Glenn Greenwald on Bolsonaro: Brazil Has Elected "Most Extremist Leader in the Democratic World"
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-10-29
Far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro has been elected Brazil's next president, marking the most radical political shift in the country since military rule ended more than 30 years ago. Bolsonaro, a former Army officer, openly supports torture and dictatorships, has a history of making racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments, and has threatened to destroy, imprison or banish his political opponents. He defeated Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers' Party with 55 percent of the vote. His ascendance to power is leading many to fear the future of democracy in Brazil is in danger. We speak with Glenn Greenwald, Puli…
www.democracynow.org/2018/10/29/glenn_gr…
Death by Facebook
AVAAZ | indybay.org | 2018-10-29
Brazil has elected Jair Bolsonaro President, a man who praises torture, says he'll end all activism and threatens to kill 30,000 leftists. How could this insanity happen?!?! | Facebook.
indybay.org/newsitems/2018/10/29/18818555.php
Mission Neighbors: Stand Up for Sex Workers' Rights and Safety!
Rachel West | indybay.org | 2018-10-29
Redstone Building 2940 16th Street, #217 @Capp Street…
indybay.org/newsitems/2018/10/25/18818486.php
Brazil, Fascism and the Left Wing of Neoliberalism
Rob Urie | zcomm.org | 2018-10-29
American business interests are already circling Brazil, knowing that captive consumers combined with enforceable property rights and a pliable workforce means profits…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/brazil-fascism-and-the-left-wing-of-neoliberalism/
GOP Attacks on Native American Voting Rights Have Catalyzed Resistance
Shared by Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-10-29
With midterms just weeks away, tribes are mobilizing voters in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld a 2017 North Dakota Voter ID law requiring residents to provide identification with a current street address to vote. | The law disproportionately affects Native voters in North Dakota and could curtail the Native vote in a state where Democratic incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is trailing Republican challenger US Rep. Kevin Cramer. Native voters typically vote for Democrats. | Tribes are now pushing back against disenfranchisement of Native voters by Republican leadership in North Dakota, but it r…
truthout.org/articles/gop-attacks-on-native-american-voting-rights-have-catalyzed-resistance/
Beat U.S. Sanctions: Iran Starts Oil Sales To Private Exporters
RFE | iranian.com | 2018-10-29
Iran began selling crude oil to private companies for export on Sunday, part of a strategy to counter U.S. sanctions which come into effect on Nov. 4 and aim to stop the country's key crude exports, the oil ministry's news website SHANA reported. Crude oil trade is state-controlled in Iran. Earlier, private refining companies could […] | The post Beat U.S. Sanctions: Iran Starts Oil Sales To Private Exporters appeared first on The Iranian.
iranian.com/2018/10/29/beat-u-s-sanctions-iran-starts-oil-sales-to-private-exporters/
Thousands in Minneapolis protest Trumps attacks on transgender rights
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2018-10-29
Minneapolis, MN – Just days after a news of new Trump administration attacks against transgender people, transgender community members and allies responded with a massive demonstration of solidarity on October 28. Several thousand people – transgender, intersex and gender-expansive people, and allies – lined three and a half miles of sidewalks along Lake Street, from Minneapolis to Saint Paul. | According to one of the event organizers, Cole Nicholls of SDS-UMN and the MN Transgender Health Coalition, "They say transphobia kills. It's true. But it kills with hunger, with homelessness, with illness, with violence…
fightbacknews.org/2018/10/28/thousands-minneapolis-protest-trumps-attacks-transgender-rights
Two short films: The Overcoat, based on the Nikolai Gogol story, and Detainment, about the Jamie Bulger murder case
wsws | wsws.org | 2018-10-29
The Overcoat, directed by Patrick Myles, is based on the famed 1842 short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. Detainment treats the aftermath of the killing of a toddler on Merseyside, England in 1993.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/29/coat…
Teachers set to walk off for refugees
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2018-10-28
The Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian Branch Council has endorsed a planned walk off by teachers and education support staff in support of refugees on November 20, Universal Children's Day. | There are currently about 60 refugee children being detained by the Australian government on Nauru. | More than 6000 doctors issued an open letter to the government on October 22, calling on it to remove children from Nauru due to very serious mental and physical health emergency on the Pacific island. | Doctors and health workers have spoken out about the significant trauma children suffer in detention. | Australia…
greenleft.org.au/content/teachers-set-walk-refugees
The #MeToo Movement's Roots in Women Workers' Rights
Shared by Anton Woronczuk | truthout.org | 2018-10-28
