Trump Administration Wants to Redefine the Poverty Line, Shrinking Public Aid

Thursday, June 20, 2019 [| Time is running out -- we need your help! |]( [Trump Administration Wants to Redefine the Poverty Line, Shrinking Public Aid]( Sasha Abramsky, Truthout The Trump administration is proposing to change how inflation and the consumer price index are calculated, which would change how poverty rates are estimated and push millions of people above the poverty line. More importantly, this statistical sleight of hand by a government of and for plutocrats would render poor people ineligible for benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, housing, and free school breakfasts and lunches. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Accusing U.S. of Intrusion in National Airspace, Iran Shoots Down U.S. Drone]( Jake Johnson, Common Dreams Iran claims to have shot down a U.S. spy drone that entered Iranian airspace on Thursday. The incident comes as the Trump administration attempts -- on the basis of flimsy evidence -- to blame Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. The administration is paving the way to launch an attack on Iran without congressional approval, triggering alarm and opposition from progressive lawmakers. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [They Are Concentration Camps -- and They Are Also Prisons]( Maya Schenwar and Kelly Hayes, Truthout We must recognize that the prison camps for migrant children are concentration camps, but we must also recognize them as part of the prison-industrial complex. This recognition is important, if we are to comprehend the interrelated horrors to which the United States subjects millions of people every day. We must take action based on an understanding that systems of oppression are connected -- seeking a vision of freedom that leaves no one behind. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- At Truthout, we'll never have a paywall and we'll never force subscription fees on you. But to do this, we rely on reader donations to continue publishing. Can you help us keep this news source online and accessible to everyone? It takes just 30 seconds to donate and every dollar helps. [Donate Now →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Trump's Plan to Save Coal Country Will Actually Hurt It]( Mike Ludwig, Truthout Trump's attempt to extend the life of the coal industry with regulatory maneuvers is not only bad for the environment and public health, it's bad for workers and the economy. In pandering to the coal lobby and his followers in coal country, Trump could actually hurt the workers he claims to be helping because market forces and the public's desire for cleaner energy are pushing the energy sector away from coal. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [The White Man's Biden]( William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Joe Biden's "bipartisanship" is propping up racists and the superrich, while deriding the left. Much of this is an attempt to distract from his damaging record: Because he can't fix what he has done, and has no intention to do so if he becomes president, the best Biden can do is pretend none of it is there at all. "I won’t let you down, " he told that wealthy donor crowd in New York. That should be his campaign slogan, because it is the absolute truth. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Scientists Are Stunned by How Rapidly Ice Is Melting in the Arctic]( Dahr Jamail, Truthout June has set a record low for Arctic sea ice, and the extent of melting across the Greenland Ice Sheet has never been seen this early in the summer. Impacts are reverberating across the Arctic, with soaring temperatures, droughts and unprecedented seal die-offs. One researcher offered a bleak prognosis: "We're not going to stop this train wreck." [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Walmart Got a $2.2 Billion Tax Cut. Now It's Laying Off Workers]( Igor Derysh, Salon Walmart announced it will lay off hundreds of workers in North Carolina despite receiving billions in tax cuts that the Republican Party and President Trump claimed would spur job growth. Walmart is one of many major companies sharing the huge windfall from the tax cuts with their shareholders through stock buyback options instead of paying more to their workers. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Reparations Are Not Just About Slavery But Centuries of Theft and Racial Terror]( Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now! On the heels of Wednesday's historic congressional hearing on reparations, renowned writer Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks on the lasting legacy of U.S. slavery, how the national dialogue about reparations has progressed in the past five years and his testimony in favor of H.R. 40, which took direct aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "It is absolutely impossible to imagine America without enslavement," Coates says. [Watch the Video and Read the Transcript →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Sweatshops Don't Just Exist Overseas -- They're Here in the U.S. Too]( Kressent Pottenger and Yeni Dewi, New Labor Forum U.S. garment sweatshops continue to spring up in urban areas where the mostly immigrant female workforce makes clothes for big-name brands under appalling conditions and without hourly wages. The decline in private-sector unions, obstacles to new organizing and underfunding of agencies responsible for monitoring labor law compliance explain these harrowing conditions, as detailed firsthand by a garment worker in Los Angeles. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Floridians Are Suing a Cop Fired for Planting Drugs in Their Vehicles]( Katie Rose Quandt, The Appeal Nine people have filed a federal lawsuit against the Jackson County Sheriff's Office for negligence and three deputy sheriffs for planting drugs and making illegal arrests. At least 37 other people have filed state-level lawsuits against one of the deputy sheriffs. The lawsuit exposes a problematic culture where the imperative to inflate conviction statistics incentivizes prosecutors to seek misdemeanor plea deals instead of dismissing cases when the evidence doesn't add up. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In Case You Missed It --------------------------------------------------------------- [Trump Wants a Third Term. Could the Unimaginable Happen Here?]( Spencer Sunshine, Truthout Trump recently suggested that his supporters might demand that he stay longer than two terms in office or that he should get an extra two years as a consolation prize for the Russia investigation -- displaying once again his contempt for democracy and open sympathy for authoritarianism. Given how often the U.S.'s "strong" democratic ideals have failed in the past, it's worth asking how we might respond, should the unimaginable come to pass. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [It's Bad Journalism to Take Cops at Their Word]( Matt McLoughlin, Truthout Despite all the police shootings and incidents of police violence, mainstream news outlets are failing to fact-check police statements. A recent egregious example was the media's reproduction of Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson's unsubstantiated claim that bail reform was to blame for the uptick in shootings earlier this month. Such uncritical parroting of police narratives only serves to enable the scourges of police violence, racism and mass incarceration. [Read the Article →]( --------------------------------------------------------------- We still need 85 people to start a sustaining, monthly donation to Truthout. Will you be one? Just choose "monthly" on our 30-second form. 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