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.
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal will weaken U.S. relationships around the world and create problems that U.S. foreign policy will be grappling with for years, but it’s also a boon for the U.S. rival that American intelligence said helped Trump get elected: Russia. Trump’s move will likely lead toward progress on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two chief goals: splintering the U.S.-led alliance of democratic powers that currently dominates global affairs and fortifying Russia’s alternative network, which includes Iran and its partners across the Middle East. A split between the U.S. and its three most powerful allies — France, Germany and the U.K. — was clear immediately after Trump’s announcement. The leaders of the latter three countries issued a joint statement expressing “regret and concern” and saying they want to sustain the Iran agreement, which promised Iran some freedom from international sanctions in exchange for limits on and guarantees of transparency about its nuclear development. They reiterated what Trump’s own military advisersand new secretary of statehave said: Iran is abiding by the deal. — Trump’s Iran Deal Exit Is A Win For Russia
In 2016 Iran signed a peace accord with seven signatories: the US, the UK, France, Germany, China, Russia, European Union. The agreement stipulated that Iran would limit its manufacture of enriched uranium which had dual use — civilian and military – and ship it out of the country . Iran permitted western inspection of nuclear facilities —which found Teheran in full compliance. In exchange the US and its collaborators agreed to end economic sanctions, unfreeze Iranian assets and end restrictions on trade, banking and investment. The Iranians fully complied. Enriched uranium laboratories ceased producing and shipped-out remaining stock. Inspections were granted full access of Iranian facilities. In contrast the Obama regime did not fully comply. Partial sanctions were lifted but others were reinforced, deeply restricting Iran’s access to financial markets — in clear violation of the agreement. Nevertheless, Iran continued to maintain its part of the agreement. With the elections of Donald Trump, the US rejected the agreement (‘it’s the worst deal ever’) and in compliance with the Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu’s military agenda, demanded the total restoration of sanctions, the dismantling of Iran’s entire military defenses and its submission to the US, Israeli and Saudi Arabian dictates in the Middle East. In other words, President Trump discarded the agreement in opposition to all the major countries in Europe and Asia, in favor of Israel’s demands to isolate, disarm and attack Iran and impose a puppet regime in Teheran. — Imperial Road to Conquest: Peace and Disarmament Agreements
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Is Trump’s Exit From Iran Deal a Prelude to War?With Trump withdrawing from the JCPOA and European allies showing no signs that they’ll withstand US pressure, the Iran nuclear deal is in danger and the threat of war has increased, says Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council
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Trump just manufactured a national security crisis for no reasonHis decision to pull the United States out of the Iran deal could place the lives of Americans – and people around the world – in danger. And all for nothing Imagine the president of the United States of America sitting in the White House Situation Room with his top national security advisers and deciding that there are not enough threats to US national security. There are not enough wars and humanitarian crises around the world. The United States is bored. Imagine the president deciding to manufacture a new national security crisis that will directly threaten America, its allies and the world.Sounds like the work of fiction, right? Unfortunately, not. President Trump announced his decision for the United States to violate the diplomatic agreement that is currently preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon– and with that decision Trump produced a new, unnecessary crisis. By Michael H Fuchs
The U.S. Just Declared War on Iran Against all common sense, moral considerations and international law, U.S. President Donald Trump tonight decided to place the United States outside the international so-called community and isolate itself, not Iran. He withdrew the United States from what is one of the most important negotiated peace-oriented agreements that have ever been signed: the one that prevents Iran (if it has ever wanted to) from acquiring nuclear weapons: The Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, JCPOA, of July 2015 – all about this agreement and its text here). by Jan Oberg
Gina Haspel and Torture: Not Just Immoral, But a Tool for More WarOf course, there are questions of legality and ethics and with respect to torture and it’s possible as some have argued that the motivation of Haspel and others in overseeing torture and covering it up may be simple sadism. But — especially given how little we know about Haspel’s record — it’s possible that there’s an even more insidious motive in the U.S. government practicing torture: To produce the rigged case for more war. Examining this possibility is made all the more urgent as Trump has put in place what clearly appears to be a war cabinet. My recent questioning at the State Department failed to produce a condemnation of waterboarding by spokesperson Heather Nauert. by Sam Husseini‘This Is How the Iran War Started’: Grave Warnings as Trump Ditches Nuclear Deal“Today’s unnecessary, reckless, and dangerous actions by Donald Trump will endanger our national security, further isolate us from our allies, and increase the likelihood that we become trapped in another unnecessary and avoidable war.” By Jake Johnson
U.S. President Donald Trump announces his decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room at the White House May 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. After two and a half years of negotiations, Iran agreed in 2015 to end its nuclear program in exchange for Western countries, including the United States, lifting decades of economic sanctions. Since then international inspectors have not found any violations of the terms by Iran. President Donald Trump holds up a memorandum that re-instates sanctions on Iran after he announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room at the White House May 8, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Trade Wars — Will Trump put sanctions on German investments in Iran?:
Germany Accounts for 60% of EU Investments in Iran Germany accounts for about 60% of the investments made by European Union states in Iran, the deputy energy minister for international affairs said. “Iran and Germany established very good economic relationship with each other, especially in the past years, in such a way that most of Iran’s business relationship with EU member states is carried out via Germany,” Alireza Daemi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. Germany is also among Iran’s major trade partners in the EU. Its exports to Iran rose to €3.5 billion in 2017 from €2.6 billion in 2016, the Federation of German Industries announced. Berlin sells industrial machines, chemical and electrical goods, construction machines and other high-end products to Tehran. Imports from Iran increased by almost a quarter to almost €330 million during the same period. Germany buys dried fruits, pistachios, Persian rugs and industrial raw materials from Iran. According to Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, foreign investment in Iran has seen a tenfold increase following the 2015 nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers. Director General of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade’s Foreign Investment Office Afrouz Bahrami said Iran attracted $24.95 billion in foreign investments during Sept. 2013-17.
