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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 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:
Quotes of the Day:
The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself, and without losing the right to be called civilized. — Rachel Carson
Videos of the Day:
Israel Lobby Doesn’t Want Al Jazeera to Spill its Secrets Qatar is under pressure to bury an undercover Al Jazeera documentary that exposes the Israel Lobby in the US. Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada says the film’s key revelations include the close cooperation between the neocon Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Israeli government
A New Chapter in China-Africa Relations The political and economic relationship between China and Africa, which has steadily intensified since the ’90s, is very different than the relationships African countries have had with other capitalist powers. China’s own colonial past is a big factor, says Dr. Zhiqun Zhu of Bucknell University
U.S.:
Thanks to Deals Inked Under Obama, US Extends Lead in Global Arms Trade Saudi Arabia is the second-largest weapons importer in the world, receiving many of its arms from the U.S. as it wages war in Yemen Arms trade deals signed during the Obama administration have led to a rise in U.S. weapons exports in recent years, with nearly half of U.S. weapons going to the Middle East, fueling violent conflicts there. by Julia Conley
Blocking Peace in Korea by Lying about the Past As the Korean Peninsula takes tentative steps toward a huge rapprochement and hundreds of millions of people in Northeast Asia hold their breath, liberal Americans tell us we cannot trust North Korea’s government because they are not a good-faith negotiator, as if Washington is. In the words of the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, “We must view it with the necessary skepticism born of such talks in the past. On multiple occasions, Pyongyang has seemingly opted for the path of negotiation, only to reverse course after pocketing concessions from Seoul or the international community” (the Guardian). Hmm… Just coming to the table to grab some concessions and then later reversing course? That sounds familiar. Washington does it all the time. Pyongyang, on the other hand, tends to keep its promises. This is not to say that North Korea is a wonderful, virtuous country, only that its government is interested in peace, very interested. Of course, it is. After all, violence is a tool of the powerful, not the weak. by Joseph Essertier 
It’s North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Not Trump, Who Forced the US to the Negotiating Table The corporate media in the US has been lavishing at times grudging praise on Trump, claiming that it was his “harsh sanctions” and threatening military moves around the Korean Peninsula, and leaked White House talk of “bloody nose” incursions into North Korea, or threats to destroy that country that forced Kim to agree to talks. The reality is quite the opposite, though. While we may be loath to admit it, that truth is that it has been Kim’s dogged persistence, in the face of US sanctions, boycotts and threats, in testing and developing both a credible nuclear arsenal of atomic and thermonuclear weapons, and in demonstrating that he has missiles that can reach US targets, probably including the lower 48 states. by Dave Lindorff
NYT’s Bari Weiss Falsely Denies Her Years of Attacks on the Academic Freedom of Arab Scholars Who Criticize Israel After the New York Times last April hired Bari Weiss to write for and edit its op-ed page, I wrote a long article detailing her history of pro-Israel activism and, especially, her involvement in numerous campaigns to vilify and ruin the careers of several Arab and Muslim professors due to their criticisms of Israel. I chose to profile Weiss’s history because (a) the simultaneous hiring of Bret Stephens generated so much controversy that Weiss’s hiring was ignored, even though it was clear her hiring would be more influential since she would be not just writing but also commissioning articles for that highly influential op-ed page; (b) the NYT was justifying these hires on the grounds of “diversity,” even though hiring hardcore, pro-Israel activists for that page (which has no Muslim columnists) was the literal opposite of diversity; and, most of all, (c) Weiss was masquerading as an opponent of viewpoint intolerance on college campuses even though her entire career had been built on trying to suppress, stigmatize, and punish academic criticisms of Israel. By Glenn Greenwald
Environment:
Fixing Global Warming is Bigger Than Paris ‘15 The worldwide effort to harness, slow down, lessen, reduce, remove the threat of global warming is epitomized by the Paris ’15 climate accord. This agreement calls for nations of the world to implement plans to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, specifically CO2 from fossil fuels, and to take other remedial actions necessary to hold global temps below 2°C but preferably 1.5°C relative to the start of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago.. . . The worldwide effort to harness, slow down, lessen, reduce, remove the threat of global warming is epitomized by the Paris ’15 climate accord. This agreement calls for nations of the world to implement plans to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, specifically CO2 from fossil fuels, and to take other remedial actions necessary to hold global temps below 2°C but preferably 1.5°C relative to the start of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago.by Robert Hunziker
Agricultural Sustainability Project Reached 20.9 Million Smallholder Farmers Across China In a report in the journal Nature, the University of Pennsylvania’s Zhengxia Dou, professor of agricultural systems in the School of Veterinary Medicine, teamed with colleagues from China Agricultural University and other institutions in sharing the successful implementation of a long-term, broad-scale intervention that both improved yields and reduced fertilizer application across China. The effort, enacted over 10 years, engaged nearly 21 million farmers and increased yield on average more than 10 percent and lowered fertilizer use between 15 and 18 percent. Overall, the actions netted an increase in grain output with a decrease in fertilizer input and savings totaling $12.2 billion. By Katherine Unger Baillie
