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
In their brilliant exposé of this situation in South Africa and beyond, “Who Owns Water?”, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke give a scathing explanation of what was at stake back in 2002, the situation far more aggravated today. They identify the ten major corporations making a profit from freshwater beginning with France’s Vivendi Universal and Suez whom they label the “General Motors and Ford of the global water industry.” Barlow and Clare go on to characterize how these two and other companies: deliver private water and wastewater services to more than 200 million customers in 150 countries and are in a race, along with others such as Bouygues Saur, RWE-Thames Water and Bechtel-United Utilities, to expand to every corner of the globe.” In the United States, Vivendi operates through its subsidiary, USFilter; Suez via its subsidiary, United Water; and RWE by way of American Water Works. But what about the World Bank and its’ “cost recovery” programs? Aren’t they working? The short answer is yes: they are working to help increase the coffers of the World Bank and the IMF as poor countries continue to become poorer and Barlow and Claire elaborate: They are aided by the World Bank and the IMF, which are increasingly forcing Third World countries to abandon their public water delivery systems and contract with the water giants in order to be eligible for debt relief. The performance of these companies in Europe and the developing world has been well documented: huge profits, higher prices for water, cutoffs to customers who cannot pay, no transparency in their dealings, reduced water quality, bribery and corruption. — The Privatization of Water and the Impoverishment of the Global South
After examination of the historical evidence, the testimonials of survivors and eyewitnesses, the subsequent investigations as well as the film record, it is hard not to reach the conclusion that the blast at Port Chicago was in fact an atomic explosion — which, if so, would make it the world’s first atomic detonation. What really needs to be investigated further is whether or not this device was deliberately detonated by the military, using low-ranking (black) personnel as guinea pigs to test its effects. — The Great WWII Port Chicago Disaster — A Nuclear Blast?
EPA Sued for Removing Independent Scientists from its Advisory Board EPA Director Scott Pruitt says that he should be able to choose his own advisors, but Pruitt is giving corporate scientists priority, undermining the public’s health. We speak to Barbara Gottlieb of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the leading plaintiff in the case
U.S.
Trump and Pompeo on Three Issues: Paris, Iran and North Korea The most noteworthy and shocking sign of disorder in Trump’s bureaucracy has now manifested in the State Department. Its enervated head, Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil, has been forced out in the face of “profound disagreements with the president on policy,” including the Paris climate accord, the Iranian nuclear deal, and the denuclearization of North Korea. Tillerson, no dove, has actually supported a more sensible track on these issues—preferring a U.S. signature on the climate accord, maintaining the nuclear deal, and favoring (qualified) diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula—unlike the incessant bellicosity of the “moron” (his term) for whom he worked. This was described as somewhat ironic in the New York Times at the end of a news column which quoted James F. Jeffrey, a former colleague of Tillerson. He characterizes the firing as “a mystery because the people at the State Department would work for the devil if he is advancing American interests, which Mr. Tillerson was.” (By his remark, one is reminded of the ouster of George Kennan, who, as he laid the post-1945 basis for U.S. domination of the world, was considered too soft on the Soviets, and therefore swapped for Dean Acheson.) by Mir Alikhan
Why There’s a Boycott of Ben & Jerry’s on World Water Day, March 22The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) this week called for an international boycott of Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s in conjunction with World Water Day, March 22. “Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever, spend millions on marketing to create the false image that the Vermont-based brand is a champion of the environment, when in fact Ben & Jerry’s supports an industrial dairy system that is responsible for a water pollution crisis in Vermont,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s international director. “Today we once again call on Ben & Jerry’s to convert its dairy supply chain to 100-percent organic and pasture-raised to help end the dumping of hundreds of thousands of pounds of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers into Vermont’s water supply.” by Martha Rosenberg
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Since the Dawning of the Atomic Age to 1970 Background Radiation has Increased Over 600%! And it has never stopped rising! (P.S. the huge increase in background radiation is not ‘natural’ it is human made! ) Background Radiation Has Increased 600 Percent – 1 mSv In 1950 To over 6 mSv Today; Where Is This Coming From? Physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa And Dr Busby Weigh In On The Evidence And Root Causes Background Radiation Has Increased 600 Percent – 1 mSv In 1950 To over 6 mSv Today; Where Is This Coming From? Physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa And Dr Busby Weigh In On The Evidence And Root Causes “Eisenbud points out that the world Inventory of radioactive materials prior to World War II, both In the environment and in the laboratory, was confined to those which occurred in nature, with the exception of a relatively few millicuries of radioactivity produced in cyclotrons during the late 1930’s. Construction of large nuclear reactors during the war and the associated operations for extracting plutonium from irradiated uranium resulted in the first extensive occasions for contaminating the environment with radioactive substances.”Cancer, George Monbiot and Nuclear Weapons Test Fallout George Monbiot, who has now been diagnosed with prostate cancer at the young age of 55, was therefore born in 1963, at the peak of the atmospheric test fallout. He is thus a peak exposed (at risk) member of a cohort of those exposed in the womb to the fallout (1959-63) and currently suffering the consequences of exposure to Strontium-90 in the milk, and (measured) in the childrens’ bones. In his article in the Guardian, he says that he has always done all the healthy things, done lots of exercise, eaten vegetables, didn’t smoke or drink, all that stuff. He is clearly puzzled about being singled out by the three ladies. But the cause was something that he had no control over, and neither had anyone else who was born in the fallout period. George writes that he is happy. This insane response to his predicament, (which I personally am not happy about despite his intemperate attacks on me in his Guardian column and blogs) must go alongside his equally insane response about the Fukushima events where he publicised his road-to-Damascus conversion to nuclear power. by Chris Busby
U.S. Slavery Was Uniquely Capitalist : Even on the left, the capitalist nature of US slavery is not well understood, said historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment. “The commodification and capitalization of Black bodies is pretty unique to the United States,” she said. “Marx himself did not grasp it. Eurocentrism of analysis is a problem.”
Mass Incarceration With No End?: Although US incarceration rates have been going down in recent years, at the current pace it would take 75 years to cut the prison population in half, according to Nazgol Ghandnoosh, of The Sentencing Project. Moreover, simply reducing the prison population does not address the system’s racial disparities and lack of rehabilitation programs. Even with half the inmates, the US would still “have a higher incarceration rate than our peer countries.”
Confronting Black-Immigrant Conflicts: “Immigrants have been increasingly criminalized by the state in ways that are very similar to African Americans,” said Dr. Johanna Fernandez, one of the organizers of a March 23 event in New York City under the heading “Breaking Down Laws and Prison Plantations: Mumia, Migrants and Movements for Liberation.” The conference hopes to tackle conflicts between Blacks and immigrants, said Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.
Reporter Eva Bartlett Blasts UN: The United Nations is deliberately participating in war propaganda” favoring the US-backed “terrorists” in Syria, said Eva Bartlett, an independent Canadian journalist who helped expose the White Helmets as a public relations unit of al Qaida. The jihadists occupying East Ghouta, near Damascus, have been preventing civilians from leaving the war zone, said Bartlett.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
US Smooths Israel’s Path to Annexing West Bank Seemingly unrelated events all point to a tectonic shift in which Israel has begun preparing the ground to annex the occupied Palestinian territories.Last week, during an address to students in New York, Israel’s education minister Naftali Bennett publicly disavowed even the notion of a Palestinian state. “We are done with that,” he said. “They have a Palestinian state in Gaza.” By Jonathan CookSouth Africa: meaningful land reform means fighting for socialism! At the moment there is no programme of land expropriation without compensation in South Africa. The only thing that exists is this parliamentary motion. As a leading ANC member stated, at this stage land expropriation without compensation “remains a slogan.” But the fact that such a motion was adopted is a consequence of the pressures from below that have been building up over the last two decades. It comes in the wake of a massive upsurge in the class struggle over the previous period. To some degree this is now being used by the more far-sighted section of the ruling class to to manage the situation from above to prevent it from spiralling out of their control. By Ben Morken
Imperialism stripped black natives in Africa of their lands, identity and dignity / Image: public domain
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:
Cancer, George Monbiot and Nuclear Weapons Test Fallout George Monbiot, who has now been diagnosed with prostate cancer at the young age of 55, was therefore born in 1963, at the peak of the atmospheric test fallout. He is thus a peak exposed (at risk) member of a cohort of those exposed in the womb to the fallout (1959-63) and currently suffering the consequences of exposure to Strontium-90 in the milk, and (measured) in the childrens’ bones. In his article in the Guardian, he says that he has always done all the healthy things, done lots of exercise, eaten vegetables, didn’t smoke or drink, all that stuff. He is clearly puzzled about being singled out by the three ladies. But the cause was something that he had no control over, and neither had anyone else who was born in the fallout period. George writes that he is happy. This insane response to his predicament, (which I personally am not happy about despite his intemperate attacks on me in his Guardian column and blogs) must go alongside his equally insane response about the Fukushima events where he publicised his road-to-Damascus conversion to nuclear power. by Chris Busby
Has Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Put Democracy at Risk in Both the U.S. and U.K.? For over a year, Carole Cadwalladr has been reporting in the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper about the bizarre overlap between the people and companies involved in Donald Trump’s rise to the Presidency in the U.S. and the June 23, 2016 Brexit vote in the U.K. where citizens voted in a referendum to take the U.K. out of the European Union. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
South Africa: meaningful land reform means fighting for socialism! At the moment there is no programme of land expropriation without compensation in South Africa. The only thing that exists is this parliamentary motion. As a leading ANC member stated, at this stage land expropriation without compensation “remains a slogan.” But the fact that such a motion was adopted is a consequence of the pressures from below that have been building up over the last two decades. It comes in the wake of a massive upsurge in the class struggle over the previous period. To some degree this is now being used by the more far-sighted section of the ruling class to to manage the situation from above to prevent it from spiralling out of their control. By Ben Morken