2020-02-20: News Headlines

The Canary (2020-02-20). Mike Bloomberg attacked on all fronts during Democratic debate. thecanary.co New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg was savaged by his Democratic rivals on his first debate on the presidential campaign trail.Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who was once a Republican, was forced to defend his record and past comments related to race, gender and his personal wealth in a rocky debate stage debut in Las Vegas.Bernie Sanders lashed out at Bloomberg's policing policies as New York City mayor that he said targeted "African-American and Latinos in an outrageous way".Elizabeth Warren made repeated attacks on Bloomberg. She raised issues such as his vast wealth, his offensive remarks about policin…

WSWS (2020-02-20). Germany: Left Party proposes a Christian Democrat as state premier in Thuringia. wsws.org The Left Party is forging an alliance of all establishment parties in order to strengthen the state apparatus and implement a policy of blatant social inequality.

WSWS (2020-02-20). Wall Street celebrates Milken pardon. wsws.org Milken was a pioneer of the financial mechanisms which have led to the greatest accumulation of wealth by the financial oligarchy ever seen, at the expense of the working class.

RT (2020-02-19). U-turn: Ex-Democratic candidate Andrew Yang joins CNN as political commentator. rt.com Fresh from abandoning his dreams of presidential glory, entrepreneur and failed presidential hopeful Andrew Yang has lowered his sights to the corridors of CNN's newsrooms instead, joining the network as a political commentator. | Yang announced he was ending his long-shot campaign following last week's New Hampshire primary in which he finished in eighth place. "I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that we will not win," he said graciously. | It wasn't long, however, before Yang had found another route to political stardom: a cushy commentator job with CNN. | I'm excited to joi…

Tim Libretti (2020-02-19). To compete in global economy, Trump says workers' lives have to get worse. peoplesworld.org What if America competed with other nations to have the best universal healthcare system or the best public education system? If we competed to be the leader in creating a green economy to address climate change? If we competed to end poverty and inequality? Donald Trump wants America to compete in the global economy, but …

Ishmael Reed (2020-02-19). Social Media: The New Grapevine Telegraph. counterpunch.org During the weekend of February 9th, MSNBC regular Tiffany Cross blurted out the conditions under which MSNBC black pundits work. She said, "If I said a lot of the things that I really think, I would get filtered–we just can't say that, we have to filter our own voices." This explains why the black women on Joy Reid's show can weigh in on the stupid sexist brutish moves of some black athletes and entertainers, but can't discuss the effect of Michael Bloomberg's Stop and Frisk policy on black and brown women. They can't address the rampant sexism at NBC, where, according to journalist Ronan Farrow, wealthy white p…

Howard Lisnoff (2020-02-19). The Wealth That's Killing Us Will Save Us: Politics Through the Looking-Glass. counterpunch.org The Bloomberg for President campaign office looks like a complete anachronism in the heart of Harlem in New York City. The office is located on Harlem's famous 125th Street near the Metro North commuter railway station. The Bloomberg campaign office, a space that has the depth of a bowling alley, has a few campaign staffers

Steve Topple (2020-02-19). Scotland is putting the Tories to shame over women's rights. thecanary.co Scotland could well be about to lead the way in an area of women's rights. If the move happens, it will put the Westminster, Conservative-led government to shame. But the deal is not a done one just yet. | Period poverty: | Period poverty is when girls and women can't afford sanitary products. As the website Global Women Connected

Staff (2020-02-14). Detroit Overtaxed Residents by $600M, Causing Foreclosure Crisis. Residents Are Now Fighting Back. democracynow.org In Detroit, a showdown between progressive lawmakers and the city is taking on racist housing policies that robbed African Americans in Detroit of their homes and widened the racial wealth gap. On Thursday, the Coalition for Property Tax Justice announced a class-action lawsuit against the city of Detroit, Wayne County and the state of Michigan in response to unfair property tax foreclosures. One in four Detroit properties have been subject to property tax foreclosure, a level comparable only to tax foreclosure rates during the Great Depression. According to legal experts, many of the foreclosures were caused by…