Middleboro Review et al

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31 MORNING MESSAGE Chelsea White The State of OUR Union Is Ready To Lift Up Truth My name is Chelsea White and I am a proud Appalachian woman. I live in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. There’s a new wave of defiance growing, and that defiance is female, is young and old, and is every color of the rainbow. The state of OUR union is ready to lift up truth, to raise our voices collectively and move mountains. We are ready. State of Our Union Calls For Women To Unite State of Our Union event calls for women to unite against Trump agenda. Detroit Free Press: “The resistance to President Donald Trump made its objections loud and clear on the night of his first State of the Union address… Their counter event, called the State of Our Union, drew leaders of such organizations as the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the MeToo movement, Girls for Gender Equity, Planned Parenthood, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, MomsRising a...

TUESDAY,  MORNING MESSAGE Jessica Juarez Scruggs Women Take the Stage for ‘The State of Our Union’ Five hundred women from more than fifty grassroots and national organizations gather tonight in Washington, D.C. for tonight's State of Our Union, which offers an alternative vision for our country in which gender and economic justice can overcome the forces that seek to divide our nation along fault lines of race and class. Click here to watch event live. Federal Judge Frees Immigrant Activist, Slams ICE Federal judge blasts ICE for ‘cruel’ tactics, frees immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir. WaPo: “Comparing the Trump administration’s immigration practices to those of an authoritarian regime, a federal judge in Manhattan on Monday ordered the immediate release of a detained immigrant rights activist. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest said it was unconstitutional and cruel for authorities to ‘pluck him out of his life without a moment’s notice… It ought not...

MORNING MESSAGE Sam Pizzigati A New Benchmark for Measuring Progress Against Inequality Oxfam's eye-popping annual report on the growing gap between the world's richest and poorest offers not just laments, but some attainable strategies that can make societies fairer for all, if our leaders would only follow their advice. Environmental Groups Challenge EPA With Dozens Of Suits Big green readies dozens of lawsuits as only ‘antidote’ for Trump EPA. Washington Examiner: “‘EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to roll back the clock on environmental protections and drag us back decades,’ said Natural Resources Defense Council president Rhea Suh in a note to supporters Saturday. ‘The best antidote to Pruitt’s illegal attacks on our environment? Federal court,’ she said. The group is preparing to file a number of lawsuits against Trump’s EPA, and is asking supporters to increase their financial contributions to support the coming court effort. She claims that the grou...

MORNING MESSAGE Richard Eskow Trump’s General Just Announced a New Cold War. Who Will Stop It? Defense Secretary James Mattis announced a dramatic shift in military policy last week, and it threatens to plunge the world into new forms of conflict. Mattis is not a “Mad Dog,” as his nickname suggests. He's a rational and articulate spokesperson for the national security ideology that has dominated American political life since the end of World War II. That’s disturbing in a very different way. WH Floats Demands On Immigration Deal Trump’s Immigration Concession Sets High Price for Democrats. Bloomberg: “The administration Thursday night proposed giving 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children a path to citizenship in exchange for drastically reducing family-based migration, a $25 billion trust fund for a border wall, stepped-up security at ports of entry, and stricter internal enforcement. The framework is, in effect, a bottom line for the ...

MORNING MESSAGE Jeff Bryant Massive Charter School Failure Exposes Thousands of Students A massive charter school closure in Ohio leaves thousands of students in the lurch, and the state holding the bill. This failure prompts hard questions about accountability in this business model, but how many school-choice zealots, like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, will ask them? Trump Says Open To Solution For DREAMers Trump says he is open to a path to citizenship for ‘Dreamers’. NYT: “President Trump said on Wednesday that he is open to a path to citizenship after 10 to 12 years for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, days after rejecting a bipartisan plan with that as its centerpiece. Mr. Trump once again seemed to undercut his administration’s message, telling reporters at the White House that he would allow the young immigrants, known as Dreamers, to ‘morph into’ citizens over a period of time. The reporters had g...

MORNING MESSAGE Robert Borosage The Shutdown Debacle: Trump and the Politics of Hate The GOP’s shameful treatment of DREAMers isn’t accidental or random. It exemplifies the repugnant preying on racial fears that is a core strategy of Donald Trump’s Republican Party. We must build a broad majority that rejects that politics and its practitioners. U.S. Talks Trade War At Davos Commerce’s Ross declares trade war under way. Bloomberg: “Trade wars ‘are fought every single day,’ and the U.S. has been engaged in one ‘for quite a little while,’ Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in comments that diverge from President Donald Trump. ‘The difference is the U.S. troops are now coming to the rampart,’ Ross told reporters reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Ross’s comments about the Trump administration’s move Tuesday to slap new tariffs on solar panel and washing machine imports conflict with Trump’s own statements.” Mulvaney Moves To Reorient CFPB Acting consumer ...

MORNING MESSAGE America Reyes Mitch, Chuck and the Big “What If” for DREAMers My name is America, and I am a DREAMer. Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and their colleagues need to step up and show me, my sisters and everyone who votes that they can lead, or if their promises are just another big, empty "What If" to everyone who believes in the American Dream. Government Reopens, For Now Congress has voted to end the government shutdown. Vox: “After a three-day standoff, Congress has voted to reopen the government — but only for three weeks. In a last-minute decision, Senate Democrats agreed to pass a spending bill that would fund the federal government through February 8, and fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years, with an assurance from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to negotiate some kind of immigration deal within that time period and put a bill on the floor for a vote. The House passed the same spending bill a few hours later. Law...

MORNING MESSAGE Richard Eskow Death by Inequality: Poverty and Racism Are Killing America’s Children A new report concludes 600,000 American children have died for no reason over 50 years. Thousands more will die this year, and next year, and the year after that. This is our nations real “death tax”: It’s a tax on poverty, race, and powerlessness. It’s paid with the lives of our innocents. Government Shutdown Enters Third Day Government shutdown goes into Monday as Senate inches toward deal. NYT: “Senators failed on Sunday to reach an agreement to end the government shutdown, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of federal employees would be furloughed Monday morning even as the outlines of a potential compromise came into focus. For much of the day, feverish work by a bipartisan group of senators offered a reason for cautious optimism that a deal could be reached soon. By Sunday night, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, moved to delay until noon M...