Special coverage in the Trump Era

From Public Citizen's Corporate Presidency site: "44 Trump administration officials have close ties to the Koch brothers and their network of political groups, particularly Vice President Mike Pence, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney."

Dark Money author Jane Mayer on The Dangers of President Pence, New Yorker, Oct. 23 issue on-line

Can Time Inc. Survive the Kochs? November 28, 2017 By
..."This year, among the Kochs’ aims is to spend a projected four hundred million dollars in contributions from themselves and a small group of allied conservative donors they have assembled, to insure Republican victories in the 2018 midterm elections. Ordinarily, political reporters for Time magazine would chronicle this blatant attempt by the Kochs and their allies to buy political influence in the coming election cycle. Will they feel as free to do so now?"...

"Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America" see: our site, and George Monbiot's essay on this key book by historian Nancy MacLean.

Full interview with The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer March 29, 2017, Democracy Now! about her article, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer Exploited America’s Populist Insurgency."

Democracy Now! Special Broadcast from the Women's March on Washington

Inauguration 2017 Special Coverage w/ Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader & More

The Economics of Happiness -- shorter version

Local Futures offers a free 19-minute abridged version  of its award-winning documentary film The Economics of Happiness. It "brings us voices of hope of in a time of crisis." www.localfutures.org.

What's New?

July 08, 2017

Most world nations vote to ban nuclear weapons -- just not the ones that have them

"One hundred twenty-two nations agreed to the final draft text after weeks of negotiations that were not attended by any of the nine nuclear-armed states, which include the U.S., Russia, and North Korea."

US a No-Show as Historic Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Adopted

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer, posted on Common Dreams.org, July 7, 2017

"The United States has joined a small group of global outliers on Friday after a historic United Nations treaty to ban nuclear weapons was adopted by a majority of the world's nations.

"The adoption of the nuclear weapons ban treaty marks an historic turning point in the centuries-old battle to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction," said Jeff Carter, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Ahead of its adoption, Elayne Whyte Gómez, Coasta Rica's ambassador to the U.N. and president of the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, championed the "historic"agreement, calling it "the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty to be concluded in more than 20 years."

Noting that the landmark moment comes 72 years after the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an editorial in Japan's Mainichi said: "The international community's firm determination not to repeat these tragedies is the linchpin of the convention." 

We have just made history! The #nuclearban treaty is adopted! pic.twitter.com/A08gT0E80Q

— ICAN (@nuclearban) July 7, 2017

 

One hundred twenty-two nations agreed to the final draft text after weeks of negotiations that were not attended by any of the nine nuclear-armed states, which include the U.S., Russia, and North Korea. (Among those signing on, however, are two of the other "axis of evil" states: Iran and Iraq.) The Netherlands cast the sole vote against the treaty.

"The nuclear weapons states' boycott of the ban treaty negotiations," Carter said last month, "illustrates a denial of medical science," referring to "empirically known consequences of the use, testing, and development of these weapons on human lives."... read full posting 

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