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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 Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
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On the Saturday morning after the bombs fell in Damascus and Homs, Omalii Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, held a press conference in St. Louis to denounce Washington’s aggression. “If you can use that justification,” said Yeshitela, “that, somehow, the Syrian state is attacking its own people and, therefore, the U.S. can rain missiles, along with France and England, on Syria, then what would prevent Russia from attacking the United States because of all the people that the United States is killing in our communities, all of the starvation that is imposed on our communities, the fact that more than a million Africans are lumped up in prison?” — Glen Ford, White Lies and Black Disbelief in a Fading Empire
Video of the Day:
U.S.:
Crimes of a Monster: Your Tax Dollars at Work “Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?” James Russell Lowell, 19thcentury American novelistLet us not mince words.We are living in an age of war profiteers. We are living in an age of scoundrels, liars, brutes and thugs. Many of them work for the U.S. government. We are living in an age of monsters. Ask Donald Trump. He knows all about monsters. by John W. Whitehead
Media Cover-up: Shielding Israel is a Matter of Policy The term ‘media bias’ does not do justice to the western corporate media’s relationship with Israel and Palestine. The relationship is, indeed, far more profound than mere partiality. It is not ignorance, either. It is a calculated and long-term campaign, aimed at guarding Israel and demonizing Palestinians. The current disgraceful coverage of Gaza’s popular protests indicates that the media’s position aims at suppressing the truth on Palestine, at any cost and by any means. by Ramzy Baroud
Environment:
Great Barrier Reef: Can Iconic Coral System Survive After Heatwave Kills One-Third?Enormous and unique, the iconic Great Barrier Reef is an ecosystem hosting to nearly 3,900 coral reefs. The vibrant creatures that make up the colonies sprout near the coast of Australia across a stretch of about 133,000 square miles—the largest such system in the world. Home to hundreds of diverse animals—fish, turtles, birds and even crocodiles—the reef is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But, ravaged by increasing water temperatures, the system’s corals are dying in droves. An extended heatwave in 2016, researchers report in the journal Nature, has killed nearly a third of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals. By Katherine Hignett 
High-speed pig slaughter will be disastrous for everyone involvedA new rule in the US would eliminate food inspectors and lift limits on how quickly pigs can be killed. The impact on workers, animals and consumers would be disastrous The Trump administrationhas proposed a radical change in food safety protection. They’re misleadingly calling it the “Modernization of swine slaughter inspection rule”, but what it really does is roll back progress on protecting the public from serious and sometimes fatal diseases such as salmonella. The proposal drastically reduces the number of trained government food inspectors in pork plants, turns over food safety functions to untrained plant managers, and by allowing for an unlimited increase in slaughter line speeds, puts public health, worker safety and animal welfare at risk. By Deborah Berkowitzand Suzanne McMillan
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
White Lies and Black Disbelief in a Fading Empire“What would prevent Russia from attacking the United States because of all the people that the United States is killing in our communities.” Having already violated every tenet of international law in its proxy jihadist war against Syria, including the seizure of one-third of the country, the United States invoked a Non-Law, a Law That Never Was, to justify its missile strikes against fictitious “chemical warfare” facilities. Syrian President Assad “kills his own people,” said Trump, leader of the nation whose police kill more of its “own people” than any country except (fellow white settler state) Brazil, and whose prisons entomb one-quarter of all the world’s inmates. (One out of every eight prisoners on the planet is an African American.) Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
#FreeSpeechTVSoWhite “Progressive media is itself a bastion of white domination.”A few years ago, the hashtag, “#Oscar so white” was all the rage in progressive media circles. The hashtag referred to the lack of Oscar nominations and awards given to African American and other “people of color” actors. The attention was well deserved as Hollywood had certainly shown its cultural bias in favor of white actors, directors, etc. Progressive media outlets such as Democracy Now! gleefully reported on the issue and even had black actors on to talk about the lack of racial diversity in Tinsel Town. What was odd, and still is so today, is that progressive media is itself a bastion of white domination that has little to no racial diversity in either its programming or its on air personalities. By Bryan K. Bullock
