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
Yet those who argue that it would have been better for central banks to have left the economy in recession than undertake aggressive monetary policies are utterly mistaken. It is immoral and ultimately impossible to sacrifice the welfare of the bulk of the people in order to placate the gods of the financial markets. If a policy designed to stabilize our economies destabilizes finance, the answer has to be even more radical reform of the latter. The role of Mr. Market is to support the economy, not endanger it. We must never forget this. — Martin Wolf, A bit of fear is good for markets
. . . But America has always been the most protectionist country in the world for itself. It wants free trade for other countries. And Lori is quite right when she sees there’s a disconnect between what economists say and what politicians actually do. International trade theory is probably the silliest branch of modern economic theory. It’s just a mass of assumptions. And if what the textbooks say were true, America never could have become the major manufacturing power. Britain couldn’t have. Germany couldn’t have. Every country that is an industrial power has got rich by subsidizing its industry and pursuing a protectionist policy. However, what Trump is doing is the opposite of all the protectionist logic that every country has followed. The whole idea of protectionism is to increase your expensive, high-technology manufactures by getting low raw materials. Trump is doing the opposite. But he’s raised aluminum prices by 40 percent in the last month, 60 percent since the summer. Steel prices are up 33 percent. So, this is going to squeeze the prices that manufacturers have to pay that make things out of aluminum and steel. There’s no increase in tariffs on buying foreign tin cans or foreign steel products, so the American manufacturers will be squeezed. But foreign countries now have a great benefit. Germany, China, other countries are thinking, “Now, under the rules of international trade, when there is an illegal tariff put on, we get to retaliate.” And they’re going to look around and say, “What do we want to respond to? What is the major American competition that we want to knock off the table?” And they’re going to put tariffs on whatever they think the competition is, whether it’s Boeing airplanes or bourbon or blue jeans or other things. So, what Trump’s policy does is a travesty of protectionism. It merely squeezes. And the pretense of all of this is that if he gives more money to the steel and aluminum companies, they’ll invest more and hire more labor. But they’re not going to do that at all. Not a single new steel factory is going to be built. Not a single new aluminum factory, because aluminum is made out of electricity, and America is a high-cost electricity country, compared to Iceland, where Alcan produces much of its aluminum, in Canada. So, what you’re doing is enabling the steel and the aluminum companies to use their increased profits for share buybacks and to pay dividends, but they’re not going to build new factories. There is not going to be any trickle down. So, Trump has made a travesty out of protectionist doctrine, as well. . . . Well, there is a war over who is going to control the highest-technology products. And the response to America’s steel and aluminum tariffs will be asymmetrical. China is only the 11th-largest supplier of steel to America, not a major supplier at all. The steels that are important to America are specialty steels, German steel and Japanese steel especially. American companies don’t make that kind of steel. There’s no way that they can hire more workers and make more plants to provide the kind of specialty steels that we’re getting from Germany and Japan. So, not all steel is the same. It’s going to be a — the politics are going to be very interesting. — Michael Hudson
Video of the Day:
Financial Deregulation Bill ‘Guts’ Dodd-Frank Republican Senators – with 12 Democratic co-sponsors – are pushing through a financial deregulation bill that with dismantle the post-financial crisis Dodd-Frank regulations, in the name of helping community banks. But this is just a pretext, says former financial regulator Bill Black
U.S.:
Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won’t be. — Gore Vidal, The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, 1992.
You know, I’ve been around the ruling class all my life, and I’ve been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country. — Gore Vidal, Interview with Paul Jay, The Real News, July 5, 2009.
Back to school: West Virginia teachers return to classroom Charlestom, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia teachers returned to work as schools reopened Wednesday, still ecstatic at winning a sizeable pay increase through a massive mobilization that continued without a hitch as teachers stood their ground when lawmakers didn’t give them what they wanted. A nine-day statewide strike was declared over Tuesday after the Legislature passed and the governor signed a 5 percent pay raise to end what’s believed to be the longest strike in state history. The last major strike, in 1990, lasted eight days. The paralyzing walkout shut 277,000 students out of classrooms, forced their parents to scramble for child care and cast a national spotlight on government dysfunction in West Virginia. These 35,000 public school employees, some of the lowest-paid in the nation, had gone four years without a salary increase. Embracing the hashtag “55strong” in a nod to the number of counties in the state, teachers and school service personnel arrived at the Capitol daily by the thousands, waiting in long lines in the cold and rain. They ignored the urging of their own union leaders and some politicians to return to school, remaining steadfast in their demands that caught a nation’s attention.
