#(like a lot the US economy is powered by undocumented immigrants and prisoners)

[bustedbernie]

Joe Biden the same as Trump?

We’ve heard it before. What does Joe Biden’s platform actually aim to do? (compiled by a redditor, taken mostly word-for-word from Joe Biden’s site, joebiden.com) 

Legal reforms:

Decriminalization, rescheduling, and expungement of existing federal marijuana convictions.

End the federal crack and powder cocaine disparity.

End all incarceration for drug use alone and instead divert individuals to drug courts and treatment.

Environmental reforms:

Invest $400 billion in clean energy research and innovation.

Establish an enforcement mechanism to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

Require aggressive methane pollution limits for new and existing gas operations.

Require public companies to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.

Invest in carbon capture sequestration technology.

Support research into new nuclear technology.

Empower communities to develop transportation solutions.

Invest in electric rail roads and mass transit.

Embrace the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

Demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies.

Name and shame global climate outlaws.

Pursue a global moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic.

Hold polluters accountable.

Ensure access to safe drinking water for all communities.

Ensure that communities harmed by climate change and pollution are the first to benefit from the Clean Economy Revolution.

Invest in communities impacted by the climate transformation.

Double offshore wind energy by 2030.

Economic reforms:

$15/hr minimum wage.

Bankruptcy reform.

Paid family leave.

Paid sick leave.

Protect and expand union rights.

Repeal the $2.1tn Trump tax cuts.

Increase taxes by $1.4tn on top earners.

Hold corporations and executives responsible for interfering with unionization.

Aggressively pursue employers who violate labor laws.

Ensure federal dollars do not support employers who engage in union-busting.

Penalize companies that bargain in bad faith.

Make it easier for workers who choose to unionize to do so.

Ban state "right to work" laws.

Create a cabinet-level working group that will solely focus on promoting union organizing.

Ensure that workers can exercise their right to strike without fear of reprisal.

Empower the NLRB to fulfill its intended purpose of protecting workers.

Eliminate non-compete clauses and no-poaching agreements.

Put an end to unnecessary occupational licensing requirements.

Expand protections for undocumented immigrants who report labor violations.

Health care:

Medicare-like public option.

Allow Medicare to bargain for prescription drug prices.

Increase the value of tax credits to lower premiums and extend coverage.

Limiting launch prices for drugs that face no competition.

Limiting price increases for all brand, biotech, and abusively priced generic drugs.

Allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from other countries.

End pharmaceutical corporations’ tax break for advertisement spending.

Expanding access to contraception.

Protect and defend a woman's right to choose.

Restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Doubling America's investment in community health centers.

Expand access to mental health care.

Infrastructure:

Invest in historically marginalized communities.

Encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.

Invest $10 billion into transit projects that serve high-poverty areas.

Increase funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by $2.5 billion per year.

Invest $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure.

Invest $100 billion to modernize schools.

Invest $10 billion in a new Cities Revitalization Fund.

Quadruple funding to provide small manufacturers with the technical expertise needed to compete in a global economy.

Electoral reform:

Introduce a constitutional amendment to eliminate private dollars from our federal elections.

Enact legislation to provide voluntary matching public funds for federal candidates recieving small donations.

Propose a law to strengthen our prohibitions on foreign nationals trying to influence federal, state, or local elections.

Work to enact legislation ensuring that SuperPACs are wholly independent of campaigns and political parties.

Increase transparency of election spending.

End dark money groups.

Ban corporate PAC contributions to candidates.

Prohibit lobbyist contributions to those who they lobby.

Reform funding for national party conventions.

Require that all candidates for federal office release tax returns dating back 10 years.

Prohibiting foreign governments’s use of lobbyists.

Ethics reforms:

Prevent the president or White House from improperly interfering in federal investigations and prosecutions.

Increase transparency in DOJ decision-making.

Empower agency watchdogs (Inspectors General) to combat unethical behavior.

Establish the Commission on Federal Ethics to more effectively enforce federal ethics law.

Prevent the president, other senior Executive Branch members, and Congresspersons from being influenced by personal financial holdings.

Policing reform:

Ending private prisons.

Investing $300 billion in community policing training.

Investing in public health and education.

Create a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention.

Expand federal funding for mental health and substance use disorder services and research.

Expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.

Invest in public defenders’ offices.

Eliminate mandatory minimums.

Eliminate the death penalty.

End cash bail.

Stop jailing people for being too poor to pay fines and fees.

Ensure humane prison conditions.

Invest $1 billion per year in juvenile justice reform.

Incentivize states to stop incarcerating kids.

Expand funding for after-school programs, community centers, and summer jobs.

Education:

Two years paid public universities and college or job training for those making less than $125k/yr.

Create new a federal grant program.

Double the maximum value of Pell grants for low-income and middle-class individuals.

Make a $50 billion investment in workforce training.

More than halve payments on undergraduate federal student loans.

Stop for-profit education programs from profiteering off of students.

Crack down on private lenders profiteering off of students.

Allow individuals holding private loans to discharge them in bankruptcy.

$10,000 across the board federal student loan forgiveness.

Forgive all undergraduate federal student loan debt for borrowers who attended public colleges and universities, as well as historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and private minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Immigration:

Repeal Trump era restrictions on immigration

Prioritize deporting threats over deporting hard working, upstanding members of the community.

End child separation and prolonged detention.

Reform the asylum system.

End public funding for the border wall.

Protect DACA recipients.

Hold ICE and CBP agents accountable for inhumane treatment.

Again, you know most of this stuff, I know most of this stuff, but a lot of people don't know most of this stuff. The next time somebody drops a bomb on you like "Biden's not a real progressive, he only believes in half measures!" you can correct them with stuff direct from his policy page.

I hope you found this useful!

[poor-boy-orpheus]

Just saw some dumb tik toks about how the Tr*mp administration giving out $1000 checks to everyday americans makes tr*mp more left wing than Joe Biden and saying that tr*mp is embracing socialism, so let me just take a few minutes of your time to explain why that’s not the case.

1. Trump’s checks are nor Universal Basic Income like Andrew Yang was proposing. Yang was talking about every American getting a check so that they could pay their bills, get better jobs, and never have to worry about covering basic expenses. Trump is talking about sending 1 or 2 checks of LESS money than Yang wanted to give Americans, not to help those Americans, but to help stimulate the economy. He wants to boost consumption to help avoid a depression. This isn’t a radical left wing idea, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush discussed doing it at one point. As soon as things pick up again you know trump and the rest of them are going to drop the plan immediately.

2. Trump is starting this program because the number 1 indicator of a president’s chances of winning reelection is where the economy is sitting. If the people don’t have cash and think the economy is crashing, then they won’t re-elect trump. This is purely a corrupt move to stay in power and it is NOT the same kind of socialist ethics that the left is fueled by. It’s a perversion.

3. Joe Biden has an incredibly progressive platform, way moreso than Obama and Hillary Clinton, and certainly a lot fucking more than Donald Trump you asshats. And since nobody can be bothered to go to his fucking website, here are a few of Joe Biden’s stances on major issues:

Abolishing the death penalty and ending cash bail

Eliminating all mandatory sentences 

Eliminating all private prisons

Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour

Free 2 year college

No charter schools

Expand debt-relief programs for college debt and raise teacher pay

Putting a cap on how much money can be spent in politics

End new oil and gas leases on federal land and end offshore drilling

Paying farmers to implement new tools to fight climate change

Give farm workers the rights to unionize and demand better conditions for themselves

Implement universal background checks for gun purchases and start a buyback program fo assault weapons

Create a national firearm registry

Help every american to get medical coverage through expanding the ACA. He has said repeatedly that he will not allow any bill to pass that stops any american from getting medical care as soon as possible. 

Regulate prices on pharmaceutical drugs

Give citizenship to “dreamers” (the children of undocumented immigrants)

Increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations

Scrapping all past convictions for marijuana possession, distribution, or use.

Expanding broadband internet to all rural parts of the country

There are more issues and you can read about it for yourself (I recommend this article from Politico as it compares plans of numerous candidates). But here’s the bottom line you guys. Donald Trump is a fucking white nationalist who uses his platform as the leader of our nation to bully other nations, to keep brown kids locked up in cages on the border, to revive the same islamophobia that has plagued our country for decades, to drive wedges between us as a people, to help the rich get richer while saying fuck you to those at the bottom, to implement more pro-life judges than the courts have seen in decades, to let gun manufacturers get away with every mass shooting AGAIN, to be sexist and objectify every woman he sees, to pardon disgusting piles of shit that he calls friends, to bend the tax laws and courts to his benefit, to engage in rigging national and smaller elections, to lie to the american people every day, and overall to be the worst president we have ever had, bar none.

That is what we have now.

Joe Biden is not perfect, he’s not the candidate I wanted, he doesn’t share all of my beliefs and I’m going to fight like hell to push him to the left once he wins in November. But right now, in this moment, pretending even for a moment that a knockoff nazi who has professing white nationalists in his office every goddamn day is somehow more liberal, more left-wing, or more socialist than Joe Biden is exactly how we’re going to lose this election. We need to come together because let’s face it, the primary is over. Much as I love Bernie Sanders he would need to win over 60% of the vote in every single state from here until the convention to still win the nomination. It’s time to rally together, do everything we can to get Biden into the White House, and then we can fight him every day after that. 

Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Republicans. Eat the Rich. Vote Joe 2020

[berniesrevolution]

Brothers and Sisters–

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you today to join me as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the private-prison industry and the large multi-national corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that works for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are under-insured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Make no mistake about it. The powerful special interests in this country have unbelievable power and they want to maintain the status quo. They have unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns and lobbying and have huge influence over the media and political parties.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that works for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

Stand with me as we fight to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Add your name to join this campaign and say you are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform our country.

You know as well as I do that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.

I’m running for president because, now more than ever, we need leadership that brings us together – not divides us up. Women and men, black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together.

I’m running for president because we need leadership that will fight for working families and the shrinking middle class, not just the 1 percent. We need a president who understands that we can create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and construct the affordable housing we desperately need.

I’m running for president because we need trade policies that reflect the interests of workers and not multi-national corporations. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, provide pay equity for women and guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave.

I’m running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I’m running for president because a great nation is judged not by how many billionaires and nuclear weapons it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable – the elderly, the children, our veterans, the sick and the poor.

I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

I’m running for president because the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I’m running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counter-productive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local state and federal level.

I’m running for president because we need real criminal justice reform. We need to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not more jails and incarceration. We need to end the destructive “war on drugs,” eliminate private prisons and cash bail and bring about major police department reform.

I’m running for president because we need to end the demonization of undocumented immigrants in this country and move to comprehensive immigration reform. We need to provide immediate legal status for the young people eligible for the DACA program and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum.

I’m running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. We need to take on the NRA, expand background checks, end the gun show loophole and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons.

I’m running for president because we need a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and world peace. The United States must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and global wealth inequality.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were “radical,” and “extreme.” We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all of concepts that the American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

[the-daily-tizzy]

ITALY’S COMMUNIST RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Published March 24, 2020 |  By Giacomino Nicolazzo

Montecalvo, Lombardy, Italy. 

As I sit here in my involuntary isolation, it was just reported that overnight 743 more people died and 5.249 new cases have been reported. This brings the total cases of infection to 69,176 and the body count to 6,820. We take relief in knowing that 8,326 people have recovered so far. ( Numbers as of 3/24, 8:30pm in Italy.)

Most towns here in Italy, from the upper reaches of the Alps to the ancient shores of Sicilia and Sardenia, while not deserted, are closer to being ghost towns than the bustling centers of tourism, business and daily life they were just a few weeks ago.Stores and shops have been shuttered. Restaurants and coffee shops no longer serve customers. Schools, universities, sporting arenas…even our museums and theaters…all closed. Even the Vatican City has closed its gates and armed patrols monitor the 20 foot tall walls that protect it!

Streets and roads are now empty for as far as the eye can see. Normally they would be filled with crazed Italian drivers in tiny cars and scooters (the ones that sound like demonic insects) darting here and there, reaching the limits of centrifugal force on our roundabouts. In the piazze of our towns and cities, there are now officially more pigeons than people.Many of us know someone who has been infected and recovered. Some of us know someone who did not recover…now they are dead. But everyone knows someone who has been affected by this microscopic monster in one way or another.

Sixty million of us are in lock-down…it is like a war zone here. We are being held prisoner in our own homes by an unseen enemy that sneaked in unnoticed…by most of us. As you will read in just a few more minutes, there were those who knew something like this was coming…or at least they should have.So who is to blame? With all this craziness swirling like a whirlpool at our feet, I just had to find the blame answer. And so I have spent my free time (of which I have a lot in these days) digging and researching. I was literally shocked to discover how this has come to be.I am not going to bore you with talk of Patient ‘0’ who spread it to Patient ‘1’ and how mathematics efficiently explains the rapid expansion of infection. No…I am going to tell you how (as I see it) the virus came to Italy.It has everything to do with communists. Allow me to explain.Beginning in about 2014, Matteo Renzi, the imbecile ex-mayor of Firenze (Florence) acting as the leader of the Partito Democratico (synonymous with the Italian Communist party), somehow managed to get himself elected as Italy’s Prime Minister. To give you a proper frame of reference, Matteo Renzi was so far left, he would make Barack Obama look like Barry Goldwater!

At the same time that Renzi was leading Italy into oblivion, strange things were happening in Italy’s economy. Banks were failing…but not closing. Retirement ages were being extended…for some reason the pension funds were dwindling or disappearing. The national sales tax we call IVA (Value Added Tax) rose from 18% to 20%, then to 21% and again to 22%.And in the midst of all this financial chicanery, the Chinese began furiously buying up Italian real estate and businesses in the North.Now the reason I mention Renzi and the Chinese together is that strange things were also going on between the governments of Italy and China. A blind eye was being turned to the way the Chinese were buying businesses in the financial, telecommunication, industrial and fashion sectors of Italy’s economy, all of which take place in Milano.

To be brief…China was getting away with purchases and acquisitions in violation of Italian law and EU Trade Agreements with the US and the UK…and no one in either of those countries (not Obama in the US or Cameron in the UK) said a thing in their country’s defense. As a matter of fact, much of it was hidden from the public in all three countries.In 2014, China infused the Italian economy with €5 billion through purchases of companies costing less than €100 million each. 

By the time Renzi left office (in disgrace) in 2016, Chinese acquisitions had exceeded €52 billion. When the dust settled, China owned more than 300 companies…representing 27% of the major Italian corporations.The Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy…all of which had been secretly (and illegally) propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds! Soon after, the China Milano Equity Exchange was opened and much of Italy’s wealth was being funneled back to the Chinese mainland.

Chinese state entities own Italy’s major telecommunication corporation (Telecom) as well as its major utilities (ENI and ENEL). Upon entry into the telecommunication market, Huawei established a facility in Segrate, a suburb of Milano. It launched is first research center there and worked on the study of microwaves which has resulted in the possibly-dangerous technology we call 5G.China also now owns controlling interest in Fiat-Chrysler, Prysmian and Terna. You will be surprised to know that when you put a set of Pirelli tires on your car, the profits are going to China. 

Yep…the Chinese colossus of ChemChina, a chemical industry titan, bought that company too!Last but not least is Ferretti yachts…the most prestigious yacht builder in Europe. Incredibly, it is no longer owned by the Ferretti family.

But the sector in which Chinese companies invested most was Italy’s profitable fashion industry. The Pinco Pallino, Miss Sixty, Sergio Tacchini, Roberta di Camerino and Mariella Burani brands have been acquired by 100%.Designer Salvatore Ferragamo sold 16% and Caruso sold 35%. The most famous case is Krizia, purchased in 2014 by Shenzhen Marisfrolg Fashion Company, one of the leaders of high-priced, ready-to-wear fashions in Asia.

Throughout all of these purchases and acquisitions, Renzi’s government afforded the Chinese unrestricted and unfettered access to Italy and its financial markets, many coming through without customs inspections.

Quite literally, tens of thousands of Chinese came in through Milano (illegally) and went back out carrying money, technology and corporate secrets.

Thousands more were allowed to enter and disappeared into shadows of Milano and other manufacturing cities of Lombardy, only to surface in illegal sewing shops, producing knock-off designer clothes and slapping ‘Made In Italy’ labels on them. All with the tacit approval of the Renzi government.It was not until there was a change in the governing party in Italy that the sweatshops and the illegal entry and departure of Chinese nationals was stopped. Matteo Salvini, representing the Lega Nord party, closed Italy’s ports to immigrants and systematically began disassembling the sweatshops and deporting those in Italy illegally.

But his rise to power was short-lived. Italy is a communist country…socialism is in the national DNA. Ways were found to remove Salvini, after which the communist party, under the direction of Giuseppe Conte, reopened the ports. Immediately, thousands of unvetted, undocumented refugees from the Middle East and East Africa began pouring in again.

Access was again provided to the Chinese, under the old terms, and as a consequence thousands of Chinese, the majority from Wuhan, began arriving in Milano.

In December of last year, the first inklings of a coronavirus were noticed in Lombardy…in the Chinese neighborhoods. There is no doubt amongst senior medical officials that the virus was brought here from China.

By the end of January 2020 cases were being reported left and right. By mid-February the virus was beginning to seriously overload the Lombardy hospitals and medical clinics. They are now in a state of collapse.

The Far-Left politicians sold out and betrayed the Italian people with open border policies and social justice programs. One of the reasons the health care system collapsed so quickly is because the Renzi government (and now continued under the Conte government) redirected funds meant to sustain the medical system, to pay for the tens of thousands of immigrants brought in to Italy against the will of the Italian people.

If you remember the horrible earthquake that decimated the villages around Amatricia, in the mountains east of Rome in 2015, you would also remember how the world responded by sending millions of dollars to help those affected.

But there is a law in Italy that prevents private donations to charitable Italian organizations. All money and donations received must be turned over to a government agency, who in turn is to appropriate the funds as needed. But that agency is corrupt just as are all the others.Most of the money never reached a single victim in the mountains. The Renzi government redirected the vast majority of those funds to pay for the growing immigrant and refugee costs.

As the economy worsened under the burden of illegal immigration, compounded by gross government spending and incompetence, unemployment rose quickly…especially among young people. The unemployment rate for men and women under age 35 is close to 40%.

So more money was diverted from the health care system and used to pay what is known here as guaranteed income. Whether you work or not you are paid here, especially if you belong to the PD! The government simply raises taxes on those who do work

.Let me give you a quick example of the height of insanity to which Italian taxation has risen.

If you live in a building that has a balcony or balconies…and any of those balconies cast a shadow on the ground, you must pay a public shadow tax! I will say no more!

The point I am trying to make here is that not only did the Chinese bring the virus to Italy (and the rest of the world) it was far-Left politics and policies that facilitated it.

This should hopefully be a warning to Americans that while they work to rid themselves of the China Virus, they should just as vehemently endeavor to rid their government of any politician that circumvents the Constitution and ignores the laws of the land…plain and simple.

Giacomino Nicolazzo  is one of Italy’s most beloved writers.  Born and raised in Central Pennsylvania, he lives in a small village in Lombardy where he writes his books.

[magesona]

YO EVERYONE HEY

BERNIE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN

REPEAT - BERNIE SANDERS IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN THE 2020 ELECTIONS

This is the turn of the era everyone, honest to everything holy and whatever you hold dear, i really truly believe this is our opportunity to fix the fucked up shit Trump has been doing, and to lead America and humanity into a more positive and progressive future! This isn’t a petition or asking for a donation (though it will ask after you sign, you don’t have to, but y'know it’d be helpful if you can afford it), Bernie just wants to know and be able to show we’ll all be with him during this campaign!

This is all it takes, for real just sign!! Sign if you’re with this wonderful sweet man who has been screwed by elite class countless times, he wants to and can do so much to help our people, but we have to work together on this!! Believe me, even if the system is corrupt, even if it may not work in the end, it’s worth a shot! I’d say it’s worth the biggest shot we have, don’t let pessimism hold us back! Things have changed over the past few years, we have more of an advantage now with people realizing just how wrong they were to trust the man we’ve put into power. It’s the only way we can fight him and the broken system, TOGETHER!!

https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/em_bern_message/

Below the cut, i’ve included the rest of Bernie’s email. It includes all the promises he’s making for us, explains what we’re up against, and why he thinks we have a chance this time. It’s astounding how many important topics he addresses, universe bless this precious man, please don’t let the system fail him again.

---

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you to join me today as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry and the large multinational corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that work for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are underinsured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Make no mistake about it. The powerful special interests in this country have unbelievable power and they want to maintain the status quo. They have unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns and lobbying and have huge influence over the media and political parties.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that work for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

Stand with me as we fight to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Add your name to join this campaign and say you are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform our country.

You know as well as I do that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.

I’m running for president because, now more than ever, we need leadership that brings us together – not divides us up. Women and men, black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together.

I’m running for president because we need leadership that will fight for working families and the shrinking middle class, not just the 1 percent. We need a president who understands that we can create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and construct the affordable housing we desperately need.

I’m running for president because we need trade policies that reflect the interests of workers and not multi-national corporations. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, provide pay equity for women and guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave.

I’m running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I’m running for president because a great nation is judged not by how many billionaires and nuclear weapons it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable – the elderly, the children, our veterans, the sick and the poor.

I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

I’m running for president because the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I’m running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counterproductive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local, state and federal level.

I’m running for president because we need real criminal justice reform. We need to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not more jails and incarceration. We need to end the destructive “war on drugs,” eliminate private prisons and cash bail and bring about major police department reform.

I’m running for president because we need to end the demonization of undocumented immigrants in this country and move to comprehensive immigration reform. We need to provide immediate legal status for the young people eligible for the DACA program and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum.

I’m running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. We need to take on the NRA, expand background checks, end the gun show loophole and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons.

I’m running for president because we need a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and world peace. The United States must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and global wealth inequality.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were “radical” and “extreme.” We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all concepts that the American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election, but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

[rotationalsymmetry]

There’s something that’s been bothering me about how people talk about (US) politics on here, and I’m having trouble figuring out how to express why it’s a problem. The red bot/blue bot thing, talking about things solely in terms of who has a majority where.

Because sure, of course it matters which team has more Senators. But here’s the thing: “it’s important that Democrats don’t lose a seat in the Senate” why. “Our team needs to win” is not something I find that motivating and I’m guessing something most people don’t find that motivating. What happens if “our team” wins? Or loses?

Getting Democrats into office isn’t a terminal value. They have to actually do something when they get there. Or at least stop something from happening. So talk about that. (So we can tell if voting blue is doing what it’s supposed to do!)

Like, that was a long ass post about Newsom and it didn’t even talk about why he was being recalled (super bad reasons!) and that’s so fucking weird.

It’s…is there a thing where people making these posts trust people reading it to want Democrats in office, but don’t actually feel confident expressing any Democratic values?

(It’s not just this one post. I was seeing a lot of this last year: during the main election it was all about the Presidential race (“not Trump, anyone but Trump! Like ok I don’t like him either but) then when that was resolved it was entirely about the runoff Senate races in Georgia, as though literally the only things that matter are 1. who the President is and 2. whether the President has a favorable Congress. I assure you, there’s more to politics than that! There’s more to (electoral) politics than voting! Ok? There’s specific pieces of legislation and executive orders and PTA meetings and which laws the DA chooses to focus on and pardons and … it’s really not just “get the ‘right’ people into power and then fall asleep until the next election.”)

Newsom’s got problems, but as far as the recall is concerned, Newsom represents progressive taxation (taxing the rich), opposition to the death penalty, and treating undocumented immigrants more as people than as walking crimes. Oh, and taking a relatively “lives are more important than the economy” approach to covid. These are all good things.

As long as people talk about voting blue solely in terms of “winning good”, you can’t…change how people think. If we want more of what the Democrats stand for compared to what Republicans stand for, it’s not enough to be reactive. You have to actually argue for those things. You have to argue: the death penalty is bad and we should oppose it. You have to argue: illegal immigration is not that big a problem, but people being treated like they’re not people is a problem, so the most important aspect of the illegal immigration concept is that (undocumented — there are reasons why someone might be in the country legally but not have their paperwork) immigrants is that undocumented immigrants get treated fairly and kindly. You have to argue: social services like public education are good, and we absolutely can afford them as long as people (and especially businesses) who can afford to pay higher taxes do.

I’m not a liberal. I’m a radical. I don’t think the police should be reformed, I think they should be abolished; I think US foreign policy shouldn’t be based on domination and making corporations richer; I don’t think prisons should exist; I don’t think we should have a standing military; I think whether the US should exist at all is a highly dubious concept because it’s stolen land. Democrats aren’t for any of that. Democrats are for reform only and neoliberalism and “tough on crime” (but maybe pot can be legal, and maybe body cams?) and a lot of other things I’m against. But…within the Overton window, they’re clearly better than Republicans. So. I’m for promoting the things that the Democratic Party is nominally for. I just don’t think it’s worth stopping there.

But for fuck’s sake, some people, some Democrats, won’t even start there. They won’t go beyond “we’re for Democrats because we’re for Democrats.” Come on. What are you for?

[marcjampole]

Government privatization of services doesn’t only fail in the United States as experience of Great Britain is demonstrating

The New York Times is giving us new evidence that privatization of government services is a failed concept. The Times reports that Great Britain’s decades-old experiment with privatizing government services is failing. Privatized facilities for the elderly and the disabled have run into a slew of abuse charges in the recent past. Moreover, a report by the British government found that over the next 25 years schools could cost 40 percent more, and hospitals 70 percent more, if run by private firms instead of through the government. Sounds like a typical privatized American prison, which costs more to operate than the government facility it replaced.

Why anyone ever thought that privatization of government services would lower costs and improve quality is beyond comprehension. When the government does something, its chief concerns are quality of service and cost to taxpayers. But once a private company gets involved, another factor enters the decision-making process: profit, which in the private sector is primarily split between owners and senior management. That profit has to come from somewhere, and it does: from the total pool available for providing the service—from salaries, equipment, supplies, transportation and facilities. Whatever the money set aside to provide the services, the cut given to profit will diminish it.

But wait, privatizers say. The private sector will run things more efficiently.

But how? Through economies of scale, which assumes that many companies will have the purchasing power of the federal government or most states. For the most part, that’s just not true. And in those rare cases in which a large private sector business might have an edge in purchasing supplies or maximizing the productivity of equipment over a local government, that government can always band together with other municipalities to buy supplies or share technology and staff.

As it turns out, it’s not economies of scale on which privatizers depend, it’s cutting the costs of labor. Typically, virtually all employees of privatized government services receive lower compensation than their government paid government. Why? Because privatized employees generally aren’t in unions, while government employees are often unionized. So what, you might ask? Who cares how an organization splits the pie, as long as the service is provided at a high level of quality and costs taxpayers as little as it has to. There are unfortunately two flies in this ointment: 1) Paying lower salaries will attract less qualified employees; 2) Cutting the salaries of large numbers of people—unionized or not—drives down the entire wage scale of an economy, which leads to all the problems that inequality of wealth brings, including an increase in asset bubbles and recessions, a decrease in the possibility of individuals moving up the income ladder and anti-democratic distortions to the political system.

(The exception to the rule that a privatized worker will make less than a government worker is the military, for which privatization brings on other problems such as a lack of loyalty of the mercenary to the values of the U.S. armed forces and pressure by privatizing lobbies to instigate or continue wars so that the profit train keeps running.)

But wait, privatizers say. The private sector is more likely to innovate and those innovations will lead to higher quality and lower costs. That’s not the way it has worked out in real life. In fact, when researchers Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski ran the numbers, they found that one of the major reasons public schools outperform private schools (when adjusted for poverty and disabilities) is that public schools are more innovative, introducing new teaching techniques and technology than private schools. (The other reason, FYI, is because public school teachers are more experienced and participate in more continuing education classes than private school teachers. Makes sense, since paying more attracts better employees—that’s the American way!—and if private schools can cut teacher professional development, they can produce more profit.) No one has found any innovations at private prisons, except perhaps in the area of information technology which would occur at the governmental level, too. The privatized section of the armed forces has access to all the advanced technology they want—all developed by the U.S. military!

But wait, privatizers say. Privatization ends the special interest group politics surrounding government programs. That assertion is also belied by the facts. What happens in the real world is that the industry offering the privatized services becomes another special interest that finances and influences politicians. Teachers’ unions lobby for higher salaries and smaller classes, both of which lead to better outcomes for students especially in the elementary school years, at least according to the research. The prison industry lobbies for longer prison sentences, high bails and round-ups of undocumented immigrants, all to fill their jails. The defense industries lobby for higher military budgets and more military excursions. For those dear readers who don’t see the painfully obvious difference, let me explain: what the teachers want helps society; what private prisons and military contractors want does not.

But wait, privatizers say. The private sector always does it better than government by definition. Now that’s just a lie, as a landfill’s worth of evidence demonstrates. All we have to do is compare the cost and outcomes from the American system of healthcare insurance and delivery to those of every other western democracy, all of which have one form or another of single-payer healthcare. We rate first in costs and close to last in infant mortality and life expectancy. BTW, some nationalized healthcare systems like Germany’s do find a place for private, highly regulated health insurance companies. Not surprisingly, the most nationalized part of the American system—Medicare, Medicaid, the Veteran’s Administration before Bush II and Republicans gutted its budget—do the best job on costs and quality.

Is it possible that government control or ownership works best for the delivery of all goods and services? Based on the evidence of the Soviet Union and its satellites, it would be hard to make that assertion.

On the other hand, it seems that many types of industries seem suited to government control—certainly education, prisons, the military and probably healthcare. One key similarity of these enterprises is that they require large numbers of people who interact intimately with those served. While a telecommunications company or a solar panel manufacturer may require thousands of employees, technology, facilities and equipment are at least as important to the business as people. A phone company sells phone service using phones over landlines or on wireless frequencies. A school may use computers and science labs, but it sells teachers and teaching. A military sells armed forces (although modern warfare has increased the military’s dependence on capital goods more).

Another similarity of the industries that have seen disastrous results in privatization (or in the case of education, merely mediocre results) is that they all involve the entire public and the public good. No society since about 1850 can survive without universal education and literacy. Everyone needs healthcare. We build prisons and maintain armies to protect everyone. One can make a case that everyone needs electrical, telephone, water and natural gas service, too. Evidence is mixed as to whether government or the public sector most efficiently delivers these capital-intensive utilities, but we do know that when privatized they always require a lot of regulation to make sure that everyone has cheap, ubiquitous and reliable access to them.

A final similarity I see in the industries for which past experience demonstrates that government control beats privatization is that they are either mature industries, meaning that the market will not increase for their services except through population growth; or industries that it is the public interest not to grow. We are certainly better off when we have less need for prisons and the military.

I suspect that a whole lot of industries would be better off if they were nationalized. Of course I do, I’m a democratic socialist. But the experience in the United States and elsewhere else suggests that even the most extreme free-market conservative should see the benefit of centralized public education, prisons, healthcare, military, mass transit, roads and other services that governments routinely provide in most western nations. Except, of course, those right-wingers who hope to profit from privatization; or do not believe that rich folk should be taxed so that everyone can enjoy the service in question, e.g., affordable and high quality education and health care, and hope to use privatization as a Trojan horse to achieve that end.

[lemodo]

ITALY’S  RECIPE FOR DISASTER

Published March 24, 2020

By Giacomino Nicolazzo; one of Italy’s most beloved writers.  Born and raised in Central Pennsylvania USA, he lives in a small village in Lombardy where he writes his books. 

Montecalvo, Lombardy, Italy.

As I sit here in my involuntary isolation, it was just reported that overnight 743 more people died and 5.249 new cases have been reported. This brings the total cases of infection to 69,176 and the body count to 6,820. We take relief in knowing that 8,326 people have recovered so far (Numbers as of 3/24, 8:30pm in Italy.)

Most towns here in Italy, from the upper reaches of the Alps to the ancient shores of Sicilia and Sardenia, while not deserted, are closer to being ghost towns than the bustling centers of tourism, business and daily life they were just a few weeks ago. 

Stores and shops have been shuttered. Restaurants and coffee shops no longer serve customers. Schools, universities, sporting arenas…even our museums and theaters…all closed. Even the Vatican City has closed its gates and armed patrols monitor the 20 foot tall walls that  protect it! 

Streets and roads are now empty for as far as the eye can see. Normally they would be filled with crazed Italian drivers in tiny cars and scooters (the ones that sound like demonic insects) darting here and there, reaching the limits of centrifugal force on our roundabouts. In the piazze of our towns and cities, there are now officially more pigeons than people. Many of us know someone who has been infected and recovered. Some of us know someone who did not recover…now they are dead. But everyone knows someone who has been affected by this microscopic monster in one way or another. 

Sixty million of us are in lockdown…it is like a war zone here. We are being held prisoner in our own homes by an unseen enemy that sneaked in unnoticed…by most of us. As you will read in just a few more minutes, there were those who knew something like this was coming…or at least they should have. 

So who is to blame? With all this craziness swirling like a whirlpool at our feet, I just had to find the blame answer. And so I have spent my free time (of which I have a lot in these days) digging and researching. I was literally shocked to discover how this has come to be.  

I am not going to bore you with talk of Patient ‘0’ who spread it to Patient ‘1’ and how mathematics efficiently explains the rapid expansion of infection. No…I am going to tell you how (as I see it) the virus came to Italy. 

It has everything to do with communism. Allow me to explain. Beginning in about 2014, Matteo Renzi, the imbecile ex-mayor of Firenze (Florence) acting as the leader of the Partito Democratico (synonymous with the Italian Communist party), somehow managed to get himself elected as Italy’s Prime Minister. To give you a proper frame of reference, Matteo Renzi was so far left, he would make Barack Obama look like Barry Goldwater! 

At the same time that Renzi was leading Italy into oblivion, strange things were happening in Italy’s economy. Banks were failing…but not closing. Retirement ages were being extended…for some reason the pension funds were dwindling or disappearing... The national sales tax we call IVA (Value Added Tax) rose from 18% to 20%, then to 21% and again to 22%. 

And in the midst of all this financial chicanery, the Chinese began furiously buying up Italian real estate and businesses in the North. 

Now the reason I mention Renzi and the Chinese together is that strange things were also going on between the governments of Italy and China. A blind eye was being turned to the way the Chinese were buying businesses in the financial, telecommunication, industrial and fashion sectors of Italy’s economy, all of which take place in Milano. 

To be brief…China was getting away with purchases and acquisitions in violation of Italian law and EU Trade Agreements with the US and the UK…and no one in either of those countries (not Obama in the US or 

Cameron in the UK) said a thing in their country’s defense. As a matter of fact, much of it was hidden from the public in all three countries. 

In ‪2014, China‬ infused the Italian economy with €5 billion through purchases of companies costing less than €100 million each By the time Renzi left office (in disgrace) in 2016, Chinese acquisitions had exceeded €52 billion. When the dust settled, China owned more than 300 companies…representing 27% of the major Italian corporations. 

The Bank of China now owns five major banks in Italy…all of which had been secretly (and illegally) propped up by Renzi using pilfered pension funds! Soon after, the China Milano Equity Exchange was opened and much of Italy’s wealth was being funneled back to the Chinese mainland. 

Chinese state entities own Italy’s major telecommunication corporation (Telecom) as well as its major utilities (ENI and ENEL)... Upon entry into the telecommunication market, Huawei established a facility in Segrate, a suburb of Milano. It launched is first research center there and worked on the study of microwaves which has resulted in the possibly-dangerous technology we call 5G. 

China also now owns controlling interest in Fiat-Chrysler, Prysmian and Terna. You will be surprised to know that when you put a set of Pirelli tires on your car, the profits are going to China. Yep…the Chinese 

colossus of ChemChina, a chemical industry titan, bought that company too! 

Last but not least is Ferretti yachts…the most prestigious yacht builder in Europe. Incredibly, it is no longer owned by the Ferretti family. 

But the sector in which Chinese companies invested most was Italy’s profitable fashion industry. The Pinco Pallino, Miss Sixty, Sergio Tacchini, Roberta di Camerino and Mariella Burani brands have been acquired by 100%. 

Designer Salvatore Ferragamo sold 16% and Caruso sold 35%. The most famous case is Krizia, purchased in 2014 by Shenzhen Marisfrolg Fashion Company, one of the leaders of high-priced, ready-to-wear fashions in Asia. 

Throughout all of these purchases and acquisitions, Renzi’s government afforded the Chinese unrestricted and unfettered access to Italy and its financial markets, many coming through without customs inspections.                                      

Quite literally, tens of thousands of Chinese came in through Milano (illegally) and went back out carrying money, technology and corporate secrets. 

Thousands more were allowed to enter and disappeared into shadows of Milano and other manufacturing cities of Lombardy, only to surface in illegal sewing shops, producing knock-off designer clothes and slapping ‘Made In Italy’ labels on them. All with the tacit approval of the Renzi government. 

It was not until there was a change in the governing party in Italy that the sweatshops and the illegal entry and departure of Chinese nationals was stopped. Matteo Salvini, representing the Lega Nord party, closed Italy’s ports to immigrants and systematically began disassembling the sweatshops and deporting those in Italy illegally. 

But his rise to power was short-lived. Italy is a communist country…socialism is in the national DNA. Ways were found to remove Salvini, after which the communist party, under the direction of Giuseppe Conte, reopened the ports. Immediately, thousands of unvetted, 

undocumented refugees from the Middle East and East Africa began pouring in again. Access was again provided to the Chinese, under the old terms, and as a consequence thousands of Chinese, the majority from Wuhan, began arriving in Milano. 

In December of last year, the first inklings of a coronavirus were noticed in Lombardy…in the Chinese neighborhoods. There is no doubt amongst senior medical officials that the virus was brought here from China. 

By the end of January 2020 cases were being reported left and right. By mid-February the virus was beginning to seriously overload the Lombardy hospitals and medical clinics. They are now in a state of collapse. 

The Far-Left politicians sold out and betrayed the Italian people with open border policies and social justice programs. One of the reasons the health care system collapsed so quickly is because the Renzi government (and now continued under the Conte government) redirected funds meant to sustain the medical system, to pay for the tens of thousands of immigrants brought in to Italy against the will of the Italian people. 

If you remember the horrible earthquake that decimated the villages around Amatricia, in the mountains east of Rome in 2015, you would also remember how the world responded by sending millions of dollars to help those affected 

But there is a law in Italy that prevents private donations to charitable Italian organizations. All money and donations received must be turned over to a government agency, who in turn is to appropriate the funds as needed. But that agency is corrupt just as are all the others. 

Most of the money never reached a single victim in the mountains. The Renzi government redirected the vast majority of those funds to pay for the growing immigrant and refugee costs.                                      

As the economy worsened under the burden of illegal immigration, compounded by gross government spending and incompetence, unemployment rose quickly…especially among young people. The unemployment rate for men and women under age 35 is close to 40%. So more money was diverted from the health care system and used to pay what is known here as guaranteed income. Whether you work or not you are paid here, especially if you belong to the PD! The government simply raises taxes on those who do work. 

Let me give you a quick example of the height of insanity to which Italian taxation has risen. If you live in a building that has a balcony or balconies…and any of those balconies cast a shadow on the ground, you must pay a public shadow tax! I will say no more! 

The point I am trying to make here is that not only did the Chinese bring the virus to Italy (and the rest of the world) it was far-Left politics and policies that facilitated it. 

This should hopefully be a warning to Americans that while they work to rid themselves of the China Virus, they should just as vehemently endeavor to rid their government of any politician that circumvents the Constitution and ignores the laws of the land…plain and simple. 

[crimethinc]

Borders: The Global Caste System – A New Poster Illustrating Why People Migrate, the Risks They Face, and Who Benefits

We’ve worked with some of our favorite artists to produce a new full-color poster in the same series as our classic “Capitalism Is a Pyramid Scheme” design. “Borders: The Global Caste System” illustrates all the different elements that make up the border, from the extraction of resources on one side to wage disparities on the other—and all the brutality and injustice in between. In visual narrative, the poster depicts the reasons people migrate, the forces ranged against them, and the ones who benefit from this state of affairs.

Just as the pyramid poster accompanied our earlier book, Work, this poster functions as a companion to our new book, No Wall They Can Build: A Guide to Borders & Migration Across North America. This poster illuminates the ideas set forth in that book, presenting them in a form that can appear on the walls of your town to stimulate conversation and show solidarity with everyone who is affected by borders.

Click above for a downloadable PDF.

This poster is 14 x 23 inches, full-color, double-sided, and printed on white book paper. It is equally suitable for hanging in a classroom and for wheatpasting downtown.

The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart.

Borders: The Global Caste System

The border is not just a wall or a line on a map. It’s a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights accorded citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded.

The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need. And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first?

Defying Global Apartheid

Speak of freedom all you like—we live in a world of walls.

There used to be few enough that we could keep up with them—Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall. Now they’re everywhere. The walls of the old days have gone viral, penetrating every level of society. Wall Street, named after a stockade built by African slaves to protect European colonists, exemplifies this transformation: it’s no longer a question of fencing out the natives, but of a market economy that imposes divisions throughout the entire world.

These divisions take many forms. There are physical boundaries—the walls of detention centers, the fences of concrete and barbed wire, the perimeters that enclose private campuses and gated communities. There are boundaries controlling the flow of information: security clearances, classified databases, internet firewalls that cordon off entire countries. There are social boundaries—the privileges of citizenship, the barriers of racism, all the ways that money calibrates what each person can and cannot do.

All of these divisions are predicated on ceaseless violence. For some, this means imprisonment, deportation, torture, solitary confinement, vigilante attacks, state-sanctioned murder. For others, it means police patrols, security checkpoints, traffic stops, background checks, street harassment, surveillance, bureaucracy, propaganda.

Borders don’t just divide countries: they exist wherever people live in fear of immigration raids, wherever people have to accept lower wages because they have no documents. The world isn’t just divided horizontally into different jurisdictions—it is divided socially into different zones of privilege, of access. The US-Mexico border is part of the same structure as the chain-link fence that keeps homeless people out of an empty parking lot and the price bracket that keeps day laborers from buying the “organic” option at the grocery store even if they were the ones who picked the vegetables.

The purpose of the border is not to regulate migration. It is to control communities on both sides of the wall. The border regime enables the authorities to force down wages, suppress dissent, and channel resentment towards those who have the least power in society rather than those who have the most.

We’re told that borders protect us from outsiders. But how did they become outside in the first place? We are all joined in a single worldwide economy, in which resources are extracted from one country and sent to another, in which profits made in one country are hoarded in another. This isn’t new—it’s been going on since the colonization of the Americas.

So who is invading whom? The corporations that plunder the south, or the migrants who go north, following the resources and opportunities that have been taken away? If anyone has a right to cross these lands, isn’t it the descendants of the peoples who lived here before European settlement?

There are 11 million undocumented people living in the United States today. They are essential to the functioning of the economy; without their cheap labor, agriculture and construction work would grind to a halt. Many of them have lived in the US for many years or decades. Of those who cross from Mexico without papers, fully half of them are deportees attempting to return to their families in the US.

The border is not intended to keep undocumented people out. The goal is to make sure that entering the United States without papers is dangerous, traumatizing, and expensive—but possible. The point of deportations is not to empty the US of undocumented people. It is to terrorize those who live in the US with the threat of deportation. This serves to maintain a caste system by blackmailing a captive population.

So long as a massive part of the US population lives in constant danger and without any rights, employers have access to a vast pool of disposable labor that is easy to exploit. This drives down wages for workers with US citizenship, too. But it’s not undocumented immigrants who are “stealing their jobs”—it’s the border itself.

Accusing migrants of stealing jobs from US citizens is blaming the victim. If everyone were accorded the same rights, if national boundaries did not artificially create impoverished populations in countries that are stripped of natural resources and treated as garbage dumps, migrant labor could not undercut anyone else’s job opportunities. If not for all the risks and pressures undocumented workers face, they would be able to obtain the same price for their labor as everyone else. Time and again, undocumented workers have demonstrated their courage in struggles for higher wages, despite having to overcome obstacles other workers do not face. But border enforcement drives down wages across the board. That’s the point of it.

In deporting people who have lived in the US for decades, the US government is using Mexico as a concentration camp to conceal unemployment and other problems. The desperation and the firearms produced in the US reappear in Mexico in a brutal illegal economy driven by the appetite of US consumers for narcotics. This is a way of exporting the violence that is essential to maintaining such tremendous imbalances of power. And as it has become more difficult and therefore more expensive to enter the United States without documents, the cartels have been drawn into the business, creating a feedback loop of brutality that the US authorities use to justify further the clampdowns.

The cycle repeats and intensifies.

The border sends resources and profits one way, and human beings the other. This is how the rich amass great concentrations of wealth: not just by accumulating resources in one place, but also by excluding people from them.

If a prisoner is a person contained by walls, what does that make us? Prisons don’t just contain the people inside them. When the border is everywhere, everyone is transformed into a prisoner or prison guard.

It’s easy to be bribed by the advantages of citizenship: being able to travel more freely, being allowed to participate legally in the labor market, being able to access what is left of government assistance, being acknowledged as a part of society. Yet these privileges come at a terrible cost, for the documents one person holds only have value because others are without them. Their value is based on artificial scarcity.

As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will also be borders above you, keeping you from things that you need. Some people are deported, others are evicted, but the fundamental mechanisms are the same. And who will help you tear down the borders above you, if not the people separated from you by the borders below?

Borders are just social constructs—they are imaginary frameworks imposed on the real world. There is nothing necessary or inevitable about them. Were it not for the violence of the believers, they would cease to exist.

Crossing the border without documents is a way of resisting. So is getting to know people who are affected by the border in ways that you are not, setting out to understand and share their struggles. Together, we can make the border unenforceable—a step towards creating a world in which everyone will be free to travel wherever they desire, to use their creative energy however they see fit, to fulfill their potential on their own terms.

To learn more, order or download No Wall They Can Build: A Guide to Borders & Migration Across North America.

To get involved in solidarity work, consider volunteering with a group like No More Deaths.

[theconservativebrief]

The next presidential election may still be two years away, but progressive activists are already trying to get potential 2020 Democratic contenders on the record about key priorities on the left, from defunding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to reforming Wall Street.

Familiar names being talked about for 2020 — Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker — headlined the We The People summit in Washington, DC, this week. As these senators mull challenges to President Donald Trump in two years time, activists and labor leaders plan to aggressively question their voting records and get them to outline their vision for the future.

“The people on the ground are saying it’s not enough to run against Trump,” said Jennifer Epps-Addison, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, one of the main sponsors of the summit. Epps-Addison said she believes that strategy will lose Democrats elections.

At Wednesday’s summit, activists focused their questions on Wall Street regulation and taxation, climate and renewable energy jobs, protecting women’s reproductive health and immigrant rights, and getting money out of politics.

“These are not softball questions, that’s the tone we want to set,” Epps-Addison said. “At every forum and every Fourth of July parade, we’re going to make sure the hard questions are going to be asked.”

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Booker’s first question hit on a controversial issue: Wall Street reform. It was a key question for the New Jersey senator, who made headlines for receiving $1.87 million from Wall Street in 2014. (Booker’s vote last year against a bill allowing Americans to buy prescriptions from Canada earned him backlash from progressives, given the fact that he received more than $200,000 from the pharmaceutical industry.)

The senator from New Jersey had tough words for Wall Street on Wednesday, calling for “a raft of reforms,” including ending a “carried interest” loophole for hedge funds that he estimated would put $50 billion worth of revenue back into the US budget.

“Where are we right now in America?” Booker said. “We’re at an 85-year corporate-profit high, and a 65-year low, as a percentage of all of our GDP, of worker pay. And so this has got to end. And I believe the way do it is by putting common-sense regulations in place.”

Booker also received a question on what he would do to protect health care and improve access to mental health care and drug addiction treatment.

“Health care is a right, health care is a right, health care is a right,” Booker said. “If people are denied health care, people die. There’s too much of a stigma in this country in understanding that mental health and physical health, it’s the same thing.”

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren is another 2020 name who already carries a lot of clout with progressive groups. Her role proposing and setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to police banks after the 2008 financial crisis and her take-no-prisoners attitude toward corporations has won her a lot of fans among the Democratic base.

That was on full display on Wednesday. Demos Action President Heather McGhee introduced Warren as “the cop on the beat” of Wall Street after 2008. Warren took the stage and debuted her own version of the ubiquitous Trump phrase “drain the swamp.”

“We’re going to clean up this place, we’re going to hose out this cesspool of corruption,” she said, to cheers from the crowd.

Even with recent jobs reports showing 3.8 percent unemployment, Warren made it clear she didn’t care about a good economy unless it was good for American workers.

“I have one measure for how the economy is doing — how are working families doing?” Warren said. “Our government has been captured by powerful corporations and billionaires who have managed to rig our economy so it works for them, and not for you.”

Activists questioned Warren on the issue of mass incarceration, which she called “a national embarrassment,” and whether she would support strengthening labor unions. The second question was easy for Warren, who recalled a personal story of her mother working a minimum wage job to support a family of three.

“It was at a time in America when a minimum wage job would support a family of three and you could make a mortgage payment,” Warren said. “There was a time in America where we supported unions here in Washington. You count me in, I believe in unions.”

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It was hard to tell who received the loudest standing ovation on Wednesday, but Bernie Sanders was the only senator who had audience members chanting his name.

Sanders is in somewhat of a tricky position heading into 2020; he was the unabashedly progressive candidate for president in 2016, running on a slate of ideas including single-payer health care and tuition-free public college.

“Many of the ideas we talked about were thought to be fringe ideas,” he told the audience. Because of your efforts, those ideas are thought to be mainstream ideas.”

But in 2020, Sanders is no longer the standout progressive voice; many of his fellow senators have signed on to his Medicare-for-all bill and are embracing other policy initiatives like a $15 minimum wage and overturning Citizens United. Sanders’s policies have already won, but Sanders himself could face a much tougher road ahead in 2020.

Activists asked Sanders about fighting against institutional racism and overturning Citizens United. They also asked him where he stood on defunding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“You know why I voted against the budget that I helped write? Because it did not include any provisions to provide legal status to the young people [of DACA],” Sanders said. “I consider the issue of 1.8 million young people who know the United States as their only country and who are facing deportation as perhaps the great moral issue facing this country today.”

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Kirsten Gillibrand has made a name for herself fighting to end sexual assault in the military and sexual harassment in the workplace, boosting equal pay, and supporting undocumented immigrants.

Still, Gillibrand has a lot to prove to progressive groups if she wants to be successful in 2020, especially when it comes to her past. The senator from New York has a mixed record: She used to hold more conservative stances on guns and giving undocumented immigrants amnesty. And there have been questions about Gillibrand’s Wall Street donations.

But she has moved left over the years, and on Wednesday, liberal activists believed they got another promise out of Gillibrand to support an obscure Wall Street tax called the “financial transactions tax,” which is a .03 cent tax on every single Wall Street transaction. She said she would support it when asked by an Indivisible activist from New York.

“I think income inequality is the greatest risk we have to our democracy right now because it is impacting everything,” she said. “In this economy today, we reward ownership, we don’t reward work. In this economy today, we give more voice to the privileged and the wealthy, in the way campaigns are run, in the way lobbying takes place, in the way Washington works, than we do everyday people.”

Gillibrand said that in the past year, she’s spent “a lot more time” listening to everyday Americans.

“To address income inequality, you really need to take out the corporate structure,” she added, talking about stopping companies from sending jobs overseas, giving so many profits to shareholders, and investing back in workers.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Kamala Harris has been perhaps the most outspoken senator on the issue of immigration. Last year, she was the first senator to publicly withhold her vote for any government funding bill that did not address the plight of 700,000 DREAMers in limbo after President Trump abruptly cut the program.

So the California senator has plenty of allies with immigrant rights groups — that’s not what activists wanted to question her on at the summit. The first question directed at Harris was about the environment and renewable energy, and she pointed to her experience as California’s attorney general.

“I care about this issue, not because I have a particular desire to hug a tree, but I have a strong desire to hug a healthy baby,” she said, saying that it’s important for progressive states like her home state of California to fight against the Trump administration’s attempts to roll back environmental regulations.

Harris also received questions about protecting women’s reproductive rights and healing the racial divide in minority communities facing heavy policing.

“Racism is real, and we’ve got to deal with it in a number of ways as it relates to law enforcement,” Harris said. “We need to have robust pattern and practice investigations in a DOJ that understands the only way that justice for all of us will occur is when there is justice for all of us.”

Original Source -> Potential 2020 Democrats are already facing pressure from the left

via The Conservative Brief