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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.
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Quote of the Day:
Black has had previous dealings with Trump. Two decades ago he agreed to work with the future president to build a skyscraper on the site of an old Chicago newspaper office. Trump was considered as a potential witness at Black’s fraud trail. — Trump pardons fraudster Conrad Black after glowing biography
That this guy (Trump) has his finger on the nuclear trigger is worse than any horror story I ever wrote. —Stephen King
A regulatory system that would allow 8 banks to control 62 percent of all banking assets held by the nation’s 5,406 insured banks is beyond help. It needs to be dismantled along with the mega banks and a sane framework created for both. Congress has been holding hearings for a decade without making a dent in the Wall Street crime wave and without any serious reforms that could prevent another $29 trillion secret bailout by the Federal Reserve when these banks blow themselves up again. The question is how long the American people will tolerate this hubris. — Wall Street’s Sleeping Cops Head to the Hill Tomorrow
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!
Former business associates Donald Trump and Conrad Black. Not only that Black would receive a full pardon from criminal charges, as he did on Wednesday, but that the pardon would be communicated by a White House led by a former business associate, real estate tycoon Donald Trump — a bit player in the saga of Black’s fall from atop an International media empire spanning three continents.
The Fraudster/Robber Barron/Tycoon Brotherhood: Trump Pardons ‘Old Friend,’ Ex-Media Mogul of Fraud ConvictionsBlack is the author of the biography Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other who has described the U.S. president as “hardworking and cunning.” U.S. President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Conrad Black, former media mogul and owner of The Daily Telegraph, who was convicted, in 2007, of fraud. Black and Trump are well-known to be good friends, which is made especially apparent by Black’s consistent praise of the U.S. president. Black is the author of the biography Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other. The ex-media boss has described the president as “hardworking and cunning.”
US Police Illegally Invade Venezuelan Embassy, Arrest ActivistsCode Pink leaders say U.S. authorities entered the Venezuelan embassy in D.C. to arrest protectors, violating international law and conventions. United States security forces have broken into the Venezuela embassy in Washington Thursday and have taken the four remaining members of the Protection Collective, Code Pink organization announced. The announcement was confirmed by the activists’ lawyer, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. Such action violates several articles of the Vienna Convention and breaks international law.
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The US has sent a lot of firepower — a carrier strike group, B-52 bombers, air-and-missile defense systems, and more — to the Middle East to counter Iran.
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US military and civilian leaders have said that they have intelligence indicating that Iran is planning an attack on US interests.
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As US military assets started making their way into the region, Iranian military leaders began threatening them, taunting the US ships and aircraft as “targets.”
As US troops and weaponry pour into the Middle East to counter Iran with threats of “unrelenting force,” Iran warns that US forces are “targets,” not threats. By Ryan Pickrell
Environment:
Major Victory for Climate Campaigners as NY Gov. Cuomo Rejects ‘Dangerous’ Williams Pipeline“Along with our allies, we will continue to ensure this reckless project is shelved forever.” Grassroots climate campaigners in New York celebrated a major victory late Wednesday as Gov. Andrew Cuomo blocked the construction of a $1 billion pipeline which would have carried fracked gas from New Jersey to Long Island. By Julia Conley 
Trump Praises LNG Exports in Louisiana as His Trade War with China Threatens the IndustryToday President Donald Trump appeared at Louisiana’s $10 billion Cameron Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facility to promote LNG exports and American “energy independence.” Trump’s visit to the Cameron Parish terminal comes the day after his escalating trade war, which he called “a little squabble with China,” led China to raise tariffs on U.S. LNG from 10 to 25 percent — a major blow to the U.S. industry, which could slow America’s massive plans to expand LNG export facilities. By Justin Mikulka
Plastics Industry on Track to Burn Through 14% of World’s Remaining Carbon Budget: New Report. The plastics industry plays a major — and growing — role in climate change, according to a report published today by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). By 2050, making and disposing of plastics could be responsible for a cumulative 56 gigatons of carbon, the report found, up to 14 percent of the world’s remaining carbon budget. In 2019, the plastics industry is on track to release as much greenhouse gas pollution as 189 new coal-fired power plants running year-round, the report found — and the industry plans to expand so rapidly that by 2030, it will create 1.34 gigatons of climate-changing emissions a year, equal to 295 coal plants. By Sharon Kelly
Black Liberaation/Civil Rights:
New Orleans Prosecutors Routinely Violate Defendants’ Right to Counsel to Keep Them in JailFrom the start, the murder that William Bonham was charged with looked like a case of self-defense. Bonham was arrested for the stabbing death of his friend Kent “Frenchy” Brouillette in December 2015. The whole thing had started several months earlier, when Bonham, a musician who played gigs in New Orleans’s French Quarter, had $25,000 worth of instruments and equipment stolen from his room in a tenement house where both he and Brouillette lived. He reported the theft to police, but the cop assigned to the case was uninterested, suggesting that the situation sounded like a civil matter. Undeterred, Bonham did his own investigation and determined that others in the house, including Brouillette, were responsible. According to court records, Brouillette told Bonham to drop the matter or he would kill him. By Jordan Smith
The U.S. Has Been Eclipsed in Every Sphere But WarUS rulers promised that technology would bring the return of the millions of jobs that were outsourced to low-wage countries, but America has lost the hi-tech race and excels only in weapons of war. “The early U.S. global hi-tech lead was squandered in the chaotic and criminally wasteful corporate capitalist game of all-or-nothing.” If you can’t pronounce Huawei (Wah-Way), then you won’t be able to explain to your grandchildren how the United States definitively lost the race for planetary technological supremacy, the last non-military contest with China that American capitalism had any chance of winning. The inherent inferiority of the chaotic U.S.-led system is now manifest – even to the thick-skulled Donald Trump, who only three months ago held off on banning U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei, the China-based world leader in 5G technology. Back in February Trump tweeted that he wanted American companies to win the ultra-high speed mobile telecommunications race by competition and “not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies,” meaning Huawei. “American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind.” But Trump is expected to sign the Huaweibanning order this week , having finally despaired of making U.S. hi-tech “great again” by peaceful means. The only card the U.S has left to play, is war. By Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
Labor:
Hospital Workers in Toledo, Ohio, Strike for Safe Patient Care On May 6, more than 2,000 unionized workers organized by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) marched out of Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, to demand safe staffing, safe working conditions for all hospital workers and the right to bargain fixed health care rates. The striking workers include registered nurses, technical unit employees and support staff. By Roland Reed
Donald, The Wages Thief: Donald Trump doubles down: ‘Our wages are too high’Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump argued during the Tuesday-night Fox Business Network debate that US wages are “too high”— and he didn’t back off the next morning when pressed.
World:
Jeremy Corbyn has been on the right side of history for 30 years. That’s real leadership What makes a leader, and what is leadership? We are told every day that Jeremy Corbyn is not a leader, from Hilary Benn’s “He’s a good and decent man, but he’s not a leader” to the Daily Mail saying Corbyn “is the worst Labour leader in history”. But in spite of the relentless Corbyn-bashing, beyond the ability to win elections (Owen Smith: seriously?) there has been little discussion of what a leader, or leadership, means. By Ronan Bennett
What 50 Countries are Backing Guaidó? Who Knows? Who Cares? If the Media Say It Enough It Must Be True American media still refer to Juan Guaidó, America’s hand-picked “legitimate leader” or “legitimate president” of Venezuela, as having an “administration.”The truth is that his “administration” — consisting of advisors and other opposition leaders — are all either arrested and being held by the government, hiding, seeking asylum in various foreign embassies (Spanish, Italian, Brazilian and Argentinian) in the capital of Caracas, or have fled to other countries like Brazil and Colombia. By David Lindorff
As One Million People Face Hunger in Besieged Gaza, Israel Shoots 16 Palestinians at Nakba Day ProtestsIsraeli forces opened fire Wednesday on Palestinians protesting the 71st anniversary of the Nakba and their decades long life under the boot of a merciless occupation, which is slowly starving the Gaza Strip’s population with the explicit backing of the U.S. government. “It is a race against time.” Eoin Higgins
Brazil: tsunami against education cuts shows Bolsonaro government can be brought down15 May saw a tsunami of demonstrators come out against education cuts and counter-reforms to pensions in Brazil. More than 1.5 million hit the streets of over 200 cities across the country during the national education strike against the latest measures of the Bolsonaro government, which include a 30 percent cut to university budgets. Despite its bravado, the government is weak and divided. The slogan “Fora Bolsonaro” (Bolsonaro Out) resonated widely. Certainly, Brazil is not in the throes of fascism. Far from it. It is now time to prepare a general strike to bring this government down. By Jorge Martin
Economy:
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!
Alabama governor signs nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion bill into law Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday signed into law a controversial abortion bill that could punish doctors who perform abortions with life in prison. “Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, a bill that was approved by overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the Legislature,” said Ivey, a Republican, in a statement. “To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.” By Caroline Kelly
A lesson from Herstory: Poland’s abortion ban proposal near collapse after mass protests Parliamentary committee urges MPs to vote proposal down as minister says wave of protests ‘taught us humility’ A controversial proposal to ban abortion in Poland appears to have collapsed after senior politicians from the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) backed away from it after a parliamentary committee urged MPs to vote it down following mass protests. By Christian Davies