Whenever new protest movements emerge, people look to history for lessons from activists and thinkers who came before. We all stand on the shoulders of those who struggled, sacrificed, and organized to push for a more humane society. | #MeToo is one such movement. It has not only raised awareness about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault–particularly of women–but is also an example of what happens when those who are relegated to a second-class citizenship status come together to speak out. | History is filled with courageous and heroic women who launched crusades for women's liberation…
truthout.org/articles/the-metoo-movements-roots-in-women-workers-rights/
Western Massachusetts students rally community against Trump's transphobic attacks
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2018-10-28
Northampton, MA – Western Massachusetts Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a rally and speak out for transgender rights, October 26, in downtown Northampton's Pulaski Park. Pulaski Park is a block from Smith College, and a short trip from Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, and UMass Amherst. | This event was inspired by SDS actions in Tampa Bay and Tallahassee earlier this week. Joining a national SDS call for students to protest the Trump administration's proposals to change Title IX to include an unwavering definition of gender, based on genetics and a binary idea of biological…
fightbacknews.org/2018/10/28/western-massachusetts-students-rally-community-against-trump-s-transphobic-attacks
Trump's Gender "Science" is Reductive, Mean and Wrong
Jill Richardson | zcomm.org | 2018-10-28
Trump's move — if he makes it — will serve to erase the civil rights of 1.4 million transgender Americans. An already vulnerable population will needlessly suffer…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/trumps-gender-science-is-reductive-mean-and-wrong/
"Still in Solitary Over Here in Baghdad": a Forgotten American's 14-Year Nightmare in Iraq
Cathy Scott-Clark | theintercept.com | 2018-10-28
Shawki Omar's story began as an embodiment of the American Dream. Today, it shows how the so-called war on terror has turned sadistic and extralegal. | The post "Still in Solitary Over Here in Baghdad": a Forgotten American's 14-Year Nightmare in Iraq appeared first on The Intercept.
theintercept.com/2018/10/28/shawki-omar-iraq-detention-torture/
Hunger Striking Detainee Khader Adnan Stops Drinking
INA | imemc.org | 2018-10-28
Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan, who has been on an open-ended hunger strike for 57 days, in protest of being detained without charge or trial, has also stopped drinking water, the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said on Sunday, according to WAFA correspondence. "Prisoner Khader Adnan has decided to step up …
Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Submit File to ICC Prosecutor: Investigate and Prosecute Pillage, Appropriation and Destruction of Palestinian Natural Resources
PCHR | imemc.org | 2018-10-28
Today, on 26 October 2018, Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) submitted a 500-page file on alleged crimes committed by Israelis, in particular high-level Israeli officials, and individuals associated with corporations that are extracting and destroying Palestinian natural resources. The organisations …
Can ICE Legally Force Immigrants to Cheer for Donald Trump?
Nick Pinto | theintercept.com | 2018-10-27
Do the First Amendment's protections prevent the government from targeting its most vocal critics for deportation? That's the central question that three judges for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will be considering Monday, when lawyers for Ravi Ragbir, a New York City immigration activist, will argue for a preliminary injunction to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from deporting him before he can press his First Amendment claim in court. | In the case, which comes before judges Christopher Droney, Pierre Leval, and John Walker Jr., the government contends that Ragbir's situation is straightfo…
theintercept.com/2018/10/27/ice-first-amendment-rights-ravi-ragbir/
11 dead, 6 injured in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
RT | rt.com | 2018-10-27
Eleven people have been killed in a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police have confirmed. The suspect has been detained. | …
rt.com/usa/442435-active-shooter-synagogue-pittsburgh/
International declaration against fascism in Brazil
stuart_m | greenleft.org.au | 2018-10-26
Five hundred academics, Nobel prize winners, human rights activists and celebrities have released an international statement against the rise of fascism in Brazil. | Among the initial signatories are: Argentine Nobel Peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, African-American rights activist Angela Davis, US Senator Bernie Sanders, US actor Danny Glover, Chilean socialist academic Marta Harnecker, US academic Noam Chomsky, British-Pakistani writer Tariq Ali and economist Thomas Piketty. | A number of former heads of state have also signed on including: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), Eduardo Duhalde (A…
greenleft.org.au/content/international-declaration-against-fascism-brazil
How can we make "Abolish ICE" a reality?
David L. Wilson | mronline.org | 2018-10-26
Two of the immigrant rights movement's historic demands provide a basis for actually closing the agency, and beyond that for building a movement to demand more fundamental changes. | Source…
mronline.org/2018/10/25/how-can-we-make-abolish-ice-a-reality/
Will Israel's Gaza Massacres Finally Prod the ICC into Action?
Joe Catron | mintpressnews.com | 2018-10-26
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, normally reserved in their criticism of Israel, have accused the occupying state of "war crimes." Some hope the sheer scale of Israeli fire against unarmed civilians, along with the copious documentation of it, will prod the ICC to action. | The post Will Israel's Gaza Massacres Finally Prod the ICC into Action? appeared first on MintPress News.
mintpressnews.com/will-israels-gaza-massacres-finally-prod-the-icc-into-action/251074/
Hatewatch Headlines 10/26/2018
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2018-10-26
Judge restores funding to sanctuary cities; Civil rights groups call for tech hate-group crackdown; Shea wants to create a 51st state; and…
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/10/26/hatewatch-headlines-10262018
Despite Trump's Best Efforts, Hundreds of Thousands of Immigrants Earn Reprieve From Deportation
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-26
The Trump administration's attacks on the Temporary Protected Status program have been stopped — for now. | Last week, Jeff Sessions attacked a court ruling that gave a temporary reprieve to hundreds of thousands of immigrants facing imminent deportation after years of living lawfully in this country. | "Federal district court judges are not empowered to fashion immigration policy," Sessions said. "The Legislative and Executive branches — of federal and state government — a…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/deportation-and-due-process/despite-trumps-best-efforts-hundreds-thousands
Israel is Lobbying Europe to Declare BDS "Fundamentally Anti-Semitic"
Middle East Monitor | mintpressnews.com | 2018-10-26
In its ongoing battle against the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign Israel is pushing for European political parties to declare the movement "fundamentally anti-Semitic." The latest drive saw Israel's Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Ze'ev Elkin, attending a conference in Brussels backed by the Israeli government which proposed a text for prospective MEPs and political parties to sign up to before European elections in May next year. | The text, the Guardian reported, urges European parties to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) "working definition of anti-Se…
mintpressnews.com/israel-is-lobbying-europe-to-declare-bds-fundamentally-anti-semitic/251082/
White Ribbon's failures go well beyond reproductive rights backflip
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2018-10-26
Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi must have been furious when, in the space of less than 24 hours, White Ribbon Australia (WRA) back flipped on its decision to drop support for what he claimed was a "radical abortion policy". | WRA initially redacted its 2017 statement supporting reproductive rights on October 18, with CEO Tracy McLeod telling Buzzfeed that day that the organisation was now "agnostic" on reproductive…
greenleft.org.au/content/white-ribbons-failures-go-well-beyond-reproductive-rights-back-flip
ACTION ALERT: While Rangers Fight Wildfires, USA Today Fans Flames of Gun Paranoia
Jim Naureckas | fair.org | 2018-10-25
The story under this USA Today headline ( 10/25/18) never mentions the Second Amendment–because it's not relevant to the topic at hand. | The main front-page headline on USA Today's October 25 print edition reads: | Is the Second Amendment Under Fire in the West? | Online, the story's headline ( 10/24/18) asks a similarly alarmist headline–"Gun Rights Unde…
fair.org/home/action-alert-while-rangers-fight-wildfires-usa-today-fans-flames-of-gun-paranoia/
NAACP Partners with Members of the Faith Community to Galvanize Black Voters Ahead of Midterms
Vanessa Mbonu@naacpnet | naacp.org | 2018-10-25
In less than two weeks, Americans from coast to coast will take part in one of the most important elections of a generation, and as the nation's largest and foremost civil rights organizations, NAACP has partnered with its allies in the faith community to ensure the Black community is mobilized and ready to vote. Bishop […] | The post NAACP Partners with Members of the Faith Community to Galvanize Black Voters Ahead of Midterms appeared first on NAACP.
naacp.org/latest/naacp-partners-members-faith-community-galvanize-black-voters-ahead-midterms/
My Boss Fired Me From My Funeral Home Job for Being Transgender
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-25
Aimee Stephens spent most of her life struggling with her gender identity. When she finally came out to her boss, she was fired. | I was in funeral services for nearly three decades before I was fired in 2013 for being transgender. In March, a federal appeals court agreed that it was wrong to fire me just because of who I am. Now, the Supreme Court will consider whether to review that court ruling. | While studying to be a pastor in college, I needed a job, and I found one in a funeral home. There are a lot of different ministries people can pursue, and I realized comforting people during one of the most vulnerab…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/my-boss-fired-me-my-funeral-home-job-being-transgender
Who's Behind ICE? How Amazon, Palantir, Microsoft & Tech Giants Are Powering Trump's Deportations
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-10-24
A shocking new investigation by immigrant rights groups reveals how corporations like Amazon, Palantir and Microsoft are profiting from and expediting Trump's incarceration and deportation operations. Some 10 percent of the Department of Homeland Security's $44 billion budget is dedicated to data management. The report was published as new documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight show Amazon is pushing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to start using its controversial facial recognition technology that could identify immigrants in real time by scanning faces in a video feed. We speak with Jacin…
www.democracynow.org/2018/10/24/whos_beh…
NAACP Sues Shelby County Over Allegedly Defective Voter Registration Applications
Rachel Johnson | naacp.org | 2018-10-24
Tennessee County Should Allow Voters to Fix Applications and Vote Regular Ballots on Election Day BALTIMORE (October 24, 2018) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), America's foremost civil rights organization, announced today that its Memphis Branch filed suit yesterday against the Shelby County (TN) Election Commission for its refusal to allow […] | The post NAACP Sues Shelby County Over Allegedly Defective Voter Registration Applications appeared first on…
naacp.org/latest/naacp-sues-shelby-county-allegedly-defective-voter-registration-applications/
Stacey Abrams Stands By Burning the Racist, Segregationist Georgia State Flag in 1992
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-10-24
During Tuesday's debate, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defended her actions in 1992 when she helped burn the Georgia state flag, which at the time contained a prominent Confederate battle flag. In a victory for civil rights advocates, the flag was later changed. We speak to Leah Wright Rigueur, professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
www.democracynow.org/2018/10/24/stacey_a…
City Officials Stoke Mob Mentality in Front of Sex Offender's Home
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-24
The city government of Providence, Rhode Island, is ignoring its own law on residential protests and feeding vigilantism. | When Richard Gardner, a convicted child sex offender, was released from prison after serving almost 30 years, he quietly moved into the Washington Park neighborhood in Providence. One would not have expected a welcome wagon — but an angry mob should not have been the result either. | Because his crimes were committed so long ago, Gardner is not subject to the community notification provisions that apply to more recent offenders under the state's Megan's Law. But the police leaked his a…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/rights-protesters/city-officials-stoke-mob-mentality-front-sex-offenders-home
Aimee Stephens Was Fired Because She Is Transgender. That's Sex Discrimination
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-24
The ACLU is asking the Supreme Court to let stand a lower court ruling that Aimee's firing was unlawful. | Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump think federal law shouldn't protect transgender people. They think it should be legal to fire someone just because she's trans. Five federal appeals courts disagree. On Wednesday, the ACLU asked the Supreme Court to let stand one of those rulings, in the case of Aimee Stephens. | Aimee had worked at a funeral home in Detroit for nearly six years when she wrote a letter telling her boss and coworkers that she is transgender. Two weeks after she came out as a woman to her employe…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/aimee-stephens-was-fired-because-she-transgender-thats-sex
Fred Nile's foetal personhood bill is going to parliament, again
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2018-10-23
News that NSW MLC Fred Nile is using the last sitting weeks of state parliament before the March 2019 election to push his "Zoe's law" bill — which would give foetuses legal rights — should alarm us all. | Women's rights activists emailed MPs and organised a snap action outside NSW Parliament on October 25, the day Nile tried, but failed, to introduce his private member's bill. Greens MLCs Cate Faehrmann and Jenny Leong and Labor MLC Penny Sharpe joined the action, comm…
greenleft.org.au/content/fred-nile-foetal-personhood-bill-could-be-put-parliament-again-week
Thousands rally in Sydney for workers' rights
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2018-10-23
Thousands of trade unionists marched through Sydney streets on October 23 as part of nationwide "Change The Rules" mobilisations coordinated by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). | The spirit of the marchers was buoyed by the federal Coalition government's loss of its one-seat parliamentary majority after its defeat in the October 20 Wentworth byelection. | Several union leaders, including Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary Warren Smith and ACTU president Michele O'Neil, warned that this was not an "elect Labor campaign", but a campaign to change the rules that are currently stac…
greenleft.org.au/content/thousands-rally-sydney-workers-rights-change-the-rules
The Trump Administration Is Trying to Erase Trans People, but the Law Clearly Protects Them
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-22
A recently leaked memo is attempting to undermine decades of court decisions saying federal law protects transgender and nonbinary people. | Over the weekend, The New York Times revealed that officials within the Trump administration are pushing for a definition of the term "sex" in federal civil rights laws that would eliminate non-discrimination protections for transgender people. Transgender people and their families understandably panicked at that news. | The reality, though, is that transgender pe…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/trump-administration-trying-erase-trans-people-law-clearly
"Reminiscent of South Africa's Grand Apartheid": Israeli Human Rights Group Slams Israel at U.N
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-10-22
Shortly after Israel announced a new "zero tolerance" policy toward demonstrations in Gaza, some 130 Palestinians were injured Friday while protesting ongoing Israeli occupation and demanding the right of return. Four paramedics and 25 children were among the injured. Ten thousand protesters gathered along Israel's heavily militarized separation barrier with Gaza as part of the weekly Great March of Return protests that began March 30. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, including more than 30 children, and injured thousands more. We speak with Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of…
www.democracynow.org/2018/10/22/reminisc…
SPLC statement on Trump administration's efforts to remove civil rights protections from transgender Americans
splcenter | splcenter.org | 2018-10-22
The Trump administration has apparently redoubled its efforts to exclude transgender Americans from the protection of federal civil rights laws.
splcenter.org/news/2018/10/22/splc-statement-trump-administration%25E2%2580%2599s-efforts-remove-civil-rights-protections-transgender
Don't Board Our Buses Without Probable Cause or a Warrant
aclu | aclu.org | 2018-10-19
The president of the Greyhound bus drivers' union urges management to stand up to Trump's deportation machine. | When I first started working at Greyhound 28 years ago, I was told that I would never be able to drive a bus. I'm a woman of color. But I got trained, and I became a bus driver. Soon after, I joined Local 1700 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, and today I am the local's president. | Local 1700 represents 3,500 Greyhound drivers, mechanics, and terminal workers. My job, as the president, is to advocate on behalf of our members for fair pay, safety, and wellbeing. But today, I'm advocating for our custom…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/dont-board-our-buses-without-probable-cause-or
Venezuela Ditches Dollar as US Sanctions Hit Private Sector
TEV | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-10-17
International financial transactions using foreign currency were reportedly blocked, agroindustrial and pharmaceutical sectors said.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14102
Spain Pushes Dialogue Instead of Sanctions Against Venezuela
TeleSur English | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-10-17
The policy represents a radical change from the sanctions wanted by previous Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, imposed by Brussels last January, and reinforced last June.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14100
Venezuela Takes Center Stage in Brazilian Far Right Presidential Campaign
Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-10-11
Frontrunner Bolsonaro has vowed to sever diplomatic relations with Caracas and back sanctions while establishing closer ties with the ultra-right government in Israel.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14095