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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 Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Image of the Day:
These (workplaces) are war memorials … how going into work day to day becomes too much like war— where too many die before their time. — Homer Seguin, Before Their Time” Cancer & Health And Safety On Our Jobs (Video)
“Many of the rich own water-bottling companies, they can afford to buy water,” Ebrahiem Fourie of the Cape Town Housing Assembly recently toldjournalist Dahr Jamail. “The available ground water [springs] are usually in affluent areas, which makes them easy to access, and with the current water restrictions the rich have cars to load their water.” Mega-corporations like Coca-Cola and Nestlé may seem like a nice solution for communities that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Their water is potable, portable and generally safe. However, as we are witnessing in Cape Town, private companies in the water business cater to those with cash. The poor are left out to dry. Deals like Nestlé is scoring in Michigan won’t fix the water problem in Flint — which is one of the poorest communities in the nation — it will likely exacerbate it. — Nestlé’s Profits Trump Clean Water in Flint
Videos of the Day:
French Unions & Students Mobilize Against Reforms: Another May ’68?50 years after France’s legendary May 1968, which almost toppled the government, unions and students are again mobilizing against the government. However, while the establishment celebrates May ’68, its criticizes today’s protest movement, says Le Monde Diplomatique’s Renaud Lambert
200th Anniversary of the Birth of Marx and a Revolution in Understanding HistoryHistorian Gerald Horne and host Paul Jay discuss the ongoing relevance of Marx’s Materialist Conception of History; to understand and fight ideas that defend injustice today, people must know the economic roots the give rise to, and perpetuate, such ideology
Sixth Consecutive Week of Friday Gaza Protests Leaves Over 160 WoundedReport from Gaza: For the sixth consecutive week Palestinians in Gaza headed to the Israeli border to demonstrate the “Great March of Return.” Israeli soldiers continued their attacks on the protesters, wounding over 160. Special correspondent Noor Harazeen reports from Gaza
US Gov. and Media Whitewash ‘Reformer’ Saudi PrinceMBS as He Beheads DissidentsWhile top American officials and media outlets praise Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a “revolutionary,” 12 people are beheaded per month. Professor Asad AbuKhalil says the Saudi monarchy “has become far more repressive than it has ever been.”
U.S.:
The Interminable Advance of World War 3 The current war-shrieking is irrevocably lashed to the over-extendedness of the West’s aggregate balance sheet. Somewhere in the basement of the NY Fed the Mother of All Spreadsheet’s (MOAS) burgeoning cells are starting to acquaint, of necessity, with scientific notation. A key leverage point has been reached if not surpassed. The terminal cycle in a secular trend swaps an ever-widening spreadsheet for the war drum. by Norman Ball
Environment:
Six Animal Rights Activists Charged With Felonies for Investigation and Rescue That Led to Punishment of a Utah Turkey FarmIn January 2017, the six activists entered a farm in Moroni, Utah, that supplies turkeys to Norbest, a large company that aggressively markets itself to the public as selling “mountain-grown” turkeys who are treated with particularly humane care. Its marketing materials feature bucolic photographs of Utah nature, designed to create an image that its turkeys are raised in fresh and healthy natural settings, accompanied by assurancesthat its “practices are humane” and ethical, “with the health and comfort of the birds of paramount importance.” What the activists found at the farm was something radically different: tens of thousands of turkeys crammed inside filthy industrial barns, virtually on top of one another. The activists say the animals were suffering from diseases, infections, open wounds, and injuries sustained by pecking and trampling one another. Countless chicks and adult turkeys were barely able to stand, or were lying in their own waste, close to death. By Glenn Greenwald
Nestlé’s Profits Trump Clean Water in FlintScrew the people of Flint, or so goes the mantra of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which last month approved a controversial permit that will allow Nestlé to pump and bottle 400 gallons of fresh water per minute from the state’s White Pine Springs, near the Osceola Township. Meanwhile, back in Flint, residents still aren’t buying the Governor’s bullshit that their water is safe to drink. by Joshua Frank
The National Forests Should be Off Limits to Logging Logging, conducted ostensibly to “thin the forest,” “reduce fuels” or for so-called “restoration,” causes a net loss of carbon from forest ecosystems. One of the best strategies for reducing CO2 levels is by protecting our forests. Yet few environmental groups, even those who focus on climate change, advocate for the reduction of logging on federal lands. Indeed, there are economic studies that demonstrate that protecting all our federal forests from logging/thinning and subsequent carbon sequestration that occurs is far more valuable than any wood produced. by George Wuerthner
