thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-04-29--The Persistence of White Supremacy: A Conversation with Margaret Kimberley

On , April 24th , I interviewed Margaret Kimberley by phone .
Kimberley is an Editor and Senior Columnist at the Black Agenda Report , author of the book , “ Prejudential : Black America and the Presidents , ” a contributor to the anthology , “ In Defense of Julian Assange , ” and serves on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace .
We discussed “ Prejudential , ” US foreign policy , the 2020 elections ( including Bernie Sanders ) , Russiagate , how the COVID-19 virus is disproportionally affecting Black Americans , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presenting itself during the current crisis .
What follows here are lightly edited excerpts .
You can listen to the full interview , which is Episode 7 of my new podcast , “ Voices for Nature & Peace , ” here .
Kimberley : Americans don ’ t like to think of themselves as being propagandized but we are .
Most definitely propagandized from childhood on , about the nature of this nation , which was founded as a settler-colonial state , which means that the original inhabitants — the indigenous population — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And that continued with chattel slavery .
So we have two great crimes which impacted this nation , its founding , and its history to this very day .
We can see these terrible crimes committed at various points in our history from the very beginning .
From George Washington on to Donald Trump .
There ’ s a chapter for every president [ in her book “ Prejudential : Black Americans & the Presidency ” ] and we see how in their interactions with or treatment of black people , they have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system in the early days was supporting chattel slavery , which was a major major economic generator for the country , ten of the first twelve presidents were slaveholders and that tells you how important that was — the so-called “ peculiar institution ” — how important it was to the American economy .
There was a war .
The only way to end slavery was through the Civil War .
But Lincoln is problematic .
He was not the “ Great Emancipator ” we are taught .
He wanted a white nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country and talked about making that happen as late as a week before he was assassinated .
The all-too-brief Reconstruction , the decades of Jim Crow , the presidents — some of which were openly racist and made clear they had no intention of upholding legal or human rights for black people , and those who talked a good game and marketed themselves well but still didn ’ t do it .
So these are the facts of the story… I think it ’ s important to start speaking in this way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t who we thought .
That the Kennedy brothers had to be dragged to support civil rights , even in the small ways they did .
That Woodrow Wilson was an open racist .
That even those presidents who were not slave holders dare not oppose the forces known as the slave power — the slave-ocracy .
So all of these things are true .
The evidence is there .
And it ’ s important for Americans to become accustomed to knowing these facts so that we don ’ t succumb to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and wonderful nation.
” Kimberley : Yes .
It ’ s always something positive and those who raise any of the inconvenient truths are often shouted down or smeared in some way… Shortly after Trump was elected , there was the — I ’ m going to call it a “ riot ” — in Charlottesville , Virginia of open white supremacists and Trump at the time said ( and this all began with an effort to remove Confederate monuments ) and Trump said , well , what are you going to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Washington ’ s monuments ?
Because they owned slaves ?
And the New York Times took a poll of their readers and only 4 % wanted to remove Jefferson and Washington ’ s monuments .
Times readers are generally not Trump supporters , but it shows you just how deeply ingrained this thinking is in our country , that people , in their desire to be positive , want to say that really evil deeds are of no consequence or explain them away , or say , he was a character of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in history , some terrible thing was acceptable .
And try to end the conversation .
Sonnenblume : What is the best response for that particular one : “ Well , he was just a product of his times ” ?
Kimberley : Even in those times there were people who spoke up , people who said slavery was wrong .
An example : One of Jefferson ’ s contemporaries , a Polish nobleman who fought in the Revolutionary War — Tadeusz Kosciuszko — He was a slaveholder himself but he ended up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in his will because Jefferson would always claim he couldn ’ t afford to free anybody .
So Kosciuszko said , Ok , I ’ m going to leave you money and use it to free people when I ’ m dead .
He died before Jefferson and Jefferson didn ’ t free anybody .
So there were people who thought about it then… There was John Brown .
I tell people if they want to admire a white man in the 1800s , then you should pick John Brown , who , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arsenal at Harper ’ s Ferry , his goal was to start a slave insurrection .
So he was an uncompromising foe of slavery at that moment in history .
So it is not true that these people were uniformly supported .
There were always people who fought back… There were always people who said no .
We need to make them heroes .
We need to find out about the people who resisted .
Sonnenblume : Because all through history , there ’ s been the mainstream of events that have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” that people hear about , but at the same time there ’ s been a sidestream of resistance and critique that has existed uninterrupted .
Kimberley : Yes .
Yes , there has been .
Sonnenblume : …To switch gears to the present moment , and to the crisis that we ’ re facing with the COVID-19 pandemic , you ’ ve been writing extensively on this at the Black Agenda Report .
One thing you ’ ve talked about is how medical care is completely different for black people… Quote : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical care , they ’ re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
“ Kimberley : Black people have always been treated worse , even when we seek medical care .
There ’ s a terrible history .
There ’ s a great book called , “ Medical Apartheid ” about it .
All of us are the victims of a society with a for-profit healthcare system which means it ’ s not meant to meet people ’ s needs , which means they get rid of hospital beds .
Everyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Governor Cuomo .
( Basically , Trump has lowered the bar so much , that if you ’ re not an idiot , people are impressed . )
But he got rid of many hospital beds in New York state .
So we have this combination of a for-profit health system which doesn ’ t meet people ’ s needs , where insurance is tied to employment , and even those insurance policies don ’ t pay for things that people need .
Plus the racism that black people face when we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seeing really disturbing stories of people in places like Detroit where there ’ s a big problem withe COVID , in a majority black city .
People go to the hospital numerous times and don ’ t get it .
Now partly that ’ s because they don ’ t have enough tests .
They don ’ t know what they ’ re doing to treat this disease .
But if there ’ s any triage-ing , if there ’ s anyone way to choose who gets treated well and who doesn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are left out .
We ’ re seeing how bad our society is .
This is a failed state , as I said in one of my columns .
Trump famously said how do we prevent people from immigrating from shit-hole countries ?
Well we are the shit-hole country , where there weren ’ t enough tests , where they failed the first time , where we don ’ t have a health care system that can respond quickly .
All this blaming China… All of us are in a very bad situation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be able to work from home .
Only 20 % of black people can work from home .
Instead , they work in retail , or home health aides , or transit workers .
All kinds of jobs that you can only do by going to work .
And thus are more likely to be victims .
So this is a very very serious problem and now we see people unemployed .
20 million new unemployment applications .
Thanks to neoliberal austerity , and starving governments of money , states have like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t even access the unemployment that they ’ ve earned .
It ’ s really quite horrific .
Sonnenblume : We have protests happening now , [ and ] you described the participants as being white supremacists .
Kimberley : Yes .
Absolutely .
It ’ s sad .
It ’ s very sad to see people actually protest against their own health .
Or the fact that they don ’ t believe .
Trump and Fox News initially said it ’ s a hoax and it ’ s only used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very sad story in the Times last week .
A man who owned a bar in Brooklyn passed away from COVID and his daughter said , if Sean Hannity had told him to wear a mask , he would ’ ve worn one .
But there are millions of people who are skeptical .
I think it ’ s good to be a skeptic , but their skeptic is based on anger , based on fear , based on racism , and they are very short-sighted .
They don ’ t deal in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reopen , why do you need to bring an assault weapon ?
There are apparently millions of people in this country who are looking for an excuse to shoot people .
Out they come with their Trump signs and their American flags and it ’ s quite frightening .
Medical workers and nurses trying to block them from blocking ambulances and the route to a hospital .
It ’ s quite horrible to see , but that ’ s the foundation of the country .
I think Trump ’ s election gave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but they were always there .
Trump is such a polarizing figure , because I think their very existence was a shock to so many people .
Sonnenblume : This is what I think is partly behind what some people have called , “ Trump Derangement Syndrome , ” in which people are so upset about Trump that they seem to see nothing else… I was born and raised in Omaha , Nebraska , which was a very segregated city , and a very racist place .
I commonly heard racist jokes growing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course .
Not from my own parents–they were better than that , but… So to me , the existence of Trump is not shocking .
When he got elected , I watched his acceptance speech and I was like , “ Oh , I see why the people in Nebraska like him.
” Kimberley : Oh sure , and there are people in New York who like him .
They ’ re in the minority .
But he is them .
Trump ’ s only political skill is that he knows his people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wound up .
He can tweet “ Liberate Wisconsin ” or “ Liberate Pennsylvania ” and they come running out with their trucks and their assault weapons .
Yes , they do exist… Sonnenblume : This crisis with the pandemic that ’ s disrupting business-as-usual to such a degree is obviously causing a lot of harm and suffering for a lot of people .
Yet at the same time , this could also be an opportunity to remake things after this .
Kimberley : Yes , it is .
There ’ s some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go back to .
We have to face that fact that we ’ re now in this economic crisis because first of all , the economy wasn ’ t doing well .
Before we heard about COVID-19 , whenever we heard about jobs growth , whether it was Trump or Obama , it was phony .
It was low wage jobs .
People are in a desperate situation .
Half the population is low income .
The minimum wage hasn ’ t gone up in ten years .
But you don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opposition — talking about it… We have to up-end so many things .
We have to get rid of this idea once and for all that the Democratic Party can be the party to bring about the changes that we need .
We have to talk about how we ’ re going to move on , and move away from them .
Because they are the problem .
They are a bigger problem because people look to them and they fail .
They fail intentionally .
This is an opportunity for us to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to act as though the pre-COVID days were all wonderful .
Because they were not .
Listen to the audio of the full interview here .

On, April 24th, I interviewed Margaret Kimberley by phone. Kimberley is an Editor and Senior Columnist at the Black Agenda Report, author of the book, “Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents,” a contributor to the anthology, “In Defense of Julian Assange,” and serves on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.
We discussed “Prejudential,” US foreign policy, the 2020 elections (including Bernie Sanders), Russiagate, how the COVID-19 virus is disproportionally affecting Black Americans, and the historic opportunity for fundamental change that is presenting itself during the current crisis.
What follows here are lightly edited excerpts. You can listen to the full interview, which is Episode 7 of my new podcast, “Voices for Nature & Peace,” here.
Kimberley: Americans don’t like to think of themselves as being propagandized but we are. Most definitely propagandized from childhood on, about the nature of this nation, which was founded as a settler-colonial state, which means that the original inhabitants — the indigenous population — were immediately the victims of genocide. And that continued with chattel slavery. So we have two great crimes which impacted this nation, its founding, and its history to this very day.
We can see these terrible crimes committed at various points in our history from the very beginning. From George Washington on to Donald Trump. There’s a chapter for every president [in her book “Prejudential: Black Americans & the Presidency”] and we see how in their interactions with or treatment of black people, they have all defended the system. When the system in the early days was supporting chattel slavery, which was a major major economic generator for the country, ten of the first twelve presidents were slaveholders and that tells you how important that was — the so-called “peculiar institution” — how important it was to the American economy.
There was a war. The only way to end slavery was through the Civil War. But Lincoln is problematic. He was not the “Great Emancipator” we are taught. He wanted a white nation, and wanted black people to leave the country and talked about making that happen as late as a week before he was assassinated. The all-too-brief Reconstruction, the decades of Jim Crow, the presidents — some of which were openly racist and made clear they had no intention of upholding legal or human rights for black people, and those who talked a good game and marketed themselves well but still didn’t do it.
So these are the facts of the story… I think it’s important to start speaking in this way: to tell people that Lincoln isn’t who we thought. That the Kennedy brothers had to be dragged to support civil rights, even in the small ways they did. That Woodrow Wilson was an open racist. That even those presidents who were not slave holders dare not oppose the forces known as the slave power — the slave-ocracy.
