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Tag: American politics

Standing Up ‘For The Greater Good’: Kit Will Report From Green Party Convention

Posted in Journalism, Life, and MintPress News

As the Green Party’s Presidential Nominating Convention convenes in Houston, there’s renewed attention on the party’s presumptive nominee, Dr. Jill Stein, and increased interest in third-party alternatives to the American two-party duopoly.

On Saturday, MintPress News will be at the University of Houston, where Stein and her running mate, human rights scholar and activist Ajamu Baraka, are expected to accept the Green Party’s nomination for president and vice president.

Polls consistently show that Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the political status quo. Just 9 percent of U.S. residents voted for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the primaries, according to The New York Times. In a poll conducted in May by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, some 90 percent of voters expressed a lack of confidence in the American political system, while 40 percent said that the two-party system is “seriously broken.”

WikiLeaks: Trump Advisor Paul Manafort Tied To Ukrainian Government, US Intelligence

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Although the Clinton campaign accuses Donald Trump of maintaining ties with the Russian government, another key figure on the Republican candidate’s team may have an agenda of his own in Eastern Europe.

Diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks archive and a mainstream media investigation suggest that Trump’s current campaign advisor, Paul Manafort, had previously collaborated with U.S. intelligence agencies and served as a key advisor to the Ukrainian government, including its president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, who fled the country after a right-wing coup in 2014.

Yanukovych “owed his election to, as an American diplomat put it, an ‘extreme makeover’ Mr. Manafort oversaw,” Steven Lee Myers and Andrew E. Kramer reported in the Times on Sunday.

$3.1B And Counting: US To Give Israel Biggest Military Aid Package Ever

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Israel could soon accept its largest ever military aid deal from the United States, which is reportedly increasing an annual support package that already numbers in the billions.

Currently, Israel receives over $3.1 billion in aid annually from the U.S. under a 10-year deal forged under President George W. Bush and set to expire in 2018, but the Obama administration could soon sign another 10-year agreement to increase that aid even further.

“In addition, Congress has provided additional money for missile defense,” noted The Washington Post on Friday.

7 Arrested As Tensions Rise & Protesters Breach Security Fence At DNC 2016

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

From passing gas to burning flags to breaching a massive security fence, activists expressed their outrage at the Democratic Party on Wednesday night.

Dozens of police crowded around the entrance to AT&T Station, the subway stop closest to the site of the Democratic National Convention, to prevent a “fart-in” protest to highlight corruption in the American democratic system.

“When it comes to the continued racial discrimination in this country, when it comes to being in a state spends more on prisons than on education, something is wrong with this picture,” Cheri Honkala, the event’s organizer, declared. “It’s an absolute farce, and quite frankly, this whole thing reminds me of the Hunger Games, except for the sad thing is this is the real Hunger Games.”

DNC 2016: Protesters React To ‘Shameful’ DNC Leaks, Voice Support For Jill Stein (VIDEO)

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

A leak of thousands of internal party emails has cast a shadow over the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

On Friday, WikiLeaks released 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, apparently hacked from internal servers, although claims that the Russian government was involved remain unproven. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been hired by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign following her resignation as party chairwoman in the wake of the leak.

MintPress News interviewed Bernie Sanders supporters at Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday evening about their reaction to the leaks. For many in the pro-Sanders camp, the emails confirm something many had long suspected: that the Democratic Party actively helped Clinton secure the party’s nomination.

Bernie Supporters, Green Party, & Peace Activists ‘March For Our Lives’ Against DNC 2016

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

The Democratic National Convention opened on Monday amid a heat wave, but soaring temperatures didn’t stop activists from heating up the City of Brotherly Love.

MintPress News was there as protesters gathered outside of Philadelphia City Hall to chant, carry signs, or cool off in the shade of the building’s stone arches as temperatures reached 96 degrees, tying a previous record and keeping medics and volunteers busy treating heat stroke and handing out bottled water.

In the early afternoon, one group marched in honor of Berta Cáceres, a Honduran environmental activist and indigenous leader who was assassinated in March. Carrying a giant puppet made in her likeness, they chanted: “Berta didn’t die, she multiplied!”