Stories covered this week include:
OBAMA TERROR ALERT
Even a former CIA analyst who was part of the team that hunted Osama bin Laden for years, Nada Bakos said- “We just showed our hand, so now they’re obviously going to change their position on when and where”. And Will McCants, a former State Department adviser on counterterrorism said -“It’s crazy pants — you can quote me.”
DETROIT, ROCK BOTTOM
So what’s happening in Detroit? It seems like every time we hear about the motor city we hear about its economic struggles and everything in between, from the blighted neighborhoods, thousands of boarded up homes, abandoned local businesses, rampant crime, and a more than 50% decline in the cities population since 2008. What we don’t hear about is the new game that our friends in the banking department of the bourgeoisie are playing with the livelihoods of Detroit’s residents. As we know, Wall Street has a tendency to bundle, repackage and gamble on the market anything from Margaretville Mixers to Credit Default Swaps, and it just so happens that they’ve added Interest Rate Swaps to the same category. Joel Northam reports.
PROTESTORS SPOIL ALEC’s 40th BIRTHDAY
One of the organizers of the protest, Greg Goodman said: “ALEC promotes the interests of Big Business and the 1% while actively working to disenfranchise ordinary people, erode workers rights, gut the social safety net, destroy the environment, eliminate corporate liability, criminalize poverty and immigration, privatize the public goods and inject even more money into our political system, drowning out the voices and rights of the people.”
GLOBAL TEMPERATURES RISING, WHAT TO DO?
Human behavior is causing climate change, and unless we can reverse our current course no amount of clean canteen usage over Styrofoam cups will save us. But you and I are just individuals- what can we do about? Lee Camp joins the Resistance Report team to remind us one of the most obvious, if most difficult things we can do to fight Global warming.
STOP THE MACHINE!
Last week, environmental activists blockaded and shut down road construction that seeks to pave the way for companies like US Oil Sands to start working on the first industrial sized tar sands mine in the United States. Activists from Rising Tide Canyon Country and Peaceful Uprising engaged in a weeklong non-violent resistance training- the Canyon County action Camp- whose culminating action was the blockade.
THE GREAT GAS GALA- UK
The community in Balcombe, Sussex has been resisting attempts by fracking company Cuadrilla Resources to start drilling in their village since July 25. According to their website (greatgasgala.org.uk): “The camp outside the site is still going strong though, with people refusing to be intimidated by this police thuggery. People are staying overnight but more support is needed. Carloads of people arriving from all over UK.
Defying Trump’s right-wing agenda from Day One
Inauguration Day is coming up soon, and at Truthout, we plan to defy Trump’s right-wing agenda from Day One.
Looking to the first year of Trump’s presidency, we know that the most vulnerable among us will be harmed. Militarized policing in U.S. cities and at the borders will intensify. The climate crisis will deteriorate further. The erosion of free speech has already begun, and we anticipate more attacks on journalism.
It will be a terrifying four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. But we’re not falling to despair, because we know there are reasons to believe in our collective power.
The stories we publish at Truthout are part of the antidote to creeping authoritarianism. And this year, we promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation, vitriol, 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.
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