Confront the Black Misleader Class at the Polls Black radical candidates must always “keep politics in command,” when challenging the misleadership class for the hearts and minds of the Black community. That was one of the themes of the Black Is Back Coalition’s Electoral School, convened in St. Louis, Missouri, last week. Listen to nine speakers address the broadest range of issues — always with the focus on Black self-determination. By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford 
Banking On a ‘Shithole’: US-Led Racial Capitalism in Haiti Began Long Before Trump “Haiti was ‘truly a virgin territory ready for the white man’s guiding mind.’” Donald Trump’s recent description of Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa as “shithole countries [sic]” offered an ugly example of how US foreign policy is often shaped by the dictates of racial capitalism — by an economic system suffused with racial ideology and racist thinking. By Peter James Hudson 
The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism “The construction of the relatively new racial identity that was ‘whiteness’—and its complement, white supremacy—took off as the African slave trade itself was reaching a new stage.” The years between 1603 and 1714 were perhaps the most decisive in English history. At the onset of the seventeenth century, the sceptered isle was a second-class power, but the Great Britain that emerged by the beginning of the eighteenth century was, in many ways, the planet’s reigning superpower.1 It then passed the baton to its revolting spawn, the United States, which has carried global dominance into the present century.2 By Dr. Gerald Horne
Russiagate: Democrats’ Give Giant Middle Finger to Climate Justice Introduction: What’s Reallyat Stake When We Talk about Climate Justice This article hopes to connect some crucial dots its author has neverseen connected. Namely, to identify the Russiagate narrative as a monstrous sneak attack, conducted chiefly by Democrats, on the very concept of climate justice. Since no author I’ve read has connected that particular set of dots—by no means difficult to connect—this piece, by pinpointing the Russiagate narrative as the climate justice narrative’s most dangerous enemy, is already performing a simple but crucial public service. But when we consider the real meaning of climate justice—too little understood by “woke” activists, let alone the comparatively stuporous U.S. public—the value of that public service is exponentially amplified. For when we speak about climate justice, we’re really talking about global justice pure and simple—and about saving the wholeof human civilization by means of it. A fact underscored by Naomi Klein, probably the preeminent promoter of climate justice, in titling her pivotal book This Changes Everything. It doesn’t get bigger thaneverything. By Patrick Walker
For Sistar Kiilu Nyasha: Freedom Is A Constant Struggle…
Never thought I’d see the day that I’d pray
for: Fake News;
Never thought I’d see the day that I’d pray
for: Alternative Facts from Boss Tweet— pray that
scribblers screwed up tenses scribbling ‘bout a constant struggler—
3-time loser in capitalist Amerikkka:
Disabled; Black and Woman— Panther to the core,
Ida B-child soldier speaking, writing in real time—
Mentoring men and women for battlefront lives
worth living…
Flying warrior woman kites coded in humanity
through concertina censorship; smuggling
Love and hope between bars, amplifying voices… Maybe I’m selfish and don’t wanna let go—don’t wanna lose the grace, the smile
Sweetly staunch as principles behind it? Maybe I’m lazy and don’t wanna lift her Load, clicking, guiding, electric silence…
whizzing down steep hills, in swift traffic likelittle cablecars that climb half way to the stars? Maybe her meeting after meeting, march after march, demonstration after demonstration, decade after decade
Shamed my temporarily-abled body to another level?
Or, maybe I’m afraid of losing the constant struggler—
the long distance runner— reminding me: WE WILL WIN? — Bar poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner 
Labor:
Economy:
Undermining Brazilian Democracy: the Curious Saga of LulaOver the weekend, Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva turned himself in to the police after having been charged with corruption under the wide-ranging Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation. Tens of thousands of people blocked roads across the country to protest his impending arrest. Thousands surrounded the metalworkers’ union building where he had waited. When he insisted that he would turn himself in and begin serving his 12-year sentence, Mr. Lula da Silva was carried on the shoulders of the crowd waiting outside. It was a dramatic moment for a man who remains hugely popular in Brazil and is seen by many as a standard-bearer of the aspirations of the poor. by Vijay Prashad
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
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.
Quote of the Day:
World: