How Trump's Dangerous and Misguided Trade War Could Reshape the American Diet
Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute | alternet.org | 2018-06-20
Tariffs on imports and exports could lead to increased food prices. | During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made his protectionist views clear, saying that, if elected, he would renegotiate trade deals. He slammed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as " the worst trade deal the U. S. has ever signed. " He also criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), saying it was "the death blow for American manufacturing" and that it "put[s] the interests of foreign countries above our own. "Just three days after entering the White House, Trump withdrew the U. S. from the TPP. A few months later, his administration drafted an executive order to withdraw from NAFTA, which is currently being renegotiated. Then in March, President Trump's attack on trade continued when he announced a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports,. . .
www.alternet.org/food/how-trumps-dangerous-misguided-trade-war-could-reshape-american-diet
California Lacks Real Marine Protection as Offshore Drilling Expands in State Waters
Dan Bacher | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-20
One of the big news stories neglected by both the mainstream and "alternative" media is the capture of California politics and the regulatory apparatus by Big Oil and other corporate interests in recent years — and the massive expansion of offshore drilling that has occurred in state waters under the helm of Governor Jerry Brown as a…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/20/california-lacks-real-marine-protection-as-offshore-drilling-expands-in-state-waters/
New York cab driver suicides linked to Uber's "shared economy"
Gabe Falsetta, Gary Bono | peoplesworld.org | 2018-06-20
After sharing a Facebook post about the financial turmoil in which he was embroiled Doug Schifter killed himself last February with a shotgun in front of City Hall. A month later Nicanor Ochisor, described by his son as someone who was "irritated," "depressed," and "angry" over his finances hung himself until he died in his …
New York cab driver suicides linked to Uber’s “shared economy”
Indonesia: New Counterterrorism Law Imperils Rights
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-20
A counterterrorism police officer stands guard during a security sweep in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 16, 2018. | © 2018 Reuters | (New York) — The Indonesian government should seek to amend provisions in the newly enacted counterterrorism law ("CT Law") that threaten human rights protections, Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent on June 11, 2018, to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and other officials. | Related Content: | Letter on Indonesia's New Counterterrorism Law | After suicide bombings by attackers aligned with the Islamic State in the city of Surabaya in May, Indonesia's parliament on May 25 approved long-pending revisions to the CT Law. While the new law contains some improvements, it risks undermining human rights and could weaken efforts to counter extremist threats. | "The Indonesian government's counterterrorism…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/20/indonesia-new-counterterrorism-law-imperils-rights
Time for the Big One? Research suggests risk of California earthquake higher than previously thought
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-20
Geophysicists are hypothesizing that the San Andreas fault line in California could be the central point of a massive earthquake after new research suggested that the fault may be at higher risk than previously thought. …
www.rt.com/usa/430368-california-slow-earthquakes-study/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Trump Administration Cancels New Protection for Endangered Whales, Marine Mammals & Sea Turtles
Lauren Lewis | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-19
Marking yet another upsetting turn of events at the hands of the Trump administration, it was announced yesterday that the United States government canceled the proposed limits on the number of endangered whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be …
globalresearch.ca/trump-administration-cancels-new-protection-for-endangered-whales-marine-mammals-sea-turtles/5644671
Selected Articles: Big Oil, Brexit, North Korea, China
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-19
Global Research is a small team that believes in the power of information and analysis to bring about far-reaching societal change including a world without war. | Truth in media is a powerful instrument. As long as we keep probing, asking …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-big-oil-brexit-north-korea-china/5644661
Philippine Supreme Court Considers Same-Sex Marriage
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-19
A man displays a rainbow flag during a LGBT Pride parade in metro Manila, Philippines June 25, 2016. | The Philippine Supreme Court heard a long-awaited argument on Tuesday that could open the door to same-sex marriage in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. | The case, which was filed by a gay lawyer named Jesus Falcis in 2015, urges the court to declare the marriage restriction in the country's Family Code — which limits marriage to one man and one woman — unconstitutional. It also asks the court to recognize marriage equality in the Philippines. Falcis argues that the marriage restrictions violate his rights to due process, equal protection, and forming a family under the Philippine Constitution. | If the Supreme Court rules that the provisions of the Family Code are unconstitutional and permits same-sex marriage,…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/19/philippine-supreme-court-considers-same-sex-marriage
"Trump Creates Crises & Preys on Fear": Rep. Jayapal on Policy of Separating Kids from Parents
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-19
Outrage is growing over the Trump administration's separation of children from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, ProPublica released audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children estimated to be between the ages of 4 and 10 years old are heard crying "Mama" and "Papi" after being separated from their parents. In another part of the audio, a Border Patrol agent is heard joking, in Spanish, "Well, we have an orchestra here. What's missing is a conductor." Video footage released by the U.S. Border Patrol Monday shows migrant children in concrete-floored chain link cages in an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas. A new Quinnipiac poll shows roughly two-thirds of U.S. voters oppose separating children from their parents at the border. About 7 percent of Democratic voters support the Trump policy, while 55 percent of Republicans support…
