From Progressive Candidates to Citizen Science
June 26, 2020 The Park Center for Independent Media circulates the Indy Brief, a weekly selection of news stories from journalism outlets operating outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations. The Headlines U.S. Politics Progressive Candidates Surge Again as Trump Drags GOP Down (Truthout) The Next Politics Is All About Movements—and It’s Winning (The Nation) Police […]
As Scientists Struggle with Rollbacks, Stay At Home Orders and Funding Cuts, Citizens Fill the Gap
One was a retired school teacher, another a member of the local Genealogical Society and a third an avid scuba diver. But when they and seven other California residents met over Zoom on a recent June evening, they were scientists studying air quality. These “citizen” scientists are part of a community program with Amigos de […]
After Attacking Medicare for All as ‘Unrealistic’ During Primary, Biden Says Healthcare a ‘Right for All’ Amid Pandemic
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden left some progressives perplexed Thursday when he spoke at length about healthcare during a campaign stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania—making a number of points that would suggest he supports Medicare for All, a proposal he denounced as “unrealistic” throughout the Democratic primary. Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein noted that Biden mentioned […]
‘Unfathomable Cruelty’: Trump Files Legal Brief Aiming to Kick 20 Million Off Health Insurance in Middle of Pandemic
The Trump administration late Thursday night filed a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to invalidate the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, a move that would strip health insurance from more than 20 million people in the middle of a pandemic and slash taxes for the richest Americans. The brief (pdf), submitted by the Justice Department in support […]
Let’s Stop Putting the Worst Americans on a Pedestal
So many monuments to racism, slavery, and colonialism have been toppled, removed, or slated for removal in the wake of the George Floyd protests that Wikipedia’s army of volunteer editors is keeping a running tally: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and a slew of other Confederate generals and notable white supremacists and segregationists; Frank Rizzo, the […]
The Reckoning Is About More Than Police Violence
The uprisings sparked by George Floyd’s death are, ostensibly, about the war on Black lives. Protesters demand that we say the names of the deceased, that their murderers be brought to justice, that the institution of policing be re-thought, defunded, dismantled. Yet as the anger and grief simmer, a deeper purpose has crystalized: dismantling white […]
My Family Saw a Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween. Then I Learned How NYPD Impunity Works.
Last Halloween, my wife and then-6-year-old daughter were making their way home after trick-or-treating in Brooklyn. Suddenly, an unmarked NYPD car with sirens wailing began speeding against traffic up a one-way street, our neighborhood’s main thoroughfare. The officer seemed to be going after a few teenage boys. Then, in an instant, the car hit one […]
Freedom Rider: Democrats Move Right and Towards Defeat
Besides not being Trump, the Democrats offer nothing, but think they can win with a candidate who has no constituency, charisma or any platform positions that would attract more voters. “The purges from the rolls, closed polling places and other methods of disenfranchisement are continuing without comment from the Democrats.” This presidential election season bears a […]
Yes, Defund the Cops — and Put Them Under Community Control
Community control of the police means empowering the people to shape and oversee the mechanisms of their own security and end forever the armed occupation of our communities by hostile forces. ‘’Street power’ will be dissipated if organizers leave the levers of power in the hands of local Democrats.” Never in the modern history of […]
The Next Politics Is All About Movements—and It’s Winning
In June 2018, the results of a New York City congressional primary woke people up to the prospect that a new politics might upend the status quo within the Democratic Party and across the nation. A democratic socialist who had worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, and who ran a grassroots campaign […]