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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:
It’s been a year since women’s right activist Loujain Al-Hathloul was detained and jailed in Saudi Arabia for leading a movement to lift the kingdom’s ban on female drivers and overhaul its male “guardianship” system. Despite international outcry, she’s been imprisoned ever since. During that time, her family says, she’s been held in solitary confinement and faced abuse, including electric shocks, flogging and threats of sexual violence. The Saudi government has resisted calls from human rights groups and lawmakers from around the world to release Loujain and the other jailed activists. — Family of Jailed Saudi Feminist Loujain Al-Hathloul: She Was Waterboarded, Flogged & Electrocuted
When people donate to religious groups, it’s tax-deductible. Churches don’t pay property taxes on their land or buildings. When they buy stuff, they don’t pay sales taxes. When they sell stuff at a profit, they don’t pay capital gains tax. If they spend less than they take in, they don’t pay corporate income taxes. Priests, ministers, rabbis and the like get “parsonage exemptions” that let them deduct mortgage payments, rent and other living expenses when they’re doing their income taxes. They also are the only group allowed to opt out of Social Security taxes (and benefits). — You give religions more than $82.5 billion a year
The high seas – in other words the oceans beyond the 200 mile national limits – are a lawless realm. Here fishing ships pay out lines of hooks up to 75 miles long, that sweep the sea clean of predators and any other animals that encounter them. But even inshore fisheries are disastrously managed, through a combination of lax rules and a catastrophic failure to enforce them. Net Curtains: Industrial Fishing is the Biggest Threat to Our Blue Planet
From: Rober Baron Usury Capitalism in the United States: From: Trumponomics and the Stock Market: So Michael, if the stock prices are not increasing because of what Trump calls “high business spirit,” explain the rise in the stock prices. Michael Hudson: The answer’s quite simple. The key is, who is buying these stocks? It’s not individuals. It’s not even pension funds. It’s not the private sector. Almost all the stock purchases are being bought back by corporations in share buyback programs. In other words, companies are buying their own stocks in order to push up the price. by Michael Hudson
Every ‘Tax Reform’ Since Kennedy Has Been and Increase in Taxes for Working People and a Decrease in Taxes for the Rich. When I ran for Mayor in San Francisco, in 1975, I Termed This policy as Robin Hood in Reverse Taxation
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”― Smedley Butler, War is a Racket
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!
Julian Assange: US files 17 new charges against Wikileaks co-founderThe US justice department has filed 17 new charges against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange, who is facing extradition from the UK. The latest charges accuse him of receiving and unlawfully publishing the names of classified sources. He was previously charged last month on one count of conspiring with ex-intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to the Pentagon network. Assange is serving a jail sentence in the UK for breaching bail conditions. The 47-year-old was found guilty last month after his arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he had sought refuge since 2012 over sexual assault allegations in Sweden. He denies any wrongdoing.
What and Who Gave Us Trump? Donald J. Trump’s presidential ambition has simmered for decades. He was and is a regular TV watcher and saw the changing political landscape. One by one, previous presidents diminished the integrity of the presidency and violated the rule of law, paving the way for Trump’s candidacy. By Ralph Nader
The House has Found Bipartisan Agreement on Reform o Retirement Accounts. Be Afraid. “This bill is an open invitation to prey upon people who are exceedingly likely to lack meaningful access to a lawyer,” said Jeff Hauser of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The only types of bills [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and Trump will sign are bills that enrich America’s worst companies, which is why the primary focus of House Democrats should be oversight rather than bipartisan predation of the non-rich.”By David Drayen
Trump’s War on the Constitution Has Reached a Breaking PointMuch of the nation is focused on the growing constitutional conflict between the Trump administration and the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Words like “unprecedented” are being bandied about in the press to describe the slow-rolling legal calamity unfolding before us. While it is true that many elements of the current situation are peculiar to history, there is nothing new here save, perhaps, for the danger represented by this preposterous president. By William Rivers Pitt
USA: capitalism – not too big to fail Fear of the future Unfortunately for the capitalists—and for the billions of us who are forced to live under their rule—none of the internal contradictions of the system have been resolved in the decade since the Great Recession. Workers are still unable to purchase back the full value of the goods and services we produce, the fatal flaw of capitalism that will lead inevitably to yet another crisis of overproduction. The richest 0.1 percent of Americans own as much total wealth as the bottom 90 percent and “earn” more than 198 times as much each year. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett collectively hold more wealth than the poorest 160 million Americans—the equivalent of the combined populations of California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, and Florida. By John Peterson 
The Belligerence of Empire Empire understands nothing except ruthless expansion. It has no other raison d’etre. In the past this meant the violent acquisition of lands and territories by a militarized system where caste was very apparent and visible. But today the dealings of empire are far more duplicitous. The ruling order of this age expands empire via the acquisition of capital while using the military industrial complex to police its exploits. But there is an insidious social conditioning at work which has led the general public to where it is today, a state of “inverted totalitarianism” as political philosopher Sheldon Wolin explained. Indeed, capitalism has morphed into the unassailable religion of the age even among the working class. Its tenets are still viewed as sacrosanct. By Kenn Orphan
Timeline of Half a Decade of US Economic War Against Venezuela As of Jan. 23, 2019 when the self-declared ‘president’ Juan Guaido attempted to lead a coup, the hostility of the U.S. blockade against Venezuela increased substantially.However, the latest sanctions by Washington against Venezuela come as a culmination of almost half a decade of U.S. aggression by multiple successive administrations seeking to put an end to decades of leftist rule in the oil-rich South American country.
Environment:
Net Curtains: Industrial Fishing is the Biggest Threat to Our Blue Planet So why don’t we act on it? It is the most important news humanity has ever received: the general collapse of life on Earth. So it’s hardly surprising that it appeared on the front pages of only two of our newspapers (the Guardian and the Independent). The vast international assessment of the state of nature, whose results, released on Monday, reveal that the living planet is in a death spiral, didn’t make even the sidebar on the front of any other paper. Of all the varieties of media bias, the deepest is the bias against relevance. The more important the issue, the less it is discussed. By George Monibot
Ocean Pollution—”Oceans Without Fish” I am a regular reader of Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly on a regular basis. I just finished reading OCEANS WITHOUT FISH. Peter Montague, the author of the article, gives a descriptive analysis of the decline of the world’s fisheries and their possible destruction. He writes about how “Don Tyson, the Arkansas chicken magnate and supporter of Bill Clinton, has gone into the fishing business in a big way. Commercial fishing can be very profitable if conducted on a grand scale. In 1992, Tyson bought the Arctic-Alaska Fisheries Company, and three other fishing companies. They operate a fleet of industrial supertrawlers that each cost $40 million to build and reach the length of a football field. These trawlers pull nylon nets thousands of feet long through the water, capturing everything in their path –400 tons of fish at single netting. These super-trawlers stay off-shore for months at a time, processing and freezing their catch as they go, thus giving them a major advantage over smaller land-based boats.” By Roland Sheppard (1998)
Black Liberaation/Civil Rights:
The most important aspect, however, is not whether Ali was the high-level agent, but the fact that the FBI did indeed have a high-level person in the NOI in their employ. Overall, the main value of the book is that all the spy agencies in the United States were deeply involved as infiltrators and agent provocateurs (Judas Factors) to set the stage for Malcolm X’s assassination. The evidence provided by the book (Conspiracys: Unravelling the assassination of Malcolm X (Nubia Press, 1992, Washington by Baba Zak Kondo) is irrefutable proof that the government had the motive to assassinate Malcolm X and the ability, through its COINTELPRO spy operations, to orchestrate his assassination. — Roland Sheppard, Why the Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm, Russiagate and the FBI The FBI cannot tell the truth about its new COINTELPRO operation without admitting to high crimes and misdemeanors. Therefore, the ACLU Real Justice Program sued the FBI in March to “demand answers about why and how the FBI is targeting Black people based on racial stereotypes rather than true security threats based on evidence.” The Bureau cannot admit that it spies on Black people because its political mandate and purpose is to subvert Black aspirations for self-determination, by any means necessary. That’s illegal. So they will lie and promise to stay within the bounds of the law in the future. The Black Misleadership Class’s job is to believe them, accept their contrition, and declare a civil rights victory. And then attack the RussiansBy Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Police officer admits he falsified Eric Garner’s charges after fatal chokehold during trialAfter Eric Garner died during a confrontation with New York City police in 2014, one officer involved in the struggle says he wrote up paperwork exaggerating the seriousness of the dead man’s suspected crime. Officer Justin D’Amico testified Tuesday during the disciplinary trial of officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo is accused of placing Garner in a banned chokehold during the arrest.
Labor:
Making Struggling Workers and Families Foot the Bill, Corporate America Paying Lowest Share of Taxes Since Eisenhower Era“Republicans sold the tax scam as a way to create jobs and help workers. They lied,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders after Ford announced it is cutting 7,000 jobs With workers at Ford, AT&T, and other large companies facing layoffs and wage stagnation following the passage of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in 2017, IRS figures released Tuesday showed that corporate America—even as it rakes in record profits—is paying its lowest share of federal taxes since the Eisenhower presidency. By Jake Johnson
Economy:
Head of Anti-Money Laundering Agency Tells Senate Hearing He Hasn’t Read the Times Bombshell on Trump, Kushner and Deutsche Bank Reading the New York Times is apparently now seen as being disloyal to the President of the United States if you’re a Federal employee. Just holding the newspaper in one’s hands might be enough to become an early pensioner in the Trump administration. Yesterday it became crystal clear at a Senate Banking hearing just how terrified people are in the Federal government of getting on the wrong side of the President and ending up being publicly bashed on his Twitter page. By Pam martens and Russ Martens
World:
Good News: Montreal Is Taxing Churches No more religious exemptions, Montreal is taxing churches: For the first time churches in Montreal are being forced to pay taxes, and some church leaders are very unhappy. CTV Montreal reports that churches and church space not being used explicitly for the purpose of worship is now taxable property, and is to be treated as any other property as far as taxes are concerned.
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!
