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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.
Always Remember That Obamba Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember That President Obama With a Majority Democrat Legislature Started the United States Capitalist Austerity Program — The Race to the Botom or the Pauperization of the 99%!
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 more people examine text of Johnson deal, the more you realise what a sell out deal it is. It’s not just the DUP, he’s sold out virtually every sector of our economy & all those who may have voted to leave believing a deal could be secured that protected their jobs. — John McDonnell It’s A Sell Out Deal
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! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.
The Trail of Broker Treaties Continues: (Democratic Party Majority) Congress is Poised to Give Apache Land to Foreign Mining Company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives. Controversially, the measure is attached to annual legislation that funds the US Defense Department. This week, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees quietly attached a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate the handover of a large tract of Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining compan Rio Tinto, which co-owns with Iran a uranium mine in Africa and which is 10-percent-owned by China. The “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” – named after the retiring chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services panels – includes the giveaway of Apache burial, medicinal, and ceremonial grounds currently within the bounds of Tonto. 
Trump as the “Anti-War” President: on Misinformation in American Political Discourse It is a great propaganda victory for Donald Trump that he has managed to sell himself as “anti-war.” Broadly speaking, Trump has no anti-war bona fides to draw upon. He’s torn up the Iran agreement, while threatening war in its place. He’s threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea. Trump has presided over consistent increases in spending for the American warfare state. And he’s engaged in more drone strikes than Obama up to this point in both presidencies. Trump has put forward no timetable for the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He’s continued for more than two years the U.S. military presence in Syria, in the name of defeating ISIS. And he’s now greenlighted ethnic cleansing against the Kurds in Northern Syria by removing U.S. troops from the region and enabling Turkey’s invasion. By Anthony Dimaggio
Bernie in the Deep Shit: Dismal Dem Debate Reflections Unfettered Capitalism To anyone who watched the latest Democratic presidential candidate circus (“debate”) without a right-leaning bias last Tuesday, there was a clear winner: the social democrat Bernie Sanders. Smiling and confident in the wake of his recent mild heart attack, the progressive Senator from Vermont spoke eloquently against American economic inequality so extreme that three obscenely rich U.S.-Americans possess more wealth between them than the nation’s bottom fifty percent. Sanders elegantly advanced his call for universal Medicare for All, progressive taxation, and a Green New Deal. He rightly called out other Democratic candidates for their cringing service to the nation’s parasitic insurance and drug corporations. By Paul Street
Capitalism is a Corrupt System: House Democrats Demand Probe Into ‘Suspicious’ Stock Trades Surrounding Economy-Shifting Statements by Trump “Timing and scale [of the stock bets] raise serious suspicions about whether the traders received material nonpublic information that would affect the S&P and how they received such information.” “Multiple large trades, resulting in billions in profit, occurred shortly before geopolitical events or statements by the president of the United States that moved the markets significantly.” By Jake Johnson
Environment:
Leaked Audio Reveals How Coca-Cola Undermines Plastic Recycling Efforts For Decades, Coca-Cola has burnished its public image as an environmentally caring company with donations to recycling nonprofits. Meanwhile, as one of the world’s most polluting brands, Coke has quietly fought efforts to hold the company accountable for plastic waste. Audio from a meeting of recycling leaders obtained by The Intercept reveals how the soda giant’s “green” philanthropy helped squelch what could have been an important tool in fighting the plastic crisis — and shines a light on the behind-the-scenes tactics beverage and plastics companies have quietly used for decades to evade responsibility for their waste. The meeting of the coalition group known as Atlanta Recycles took place in January at the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials in Atlanta’s south side. By Sharon Lerner
Brief Fukushima Prefecture Update At Least 14 levees broke in Fukushima Prefecture News outlets worldwide are reporting that at least 66 residents of Japan have died as a result of Typhoon Hagibis. Our hearts reach out to the people of Japan and the families of the deceased. The news coverage from Reuters caught our attention due to its research that Fukushima Prefecture was apparently the region hardest hit by the typhoon. By Maggie Gundersen, Editor
Radiation Alert: Super Typhoon Hagibis Hits Japan Sweeping Away Radioactive Soil & Waste Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive waste is on the move again as Hagibis, the worst typhoon to hit Japan since 1958, dropped 30” of rain in 24 hours and millions of people were forced to evacuate from the flooding. Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive waste is on the move again as Hagibis, the worst typhoon to hit Japan since 1958, dropped 30” of rain in 24 hours and millions of people were forced to evacuate due to flooding. From the minute we learned of this Super Typhoon threat, we were gravely concerned for the people of Japan and the tons of highly radioactive debris sitting on the edge of the volatile Pacific Ocean on the former site of the six Fukushima Daiichi atomic power reactors. Three of those nuclear power plants had meltdowns in March 2011 leaving more highly toxic radioactivity than anyone ever anticipated having in one spot. Some of that poisonous debris has been raked up and confined to thousands of giant 1-ton jumbo plastic bags that were right in the path of Hagibis. As we watched the news of the approaching Pacific super typhoon (tropical cyclone) with its 150 mile per hour (mph) winds, we worried for the people of Japan who have already faced the worst nuclear disaster on the planet. Maggie Gundersen, Editor
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Labor:
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The CCA Fontana distribution center will be shut down, in addition to the historic Lordstown Assembly Plan and the Baltimore and Warren Transmission plants
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The contract provides a blank check for the unlimited use of temps
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The much vaunted “pathway” for temporary workers to regular status is littered with loopholes and will not apply to temporary part-time (TPT or Flex) workers
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Temporary workers will actually receive awage cut over the life of the contract
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Temporary workers will be used to replace laid-off senior workers
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The new contractremoves the following paragraph (page 53): “Full time temporary employees will not be hired at a plant where there are laid off seniority employees within the area hire. Temporary opportunities may be provided to laid off seniority employees.” At the same time, the contract aims to push over 2,000 “legacy” workers out of the plants by the end of February through a buyout program.
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This makes clear GM’s strategy to lay off older workers and replace them with the expanded use of “temporary” workers.
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Wage increases are not enough to keep up with current rate of inflation
Autoworkers denounce UAW deal with GM Autoworkers on the General Motors picket lines, at Ford and Fiat Chrysler factories and on social media are denouncing the tentative agreement the United Auto Workers has reached with GM. The UAW released its self-serving “highlights” of the four-year agreement during Thursday’s meeting of the GM Council, the body of local union officials who voted to back the deal and are now tasked with pushing it past a resistant membership. Based on the UAW’s summary alone, it is clear the contract is a betrayal of the month-long strike. It accepts the closure of factories, maintains the hated two-tier wage system, and expands the number of low-paid temps GM intends to use as the model for its future workforce.
World:
Parliament Votes To Withhold Approval of Brexit Deal, Postponing Boris Johnson’s Moment Of Reckoning British lawmakers voted Saturday to withhold support for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal, scuppering his hopes to finalize Brexit on an extraordinary “Super Saturday” but not dealing a fatal blow to the withdrawal agreement he negotiated in Brussels. The British Parliament held an extraordinary Saturday session to debate Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Here’s what we know so far:
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Lawmakers voted to withhold support for Johnson’s deal until all supporting legislation has passed.
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A British law requires the prime minister to request a Brexit delay if a deal is not approved by Oct. 19, but Johnson said, “I will not negotiate a delay with the E.U. And neither does the law compel me to do so.”
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Anti-Brexit protesters are marching through the streets of London. Some Brexit-supporting lawmakers reported requiring police escort.
EU leaves door open to Brexit extension, in blow to Boris Johnson Member states decline to follow Jean-Claude Juncker, who ‘ruled out’ further delay EU leaders have left open the option of extending Brexit beyond 31 October if the new deal is voted down by the Commons, in a blow to Boris Johnson’s strategy. The prime minister had been seeking to pitch Saturday’s vote in the Commons as a choice between deal or no deal after coming to an agreement with the EU. By Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin, in Brussels, and Rowena Mason in London
Boris Johnson’s Brexit “Betrayal”: Elect a Clown, Expect a Pie in Your Face“We have a deal!”, said the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, on 17th October, following intense negotiations with the UK. Juncker was referring to a new draft treaty on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU). But early reports suggest that British Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson has merely rehashedformer PM Theresa May’s disastrous Withdrawal Agreement. The hardcore Brexiteers within and without the Conservative and Unionist Party (Tories) will not be pleased. By T.J. Coles
Yemen Style Bombing: As Trump Downplays Attack on Kurds, Amnesty Details Turkish War Crimes and ‘Callous Disregard for Civilian Life’“Killing defenseless people in cold blood is utterly reprehensible and a blatant war crime,” said Amnesty International secretary general Kumi Naidoo By Jake Johnson
Haiti and the Convenience of Imperial Amnesia The ongoing protests in Haiti are ultimately directed against the “Core Group” — US imperialism and its junior partners, who have teamed up to gang-bang the wounded and bleeding Black republic. “The young people have been protesting under the idea that Haiti not only needs the resignation of President Moïse but also a full structural change.”Haiti is in the middle of the fifth straight week of anti-government protests that have effectively shut down the country. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, with one of the largest demonstrations in Haitian history taking place this past Sunday, October 13th. Makeshift roadblocks have been erected throughout the country, schools are closed and businesses shuttered, hospitals are barely managing, while agricultural goods from the countryside are unable to reach their markets, a situation acutely felt by Haiti’s rural populations. By Jemima Pierre . 
Economy:
Deferred Maintenance/Blackout Policies Have Proven to be Profitable to PG&E’s Stockholders: PG&E CEO Says It Could Impose Blackouts in California for a Decade Bill Johnson makes the disclosure in a hearing at which California officials blast PG&E’s shutoffs this month PG&E Corp. ’s chief executive said Friday that it could take as long as 10 years for the company to improve its electric system enough to significantly diminish the need to pull the plug on customers to reduce the risk of sparking fires. By Katherine Blunt
Fed’s Balance Sheet Spikes by $253 Billion, Now Topping $4 Trillion Shhh! Don’t tell Congress that the Federal Reserve is back to electronically creating money out of thin air to throw at a liquidity problem (of an, as yet, undetermined origin) on Wall Street. And be sure not to mention that the Fed’s balance sheet has shot up in a period of just 42 days by $253 billion. And, of course, don’t remind Congress that before the last Wall Street crisis was over the Fed had secretly, with no oversight from Congress, piled up a $29 trillion tab to bail out Wall Street — a fact it fought years in court to keep under wraps. On September 4, 2019, the Fed’s assets on its balance sheet stood at $3.761 trillion. As of October 16, that figure is $4.014 trillion, edging closer to the $4.5 trillion peak it reached in 2015 following the worst Wall Street crash since the Great Depression. BY PamMartens and Russ Martens
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!
The PR Campaign to Hide the Real Cause of those Sky-High Surprise Medical Bills Most people assume that if they are treated at a hospital in their insurance network, the doctors they see will accept their insurance. But that’s not always the case. Since 2010, an increasing number of hospitals have outsourced their emergency rooms, radiology, anesthesiology, and other specialized services to physician staffing firms. Patients who need these critical services may inadvertently receive care from a doctor outside of their insurance network and find that they owe thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in surprise medical bills. Rates of surprise billing are highest for insured patients treated in emergency rooms. By Eileen Appelbaum
The Corruption of Capitalism
Chicago Teachers Strike for Children’s Services and Affordable Housing
Quotes of the Day:
Barcelona Hit By General Strike in Support of Jailed Catalan Leaders
NYC Council Votes to Build More Jails, Continue Mass Incarceration
