2019-11-17: News Headlines

RT (2019-11-16). Self-described 'moderate Republican' Obama tells Democrats not to wade TOO FAR LEFT, or else… rt.com Who's that guy telling the Democratic Party to be conservative about what they wish for from their next president? Wait, isn't that Barack 'Yes, we can' Obama, the media darling that led the country before Trump 'ruined it all?' | The cold shower poured on Friday by the former US president in front of a room full of wealthy donors in Washington was obviously directed at Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the progressive contenders in the Democratic primary race. The two senators have proposed a number of policies to radically change the way America functions economically and politically — for the benefi…

MBNJSD (2019-11-16). Why aren't Americans Rising up Like the People of Chile and Lebanon? dissidentvoice.org The waves of protests breaking out in country after country around the world beg the question: Why aren't Americans rising up in peaceful protest like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic injustice and inequality of 19th century laissez-faire capitalism to the people of the …

WSWS (2019-11-16). Political and economic turmoil escalates in Lebanon. wsws.org According to the World Bank, a further devaluation of the Lebanese pound could push up to half the country's six million people below the official poverty line.

WSWS (2019-11-16). Parasite: An unusual director with his antenna attuned to social class. wsws.org Parasite is a dark comedy from South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho that concerns itself with income inequality and its implications. The Lighthouse is a pointless horror film set in the late 1800s in New England.

Jon Queally, staff writer (2019-11-16). Extinction Rebellion Members Blockade Private Jet Terminal Used by Wealthy Elites in Geneva. commondreams.org "We want to denounce this completely absurd means of transport since a private jet emits twenty times more CO2 per passenger than a conventional airplane." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/screen_shot_2019-11-16_at_11.55.09_am.png

G. Dunkel (2019-11-15). A rain of protest as poverty worsens in Haiti. workers.org Haiti is devastated. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, one of the poorest in the world, is getting poorer. Some 3.67 million people — 35 percent of all Haitians — are food insecure. They don't have enough money to guarantee enough food for their households. This flows from the . . . | Continue reading A rain of protest as poverty worsens in Haiti at Workers.org

Mark Gruenberg (2019-11-15). AFL-CIO President Trumka and other union leaders condemn Bolivian coup. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has come out against the military coup that ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales earlier this week. Trumka tweeted that the nation's largest labor federation is joining national and international labor organizations "in condemning the military interference in Bolivia's election process. Morales reduced widespread poverty and fought for the inclusion of the …

Alex Anfruns (2019-11-15). "Europe has developed thanks to Africa's wealth" … dissidentvoice.org Mamadou Mansaré "You must know a great fighter, he is a personality in his country" — the French worker of North African origin who introduced him to me told me. It was rigorously true. For many years Mamadou Mansaré has embodied the voice of the Guinean workers' movement in the National Confederation of Guinean Workers …

Mark Gruenberg (2019-11-15). Labor communicators' keynote speaker urges creation of "working-class media" peoplesworld.org SILVER SPRING, Md.—The U.S. needs "a working-class media" to "recover" control of the national conversation about income inequality, class and race, and their intersection, social justice journalist Carla Murphy told labor communicators at their national convention here yesterday. Murphy said that without such a working-class media—now non-existent except for People's World and a few other …

The Canary (2019-11-15). Shocking gender inequality in general election media coverage as women 'marginalised'. thecanary.co Women are featuring in just a fifth of national press coverage of the General Election campaign, according to research.Academics at Loughborough University noted "gender inequality across all coverage" from November 7 to November 13.The research found that when considering all participants in election news coverage — including citizens, business people, experts and public professionals — women's voices accounted for just a third of all quotation in TV news and a fifth of quotation in the national press.On television, women's voices made up 32.9% of the share, while men had 67.1%.SNP leader Nicola Sturge…

Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J. S. Davies (2019-11-15). Why Aren't Americans Rising up Like the People of Chile and Lebanon? counterpunch.org The waves of protests breaking out in country after country around the world beg the question: Why aren't Americans rising up like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic injustice and inequality of 19th-century laissez-faire capitalism to the people of the 21st century. So we More

WSWS (2019-11-15). Leaked emails reveal Trump aide Stephen Miller's fascist politics. wsws.org Emails published by the Southern Poverty Law Center show Stephen Miller, White House senior adviser in charge of immigration policy, espousing racist views and promoting white supremacist and neo-Nazi publications.

United Nations (2019-11-15). 'Diversity is a form of wealth, not a factor of division,' UNESCO chief says ahead of International Day for Tolerance. un.org At a time when extremism and fanaticism are too often unleashed, when "the venom of hatred" continues to poison a part of humanity, "tolerance has never been more vital a virtue", the United Nations cultural agency's chief has said in her message on the International Day for Tolerance.

Rob Urie (2019-11-15). Wall Street and the Frankenstein Economy. counterpunch.org The term 'income inequality' suggests the inevitability of a natural process, a division of winners from losers along the lines of hair loss or disproportionate body mass that corporate researchers are working to solve for the sake of the self-esteem of the losers. Some people are tall, others short, some people have pleasant dispositions, others not so much. Otherwise, it almost certainly isn't the 'winners' for whom inequality is a problem, is it? More

Deirdre Griswold (2019-11-15). Mass protests in Chile slam growing inequality. workers.org Mass protest, Santiago, Nov. 8. (Photo: Telesur) Beginning in mid-October, and continuing every Friday since then, hundreds of thousands of Chileans have been demonstrating against government neoliberal policies that have transformed their country into one of the most economically unequal in Latin America. The protests, initiated by youth over increases . . . | Continue reading Mass protests in Chile slam growing inequality at Workers.org

Staff (2019-11-14). White Nationalists Are Running the White House. therealnews.com The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch report on the leaked emails of Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller shows the deep connections he has to racist white nationalists.

Staff (2019-11-13). Bloomberg Could Buy the White House to Kill a Wealth Tax. therealnews.com Inequality.org's Sam Pizzigati says a $6 billion presidential campaign by Michael Bloomberg would pay for itself in two years if it would stop a wealth tax.

Staff (2019-11-13). Elite Institutions Hoard Wealth While Cities Die Around Them. therealnews.com A movement to tax non-profits in a city mired in poverty has hit an obstacle: The richest institutions claim they already pay enough.

Akela Lacy (2019-11-13). Under Pressure From Left, New Jersey Democrats Back Off Vote to Gut Minimum Wage Law. theintercept.com After passing a $15 minimum wage, Democrats are pushing a bill that would suspend scheduled wage increases based on changes in unemployment or retail sales.

splcenter (2019-11-12). SPLC Response to Union Petition. splcenter.org On November 7, 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center received a notice from the National Labor Relations Board that the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild seeks to represent certain employees through the formation of a union.

Alan Macleod (2019-11-06). Multi-Millionaire Nancy Pelosi warns "Fellow Leftists": Medicare for All is a Very Bad Idea. mintpressnews.com Pelosi's objections to progressive legislation like a wealth tax or Medicare for All are based not on pragmatic concerns about losing votes (quite the opposite appears to be true) but have more to do with her position as one of America's richest people.

Matt Bruenig (2019-10-16). The Urban Institute Report Did Not Score Medicare for All. peoplespolicyproject.org The Urban Institute and The Commonwealth Fund put out a report today that provided cost estimates for 8 different health care reforms. One of those eight reforms, which is called "Single Payer Enhanced," describes a comprehensive, no-cost-sharing, national health plan similar to Medicare for All (M4A). However, the Urban plan uses hospital reimbursement rates that are 15 percent higher than the rates in the M4A legislation, meaning that its cost estimates are much…

CounterSpin (2019-09-27). Shailly Gupta Barnes, Frances Fox Piven on Defining and Ending Poverty. fair.org Media…