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.
With May on her way out, a Tory leadership contest is set to begin. But this will be a fight between crocodiles and alligators. Whoever the Tories choose as their new leader, the government will still be completely paralysed. The Conservative Party, meanwhile, will be left bruised and battered – and potentially badly split. Facing parliamentary deadlock, and having failed to negotiate a new deal with Brussels, the new Tory leader will be forced either to hold a second referendum or fight a general election. A second referendum will be anathema to the ranks of the Tory Party. Despite all the dangers of allowing Corbyn into Number Ten, therefore, a general election would be the only viable option left. With the Tories in meltdown, the government in disarray, and civil war raging over the race to replace May, there has never been a better time to force a general election. It is no accident that it is precisely now that the Blairities are working to undermine Jeremy Corbyn and sabotage the party. There is no way out on the basis of capitalism. Only the fight for a Socialist Britain, linked to the struggle for a Socialist Europe, can offer a solution to the problems of unemployment, wage cuts, poverty, homelessness. With the Tories tearing themselves to shreds, it is vital that the Labour leadership stands firm and focuses all its energies on forcing a general election. This should involve a national campaign across the labour movement, with strikes, rallies, and mass meetings. The call must go out: Labour to power on a bold socialist programme! — Britain: lessons of the European elections – general election the only way forward
The new media, Taibbi points out, still manufactures consent, but it does so by setting group against group, a consumer version of what George Orwell in his novel “1984” called the “Two Minutes Hate.” Our opinions and prejudices are skillfully catered to and reinforced, with the aid of a detailed digital analysis of our proclivities and habits, and then sold back to us. The result, Taibbi writes, is “packaged anger just for you.” The public is unable to speak across the manufactured divide. It is mesmerized by the fake dissent of the culture wars and competing conspiracy theories. Politics, under the assault, has atrophied into a tawdry reality show centered on political personalities. Civic discourse is defined by invective and insulting remarks on the internet. Power, meanwhile, is left unexamined and unchallenged. The result is political impotence among the populace. The moral swamp is not only a fertile place for demagogues such as Donald Trump—a creation of this media burlesque—but channels misplaced rage, intolerance and animosity toward those defined as internal enemies. — The Mass Media Is Poisoning Us With Hate In “Manufacturing Consent
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!
Arms Manufacturers Tell Investors That Iran Tension Fuels Business Defense executives from around the country crowded into Goldman Sachs’ glimmering tower in downtown Manhattan in mid-May, eager to present before a conference of bankers and financial analysts. While much of the world was on edge over simmering tension in the Middle East, as the U.S. and its allies have stoked tensions with Iran, the businessmen at the conference talked of opportunity. By Lee FangThe Mass Media Is Poisoning Us With Hate In “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” published in 1988, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky exposed the techniques that the commercial media used to promote and defend the economic, social and political agendas of the ruling elites. These techniques included portraying victims as either worthy or unworthy of sympathy. A Catholic priest such as Jerzy Popiełuszko, for example, murdered by the communist regime in Poland in 1984, was deified, but four Catholic missionaries who were raped and murdered in 1980 in El Salvador by U.S.-backed death squads were slandered as fellow travelers of the “Marxist” rebel movement. The techniques also included both narrowing the debate in a way that buttressed the elite consensus and intentionally failing to challenge the intentions of the ruling elites or the actual structures of power. By Chris HedgesSomething to Think About on Memorial Day: Smedley Butler on Interventionism— Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. 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.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Environment:
“Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. — The Charge of the Light Brigade
The United States, in Response, to the Striking Students on March 24, is “Leading Capitalism into the Valley of Death: ‘Blatant Attempt to Politicize the Science’: Trump Reportedly Moving to End Long-Term Studies of Climate Crisis“The Trump gang is attacking the scientific process itself in an attempt to prop up fossil fuel industries, delay inevitable action, and run the carbon bubble as long as it will last.” In what environmental experts warned could be President Donald Trump’s most dangerous assault on science yet, the White House is reportedly moving to end long-term assessments of the impacts of the climate crisis while pushing a polluter-friendly agenda that is making the planetary emergency worse. As the New York Timesreported late Monday, “the White House-appointed director of the United States Geological Survey, James Reilly, a former astronaut and petroleum geologist, has ordered that scientific assessments produced by that office use only computer-generated climate models that project the impact of climate change through 2040, rather than through the end of the century, as had been done previously.” By Jake Johnson‘A Green Wave Has Swept the European Parliament’: In Show of Demand for Climate Action, Green Parties Surge in EU Elections “A substantial share of the world has finally decided climate action is necessary now.” “It’s time the European Union puts all its efforts into a sustainable future and starts caring for its citizens.” —Bas Eickhout, European Greens By Jake Johnson
From Chicken To Tomatoes, Here’s Why American Food Is Hurting Youhe recent news about glyphosate and cancer only highlights a broader problem with our system: our obsession with killing the natural world is poisoning usThe recent headlines announcing billions of dollars in damages to people who have gotten cancer after using Roundup are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are over 1,000 lawsuits against Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, waiting to be heard by the courts. Beyond concerns about that specific glyphosate-based weedkiller, we should be talking about the innumerable other potentially punishing chemicals in our food system.The recent news about glyphosate and cancer only highlights a broader problem with our system: our obsession with killing the natural world is poisoning us. By Maria Rodale
The “Big Tent” of People Who Want Climate Action Just Keeps Getting BiggerYou’re not just imagining it. The national mood really isshifting on climate change. For years, environmentalists have been wondering when it would finally sink in: When would the American people set aside their cultural and political differences, accept the scientific reality of the climate crisis, and collectively roll up their sleeves and do something about it? We’re not quite there yet. But there’s ample reason to believe that we’re moving toward a new, and necessary, consensus. Jeff Turrentine
A demonstrator holds a sign reading “I Love My Mother” during the U.S. Youth Climate Strike in New York, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2019. Thousands of students around the world skipped school Friday to protest inaction on climate change. It was one of the largest turnouts so far in a months long movement that included the U.S. for the first time. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Week 122: Trump’s Power Plant Rule Could Kill Thousands. He’s Hoping You Won’t Trump also kills 20 years of child health research and continues to neglect chemical safety. When Trump moved to replace the Clean Power Plan last year, it became immediately apparent that he had a problem: His watered-down alternative would result in an additional 1,400 deaths per year, all related to increased air pollution. In trying to revive the coal industry, Trump was waging a war on health. Decades of research, beginning with correlational epidemiology and now extending to the molecular level, have proved the link between air pollution and increased mortality. Tiny airborne particles travel deep into your lungs and arteries, triggering your immune system and leading to deadly inflammation. The risks are most significant for people with preexisting respiratory or cardiovascular disease, a huge proportion of the population. More than 50 million people suffer from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, while nearly one-half of American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease. By Brian Palmer
Exhaust rises from the stacks of the Harrison Power Station in Haywood, West Virginia, U.S., May 16, 2018. Picture taken May 16, 2018. To match Special Report USA-COAL/LABS. REUTERS/Brian Snyder – RC15A96BBF00
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Ever wonder why the U.S. has such a close relationship to the countries that are number one in cocaine and heroin? Author Doug Valentine says its because the CIA IS organized crime. And, And, author Tamura Lomax explains how the Black church has labeled Black women and girls, Jezebels.
The nation’s most prolific Black political writer, Dr. Gerald Horne, has released a new book. It’s titled, “White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism Versus the Liberation of Southern Africa From Rhodes to Mandela.” Horne is a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Houston. He’s written a sprawling, 800-word tour of the African liberation movement and its global supporters and enemies.
Where there is regime change, political murder and subversion, the CIA must be nearby. Douglass Valentine has been studying the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for decades. He’s author of “The CIA As Organized Crime,” and “The Phoenix Program,” an exploration of the CIA assassination war in Vietnam. The CIA prefers to overthrow governments in secrecy, but President Trump seems to enjoy telling the world who he’s out to get.
The term “Jezebel” has come to be associated with women and girls of easy sex and loose morals. Independent scholar Tamura Lomax is author of the book, “Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture.” Lomax says the Black church has preserved and fostered views of Black female sexuality that are rooted in slavery and racist European concepts, causing Black women and girls to be labeled “Jezebels,” even in their own houses of worship.
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Cuba, China Strengthen Bilateral Ties to Tackle US Sanctions Foreign Ministers from both countries will analyze common interest issues, including the U.S. foreign sanctions. The Cuban Minister is just coming off a three-day visit to Moscow where he, along with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected “unilateral coercive measures” by the United States administration against Russia, Venezuela and Cuba. Namely, the two talked about the recent application of Titles III and IV of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act by President Donald Trump and his cabinet, a move that violates international law.
Sanctioner-in-Chief: 10 Countries Hit by Trump’s Favorite Regime Change Tactic in Just Two Years This can be clearly seen on the 2017 “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act”, as the name suggests President Donald Trump has opted on sanctions as his preferred mean to attack. Sanctions can take various forms as embargoes, travel bans, asset takeovers and freezes, capital restraints and trade restrictions. The United States government has been using them against countries and governments that do not comply with their interests.Malaysia to Return Plastic Waste to Western Nations“We urge the developed countries to review their management of plastic waste and stop shipping the garbage out to the developing countries.” Malaysia announced on Tuesday that their government is planning on sending over 3,300 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste to several Western nations. In a statement released on Tuesday, Malaysia’s Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said his nation will not be a dumping ground for western countries. Yeo said that his government is planning on returning more than 3,300 tonnes of plastic waste to countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
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!
World’s rivers ‘awash with dangerous levels of antibiotics’Largest global study finds the drugs in two-thirds of test sites in 72 countries Hundreds of rivers around the world from the Thames to the Tigris are awash with dangerously high levels of antibiotics, the largest global study on the subject has found. Antibiotic pollution is one of the key routes by which bacteria are able develop resistance to the life-saving medicines, rendering them ineffective for human use. “A lot of the resistance genes we see in human pathogens originated from environmental bacteria,” said Prof William Gaze, a microbial ecologist at the University of Exeter who studies antimicrobial resistance but was not involved in the study. The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a global health emergency that could kill 10 million people by 2050, the UN said last month. By Natasha Gilbert
Videos of the Day:
The Mass Media Is Poisoning Us With Hate In “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” published in 1988, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky exposed the techniques that the commercial media used to promote and defend the economic, social and political agendas of the ruling elites. These techniques included portraying victims as either worthy or unworthy of sympathy. A Catholic priest such as Jerzy Popiełuszko, for example, murdered by the communist regime in Poland in 1984, was deified, but four Catholic missionaries who were raped and murdered in 1980 in El Salvador by U.S.-backed death squads were slandered as fellow travelers of the “Marxist” rebel movement. The techniques also included both narrowing the debate in a way that buttressed the elite consensus and intentionally failing to challenge the intentions of the ruling elites or the actual structures of power. By Chris Hedges
Something to Think About on Memorial Day: Smedley Butler on Interventionism — Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. 
‘A Green Wave Has Swept the European Parliament’: In Show of Demand for Climate Action, Green Parties Surge in EU Elections “A substantial share of the world has finally decided climate action is necessary now.” “It’s time the European Union puts all its efforts into a sustainable future and starts caring for its citizens.” —Bas Eickhout, European Greens By Jake Johnson
