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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 Those 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:
Far from selfless arbiters of right and wrong, CEOs are as responsible as anyone in America for skyrocketing inequality, climate crisis, waves of consumer fraud, and the biggest financial meltdown since the Depression. Condemning the unpopular views of an unpopular president whom they see as an inferior businessman is no sacrifice, especially when they are simultaneously plotting with administration officials to win as many perks as possible. CEOs aren’t “finding their voice”; they’re finding a way to control government like a marionette, while hiding the strings. — The CEOs Won’t Save Us — Why do we keep falling for the myth that business leaders are the moral pillars of America?
A State of Exclusion: When the “Founding Fathers” declared that “all men are created equal,” they of course meant only white, property-owning men. The Declaration of Independence expressed open contempt for “the merciless Indian savages” who occupied the lands coveted by European settlers. The Constitution maintained the legal enslavement of black people, which would last until 1865 and much longer in more covert form. Even among white men, only the wealthy were meant to enjoy real political power. James Madison, the lead framer of the Constitution, proclaimed that the government “ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” From the beginning, the Founders envisioned a hierarchical class system structured around white supremacy, patriarchy, and authoritarianism. — The Huddled Masses Were Never Welcome
Videos of the Day:
Texaco-Chevron in Ecuador: Benefitted from Dumping Oil Beyond Saving Money A study of the Texaco-Chevron oil dumping case in Ecuador reveals that oil companies have an incentive to pollute that goes beyond saving money from oil dumping, explains Lindsay Ofrias, the study’s author
Labor Day, the Less Radical Alternative to May Day In 2009, Jeannette Wicks-Lim from PERI said low-wage work was likely to predominate future job creation through 2016, but that unions can act to counter that trend
U.S.
Undercover in North Korea: “All Paths Lead to Catastrophe” The most alarming aspect of North Korea’s latest nuclear test, and the larger standoff with the U.S., is how little is known about how North Korea truly functions. For 70 years it’s been sealed off from the rest of the world to a degree hard to comprehend, especially at a time when people in Buenos Aires need just one click to share cat videos shot in Kuala Lumpur. Few outsiders have had intimate contact with North Korean society, and even fewer are in a position to talk about it. By Jon Schwarz
Our Collective Response to the Houston Tragedy Is Proof That Greed and Capitalism Aren’t the Only Ways to Run Society Despite the cooperative response to Houston, we face the continuing absurdity of a winner-take-all capitalist system. By Paul Buchheit
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Dancing With the Devil Dystopia is finally here, but we seem to have our sides mixed up as of late. We live in a time when Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation move forward with labeling anti-fascists groups as domestic terrorist organizations while removing white supremacists groups from those very same lists. The militarization of police has resumed, while the United States continues to wage its imperial wars across the planet regardless of the fact that climate change has begun to ravage our world. Every conceivable method of shoring up the police state that began to take definitive shape under the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama is once again being implemented. by Miguel A. Cruz-Díaz
How the American Jim Crow System Inspired Hate and the Alt-Right Although it is common knowledge that modern-day Nazis in America draw their inspiration from Nazi Germany, far less widely known is that the Jim Crow South inspired Hitler. For all the outrage over the rise of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and the alt-right — and the legitimization of these groups in the halls of power in Washington — ultimately the underpinnings of Nazi ideology are homegrown and very American. The Nuremberg laws — which segregated Jews and discriminated against them in all aspects of life, stripped them of citizenship, banned interracial marriage between Aryans and Jews, and laid the groundwork for genocide — originated in the Jim Crow segregation laws. While the white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, looked to Nazi Germany as their guide, the original Nazis used the United States as their template. By David Love
Environment:
The Fire This Time:
Greenland Is Burning: Wildfires and Floods Surge Worldwide Houston is reeling from catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Meanwhile, flooding from record rainfalls has killed hundreds in South Asia as the rest of the world is experiencing record-high temperatures, drought and wildfires. Yet, mainstream media rarely mentions anthropogenic climate disruption, which marches on, causing some of the worst climate-related humanitarian crises in recent memory. By Dahr Jamail
Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 600 Percent Faster Than Predicted by Current Models The climate is very capable of changing to another stable state unfavorable to the human species, and this is a real danger of our global experiment with unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions, says Arctic ice specialist David Barber
Look Around: The Costs of Not Acting on Climate Are Adding Up Fast From major hurricanes and flooding to droughts and fires, the refusal to accept the science of global warming is getting very expensive by Common Dreams staff
Dumb and Dumber: Foregrounding Climate Justice From Harvey to Haiti’s Matthew by K. Jessica Hsu – Mark Schuller
Climate Breakdown Climate breakdown, as George Monbiot calls it, is happening before our eyes at the same time the science on climate change grows stronger and has wider acceptance. Hurricane Harvey, which struck at the center of the petroleum industry — the heart of climate denialism — provided a glimpse of the new normal of climate crisis-induced events. In Asia, this week the climate message was even stronger where at least 1,200 people died and 41 million were impacted. By 2050, one billion people could be displaced by climate crises. By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Chemical companies have already released 1 million pounds of extra air pollutants, thanks to Harvey Oil refineries and chemical plants across the Texas Gulf Coast released more than 1 million pounds of dangerous air pollutants in the week after Harvey struck, according to public regulatory filings aggregated by the Center for Biological Diversity. By Steven Mufson
Labor:
Economy: 
Wall Street Is the Most Dangerous Example of Corporate Domination As if someone had quietly turned on a light bulb last month illuminating the corporate takeover of America, a series of articles from multiple outlets chronicled the demise of American democracy under the jackboot of the corporate state. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Disaster Capitalism:
‘We don’t have anything’: landlords demand rent on flooded Houston homes Displaced families say they are struggling to pay rent on damaged dwellings, as an acute housing crisis grips south-east Texas after Hurricane Harvey By Oliver Milman
Gregor Samsa’s Twentieth Century Blues In the aftermath of any nuclear apocalypse, the story goes that cockroaches will be one of the few species to mutate and survive. If this is true, then one could reasonably argue that the transformation from human to cockroach of Franz Kafka’s character Gregor Samsa, in his story story “The Metamorphosis” was an evolutionary step forward. by Ron Jacobs
The Shocking Doomsday Maps Of The World And The Billionaire Escape Plans When I wrote my first article on billionaire bunkers years ago, I never would have imagined how quickly our world was changing. Our lives are in a constant state of flux, the political situation aside, our earth is rapidly changing. Between the increase of bizarre weather patterns hitting the earth, and recent major volcanic activity, now more than ever our focus is on our planets future. By Jim Dobson 
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