Fiery Accidents and Toxic Pollution: An Environmental Warning to Trump

[t]   Tuesday, 13 December 2016 [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 Chamber of Commerce Helped Senate Tip Republican by Contributing Exclusively to GOP Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: A new report confirms that democracy is being sold to the highest bidder, not determined by policies that represent the best interests of the majority of Americans. [Read the BuzzFlash Commentary]   Trump's Pick for China Ambassador a "Big Gift to Big Ag" [Read the EcoWatch Article at BuzzFlash]   Children Trapped in Building Under Attack in Aleppo, Doctor Tells UN [Read the Article at the Guardian US]   Trump Picks Rick Perry to Lead Energy Department [Read the Article at The Hill]   Five Points on House GOP Bill to Impose Major Cuts on Social Security [Read the Article at Talking Points Memo]   Abortion Providers Sue to Block Texas Fetal Burial, Cremation Rule [Read the Article at Austin American-Statesman]   Official Disconnect: Russia "Hacked" Election for Trump, but No Need to Count the Ballots?! [Read the Article at TheBradBlog]   Six Ways to Meet the Needs of Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Patients [Read the Article at Rewire]     [Recharging the Batteries of Whiteness: Trump's New Racial Identity Politics] Arun Kundnani, Truthout: At the heart of Trump's political project is a racial identity politics that was first pioneered by the European far right in the 1980s. Its power lies in its ability to connect popular rage at the failures of capitalism to a narrative of white victimhood. [Read the Article]  [Fiery Accidents and Toxic Pollution: Louisiana's Environmental Woes Offer a Warning to Trump] Mike Ludwig, Truthout: Donald Trump and his pro-industry cabinet picks have promised to slash federal environmental protections and leave regulation up to the states. This hasn't worked out well in Louisiana, a major oil-and-gas-producing state where oversight is notoriously lacking and industry accidents occur on a daily basis. [Read the Article]  [Native Waters, Native Warriors: From Standing Rock to Honduras] Beverly Bell, Truthout: Two fierce Indigenous battles against corporate state power are being fought in the Americas. With shared strategies of mobilization and direct action, the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota and the Lenca in Honduras are challenging an oil pipeline on Native lands and the damming of the Gualcarque river, respectively. [Read the Article]  [McConnell Won't Say if Tillerson Can Be Confirmed as Secretary of State] Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson will reportedly be President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, but tea leaves in the Senate suggest it could be an uphill battle to get the oil baron confirmed. [Read the Article]  [Defying Political Pushback, Private Colleges Quietly Enroll Undocumented Students] Timothy Pratt, The Hechinger Report: Emory University is among a small but growing number of private universities and colleges that have joined many public ones in accepting undocumented students, in part because more private donors are providing scholarships for them. [Read the Article]  [Electoral College Members Seek Intel Briefing on Possible Russian Meddling in Election to Aid Trump] Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: On Monday, nine Democratic and one Republican member of the Electoral College asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for a briefing before next week on whether Russia interfered with the election to help Donald Trump win the presidency. [Watch the Video and Read the Transcript]  [It Was a Blighted City Block. But This Resident Is Turning It Into a Solar-Powered Ecovillage] Zenobia Jeffries, YES! Magazine: The city of Highland Park is in the middle of the much larger city of Detroit, and could easily be mistaken for another of its neglected neighborhoods. But resident Shamayim Harris bought several properties and is now converting them into sustainable community spaces. [Read the Article]  [Cops of the Pacific? The US Military's Role in Asia in the Age of Trump] Tim Shorrock, TomDispatch: It is time to start looking for alternatives to our militaristic policies in Asia, for more equitable ties with Japan and South Korea, and for a shift away from confrontation with North Korea and China. East Asia's peace movements could show us the way. [Read the Article]  [What Trumponomics Means for Women] Martha Burk, OtherWords: Trump's so-called fixes will hurt the nation's majority -- women -- the most. While scores of men have fallen off the middle-class ladder since 1980, many more women never made it past the lowest rung in the first place. [Read the Article]  [Soil: Keeping Nutrients in Food and Carbon in the Ground] Lyndal Rowlands, Inter Press Service: Around the world over 500 million hectares of soil has become degraded -- leading to the loss of valuable nutrients as well as the release of carbon, speeding up the process of human-made climate change. [Read the Article]  [Trump's Health Care Policy Appears Heavy on Complexity, Light on Mercy] Daniel C. Bryant, Portland Press Herald: The Affordable Care Act is complex, and, though much more equitable than Trump's policies, may well not survive. As for the system that the president-elect's policies would lead to, it will be unlikely to survive either because of its own complexities, and not because of its inequities. [Read the Article]  [This Week's Progressive Pick: Rigged] In his new book, subtitled How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, economist and frequent Truthout contributor Dean Baker details the policies that have led to today's remarkable levels of wealth inequality in the United States. [Get the Book With a Donation to Truthout]  [Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation ] Please add messenger@truthout.org to ensure you receive our messages Truthout is a proud member of the Newspaper Guild/CWA, Local 36047 [Subscribe] | [Unsubscribe] [Privacy Policy]   [The Newspaper Guild]