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As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not The 1% Who Profit From Austerity!
Images of the Day:
From Tyranny at Standing Rock: The Government’s Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Is Working: It’s one of the oldest military strategies in the books, and it’s proven to be the police state’s most effective weapon for maintaining the status quo. How do you conquer a nation? Distract them with football games, political circuses and Black Friday sales. Keep them focused on their differences — economic, religious, environmental, political, racial — so they can never agree on anything. And then, when they’re so divided that they are incapable of joining forces against a common threat, start picking them off one by one. What we’re witnessing at Standing Rock, where activists have gathered to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline construction on Native American land, is just the latest incarnation of the government’s battle plan for stamping out any sparks of resistance and keeping the populace under control: battlefield tactics, military weaponry and a complete suspension of the Constitution. Militarized police. Riot and camouflage gear. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Drones. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Concussion grenades. Arrests of journalists. Intimidation tactics. Brute force. This is what martial law looks like, when a government disregards constitutional freedoms and imposes its will through military force. Only this is martial law without any government body having to declare it. This is martial law packaged as law and order and sold to the public as necessary for keeping the peace. These overreaching, heavy-handed lessons in how to rule by force have become standard operating procedure for a government that communicates with its citizenry primarily through the language of brutality, intimidation and fear. What Americans have failed to comprehend is that the police state doesn’t differentiate.
Videos of the Day:
Can Trump’s Gangster Capitalism Manage the Global Economy? Leo Panitch and Paul Jay discuss what the consequences of Trump’s plans to deregulate Wall St., reduce taxes, create an infrastructure boondoggle, attack unions and foreign policy adventures will have on the global economy
Unprecedented Imperial Powers Will Soon Pass into Trump’s Hands It’s really frightening to imagine that the war powers granted by the AUMF will soon be used by the most inexperienced team ever to serve in the White House and commanded by a man who lied himself into wealth and power, says Col. Larry Wilkerson
U.S.
President Obama Must Act Now on DAPL On November 1, President Obama called on “both sides to show restraint” and said that the Army Corps of Engineers was considering an alternate route. He also said that he wanted to “let the situation play out.” It has played out, and not in a positive way. One side is definitely not showing that restraint. Things escalated in the last several weeks due to the militarized response from state and other authorities. North Dakota Governor Dalrymple has sent law enforcement from all over the state to Standing Rock, and has convinced seven other states to do the same. Law enforcement has used aggressive tactics to counter the nonviolent protests. Police are using water cannons, tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber bullets against the unarmed protestors. by Laura Finley
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Black Liberation/ Civil Rights:
Private Prisons Were Thriving Even Before Trump Was Elected Even before the election, private prisons seemed well on track to recover from earlier setbacks. Despite its phase-out promises, the Bureau of Prisons quietly renewed two of its private contracts — for the CCA-run McRae Correctional Facility and the GEO-run D. Ray James facility, both in Georgia. By Alice Speri
Racism In North Dakota
GOP Plans Stealth Attack on Medicare: Republicans in Congress have “never really liked Social Security or Medicare” because the programs “work and they completely go against the ideology that the private sector is always better,” said Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works. The GOP will act “in the dead of night, so the people don’t know what’s happening,” and sneak a privatization bill into a “reconciliation” measure that “the Democrats can’t filibuster,” Altman predicted. “They want to give seniors and people with disabilities a check and say, ‘Good luck, go out and get private insurance.’”
What Do You Mean by Identity Politics?: Lots of people talk about how “identity politics affected the election, but the term is never specifically defined,” said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. “As you tease out the rhetoric, it appears to suggest that organizations like Black Lives Matter is identity politics, and people protesting against being shot down in the streets by officers of the state is identity politics.” The only good news to come out of the election, said Horne, “is that Donald J. Trump will probably prove to be the Gorbachev of the United States of America” by accelerating the decline of U.S. imperialism and white supremacy.
2016 was Bound to be a Bad Year: The “panic and hysteria” of some Hillary Clinton supporters “is really very childish,” said Diana Johnstone, author of Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton. “The fact is, there wasn’t going to be a good outcome to that election, anyway; you had two terrible candidates, so you should have been prepared for that.” The Democrats crazily search for Russians behind every web site. “The idea that Russia interfered with the election is absolutely absurd,” said Johnstone, speaking from her home in Paris. “It sound to me like they’ve decided they’re going to make war against Russia — and they’re all into that,” including the media.
President Obama’s Hollow Legacy: Barack Obama was “beloved” by large numbers of Black people, but it was a one-way affair. “Politicians score points with white people by assuring them they’re not going to do anything for Black people, and Obama was no exception,” said Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley. “In order to win, Black people have to be thrown under the bus.” The Obama “gave white people a message that he would not in any way upset the status quo,” said Kimberley, speaking on the Taylor Report on CUIT radio, in Toronto, Canada. “His is a hollow legacy.” Hillary Clinton lost because “you can’t transfer one person’s popularity to another.”
Peltier on Standing Rock Protests: One thousand people took part in the 47th annual Native American National Day of Mourning, last Thursday, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Placards declared “We Are Not Vanishing” and “We Are Not Conquered,” as an Elder read a message from political prisoner Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement activist who has been locked up for the past 41 years. The Standing Rock protests “are the greatest gathering of our people in history, and has made us more connected than every before,” said Peltier. “Water is life, and we cannot leave this issue to our children and grandchildren.”
Labor:
British Autumn Statement: Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic When Boris Johnson, the pro-Leave Tory foreign secretary, recently promised to “make a titanic success” of Brexit, it is unlikely that he realised at the time just how apt his choice of words was. With the Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR), as part of yesterday’s Autumn Statement, predicting slower growth and a £122bn hole in the government’s finances as a result of Britain’s forthcoming departure from the EU, it is clear that the UK economy is heading for an iceberg. by Adam Booth
World:
20 Million Muslims March Against ISIS and The Mainstream Media Completely Ignores It In one of the largest organized marches in the history of the world, tens of millions of Shia Muslims made an incredibly heartening statement, by risking their lives to travel through war-stricken areas to openly defy ISIS. This massive event that would have undoubtedly helped to ease tensions in the West was almost entirely ignored by corporate media. By Matt Agorist
No Pasaran, Commandante Fidel! What was Fidel’s gift to the world and what did his Cuba achieve? Results do not always have to be material. Although yes, of course, we could talk for days about the great education, culture, creativity, medical care and equality. Socialist Cuba gave more, much more than that.
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It gave hope, where hope was fading.
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It gave strength, where only resignation reigned.
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It gave heart to those places where only vulgar mercantile interests were recognized.
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It gave optimism to counter the deadly embrace of nihilism.
Once Fidel shouted: “They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?” by Andre Vltchek
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Big Oil
Quote of the Day:
For the 1st Time, a Lawsuit Could Assign Individual Accountability in CIA Post-9/11 Torture Program A lawsuit filed by two men who were tortured and the representative of a third who died in CIA custody may hold accountable two psychologists the agency contracted to design the post-9/11 interrogation program.In October, one of the plaintiffs, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, told New York Times reporter James Risen that he can’t escape the “Darkness” of his experience of torture.Environment: 
Economy: