. More

Peter Bolton (2019-08-02). What Bernie Sanders Gets Wrong About Healthcare. counterpunch.org Ever since Bernie Sanders became a nationally known figure during the 2016 Democratic primary race, his proposal to bring European-style publicly-provided universal healthcare to the US has become firmly entrenched in the country\'s political mainstream. Sometimes called \"single-payer healthcare,\" the idea is to take private healthcare companies out of the equation and have the government More

Staff (2019-08-02). Headlines for August 2, 2019. democracynow.org Pentagon to Receive $1.48 Trillion Under Two-Year Budget Deal, Russia Declares Nuclear Arms Treaty \"Formally Dead\" as U.S. Withdraws, Trump Threatens to Impose Steeper Tariffs on Chinese Goods, Puerto Rico Faces Succession Crisis as Disgraced Governor Resigns, Video Shows Dallas Police Mocking Man Who Died in Their Custody, Dozens Killed as Two Attacks Rattle Yemen\'s Port City of Aden, Four Killed as Sudanese Soldiers Fire on Peaceful Pro-Democracy Activists, Third Case of Ebola in Congolese City Sparks Fears in Neighboring Rwanda, U.S. Prepares to Withdraw Thousands of Troops Amid Peace Talks with Taliban, July…

Al Neal (2019-08-02). War on humanity: Inside the refugee camps of Ciudad Juárez. peoplesworld.org People\'s World correspondent Al Neal spent the summer of 2019 in the field reporting from sites all along the U.S.-Mexico border. In his dispatches, you get a view of the towns and people caught up in Trump\'s \"border crisis.\" This is the first half of an article detailing his visit to a refugee camp in …

Paul Street (2019-08-02). CNN\'s Attempted Hit Job on Sanders and Warren. counterpunch.org I was unable to watch all the CNN Democratic presidential candidates\' debate last Tuesday night, but every time I looked in it was stuck on one of the three following themes: #1. Conservative CNN \"moderators\" and absurdly marginal corporate Democrat pseudo-candidates like John Hickenlooper and John Delaney attacking the mildly social-democratish neo-New Deal progressive Bernie More

Melvin Goodman (2019-08-02). The Last of the Adults on Trump\'s National Security Team. counterpunch.org The first 24 hours of the Trump presidency were marked by a bizarre inauguration speech (\"American Carnage\"), frenzied claims of record inauguration crowds, and an unusual appearance at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency where the new president proclaimed his political brilliance. The shock of these 24 hours led pundits and politicians alike to More

Ahmed Abdulkareem (2019-08-02). Prohibiting Maintenance of Tanker Off Yemeni Coast, Saudis Risk Explosion and Environmental Disaster. mintpressnews.com \"We are talking about a huge floating tanker that entered service in Yemen 30 years ago, which contains more than one million tons of oil. If an explosion takes place, many countries, including Saudi Arabia, will be hit with an environmental disaster.\"

Staff (2019-08-02). Climate System \"Getting Unhinged\" as Massive Heat Wave Causes Record Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet. democracynow.org The massive heat dome that shattered all-time temperature records across much of Europe last week has settled in over Greenland, driving temperatures across the vast region to as much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. In July, Greenland\'s ice sheet lost 197 billion tons of ice, the equivalent of around 80 million Olympic swimming pools. This comes as the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that July was the warmest month in recorded human history. It followed the hottest June on record, as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels climbed to a record high of 415 parts per million earlier this year. We sp…

Staff (2019-08-02). U.S. to Test New Weapon as Arms Treaty With Russia Dies. truthdig.com Washington and Moscow walked out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1987.

Paul Tritschler (2019-08-02). One Day in August. counterpunch.org \"The bomb burst on this bright morning over what President Truman described as a military target — a hospital.\" Every Sunday, my father took me somewhere on a tram. Mystery tours, rattling across a sprawling, jumbling, clanking weave-work of metal sunk into cobbled streets that ran for miles. Boarding at Glasgow Cross, sometimes we rattled More

Jonah Raskin (2019-08-02). Melville Our Contemporary. counterpunch.org I spent a good part of August 1, 2019, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Herman Melville, by doing what every red-blooded American ought to have done: I reread Moby-Dick, that \"staggering work of genius.\" Dave Eggers used that phrase as a part of the title for his own memoir, which was published in 2000. More

Staff (2019-08-02). Can Cap and Invest Programs Bring Environmental Justice? (1/2). therealnews.com 12 states and Washington, DC are teaming up on the Transportation & Climate Initiative, but critics from Newark and Baltimore say the program excludes frontline voices and depends too much on market forces…

Eric London (2019-08-02). US Federal Court Exposes Democratic Party Conspiracy Against Assange and WikiLeaks. Judge Dismisses DNC Lawsuit. globalresearch.ca In a ruling published late Tuesday, Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York delivered a devastating blow to the US-led conspiracy against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. | In his ruling, Judge Koeltl, …

Evaggelos Vallianatos (2019-08-02). The Environmental Crimes of the Trump Administration. counterpunch.org The word environment usually refers to what is around us: air, water, house, trees, grass, town. However, with the broadening of human understanding about the effects of pollution and industry on human health and wildlife, environment received the philosophical and legal definition of human responsibility of protecting both human health and the health of the More

Medea Benjamin (2019-08-02). Guardianship System Eased, But Saudi Arabia Still Oppresses Women. commondreams.org While the easing of the guardianship system is indeed welcome news, Saudi Arabia remains one of the world\'s most repressive societies for women. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/gettyimages-1053361226.jpg …

(2019-08-02). Reflections on the Sao Paolo Forum. workers.org By Sean Orr Caracas, Venezuela Reprinted from Fight Back! News From July 25 to 28, over 1,000 delegates gathered for the 25th Sao Paolo Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Historically the largest gathering of the Latin American left, the Forum was transformed this year by its hosts into an assembly of . . . | Continue reading Reflections on the Sao Paolo Forum at Workers.org

Dave Lindorff (2019-08-02). Let\'s Just Let Trump Spend the Whole War Department Budget on Building Walls. counterpunch.org Liberals are upset that the new Supreme Court, packed with conservatives, has decided President Trump can have $2.6 billion of the Pentagon\'s new FY 2020 $738 billion budget to build some wall along the Mexican border. But I think they\'re thinking all wrong about this. Instead of complaining and fighting a losing battle against Trump\'s More

Staff (2019-08-02). Over 100 Killed in Another Mediterannean Shipwreck as Europe Watches. therealnews.com Frédéric Penard discusses the efforts of small NGOs to rescue refugees crossing the Mediterranean, against the efforts of European governments to block the entry of people fleeing war and famine…

Staff (2019-08-02). Ex-Health Insurance Exec: Industry Is Using Decades-Old Scare Tactics to Fight Medicare for All. democracynow.org The Democratic presidential candidates remain deeply divided on how to expand healthcare to the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have both pushed for abolishing private health insurance and establishing a Medicare for All system. Their rivals have pushed a number of different, more incremental approaches. During the first night of the latest debates, Sanders pointed out that the country has taken sweeping action before to expand health coverage to millions of Americans, referring to the 50th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Me…

Victor Lasa (2019-08-02). This is How Spanish Social-Democracy Ends. counterpunch.org It was never going to happen. Three months of agonizing inaction by current Spanish President, Pedro Sanchez, has resulted in no coalition agreement to create a progressive government for Spain between his PSOE and Unidas Podemos, the amalgamation of parties and social movements sourced off the Indignados protests in 2011 [1]. Nothing seems to have More

Medea Benjamin (2019-08-02). Guardianship System Eased, but Saudi Arabia Still Oppresses Women. counterpunch.org The Saudi government announced it will be eliminating part of the male guardianship system, finally granting women the right to obtain passports and travel (if 21 years of age or over), and obtain family identification cards without the need for male authorization. The change comes in the context of the bad publicity that Saudi Arabia More

John Wojcik (2019-08-02). Trump kills Cold War missile treaty, setting stage for a new arms race. peoplesworld.org Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who came to the Trump administration from the Tea Party wing of the Republicans, announced in February that the president intended to suspend U.S. participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and was beginning the process of total U.S. withdrawal in six months. The pullout from this Cold War-era missile …

Ali A. Taj (2019-08-02). Tulsi Gabbard Challenges Foreign-Policy Assumptions and Moves the Overton Window. mintpressnews.com Tulsi Gabbard has moved the Overton window on what is acceptable discussion when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. She has punctured the rose-tinted narrative being constructed around establishment favorites like Senator Kamala Harris.

Steven Sahiounie (2019-08-02). Syria\'s \"Opposition\" Fails to Represent Syrians. globalresearch.ca The Syrian population residing in Syria is suffering from having barely survived eight years of war. They didn\'t leave for camps in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon, or they are those who have returned to Syria from having been in camps. …

Rachel Hodes (2019-08-02). What \'abolish ICE\' really means. nationofchange.org As I stepped inside the Cannon House Office Building on a Tuesday in July, I felt like I was taking a step towards a more just world. The night before, when I told my mother I planned to participate in a \"Never Again\" protest as part of #JewsAgainstICE, she had one question: \"What exactly are …

Staff (2019-08-02). The US\'s Immigration Crackdown Began Decades Ago Under Clinton. truthout.org | | The scenes at the southern border — of terrified families and isolated children huddled in dreary makeshift jails — suggest that the federal immigration regime is reaching an unprecedented level of cruelty under Trump. But the border crackdown that is being continued by the Trump administration in the present moment actually began long ago on Capitol Hill in 1996, with the passage of sweeping laws that swelled federal powers to incarcerate and deport migrants through the criminal courts.

Teresa Gutierrez (2019-08-02). Immigration time bomb is ticking. workers.org The foremost motivation of Donald Trump\'s immigration policy is racist terror, blatant cruelty and the promotion of social divisions so ominous they can only be characterized as white supremacist. Im/migrant workers have historically been victims of super exploitation. They have been used by the capitalists as cheap, exploitable and vulnerable . . . | Continue reading Immigration time bomb is ticking at Workers.org

Stephen Lendman (2019-08-02). The Geopolitical Wrecking Ball Trump Regime. \"MAGA Gone Mad\" globalresearch.ca Wall Street and other monied interests love Trump for handing them a bonanza of riches. Weapons and munitions makers support him and bipartisan congressional war party members for waging endless wars of aggression. | Big Oil, Big Pharma, other corporate predators, …

Liberation Staff (2019-08-02). Palestinian refugees in Lebanon struggle for justice. liberationnews.org This guest statement on the Lebanese government\'s recent restrictions on work permits for Palestinian and Syrian refugees is by Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

Staff (2019-08-02). 2nd Dem Debate Pt 2: Discusses the Climate Crisis, Tackles Endless War and Regime Change (3/4). therealnews.com The deep divide between candidates is clear as they clash over issues appearing for the first time in presidential debates. With Jacqueline Luqman, Dharna Noor, and Marc Steiner as host…

Sarah Abed (2019-08-02). No, Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Is Not \"Assad Apologist\" globalresearch.ca With nearly two dozen declared candidates competing for the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary field and the opportunity to run against Donald Trump in the general election, it\'s no surprise that candidates are trying their best to \"destroy\" their opponents during …

Alicia Jrapko (2019-08-02). XXV Sao Paulo Forum Demonstrates that Venezuela is not Alone! dissidentvoice.org Photo by Alicia Jrapko From July 25-28 the XXV Sao Paulo Forum took place in Caracas, Venezuela, with the participation of 190 organizations, political parties, social movements, workers\' movements, parliamentarians and intellectuals from Latin America, the Caribbean and several continents. The date chosen for this historic meeting had a symbolic character to it. During those …

Michael Winship (2019-08-02). Debating Democrats, Please, No Fighting in the War Room. commondreams.org …

George Wuerthner (2019-08-02). Trump\'s Plan to Cut the Public Out of Public Lands Decisions. counterpunch.org When I was a kid, one of the favorite games we played in elementary school was \"dodge ball.\" In the game, a circle is made around a person who attempts to \"dodge\" a ball thrown by the other kids. You get to stay in the middle of the ring until a ball hits you, and More

Medea Benjamin (2019-08-02). Guardianship System Eased, but Saudi Arabia Still Oppresses Women. dissidentvoice.org The Saudi government announced it will be eliminating part of the male guardianship system, finally granting women the right to obtain passports and travel (if 21 years of age or over), and obtain family identification cards without the need for male authorization. The change comes in the context of the bad publicity that Saudi Arabia …

South Front (2019-08-02). Video: Game Changer: What\'s Behind US-Turkish Conflict over S-400 Deal. globalresearch.ca According to the Turkish National Defense Ministry, receipt of the first batch of Russian S-400 missile defense systems was completed on July 25th. Besides making headlines all around the world and causing a harsh response from the US, …

Binoy Kampmark (2019-08-02). The Retainer Solution: The European Union, Libya and Irregular Migration. dissidentvoice.org There is a venom in international refugee policy that refuses to go away: officials charged with their tasks, passing on their labours to those who might see the UN Refugee Convention as empty wording, rather than strict injunction carved upon stone. They have all become manifest in the policy of deferral: humanitarian problems are for …

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2019-08-02). The Retainer Solution: The European Union, Libya and Irregular Migration. globalresearch.ca There is a venom in international refugee policy that refuses to go away: officials charged with their tasks, passing on their labours to those who might see the UN Refugee Convention as empty wording, rather than strict injunction carved upon …

