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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!
Images of the Day:
In the 10 years he has been digging up ordnance from the Korean War, Maj. Jong Il Hyon has lost five colleagues to explosions. He carries a lighter one gave him before he died. He also bears a scar on his left cheek from a bomb disposal mission gone wrong. Sixty-four years after it ended, the war is still giving up thousands of bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition. Virtually all of it is American, but Jong noted that more than a dozen other countries fought on the U.S. side, and every now and then their bombs will turn up as well. “The experts say it will take 100 years to clean up all of the unexploded ordnance, but I think it will take much longer,” Jong said in an interview with The Associated Press at a construction site on the outskirts of Hamhung, North Korea’s second-largest city, where workers unearthed a rusted but still potentially deadly mortar round in February. Last October, 370 more were found in a nearby elementary school playground. According to Jong, his bomb squad is one of nine in North Korea, one for each province. His unit alone handled 2,900 leftover explosives — including bombs, mortars and live artillery shells — last year. He said this year they have already disposed of about 1,200. — 64 Years After Korean War, the North Is Still Digging Up Bombs
Speaking of various types of permafrost (1) permafrost in ESAS subsea, or (2) permafrost on land in Siberia, or (3) Alaska permafrost there’s a new discovery that is spooky, downright spooky. Aircraft measurements of CO2 and CH4, as well as confirmation of those measurements from scientific measuring devices on towers in Barrow, Alaska show that over the course of two years Alaska emitted the equivalent of 220 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from biological sources alone, not anthropogenic (Source: Elaine Hannah, Alaska’s Thawing Soils Cause Huge Carbon Dioxide Emissions Into The Air, Science World Report, May 12, 2017). That is equivalent to all the emissions from the U.S. commercial sector per annum. Why is that happening? Alaska is hot, that’s why, and it may be a climate tipping point that self-perpetuates global warming, no human hands needed, or in the nasty colloquial, the start of Runaway Global Warming. That’s as bad as nasty climate wake-up calls get, nature overtaking anthropogenic global warming duties. What could be worse than incipient Runaway Global Warming? Answer: Impending Nuclear War. — Extremely Nasty Climate Wake-Up
. . . By the early 1980s, however, facing global competition GM began shifting assembly work abroad, leading to the shuttering of numerous plants in Flint. Ultimately, GM shed approximately 70,000 jobs in the Flint metro area, leaving about 10,000 workers in the area today (see Highsmith 2015Highsmith, Andrew. 2015. Demolition Means Progress: Flint Michigan and the Fate of the American etropolis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.[CrossRef], [Google Scholar] for an overview). Despite Governor Snyder’s proclamation that Michigan is “the comeback state,” Flint has never recovered from the devastation of deindustrialization. For many, Flint became the poster-city for deindustrialization with Michael Moore’s film, “Roger and Me” (1989), in which Moore sought to get the CEO of GM, Roger Smith, to come to Flint and confront the devastation left in the wake of GM’s departure. Since deindustrialization Flint has suffered from depopulation, including white flight, devastating urban renewal (Highsmith 2015Highsmith, Andrew. 2015. Demolition Means Progress: Flint Michigan and the Fate of the American Metropolis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.[CrossRef], [Google Scholar]), high poverty and crime rates, and a series of fiscal crises (see O’Connor 1973O’Connor, James. 1973. Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin’s Press. [Google Scholar]). This deep restructuring was exacerbated by the 2008 recession that not only resulted in a housing crisis but also in the loss of even more GM jobs. In 2008 GM declared bankruptcy, received billions in a federal bailout, and Flint proper’s GM employment dropped to a mere 6434 (Highsmith 2015Highsmith, Andrew. 2015. Demolition Means Progress: Flint Michigan and the Fate of the American Metropolis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.[CrossRef], [Google Scholar], 272). These processes of abandonment have led to the city becoming poorer and Blacker, as those with more options (including white skin), left Flint. As of 2010, there were 102,434 residents in Flint, 56.6% of whom were African American and 37.4% white. The median household income is $24,679, giving the city a staggering poverty rate of 41.6% (US Census Bureau 2015Smith, Lindsey. 2016. “After Blowing the Whistle on the Flint’s Water, EPA “Rogue Employee” has Been Silent. Until Now.” Michigan Radio, January 21. Accessed June 6, 2016.(http://michiganradio.org/post/after-blowing-whistle-flints-water-epa-rogue-employee-has-been-silent-until-now – stream/0), 167% higher than the national average.11 http://www.areavibes.com/flint-mi/employment/.View all notes The subprime housing crisis was so severe in Flint that the average home price dropped to $17,000 (Highsmith 2015Highsmith, Andrew. 2015. Demolition Means Progress: Flint Michigan and the Fate of the American Metropolis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.[CrossRef], [Google Scholar], 273). Similar to other old industrial cities, Flint’s population has fallen 50%, from a high of over 200,000 residents to its current level. This means a smaller and poorer population is left to shoulder the cost of city services, including pensions for those who have left the city. Not surprisingly, city services have declined, infrastructure deteriorated, and debt sky-rocketed. . . . Flint, Environmental Racism, and Racial Capitalism