So all of these things are true. The evidence is there. And it’s important for Americans to become accustomed to knowing these facts so that we don’t succumb to this siren song of the “great and wonderful nation.”
Sonnenblume: “The shining city upon the hill.”
Kimberley: Yes. It’s always something positive and those who raise any of the inconvenient truths are often shouted down or smeared in some way…
Shortly after Trump was elected, there was the — I’m going to call it a “riot” — in Charlottesville, Virginia of open white supremacists and Trump at the time said (and this all began with an effort to remove Confederate monuments) and Trump said, well, what are you going to do? Are you going to remove Jefferson and Washington’s monuments? Because they owned slaves?
And the New York Times took a poll of their readers and only 4% wanted to remove Jefferson and Washington’s monuments. Times readers are generally not Trump supporters, but it shows you just how deeply ingrained this thinking is in our country, that people, in their desire to be positive, want to say that really evil deeds are of no consequence or explain them away, or say, he was a character of his times, and at this time in history, some terrible thing was acceptable. And try to end the conversation.
Sonnenblume: What is the best response for that particular one: “Well, he was just a product of his times”?
Kimberley: Even in those times there were people who spoke up, people who said slavery was wrong. An example: One of Jefferson’s contemporaries, a Polish nobleman who fought in the Revolutionary War — Tadeusz Kosciuszko — He was a slaveholder himself but he ended up freeing people. He left Jefferson money in his will because Jefferson would always claim he couldn’t afford to free anybody. So Kosciuszko said, Ok, I’m going to leave you money and use it to free people when I’m dead. He died before Jefferson and Jefferson didn’t free anybody.
So there were people who thought about it then… There was John Brown. I tell people if they want to admire a white man in the 1800s, then you should pick John Brown, who, when he attempted the attack on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, his goal was to start a slave insurrection. So he was an uncompromising foe of slavery at that moment in history.
So it is not true that these people were uniformly supported. There were always people who fought back… There were always people who said no. We need to make them heroes. We need to find out about the people who resisted.
Sonnenblume: Because all through history, there’s been the mainstream of events that have been going on and the “big names” that people hear about, but at the same time there’s been a sidestream of resistance and critique that has existed uninterrupted.
Kimberley: Yes. Yes, there has been.
Sonnenblume: …To switch gears to the present moment, and to the crisis that we’re facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ve been writing extensively on this at the Black Agenda Report. One thing you’ve talked about is how medical care is completely different for black people… Quote: “When black people try to get medical care, they’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.“
Kimberley: Black people have always been treated worse, even when we seek medical care. There’s a terrible history. There’s a great book called, “Medical Apartheid” about it. All of us are the victims of a society with a for-profit healthcare system which means it’s not meant to meet people’s needs, which means they get rid of hospital beds.
Everyone outside of New York is so impressed with Governor Cuomo. (Basically, Trump has lowered the bar so much, that if you’re not an idiot, people are impressed.) But he got rid of many hospital beds in New York state.
So we have this combination of a for-profit health system which doesn’t meet people’s needs, where insurance is tied to employment, and even those insurance policies don’t pay for things that people need. Plus the racism that black people face when we seek medical care. I’m seeing really disturbing stories of people in places like Detroit where there’s a big problem withe COVID, in a majority black city. People go to the hospital numerous times and don’t get it.
Now partly that’s because they don’t have enough tests. They don’t know what they’re doing to treat this disease. But if there’s any triage-ing, if there’s anyone way to choose who gets treated well and who doesn’t, we are the ones who are left out.
We’re seeing how bad our society is. This is a failed state, as I said in one of my columns. Trump famously said how do we prevent people from immigrating from shit-hole countries? Well we are the shit-hole country, where there weren’t enough tests, where they failed the first time, where we don’t have a health care system that can respond quickly. All this blaming China…
All of us are in a very bad situation, plus black people are less likely to be able to work from home. Only 20% of black people can work from home. Instead, they work in retail, or home health aides, or transit workers. All kinds of jobs that you can only do by going to work. And thus are more likely to be victims.
So this is a very very serious problem and now we see people unemployed. 20 million new unemployment applications. Thanks to neoliberal austerity, and starving governments of money , states have like 50 year old computer systems and people can’t even access the unemployment that they’ve earned. It’s really quite horrific.
Sonnenblume: We have protests happening now, [and] you described the participants as being white supremacists.
Kimberley: Yes. Absolutely. It’s sad. It’s very sad to see people actually protest against their own health. Or the fact that they don’t believe. Trump and Fox News initially said it’s a hoax and it’s only used to embarrass Trump. There was a very sad story in the Times last week. A man who owned a bar in Brooklyn passed away from COVID and his daughter said, if Sean Hannity had told him to wear a mask, he would’ve worn one.
But there are millions of people who are skeptical. I think it’s good to be a skeptic, but their skeptic is based on anger, based on fear, based on racism, and they are very short-sighted. They don’t deal in reality. If you want a state to reopen, why do you need to bring an assault weapon? There are apparently millions of people in this country who are looking for an excuse to shoot people. Out they come with their Trump signs and their American flags and it’s quite frightening. Medical workers and nurses trying to block them from blocking ambulances and the route to a hospital. It’s quite horrible to see, but that’s the foundation of the country. I think Trump’s election gave those people license to come forward, but they were always there.
Trump is such a polarizing figure, because I think their very existence was a shock to so many people.
Sonnenblume: This is what I think is partly behind what some people have called, “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” in which people are so upset about Trump that they seem to see nothing else… I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, which was a very segregated city, and a very racist place. I commonly heard racist jokes growing up, just as a matter of course. Not from my own parents–they were better than that, but… So to me, the existence of Trump is not shocking. When he got elected, I watched his acceptance speech and I was like, “Oh, I see why the people in Nebraska like him.”
Kimberley: Oh sure, and there are people in New York who like him. They’re in the minority. But he is them. Trump’s only political skill is that he knows his people, and knows how to get them wound up. He can tweet “Liberate Wisconsin” or “Liberate Pennsylvania” and they come running out with their trucks and their assault weapons. Yes, they do exist…
Sonnenblume: This crisis with the pandemic that’s disrupting business-as-usual to such a degree is obviously causing a lot of harm and suffering for a lot of people. Yet at the same time, this could also be an opportunity to remake things after this.
Kimberley: Yes, it is. There’s some normal we shouldn’t want to go back to.
We have to face that fact that we’re now in this economic crisis because first of all, the economy wasn’t doing well. Before we heard about COVID-19, whenever we heard about jobs growth, whether it was Trump or Obama, it was phony. It was low wage jobs. People are in a desperate situation. Half the population is low income. The minimum wage hasn’t gone up in ten years. But you don’t hear the Democratic Party — the supposed opposition — talking about it…
We have to up-end so many things. We have to get rid of this idea once and for all that the Democratic Party can be the party to bring about the changes that we need. We have to talk about how we’re going to move on, and move away from them. Because they are the problem. They are a bigger problem because people look to them and they fail. They fail intentionally. This is an opportunity for us to question many different things. And not to act as though the pre-COVID days were all wonderful. Because they were not.
Listen to the audio of the full interview here.


The Lethal—Perhaps Omnicidal—Plutocracy

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A premature or immature revolution against capitalism may leave capitalist values practically intact , warns the author , and we agree .
Some people believe the plutocrats are a well-organized hierarchy , like the fabled Illuminati .
Those people are mistaken .
The plutocrats are , in fact , an unruly and stupid mob , fighting against each other and even themselves almost as much as they fight against the rest of us .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the plutocracy is gradually destroying the ecosystem , on which even the plutocrats ultimately depend – they can ’ t eat money , though they may not realize that yet .
And the destruction is speeding up , due to feedback loops , much faster than most people realize .
With current trends I would estimate the point of no return around 2025 , collapse of civilization ( due to immense famine ) around 2032 , and the extinction of our species around 2040 .
So it ’ s worse than the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m attaching this little note..
But that self-destruction was not fast enough for the plutocrats .
Now they are using the pandemic as a way to speed things up .
Capitalism always was a balancing act , and now I think they are losing their balance .
With mass layoffs and insufficient unemployment checks , they are rapidly , greatly increasing the numbers of the poor .
I think this makes inevitable EITHER A REVOLUTION OR THE COLLAPSE OF OUR CIVILIZATION , perhaps by 2022 .
If we have a revolution then , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small .
In desperation , people may hastily cobble together the first revolutionary arrangement they can manage .
That will only apply a band-aid to our economic system , not the deeper changes we need , and that will not address the ecosystem problems at all .
Those problems will continue on the schedule I mentioned earlier .
Our only hope for a future is if we get more people talking about these things .
Tell everyone .
Puke if you must

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Eric Schechter
OpEds
A premature or immature revolution against capitalism may leave capitalist values practically intact, warns the author, and we agree. [dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome people believe the plutocrats are a well-organized hierarchy, like the fabled Illuminati. Those people are mistaken. The plutocrats are, in fact, an unruly and stupid mob, fighting against each other and even themselves almost as much as they fight against the rest of us.
This was already evident from the fact that the plutocracy is gradually destroying the ecosystem, on which even the plutocrats ultimately depend – they can’t eat money, though they may not realize that yet. And the destruction is speeding up, due to feedback loops, much faster than most people realize. With current trends I would estimate the point of no return around 2025, collapse of civilization (due to immense famine) around 2032, and the extinction of our species around 2040. So it’s worse than the Ted Rall cartoon to which I’m attaching this little note..
But that self-destruction was not fast enough for the plutocrats. Now they are using the pandemic as a way to speed things up. Capitalism always was a balancing act, and now I think they are losing their balance. With mass layoffs and insufficient unemployment checks, they are rapidly, greatly increasing the numbers of the poor. I think this makes inevitable EITHER A REVOLUTION OR THE COLLAPSE OF OUR CIVILIZATION, perhaps by 2022. If we have a revolution then, I fear its vision will be too small. In desperation, people may hastily cobble together the first revolutionary arrangement they can manage. That will only apply a band-aid to our economic system, not the deeper changes we need, and that will not address the ecosystem problems at all. Those problems will continue on the schedule I mentioned earlier. Our only hope for a future is if we get more people talking about these things. Tell everyone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eric Schechter is a professor emeritus in mathematics from Vanderbilt University. Retired in 2013, Schechter is currently an anti-capitalist activist. His main blog is at https://leftymathprof.wordpress.com.
Puke if you must
This bloodsoaked monster is probably the most evil person on planet earth https://t.co/nGq2H1EPHt — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 9, 2020


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-04-29--Let’s Stop Pretending Billionaires Are in the Same Boat As Us During This Pandemic

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n this pandemic , we are unfortunately not in the same boat .
Most Americans don ’ t even have a canoe .
But some billionaires have taken to the high seas in their yachts – literally – to rideout the pandemic .
While ordinary workers get furloughed or laid off in record numbers , billionaires as a group are actually seeing their wealth increase .
Between March 18 and April 10 , 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jobs .
Over the same three weeks , my co-authors and I find in a new study for the Institute for Policy Studies , US billionaire wealth increased by $ 282bn – an almost 10 % gain .
Indeed , we ’ re seeing distinct socio-economic fault lines between who is vulnerable and who is protected – between those with healthcare and those without , those who rely on public transit and those with private jets , and those who work on the frontlines and those who telecommute from comfortable homes ( or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the luxury of owning multiple properties far from population centers , are riding out the pandemic in havens for the wealthy such as Jackson Hole , Palm Beach , Hilton Head Island and Sun Valley .
Reporters describe private jets clogging the small airports on Nantucket and Martha ’ s Vineyard , while gourmet food stores in the Hamptons have been cleared out by the itinerant rich .
Some small seasonal vacation communities , lacking the hospital beds or doctors to care for throngs of sick people , have had to beg affluent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of New Jersey even enlisted the Jersey Shore star Mike “ The Situation ” Sorrentino to implore people to stay away .
As the wealthy luxuriate in high-end vacation towns , new Covid-19 hotspots are springing up in working-class and immigrant gateway neighborhoods like Chelsea , Massachusetts , and New York City ’ s outer boroughs , where people live and work in higher-density spaces , and where social-distancing guidelines are more difficult to implement – especially for frontline workers without sick leave .
The wealthy are not only ‘ social distancing ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ economically distancing ’ While some essential workers brave the pandemic without paid sick leave , millions of others have lost their health insurance after being laid off .
But that ’ s no worry for the wealthiest Americans , who have access to “ concierge medicine ” – where , in exchange for hefty annual fees , they have ready access to Covid-19 testing and treatment .
At an exclusive residence on Fisher Island , Florida , even the hired help has gotten the medical testing and screening that the rest of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wealthy are not only “ social distancing ” , in short – they are also “ economically distancing ” .
For decades now , they ’ ve been disconnecting from the rest of society and taking their treasure with them , undermining our public institutions as well as social solidarity .
Decades of tax cuts and billionaire-friendly public policies , our report found , helped US billionaire wealth soar over 1,100 % between 1990 and 2018 .
Yet their tax obligations , as a percentage of their wealth , decreased a staggering 79 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billionaires may not have caused this pandemic .
But extreme inequality and poverty are pre-existing conditions in this public health emergency .
Not least , all that uncollected tax revenue could have funded a much more responsive public health system .
There are inspiring examples of social solidarity across the country , including meaningful offers of money and help from those with abundance .
But the level of sacrifice being demanded from working-class Americans is truly medieval .
The first step in reversing these extreme inequalities ?
Stop pretending we ’ re in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must

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By Chuck Collins
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n this pandemic, we are unfortunately not in the same boat. Most Americans don’t even have a canoe. But some billionaires have taken to the high seas in their yachts – literally – to rideout the pandemic. While ordinary workers get furloughed or laid off in record numbers, billionaires as a group are actually seeing their wealth increase.
Between March 18 and April 10, 2020, over 22 million Americans lost their jobs. Over the same three weeks, my co-authors and I find in a new study for the Institute for Policy Studies, US billionaire wealth increased by $282bn – an almost 10% gain.
Indeed, we’re seeing distinct socio-economic fault lines between who is vulnerable and who is protected – between those with healthcare and those without, those who rely on public transit and those with private jets, and those who work on the frontlines and those who telecommute from comfortable homes (or yachts).
Many billionaires, enjoying the luxury of owning multiple properties far from population centers, are riding out the pandemic in havens for the wealthy such as Jackson Hole, Palm Beach, Hilton Head Island and Sun Valley. Reporters describe private jets clogging the small airports on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, while gourmet food stores in the Hamptons have been cleared out by the itinerant rich.
Some small seasonal vacation communities, lacking the hospital beds or doctors to care for throngs of sick people, have had to beg affluent visitors to go home. The state of New Jersey even enlisted the Jersey Shore star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino to implore people to stay away.
As the wealthy luxuriate in high-end vacation towns, new Covid-19 hotspots are springing up in working-class and immigrant gateway neighborhoods like Chelsea, Massachusetts, and New York City’s outer boroughs, where people live and work in higher-density spaces, and where social-distancing guidelines are more difficult to implement – especially for frontline workers without sick leave.
The wealthy are not only ‘social distancing’, in short – they are also ‘economically distancing’
While some essential workers brave the pandemic without paid sick leave, millions of others have lost their health insurance after being laid off. But that’s no worry for the wealthiest Americans, who have access to “concierge medicine” – where, in exchange for hefty annual fees, they have ready access to Covid-19 testing and treatment. At an exclusive residence on Fisher Island, Florida, even the hired help has gotten the medical testing and screening that the rest of the country is waiting for.
The wealthy are not only “social distancing”, in short – they are also “economically distancing”. For decades now, they’ve been disconnecting from the rest of society and taking their treasure with them, undermining our public institutions as well as social solidarity.
Decades of tax cuts and billionaire-friendly public policies, our report found, helped US billionaire wealth soar over 1,100% between 1990 and 2018. Yet their tax obligations, as a percentage of their wealth, decreased a staggering 79% between 1980 and 2018.
The billionaires may not have caused this pandemic. But extreme inequality and poverty are pre-existing conditions in this public health emergency. Not least, all that uncollected tax revenue could have funded a much more responsive public health system.
There are inspiring examples of social solidarity across the country, including meaningful offers of money and help from those with abundance. But the level of sacrifice being demanded from working-class Americans is truly medieval.
The first step in reversing these extreme inequalities? Stop pretending we’re in the same boat.
Source: Orinoco Tribune
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chuck Collins is an author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is also co-founder of Wealth for Common Good.
Puke if you must
This bloodsoaked monster is probably the most evil person on planet earth https://t.co/nGq2H1EPHt — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 9, 2020


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-04-29--The decline of neoliberal globalization and the fascistic restructuring of American capitalism

Assessing the ways the American capitalist class is responding to the decline of U.S. imperialism .
Neoliberalism and the petrodollar are how U.S.-led globalization has survived in the last half-century In his book Against Empire , Michael Parenti concluded about the economic arrangement of recent generations that `` Designed to leave the world 's economic destiny at the mercy of bankers and multinational corporations , Globalization is a logical extension of imperialism , a victory of empire over republic , international finance capital over democracy . ''
When the value of labor from American workers was reduced and corporate interests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporatocracy could afford to deindustrialize the imperial core .
Millions of U.S. jobs were moved to lower wage countries through free trade deals like NAFTA .
In the 1970s , a neoliberal shock doctrine began to be imposed upon exploited countries like Chile , and neoliberalism was soon brought to the U.S. and the other imperial powers .
By the end of the 20th century , both the Third World and the First World had been thoroughly transformed by the new paradigm of privatization , austerity , deregulation , and a shifting of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Neoliberalism was the way for the corporations to maintain rising profits in a world where the mid-century welfare states had become detrimental to the capitalist class .
Spending on the Vietnam War had sent the U.S. into a recession that was making corporate profits drop , exacerbated by the quadrupling of oil prices that was brought on by the 1973 oil embargo .
The embargo , which was a response by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries to Washington 's support for Israel , demonstrated the need for U.S. imperialism to adapt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amid this crisis both by implementing neoliberalism , and by placing a new level of importance on the petrodollar system .
The U.S. made a deal with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries , one where they deposited oil profits to Western banks in exchange for Washington sending U.S. companies to westernize Saudi Arabia .
Under this global economic model , the 1 % enjoyed a mostly steady uptick in profits for several decades .
But at some point it had to come back down .
After the 2008 crash , the power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , making the financial system more concentrated and unstable than it had been before .
New financial bubbles appearedaround the globe as all of the lending schemes that had led to the previous crash continued .
When the Covid-19 crash came , it correlatedwith a new housing crisis that was already in progress , making the Federal Reserve powerless to stop it from turning into a recession .
Now most investors are saying that the current downturn will be worse than the last one , and tens of thousands of U.S. capitalists have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ petrodollar system has been growing unstable as well .
Since the creation of the petrodollar , Iran 's U.S.-installed Shah has been overthrown by an anti-imperialist government that 's abandoned the U.S. dollar in international trade .
The Chavista revolution has made Washington lose Venezuela as a petrodollar asset as well .
This is why Washington continues to escalate its efforts towards regime change in these two countries : they add to the great losses that the petrodollar is experiencing amid the current crisis .
Last week , the price of crude oil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is partly the result of the ill-timed recent increases in oil production from the Saudi-Russian oil price war , which has been heating up at the same time that Covid-19 has shut down world economies and decreased demand for oil .
Despite the attempts from U.S. oil companies to maneuver the situation , the American oil industry is especially vulnerable to rapid price drops , as is the U.S. dollar itself .
Market reporter Jamie Redman writes : Experts say that the continued sell-off shows the oil problems are not going away and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. dollar .
Since 1944 , the USD has been propped up by the petro-dollar scheme and with oil prices below zero , the dollar could easily collapse .
Free market advocates , gold bugs , and cryptocurrency proponents have always said that today 's monetary system was immoral and manipulated .
Of all the countries in the world , U.S. leaders have been some of the worst manipulators in history and the nation 's super-powers may be coming to an end .
This goes along with the crisis being faced by Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arabia , which former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel says is `` facing the perfect storm '' '' weak oil prices , pandemic , and quagmire in Yemen . ''
If the currency system and global economic leverage that U.S.-led globalization depends on are crumbling , what does this mean for the continued viability of neoliberalism ?
It means that neoliberalism-which has long had the destabilizing effect of exacerbating wealth inequality-is becoming more of a liability for the capitalist class .
The U.S. , whose capacity for internal economic productivity has been diminished by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of recession , is now committing economic suicide by shutting down its economy with no meaningful measures to protect the public welfare .
China can quarantine its population for months and economically bounce back , because it has a planned economy with a strong social safety net .
But the U.S. is now doomed to a continued series of downturns in the coming months and years , with unemployment sure to remain very high however soon the quarantine measures end .
It does n't help that the U.S. is preparing to default on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ further harm the U.S. economy .
All of this is a recipe for rising lower class discontent and a continued growth in labor struggles .
It also reduces the economic power of the capitalist class .
The American workers , who were more expendable when the U.S. corporatocracy could reach further out , are now more essential for the system to function .
This is why Trump is rushing to get all of the laid off people back to work .
There 's a perfect storm to be faced not just for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the other countries which have embraced neoliberalism and economically tied themselves to Western imperialism .
America 's recent economic chaos and governmental ineptitude to respond to the pandemic has proven the U.S. is a failed state , and similar situations are arising for partnered powers like Brazil and the U.K. Around the world , the contradictions of capitalism are heightening .
Economic nationalism , further monopolization , and a sinister opportunity for big tech Trump 's `` America First '' economic approach is becoming more accepted among the U.S. ruling class as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports that `` Businesses are reassessing China 's role in global supply chains , and by the time this virus burns out , many of them will have started planning to relocate at least some of their production elsewhere .
Deglobalization is accelerating . ''
This embrace of isolationism within the corporatocracy , the political establishment , and the military elite is the latest part of how American imperialism is turning inward .
In this situation where the U.S. empire is in decline and looking towards nationalism over globalization , the biggest corporations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their advantage .
A consolidation of economic power is going on within the imperial core , one where the 0.01 % are growing richer than ever while almost everyone else becomes poorer .
If a number of financial institutions go down like Lehman Brothers went down in 2008 , they 'll be replaced by BlackRock , the private contractor that 's been tasked with managing the Federal Reserve 's bailout slush fund .
BlackRock is bigger than Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan , and Deutsche Bank combined , and because of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system of the U.S. treasury .
BlackRock is also a major Trump donor .
This political and economic power grab represents `` the Wall Street-ization of the Fed , '' as the journalist Pepe Escobar has called what 's happening to the financial system .
It 's a scheme that will both make BlackRock a supreme financial power over the United States , and make plutocrats like Jeff Bezos come out on top by injecting a market stimulus which is increasing the market value of Amazon and other monopolies .
