Letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire would put the United States on a path to balance the budget by 2015, reported the Washington Post. Obama’s former budget director, Peter Orszag, said last week, “If we actually ended the Bush-era tax cuts, that would pretty much do it.” The Republicans plan to renew the tax cuts would add almost $4 trillion to the deficit by 2020, while President Obama’s plan to extend cuts for all but the richest Americans would add $2 trillion.
Push for the DREAM Act by Undocumented Students Escalates
As the Senate prepares to vote on whether to move the DREAM Act forward as an amendment to a defense authorization bill, undocumented students all over the country are planning vigils, demonstrations, rallies and phone banks to pressure legislators to pass the bill that would allow undocumented children who were brought to the United States as minors a path to legalization. A group of undocumented students is heading to Washington, DC to rally there. Meanwhile, in Chicago, students planned an all-night vigil around the Republican party headquarters and a demonstration downtown; in Miami, students lay down on the beach to spell out the giant letters “DREAM”; in Arizona, a rally outside McCain’s office is planned and similar actions are set to take place in at least 18 other states around the country.
FBI Improperly Investigated Environmental Activists
A Justice Department investigation into a series of FBI inquiries about left-wing activists during the Bush years shows that the files were opened for “factually weak” reasons, and continued “without adequate basis.” The FBI was cleared of the more serious charge of investigating people for exercising their First Amendment rights, reported the Washington Post, but their practices were still called “troubling.” According to the report, the bureau improperly kept files on the Thomas Morton Center, PETA and Greenpeace. Greenpeace-affiliated activists were even put on a terrorist watch list, and an FBI agent was sent to a Pittsburgh peace rally to search for suspected terrorists. The ACLU notes that there have been more than 100 incidents of politically motivated surveillance since September 11, 2001.
Head of Vatican Bank in Money-Laundering Probe
The Vatican is at risk of another big scandal, reported Reuters, as two of its top bank officials go under investigation for money laundering. Italian police froze 23 million euros of the Vatican bank’s funds when they began the investigation into its president and director-general. In a statement, the Vatican expressed “perplexity and amazement” at the investigation, and said they had “utmost faith” in the men who run the bank.
Thailand Fails to Protect Education in Southern Schools
The Thai government’s use of schools as military bases and separatist attacks on teachers and schools are greatly harming the education of children in Thailand’s southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday. Ethnic Malay insurgents, who see schools as tools of the government, have threatened and killed teachers, bombed government schools and spread terror among students and parents, the report said, also noting that the government’s use of school as military bases only exacerbated the problem.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy