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 1%Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Parks was a seasoned freedom fighter who had grown up in a family that supported Marcus Garvey and who married an activist for the Scottsboro boys. She joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, becoming branch secretary. She spent the next decade pushing for voter registration, seeking justice for black victims of white brutality and sexual violence, supporting wrongfully accused black men, and pressing for desegregation of schools and public spaces. Committed to both the power of organized nonviolent direct action and the moral right of self defense, she called Malcolm X her personal hero. — How history got the Rosa Parks story wrong
Videos of the Day:
U.S.:
An Open Letter to the People of the United StatesWe demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people. “Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam.” If I know anything, it is about peoples, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality. I am not a tycoon, Iam a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy. By Nicolás Maduro
The Deep Hurt: Lessons From American Coups As the world watches aghast at another US and allies’ attempt to engineer a coup in Venezuela, I would like to offer a few insights from Stephen Kinzer’ provocative chapter, “The deep hurt,” (pp. 227-250) in his book, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the American Empire(2017). This remarkable text carries some hope and lessons for all of us. It tells the story of the great conflict around the turn of 20thcentury about the role that the US might play in either dominating the world or building a cosmopolitan democracy where all people feel secure that they reside in one country, the earth. Indeed, Kinzer states: “Anti-imperialists decisively influenced American history by helping to ensure that the first burst of American annexation would be the last” (p. 228).By Michael Welton
North Dakota Seeks To Restrict Access To Public Records After Standing Rock Reporting Exposed Law Enforcement Abuses Gibbons says the effort to restrict access to records like those that shed light on the police response to the DAPL protests is particularly worrisome given law enforcement’s ongoing pattern of using excessive force against opponents of new fossil fuel development and infringing on their First Amendment rights. “One of the great tools we have for fighting back against those kinds of abuses is the Freedom of Information Act and state-level public records laws, because that way we can find out what actually happened,” Gibbons said. “If we have a vague suspicion of something but can’t actually prove it, we can’t fight back against it.” By Will Parrish
One Minute to MidnightLate last month, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveiled its “Doomsday Clock” for the 26th time since its creation in 1947, declaring that the hands on the clock would remain where they had been at the last setting, in 2018. Rachel Bronson, the bulletin’s president, described the environment in which the bulletin assesses the threats faced by the world today (which have expanded beyond nuclear to include climate change and cyber) as the “new abnormal,” and noted that no one should take comfort from the fact that the hands of the clock have not moved. By Scott RitterProsecutors Seek New Sentence in Laquan McDonald CasePosecutors on Monday asked Illinois’ highest court to review the less-than-seven-year prison sentence for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald — an unusual move in what was already a rare case.By Don Babwin
Resisting the Weaponization of Ignorance in the Age of TrumpIIgnorance now rules the U.S. Not the simple, if somewhat innocent ignorance that comes from an absence of knowledge, but a malicious ignorance forged in the arrogance of refusing to think hard about an issue. We most recently saw this exemplified in Donald Trump’s disingenuousness 2019 State of the Union address in which he lied about the amount of drugs streaming across the southern border, demonized the immigrant community with racist attacks, misrepresented the facts regarding the degree of violence at the border, and employed an antiwar rhetoric while he has repeatedly threatened war with Iran and Venezuela. Willful ignorance reached a new low when Trump — after two years of malicious tweets aimed at his critics — spoke of the need for political unity. By Henry A. GirouxThe Last Time the US Wanted a Wall, 70,000 People Were Sterilized Since his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has been advocatingfor the construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border. While continuously fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia, from the moment of his election to the present, this has been one campaign promise that keeps eluding him. In a desperate attempt to construct his wall, Trump even forced a government shutdown. By Jorge Juan Rodríguez
Trump’s xenophobia must be placed in the context of a nation that, for decades, advocated for similar policies while sterilizing those deemed “unfit” within its borders.
Environment:
Big Energy:
Fatal Rail Accident ‘Eerily Similar’ to Lac-Mégantic Oil Train Disaster
The only way to have a rail accident that is “eerily similar” to the Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster that killed 47 people and wiped out the small Quebec downtown is if a massive regulatory failure did not address the causes of that 2013 tragedy. Which is exactly what has happened. And is why a fatal train accident on February 4 in Field, British Columbia, was dubbed “eerily similar” to the one in Lac-Mégantic by Garland Chow, a professor and transportation expert at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. As documented on DeSmog, the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster has been described as a “corporate crime scene.” The parked oil train that caught fire, ran away, and exploded was the result of corporate cost-cutting and failed regulatory oversight. While a combination of decisions led to that exact chain of events, it was an easily preventable accident. It never should have happened. By Justin Mikulka
The Venezuela Myth Keeping Us From Transforming Our Economy Venezuela’s hyper-inflation is caused by US economic warfare, not government spending on social needs. “Venezuelan hyperinflation and ‘QE for the People’ are completely different animals.” Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is getting significant media attention these days, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview that it should “be a larger part of our conversation” when it comes to funding the “Green New Deal.” According to MMT, the government can spend what it needs without worrying about deficits. MMT expert and Bernie Sanders adviser professor Stephanie Kelton says the government actually creates money when it spends. The real limit on spending is not an artificially imposed debt ceiling but a lack of labor and materials to do the work, leading to generalized price inflation. Only when that real ceiling is hit does the money need to be taxed back, but even then it’s not to fund government spending. Instead, it’s needed to shrink the money supply in an economy that has run out of resources to put the extra money to work. By Ellen BrownFreedom Rider: Black Voters Used to Destroy Bernie Sanders The ever-rightward moving Democrats are using their most reliable constituency to thwart Sanders. “Sanders’ statements are carefully dissected and any words or phrases that might trigger black angst are amplified or even made up out of whole cloth.” The last thing that Democratic Party leadership wants to see is another Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. It is probable that he would have won the 2016 nomination and the presidency itself if they hadn’t used a variety of means to rig the system against him. Now they are terrified of the prospect that a new campaign will expose and challenge their corrupt relationship with corporate interests once again. Sanders is popular and they are well aware of that fact. The voters want his signature Medicare for All plan, free college tuition, and an increased minimum wage. A candidate who runs on those platform positions will win the party nomination and election. But Democrats hope to win with nothing more than platitudes and anti-Trumpism, just as they did during the 2016 debacle. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnistConfronting the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Democrats may hate Trump, but they join in white supremacist solidarity with his aggression against the mostly non-white people of Venezeula. “It is accepted as normal that the U.S. and Europe have the right and, indeed, the responsibility to police the world.” The hypocrisy and confusion on the issue of race and white supremacy revealed itself once again in the United States with a governor dressed in blackface and a decision by the Trump administration and supported by the European Union to execute a coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. By Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnistWhen Jamaica Led the Postcolonial Fight Against Exploitation In the 1970s, a bloc of Third world states forced the UN to take seriously the unequal distribution of global wealth. “The New International Economic Order was conceived as the international corollary to the domestic projects of socialism.” This essay appears in Evil Empire and is adapted from Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. In 1972 the socialist left swept to power in Jamaica. Calling for the strengthening of workers’ rights, the nationalization of industries, and the expansion of the island’s welfare state, the People’s National Party (PNP), led by the charismatic Michael Manley, sought nothing less than to overturn the old order under which Jamaicans had long labored—first as enslaved, then indentured, then colonized, and only recently as politically free of Great Britain. Jamaica is a small island, but the ambition of the project was global in scale. By Adom GetachewIn the Crosshairs of the Washington Mafia: Venezuela and Julian AssangeThe DC Exceptional Mob is running amok, corrupting whole professions (journalism) and overthrowing sovereign nations (Venezuela). “The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Organization for Economic Cooperation are all part of the mob.” The US Mafia State [USMS] is still trying to bump off another sovereign state—Venezuela. Meanwhile Wikileaks retweeted the USMS regime change handbook, more formally known as Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare Field Manual 3-05.130, whose authors reveal that major global financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Organization for Economic Cooperation are all part of the mob, whose specific assignments include extortion, infiltration, fraud, racketeering, loan sharking, and corruption of public officials. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
Labor:
World:
As Macron Prepares New Repressive Measures, Yellow Vests and Red Unions Strike Together At the very moment when in Paris the lower house was voting to implement Macron’s proposed laws designed to suppress public demonstrations (a legal right protected in both the French Constitution and the U.N. Human Rights Declaration) tens of thousands of their constituents were out in the streets all over the country demonstrating and striking against Macron’s authoritarian, neo-liberal government. The demonstrators’ demands ranged from better salaries and retirement benefits, restoration of public services, equitable tax codes, an end to police brutality, and banning the use of “flash-balls” on demonstrators, to Macron’s resignation and the instauration of participatory democracy.By Richard Greeman
Pakistan: Marxist student arrested and tried for seditionRawal Asad is an undergraduate student and political activist of Government Emerson College in Multan. On 5 February, he joined a protest called by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Multan. They were protesting the killing of their leader, Arman Luni, who was a college professor and was killed in Balochistan a few days previously by a senior police officer, personally, by torture. The case of this murder has still not been registered. But the Multan Police registered a case against all the protestors, including Rawal Asad, charging them with sedition, among other things. By Progressive Youth Alliance
Economy:
“John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics” is an electronic newsletter service that exposes and analyzes flaws in current U.S. government economic data and reporting, as well as in certain private-sector numbers, and provides an assessment of underlying economic and financial conditions, net of financial-market and political hype. Alternate Inflation Charts: The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living. Further definition is provided in our CPI Glossary. Further background on the SGS-Alternate CPI series is available in our Public Comment on Inflation Measurement.
Quote of the Day:
Prosecutors Seek New Sentence in Laquan McDonald CasePosecutors on Monday asked Illinois’ highest court to review the less-than-seven-year prison sentence for the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot black teenager Laquan McDonald — an unusual move in what was already a rare case.By Don Babwin
The Last Time the US Wanted a Wall, 70,000 People Were Sterilized Since his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has been advocatingfor the construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border. While continuously fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia, from the moment of his election to the present, this has been one campaign promise that keeps eluding him. In a desperate attempt to construct his wall, Trump even forced a government shutdown. By Jorge Juan Rodríguez
Freedom Rider: Black Voters Used to Destroy Bernie Sanders The ever-rightward moving Democrats are using their most reliable constituency to thwart Sanders. “Sanders’ statements are carefully dissected and any words or phrases that might trigger black angst are amplified or even made up out of whole cloth.” The last thing that Democratic Party leadership wants to see is another Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. It is probable that he would have won the 2016 nomination and the presidency itself if they hadn’t used a variety of means to rig the system against him. Now they are terrified of the prospect that a new campaign will expose and challenge their corrupt relationship with corporate interests once again. Sanders is popular and they are well aware of that fact. The voters want his signature Medicare for All plan, free college tuition, and an increased minimum wage. A candidate who runs on those platform positions will win the party nomination and election. But Democrats hope to win with nothing more than platitudes and anti-Trumpism, just as they did during the 2016 debacle. By Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
Confronting the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination Democrats may hate Trump, but they join in white supremacist solidarity with his aggression against the mostly non-white people of Venezeula. “It is accepted as normal that the U.S. and Europe have the right and, indeed, the responsibility to police the world.” The hypocrisy and confusion on the issue of race and white supremacy revealed itself once again in the United States with a governor dressed in blackface and a decision by the Trump administration and supported by the European Union to execute a coup against the democratically elected government of Venezuela. By Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
When Jamaica Led the Postcolonial Fight Against Exploitation In the 1970s, a bloc of Third world states forced the UN to take seriously the unequal distribution of global wealth. “The New International Economic Order was conceived as the international corollary to the domestic projects of socialism.” This essay appears in Evil Empire and is adapted from Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. In 1972 the socialist left swept to power in Jamaica. Calling for the strengthening of workers’ rights, the nationalization of industries, and the expansion of the island’s welfare state, the People’s National Party (PNP), led by the charismatic Michael Manley, sought nothing less than to overturn the old order under which Jamaicans had long labored—first as enslaved, then indentured, then colonized, and only recently as politically free of Great Britain. Jamaica is a small island, but the ambition of the project was global in scale. By Adom Getachew
In the Crosshairs of the Washington Mafia: Venezuela and Julian AssangeThe DC Exceptional Mob is running amok, corrupting whole professions (journalism) and overthrowing sovereign nations (Venezuela). “The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Organization for Economic Cooperation are all part of the mob.” The US Mafia State [USMS] is still trying to bump off another sovereign state—Venezuela. Meanwhile Wikileaks retweeted the USMS regime change handbook, more formally known as Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare Field Manual 3-05.130, whose authors reveal that major global financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Organization for Economic Cooperation are all part of the mob, whose specific assignments include extortion, infiltration, fraud, racketeering, loan sharking, and corruption of public officials. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
