Browsed by
Category: Politics

Jesse Jackson: ‘My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised’

Jesse Jackson: ‘My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised’

Bishop William Barber II is the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and was a friend and mentee of Jesse Jackson:   Peter Applebome writes: The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose impassioned oratory and populist vision of a “rainbow coalition” of the poor and forgotten made him the nation’s most influential Black figure in the years between the civil rights crusades of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the election of Barack Obama, died on Tuesday at his home…

Read More Read More

Federal judge says Trump can’t ‘erase’ history, orders slavery exhibit restored

Federal judge says Trump can’t ‘erase’ history, orders slavery exhibit restored

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore displays discussing slavery at a site in Philadelphia where George Washington lived as president. In a 40-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania compared the displays’ removal last month to the government mind-control employed in George Orwell’s famous novel “1984.” “The government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts…

Read More Read More

Zelensky says Ukrainian public won’t let him hand Russia territory

Zelensky says Ukrainian public won’t let him hand Russia territory

Axios reports: The Ukrainian people would reject a peace deal that involves Ukraine unilaterally withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region and turning it over to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios in an interview Tuesday. Why it matters: As Zelensky was speaking to Axios, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were meeting for a third round of direct talks in Geneva. The main sticking point is control of the Donbas, around 10% of which is still in Ukrainian hands. Zelensky said U.S. mediators Steve Witkoff and…

Read More Read More

The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation through civil resistance

The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation through civil resistance

Mark Engler and Paul Engler write: In the wake of two horrifying killings of legal observers in Minnesota, on top of the abduction of countless immigrant community members, the country has reached a turning point. Backlash against ICE’s lawlessness and aggression has reverberated so loudly that even Trump has heard it. But the effects on ordinary Americans contemplating what they would do if they lived in Minneapolis or St Paul is perhaps even more profound. The extraordinary level of grassroots…

Read More Read More

Cover-up: FBI won’t share Alex Pretti homicide evidence, Minnesota authorities say

Cover-up: FBI won’t share Alex Pretti homicide evidence, Minnesota authorities say

The Guardian reports: Minnesota law enforcement authorities have said the FBI is refusing to share any evidence on its investigation into the death of Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal immigration authorities in late January. Pretti was shot on 24 January by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s surge of immigration enforcement operations in the city. His killing came just two weeks after an immigration official shot and killed Renee Good and 10…

Read More Read More

Warehouse owner won’t sell Texas property to ICE for migrant detention center

Warehouse owner won’t sell Texas property to ICE for migrant detention center

The Dallas Morning News reports: The owner of a Dallas County warehouse that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had planned to use as a mega detention center said Monday it will not sell or lease the property to the federal government. “God answered our prayers,” Hutchins Mayor Mario Vasquez said after learning of the company’s decision. Internal ICE documents revealed that the agency had wanted to use the warehouse in Hutchins to house up to 9,500 migrants as the agency pushes…

Read More Read More

Viktor Orbán is trying to stay in power by stifling hope and promoting fear

Viktor Orbán is trying to stay in power by stifling hope and promoting fear

France 24 reports: US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his high regard for Orban, saying in a social media post on Friday that the prime minister had produced “phenomenal” results in Hungary. But Orban, 62, has a fight on his hands for the April 12 legislative elections in Hungary. Polls suggest his Fidesz party is trailing opposition leader Peter Magyar’s TISZA. “I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success…

Read More Read More

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears

The Guardian reports: UK bank bosses will hold their first meeting to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over Donald Trump’s ability to turn off US-owned payment systems. The meeting, chaired by Barclays’ UK chief executive, Vim Maru, will take place this Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur. The City-funded, but…

Read More Read More

‘South Texas will never be red again’: Home builders warn GOP over Trump’s immigration raids

‘South Texas will never be red again’: Home builders warn GOP over Trump’s immigration raids

Politico reports: Home builders are warning President Donald Trump that his aggressive immigration enforcement efforts are hurting their industry. They’re cautioning that Republican candidates could soon be hurt, too. Construction executives have held multiple meetings over the last month with the White House and Congress to discuss how immigration busts on job sites and in communities are scaring away employees, making it more expensive to build homes in a market desperate for new supply. Beyond the affordability issue, the executives…

Read More Read More

Trump’s campaign of violence using ‘less lethal’ weapons against protesters

Trump’s campaign of violence using ‘less lethal’ weapons against protesters

NBC News reports: They batter bodies with rubber bullets and sear eyes with pepper spray. They lob tear gas and explosive flash-bangs at chanting crowds. They smash car windows. They shove people to the ground. They ram vehicles and point their guns. Federal officers carrying out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across the country have shot 13 people with guns. But far more often, they have used harsh tactics to scare or repel those they see as getting…

Read More Read More

Demanding loyalty to Trump, Justice Dept. struggles to recruit prosecutors

Demanding loyalty to Trump, Justice Dept. struggles to recruit prosecutors

The New York Times reports: Chad Mizelle, a former chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, hung an online help wanted sign for federal prosecutors last weekend that perhaps explained why so many valuable Justice Department staff members have left, and why so few candidates want in. Assistant U.S. attorneys are not typically recruited, as Mr. Mizelle sought to do, by a former federal employee who asks potential candidates to send a private message to his X account. Nor…

Read More Read More

A U.S. Army plant in Missouri is a leading source of powerful ammunition used by Mexican cartels

A U.S. Army plant in Missouri is a leading source of powerful ammunition used by Mexican cartels

The New York Times reports: On the morning of Nov. 30, 2019, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying men armed with a heavy machine gun and powerful .50-caliber rifles entered the Mexican town of Villa Unión and opened fire. The men had been sent on a mission of intimidation: They planned to set fire to the town hall. Their superior firepower pinned down state and local police officers as they waited for military reinforcements. Terrorized residents scrambled to take cover…

Read More Read More

Deep in China’s mountains, a nuclear weapons revival takes shape

Deep in China’s mountains, a nuclear weapons revival takes shape

The New York Times reports: In the lush, misty valleys of southwest China, satellite imagery reveals the country’s accelerating nuclear buildup, a force designed for a new age of superpower rivalry. One such valley is known as Zitong, in Sichuan Province, where engineers have been building new bunkers and ramparts. A new complex bristles with pipes, suggesting the facility handles highly hazardous materials. Another valley is home to a double-fenced facility known as Pingtong, where experts believe China is making…

Read More Read More

Nihilism is now the lingua franca on social media

Nihilism is now the lingua franca on social media

Charlie Warzel writes: More and more, it seems, I pull to refresh a feed or open up a new browser tab and encounter something that makes me feel as if I’ve sustained a head injury. Recently, the culprit has often been the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security is putting out white-nationalist dog whistles on X. President Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The subtext of every egregious shitpost from the administration is the…

Read More Read More

Steve Bannon encouraged Epstein to join his effort to ‘take down’ Pope Francis

Steve Bannon encouraged Epstein to join his effort to ‘take down’ Pope Francis

CNN reports: Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to “take down” the pontiff, according to newly released files from the US Department of Justice. Messages sent between the pair in 2019, released in the massive document dump last month, reveal Bannon courted the late financier in his attempts to undermine the former pontiff after leaving the first…

Read More Read More