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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:
Just as a blacksmith cannot seize the red hot iron in his naked hand, so the proletariat cannot directly seize the power; it has to have an organisation accommodated to this task. The co-ordination of the mass insurrection with the conspiracy, the subordination of the conspiracy to the insurrection, the organisation of the insurrection through the conspiracy, constitutes that complex and responsible department of revolutionary politics which Marx and Engels called “the art of insurrection.” It presupposes a correct general leadership of the masses, a flexible orientation in changing conditions, a thought-out plan of attack, cautiousness in technical preparation, and a daring blow. — Leon Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution, Chapter 43, The Art of Insurrection
Gulf of Alaska cod populations appear to have nose-dived, a collapse fishery scientists believe is linked to warm water temperatures known as “the blob” that peaked in 2015. The decline is expected to substantially reduce the gulf cod harvests that in recent years have been worth — before processing — more than $50 million to Northwest and Alaska fishermen who catch them with nets, pot traps and baited hooks set along the sea bottom. The blob also could foreshadow the effects of climate change on the marine ecosystem off Alaska’s coast, where chilly waters rich with food sustain North America’s richest fisheries. Federal fisheries biologist Steve Barbeaux says the warm water, which has spread to depths of more than 1,000 feet, hit the cod like a kind of double-whammy. Higher temperatures sped up the rate at which young cod burned calories while reducing the food available for the cod to consume. — Pacific Ocean ‘blob’ appears to take toll on Alaska cod
Over the past two decades, as the scale of tax avoidance and evasion became clear, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the global club of rich nations, began to put pressure on tax havens to change their laws because of what it called unfair tax competition. At first, companies had used bilateral treaties that forbade income being taxed twice in the two signatory nations to move some of their assets to the country with the lower tax rate. Then, as these treaties lapsed, tax havens passed legislation to exempt these international companies from most local taxes. New OECD rules mandate the automatic sharing of tax information. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has also stepped in with its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The act mandates that U.S. persons must declare their overseas income annually. — Every Country Is a Tax Haven
Videos of the Day:
Empire Files: After Hurricane Harvey, Abandoned Community Takes Charge After a flurry of media attention, the devastation in Houston, Texas from Hurricane Harvey faded from public view. But after unprecedented floods and widespread destruction, the story is far from over. In Part 1 of her investigation, Abby Martin travels to Houston one month later
Trump Admin Pushes Work Requirements on Medicaid Recipients The Trump administration will back efforts to impose work requirements on Medicaid participants, creating a new obstacle to healthcare for vulnerable people, says Michael Lighty of National Nurses United
U.S.:
Trickle-down economics, or “trickle-down theory,” argues for income and capital gains tax breaks or other financial benefits to large businesses, investors and entrepreneurs in order to stimulate economic growth. The argument hinges on two assumptions: all members of society benefit from growth; and growth is most likely to come from those with the resources and skills to increase productive output. — What is the ‘Trickle-Down Theory’?
Ever since the 1972 Wage-Price Freeze, especialy since the Regan years, there has not been a ‘trickle down theory’, but rather a trickle up. The Paradise Papers have demonstrated, as more and more tax loopholes were established, there has been Trillions of Dollars Trickling up’ for the 1%! The following are quotes that demonstrate this fact:
From: Every Country Is a Tax Haven: Details about tax havens, secret bank accounts, and trillions of dollars of revenue being kept offshore have resulted in calls for a more equitable global system of taxation, a crackdown on tax havens, and for the super-rich to pay their fair share. But while attention focuses on places like Panama or the Bahamas or Bermuda, the so-called sunny places for shady people, the truth is nearly every rich country is a tax haven of some sort. . . . Details about tax havens, secret bank accounts, and trillions of dollars of revenue being kept offshore have resulted in calls for a more equitable global system of taxation, a crackdown on tax havens, and for the super-rich to pay their fair share. But while attention focuses on places like Panama or the Bahamas or Bermuda, the so-called sunny places for shady people, the truth is nearly every rich country is a tax haven of some sort.
The ‘prosperity’ of the last 5 decades is attributed to the success of the ‘tickle down economic theory’. But it is, in fact, due t0 the working class’s wages trickling down. The only ‘trickle down’, since the wage-price freeze, has been the average weekly earnings of the 99%! The graft below, found at Shadow Government Statistics, demonstrate this fact:
Giving the Game Away “Homeland Defense” Take these words that became ubiquitous among U.S. media and political elites referring to the United States of America in the wake of 9/11: “the homeland,” “defense of the homeland,” “homeland defense,” “homeland security.”This omnipresent “homeland” rhetoric is profoundly nationalistic, authoritarian, and imperial. There’s a Germanic, blood and soil feel about it: a sense that U.S.-Americans connection to North America below the Canadian line (plus Alaska and Hawaii) is rooted in race, ethnicity, and ancestry. At the same time, it carries an implicitly imperial vision of the United States’ global place and role. There’s normal “defense” – “defense” of areas beyond our borders in alien regions we control and dominate – and then there’s defense of us proper: the home-/father-land. by Paul Street
Democrats, Republicans and Business as Usual Democrats won the State House in both those states, and the wide-eyed pundits who direct what we should think and who we should care about have now proclaimed that the Democrats are on a roll, with control of the House and Senate all but a sure thing in the next elections. This writer must pose a question: Who cares? The two parties have been slowly merging for decades, and at this point there are only minor, cosmetic differences between them. Oh, he can concede that there will less bad (‘better’ might be over-stating the case) Supreme Court nominees, and that certainly can’t be discounted. But wars will continue; lobbyists will write legislation that their bought-and-paid-for Congress members will introduce and vote for, the rich will continue to get richer, the poor, poorer, and the middle class will continue to shrink. By Robert Fantina
Public Cynicism Enables Costly Political Hypocrisy The political hypocrisy of crony capitalism — touting market capitalism while making taxpayers fund corporate welfare — is a rare and unfortunate case of bipartisan consensus. Republicans openly embrace it, but many Democrats also fall prey to government-guaranteed corporate capitalism when they believe it to be politically expedient. by Ralph Nader
Environment:
From Brussels to Arkansas, a Tough Week for Monsanto Opposition from France and Italy doomed a European Union vote on Thursday to reauthorize the world’s most popular weedkiller, glyphosate, a decision that came hours after Arkansas regulators moved to ban an alternative weedkiller for much of 2018. The decisions are a double blow to the agrochemical industry and particularly to the chemicals giant Monsanto. An appeals committee of European officials will convene this month, though, to weigh again whether to continue to allow glyphosate just weeks before its registration expires. The chemical is the main ingredient in Roundup, one of Monsanto’s flagships, but its patent has ended and it is now made by much of the industry. By Danny Hakim 
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Where Would Africa and the World Have Gone Without the October Revolution of 1917? One hundred years ago this week on November 7, soviets – the Russian word for councils – of workers and peasants completed the overthrow of that country’s oppressive imperial regime . They had a dream. They imagined that the vast majority of humanity which had toiled thousands of years under the rule of kings, pharaohs, emperors, slavemasters and now capitalist robber barons could build for themselves, could rule themselves, could educate and empower themselves and provide to dignity, respect and a better life for all. The first world war had bled European imperial powers dry and fatally weakened the imperial regime in Russia. They seized the moment and overthrew it and founded a new project of human liberation they called the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was the first time since the Haitian revolution more than a century earlier that a national government had been formed around a dream of radical emancipation and empowerment. By Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
The Pioneering Critique of the Black Misleadership Class: E. Franklin Frazier’s The Black Bourgeoisie Frazier tried to reveal how the mass democratic objectives of ordinary Black people could be obscured by the distorted ambitions of an emerging Black elite, especially where working people of color (or the unemployed) identified uncritically with their politics. What Black toilers should want, believe, do, and how this should have been pursued, was never clarified by Frazier. However, for generations now this book has been a touchstone of speculation for the struggle of social classes within the Black community. E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie has been the subject of a complex fate. It can be read as a critique of three historical and cultural developments that can relate to each other but must be disentangled. By Dr. Matthew Quest
Labor:
Economy:
Financial Experts Release Video on How Wall Street Loots the U.S. Economy If you feel lost in the cacophony of contrasting claims that Wall Street was adequately reformed under the Dodd-Frank legislation of 2010 or that it remains an insidious wealth transfer system for the 1 percent, then you need to invest one-hour of your time to listen carefully to some of the smartest experts in America address the topic. By Pam and Russ Martens
World:
Haiti: From Slavery to Debt Poverty in colonised countries has greatly increased due to a transfer of debt: the debts incurred by the colonial powers to the World Bank, to make the most of it, were then transferred without their consent to the colonised countries that gained their independence. They constitute a case of odious debt, as well as the subsequent debts contracted to repay them. by Jérôme Duval
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Diabetes of the brain is connected to Alzheimer’s, new study shows There’s growing evidence that Alzheimer’s disease resembles a new form of diabetes known as type 3. A National Institute of Aging study now shows how high glucose concentrations in brain tissue may result from abnormal glucose metabolism, eventually leading to the dangerous plaques and tangles characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease — the neurodegenerative disease that represents the major cause of dementia. By David Templeton 
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.
Quotes of the Day:
Long Before Halloween Attack, NYPD Spying on Sayfullo Saipov’s Mosque Broke Down Community Bonds By Dina Sayedahmed
US campaign finance laws resemble legalized bribery. We must reform them There’s an urgent need for reform for disclosure of how much money mighty political lobbyists are giving law makers who are writing relevant tax legislation By Russ Feingold