Notations On Our World (Special New Year Edition): As #2019 is Before Us....

On behalf of our entire team, Happy New Year!!!


The last two weeks of December 2018 was quite a tumultuous one that saw the resignation of the Secretary of Defense over President Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria along with  the US Government shut down over the President's request for a Border wall.  This was also quite a couple of weeks as Saudi Arabia went thru a major Cabinet Reshuffle, Arab Countries reopened Embassies in Syria and Iran released a budget that has cut Education as it has increased spending on the Revolutionary Guards while also apparently underwriting Russian Military Expenses in Syria as we wanted to share this from the Institute of Policy Studies:

As the second year of the Trump presidency staggers to a close, the federal government is on the verge of shutting down. Trump’s campaign promise to get Mexico to foot the bill for a border wall failed, and now he’s trying to squeeze $5 billion from Congress to pay for it. Congress isn’t biting, and Trump isn’t budging. The deadline for an agreement is midnight tonight. At Truthout, Lindsay Koshgarian has the latest on the wall, the spending package, and the likelihood of a resolution. The shutdown threat also comes in the closing days of Paul Ryan’s leadership of the House. At Inside Sources, Negin Owliaei exposes how Speaker Ryan made a career of being a puppet for the rich while pretending to be fiscally responsible. And while the list of villainous acts perpetrated by Ryan is long, he perhaps saved his worst for last — with a sneaky provision to extend the war in Yemen in this year’s Farm Bill, writes Peter Certo. On the environmental front, Basav Sen reveals in In These Times why the Trump administration continues to attack the science behind climate change. Hint: follow the money. And Sam Pizzigati argues it’s no coincidence the world’s most unequal countries are also the biggest climate change deniers. Meanwhile, Phyllis Bennis joins Democracy Now! to address Trump’s recent announcement that U.S. troops will be removed from Syria. Manuel Perez-Rocha urges newly elected Mexican President Adres Manuel Lopez Obrador not to ratify NAFTA 2.0 without consulting the Mexican people. And Bob Lord challenges conventional wisdom about technology replacing human labor. Finally, in the New York Times, Sarah Anderson tells a family story about the holidays to reflect on the importance of keeping the Postal Service public. Happy holidays from all of us at IPS.

The Postal Worker’s Christmas

"My grandfather was part of a long tradition of postal workers who sacrificed Christmas Eve with their families to deliver holiday packages." -- Sarah Anderson Read Our Featured Story →

Our Latest Work

Will the Government Shut Down Over Trump’s $5 Billion Border Wall? Recent reports indicate that the president may back down, but no deal has yet been reached. Read more... Innovation Used to Benefit Workers. Can It Again? Machines can make jobs better, but a tiny class of bosses uses them to make jobs disappear. It doesn't have to be this way. Read more...

IPS Action: Online & In The Streets

Senators Sneak in Amendment to Make Israel Boycott Illegal Phyllis Bennis joins Real News Network to discuss new suppression of the Boycott Divestment & Sanctions movement.See the Video... Action Alert January 19, 2019, the Women's March will flood the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the globe. The #WomensWave is coming. More info here.

Paul Ryan Was a Villain and No One Will Miss Him The outgoing House speaker’s entire career was a cash grab for billionaires, capped off by a low trick to literally starve children. Read more... Paul Ryan’s Legacy Only About the Wealthy When he wasn't masquerading as an advocate for poor people, he was slashing their social programs to give tax breaks to the rich. Read more...

What We're Reading This Week Bloomberg: In Trump’s America, Bosses Are Accused of Weaponizing the ICE Crackdown Foreign Policy: The 1 Percent Keep Their Friends Close Vox: New York already has thousands of Amazon workers -- and some are unionizing to demand better conditions

Trump’s War On Science Is Worse Than the Inquisition The White House’s crude deflections on science aren’t simply ignorant — they’re calculated to serve the fossil fuel industry at the entire planet’s expense. Read more... Can an Unequal Earth Beat Climate Change? Some 250 million years ago, life on Earth survived an existential climate crisis. But that Earth had a distinct advantage. No rich. Read more...

Our team decided to begin the new year with Secretary  Mattis' Resignation Letter.   President Trump moved up his final day as Defense Secretary to today:

###Trump's Criminal Justice Reform Act Is a Meaningless Smoke Screen (Pt 1/3): Congress's Criminal Justice Reform Act boosts privatization, fails to dismantle mass incarceration, nor does it implement sentencing reform. We speak to Eddie Conway and Natasha Pratt Harris about the proposed reform