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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:
Pamela Anderson Defends Assange, Challenges Mccain’s Daughter on US TV Anderson continued: “He is the most resilient person I’ve met. Everything that has happened to him, he told me was going to happen, so there are no surprises. But it is devastating that people have fallen for this smear campaign, especially in America.”
Quotes of the Day:
Cate Jenkins, PhD, a 22-year specialist with the EPA’s Hazardous Waste Identification Division and the author of a 432-page memo to the EPA’s Inspector General as background documentation for the recently released IG report. On January 11, 2002, a memorandum was sent by Cate Jenkins, Ph.D., the head EPA hazardous waste investigator in lower Manhattan after 9/11. This memorandum compared the asbestos levels in the Montana, Libby Hazardous Waste Superfund Site to the levels she found in Lower Manhattan. (In Libby, Montana almost 30% of the Libby residents were hurt by asbestos.) Three months after 9/11, the levels of asbestos found in lower Manhattan were higher than the Libby Superfundsite! And yet the EPA claims Manhattan to be “safe”! Jenkins, who was the head EPA expert at the Libby site, was transferred, by the EPA, to Manhattan, after the twin towers events. In her memo, she calls for lower Manhattan to be covered by the Superfund Statute. A full copy of the memo, and her other memos on the same subject, can be found on the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) web site. — 9-11 World Trade Center Dust Cloud: How Many Will Die!
Capitalism Cannot Solve the Crisis of Housing and Homelessness! — Roland Sheppard
Karl Marx explained 150 years ago that “products are only commodities because they have a dual nature, because they are at the same time objects of utility and bearers of value”. (Capital, Volume One) Madden and Marcuse argue that interlocking processes of deregulation, financialisation, and globalization mean that housing now functions as a commodity to a greater extent than ever before, and this is what lies at the heart of the housing crisis. — Capitalism’s Housing Crisis
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.
Pamela Anderson and ‘The View’s Meghan McCain Have a Tense Exchange Over Julian AssangeAt this point, Meghan McCain, one of the program’s regular panelists, and the daughter of former Republican Senator John McCain, interrupted to declare that Assange was “allegedly kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy for defecating everywhere.” As Anderson noted, this was a false “smear” that was used by the corrupt Ecuadorian government to illegally renege on Assange’s political asylum and hand him over to the British and US authorities. McCain declared that Assange is a “cyber-terrorist,” who “hacked information” and “leaked classified documents that put our national security at risk, our military and the lives of spies at risk and diplomats at risk.” She was repeating the talking-points of the CIA and the Trump administration, which is seeking to illegalise any publishing activities that expose government lies and the crimes committed by the American military. Anderson pointedly responded by asking: “How many people have the American government killed, innocently, and how many has WikiLeaks killed?” “The military has put many innocent lives at risk,” she stated. A number of audience members cheered Anderson’s blunt statements of fact, which are such a rarity on commercial television. McCain, visibly angry, told them to “calm down.”By Oscar Grenfell
Environment:
First It Was in the Water, Then it was in the Food, and Now It’s in the Air We Breath!: Microplastics ‘Significantly Contaminating the Air’, Scientists Warn Discovery of pollution in snowfall from the Arctic to the Alps leads to call for urgent research on potential human health impacts Abundant levels of microplastic pollution have been found in snow from the Arctic to the Alps, according to a study that has prompted scientists to warn of significant contamination of the atmosphere and demand urgent research into the potential health impacts on people. Snow captures particles from the air as it falls and samples from ice floes on the ocean between Greenland and Svalbard contained an average of 1,760 microplastic particles per litre, the research found. Even more – 24,600 per litre on average – were found at European locations. The work shows transport by winds is a key factor in microplastics contamination across the globe. The scientists called for research on the effect of airborne microplastics on human health, pointing to an earlier study that found the particles in cancerous human lung tissue. In June, another study showed people eat at least 50,000 microplastic particles per year. By Damian Carrington
Major US Insurer Says It Will No Longer Underwrite and Invest in Coal Earlier this summer, Chubb, the largest commercial insurance company in the U.S., announced a new policy to address climate change. Saying that it “will not underwrite risks related to the construction and operation of new coal-fired plants,” the company has become the first major U.S. insurer to adopt a policy restricting coal insurance. By Elana Sulakshana
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Freedom Rider: Hollywood Propaganda Attack on Venezuela The US is starving and killing Venezuelans in real life and, for your family’s viewing pleasure, on television screens. “Imperialism is quite bipartisan and liberal Hollywood never saw propaganda it didn’t want to hype.” “The military intervention of #Venezuela, put ‘on the table’ by @realDonaldTrump and his gang of fanatic supremacists, is supported by the gringo propaganda machine. Here is a fragment of their ‘cultural offerings.’”— Ernesto Villegas, Venezuela Minister of Culture By Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
Black Agenda Report’s 13th Anniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon Every year presents new challenges to those struggling for human liberation. For Black Agenda Report, the essential task remains the same as when we published our first issue, on October 26, 2006: to sustain a radical, Black-led publication that can effectively intervene in the great debates of our time. We believe BAR has helped shape the Black Left political debate in this turbulent era of late stage, imperial capitalism – a period of economic catastrophe for Black and poor Americans, political disarray among “progressives,” and escalating lawlessness in U.S. foreign policy. Through it all, BAR has steadily increased both our audience and our capabilities, while waging weekly political battle with the ruling Lords of Capital, the ever-conniving “Black Misleadership Class,” and those who would “sheep-dog” the Left into alliance with corporate forces. By The BAR Team
Which Way Out of Neoliberalism: Fascism or Socialism? “Neoliberalism left workers competing against each other in a great race to the bottom.” The conditions of decline which characterize the neoliberal stage of capitalist production worldwide have no doubt led to a growth in the scope and influence of fascism in the Western world. In the U.S., fascism manifests as a bipartisan consensus on war and austerity, as well as the rise of politically rightwing tendencies aligned with the head butcher of racist red meat, Donald Trump. The collapse in the legitimacy of the European Union has provided a political vacuum for corporate-friendly fascists to gain power in several European states with the help of U.S. imperialism; Ukraine being the starkest example. Even Bernie Sanders has acknowledged the link between neoliberal decay and the ascendance of fascism. The question, does neoliberalism necessarily lead to fascism or can socialism arise out of the widespread misery of capitalism’s late stages? By Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
3rd International Trade Union Forum: Comments from Ajamu Baraka There can be no workers’ rights without peace and social justice. “War and militarism are class issues.”Black Alliance for Peace national organizer and Black Agenda Report editor Ajamu Baraka delivered the following remarks to the International Trade Union Forum in Solidarity with Workers and People to Break the Economic Sanctions and in Rejection of Imperialist Intervention, held on September 7 through 9, in Damascus, Syria. By Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist
They Survived Solitary Confinement. Now They’re Fighting to End It. On any given day, 80,000 people are locked in solitary confinement in US prisons and jails. “That’s the first time anyone has touched me except in violence in two years.”For nine and a half months, Lydia Thornton was locked into her cell nearly 24 hours a day. All of her meals were slid through a slot in the cell’s steel door. She was allowed outside to shower three times each week. Through cinderblock walls, she could hear women in adjoining cells screaming for hours on end. Sometimes they threatened to kill themselves, a threat often followed by an eerie silence. By Victoria Law
Spikes of Violence: Protest in West Papua Papua and West Papua are subjected to violence and habitual repression from the Indonesian central authorities. “A policy of transmigration has been practiced, tantamount to genocide.”Like Timor-Leste, West Papua, commonly subsuming both Papua and West Papua, remains a separate ethnic entity, acknowledged as such by previous colonial powers. Its Dutch colonial masters, in preparing to leave the region in the 1950s, left the ground fertile for a declaration of independence in 1961. Such a move did not sit well with the Indonesian desire to claim control over all Dutch Asia Pacific colonies on departure. There were resources to be had, economic gains to be made. The military duly moved in. By Dr. Binoy Kampmark
A Ferguson Organizer Reflects on the Aftermath We figured out pretty fast that hashtags don’t move white supremacists, and petitions don’t change policy for Black lives. “Though several of the Ferguson organizers have been shot and burned to death, some people who claim to love the people have been on MSNBC and haven’t even mentioned their names.”This is hard to believe and even harder to see in print, but here it goes. It’s been five years since a police officer killed Michael Brown Jr. on August 9, 2014; five whole years since the subsequent protests shut down a little town in Missouri called Ferguson. There, I said it. By Tory Russell
White Supremacy Tried to Kill Jazz. An Interview with Gerald Horne Viewing musicians as exploited workers and as beleaguered contractors helps contribute to a better understanding of their art form and art more generally. “Take ‘be-bop’ — officialdom in Manhattan was objecting to heterosexual dancing across racial lines and, thus, the music morphed from a ‘dancing’ music to a ‘listening’ music.”Dodging violent attacks by racist and drunken “fans,” resisting pressure from drug-peddling bosses and inhaling smoke for hours in dank clubs comprised the “common plight” of jazz musicians in the early 20th century, says historian Gerald Horne, author of Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music. In this interview with Truthout, Horne describes the role of racism in the development of jazz, the gulf between its domestic and international reception; and why creativity, improvisation and technical mastery were a means of survival for its performers. By Anton Woronczuk
