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
February is Black History Month
Images of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
Against this collective power of the propertied classes the working class cannot act, as a class, except by constituting itself into a political party, distinct from, and opposed to, all old parties formed by the propertied classes. This constitution of the working class into a political party is indispensable in order to ensure the triumph of the social revolution and its ultimate end — the abolition of classes. — Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1871 London Conference of the First International
The fatal impact of coal mining certainly can’t be measured by workplace fatalities alone, as many miners later die from illnesses they developed on the job. In addition to the increasing number of workplace deaths, black lung disease appears to be making a comeback in Appalachia. In fact, the disease has actually become more dangerous, infecting miners earlier than ever before and in a deadlier form. Experts believe this might be a result of miners working longer hours and new methods of extraction. — Trump’s Policies Won’t Bring Back Coal Jobs — They Will Kill More Miners
Socialism a century ago seemed to be the wave of the future. There were various schools of socialism, but the common ideal was to guarantee support for basic needs, and for state ownership to free society from landlords, predatory banking and monopolies. In the West these hopes are now much further away than they seemed in 1917. Land and natural resources, basic infrastructure monopolies, health care and pensions have been increasingly privatized and financialized. Instead of Germany and other advanced industrial nations leading the way as expected, Russia’s October 1917 Revolution made the greatest leap. But the failures of Stalinism became an argument against Marxism – guilt-by-association with Soviet bureaucracy. European parties calling themselves socialist or “labour” since the 1980s have supported neoliberal policies that are the opposite of socialist policy. Russia itself has chosen neoliberalism. Few socialist parties or theorists have dealt with the rise of the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector that now accounts for most increase in wealth. Instead of evolving into socialism, Western capitalism is being overcome by predatory finance and rent extraction imposing debt deflation and austerity on industry as well as on labor. Failure of Western economies to recover from the 2008 crisis is leading to a revival of Marxist advocacy. The alternative to socialist reform is stagnation and a relapse into neofeudal financial and monopoly privileges. — Socialism, Land and Banking: 2017 compared to 1917
Videos of the Day:
Victims of Corrupt Baltimore Police Unit Tell Their Stories As new allegations arise against the now notorious Gun Trace Task Force, Baltimore residents share tales of false arrest, robbery, and a failure to heed warnings about the unit’s criminal behavior
U.S.:
The Brutal Reality of Being Poor in America the Super Rich Won’t Acknowledge Poverty can cost a fortune in the U.S. The ink is barely dry on a trillion-dollar tax cut for multinational corporations, and one of its largest beneficiaries is already looking for more. Earlier this month, Bank of America announced it would be applying a $12 monthly surcharge for e-banking, a policy that disproportionately affects its poorest customers. For lower-income earners, it’s merely the latest reminder that trickle-down economics don’t really trickle down, and that being poor can be extraordinarily expensive. By Alex Henderson
Jailing the Poor for Fines and Bail Is a Government-Operated Loan Shark Operation The criminalization of poverty by the mass incarceration system is slowly changing, but you can hear the creaking. In this exclusive interview with Truthout, author Peter Edelman discusses some of the more egregious scams inflicted on the poor and prospects for reform. By Mark Karlin
Environment:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Twiddle Dum and Twiddle Dee ‘Frack Baby Frack!’:
Obama Alums Are Pushing Fracked Gas Exports. That’s Exactly During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump exclaimed that the “war on American Energy” had ended and that “we are now an exporter of energy to the world.” What Trump did not say, though, is that several former senior energy officials from the Obama administration — the one Trump said had declared a “war on American Energy” — now either lobby or work as executives for companies making his “energy dominance” agenda possible. At least five of these Obama officials now work for natural gas export companies, four of them for Cheniere and another for Tellurian.Though pitched as the “cleaner fossil fuel” by many of these former Obama officials, the high levels of methane in natural gas carry a climate punch. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short-term, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NASA scientists have tied the spike in global methane emissions over the last decade to the oil and gas industry, and a recent study by Purdue University researchers found that natural gas power plants emit up to 120 times more methane than originally estimated.Despite the scientific evidence that natural gas poses a serious climate risk, record levels of U.S.-produced natural gas products are hitting the global market. And a large contingent of former Obama officials has played a notable role in helping make that happen in the past year, despite some of them doing so in potential violation of U.S. ethics codes. By Steve Horn
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
At the time of Martin Luther King’s assassination, he was willing to risk jail and to organize a mass demonstration, in defiance of a court injunction and National Guardsmen, in armored personnel carriers equipped with 50-caliber machine guns, to help the striking Memphis municipal garbage workers. These workers ultimately won their union contract, and thousands of ordinary working families in that city got living wages that allowed them to educate their children, buy houses, live decent and dignified lives, and even retire. In his last speech, he stated: “All we say to America is, “Be true to what you said on paper. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, MAYBE I COULD UNDERSTAND SOME OF THESE ILLEGAL INJUNCTIONS. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they HAVEN’T committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for RIGHTS. And so just as I say, WE AREN’T GOING TO LET ANY DOGS OR WATER HOSES TURN US AROUND, we aren’t going to let any injunction turn us around.: — The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement
Black Lives Matter: Philadelphia Super Bowl Riots Reaction ‘Glaring Example of White Privilege’ In the aftermath of the chaos that erupted in Philadelphia as Eagles fans tore through the streets celebrating their Super Bowl victory, many could not help but notice the difference in how the public and officials reacted to riots by fans compared to those prompted by civil unrest.
“Somehow, it seems there’s a line drawn in the sand where destruction of property because of a sports victory is OK and acceptable in America. However, if you have people who are fighting for their most basic human right, the right to live, they will be condemned,” Black Lives Matter New York President Hawk Newsome told Newsweek. By Chantal Da Silva
Labor:
Black Unemployment — The Uncounted — The “Last Hired and the First Hired”: People who have been unemployed for over 26 weeks are not counted as unemployed, If they were counted, the ‘official Labor Bureau unemployment figures’ would be five times higher. Since the ‘official’ Black Unemployment rate for black workers was 7.7% the real unemployment rate of Black workers would be well over 35%! The following graphic found at Give the unemployed a second chance. Those listed have a 10% chance to get a new job!
Trump’s Policies Won’t Bring Back Coal Jobs — They Will Kill More Miners Preliminary government data shows that Trump’s efforts to increase mining jobs have failed in most coal-producing states.On the campaign trail, Donald Trump consistently claimed that he would revive the coal industry, and since becoming president, he has consistently declared victory. “Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, we’ve added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector,” Donald Trump announced last June. “In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs.” by Michael Arria
Economy:
Global Shipping Business Tied To Mitch Mcconnell, Secretary Elaine Chao Shrouded In Offshore Tax Haven On June 6, 2016, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined his wife, Elaine Chao, now the U.S. secretary of transportation, at a ceremony on the Harvard Business School campus to dedicate a new building emblazoned with the Chao family name. Funded by a $40 million gift from the Chao family and its foundation, the building would serve as a new hub for Harvard’s Executive Education program. But the family’s generosity appears to have come at the expense of taxpayers — the money, it turns out, would already have been in the public treasury had it not been sheltered from the government in complex offshore tax havens. By Lee Fang and Spencer Woodman
World:
New Evidence of Africa’s Systematic Looting, From an Increasingly Schizophrenic World Bank A brand new World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018, offers evidence of how much poorer Africa is becoming thanks to rampant minerals, oil and gas extraction. Yet Bank policies and practices remain oriented to enforcing foreign loan repayments and transnational corporate (TNC) profit repatriation, thus maintaining the looting. by Patrick Bond
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The ‘Dumbification’ of the United States:
You Won’t Believe What American High Schools Are Teaching Their Students About Slavery A new report finds both educators and pupils are woefully misinformed. Just eight percent of American high school seniors can identify the cause of the Civil War; less than a third (32 percent) know which amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.; and fewer than half (46 percent) know that the “Middle Passage” refers to the harrowing voyage across the Atlantic undertaken by Africans kidnapped for the slave trade. These are only a few of the more unnerving findings from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project, which concludes that in classrooms across the country, the subject of slavery is as mistaught as it is misunderstood. By Jacob Sugarman 
Bring on Solutionary Rail! It’s not every day that you run across an idea so elegant, so eminently practical that your jaw literally drops as you stagger beneath the shock of your huge “aha” moment. Solutionary Rail did that for me. Rail experts and long-time activists from Backbone Campaign have struck gold with their well-researched proposal to electrify America’s railroads. by Rivera Sun
-
China has unveiled new non-polluting trains without tracks
-
The vehicle runs on virtual rails and is said to begin operating in 2018 in Zhuzhou
-
Car is just over 100 feet in length with a maximum passenger load of 307 people 