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
How Wall Street Enabled the Fracking ‘Revolution’ That’s Losing BillionsThe U.S. shale oil industry hailed as a “revolution” has burned through a quarter trillion dollarsmore than it has brought in over the last decade. It has been a money-losing endeavor of epic proportions. In September 2016, the financial ratings service Moody’s released a reporton U.S. oil companies, many of which were hurting from the massive drop in oil prices. Moody’s found that “the financial toll from the oil bust can only be described as catastrophic,” particularly for small companies that took on huge debt to finance fracking shale formations when oil prices were high. As shown in this chart of which banks are loaning money to shale company EOG Resources, while all of the big players in Wall Street are in on the action, JP Morgan has the biggest bet. By Justin Mikulka
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Labor:
The Right to Be Lazy: Essays by Paul Lafargue At once a masterpiece of critical theory and rip-roaring radical humor, this is one of the most spirited attacks on the notion of the “work ethic” ever to be published. Featuring a revised edition of the original English translation by Charles Hope Kerr, this collection also includes four of Paul Lafargue’s lesser-known critiques (including the “Catechism for Investors”), as well as a biographical sketch by longtime Wobbly organizer Fred Thompson and a new introduction. Released in collaboration with Kerr Company to celebrate their 125th anniversary year.
The average American worker takes less vacation time than a medieval peasantA history of dwindling vacation days It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way: John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, made a famous predictionthat by 2030, advanced societies would be wealthy enough that leisure time, rather than work, would characterize national lifestyles. So far, that forecast is not looking good. What happened? Some cite the victory of the modern eight-hour a day, 40-hour workweek over the punishing 70 or 80 hours a 19th century worker spent toiling as proof that we’re moving in the right direction. But Americans have long since kissed the 40-hour workweek goodbye, and Shor’s examination of work patterns reveals that the 19th century was an aberration in the history of human labor. When workers fought for the eight-hour workday, they weren’t trying to get something radical and new, but rather to restore what their ancestors had enjoyed before industrial capitalists and the electric light bulb came on the scene. By Lynn Parramore
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment The ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate for April 2018 is 21.5%.The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
“Creating Wealth” Through Debt: the West’s Finance-Capitalist RoadVolumes II and III of Marx’s Capital describe how debt grows exponentially, burdening the economy with carrying charges. This overhead is subjecting today’s Western finance-capitalist economies to austerity, shrinking living standards and capital investment while increasing their cost of living and doing business. That is the main reason why they are losing their export markets and becoming de-industrialized. by Michael Hudson
The Market Is Going to Test Obama’s Legacy on Wall Street Bank ReformYesterday, the Dow closed just barely in positive territory after having been down almost 400 points intraday. But, notably, big Wall Street bank stocks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley all closed the day in the red. These banks share a common feature — and risk —together they control the vast majority of derivatives traded in the U.S. while also owning commercial banks holding insured deposits — the combustible mixture that the Dodd Frank financial reform legislation of 2010 was supposed to correct, but didn’t. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
An Ode to Eugene V. Debs and the End of CapitalismOnce upon a time, the word “socialist” wasn’t considered a dirty word. In fact, in 1912, roughly a million people (6 percent of the popular vote), voted for a socialist for president. He is the subject of filmmaker Yale Strom’s new documentary, “American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs,” in limited release in New York from April 27 through May 3 and in Los Angeles from May 4 through May 10. A straight chronology using archival photos and footage, Strom’s movie tells the story of the pioneering union leaderand founding member of International Workers of the World (IWW). Early in his career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party with a focus on union issues and workers’ rights. He co-founded the American Railway Union (ARU), which galvanized a wildcat strike over pay cuts into a nationwide Pullman Strikethat landed him six months in prison. Emerging from incarceration, he was the founding member of the Socialist Party of America and ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920. The first political figure jailed for anti-war speech, Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for urging people to resist the military draft of World War I. By Jordan Riefe
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