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. Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!
The UK Independent Admits That the UK Media Monopoply is Bias and Misreprsentive about Jeremy Corbyn: In my view, this exposes some serious shortcomings and problematic tendencies in the reporting on Corbyn and of politics in general. Inevitably, all this brings into the fray the issue of concentrated media ownership in the UK, and intrinsically linked to this the undeniable fact that the British newspaper landscape is heavily skewed to the right (although it must be acknowledged that Corbyn has also received quite some flak from the left-leaning newspapers). Reporting In this regard, it would be healthy and urgent, I think, to reflect more on how increased media power should be counter-balanced by a higher degree of democratic responsibility from the part of the media and journalists. Surveys consistently show that a very large majority of UK citizens (and by extension newspaper and TV audiences) do not trust politicians and journalists at all — a mere 20-25 per cent of people believe that journalists and politicians tell the truth. Journalists — and the media organisations they represent — have an ethical and dare I say democratic obligation to address this high degree of distrust. What the majority of reactions to our report on social media and on the site of The Independent in the mean time show is many citizens – even those that do not support Corbyn – feel that the media in general is failing them in terms of correctly and fairly representing the elected leader of the opposition. — Our report found that 75% of press coverage misrepresents Jeremy Corbyn – we can’t ignore media bias anymore
As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensating to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty or conquered territories) will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate. —Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Videos of the Day:
Democracy Now! Nearly 100,000 in Puerto Rico Protest Demanding Gov. Rosselló Resign over Lewd Texts & Corruption Close to 100,000 Puerto Ricans took to the streets Wednesday chanting “Ricky Renuncia!” as they called for the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló, following the leak by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism of hundreds of misogynistic, homophobic and violent text messages between Rosselló and members of his Cabinet. On Monday, Denis Márquez of the Puerto Rican Independence Party introduced formal complaints against the governor and called for his impeachment. All of this comes as former Education Secretary Julia Keleher and five others have been arrested on charges of steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors. We speak with Melissa Mark-Viverito, interim president of the Latino Victory Project, and, from San Juan, journalist Juan Carlos Dávila, Democracy Now!’s correspondent in Puerto Rico.
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!
Merger Mania: the Military-Industrial Complex on Steroids When, in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the “unwarranted influence” wielded by the “military-industrial complex,” he could never have dreamed of an arms-making corporation of the size and political clout of Lockheed Martin. In a good year, it now receives up to $50 billion in government contracts, a sum larger than the operating budget of the State Department. And now it’s about to have company. Raytheon, already one of the top five U.S. defense contractors, is planning to merge with United Technologies. That company is a major contractor in its own right, producing, among other things, the engine for the F-35 combat aircraft, the most expensive Pentagon weapons program ever. The new firmwill be second only to Lockheed Martin when it comes to consuming your tax dollars — and it may end up even more powerful politically, thanks to President Trump’s fondness for hiring arms industry executives to run the national security state. By William HartungTrump Praises Democratic Party On Impeachment, Denounces Congresswomen as a Crowd Howls, “Send Her Back!” Donald Trump unleashed a fascistic diatribe against socialism last night as his supporters howled threats aimed at four Democratic congresswomen during a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina. Supporters chanted “send her back!” as Trump attacked Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who he said “smeared US service members involved in Blackhawk Down,” “minimized the September 11 attacks” and lent support to Al Qaeda. Referring to Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, Trump denounced “left-wing extremists who reject everything our nation stands for.” Trump attacked the representatives as “socialists” who “hate our country” and “want to demolish our constitution, weaken our military and eliminate the values that built this magnificent country.” The attack was a thinly veiled appeal to violence. By Eric London
We’re Spending Trillions on Weapons and War. — Let’s Spend It on Health Care! ‘We Can’t Afford It!’ ‘This Will Mean Higher Taxes!’ ‘It’s Anti-American!’ This is but a taste of the nonsense you can expect to endure over the coming 16.5 months as the nation hurtles toward an electoral reckoning with the Trumpian monstrosity that was unleashed in 2016. Of course, Republicans will spray this cheese into the wind at every opportunity, partially because the deliberately inaccurate vision of “socialism” they’re peddling will cost their wealthy benefactors a miniscule percentage of their fortunes, and partially because they still envy how much red-baiting TV time Sen. Joe McCarthy got back in the day. By William Rivers Pit
Achieving the Moon and Losing the Principled: So the US Cages Children 50 Years Later Too bad we live among fellow Americans who relish the good ole days when the practice of genocide against Indigenous, enslavement against blacks, and extermination against Jews allowed them to imagine themselves inheritors of the Roman Empire. Freedom never involves caging children! What young person today wants to follow in the footsteps of an-all knowing, smug little Steven Miller, the architect of policies regarding immigrant children? Institutionalizing cruelty toward children instead of institutionalizing justice, compassion, love. And so America is caging children in inhumane conditions and considering this event a crowning achievement! We’ve come a long way down in the last 50 years. By Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD
As Asylum Ban Takes Effect, Rights Groups Sue Trump Over Effort to ‘Inflict Maximal Cruelty on Vulnerable People’ “This is the Trump administration’s most extreme run at an asylum ban yet. It clearly violates domestic and international law, and cannot stand.” A coalition of rights groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over a “patently unlawful” new rule that legal experts say effectively amounts to a total ban on asylum seekers. Lee Gelernt, attorney with the ACLU, said in a statement that the rule—which took effect Tuesday—”clearly violates domestic and international law, and cannot stand.” “This is the Trump administration’s most extreme run at an asylum ban yet,” Gelernt said. By Jake Johnson
Sexual Predators in the Power Elite Power corrupts. Anyone who believes differently hasn’t been paying attention. Politics, religion, sports, government, entertainment, business, armed forces: it doesn’t matter what arena you’re talking about, they are all riddled with the kind of seedy, sleazy, decadent, dodgy, epraved, immoral, corrupt behavior that somehow gets a free pass when it involves the wealthy and powerful elite in America. In this age of partisan politics and a deeply polarized populace, corruption—especially when it involves sexual debauchery, depravity and predatory behavior—has become the great equalizer. By John W. Whitehead
A Fearless and Free Press is Essential to Our Democracy “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” —Thomas Jefferson Make no mistake about it, the individual sitting in the highest office of our nation is trying to destroy the foundational institution upon which our democracy was founded — a fearless and free press. And why would anyone who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, including the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and press, do so? Because unlike his ever-changing coterie of hired and appointed sycophants, our 325 million citizens must rely on a free press to sift fact from fiction. And without a free press, the truth is buried beneath the lies that spill endlessly from his lips. By George Ochenski
A San Francisco 49er Is Carrying Colin Kaepernick’s Torch Antone Exum Jr. is all too aware of what he’s up against as a professional athlete looking to be taken seriously as a recording artist. As if that weren’t a tough enough feat to pull off, the San Francisco 49ers safety also mixed politics with music in his latest track. And Exum made the stakes even higher by name-checking a revolutionary figure who rose from the same NFL ranks as he has, one whose mere mention draws any number of reactions—none of them mild. Exum’s single, “Officer Kaepernick,” dropped on July 12. The title refers, of course, to Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers quarterback whose risky bid three years ago to protest police brutality and racial injustice by “taking a knee” during the national anthem made him an icon and a pariah in the same instant. But the track isn’t so much an out-and-out ode to Kaepernick as it is a first-person take on the issues “Kap” brought up by sinking down, game after game, to one knee until league officials effectively showed him the door. By Kasia AndersonYe Cannot Swerve Me: Moby-Dick And Climate Change What may not be fully appreciated is that our geophysical problem may be far beyond human capabilities to ever be resolved even were humanity to metamorphose itself through a rapid social evolution producing a miraculous reformulation of human civilization into an enlightened temporal Nirvana liberally powered entirely by green energy. Will climate change drive humanity to extinction? If so, how much time have we got?, and how will it happen? These questions are on the minds of many people today. In this essay, I will follow paleontologists deep into the geological past to see if it can offer any analogs to the evolving climatic conditions of today, and in that way give us a window into our future. . By Manuel García, Jr.
