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Yesterday, July 14, Was Bastille Day: A Guide to the French Revolution Today people all over the world celebrate the 1789 storming of the Bastille Saint-Antoine — a dramatic popular rebellion that sparked the French Revolution. But what was the French Revolution, how did it reshape Europe and the world, and what relevance does it have to the workers’ movement today? Here’s a short primer, lovingly compiled by Jacobin to mark the occasion. By Jonah Walters
Daily News Digest Achives
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, under banner headline: “There Is No Peace” Could Still Be Published Today!
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:
Helaine Olen makes a stronger case in the Washington Post that the Epstein scandal tells us something more far-reaching and important about “how our current age of wealth excess might come to an end.” She suggests that the affair “will come to be viewed in future years as one of the defining events that brings our age of excess to a close,” and that people will study it in years to come as they now do the conduct of Marie Antoinette and Rasputin on the eve of the French and Russian revolutions. “Our era is one of exploding and all but unpunished crime by the wealthy and connected,” she writes. “The Epstein scandal blows holes through the foundational myths of our time, revealing them for the empty and sickening bromides used to justify obscene wealth and power and privilege that they really are.” Strong words, whose implications Olen has undoubtedly not thought through. The issue is not so much individual retribution against Epstein, although he deserves punishment if he is found guilty, as it is the organization of mass political action by the working class to do away with the entire rotten social order. — The case of Jeffrey Epstein and the depravity of America’s financial elite
As the first Latina woman to head a major department at the Painters Union, Dominguez has led efforts not only to make her union more vocal and active on immigration, but to push other unions to be more proactive. Labor leaders like Dominguez say that since the majority of new members in the construction workforce are Latinos, building trades unions must do more to embrace immigrant workers if they are going to survive. “In the building trades for too long, it’s been almost nothing but a bunch of white guys. It’s changing but not quick enough,” said Dominguez. Under Dominguez’s leadership, the union helped to launch the Working Families United coalition, that has helped lead labor’s effort to protect workers facing threats of deportation while pushing unions to be more inclusive of immigrants. Because of Trump administration policy shifts regarding undocumented workers, the Painters Union is one of many that has become a sanctuary union and developed programs to defend their membership against the threat of deportation. — Undocumented workers find new ally as unions act to halt deportations
Videos of the Day:
De-Dollarizing the American Financial Empire – Dr. Michael Hudson, #408Economist Michael Hudson continues his discussion of Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire with a focus on US monetary imperialism; President Trump’s demand for lower interest rates undercuts America’s requirement for foreign investment to fund its domestic and balance of payments deficit, increases the carry trade and turns IMF and World Bank policies on the US; analysis of US economic domination of the world from its position as the world’s largest creditor post-WWI; analysis of US economic domination of the world from its position as the world’s largest debtor after the 1971 close of America’s gold window; emergence of the dollar-debt standard; how war has bankrupted the US; the difference between imperialism and super imperialism; US bribes foreign governments; China’s banking system; China and Russia stockpile gold as the world breaks out of dollar domination.
Mark Fiore: Migrant Detention Inc. The Trump administration is threatening to begin immigration raids that include “collateral” arrests and family members. The New York Times reports that “agents have expressed apprehensions about arresting babies.” I should hope so.
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!
New Orleans Update: As Trumps Plans Migrant Raids — New Orleans Flood Headlines:
After alleged UK tanker incident in Persian Gulf, EU powers threaten Iran US and UK military sources claim that Iranian boats intercepted a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, before a British warship, the HMS Montrose, chased them off. None of the reports about this incident can be taken at face value. Iran has flatly denied that it took place, and US officials making allegations have not posted videos they claim to have of it. It comes amid a US-led war drive targeting Iran, after Washington unilaterally suspended the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord, launched a major military buildup in the region, and demanded that US allies support it. Yet before anything firm is known about this incident, a press campaign has started in Europe, demanding that the European powers back Washington against Iran. By Alex Lantier
“Strategic Extremism”: How Republicans and Establishment Democrats Use Identity Politics to Divide and Rule As we know, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are bought, sold, and paid for by big business. For that reason, both have a history of avoiding the issues that are common to Americans of all political persuasions. Addressing such issues would undermine the profits of big business. They include free healthcare, living wages, quality work, secure pensions, unionization, etc. By T.J. Coles
United States: New revelations of Trump’s cruelty towards refugees When asylum seekers and other immigrants are rounded up by the Border Patrol in the United States, they are first held in detention centres before being sent on to agencies that are supposed to rule on their cases. Border Patrol agents have for some time blocked reporters from entering their detention centres. They were forced to allow lawyers for inmates some access, and some of these reported on the truly horrible conditions to local newspapers as well as left-leaning news sources such as The Nationmagazine and Democracy Now! By Barry Sheppard
Environment:
Big Energy/U.S. Capitalism Has Made a Conscious Decision to Commit Humanicide, Rather Than Lose Their Profit Making Enterprises:
The panelists examined the corporate genesis of the climate denial movement and the many methods of influence that have been utilized to stall effective climate change policy. Using documents and analysis found on Climate Files, Davies recounted how the largest oil majors, including Shell and Exxon, had extensive internal knowledge about climate change science and impacts decades before it became a topic of global concern. Rather than addressing the threat that their product posed to the world, the documents show that the fossil fuel industry engaged and funded a climate change countermovement to deny the urgency their own scientists knew to be true. — The Climate Change Countermovement: Brown University Report and Panel (2019)
The Big Heat Earth on the Brink By Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank The world as we know it is undergoing a sudden and violent transformation, unlike anything the planet has experienced since the Cretaceous Extinction. The evidence is all around us: vast droughts that last decades, super-storms and floods that destroy cities, dwindling aquifers, vanishing glaciers, toxic water supplies, raging wildfires, obscure new diseases, vanishing species and indigenous communities. Our planet is changing faster than evolution can keep up. The forces driving this radical transformation are not natural. The earth has been brought to the brink by a greed-based predatory economic system that chews up anything in its path and spits it out to the bitter end. Environmental journalists Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank take you on a sobering field trip through the danger zones; from the strip mines of Appalachia to last refuge of the grizzly, from the dirty fracking fields to the world’s most dangerous place, the Hanford Nuclear Site in the Pacific Northwest. The Big Heat charts the battle lines for the future of the planet, from corporate villains to corrupt politicians and the fearless environmentalists who are standing up against the pillaging. This is an unflinching chronicle of the last fight that really matters.
10 Ways Andrew Wheeler Has Decimated EPA Protections in Just One Year
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Sidelined Scientists
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Proposed to Restrict the Use of Scientific Data
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Gutted the Coal Ash Rule
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Recommended Unsafe Levels of Drinking Water Contaminants
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Rolled Back Clean Water Act Protections
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Suppressed an Inconvenient Formaldehyde Report
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Ignored EPA Scientists’ Advice to Ban Asbestos
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Weakened the Mercury Emissions Rule
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Slammed Vehicle Emission Rules Into Reverse
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Rescinded the Clean Power Plan
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
The U.S. Women’s Team Takes Its Fight for Gender Equality GlobalChampagne corks were popping in lower Manhattan on Wednesday — not only for the victorious United States Women’s National Soccer Team as they were feted with a ticker tape parade up New York City’s “Canyon of Heroes” on Broadway, passing Wall Street, where the S&P 500 stock index crested 3000 for the first time in history. The 23 women of the soccer team had just returned from winning the World Cup in France. Back in the United States, they will continue another, more difficult battle, for pay and working conditions equal to those of their male counterparts in the U.S. Soccer Federation. A sign held during the parade by team member Crystal Dunn, an African American player from Rockville Centre on Long Island, read, “Parades are cool — Equal Pay is cooler.” The crowd echoed the sentiment. As Carlos Cordeiro, the head of the U.S. Soccer Federation, spoke at the rally that followed the parade, the crowd chanted, “Equal pay! Equal pay!” It was the same chorus that reverberated throughout the Lyon stadium when the women became world champions last Sunday. By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Labor:
Unemployment Benefits
are for Union Workers, Too“Despite the ‘experts’ telling the American people that the economy is doing fine and the president, as usual proclaiming that it is the best economy in the history of the country, the economy is not doing so well when the reality of it is taken into consideration, especially in light of the borrowing of
trillions of dollars to balance budgets.” Many outlets of the free press occasionally show their true colors: That they are boosters of their local communities, owned by oligarchs and giant corporations, or they support government policies and positions about the nation’s “enemies.” By John Funiciello
Economy:
Charts Suggest the Dow Index Is Being Painted to Get “New Highs” in the Market What we need today is a real life character like Vinny Gambini in the movie My Cousin Vinny to take over the questioning for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — like Ferdinand Pecora did in the early 1930s to root out the systemic frauds in the stock market of that era. Gambini would haul the heads of equities trading for each of the major Wall Street banks and their Dark Pools to a hearing, put them under oath, and grill them about the highly suspicious trading activity that is going on in today’s markets. Let’s start with what happened yesterday. In the face of punk earnings forecasts for the rest of this year and a growing global economic slowdown, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a historic milestone, closing above 27,000 for the first time. But the rising tide didn’t lift all boats: eight of the Dow’s 30 stock components closed in the red. Those stocks were Chevron, Verizon, McDonald’s, Apple, Travelers, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, and Merck. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Inflation Charts The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
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!
Amid the Bans, Abortion Advocates Are Winning Key State VictoriesDespite the terrifying start to 2019 for abortion providers and their patients, June brought an unprecedented wave of wins as states like Illinois, Maine, Nevada and Vermont struck down antiquated laws and enacted new, historic protections and care expansions. By the end of May, 27 bans in 12 states had brought the total number of abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade to 1,271. But as anti-abortion legislators in states across the country continued to enact bans and dangerous, unpopular restrictions, a growing handful of states — along with the city of New York — have been breaking down barriers to reproductive freedom. By Katie Klabusich
James Connolly: July the 12th: The 12 July celebrations, ‘The Twelfth’, are the height of the marching season in Ireland.
It’s a day for Protestants and Unionists in Ireland to celebrate the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamites in 1690. The parade was used politically by the Orange Order and reactionary loyalist forces to show their dominance in the North, especially in Belfast, often invoking sectarian riots and violence, which plague the Twelfth. In 1913, James Connolly, Irish revolutionary, explained his thoughts on this day, its real historical basis, and what it means to the people of Ireland. In conclusion, the fundamental, historical facts to remember are that:
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The Irish Catholic was despoiled by force,
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The Irish Protestant toiler was despoiled by fraud,
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The spoliation of both continues today under more insidious but more effective forms, and the only hope lies in the latter combining with the former in overthrowing their common spoilers, and consenting to live in amity together in the common ownership of their common country – the country which the spirit of their ancestors or the devices of their rulers have made – the place of their origin, or the scene of their travail. I have always held, despite the fanatics on both sides, that the movements of Ireland for freedom could not and cannot be divorced from the world-wide upward movements of the world’s democracy. The Irish question is a part of the social question, the desire of the Irish people to control their own destinies is a part of the desire of the workers to forge political weapons for their own enfranchisement as a class. The Orange fanatic and the Capitalist-minded Home Ruler are alike in denying this truth; ere long, both of them will be but memories, while the army of those who believe in that truth will be marching and battling on its conquering way.
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Republican Blurts Out That Sick People Don’t Deserve Affordable CareRepublicans usually defend their health-care position with an array of buzzwords like choice, patient-centric, or competition. In a CNN interview, Representative Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, makes the case for Trumpcare in much starker terms: It will free healthy people from having to pay the cost of the sick. “It will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy,” explained Brooks. “And right now, those are the people who have done things the right way that are seeing their costs skyrocketing.” By Jonathan Chait
This Ongoing Saga Reminds Me of the Tales of Decadence About Pax Romana!: After Jeffrey Epstein’s latest arrest on sex trafficking charges, some famous people may be squirming. His notorious little black book and private-jet manifests contained a long list of boldface names, including Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner and former President Bill Clinton. — If you flew Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet, the feds would like a word
Report: Bill Clinton still mum on 26 flights aboard ‘Lolita Express’
If you flew Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet, the feds would like a wordAfter Jeffrey Epstein’s latest arrest on sex trafficking charges, some famous people may be squirming. His notorious little black book and private-jet manifests contained a long list of boldface names, including Victoria’s Secret founder Leslie Wexner and former President Bill Clinton. U.S. prosecutors on Monday encouraged anyone with information about Epstein’s conduct, not just potential victims, to come forward. To the socialites, celebrities and politicians who attended lavish parties at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan or Palm Beach in the early 2000s — or hitched rides on his private jet nicknamed the “Lolita Express” by the tabloids — the request carried a clear message: Come talk to us before we seek you out. By Greg Farrell, Bloomberg
Stop Calling Epstein’s Victims Young Women. They’re Children! In no world is a 14-year-old an underage woman. She is a child.
Quotes of the Day:
After 31 Years on the Job at $12 an Hour, Airport Workers Prepare to Strike