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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 1% 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:
This Nonviolent Stuff′ll Get You Killed Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. “Just for self-defense,” King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend’s Montgomery, Alabama, home as “an arsenal.” Like King, many ostensibly “nonviolent” civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, Charles E. Cobb Jr. recovers this history, describing the vital role that armed self-defense has played in the survival and liberation of black communities. Drawing on his experiences in the civil rights movement and giving voice to its participants, Cobb lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the long history and importance of African Americans taking up arms to defend themselves against white supremacist violence.
Stokely Carmichael Quote
Negroes With Guns
Quotes of the Day:
The Meaning of Black Power: “It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.” — Stokely Carmichael
I advocated violent self-defense because I don’t really think you can have a defense against violent racists and against terrorists unless you are prepared to meet violence with violence and my policy was to meet violence with violence. — Robert Williams
On March 24 in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S. (and beyond?), students and teachers and everyone else who values lives over guns will marchagainst gun violence. But the strategy will be weak unless millions of us uninvited marchers show up to augment the message with what it is not permissible to say. The culture of gun violence is fueled by the culture of militarism and by the military. A hugely disproportionate share of mass-shooters have beenU.S. military veterans. Some have been JROTC students. The recent killer in Florida was trained to kill by the U.S. Army in the very school where he killed. The JROTC’s “history” classes, the Army’s video games, the military’s role in producing Hollywood movies, the Pentagon’s unloading of old weapons on police departments and the general public — this is all done with our tax dollars. The NRA understands the connections perfectly, and churns out advertisements promoting more wars. If we don’t make the connections, we won’t win. So, bring these signs. And help us keep military recruiters out of schools. — Can You Give Two Days to Stop the Slaughter?
Videos of the Day:
A New Witch Hunt? FBI Calls Chinese Students a Threat Calling China “a whole-of-society threat,” FBI Director Christopher Wray recently claimed that Chinese students in the US may be conducting espionage. Law professor, author, and Committee of 100 chair Frank H. Wu, says the FBI is reviving a racist legacy
City Council Moves Forward With Ban on Crude Oil Facilities The proposal would ban new crude oil terminals in Baltimore and prevent two existing terminals from expanding, which advocates say would stop the city from becoming a crude oil hub and mitigate the risk of an oil train explosion
U.S.:
Puerto Rico – Here’s Why the New York Fed Does Not Feel Your Pain On Thursday, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William C. Dudley, held a press conference to effectively tell Puerto Ricans to suck it up as they attempt to recover from an epic humanitarian crisis caused by Hurricane Maria, which devastated infrastructure and wiped out electricity to the entire Island in September. When it comes to corrupt Wall Street banks that are in the process of failing, the Federal Reserve can always find trillions of dollars to funnel into the banks’ coffers at almost zero interest rates to prop them back up. It does that through its power to electronically create money out of thin air. Take, for example, the $16 trillion it secretly lavished on Wall Street banks and their foreign counterparts during the financial crash of 2007 to 2010. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Iona Craig Won a Polk Award for Her Investigation of a SEAL Team Raid That Killed Women and Children in Yemen. Here’s How She Did It. A little more than a year ago, on January 29, 2017, Iona Craig was at the tail end of a month-long reporting trip to Yemen. On that day, special operators from the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6 launched a surprise raid in a remote part of Yemen, apparently trying to capture or kill an Al Qaeda leader. This was the first covert assault of the Trump era, and the White House, which was not challenged in the U.S. media, hailed it as “highly successful.” Except it wasn’t. By Peter Maass
The OXFAM Scandal Got Worse When They Tried to Do Things Right The news agenda is dominated by melodramatic scandals that act as simplified versions of reality in which roles are allocated to accusers, victims, perpetrators and those condemned for failing to prevent wrong-doing. A few scandals are rooted in reality, such as those focused on Harvey Weinstein or Jimmy Saville, but others are becoming ever more exaggerated or phoney. The media knows a good story when it sees one, regardless of whether it is true or false. By Patrick Cockburn
Thirteen Russians: a Defense Lawyer Decodes the Mueller Indictments “A courtroom is not a place where truth and innocence inevitably triumph; it is only an arena where contending lawyers fight not for justice, but to win.” Though there is disagreement about the exact wording used by the legendary defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, in describing what he did better than anyone of his day, perhaps of any day, the sentiment outpaces its many incarnations and puts to rest the preaching that trial proceedings or pleadings are necessarily a welcome home to justice. by Stanley L. Cohen
Next Stage of Net Neutrality Fight Begins Polls show widespread support for net neutrality. Last year, polling found 77% of people in the United States “support keeping the net neutrality rules, which are already in place” and 87% agree that “people should be able to access any websites they want on the internet, without any blocking, slowing down, or throttling by their internet service providers.” The FCC’s net neutrality rule does the opposite of the national consensus, and if members of Congress want support from Internet users, they need to reverse the FCC’s rule. by Kevin Zeese – Margaret Flowers
Environment:
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Economy:
What Was JPMorgan Doing in its Dark Pools During the 2,000-Point Plunge Week? Dark Pools are effectively unregulated stock exchanges that operate in darkness inside Wall Street’s largest firms. If you have been following the past decade of criminal felony counts for colluding in market rigging and multi-billion dollar fines for abusing the public against these same firms, you might be forgiven for thinking that Federal regulators have lost their minds to allow these same firms to operate Dark Pools. But it’s actually worse than it first appears: not only are JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks trading stocks in darkness, but they’re being allowed to trade the shares of their own bank in these Dark Pools, as well as that of their peer banks. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Banking Largest banks hold a total of $25.1 trillion:[1]Enough to fund the federal U.S. government for over 7 years.[2]Or roughly $3500 per person on earth.
1. ICBC, China, $2.95 trillion in assets, over 18,000 outlets, 108 branches globally
2. HSBC holdings, UK, $2.68 trillion in assets, 6,600 offices in 80 countries, 55 million customers
3. Deutsche Bank, Germany, $2.6 trillion in assets, 2,963 branches, 70 countries, 46 million customers
4. Credit Agricole Group, France, $2.58 trillion in assets, 60 countries, over 21 million clients
5. BNP Paribas, France, $2.51 trillion in assets
6. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan, $2.49 trillion in assets
7. Barclays PLC, United Kingdom, $2.41 trillion in assets
8. JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S., $2.39 trillion in assets
9. China Construction Bank Corp., China, $2.36 trillion in assets
10. Japan Post Bank, Japan, $2.12 trillion in assets
Oil The top five oil producing companies produce almost twice what the US’s refined petroleum product consumption per day is.
1. Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia 12.5 million barrels a day, $1 billion plus in daily revenue
2. Gazprom, Russia 9.7 million barrels per day, $40 billion a year profits
3. National Iranian Oil Co. Iran 6.4 million barrels per day State owned
4. ExxonMobil America 5.3 million barrels per day $40 billion in profit
5. PetroChina, China 4.4 million barrels per day $21.93 billion in profits (Read More)
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
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.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Labor: