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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.
Images of the Day:
This is the first study of GLY exposure in US pregnant women using urine specimens as a direct measure of exposure. We found that > 90% of pregnant women had detectable GLY levels and that these levels correlated significantly with shortened pregnancy lengths. Although our study cohort was small and regional and had limited racial/ethnic diversity, it provides direct evidence of maternal GLY exposure and a significant correlation with shortened pregnancy. Further investigations in a more geographically and racially diverse cohort would be necessary before these findings could be generalized. — Glyphosate exposure in pregnancy and shortened gestational length: a prospective Indiana birth cohort study
Results:Evaluation of 48 studies that sampled air near sites of UOG activity identified 106 chemicals detected in two or more studies. Ethane, benzene and n-pentane were the top three most frequently detected. Twenty-one chemicals have been shown to have endocrine activity including estrogenic and androgenic activity and the ability to alter steroidogenesis. Literature also suggested that some of the air pollutants may affect reproduction, development, and neurophysiological function, all endpoints which can be modulated by hormones. These chemicals included aromatics (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and mercury. Conclusion:These results provide a basis for prioritizing future primary studies regarding the endocrine disrupting properties of UOG air pollutants, including exposure research in wildlife and humans. Further, we recommend systematic reviews of the health impacts of exposure to specific chemicals, and comprehensive environmental sampling of a broader array of chemicals. — Exploring the endocrine activity of air pollutants associated with unconventional oil and gas extraction
Videos of the Day:
U.S.:
Trump the Baby Killer: ‘Despicable on Every Level’: After Massive Gift to Rich, Trump Demands $7 Billion Cut to Child Health Insurance“This proposal is a shameful betrayal of children. This administration and congressional Republicans passed a massive tax giveaway to their donors and big corporations, and now they want vulnerable children to pay for it.” By Jake Johnson
Trump’s Shameful Choice of ‘Bloody Gina’Leave it to Donald Trump, besieged by denunciations of his torturous behavior toward women, to have nominated a female torturer to head the Central Intelligence Agency. It was a move clearly designed to prove that a woman can be as crudely barbaric as this deeply misogynistic president. When it comes to bullying, Gina Haspel, whose confirmation hearing begins Wednesday, is the real deal, and The Donald is a pussycat by comparison. Whom has he ever waterboarded? Haspel has done that and a lot worse. Haspel is Trump’s ideal feminist, a point tweeted by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: by Robert Scheer
Environment:
Winnemem Wintu Tribe Sue to Stop Waste Discharge at Mt. Shasta Water Bottling FacilityIt’s a gorgeous warm day in September 2015. Small cascades of cold, pristine water rush out of the hillside at Big Springs, the headwaters of the Sacramento River, as they converge in a clear and shallow pool located in the Mount Shasta City Park. by Dan Bacher
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Radio, Week of May 7, 2018 By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Rev. Pinkney Exonerated, Set Free “Nobody ever defeated these people,” but “we’re going to come together and win this war — it’s goin’ down,” declared Benton Harbor Black activist Rev. Edward Pinkneyfollowing his exoneration on charges of tampering with signatures on an election recall petition. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled 6-0 that Pinkney was convicted by an all-white jury and imprisoned for 30 months for a crime that did not exist. “It gives the community hope,” said Pinkney.
Nationwide Prison Strike Set for August 21 – September 9 The death of 7 inmates in fighting at South Carolina’s Lee correctional facility “is an indictment on the nation as a whole,” said Brother Dee, of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, in an interview with Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser. Inmates with the prison slavery abolition movement have put forward a list of ten demands, including the outlawing of work without pay and a rollback of repressive prison laws and practices that “have been designed to dehumanize us as well as make us feel hopeless,” said Akin Yele, of Unheard Voices OTCJ. By Kyle Fraser, Black Agenda Radio producer
ANC Tried to Purge Winnie MandelaWinnie Mandela, the political activist and former wife of Nelson Mandela who died last month at age 81, “became a target for her unwavering support of the ideas contained in the Freedom Charter,” said Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, host of the “What’s At Stake” program on radio station WPFW, in Washington. The socialist-oriented document became a rallying point for the left-wing of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party. “There’s a pattern” in the ANC “throughout the decades of purging those elements out,” said Benjamin Woods, a co-founder of Students Against Mass Incarceration.
DNC Suit Endangers Press Freedoms “If the DNC can sue Wikileaks for economic espionage, then why can’t they sue The New York Timesor The Interceptfor reporting on” purloined emails, said Chip Gibbons, of Defending Rights & Dissent. The DNC blames Wikileaks, the Russian government and the Trump administration for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election defeat. “The Democrats have tried to couch themselves as more loyal to the security state than the Republicans, more willing to wage aggressive war, and more willing to wage unconstitutional surveillance practices,” said Gibbons.
Labor:
Teachers’ Class Struggle Defiance Inspires MillionsIt’s been a long while since anyone alive has seen working people successfully fight back against capitalist cruelty with winning class-struggle strategies and tactics. Today, teachers, and their allies among state workers and working-class families in West Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado have set an inspiring example for the entire U.S. labor movement. Their example goes far beyond the organized sectors, where the percentage of workers in unions today has dwindled to the lowest point since the early 1930s, at some 10 or 11 percent at best. by Jeff Mackler
Economy:
World:
Britain: establishment the real losers in local electionsThe establishment media machine has been in overdrive since last Thursday’s local elections, attempting to portray the results as yet another disaster for Labour and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. But after three years of spewing bile, nobody pays much attention to their hysteria and distortions anymore. And unfortunately for the Blairites, despite shouting themselves hoarse over the past month or so, Corbyn’s position seems stronger than ever. If anything, the Labour right wing’s behaviour in recent weeks has only served to shine a spotlight on the Blairite infestation in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that still needs to be cleaned out. This is the immediate task facing grassroots Labour activists. By Adam Booth, Hackney Momentum
Planning for Aggression: Netanyahu’s Nuclear Archive It all seems like an effort to confirm offensiveness and instability, to be appalling in order to be relevant. The Israeli prime minister, handicapped by domestic travails and a watchful Knesset, is very keen to push the Iranian demon into the spotlight, making the case that the wily mullahs in Tehran are not to be trusted on anything from weapons development to security ambitions. (Such points tend to be of equal application to their accusers: in this case, the refusal to accept, or deny, that Israel is a nuclear state at all. To each his own.) by Binoy Kampmark
Killing Children: From Ireland to PalestineThe most tragic casualty in a conflict is that of a child, the most disturbing casualty in a conflict is that of a child killed purposely. In Palestine there is a disturbingly tragic high rate of children killed by those sporting the uniform of Israeli armed forces.On April 20th 2018 15-year-old Mohammed Ayouh was killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip during protests there. The protesters armed with stones were met with live ammunition and among those who were shot at was 15 year old Mohammed. He died when a bullet struck his head. Mohammed joins an ever lengthening list of child casualties in Palestine, children killed by brute force, stones verses bullets, kids verses soldiers. by Pauline Murphy
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.
Quotes of the Day: