During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 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.
Support for the ambitious Green New Deal proposal has uncovered widening rifts within the Democratic Party as presidential candidates begin fleshing out their 2020 platforms. To date, the Green New Deal (GND) resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) has attracted 68 co-sponsors from Democratic congressmembers. However, according to a recent report from Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), centrist Democrats and party leadership are part of what it calls an “anti-Green New Deal coalition” that could seriously impede the GND’s goal to transition the country to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. — The 2020 Democrats of the ‘Anti-Green New Deal Coalition’
Videos of the Day:
Trump Budget Showers Pentagon with Cash—Preparing for War? – Wilkerson & JayTrump’s budget more than doubles OCO war-fighting slush fund and proposes cutting social safety net by 9% at a time when White House rhetoric against Iran is heating up and Netanyahu, Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump all face corruption charges and challenges at home
Economic Update: Renewing Labor’s MovementThis week: Shout out to the striking Oakland school teachers; the dangers of declining pensions; a bank fined for helping wealthy clients evade taxes; the U.S. and the EU in a tariff war over black olives; and stagnant real wages in U.S. signify and explain consistent rising inequality; Prof. Wolff interviews Larry Williams, Jr., a labor union activist and the co-founder of UnionBase.org.
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.— The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!
Trump’s New Budget Slashes Medicare and Bolsters Military in an “Attack on the Poor & Middle Class”President Trump is seeking $8.6 billion to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and an almost 5 percent increase in military spending. Meanwhile, Trump is calling for drastic cuts to domestic spending, including cutting $845 billion from Medicare spending over the next decade. Trump also wants to slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent and the Interior Department’s budget by 14 percent. We speak with David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, and founder and editor of DCReport.org.
A Tribal Camp in South Texas Is Vowing to Resist Trump’s WallThe 1,600-member Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe of South Texas knows no borders. Called the Esto’k Gna in their Native language, the tribe’s people have been aboriginal to both sides of the Rio Grande River for centuries, and have maintained sacred sites and burial grounds along its banks for just as long, but the tribe is not recognized by the state or federal government. By Candice BerndTrump Is Nervous. He Should Be Nervous? You betcha, as a former vice-presidential candidate from Wasilla was once heard to say. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) in particular is about to take Trump for a long walk on a short pier thanks to the testimony of former attorney/bagman/fixer Michael Cohen. When Cohen explained to the Oversight and Reform Committee how Trump would regularly exaggerate his personal wealth to insurance companies, the good folks at NYSDFS were taking copious notes. By William Rivers Pitt
Israel’s Stranglehold on American Politics The Israel lobby’s buying off of nearly every senior politician in the United States, facilitated by our system of legalized bribery, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The lobby’s campaign of vicious character assassination, smearing and blacklisting against those who defend Palestinian rights—including the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein and university students, many of them Jewish, in organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine—is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. Twenty-four state governments’ passage of Israel lobby-backed legislation requiring their workers and contractors, under threat of dismissal, to sign a pro-Israel oath and promise not to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctionsmovement is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The shameless decision in 2014 by all 100 U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, to pass a Soviet-style plebiscite proposed by the Israel lobby to affirm Israel’s “right to defend itself” during the 51 days it bombed and shelled homes, water treatment plants, power stations, hospitals and U.N. schools in Gaza, killing 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, is not an anti-Semitic trope By Chris Hedges
Judging U.S. War Crimes Chelsea Manning, who bravely exposed atrocities committed by the U.S. military, is again imprisoned in a U.S. jail. On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2019, she was incarcerated in the Alexandria, VA federal detention center for refusing to testify in front of a secretive Grand Jury. Her imprisonment can extend through the term of the Grand Jury, possibly 18 months, and the U.S. courts could allow formation of future Grand Juries, potentially jailing her again By Kathy Kelly
Residents gather and receive food and water, provided by FEMA, in a neighborhood without grid electricity or running water on October 17, 2017 in San Isidro, Puerto Rico. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Environment:
Military Moves into Environmental Management in South America Environmental and land management in South America is being slowly but persistently militarized, with the aim of controlling extractive industries, especially gold mining. In Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, as well as other countries, both conservative and progressive governments participate in this militarization. The basic dispute is not so much in avoiding negative environmental and social impacts, as in controlling economic surpluses By Eduardo Gudynas
Fukushima grapples with toxic soil that no one wantsEight years after the disaster, not a single location will take the millions of cubic metres of radioactive soil that remain Not even the icy wind blowing in from the coast seems to bother the men in protective masks, helmets and gloves, playing their part in the world’s biggest nuclear cleanup. Away from the public gaze, they remove the latest of the more than 1,000 black sacks filled with radioactive soil and unload their contents into giant sieves. A covered conveyor belt carries the soil to the lip of a huge pit where it is flattened in preparation for the next load. And there it will remain, untouched, for almost three decades. By Justin McCurry
Fracking Linked to Increased Hospitalizations for Skin, Genital and Urinary Issues in Pennsylvania Fracking may put Pennsylvania communities at greater risk for skin, genital, and urinary diseases, according to new research. The study, which was published in the March issue of the journal Public Health, looked at hospital records in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties from 2003-2014. Researchers found that the more fracking wells were in a county, the more hospitalizations the county saw for genital and urinary problems like urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and kidney stones. Fracking, another name for hydraulic fracturing, is a process of extracting oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressur By Kristina Marusic
Is Drilling and Fracking Waste on Your Sidewalk or in Your Pool? Oil and gas waste, which is exempt from hazardous waste rules, is commonly used in commercial applications.They’ve spread it on roads. They’ve irrigated almond farms and fruit groves with it. The oil and gas industry’s liquid waste has been used for a variety of commercial and industrial purposes over the years. But never has the “beneficial use” of this waste stream been so grossly applied, or so close to home, as it is today. By Melissa Troutman Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Shadow Government Statistics — Bullet Edition No. 2 — March 11, 2019 Graphs 6 and 7 are the regularly published plots of employment-market stress in the Participation Rate (labor force as a percent of population), and the employment-to-population ratio. The lower the rate or ratio, the higher the labor-market stress and the higher the unemployment rate should be, at least historically. Contrary to the unemployment rates plotted with the inverse scale in Graphs 8 and 9, the current levels of labor-market stress are much more compatible with high levels of the ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment (again a reverse scale in Graph 8) than the near-record low headline U.3 unemployment rate of Graph 9 (again a reverse scale). These data suggest that current headline economic strength is not quite as advertised (see the Labor Supplement in Commentary No. 982).
Maduro Presents Details of Attacks Against Electrical SystemThe president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, today described the electrical sabotage perpetrated last Thursday, March 7, of the most cruel blow in the history of the South American country. From the Miraflores Palace (headquarters of the government), the Head of State explained all the steps for the reinstatement carried out by the officials and workers of the National Electric Corporation (Corpolec) before the cybernetic attack against the Venezuelan Electroenergetic System. In this regard, the president explained that the first attack was made to the technology area of the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric plant (El Guri), which supplies electricity for 80 percent of the nation. Maduro, emphasized that after 70 percent of the service in the capital was restored, the vandals paid by the opposition physically attacked the La Ciudadela substation, located in the Baruta municipality, Miranda state, to shut down Caracas again.
Five years since Euromaidan: perspectives for Ukraine in 2019The years that followed the collapse of the USSR saw some of the worst peacetime declines in living standards in history, and the brunt was endured by the working class throughout the former Soviet Republics. The five years that followed the Euromaidan coup and the civil war in Donbas have brought even deeper lows to Ukrainians, from attacks on healthcare and pensions by the government, to failing infrastructure, to new calamities arising from the civil war and the rise of neo-Nazi gangs throughout the country. This article will discuss the current developments in Ukraine and the perspectives going forward.By Peter Mikhailenko
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of wall street and the bankers. Yet those who ‘govern’ pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers that be a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
Cannabinoids show antitumor activity in cell lines and in animal models of cancer, but we still do not have data concerning their efficacy and safety from well‐prepared clinical trials. Moreover, antitumor effects of cannabinoids have to overcome their known immunosuppressive effects which can be potentially protumorigenic. The interactions between cannabinoids and classical cytotoxic agents have to be precisely defined. These observations lead us to the conclusion, that further profound studies are doubtlessly needed to verify the idea of introducing cannabinoids into the cancer treatment. — The current state and future perspectives of cannabinoids in cancer biology
Quotes of the Day:
Trump Is Nervous. He Should Be Nervous? You betcha, as a former vice-presidential candidate from Wasilla was once heard to say. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) in particular is about to take Trump for a long walk on a short pier thanks to the testimony of former attorney/bagman/fixer Michael Cohen. When Cohen explained to the Oversight and Reform Committee how Trump would regularly exaggerate his personal wealth to insurance companies, the good folks at NYSDFS were taking copious notes. By William Rivers Pitt
Greenpeace Calls BS After Trump Cites ‘Paid Lobbyist’ Masquerading as Co-Founder to Peddle Climate Denial“Patrick Moore was not a co-founder of Greenpeace. He does not represent Greenpeace,” the group wrote By Jake Johnson
Undisturbed Sagebrush-Juniper Habitat is Vital for the Wildlife
of the West Brett French’s excellent article in The Gazette, Study: Big sagebrush may weather climate change,details the resilience of native sagebrush and its vital importance for a vast array of Montana’s wildlife. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Counsel oppose Bureau of Land Management plans to burn sagebrush. In fact, we are currently suing in Billings to stop the BLM’s plan to burn thousands of acres of sagebrush-juniper habitat in the Iron Mask Planning Area of the Elkhorn Area of Critical Environmental Concern and contend the federal agency ignored the importance of sagebrush and junipers for wildlife and the well-documented fact that invasive and highly flammable cheat grass moves in after sagebrush is burned by the BLM By Mike Garrity
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Radio, Week of March 13, 2019 With Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
