New and Noteworthy, 1st half 2017

Return to latest New and Noteworthy

From the week of June 25 to July 1   Happy Canada Day (150 years of near-autonomy)!

  1. The most profound gap between Clinton and Sanders supporters wasn’t about policy
  2. Donald Trump is reckless on Syria. It’s his most dangerous foreign policy folly.
    • And there is quite a lot of competition for “most dangerous folly” title
  3. Hersh: Trump Ignored Intel Before Bombing Syria
  4. A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals
  5. Supreme Court Will Hear Travel Ban Case
  6. Republican Health Care Bill
  7. Trump has $35,000 a plate fundraiser.
  8. Naomi Klein on Politically Reactive Podcast: No is not enough
    • Excellent interview with Naomi Klein starts 20 minutes in
  9. Removal of EPA climate change web site is a declaration of war.
  10. The end of globalization? — A BBC report looks at the future of trade.
  11. Tracking Trump’s Corporate Cronies
  12. Sanders Has His Priorities Backwards; We Can’t Delay Medicare for All
  13. ‘Russiagate’ May Be Collapsing as a Political Strategy
  14. Seth Meyers on Private Prisons

From the week of June 18 to June 24

  1. Treasury Department even more of a threat to Wall Street Reform than Congress
  2. Emmanuel Macron wins majority in parliament
  3. The scandal people should be outraged about is Trump’s (and Ryan’s) policy agenda, outright lies about what he would do
  4. The U.S. just waded deeper into Syrian civil war
  5. Killer Drones and the Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy
  6. Rex Tillerson Admits U.S. Working Towards Regime Change In Iran
  7. Movement to end bail
  8. How Should We Engage the Democratic Party? Interview w/ Suzi Weissman of Democratic Socialists of America (first 20 minutes of podcast)
  9. Hawaii could become the first state to offer its citizens universal basic income after bill passes through both houses of state legislature
  10. Trump Administration Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government
  11. Republican Healthcare Bill Gives Tax Cuts to the Rich by Gutting Safety Net for Poor & Middle Class
  12. Jon Ossoff’s Georgia special election loss shows Democrats could use a substantive agenda
  13. Barclay’s Bank charged with fraud during 2008 crisis but for the wrong reasons
  14. This Juneteenth, End “US Way Of War”
  15. Confirmation Bias vs Desirability Bias
  16. Trump to allow pharma to get away with (even more) murder
  17. Opioids, a Mass Killer We’re Meeting With a Shrug
  18. Police killers acquitted
  19. Wall St. Democrats vs. Working Class Democrats
  20. CIA paid psychologists $81 million to devise brutal tactics for use on terror suspects, and they’re suing

From the week of June 11 to June 17

  1. Kids Climate Lawsuit Heads to Trial
  2. Ditch Both War Parties: Anti-War Coalition Maps Independent Course to Peace
  3. Emmanuel Macron’s party set for landslide in French parliamentary elections
  4. Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) just launched Lynching in America – a new interactive website created in partnership with Google.This site brings together EJI’s extensive research and resulting data with the stories of lynching victims, as told by their descendants. Bryan Stevenson is the head of EJI.
  5. The People Left Behind When Only the ‘Deserving’ Poor Get Help
  6. Why Can’t America Solve the Hunger Problem? Answer: because we don’t want to. “SNAP has become a work support program. Work support programs used to be things like childcare. Now we’re subsidizing part of the cost of employment to companies.”
  7. Code of Silence: How private companies hide flaws in the software that governments use to decide who goes to prison and who gets out.
  8. London Fire Shows Why Britons Don’t Trust System
  9. What’s Wrong With Letting Tech Run Our Schools: It’s politically and ethically fraught, with no proven upside.
  10. Colin Kaepernick Is Being Blackballed by Billionaire NFL Owners. Here’s Why.
  11. 5 people charged with manslaughter in Flint water crisis, including Michigan health chief
  12. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos “Resets” Rules On For-Profit Colleges
  13. Florida Bills Would Let Citizens Remove Textbooks That Mention Climate Change and Evolution
  14. Health care activity and inactivity
  15. NY Times eliminates public editor
  16. Senators Again Try To Restrain Kamala Harris’ Pursuit Of Truth At Senate Hearing
  17. Ignoring humanitarian pleas, Senate approves Saudi arms deal
  18. The Steve Scalise shooting has already become a political football
  19. Roll-Back of Financial Regulations Has Nothing to do with Complexity or Boosting the Economy
  20. The CIA paid psychologists $81 million to devise brutal tactics for use on terror suspects, and they’re suingw

From the week of June 4 to June 10

  1. Trump Infrastructure Privatization Plan
  2. Bryan Stephenson on why the opposite of poverty is justice
  3. Kansas Republicans decide taxes can be too low
  4. Tech Billionaires take over schools, experiment on children
  5. How the Financial CHOICE Act Would Leave Consumers in Harm’s Way
  6. The OECD says universal basic income could make poverty worse
  7. John Oliver on Trump withdrawal from Paris Agreement
  8. Greece Forced To Sell Public Water Utilities Under EU-Imposed Privatization Plan
  9. Amid Divestment Protests, More Cities Explore Public Banks
  10. Build and Fight: The Program and Strategy of Cooperation Jackson
  11. ‘Dreadful night’ when Theresa May’s strong and stable fantasy evaporated
  12. How House Bill Would Dismantle an Array of Dodd-Frank Reforms
  13. Kenyans fear debt to China from railway project
  14. Watch Out: You’re in Ai Weiwei’s Surveillance Zone

From the week of May 28 to June 3

  1. How Compassion Becomes Contempt
  2. You’re not going to change your mind A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest
  3. Basic Income Works
  4. Rev. Barber: America needs a new Poor People’s Campaign
  5. FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights
  6. The Committee for Better Banks is organizing to change the banking industry from the inside out.
  7. National Jobs for All Coalition
  8. Quitting the Paris climate agreement is a moral disgrace
  9. Lisa Servon: How and Why to Leave Your Bank Lisa will be at Alternative Banking on June 11
  10. California takes a step toward universal health care.
  11. The Hunger Bonds Conflicts between morality and investment returns in Venezuela
  12. Wal-Mart Asks Employees to Deliver Packages on Their Way Home

From the week of May 21 to May 27

  1. Related to Sunday’s speaker: Independent Democratic Conference head plans to keep partnership with Senate GOP strong
  2. Trump’s cleverest trick is sounding stupid. Or is Trump just a circus distraction from the real dangers of his cabinet’s actions and the Republican Party’s plans?
  3. 85% of Germany’s power just came from renewable energy, setting a new record
  4. Jelani Cobb on Republicans and the Constitution Stealth effort to rewrite the constitution, funded by ALEC
  5. Record Iran Vote Turnout Gives Rouhani a Big Mandate
  6. Inequality: Live poor, die young
  7. Funniest video ever produced by a central bank — and further proof, if any were needed, that Nordic economies are better!
  8. Theresa May and U.K. Conservative Party repudiate Thatcherism (40 years too late): “We do not believe in untrammelled free markets. We reject the cult of selfish individualism.” Now, we need her act on it, and to convince Paul Ryan and his cronies.
  9. How not to be monsters. As a follow-up to last week’s discussion, some alternatives to the Republican approach
  10. Universal Healthcare Looks Increasingly Possible In New York State

From the week of May 14 to May 20

  1. Heather Booth – She’s The Best Answer To Donald Trump That You Never Heard Of
  2. Another inspiring story: Making Change: Rebecca Adamson
  3. Russian money-laundering details remains in the dark as US settles fraud case
  4. Don’t Grade Teachers With a Bad Algorithm
  5. NBA Coach Popovich Slams Trump!
  6. Aetna CEO in private meeting: “Single-payer, I think we should have that debate”
  7. Trump Heads to Saudi Arabia – Target Iran and Iraq?
  8. Just in case you thought there was some limit on corporate power, Supreme Court to consider ratifying new corporate rights. Important to protect “U.S.” multinational v “racketeering” villagers.
  9. Trump doesn’t embody what’s wrong with Washington. Pence does.(and Ryan, and Gorsuch, and Schumer, and, McConnell, and Sessions and many, many others; that’s the problem).
  10. National Security Adviser McMaster denies report on classified info Now Trump says its true. McMaster says he was there, it didn’t happen. He’s one of the guys who are supposed to be serious, competent, reliable.
  11. A Whistle-Blower Tells of Health Insurers Bilking Medicare
  12. New York’s Legislature Is On The Brink Of Passing Universal Health Care
  13. Free Money … For Everyone UBI experiment in Kenya
  14. Attorney General Jeff Sessions Has Just Doubled Down on the Immoral, Racist, and Counterproductive War on Drugs
  15. Colin Kaepernick Vs. Systemic Oppression podcast
  16. NAFTA Renegotiation Cannot Become Another Corporate Giveaway Alas, it can. But we need to work so it doesn’t and maybe even make some improvements.
  17. Trump Cuts Student Aid to Feed School Privatization
  18. Are We Monsters? We are a failed country because we have lost our compassion and sense of community.
  19. How Our Tax Code Makes Inequality Worse
  20. Trump and the art of the lie
  21. Iran Holds Highly Contested Presidential Election

Activism Meeting at 2 pm on Sunday, May 14

In preparation for our Left Forum panel, Rob wrote a commentary on arguments for Universal Basic Income and Job Guarantee programs from various perspectives and Josh posted the bullet points, with some short comments. There are also other materials related to the subject on our page dedicated to the subject.

From the week of May 7 to May 13

  1. Macron defeats Le Pen to become French president
  2. ‘Financial CHOICE Act 2.0’ Rolling Back Consumer Protections Moves Forward. The bill would:
    • Disable the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
    • Increase risk of financial crisis
    • Remove fiduciary rule, Volcker rule, etc.
    • Create a huge impediment to new regulations
    • Put SEC and CFPB under Congress’s thumb
  3. Healthcare is a moral issue first
  4. Why do white working class people vote against their interests? They don’t.
  5. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
  6. In a victory for environmental activists, U.S. Senate votes to keep Obama-era methane rule
  7. China to price energy in gold, displace dollar
  8. Swiss working to stop leakers, not tax cheaters
  9. Yanis Varoufakis: Basic Income Will Be a Major Part of Any Attempt to Civilize Capitalism (Video)
  10. China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Protest
  11. Universal, Single Payer Health Care has majority support in NY Assembly, needs one more vote in Senate
  12. Pro-Trump Sinclair Network Set to Become Nation’s Biggest Broadcaster as FCC Weakens Ownership Rules
  13. The Scandal Hidden Behind Russia-gate
  14. Republicans misstate, again and again on TV and at town halls, what’s in their health-care bill

From the week of April 30 to May 6

  1. Sustainable activism
  2. But, in this country, apparently even laughing at power has legal risks Woman convicted for laughing at Jeff Sessions
    • Video of the event makes it clear that:
      • Laugh was hardly noticeable and didn’t interrupt Shelby’s speech
      • Arrest of activist caused a minor disruption
    • Frightening that there was a prosecution and even more frightening that a jury would convict on this charge.
  3. Robots:
  4. News on police shootings
  5. New York Landlords Exploit Loophole to Hike Rents Despite Freeze
  6. Crackdown on immigrants:
  7. Inequality hurts democracy\
  8. Mississippi is rejecting nearly all of the poor people who apply for welfare They’ve effectively abolished welfare
  9. Is it time to break up Google?
    • Please note: Duck Duck Go is a good search engine that doesn’t track you
    • Firefox is better than Chrome
    • There are many other free email services besides gmail.
  10. It’s not just Google. America has a monopoly problem no one talks about
    • Best I could find is Sen. Warren and others almost a year ago
    • Where are the free market advocates when we need them?
  11. Save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  12. Republican Health Proposal Would Undermine Coverage for Pre-existing Conditions
  13. Canada fought the war on science. Here’s how scientists won.
  14. Puerto Rico to Seek Bankruptcy Protection
  15. Brazilians Launch First General Strike in 2 Decades to Protest Austerity
  16. These are all the people the Republican health care bill will hurt
  17. Don’t Make Housing for the Poor Too Cozy, ScroogeCarson Warns
  18. Harris County bail system unconstitutional
  19. Kids Suing Trump Hope the Courts Step Up on Climate Change
    • There is hope for the younger generations (as long as the judges and the rest of us don’t let them down.
  20. Locked up for being poor: the case against cash bail
  21. Brazil: Explosive recordings implicate President Michel Temer in bribery inst corruption inquiry

From the week of April 23 to April 29

  1. First 100 days of Le Grand Orange
  2. Freedom House report on the state of democracy and freedom.not a pretty picture
    • There were setbacks in political rights, civil liberties, or both, in a number of countries rated “Free” by the report, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States. 11th straight year of decline.
  3. France’s best? hope against a far-right takeover is an inexperienced former banker
  4. EPA’s Office of Science and Technology takes science out of mission statement
    • Also, any concern about the natural world is apparently gone
    • At least we can credit them with being honest about it, in this case.
  5. Another reason (of many) we needed the March for Science:
  6. The [Prison] System is Based on Profit
  7. Maddow & Liberal Hawkishness on Russia, Iran
  8. The Poor Shouldn’t Pay for Punishment
  9. More on our focus of Universal Basic Income, Jobs Guarantees and other measures to address poverty.
  10. John Oliver on Ivanka and Jared
  11. Cuomo’s Bait and Switch on “free” college
  12. Why Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Is Unfit to Be Attorney General
  13. MIT Professor Says Top U.S. Officials Fabricated Intelligence to Justify Attacking Syria (and no, it’s not Noam Chomsky)
  14. The Media Bubble Is Worse Than You Think
  15. Even the libertarians have noticed that: Right-wing extremists are responsible for most terror attacks, Muslim extremists get most press coverage
  16. CNN “expert” says that more carbon dioxide is good for the planet and compares the Paris climate agreement to appeasement of Hitler.
  17. Panama Papers a year later giving Gerald another chance to say “Mossack Fonseca”
  18. Trump tax “plan”
    1. Trump’s Much Hyped Tax Plan Is Basically the Words “I Want to Cut Taxes” Written on a Sheet of Paper
    2. This isn’t tax policy; it’s a Trump-led heist
    3. 6 Worst Things About Trump Tax Plan Note: old article but criticisms apply to current plan, too.

From the week of April 16 to April 22

  1. Reversal of Justice Will Jeff Sessions Police the Police?
  2. The American War on Drugs
  3. Trump Administration Is Removing Climate Change Research from Government Websites
  4. Our continuing discussion of UBI, Jobs Programs and other approaches to addressing jobs and poverty:
  5. When You Thought Trade Deals Could Not Get Any Worse Enter — Wall Street
  6. Meet the conservative student activist who wants to ‘make campus great again’
  7. Leading Democratic Candidate for New Jersey Governor Calls for State-Owned Public Bank
  8. Climate Change
  9. Behind the Carbon Curtain: How the Energy Corporatocracy Censors Science
  10. I.R.S. Hires Private Debt Collectors
  11. Preview of life in Trump/Pruitt/Ryan’s America: The Saga of North Carolina’s Contaminated Water

Recommended on topics we discussed last week

  1. How the Press Gets Seduced By War
  2. Taxes, Why So Tedious?

From the week of April 9 to April 15

Event: Exorcism Of The Purported NSA Spy Building In Tribeca On Saturday

  1. When the robots take over, will there be jobs left for us?
  2. Minority Neighborhoods Pay Higher Car Insurance Premiums Than White Areas With the Same Risk
  3. What is “Brain Hacking”? Tech Insiders On Why You Should Care
  4. New York State budget:
  5. Syria
  6. How the Press Gets Seduced by War
  7. You’re Not Mad at United Airlines, You’re Mad at America
  8. Mar-a-Lago Is Just the Start of Trump’s Ethical Mess
  9. Trump on pace to surpass 8 years of Obama’s travel spending in 1 year
  10. U.S., Mexico, Canada join to launch 2026 World Cup bid
  11. I wish media would recognize that many Americans are not red or blue. But these charts are striking
  12. House GOP vows to offer Dodd-Frank overhaul bill by end of April
  13. Why Trump won’t be branding China a currency cheater
  14. SEC: Articles on some investing websites were by people secretly paid to tout stocks
  15. Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum
  16. Republicans want to “repeal and replace” Dodd-Frank, too.
  17. Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari
  18. Frances Fox Piven: From Protest to Resistance
  19. Filing Taxes in Japan Is a Breeze. Why Not Here?
    • Perhaps because some people want us to hate taxes

From the week of April 2 to April 8

50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” call to end social evils of racism, poverty, and militarism, April 4.

This week Tavis and his guests commemorate the anniversary of Dr. King’s speech, gauging where we are fifty years later on what King called the triple “evils of racism, poverty, and militarism.”

Speaker Sunday, April 9, 2-3 pm: Anna Callahan: Corruption, Inequality and how to fight it

  1. UN: Americans’ Right To Protest Is In Grave Danger Under Trump
    • “We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
  2. Donald Trump’s Race War
  3. Syria: Growing Humanitarian Crisis as War Rages On
  4. Doug Henwood show on “Inventing the Future” on robots, ubi, etc. (April 6 show)
  5. NYPD officers accessed Black Lives Matter activists’ texts, documents show
  6. Attorney General Sessions Plans to Roll Back Decades of Police Reform
  7. How Much People in the Trump Administration Are Worth
  8. The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement
  9. Bigger Corporations Are Making You Poorer
  10. Republicans go “nuclear” to confirm Gorsuch to Supreme Court
  11. Philippines’ Duterte orders occupation of isles in disputed South China Sea
  12. Nader: Crash of Trumpcare opens door to Medicare for All
  13. Starvation Stalks the Horn of Africa
  14. For Cuomo, Ethics Reform Forgotten as Budget Lurches
  15. Bannon removed from National Security Council
  16. Relevant to this week’s Speaker Session: This is the most amazing chart on Congress you’ll see today

