Nika Knight – Facing Right-Wing Future, Local-Level Resistance to Trump Agenda Swells

Around the country, people who woke up on November 9 shocked and galvanized by the election results are forming new local organizations and networks to resist president-elect Donald Trump’s right-wing agenda. Many of those getting involved on the local level are entirely new to political organizing, testifying to the powerful and frightening shift represented by the ascendance of an administration …

Leid Stories—How Not to Testify: A Lesson from the Sessions Confirmation Hearings—01.12.17

Rep. Cedrick Richmond likened being on the last panel of witnesses to testify at the confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, to being made to “sit at the back of the bus.” The Louisiana congressman, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, noted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s slight against him, civil-rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, and Cory Booker, the junior senator from New Jersey.
All three legislators were scheduled to testify in earlier legislator panels, and it was not secret that they were against Sessions’ confirmation. But did they make themselves clear?

Deirdre Fulton – ‘Not Just Dumb—Dangerous’: Trump to Force Exit of Nuke Safety Officials

President-elect Donald Trump—whose pending control of America’s nuclear arsenal already has many people deeply concerned—has apparently ordered the resignation of two government officials whose role is to ensure that stockpile remains safe and secure. Citing an unnamed Energy Department official, Gizmodo reported that on Friday, Trump “instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] and his deputy to …

Ruth Milka – 2016: The year solar panels became cheaper than fossil fuels

It’s finally happened. The renewable energy future has arrived. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), installing new solar panels is cheaper than a comparable investment in coal, natural gas, or other options. Solar and wind is now the same price or cheaper than fossil fuels in more than 30 countries. According to Michael Drexler, head of development investing at …

Nika Knight – Sanders and Dems Demand Betsy DeVos Pay $5.3 Million Fine for Campaign Finance Violations

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s Education Secretary pick, “brazenly disregarded” Ohio election laws, says a group of Democratic senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Those senators, including Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), are demanding in an open letter that DeVos pay the $5.3 million fine levied by the state in …

James Bamford – Over Eight Years, President Barack Obama Has Created the Most Intrusive Surveillance Apparatus in the World. To What End?

his summer, at 1:51 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, an unearthly roar shattered the afternoon quiet along the Florida coast. On Cape Canaveral, liquid fuel surged through the thick aluminum veins of a Delta IV Heavy rocket nearly as tall as the U.S. Capitol. Two million pounds of thrust in three symmetrical boosters fired the engines, sending the craft hurtling …