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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. Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!
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Quotes of the Day:
From Capitalism’s Origins, The Ideology of Racism has Been the Creation by Capitalism to Justify Capitalism’s Conquest of the World!
Racism isn’t just an ideology but is an institution. And its origins don’t lie in bad ideas or in human nature. Rather, racism originated with capitalism and the slave trade. As the Marxist writer CLR James put it, “The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers had…that the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race. — CLR James
On Election Day, how eagerly so many white voters—both the poorly educated and the well educated—embraced the shame and fear sowed by Donald Trump. The candidate whose company has been sued by the Justice Department for not renting apartments to black people. The candidate who questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, and who seemed to condone the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at a campaign rally. The candidate who kept black workers off the floors of his casinos. The candidate who is beloved by David Duke and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. William Faulkner understood this better than almost any other American writer. In “Absalom, Absalom,” incest is less of a taboo for an upper-class Southern family than acknowledging the one drop of black blood that would clearly soil the family line. Rather than lose its “whiteness” (once again), the family chooses murder. — Toni Morrison, Mourning for Whiteness
Sad to read that Toni Morrison has passed away. Last met her and her son n Paraty, Brazil at a literary festival some years ago. While we were there Israel launched a serious attack on Gaza. A Palestinian poet an Egyptian novelist and myself wrote a short manifesto denouncing Israel in sharp language that would have failed the Labour Party test. Toni was the first to sign despite Christopher Hitchens attempt to stop her and others. Before I spoke I read out our statement and names of those who had signed it to loud applause. Met her again in New York and warned that Obama would be a huge disappointment to people like her. She wouldn’t hear any of this, alas. She will be greatly missed and on many levels. — Tariq Ali
Fast-forward to late July 2019. Taking a shot at Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) for probing his administration, President Trump stoked yet another racial controversy with a tweet calling Black neighborhoods in Cummings’s Baltimore district “very dangerous” and a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” The tweet sparked widespread outcry over the president’s racism. Housing Secretary Ben Carson, the only Black member of Trump’s cabinet, was dispatched to play damage control with a visit to Baltimore and an appearance on Fox & Friends, one of Trump’s favorite TV shows. Carson, who used to work as a surgeon in Baltimore, generated further controversy by comparing the city to a “cancer patient” and assuming that “young men sitting on porches” must be unemployed — an assumption echoing a racist trope about Black people. Meanwhile, Carson’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) advanced a proposal that housing and civil rights groups say would make it difficult if not impossible to file anti-discrimination lawsuits against lenders, insurance companies and landlords — cases like the one that led to a historic settlement against Wells Fargo. Politico obtained a copy of the proposal, a wonky regulatory document detailing changes to federal rules under the Fair Housing Act that is currently circulating in Congress but has received little media attention. However, the proposal provides a glimpse into how — beyond its racist public comments — the Trump administration is quietly working to gut what housing experts say are crucial tools for fighting racial discrimination. Additionally, the proposal appears to codify reactionary notions of “race neutrality” and “color blindness” in the face of still-rampant inequality, according to advocates. — Trump’s Housing Department Is Making It Harder to Fight Discrimination
Videos of the Day:
Puerto Rico in Political Crisis: Senate Sues over Appointment of New Governor PierluisiThe political crisis in Puerto Rico continues as its Senate has sued against the appointment of Pedro Pierluisi as the new governor following Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation last week. Pierluisi was sworn in despite not having been confirmed by the Puerto Rican Senate. But he argues that he is in the line of succession for governor after being nominated as secretary of state by Rosselló last week. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz also sued after his swearing-in. We speak with Democracy Now! co-host Juan González for his analysis of the current political climate.
U.S.:
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!
Environment:
Climate Scientists Say We Have 18 Months To Save The Planet It wasn’t so long ago that the governments of the world assured us that we had until 2030 to cut carbon emissions, leading us all to believe we still had a bit of time up our sleeves to save the planet. But now more and more scientists are claiming the tipping point for addressing climate change could happen in the next 18 months. “The climate math is brutally clear. While the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.
Trump’s Policies Are Putting Our Food Supply At Risk Climate change and Trump’s trade war are wreaking havoc on the U.S.’s farmlands. Donald Trump and his race-baiting cohort love to proclaim, “If you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country!” Replace “borders” with “food,” and you’re onto something. Replace “borders” with “water,” and you’re onto something again. Last month, The New York Times published a report on the harrowing conditions being endured by farmers in Nebraska and Wyoming. More than 100,000 acres have gone bone dry after a 100-year-old system of irrigation canals, tended carefully for generations, collapsed. It was yet another example of the U.S.’s aging, fraying, yet vital infrastructure abruptly falling apart. This is peak growing season, and hundreds of farmers on hundreds of farms now have no water for their crops. By William Rivers Pitt
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Toni Morrison’s Black Art Spoke in a Nation That Would Silence Us Toni Morrison makes my eyes water, makes my body quiver. She gives me feelings. Yes, Toni Morrison was power. Toni Morrison was practical. She was matter of fact and smart and not given for a lot of spirit this and umbras in the house that — Toni Morrison did not have time for foolishness. A woman rose from the waters, fully clothed and wearing a hat, and when she looked directly at her, Toni Morrison told her story. A best girlfriend visited from the other side and added some laughter to her house. These encounters did not detach Toni Morrison from the very real world of paying her bills and raising her two sons and catching a taxi to zip around the city. By Eisa Nefertari Ulen
Labor:
Politicians have long manipulated public perceptions of immigration, turning immigrants into a scapegoat for issues like unemployment and economic troubles. In recent months, immigrants and refugees have also been tacked with the blame for terrorism by populist leaders like Donald Trump. Immigrants, however, are not to blame for terrorism or a litany of other legitimate grievances. Populists simply use them because they’re an easy target. — It’s not just Trump. Immigrants are the global right’s main scapegoat.
