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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico
February is Black History Month
Image of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
Negro leaders suffer from this interplay of solidarity and divisiveness, being either exalted excessively or grossly abused. Some of these leaders suffer from an aloofness and absence of faith in their people. The white establishment is skilled in flattering and cultivating emerging leaders. It presses its own image on them and finally, from imitation of manners, dress and style of living, a deeper strain of corruption develops. This kind of Negro leader acquires the white man’s contempt for the ordinary Negro. He is often more at home with the middle-class white than he is among his own people. His language changes, his location changes, his income changes, and ultimately he changes from the representative of the Negro to the white man into the white man’s representative of the Negro. The tragedy is that too often he does not recognize what has happened to him. — Martin Luther King Jr. 1967, The Black Power Defined
Videos of the Day:
Argentina’s President Macri Withdraws Neoliberal Reforms Due to Massive Resistance Prof. Atilio Boron analyzes the situation in Argentina, where President Macri is pushing drastic neoliberal reforms against widespread resistance from unions and social movements. Sec. of State Rex Tillerson visits to give Macri backing and to urge anti-Venezuela sanctions
Victims of Corrupt Baltimore Police Unit Tell Their Stories As new allegations arise against the now notorious Gun Trace Task Force, Baltimore residents share tales of false arrest, robbery, and a failure to heed warnings about the unit’s criminal behavior
It’s Like “Nazi Germany” — Federal Police Officer Furious After Cops Attempt to Rob Him & His Wife In May of 2014, Ronnie and Lisa Hankins were driving back from his grandfather’s funeral in Virginia when they were targeted by a gang of police officers in search of cash. As Lisa drove the couple westbound down I-40, they saw an officer, who happened to be with the 23rd Judicial District Drug Task Force, and Hankins correctly predicted that they were about to be pulled over.
U.S.:
“I Refused To Secretly Spy” — An Iranian-American Turned Down The Fbi And Wound Up With A Prison Sentence To All Appearances, Ahmad Sheikhzadeh led the life of a typical New York academic. A 62-year-old Columbia University Ph.D., he lived alone in a small West Village rental, practiced yoga, attended lectures with friends, and conducted research at New York University’s labyrinthine Bobst Library. On Fridays, he’d travel uptown to a building at the corner of 40th Street and Third Avenue to work at Iran’s Mission to the United Nations, stepping directly into one of the most dangerous flashpoints in global politics. 
Trump Attacks Mexican Farmers: Mexico protesters fear US-owned brewery will drain their land dry A deal between a state government and the US’s third biggest brewer could put beer for Americans before water for Mexicans Carmelo Gallegos used to sow wheat in the cool winters and cotton in scorching-hot summers of the Mexicali valley. These days, water is so scarce he can only plant one crop a year. But on top of drought and a sinking water table, the 61-year old farmer now has another preoccupation. A huge brewery is being built in the nearby city of Mexicali, and Gallegos – like many others – fears it will suck up what little water remains to make beer for export to the US. By David Agren in Mexicali 
If There’s a War in Korea, Blame Trump Brainwashed Americans believe that Kim Jong-un is responsible for the confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, but nothing could be further from the truth. The real problem is not Kim’s nuclear weapons but Washington’s 65 year-long military occupation that continues to reinforce a political solution that was arbitrarily imposed on a sovereign nation in order to split the country in two, install a puppet regime in the south, establish a permanent military presence to defend US commercial interests, and maintain control of a strategically-located territory that is a critical part of Washington’s plan to encircle Russia and China to remain the dominant global power throughout the century. Simply put, Washington is 100 percent responsible for the current confrontation just as it has been responsible for every flare-up for the last 7 decades. by Mike Whitney
Environment:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Nuclear Reactors, Bankrupting Their Owners, Closing Early On January 22, FirstEnergy Corporation announced that its faulty and nearly-self-destructed Davis-Besse power reactor east of Toledo, Ohio, will be closed well before its license expires. But the shutdown is not because the reactor represents reckless endangerment of public health and safety. FirseEnergy was fine with that. No, the old rattle trap can’t cover its costs any more, not with the electricity market dominated by cheaper natural gas, and renewable wind and solar. by John Laforge
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Note: This is a poem Langston Hughes wrote about the Underground Railroad which Harriet Tubman conducted.
I read in the papers about the Freedom Train
I heard on the radio about the Freedom Train
I seen folks talking about the Freedom Train
Lord, I’ve been a-waitin for the Freedom Train!
Washington, Richmond, Durham, Chatanooga, Atlanta
Way cross Georgia. Lord, Lord, Lord
Lord, way down in Dixie the only trains I see
Got a Jim Crow coach set aside for me.
I hope their ain’t no Jim Crow on the Freedom Train,
No back door entrance to the Freedom Train,
No sign FOR COLORED on the Freedom Train,
No WHITE FOLKS ONLY on the Freedom Train.
I’m gonna check up.
I’m gonna check up on this
Freedom Train. . . .
Liberal Totalitarianism and the Trump Diversion Is the FBI a neutral, reliable source of information? Liberal Dems would have us believe so.The ongoing political circus in the capital of the world’s most powerful empire opens almost daily with a new act each day showcasing an even more bizarre and more revealing display of the internal rot of a culture and a political system in decline.The day before Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, the Russia-gate drama took an unexpected and dangerous turn with the vote by the House Intelligence Committee to release a now classified memo that alleges that senior members of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) may have misled the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) in order to secure a warrant to engage in what Republicans assert is a politically motivated effort that spied on the Trump campaign before he won the 2016 election and attempted to undermine his presidency. By Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Labor:
Economy:
Stock Market Panics on Treasury Yields, Fed and Trump’s Domestic Wars In little more than a week, $4 trillion in global stock market value has vanished as quickly as a snow cone in July. The heretofore uncanny calm of a U.S. stock market setting regular new highs was punctured Friday with a 665.7 point selloff in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That was followed by yesterday’s bungee dive in late afternoon that took the Dow down 1597 points followed by a quick partial retracement that left the Dow down 1,175 points on the day. (That plunge and retracement brought back memories of the Flash Crash of 2010. See charts above and our coverage: Flash Crash Report Raises Flags on Quasi Stock Exchanges Inside Wall Street Firms.) By Pam and Russ Martens
Kochtopus Wants the Little Guy to Buy Stocks as the Market Plunges Last Friday, the stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, plunged 665.7 points. This morning, after just one minute of trading at 9:31 a.m. in New York, the Dow had bled another 307 points. You can expect a big push for the balance of the day by the shills who want to keep the dumb money in the market as a prop for the 1 percenters as they take profits and run. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Israel Pays a Bounty of $5,000 and Arms for Each African Asylum Seeker Expelled Israel was the main driver behind the 1951 UN Convention on the Rights of Refugees, but after signing it, it has never respected the rights of refugees. In fact, it has created one of the biggest refugee crisis the world has seen, says Journalist and Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky
Turkey and Israel Discuss Price, Route of Gas Pipeline
By Carlos Latuff
Rio de Janeiro Brazil Cartoonist note:
Erdogan is everything but a friend!
His real partner is Israel, with which Turkey
is holding talks about a gas pipeline. Just
read recent news from Turkish govt news agency. 
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The Bankruptcy of …Lesser Evilism’: The Bankruptcy of the American Left There will be no economic or political justice for the poor, people of color, women or workers within the framework of global, corporate capitalism. Corporate capitalism, which uses identity politics, multiculturalism and racial justice to masquerade as politics, will never halt the rising social inequality, unchecked militarism, evisceration of civil liberties and omnipotence of the organs of security and surveillance. Corporate capitalism cannot be reformed, despite its continually rebranding itself. The longer the self-identified left and liberal class seek to work within a system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism,” the more the noose will be tightened around our necks. If we do not rise up to bring government and financial systems under public control — which includes nationalizing banks, the fossil fuel industry and the arms industry — we will continue to be victims. By Chris Hedges
Diane Ravitch’s blog: Florida: Stop This Horrible Legislation! Florida Education Association Launches Media Campaign against HB 7055: Tallahassee—Today, the state’s largest teacher’s union launched a media blitz intended to stop HB 7055 – a massive education omnibus bill being pushed by Speaker Corcoran; the second such measure in two years. The bill attempts to logroll nearly five dozen statutes and numerous bills into one giant mess, with virtually no public input or open legislative hearings. “This monstrosity is a clear attempt to destroy our public schools while telling professional educators they simply are not welcome in Florida,” said Joanne McCall, President of the FEA, “Today we are asking lawmakers to stand up to Speaker Corcoran and for our children, for our teachers and for our public schools. We are asking them to say ‘enough is enough’.” (This just in from the Florida Education Association Contact: Sharon Nesvig 850.201.2833 or 850.510.9346)
