Inauguration 2017 Special Coverage w/ Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader & More
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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 Jane Mayer
..."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
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?
January 26, 2015
Egypt: Crackdown on 4th anniversary of 'Arab Spring'
Outpouring of Rage and Grief Follows Egypt's Bloody Crackdown on Revolution Anniversary
By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams, Monday, January 26, 2015
"Thousands of people on Sunday attended the funeral of 32-year-old socialist and poet Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, who was among at least 23 people killed and 97 wounded over the weekend at rallies and vigils across Egypt to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the country's 2011 uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
Many of the killings were directly attributed by eye-witnesses to the country's feared police and security forces, who have orchestrated a coordinated crackdown on political dissent which has escalated since former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rose to the presidency through a military coup engineered in July 2013....
excerpt:
"Under al-Sisi's rule, state forces have carried out widespread killings, including indiscriminate fire on rallies and demonstrations. Thousands of people, from journalists to pro-democracy protesters to suspected supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been subjected to mass arrests, jailings, and unfair trials, including in military tribunals.
Shortly after rising to power, al-Sisi's government imposed a law criminalizing protests and expanding police powers to crackdown on public gatherings. At least 62 people were killed during last year's commemoration of the January 25th revolution.
Despite these human rights abuses, the U.S. government remains a key backer of the Egyptian government, with the Obama administration recently signing legislation that allows the U.S. to waive human rights concerns in the provision of $1.5 billion in annual aid, most of it military.
"Four years after Egypt’s revolution, police are still killing protesters on a regular basis," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch, in a statement released Monday. "While President [al-Sisi] was at Davos burnishing his international image, his security forces were routinely using violence against Egyptians participating in peaceful demonstrations." (end)