The denial of justice on the USS Reagan: Even though the navy and the US government was/is aware of the serious nuclear contamination of the sailors from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, politically the government wants to maintain the stance that the Fuckashima nuclear contamination of the pacific Ocean is safe at the expense of the sailors who are now dying.:
Injustice At Sea: the Irradiated Sailors of the USS ReaganAmerican sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan were exposed to radiation from Fukushima. Many are sick. Some have died. Why can’t they get justice? “Coverage of the USS Ronald Reagan has been astoundingly limited,” wrote Der Spiegel in a February 2015 story. Since then, nothing much has changed. The German magazine was referring to the saga of the American Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier whose crew pitched in to help victims of the March 11, 2011 Tsunami and earthquake in Japan, then found themselves under the radioactive plume from the stricken coastal nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Since then, crew members in eye-popping numbers have come down with unexplained illnesses — more than 70 and still counting. Some have died. And many are suing. by Linda Pentz GunterDocuments Show the Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan A stunning new report alleges the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago. If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy. The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode. By Harvey Wasserman
United States: The Political Economy of MassacresEvery year over 30,000 Americans are killed by gunfire. Every month, in public schoolyards, dance clubs, concert venues, work places and public gatherings, innocent people are slaughtered by assassins wielding legally purchased high powered semi-automatic weapons. The National Rifle Association (NRA), a 3 million-member organization, supports and sponsors free and easy access to military-level weaponry. The vast majority of US legislators, Presidents and judges support the possession of the very weapons responsible for massacres. The question is why does the US political system bemoan the frequent occurrence of mass shootings, and yet turn around and endorse the political process that makes these killings possible? The size, scope and duration of massacres requires that we examine the large-scale, long-term systemic features of the US political economy. — The Politics of Wars: Massacres Abroad as ‘All American’ Heroism —The US government has engaged in multiple bloody wars where it has massacred millions of civilians – including whole families in their homes – representing no conceivable threat to the American people. The wars feature the success of destruction and death as a means to advance US political programs. War criminals are honored. Domestic political conflicts and social problems are resolved by destroying invented adversaries and entire nations. In a political economy where overseas massacres are perpetrated by democratically elected leaders, who is to question the behavior of ‘a neighborhood sociopath’ who is merely following the practices of his president? This should surprise no one: Wholesale massacres abroad, fostered by our leaders, are reflected in the domestic retail massacre unleashed by the local ‘nutcase’. By Prof. James Petras
Environment:
The Current Onset of Climate Tipping Points As extreme temperatures, the rate of sea ice melt, the collapse of Greenland glaciers, the thawing of Siberian and Canadian permafrost and increased evaporation in the Arctic drive cold snow storms into Europe and North America, and as hurricanes and wild fires affect tropical and semi-tropical parts of the globe, it is becoming clear Earth is entering a shift in state of the atmosphere-ocean system associated with destructive climate tipping points. As Arctic permafrost is thawing an analogy with geological methane-release events such as the 56 million years-old Paleocene-Eocene boundary thermal maximum (PETM) event is becoming more likely. As is well known to students of the history of the climate, once a temperature threshold is breached, abrupt weather events ensue amplified by feedbacks such as decreased reflectivity of the Earth surface and enhanced release of greenhouse gases, often within short time frames. by Andrew Glikson
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation: A Black Radical Defense of the Second Amendment “Black communities have differentiated individual firearm ownership from structured self-defense organizations.” Since Trump took office, Black citizens have been increasingly arming themselves, a practice rooted in the long Black radical tradition of armed self-defense and articulated in Robert F. Williams’s Negroes With Guns. In a recent interview with Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argued that the Second Amendment “needs to be abolished.” Doing so, however, would disarm not only right-wing vigilantes, as she wants to do, but also Black citizens.Freedom Rider: Black Panther Movie: A Black Face in a High Place Questioners are ‘hoteps’ who are too woke to have fun.”The desire to see a black face in a high place is a legacy of slavery and the century of Jim Crow segregation that followed. The psychological impact of America’s apartheid is enduring, and unlikely to end without true revolutionary change. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnistRaining on Trump’s Parade: An Interview with Margaret Flowers “The people who are behind this are all groups who are strongly opposed to the corporate duopoly war party, and who have been working to revive the peace movement in the United States.”President Trump has asked the Pentagon to plan a military parade in Washington DC on Veteran’s Day, November 11. Democrats have decried the cost and authoritarian implication, and antiwar groups are planning a countermarch. I spoke to Margaret Flowers, medical doctor, Green Party activist, and co-founder of the movement news website Popular Resistance, who is among those organizing the countermarch. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
Signe cartoon SIGN08e Trump’s Parade
Independent Journalist Corner: A Conversation with Daniel Patrick Welch “Americans—even ‘woke’ ones—don’t know jack about their own history: the violence, the terror on behalf of white supremacy is simply a bottomless pit.” This week I spoke with journalist and political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch (Donal Pádraig Breatnach). He is a writer of political commentary and analysis. Welch is also a singer and songwriter who lives and writes in Salem, MA with his wife, Julia. Together they run the Greenhouse School. He has traveled widely, speaks five languages and studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard University. Danny Haiphong, BAR contributorEnvironmental racism case: EPA rejects Alabama town’s claim over toxic landfil “Mere compliance with environmental permits should not negate civil rights concerns.” The US Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed a civil rights case brought by residents of a small, overwhelmingly African American town in Alabama who have spent much of the past decade battling a toxic landfill they blame for causing a myriad of physical and mental illnesses. By Oliver Milman
The Funke Wisdom of Chocolate Cities“The West becomes West South; the North is Up South; the Middle West is Mid South.” Mathematicallyitalladdsup Allpeopleareequal,butequaltowhat? Onceyouunderstandthere’saspiritualmath Addsoultothescienceandsubtracttheriff–raff Knowledgeain’tenough,youneedfunkefunkewisdom —Kool Moe Dee, FunkeWisdom (1991) By Mary F. Corey Will the Venezuelan Masses Still Stand with Maduro at Election Time? “The people knows that it’s easier to deepen a revolution while being in government than to turn it over to a right-wing that has no respect for life.” Tens of thousands of Venezuelans could be seen marching down Caracas’ principal Urdaneta Avenue under the sweltering Caribbean sun. No, this was not a protest against the government, which we are routinely told is a dictatorship inflicting mass starvation on its people, but on the contrary, a public rally backing President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection campaign. The occasion was February 4th, which this year marked the 26th anniversary of Hugo Chavez’s revolutionary 1992 uprising against Venezuela’s oligarchic two-party system, known as the Fourth Republic. However, ahead of upcoming April 22 presidential elections that may well determine the fate of Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution, this 4F – as it is commonly known – was much more an explicit show of support for the current leftist president. By Lucas KoernerLegalizing Tyranny “The carcel state is a subculture unto itself, with an $81 billion budget and tremendous political clout.” The students I teach in prison who have the longest sentences are, almost without exception, the ones who demanded a jury trial. If everyone charged with a crime had a jury trial, the court system would implode. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges use those who insist on a jury trial—often people who did not commit the crime with which they were charged—as examples. Their sentences, frequently life sentences, are grim reminders as to why it is in the best interests of a defendant, even if he or she did not commit the crime, to take a plea agreement. Ninety-four percent of state-level felony convictions and 97 percent of federal felony convictions are the result of guilty pleas. And studies by groups such as Human Rights Watch confirm the punitive nature of jury trials: Those who go to jury trials get an addition 11 years, on average, tacked on to their sentences. The rich get high-priced lawyers and lengthy jury trials. The poor are shipped directly to jail or prison. By Chris Hedges
New Legal Action is a Path to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Freedom, But a Re-ignited International Mobilization is Critical for Victory “It will take international mobilization of the masses, centrally labor and its allies, minorities, immigrants and youth to turn the tide and win Mumia’s freedom.” For over three decades thousands of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe have mobilized to save Mumia Abu-Jamal from execution, to overturn his conviction, to demand his freedom. Without these international mobilizations, crucially including the organized labor movement, we would not have saved Mumia from two warrants of execution and compelled the state to concede defeat in trying to execute him. Mumia is now off death row and out of solitary confinement in prison general population. By Rachel WolkensteinLabor:
Economy:
Reinflating the bubble: a balance sheet of 10 years of crisis The last two months have seen renewed worries about the economy. It was meant to be a period of optimism, with plenty of positive figures on unemployment, wage growth and so on. Yet in spite of the figures, the markets are jittery and the bourgeois is gradually realising that none of the problems that caused the crisis in 2008 have been resolved. If anything, they have become even worse. By Niklas Albin Svensson
Boeing Is the Elephant in the Room in Trump’s Tariff War On January 20, 2017, the date of Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States, the giant aerospace company, Boeing, closed the trading day at $159.53. Yesterday, it clocked in at $352.75 by the closing bell. The Trump era has added 122 percent to the pockets of Boeing shareholders, giving it a market cap of $207.6 billion. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
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.
Quotes of the Day:
Documents Show the Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan A stunning new report alleges the U.S. Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago. If true, the revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power. Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy. The Reagan had joined several other U.S. ships in Operation Tomodachi (“Friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on March 12, 2011 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode. By Harvey Wasserman
A Black Radical Defense of the Second Amendment “Black communities have differentiated individual firearm ownership from structured self-defense organizations.” Since Trump took office, Black citizens have been increasingly arming themselves, a practice rooted in the long Black radical tradition of armed self-defense and articulated in Robert F. Williams’s Negroes With Guns. In a recent interview with Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argued that the Second Amendment “needs to be abolished.” Doing so, however, would disarm not only right-wing vigilantes, as she wants to do, but also Black citizens.
Freedom Rider: Black Panther Movie: A Black Face in a High Place Questioners are ‘hoteps’ who are too woke to have fun.”The desire to see a black face in a high place is a legacy of slavery and the century of Jim Crow segregation that followed. The psychological impact of America’s apartheid is enduring, and unlikely to end without true revolutionary change. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
Raining on Trump’s Parade: An Interview with Margaret Flowers “The people who are behind this are all groups who are strongly opposed to the corporate duopoly war party, and who have been working to revive the peace movement in the United States.”President Trump has asked the Pentagon to plan a military parade in Washington DC on Veteran’s Day, November 11. Democrats have decried the cost and authoritarian implication, and antiwar groups are planning a countermarch. I spoke to Margaret Flowers, medical doctor, Green Party activist, and co-founder of the movement news website Popular Resistance, who is among those organizing the countermarch. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
Labor:
