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US Leaves Hurricane Helene Survivors Behind While Funding Israel’s War

October 4, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
At least 204 people are dead as a result of Hurricane Helene, which has devastated some of the more impoverished regions of the United States. Hundreds are still missing as survivors lose hope of finding their loved ones. Despite the unprecedented level of devastation, the federal money to deal with disaster relief appears to have run out. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on October 2 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not have enough money to make it through hurricane season. Thanks to the efforts of conservative lawmakers, a recently passed funding bill did not allocate additional funds to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) despite knowing that the agency’s funds had run low before the peak of hurricane season.

Missouri Decided To Execute An Innocent Man

September 25, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Marcellus Williams has maintained his innocence since the murder of Felicia Gayle in 1998. He was convicted of this crime without evidence, with the case against him resting upon two unreliable witnesses. Recently, DNA testing has confirmed that Williams’ DNA was nowhere to be found at the crime scene. Yet at 6 pm today, the State of Missouri is set to execute Williams for a crime that he did not commit. In January of 2024, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County Wesley Bell asked to vacate Marcellus Williams’ murder conviction based on “clear and convincing evidence” of Williams’ innocence. As stated in Bell’s motion to vacate, “DNA evidence supporting a conclusion that Mr. Williams was not the individual who stabbed Ms. Gayle has never been considered by a court.”

US Health System Ranks Last Compared With Peer Nations

September 20, 2024 Jessica Glenza, The Guardian. , , ,
The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund. In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, the system performed poorly on health equity, access to care and outcomes. “I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” said Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation with a focus on healthcare research and policy. “I see patients who cannot afford their medications … I see older patients arrive sicker than they should because they spent the majority of their lives uninsured,” said Betancourt. “It’s time we finally build a health system that delivers quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.”

Stop The Imminent Execution Of Innocent Prisoner Marcellus Williams

September 19, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Marcellus Williams, 55 years old, is set to be executed by lethal injection in less than a week for a crime that he did not commit. Activists and supporters are fighting tooth and nail against the Missouri court system to save the life of a man who has been proven innocent by DNA evidence. In January of 2024, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County Wesley Bell asked to vacate Marcellus Williams’ murder conviction based on “clear and convincing evidence” of Williams’ innocence. But despite this evidence, St. Louis County Judge Bruce Hilton denied Bell’s request to vacate and the state of Missouri is set to move forward with Williams’ execution on September 24.

US Citizens Among 37 Sentenced To Death Over Congo DR Coup Attempt

September 16, 2024 Al Mayadeen, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Three US citizens were among 37 defendants sentenced to death by a military court on Friday for their involvement in a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May. On May 19, armed men briefly seized control of a presidential office in Kinshasa before security forces killed their leader, US-based Congolese politician Christian Malanga. Among the Americans on trial were Malanga’s son, Marcel Malanga, and his friend, Tyler Thompson. Thompson had accompanied Marcel to the DRC. The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, was a business associate of Christian Malanga.

The Second First Presidential Debate

September 13, 2024 Jack Rasmus, CounterPunch. , , , , , , ,
Nearly all public polls in the USA today, and since the beginning of 2024, show that the number #1 issue for American voters is the condition of the economy. But listening to the debate this evening one would have heard little discussion about it—and even less about solutions—from either candidate. The ABC moderators started off the discussion with what one hoped would have set a positive tone for the debate in that regard. They actually said the number 1 issue was the economy and cost of living and challenged both candidates with the appropriate phrase: “Is the economy better off today than four years ago!”

South Africa To Sue US, UK For Complicity In Gaza Genocide

September 13, 2024 Al Mayadeen. , , , , , , , ,
Nearly 50 South African lawyers, led by attorney Wikus Van Rensburg, are gearing up to file a lawsuit against the United States and the United Kingdom, asserting their complicity in Israeli forces' war crimes in Palestine, Anadolu Agency reports. This initiative follows South Africa's filing of a genocide case against "Israel" at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Rensburg, the driving force behind the legal action, aims to prosecute those complicit in the crimes through civilian courts, collaborating with legal professionals in the US and UK. In an interview with Anadolu, Rensburg emphasized the need to hold the US accountable for its actions and highlighted the forthcoming legal proceedings against Washington and London.

Quiet Rollout Of Cop Cities Across The US Meets Growing Resistance

September 10, 2024 Victoria Valenzuela, Waging Nonviolence. , , , , ,
On June 11, a week after a police training facility in Richmond, California, broke ground, organizers from the Stop Cop City Bay Area Coalition marched to the Overaa Construction headquarters in protest. Citing concerns over rising police militarization and repression in the predominantly Black and Latino area, the protesters — joined by local residents — called on Overaa workers to boycott the $30 million construction deal. “By furthering the militarizing and surveillance of our city — and coordinating law enforcement resources across the region, including ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] — they’re actually making our cities into Cop Cities,” said Refilwe Gqajela, a community organizer with the Anti Police-Terror Project in California’s Bay Area.

The Crisis In Afghanistan Is A Result Of US Recklessness

September 7, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
The third anniversary of the end of the two decades of US war and occupation in Afghanistan coincides with a particularly contentious presidential election year in the US. Both the Democrats and Republicans are busy blaming each other for the fiasco. It is clear that Afghanistan has become yet another embarrassing episode in the long history of US imperial adventures which no one wants to take responsibility for. Two of the top generals in the US army, Mark Miley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Kenneth McKenzie, former chief of US Central Command, who led the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, testified in front of Congress earlier this year.

The Condition Of The American Working Class Today

September 2, 2024 Jack Rasmus, LA Progressive. , , , , , , ,
On Labor Day this writer has summed up the condition of the American working class over the past year. This national election year it is perhaps useful to review not only the past year but what has happened since the last election in 2020. How has the American worker fared the past four years—in terms of wages, benefits, inflation and jobs? How have their unions, now a mere 10% of the labor force, also fared during the period of recovery since the deep Covid era recession of 2020, the uneven recovery of 2020-21 that followed, and the past thirty months of what has been a modest economic growth.

Labor Militancy Is The Only Way To Increase Union Membership

September 1, 2024 C. J. Polychroniou, Common Dreams. , , ,
With Labor Day 2024 upon us, it is important to critically reflect on the current state of the U.S. labor movement and the challenges that it faces in an environment where Big Business dominates the economy and mainstream society continues to abide allegiance to the values of a Lockean political culture in which ruthless individualism reigns supreme. To put it mildly, without a strong labor movement and a public spirit guiding our institutions, the country will never succeed in realizing the vision of a just and fair society. However, the news on the labor front is not very encouraging. The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union has been declining since the early 1980s—an era which coincides with the full swing of the neoliberal counterrevolution and deindustrialization.

US Leads Way In Public Spending On False Climate Solutions

August 31, 2024 Julia Conley, DeSmog. , , ,
Among the world’s wealthiest countries, the U.S. leads the way in spending public money on so-called climate “solutions” that have been proven to “consistently fail, overspend, or underperform,” according to an analysis released Thursday by the research and advocacy group Oil Change International. The group’s report, titled Funding Failure, focuses on international spending on carbon capture and fossil-based hydrogen subsidies, which continues despite ample data showing that the technological fixes have “failed to make a dent in carbon emissions” after 50 years of research and development.

Three Amigos No More?

August 28, 2024 Nick Corbishly, Naked Capitalism. , , , , , ,
Just a week ago, we wagered that the US and Canadian embassies would soon begin piling pressure on Mexico as the outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka AMLO) seeks to pass sweeping constitutional reforms to its mining laws, energy laws and judicial system, among other things, in his last month in office. Just two days later, the US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, sent a communique warning that the proposed judicial reforms could have serious consequences for the US’ trade relations with its biggest trade partner: Based on my lifelong experience supporting the rule of law, I believe popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy. Any judicial reform should have the right kinds of safeguards that will ensure the judicial branch will be strengthened and not subject to the corruption of politics.

Gaza Ceasefire Talks: Why Palestinians Question The Recent US Proposal

August 22, 2024 Aseel Saleh, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stopped in Egypt on Tuesday, August 20, one day after visiting Tel Aviv as part of a tour in the West Asia region to continue intensive diplomatic efforts to achieve a Gaza ceasefire and prisoners-for captives swap deal. The tour will also include a visit to Qatar in the upcoming days. Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, August 19, Blinken declared that Netanyahu accepted the recent ceasefire proposal made by the US, which the US claimed has “bridged the gaps” between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas. After announcing Nehtanyahu’s acceptance, Blinken declared that “it is now up to Hamas to agree.”

How US Governments Could Crack Down On Greenwashing

August 22, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. , , ,
“Experts agree: [carbon capture and storage] is one of the most important low-carbon technologies required to achieve societal climate goals.”  So says ExxonMobil, in a Facebook ad targeting hundreds of thousands of people across the United States. The ad, which launched last October and ran most recently this month, leads viewers to a 30-second video with computer-generated models and captions describing a seemingly idyllic process. “The CO2 is safely and permanently stored beneath impermeable rock,” one says. Exxon has pledged to invest billions of dollars in CCS, a technology aimed at capturing and sequestering carbon emissions (much of which is used to recover more oil).
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