Sofi’s Choice The Trump Administration has come up with a new twist on Sophie’s choice. On July 15, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition aired an update on a Honduran family—two parents and three children—who had fled gang violence in their country. A US Border Patrol agent at a holding facility in El Paso, Texas told the family’s 3-year old daughter that only one of her parents could remain with her and her two siblings in the US. The Border Patrol agent asked the little girl which parent she wanted to remain with her in the US. The little girl chose her mother. As their father was being led away, Sofi and her siblings started crying. By Charles PiersonEnvironment:
Trump’s Drilling Leases on Public Lands Could Release 4.7B Metric Tons of Carbon—More Than All 28 EU Countries Emit in a Year “Americans have been kept in the dark” about the effects of Trump’s drilling leases on public lands, says the Wilderness Society A national conservation group revealed Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s drilling leases on public lands could lead to the release of more carbon emissions than the European Union contributes in an entire year. The Wilderness Society estimates that U.S. companies will release at least 854 million and as much as 4.7 billion metric tons of carbon if it develops leases in public waters and lands. By Julia ConleyAn Insanely Bad Move’: Experts Sound Alarm as Trump’s Nuclear Safety Agency Weighs Rollback of Plant Inspections The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said one member of Congress, “needs to do more—not less—to ensure nuclear reactor safety.” After months of experts raising alarm over the nuclear power industry pressuring U.S. regulators to roll back safety policies, staffers at the federal agency that monitors reactors sparked concerns Tuesday with official recommendations that include scaling back required inspections to save money. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has spent months reviewing its enforcement policies—and, as part of that process, sought input from industry groups, as Common Dreamsdetailed in March. In response, the industry representatives requested shifting to more “self-assessments,” limiting public disclosures for “lower-level” problems at plants, and easing the “burden of radiation-protection and emergency-preparedness inspections.” By Jessica CorbettCivil Rights/Black Liberation:
The “Squad” Will Need to Realize that You Can’t Defeat White Supremacy with White Supremacy The “squad” condemns Trump for his white nationalism, not understanding that as a white supremacist settler-colonial state, white nationalism is“American” nationalism. “Biden as a neoliberal white supremacist imperialist was always clear where he stood.” The story of Trump’s white nationalist tweets is still the object of intense discussion with the Democrats denouncing him and the Republicans giving support to his worldview as normal and consistent with “American values.” Even so, Joe Biden refused to condemn Trump’s Department of Justice for not prosecuting the cop who applied a death choke on Eric Garner in New York. By Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
Joe Biden with racist Sen. James Eastland
Labor:
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update: (July 17th to 20th) Second-Quarter 2019 Single-Unit Building Permits Contracted Quarter-to-Quarter for the Fifth Consecutive Quarter, Consistent With a Recession / Second-Quarter Industrial Production Contracted for a Second Consecutive Quarter, Signaling Recession / Second-Quarter Real Retail Sales Gained Sharply in the Quarter, but With Annual Growth Still Holding Within Traditional Recession Territory / June 2019 CASS Freight Index™ Continued to Tumble, Confirming Slowing Commercial Activity and Signaling an Unfolding Recession
World:
A big lie (German: große Lüge) is a propaganda technique and logical trick (fallacy). The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”. Hitler believed the technique was used by Jews to blame Germany’s loss in World War I on German general Erich Ludendorff, who was a prominent nationalist and antisemitic political leader in the Weimar Republic. — Wikipedia
Ongoing Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace War Mongering: UK to Send 3rd Warship to Persian Gulf, Tensions With Iran Grow The announcement comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions in the region after Britain illegally seized Iranian oil tanker “Grace 1.” The United Kingdom announced Tuesday that it will send a third warship to the Persian Gulf. The announcement comes at a time when tensions between the U.K. and Iran over the illegal seizure of an Iranian oil tanker earlier this month are increasing.The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that HMS Kent, a type 23 frigate, would be sent out into the region in September in order to ensure the country’s maritime security presence in the zone.National strike against Ecuadorian government demands Assange’s freedom Workers, peasants and youth in Ecuador began a five-day strike Monday against the draconian policies of the Lenín Moreno administration, which is seeking to strengthen its ties to Washington and its military-intelligence apparatus. The strike constitutes the first major industrial action in the world demanding the freedom of Julian Assange. The demand is presented in the framework of growing opposition to the attacks against social and democratic rights associated with the Moreno administration’s totally servile policy toward US imperialism. By Andrea Lobo
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!
Unsealed Database Reveals How Drug Companies Embarked on ‘Reckless Pursuit of Profit’ as Thousands Died From Opioid Epidemic For the first time, a previously secret federal database of all opioid painkiller sales reveals what the pharmaceutical industry knew about the growing crisisAfter a three year-long effort by journalists at the Washington Post and the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, a federal judge on Monday finally lifted a protective order on a government database—which drug companies tried to keep hidden—that revealed how tens of billions of addictive opioid painkillers flooded communities nationwide in recent years. By Julia Conley
Diane Semo, whose daughter is in recovery from Heroin, joins over 100 drug reform advocates, former addicts, and family members who have lost loved ones to drugs in a march to demand action on Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2017 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
1973:The US Department of Justice — under the Nixon administration, out of all administrations — sued the Trump Management Corporation for violating the Fair Housing Act. Federal officials found evidence that Trump had refused to rent to black tenants and lied to black applicants about whether apartments were available, among other accusations. Trump said the federal government was trying to get him to rent to welfare recipients. In the aftermath, he signed an agreement in 1975 agreeing not to discriminate to renters of color without admitting to discriminating before.
1980s:Kip Brown, a former employee at Trump’s Castle, accused another one of Trump’s businesses of discrimination. “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor,” Brown said. “It was the eighties, I was a teenager, but I remember it: They put us all in the back.”
1988:In a commencement speech at Lehigh University, Trump spent much of his speechaccusing countries like Japan of “stripping the United States of economic dignity.” This matches much of his current rhetoric on China.
1989:In a controversial case that’s been characterized as a modern-day lynching, four black teenagers and one Latino teenager — the “Central Park Five” — were accused of attacking and raping a jogger in New York City. Trump immediately took charge in the case, running an ad in local papers demanding, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” The teens’ convictions were later vacated after they spent seven to 13 years in prison, and the city paid $41 million in a settlement to the teens. But Trump in October 2016 said he still believes they’re guilty, despite the DNA evidence to the contrary.
1991:A book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, quoted Trump’s criticism of a black accountant: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” Trump at first denied the remarks, but later said in a 1997 Playboy interviewthat “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
1992:The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino had to pay a $200,000 fine because it transferred black and women dealers off tables to accommodate a big-time gambler’s prejudices.
1993:In congressional testimony, Trump said that some Native American reservations operating casinos shouldn’t be allowed because “they don’t look like Indians to me.”
2000:In opposition to a casino proposed by the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which he saw as a financial threat to his casinos in Atlantic City, Trump secretly ran a series of adssuggesting the tribe had a “record of criminal activity [that] is well documented.”
2004:In season two of The Apprentice, Trump fired Kevin Allen, a black contestant, for being overeducated. “You’re an unbelievably talented guy in terms of education, and you haven’t done anything,” Trump said on the show. “At some point you have to say, ‘That’s enough.’”
2005:Trump publicly pitched what was essentially The Apprentice: White People vs. Black People. He said he “wasn’t particularly happy” with the most recent season of his show, so he was considering “an idea that is fairly controversial — creating a team of successful African Americans versus a team of successful whites. Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world.”
2010:In 2010, there was a huge national controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque” — a proposal to build a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the 9/11 attacks. Trump opposed the project, calling it “insensitive,” and offered to buy out one of the investors in the project. On The Late Show With David Letterman, Trump argued, referring to Muslims, “Well, somebody’s blowing us up. Somebody’s blowing up buildings, and somebody’s doing lots of bad stuff.”
2011:Trump played a big role in pushing false rumors that Obama — the country’s first black president — was not born in the US. He even sent investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama’s birth certificate. Obama later released his birth certificate, calling Trump a ”carnival barker.” (The research has found a strong correlation between “birtherism,” as this conspiracy theory is called, and racism.) Trump has reportedly continued pushing this conspiracy theory in private.
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and The Iron Heel.
Trump Praises Democratic Party On Impeachment, Denounces Congresswomen as a Crowd Howls, “Send Her Back!” Donald Trump unleashed a fascistic diatribe against socialism last night as his supporters howled threats aimed at four Democratic congresswomen during a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina. Supporters chanted “send her back!” as Trump attacked Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who he said “smeared US service members involved in Blackhawk Down,” “minimized the September 11 attacks” and lent support to Al Qaeda. Referring to Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, Trump denounced “left-wing extremists who reject everything our nation stands for.” Trump attacked the representatives as “socialists” who “hate our country” and “want to demolish our constitution, weaken our military and eliminate the values that built this magnificent country.” The attack was a thinly veiled appeal to violence. By Eric London 
Ye Cannot Swerve Me: Moby-Dick And Climate Change What may not be fully appreciated is that our geophysical problem may be far beyond human capabilities to ever be resolved even were humanity to metamorphose itself through a rapid social evolution producing a miraculous reformulation of human civilization into an enlightened temporal Nirvana liberally powered entirely by green energy. Will climate change drive humanity to extinction? If so, how much time have we got?, and how will it happen? These questions are on the minds of many people today. In this essay, I will follow paleontologists deep into the geological past to see if it can offer any analogs to the evolving climatic conditions of today, and in that way give us a window into our future. . By Manuel García, Jr.
Environment:
An Insanely Bad Move’: Experts Sound Alarm as Trump’s Nuclear Safety Agency Weighs Rollback of Plant Inspections The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said one member of Congress, “needs to do more—not less—to ensure nuclear reactor safety.” After months of experts raising alarm over the nuclear power industry pressuring U.S. regulators to roll back safety policies, staffers at the federal agency that monitors reactors sparked concerns Tuesday with official recommendations that include scaling back required inspections to save money. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has spent months reviewing its enforcement policies—and, as part of that process, sought input from industry groups, as Common Dreams detailed in March. In response, the industry representatives requested shifting to more “self-assessments,” limiting public disclosures for “lower-level” problems at plants, and easing the “burden of radiation-protection and emergency-preparedness inspections.” By Jessica Corbett
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
The “Squad” Will Need to Realize that You Can’t Defeat White Supremacy with White Supremacy The “squad” condemns Trump for his white nationalism, not understanding that as a white supremacist settler-colonial state, white nationalism is“American” nationalism. “Biden as a neoliberal white supremacist imperialist was always clear where he stood.” The story of Trump’s white nationalist tweets is still the object of intense discussion with the Democrats denouncing him and the Republicans giving support to his worldview as normal and consistent with “American values.” Even so, Joe Biden refused to condemn Trump’s Department of Justice for not prosecuting the cop who applied a death choke on Eric Garner in New York. By Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
Shadow Government Statistics Daily Update: (July 17th to 20th) Second-Quarter 2019 Single-Unit Building Permits Contracted Quarter-to-Quarter for the Fifth Consecutive Quarter, Consistent With a Recession / Second-Quarter Industrial Production Contracted for a Second Consecutive Quarter, Signaling Recession / Second-Quarter Real Retail Sales Gained Sharply in the Quarter, but With Annual Growth Still Holding Within Traditional Recession Territory / June 2019 CASS Freight Index™ Continued to Tumble, Confirming Slowing Commercial Activity and Signaling an Unfolding Recession
National strike against Ecuadorian government demands Assange’s freedom Workers, peasants and youth in Ecuador began a five-day strike Monday against the draconian policies of the Lenín Moreno administration, which is seeking to strengthen its ties to Washington and its military-intelligence apparatus. The strike constitutes the first major industrial action in the world demanding the freedom of Julian Assange. The demand is presented in the framework of growing opposition to the attacks against social and democratic rights associated with the Moreno administration’s totally servile policy toward US imperialism. By Andrea Lobo
