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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:
Videos of the Day:
Quotes of the Day:
I’ve been exposed to pesticides many times. Now, I try to protect myself because I know better than to count on anyone else to look after us. Just today, the field next to where we were working was being sprayed. We asked, “Hey, what are you doing?” They replied, “Don’t worry. It is just sulfur.” Because of the lack of enforcement, even if we did complain, no one would investigate or take action. When the wind is blowing in my direction and I see a drift coming towards me, I walk away and cover my nose and mouth with my sweatshirt. Even if they get mad at me for walking away, I am simply not going to put myself in harm’s way anymore. We are forced to work in toxic fields, because the supervisors aren’t being supervised. In the fields, my eyes are always irritated. I have cataracts now, and I can’t afford to get my eyes fixed. Many people in the fields have damaged eyes. — Victorino
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!
Border Official Admits Targeting Journalists And Human Rights Advocates With Smuggling Investigations When first CONFRONTED with evidence that it was collaborating with Mexican law enforcement in a sweeping intelligence-gathering operation targeting journalists, activists and attorneys along the U.S.-Mexico divide, Customs and Border Protection was silent. When still more evidence emerged, in the form of documents leaked by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower, the agency dismissed the significance of the revelations as routine law enforcement work. By Ryan Devereaux
A Major Coal Company Went Bust. Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denialism. The bankruptcy of one of the largest domestic coal producers in the country has revealed that the company maintains financial ties to many of the leading groups that have sowed doubt over the human causes of global warming. The disclosures are from Cloud Peak Energy, a Wyoming-based coal mining corporation that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 10. The company had been battered by low coal prices, including in international markets cultivated by the firm. By Lee Fang
Saudi Arabian State Media Urges U.S. To ‘Hit Iran Hard’ With Punitive Airstrikes Iran sees the escalating tensions with the U.S. as extending to include Saudi Arabia and Israel. And on Thursday, an editorial in Saudi Arabia’s Arab News demanded: “Iran must not go unpunished… In [our] considered view, there has to be deterrent and punitive action in order for Iran to know that no sinister act will go unpunished; that action, in our opinion, should be a calculated surgical strike.” By Zak Doffman
Pfizer CEO gets 61% pay raise—to $27.9 million—as drug prices continue to climb In a recent three-week span, the company hiked 116 drug prices as much as 9.46 percent. According to Bloomberg, Read’s compensation included in part a salary of $1.96 million, a $2.6 million bonus, $13.1 million in equity awards linked to financial goals and stock price, as well as an $8 million special equity award that will vest if the company’s average stock return goes above 25 percent for 30 consecutive trading days before the end of 2022. 
Environment:
Amazon Tribe Wins Lawsuit Against Big Oil, Saving Millions Of Acres Of Rainforest The Amazon Rainforest is well known across the world for being the largest and most dense area of woodland in the world. Spanning across nine countries, the Amazon is home to millions of different animal and plant species, as well as harboring some for the world’s last remaining indigenous groups. The Waorani people of Pastaza are an indigenous tribe from the Ecuadorian Amazon and have lived in the Rainforest for many generations. However, there Home came under threat from a large oil company – they didn’t take it lightly.
EPA Worked with Mining Industry to Abandon Rule Protecting Taxpayers from Toxic Cleanup Costs Email records reveal industry’s heavy hand in eliminating an EPA rule requiring financial accountability. The mining industry played a key role in persuading the Environmental Protection Agency to reject a proposed rule that would have protected the public from toxic mining disasters, an Earthjustice review of thousands of agency records and emails has revealed. BY Jaimini Parekh
AT&T Has Cut 23,000 Jobs Since Getting Big GOP Tax CutAT&T promised lots of good jobs if taxes were cut. Instead, it has shed tens of thousands. Ars Tecnica reports: “AT&T has cut more than 23,000 jobs since receiving a big tax cut at the end of 2017, despite lobbying heavily for the tax cut by claiming that it would create thousands of jobs. AT&T in November 2017 pushed for the corporate tax cut by promising to invest an additional $1 billion in 2018, with CEO Randall Stephenson saying that ‘every billion dollars AT&T invests is 7,000 hard-hat jobs. These are not entry-level jobs. These are 7,000 jobs of people putting fiber in ground, hard-hat jobs that make $70,000 to $80,000 per year.’ By Sahid Fawaz
Black Liberaation/Civil Rights:
Indianapolis Cuts Out For-Profit Prison Company in Hopes of Improving Criminal Justice System Indianapolis is getting out of business with the U.S.’s second-biggest for-profit prison company. And it’s taking a new 3,000-bed jail with it.When the city heads to Wall Street Thursday to borrow $610 million to build a jail and criminal justice complex on the site of an old coking factory, it’s betting it can better house criminals and rehabilitate them on its own. That means CoreCivic, which has run a Marion County jail for two decades, will lose the contract when the new one opens.
Labor:
AT&T Has Cut 23,000 Jobs Since Getting Big GOP Tax CutAT&T promised lots of good jobs if taxes were cut. Instead, it has shed tens of thousands. Ars Tecnica reports: “AT&T has cut more than 23,000 jobs since receiving a big tax cut at the end of 2017, despite lobbying heavily for the tax cut by claiming that it would create thousands of jobs. AT&T in November 2017 pushed for the corporate tax cut by promising to invest an additional $1 billion in 2018, with CEO Randall Stephenson saying that ‘every billion dollars AT&T invests is 7,000 hard-hat jobs. These are not entry-level jobs. These are 7,000 jobs of people putting fiber in ground, hard-hat jobs that make $70,000 to $80,000 per year.’ By Sahid Fawaz
World:
Economy:
Health, Education, Science, and Welfare:
Abortions In Ireland Will Be Free For All Women, Just Months After Legalization VoteOnly months after a historic vote legalized abortion in Ireland, the country’s health minister has said new legislation will make the procedure free for all women. The May referendum was one of the most charged votes in the country’s history. For a land traditionally conservative with huge influence from the Catholic Church, the landslide victory for legalization was a prime example of how liberal voters are increasingly making their mark on legislation. The abortion referendum bill was signed Tuesday, September 18, by President Michael Higgins, and removed the controversial Eighth Amendment from law. By David Brennan
Brazilian Scientists Mobilize as the Government Freezes Half of the Science BudgetIn mid-April, teachers and education workers unions in Brazil called a National Strike of Education Workersfor May 15 against the Social Security Reform bill. In another attack on universities, the new Minister of Education, Abraham Weintraub, who took office in April 8th, and the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, declared that they were planning to “decentralize” the investmentsin Social Sciences and Philosophies, a euphemism for federal cuts for funding in Humanities and Social Sciences courses in basic and higher education. A few days later, Mr. Weintraub announced that about 30% of discretionary spending budgets of three federal universities – University of Brasilia, Fluminense Federal University and Federal University of Bahia – would be postponed, allegedly because their teachers and students promoted “balbúrdia” (i.e. racket) with what the government sees as politically partisan activities and because those universities would allegedly have poor performance.
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!
