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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. Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!
Images of the Day:
Trump has launched his 2020 re-election campaign this summer by doubling down on the theme of racial and ethnic division and anti-immigrant hysteria. And as sure as the sun rises in the east, a mere month into this racially charged atmosphere, an extremist suspect fearful of Hispanics gaining political power in Texas decided to go kill as many Hispanics as possible at an El Paso Walmart. It is Trump-inspired terrorism yet again. — David Schanzer, David Schanzer is a professor at the Sanford School of Policy at Duke University and the director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism
The United States’s militarism against other countries and its domestic manifestations of white supremacy replicate and reinforce each other. . . Since white supremacy, militarism and capitalism are in solidarity, so must be the movements against all three. — Mass Shootings, Militarism and Policing Are Chapters in the Same Manifesto
Similarly, we must also push to ensure that national conversations around immigration, policing, women’s rights and climate change are influenced less by our white nationalist president than by all the people who are demanding bodily autonomy for women, environmental justice, open borders, abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prisons, democratic socialism, the mattering and value of Black life, free health care and reparations. This is no small feat, but it is possible, and the pursuit is worthy. Gil Scott–Heron reminds us that the preservation of human life requires a struggle for peace: “Peace is not the absence of war. It is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the preparation for war. Peace is not the absence of war. It is a time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other, closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves because we have finally come to peace within ourselves.”— Mass Shootings, Militarism and Policing Are Chapters in the Same Manifesto
Videos of the Day:
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!
Us To Ring China With Missiles in Nuclear Arms Race Within hours of the official withdrawal by the United States on Friday from the world’s most important nuclear treaty, the Pentagon made clear that it intends to ring China with missiles amid a rapidly accelerating nuclear arms race. By Andre Damon
Global Warming and U.S. National Security Diplomacy Control of oil has long been a key aim of U.S. foreign policy. The Paris climate agreements and any other Green programs to reduce the pace of global warming are viewed as threatening the aim of dominating world energy markets by keeping economies dependent on oil under U.S. control. Also blocking U.S. willingness to help stem global warming is the oil industry’s economic and hence political power. Its product is not only energy but also global warming, along with plastic pollution. This fatal combination of the national security state’s mentality and oil industry lobbying threatens to destroy the planet’s climate. The prospect of raising temperatures and sea levels along the coasts while inland regions suffer drought is viewed simply as collateral damage to the geopolitics of oil. The State Department is reported to have driven out individuals warning about global warming’s negative impact.By Michael Hudson
Environment:
We indeed seem to be entering the End Time. It is turning out to be the antithesis of the neoliberal End of History that was being celebrated in 1991 as free market victory after the Soviet Union collapsed. It is a crisis of Western civilization, not its apex. — Global Warming and U.S. National Security Diplomacy
‘Biggest Crisis No One Is Talking About’: Quarter of Humanity Faces ‘Extremely High Water Stress’ Intensified by Climate Emergency“A new generation of solutions is emerging, but nowhere near fast enough. An analysis released Tuesday warns that 17 countries which are collectively home to a quarter of the global population face “extremely high water stress” that is on track to get worse—particularly because of the human-caused climate emergency. The data is part of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, a publicly available database and interactive tool designed to enhance global understanding of water scarcity, which WRI calls “one of the defining issues of the 21st century.” ” By Jessica Corbett
‘Youth and Workers Uniting Behind This Crisis’: German Labor Union Urges 2 Million Members to Join Global Climate Strike“This is leadership. Who will follow? The world is watching,” said 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg Germany’s second-largest labor union on Monday urged its two million members to join the youth-led “Fridays for Future” climate strikes scheduled to take place next month in over 150 countries across the globe. By Jake Johnson 
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 7, 2019 Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
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Newark, Other Cities Remember Michael Brown Communities across the nation will mark the August 9, 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, an outrage that spawned nationwide protests under the umbrella of the Black Lives Matter movement. “Just before Michael Brown there was Eric Garner,” said Zayid Muhammad, of N-CAP, Newark Communities for Accountable Policing. “All kinds of hell has been raised, but it’s meant nothing in terms of getting justice.” N-CAP will honor Mike Brown on August 14 at the Newark Public Library.
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Black Alliance for Peace Pushes Candidate Pledge The Black Alliance for Peace “is requiring that politicians, both incumbents and new candidates, take clear positions on the issues of war, repression and militarism,” said BAP lead organizer Ajamu Baraka. “We believe these interlocking issues, along with climate change, represent a threat to our very existence, and yet they are not really being discussed during this campaign season.”
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A Concentration Camp By Any Other Name… In the wake of attacks on Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for describing immigrant detention centers as “concentration camps,” author Zoe Samudziasked, “Why are Jewish organizations given moral authority over use of terms like ‘concentration camp’ and ‘genocide,’” but not people from other groups that have been victimized by “genocidal conditions of containment?” Samudzi wrote the recent article “Policing the Borders of Suffering.”
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African Immigrants Becoming Activists “More recent African immigrants are recognizing the importance of being part of the Africa American community in terms of organizing” for social justice, said Nemata Blyden, author of “African Americans and Africa: A New History.” Blyden, born in Sierra Leone, is a professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University and descendant of a renowned Pan Africanist and a Black American mother.
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Biden “Looked Like a Buffalo Cornered by Hyenas” The latest Democractic Party debates, showed the frgaility of a two corporate party system. It’s an arrangement that pretends to give people choices, but is actually design as a straightjacket to marginalized all political discourse that might threaten wealth and power.
Labor:
Economy:
U.S. Financial System Rests on 5 Mega Banks; and They Tanked YesterdayBy the closing bell of yesterday’s broad stock market selloff, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been down over 900 points in the afternoon, closed with a loss of 767 points or 2.90 percent. The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index closed even deeper in the red with a loss of 2.98 percent. But those losses looked mild compared to what happened to four of the biggest banks on Wall Street yesterday. Bank of America, parent of the giant retail brokerage chain, Merrill Lynch, closed with a loss of 4.42 percent. Morgan Stanley, which had been pummeled in the big bank selloff in December, lost 3.87 percent while Goldman Sachs was not far behind with a loss of 3.67 percent. The bank with the most foreign exposure and a monster bailout in 2008, Citigroup, which in a fair and efficient market would have led the bank declines, lost 3.59 percent. (JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, has attempted to brainwash the market with the mantra that the bank has a “fortress balance sheet,” came in exactly in line with the S&P 500, losing 2.98 percent.) By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Masked Hong Kong Protesters Hold Rare Press ConferenceThree masked youngsters from Hong Kong’s anti-government movement took the unusual step on Tuesday (Aug 6) of holding a press conference to demand democracy, liberty and equality and condemn the city’s pro-Beijing leaders. Dressed in the movement’s signature yellow construction helmets and hiding their identities with face masks, the two young men and one woman billed their gathering as a civilian press conference “by the people, for the people”.
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!
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Never Again!Hiroshima August 7, 1945
The detonation of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima was a deeply sobering event for all Mankind. The fact that man was capable of building a weapon with this kind of power meant that humans now had the ability to destroy every living thing on this planet. War-Related Disaster— Nuclear Weapons
One of the long-standing myths of U.S. history is that atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to “save lives.” The story is that the bombings, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, were necessary to bring World War II to an end.
In reality, the decision was purely political. Leading generals and admirals opposed the bombing. It was ordered to demonstrate the ruthlessness of the U.S. government.
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