A Koch-Supported Coup at the VA? The Veterans Health Administration Risks Being Dismantled

[t]   Tuesday, March 20, 2018 [t r u t h o u t] [View Recent Newsletters]( [Tell a friend about Truthout!]( [Donate Today!](   Truthout is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization; donations are tax deductible. BuzzFlash Republicans Reluctant to Chastise Trump on Mueller [Read the Article at NBC News]( Democrats Have Reportedly Decided That DACA Recipients Can Wait [Read the Article at Jezebel]( Bernie Sanders's Economic Inequality Town Hall Draws 1.7 Million Live Viewers [Read the Article at HuffPost]( "Utterly Horrifying": Ex-Facebook Insider Says Covert Data Harvesting Was Routine [Read the Article at the Guardian]( World's Last Male Northern White Rhino Dies [Read the EcoWatch Article at BuzzFlash]( Trump May Inadvertently Help Elect Leftist President in Mexico in July [Read the Article at the Miami Herald]( Government Shutdown Nears, Again [Read the Article at CNBC]( Truthout covers the movements that are pushing back against racism and tyranny. Support our work today! [Donate Now]( [A Koch-Supported Coup at the VA? The Veterans Health Administration Risks Being Dismantled]( Michael Corcoran, Truthout: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, the only Trump cabinet member to be unanimously confirmed, is now embroiled in scandal, and the Koch-funded propaganda machine is working hard to amplify the bad news. Veterans groups worry that Shulkin will be replaced by an ideologue who will accelerate the privatization of the Veterans Health Administration, the US's only socialized health care system. [Read the Article]( [As Facebook Ire Grows, Senator Says Zuckerberg "Ought to Be Subpoenaed"]( Jake Johnson, Common Dreams: The damning details of Facebook's largest-ever data breach at the hands of pro-Trump data firm Cambridge Analytica continue to pour in. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling on CEO Mark Zuckerberg to "testify under oath" before Congress to explain why his company took so long to notify users that their information had been compromised. [Read the Article]( [The Misplaced Attacks on Legal Cannabis Continue]( Maryam Henein, Truthout: Cannabis legalization advocates have long argued that the crackdown on pot is, in part, an attempt to squelch any competition with the fabricated THC/CBD drugs that Big Pharma wants to market. A case in point is the Schedule II classification granted to Dronabinol, a drug made by opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, which spent half a million dollars to defeat a marijuana legalization measure in Arizona. [Read the Article]( [Arrested for Jumping a Turnstile: How New York City Punishes the Poor]( Josmar Trujillo, Truthout: Even as Mayor Bill de Blasio and city officials boast about making New York "the fairest big city in America," they remain committed to the racist "broken windows" theory of policing. While the mayor and district attorney paint themselves as progressives, police continue to aggressively enforce low-level offenses like subway turnstile jumping against poor New Yorkers. [Read the Article]( [The War on the Post Office]( Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog: The US banking establishment has been at war with the post office since at least 1910, when the Postal Savings Bank Act established a public savings alternative to a private banking system that had crashed the economy in the Bank Panic of 1907. Now, the US Postal Service, under attack from a manufactured crisis designed to force its privatization, needs a new source of funding to survive. Postal banking could fill that need. [Read the Article]( [Undocumented and Unpaid, Until Now: Houston Day Laborers Fight Wage Theft After Hurricane Harvey]( Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now!: After Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on Houston six months ago, tons of moldy debris had to be removed. The nation's fourth-largest city is now beginning a multi-year rebuilding process. Much of the work is being done by undocumented immigrants, who make up at least half of the Texas construction workforce. [Watch the Video and Read the Transcript]( [Eleven "Small" Banks That Would Gain From the Senate Banking Bill Sport Hefty Pay Gaps]( Sarah Anderson, Inequality.org: Supporters of a Senate-approved deregulation bill claim they're helping "community" banks. But real community banks don't have CEOs making 146 times their workers' pay. The last thing we need is to weaken oversight over overpaid banking executives. [Read the Article]( [Trump's Answer to Opioids: Cops and Jails]( Nicole Colson, Socialist Worker: Donald Trump rolled out his latest plan to address the opioid crisis at a March 19 speech in New Hampshire, where opioid addiction has hit particularly hard. One feature is getting particular attention: a proposal to apply the death penalty to some (as yet unspecified) drug crimes. [Read the Article]( [Five Actions the GOP Is Taking to Harm Oppressed People]( Robin Marty, Care2: It's not enough for the Republican Party to control most state legislatures, the House, the Senate, the Judiciary and the White House. No, the GOP is ensuring that its time at the top pushes marginalized people down even further. [Read the Article]( [This Week's Progressive Pick: There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia]( For decades, the people of Columbia were assaulted and killed by paramilitaries, drug cartels and FARC -- with a corrupt government deeply involved. Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno describes the horror and focuses on three people whose courage had a profound impact in redirecting the nation to a more hopeful future. [Get the Book With a Donation to Truthout]( [Want to strengthen Truthout and help us plan for the future? 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