Monthly Archives: December 2021

2021-12-16: News Headlines

WSWS (2021-12-16). Time's person of the year Elon Musk: Worshipping the pandemic profiteer. wsws.org Time magazine is celebrating a billionaire who personifies the most noxious tendencies in contemporary capitalism.

Pete Dolack (2021-12-16). Envisioning a world with no bosses. zcomm.org Please Help ZNet Source: Systemic Disorder Many people, especially those with eyes open to the ravages of capitalism, know what they don't want. Fewer know what they do want. That is understandable, given that the task of building mass movements on so many fronts is daunting. But while

In Defense of Liberation! (2021-12-16). How Can We Expect Things to Change?>. anchor.fm In this episode I discuss the practical ways in which we can expect the world to change based on the ways in which it has historically changed; through people taking control of their circumstances and building a new tomorrow. However it comes, we know that a new tomorrow must come, but if we want that new tomorrow to lead us towards an actually better society, then we need socialism. So how do we get there? Well, let's discuss!

Staff (2021-12-16). "No Food Available": Afghanistan Faces Catastrophe as Donors Cut Humanitarian Aid to Taliban Gov't. democracynow.org Afghanistan under the new Taliban government faces a humanitarian catastrophe this winter as the United States and other donors have cut off financial aid. The United Nations warns nearly 23 million people in Afghanistan — or more than half the population — face potentially life-threatening food shortages, with nearly 9 million already on the brink of famine. In addition, people face lack of proper healthcare, unemployment and housing shortages. "The international aid organizations, for them, it's just another country … where they take pictures and make their careers out of it," says Pashtana Durran…

Marzieh Rahmani (2021-12-16). Drone attacks on US base in eastern Syria reported. en.mehrnews.com The United States's Al-Tanf military base in eastern Syria has been attacked by two drones, the commander of US CENTCOM in the West Asian region revealed.

_____ (2021-12-16). How the OPCW's Syria probe censored science. popularresistance.org New reports explore how the suppressed findings that undermined US-led allegations of a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018. Piers Robinson and Aaron Maté discuss the latest revelations on how the OPCW censored science.

Hellmut Lagos Koller (2021-12-16). The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty (TPNW): Wishful daydream or historic milestone? moderndiplomacy.eu The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), adopted in 2017, has entered into force on the 22nd of January of this year and the number of ratifying states continues to grow, with Mongolia being the latest to announce its accession. This positive trend is certainly welcomed with enthusiasm by the Civil Society campaigners …

MK Bhadrakumar (2021-12-15). Crunch time coming after Biden-Putin meet. asiatimes.com Moscow is reiterating its "red lines," seeking long-term legal guarantees against NATO's further advancement to the east and the deployment of weapons on Russia's western borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on December 10, putting on record its expectation that long-term legal guarantees must be given "within a specific timeframe and on the …

Rick Rozoff (2021-12-15). 37 military offices, wars in Ethiopia, Libya, Western Sahara: Turkey edges Russia out of African arms market. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com Armed with drones, Turkey explores African arms sales Armed with battle-tested drones, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been deepening defence ties with African countries ahead of a major gathering of the continent's leaders in Istanbul. The two-day Turkey-Africa partnership summit starting Friday comes fast on the heels of a top-level business forum in October …

Ted Kelly (2021-12-15). Capitalism, imperialism poison Hawaiians' drinking water. workers.org Polluted waters on island of Oahu By land and by sea, Hawaiians are under attack by the U.S. empire. In just one week, two major scandals show how corporations and the military are waging a two-front ecological war to poison drinking water and farmland. On this Pacific archipelago, occupied by . . . |

Timothy V. Johnson (2021-12-15). Frank Chapman, veteran activist, tackles Black Liberation and national question in book. peoplesworld.org Frank Chapman has a long and storied reputation as an activist-leader-theoretician in the anti-repression, labor, and left movements. His history makes it imperative that activists engage with his theoretical work, which is drawn from years of struggle in the mass movement. His latest book, Marxist-Leninist Perspectives on Black Liberation and Socialism, traces the history of …

Dean Baker (2021-12-15). Casey Mulligan Says Build Back Better Will Raise Child Care Costs by $27,000. cepr.net Many people may remember University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan for his argument that unemployment in the Great Recession was caused largely by generous food stamp benefits. Well he's back, and telling us that the child care provisions in President Biden's Build Back Better (BBB) plan could raise the cost of child care by $27,000 …

Thomas Klikauer (2021-12-15). Wealth, Capitalism and Ideology. zcomm.org As an almost classical consequence of capitalist markets, sovereignty in monetary terms exists only for big players…

PAI (2021-12-15). Shuler, UMW's Roberts, Warren: Private hedge funds destroy workers and companies. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON (PAI)—Continuing a decades-long record of predatory financial sector capitalism, multibillion-dollar hedge funds, accountable only to their secret investors, swoop in to devour companies, devastate workers, destroy jobs, and then escape with the profits. So say, in so many words, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sherrod …

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-15). The only way to deal effectively with a pandemic is socialistic. moderndiplomacy.eu The two extremes of ideology are libertarianism (anarchy) versus government (socialism). (Pure embodiments of either are rare if not non-existent.) A democratic government represents the public; an aristocratic government represents the wealthiest 0.1% as its actual dictators and beneficiaries. The two types of libertarianism are: the pure form, in which everyone is free to destroy …

Jim Hightower (2021-12-15). The Planet Is Not a Dumping Ground. otherwords.org In a world that's clogged and choking with a massive overdose of plastic trash, you'll be heartened to learn that governments and industries are teaming up to respond forcefully to this planetary crisis. | Unfortunately, their response has been to engage in a global race to make more plastic stuff — and to force poor countries to become dumping grounds for plastic garbage. | Leading this Kafkaesque greedfest are such infamous plunderers and polluters as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, and other petrochemical profiteers. With fossil fuel profits crashing, the giants are rushing to convert more of their over-sup…

C.J. Atkins (2021-12-15). 'Amazon won't let us leave': Tornado creates modern Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. peoplesworld.org

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-15). Institutional Investor Rich Bernstein: Bitcoin Could Fall 90 Percent Like Some Tech Stocks In 2000 Dot-Com Crash. moguldom.com Institutional investor hall of famer Rich Bernstein says Bitcoin could fall as much as 90 percent, just like some tech stocks did during the dot-com bubble of 1998 to 2000. Bernstein called cryptocurrencies the "biggest financial bubble ever in history" when he spoke on CNBC's Trading Nation. Bitcoin has fallen 31 percent since its $67,000+ …

_____ (2021-12-15). Will Fed Crash Global Financial Markets for Their Great Reset? journal-neo.org It's looking increasingly likely that the US Federal Reserve and the globalist powers that be will use the dramatic rising of inflation as their excuse to bring down the US financial markets and with it, crash the greatest financial bubble in history. The enormous inflation rise since the malicious political lockdowns and the trillions of …

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-15). UAE suspends discussions on arms deal with US over concerns about relations with China. peoplesdispatch.org The arms deal included the sale of 50 F-35 fighter jets, 18 armed reaper drones, air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions and other advanced weaponry by the US to the UAE…

WSWS (2021-12-15). Jittery markets await central bank decisions. wsws.org Since the start of the pandemic trillions of dollars have been poured into financial markets by central banks, sending stock prices to record highs, but the rise of inflation is leading to increased instability.

Norman Solomon (2021-12-15). ÔªøCurrent Dispute Over ICBMs Is a Quarrel Over How to Fine-Tune the Doomsday Machinery. zcomm.org Nuclear weapons are at the pinnacle of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

2021-12-16 19:27 | 15:27 EST | jz | 24 | 0 | 15 | 7 | 0 

2021-12-15: News Headlines

MK Bhadrakumar (2021-12-15). Crunch time coming after Biden-Putin meet. asiatimes.com Moscow is reiterating its "red lines," seeking long-term legal guarantees against NATO's further advancement to the east and the deployment of weapons on Russia's western borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on December 10, putting on record its expectation that long-term legal guarantees must be given "within a specific timeframe and on the …

Dean Baker (2021-12-15). Casey Mulligan Says Build Back Better Will Raise Child Care Costs by $27,000. cepr.net Many people may remember University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan for his argument that unemployment in the Great Recession was caused largely by generous food stamp benefits. Well he's back, and telling us that the child care provisions in President Biden's Build Back Better (BBB) plan could raise the cost of child care by $27,000 …

Thomas Klikauer (2021-12-15). Wealth, Capitalism and Ideology. zcomm.org As an almost classical consequence of capitalist markets, sovereignty in monetary terms exists only for big players…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-15). The only way to deal effectively with a pandemic is socialistic. moderndiplomacy.eu The two extremes of ideology are libertarianism (anarchy) versus government (socialism). (Pure embodiments of either are rare if not non-existent.) A democratic government represents the public; an aristocratic government represents the wealthiest 0.1% as its actual dictators and beneficiaries. The two types of libertarianism are: the pure form, in which everyone is free to destroy …

WSWS (2021-12-15). Jittery markets await central bank decisions. wsws.org Since the start of the pandemic trillions of dollars have been poured into financial markets by central banks, sending stock prices to record highs, but the rise of inflation is leading to increased instability.

Norman Solomon (2021-12-15). ÔªøCurrent Dispute Over ICBMs Is a Quarrel Over How to Fine-Tune the Doomsday Machinery. zcomm.org Nuclear weapons are at the pinnacle of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

The Socialist Program (2021-12-14). Capitalism and Imperialism: A Global System of Death. liberationnews.org Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how workers are bearing the deadly brunt of the devastating tornadoes that ripped across the country and new revelations about US war crimes in Syria…

Rick Rozoff (2021-12-14). Ukraine appeals to new German government to unblock NATO arms deliveries. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com Ukraine in talks with Germany to unblock arms purchases from NATO — Kuleba Ukraine is in talks with Germany to unblock the purchase by Kyiv of weapons systems…through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. *** He recalled that Ukraine had previously gained access to NATO's defense procurement system, which means the Ukrainian Defense Ministry can …

Joris Leverink (2021-12-14). Economic Update: Ecology, Co-ops & Profit. roarmag.org On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on 50 years of fossil fuel corps putting profits before science; CVS' decision to close 900 drugstores as part of decline of US workers living standards; the FBI's lies around the assassination of Malcolm X; and huge estate tax cuts for the US rich. | On the second half of the show, Prof. Wolff interviews Prof. Melissa Scanlan on her new book

Grace Woods (2021-12-14). Prosecutors found to be the criminals in NYC. liberationnews.org The purpose of prosecutors is to incarcerate working-class, Black and Brown people for alleged crimes that are overwhelmingly a result of the deteriorating conditions of capitalism.

Adam Ramsay (2021-12-14). Culture wars: identity politics and the fight against surveillance capitalism. zcomm.org For some, it's a left-wing adoption of neoliberalism. For others, it's authoritarian. But it's really just about equality…

Paul M. Sweezy (2021-12-14). The Triumph of Financial Capital. mronline.org Financial capital, once cut loose from its original role as a modest helper of a real economy of production to meet human needs, inevitably becomes speculative capital geared solely to its own self-expansion. In earlier times no one ever dreamed that speculative capital, a phenomenon as old as capitalism itself, could grow to dominate a national economy, let alone the whole world. But it has.

W. T. Whitney Jr. (2021-12-14). Cuba defeats COVID-19 with learning, science, and unity. peoplesworld.org Education is central to Cuba's brand of socialism. The revolutionary government's dedication to scientific knowledge and healthcare for all shows up now as Cubans cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States is not so lucky. Cubans have wholeheartedly carried out masking, social-distancing, testing and quarantining. Cuba' s bio-medical research and production facilities created five …

San Jose for Abortion Rights (2021-12-14). We Won't Go Back, We Will FIGHT Back! indybay.org Some of the protests held in the Bay Area on December 1 for reproductive justice went into the night. The one in San Jose was sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Aaron Maté (2021-12-14). How the OPCW's Syria probe censored science. thegrayzone.com New reports explore how the OPCW suppressed findings that undermined US-led allegations of a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018. Piers Robinson and Aaron Maté discuss the latest revelations on how the OPCW censored science. Senior OPCW officials doctored the original report; erased the conclusions of expert toxicologists who ruled out chlorine gas as the cause of death; and thwarted the key investigate area of forensic pathology, which could have helped determine how the dozens of civilian …

teleSUR (2021-12-14). US Exit from Weapons Treaty Built Up Russia's Defense Industry. telesurenglish.net In June 2002 the U.S under former President George W. Bush's administration decided to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM), putting an end to the accord that limited Washington and Moscow to only having two ABM complexes. | Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev declared on Tuesday the development of Russia's Defense and Arms industries occurred after US quit the ABM.

2021-12-15 18:13 | 14:13 EST | jz | 18 | 0 | 10 | 6 | 0