Reader Comments: It Is a Coup; Trump Vowed To Champion US Workers – the Reality a Relentless Assault; Make America Corrupt Again; Vance, Racism, German Fascism; For Israelis, ‘From the River to the Sea’ Is a Reality. For Palestinians, It’s a Crime...
This is what should be on every front page in 150 point banner headlines. All I have is this Substack but I lay it beneath your feet and pray to a higher power that I'm wrong. From the author that first exposed the Cambridge Analytical scandal.
Donald Trump is channeling Napoleon Bonaparte. It's clear he wants to be "Emperor Trump", not President Trump, but first he has to tear down a 250-year-old democracy. He's off to a good start.
American history is not a steady march toward greater equality, democracy and individual rights, these liberal values compete with an alternative set of illiberal values that hold that full American citizenship should be
Donald Trump has championed tariffs as a way to revive American manufacturing. But without a real industrial strategy, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber argues, they’re little more than a handout to capital.
Spending that the White House does not like is being labeled fraudulent. At the same time, President Trump is rolling back anticorruption efforts and ethical standards for himself and allies like Elon Musk.
The irony of the richest man in the world almost single-handedly destroying an agency designed to help the world’s poor, so that the U.S. federal budget has more room for another giant tax cut for the richest man in the world and his pals, should not be lost on anyone.
While Adams may have been the most immediate beneficiary, he’s not the only one. If you’re a foreign government or a corrupt company trying to turn a public official into your toady, this sends a powerful signal—everything and everyone is up for sale
Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is seeking access to a highly secure IRS system containing financial data on all taxpayers, businesses, and nonprofits, raising concerns within the tax agency. Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering granting DOGE officials access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), which allows IRS employees to view and modify tax records.
A draft memorandum shows that DOGE software engineer Gavin Kliger is set to work at the IRS for 120 days, with the option to extend. His role focuses on IT modernization, but his potential access to IDRS has alarmed IRS officials. IDRS access is typically restricted, and unauthorized use can result in legal penalties.
The acting IRS commissioner has not yet approved Kliger’s access, and concerns persist about political influence over tax data. The IRS is undergoing IT modernization, but experts warn that granting political appointees access to taxpayer records is highly unusual. The move comes amid broader concerns about the IRS’s independence, especially as the agency prepares for mass layoffs ordered by former President Trump.
It is nonsensical, and hypocritical, to arrest or accuse Palestinians of promoting the ideology of 'From the river to the sea,' while in Israel, school maps don't show the Green Line and the government is advancing full annexation
There has been no occupation and displacement of Jewish Israelis by Palestinians. There has been no ethnic cleansing of Jewish Israelis by Palestinians. Thousands of Israelis have not been held without charge, indefinitely by Palestinians. Hundreds of Israelis have never been killed by Palestinians for every Palestinian killed by Israelis. West Bank Palestinians have been terrorized by the illegal settler occupation in violation of international law for decades, olive groves and homes destroyed, driven off land appropriated by illegal settlers, people beaten, murdered and imprisoned for fighting back, but the narrative has always been about acts of terrorism against Israelis with settler terrorism being tacitly supported by every Israeli government with the occasional slap on the wrist and tolerated by the US and western allies. The modern state of Israel has ALWAYS posed the greater existential threat to Palestinians than the other way around. Like it or not It was born in ethnic cleansing, in the last gasp of western colonization, carved out by European powers to be settled and governed by almost exclusively European Jews. No surprise that it has been constantly embroiled in violence and conflict and always will be.
The Landless & Lawless Israelis, Holocaust Survivors have blood on their hands for replicating Nazi Germans' Genocide on Jews.
Joe Biden's Wishes was supporting a Genocide and Donald Trump's Wishes is to have Israel hand over Gaza to relocate Native Palestinians from their Ancestral Homeland.
Boycott big banks, all bank transactions. Buy local and pay with cash. Move your money ( now, don't wait). To credit unions. And think about your habits-- this needs really to be the start of personal transformation. ( Or are you too set in your privileged comfort and convenience?). We who are able to make choices need to step up for those who are less fortunate. Please don't berate those who don't follow this out of necessity! Have compassion, you don't know others stories. You DO know your own, it's a choice be on the right side of our story!
Take all of these statistical discrepancies together. What we have here is a collection of economic indicators that all point in the same misleading direction. They all shroud the reality faced by middle- and lower-income households. The problem isn’t that some Americans didn’t come out ahead after four years of Bidenomics. Some did. It’s that, for the most part, those living in more modest circumstances have endured at least 20 years of setbacks, and the last four years did not turn things around enough for the lower 60 percent of American income earners.
Take the “One Thousand Photos — One Thousand Shares” pledge at ActionNetwork.org, share it widely, and support the union activists leading the fight to transform garment supply chains.
Our national union leadership should link our contract struggle to the struggle against DOGE’s reckless campaign to smash parts of the federal government that working people rely on. As a first step, the NALC should reach out to other federal employee unions to organize joint action. We have to stand together to confront this threat effectively.
Our union constitution provides that, if a new tentative agreement is voted down, our national leadership can call for an immediate work stoppage or a “designated job action,” rather than simply proceeding to binding arbitration. To defend against the threat posed by DOGE, the national leadership should instruct all NALC locals to prepare for job action, up to and including a strike.
I was very happy to see the tribute to Diana Caballero, my dear friend and comrade, included in xxxxxx. Diana and I were activists together in the struggle for Puerto Rican rights and the national liberation of Puerto Rico. However, I was surprised there was no mention that the article was actually an interview Diana gave in 1995 for the documentary ¡Palante, Siempre, Palante: The Young Lords! I subsequently published the full interview in 2016, with her permission, in my book, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969 to 1976. I hope you can add this context to the xxxxxx article.
It was an honor to have Diana trust me with her story, especially after the harrowing ending and trauma of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers' Organization. At her tribute in February, I spoke about those events and how, despite the deep betrayal, she did not waver from her revolutionary commitment. This interview is the only one she ever gave about these events.
I have spent my life organizing and raising awareness about the radical struggles of the Puerto Rican people and the leading role of Puerto Rican women in the fight for gender and racial justice. Your inclusion of the sources of Diana's article would be an act of solidarity, bringing attention to revolutionary struggles of the Puerto Rican people and Puerto Rican women, especially in this urgent moment.
In 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the prime minister of newly independent Congo. His close ally Andrée Blouin describes how Belgium and the US conspired to oust Lumumba and impose Mobutu’s kleptocratic dictatorship on the Congolese people.
Throughout the entire history of left-wing and working-class organizing in the United States, the participation in and building of institutions of political education has been key.
The rich tradition of Black Marxist thought — one that includes W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Frantz Fanon, among many others — emphasizes the centrality of capitalism to racial oppression and its destructiveness for all workers.
This book is the story of Daniel Murray, the assistant librarian of the Library of Congress, of the Reconstruction-era African American elected and appointed government officials, and their Washington, DC milieu.
A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers. Workers say the move is overdue....
A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers.
Workers say the move is overdue, but theater companies fear it will drive up costs in a wounded sector that has yet to recover from the pandemic.
By Staff Writer
February 17, 2025 Daily Boulder (CO)
January 6, 2021 Capitol Coup riot, photo credit: Daily Boulder
Less than a month after receiving pardons for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, some rioters find themselves back in court facing new criminal charges—and are now arguing that the pardons granted by President Donald Trump should absolve them of these additional crimes.
Several individuals involved in the insurrection are seeking to extend the scope of their pardons to cover offenses uncovered during investigations that followed the Capitol riot. These include serious charges, such as plotting to murder FBI agents and charges of child pornography.
One high-profile case involves Edward Kelley, who was pardoned for assaulting police officers at the Capitol. In November, Kelley was convicted for conspiring to murder the FBI agents who had investigated his actions in the insurrection. Evidence revealed that he had compiled a “kill list” of targets. Kelley is now seeking to have his pardon extended to cover this new conviction.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, other rioters are making similar arguments, asking that their pardons protect them from additional charges, including illegal possession of firearms and child pornography, which were uncovered during post-riot investigations. These new revelations are raising alarm about the broader criminal activities connected to those involved in the insurrection.
In Texas, prosecutors have issued a manhunt for Andrew Taake, a rioter accused of soliciting a minor online in 2016, further complicating the legal fallout from the Capitol attack.
Additionally, some rioters have published an online list of 124 officials involved in their legal cases, a move that has unsettled federal agents. As the legal battles continue, the key question remains whether the pardons granted by Trump should extend to cover the additional crimes now emerging.
Hakeem Jeffries is giving a speech in Oakland! He’s the Minority Leader for the House of Representatives, but he’s not leading.
RALLY TO TELL REP. JEFFRIES TO FIGHT WITH US Join us on Friday, Feb 21, 6 pm Kaiser Center for the Arts - 10 10th St, Oakland
Jeffries has been to Silicon Valley to reassure tech millionaires that the Democratic Party will not offend them. Jeffries has been telling the rest of us “The Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. What leverage do we have? It’s their government.”
Tell Rep Jeffries: We need everyone fighting to defend Americans who are getting hurt by the layoffs and illegal funding cuts, protect vital federal departments, stand up to unconstitutional presidential actions, demand mandated transparency, protect immigrants, and confront misinformation and narratives that normalize illegal, anti-democratic attacks.
If Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t know what to do, let's tell him… Be Ruthless Be Strategic Grow a spine … or step aside.
Bring a sign, Bring your neighbors, Join the rally! More info: [email protected]
RLS-NYC will commemorate Black History Month with a free screening of the documentary along with a Q&A and live performances in New Orleans.
Mat Callahan presents Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, a documentary and music album featuring recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people explicitly calling for resistance to slavery.
Friday, February 21, 1 to 4pm CST
1719 Toledano Street, New Orleans, LA 70115
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments served. Copies of the documentary and CD will also be available.
Throughout the history of slavery, enslaved people organized resistance, escape, and rebellion. Sustaining them in this struggle was their music, some examples of which are sung to this day. While the existence of slave songs, especially spirituals, is well known, their character is often misunderstood. Slave songs were not only lamentations of suffering or distractions from a life of misery. Some songs openly called for liberty and revolution, celebrating such heroes as Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner, and, especially, celebrating the Haitian Revolution.
The fight for freedom also included fugitive slaves, free Black people, and their white allies who brought forth a set of songs that were once widely disseminated but are now largely forgotten, the songs of the abolitionists. Often composed by fugitive slaves and free Black people, and first appearing in the eighteenth century, these songs continued to be written and sung until the Civil War. As the movement expanded, abolitionists even published song books used at public meetings.
Mat Callahan presents recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people explicitly calling for resistance to slavery, some originating as early as 1784 and others as late as the Civil War. He also presents long-lost songs of the abolitionist movement, some written by fugitive slaves and free Black people, challenging common misconceptions of abolitionism. Songs of Slavery and Emancipation features the lyrics of fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, placing them in proper historical context and making them available again to the general public. These songs not only express outrage at slavery but call for militant resistance and destruction of the slave system. There can be no doubt as to their purpose: the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of African American people, and a clear and undeniable demand for equality and justice for all humanity.
RLS-NYC will commemorate Black History Month with a free screening of the documentary along with a Q&A and live performances with light refreshments served. Copies of the documentary and CD will also be available.
With the German elections on February 23, the rise of the far right has become a pressing concern. As extremist parties gain traction in the polls, what does this mean for the future of Germany and Europe as a whole? How is the left responding?
Join us for an urgent discussion on Germany’s political landscape, the threats posed by the far right, and the prospects for progressive alternatives.
Speakers:
Sofia Leonidakis – Leader of Die Linke in Bremen
Bhaskar Sunkara – Founding editor of Jacobin and president of The Nation
Stefan Liebich – RLS and former German politician
Wednesday, February 26, 6:00 pm
Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York City
This event is co-hosted by RLS-NYC and Jacobin Magazine. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshment will be served.
The 3rd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will be taking place at a time when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has advanced the hands of its Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, we face nuclear threats over Ukraine and Taiwan, and the nuclear weapons states are all upgrading the nuclear arsenals. This also comes amidst tectonic geopolitical transformations and shortly after the Nobel Committee sent an urgent message to the world by awarding its Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- & H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations.
To build our movements and to advance their coordination, the International Peace Bureau, the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, and Peace Action New York State have organized an international forum with an extraordinary array of speakers.
