We now need laws for government to practice basic human decency

Cody Fenwick writes that the government funding deal that was just signed by Donald Trump was much worse for him that what the media are generally reporting, though even they concede that it was pretty bad for him. What is telling is that the deal requires the government to treat detainees with basic decency, such as not putting them in wire enclosed cages that were so cold that the detained children called them ‘ice boxes’ and even the sandwiches they were given were frozen.

As Fenwick writes:
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Convicted liar Elliot Abrams angered when reminded about his lies

Elliot Abrams is an aggressive warmonger who oversaw US involvement in all manner of atrocities in Latin America going back to his time in the administration of George H. W. Bush. He was convicted in 1991 on two counts of withholding information to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair but was pardoned along with others because these people protect their own. He has now reappeared as Donald Trump’s point person to Venezuela, no doubt because of his expertise in subverting governments in that region.
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Trump’s emergency is yet another lie

So to no one’s surprise, Donald Trump has caved once again on funding for his stupid wall, accepting an even worse deal than what he was offered before the government was shut down and another one he could have got when the government was shut down. So the great deal maker has shown that his great skill in getting successively worse deals, as described by Ryan Bort.
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The Green New Deal

The Green New Deal is the non-binding resolution introduced by representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senator Ed Markey to highlight the importance of climate change and the need to find ways to combat global warming as well as providing a better standard of living for most people. A major goal is to achieve a 100% conversion to renewable energy by 2030. You can read the resolution here. Here is a summary of the main points.
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Finally, some good news on the environment

As I have said repeatedly, the US national parks are a genuine treasure, meant for everyone to enjoy. But in recent years the Republicans have been pushing for more mining and exploratory activities to be allowed on them. The last government shutdown that resulted in irresponsible visitors to the parks causing needless damage because of the absence of park rangers was also infuriating. They even cut down ancient trees in the Joshua Tree park and vandalized the desert.
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So that’s how ‘Executive Time’ is being spent

The report that Donald Trump’s recent schedule contains about 60% ‘Executive Time’ (i.e, no meetings with anyone) will come as no surprise to those who have realized that he is one of the laziest and most ignorant presidents in modern history. But there has been some curiosity as to what he does with all that time. Speculations have ranged from watching TV to watching TV. But a new report sheds some light on this issue.
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Great moments in nuclear war planning

Daniel Ellsberg is famous now as a strong whistleblower advocate who released the Pentagon Papers that showed that the publicly stated premises on which the US waged its invasion of Vietnam were based on lies. But before that, he was steeped in the Cold War military establishment as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation. In that role, he was asked to evaluate various proposals suggested by the military.
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“The system is fundamentally broken”

In this video below from a congressional hearing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in just a few minutes, demonstrates how the political system in the US has been structured in such a way as to enable, even encourage, corruption. It shows clearly why the oligarchy is freaking out over her because she seems to have an instinctive knack for succinctly and clearly demonstrating in a very short time with few words how fundamentally flawed the current system is.

Tennessee – a state where hopeless causes never die

You would think that following the US Supreme Court decision in 2015 outlawing bans on same-sex marriage, opponents would admit defeat and wait for their god to deliver the retribution to these sinners that these religious zealots long for. Not the Tennessee legislature. They are considering a law that would ban such marriages in their state.
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