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:
Quotes of the Day:
To begin with, there is reason for caution about the low rate of unemployment. In the (very good) economics journal Challenge, relying on Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, economist John Komlos estimates that “the real unemployment rate in the fall of 2018 was closer to 7.4 percent of the labor force. Among those without a high school diploma, it was twice as high,” reaching 28 percent unemployed among African Americans. The prime reason for the discrepancy in figures — all from the same government sources — is the significant decline in labor force participation. Many have dropped out of the labor force in their prime years. The high actual unemployment rate, Komlos plausibly suggests, is part of the reason why “there is so much despair in the society.” — Noam Chomsky: Trump’s “Economic Boom” Is a Sham
Videos of the Day:
Trump’s Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia: An Impeachable Offense?Trump pulled an end run around Congress when he declared a national emergency letting him sell arms to Saudi Arabia. We speak to RootsAction’s David Swanson about whether the move is an impeachable offense
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!
Big Brother is Watching You: State Department Requiring Visa Applicants to Reveal Social Media Accounts, Raising Deportation Concerns“They can falsely attribute some social media activity to you and claim you lied about it.” The State Department Friday put new regulations in place for visa applicants, requiring disclosure of social media accounts, a move that critics worry could lead to an easier path for deportations. Bu Eoin Higgins
Mike Pence predicts war everywhere in the next few yearsVice President Pence spoke to the West Point graduating class on Saturday, and amid the standard congratulations and tributes to the graduates, he said something truly shocking: It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life. You will lead soldiers in combat. It will happen. Let’s pause and consider what this means. Pence is saying not just that more wars are inevitable, but that they are inevitable soon. Let’s not forget that while many of those who attend the service academies go on to careers in the military, many do not. They have an eight-year commitment after graduation — five years on active duty and three in the reserves.
UN expert criticizes States for ‘ganging up’ on Wikileaks’ Assange; warns against extradition, fearing ‘serious’ rights violations After visiting Julian Assange in a London prison, an independent UN human rights expert expressed urgent concern on Friday, for the Wikileaks co-founder’s well-being, accusing “a group of democratic States” of “ganging up” on the prisoner to “isolate, demonize and abuse” him and warned against extraditing the controversial publisher to the United States. “My most urgent concern is that, in the United States, Mr. Assange would be exposed to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” said Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, in a statement.
America’s persecution of Julian Assange has everything to do with Yemen The US feels enraged by any revelation of what it really knows, by any alternative source of information. Such threats to its control of the news agenda must be suppressed where possible I was in Kabul a decade ago when WikiLeaks released a massive tranche of US government documents about the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen. By Patick Cockburn
The final punishment of Julian Assange reminds journalists their job is to uncover what the state keeps hidden If we do our job, we will expose the same vile mendacity of our masters that has led to the clamour of hatred towards Assange, Manning and Snowden By Robert Fisk
Corporate Crooks (Robber Barons) are Ruining The Private Prison Industry: Cops and Lawmakers Exposed in Massive $800m Private Prison Bribery Conspiracy Mississippi sued 10 people and 15 corporations this week to recoup more than $800 million in state money lost in a seven-year prison bribery scandal. Defendants in the 11 lawsuits included former Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, and former Republican state House Member Cecil McCrory, the key figures in the conspiracy. They and four other people pleaded guilty to their involvement in the conspiracy.
American History and the 2020 ElectionWhatever distractions candidates promote to win voters, some underlying issues will wield their influence on 2020 election outcomes in any case. The biggest of these are the historically accumulated anger and betrayal felt by millions of working class Americans. Since the 1970s, their relative position within income and wealth distributions has declined. Real wages stagnated while workers’ rising productivity made ever more profits for employers, widening inequality. That alone depressed the class, but US society is structured to add many political, cultural, and social demotions onto those whose relative economic position declines. By Richard B. Wolf
China’s Rare Earth Trade Card These critical minerals, a group of 17 elements, touch almost every aspect of modern life, including renewable energy technology, spacecraft, defence, oil refinery, electronics, and the glass industry are as vital an ingredient to the global economy as oil is. This makes China the new Saudi Arabia. It sits on close to 40 percent of rare earth resources and its 120,000 tons of annual production accounts for about 80 percent of global supply. Australia, the world’s second largest supplier, produced 20,000 metric tons last year. The US imports 80 percent of its rare earth needs from China. But it accounts for just 4 percent of China’s rare earth shipments, totaling around $160 million in 2018. No other single commodity gives China such an advantage. Vital to the US but, in terms of quantity, of minor significance for China.By Tom Clifford
Environment:
Arctic’s strongest sea ice breaks up for first time on recordUsually frozen waters open up twice this year in phenomenon scientists described as scary The oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has started to break up, opening waters north of Greenland that are normally frozen, even in summer. By Jonathan Watts
This Concrete Dome Holds A Leaking Toxic Timebomb | Foreign CorrespondentThousands of cubic metres of radioactive waste lies buried under a concrete dome on the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the legacy of over a decade of US nuclear tests in the Pacific. Now rising sea levels are threatening to spill its contents into the sea. Read more here: http://ab.co/2BdJKCz
A Polar Bear, a Giant Penis, and This Message Greet Trump in UK: ‘Climate Change Is Real’ “Trump and his denial of climate change are not welcome,” the teenager behind the stunt said, “and I want him to be fully aware of that when he flies in to Stansted.” By Commondreams Staff
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford:
Countering the FBI’s “Black Identity Extremist” Offensive – Part One The recently formed Black Identity Extremist Abolition Collective held a public meeting at the People’s Forum, in New York City, to counter the newest iteration of the FBI’s infamous Cointelpro strategy to neutralize and destroy Black and radical activists. In Part One:
Countering the FBI’s “Black Identity Extremist” Offensive – Part Two The recently formed Black Identity Extremist Abolition Collective held a public meeting at the People’s Forum, in New York City, to counter the newest iteration of the FBI’s infamous Cointelpro strategy to neutralize and destroy Black and radical activists. In Part Two:
Labor:
Powerful general strike in Sudan: now kick out the junta! The Sudanese Revolution entered a new stage after carrying out a powerful general strike, which paralysed the whole country on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The organisers are demanding that the Transitional Military Council (TMC), which usurped power in April, cede power to a civilian-led government, which is to be installed By Hamid Alizadeh
France: Havre, Genoa and Marseille – dockers mobilise against imperialism!On 28 May, dockers working the port at the Gulf of Fos in Marseille refused to load the Saudi cargo ship, Bahri Tabük, which was intended to carry French arms to Saudi Arabia, whose regime is waging a barbaric war in Yemen.The general secretary of the CGT dockers in Marseille Fos, Laurent Pastor, said: “we will never ship weapons intended to kill civilians.” He spoke of the history of the CGT’s anti-imperialist struggle, such as in 1950, when Marseille’s dockers paralysed the port to prevent the shipment of American arms to Indochina. By Luigi P. Marseille
Economy:
Mnuchin’s Dangerous Plan to Deregulate Wall Street Is Captured in this Chart U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (a/k/a the former forec losure king) has been attempting to dismantle regulatory restraints on Wall Street’s worst instincts since he took office. Making Mnuchin even more dangerous is the fact that, under statute, he simultaneously sits as head of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (F-SOC) even as he appears to be attempting to undermine financial stability in the U.S. One of Mnuchin’s most alarming actions on behalf of F-SOC came last October 17 when the Council announced that it was removing the designation of Prudential Financial as a SIFI – a Systemically Important Financial Institution that required enhanced supervision and prudential standards. Mnuchin stated at the time: “The Council’s decision today follows extensive engagement with the company and a detailed analysis showing that there is not a significant risk that the company could pose a threat to financial stability.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
A Demagogue, Fascist, and Serious Threat: UK Mobilizes to Make Sure Trump Knows He ‘Is Not Welcome’With the city of London effectively on “lockdown” in anticipation of the protests—complete with the now-famous Trump Baby Blimp—that are expected to flood the city’s streets on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump touched down in the United Kingdom Monday for his first state visit shortly after tweeting an attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan. By Jake Johnson
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!