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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!
Image of the Day:
The Rapid Transfer of Wealth From The 99% to the 1% Had Its Origins During the Kennedy Adminstration’s ‘Tax Reform’. Every ‘Tax Reform’ Since then, has led to an Increase of Taxes Upon the Working Class and the rest of the 99% and a Decrease in taxes for the Rich — The Rapid Wealth Transfer From The 99% to the 1% had Begun!— The ‘Robinhood in Reverse Tax Reforms’! — Roland Sheppard
Indeed, now into its eighth year, Greece remains entirely dependent on international bailouts (three bailouts involving the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have been arranged since 2010), has lost a quarter of its GDP with no realistic expectations of recovering it for decades to come, experiences unemployment levels which have oscillated between a high 27.8 percent (in July 2013) and a low 21.2 percent (in June 2017), and has seen the standard of living decline to 1960s levels. Worse, Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio has exploded since the start of the bailout programs, rising from 128 percent in 2010 to over 185 percent in 2017, and, with no debt relief in sight, the small Mediterranean nation has become truly a permanent debt colony inside the world’s richest region. In the meantime, a mass exodus of young and educated people has been in motion for several years now (youth unemployment rate in Greece stands currently at 43.3 percent), a process that is bound to have long-term effects on demographic trends and a significant impact on future economic developments. Nonetheless, the storyline advanced these days from Athens, courtesy of a pseudo-leftist government that has not only reneged on every one of its promises to the Greek citizens since coming to power, but has ended up reinforcing the neoliberal agenda of the European Union/International Monetary Fund duo with more perseverance than all previous governments put together, is that the country has “turned page” and that the crisis is now practically over. — Greece and economic recovery: Fake news in action
Videos of the Day:
Trump’s Would-Be Drug Czar Helped the Drug Profiteers Rep. Tom Marino has withdrawn his nomination as President Trump’s new drug czar after revelations he pushed through a measure that worsened the U.S. opioid epidemic. White-collar criminologist Bill Black says Marino and other lawmakers have been bought off by pharmaceutical companies he says have acted as “illicit, criminal, drug dealers”
Puerto Rico Needs Water, But Trump Claims Success Over 30% of Puerto Ricans still do not have access to clean water one month after Hurricane Maria, but today President Trump gave the federal response a perfect score
U.S.:
Blueprint for The Most Radical City on the Planet For years, people in Jackson have been organizing to build and sustain community power. They created Cooperation Jackson to take concrete steps to make human rights a reality for all by changing their democratic process and their economy. Their goal is self-determination for people of African descent, particularly the Black working class. The vehicle is the building of a solidarity economy in Jackson Mississippi on a democratic economic base. The long range plan is to participate in a radical transformation of the entire state of Mississippi and ultimately the radical democratic and economic transformation of the United States itself. By Bill Quigley
Open Letter to the People of the United States From Puerto Rico, a Month After Hurricane María: Dear Friends: By now you have surely heard about the catastrophic impact of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, as well as the slow and still inadequate response by U.S. federal agencies, such as FEMA. A month after María, dozens of communities are still inaccessible by car or truck. Close to 90 percent of all homes lack electricity. Half lack running water. Many of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents have difficulties obtaining drinking water. The death toll continues to rise due to lack of medical attention or materials (oxygen, dialysis) or from poisoning caused by unsafe water. The failures of U.S. agencies might come as no surprise, since the federal response (including FEMA’s) to other disasters, such as for Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, was as slow and inadequate. by Rafael Bernabe – Manuel Rodríguez Banchs
Relocated Puerto Rican Families are Florida’s Latest Class War Targets As the Puerto Rico disaster unfolds before our horrified eyes, shortages of water, food, housing, medicine, and healthcare threaten countless lives. As of October 13, 2017, 30,000 Puerto Ricans have arrived at the Orlando International Airport– which has established a disaster relief center to aid incoming islanders who are hungry, thirsty, and need essential living assistance. by Michelle Renee Matisons 
Yes, We Need to Tax the Rich You have to hand it to the rich in dealing with the tax reforms proposed by the Liberals. They didn’t even have to put pen to paper or pick up the phone to protest the tax man messing with their ill-gotten wealth. They got the poor besotted small business person to fight on their behalf. In this newly fact-free world it didn’t matter that 80 percent of conventional small businesses and farmers would be completely unaffected or that the changes impacted only those earning $150,000 or more. by Murray Dobbin
The Not-So-Radical “Socialist” From Vermont Time as a Democracy and Socialist Movement Issue: Working-class and pro-working-class socialists and left anarchists have long fought for shorter working hours (with no reductions in pay) for some very good radically democratic reasons. It isn’t just that workers’ everyday lives and collective marketplace and workplace bargaining power are enhanced when they are freed from the scourge of over-work and when working hours are spread more evenly across the workforce. Beyond these real and meaningful gains, rank-and-file socialists and left anarchists have long supported decent working hours so that workers can have enough time to develop tastes and build knowledge and organizations to fight for a world beyond the rule of capitalism, the profit- and accumulation-addicted system that, in Karl Marx’s famous 1848 words, “resolve[s] personal worth into exchange value” and “le[aves] no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment.’” by Paul Street
Censorship in the Digital Age by Jason Hirthler 
Environment:
Dolphin diets show how climate change could alter food chains off the California coast Scientists studying dolphins dining off the California coastline have found that the marine food web is starting to look a little threadbare. The length of food chains in that web appears to have gotten shorter in response to environmental changes — such as those caused by El Niño events. By Amina Khan
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
The ‘Chemical Coast’ is a Petrochemical Superfund site: In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, The Entire ‘Chemical Coast’, The Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts, should be treated as a massive superfund site! The ‘Chemical Coast’ is home to numerus superfund sites, which have been flooded. Mixed with flooded oil refineries and flooded chemical sites, the whole flooded area has become a super superfund site. Along with the petrochemical industries carcinogenic black plumes, the air, the land, and the water have become a massive toxic gumbo that will spread throughout the area threatening all life. People should be immediately evacuated from the whole area — The petrochemical Chemical companies have to be closed down! It is time to stop using fossil fuels! People should come before the profits of the 1%! — Roland Sheppard
Labor:
Economy:
Merrill Lynch, Protection Rackets and the “P.R. Firm from Hell” Last week Jim Rutenberg penned a column for the New York Times titled Facing Down the Network that Produced Harvey Weinstein. Rutenberg explored the reasons that Weinstein’s decades of sexually harassing women and charges of assaults had not made it to the front pages of newspapers sooner. Correctly calling it “something akin to a protection racket,” Rutenberg defined it as a “network of aggressive public relations flacks and lawyers who guard the secrets of those who employ them and keep their misdeeds out of public view.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Oxford accused of ‘social apartheid’ as colleges admit no black students Labour MP attacks university where one in three colleges failed to admit a black British student with A-levels in 2015 Nearly one in three Oxford colleges failed to admit a single black British A-level student in 2015, with the university accused of “social apartheid” over its admissions policies by the former education minister David Lammy. By Richard Adams and Helena Bengtsson
Israel turns bus into torture chamber Jerusalem’s al-Asqa mosque – one of Islam’s holiest sites – received much attention during the summer when Israel blocked Palestinian worshippers from entering it. By Shahrazad Odeh
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Report: Pollution Kills 3 Times More than AIDS, TB And Malaria Combined Exposure to polluted air, water and soil caused nine million premature deaths in 2015, according to a report published Thursday in The Lancet. The causes of death vary — cancer, lung disease, heart disease. The report links them to pollution, drawing upon previous studies that show how pollution is tied to a wider range of diseases than previously thought.Those studies observed populations exposed to pollutants and compared them to people not exposed. The studies have shown that pollution can be an important cause of diseases — many of them potentially fatal — including asthma, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, birth defects in children, heart disease, stroke and lung disease. By Susan Brink
Capitalism’s endless war against immigrants The equivalent of a silent, unilateral war has been going on for years in the Mediterranean Sea. It is not a war in the traditional sense, because it lacks contending armies, but a war of the entrenched ‘civilised world’ against hundreds of thousands of unarmed people. Their only crime is a desperate attempt to flee poverty, unbearable living conditions and the destruction of their livelihoods in their home countries, and follow the dream of a better life for themselves and their families in Europe. By Francesco Merli
Quotes of the Day:
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
A fallen black soldier being disrespected? That’s not an aberration in America By Ameer Hasan Loggins