Skip to content
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
Image of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
Brown admits that, when he was 14, “It wounds you. But when I got older and went to the University of California [Berkeley] I learnt about a more subtle racism and how it filters across our education system through tracking, hidden curriculums, social stratification and things I had no idea of before. I was really emotional – because one of the most subtle but aggressive ways racism exists is through our education system.”
In his year at college, before pausing his degree to play in the NBA, Brown wrote a thesis about how institutionalised sport impacts on education. “I was super emotional reading about it,” he says of his chosen subject. “There’s this idea of America that some people have to win and some have to lose so certain things are in place to make this happen. Some people have to be the next legislators and political elites and some have to fill the prisons and work in McDonald’s. That’s how America works. It’s a machine which needs people up top, and people down low.
“Even though I’ve ended up in a great place, who is to say where I would’ve been without basketball? It makes me feel for my friends. And my little brothers or cousins have no idea how their social mobility is being shaped. I wish more and more that I can explain it to them. Just because I’m the outlier in my neighbourhood who managed to avoid the barriers set up to keep the privileged in privilege, and the poor still poor, why should I forget about the people who didn’t have the same chance as me?”
What did he think of Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality and racism – which the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback began even before Trump’s election to the White House? “It was peaceful and successful. It made people think. It made people angry. It made people want to talk. Often everybody is comfortable with their role in life and they forget about the people who are uncomfortable. So for Colin to put his career on the line, and sacrifice himself, was amazing. But Colin was fed up with the police brutality and pure racism. He speaks for many people in this country – including me.”
Did Brown understand from the outset that Kaepernick’s career was in jeopardy? “Absolutely. I wasn’t shocked how it turned out. Colin was trying to get back into the NFL and find another team and he’s more than capable. But I knew it was over. I knew they weren’t going to let him back. Nobody wanted the media attention or to take the risk. They probably just wanted to blackball him out of the league.
“That’s the reality because sports is a mechanism of control. If people didn’t have sports they would be a lot more disappointed with their role in society. There would be a lot more anger or stress about the injustice of poverty and hunger. Sports is a way to channel our energy into something positive. Without sports who knows what half of these kids would be doing?
“We’re having some of the same problems we had 50 years ago. Some things have changed a lot but other factors are deeply embedded in our society. It takes protests like Kaepernick’s to make people uncomfortable and aware of these hidden injustices. People are now a lot more aware, engaged and united in our culture. It takes a special person like Kaepernick to force these changes – because often reporters and fans say: ‘If you’re an athlete I don’t want you to say anything. You should be happy you’re making x amount of money playing sport. You should be saluting America instead of critiquing it.’ That’s our society.” — Jaylen Brown: ‘Sport is a mechanism of control in America’
Videos
Why is US Cutting Aid to Pakistan? President Trump began the year with a tweet denouncing Pakistan, and followed up by announcing a new reduction of U.S. aid. Junaid Ahmad, director of the Center for Global Dialogue, explains the significance of Trump’s decision
U.S.:
The Iron Heel: Welcome to Law Enforcement’s “Dark Side”: Secret Evidence, Illegal Searches, and Dubious Traffic Stops Federal agents at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration speak in veiled terms about the secret DEA unit that shares intelligence from the National Security Agency and other organizations with law enforcement for use in criminal investigations. They call it the “Dark Side.”The Special Operations Division receives raw intelligence from the NSA’s surveillance programs, including from the mass surveillance programs revealed in documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. DEA agents in this unit then analyze the surveillance data and disseminate leads to federal and local police nationwide. But the information comes with a catch. Law enforcement can’t use it to secure search warrants or in any way reveal the intelligence community as the source of their leads. Instead, they must find another way to justify their searches and broader investigations. By Trevor Aaronson
Rational Insanity: the Mad Logic of America’s Nuclear ‘Doomsday Machine’ “Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over. Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.… I believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. It breaks my heart. Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war. Let me say that again…” — Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry, January, 2016 by James Heddle
Divided, We Stand: Golden Globes Sets the Tone for Faux Feminism in 2018 A year ago, Meryl Streep delivered an impassioned political speech at the Golden Globe Awards. Her speech was largely hailed as an act of dissent by the mainstream media and liberal elite. This year, Hollywood A-listers once again graced us with their political engagement by dressing in all black as an act of solidarity with sexual assault victims and to fight gender inequality. Their goal was to continue the conversation that started months ago. Those who joined the crusade included Hollywood’s heavy hitters: Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, among many others. A year ago, Meryl Streep delivered an impassioned political speech at the Golden Globe Awards. Her speech was largely hailed as an act of dissent by the mainstream media and liberal elite. This year, Hollywood A-listers once again graced us with their political engagement by dressing in all black as an act of solidarity with sexual assault victims and to fight gender inequality. Their goal was to continue the conversation that started months ago. Those who joined the crusade included Hollywood’s heavy hitters: Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, among many others. Celebrities who openly celebrated known child rapists (looking at you Meryl Streep) promised a night of “change” and oh, did they deliver. If you want to know what activism looks like to celebrities, look no further than the Golden Globes. by Rozali Telbis
“The Post”? No Way Would Jeff Bezos Publish the Pentagon Papers Steven Spielberg’s new movie “The Post” depicts a newspaper’s decision to defy the government, risk its financial health and imprisonment of its editors in order to report a hard truth and defend the press’ First Amendment rights by publishing the Pentagon Papers.After the Washington Post’s decision to inform the American people that top government officials had known that the Vietnam War was unwinnable yet had repeatedly lied about it for years, editor Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks) dumps a pile of out-of-town newspapers on a desk for publisher Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) to see. We’ve started a “rebellion,” Bradlee informs Graham. We’re no longer in speaking truth to power. No way would that happen today. by Ted Rall
Environment:
As Climate Crisis Intensifies, $300+ Billion in Damages Makes 2017 Costliest Year EverExperts say this “historic and unprecedented year of disastrous extremes” reinforces “the fact that climate change is a threat to our health, and also a threat to our economy.” Devastating hurricanes and wildfires—fueled in part by anthropogenic climate change—contributed to more than $300 billion in disaster-related damage across the United States last year, making 2017 the costliest year on record for extreme weather events, according to a government report released Monday. by Jessica Corbett 
US Rivers and Streams are Compromised by Increasing Salt Loads Human activities are exposing US rivers and streams to a cocktail of salts, with consequences for infrastructure and drinking water supplies. So reports a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that is the first to assess the combined, long-term changes in freshwater salinity and alkalization across the country.
FSU researcher: Ocean acidification means major changes for California mussels Accelerating ocean acidification could be transforming the fundamental structure of California mussel shells, according to a new report from a Florida State University-led team of scientists.For thousands of years, California mussel shells have shared a relatively uniform mineralogical makeup — long, cylindrical calcite crystals ordered in neat vertical rows with crisp, geometric regularity. But in a study published this week in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers suggest that escalating rates of ocean acidification are shaking up that shell mineralogy on its most basic structural levels.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
One of the Many Adverse Results of Black and Spanish People Being Segregated Into Polluted Communities Like Rifineries, Chemical Plants, Lack of Healthcare, etc… : The Racial Inequality in Cancer Deaths Overall death rates keep dropping, but black Americans are still more likely to die than whites. By Megan Jula 
Labor:
Since 1974, As the Labor Bureaucracy has led the ‘Race to the Bottom’ — The Young Workers suffer the Most:
Shadow Government Statistics: Real Average Weekly Earnings, Production and Nonsupervisory Employees, 1965-to-Date
Economy:
World:
Trump and Western imperialism: hands off the Iranian protests! Waves of heroic protests have spread rapidly to towns and cities throughout Iran over the past two weeks. This was a spontaneous eruption of rage by the lower-middle-class and working-class youth against poverty, rising prices and destitution, as well as against the wealth and corruption of the Iranian elite – particularly the clerical establishment. It is estimated that 21 people have been killed in the protests so far and over 1,700 arrested. Immediately, Western leaders from Washington to London raised a chorus defending the human rights of the Iranian people. By Farshad Azadian
Argentina: down with Macri’s repression against left activists Following huge protests against counter-reform of the pensions system in Argentina in December, the right-wing Macri government has launched an offensive of repression and criminalisation against left-wing organisations and activists. Two members of the Partido Obrero (Workers’ Party) have been arrested, and several activists from other organisations (including members of parliament) have been indicted. The International Marxist Tendency expresses its solidarity with the comrades, demands the end to all repression and calls on working-class and solidarity activists internationally to show their support.
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
