It’s not often that a senator is forced to resign, and two years ago, we saw just that in the case of Al Franken. Now while many at the time were focused on the accusations against him, a few years down the road has given some clarity to the process surrounding that. Chief among them, as The Nation reports, is the regret felt by several congresspeople in not giving Franken more due process and investigating the claims made by women more. 

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Most people in the US don’t care much about what happens in Middle Eastern countries and in this case, where a Turkish diplomat was assassinated and the apparent plotters killed, we see it happening again. As the Middle East Eye reports, and has not been able to independently verify, Turkey has killed those who allegedly killed diplomat Osman Kose, with more facts about the case still unclear.
 

While many in congress are divided along party lines when it comes to the immigration issue and whether ICE is doing a good or bad job, there is some bipartisanship in this case. As The Intercept reports, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. have both sought to get answers from ICE on their use of solitary confinement.  

ADELANTO, CA - NOVEMBER 15: An immigrant detainee looks from his 'segregation cell' at the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in Adelanto, California. Most detainees in segregation cells are sent there for fighting with other immigrants, according to guards. The facility, the largest and newest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detention center in California, houses an average of 1,100 immigrants in custody pending a decision in their immigration cases or awaiting deportation. The average stay for a detainee is 29 days. The facility is managed by the private GEO Group. ICE detains an average of 33,000 undocumented immigrants in more than 400 facilities nationwide. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

As the Democratic primary lumbers along, more and more people are attempting to identify what is the true heart of the Democratic primary to give a candidate any kind of edge. As FAIR reports, this comes in the form of a New York Times article identifying different layers of the Democratic party and how that interpretation isn’t entirely accurate.     

NBC depiction of a Bernie Sanders rally in Atlantic City

Climate change is always a big issue that many try to work towards a solution, but those solutions require large-scale efforts to change the planet for the better. One of those solutions, that Truthdig reports on, is that while reforestation helps, a better solution would be plant industrial hemp in as many places as possible to revitalize the planet. 

The Cheapest Way to Save the Planet Grows Like a Weed

With the news surrounding the Puerto Rico governor increases, there is something important for people to know about when it comes to the US territory. That is, as Democracy Now! reports, that the current head of the DNC, Tom Perez got into that position in part because of support from Puerto Rico Democrats who wanted Perez’s support for statehood.    

One of the many reasons so many people take so little action in regards to climate change is because of the lack of a tangible impact their efforts would have, how it’s hard to see the bigger picture when it comes to a concept like climate change. A recent report written about by CounterPunch gives some insight into what kind of disastrous consequences we will face in the coming years as we do so little to try and combat ever increasing temperatures.  

The situation between Israel and Palestine continues to face new challenges on an almost daily basis, with Israel shouldering much of the blame for the actions it takes against the people of Palestine. In this latest example, as reported by The Real News Network, Israel demolished 13 buildings at the edge of East Jerusalem after the Israeli Supreme Court allowed the demolition to occur. 


 

It’s not a new phenomenon that the US imposes its will on other countries through military intervention or economic sanctions, but what might be different in this day and age is a collective effort by those impacted to try and avoid adapt and thrive despite US push back. As The Grayzone reports, the Iran foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, has been going to Venezuela and Nicaragua, places impacted by US intervention, to try and build unity against US aggression among those directly affected.

Iran Zarif Nicaragua US economic terrorism

 

John C. with this weeks Tweet of the Week:

The prosecution of Julian Assange has produced a relatively homogeneous reaction among large news outlets, with many that try supporting freedom of the press through condemnations of Trump coming out in support of Trump when deciding to prosecute Assange. This cognitive dissonance, as The Ghion Journal reports, as a symptom of a larger logical fallacy dubbed the Just World Fallacy, which strikes at the heart of many hypocrisies we see. 


The HEADLINES:
1. Pelosi rejects calls for Trump impeachment after Mueller testimony: ‘We still have some outstanding matters’ (The Independent)2. Robert Mueller Kept His Promise (The Atlantic)

3. Attorney General William Barr Directs Federal Government To Reinstate Death Penalty (HuffPost)

4. Boris Johnson: Premiership will be the start of a golden age (BBC)

5. Boris Johnson vows to ditch backstop and scale up no-deal plans (The Guardian)