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/19/trump_creates_crises_preys_on_fear
Requiem for a Steelworker: Mon Valley Memories of Oil Can Eddie
Steve Early | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-18
In progressive circles in the upper mid-west today, if you've heard the name Sadlowski, it's probably because you were involved in the Wisconsin labor uprising of 2011, where you might have linked arms with AFSCME organizer and state capitol occupier Edward A. Sadlowski. Or maybe you applauded the electoral victory of his sister, Susan Sadlowski…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/18/requiem-for-a-steelworker-mon-valley-memories-of-oil-can-eddie/
MSM talk coup in Venezuela because it sits on oil US empire wants — Abby Martin
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-17
The American empire and its media openly talk coup in Venezuela because it sits on vast — and nationalized — oil resources, and this is US expansionism at its finest, The Empire Files host Abby Martin told Lee Camp. …
www.rt.com/usa/430034-venezuela-us-lee-camp/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Trump administration supports lawsuit challenging Obamacare's pre-existing conditions protections
wsws.org | wsws.org | 2018-06-15
The action is the latest effort to chip away at the legislation after two failures to repeal it outright.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/06/15/care-j15.html
Lawyer: Jeff Sessions' Attacks on Migrant Domestic Violence Survivors Drags U.S. Back to "Dark Ages"
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-15
On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that domestic and gang-related violence will generally no longer be grounds for asylum, a far-reaching shift that could affect thousands of people, particularly women from Central America fleeing gender-based violence. This decision reverses the Board of Immigration Appeals' grant of asylum to a Salvadoran domestic violence survivor known as A.B., who fled to the U.S. for her life after surviving 15 years of beatings, rape and death threats from her husband. In ruling against A.B., Sessions also overturned a groundbreaking precedent from 2014 in which the immigration appeals court affirmed that domestic violence survivors are deserving of protection. We speak with Karen Musalo, professor of law and the director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She is of the attorneys representing Ms. A.B.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/15/lawyer_jeff_sessions_attacks_on_migrant
Pundits Worry Threat of Nuclear War Is Being Reduced
Gregory Shupak | fair.org | 2018-06-14
Media outlets don't want America to negotiate with North Korea; they want the US to hold North Korea for ransom. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (6/12/18) appears dismayed by the manifestation of a US president meeting with an Official Enemy. | On MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, the host was aghast (6/12/18) that the US says it will halt the annual war games it conducts with South Korea on North Korea's doorstep, because doing so is "an absolute jackpot for the North Korean dictator," "one of the things he wants most on earth," and now Washington "has just given them that for free, for nothing." | Maddow implied that Trump has taken this step out of fealty to Russia, and complained that pausing war games that threaten North Korea benefits Russia and China. She twice called the Kim/Trump summit a "wedding," twice said that the…
fair.org/home/pundits-worry-threat-of-nuclear-war-is-being-reduced/
Slam dunk: Flat-Earther logic obliterated by Reddit basketball stunt (PHOTO)
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-14
A Reddit user has poked major holes in flat-Earther 'logic' with a clever — and easy-to-replicate — experiment deploying a digital camera with a macro lens, plenty of light… and a basketball. …
www.rt.com/usa/429775-flat-earth-basketball-experiment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
Trauma at the Texas-Mexico Border: Families Separated, Children Detained & Residents Fighting Back
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-14
We look at growing outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, many fleeing dangerous conditions and seeking asylum. At least 600 immigrant children were removed from their parents last month, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new rule. On Wednesday, 10 members of Congress protested by blocking the entrance to the headquarters of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency tasked with carrying out the forced removal of children from their parents. More protests in at least 60 cities are planned today by the group Families Belong Together, which formed in response to the new policy. We go to the epicenter of this "zero tolerance" crackdown, the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, where more than half of all migrant families and children have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents since mid-May, for a special report by Democracy Now! correspondent Renée Feltz, who spoke with residents taking action in response to the widely condemned practice of separating families.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/14/trauma_at_the_texas_mexico_border
As EPA Scandals Mount, Scott Pruitt Is Radically Reshaping Agency to Aid Polluters and Big Business
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-08
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is again facing a slew of ethics and spending scandals amid mounting calls for his resignation. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported Pruitt enlisted members of his $3.5 million security detail to pick up his dry cleaning and search for his favorite skin moisturizing lotion, even though federal rules prohibit public officials from receiving gifts from subordinates, including unpaid services. Meanwhile, Pruitt is continuing to radically reshape the EPA. The New York Times reports today the EPA has given the chemical industry a big victory by scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. Pruitt has also been accused of radically reshaping the EPA rulemaking process and weakening Obama administration efforts to tighten fuel economy standards. We speak to Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/8/as_epa_scandals_mount_scott_pruitt
Maduro & Workers Push to Stimulate Venezuela's Oil Industry amid Collapsing Production
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-06-07
It is alleged that PDVSA does not possess sufficient stocks to fulfill its June export orders.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13864
Venezuela Slams New US Sanctions as Washington Hints at Oil Embargo
Cira Pascual Marquina | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-22
The latest measures fly in the face of international concern about the living conditions of Venezuelans.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13833