Month: September 2020

Farmers, environmental advocates, and community leaders came together in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday to launch a national campaign to outlaw factory farming, in conjunction with a new report that outlines the long list of negative consequences tied to housing hundreds or thousands of animals in crowded spaces. “This is a model that doesn’t work for the way we produce our food. It doesn’t work for the environment. It doesn’t work for public health. It…

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Accusing Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram of “intentionally” violating Europe’s strict new privacy rules that officially went into effect on Friday, Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed four lawsuits against the tech companies arguing they are still “coercing users into sharing personal data” despite rolling out new policies ostensibly aimed at complying with the new regulations. Titled the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the new rules require companies to explicitly and clearly request…

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Some have filed suit to stop it while others have argued there’s nothing to worry about, but whether you like it or not at 2:18 PM EDT your phone buzzed an irritating sound and vibrated as you received an unsolicited text message from none other than President Donald Trump himself. Minutes later, at 2:20 PM EDT, for those listening or tunied in, the radio and television versions of the same alert system will be launched.…

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Audio taken during a Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rules Committee conference call reveals the immediate reaction to the news Wednesday of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement. In the audio clip shared on Twitter by Politico reporter David Siders, Democrats on the call express disappointment that Kennedy, a moderate conservative justice known for often being a swing vote, would be retiring. After one participant reads the news aloud, cries of “oh,” and “oh my god” can…

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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) rolled out a new digital ad on Monday accusing Sen. Joe ManchinJoseph (Joe) ManchinTrump administration seeks to use global aid for nuclear projects Shelley Moore Capito wins Senate primary West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice wins GOP gubernatorial primary MORE (D-W.Va.) of “lying” to President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases…

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Responding to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) abrupt decision on Tuesday to cancel most of the Senate’s August recess, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in an interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday that the move clearly shows McConnell is “scared to death” that the GOP might lose control of the Senate in November. “McConnell doesn’t want the PR nightmare of dozens of negative town halls in August.” —Sam Quigley, Patriotic Millionaires “It’s very…

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In a “heinous lie” aimed at distorting the historical record and avoiding responsibility for the mass cruelty perpetuated on her watch, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen falsely claimed in a series of tweets late Sunday that the Trump administration does “not have a policy of separating families at the border.” “2000 kids didn’t voluntarily decide to leave their parents. You forced the separation. Get it?” —Rep. Ted Lieu “This misreporting by members…

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New reporting out Wednesday details how some former Obama officials are taking full advantage of the revolving door between big business and government, with critics charging they are exploiting Trump’s tenure at the White House by “cashing in” on lucrative opportunities. In fact, “many are lending the prestige of their White House resumes to scandal-fraught organizations in return for large sums of money. Some are even doing business with the Trump administration,” the Huffington Post‘s…

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As the demand to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spreads across the country—and with community members building protest encampments outside ICE facilities in several cities this week—some officers with the 15-year-old agency have now added their voices to the growing call to dissolve it. The agency’s targeting of undocumented immigrants has weakened its employees’ ability to carry out other work, argued 19 officers who signed the letter, which was obtained by the Texas Observer.…

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An investigation published Wednesday by the London-based Amnesty International revealed that one of the group’s staffers was “targeted by a sophisticated surveillance campaign, in what the organization suspects was a deliberate attempt to spy on its staff by a government hostile to its work,” using a tool developed by the Israeli cyber intelligence firm NSO Group. “The message sent to us seems to be part of a much broader surveillance campaign, which we suspect is…

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