Skip to content
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:
The Non-counted The Casualties Of War:
Post-9/11 active-duty veterans have disability rates significantly higher than those of previous generations, according to a government report. About 41 percent of those who served after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones have disability ratings from the Department of Veterans Affairs, compared to 25 percent of veterans of other eras, according to the annual survey of veterans employment and status by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Post-9/11 Vets Have Far Higher Disability Ratings Than Prior Generations: Report
Radiation respects no borders. Carried downwind during bombing in Kosovo, it was detected in air monitors as far away as Hungary and Greece. Levels in the air change with the seasons in Kuwait. Depleted uranium is forever. The half-life is 4.5 billion years. It decays to isotopes much more radioactive than uranium, like radon. Depleted uranium keeps giving… and it keeps killing. It’s the perfect weapon for the Pentagon to kill people and destroy things. The trouble is, you can’t clean it up… over time it makes survival of life impossible. It transforms into an omnicidal war against the earth – the air, the water, life. One gram of depleted uranium releases more than 12,000 alpha particles per second. When depleted uranium is inhaled as very fine radioactive dust, it enters the blood stream and is carried throughout the body. Because it is nearly insoluble it stays in the blood or lodges in the tissues, organs and bones of the body. The alpha particles that are released from these “hot particles” tear through the cells and membranes like nuclear bullets and dump huge amounts of energy like nuclear bombs destroying the immune system, nervous system, muscles, and the brain. The radiation slowly kills the cells that make life possible and Gulf War Syndrome, a complex of diseases, slowly kills the soldier. It mutilates the unborn, causing birth defects, horrible birth defects in babies born after the Gulf War without eyes, brains, organs, arms, legs. In a study by the Veterans Administration1, of 251 Gulf War veterans families in Mississippi, 67% of the children conceived and born after the war had diseases and defects rated severe. The Iraqi children born with birth defects2 are like the children of the Gulf War veterans… “The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm”. — The Pentagon’s fiery crucibles of war
Videos of the Day:
Jeremy Corbyn warns Boris Johnson he is not above the law The Labour leader said the UK is in ‘extraordinary territory’ after Boris Johnson announced he was not prepared to ask Brussels for a Brexit extension. Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister is not above the law, adding that Johnson could not ignore the opposition’s bid to prevent Britain leaving the EU without a deal. The House of Lords passed the Benn bill on Friday to block a no-deal Brexit on October 31
US and Iran “At Cliff’s Edge”
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
Trump’s Use of Pentagon Cash to Prop Up Scottish Resort Latest Example of Why He ‘Must Be Impeached’: AOC “These reports raise questions about the President’s potential receipt of U.S. or foreign government emoluments in violation of the U.S. Constitution and raise other serious conflict of interest concerns.” A Friday report from Politico detailing how the U.S. Air Force is diverting resources to prop up President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to call for impeachment. By Eoin Higgins
Big Energy Funding the Democrats: Exxon Mobil is Funding Centrist Democratic Think Tank, Disclosures Reveal The progressive policy that grew out of the party’s pro-business wing in the 1980s and ’90s, received $50,000 from Exxon Mobil in 2018 via its parent organization, the Third Way Foundation, according to the oil giant’s 2018 Worldwide Giving Report. By Kate Aronoff
‘Getting Angry on Social Media Not Enough’: Thousands Across 6 Continents Mobilize to Combat Destruction of Amazon Rainforest “Get organized, get active, and join forces in defense of the Amazon and in defense of our future.” Because “getting angry on social media is not enough” to put a stop to the fires and profit-driven policies ravaging the Amazon rainforest, thousands of people across six continents mobilized on Thursday to protest the destruction of the “lungs of the world” at the hands of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and large multinational corporations. By Jake Johnson
9/11 and the American Orwellian Nightmare Two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo sent a secret memo to the Bush White House declaring that the Constitution’s prohibition on unreasonable searches was null and void: “If the government’s heightened interest in self-defense justifies the use of deadly force, then it also certainly would justify warrantless searches.” Yoo is best known for writing a harebrained memo on why presidents can order torture but he also helped sanctify the wholesale demolition of privacy. Two of the largest leaps towards an American “1984” Orwellian nightmare began in 2002. Though neither the Justice Department’s Operation TIPS nor the Pentagon’s Total Information Awareness program was brought to completion, perverse parcels and precedents from each program profoundly influenced subsequent federal policies. By James Bovard
Koch’s America: the Rule of the New Robber Barons A century ago the country was ruled by a cabal popularly known as the Robber Barons that included such greedy notables such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Andrew Mellon, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. A century later, their rapacious reputations white-washed later by charitable foundations. Today, the country is witnessing the return of a new generation of Robber Barons best exemplified by the Koch brothers. They possess a combination of greed and political cunning that enables them to have considerable influence, if not control, over the federal and state governments throughout the country. Like the Robber Barons of old, today’s baron’s ruthless business and political practices are masked, like the flesh of a fan dancers, by their support for major bourgeois cultural institutions. For Koch, it was the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. By David Rosen
Environment:
The Media Monopoly’s Newspeak: New Report: ABC, CBS, NBC Covered Climate Crisis Connection to Hurricane Dorian Only Once in 216 Segments on Storm “Climate change is fueling storms like Hurricane Dorian. But you wouldn’t know that from watching broadcast TV news.” Even as Hurricane Dorian tore through the Bahamas and crept up the southeastern U.S. seaboard, broadcast news networks were loathe to connect the powerful storm’s strength to the climate crisis in spite of the science linking warmer sea surface temperatures to increased frequency of strong hurricanes. According to a study by watchdog Media Matters For America, only CBS aired a segment tying climate change to hurricane activity like Dorian’s. NBC and ABC aired no such programs. By Eoin Higgins
‘Getting Angry on Social Media Not Enough’: Thousands Across 6 Continents Mobilize to Combat Destruction of Amazon Rainforest “Get organized, get active, and join forces in defense of the Amazon and in defense of our future.” Because “getting angry on social media is not enough” to put a stop to the fires and profit-driven policies ravaging the Amazon rainforest, thousands of people across six continents mobilized on Thursday to protest the destruction of the “lungs of the world” at the hands of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and large multinational corporations. By Jake Johnson
Literal Sh*t Storm: Warnings of Major Manure Threat as Hurricane Dorian Barrels Toward North Carolina Factory Farms “The heavy rainfall could flood poorly located factory farms, spreading untold tons of hog, chicken, and turkey waste along the coastal plain.” As Hurricane Dorian pummeled the Carolinas Thursday, environmentalists warned the powerful storm could unleash millions of tons of manure and other animal waste if it floods the factory farms situated on the North Carolina coast. By Jake Johnson
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
Stock Market Recovery Up—No Trickle Down For The Working class!
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovered economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the work force to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through May 2019, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.8 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovered economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the work force to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through May 2019, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 62.8 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy
The Above Graph and Quote Proves the Accuracy of Shadow Government Statistics Alternate Unemployment Charts. The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
Economy:
- Weakening and Negatively Benchmarked Annual Payroll Growth Signaled Deepening Recession
- As Has Become Commonplace, Monthly Payroll Gains Continued to Disappoint Expectations, Despite Regular Relative Monthly Boosts from Downwardly Revised Prior-Month Activity
- August Headline Unemployment of 3.7% Held Just a
Notch Above Its Historic Low, Yet Broader Unemployment Measures Jumped by 0.2% to 0.3% Amidst Deteriorating Employment Conditions
- Economic and Systemic Conditions Are Worse than Headlined, Where Government-Shutdown Bloated Data Have Been Enshrined, Temporarily
- Pending August Retail Sales and Production Should Disappoint Expectations
- The FOMC Needs to Cut Interest Rates More Aggressively Than the Quarter-Point Being Suggested for September 18th
- Fed Is Boosting Money Supply Growth; M3 Growth Strongest Since 2009
- FOMC Easing Should Intensify Shortly; Renewed Quantitative Easing Remains a Good Bet
Here’s the Proof the Federal Government Is Overtly Lying to the Public about Wall Street’s Derivatives Based on every meaningful investigation into the epic financial crash of 2008 that resulted in the worst economic crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression, derivatives that were concentrated at Wall Street’s largest banks played a central role in the crisis. And yet, 11 years later, neither Federal regulators nor Congress have meaningfully reined in these risks. Three years ago we reported on President Obama’s press conference of March 7, 2016 where Obama overtly misled the American people about how Wall Street banks were complying with the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that mandated that the banks’ trillions of dollars in dangerous derivatives be centrally cleared rather than traded as opaque private contracts between two counterparties. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
The Commonwealth of Britain Bill Proposed by Tony Benn And Seconded By Jeremy Corbyn In 1991 Is Even More Urgent Today I think anyone who considers themselves a radical democratic should support this bill — Tariq Ali:
-
The monarchy would be abolished and the constitutional status of the Crown ended;
-
The Church of England would be disestablished;
-
The head of state would be a president, elected by a joint sitting of both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament
-
The functions of the royal prerogative would be transferred to Parliament;
-
The Privy Council would be abolished, and replaced by a Council of State;
-
The House of Lords would be replaced by an elected House of the People, with equal representation of men and women;
-
The House of Commons would similarly have equal representation of men and women;
-
England, Scotland and Wales would have their own devolved National Parliaments with responsibility for devolved matters as agreed;
-
County Court judges and magistrates would be elected; and
-
British jurisdiction over Northern Ireland would be ended.
