2019-11-18: News Headlines

RT (2019-11-18). Catalonia's president on trial for 'disobedience'. rt.com President of Catalonia's regional government Quim Torra went on trial Monday in Barcelona for "disobedience" after refusing to remove pro-independence symbols from public buildings. | Prosecutors have called for Torra to be fined €30,000 ($33,000) and declared ineligible for public office for 20 months, AFP reported. This would make it impossible for the politician to remain president and likely trigger an early election in the wealthy northeastern region. | His ineligibility would only come into effect if the sentence is confirmed by Spain's Supreme Court, which could take months. | Torra's one-day trial…

Staff (2019-11-18). Even With a Wealth Tax, Economic Policy Ensures Billionaires Will Exist. truthout.org The Democratic presidential campaign has taken a strange twist in recent days, with candidates being asked whether we should have billionaires. While there may be some grand philosophical questions at stake here, I will stick to more mundane economic ones. The real question is: How do you want the economy to work? | The basic story is that if we have a market economy, some people can get very rich. If we buy the right-wing story, the superrich got their money from their great contribution to socie…

Fréa Lockley (2019-11-18). Chuka Umunna trots out an utterly 'disgraceful' lie as massive numbers of kids live in poverty. thecanary.co Chuka Umunna quite rightly got slated for making "disgraceful" comments BBC Politics Live on 18 November. Because as new figures showed child poverty and foodbank use have hit horrific highs, he seemed to argue that austerity was over. | "Beyond austerity" — wtaf?!: | Liberal Democrat candidate Umunna claimed: We're beyond austerity now. | Thankfully, economist Grace Blakeley took Umunna down, saying: We are so not beyond austerity. That is a disgraceful thing to say. | "We are so beyond austerity now" — Lib Dem Chuka Umunna | "We are so not beyond austerity now, that's a disgraceful thing to say"

teleSUR (2019-11-17). Obama Hinted Democratic Candidates Should Not Move Too Far Left. telesurenglish.net Former United States President Barack Obama said Friday before a crowd of wealthy liberal donors from the Democratic Party that voters won't choose a presidential candidate whose ideas are, according to him, "too zealous and radical," the New York Times reported. | RELATED: | Forsaken by Trump, DACA Dreamers Seek US Supreme Court Reprieve | While the ex-president did not mention any specific candidate or policy proposal, he said that the Democrats, independents, and moderate R…

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.

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

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 …

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.

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

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

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.

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…