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Will New Zealand (and the U.S.) Finally Follow Australia on Gun Laws?
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has declared that the gun laws will change. No need to start from scratch: she should take advantage of the extensive policy thinking already done for the New Zealand review and Australia’s National Firearms Agreement. Ideally, New Zealand should adopt the same measures as Australia. She should act fast, before the media spotlight moves on and gun lobby pressure begins to drain the resolve of legislators.”
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Blum, Documenter of U.S. Interventions, Memorialized
“What first put Mr. Blum on the CIA’s radar (and kept him there for nearly 50 years) was his 1969 blockbuster exposé that revealed the names and addresses of more than 200 theretofore anonymous CIA employees who were hard at work fomenting coups, subverting democratic institutions, and assassinating popular leaders in dozens of countries throughout the globe. Blum’s articles, together with Inside the Company: CIA Diary — the 1975 international best-seller by ex-CIA agent Philip Agee — so frightened the CIA that it pressured Congress into passing the Intelligence Identities Protection Act which thereafter made exposés like Blum’s and Agee’s a federal crime.”
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What Does Beto O’Rourke Actually Stand For?
“In his six years in Congress, O’Rourke passed three bills. Two were related to veterans issues, the third renamed a federal building and courthouse. Of course, O’Rourke was in a GOP-dominated House, which would limit his effectiveness. But part of being effective as a Member of Congress is learning to deal with the environment you are in. Between 1995 and 2007, when the Republicans solidly held the House of Representatives, the lawmaker who passed the most amendments was not a far-right Republican but instead Vermont’s independent democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, dubbed an ‘amendment king.’ The firebrand Florida Democrat Alan Grayson…
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Breaking: Sanders War Powers Bill to Stop Saudi Attack on Yemen Passes Senate
“The war in Yemen has helped create the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the UN, with roughly 12 million people at risk of famine. Aid agencies have described Yemen as the worst place in the world to be a child — the conflict has claimed the lives of at least 85,000 children under the age of five from hunger and disease. More than 1 million people have been infected with cholera, with an alarming 10,000 new cases each week. All of the parties have demonstrated a near-total indifference to the welfare of Yemeni civilians. In one particularly…
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“Biden’s Disastrous Legislative Legacy”
Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, Cockburn just wrote the extensive cover story: “No Joe! Joe Biden’s disastrous legislative legacy.” Cockburn argues that many of today’s problems — “from ISIS to the so-called border crisis” — have their roots in policies Biden championed. Here are a few excerpts:
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FlyersRights.org Calls on FAA to Ground Boeing 737 MAX 8
“The FAA’s ‘wait and see’ attitude risks lives as well as the safety reputation of the U.S. aviation industry. Even assuming this design defect should not by itself take the aircraft out of service, the failure to warn airlines and pilots of the new feature, and the inadequacy of training requirements, necessitate an immediate temporary grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.”
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Breaking: U.S. Contractors Recently Arrested in Haiti Have Ties to Prominent Elites and Politicians
“The seven U.S.-based security contractors arrested in Port-au-Prince last month have ties to Haitian elites and politicians.” The investigation raises questions about why the U.S. government “broke with diplomatic procedures in getting the contractors — who were arrested a few blocks from the Central Bank with an array of weapons and driving in unmarked vehicles — out of Haiti, and why they have yet to be charged with any crimes in either the U.S. or Haiti.”
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Lies About Venezuela
The New York Times reports: “Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy.” Emersberger has written extensively on Venezuela and media coverage of the crisis for the media watch group FAIR including “Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President” and for the Canary. He said: “NYT was scooped on this by weeks by independent journalists like Max Blumenthal, but good to see. Bigger lie was the whole premise of the aid stunt.” (See FAIR piece “Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Cheap Trump/Rubio Venezuela Aid PR Stunt.”)
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Ellsberg: Manning Acting Heroically for Press Freedom in WikiLeaks Case
“Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately.”
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Breaking: Documents Show Gov Tracking Journalists and Lawyers at Border
“We’ve seen lawyers, activists, and journalists subject to unacceptable harassment and interrogation, with their electronic devices being searched or seized at the border for years. But this document provides clear evidence that the government is targeting people based on their First Amendment-protected activities. The U.S. border has become a Constitution-free zone, and CBP is an agency out of control. It’s time for Congress to step in to rein in the agency and reassert constitutional protections at the border.”
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn