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!
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s Stop Arming Terrorists Act (H.R.608) would stop the U.S. government from using taxpayer dollars to directly or indirectly support groups who are allied with and supporting terrorist groups like ISIS and al Qaeda in their war to overthrow the Syrian government. The legislation is based on congressional action during the Iran-Contra affair to stop the CIA’s illegal arming of rebels in Nicaragua. It is endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, the U.S. Peace Council, and Veterans For Peace. “We have spent trillions of dollars on regime change wars in the Middle East while communities like Hawaii face a severe lack of affordable housing, aging infrastructure, the need to invest in education, health care, and so much more.” — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Stop Arming Terrorists
He still has to visit Room 101. As his interrogator tells him, “You asked me once what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.” And that “worst thing” is always adjusted to the specific terrors of the specific prisoner. So here’s one way to think of where we are at this moment on Planet Earth: Americans — all of humanity, in fact — may already be in Room 101, whether we know it or not, and the truth is, by this steaming summer, that most of us should know it. It’s obviously time to act on a global scale. Tell that to Big Brother. Tom Engelhardt, 2084: Orwell Revisited in the Age of Trump
Economic Update: Working Class History and the 2020 Election This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff explores the historic parallels of the U.S. working class and politics in the U.S. He begins by exploring how and why the Great Depression of the 30’s married the U.S. working class to FDR’s Democratic Party and then explains how that led to both the Democratic and Republican parties becoming pro-capitalist – which has led to both parties presiding over the exponential growth of income and wealth inequalities along with the political power the richest 10% have, and exploit, over the working class in the U.S. today. Professor Wolff goes on to show that because of this, Trump landing in the White House was a result of the working class’ disgust with both parties. Professor Wolff ends with a discussion about the implications of this history for the upcoming 2020 election.
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! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich!
A Bunch of CEOs Want to Fix Capitalism. You Can’t Fix Anything Built on Slavery. Anyone who cracked open the business pages of the major papers on Monday morning was confronted by an avalanche of self-congratulation from the CEO caste and its idolaters. The Business Roundtable (BRT) — a large cohort of massive businesses that has been bending the economy to its will since 1972 — announced that it is “rewriting how it views the purpose of a corporation,” according to The Washington Post. “The leaders of some of America’s biggest companies are chipping away at the long-held notion that corporate decision-making should revolve around what is best for shareholders,” reportedThe Wall Street Journal. “No longer should decisions be based solely on whether they will yield higher profits for shareholders, the group said. Rather, corporate leaders should take into account ‘all stakeholders’ — that is, employees, customers and society writ large.” By William Rivers Pitt
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg speak during the Business Roundtable (BRT) CEO Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C., on December 6, 2018. Since its inception, BRT has been at the forefront of corporate resistance to pro-consumer, pro-union legislative efforts.
Environment
On the 10-Year Treasury Bonds Unless there is radical change
The 10-year Treasury bond
Can be, with some certainty, expected
To yield a world substantially hotter
And far more polluted —
In which the air is poison
And the forests all are wrecked
The oceans have no coral reefs left,
Next to no fish
And will be flooding greater sections
Of the globe’s coasts,
Yielding untold numbers of refugees,
Disease, and war
will be more widely spread
Heat waves will leave millions dead
In weeks, each summer,
And hurricane season will never end —
And you and your children and others
You love may very well by then
Have died a preventable death —
How much would you invest By Elliot Sperber
Living in Two Worlds: Capitalism Pretends All Is Well While the World Is Burning Global capitalism demands we pretend all is well, while climate and political realities already reveal the end game we are living in. The U.S. government, along with many others in the western world, has lurched into overt authoritarianism, while climate chaos accelerates at a breakneck pace. How do we live in both worlds? In this column, each of us reflect on our own process of coping with this existential schism, in hopes that our experiences might be of some help in grappling with the grave dilemma we all share. By Dahr Jamail & Barbara CecilOffering Choice But Delivering Tyranny: the Corporate Capture of Agriculture Many lobbyists talk a lot about critics of genetic engineering technology denying choice to farmers. They say that farmers should have access to a range of tools and technologies to maximise choice and options. At the same time, somewhat ironically, they decry organic agriculture and proven agroecological approaches, presumably because these practices have no need for the proprietary inputs of the global agrochemical/agritech corporations they are in bed with. And presumably because agroecology represents liberation from the tyranny of these profiteering, environment-damaging global conglomerates. By Colin TodhunterCivil Rights/Black Liberation:Black Caucus in Thrall, or Fear, of Israel“The Israelis may have finally stepped on the third rail of congressional relations, with their joint decision with President Trump to ban Omar and Tlaib.” If there still exists within the Congressional Black Caucus even an ounce of self-respect, or respect for the Black voters that put them in office, these Black politicians will rethink their shameful record of groveling at the feet of Israel – the country that meddles far more than any other in the internal affairs of the United States. Certainly, the Israelis have no respect for the U.S. Congress, which they treat as a fat sugar-daddy,to be milked year after year for billions in aid and weapons, and for support in world forum’s, no matter what crimes Israel commits. However, the Israelis may have finally stepped on the third rail of congressional relations, with their joint decision with President Trump to bar two Democratic Congresswomen , Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from entering Israel. The two had planned to visit the occupied West Bank, as do many congressional delegations. But Israel and Trump, the most pro-Israel U.S. president in history, decided to yank permission, citing Omar and Tlaib’s support for the global boycott and disinvestment campaign against Israel, known as BDS. By Glen Ford , BAR executive editorStripping Uncle Sam of His Protective Lies and Taboos Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent analyze the “dual fantasy” that has ideologically upheld white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and the American war machine. “It remains taboo in the USA to describe America as an imperialist state.” A Review of American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News -From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror. The idea of being “the light among nations” has been part of the USA’s DNA since its foundation in 1776. 150 years earlier, the Puritans, having landed in the Bay of Massachusetts, thought they had come to the New World “on behalf of the Lord” to build a “New Jerusalem” and to save the souls of those indigenous people willing to convert. In 1862, during the Civil war, President Abraham Lincoln declared the United States of America, whose northern part was fighting against the secessionist south for the preservation of the Union and the liberation of the slaves, to be “the last best hope on earth.” Whereas the Founding Fathers had originally thought that democracy and civil rights would spread worldwide by the exemplary actions of the USA alone, this was no longer enough for America’s captains of industry and robber barons in the 19th century. Parallel to the territorial drive to the Pacific coast and the violent annexation of the northern half of Mexico under the ideological pretext of Manifest Destiny, Central and South America were proclaimed to be the “backyard” of the USA, whereby, according to the Monroe By SchattenblickFreedom Rider: Protest and the Corporate Media By Margaret Kimberley The corporate media are steadfast partners with the United States government and faithfully follow the party line on foreign policy issues. “The networks and the newspapers can seldom be believed.” Corporate media always let us know who is in with the in-crowd and who is on the outs with the United States government. They don’t do so with any transparency, but by promoting some stories and disappearing others. They give great attention to events that they believe are advancing U.S. interests. The invisibility treatment goes to those who tell inconvenient truths and defy American dictates. BAR editor and senior columnistRwanda’s Dissidents, Dead and Disappearing Washington’s closest ally in Africa is a minority regime that kills and jails dissidents like Victoire Ingabire, who has lost many comrades. “I am not afraid of being assassinated because I know I will pass away with honor because I served my people.” Human rights organizations and Rwandan opposition members have called on the Rwandan government to conduct credible investigations into the latest in a long line of suspicious disappearances and deaths in Rwanda, a longstanding ally and military partner of the US. I spoke to Victoire Ingabire, leader of the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda, about those her party has lost. By Ann Garrison , BAR contributorBrown Misleader Dolores Huerta Can’t Stop Hustling for Neoliberalism The former farm workers organizer now fronts for corporate Democrats and cashes checks. “The problem, and the solution, is always a matter of role-models and optics, the stuff of identity politics.”Just when one hoped she would fade away into a postage stamp, United Farm Workers co-founder and darling of the neoliberal establishment, Dolores Huerta, is at it again. One would think she might have arrived at some contrition by now— by being Hillary’s surrogate instead of supporting Sanders, she helped usher in the Trump regime. (And, of course, one of Trump’s boys went on a murderous anti-Mexican rampage in Texas.) But Huerta has been deeply invested in the non-profit industrial complex for years, is even the head of her own foundation, a 501c3 named after herself— so she knows better than to stand up to the corporate masters who run the non-profit game, and every other game that pays. If she did, she would be out of business. Hucksters like her need social injustice in order to peddle “social justice.” By Quetzal Cáceres“Jay-Z” Did Not Sell Out, He Bought In Like the scorpion in the folk parable, it’s in Jay-Z’s nature to make a killing – at Kaepernick and the community’s expense. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice,and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the wake of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality and extrajudicial murder, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has struck a deal to lead the NFL’s endeavors into music and entertainment. This deal has caused a lot of consternation within the African American community. The issue now being raised centers around Jay-Z being a “sellout”. What must be clearly understood is that Jay-Z is a capitalist. He did what capitalists do, he bought in. By Wilmer J. Leon IIIUncle Sam was Born Lethal Donald Trump is indeed a neofascist, but the US was built on a mass murderous white supremacism that, until recently, was unapologetically genocidal. For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. – Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852One of the occupational and intellectual hazards of being a historian is that current events often seem far less new to oneself than they do to others. Recently a leftish liberal friend told me that the United States under the Donald Trump had “become a lethal society.” My friend cited the neofascist Trump’s: horrible family separations and concentration camps on the border; openly white-nationalist assaults on four progressive nonwhite and female Congresswomen; real and threatened roundups of undocumented immigrants; fascist-style and hate-filled “Make America Great Again” rallies; encouragement of white supremacist terrorism; alliance with right-wing evangelical Christian fascists. By Paul StreetSocialists of Color to the Front LeftRoots’ stated purpose: to strategize around “21st-century socialism” and then bring people together to help get there. “LeftRoots’ membership includes ‘super-majorities both of people of color, and of women and other gender-oppressed people.’” One evening in late May, upward of 50 grassroots organizers from different groups around the country gathered at a union hall in Dorchester, Mass. They were grappling with some of the Left’s age-old questions: In a future where the Left wins political power, what would we like to see happen? And more pragmatically: What would it take to get there? A local community organizer sets the scene: “It’s 2019. Burning issues are facing our communities.” She lists off galloping inequality, a trigger-happy white nationalist movement, looming environmental disaster. It’s urgent, she says, to do “more cross-fertilization work” to harness progressive forces (like the striking teachers around the country) to build solidarity across issues. By Eli DayBlack People in America Cannot Be Racist (As Much As They Might Like To Be) Black people in the US may not like white people, for good reason, but lack the power to construct an anti-white racism. “Black People in America have virtually no institutional power.” Black’s Law Dictionary (no pun intended) defines “racism” as follows: “A set of policies that is exhibited by a person or persons toward a group of people of a different race. Often antagonistic and confronting. The assumption of lower intelligence and importance given to a person because of their racial characteristics”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “racism” as follows:“prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”. By Rohn KenyattaLabor:
Payroll Employment Hit by 501,000 (-501,000) Downside Preliminary Benchmark Revision for Year-Ended March 2019
Final 2019 Benchmarking Estimate Should Be Even Worse; Publication Due With January 2020 Payrolls
Previously Estimated Jobs Gain for Full Year Ended March 2019 Was Reduced by 20% (-20%) from 2.496 Million to 1.995 Million
Year-to-Year Payroll Growth Revised from 1.69% to 1.35%, Weakest Since Great Recession
Negative Benchmarking Suggested Further FOMC Easing and Weakening GDP in Revision
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Have Flagrantly Flaunted the Volcker Rule for Nine Years: Now It’s to Be Gutted by Federal Regulators Two of Wall Street’s crony regulators announced today that they are going to “simplify” the Volcker Rule’s ban on proprietary trading at Wall Street banks, providing another big win for Wall Street and another big nightmare for Main Street. The financial crash on Wall Street in 2008 was the deepest economic upheaval in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Millions of honest, hardworking Americans lost their jobs, and then their homes, as a result of the economic collapse. Many of these Americans have yet to fully recover financially after more than a decade has passed. By Pam and Russ Martens
R.I.P. Dodd-Frank: Wall Street Is Unleashed — Again Yesterday the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator of national banks, and the FDIC, which provides the taxpayer-backstopped Federal insurance to deposits at these banks, announced that they were going to “simplify” the Volcker Rule. Under the Trump administration, “simplify” is code for “gut.” The Volcker Rule was part of the 2010 financial reform legislation known as Dodd-Frank. It outlawed deposit-taking banks from using those deposits to make wild gambles for the house, known as proprietary trading. It also required the banks to end their ownership of hedge funds and private equity funds where the banks can secretly dump losing positions or hide enormous losses in hard to price instruments. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens World:
Monroeism is the Other Side of Jim Crow, the Side Facing South This Forum of São Paulo of Washington DC marks a significant step forward in building North-South solidarity on behalf of economic and social justice throughout the hemisphere and respect for the sovereign equality of nations. The Forum comes on the heels of the defense of the Venezuelan Embassy by the Embassy Protection Collective. It takes place amid growing nationwide direct action by the NeverAgainIsNow movement and allies to shut down the concentration camps and restore dignified treatment of Central American refugees. And it is held during days of protest over the failure of the Department of Justice to prosecute an NYPD police officer for the murder of Eric Garner, an officer who is still on the city payroll. These three experiences highlight the white supremacist link between the institutional racism within US borders and the neoliberal offensive by Washington and its right wing allies against Bolivarian resistance and the popular sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Colonial Wounds Are Still Present. The Trump administration has stepped up the necropolitics[1] of white supremacy and plutocracy which now expresses itself in the police surveillance state at home and Monroeism abroad. By Frederick B. Mills
Russia: Shiyes environmental protests – a shining example of workers’ solidarity Perhaps several people in Russia, at some point, have come across articles on the Shiyes protests or heard about them. Yet people still ask: “where is it?”, “what is going on there?”, “why have I never heard about it?”. To address some of those questions, I personally visited Shiyes, and decided to produce an article on it. Of course, this is not the only reason: Shiyes today is a good example to us all of how to fight for our natural rights. First of all, let us clarify the context and the background of the Shiyes protests. Shiyes is a railroad station and hub connecting various settlements across the North of Russia, located in the Lensky district of the Arkhangelsk region, around 50 km from the Urdoma village and 23 km from the Madmas village (in the neighbouring Komi Republic). The station and its adjacent ghost settlement (also called Shiyes) did not attract much attention until recently; perhaps the only illegal activity happening around those parts was unauthorised logging. By Artyom Sandakov
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!
Just Hours After Anti-Semitic Remarks, Trump Promotes Himself as ‘King of Israel… Second Coming of God’ After the #DisloyaltoTrump hashtag went viral overnight in response to President Donald Trump accusing any person of Jewish faith who voted Democratic of being disloyal to the United States, the president sparked fresh concerns about his mental health Wednesday morning after he tweeted quotes from one of his right-wing supporters who said Trump was like “the King of Israel” and compared Trump to “the second coming of God.” Jon Queally
Amid Recession Warnings, Trump Reportedly Considering More Tax Cuts for Rich and Corporations “Two of Trump’s ideas for stimulating the economy are 1) cutting the corporate tax rate a little more (after cutting it a lot didn’t do much), and 2) indexing capital gains to inflation. It’s tax cuts for the rich all the way down.” By Jake Johnson
Offering Choice But Delivering Tyranny: the Corporate Capture of Agriculture Many lobbyists talk a lot about critics of genetic engineering technology denying choice to farmers. They say that farmers should have access to a range of tools and technologies to maximise choice and options. At the same time, somewhat ironically, they decry organic agriculture and proven agroecological approaches, presumably because these practices have no need for the proprietary inputs of the global agrochemical/agritech corporations they are in bed with. And presumably because agroecology represents liberation from the tyranny of these profiteering, environment-damaging global conglomerates. By Colin Todhunter
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Black Caucus in Thrall, or Fear, of Israel “The Israelis may have finally stepped on the third rail of congressional relations, with their joint decision with President Trump to ban Omar and Tlaib.” If there still exists within the Congressional Black Caucus even an ounce of self-respect, or respect for the Black voters that put them in office, these Black politicians will rethink their shameful record of groveling at the feet of Israel – the country that meddles far more than any other in the internal affairs of the United States. Certainly, the Israelis have no respect for the U.S. Congress, which they treat as a fat sugar-daddy,to be milked year after year for billions in aid and weapons, and for support in world forum’s, no matter what crimes Israel commits. However, the Israelis may have finally stepped on the third rail of congressional relations, with their joint decision with President Trump to bar two Democratic Congresswomen , Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from entering Israel. The two had planned to visit the occupied West Bank, as do many congressional delegations. But Israel and Trump, the most pro-Israel U.S. president in history, decided to yank permission, citing Omar and Tlaib’s support for the global boycott and disinvestment campaign against Israel, known as BDS. By Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Stripping Uncle Sam of His Protective Lies and Taboos Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent analyze the “dual fantasy” that has ideologically upheld white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and the American war machine. “It remains taboo in the USA to describe America as an imperialist state.” A Review of American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News -From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror. The idea of being “the light among nations” has been part of the USA’s DNA since its foundation in 1776. 150 years earlier, the Puritans, having landed in the Bay of Massachusetts, thought they had come to the New World “on behalf of the Lord” to build a “New Jerusalem” and to save the souls of those indigenous people willing to convert. In 1862, during the Civil war, President Abraham Lincoln declared the United States of America, whose northern part was fighting against the secessionist south for the preservation of the Union and the liberation of the slaves, to be “the last best hope on earth.” Whereas the Founding Fathers had originally thought that democracy and civil rights would spread worldwide by the exemplary actions of the USA alone, this was no longer enough for America’s captains of industry and robber barons in the 19th century. Parallel to the territorial drive to the Pacific coast and the violent annexation of the northern half of Mexico under the ideological pretext of Manifest Destiny, Central and South America were proclaimed to be the “backyard” of the USA, whereby, according to the Monroe By Schattenblick
Freedom Rider: Protest and the Corporate Media By Margaret Kimberley The corporate media are steadfast partners with the United States government and faithfully follow the party line on foreign policy issues. “The networks and the newspapers can seldom be believed.” Corporate media always let us know who is in with the in-crowd and who is on the outs with the United States government. They don’t do so with any transparency, but by promoting some stories and disappearing others. They give great attention to events that they believe are advancing U.S. interests. The invisibility treatment goes to those who tell inconvenient truths and defy American dictates. BAR editor and senior columnist
