CAPITALIST SYSTEMIC POVERTY

ERIC SCHECHTER—Russiagate is interesting. The Democrats cannot accuse Trump of any of his real crimes, though they are many, because the Democrats are guilty of all those same crimes. So instead the Democrats had to invent a crime, and make use of the fact that they currently have better control of the corporate news media. A lie repeated sufficiently many times begins to seem true. And why not simultaneously paint Russia or China as bad guys; this will enable the weapons companies to sell more weapons at higher profit.

JEFF J. BROWN—It is hard to describe what has transpired with Mumia Abu-Jamal, since 6 June 2020, when I sent him my first message via his prison’s for profit “email” system.

Like an uninformed goober, I sent him hyperlinks to my website and books, only to learn that Mumia is completely cut off from the internet. This “Prison Connect Network” is the only way I could communicate with him, and to stifle the exchange of information, you can only send 2,000 characters – not words – characters per message. That’s like three paragraphs at a time, and it costs money for each message.

Not only that, but it’s crap quality, like using Microsoft DOS 30 years ago. I learned quickly to copy and save all my messages, since half the time I have to start over, as the system crashes frequently. The vendor, GTL must pay some handsome sunshine bribes to get this contract for concentration camps all over the USA, charging monopoly rates for prisoners to telephone and be called by loved ones. For friends and family members struggling to put food on the table and pay the rent, it’s a vexing situation. Thus, our now four-month long journey to work together through this dog-end messaging system began and continues. Including our interview below, I have 25 pages of communication between us.

GLEN FORD—In truth, capitalism has always moved inexorably towards greater concentration of wealth. “Disaster capitalists” take advantage of the system’s periodic crises to restructure the economy to their further advantage. The fox and wolf parties – both corporate canines – debate how best to acclimate the masses to their deepening state of precarity, so as to avoid a popular revolt.  Appeals to white racism – the wolf’s howl –have always been effective in channeling the anger and pain of much of white America, although that diversion may not be sufficient to save Donald Trump from eviction, next month. The Democratic foxes, having beaten back a threat from their confused, captive and ineffectual left in the primary process, have assured the ruling oligarchy that, in Joe Biden’s words, “nothing would fundamentally change” when he is elected.

The ‘Yellow Vests’ Saturday took to the streets after a summer break to continue protesting against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans. Almost two years after their first mobilizations, the Yellow Vests marched through Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Nice, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.

MAX BLUMENTHAL—t is hard to think of an American film that provoked a greater backlash in 2020 than “Planet of the Humans.” Focused on the theme of planetary extinction and fanciful proposals to ward it off, the documentary was released for free on YouTube on April 21. The date was significant not only because it was the eve of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but because a global pandemic was tearing through America’s social fabric and exposing the human toll of the country’s globalized, growth-obsessed economic model.“The Michael Moore-produced ‘Planet of the Humans’ faced a coordinated suppression campaign led by professional climate activists backed by the same ‘green’ billionaires, Wall Street investors, industry insiders and family foundations skewered in the film.”