With real unemployment rate in the United States over 21%, and high poverty rates in the United States and that Nearly two-thirds of American children live in asset poverty: Blacks, immigrants, and oppressed minorities are used as scapegoats for the high unemployment and poverty rates.— Blacks, immigrants, and oppressed minorities are used as scapegoats for the high unemployment and poverty rates.
White Terrorism The number of bereaved families and friends of those massacred by white terrorists in the United States tragically continues to expand. Within the last year alone bodies riddled with the bullets of military-style weapons lay strewn on the streets of large cities like Pittsburgh and El Paso to small towns like Poway and Gilroy. Fueled by anti-Semitic and anti-Hispanic rhetoric, the paranoid projections and racist rhetoric of white nationalism and white supremacy have been weaponized into white terrorism. By Fran Shor
ICE Raids Targeted Company Whose Workers Won Discrimination Lawsuit The arrests targeted chicken processing plants operated by Koch Foods, one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. Last year, Koch Foods paid out $3.75 million to settle an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission class-action suit charging the company with sexual harassment, national origin and race discrimination, and retaliation against Latino workers at one of its Mississippi plants. Labor activists say it’s the latest raid to target factories where immigrant workers have organized unions, fought back against discrimination or challenged unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
The U.S. Government’s ICE has a History of Attacking Workers in Support of Their Employers:
The UFW denounces these enforcement actions targeting hard working people who have not violated the law and whose hard labor and sacrifice feed America and the world. The union is hearing stories from farm workers who are afraid to leave their homes. Do growers who supported and financed the campaign that put Donald Trump in office condone the climate of fear that is gripping farm worker communities? The only just and equitable solution to the immigration problems plaguing California’s agricultural industry is comprehensive immigration reform, not stripping farm workers of the few protections built into the existing federal guest worker program, as some Republican lawmakers have proposed. Such legislative schemes are aimed at driving down the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers. We will fight them. — UFW: ICE stops & arrests striking fear among farm workers across California’s major farming regions are just wrong!
Worker Impact of ICE Raids at Swift On behalf of the 1.3 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to address this briefing panel about the impact of our broken immigration system on workers across the country. he UFCW is the largest private sector union in North America—and, one of the largest unions of new immigrant workers in the U.S. with more than 200,000 new immigrants as members. We are the primary worker representative in industries that are major employers of immigrant workers, meatpacking, food processing and poultry and have a hundred-year history of fighting for safe working conditions and good wages on behalf of packing and processing workers. Last Tuesday morning, 13,000 workers clocked in to work as they do every day. hey didn’t know that government agents would soon storm their worksites dressed in riot gear, brandishing military weapons and locking the doors to prevent anyone from coming in or out. Their mission involved a warrant ICE had obtained to apprehend 170 individuals suspected of identity theft.The ICE action clearly reached far beyond those 170 suspects. Workers were herded into cafeterias and segregated. In Utah, the ICE agents used skin color to identify the “”suspects.”” In other locations naturalized citizens were separated from the native born. In effect, people were subjected to a criminal process simply for going to work. In some plants, workers with proper authorization had their identification stripped from them. Many were detained and then transported far from home before being given an opportunity to present their case. Walter Molina was pulled into the group of detained suspects. His girlfriend wasn’t allowed to bring his valid green card to him at the Grand Island, Nebraska, plant. Lacking ID, he was transported six hours away to Camp Dodge, Iowa, where, after confirming his status, ICE released him. He was left to fend for himself and had to spend $140 of his own money on a bus ticket home. Walter’s story was repeated over and over again as workers were held captive by ICE agents and denied both representation by their union and due process to clear themselves before being hauled away to distant cities and other states.
Economy:
L Brands’ Lawyers Have a Lot More to Worry About Than Just Jeffrey EpsteinThe Chairman and CEO of L Brands, Leslie (Les) Wexner, came out yesterday with a statement accusing Jeffrey Epstein of swindling “vast sums of money” from Wexner and his family. L Brands is the parent of retail chains Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, and Pink. Epstein is the accused sex trafficker and assaulter of dozens of underage girls who has mansions in multiple locations but is currently occupying an 8′ x 8′ jail cell in Manhattan while he awaits trial.By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
A Wretched Day for Democracy: Revocation of the Special Status of KashmirThe India that Jammu and Kashmir acceded to in 1947 had chosen democracy, secularism, and socialism as its goals. Although the Praja Parishad, predecessor of the RSS, was determined to foist a solution of the entire Kashmir issue along communal lines even prior to 1953, and its leaders had been vocal about their views, it was heartwarming that India had chosen democracy and secularism as its goals. By Nyla Ali Khan
UNRWA Accusations: (Im)Perfect Timing A damaging internal report has cast a dark shadow over the ethical behavior of top officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). As disclosed by Al Jazeera and AFP, the report cites “credible and corroborated reports” that members of an “inner circle” at the top of UNRWA, including Swiss Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl, have engaged in “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.” The report was sent to UN Secretary-General António Guterres in December. By Daniel Warner
Health, Education, and Welfare:
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 the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
