Skip to content
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!
Image of the Day:
No meme is stupider than “the troops died to protect our freedoms” – since the U.S. hasn’t fought a war that involved defending the U.S. since the 19th century, it would be more accurate to say that the troops died in order to crush other people’s freedoms – and that meme hits its zenith on Memorial Day, when the nation’s idea-challenged editorial cartoonists seize an opportunity to file a cartoon days in advance so they can kick off to the Bar-B-Q pit. Here are but a few of this year’s chestnuts of nastily nationalistic, sentimental pabulum: First of all, the yellow ribbon is for live troops. You’re supposed to put it on your tree until they come home. I don’t think you’d put that in a cemetery – not unless you want them to come home and commit suicide. — Memorial Day: When Editorial Cartooning Comes Out to Die
U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) both came out for stricter gun control legislation. Called a moral victory for the gun-control crowd, the NRA “endorsed restrictions on a device that makes rifles fire faster” – the same devices that Stephen Paddock used, according to the New York Times. Most big business media support gun control. All these comments and actions stand as two sides of the same bourgeoisie coin. Only the destruction of capitalism will deter domestic terrorism, mass murders. Pro-gun outfits such as right-wing militias, white supremacist groups, stand your ground and vigilante justice groups work in the service of the ruling class. — “Robert F. Williams founded the Black Guard to protect blacks from KKK violence in Monroe, North Carolina.” — Why do we Blacks need the right to bear arms? Recall the battles of the black Deacons for Defense and Justice, founded in Jonesboro, Louisiana, in 1964 to protect the Congress of Racial Equality from the domestic terror of the Ku Klux Klan. Remember Robert F. Williams, the black activist and author of Negroes with Guns? He founded the Black Guard to protect blacks from KKK violence in Monroe, North Carolina. Malcolm X said in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech, “… where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it’s time for Negroes to defend themselves.” Black ex-soldiers and others defended their neighborhoods in America’s numerous race wars. Gun control will not stop blacks from killing other blacks. The dog-eat-dog, inhumane capitalist system remains the primary cause. Ought cops and others that protect capitalism be allowed to monopolize armaments that now include military weapons? No! The right to bear arms stood as one of ten amendments that protected a portion of the people from government intrusion. Slaves were not included. We need not forgo our political rights for more cop protection in order to stem gun use. — Blacks, Las Vegas, and Gun Control
Videos of the Day:
Trump Blames Leftists For Unpopularity of Columbus Day Donald Trump sent out an email to supporters on October 8, claiming liberals and leftists were erasing the history of Christopher Columbus Trump, Columbus, Columbus Day, Slave Trade, Activists, Leftists
Trump Race-Baits, NFL Kneels Donald Trump is continuing a long tradition of attacking prominent African-Americans, and the NFL is caving to his demands, says historian Gerald Horne
Judge Reconsiders Gag Order in J20 Case First amendment issues at stake in a hearing to reassess a protective order that prohibits defendants arrested during Inauguration protests to share discovery evidence
U.S.:
Heart of disaster: California wildfire evacuees return to a wasteland Residents of Santa Rosa can only sift through the ashes of their former homes – some of the nearly 2,000 structures levelled by a devastating inferno By Julia Carrie Wong and Erin McCormick in Santa Rosa, California
The Other “Spirit” of the Iran Nuclear Deal Among the favored talking points of those arguing for a US withdrawal, renegotiation, or “decertification” of the Iran nuclear deal is that Iran has violated the deal’s “spirit” by pursuing non-nuclear related activity, ranging from ballistic missile testing to destabilizing regional activity. Critics of the deal continue to offer this argument despite the fact the US maintains the country is in compliance with the “technical” aspects of the agreement’s “letter,” as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently noted. by Kevin Schwartz
Revolution Not Reform: Moral Courage, Redefining Progress and the Myth of Social Democracy Revolution in society must begin with the inner, psychological revolution of the individual. Most of us want to see a radical transformation of the social structure…however radical that social revolution may be its nature is static if there is no inward revolution, no psychological transformation. by William Hawes
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Freedom Rider: True Conspiracies “A distracted and hypnotized public won’t ask questions, make demands, or build movements.”American history has many examples of governmental and corporate plots that deceive, kill, create wars, and ruin lives. United States covert operations destroyed movements domestically and overthrew governments overseas. No one has to prove the existence of high level conspiracies that furthered the interests of the state and or its corporate partners. By Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
Ugandans Resist Land Grabbing and US-backed Dictatorship: an Interview with Phil Wilmot “One man essentially wants to exploit all the wealth of the country for himself.” Eighty-four percent of the population of Uganda are rural subsistence farmers. They are resisting both rampant land grabbing and US ally General Yoweri Museveni’s attempt to rule for life. I spoke to Phil Wilmot , an American-born activist who now lives in rural Uganda. By Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
Defining Independence at the Twilight of Empire “Movements for self-determination must be judged on the concrete pressure they place to either unite the oppressed or empower the imperialist order.” It appears that wherever one looks in the world, the imperialism is crumbling. Spain has been thrown into chaos by the call for Catalonia’s independence. The Kurdish oligarchy in Iraq is seeking to divide the nation through an independence referendum of its own. Puerto Rico’s status as a US colony has left the island in rubble following Hurricane Irma. And the US is launching dangerous war provocations with Russia in Syria, threatening the very future of humanity in the process. By Danny Haiphong, BAR contributor
Police Unions vs. Black Lives “Any set of demands regarding police reform should include a strategy to directly confront the police union in order to limit its power and influence.” In “progressive” Portland, Oregon, the city’s police stand out as political outliers. Whereas most of the city leans left the average cop is, unapologetically, on the far-right of the political spectrum. Portland’s rightwing cops mirror the politics of police across the country, reflected in the early endorsement that the nation’s largest police union gave to Trump at a time when the sleaziest politicians found him too repulsive. By Shamus Cooke 
Who’s Hacking Who? Americans, Not Russians, Disenfranchise Millions of Blacks “The black vote has been ‘hacked’ and ‘interfered’ with for decades by both parties and is clearly under increasing attack.” The alleged Russian “involvement” and/or “hacking” of the 2016 U.S. elections has taken on a life of its own in the corporate media. Curiously, many African Americans have adopted this narrative for the reason we are stuck with Donald J. Trump, he of the basketball shot of paper towels toward desperate Puerto Ricans. But Black people need not and should not buy into this conspiracy theory for why they, of all people, are saddled with this madman for the next four years. Never mind the fact that Hillary Clinton was unpopular with younger, more politically active African Americans. By Bryan K. Bullock 
“New Energy Vehicles”: Can China Break Big Oil’s Global Order? “The power of the small clique of western financial oligarchs depends on oil remaining central.” In the antebellum south of the United States, the plantation owning slaveholders kept their power because of an economic order summed up by the slogan “Cotton is King.” In today’s international order, a small clique of western monopolists hold on to power because “Oil is King.” However, China’s new regulations pushing electric cars show an emerging challenge to this global setup. By Caleb T. Maupin
Blacks, Las Vegas, and Gun Control “Black ex-soldiers and others defended their neighborhoods in America’s numerous race wars.” The recent mass murder domestic terrorist attack in Las Vegas rekindled the U.S. bourgeoisie shaped the debate over gun control and Second Amendment Constitutional rights — the right to bear arms. The 58 persons killed and 547 wounded made it the largest mass murder in American annals. By Ken Morgan
Lynching and Anti-Lynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s “There were nearly 5,000 persons lynched from 1882 through 1965.” The term “lynching” supposedly originated during the American Revolution with Colonel Charles Lynch, a Virginia justice of the peace. Lynch ordered “extra legal punishment” for British Loyalists, hanging without a trial. From this period we have the terms Lynch’s Law and lynching. By M. Lee Stone
Environment:
The Seeds of Agroecology and Common Ownership The increasingly globalised industrial food system that transnational agribusiness promotes is not feeding the world and is responsible for some of the planet’s most pressing political, social and environmental crises. Localised, traditional methods of food production have given way to globalised supply chains dominated by transnational companies policies and actions which have resulted in the destruction of habitat and livelihoods and the imposition of corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive (monocrop) agriculture that weds farmers and regions to a wholly exploitative system of neoliberal globalisation. by Colin Todhunter
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
Britain: Tories and capitalism on the rocks – socialism the mainstream After a disastrous speech at her party’s conference this week, it is clear that May’s days are numbered. Socialist ideas, meanwhile, are back on the agenda. By Rob Sewell
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The Vietnam War is Not History for Victims of Agent Orange Watching the Ken Burns-Lynn Novick 18-hour series, “The Vietnam War,” is an emotional experience. Whether you served in the US military during the war or marched in the streets to end it, you cannot remain untouched by this documentary. The battle scenes are powerful, the stories of US veterans and Vietnamese soldiers who fought on both sides of the war compelling. by Marjorie Cohn and Jonathan Moore
Benefits Overview for Agent Orange Exposure VA offers health registry exams, health care, disability compensation and other benefits to eligible Veterans. Their dependents and survivors also may be eligible for benefits. Health care for Veterans Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service may be eligible for:
* Agent Orange Registry health exam, a free exam for possible long-term health problems related to herbicide exposure. Veterans who served in Vietnam, the Korean demilitarized zone or other areas where Agent Orange was sprayed may be eligible.
* Health care benefits, a full range of medical benefits. There are many ways a Veteran may qualify.
Quotes of the Day: