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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
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Did Russiagate Just Escalate Ukraine’s War? President Trump has agreed to arm the Ukrainian military in its fight with Russian-backed forces in the Donbass region. Leading Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen says it’s the latest Russiagate-driven escalation of the new Cold War
2017 A Banner Year for Corporate Mergers, Which Further Deepens Inequality Low interest rates, “quantitative easing,” and the mitigation of antitrust laws led to more mergers and acquisitions in 2017, but that’s only going to fuel greater wealth inequality and tighten the corporate grip on the political system, explains economist Michael Hudson 
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Trump’s “America First” Security Strategy Imperils The U.S. The president’s aims are both contradictory and regressive, and will do great harm to his nation. Last week, with great fanfare, Donald Trump rolled out his new National Security Strategy (NSS). Its guiding theme is “America First.” An analysis of the 55-page document, however, reveals a program that renders the United States more unpopular and vulnerable to external threats. Trump’s plan takes Barack Obama’s policy of “American exceptionalism” to a new level. In his speech accompanying the NSS’s release, Trump stated, “America has been among the greatest forces for peace and justice in the history of the world.” Yet Trump has not only continued but also escalated the Bush-Obama wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, dropped Tomahawk missiles on Syria, threatened North Korea and Iran, intensified airstrikes against Muslim countries and fanned the flames of conflict in the Middle East. By Marjorie Cohn, Contributor
The “Merchants of Death” Survive and Prosper During the mid-1930s, a best-selling exposé of the international arms trade, combined with a U.S. Congressional investigation of munitions-makers led by Senator Gerald Nye, had a major impact on American public opinion. Convinced that military contractors were stirring up weapons sales and war for their own profit, many people grew critical of these “merchants of death.” Today, some eight decades later, their successors, now more politely called “defense contractors,” are alive and well. According to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, sales of weapons and military services by the world’s largest 100 corporate military purveyors in 2016 (the latest year for which figures are available) rose to $375 billion. U.S. corporations increased their share of that total to almost 58 percent, supplying weapons to at least 100 nations around the world. by Lawrence Wittner
Another Global Warming Elephant in the Room: The Pentagon Military Industrial Complex! The United States is ranked #1 in global warming emitions (Ranking Global Warming Contributions by Country) but, actually, the United States has contributed far more global warming admission, if you consider the 800 U.S. military bases and wars, throughout the world. From The Military Pumps Out Staggering Quantities of Toxic Waste, Water and Air Pollution and Radiation Environmentalists are ignoring the elephant in the room … the world’s largest polluter: . . . The Pentagon is also one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world … and yet it has a blanket exemption from all greenhouse gas treaties. The defense department also uses open-air burn pits which send a parade of horribles into the air. Sea life is not exempt. And the military has long been a flagrant user of chemical weapons and depleted uranium . . . which can trash ecosystems and human health. And Despite our unorthodox presidential election, America’s overseas military bases are largely taken for granted in today’s foreign policy debates. The U.S. maintains a veritable empire of military bases throughout the world— about 800 of them in more than 70 countries. Many view our bases as a symbol of our status as the dominant world power. But America’s forward-deployed military posture incurs substantial costs and disadvantages, exposing the U.S. to vulnerabilities and unintended consequences. (See: Why We Should Close America’s Overseas Military Bases) By Roland Sheppard 
Environment:
Sea Level Rise Projections Double, Painting Terrifying Picture for Next Generation As California experienced one of its largest wildfires ever, future projections of global temperature increase and sea level rise are again exceeding previous worst-case scenarios. We are stepping into a world where water wars will be the new oil wars, and where major coastal cities will flood one after another. By Dahr Jamail
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World’s Richest Fear the Poor Will ‘Strike Back’ as They Get Even Richer The 500 wealthiest people in the world got more than $1 trillion richer in 2017 alone. Now they’re worried the working class will “strike back.” The Bloomberg Billionaires Index calculates the wealth of the richest 500 people in the world, and measures how much their total net worth increased or decreased. Due to a bullish stock market, the fortunes of the wealthiest have grown by 23 percent in 2017, meaning the world’s richest now have more than $5.3 trillion to their names. That’s enough to completely fund single-payer healthcare for more than 300 million Americans for two full years. By: Matthew P. Robbins
World:
Revolutionary ferment in the depths of Iranian society Yesterday protests carried on for the fifth straight day throughout Iran. Meanwhile, security forces have adopted a harder stance. On the fifth day the protests seemed to have decreased slightly in size, partially due to the increasing crackdown and partially due to the lack of a tangible focal point for the movement. The regime has also heavily reduced access to internet and communication, and it is also clear that many protests are not being reported, in particular from smaller towns and suburbs. By Hamid Alizadeh 
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Student Debt Usury Produces More ‘Paper Wealth’ But Does Not Produce ‘Real Wealth’: Student Debt Slavery: Bankrolling Financiers on the Backs of the Young The advantages of slavery by debt over “chattel” slavery—ownership of humans as a property right—were set out in an infamous document called the Hazard Circular, reportedly circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts during the American Civil War. It read in part: Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power and chattel slavery destroyed. This, I and my European friends are glad of, for slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. Slaves had to be housed, fed and cared for. “Free” men housed and fed themselves. For the more dangerous jobs, such as mining, Irish immigrants were used rather than black slaves, because the Irish were expendable. Free men could be kept enslaved by debt, by paying wages insufficient to meet their costs of living. The Hazard Circular explained how to control wages: This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money. … It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that. By Ellen Brown
