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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
Image of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
There really is no point any more in talking about Donald Trump or US foreign policy. They do not exist. Indeed, the Trump “presidency” is about as real as “Palestine”. Both deserve inverted commas although the first fantasy would clearly represent white and largely Christian Americans trying to make their country great again at the expense of lesser creatures, while the second – which is not even a state – obviously qualifies as a Trump “s***hole country”; its people are not exactly white, they are largely Muslim and many seek asylum from the enslavement of the longest military occupation of modern times. For Norway, of course, read Israel. So in the crazed mind of the booby who thinks he’s running the United States, there’s not much point, surely, in peace between a modern and much loved ally and the third world people forced to live in the manure pits further east and south. Jerusalem is thus the capital of Israel, the Oslo of the Middle East, built on the “green hill far away” – though in the hymn it is supposed to be “without a city wall”. But what the hell? Trump likes walls, and Cecil Frances Alexander, the 19th century Irish hymnodist of “There is a Green Hill Far Away” also wrote “All Things Bright and Beautiful” which surely appeals to the crackpot in the White House who speaks so eloquently about “beautiful babies” (in Syria, when they are dead) and “beautiful weapons” (in Riyadh, before they have killed any babies). In fact, to talk about Trump’s Middle East, it’s necessary to enter the lunatic asylum. After all, “Palestine” does not qualify as a state and Israel, which does, has not the slightest idea where its eastern border lies geographically. In the middle of Jerusalem? Halfway across the Palestinian West Bank? Along the entire length of the Jordan river? And what about poor Gaza? When the Israelis bombed the place to bits in 2008-2009 (they did the same again in 2012 and 2014), they dropped munitions on the Palestinian sewage system and contaminated both drinking water and the sea with … Oh well, yes, of course, they turned part of Gaza, quite literally, into a s***hole. — Robert Risk
Videos of the Day:
#TheAssistance: Democrats Hand Trump Warrantless Spying Fifty-five House Democrats, including #Resistance stalwarts, have joined Republicans to give Trump’s NSA broad warrantless surveillance powers. The Senate is likely to follow. We speak to Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Whistleblowers: Congress Has Entrenched the Surveillance State Two former whistleblowers — Thomas Drake of the NSA and Colleen Rowley of the FBI — say the new bi-partisan FISA spying law opens the way to widespread privacy violations and government abuses
Repression Against Honduran Opposition Intensifies Over 200 demonstrators were injured in last week’s demonstrations against the incumbent president, whose reelection lacks legitimacy according to the opposition and international observers. The opposition is now gearing up for a national strike in the lead-up to the inauguration, explains Heather Gies, reporting from Honduras
U.S.:
Trump Administration Tells Puerto Rico It’s Too Rich For Aid Money Means testing has now come to disaster aid — and it only applies to Puerto Rico. When Congress passed a $36.5 billion disaster relief bill to bolster rebuilding efforts in several wildfire and hurricane-damaged areas in October, it shortchanged Puerto Rico, giving it a $4.9 billion loan instead of the grant that other areas received. Now, it appears the debt- and hurricane-ravaged island won’t even get that money. By David Dayen
Following Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Remarks, DHS Cuts Off Haitians From Seasonal Work Visas Shortly After Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Remarks, DHS Cuts Off Haitians From Seasonal Work Visas “This administration’s racist and anti-Black agenda strikes again.” Less than a week after President Donald Trump provoked international outrage by reportedly referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as” shithole” countries, the Department of Homeland Security is under fire for pushing the president’s “racist anti-Haitian immigrant agenda” by specifically barring Haitians from applying for certain temporary work visas. By Jessica Corbett
Environment:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
After the assassination of Martin Luther King and the subsequent rebellions in the inner cities protesting his assassination, the Democratic Party’s “war on poverty” started laying dollars on any potential Black leaders and grooming Black Candidates. John Lewis, formally of SNCC, became enlightened, he ignored the Black Panthers and saw the Democratic Party, symbolized by a jackass, as his party. Most of what W.E. B. Dubois described as the “talented tenth” were bought off by this process. The more radical concepts that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had developed at the time of their deaths disappeared from the scene. No one took up where they left off. The governmental policy, directed towards the ‘leaders’ of the civil rights movement, of the carrot (dollarism) and the stick (assassinations) had proven to be successful. — The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement
US Supreme Court About to Issue A 21st Century Dred Scott Decision Back in 1857 the US Supreme Court, in response to the lawsuit of one Dred Scott, a slave suing for his freedom, ruled that nobody of African descent had any legal right under the US Constitution that any white man was bound to respect. It was a bright line that was only resolved, insofar as it was, by the Civil War. In the next few weeks the US Supreme Court is expected to hand down what amounts to a 21st century Dred Scott decision. The case is National Labor Relations Board vs Murphy Oil USA . The universally expected ruling of the court will be that no workers on any job possess any legal right whatsoever to collude or combine against their employers for any purpose, period exclamation point. By Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
The Black Caucus’ “New Class”: Worthless, Warmongering Servants of Empire“The Democrats have perverted the electoral franchise of the nation’s most progressive constituency to the service of a global war machine and an all-pervasive national security state.” Hundreds of times this week, as at every yearly commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, local preachers and politicians will cite the swelling ranks of the Congressional Black Caucus as proof that Dr. King’s “dream” has borne great fruit. Black representation in the U.S. House has grown from just nine members in 1968, when King was assassinated, to the current lineup of 44 full-voting House Democrats. But the majority of today’s Black denizens of Capitol Hill are in league with the very “triple evils” that King identified and struggled against: racism, extreme materialism (capitalism) and militarism. Under the leadership of the Democratic Party, they have perverted the electoral franchise of the nation’s most progressive constituency to the service of a global war machine and an all-pervasive national security state — the antithesis of Dr. King’s vision. By Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
“Pay, or die…” the Death
Sentence Big Pharma-
Insurance Mob just issued
a neighbor; and a Frankenfood
experiment’s irritating my gut
The Real Scandals behind an HBCU: The Arkansas Baptist College Controversy Money Laundering, Real Estate Scams, Grade Fixing and More at a Little Rock HBCU The following is an investigative report by a long-time member of the Black community in Little Rock who has close knowledge of the history and corruption of Arkansas Baptist College. This is a story of money laundering, sweet heart land deals, grade fixing, and fraud that includes not just some despicable small-time Negroes acting like minstrels but African American and other Clinton appointees that reach to the highest levels of Big Business in Little Rock (oil, biotech, finance, department stores) who have tried to use the ABC foundation as a veil for their economic ambition as actual education is betrayed. By Attala Nasir
Economy:
The Bitcoin bubble and cryptocurrency craze This article, written for Socialist Appeal, was published a matter of days before Bitcoin’s value collapsed by half overnight. This catastrophic downturn proves everything we have written about Bitcoin and how it reflects of the general crisis of capitalism. By Adam Booth
Just How Big a Player Is the Federal Reserve in the Stock Market? To understand how the U.S. central bank, known as the Federal Reserve, is influencing the froth of the stock market, you need to take a few moments to understand the interaction of bond yields with stock prices. Sophisticated investors who predominate in the markets compare the yield on bonds to the cash dividend yield on stocks to determine which is a better value. Following the financial crash of 2008, the Federal Reserve began buying up Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed bonds in the marketplace to the overall tune of more than $3 trillion. This has driven down bond yields and provided an artificial boost to the stock market. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Labor:
World:
Austria: massive demonstration against right-wing government Last Saturday, tens-of-thousands demonstrated against the new Austrian government of the conservative ÖVP and the right-wing nationalist FPÖ in what was called a “new year reception for the new government”. By Florian Keller
Corbyn on Carillion: we’ll end outsourcing ‘racket’ in rule change Public sector would become first choice to provide government services, says Labour leader’ Labour will call a halt to the “outsourcing racket” exposed by Carillion’s collapse, by tearing up procurement rules to make the public sector the default choice for providing government services, Jeremy Corbyn has revealed. Carillion’s collapse has emboldened Corbyn to press home his message that Labour rejects the “dogma of privatisation”. “We will rewrite the rules to give the public back control of their services,” he told the Guardian shortly after clashing with the prime minister over the issue in the House of Commons.
Britain: for a new ‘New Unionism’ Workers in Britain have been under attack from the bosses and the Tory government for years. And yet many trade union leaders do not seem capable of fighting back. This is one of the reasons that unions last year experienced the biggest single drop in their membership since records began. Total union membership is now just 6.2 million workers, compared to 13.2 million in 1979. By Ben Gliniecki
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