Bezos in particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the coming months and years , because Amazon provides technology for the military/intelligence complex .
And intelligence agencies and the military are going to need more resources as they seek to further fortify the national security state .
Bill Gates , whose Covid-19 philanthropy has worked to solidify billionaire control over public health , stands to benefit from the pandemic in more ominous ways .
Gates ' multi-billion dollar project to create and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine is n't motivated by a pure humanitarian desire ; part of the endgame of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ digital mass surveillance system , as he 's explicitly stated in one recent talk : `` Eventually what we 'll have to have is certificates of who 's a recovered person , who 's a vaccinated person '' So eventually there will be this digital immunity proof that will help facilitate the global reopening up . ''
This is a prospect for the long term .
In the short term other facets of big pharma , like the notoriously corrupt company BioPort , are profiting greatly from Covid-19 .
Gates ' vision for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where the demand for artificial intelligence-driven mass surveillance comes in .
Last year , the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence-which has ties to the CIA and to top Trump donor Sheldon Adelson-—called for the U.S. to adopt a mass surveillance system far more extreme than that of any other country .
A desire to compete with Chinese technology was the NSCAI 's main rationale for advocating for the implementation of a new national infrastructure , one where interconnected AI systems monitor everyone 's daily activities .
The commission stated that surveillance represents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for AI , '' and that `` having streets carpeted with cameras is good infrastructure . ''
The companies helping to bring us towards these `` smart cities '' are Google , Palantir , and the other Silicon Valley tech giants that have ties with the NSCAI .
They 're already facilitating the transition into their ideal post-Covid-19 scenario , as Microsoft , Amazon , Google , Lockheed Martin , and Oracle are advising the White House in its project to reopen the economy .
Now we can get a sense of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ globalization with .
The NSCIA 's ultimate goals are to overhaul traditional car ownership and normalize self-driving cars , to move beyond in-person shopping so that all shopping is done online , and to do away with paper money and make currency entirely take the form of digital wallets .
It 's no wonder why they 're aiming for a replacement of the American currency system , since the U.S. dollar is losing its value .
If these changes accompany a universal basic income , as many billionaires have begun to propose implementing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beyond the old neoliberal model and ( the ruling class hopes ) reach a stable new equilibrium .
The future these oligarchs and corporate giants want is one where living standards are improved enough for workers and poor people to stop organizing , and where dissension is kept in check by intensive surveillance and a militarized police state .
This is the repressive , extremely unequal , and globally isolated version of American capitalism that 's going to follow the country 's era as a hegemonic power .
If you appreciate my work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or regular donor to my Patreon account .
Like most of us , I 'm feeling the economic pinch during late-stage capitalism , and I need money to keep fighting for a new system that works for all of us .
Go to my Patreon here :

Assessing the ways the American capitalist class is responding to the decline of U.S. imperialism.
Neoliberalism and the petrodollar are how U.S.-led globalization has survived in the last half-century
In his book Against Empire, Michael Parenti concluded about the economic arrangement of recent generations that "Designed to leave the world's economic destiny at the mercy of bankers and multinational corporations, Globalization is a logical extension of imperialism, a victory of empire over republic, international finance capital over democracy."
When the value of labor from American workers was reduced and corporate interests were global rather than national, the corporatocracy could afford to deindustrialize the imperial core. Millions of U.S. jobs were moved to lower wage countries through free trade deals like NAFTA. In the 1970s, a neoliberal shock doctrine began to be imposed upon exploited countries like Chile, and neoliberalism was soon brought to the U.S. and the other imperial powers. By the end of the 20th century, both the Third World and the First World had been thoroughly transformed by the new paradigm of privatization, austerity, deregulation, and a shifting of the tax burden onto the poor.
Neoliberalism was the way for the corporations to maintain rising profits in a world where the mid-century welfare states had become detrimental to the capitalist class. Spending on the Vietnam War had sent the U.S. into a recession that was making corporate profits drop, exacerbated by the quadrupling of oil prices that was brought on by the 1973 oil embargo.
The embargo, which was a response by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries to Washington's support for Israel, demonstrated the need for U.S. imperialism to adapt. The capitalist class preserved U.S.-led globalization amid this crisis both by implementing neoliberalism, and by placing a new level of importance on the petrodollar system. The U.S. made a deal with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries, one where they deposited oil profits to Western banks in exchange for Washington sending U.S. companies to westernize Saudi Arabia.
Under this global economic model, the 1% enjoyed a mostly steady uptick in profits for several decades. But at some point it had to come back down.
Boom and bust
After the 2008 crash, the power of the big banks was further consolidated, making the financial system more concentrated and unstable than it had been before. New financial bubbles appearedaround the globe as all of the lending schemes that had led to the previous crash continued. When the Covid-19 crash came, it correlatedwith a new housing crisis that was already in progress, making the Federal Reserve powerless to stop it from turning into a recession. Now most investors are saying that the current downturn will be worse than the last one, and tens of thousands of U.S. capitalists have lost their statuses as millionaires.
The petrodollar system has been growing unstable as well. Since the creation of the petrodollar, Iran's U.S.-installed Shah has been overthrown by an anti-imperialist government that's abandoned the U.S. dollar in international trade. The Chavista revolution has made Washington lose Venezuela as a petrodollar asset as well. This is why Washington continues to escalate its efforts towards regime change in these two countries: they add to the great losses that the petrodollar is experiencing amid the current crisis.
Last week, the price of crude oil briefly dropped to below zero. This is partly the result of the ill-timed recent increases in oil production from the Saudi-Russian oil price war, which has been heating up at the same time that Covid-19 has shut down world economies and decreased demand for oil. Despite the attempts from U.S. oil companies to maneuver the situation, the American oil industry is especially vulnerable to rapid price drops, as is the U.S. dollar itself. Market reporter Jamie Redman writes:
Experts say that the continued sell-off shows the oil problems are not going away and the severe issues could ultimately destroy the U.S. dollar. Since 1944, the USD has been propped up by the petro-dollar scheme and with oil prices below zero, the dollar could easily collapse. Free market advocates, gold bugs, and cryptocurrency proponents have always said that today's monetary system was immoral and manipulated. Of all the countries in the world, U.S. leaders have been some of the worst manipulators in history and the nation's super-powers may be coming to an end.
