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.
“Perseverance porn goes hand in hand with the rise of a GoFundMe economy that relies on personal narrative over collective policy, emotional appeals over baseline human rights. $930 million out of the $2 billion raised on GoFundMe since its inception in 2010 was for healthcare expenses, while an estimated 45,000 people a year die a year due to a lack of medical treatment. Meanwhile, anchors across cable news insist that single-payer healthcare is “unaffordable,” browbeating guests who support it, while populating their broadcasts with these one-off tales of people heroically scraping by.” — Adam Johnson
Some PFAS can last 8 years in our bodies, leading to an accumulation over time. Some of the most studied chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, will not naturally degrade in the environment. This has been evident in the case of 3M’s dumping sites in the East Metro – though 3M phased out the chemicals many years ago, there are still elevated PFAS levels in drinking water sources for miles around the old dump sites. In addition, we are now beginning to understand the wide range of possible health effects from these chemicals, which include several types of cancer, elevated cholesterol, and changes to liver function. Only a few types of PFAS have been thoroughly studied, and the class contains potentially thousands of different iterations. — Breaking down the Forever Chemicals –What are PFAS?
In other words, while JPMorgan Chase continues to be fined for serial crimes and while it is potentially exposed to new criminal investigations and charges by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve has concluded it has reformed itself.— The Fed’s Glue-Sniffing Announcement Yesterday Involving JPMorgan Chase
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!
D-Day and the truth about the Second World War On the anniversary of the (June 6, 1944) Normandy D-Day landing, The leaders of the major powers were all present at the official celebrations, a far more pompous celebration than the 50th anniversary. This has more to do with present day politics than the events of 60 years ago. Although it was a brutal and bitter battle, with many soldiers heroically giving their lives, today’s propaganda blows out of all proportion the significance of D-day in terms of the overall development of the war. A far bigger and bloodier war was being fought on the eastern front. It was in fact the speedy advance of the Red Army westwards that finally pushed the allies into opening the front in France in an attempt to stop the Russians from taking the whole of Germany. By Alan Woods
Electoral Politics Versus Democracy
American Party politics would be a complete farce if the consequences weren’t so grave. Were either of the dominant Parties to achieve 100% consensus on any issue, it would represent the views of about 18%* of eligible voters. And while a diversity of views would represent social vitality in a functioning democracy, in the winner-take-all American system, it represents continued rule by the oligarchs . By Bob Urie
Warnings of More Deadly Attacks on Yemen as Trump Permits Raytheon to Manufacture ‘High-Tech Bomb Parts’ Inside Saudi Arabia “If Saudi Arabia is able to develop an indigenous bomb-making
capability, it will undermine U.S. leverage to prevent them from engaging in indiscriminate strikes of the kind it has carried out in Yemen.” By Jake JohnsonThe Spoils of Economic War: How the US, Saudis Profit From Sanctions on Venezuela and IranThe United States has been playing the role of the world’s economic bully. So far, the U.S. has imposed sanctions against Afghanistan, Burundi, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, China, Cyprus, Haiti, Libya, Lebanon, Belarus, Crimea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. But if unilateral harassment has proven itself historically ineffective at achieving conventional geopolitical objectives, why does the U.S. insist on bullying Venezuela and Iran? A glance at the political economy of international oil markets, an industry used as a battlefield to further the aims of war, provides insight into the seemingly irrational realm toward which President Donald Trump has been leading U.S. foreign policy.
Angst and Madness at the End of Empire In the waning days of the American Empire a sort of collective madness has seemed to take hold of its ruling class. It is perhaps most clear in the unhinged and incessant decrees of the bloated emperor via tweet. But it is also in the idiotic ramblings of his minions redefining fossil fuels as “freedom gas” or rapidly melting Arctic seas as an economic “opportunity.” It can also be seen in the reactionary and warmongering responses of the so-called resistance in the corrupt Democratic Party establishment and corporate media regarding Russiagate. Or Bolton and Pompeo inventing evidence to justify more imperial wars just years after the disastrous assault on Iraq and during the longest ongoing US war in Afghanistan. It extends to the incredulous claims of Michele Bachmann that Trump is “godly and biblical” and televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who described his aversion to flying commercial airlines as getting in “a long tube with demons,” calling for a national day of prayer for the orange-tinted tyrant. It is truly staggering to behold. By Kenn Orphan
The Misadventures of ‘Tariff Man’Trump has two tools at his disposal as president. The first is his mouth: the insults and threats that he issues verbally or by Twitter. The second is the tariff. Trump has imposed trade restrictions left and right, on allies and adversaries, for economic and political reasons, as part of a long-term offensive and out of short-term pique. If Trump could use tariffs even more indiscrimin-ately, no doubt he would. He would delight in slapping trade penalties on the Democratic Party, on Robert Mueller, on the mainstream media, on all the women who have accused him of harassment, even on the First Lady for slapping away his hand at the airport in Tel Aviv. Trump the man favored the legal suit as his attack of first resort; Trump the president has discovered the tariff. By John Feffer
Environment:
For ‘Challenging Us All to Confront the Realities of the Climate Crisis,’ Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future Win Amnesty’s Top Human Rights Award“This is not my award, this is everyone’s award. It is amazing to see the recognition we are getting and know that we are fighting for something that is having an impact,” said Thunberg For their role in sparking a global wave of marches, civil disobedience, and weekly school strikes aimed at pressuring the world’s political leaders to act on the climate crisis, 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the youth-led movement she inspired were honored Friday with Amnesty International’s top human rights award. By Jake JohnsonThe Dams That Kill Orca A few years ago, Chuck Williams and I drove up to the Olympic Peninsula for a salmon bake near the mouth of the Skokomish River. It was a gathering of old friends, veterans of the salmon wars. I was bringing the salmon, six large chinook iced-down in the back of my Subaru, and Chuck was primed to do the baking. He’d also brought a bucket of huckleberries and a bag of wapato, the so-called “Indian Potato” he’d harvested from a fragment of his family’s historic property near Beacon Rock in the Columbia River Gorge. By Jeffery St. Claire
Record-Breaking Heat in Alaska Wreaks Havoc on Communities and EcosystemsAbnormally high temperatures have led to unsafe travel conditions, uncertain ecological futures and even multiple deathsAlaska in March is supposed to be cold. Along the north and west coasts, the ocean should be frozen farther than the eye can see. In the state’s interior, rivers should be locked in ice so thick that they double as roads for snowmobiles and trucks. And where I live, near Anchorage in south-central Alaska, the snowpack should be deep enough to support skiing for weeks to come. But this year, a record-breaking heatwave upended norms and had us basking in comfortable—but often unsettling—warmth. Across Alaska, March temperatures averaged 11 degrees Celsius above normal. The deviation was most extreme in the Arctic where, on March 30, thermometers rose almost 22 degrees Celsius above normal—to 3 degrees. That still sounds cold, but it was comparatively hot. By By Tim Lydon
This spring, temperatures in Alaska and northern Canada have been significantly higher than usual. Red indicates areas warmer than average while blue indicates colder than average. The darker the red, or blue, the greater the deviation from average. (NASA Earth Observatory)
Donald Trump tells Prince Charles US has ‘clean climate’President blames other countries for environmental crisis, in long talk with prince Prince Charles spent 75 minutes longer than scheduled trying to convince Donald Trump of the dangers of global heating, but the president still insisted the US was “clean” and blamed other nations for the crisis. By Matthew Weaver and Kate Lyons
75,000 Chileans March for Public Education, as Union Braces for Longer StrikeChilean teachers from all over the country met Thursday for a massive march in the capital city of Santiago.Mario Aguilar, president of the Chilean Teachers Association said they have already prepared to extend its national strike into next week if no adequate response emerges from Chile’s Ministry of Education. “This will continue as long we remain without answers. We are already preparing the second week of demonstrations since we have had no signal from the government, but we hope they will realize this conflict has to be resolved, and that a resolution depends on them,” he said.The march attracted more than 75,000 people from all over the country according to numbers provided by the teacher’s union.Mega-strike in New Zealand as 50,000 teachers walk outStrike action was taken by over 50,000 teachers throughout New Zealand on 29 May to demand a 16 percent pay increase and improved working conditions. Their strike is the result of a breakdown in pay talks between the New Zealand Educational Institute, the Post-Primary Teachers Association; and the government Ministry of Education.By Miles Lacey
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment ChartsThe seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
The Fed’s Glue-Sniffing Announcement Yesterday Involving JPMorgan ChaseFederal Reserve inspectors appear to be on some kind of mind-altering drug or their superiors are simply taking their marching orders from Wall Street cronies in the Trump Administration. Yesterday the Fed released a terse 104-word statementindicating that the largest and serially charged bank in the U.S., JPMorgan Chase, had shown “evidence of substantial improvements” in its “risk-management program and internal audit functions” and the Fed was therefore removing the dog collar it had put on the bank in January 2013. (JPMorgan Chase had been required to provide written progress reports to the New York Fed in 2013 until further notice – which became six years.) The Fed’s actions in 2013 stemmed from JPMorgan Chase secretly gambling with depositors’ money in exotic derivatives in London and losing at least $6.2 billion of those funds. The incident became infamously known as the London Whale saga after reporters at Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal broke the story about the massive, market-distorting derivative trades. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
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!
China-Russia Partnership Threatens US Global Hegemony
The Spoils of Economic War: How the US, Saudis Profit From Sanctions on Venezuela and IranThe United States has been playing the role of the world’s economic bully. So far, the U.S. has imposed sanctions against Afghanistan, Burundi, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, China, Cyprus, Haiti, Libya, Lebanon, Belarus, Crimea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. But if unilateral harassment has proven itself historically ineffective at achieving conventional geopolitical objectives, why does the U.S. insist on bullying Venezuela and Iran? A glance at the political economy of international oil markets, an industry used as a battlefield to further the aims of war, provides insight into the seemingly irrational realm toward which President Donald Trump has been leading U.S. foreign policy.
The Dams That Kill Orca A few years ago, Chuck Williams and I drove up to the Olympic Peninsula for a salmon bake near the mouth of the Skokomish River. It was a gathering of old friends, veterans of the salmon wars. I was bringing the salmon, six large chinook iced-down in the back of my Subaru, and Chuck was primed to do the baking. He’d also brought a bucket of huckleberries and a bag of wapato, the so-called “Indian Potato” he’d harvested from a fragment of his family’s historic property near Beacon Rock in the Columbia River Gorge. By Jeffery St. Claire 
