Economic Injustice

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Economic Injustice August 24, 2017

Misinforming & Manipulating The Majority: A Deliberate Strategy Of Right-Wing Libertarians

By Mark Karlin Truthout (7/9/17) When and how were the seeds sown for the modern far-right’s takeover of American politics? Nancy MacLean reveals the deep and troubling roots of this secretive political establishment — and its decades-long plan to change the rules of democratic governance — in her new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. Get your copy by making a donation to Truthout now! Many individuals who follow politics and journalists think that the right-wing playbook began with the Koch brothers. However, in her groundbreaking book, Nancy MacLean traces their political strategy…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know July 24, 2017

‘Democracy In Chains’ – How One Man’s Mission To Rip Up Democracy Has Become The Republican Party

By George Monbiot The Guardian (7/19/17) It’s the missing chapter: a key to understanding the politics of the past half century. To read Nancy MacLean’s new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, is to see what was previously invisible. The history professor’s work on the subject began by accident. In 2013 she stumbled across a deserted clapboard house on the campus of George Mason University in Virginia. It was stuffed with the unsorted archives of a man who had died that year whose name is probably unfamiliar to you: James McGill Buchanan….

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice July 20, 2017

Duopoly: The Greatest Story Too Rarely Told – America Is Now A Corrupt Oligarchy

By John Atcheson Common Dreams (7/13/17) Enough. It’s time to quit being “balanced” or “non-partisan” or whatever other euphemism the elite establishment media uses to justify ignoring the two biggest elephants in our national living room. After Trump was elected there was a lot of concern about allowing his idiocy to become the “new normal.” But in truth, we’ve been accepting an unacceptable level of insanity in our national body politic for decades now. Elephant Number One—and it’s a huge honking beast squatting squarely on our ottoman—is the fact that the Republican Party has come unhinged and it’s dragging…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice July 17, 2017

Can You Say ‘Oligarchy’? 75 Percent Of Americans Are Wise To The Con & Know The Govt. Only Serves The Wealthy

By Jon Queally Common Dreams (7/13/17) Giving new credence to a provocative 2014 study showing the United States is controlled by powerful elite interests, as opposed to the desire of its citizens, a new poll released Thursday shows that three-quarters of Americans feel voiceless and largely powerless in the nation that heralds itself as the world’s preeminent democracy. [Actually, the term ‘elite’ should not be used. Elite is something special, something good. We need to begin using more accurate terms, like ‘parasite class’. – Commoner Call Ed.] The results of the new survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that 75…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, One Percenters June 29, 2017

Budget-Cutting Austerity Is Not Frugality, It Is Brutality. It Is Violence. It Is Domestic Terrorism By The Ruling Class

Detail from a poster for ‘Russell Brand: Messiah Complex,’ a live recording. By Russell Brand Russell Brand’s Facebook Page (6/16/17) Sometimes there is a news story that has a power that reaches beyond the material facts, even if those facts are in themselves potent. Hillsborough was one. The drowned Syrian toddler another. The discernible reality alludes to a deeper truth and invites us to consider the real meaning. Glenfell is such a story. The image of a burning tower is loaded with significance both modern and ancient. The facts, the deaths, the suffering are in themselves appalling yet the meaning…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice June 22, 2017

Local Volunteer Finds Out What Life Is Like Flirting With Poverty

By Kate Crofton The Commoner Call (6/22/17) (The ideas expressed here are mine alone and do not represent City Year or AmeriCorps.) What do you get when you make $4.61 an hour working fifty hours a week? One biweekly AmeriCorps stipend post-taxes An income at the Federal poverty line Enough money to live frugally but comfortably *most* of the time An inside view of the broken systems meant to serve the poor All of the above ***** Case Study Number 1: Food Stamps I pace back and forth along the perimeter of the Rosa Parks K-8 parking lot listening to…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice June 22, 2017

Attempt To Get Walmart To Offset Their Taxpayer Funded Corporate Welfare

By Zaid Jilan The Intercept (6/13/17) When Walmart and other low-wage employers fail to pay their employees enough to live decent lives, taxpayers often end up picking the tab for public assistance. Freshman California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and nine House co-sponsors are introducing legislation to put an end to the free ride. The Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act would levy a fee equivalent to the public assistance that a company’s employees are eligible to receive, with the intent to incentivize businesses to pay their employees enough so they don’t need public assistance. In 2013, Walmart alone cost taxpayers $6.2…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Deep State, Economic Injustice, One Percenters June 19, 2017

Our Rights On The Edge: A Billionaire-Bankrolled ‘Movement’ Close To Calling A Constitutional Convention

By Simon Davis-Cohen AlterNet (6/14/17) A billionaire-backed “movement” is dangerously close to calling a constitutional convention of states under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. If realized, it would be the first constitutional convention since the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which replaced the Articles of Confederation with the U.S. Constitution. After an active start to 2017, proponents are now allegedly seven states away from reaching the needed 34 states (two-thirds) to convene a convention. According to Article V, which lays out all the ways the constitution can be amended, any amendments proposed by the convention would then need to be ratified by 38…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, One Percenters June 8, 2017

The Politics Of Race, Division & The Real Reason Working-Class Whites Support For Trump Doesn’t Waver

TheCommonerCall.org By Jonathan Capehart The Washington Post (6/6/17) Unlike anyone I’ve read or talked to since the November election, Justin Gest has helped me to really understand why President Trump won white working-class voters and hasn’t thus far lost their support. In the latest episode of “Cape Up,” we discuss the George Mason University professor’s new book, “The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality” “So much of Donald Trump’s politics is symbolic,” Gest explained. “They’re symbolic in the sense that this is what people want to hear and if it doesn’t get done, it’s…

'Just-Us' System, ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, One Percenters, Worker Notes May 1, 2017

A May Day Call: When Corporations Don’t Take Precautions To Avert Workplace Deaths Executives Must Go To Prison

By Leo Gerard, President of United Steel Workers AlterNet (4/24/17) Every 12 days, a member of my union, the United Steelworkers (USW), or one of their non-union co-workers, is killed on the job. Every 12 days. And it’s been that way for years. These are horrible deaths. Workers are crushed by massive machinery. They drown in vats of chemicals. They’re poisoned by toxic gas, burned by molten metal. The company pays a meaningless fine. Nothing changes. And another worker is killed 11 days later. Of course, it’s not just members of the USW. Nationally, at all workplaces, one employee…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, FEATURE, One Percenters March 9, 2017

How 90 Percent Of US Households Lost An Average Of $17,000 In Wealth To Plutocrats Like Trump In 2016

By Paul Buchheit BuzzFlash.com (3/6/17) America has always been great for the richest 1%, and it’s rapidly becoming greater. Confirmation comes from recent work by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman; and from the 2015-2016 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databooks (GWD). The data relevant to this report is summarized here. The Richest 1% Extracted Wealth from Every Other Segment of Society These multi-millionaires effectively shifted nearly $4 trillion in wealth away from the rest of the nation to themselves in 2016. While there’s no need to offer condolences to the rest of the top 10%, who still have an average net worth of $1.3 million, nearly…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice February 26, 2017

Morbid Inequality: Now Just SIX Men Have As Much Wealth As Half The World’s Population

TheCommonerCall.org By Paul Buchhet Common Dreams (2/20/17) Yes, inequality is getting worse every year. In early 2016 Oxfam reported that just 62 individuals had the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity. About a year later Oxfam reported that just 8 men had the same wealth as the world’s bottom half. Based on the same methodology and data sources used by Oxfam, that number is now down to 6. How to account for the dramatic increase in the most flagrant and perverse of extreme inequalities? Two well-documented reasons: (1) The poorest half (and more) of the world has continued to lose wealth; and (2) The…