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
Images of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
Traditionally socialist have considered the fourth estate, or mass media as an integral part of capitalist state rule/the capitalist dictatorship! — Roland Sheppard
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. — Edward Bernays
For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. — Nick Davis
Videos of the Day:
Trump Boasts Support for Climate Disaster Victims as FEMA Abandons Them Among the many falsehoods in Trump’s first State of the Union speech was a line about how the government wouldn’t abandon climate disaster survivors. His words came a day before FEMA “officially shut off” aid to Puerto Rico
A Booming Stock Market Does Not Mean a Strong US Economy During his State of the Union speech, Trump touted the recent stock market boom as proof of how well the U.S. is doing. However, as economist Bill Black explains, the boom has nothing to do with new investment
U.S.:
In Warmongering First State of the Union, Trump Doubles Down on Gitmo and Escalates Nuclear War Threat President Trump delivered his first State of the Union Tuesday night. During the lengthy address, Trump announced he’d signed an executive order keeping the Guantánamo Bay military prison open, and escalated his warmongering rhetoric against North Korea, calling the North Korean government “depraved” and warning it poses a nuclear risk to the United States. For more, we speak with Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine. By Amy Goodman
The kind of night Donald Trump loves best – when he can applaud himself It was so heart-warming to hear about Donald Trump’s love of America and the American dream in his first official State of the Union address. Just one day after he decided to go easy on Russia for manipulating American democracy, our “America first” president declared that “Americans love their country. And they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return.”They surely do. They will also have to wait a few years before their love is returned, based on Trump’s behavior since he won the White House by losing the popular vote By Richard Wolffe
What is Being Done Versus What Should be Done With Prisons The United States is a global leader in putting people in cages (#1 in prisoners, second in prisoners per capita to the Seychelles, where the United Nations locks up “pirates,” and whose whole population is a fraction of the U.S. prison population). The U.S. is also in the top 10 for state executions. By David Swanson
Environment:
Environmental Racism:
-
‘Children are facing risks that will affect their ability to learn’
-
Study covered 90,000 schools across the US
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Legal Challenge Filed to Stop Construction of Louisiana’s Bayou Bridge Pipeline By Julie Dermansky
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Freedom Rider: Stop the Immigration Police State Invasive and brutal enforcement of immigration law didn’t start wtih Donald Trump Lukasz Niec is a Polish born green card holder and Wisconsin physician. He is now held in immigration detention because of juvenile crimes and adult interactions with police which didn’t result in convictions. Despite the minor nature of his offenses he is deportable. But it must be pointed out that his plight was not caused by Donald Trump. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda and the War on Terror A Book Review Museveni has turned Uganda into a bredding colony for human pit bulls deployed in US military missions in Africa Helen Epstein’s new book Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda and the War on Terror is dense with detailed and fascinating accounts of events in Ugandan history and politics and those of neighboring nations. I’m familiar with much of it, but there’s also much I hadn’t known, some I disagree with, and elaborations or different interpretation of what I’ve previously read or been told. For instance, Epstein writes that Uganda’s widely publicized hostility to homosexuality dates back to the embattled bisexual Kabaka (King) Mwangu of Buganda. Mwangu came to power in 1884, at the age of 18, just as Christian missionaries began converting his subjects in advance of the British officer, Captain Frederick Lugard, who arrived in 1890, armed the converted Protestants, planted the British flag, and exiled Kabaka Mwanga to the Seychelles. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor 
A thief
a thug
Man in a rug
A tweet
deceit
A lie
a cheat—
Embellish, embroider:
a lying disorder… 
Looking Down That Deep Hole: Parasitic Intersectionality and Toxic Afro-Pessimism, Part 2 When I took a swipe at intersectionality last week, declaring that it was a hole, that afro-pessimism was a shovel and it was high time to stop digging, some friends and comrades were displeased. As far as they were concerned, questioning intersectionality amounted to a frontal attack on the place of women in the struggle against capital, patriarchy, white supremacy and empire, utterly inconsistent with my own politics and that of Black Agenda Report. I also threw some rocks at afro-pessimism, which I labeled the nappy headed step child of intersectionality, to the disappointment of its defenders, some of them friends and comrades too. Additionally neither group admits to understanding why I lumped them together, so I’m taking this opportunity to clarify both critiques and what joins them. By Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor 
How Donald Trump Rode in on “Dark Money” “It wasn’t the Russians that brought us Trump, but the usual suspects: private equity and hedge funds bandits.” A team led by University of Massachusetts professor emeritus Thomas Ferguson reveals that “a giant wave of dark money” flowed into Donald Trump’s campaign coffers in the last months of the 2016 election, enabling him to go heads up with Hillary Clinton’s $1.4 billion juggernaut in the final stages of the contest. The identity of Trump’s late-campaign godfathers is “shrouded,” according to a paper authored by Ferguson and his collaborators, Paul Jorgensen and Jie Chen, but all signs point to “a sudden influx of money from private equity and hedge funds.” The cash infusion brought Trump’s total spending up to $861 million. Although that’s still substantially less than Hillary’s total outlays, Trump’s dark money arrived just in time to capitalize on Clinton’s failure to mount an effective blitz in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. By Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
Seinfeld boosts Israel’s “shoot to kill” fantasy tours Jerry Seinfeld drew criticism earlier this month when it emerged that while in Israel to perform in Tel Aviv, the famous comedian visited an air force base and took his family to a tourist attraction in the occupied West Bank for ideological and military instruction.Caliber 3, the Israeli firm that runs what Israeli newspaper Haaretz calls an “anti-terror fantasy camp” boasted about the Seinfeld family’s patronage in a Facebook post on 7 January By David Sheen 
The Co-optation of the African National Congress: South Africa’s original ‘State Capture’ After the ascendancy of Cyril Ramaphosa to the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC) last month, it is vital to understand deep structural barriers that prevent South Africa’s achievement of desperately needed socio-economic justice. By Sampie Terreblanche 
Labor:
Economy:
Eye-watering inequality: a symptom of a sick system Earlier this month, Oxfam published the latest statistics on wealth inequality. They reveal that the slogan of “we are the 99 percent” really is true. The richest 1 percent globally own more than the rest of us put together. 42 billionaires own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who form the poorest half of the world’s population. Oxfam estimate that there are 2043 dollar billionaires today. To add insult to injury, two-thirds of these individuals have ‘earned’ their obscene wealth as a result of inheritance, rent-seeking, and cronyism. Over the last decade, with only a small decline after the crash in 2008, the figures for the elite’s riches have rocketed. Some 82 percent of money generated globally last year went to the top 1 percent. The poorest half, meanwhile, saw no increase at all, the charity said. By Erin Maniatopoulou
Wall Street’s Top Cop Can’t Shake Money Ties to Mysterious Firm When Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to head Wall Street’s top cop, the Securities and Exchange Commission, was preparing for his Senate confirmation in March of 2017, the watchdog nonprofit, Public Citizen, requested in a formal letter that the Senate Banking Committee investigate Clayton’s family ties to a mysterious company called WMB Holdings. On the day of the confirmation hearing, March 23, 2017, David Dayen penned this breathtaking assessment at The Nation: “Clayton’s family gets millions of dollars in annual dividends from a private company named WMB Holdings, some of which Clayton plans to retain even if confirmed. This company and its affiliated partners (Delaware Trust Co and CSC) are conduits for creating shell corporations and other sketchy vehicles used in tax evasion and money laundering. Public Citizen found apparent links between these companies and Mossack Fonseca, the notorious Panamanian law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Russia: How the Bureaucracy Seized Power ‒ Part Three: ‘Socialism in One Country’ We re-publish the third in George Collins’ series of articles on the degeneration of the Soviet Union and the rise of Stalinism. Here, he describes the theoretical battle over the Stalinist distortion of ‘socialism in one country’, and Trotsky’s principled defence of Marxist internationalism. Read part one here, and part two here. By George Collins 
