Archives for 3月 2018

2020 Census Citizenship Question Trump’s Latest Move in War on Immigrants

“A naked attempt to politicize the census, with the goal of suppressing minority participation.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss preparing for the 2020 Census, on Capitol Hill, Oct. 12, 2017 (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Trump administration’s decision to add a controversial question on citizenship status to the 2020 Census questionnaire is its latest attack on immigrant communities—a far-reaching power grab disguised as a technicality. Legal advocates for Latinos and communities of color are seeing it as a declaration of domestic political war. “MALDEF

Death of Marielle Franco Shines Light on the White Collar Criminals Running Brazil

White-collar criminals in Brasília are ruling the country. Drug lords, paramilitaries, death squads, military police, and now also the army are terrorizing the population in the slums and the suburbs.

Marielle was a child of the slums of Rio de Janeiro. She was black, beautiful, young and charismatic. She studied sociology and had an MA in public administration. She was a feminist, LGBT+, Black and human rights activist. Elected on a progressive agenda, she was an active councilwoman of the city of Rio de Janeiro since 2016. She was assassinated

Nicolas Sarkozy: Crime and Punishment?

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is under investigation for allegedly receiving millions of euros in illegal election campaign funding from Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. This must be placed in the broader context of war crimes by Western heads of state.

Former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, pose during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris in December, 2007. (Patrick Hertzog/AP)

The relationship between Sarkozy and Gaddafi fits the pattern of the old mafia joke: “You’re my friend. I kill you for nothing.” Two news items jostled for attention on the front pages of mainstream newspapers and news bulletins of the main television channels on the Old Continent last week. One was the Sergei Skripal “nerve agent attack” and

What to Do About John Bolton and Other Pro-War Appointees

John Bolton’s appointment as Trump’s chief foreign policy advisor is terrifying. The appointment requires no Senate ratification, so effective responses are hard to find. However, there are plans for pushing back, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

iran sanctions

Yes, John Bolton Really Is That Dangerous, read a headline from the New York Times. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he “can’t imagine a more reckless, more dangerous pick” in an interview for MSNBC. “U.S. War with North Korea and Iran More Likely With John Bolton Running National Security” read a Newsweek headline. “It’s time to panic now:

Big Oil Already Netted $25 Billion From GOP Tax Cuts

The so-called Tax Cut and Jobs Act slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to just 21 percent—a 40 percent reduction.

President Donald Trump pitches his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the Andeavor oil refinery in North Dakota on September 6th, 2017. (Photo: WhiteHouse.gov)

The oil and gas industry benefitted to the tune of billions of dollars from the Trump tax cut bill... And you didn't. That's how the Center for Biological Diversity responded to a new analysis published Tuesday, which shows how the fossil fuel industry has saved $25 billion so far—"with many more billionaires more to come"—from the Republican tax

Human Rights in Mexico, From Crisis to Catastrophe

Two recent reports reveal that Mexico’s institutions are simply unable or unwilling to actually protect human rights and rampant incompetence denies justice to victims.

Journalists gather around a photo of slain photojournalist Ruben Espinosa, placed by his relatives at the entrance of Mexico City's Attorney General's office, on the second year anniversary of his murder in Mexico City, Monday, July 31, 2017. Espinosa worked for the investigative magazine Proceso and other media in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and murdered along with four women in an apartment in Mexico City on July 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

MEXICO CITY -- Thirty-one-year-old photojournalist Ruben Espinosa was murdered the first time in July of 2015, when he and four women were fatally shot, execution style, with a 9-millimeter handgun, inside an apartment in a middle-class neighborhood of Mexico City. Three of the women were likely in the wrong place at the wrong time; the real