Save the Planet and Stop the US War Machine! Sept 20-23 The People’s Mobilization to Stop the US War Machine and Save the Planet will be held from September 20 to 23 in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly. Members of the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective started organizing the People’s Mobe in May. Organizers sought to bring the issue of US violations of international law, such as when the State Department violated the Vienna Convention by raiding the Venezuelan Embassy on May 16, to the UN General Assembly and began to plan around September 21, the International Day of Peace. Organizers wrote: At a time when all of the world leaders gather, we will say we’ve had enough of the US War Machine. By Popular Resistance
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Apatheid israel: Israel bans Ahed Tamimi from travelling abroad Ban comes two months after Ahed was released after serving an eight-month sentence for slapping an Israeli soldier Israeli authorities banned Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian activist and campaigner who became a resistance icon, and her family from travelling abroad, her father said on Friday. Basim Tamimi told Anadolu Agency that he and his family had planned to travel to Europe via Jordan. But they were informed by Palestinian authorities that Israel had banned them from travelling abroad. They had planned to leave Friday morning, he said, adding the authorities did not provide a reason for the ban. They were due to participate in some events in which they would discuss the Palestinian resistance movement and the experience of being detained in Israel, Basim said. Ahed’s father told the Iranian-state Press TV that Israel barred his daughter’s trip for fear that she would foil the Israeli regime’s “schemes for the disintegration of the region by forging close relations with the enemies of Israel.”
Capitalism’s Housing Crisis The financial crash of 2007-08 started with bad home loans. Countless home-owners in the US and elsewhere found themselves booted out of their homes while the banks were bailed out. Both these books chart a worldwide crisis – the 21st century housing question. Following the global financial turmoil of 2007, Manuel B Aalbers comments: “Never before had so many housing markets entered a crisis at the same time”. His book gives many valuable statistics and insights into the nature of the current crisis. By Paul Kershaw
Affordable Housing Crisis Spreads Throughout World Shortages persist despite millions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of units built Cities around the world, from New York to London to Stockholm to Sydney, are struggling to solve growing affordable housing crises. Acute shortages are persisting despite millions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of units built. Some countries have focused on solutions promoting unshackled free markets while others have turned more to rent control and subsidies. But no approach has solved the crises and most have other negative ripple effects. Across 32 major cities around the world, real home prices on average grew 24% over the last five years, while average real income grew by only 8% over the same period, according to Knight Frank, a London-based real-estate consulting firm. Economists say it is striking that affordability has worsened even during a period of global prosperity over the last six years. But income growth has been unable to keep pace with a rapid run-up in home prices. By aura Kusisto and Peter Grant
Portugal: housing crisis spreading beyond city centresThe Times recently published a survey of 885 property investors, undertaken by PwC and the Urban Land Institute, which placed Lisbon as the number one European hotspot for investment in 2019. The city had jumped up from eleventh place in the same survey the previous year. And no wonder: the tourism boom that Portugal is currently experiencing is heavily concentrated in the capital. But more than the tourism itself, it is the orgy of property speculation engulfing the city – stemming both from the rising number of visitors to Lisbon and, more fundamentally, the sweeping liberalisation of the Portuguese housing market – that has investors licking their lips.
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!
Healthcare Ad Spending Exceeds $65 Million in 2019 as Insurance Industry Ramps Up Effort to Kill Medicare for All By Healthcare Ad Spending Exceeds $65 Million in 2019 as Insurance Industry Ramps Up Effort to Kill Medicare for AllAn Axios analysis released Wednesday found that spending on healthcare advertisements has exceeded $65 million in 2019 as dark money organizations, the insurance industry, and Big Pharma ramp up their campaigns against Medicare for All and other proposed reforms. “More than half of all issue advertising this year has been on healthcare,” according to Axios, “and that spending will only increase as the 2020 campaign gets closer.” By Jake Johnson
Faced With Soaring Costs of Private Insurance, Poll Shows 58% of Small Business Owners Support Medicare for All“Medicare for All is the only solution to our healthcare cost crisis that will offer relief to workers and small businesses alike.” A survey released this week by the Commonwealth Fund found that, faced with soaring costs under the for-profit status quo, 58 percent of U.S. small business owners support replacing America’s dysfunctional healthcare system with Medicare for All. By Jake Johnson
Videos of the Day:
Sanders Says “You Can’t Nibble Around The Edges,” Proposes Government Takeover Of Energy Production
