Skip to content
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:
The lack of upper limits on student loan rates contrasts with adjustable rate home mortgage transactions in which creditors must disclose the maximum interest rate that may be imposed during the term of the obligation.The Truth in Lending Act does not set the maximum interest rate. This is at the discretion of the creditor. However, there must be a limit and this must be disclosed. State usury limits generally do not apply since most student lending is through banks or other entities that are not subject to applicable usury rates in states in which they do business. They are only bound by any limits set by their home states, which are typically deregulatedand do not set rate limits. Most private lenders price their loans based on credit scores. As a result, those borrowers with the most blemishes or no credit history will get the highest priced loans. Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org concludes that fewer than 10% of student borrowers qualify for the best rates and more than 75% get the worst. — Paying the Price: The High Cost of Private Student Loans And the Dangers for Student Borrowers
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!
The US Keeps Chelsea Manning in jail for exposing war crimes, while giving those who commit these crimes, a ‘get out of jail free card’. : ‘Unfathomable Evil Recognizing Unfathomable Evil’: Trump’s Possible Pardons of War Criminals Provoke Outrage“If you were to make a list of ‘top notorious U.S. war crimes of the post-9/11 era’ it would look a lot like the president’s pardoning plans.” By Jessica Corbett
Trump loses lawsuit challenging call for financial recordsA U.S. judge on Monday ruled in favor of a U.S. House of Representatives committee seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from his accounting firm, dealing an early setback to the Trump administration in its legal battle with Congress. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington also denied a request by Trump to stay his decision pending an appeal. By Jan Wolfe
From the Gulf of Tonkin to the Persian GulfThe number of world wars should bury the argument that history does not repeat itself. But the detail is different, and the devil is in the detail. Iran. Can warmongers again offer the arguments of weapons of mass destruction? No. The Iraq playbook can’t be repeated, but you don’t have to go too far back to find one that may suit. By Tom Clifford
America’s Reproductive Slaves On Wednesday, the day it was announced that the U.S. birthrate fell for the fourth straight year, signaling the lowest number of births in 32 years, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law the most draconian anti-abortion lawin the country. That the two developments came at the same time could not have been more revelatory. The ruling elites are acutely aware that the steadily declining American birthrate is the result of a de facto “birth strike” by women who, unable to afford adequate health insurance and exorbitant medical bills and denied access to paid parental leave, child care and job protection, find it financially punitive to have children. By Chris Hedges
Environment:
Ireland Becomes Second Country to Declare Climate Emergency The Republic of Ireland became the second country in the world to declare a climate emergency Thursday, The Independent Ireland reported. The declaration was passed Thursday evening when both the government and opposition parties agreed to an amendment to a climate action report. “We’re reaching a tipping point in respect of climate deterioration,” Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton said. “Things will deteriorate very rapidly unless we move very swiftly and the window of opportunity to do that is fast closing.” The Irish declaration follows a similar action from UK’s parliament May 1. The governments of Wales and Scotland have also declared climate emergencies. By Olivia Rosane
The Real Climate Change Culprits Have Never Been Punished Years ago, tobacco companies discovered the link between their products and lung cancer. Did they warn their customers? No — they denied the link entirely, misleading the public for decades while killing their customers.Similarly, ExxonMobil scientists made startlingly accurate predictions about climate change as early as 1982 — and then spent millions of dollars on a misinformation campaign to sow public doubt about climate change. They didn’t need to convince the public that the climate crisis wasn’t happening. They just had to muddy the waters enough to prevent us from doing anything. They provoked uncertainty: Maybe the climate crisis isn’t happening. And even if it is, maybe it’s not caused by humans burning fossil fuels. (Of course, it is happening and it is caused by humans.) Jill Richardson
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:
World:
Italy Unions Refuse to Load Saudi Ship in Protest Over Yemen WarItalian unions refused on Monday to load electricity generators onto a Saudi Arabian ship with weapons on board in a protest against the war in Yemen. The Bahri-Yanbu vessel loaded arms in the Belgian city of Antwerp earlier this month, but was prevented from picking up another consignment of weapons in the French port of Le Havre following protests by humanitarian groups.
Peasant struggle in Myanmar (Burma)Numerous land grabbings have taken place in Burma. More than 50 percent of these have been carried out by the military and governmental departments. The rest have been committed by their lackeys and the foreign capitalists. Numerous peasant struggles have been taking place in Burma for their farmland, communal land and roads, and communal forests. Among those cases, the recent peasant protest in Aung Thbyae village in the Patheingyi township, Mandalay Region, deserves special mention.
The Yellow Vests of France: Six Months of StruggleSix months ago on Nov. 17, 2018, Yellow Vests burst literally “out of nowhere,” with autonomous local units springing up all over France like mushrooms, demonstrating on traffic circles (roundabouts) and toll-gates, marching every Saturday in cities, including Paris. But unlike all previous revolts, it was not Paris-centered. The humid November soil from which these mushrooms sprouted was the near-universal frustration of French people at the abject failure of the CGT and other unions to effectively oppose Macron’s steam-roller imposition last Spring of his historic Thatcherite “reforms”: an inflexible neo-liberal program of cutting benefits, workplace rights, and privatizing or cutting public services, while eliminating the so-called Wealth Tax designed to benefit the poor. By Richard Greeman
Economy:
Trump, Kushner and the Times Bombshell: What You Should Know About “Private” Banking in New York CityYesterday, every U.S. television network carried the New York Times bombshell that Deutsche Bank employees had flagged suspicious activity in the bank accounts of President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, involving foreign money flows, but their superiors at Deutsche Bank did not allow the reports to be filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit of the U.S. Treasury that is mandated under law to receive and investigate such reports. From there the news went viral around the globe, landing on cable news, Reuters and in European newspapers. (Shortly after trading opened this morning on the New York Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank’s stock traded at an all-time low of $7.39. This was a $120 stock in 2007.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Health, Education, Science, 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!
Herblock Cartoon: Right Up My Alley! The Reagan administration made abortion a top issue. Acting Solicitor General Charles Fried filed a brief with the Supreme Court on July 15, asking that the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision be overturned. It was the first time since 1954 that the Justice Department had requested that a key decision be reversed. On July 10, the House of Representatives voted to deny foreign aid to international groups that funded abortions.
It’s Time People Knew The Money Trick