Clean Power Plan Repeal Unlikely to Help Coal
Scott Pruitt can't stop the death of big coal. Rolling Stone: "Virtually no coal industry leader, lobbyist or hack politician believes coal has a future in America. Everyone else knows it's a dead industry walking. The only question now is how much money they can extract, and how much damage they can do to our health, our economy and the climate, before Big Coal sinks into the tar pit of history. I tell you this because this is the only way to really understand EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's announcement this week that he's going to gut President Obama's signature climate achievement, the Clean Power Plan. This is hardly a surprise. From the moment Pruitt was confirmed by the Senate earlier this year, it was a foregone conclusion that he would try to emasculate the Clean Power Plan. This was the whole point of his nomination – the thing he had been preparing for all his professional life. The only question was how soon he would do it, and what legal arguments he would make to justify it."
FBI Targets Black Activists
FBI designates 'black identity extremists' as a terrorist threat. Daily KOS: "Back in August after the white supremacist and Neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville took the life of Heather Heyer and injured many others, Donald Trump claimed that there were very fine people on both sides. This narrative—that there is an equivalent on the left to white supremacists and Nazis is both false and dangerous. But since alternative facts are a daily reality from this White House, this hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from taking its 'both sides' lies to new heights. While they refuse to see white nationalism as a growing problem, in August, the FBI did declare 'black identity extremists' as a growing terrorist threat. Not surprisingly, this so-called threat that the FBI is warning about is directly referencing the Black Lives Matter movement and increased pushback against police and state violence directed at black people. It is also completely fictitious. There is no data that supports the claim that there has been an increase in lethal violence directed at police on behalf of Black Lives Matter."
Black Man Attacked in Charlottesville Rally Charged With Felony
Black man attacked by white supremacists in Charlottesville faces felony charge. WaPo: "A local magistrate issued an arrest warrant Monday for DeAndre Harris on a felony charge of unlawful wounding after a man, identified by Harris’s attorney as Harold Ray Crews, reported that he was injured by the 20-year-old during the August brawl. Crews, who describes himself as a “Southern Nationalist” and an attorney on Twitter, did not return phone calls seeking comment. The magistrate’s charge against Harris, who suffered a spinal injury and a head laceration that required 10 stitches, came less than 48 hours after a second rally by white supremacists and white nationalists in Charlottesville and caught the city’s police department by surprise."
Trump Fundraises Off Media From Pence's NFL Walkout
Trump fundraising off Pence's NFL walkout. The Hill: "President Trump is fundraising off of Vice President Pence's dramatic walkout from an Indianapolis Colts game on Sunday, when several San Francisco 49ers kneeled during "The Star-Spangled Banner. 'Yesterday members of the San Francisco 49ers took a knee during our National Anthem. Their stunt showed the world that they don’t believe our flag is worth standing for,' the president said Monday in an email from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee. 'But your Vice President REFUSED to dignify their disrespect for our anthem, our flag, and the many brave soldiers who have died for their freedoms,' Trump said, calling for campaign donations to support the move. Trump then slammed the 'Fake News Media' for 'relentlessly' attacking Pence for showing 'patriotism' in his decision to leave the game."
More from OurFuture.org:
The Republican Plan to Rob America. Robert Borosage: "The Republican tax plan is a lie. It’s being sold with the promise that the tax cut will create jobs and growth. In fact, the Republican tax cuts, if passed, will become the major obstacle to the very investments vital to generating good jobs and future economic growth. Contrary to Donald Trump’s claims, the rich and big corporations will pocket the vast bulk of the tax cuts, not working people. The tax cuts won’t pay for themselves. They will increase the deficit. By 2027, one in four taxpayers will end up paying more. And for 80 percent of Americans, the tax cut they do get would be so small that it will go virtually unnoticed in most households."
