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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. 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!
Images of the Day:
Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted. Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry’s outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse. In Texas alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart’s case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for shale gas fracking. The town — a gas station, a community hall and a taco truck – sits in the midst of the great Texan oil rush, on the eastern edge of the Permian basin. A few years ago, it seemed like a place on the way out. Now McGuire said she can see nine oil wells from her back porch, and there are dozens of RVs parked outside town, full of oil workers. But soon after the first frack trucks pulled up two years ago, the well on McGuire’s property ran dry. — A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water
This willingness to destroy lives for profit, to whiten a city and erase Black lives and the history and culture of these communities is the subject of Peter Moskowitz’s new book, How to Kill a City. … Gentrification is seen as improving struggling neighborhoods by those orchestrating the redevelopment. In reality, however, it’s simply a cash grab on the destruction of struggling lives. What you read in the pages of How to Kill a City is a heartbreaking story of the destruction of Black lives. You read how cultures are wiped out of a city’s fabric, and all for a $6 latte. Business leaders claim they are helping “renovate” a city, bringing it back to its original luster, while passing off the displaced as a kind of collateral damage. They may feel a little bad for a moment, but checking their bank account offers them the reassurance they are doing it for the right reasons. Gentrification is no longer just a buzzword used to describe renovation in a once poor neighborhood on the occasional whim of a developer; it is now a systematic plan by the country’s wealthiest individuals to take away even more from struggling communities and minority groups, turning their losses into profits. Gentrification takes a community’s personal tragedy, loss and destruction, and monetizes it. Understanding how this happens, and how individuals may unwittingly find themselves a part of it is what makes Moskowitz’s book so important. It isn’t a lesson about what happened, it’s a warning about what is happening now. — How Gentrification Is Killing US Cities and Black Lives
Videos of the Day:
Vaughn Rebellion Continues to Underscore Need for Prison Abolition, Activist Says Kim Wilson and Eddie Conway discuss the ongoing nationwide repression of prisoners demanding human rights, ahead of the Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March on August 19th
Profits Can be Made from Catastrophes With Disaster Capitalism Antony Lowenstein, author of Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe, says companies that make profits from disasters around the world also have a vested interest in maintaining these disasters
U.S.:
America Is the World’s Biggest Terrorist Organization — Why Is That So Hard to Understand? When America bombs, it’s rational; when other countries do it, we cry terrorism. “When our leadership said something threatening those words itself were taken to be terrorism; when the United States bombs, the world does not even blush.’ By Vijay Prashad
24 Years Ago, Today, US Govt. Used Chemical Weapons On Its Own People, Killing Women & Children Americans are up in arms over the alleged gas attack in Syria. Although there was no investigation, and many high-profile individuals have called it a sham, the US has pinned the blame on Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. So, we thought it would be a good idea to remind our fellow Americans of an occasion where the federal government got away with gassing its own people, an action which, consequently, led to the deaths of 86 men, women, and children. It all came to a violent end 24 years ago today, in Texas. By Jack Burns
Black Liberation/Civil Rights 
Maxine Waters Loses Her Mind to “Anti-Russia Dementia” – Like the Rest of the Black Caucus Not one Black member of Congress seems prepared to challenge the fraudulent U.S. pretext for bombing Syria – or the war, itself. Maxine Waters is the saddest case. “Who knows how Maxine Waters would vote on Trump’s air strike on Syria, since she is under the crazed delusion that Trump and Putin are in cahoots on the gassing and the retaliation?” Those whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad — with Anti-Russia Dementia. by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
An Apology, and a Choice That Isn’t Much of a Choice In a March 15 commentary I erroneously clamed that Our Revolution had endorsed corporate Democrat Jon Ossoff. I was incorrect, and offer my sincere apology for the error. In yesterday’s special election closely watched by the entire nation and billed as a referendum on Donald Trump, Democrat Jon Ossoff almost became the first Democrat elected from that district in 39 years. He’ll stand in a June 20 runoff against the Republican. But when the choice is a pro privatization, pro-war Republican and a pro privatization pro war Democrat is that really a choice at all? A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon 
For the Planet and Humanity to Survive / can’t make this up This week our poet in residence offers a brief meditations upon where and what sorts of bombing ought to be allowed, if any, and upon the lapse of White House mouthpiece Sean Spicer’s descent from manufacturing fake news into promulgating fake history…. by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Environment:
A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water Fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry and people thirsty By Suzanne Goldenberg 
Exxon Seeks U.S. Waiver to Resume Russia Oil Venture Exxon Mobil applied to Treasury for exemption to resume venture with Rosneft forged in 2012 by Rex Tillerson
Millions of gallons of waste water to be dumped into Missouri River Come next week, the Missouri River could become a stinky situation. Millions and millions of gallons of human waste is going to be dumped into the river.Starting Tuesday, the City of St. Joseph, about 45 minutes north of Kansas City will put about 16 million gallons worth of untreated wastewater into the river. 
B.C. Quietly Grants Mount Polley Mine Permit to Pipe Mine Waste Directly Into Quesnel Lake The B.C. Ministry of Environment has quietly granted the Mount Polley Mining Corporation permission to drain mining waste directly into Quesnel Lake, B.C.’s deepest fjord lake and a source of drinking water for residents of Likely, B.C., as part of a “long-term water management plan.” By Carol Linnitt
Labor:
Economy:
UK Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn Shocks Critics With Rousing Speech Against Establishment (Video) “Much of the media and establishment are saying that this election is a foregone conclusion,” said Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday. “They do not want us to win. Because when we win it is the people, not the powerful, who win.” By Natasha Hakimi 
Think Jeremy Corbyn is a loser? Oh dear, you’ve been brainwashed… If you think Jeremy Corbyn is a clown or a total waste of skin, it could be too late for you – you’ve already been brainwashed by a handful of foreign billionaires. We all agree that newspapers play a crucial role in British democracy, but what is troubling is that the majority of the UK press is owned by a handful of right-wing billionaires, most of whom don’t live here. In fact, almost 80 per cent of our press is owned by a handful of mostly foreign-based billionaires. 
Brazil: corruption scandals weaken Temer government on the eve of a general strike There have been fresh revelations about the corruption coursing through the veins of Brazilian politics. An investigation into what has become known as ‘Operation Car Wash’ (Lava Jato) — a money laundering and bribery scheme with links to state-owned oil company Petrobras and a number of politicians — has been ongoing since 2014. As recently as last week, this investigation has produced a fresh wave of allegations against even more members of Congress from all political parties. The money-grubbing filth with which the Brazilian state is spattered is clear for all to see. By Ben Gliniecki 
It is not just Bashar al-Assad who is ‘responsible’ for the rise of Isis When Amnesty revealed hanging in Assad’s prisons, we must remember that a few years earlier Bush and Blair were dispatching civilians to be tortured there too. By Robert Fisk
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
United States Terrorism
Quotes of the Day: 
By 2020 Two-Thirds Of Wild Animals Will Have Been Wiped Out Over A 50 Year Period As Mass Die-Offs Accelerate All Over The Planet By Michael Snyder 
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
World: