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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 Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico!
. . . QUESTION: Do you see much evidence of a revolutionary spirit in the America of the 1990s?
CHOMSKY: You didn’t find evidence of it in the America of the 1790s. The Revolutionary War was an important event. But it was in the first place, to a significant extent, a civil war, as most revolutionary wars are. And it was a war of independence, as opposed to a revolution against the social structure. The social structure didn’t really change significantly. There were problems right after the war was done. For example, Shay’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion and so on were challenging the social structure, and there were efforts on the part of radical farmers to take seriously the meaning of the words in the revolutionary pamphlets, but that was pretty well quieted down. If you go back to the record of the Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787, almost immediately after the end of the war, you see that they are already moving in another direction. James Madison — who was the main framer, and one of the Founding Fathers who was most libertarian — makes it very clear that the new constitutional system must be designed so as to ensure that the government will, in his words, “the minority of the opulent against the majority” protect and bar the way to anything like agrarian reform. The determination was made that America could not allow functioning democracy, since people would use their political power to attack the wealth of the minority of the opulent. Therefore, Madison argues, the country should be placed in the hands of the wealthier set of men, as he put it. . . . — Noam Chomsky Interview, American History and Democracy:
Videos of the Day:
TRNN Replay: Empire in Decay: Federal Government Falling Apart as Spying Allegations Fly Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says there is a theory circulating in the intelligence community that the CIA asked the British to spy on Trump on behalf of the Democratic Party; the politicization of the intelligence agencies is a reflection of a dying empire
TRNN Replay: American Exceptionalism: Doing Bad Things for “Good Reasons” – Peter Kuznick on Reality Asserts Itself (3/4) On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, historian Peter Kuznick says beneath the veneer of America’s commitment to democracy is this hard-nose policy which says: how are we going to keep 50 percent of the world’s wealth – and it’s not by idealism
U.S.:
My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers My ‘founding forefathers’ are the ‘founding forefathers’ of the American Revolution of 1776, in the struggle by the colonies in North America to free themselves from the imperialist domination by England to establish their own nation. To these ‘founding forefathers’ are the members of Sons’s of Liberty, the Committees of Correspondence, and their leaders, Sam Adams, Nathan Hale, Ben Franklin etc., who gained fame, during this epoch, as some of the greatest of revolutionary writers, organizers, and strategists. On March 5, 1770, of the first victims of the struggle, against British rule, was Crispus Attucks, an escaped Negro slave, who was a Boston sailor and a leading radical fighter in the street demonstrations. The murder of these unarmed men has since borne the name: the Boston Massacre. In 1773, he organized the Boston Tea Party in opposition to against the import tax, Tea Tax. “The Boston Tea Party developed over a period of several months, and the masses throughout the colonies were kept well informed by the radicals of the events as they took place. When the deadlock was broken, a nationwide support had rallied behind Sam Adams, and when the British Ministry answered the Tea Party with the Coercive Acts, the battle was joined.” (Harry Frankel, Sam Adams And the American Revolution, Chapter 10, The Boston Tea Party) By Roland Sheppard
The Deadly Results of a DEA Backed Raid in Honduras It was a dark, moonless night. A small passenger boat had nearly reached the end of its six-hour journey upriver when helicopters appeared overhead and another boat came into view. Shots were fired, hitting several passengers. As terrified men, women and children leapt into the water, they were fired on again by a machine-gunner perched in a helicopter. Four people were killed, two of them women, another a 14-year-old boy. Several more were injured. It could have been another tragic scene of carnage from Syria, South Sudan or some other war-torn place. But this grisly incident occurred in the otherwise peaceful Miskito indigenous community of Ahuas, Honduras, during a May 2012 counternarcotics mission involving agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States-vetted Honduran police unit and machine-gun-equipped State Department helicopters. by Alexander Main Annie Bird
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Black Agenda Radio July 3, 2017 
Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host, Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black people gathered in East St. Louis, Illinois, and nearby Ferguson, Missouri, to mark one of the nation’s most deadly racist assaults, 100 years ago. Mumia Abu Jamal challenges the prosecutorial racism that put him in prison, 35 years ago. And, the Green Party puts forward a candidate for mayor of New York City.
But first — Rev. Edward Pinkney, the veteran community leader from mostly Black Benton Harbor, Michigan, is breathing free air for the first time in two-and- a-half years. Rev. Pinkney was released from prison after serving 30 months of a maximum ten year sentence for trying to recall a mayor allied with the giant Whirlpool Corporation, which has long dominated his city. The newly released political prisoner recalled his ordeal in the Michigan prison system.
A century ago, white mobs killed hundreds of Black people in East St. Louis, Illinois, in a slaughter that shaped Black politics for much of the remainder of the 20 th century. Back in 1917, when the white media spoke of “race riots,” they meant mass white assaults on Black communities. Many historians now refer to attacks like the one on East St. Louis, as pogroms — organized racist bloodbaths. Dr. Randy Short was a principal organizer of three days of actions marking the massacre. He says these rituals of mass murder were standard white political behavior, for many generations.
The Green Party’s candidate for mayor of New York City, Akeem Browder, thinks his fight to get on the ballot will be successful, despite the difficulties that small parties face in challenging the rule of the duopoly, corporate parties. Akeem is the brother of Kalief Browder, the young man who spent one thousand days locked up in New York’s infamous Rikers Island jail, before charges against him were dropped for a crime he didn’t commit. Kalief Browder then fell into a deep depression and committed suicide. His brother Akeem’s challenge to Mayor Bill Deblasio is an uphill climb. Diblasio was once seen by many as the great progressive white hope for New York. But, fewer people feel that way now that he’s up for re-election.
The 4 th of July is just another day behind bars if, like Mumia Abu Jamal and many others, you are a political prisoner in the United States. Mumia’s 35 years in prison, much of it on death row, in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer, has been marked by many courtroom dramas, punctuated by massive mobilizations of his worldwide supporters. There was encouraging news on the legal front, last month. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Dr. Johanna Fernandez, a professor of history and African American Studies at Baruch College, and a key organizer in the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. Dr. Fernandez explained the complex legal issue that is now before the Pennsylvania courts.
And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left. (Listen)
Environment:
Climate change threatens uninhabitable conditions for the Middle East and North Africa The Ecologist is delighted to launch its collaboration with the Climate Tracker initiative today, with an article about the impact of climate change on the Middle East and North Africa region from LINA YASSIN. The Sudanese engineering student argues that climate change is already affecting the region in dire ways. By Lina Yassin
As Climate Threats Mount, Experts Say No Time Left for Deceitful “Debate” “The science is clear: we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition to a 100% clean energy economy” As new and worrying evidence of global warming’s destructive impacts mount around the globe, climate experts are saying efforts by the Trump administration’s EPA chief to discredit decades of climate science research should be seen as a deceitful—and dangerous—tactic. By Julia Conley
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
100,000 march in London to say: Tories out! Corbyn in! The mood was jubilant and euphoric in central London on Saturday 1st July, as chants of “Oh Jer-e-my Cor-byn!” rang out through the streets of Whitehall and Westminster. Unlike some demonstrations in the past, this protest – with an estimated 100,000 trade unionists, activists, and youth marching – felt less like a funeral procession and more like a victory parade.
The Six-Day War: Fifty years on On 5th June 1967, the Israeli Air Force launched a surprise attack on Egyptian air bases in the Sinai province, beginning what came to be known as the Six-Day War and ending with Israel occupying the West Bank, Gaza, the whole Sinai Peninsula and shortly afterwards also the Golan Heights. To this day the Palestinians have had to live with the consequences. By Dejan Kukic
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
California Single-Payer Organizers Are Deceiving Their Supporters. It’s Time to Stop. The bill’s chief backers, including the California Nurses Association and the Bernie Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution, angrily point to Rendon as the main roadblock to truly universal health care. They’re completely wrong. What’s more, they know they’re wrong. They’re perfectly aware that SB562 is a shell bill that cannot become law without a ballot measure approved by voters. Rather than committing to raising the millions of dollars that would be needed to overcome special interests and pass that initiative, they would, apparently, rather deceive their supporters, hiding the realities of California’s woeful political structure in favor of a morality play designed to advance careers and aggrandize power. By David Dayen
Illuminating the Darkness in the Age of Despair All generations face trials unique to their times and your generation is no different. Though yours may be unprecedented. High on the list would be the precarity of the current historical moment–a time in which the security and foundations enjoyed by an earlier generation have been largely abandoned. Traditional social structures, long term jobs, stable communities, and permanent bonds have withered before the speed of consumption, disposability, and the scourge of unbridled production. This is a time when massive inequality plagues the planet and resources and power are largely controlled by a small financial elite; a time when the social contract is shrinking, war has become normalized, environmental protections are being dismantled, fear has become the new national anthem, and more and more people, especially young people, are being written out of the script of democracy. Yet, around the globe the spirit of resistance on the part of young people is coming alive once again. By Henry Giroux
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