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.
Will the Media Be Trump’s Accomplice Again in 2020? We have a second chance. Let’s not blow it. By Frank Bruni But how much heed will we in the media pay to this stupidity? Will we sprint to Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker or Mike Bloomberg for a reaction to what Trump just called one of them and then rush back to him for his response tothatresponse? Or will we note Trump’s latest nonsense only briefly and pivot to matters more consequential? That’s a specific question but also an overarching one — about the degree to which we’ll let him set the terms of the 2020 presidential campaign, about our appetite for antics versus substance, and about whether we’ll repeat the mistakes that we made in 2016 and continued to make during the first stages of his presidency. There were plenty
Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administrationBy Greg Miller President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard told CNN that she has proof the Obama administration was funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda. By Baxter Dmitry Hawaii Rep. Gabbard went to Syria on a secret fact-finding mission to wade through the lies and propaganda and find out what is really happening on the ground. Immediately on her return CNN booked her for an “exclusive” interview – and Gabbard told them exactly what they didn’t want to hear: she has proof the Obama administration was funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Explaining to Jake Tapper that she met people from all walks of life in Aleppo and Damascus, Gabbard said that Syrians “expressed happiness and joy at seeing an American walking their streets.” But they also wanted to know “why is it that the United States, its allies and other countries, are providing support, are providing arms, to terrorist groups like Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, who are on the ground there, raping, kidnapping, torturing, and killing the Syrian people?Obama Funding Al-Queda
The Opioid Crisis, Made in the USA Writer Chris McGreal and host Robert Scheer zero in on the book American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts, in this week’s episode of “Scheer Intelligence.” Scheer and McGreal, the book’s author and a correspondent for The Guardian and other news outlets, discuss how the opioid addiction crisis is largely an American epidemic. As McGreal notes, “Eighty-five percent of the world’s prescription painkillers are consumed in the United States, which is five percent of the world’s population.”
Environment:
U.S. Shows Flagrant Disregard for Science Once Again By Abrahm Lustgarten The signals are blaring: Dramatic changes to our climate are well upon us. These changes — we know thanks to a steady drumbeat of alarming official reports over the past 12 months — could cripple the U.S. economy, threaten to make vast stretches of our coastlines uninhabitable, make basic food supplies scarce and push millions of the planet’s poorest people into cities and across borders as they flee environmental perils.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:Agitating dock workers get five months’ salaries On the 109th day of their sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club and following a protest rally they had staged a day earlier, the 1,751 dock workers of Port Qasim Authority were paid their long overdue salaries on Friday. It was a sigh of relief for the workers, who were paid five months’ salaries, from July 18 to November 18, through two cheques of a total amount of Rs20.547 million after a meeting between representatives of Huaneng Fuyun Port and Shipping (HFPS), which handles berths three and four at Port Qasim, and representatives of the workers, social workers, human rights activists and trade unionists.
Yellow vests: protesters fight for ideological ownership In France and Britain, gilets jaunes have mutated into symbols of anger against anything from austerity to Islam By Ben QuinnandJon HenleyThe numbers involved – in France hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets – are the most visible difference between the two countries. In Britain, yellow vest protests have ranged from involving a few dozen – including those who blocked Westminster bridge in December – through to the thousands in London on Saturday who joined an anti-austerity protest addressed by figures including the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and which included French jaunes. Tom Griffiths, an organiser of the People’s Assembly event, said it was not too late for the left to be the dominant force in Britain’s yellow vest movement. He insisted that thousands who rallied in Trafalgar Square – while welcoming both remain and Brexit supporters – vastly outnumbered the hundred who rallied outside St James’s Park tube station under a pro-Brexit banner.
The Ottomans were once humiliated by Yemeni rebels – today, the Houthis have done the same to Saudi Arabia If the Ottomans had to reform their army, what is to be done with the Saudi military? Mohammad bin Salman thinks he can reform his kingdom’s economy. But his soldiers may have to reform themselves By Robert Fisk I rarely have reason to thank Turkish ambassadors. They tend to hold a different view of the 1915 Armenian holocaust, in which a million and a half Armenian Christians were deliberately murdered in a planned genocide by the Ottoman Turkish regime. “Hardship and suffering”, they agree, was the Armenians’ lot. But genocide? Never. Well, that’s not the view of genocide scholars – including Israeli historians – nor of that bravest of Turkish academics, Taner Akcam, who has prowled thorough the Ottoman archives to find the proof. The Armenians did suffer, alas, a genocide.
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The Right to be Lazy 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. (To Read the Full Text Go Here)
World:
