Biden administration

US Depleted Uranium To Make Ukraine War Dirtier

July 1, 2023 John LaForge, CounterPunch.org. Educate! Biden administration, Depleted Uranium, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The Biden administration is expected to supply Ukraine with highly controversial depleted-uranium munitions which are to be fired from the Abrams battle tanks the U.S. is sending to Kyiv, the Wall St. Journal reported June 13. Any delivery of U.S. depleted uranium (DU) weapons to Ukraine would be in addition to the State Department’s Dec. 22, 2022 approval of the sale to Poland of as many as 112,000 heavy 120-millimeter DU shells, which was announced by the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The British Ministry of Defense announced last March 20 that it too would send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine along with its Challenger battle tanks.

As Medicaid Purge Begins; ‘Staggering Numbers’ Of People Lose Coverage

June 5, 2023 Hannah Recht, KFF Health News. Educate! Biden administration, Health Care, Medicaid, Uninsured

More than 600,000 Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since pandemic protections ended on April 1. And a KFF Health News analysis of state data shows the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork. Under normal circumstances, states review their Medicaid enrollment lists regularly to ensure every recipient qualifies for coverage. But because of a nationwide pause in those reviews during the pandemic, the health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans kept people covered even if they no longer qualified. Now, in what’s known as the Medicaid unwinding, states are combing through rolls and deciding who stays and who goes.

Climate Activists Decry Pipeline ‘Deal With The Devil’

May 30, 2023 Brett Wilkins, Commondreams. Resist! Biden administration, climate crisis, Debt Ceiling, Mountain Valley Pipeline

As progressives excoriated President Joe Biden's debt ceiling deal with Republican lawmakers over "polluter giveaways" including the Mountain Valley Pipeline, activists rallied outside Sen. Chuck Schumer's Brooklyn home on Tuesday evening with a message for the majority leader: "Stop the dirty pipeline deal, or we shut down your block." The protesters—led by Climate Defiance and backed by Food & Water Watch, Climate Defenders, Climate Families NYC, New York Communities for Change (NYCC), and others—chanted messages including "Schumer, stop the dirty deal" as they marched in the Park Slope neighborhood where he lives.

The Ukraine Refugee Question

May 20, 2023 Seymour Hersh, Scheer Post. Educate! Biden administration, Media, Russia, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky

Last Saturday the Washington Post published an exposé of classified American intelligence documents showing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, working behind the back of the Biden White House, pushed hard earlier this year for an expanded series of missile attacks inside Russia. The documents were part of a large cache of classified materials posted online by an Air Force enlisted man now in custody. A senior official of the Biden administration, asked by the Post for comment on the newly revealed intelligence, said that Zelensky has never violated his pledge never to use American weapons to strike inside Russia. In the view of the White House, Zelensky can do no wrong.

Biden Won’t Stop Climate Change

May 10, 2023 M. Carlstad, Left Voice. Strategize! Biden administration, climate crisis, Democrats, Energy, Joe Biden, Oil and Gas

President Biden laced his 2020 presidential campaign with rhetoric and promises about addressing climate change, drawing some to wonder if he could be America’s first “climate president.” More than two years in, the reality of his term is a letdown for those who hung their hopes on this label. With the official announcement that he’ll run for office again in 2024, it’s time to examine why “lesser evil” Biden and his flimsy platform represent nothing more than a green dream. As an example, Biden’s administration has now signed off on more gas and oil drilling permits than Trump had at the same point in his term — surpassing Trump by a few hundred at the two-year mark.

Confessions Of A Political Flack

April 28, 2023 Seymour Hersh, Scheer Post. Educate! Biden administration, Democrats, Joe Biden, Media, Seymour Hersh

Last weekend the New York Times published a report that President Biden has been missing in action in recent months when it comes to serious question-and-answer sessions with the Washington press corps. The obvious reason for the lack of press conferences is “to protect” the president from unscripted exchanges that often result in missteps and confusion. Had I been writing the piece, I might have added that the president is intent on not blurting out an unwanted truth. And he is not alone in avoiding the press. The fact is that Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have similarly disappeared in recent months when it comes to give-and-take sessions with the White House press corps.

Biden’s Disinvitation To Netanyahu Followed Accusation US Is Funding Demonstrations

April 7, 2023 Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss. Educate! Biden administration, Israel, Netanyahu, Palestine

Joe Biden took the “unbelievable” step of telling Benjamin Netanyahu he’s not welcome in Washington last week because Netanyahu had accused Biden of paying for the demonstrations that have rocked Israel, according to two Israeli analysts, in comments to pro-Israel organizations. “[The Americans] are thinking somebody has lost his mind out there,” one said. Briefings by pro-Israel groups in the last tumultuous week provided other insights from Israeli Jews: Israel is out of control to a degree that befits Hassan Nasrallah’s prediction that Israel will fall apart like a spider’s web.

