Week of December 4, 2017
Intrepid Report
Newsletter | ||||
Monday
By Wayne Madsen
With the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution ignored, the Trump administration has turned US foreign policy into an instrument that rewards the Trump Organization’s investors and business partners, punishes its enemies, and enriches members of the Trump family and those of the Jared Kushner clan. The Emoluments Clause forbids a president of the United States and members of the administration from using his or her position to enrich themselves by receiving gifts or emoluments—cash and other valuable financial instrument—from foreign states without the consent of the US Congress.
By Brian Trautman
U.S. President Donald Trump, revealed his inner nature again last week when he retweeted a series of anti-Muslim propaganda videos from the deputy leader of an ultranationalist, neo-fascist hate group in the UK. Trump sank to a new low in terms of the blatant falsehoods and myths he will invoke and propagate to incite enmity against Muslims. He has demonstrated repeatedly that white nationalism and the demonization of Islam is something that he wholeheartedly embraces and intends to advance at every opportunity.
By Stephen Lendman
Capitol Hill arm-twisting failed to enact Trumpcare—so far at least. It succeeded overnight Friday for passage of grand theft Senate legislation—the misnamed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
By Robert Reich
It’s often thought that Democrats care about fairness and not economic growth, while Republicans care about growth even at the cost of some fairness.
By Edward Curtin
It is damp, drizzly November once again, the grim grey in-between month, a time for dying and a time, above all, for waiting. Waiting for the fallen dead foliage to be buried in snow, waiting for the shortest day to come and go, waiting for the New Year to usher in great changes.
Wednesday
By Eric Zuesse
A recent article in the Washington Post described how the current US tax-‘reform’ bill is being shaped; and it describes, basically (at least as far as tax-law changes are concerned), the operation of a US dictatorship by the super-rich.
By Stephen Lendman
It’s a work in progress, yet to be released. Prepared by Trump’s national security team, it’s nearing completion, expected out soon.
By Martha Rosenberg
It should come as no shock that Trump has nominated Alex Michael Azar II, a former Pharma executive and lobbyist, to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). After all, Trump named Scott Gottlieb, a Pharma consultant and stock speculator, FDA commissioner and EPA opponent Scott Pruitt to be head of the EPA. Azar would replace Tom Price, who resigned amid a scandal over his use of taxpayer money for his personal and official travel.
By Jane Stillwater
I’m so full of gloom and doom these days that nobody even invites me to parties anymore and most of my out-going e-mails end up in the spam box. Relatives avoid me during holidays and I don’t even like to spend time with my own self.
By Linh Dinh
On Thanksgiving, I came to Scranton to stay with a 65-year-old friend who’s going through a cage fight kind of divorce, though only one side is dishing out the sharp elbows and knees. Just hearing Christmas music at the Dollar Store was driving him mad, Chuck confessed. The four-hour bus ride from Philly stopped in Doylestown, Easton, Stroudsburg and Mount Pocono.
Friday
By John Chuckman
Trump does seem like a dangerous idiot suddenly and unexpectedly set loose on the world of international affairs, a world which normally assumes an appearance of restraint and order and careful words.
By Michael Winship
Amid all the craziness surrounding Roy Moore’s race for the US Senate and the seeming willingness of Alabama’s likely voters to send a man of such dubious merit and morality to Capitol Hill (where, admittedly, the bar already is pretty damned low), I keep thinking of a line from the Randy Newman song “Rednecks.”
By Paul Craig Roberts
I deplore the tax cut that has passed Congress. It is not an economic policy tax cut, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with supply-side economics. The entire purpose is to raise equity prices by providing equity owners with more capital gains and dividends. In other words, it is legislation that makes equity owners richer, thus further polarizing society into a vast arena of poverty and near-poverty and the One Percent, or more precisely a fraction of the One Percent wallowing in billions of dollars. Unless our rulers can continue to control the explanations, the tax cut edges us closer to revolution resulting from complete distrust of government.
By Ramzy Baroud
Pope Francis lost a historical opportunity to truly set his legacy apart from previous popes. Alas, for him, too, political expediency trumped all else. In his visit to Burma (Myanmar) on November 27, he refrained from using the word ‘Rohingya.’
By John W. Whitehead
Corruption. Graft. Intolerance. Greed. Incompetence. Ineptitude. Militarism. Lawlessness. Ignorance. Brutality. Deceit. Collusion. Corpulence. Bureaucracy. Immorality. Depravity. Censorship. Cruelty. Violence. Mediocrity. Tyranny. These are the hallmarks of an institution that is rotten through and through.
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