Iowa stores may be forced to sell eggs from battery hens A bill that would require some stores selling only cage-free eggs to offer lower-welfare eggs as an affordable option risks a ‘major set-back’ for animal welfare, say critics By Charlotte Simmonds
More Great News About Free-Range Eggs Tests show free-range eggs have more vitamin A and more omega-3 fatty acids than factory farm eggs. Now it turns out they have more vitamin D as well — three to six times as much! The results are coming in from MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ latest round of pastured egg nutrient tests. Once again, pastured egg producers are kicking the commercial industry’s butt — yippee, go free range eggs! Our previous tests found that eggs from hens raised on pasture — as compared to the official USDA data for factory-farm eggs — contain:
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1/3 less cholesterol
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1/4 less saturated fat
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2/3 more vitamin A
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Two times more omega-3 fatty acids
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Three times more vitamin E
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Seven times more beta carotene
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
The United States’s Private Army Pops Up in Puerto Rico:
From North Dakota to Puerto Rico, Controversial Security Firm Profits From Oil Protests and Climate Disasters TigerSwan, the mercenary security company best known for its efforts to suppress indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access oil pipeline, is stepping up its pursuit of profits in areas hit by climate change-driven natural disaster. Three blog posts published on TigerSwan’s website in February describe the firm’s response efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina in 2016. TigerSwan, according to the posts, assisted National Guard members in Houston and emergency managers in North Carolina by providing them with access to its GuardianAngel system for monitoring the movement of individuals and sensitive shipments. In Puerto Rico, the company’s work included tracking down the employees of an unnamed client. By Alleen Brown
#ProtectTheInlet: Massive Protest in BC as Thousands March to Stop Kinder Morgan Pipeline “In our opposition to Kinder Morgan, we are many people paddling in the same direction.”Disregarding an injunction won by the pipeline company a day before the planned protest, thousands of people marched in Burnaby, British Columbia on Saturday to protest the expansion of a Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and export terminal that First Nations and climate justice campaigners say would threaten local waterways, erode Indigenous rights, and increase planet-warming carbon emissions. By Jon Queally
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
A Hidden Factor in Police Shootings of Black Americans: Decades of Housing Segregation Police killings, more than just the consequence of a few bad-apple officers that can be rooted out of the system, instead can be traced back to the discriminatory housing and economic policies of the mid-20th century, the study’s senior author, Michael Siegel, told The Intercept. To conduct their analysis, Siegel and his colleagues at Boston University’s School of Public Health compared two numbers for each state: the black-white ratio in the rate of fatal police shootings from 2013 to mid-2017, and something the authors termed a “racism index.” By Maha Ahmed
· Related Article: The Historic Role of Police Brutality in the Black Community and African American Oppression
Labor:
Economy:
The Shadow Government Statistics s Alternate Unemployment Rate for February 2018 is 21.8%.
JPMorgan Paid a Board Member $532,500 in 2016; Now the Board is Getting a 25 Percent Cash Pay Hike The illusions of the Trump era – spun as making America great again, while sluicing more and more wealth to the one percent – has revived citizen interest in what it would actually take to restore fairness and integrity to the nation. The first place to look is how to restructure the American corporation so that it is no longer poisoning our campaign finance system, our election outcomes, and perverting the legislative process in Washington. The majority of Congress now works for its corporate paymasters. That has resulted in perverse economic outcomes across the national landscape that have, in turn, created the greatest wealth inequality in America since the late 1920s. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
While the world looks to Eastern Ghouta, civilians in Afrin are being slaughtered in their hundreds by Turkish forces Over the last week in Afrin, the siege of heavily populated areas has tightened and the death toll has risen – 220 dead and 600 injured civilians according to the local Kurdish health authority – but the international media gives it scarcely any mention By the international media gives it scarcely any mention Patrick Cockburn
Netanyahu In A Corner It would be a shame if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were not a frequent-flyer club member since he is taking every opportunity to escape the anti-corruption noose tightening around his neck in Tel Aviv. Last month Israeli police recommended bringing indictments against Bibi for fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. Yesterday, things got much worse when the Ministry of Justice announced that former Netanyahu media advisor Nir Hefetz had turned state’s witness against Bibi in two of the four corruption scandals surrounding him. By Dean Henderson
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.
