Educate!
Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
Millions of people in the United States are de facto deputies who can be asked at a moment’s notice to carry out what is considered the most important job in the nation, keeping Black people under physical control. The most recent case brought to public attention was that of Daniel Penny, a white man who put an emotionally disturbed Black man, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold on a New York City subway. Neely died after the assault and Penny was recently acquitted of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
What followed was a predictable and righteous reaction of outrage at the obvious racist injustice.
‘Cop City’ Leads US Buildup In Police-Training Bases
December 23, 2024
Elizabeth Vos, Consortium News.
Educate!
Atlanta, Cop City, Georgia, Israel, Police, Wars and Militarism
After years of intense opposition that left one protester riddled by police bullets, Atlanta’s so-called Cop City is set to begin operations in the next few weeks. The city’s police chief hosted a tour of the campus last week and training programs are expected to start during the first quarter of 2025.
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, as it is officially known, is an 85-acre campus with a price tag of at least $110 million and another $1.7 million recently approved by Atlanta’s City Council for its security.
Most infamously, it includes a mock city, for which the site gained its Cop City nickname, for “real-world” training that includes a convenience store, two-story house, apartment and commercial-style building.
Are The Gaza Ceasefire Rumors Finally Real This Time?
December 23, 2024
Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss.
Educate!
Ceasefire, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Wars and Militarism
Talks for an end to the genocide in Gaza, which Western and Israeli media refer to as a “hostage deal,” have heated up to an unprecedented degree in recent days. The question is, how genuine an opportunity is this?
Over the course of 2024, we have repeatedly heard breathless hints of a deal being almost done, only to have the talks collapse as new demands come in from Israel. The United States government and media then go into overdrive to spin a narrative that Hamas was really the party that scuppered the deal. It has been a clear pattern.
Ghastly Glimpses Of America’s Most Rich-People-Friendly Year
The good times — for America’s super wealthy — are now rolling way past good. Our richest have in 2024 enjoyed their best year ever. No other nation’s deepest pockets have watched their fortunes grow as large or as fast.
Elon Musk, of course, perfectly embodies this unprecedented surge in the personal wealth of America’s wealthiest. Musk has entered 2024’s last two weeks with a net worth spilling past $450 billion, nearly half a trillion dollars. Over the last 12 months, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index neatly notes, Musk’s wealth has doubled.
DOE Study Finds LNG Exports Don’t Just Hurt The Climate
December 22, 2024
Sharon Kelly, DeSmog.
Educate!
Department of Energy, Fossil Fuels, Gas Exports, health
If you don’t live anywhere near an export terminal for liquified natural gas (LNG), you could still feel big impacts from the industry’s planned construction boom in the U.S. – and not just because the fossil fuel is rapidly worsening the climate crisis.
That’s according to a new study on LNG export authorizations by the Department of Energy (DOE), which finds that the average U.S. household will pay an additional $122.54 a year in utility bills if LNG export expansions go forward unchecked. Some households could see rates go up by over $360 a year.
COP29 Contradiction And The Climate
December 21, 2024
Krys Cerisier, Black Agenda Report.
Educate!
climate crisis, COP29, Fossil Fuels, Global South, Social Movements
Climate activists are considering throwing in the COP towel after negotiations led to a poor budget deal, with activists walking away with only $300 billion of their $1 trillion goal after this year's dubbed 'finance’ COP.
The 29th annual Conference Of Parties, or COP29 was created to facilitate international cooperation over ways to keep the global average temperature rise close to 1.5 degrees C. However, climate activists are now arguing that the process is instead a way for fossil fuel industries to protect their interests.
While at COP, climate activist and five time COP attendee Xiye Bastida explained, “It's no mistake that the last three COPs have been in oil [rich] countries."
Has The Resistance In West Asia Been Defeated?
December 21, 2024
Sergio Rodriguez Gelfenstein, Workers World.
Educate!
Iran, Israel, Palestine, Resistance Movements, Syria, West Asia
The situation in Syria has generated more questions than answers. Some ten days after the seizure of power by the terrorists, there are still no clear ideas as to what will happen. Three powers are occupying parts of Syria: the United States, Israel and Türkiye. The new government has made not the slightest move to prevent this occupation.
Today the new regime is complicit in the partition of its country, the destruction of its sovereignty and the disappearance of the Syrian state.
Undoubtedly in the tactical sense, Israel, Türkiye and the United States are winners following the collapse of the regime of Bashir al-Assad.
How To Understand The Change Of Government In Syria
December 20, 2024
Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
Educate!
Bashar Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-sham (HTS), Syria, US coup
Just over a decade ago, Assad’s government remained in power largely because of support from Iran and Russia, but also because of the involvement – to a lesser extent – of neighbouring Iraq and Hezbollah (Lebanon). Assad did not have the stomach for the contest. He became president in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who took office through a military coup in 1971. Bashar al-Assad had a privileged upbringing and studied to be an ophthalmologist in the United Kingdom. When the rebel armies neared Damascus in December of this year, Assad fled to Moscow with his family, claiming that he wanted to retire from politics and resume his career as an ophthalmologist.
Pentagon Confirms ‘Around 2,000’ US Troops Deployed In Syria
Pentagon Press Secretary General Pat Ryder revealed on 19 December that the US has “around 2,000” troops deployed inside Syria, more than double the figure Washington has previously claimed to have inside the war-torn country.
“As you know, we have been briefing you regularly that there are approximately 900 US troops deployed to Syria. In light of the situation in Syria and the significant interests, we recently learned that those numbers were higher,” Ryder told reporters on Thursday, adding that he “learned today there are approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria.”
Israel’s Genocide Day 440: New Reports Of Mass Killings In Gaza
On Wednesday, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz published an investigative report based on testimonies of Israeli army members under the condition of anonymity, describing various acts of intentional killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
According to the testimonies gathered by Haaretz, soldiers, and officers of the Israeli army’s 252nd brigade described a line north of the Netzarim corridor, the depopulated military area created by Israel cutting the Gaza strip in half south of Gaza City. According to testimonies, this line is known as “the dead bodies line”, which Gaza people “know very well.”
Interview With Former Bolivian President Evo Morales
December 20, 2024
Clau O'Brien Moscoso, Black Agenda Report.
Educate!
Assassination Attempt, Bolivia, Evo Morales, US Imperialism
In the early morning hours of October 27, 2024, unmarked cars shot at the car that was transporting former president of the Plurinational state of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, in an attempted assassination in Villa Tunari, Chapare, Cochabamba as he was making his way to the Radio Kawsachun Coca that hosts his Sunday morning shows. Immediately speculations arose that implicated the military, a possible DEA agent , the Interior Minister , the internal right wing that participated in the U.S. backed 2019 coup, the media, and the courts, among others.
Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands Now Open To US Military
December 20, 2024
Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch.
Educate!
Biodiversity, Daniel Noboa, Ecuador, US Foreign Bases, US military
The national government of Daniel Noboa approved a resolution that enables US ships and crews to use the Galapagos Islands for control and patrol activities in the area.
On February 15, 2024, Noboa signed a series military cooperation treaties with the US government, allowing ships, military personnel, armament, equipment, and submarines to be installed in the natural reserve, which UNESCO declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.
In doing so, Noboa ratified the Washington Agreement, signed by former President Guillermo Lasso. The agreement grants US soldiers and their contractors several privileges, exemptions, and immunity in Ecuadorian territory, similar to those enjoyed by members of diplomatic missions as agreed on in the Vienna Convention.
Major Win For Youth Climate Activists In Montana Supreme Court
December 20, 2024
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch.
Educate!
climate crisis, Montana, Our Children's Trust, Supreme Court, Youth Activism
The Montana Supreme Court upheld a landmark victory on Wednesday, affirming a lower court’s decision that the energy policies of the state violated youth activists’ constitutional rights to a clean environment.
The ruling in Held v. Montana last August invalidated a law stopping regulators from taking into consideration the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions when issuing permits for new fossil fuel projects, reported The Guardian.
The six-to-one decision was the first state supreme court decision of its kind in the United States.
The Fenzel Plan: How The US Engineered The PA’s West Bank Crackdown
December 19, 2024
Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News.
Educate!
Displacement, Genocide, Palestine, Violence, West Bank
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has initiated an armed crackdown against its own people in the occupied West Bank, a campaign reportedly backed and orchestrated by the United States. While corporate media narratives attempt to distance Washington from the operation, its roots trace back years.
On Saturday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas directed the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) to execute a large-scale operation targeting resistance groups in the embattled Jenin refugee camp. PA spokesperson Brigadier General Anwar Rajab justified the crackdown by accusing these groups of sowing “sedition and chaos,” portraying them as foreign-backed Islamist criminals.
Ten Inequality Victories In 2024
December 19, 2024
Sarah Anderson, Inequality.org.
Educate!
Albertsons, Amazon, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Krogers, Labor Movement, Paid Sick Leave, Taxes, Turbotax, Unions, Victory, Worker Rights and Jobs
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted overwhelmingly in April to join the United Auto Workers, a landmark win for labor organizing in the South. The region has suffered deeply because of its low-road, anti-union economic model. Seven out of ten states with the highest levels of poverty are in the South, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Another UAW election, at a Mercedes-Benz facility in Vance, Alabama, where management was more aggressively anti-union, went the other way in May. But the union has vowed to continue organizing in the region.