This Year's Summer of Fire Is a Harbinger of What's to Come

[t]   Thursday, October 19, 2017 [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 Trump Ratchets Up Tensions With Cuba Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: Trump wants to move backward on relations with Cuba. [Read the BuzzFlash Commentary](   Has the Public Become Complacent With Endless War? 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[Donate Now]( [Our Summer of Fire and the Fires to Come]( Curtis Johnson, Truthout: Out-of-control wildfires have devastated the Western US this year, causing not only immediate deaths and untold property damage, but dangerous levels of smoke pollution and long-term health effects. The impact of wildfires on human health and ecosystems will keep rising, unless serious and emergency measures are taken to counter climate change and its effects. [Read the Article]( [Wisconsin Governor Walker and His Appointees Push Policy to Punish Students Protesting Right-Wing Speech]( Sarah Jaffe, Truthout: In the latest attempt to silence protesters, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his appointees on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents are pushing a new policy that would suspend or expel students who protest right-wing speech on campus. Thomas Gunderson, an organizer for Our Wisconsin Revolution, discusses why the legislation lacks legitimacy. [Read the Interview and Listen to the Audio]( [What Breitbart's Email Leaks Mean for Public Perception of the "Alt-Right"]( Shane Burley, Truthout: BuzzFeed's leak of Breitbart's emails is not a revelation. It is confirmation that Milo Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon and their supporters were not only in cahoots with white supremacists -- they were aware of the violence they were stoking. While the leaks have widened the rift that developed between the Breitbart gang and the "alt-right" in the wake of Charlottesville, the leaks alone will not unseat Breitbart from electoral politics without massive public pressure. [Read the Article]( [Mnuchin Gives Away the Game: "It's Very Hard Not to Give Tax Cuts to the Wealthy"]( Jake Johnson, Common Dreams: For weeks, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been peddling the demonstrable lie that their tax proposals are primarily geared toward helping the middle class, not the wealthiest Americans. But in an interview with Politico's Ben White published Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin gave away the game, admitting the Trump/GOP proposal would benefit the nation's wealthiest. [Read the Article]( [Trump's Latest Muslim Ban Is Defeated Again in Court]( Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now!: President Trump's latest attempt to bar some citizens of eight Muslim-majority countries from entering the US suffers a second defeat, as another federal judge rules that the latest policy is unconstitutional. Democracy Now! speaks with Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. [Watch the Video and Read the Transcript]( [The Power of Stories: Why We Need More Than Facts to Win]( George Monbiot, Verso Books: Stories are the means by which we navigate the world: Those who tell the stories run the world. We will only be able to supplant the story of neoliberalism, which has shaped the outlook of so many minds, with a compelling new story. You cannot take away someone's story without giving them a new one, George Monbiot argues in this excerpt from Out of the Wreckage. [Read the Book Excerpt]( [Trump's Game Plan: Racism and Violence as Decoys]( Robert Lipsyte, TomDispatch: Once again, Trump has made it all about Trump, labeling any football player who knelt or sat or stayed in the locker room during the playing of the pre-game anthem a "son of a bitch." Relying on old tropes, Trump's response to NFL players proves that racism and professional sports go hand-in-hand. Meanwhile, the racism and abuses of the NFL itself persist. [Read the Article]( [Trump's War on Media Leaks and the Anti-Leak Training Program: A Chilling Combination for Whistleblowers]( Jesselyn Radack and Kathleen McClellan, ExposeFacts: The Trump administration has declared a war on media leaks and called for the US federal workforce and contractors to receive "anti-leak" training. The centerpiece of Trump's anti-leak campaign is a revamped National Insider Threat Taskforce, aimed at sanctioning and deterring leaks. [Read the Article]( [Activists in Puerto Rico Want the Jones Act Eliminated -- So Why Are Unions Defending It?]( Kate Aronoff, In These Times: In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, an obscure law governing maritime commerce has grabbed national headlines: the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, known as the Jones Act. Many argue that the statute is stifling aid by presenting an unnecessary barrier to the procurement of basic relief supplies. However, maritime workers' unions are defending the act. [Read the Article]( [In the US, Debtors' Prisons Are Alive and Well]( Rebecca Vallas, TalkPoverty.org: The United States officially ended debtors' prisons in 1833. But as we saw in the Justice Department's report on racially-biased policing in Ferguson, there is a system of fines and fees for minor crimes that often result in jail time for the poor, mostly Black citizens who cannot afford to pay them. Peter Edelman, Georgetown University law professor, provides more context for these issues and discusses his new book Not a Crime to be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America. [Read the Interview]( [Want to strengthen Truthout and help us plan for the future? Click here to become a monthly sustainer.]( [The Newspaper Guild] 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](