From the week of March 26 to April 1

Event: OccuEvolve’s Citywide Affordable Housing Conference April 1

  1. Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me
  2. Drug firms poured 780M painkillers into West Virginia amid rise of overdoses
  3. America must divorce dignity from work
  4. Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs
  5. Trade and (de)Globalization Watch:
  6. U.S. War Footprint Grows in Middle East, With No Endgame in Sight
  7. U.S. Gives Wells Fargo Failing Grade on Lending
    • “an extensive and pervasive pattern and practice of discriminatory and illegal credit practices across multiple lines of business within the bank, resulting in significant harm to large numbers of consumers.”
      • Sounds like a case for RICO prosecution; if this isn’t organized crime, what is?
      • But don’t hold your breath waiting for it.
  8. Trump’s Muslim ban is off the front pages but still a threat
  9. de Blasio, gearing up campaign:
  10. U.S. military now authorized to conduct offensive airstrikes in Somalia
  11. Tillerson to Lift Human Rights Conditions on Arms Sale to Bahrain
  12. Protest groups to unite as “The Majority” for massive actions across the country on May 1
  13. Trump moves decisively to wipe out Obama’s climate-change record
  14. The death of Paul Ryan, policy genius He’s always been more con artist than wonk.
  15. Ivy League admission letters are out. Low-income kids: if you won’t be attending, you’re not alone
  16. Why is Colin Kaepernick still a free agent?

From the week of March 19 to March 25

  1. New York Spends $1.2 Billion a Year on Homelessness And yet the problem is only getting worse.
  2. Zephyr Teachout: Supreme Court Pick Neil Gorsuch “Sides with Big Business, Big Donors & Big Bosses”
  3. Tillerson’s saber-rattling isn’t the answer with North Korea Let’s hope saber-rattling is as far as they go. Tillerson was supposed to be the relatively-sane one.
  4. A new, climate-friendly approach to trade
    • Replace NAFTA: it must support climate justice, workers, and healthy communities.
  5. Russia: The Conspiracy Trap
  6. American Job Guarantee Program
  7. H-1B VISA Prevailing Wage Abuses – American Workers Forced To Train Their Replacements
  8. We’ve talked some about Reagan lately
  9. Trump did to Merkel what men do to women all the time
  10. A Last Chance for Resistance
  11. Exxon Says Some Emails From ‘Wayne Tracker’ Alias May Be Lost
  12. Participatory Budgeting — allocate a tiny fraction of NYC budget
  13. The Awful Truth About A Trump Lie!: Grieving father: ‘I don’t play Trump songs anymore’
  14. Kochs Bankroll Movement to Rewrite the Constitution
  15. Five Creepy Things Your ISP Could Do if Congress Repeals the FCC’s Privacy Protections
  16. 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” call to end social evils of racism, poverty, and militarism next month.
  17. In effort to pass bill, Republicans make it worse: Updated House Ryancare Bill Deepens Damaging Medicaid Cuts
  18. Donald Trump’s Syrian intervention is high-risk foolhardiness
  19. It’s not just unfair: Inequality is a threat to our governance

From the week of March 12 to March 18

  1. Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media
  2. Democrats Dangerous Diversion
  3. Sanders: Democratic approach has been a failure
  4. G.O.P. Health Law Insures Fewer People, Nonpartisan Review Shows
  5. With Obamacare in jeopardy, California considers going it alone with ‘single-payer’
  6. Canadians With Cystic Fibrosis Live 10 Years Longer Than Americans With the Disease Actually, 12 years and, as study notes, it is entirely due to good universal medical coverage.
  7. Alex Jones Preaches Conspiracy Theories, Trump Listens
  8. Crazy at the wheel: psychopathic CEOs are rife in Silicon Valley, experts say
  9. Republicans continuously rail about ‘States Rights’; This is a blueprint to using Republican type tactics for the benefit of the progressives’ agenda!
  10. Boycotts do work: Ivanka Trump brand will shut down jewelry line
  11. German prosecutors raids corporate headquarters of Volkswagen and Audi
  12. Bankers taking a page out of Brand New Congress playbook
  13. Trump’s plan to dismember government
  14. Rex Tillerson silent as rumors swirl
  15. Exxon Adds New York to Suit in Bid to Stop Climate Change Probe
  16. Dutch give center-right victory over extremist right, Labor loses share, Greens do well
  17. 17 Republican Congresspeople move to acknowledge climate change
  18. What if Sociologists Had as Much Influence as Economists?
  19. Towards An Integrated Progressive Agenda: The Roots of Domination: Connecting parental abuse and gender inequality to authoritarianism
  20. MUST READ: Unspeakable Realities Block Universal Health Coverage In The US. White socialism is nice if you can get it.

From the week of March 5 to March 11

  1. Republicans introduce Obamacare replacement plan
  2. Ben Carson: slaves were ‘immigrants’ with dreams for their children
  3. WikiLeaks publishes ‘biggest ever leak of secret CIA documents’
  4. International Women’s Day 2017: protests, activism and a strike
  5. Bowing to auto industry pressure, Trump to reconsider emissions standards, says source We are sure Trump and Pruitt are doing this very reluctantly only under pressure and, of course, to save American jobs.
  6. Ready to Lie Intercepted Podcast analyzes what Trump, the CIA, Wikileaks etc. are up to.
  7. TPP is not dead. It is now called the Trade In Services Agreement (TiSA) (except TiSA is worse)
  8. Rewarding Disobedience
  9. New Bill Would Force NYPD to Disclose its Surveillance Tech Playbook
  10. Wall Street Lobby and Campaign Cash Tops $2 Billion for 2016 Elections
  11. One Reason Workers Are Struggling Even When Companies Are Doing Well
  12. Time to fight for health care for everyone
  13. How activists have already scored victories against Trump’s policies
  14. South Korean president Park Geun-hye forced from office by constitutional court
  15. Judge Accepts Class Action Lawsuit Against Use of Slave Labor in Private Detention Centers
  16. Democrats Fight Trump, the Man, But Not His Austerity and Militarism
  17. Podcasts on opioid epidemic recommended by Gerald
  18. Baltimore turns to a life-saving opioid overdose antidote, but it’s no cure for the crisis
  19. America’s Deportation Machine Unleashed
  20. Derivatives – Global linkages center on Deutsche Bank

From the week of February 26 to March 4

  1. “Pitchforks have their uses, but crafting health-care policy calls for more delicate instruments.” Atul Gawande on the tricky part of changing Obamacare: Americans don’t want to lose the benefits they have gained.
  2. In The New Yorker, Evan Osnos, David Remnik, and Joshua Yaffa provide an excellent look at Trump, Putin, and The New Cold War: What lay behind Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — and what lies ahead?
  3. House Intelligence Chair tell reporters to ‘be careful”Do you want us to do you want us to conduct an investigation on you“?
  4. Protein Challenge 2040: How can we feed 9 billion people?
  5. Quinnipiac University Poll: Results of NYC poll on political corruption, homelessness and other issues
  6. Electric carmakers on battery alert after hedge funds stockpile cobalt
  7. Forget Trump’s tweets and media bans. The real issue is his threat to the internet
  8. Trump speech
  9. Democrats really don’t get message of election
  10. AG Sessions reverses Obama administration plan to phase out private prisons which will be put to use detaining immigrants, among others.
  11. Thomas Piketty: Basic Income or Fair Wage?
  12. The Death of Compassion
  13. Rebirth of compassion? New Social Compact
  14. The EPA will no longer require oil and gas companies to report their methane emissions

From the week of February 19 to February 25

  1. We didn’t have time to discuss the “future of finance” last meeting so we will next time. Here are some sub-topics:
  2. The New Free Speech: Milo
  3. Varoufakis on UBI
  4. Jacobin on a job guarantee
  5. Trump Proposal Would Deport More Immigrants Immediately
  6. Clinton plan on opioid addiction Perhaps if she had talked about this, she’d be President.
  7. How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the Whole WorldSaruman and the Palantir
  8. NYT’s Fake News about Fake News
  9. DC residents band together to try and oust Utah Congressman
  10. Why Trump’s election scares data scientists
  11. Contentious moments from U.S. town halls
  12. Under GOP draft of Obamacare repeal plan, a lot of people could loose coverage

From the week of February 12 to February 18

  1. Tough federal bank regulator calls it quits
  2. Global Trade Watch’s Lori Wallach on how Trump will proceed on trade
  3. Immigration matters
  4. Isolationism and it’s cost to America:
  5. Flynn is not the “first casualty of the Trump administration: Preceding Flynn were:
    • As usual, the truth
    • the (never spotless) reputation of the U.S.
    • victims of hate crimes that have been rising
    • Sean Spicer’s self-respect (KellyAnne Conway lost hers months ago)
    • immigrants (documented, undocumented and permanent residents)
    • respect for the court system
    • the environment
    • Merrick Garland
    • … Flynn won’t be the last casualty, either.
    • Ben Carson didn’t know his aide was fired
  6. EU Steps Up The Pace For Cashless Society In 2017/18
  7. Environmental Protection and Climate Change:
  8. More pollution news
  9. Women’s March organizers announce date for general strike
  10. Data and privacy
  11. Man v Machine: Or, can tech work for us?
  12. Cuomo, NYS legislature blocks NYC plastic bag law Maybe someday, NYC will be allowed to govern itself.
  13. Lobby, or hassle, your representatives
  14. MIT/Harvard win CRISPR Gene Editing patent
  15. Why Trump wants you to hate the media
  16. Major government and corporate figures are prosecuted, in other countries
  17. Latest post in the “Who owns the robots?” series
  18. Opioid Epidemic continued: Science Friday discusses the continued problems of prescription drugs (18 minutes), and
  19. PBS Frontline’s Chasing Heroin (nearly 2 hours)

From the week of February 5 to February 11

  1. a new social compact? If so, what should it include? I am sure Gerald will have some thoughts on this at the 2-3 pm discussion of the moral case for a UBI.
  2. Connecting with the Trump voter: Trump gives America’s ‘poorest white town’ hope
  3. Cross administrations and ACA connections: Former Obama staffer joins Josh Kushner’s VC fund
  4. ‘A day without a woman’ — Women’s March organizers plan a general strike
  5. Naomi Klein: Labor Leaders’ Bad Deal With Trump
  6. Employers worry GOP Obamacare overhaul could harm job-based coverage
  7. Your car’s data may soon be more valuable than the car itself
    • Could/should we sell or tax it to pay for Job Guarantee or Universal Basic Income.
  8. Republican elders float carbon tax, plan White House lobbying campaign
  9. Behind Today’s Breakthrough Advocacy Campaigns
  10. Republicans Tried to Suppress the Words of Coretta Scott King. Bad Idea.
  11. DeVos confirmed as Secretary of Education despite a lack of qualifications, amazingly similar to Trump!
  12. Progressives should insist worldwide taxation cover corporate personhood claimants
  13. Trump: I wanted month delay before travel ban, was told no “his own words are telling regarding who’s not in charge”
  14. Activists win access to NYPD’s Black Lives Matter surveillance files
  15. Good news on bail reform:
  16. Rorty’s predictive analysis of the left and its response.

From the week of January 29 to February 4

Take Action: Tell the NY State Legislature to Expand the Millionaires Tax

  1. Francis Fox Piven on how we can resist
  2. CDC Cancels Conference on Climate Change and Health
  3. Rise of the Machines: Fear robots, not China or Mexico
  4. Who owns the robots? and who should own them?
  5. If you missed the health care enrollment that ended on January 31, blame Trump.
  6. Opinion: Ignore politicians and apply economic pressure on corporate America: Uber CEO drops out of Trump’s business advisory council
  7. South Dakota GOP uses ’emergency’ rules to repeal anti-corruption law
  8. The Navy wants to know who flew a Trump flag on a military convoy
  9. IndyKids: Why Care About the First Amendment
  10. Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich
  11. Davos Elite Fret About Inequality Over Vintage Wine and Canapés
  12. Deregulation Watch
  13. Measures to impede global kleptocracy not likely to last in the Drumpf administration
  14. Black and low-income New Yorkers largely shut out of major academic hospitals
  15. UBI video from Ale

From the week of January 22 to January 28

  1. On the deep divide that Trump tapped.
  2. Robert Reich on message.
  3. Leftist Underdog Benoit Hamon Likely To Win French Socialist Primary for President
  4. 2 Years, 31 Dead Construction Workers. New York Can Do Better.
  5. Secret Service looking at agent who suggested she wouldn’t defend Trump from bullet
  6. All Things Trump:
  7. Opinion: Killing TPP is bad news for America, but great for China
  8. Trump nominations:
  9. Show Me The Money – JG/UBIG Funding (re: discussion topic 2-3pm)
  10. Koch Dark-Money Operative Is Trump’s Liaison to Congress
  11. Trump Blocks Syrian Refugees and Others; Orders Mexican Border Wall to Be Built
  12. Financialization of Rents Gets Taxpayer Guarantees — We are guaranteeing private equity firm Blackstone
  13. Universal Basic Income (re: discussion topic 2-3pm)
  14. Six journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest

From the week of January 15 to January 21

      1. Discussion (video presentation) — Job Guarantee versus Universal Basic Income Guarantee
      2. These 8 Men Are Richer Than 3.6 Billion People Combined
      3. Trump’s Cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it Congress writes the rules, so this kind of corruption is perfectly legal.
      4. Khalil Gibran Muhammad: No Racial Barrier Left to Break (Except All of Them). We can’t create a more just nation simply by dressing up institutions in more shades of brown. Now we must confront structural racism.
      5. From Occupy Wall Street To Occupy White House: The Resurrection of Goldman Sachs
      6. Citigroup’s Profits Climb On Pick-Up In Bond Trading, Lower Costs
      7. If We Don’t Write The Rules, Billionaires Will – Lyft: Here’s how to make America’s roads great again
      8. NY Housing Authority Seeks Private Investors for Brooklyn, Bronx Buildings
      9. Rebecca Solnit: We could’ve avoided President Donald Trump. Now, we must learn the lessons
        1. Lakoff says — progressives won’t win until they learn how to frame the debate.
      10. Former World Bank Staffer Explains How Neoliberalism Is Destroying The World
      11. Trump inaugurated: ‘American carnage’: Trump’s vision casts shadow over day of pageantry
      12. Obama administration sticks with its inadequate crisis response: fines but no prosecutions, homeowners still get too little, too late and CEOs walk away scott free..
      13. ‘We’re Not Going Away’: Huge Crowds for Women’s Marches Against Trump

From the week of January 8 to January 14

  1. Cognitive science tells us how Trump will alter our social behavioral norms.
  2. Jacobin’s answer to “Who put Trump in the White House?”
  3. What to expect from Trump: clues from populist regimes around the world.
  4. Rachel Maddow connects the dots between Trump, Tillerson, Putin and Obama’s sanctions.
  5. Matt Stoller on Obama’s and the Democratic Party’s economic failures.
  6. On the other hand, Bernie supporters just took control over the Democratic Party in California.
  7. De Blasio opens the door to community land trusts.
  8. Jeff Merkley pushes Tillerson on climate change.
  9. Just before leaving, Obama expands surveillance.
  10. Stiglitz on trade and Trump.
  11. Psychologist Rob Brotherton on conspiracy theories.
  12. House passes REINS Act to deregulate and erode standards
  13. This is why you get worked up about politics, according to science
  14. Your Government Owes Your a Job
  15. One-Third of the Trump Team Has Ties to the Koch Brothers
  16. Bitcoin
  17. As Trump Moves into the White House, Democrats Need A Bold New Vision
  18. What Donald Trump Owes Wall Street

From the weeks of December 18 to January 7

Happy New Year!

Five years and we’re still here! We took a very rare break (both on-line and in person). We will be meeting Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017

  1. Another, more beautiful America is rising. Trump will be resisted
  2. A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda
  3. Five Republicans who could buck Trump in 2017
    • We’d like to note that there are 52 Republican senators who could, and should, buck Trump and it’s pretty pathetic that only five are even considering it.
  4. Building a Mass Socialist Party
  5. Privacy in the modern world: Theory of Everything Podcast Surveillance miniseries Your host visits both the glass room ( a fake pop up store) and the Google pop up store (a real pop up store).
  6. A socialist criticism of basic income guarantee.
  7. Rethinking retirement: The Champions of the 401(k) Lament the Revolution They Started
  8. Algorithms: AI’s creepy control must be open to inspection
  9. House Republicans send us a New Year message. Fuck you!
  10. So much shit is going on, it seems this nearly slipped through. I had trouble finding anything critical written about the 2017 NDAA
  11. Under Cover of Christmas, Congress passes NDAA, Obama Establishes Controversial Anti-Propaganda Agency
  12. Senate Republicans take first step to repeal Obamacare
  13. Republicans Are Planning to Rush Through Jeff Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing
  14. Putin Led a Complex Cyberattack Scheme to Aid Trump, Report Finds
  15. Or, have our elections been hacked for decades?

News and Noteworthy from 2016