Jeffrey Sommers (2019-08-02). State Legislature in the \'Koch Belt\' Denies Wisconsin Healthcare and Return of Taxpayer Dollars from DC. counterpunch.org \"Please Sir, I want some more,\" Oliver Twist meekly asks the ogre overseer of the orphanage set in Charles Dickens\' famous novel of greed gone wild in Victorian England. Oliver\'s request was rejoined by an indignant, \"Whaaaat!\" And, so this tale of austerity continues to be reprised under GOP rule as healthcare is withheld from More

Jeff Cooper (2019-08-02). An American Jew Looks at the Palestine Question. counterpunch.org I am Jew, a non-religious Jew of European origin, living in the U.S.A. What is my connection to Israel and what right do I have to speak? It can be tempting to distance myself from the conflicts of Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews, enacted far away. But as a Jew, I do have, for more More

Robert Fantina (2019-08-02). The MEK: Illusion vs. Reality. counterpunch.org The oddly named People\'s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (known as the MKO or MEK), whose sole purpose is the overthrow of the people\'s government of Iran, has been busy. Some of their members, who seem to be mainly elderly, are technologically savvy, and use social media to further their disgraceful cause. But they don\'t just More

W. T. Whitney (2019-08-02). Sidelined US Embassy and Mystery Illnesses Spell Trouble for Cuba. counterpunch.org President Obama on December 17, 2014 announced a U.S. opening to Cuba. Months later there was a U.S. embassy in Havana. Beginning in late 2016, however, some diplomats there —CIA agents among them — experienced strange noises, hearing loss, headaches, impaired memory, confused thinking, dizziness, impaired vision and more. Expressing safety concerns, the State Department More

Jill Richardson (2019-08-02). You Don\'t Save Money By Forcing People to Go Hungry. counterpunch.org The Trump administration has proposed a rule that will cut an estimated 3 million eligible people off food stamps while depriving half a million eligible children of school lunch. I\'ve been on food stamps. I spent most of my life with mental illness, and it was not diagnosed until a few years ago. Not knowing More

T.J. Coles (2019-08-02). Ship of Fools: Britain, America and the Iranian Oil Tanker Incidents. counterpunch.org Taking over from Britain\'s colonial role in exploiting the country, the US has bullied and tried to intimidate Iran for decades. The ongoing pretext for strangling Iran economically is that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The UN\'s International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly finds no evidence for this repeated US-led lie. Then-US President Barack Obama\'s Task More

Mark Ashwill (2019-08-02). Coming to Terms with the Past by Honoring Historical Truth: The Case of Fulbright University Vietnam. counterpunch.org No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) Thanks to a Google Alert, I learned that Dam Bich Thuy, founding president of Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV), was at Carthage College, a small liberal arts institution in Wisconsin, to deliver More

Mohsen Abdelmoumen (2019-08-02). Dr. Raouf Halaby: \"All the Gulf Arabs Are Sleeping in The Same Bed with Israel\" counterpunch.org Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you analyze the unconditional support of the United States for Israel\'s criminal Zionist entity? Dr. Raouf Halaby: Unfortunately, American politics has been plagued with bribery in the form of political campaign contributions. Money buys power, access to media, and the ownership of media centers. Whether newspapers or TV, access to and ownership of these More

Kenn Orphan — Phil Rockstroh (2019-08-02). Fires in Arctic Ice, Exposed on Mountains of the Heart. counterpunch.org PR: Recently, the temperature in Paris rose to 108.7 F (42.6 C) surpassing the previous record by 4 F (2.2 C) set on July 28, 1947 of 104.7 F (40.4 C). Shortly thereafter, during an email exchange with an old friend, a prominent (if the term prominent can still be applied to the professionally marginalised More

Andrew Korybko (2019-08-02). UAE Withdrawal from Yemen. Turning Point. Did the Ansar Allah Just Win the Yemeni War? globalresearch.ca The announcement that the UAE is in the process of a large-scale military drawdown in Yemen has been met with rapturous applause by the Ansar Allah\'s supporters who believe that this unofficially acknowledges their victory in the conflict, but these …

Daily Sabah (2019-08-02). A Mother, Six Newborns Die Every Two Hours in Yemen. globalresearch.ca As the world approaches the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), mothers and children continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing Saudi-led war in Yemen. The brutal conflict continues to cost the lives …

South Front (2019-08-02). Video: Al Qaeda Idlib \"Militants\" Rescued by Another \"Ceasefire\", Israeli Airstrikes against Syrian Army Positions. globalresearch.ca On August 1, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies continued their advance on militants\' positions in northern Hama liberated the villages of Mushairifah, Aziziah, Abu Raeida Gharbi and Abu Raeida. | According to local sources, SAA units also pushed …