Todd Miller, an Izzy winner for his work in 2017 will be speaking on campus on Tuesday, Oct. 22.  He has a feature article in the July issue of In These Times titled “How Border Patrol Occupied the Tohono O’odham Nation.” His new book, “Empire of Borders” comes out in July.

The recent attack on two oil tankers near Iran have bolstered the fear that the US may go to war against Iran, especially considering how hawkish Mike Pompeo and John Bolton are acting and have acted in the past. Despite this, Trump has often repeated how he would prefer to avoid war and, as the Nation reports, is sending a host of conflicting messages to both allies and enemies. 

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When it comes to tense situations, none evoke a greater response than the conflict between Israeli’s and Palestinians and the struggle of getting either side to agree on anything. Despite attempts to come to an agreement, Israel has a tendency to impose their authority over Palestinians living in the West Bank and, as the Middle East Eye reports, it is causing lasting harm to those being forced to live in settlements.   

 

Support for Israel has been high among both parties, with attendance at AIPAC conferences seeing speakings attend who are both Democrats and Republicans. Recently however, that support has been waning to some degree among more progressive Democrats and with it comes the difficulty in getting some more pro-Palestine members to attend their yearly conference, as the Intercept reports.  

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES - 2019/03/24: U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Majority Leader seen speaking during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

In the coming week, the first debate in the Democratic primary will take place, and with it comes a litany of questions surrounding the topics that get covered, along with the ones that don’t, which candidates will face each other, and which don’t get to be on the stage at all. In an attempt to answer how these debates are being handled by media outlets, FAIR writes on how these debates tend to play out, and what has changed, though more so what hasn’t, since last time.  

Debate podiums

It’s no secret that Trump has a habit of complimenting dictators and despots across the world, from North Korea to the Philippines to Turkey. In the latest example, you have the case of Egypt, where their democratically elected president recently died in court while on trial by the military coup that replaced him. Trying to explain what Trump has been doing, truthdig takes an in-depth look into the harm Trump is doing by supporting these men. 

Trump’s America and Egypt’s Dictatorship Deserve Each Other

The issue of reparations is one that has been circulating the collective American conscious for quite some time. Ever since the outlawing of slavery, there have been calls to provide those who had to suffer some form of compensation, and recently, Congress tried once more to start addressing the issue. As Democracy Now!reports, Ta-Nehisi Coates tries to explain to a Congressional committee why reparations matter, and why you would be wrong to think that just because everyone who was a slave has died, doesn’t mean nobody should get compensated. 

When we talk about climate change, we tend to frame in such a way as to make it seem like it isn’t as bad as gets reported, or talked about such that most people have a hard time conceptualizing what impact a 2°C increase will have. In a similar vein, CounterPunch frames climate change from a different perspective, looking not at the constant threat posed by pollution or plastic in the oceans, but by explaining the high levels of methane trapped near the Arctic, and the catastrophic damage it would cause if released. 

As a crisis is brewing between the US and Iran, it’s easy to forget that Venezuela is still dealing with the impact that the US left by supporting the opposition leader there and sending aid to the country to try and remove the elected leader from power. For those living in Venezuela, it is harder to move on, and as reported by the Real News Network, a recent embezzling scandal involving the opposition in Venezuela makes the situation even more difficult to handle. 
 

While Juan Guaido has been dealing with various scandals relating to his misuse of funds, there are others in his orbit that deserve equal amounts of scrutiny. One of those people is the recently appointed Venezuelan ambassador to the US, Carlos Vecchio, who, as Grayzone reports, has a history of attempting regime change in Venezuela, along with his past work for ExxonMobil, and their attempt to get a foothold on Venezuelan oil. 

 

Paul Gottinger with this weeks Tweet of the Week:

While we may live in a country that tries to be a democratic republic, we often fall short in many key areas that might make our society a better and more equal one. One of these ways is through our extreme levels of wealth inequality, which the Ghion Journal takes the time to lay out exactly how bad we’ve been doing on that front, and how the problem continues to worsen. 


The HEADLINES:
1. Trump says ‘you’ll find out’ if he is planning military response to Iran shooting down US drone (The Independent)2. The White House Is Nowhere Near Ready for Impeachment (The Atlantic)3. Democrats Jump To Joe Biden’s Defense After He Touted Working With Segregationists (HuffPost)

4. Tory leadership: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt through (BBC)

5. Trump suggests ‘loose and stupid’ Iranian officer attacked US drone (The Guardian)