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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 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.
Images of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
Capitalism, Imperialism, and Christianity:
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. Desmond Tutu
Of the Christian colonial system, W. Howitt, a man who makes a speciality of Christianity, says: “The barbarities and desperate outrages of the so-called Christian race, throughout every region of the world, and upon every people they have been able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those of any other race, however fierce, however untaught, and however reckless of mercy and of shame, in any age of the earth.” — Karl Marx
The treatment of the aborigines was, naturally, most frightful in plantation-colonies destined for export trade only, such as the West Indies, and in rich and well-populated countries, such as Mexico and India, that were given over to plunder. But even in the colonies properly so called, the Christian character of primitive accumulation did not belie itself. Those sober virtuosi of Protestantism, the Puritans of New England, in 1703, by decrees of their assembly set a premium of £40 on every Indian scalp and every captured red-skin: in 1720 a premium of £100 on every scalp; in 1744, after Massachusetts-Bay had proclaimed a certain tribe as rebels, the following prices: for a male scalp of 12 years and upwards £100 (new currency), for a male prisoner £105, for women and children prisoners £50, for scalps of women and children £50. Some decades later, the colonial system took its revenge on the descendants of the pious pilgrim fathers, who had grown seditious in the meantime. At English instigation and for English pay they were tomahawked by red-skins. The British Parliament proclaimed bloodhounds and scalping as “means that God and Nature had given into its hand.” — Karl Marx
Videos of the Day:
John Pilger: ‘Defy the Thought Police’, Stand With Assange John Pilger says of Assange that the room he’s held in resembles “Room 101” from the famous novel “1984” by George Orwell. Whenever I visit Julian Assange, we meet in a room he knows too well. There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and fetid. This is Room 101.
Pilger, Burnside: Silencing of Julian Assange Part of Global Campaign to Restrict Speech, Journalism The filmmaker and the barrister talked about a general complicit attitude Australian Journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger and barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside have reiterated the call for the Ecuadorean government to restore communications access to Julian Assange, whose internet and phone privileges were restricted two weeks ago. Pilger and Burnside have also called the measure part of a global campaign restriction on freedom of speech and investigative journalism.
3rd Anniversary of Berta Cáceres Murder in Honduras: Downward Spiral and Hope The murder trial of environmental and indigenous activist Berta Cáceres leaves many issues unresolved. Meanwhile, the human rights situation in Honduras has been getting worse, even as Berta continues to inspire activists with her example
How Wall Street Gave Us Trump w/Michael Hudson At a time when journalism consistently is said to be imperiled, two esteemed reporters beg to differ. Los Angeles Times reporter Patt Morrison and Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer point out
U.S.:
Environment:
Monsanto Protection Act Signed By Obama, GMO Bill “Written By Monsanto” Signed Into Law The Monsanto Protection Act, essentially both written by and benefiting Monsanto Corporation, has been signed into law by United States President Barack Obama. The infamous Monsanto Corporation will benefit greatly and directly from the bill, as it essentially gives companies that deal with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds immunity to the federal courts, among other things. The bill states that even if future research shows that GMOs or GE seeds cause significant health problems, cancer, etc, anything, that the federal courts no longer have any power to stop their spread, use, or sales The Monsanto Protection Act, essentially both written by and benefiting Monsanto Corporation, has been signed into law by United States President Barack Obama. The infamous Monsanto Corporation will benefit greatly and directly from the bill, as it essentially gives companies that deal with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds immunity to the federal courts, among other things. The bill states that even if future research shows that GMOs or GE seeds cause significant health problems, cancer, etc, anything, that the federal courts no longer have any power to stop their spread, use, or sales By Global Research News
Environmental Racism:
Abstract: 1. Significant increases in tumors of kidney, liver, and other tissues and organs following exposure to gasoline provide sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity. 2. Benzene, a significant component of gasoline, has been established without question as a human carcinogen by IARC, EPA, and WHO. 3. 1,3-Butadiene, a component of gasoline, is a powerful carcinogen in both animals and humans. 4. Sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of alkyl benzenes, very significant components of gasoline, has also been established. 5. Human epidemiologic studies show important increases in cancers of the kidney, stomach, brain, pancreas, prostate, lung, and skin as well as hematopoietic and lymphatic leukemias as a result of exposure to gasoline, its components, and its vapors. 6. Stage 2 controls are being implemented to reduce exposure of the human population to gasoline vapors. — PubMed, Dangerous and cancer-causing properties of products and chemicals in the oil refining and petrochemical industry. VIII. Health effects of motor fuels: carcinogenicity of gasoline–scientific update
I’ve written on this site about problems in what the locals in Louisiana call “Cancer Alley” — the massive petrochemical facilities that mostly line the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. For decades, this industrialized corridor has reflected the push and the pull between Louisiana’s desperate need for well-paying blue-collar jobs and corporations who exploit the state’s rich natural resources with little or no concern for the environment. Historically, the jobs argument has won out — even though Louisiana, for a combination of factors, has ranked as second in the nation in cancer. Air and water pollution from these plants is one of those factors. Now comes the story of a tiny Louisiana town called Reserve which, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Air Toxics Assessment, has the highest cancer risk from air pollution of any community in America. The frustrating part of this story is the government officials were warned years ago about the risk from a chemical plant once owned by the conglomerate DuPont and recently bought by Japanese-based Denka — and have largely done nothing. A New Orleans station, WVUE, recently told the story of this community in Louisiana’s St. John the Baptist Parish that is under siege from toxic air pollution: “Reserve, LA (WVUE) – St. John the Baptist Parish resident Bobby Taylor lives in fear of something he cannot even see, but the federal government warns him there is no doubt it is there. “We run inside and turn off the A/C, huddle and wait for it to clear. Hopeful, that it will but not really knowing exactly what it is,” the retired pastor said. “It’s just sort of disconcerting when you find out there is knowledge now about what this is and the potential that it has.” The potential cancer causing emission that has St. John residents like Taylor running inside is chloroprene. It is a byproduct of Neoprene production, a rubber used to make wetsuits, athletic gear even drink coozies. The Denka Performance Elastomer facility, formerly DuPont, is the only plant making neoprene in the United States, and it is tucked away in the small town of Reserve. The facility, which employs 250 people, began production along the Mississippi River’s banks in 1973.” — Stuart Smith, Meet The Small La. Town With America’s Highest Cancer Risk
Mapping the Cancer Corridor along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast Cancer Alley” does not itself appear on maps. But this eighty-five mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, into which are packed some one hundred and fifty factories of petroleum refining or chemical production, merits the name since its notorious wastes have grown so large to define the local landscape to merit the name–the amount of toxic and hazardous wastes that they regularly release has overwhelmed the landscape. The simple austere presence of names of chemical compounds, no doubt sized in an elegant Times New Roman in a font-size that corresponds to their relative production, suggests an imposition of meaning inscribed on the map, stripped of any actual toponymy, save the ghostly half-tones naming the corporations who have remade the landscape the residence of chemical production.
Petrochemical Giants Are Slowly Killing Black Louisiana Communities A Massive Plastics Plant threatens a Black Community that has lived since reconstruction in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. The industry is known for getting its way in Louisiana, and the federal government has a dismal record when it comes to holding polluters accountable for environmental racism. However, local activists are fighting back with help from allies from across the river and across the country. With the anxiety over climate disruption and plastic pollution in the world’s oceans reaching a fever pitch, the fight against Formosa could thrust the rural communities in St. James into the global debate over the future of fossil fuels. By Mike Ludwig
Big Energy:
Atomic Balm Part 1: Prime Minister Abe Uses The Tokyo Olympics As Snake Oil Cure For The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdowns As we prepare for the eighth remembrance of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, Fairewinds is ever mindful of what is currently happening in Japan. There has never been a roadmap for Japan to extricate itself from the radioactive multi-headed serpentine Hydra curse that has been created in an underfunded, unsuccessful attempt to clean-up the ongoing spread of migrating radioactivity from Fukushima. Rather than focus its attention on mitigating the radioactive exposure to Japan’s civilians, the government of Japan has sought instead to redirect world attention to the 2020 Olympics scheduled to take place in Tokyo. Truthfully, a situation as overwhelming as Fukushima can exist in every location in the world that uses nuclear power to produce electricity. The triple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi are the worst industrial catastrophe that humankind has ever created. By Arnie Gundersen
An Illustrated History of What Big Oil Knew About Climate Change—Before the Moon Landing By now, it’s no secret that oil companies have been long aware of the risks of climate change from burning fossil fuels. Exxon had “no doubt” that carbon dioxide was a global threat by the late 1970s, and Shell wrote in 1988 that the resulting climate change might lead to “the greatest [changes] in recorded history.” But decades before, the oil industry was already privy to — and giving its own internal warnings about — the climate threats of carbon pollution from burning its products. In fact, as one science-and-art collaboration illustrated this week, that was happening before humans even landed on the Moon in 1969. By Ashley Braun
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Lessons of the Finnish Revolution of 1917–1918: part one The Finnish Revolution is a proud chapter in the history of the international working class. Tragically, despite the tremendous energy expended by the masses, their leaders vacillated and betrayed the revolution. The forces of counterrevolution unleashed a bloodbath, which physically annihilated the flower of the working class, contributing to the encirclement and isolation of the Russian Revolution. By Stefan Kangas and John Peterson 
