
Forty years ago on Dec. 2, the poisonous gas methyl isocyanate began leaking from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal in central India. That night, 27 tons of the gas spread through slum neighborhoods killing thousands in their sleep and injuring tens of thousands more. According to Amnesty International, 22,000 civilians died within days.
(“An Unending Nightmare,” Economist, Dec. 1, 2024; “Bhopal Gas Tragedy: 40 Years of Injustice,” Amnesty International, Dec. 2, 2024)
The incoming Trump administration is planning to make some of the deepest cuts in the federal budget in decades through a controversial maneuver known as “impoundment,” which could provoke a congressional and presidential clash over the budget. The Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate the federal budget, while the president’s role is to spend those funds effectively. According to ProPublica, Trump wants to test the impoundment legal theory, which holds that presidents have sweeping powers to withhold congressionally approved spending they do not agree with.
(“How Trump Plans to Seize the Power of the Purse from Congress,” ProPublica, Nov. 26, 2024)
Wisconsin’s former right-wing Gov. Scott Walker led a major assault on labor rights in the early days of 2011 when he backed legislation to take collective bargaining rights away from thousands of teachers and other state public employees. Walker’s attack on unions became a template for right-wing assaults on worker rights in other states and nationally.
(“A Wisconsin Judge Just Ripped Up Walker’s Anti-Union Law,” Nation, Dec. 4, 2024)