-
The judiciary would be reformed and a National Legal Service would be created
The crisis of capitalism and the role of the MonarchyThe Monarchy calls itself a neutral observor, but this illusion was shattered when Johnson used the Queen to force through his programme. This casts light on the real role of the Monarchy, a reserve of reaction. We say abolish this feudal relic! Recent explosive events have shone a spotlight on the murky world of the British Monarchy. Many workers and youth are rightly questioning what role this pillar of the establishment plays in modern society. By Alan Woods
“Everywhere is Kashmir”: Unraveling Weaponized, Corporatized Hindustan in India’s Northeast In India today,” said an Indigenous activist I recently interviewed in the northeastern Indian state of Jharkhand, “everywhere is Kashmir.” At first glance, this statement seems overblown, perhaps even outrageous. No other part of India is as much of a consolidated internal colony as Kashmir. For that matter, Palestine is one of the only other parts of the world that that can match or exceed Kashmir’s horrific past and renewed present of curfews, communication blackouts, transportation blockades, forced disappearances, and military and paramilitary brutality and bloodshed. (India’s ever-closer collaboration with Israel gives these parallels a particularly timely and unsettling significance.) In so many ways, nowhere is Kashmir but Kashmir itself. By Sarang Narasimhaiah
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!
Meanwhile, treatment providers have been unable to keep up with levels of opioid misuse, and rates of opioid overdose remain sky-high. The number of people accessing MAT for opioid addiction may be slowly growing thanks in part to federal funding, but the number of people in need of addiction treatment generally is increasing nationwide. From 2017 to 2018, the number of people in need of treatment for a substance use disorder related to illicit drugs of any kind increased from 80 to 84 percent, according to SAMHSA’s own data. That means the vast majority of people in the U.S. in need of drug treatment are not receiving it for one reason or another. In a country where possessing even small amounts of drugs is a criminal offense and people living with addiction are often charged as drug traffickers, advocates argue that putting addiction treatment clinics under police surveillance effectively shoots a public health strategy in the foot. — As Drug War Rages, Most People Who Need Treatment Don’t Get It
The Political Economy of the Opioid Epidemic Late this October, in Ohio, a jury will begin hearing evidence against the pharmaceutical giants that have manufactured — and profited royally from — the opioid epidemic. This Ohio trial will be the most significant courtroom skirmish yet between Big Pharma and the over 2,000 states, localities, and other complainants that have filed suit against America’s biggest corporate pill pushers. Opioid overdoses have left over 400,000 dead since the late 1990s. The federal judge overseeing the consolidated lawsuits against Big Pharma would rather not see this trial happen. He’d like to see the parties come to some sort of pre-trial settlement, and this past Tuesday brought the first sign of serious movement on the settlement front. A press leak has revealed that a deal with Purdue Pharma — the corporation that ignited the opioid epidemic — may be in the offing. By Sam Pizzigati
Quotes of the Day: 
Shadow Statistics s Flash Update No. 7 Economic Distortions, August 2019 Payrolls and Employment/Unemployment