Rwanda’s Dissidents, Dead and Disappearing Washington’s closest ally in Africa is a minority regime that kills and jails dissidents like Victoire Ingabire, who has lost many comrades. “I am not afraid of being assassinated because I know I will pass away with honor because I served my people.” Human rights organizations and Rwandan opposition members have called on the Rwandan government to conduct credible investigations into the latest in a long line of suspicious disappearances and deaths in Rwanda, a longstanding ally and military partner of the US. I spoke to Victoire Ingabire, leader of the United Democratic Forces of Rwanda, about those her party has lost. By Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
Brown Misleader Dolores Huerta Can’t Stop Hustling for Neoliberalism The former farm workers organizer now fronts for corporate Democrats and cashes checks. “The problem, and the solution, is always a matter of role-models and optics, the stuff of identity politics.”Just when one hoped she would fade away into a postage stamp, United Farm Workers co-founder and darling of the neoliberal establishment, Dolores Huerta, is at it again. One would think she might have arrived at some contrition by now— by being Hillary’s surrogate instead of supporting Sanders, she helped usher in the Trump regime. (And, of course, one of Trump’s boys went on a murderous anti-Mexican rampage in Texas.) But Huerta has been deeply invested in the non-profit industrial complex for years, is even the head of her own foundation, a 501c3 named after herself— so she knows better than to stand up to the corporate masters who run the non-profit game, and every other game that pays. If she did, she would be out of business. Hucksters like her need social injustice in order to peddle “social justice.” By Quetzal Cáceres
“Jay-Z” Did Not Sell Out, He Bought In Like the scorpion in the folk parable, it’s in Jay-Z’s nature to make a killing – at Kaepernick and the community’s expense. “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice,and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the wake of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality and extrajudicial murder, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has struck a deal to lead the NFL’s endeavors into music and entertainment. This deal has caused a lot of consternation within the African American community. The issue now being raised centers around Jay-Z being a “sellout”. What must be clearly understood is that Jay-Z is a capitalist. He did what capitalists do, he bought in. By Wilmer J. Leon III
Uncle Sam was Born Lethal Donald Trump is indeed a neofascist, but the US was built on a mass murderous white supremacism that, until recently, was unapologetically genocidal. For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. – Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852One of the occupational and intellectual hazards of being a historian is that current events often seem far less new to oneself than they do to others. Recently a leftish liberal friend told me that the United States under the Donald Trump had “become a lethal society.” My friend cited the neofascist Trump’s: horrible family separations and concentration camps on the border; openly white-nationalist assaults on four progressive nonwhite and female Congresswomen; real and threatened roundups of undocumented immigrants; fascist-style and hate-filled “Make America Great Again” rallies; encouragement of white supremacist terrorism; alliance with right-wing evangelical Christian fascists. By Paul Street
Socialists of Color to the Front LeftRoots’ stated purpose: to strategize around “21st-century socialism” and then bring people together to help get there. “LeftRoots’ membership includes ‘super-majorities both of people of color, and of women and other gender-oppressed people.’” One evening in late May, upward of 50 grassroots organizers from different groups around the country gathered at a union hall in Dorchester, Mass. They were grappling with some of the Left’s age-old questions: In a future where the Left wins political power, what would we like to see happen? And more pragmatically: What would it take to get there? A local community organizer sets the scene: “It’s 2019. Burning issues are facing our communities.” She lists off galloping inequality, a trigger-happy white nationalist movement, looming environmental disaster. It’s urgent, she says, to do “more cross-fertilization work” to harness progressive forces (like the striking teachers around the country) to build solidarity across issues. By Eli Day
Black People in America Cannot Be Racist (As Much As They Might Like To Be) Black people in the US may not like white people, for good reason, but lack the power to construct an anti-white racism. “Black People in America have virtually no institutional power.” Black’s Law Dictionary (no pun intended) defines “racism” as follows: “A set of policies that is exhibited by a person or persons toward a group of people of a different race. Often antagonistic and confronting. The assumption of lower intelligence and importance given to a person because of their racial characteristics”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “racism” as follows:“prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”. By Rohn Kenyatta
Labor:
Shadow Government Statistics Flash Update No. 5 Major Downside Benchmark Revisions Announced for Payroll Employment August 21, 2019
World: