(2021-09-24). The Simplest Way to Fund Infrastructure. counterpunch.org As lawmakers scramble to finalize a historic jobs and infrastructure package, huge fights are underway to figure out how to fund it. The simplest, most effective, and most popular way is to tax the extremely wealthy, like the billionaires who've seen their collective wealth grow by $1.8 trillion during the pandemic. Unfortunately, lawmakers have missed
(2021-09-24). Batting Below the Poverty Line: How MLB Exploits Its MiLB Workforce. sputniknews.com Major League Baseball has long emphasized its ties to a distant, more idyllic past. Underneath all the marketing, it is and has always been a cold hard business. MLB rakes in billions in revenue, while most of its workforce are paid poverty wages.
(2021-09-24). National Philanthropic (Mis)Trust. counterpunch.org Donor-advised funds have come under increasing fire as tax avoidance vehicles for the wealthy. Donors get a charitable gift tax deduction when they transfer money into the funds, but whereas private foundations have to distribute at least 5 percent of assets to charities every year, donor-advised funds face no such payout requirements. Under pressure from
(2021-09-23). Will Fanboys for Grand Fortune Ever Flame Out? inequality.org
(2021-09-23). Movements in the US call to expand healthcare access. peoplesdispatch.org 
Organizations across the United States organized protests, cultural activities, community kitchens, teach-ins, and other actions about the issue of healthcare access in the US from September 13-20 as part of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action. The diverse actions had the goal of uniting people directly impacted by healthcare denial and linking the different issues related to healthcare such as housing, police violence, access to clean water, and economic inequality. Actions were organized in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Vermon…
(2021-09-23). The Globalized, Corporate-Led Food System Is Failing Us: Boycott Grows of U.N. Food Summit. democracynow.org 
More than 500 civil society groups boycotted the United Nations Food Systems Summit in New York for giving corporations an outsized role in framing the agenda. We speak with leading food advocates in Ethiopia, India and the United States, who lay out their concerns: Million Belay, general coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa; Raj Patel, journalist and research professor at the University of Texas at Austin; and Shalmali Guttal, executive director of Focus on the Global South. "There is growing hunger in the world, and there is growing inequality and…
(2021-09-23). Workers, students speak out against gov't COVID-19 failures. greenleft.org.au A second "Safe from COVID, safe from poverty" media conference discussed organising for COVID-19 safety in the workplace. Isaac Nellist reports.
(2021-09-23). Ocasio-Cortez Slams Congress for "Senselessly" Boosting Defense Budget Each Year. truthout.org 
While presenting an amendment for a 10 percent cut to the Pentagon's colossal budget, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) sharply criticized the agency for wastefulness, saying that the billions spent on defense each year should be spent boosting social and climate programs instead. | "During a time when our country is withdrawing from foreign wars, when COVID-19 and its fallout is one of the greatest threats that we face, when record levels of unemployment, housing and healthcare cr…
(2021-09-23). Who Represents Afghanistan: Genuine Activists vs 'Native Informants'. commondreams.org Canadians might well be interested to learn that the NDP's proposed 1 per cent tax on wealth-holdings worth more than $10 million would only affect the wealthiest 75,000 families, but would raise $17 billion a year.
(2021-09-23). NDP Should Push Liberals for Public Hearings on Popular Wealth Tax. commondreams.org The American military, which purports to be supporting women's rights in Afghanistan, could hardly be said to value women's rights in its own ranks. Rape has long been a side effect of militarism and war, and any discussion—let alone investigation—of it has long been avoided.
(2021-09-23). As Democratic Gears Grind, Their Flawed Legislation Tiptoes Toward Doom. zcomm.org For all the genuine good contained in the budget bill, it pays for itself while making sure the vast wealth of the wealthiest remains virtually untouched…
(2021-09-23). What can be expected from a red-green federal government in Germany? wsws.org Like the Left Party, the SPD and the Greens have ensured that an unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the bottom upwards has taken place during the coronavirus pandemic.