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.
“The Texas state government has a record of lax enforcement, and the Trump administration is rolling back necessary protections for workers and people living and working in the shadow of chemical plants,” the group said. The KMCO plant has a poor record of regulatory behavior, reportedThe Houston Chronicle. The facility is currently not compliant with the federal Clean Water Act. KMCO was in violation of the Clean Water Act for seven of the last 12 quarters. It violated the Clean Air Act three times in the last 12 quarters. Environmental Protection Agency data shows the facility also violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on Feb. 22, 2018. The RCRA regulates how facilities handle hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. — Third Houston Area Chemical Fire in Under Three Weeks Prompts Calls for Action From Progressives, Environmental Groups
In 1933 a portion of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel (SS) was armed and trained along military lines and served as an armed force. These troops were originally known as the SS-Verfügungstruppen, the name indicating that they served at the Führer’s pleasure. By 1939, four regiments (Standarten) had been organized. The Verfügungstruppen took part in the occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia side by side with the Army (Heer). During the months preceding the outbreak of the war, they were given intensive military training and were formed into units that took part in the Polish campaign. In addition, elements of Death’s Head formations (Totenkopfverbände), which served as concentration camp guards, also took to the field as combat units. — Hitler’s Private Army Was More Terrifying Than You Can Possibly Imagine
James Petras: Despite their strategic successes the Venezuelan government has committed several costly mistakes which increased vulnerability.
Failure to diversify their exports, markets and banking system. The US sanctions exploited these weaknesses.
Failure to carry out monetary reforms to reverse or contain hyperinflation.
Failure to maintain the hydro-electoral system and secure it from sabotage.
Failure to invest in and recruit new technical professional to upgrade the operation of the financial system and prosecute financial corruption in the banking system. Venezuela worked with high officials who engaged in financial and real estate transactions of a dubious nature.
The failure to recruit and train working class and professional political cadres capable of oversight over management.
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!
Sources of Revenue for the Federal Government About 48 percent of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 9 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 35 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs (figure 1). The rest comes from a mix of sources.
The Border, Trumpian Madness and the Clash of DemographicsOperation Wetback and its aftermath represented, it now seems from the perspective of history, a watershed moment. A threshold had been crossed. Low-wage, non-white labor (deprived of legal rights), long the mainstay of California’s huge and profitable agriculture industry, had become an essential feature of the economy more broadly. And in subsequent years, this labor system, “pioneered” as it were, in California and the southwest, would become a crucial feature of the economy nationally. By Bruce Neuburger
Echoes of History: Trump’s “Movement” Now Has a Uniform and Membership Cards Donald Trump does not represent a political party so much as a social and cultural movement which seeks to destroy America’s multiracial democracy and fully reinstate American apartheid.Given his politics it is no coincidence then that Donald Trump refers to his “movement” rather than the Republican Party when speaking to his supporters: this emphasis on “movement” above party was used by the Nazis and the Third Reich to mobilize their base and its destructive energies. Like other right-wing populist movements Trumpism has a uniform and a slogan. This is the red and white MAGA hat, the tan khaki pants worn by the white supremacist hooligans in Charlottesville and elsewhere, and the words “Make America Great Again.” Trump’s movement also has membership cards, which function both as a loyalty oath and marker of belonging. By Chauncey Devega
Calling Assange a ‘narcissist’ misses the point – without WikiLeaks we would live in darker, less informed times Unless the truth is told about the real nature of these wars then people outside the war zones will never understand why they go on so long and are never won . . . Later the helicopter crew are told over the radio that they have killed 11 Iraqis and a small child has been injured. “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into battle,” comments somebody about the carnage below. Except there was no “battle” and all those who died were civilians, though the Pentagon claimed they were gunmen. The trigger-happy pilots had apparently mistaken a camera for a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Journalists in Baghdad, including myself, were from the start sceptical about the official US story because insurgents with weapons in their hands were unlikely to be standing chatting to each other in the street with an American helicopter overhead. As on many similar occasions in Iraq, our doubts were strong but we could not prove that the civilians had not been carrying weapons in the face of categorical denials from the US Department of Defence. By Patrick Cockburn
Environment:
Since environmental illness and destruction are a global concern, it requires all of humanity to act collectively, in our overall interests for our survival as a species, to correct the problem and to remove the obstacle of capitalism. It requires a society where humanity has social, economic, and political control over the entire environment. Such a society, a socialist society, is needed to ensure that all decisions affecting the environment are under the democratic control of humankind so that the production of goods will be done for the needs and survival of humanity instead of the production and the destruction of humanity and other species for profit. With common ownership of the means of production, and common control and protection of all property and wealth, science and society will be in harmony with the ecosystem and humanity’s future. With these goals we can begin to build a more effective environmental movement. As we continue to organize against capitalism and its destructive course, we can and will transform the world! —Roland Sheppard, Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism
World Bank Group Financial Flows Undermine the Paris Climate Agreement: The WBG contributes to higher profit margins for oil, gas, and coal Introductory Remarks: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), instead of reducing emissions, the world emitted a new record 33.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere in 2018. Energy-related CO2 emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas increased by 1.7 percent. The growing emissions stand as a stark warning that the global community must do more. The unabated emissions put people at risk, especially in the countries of the South, as the recent dramatic floods in Mozambique show. It was therefore the right step for the World Bank Group to announce its withdrawal from the financing of upstream oil and gas after the Paris Climate Conference. However, the World Bank Group needs to do considerably more to make a real difference. A recent examination of the Bank’s active global energy portfolio concludes that in reality the World Bank Group is contributing to the growing fossil fuel emissions and is not sticking to its own climate pledges. Heike Mainhardt, an expert contributor to the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), assessed over 675 energy-linked operations of the World Bank Group available on the Bank’s websites. The assessment revealed that the Bank provides 3 times as much project finance to fossil fuels as it does to renewable energy. The Bank also continues to require governments to adopt investment incentives for coal and upstream oil and gas. Such flagrant contradictions to climate pledges must end immediately.
World Bank Criticized for Coal, Oil and Gas Funding The World Bank Group faces criticism for continuing to back fossil fuel development, despite moves to clean up its portfolio. It has earned green credentials for ending direct lending to coal-fired power plants, promising to axe support for oil and gas exploration and increasing its clean energy budget. Yet over the last five years, the group’s support to oil and gas actually increased, while coal benefitted from indirect subsidies, according to analysis from German NGO Urgewald. By Natalie Sauer
Extinction Rebellion calls on protesters to block London streets About 2,300 climate activists have already signed up to help obstruct busy roads next week Environmental campaigners are hoping to mobilise thousands of people to block the streets of central London around the clock next week, in their latest attempt to raise public awareness and provoke action over the destruction of the biosphere. By Damien Gayle‘Shut the country down’: British climate group Extinction Rebellion heads to US With dozens of events next week, many hope arrival of climate punks who’ve swept the UK will be a watershed moment Bea Ruiz, a veteran progressive coordinator, has been telling scores of first-time climate change protesters they face being harassed and beaten by police next week. Most seem happy with the deal. “I told a 72-year-old volunteer that he will probably be targeted by police,” said Ruiz, who is based in Eureka, California and is helping organize the first US rollout of Extinction Rebellion, a group founded in the UK that has grabbed attention through disruptive protests leading to mass arrests. By Oliver Milman
The Next Reckoning: The Next Reconing: Capttalism and Climate ChangeFixing the planet is going to be expensive. Can we stomachthe bill for human survival?he world’s most difficult problem has a solution so simple that it can be expressed in four words: Stop burning greenhouse gases. How exactly to pull this off is somewhat more complicated — just not as complicated as most Americans have been led to believe. As James Hansen, the don of modern climate science, told me last year, “From a technology and economics standpoint, it is still readily possible to stay under two degrees Celsius.” Readily possible. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report from last October, which provoked widespread terror, echoed this conclusion. Keeping warming to 1.5 degrees above historical averages was possible, it found, provided we immediately began to eliminate carbon-dioxide emissions. This was terrifying only because we have not begun to do any such thing. By Nathanie RichThird Houston Area Chemical Fire in Under Three Weeks Prompts Calls for Action From Progressives, Environmental Groups “Repeat offenders to the environment, our health, and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted.” The KMCO fire follows two days-long blazes at the Intercontinental Terminals, Inc. (ITC), petrochemical facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby and 20 miles due east of Houston. “Much like the ITC facility, the KMCO facility wasn’t prepared for a fire or explosion, they called other refineries to supply them with foam to extinguish the blaze,” Sema Hernandez, a social justice, human rights, and political activist based in the Houston area, told Common Dreams in an interview. By Eoin Higgins
‘Everything Is at Stake’: Global Extinction Rebellion Kicks Off Week of Civil Disobedience to Demand Climate Action“It’s time to declare a climate and ecological emergency. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction.” The Extinction Rebellion movement kicked off a week of marches, demonstrations, and peaceful civil disobedience across the U.S. and around the world on Monday to demand” systemic changes to stop global warming while there’s still time left.” By Jake JohnsonClimate Panel Disbanded by Trump Launches Independent Network to Tackle Crisis at Local Level“This new approach will make it easier to develop science-based pathways to address climate threats to local economic growth, infrastructure, and public health.” Members of a climate advisory panel disbanded by President Donald Trump in 2017 launched an independent network on Thursday to help communities across the country with science-based guidance to tackle the challenges of a rapidly warming world. The new Science for Climate Action Network (SCAN) “will convene teams of scientists, climate experts, and state, and local officials to identify best practices in an ongoing process,” according to a press release from the group. “The network will work with the latest science and technology, including the use of artificial intelligence to process city data and citizen science to collect missing data on impacts.” By Jessica Corbet
Floodwater covers Highway 2 on March 23, 2019 near Sidney, Iowa. Midwest states are battling some of the worst flooding they have experienced in decades as rain and snow melt from the recent ‘bomb cyclone’ has inundated rivers and streams. At least three deaths have been linked to the flooding. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Trump’s New Proposal Cheats 8 Million Working People of Overtime PayThat number will grow to 11.5 million in the first 10 years of implementationEight million. That’s how many U.S. middle-class workers will be left without strong overtime pay protections under the Trump administration’s weak overtime rule proposed on March 22. In human terms, that means 8 million working people across the 50 states can be made to work up to 50, 60 or even 70 hours a week, missing time with their families, without receiving any extra pay, even if they make as little as $35,000 a year. By Heidi Shierholz]
Rank and File Revolt at CUNY An Interview with $7K or Strike Activists. Like universities and colleges across the country, the City University of New York (CUNY) has become increasingly dependent upon a massive and growing population of highly exploited adjunct faculty who are paid only a fraction of what their full-time counterparts make for much the same work. This two-tier labor system is not only incredibly unfair and unjust, it has undermined higher education and, in the case of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress (PSC), it has significantly weakened the power of the union. Although the PSC bureaucracy has so far, thanks in part to the anti-labor New York State Taylor Law, been slow to address the problem of adjunct exploitation, a new generation of rank and file union activists, operating under the banner of $7K or Strike have taken up a bold demand that challenges both the continued adjunctification of the university and the Taylor Law, as well their union leadership. Below we interview three of these activists (Amelia Fortunato, Jarrod Shanahan, and Travis Sweatte) about this important and potentially transformative struggle.
World:
Why Venezuela Has Not Been Defeated – OpEd Over the past half decade, a small army of US analysts, politicians, academics and media pundits have been predicting the imminent fall, overthrow, defeat and replacement of the Venezuelan government. They have been wrong on all counts, in each and every attempt to foist a US client regime. In fact, most of the US induced ‘regime changes’ has strengthened the support for the Chavez – Maduro government. By James PetrasLawyer: Ecuador Is Spreading Lies About AssangeA lawyer representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Sunday that Ecuador’s government has spread lies about his behavior inside its embassy in London, where Assange sought asylum in 2012. Lawyer Jennifer Robinson told British TV network Sky News the Ecuadorian government is spreading falsehoods to divert attention from its decision to revoke his asylum and allow his arrest at its British embassy, By Gregory Katz
No more excuses – Israeli voters have chosen a country that will mirror the brutal regimes of its Arab neighbours If the west can forgive an Arab government that bombs Yemen, they can go on forgiving an Israeli government that bombs Gaza So now I guess we’ve all run out of excuses. Bibi Netanyahu’s Israel will not be a new and more right-wing Israel. It’s been that for a long time. It’s the propaganda that’s going to fall to bits. The only democracy in the Middle East? Give me a break. I think Israel now looks much more like its Arab neighbours. It dominates its own Arab minority, and its new prime minister has promised to annex much of the territory legally belonging to their fellow Palestinian Arabs – the very colonies built on lands which have already been stolen for the majority Jewish population in Israel. By Robert Fisk
Economy:
2008 Financial Collapse and Why Wall Street Is Still a Dangerous CasinoIf you want to very quickly understand why banks stopped lending to one another in 2008, credit markets froze, bank stock prices collapsed, and the Federal Reserve secretly pumped $16 trillion into banks, just take a few moments to study this chart from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission of the derivatives casino that Goldman Sachs and the major banks on Wall Street had become in June of 2008. Wall Street banks knew they had created a collapsing house of cards but they didn’t know just how much exposure each bank had or which bank would fail first, so they simply stopped lending to each other, causing a run on the banks. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
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!
‘Shut the country down’: British climate group Extinction Rebellion heads to US With dozens of events next week, many hope arrival of climate punks who’ve swept the UK will be a watershed moment Bea Ruiz, a veteran progressive coordinator, has been telling scores of first-time climate change protesters they face being harassed and beaten by police next week. Most seem happy with the deal. “I told a 72-year-old volunteer that he will probably be targeted by police,” said Ruiz, who is based in Eureka, California and is helping organize the first US rollout of Extinction Rebellion, a group founded in the UK that has grabbed attention through disruptive protests leading to mass arrests. By Oliver Milman
Third Houston Area Chemical Fire in Under Three Weeks Prompts Calls for Action From Progressives, Environmental Groups “Repeat offenders to the environment, our health, and communities should be shut down, fined and prosecuted.” The KMCO fire follows two days-long blazes at the Intercontinental Terminals, Inc. (ITC), petrochemical facility in Deer Park, about 20 miles south of Crosby and 20 miles due east of Houston. “Much like the ITC facility, the KMCO facility wasn’t prepared for a fire or explosion, they called other refineries to supply them with foam to extinguish the blaze,” Sema Hernandez, a social justice, human rights, and political activist based in the Houston area, told Common Dreams in an interview. By Eoin Higgins
Climate Panel Disbanded by Trump Launches Independent Network to Tackle Crisis at Local Level“This new approach will make it easier to develop science-based pathways to address climate threats to local economic growth, infrastructure, and public health.” Members of a climate advisory panel disbanded by President Donald Trump in 2017 launched an independent network on Thursday to help communities across the country with science-based guidance to tackle the challenges of a rapidly warming world. The new Science for Climate Action Network (SCAN) “will convene teams of scientists, climate experts, and state, and local officials to identify best practices in an ongoing process,” according to a press release from the group. “The network will work with the latest science and technology, including the use of artificial intelligence to process city data and citizen science to collect missing data on impacts.” By Jessica Corbet
