Big white stately building with round top and lots of windows behind a huge green truck with a big arm and huge shovel putting a ton of white snow in a big pile in front

This week, January traveled to Switzerland and was humanely put out of its misery. The politically dreadful first chapter of 2018 contained a lot of “excitement” and taught us plenty about those who supposedly represent us. Regrettably, none of it was great. We should all be glad it is over and use its lessons to move forward into the new month and the rest of the year.

White words in a red box at top saying Writing to Save a Life, another red box at bottom left saying The Louis Till File and a black and white head shot of a young black ham in a hat and suit

Surely one of the most shocking murders of the modern day freedom movement was that of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, on August 28, 1955. The fourteen-year-old Chicago native was engaging in a time-honored tradition in the black, northern, urban community: he was sent down south to visit relatives during his summer break from school. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till, had warned him that there was a great difference between Chicago and Money. She cautioned him to stay away from whites, but to show them extreme deference if he had to interact with them. Till left Chicago a fresh, chubby cheeked teenager and returned a grotesque corpse in a pine box.

he partisan uproar over the release of the infamous Nunes memo on FBI surveillance MUST be accompanied by the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns.

If Trump is to be consistent about openness in government and the public’s right to critical information, releasing his tax returns is the least he can do in conjunction with this attack on the FBI.

But of course that would be too much to ask of this White House, which has long since established itself as a fascist regime that hates democracy and is consistent only in its demand for more and more personal power and money for el jefe at the top.

A kleptocracy like this one has just one agenda item – more cash and crushing ability for the would-be dictator and his inner circle. Zero openness and access for the rest of us.

That’s why the fight over this memo has long since entered the realm of the surreal.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's coup-installed defense minister has
offered to resign over his involvement in a worsening financial
scandal which threatens to derail Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's
chances of remaining in power after elections in November or 2019.
   Prime Minister Prayuth is already under fire by pro-democracy
activists and others who are dismayed that he has repeatedly delayed
stepping down to allow elections after leading a 2014 coup.
   His defense minister's financial scandal adds to claims that Mr.
Prayuth is not enforcing his coup's promise to stop corruption, but
instead wants to keep this Southeast Asian U.S.-treaty ally under
military control for the foreseeable future.
   Mr. Prayuth continues to warn that the politicians he toppled,
including fugitive former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, might
return to engage in corruption again.
   Ms. Yingluck fled overseas days before being sentenced in August by
the Supreme Court to two years imprisonment for "criminal negligence"

Four sketches of four young black people two men and two women with words Black Pride 4 under each of them like in a ribbon


February 5-9, Franklin County Municipial Court, 375 S. High St.
Despite widespread outrage at their trumped-up charges, Wriply, Ashley, and Kendall of the #BlackPride4 are still scheduled to go to trial from February 5th-9th, 2018.
On Monday February 5th, we call community members to rally for the #BlackPride4 when they most need us. This is the defining moment in not just their cases, but the rest of their lives. We will be holding an action before trial proceedings begin that afternoon around 1:00. Afterwards, we will pack the courthouse and we will CONTINUE to pack the courthouse everyday of trial week. We must show our city that we will not sit idly by as Black queer and trans activists are brutalized by the state. See us on Facebook.

Did you hear the one about the “safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent”? There is, of course, nothing safe or secure about producing, maintaining, or threatening to use nuclear weapons. Nor is there evidence that they have ever deterred anything that the United States wanted deterred.

What’s a little cholera — excuse me, the worst outbreak of this preventable disease in modern history — compared to the needs of a smoothly functioning economy?

his is a story primarily about corrupt practices by the Burlington City Council, in its headlong determination to force a neighboring city to be the base for a weapon of mass destruction, the nuclear capable F-35 fighter-bomber (in development since 1992, first flown in 2000, still not reliably deployable in 2018, at a cost of $400 billion and counting). Yes, the premise itself is corrupt: Burlington owns the airport in South Burlington, so South Burlington has no effective say in how many housing units Burlington destroys in South Burlington to meet environmental standards for imposing the quiet-shattering F-35 jet on a community that doesn’t want it and won’t benefit from it.

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