How U.S. Taxpayers Fund the World’s Most Profitable CorporationsWe were trying to think of an issue that could possibly be more significant than $21 Trillion in taxpayer money disappearing from the Pentagon. While it is very hard to fathom something more significant than $21 Trillion, the only thing we could come up with is the lack of Return on Public Investmentthat American taxpayers get…As American taxpayers, did you know that we have been major investors in many of the world’s most profitable corporations?Yes, significant Research & Development of technology, done by the Pentagon through our public investment via taxpayer funding, has been handed over to global private corporations and foreign countries, for their profit. Global weapons manufactures, foreign countries and most of Silicon Valley’s largest companies have been giftedtrillions of dollars worth of technology, at our expense, for their profit.
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Freedom Rider: Trump and Israeli Collusion “Trump is the one true believer in Israeli’s right to reign supreme in its region and in command of American foreign policy.” Donald Trump’s decision to exit from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement on Iranian nuclear capability is in keeping with his doctrine of joining Israel at the hip of the United States. Fealty to the state of Israel is a constant in United States foreign policy. Every president who has served since that country was founded has given it carte blanche to do anything it wants but Trump goes further than anyone else.Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnistWhy Michelle Wolf Angered the US Ruling Class So Much“The so-called ‘anti-Trump’ opposition is only concerned with critiquing the president so long as its relationship with the White House remains relatively stable.” Michelle Wolf was invited to do a standup act for the White House Correspondent’s dinner on April 28th. The event has historically been nothing more than a friendly gathering for the ruling class to toast, joke, and boast amongst themselves. In the era of Trump, however, the event has turned into a litmus test for White House opposition to the orange billionaire who, for the second straight year, skipped the event to hold a rally in Michigan. Wolf’s stand-up act has unleashed a backlash from the most loyal servants of Washington in the corporate media and political class. The focus of the backlash has been on Wolf’s roast of Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Trump staffer who the corporate media has rarely embraced in the past. By Danny Haiphong, BAR contributor“Rest in Power”: Stephon Clark and Black Self-Defense, Part I “Policing precedes law and literally creates it as it goes along.”At the service for Stephon Clark, killed by Sacramento police officers on March 18, 2018, a ribbon affixed to a memorial wreath read, “Rest in Power.” This riff on the customary “rest in peace” references multiple meanings, including “no justice, no peace,” “black power,” and the death-defiance enunciated across black expressive cultures since the dawn of the African slave trade.[i] Police shot at Clark twenty times, hitting him with seven bullets, mostly in the back, as he attempted to enter his grandmother’s house from the backyard. In other words, Clark was shot down while engaged in a basic act of self-defense: evacuating from public police presence and entering his private home. What does it mean to consider Clark’s actions in terms of self-defense? Further, what does blackself-defense mean in the face of the Fourth Amendment’s stated protections against unlawful and unwarranted search and seizure by the police? By Tryon P. Woods
In South Africa, channelizing Marx Towards Building a United Front “The union understands that it will have to go beyond theory and mobilize the working class.” “Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of workers.”– Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels On May 5, across the world, celebrations were held marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx – one of the greatest revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century. In the Southern tip of Africa, leading up to and on the historic day, Marx was commemorated by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) – the biggest union in the country – through a range of political activities aimed at various sectors of society. By Musawenkosi Cabe
There is a Structural Crisis of Capitalism “Capitalism has become an “obsolete social system.” A Marxist thinker of profound originality and theoretical innovation, Samir Amin continues to intellectually equip us to comprehend, analyse and critique the “obsolete” nature of present-day capitalism, the unequal North-South divide between countries, the continued operation of imperialism, the status quoist ideologies of capitalism, etc. By Jipson John and Jitheesh P.M.
Why Is Former Black Panther Chip Fitzgerald Still Behind Bars? “The good news is that we don’t have to wait the full five years.” On May 4, former Black Panther Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald agreed to a five-year denial of parole instead of insisting on a parole hearing, even though he has served more time than any former Black Panther still behind bars: 49 years. Chip was arrested in 1969 and charged with murdering a security guard and attempting to murder a highway patrolman who had stopped him and fellow Panthers for driving with a broken taillight. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1970, at the end of a four-day trial, but that sentence was commuted in 1972, when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty as employed was racist and therefore unconstitutional. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributorLabor:
Economy: Banking Fraternity Felons – Except for Goldman Sachs Citigroup was fined $925 million by the Justice Department for its foreign currency conduct that ran from as early as December 2007 until at least January 2013, roughly five years. JPMorgan was fined $550 million for rigging activity that ran from as early as July 2010 to January 2013, about two and a half years. The offenses the banks were charged with pertained to their foreign currency traders engaging in chat rooms with traders from competitor banks, sharing confidential customer order information in order to rig foreign currency markets and boost profits for their firms. Somehow, Goldman Sachs slipped through the Justice Department’s net. It was never charged with a felony by the Justice Department. Now, three years later, the Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) have imposed a combined modest fine of $109.5 million against Goldman Sachs for essentially the very same conduct that resulted in Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase becoming felons and paying much steeper fines.By Pam Martens and Russ MartensWorld:
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.
‘This Is How the Iran War Started’: Grave Warnings as Trump Ditches Nuclear Deal“Today’s unnecessary, reckless, and dangerous actions by Donald Trump will endanger our national security, further isolate us from our allies, and increase the likelihood that we become trapped in another unnecessary and avoidable war.” By Jake Johnson
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