Democracy Dies in Darkness The truth behind the rhetoric The NRA’s love-hate relationship with a database for background checks After the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch was on TV lamenting that states don’t send all the required criminal and mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Because of these gaps, she said, many people legally barred from buying guns can get them anyway. “It’s not federally mandated,” she said on CNN. “Politicians could change this today; they could change it tomorrow,” she said on ABC News. We did some digging and found that politicians did try to change this, 25 years ago, with a federal mandate. And they were blocked — largely by the NRA. The group funded several lawsuits challenging the Brady gun law, which created the NICS, and filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court arguing that the entire law...
News Updates from CLG 30 December 2017 http://www.legitgov.org/ All links are here: http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news Previous edition: War drills conducted to prepare U.S. military to seize North Korea's nuclear weapons; WA train derailment My apologies for the gap between the last CLG Newsletter and today's. Thank you to all who contributed to CLG this year! Your generosity helps keep CLG afloat. Please consider donating for 2018. Happy New Year to all! U.S. Military Prepares for Winter War With North Korea, Russia by Buying Thousands of Skis | 29 Dec 2017 | The U.S. military is buying thousands of skis for the U.S. Marine Corps to enhance its preparedness for cold weather operations as tensions grow with Russia and North Korea--countries known for having brutal winters. The Marine Corps is spending 7 million on the winter equipment--a total of 2,648 sets of new skis, bo...
After 16 Years, Afghanistan War Is 'At Best A Grinding Stalemate,' Journalist Says February 6, 2018 TERRY GROSS Enlarge this image A U.S. Army helicopter crew chief scans the ground near Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan in June 2017. Capt. Brian Harris/AP America's war in Afghanistan is the longest war the U.S. has ever fought. Beginning a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the initial mission was to remove the Taliban from power and destroy the al-Qaida terror network. Now, nearly 17 years later, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll points out that the war's goals have changed. "The objective is not a grand peace ceremony on some grand aircraft carrier," Coll says. "It's to reduce the violence in Afghanistan, to reduce the suffering of innocents in Kabul, to support the constitutional government that we invested in after Sept. 11 so heavily in money and in American lives and sacrifices on the battlefield...
Dear Friend, A series of events linked to West Asia in the last nine months has brought to the surface the under-currents and cross-currents in the region’s perennial struggle between occupation and hegemony, on the one hand, and resistance and liberation, on the other. It is crucial to understand how these events are related to one another, to connect the dots, as it were, in our attempt to make sense of what is unfolding in the world’s most strategic – and most dangerous — region. Also more stories from around the world. If you don't mind, and if you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/. In Solidarity Binu Mathew Editor Countercurrents.org West Asia ...
29 December 17 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News WITH MANY SMALL DONATIONS, AND A PRECIOUS FEW LARGER ONES - We are making progress on the year-end funding-drive. A handful of people are keeping RSN going by stepping up with contributions. Don't let them stand alone. We need your help now. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! FOCUS: Why the 2018 Midterms Are So Vulnerable to Hackers Evan Osnos, The New Yorker Osnos writes: "How much of an effect could Russian interference actually have in 2018? The effects could be meaningful, even if they never touch the tallies directly." READ MORE he first primary of the 2018 midterm elections, in Texas, is barely eight weeks away. It’s time to ask: Will the Russian government deploy “active measures” of the kind it used in 2016? Is it possible that a wave of disinformation on Facebook and Twitter could nudge the results of a tight congre...
20 January 18 AM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News IF THE NEED FOR FUNDING WERE NOT SERIOUS WE WOULD NOT SAY SO - Funding is in fact critically lacking and the situation is now quite serious. Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Bill McKibben | The Resistance to Trump Will Be Local Bill McKibben, The Nation McKibben writes: "Whenever progress is blocked in Washington, the pressure for progress always finds other outlets. During the George W. Bush administration, for instance, environmentalists looked to state and local governments for action on climate change, and the result was a slew of commitments that helped build the renewable-energy industry." READ MORE The Federal Government Just Shut Down. What Happens Next? Michael Collins, USA TODAY Collins writes: "The federal government ran out of funding at midnight, but you may not have noticed." READ MORE Fusion GPS: Kreml...
23 December 17 AM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News A PAINFUL DECISION: It's always painful when we have to press for donations. We have supporters, many. We have many more who could be. The organization cannot function without support. It's a painful decision. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Masha Gessen | The Language of a Dictatorship Masha Gessen, The New Yorker Gessen writes: "Donald Trump has scored a legislative victory with staggering costs. The price of the tax bill has to be measured not only in the loss American society will face in the increase in inequality, in the impact on public health, and the growth of the deficit, but also in the damage to political culture inflicted by the spectacle of one powerful man after another telling lies of various sorts." READ MORE Appeals Court Rules That Trump's Third Travel Ban Is Illegal Josh Gerstein, Politico Gers...
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