15 Million In The US To Be Kicked Off Of Public Health Benefits

April 6, 2023 People's Dispatch. Educate! Biden administration, Health Care, Medicaid, Public Health

As US-based news is inundated with coverage surrounding the spectacle of former president Donald Trump’s arraignment, 15 million people are being quietly phased out of receiving Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits, beginning April 1 and going through May and July. As the Joe Biden administration will end the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration on May 11, starting this past weekend states have already begun to kick people off of Medicaid and CHIP. These states are all Republican Party-controlled: Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire, and South Dakota.

The Biden Administration Is Preparing To Approve A Copper Mine On Oak Flat

April 5, 2023 Robin Silver, Popular Resistance. Resist! Biden administration, Copper, Mining, Oak Flats, Sacred sites

San Carlos Apache Reservation— San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler today sharply criticized reports that the Biden Administration is preparing to approve the proposed Resolution Mine that would destroy sacred Indigenous land located at Oak Flat on the Tonto National Forest about 70 miles east of Phoenix. “Obliterating Oak Flat for a copper mine will be a grave human rights violation against Indigenous people and an environmental catastrophe,” Chairman Rambler said. “Only China and shareholders of the two largest foreign mining companies in the world will benefit.” Resolution Copper Company wants to construct one of the largest copper mines in the world using a mining plan that will destroy Oak Flat, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.

US Invites Authoritarian Far-Right Regimes To ‘Summit For Democracy’

April 2, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! Biden administration, India, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, Poland, Right wing politics, Russia, Summit for Democracy, Ukraine, US Imperialism

The US government organized a conference of its allies which it misleadingly called a “Summit for Democracy”, but which actually featured numerous anti-democratic, far-right regimes. The State Department invited 120 global leaders to participate in the summit on March 29 and 30. They did so virtually, via video calls. Several of the heads of state who spoke represent governments that even Western officials, corporate media outlets, and mainstream human rights organizations have admitted are authoritarian, including Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Andrzej Duda of Poland, and Narendra Modi of India.

Did The US Blow Up Nord Stream If There Is No Media To Report It?

February 17, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Biden administration, Germany, Media, Nord Stream Pipelines, Pipelines, Russia, Seymour Hersh, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The idea behind this old thought experiment should not be relegated to the realm of philosophy. Present day reality can be used in place of hypothetical falling trees. If the United States blows up the Nord Stream pipelines but the media ignores it, did the attack ever happen? Seymour Hersh has all of the credentials that usually give one gravitas in the world of journalism. As a freelance reporter he exposed the U.S. army’s 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai and won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts.

Biden DOJ Backing Norfolk Southern’s Bid To Block Lawsuits

February 17, 2023 Rebecca Burns, Julia Rock and David Sirota, The Lever. Educate! Biden administration, Norfolk Southern, Railroads, Supreme Court

A looming Supreme Court decision could end up making it easier for the railroad giant whose train derailed in Ohio this month to block lawsuits, including from victims of the disaster. In the case against Norfolk Southern, the Biden administration is siding with the railroad in its conflict with a cancer-stricken former rail worker. A high court ruling for Norfolk Southern could create a national precedent limiting where workers and consumers can bring cases against corporations. The lawsuit in question, filed initially in a Pennsylvania county court in 2017, deals with a state law that permits plaintiffs to file suit against any corporation registered to do business there, even if the actions that gave rise to the case occurred elsewhere.

Nostalgia For The Cuban Missile Crisis

February 2, 2023 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Biden administration, Nuclear War, Russia, Ukraine

Sixty years ago, a crowd of us young people anxiously massed around a black-and-white TV in my college student union building. The US and the USSR were in an existential standoff. The US had deployed ballistic nuclear missiles in Turkey. When the Soviets responded by placing missiles in Cuba, the US demanded their removal or face dire consequences. We all breathed an enormous collective sigh of relief when Nikita Khruschev publicly agreed to withdraw the Soviet missiles from Cuba. John F. Kennedy secretly reciprocated by removing US missiles from Turkey aimed at the Soviet Union. The whole world rejoiced. A close encounter with a war, which could have threatened civilization, had been avoided. In the aftermath, a robust international peace movement demanded and achieved some successes including the Anti-Ballistic Missile and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaties.

Federal Court Rejects Drilling And Fracking In Greater Chaco Region

February 2, 2023 Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians. Resist! Biden administration, Fracking, Indigenous Rights, Navajo, New Mexico, Oil and Gas, Victory

A federal appeals court yesterday rejected the Biden administration’s defense of unchecked oil and gas fracking in the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico, ruling the U.S. Interior Department flouted the law when approving 199 drilling permits in the culturally significant landscape. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is being hailed as a victory for Tribal and environmental groups who have worked for years to defend the landscape from rampant oil and gas extraction. With Chaco Canyon at its heart, the Greater Chaco region is a living and ancient cultural landscape, spanning northwest New Mexico, southwest Colorado, southeast Utah, and northeast Arizona. Today, Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico is a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Western Hemisphere.