Videos of the Day:
Michael Mann Responds to ‘Uninhabitable Earth’ Leading Climate Scientist Michael Mann separates myth from reality in climate change reporting
Saudi Arabian Activist Calls Out U.S. For Ignoring Human Rights Abuses Women’s Rights Saudi Arabia activist Hala Aldosari calls for greater action as 14 protesters, including a disabled person and two people arrested as juveniles are scheduled to be executed in Saudi Arabia
U.S.:
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
America steals votes from felons Until it stops, our democracy will be weakened Felony disenfranchisement bars roughly 6.1 million citizens from voting – one in 13 black Americans. Trump’s ‘electoral integrity’ commission is silent By Russ Feingold
Environment:
Extremely Nasty Climate Wake-Up Now that the Great Acceleration dictates the biosphere with ever more intensity, sudden changes in the ecosystem are causing climate scientists to stop and ponder what’s happening to our planet, like never before… hmm! by Robert Hunziker
Labor:
Economy:
Quantitative Easing: the Most Opaque Transfer of Wealth in History It appears that the massive, almost decade-long, transfer of wealth to the rich known as ‘quantitative easing’ is coming to an end. Of the world’s four major central banks — the US federal reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan — two have already ended their policy of buying up financial assets (the Fed and the BoE) and the ECB plans to stop doing so in December. Indeed, the Fed is expected to start selling off the $3.5trillion of assets it purchased during three rounds of QE within the next two months. by Dan Glazebrook
Life After Debt in Puerto Rico: How Many More Lost Decades? As Puerto Rico enters the legal debt restructuring process, this paper examines the future prospects for an economy that has had no growth over the last ten years — a lost decade. The fiscal plan approved by Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight Board, according to their own projections, foresee approximately another lost decade; this paper shows that negative growth is likely to extend even further than that. Nor will the proposed restructuring satisfy creditors, who may then further impede economic recovery by taking legal action in an attempt to collect the full value of the bonds they hold. The paper also notes the recent historical and structural causes of the economy’s decline, which led to the debt crisis; and that these, too, will need to be addressed if Puerto Rico is ever to have a sustainable recovery. By Lara Merling, Kevin Cashman, Jake Johnston, and Mark Weisbrot
World:
The beginning of a crucial week in Venezuela The Venezuelan opposition, backed by Washington and Madrid, has launched an all out offensive to prevent Sunday’s Constituent Assembly elections form going ahead. We stand firmly against this reactionary attempt which can only be defeated by revolutionary means. By Jorge Martin
A Shameful Silence: Where is the Outrage Over the Slaughter of Civilians in Mosul? The catastrophic number of civilian casualties in Mosul is receiving little attention internationally from politicians and journalists. This is in sharp contrast to the outrage expressed worldwide over the bombardment of east Aleppo by Syrian government and Russian forces at the end of 2016. by Patrick Cockburn
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
US scientists believe that the Cuban vaccine against lung cancer could be used to treat all types of cancerRoswell Park in New York continues to host the first American trial of the Cuban lung cancer vaccine called CIMAvax.Trials began in January of this year.Clinical trials may take up to two years to complete. In a recent interview with Dr. Kelvin Lee, director of immunology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, where the effectiveness of Cimavax is being tested, he is impressed with the drug.He revealed that the trials are exceeding his expectations.Dr. Kelvin Lee says that the first phase focuses on determining the safety of the drug.
Dylan and Woody: Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad Anger, when directed at injustice, is useful and important. When it is placed in the hands of a writer as capable as Daniel Wolff, it becomes a thing of beauty. Wolff’s most recent book, Grown Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913 is that thing of beauty. It is simultaneously a history of capitalism and labor organizing in the United States, a biography of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, and a critical discussion of a number of songs composed and sung by these two American icons. Like the road Guthrie and Dylan romanticized and wrote about, the author Wolff takes the reader through a winding landscape of labor unrest, capitalist greed, personal hardship and popular success. It is a story familiar to many but told in a unique fashion that brings alive Dylan and Guthrie’s songs and the social and political context they are both informed by and inform. by Ron Jacobs
Timeline: Trickle-Down Economics Explained
Quotes of the Day:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis: