Wednesday, September 18, 2019 Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin: If We Want a Future, Green New Deal Is Key C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout While the planetary future looks grim, there is a realistic global climate stabilization project that is economically and technically feasible -- if we can find the political will to implement it, say Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin, co-authors of a forthcoming book on climate change and the Green New Deal. This month's climate strikes are a way to bring some urgency to the matter and raise public awareness. Read the Interview → Water Protectors Are Prepared for Battle. Join Us. Winona LaDuke, Truthout As the dying fossil fuel industry tries to foist the largest tar sands pipeline project on the Anishinaabe people, Water Protectors, immortalized in the battle to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, stand prepared to battle once again over water and rights of Indigenous peoples and nations. Like Standing Rock, this, too, is a battle in the environmental movement to protect our collective future. Read the Article → Saudi Arabia Owns the 45th Floor of Trump Tower, and It Shows William Rivers Pitt, Truthout The government of Saudi Arabia owns the 45th floor of Trump Tower, and pays Donald Trump a yearly fee for the privilege. Trump's vast financial ties to that country go back decades, despite his preposterously false denials. With a crisis unfolding that could lead to war with Iran, those ties require deeper scrutiny. Read the Article → We need your help to maintain the last vestige of real journalism: Truthout's nonprofit newsroom can only survive to produce thoughtfully conceived, free-to-read stories and news analysis because of support from readers like you. If you can, please support Truthout with a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation today! Donate Now → Oregon State University Employees Vote to Authorize a Strike Amid Heated Moment Kelly Hayes, Truthout Employees at Oregon's seven public universities voted last night to authorize a strike on September 30 if their demand for pay parity with other state employees is not met. They join employees at the Fred Meyer grocery chain and 80,000 employees at health care giant Kaiser Permanente who are also poised to go on strike over demands ranging from gender pay equity to job security, making Oregon the focal point of a reinvigorated labor movement. Read the Article → Democrats Must Stop Dismissing Diplomacy With North Korea Minju Bae and Ju-Hyun Park, Truthout After more than 70 years of living with the horrific consequences of war, the Korean Peninsula is finally seeing some progress toward peace and reunification, thanks to Korean intergovernmental cooperation over the last two years. Democrats and progressives should stop upholding the false binary narratives about Korea and instead inform themselves of the complexity of contemporary Korean politics. Read the Article → General Motors Cuts Off Health Care for 50,000 Striking Workers Jake Johnson, Common Dreams On Tuesday, General Motors (GM) stopped covering health insurance premiums for the nearly 50,000 auto workers striking for fair wages and decent benefits. The nationwide strike, described as the largest in more than a decade, began just before midnight on Sunday after negotiations between United Auto Workers and GM broke down, with union leaders and members accusing management of proposing insulting wage increases and paltry benefits. Read the Article → Trump's Electoral College Win Could Easily Happen Again If System Doesn't Change Igor Derysh, Salon Republicans are expected to win 65 percent of close presidential races in which they lose the popular vote as a result of the Electoral College and the blue-state concentration of Democrats, according to a new study. The lead author of the study says the only solution is to scrap the Electoral College. Read the Article → No Matter Who Wins Israel's Election, Palestine Will Lose Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now! With 95 percent of the vote counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party appears to be narrowly losing the Israeli election to ex-military chief Benny Gantz's Blue and White party. However, the outcome may not make much of a difference for Palestine, given that both candidates ran on platforms supporting harsh measures against Palestinians. Watch the Video and Read the Transcript → Climate Change Expected to Accelerate Spread of Sometimes-Fatal Fungal Infection Brian Bell, AGU100 A new study predicts that climate change will cause valley fever's range to more than double in size this century, reaching previously unaffected areas across the Western U.S. If the climate crisis is not addressed, valley fever will disproportionately endanger even more of the most vulnerable among us -- including the young, elderly and people in low-income communities. Read the Article → Koch-Backed Republicans Want to Tax Your Electric Car Alex Kotch, Sludge With the help of legislation written by the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, 26 states have passed or proposed onerous electric vehicle registration fees. The Koch network is also working to block local communities from building light rail systems that their residents support. Charles Koch loves individual liberty -- except when individuals want to participate in reducing emissions. Read the Article → In Case You Missed It On Climate and Food, What's the Lesson We Insist on Missing? Frances Moore Lappé, Truthout We frequently see reports about imminent food shortages due to explosive population growth and catastrophic climate events. Absent from such analysis is the fact that we humans actively create the experience of food scarcity, no matter how much food we grow, through a political and economic system of inequality that is manipulated to serve the interests of the few. Read the Article → African Migrants Pledge to Continue Journey Despite U.S. Asylum Ban José Luis Granados Ceja, Truthout The Trump administration's policy requiring people to seek asylum in the countries they cross to reach the U.S. has not deterred hundreds of asylum-seeking Africans currently stuck in Mexico. The conditions that caused them to flee their home countries were the result of U.S. policies, they say, and until those policies change, migration will continue. Read the Article → We need 84 more people to make a sustaining, monthly donation to Truthout. Can we count on you to be one? It takes just 30 seconds to set up and any amount helps! Donate Now → |