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Julaian Assange Had Been Arrested:
Defend Julian Assange!
Defend Freedom of the Press!
Defend the Right to Know!
Free Assange!
The Martyrdom of Julian Assange The arrest Thursday of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities, embraced by the Ecuadorian, British and U.S. governments, in the seizure of Assange are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by corporate states and the global ruling elite will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power will be hunted down, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms in solitary confinement. They presage an Orwellian dystopia where news is replaced with propaganda, trivia and entertainment. The arrest of Assange, I fear, marks the official beginning of the corporate totalitarianism that will define our lives. By Chris Hedges
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.
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As part of their attempt to blacken WikiLeaks and Assange, pundit commentary … has tried to portray Assange’s exposure of classified materials as very different from — and far less laudable than — what Daniel Ellsberg did in releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Ellsberg strongly rejects the mantra “Pentagon Papers good; WikiLeaks material bad.” He continues: “That’s just a cover for people who don’t want to admit that they oppose any and all exposure of even the most misguided, secretive foreign policy. The truth is that EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time. — Daniel Ellsberg
We all must resist. We must, in every way possible, put pressure on the British government to halt the judicial lynching of Assange. If Assange is extradited and tried, it will create a legal precedent that will terminate the ability of the press, which Trump repeatedly has called “the enemy of the people,” to hold power accountable. The crimes of war and finance, the persecution of dissidents, minorities and immigrants, the pillaging by corporations of the nation and the ecosystem and the ruthless impoverishment of working men and women to swell the bank accounts of the rich and consolidate the global oligarchs’ total grip on power will not only expand, but will no longer be part of public debate. First Assange. Then us. — Chris Hedges
Assange has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy for seven years since he was granted asylum in 2012 to escape extradition to the US. In March 2018, the government of Ecuador imposed a “protocol” forbidding Assange from expressing his opinion or conducting journalism. The protocol threatened to revoke his asylum if breached. Assange was subsequently banned from access to the internet and from having visitors. In August 2018 Assange tweeted about the Catalan Independence Referendum to which President Moreno ominously declared that “measures will be taken” for his breach of the protocol. Then last week Moreno accused Assange of leaking photos of his family and private calls that connect the President to a corruption scandal. However, Fidel Narváez (former consul of Ecuador) said this was a “false pretext to end the asylum and protection of Julian Assange.” Britain: Julian Assange arrested by Met Police
He (Engles) concluded, “As long as the capitalist mode of production continues to exist, it is folly to hope for an isolated solution to the housing question or of any other social question affecting the fate of the workers.” For Engels, housing struggles were derivative of class struggle. Housing problems, then, could only be addressed through social revolution. We take from Engels the idea that the housing question is embedded within the structures of class society. Posing the housing question today means uncovering the connections between societal power and the residential experience. It means asking who and what housing is for, who controls it, who it empowers, who it oppresses. It means questioning the function of housing within globalized neoliberal capitalism. — The Permanent Crisis of Housing
U.S.:
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.— The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!
PG&E Charges Costumers for It’s Deferred Maintenance Lines/Crimes!: PG&E electricity rates could double after more wildfires, report saysIf California wildfires continue to be as devastating as they have been the past two years, millions of customers’ electric rates could skyrocket 50% and threaten the state’s ability to execute some of its top clean energy initiatives, according to a new analysis prepared for Gov. Gavin Newsom. By J.D. Morris
Environment:
Climate Catastrophe and Extinction RebellionIn the last years of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke against what he called “the triple evils that are interrelated” – economic inequality, racism, and militarism. If King were alive today, he’d be talking about the five evils that are interrelated, adding patriarchy and Ecocide, the destruction of livable ecology. He’d also be noting the dangerous rise of a new national and global fascism linked to the presidency of a malignant racist who glories in accelerating humanity’s environmental self-destruction while the media obsesses over matters of far slighter relevance. By Paul Street
Logging is the Lead Driver of Carbon Emissions From US Forests Climate change is having a growing impact on Americans and, as the crisis escalates, communities face growing challenges. The latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscores that we have eleven short years to make “rapid transformation across all industrial sectors.” Protecting forest ecosystems is critical in the fight to limit global warming — when forests are disturbed they release carbon, but when left to grow they actively pull carbon out of the air and store it. When left standing, forests also provide optimal natural protection against extreme weather events, like flooding and droughts. By Danna Smith,Chad Hanson, and Matthew Koehler
Clearcut, Oregon Coast Range. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair
Trump Is Rewriting the Rules to Favor the Pipeline IndustryDomestic oil and gas production is soaring, and nowdays, it’s not enough to simply pull the stuff from the ground. With the fossil fuel boom comes demand for new pipelines and refining infrastructure, putting the expanding industry on a collision course with communities across the country. Major pipeline projects are facing resistance from a public worried about accidents and climate disruption, so President Trump wants to rewrite the rules in the industry’s favor. By Mike Ludwig
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
A Reckoning for Al Sharpton and the Black Misleadership ClassWith support for “socialism” rising, the political fate of Al Sharpton and the rest of the Democratic party’s Black corporate minions is in doubt — and they know it. “Capitalism is the best path for human progress — as long as all the other paths are outlawed.” Big Capital’s darker denizens made their voices heard at Al Sharpton’s annual National Action Network showcase, last week, blasting “democratic” socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her role in chasing Amazon away from New York City. “The people campaigning against the Amazon campus are financially illiterate,” said Tracy Maitland, CEO of Advent Capital Management, which handles $9 billion in other people’s money. Maitland claimed that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s offer to set up a corporate headquarters in Queens in return for $3 billion in tax breaks and other subsidies was a good trade for 25,000 new jobs, and that activists misinformed the public. “This was a disgrace,” exclaimed the irate Black money manipulator . “I partially blame AOC for the loss of Amazon. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. That’s scary. We have to make sure she’s better educated or vote her out of office.” By Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report executive officer
Labor:
World:
It is imperative that Congress invoke the War Powers Resolution, passed in the wake of the Vietnam War, to prevent the president from escalating the dangerous U.S. economic and military aggression against Venezuela. On April 4, for the first time since its enactment, Congress used the War Powers Resolution to end unauthorized U.S. military involvement in Yemen — America’s Coup Efforts in Venezuela Enter Frightening New Phase
“We Woke Up and You Will Pay!” Algeria in Revolt What is happening in Algeria is truly historic. The people won the first battle in their struggle to radically overhaul the system. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president for the past twenty years, was forced to abdicate after more than six weeks of street protests and a re-configuration of alliances within the ruling classes.Since Friday, February 22, millions of people, young and old, men and women from different social classes have taken to the streets in a momentous uprising, re-appropriating long-confiscated public space. Historic Friday marches followed by protests in several sectors (education, health, petrochemical industry, students, etc) united people in their rejection of the ruling system and their demands of radical democratic change. By Hamza Hamouchene
Spain: dirty war against Podemos by the “cesspit of the state” A new scandal has emerged in Spain, concerning a group of high-ranking police officers who worked in cahoots with the former PP Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Rajoy government to pursue “opponents of the State” (such as the Catalan separatists and Podemos), and sabotage the investigation of major corruption cases. This so-called “cesspit of the state” is yet further confirmation of what is already common knowledge: the state and so-called “free press” are rotten to the core. By David Rey
Russia: US Has Caused Billions of Damage to Venezuela Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations VassilyNebenzia accused the United States of causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage to Venezuela since 2013, adding that Washington was “picking the pockets” of the country, while “offering” humanitarian aid and “artificially provoking” a crisis to overthrow the legitimate government. “The U.S. is persistently shattering the situation in Venezuela. It deliberately provokes crisis around this country in order to change a legitimately elected leader for a U.S. protege,” said Nebenzia Wednesday during his speech before the U.N. Security Council meeting. Back in February, Nebenzia stated that the estimated damages are worth approximately US$345 billion.
Housing a Priority for Socialist CubaIn 2019, Cuba plans to finish the construction of more than 20,000 residential buildings. The current housing deficit is at an estimated 929,000 units including provinces such as Havana, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Therefore, the government of Cuba is putting a strong emphasis on the modernization of the construction industry and doubling the production of building materials in the next few years, despite an on-going and aggressive U.S. blockade.
Economy:
Lazier Faire’s Capitalism’s Robber Barron Kleptocracy!
Of the more than $29 trillion in bailouts, just the six biggest banks in the country (the “Six Megabanks”) received more than $8.2 trillion in lifesaving support from American taxpayers during the 2008 financial crash, or nearly one-third of the total bailouts provided to the entire financial system. This was a massive transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street to prevent the bankruptcy of just six banks, supposedly because they were vital to the economic security and prosperity of Main Street Americans. One might think that receiving trillions of dollars of undeserved and lifesaving taxpayer bailouts would cause those financial institutions to reform their high-risk, destabilizing activities or, at a minimum, to rein in their predatory conduct and illegal practices. Think again. The banks showed no gratitude, no remorse, and no willingness to reform their activities.7 Worse, they also didn’t bother to end their systemic, widespread, and brazen illegal conduct. In fact, they have engaged in—and continue to engage in—a crime spree that spans the violation of almost every law and rule imaginable. Taking the breadth and depth of their illegal conduct as a whole, the six biggest banks in the country look like criminal enterprises with RAP sheets that would make most career criminals green with envy. That was the case not just before the 2008 crash, but also during and after the crash and their lifesaving bailouts, as detailed below. In fact, the number of cases against the banks has actually increasedrelative to the pre-crash era. These Six Megabanks have committed hundreds of illegal acts and preyed upon and ripped off countless Main Street Americans with a frequency and severity that shocks the conscience. In fact, in the last two decades, while receiving more than $8.2 trillion in bailouts, these Six Megabanks have been subject to more than 350 major legal actions that have resulted in almost $200 billion in fines and settlements— Wall Street’s Six Biggest Bailed-Out Banks: Their RAP Sheets & Their Ongoing Crime Spree
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Wall Street’s Six Biggest Bailed-Out Banks: Their RAP Sheets & Their Ongoing Crime Spree $8.2 Trillion in Bailouts
351 Legal Actions
Almost $200 Billion in Fines and Settlements . . . However, the $29 trillion in bailouts from the Fed, FDIC, and other regulators (in addition to the $700 billion taxpayer dollars made available under the TARP program) were not only or even primarily provided to those regulated banks that take deposits and make loans. Instead, those bailouts were extended to virtually all financial institutions, including those engaging in the most dangerous, high-risk activities that actually caused the financial crash.5 Thus, for decades gigantic nonbank financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, AIG, money market funds, and many more were allowed to maximize private profits with little or no regulation, but when their activities triggered the crash, they nonetheless were bailed out. This was a stunning violation of the most basic rule of capitalism, applicable to virtually every other business in America: Failure leads to bankruptcy.
Shadow Government Statistics 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.
Health, Education, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘govern’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
The Permanent Crisis of Housing Under capitalism, housing is never secure for the working class. The symptoms of housing crisis are everywhere in evidence today. Households are being squeezed by the cost of living. Homelessness is on the rise. Evictions and foreclosures are commonplace. Segregation and poverty, along with displacement and unaffordability, have become the hallmarks of today’s cities. Urban and suburban neighborhoods are being transformed by speculative development, shaped by decisions made in boardrooms half a world away. Small towns and older industrial cities are struggling to survive. In America, the housing crisis is especially acute in New York City. The city has more homeless residents now than at any time since the Great Depression. More than half of all households cannot afford the rent. Displacement, gentrification, and eviction are rampant. Two pillars of New York’s distinctive housing system — public housing and rent regulation — are both under threat.By David Madden and Peter Marcuse
