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!
UK Under Pressure to Join Pax Americana in the Strait of Hormuz.:
Jeremy Hunt Under Pressure To Back Plan For Gulf Force As Iran Digs In Tehran signals it will not release British-flagged tanker until UK frees one of its vessels The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is under intense pressure to join US-led plans for an international maritime protection force in the Gulf as signs grow that Iran is preparing for a long standoff over the British-flagged tanker it has detained. By Patrick WintourandPeter Walker
‘Fuelling confrontation’ Corbyn blames Trump after British oil tankers seized by IranJeremy Corbyn has blamed US President Donald Trump instead of Iran for them seizing two British oil tankers in a shocking act of aggression. The veteran left-winger refused to put any blame on Tehran after they yesterday captured the Stena Impero and Mesdar oil tankers before letting the latter go after it was discovered the captain was Russian. The Labour leader took to Twitter with his views today. He said: “The UK tanker under Iranian control, and its crew, must be released. Escalation risks a deeper conflict, all sides must show restraint.
Iran: Spectre of war looms as tit-for-tat tanker seizures plunge relations with UK to low not seen in decades Meanwhile Washington and Tehran raise tempo of mutual insults and threats Relations between Britain and Iran seem to be the bleakest they have been for decades with the confrontation over the tankers and rising accusations and recriminations. At the same time there is increasing sabre-rattling in the wider arena of the region with Donald Trump‘s administration sending troops back to Saudi Arabia and Washington and Tehran raising the tempo of mutual insults and threats. In London the cabinet emergency committee, Cobra, met until the early hours of Saturday morning and in the evening came the news that British Airways was cancelling flights to Cairo for a week as a security precaution. It was not immediately clear if this was related to the situation in the Gulf, but the development added to the uncertainly and trepidation. By Kim Sengupta,Defence and Diplomatic Editor
In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. —Hugo L. Black, (New York Times Company v. United States, 1971
When asked why Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. cut back its mill production cycle from 80 to 50 hours weekly, manager Paul McKenzie told the Hungry Horse News: “It’s purely market driven…demand for lumber across the country is down.” As reported: “He also said supply has actually been good.” In fact the “supply” of national forest trees is more than just good. Last year the Forest Service received no bids on 15.6% of the timber it offered. That’s 559.5 million board feet of timber that wasn’t cut because the timber industry did not bid on it. It would take 112,000 log trucks lined up from Missoula to Fargo, North Dakota, to haul that many logs. That means more than twice as much timber cut on all the national forests in Montana last year didn’t even draw a bid. — Environmentalists and Wilderness are Not the Timber Industry’s Big Problem
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!
Pax Americana and The Failure of ‘Lesser Evilism’ (I wrote this article 11 years ago.) Pax Americana is the Bi-Partisn program of the 1% of the United States. Just before the 2000 Presidential Election, in September 2000, George Bush’s think tank, The Project for the New American Century, put into writing a document titled Rebuilding America’s Defenses, Forces and Resources For a New Century. In that document they called for war upon Iraq, a US military presence in the middle east, and the construction of military bases throughout Asia and the world to enforce, what they termed, as a ‘strategic goal’, the preservation Pax Americana — the ‘new world order’ that was proclaimed after the first Gulf War.There has been no objection or opposition, from the Democratic Party, to this ‘strategic goal’ for this century, even though the document stated, two years prior to 9/11: “Today its task is to secure and expand the “zones of democratic peace;” to deter the rise of a new great power competitor; defend key regions of Europe, East Asia and the Middle East; and to preserve American preeminence through the coming transformation of war made possible by new technologies.” By Roland Sheppard (11/08)
Republicrat: Painting by Anthony Freda
The United States Has The Best Elections/Government That Money (Both Domestic and Foreign) Can Buy!: During the 2016 election, an investigation by The Intercept discovered, a California corporation wholly owned by Chinese citizens gave $1.3 million to a super PAC supporting Jeb Bush’s presidential candidacy. In 2017, a $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory committee — a joint fundraising committee for the 2020 Donald Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and several state GOP parties — may also have originated with Jho Low, with an intermediate stop at an American corporation. And in 2018, an Illinois corporation largely controlled by a Canadian billionaire gave $1.75 million to a super PAC that supports Trump’s agenda. How can this be? It’s all thanks to Citizens United. Before Citizens United, contributions to candidates for federal office could only come from individual U.S. citizens in limited amounts. After Citizens United and related decisions, corporations could contribute unlimited amounts to super PACs that supported federal candidates, as long as the super PACs weren’t formally coordinating with their campaign. Citizens United did not change the prohibition on foreign nationals putting money into American elections. But the decision created a huge loophole — because as long as a company is incorporated in the United States, it is legally a U.S. national, even if it is wholly owned by foreigners. — John Paul Stevens Was Right: Citizens United Opened the Door to Foreign Money In U.S. Elections
Uk Politicians Send Message Of Solidarity To Ilhan Omar And Congresswomen Over Trump’s ‘Unashamed Racism’. Dozens of UK politicians including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Mayor Sadiq Khan have backed a message of solidarity to Ilhan Omar and three other congresswomen targeted by Donald Trump. In a letter sent to Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, the group have condemned Mr Trump’s tweets in which he suggested the women should “go back” to their home countries – despite all four being American citizens. “We are disgusted by Donald Trump’s attack on you. His blatant, unashamed racism has appalled people around the world,” the signatories to the letter wrote. “You embody the best of America. Its diversity is its strength. Thank you for showing the world that America can still provide leadership to be proud of, even when the White House has abdicated that role. “We stand in solidarity with you.” By Ella Wills
AOC is right: Puerto Rico is a US colony and should be independent Progressives in the US routinely denounce both colonization and racist oppression of “people of color.” So why is only Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advocating self-determination for the US colony of Puerto Rico? Granted, the New York congresswoman made the statement way back in the mists of time otherwise known as September 2018, and hasn’t circled back to it again. A lot of water has flowed down the Potomac since then. That does not change the fact that the Caribbean island is a colony and that its people deserve the same kind of self-determination and democracy the US says it wants for the entire planet. May as well start right at home, no?
Latest Gulf Storm Brings Tough Choices for Residents of Disappearing Isle de Jean Charles While most of Louisiana was spared Barry’s wrath last week, Isle de Jean Charles, a quickly eroding strip of land among coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, was not. A storm surge swept over the island, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans, early in the morning on July 13 before Barry was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane. On July 15, I met with Albert Naquin, Chief of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (IDJC) and Wenceslaus Billiot Jr., the Tribe’s deputy chief, to travel to the island and assess the damages. That afternoon, we made our way through the receding waters that still covered Island Road, the only route connecting the island to the mainland. Days after the storm, some parts of the road on the island were still submerged in three feet of water. By Julie DermanskyNOAA’s Finding That Last Month Was Hottest June Ever Recorded Bolsters Calls for Radical Climate Action “Action is urgently needed at the world, federal, state, and local levels to rapidly cut fossil fuel pollution and to protect and rebuild naturally stored carbon.” As meteorologists warned Thursday that temperatures above 100°F are expected to impact two-thirds of the country this weekend, U.S. government scientists revealedthat last month was the hottest June ever recorded—bolstering calls for radical global action on the climate emergency. The revelation came in a new monthly climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientists at the agency’s National Centers for Environmental Information found that “the global land and ocean surface temperature departure from average for June 2019 was the highest for the month of June in the 140-year NOAA global temperature dataset record, which dates back to 1880.” By Jessica Corbett
Over 100,000 in Puerto Rico demand resignation of governor as protests continue The sixth day of mass protests in Puerto Rico involved more than 100,000 people on Thursday. These erupted after nearly 900 pages of leaked text messages involving the Governor of Puerto Rico and his cabal of functionaries exposed the contempt of the political establishment towards the 3.2 million islanders who have suffered from relentless austerity measures dictated by Wall Street, on top of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017. . . . While the entire political establishment on the island, including Cruz, share responsibility for the ongoing disaster, Trump’s claim that the US government sent $92 billion to the island is a fiction. Washington approved only $42 billion, and of that only a fraction, $13 billion, was ever delivered. As a result, nearly 5,000 Puerto Ricans died, according to a study by Harvard University. To this day, hundreds of thousands continue to suffer from lack of basic necessities, including proper shelter, as many remain unable to repair their roofs. While the scandal of the leaked texts from Rosselló and 11 other members of his administration was the catalyst for the mass protests, social tensions on the island had been brewing for years. What has brought masses of people onto the streets is not simply “corruption” let alone homophobic text messages. Like workers all over the world, workers on the island are rebelling against relentless austerity and social inequality. They are fighting the Financial Oversight Board, a financial dictatorship imposed by the Obama administration, and the privatization of public assets, including the electric company, as well as the public schools, which have been championed by Trump’s education secretary Betsy DeVos. By Julio Patron
Calling Trump Claim ‘Delusional,’ Iran Says US May Have Shot Down Its Own Drone by Mistake “All drones belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz have returned to their bases,” said a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces. Iran on Friday said President Donald Trump’s claim that the American Navy shot down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz is “delusional” and suggested the U.S. may have accidentally destroyed its own aircraft. By Jake Johnson
France: gilets noirs storm the Pantheon 600 people occupied the Pantheon in Paris last Friday (12 July) in protest at the repression of undocumented migrants, who face racism, terrible living and working conditions; and the constant spectre of detention centres and deportation. These activists of the “gilets noirs” (black vests) were demanding (among other things) that Prime Minister Édouard Phillipe grant them documents to legally live and work in France. By Joe Attard
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!
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and The Iron Heel.
Quotes of the Day:
Keiser Report: And Forgive Them Their Debts (E1409)