This goes along with the crisis being faced by Washington's key middle eastern economic asset Saudi Arabia, which former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel says is "facing the perfect storm""weak oil prices, pandemic, and quagmire in Yemen." If the currency system and global economic leverage that U.S.-led globalization depends on are crumbling, what does this mean for the continued viability of neoliberalism?
It means that neoliberalism-which has long had the destabilizing effect of exacerbating wealth inequality-is becoming more of a liability for the capitalist class. The U.S., whose capacity for internal economic productivity has been diminished by decades of deindustrialization and a twelve-year-long state of recession, is now committing economic suicide by shutting down its economy with no meaningful measures to protect the public welfare.
China can quarantine its population for months and economically bounce back, because it has a planned economy with a strong social safety net. But the U.S. is now doomed to a continued series of downturns in the coming months and years, with unemployment sure to remain very high however soon the quarantine measures end. It doesn't help that the U.S. is preparing to default on debts owed to China, which could further harm the U.S. economy.
All of this is a recipe for rising lower class discontent and a continued growth in labor struggles. It also reduces the economic power of the capitalist class. The American workers, who were more expendable when the U.S. corporatocracy could reach further out, are now more essential for the system to function. This is why Trump is rushing to get all of the laid off people back to work.
There's a perfect storm to be faced not just for the Saudis, but for the U.S. and the other countries which have embraced neoliberalism and economically tied themselves to Western imperialism. America's recent economic chaos and governmental ineptitude to respond to the pandemic has proven the U.S. is a failed state, and similar situations are arising for partnered powers like Brazil and the U.K. Around the world, the contradictions of capitalism are heightening.
Economic nationalism, further monopolization, and a sinister opportunity for big tech
Trump's "America First" economic approach is becoming more accepted among the U.S. ruling class as the cold war with China escalates. Bloomberg reports that "Businesses are reassessing China's role in global supply chains, and by the time this virus burns out, many of them will have started planning to relocate at least some of their production elsewhere. Deglobalization is accelerating." This embrace of isolationism within the corporatocracy, the political establishment, and the military elite is the latest part of how American imperialism is turning inward.
In this situation where the U.S. empire is in decline and looking towards nationalism over globalization, the biggest corporations are trying to reshape the economy best to their advantage. A consolidation of economic power is going on within the imperial core, one where the 0.01% are growing richer than ever while almost everyone else becomes poorer.
If a number of financial institutions go down like Lehman Brothers went down in 2008, they'll be replaced by BlackRock, the private contractor that's been tasked with managing the Federal Reserve's bailout slush fund. BlackRock is bigger than Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Deutsche Bank combined, and because of the Covid-19 crash it's become the operating system of the U.S. treasury. BlackRock is also a major Trump donor. This political and economic power grab represents "the Wall Street-ization of the Fed," as the journalist Pepe Escobar has called what's happening to the financial system.
It's a scheme that will both make BlackRock a supreme financial power over the United States, and make plutocrats like Jeff Bezos come out on top by injecting a market stimulus which is increasing the market value of Amazon and other monopolies. Bezos in particular has opportunities to profit from the turmoil of the coming months and years, because Amazon provides technology for the military/intelligence complex. And intelligence agencies and the military are going to need more resources as they seek to further fortify the national security state.
Bill Gates, whose Covid-19 philanthropy has worked to solidify billionaire control over public health, stands to benefit from the pandemic in more ominous ways. Gates' multi-billion dollar project to create and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine isn't motivated by a pure humanitarian desire; part of the endgame of his mass produced vaccination campaign is a new digital mass surveillance system, as he's explicitly stated in one recent talk: "Eventually what we'll have to have is certificates of who's a recovered person, who's a vaccinated person"So eventually there will be this digital immunity proof that will help facilitate the global reopening up." This is a prospect for the long term. In the short term other facets of big pharma, like the notoriously corrupt company BioPort, are profiting greatly from Covid-19.
Gates' vision for a vast, high-tech tracking network is where the demand for artificial intelligence-driven mass surveillance comes in. Last year, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence-which has ties to the CIA and to top Trump donor Sheldon Adelson-—called for the U.S. to adopt a mass surveillance system far more extreme than that of any other country. A desire to compete with Chinese technology was the NSCAI's main rationale for advocating for the implementation of a new national infrastructure, one where interconnected AI systems monitor everyone's daily activities. The commission stated that surveillance represents "one of the 'first-and-best customers' for AI," and that "having streets carpeted with cameras is good infrastructure."
The companies helping to bring us towards these "smart cities" are Google, Palantir, and the other Silicon Valley tech giants that have ties with the NSCAI. They're already facilitating the transition into their ideal post-Covid-19 scenario, as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Oracle are advising the White House in its project to reopen the economy.
Now we can get a sense of what the ruling class plans to replace neoliberal globalization with. The NSCIA's ultimate goals are to overhaul traditional car ownership and normalize self-driving cars, to move beyond in-person shopping so that all shopping is done online, and to do away with paper money and make currency entirely take the form of digital wallets. It's no wonder why they're aiming for a replacement of the American currency system, since the U.S. dollar is losing its value.
If these changes accompany a universal basic income, as many billionaires have begun to propose implementing, capitalism in the U.S. will move beyond the old neoliberal model and (the ruling class hopes) reach a stable new equilibrium. The future these oligarchs and corporate giants want is one where living standards are improved enough for workers and poor people to stop organizing, and where dissension is kept in check by intensive surveillance and a militarized police state. This is the repressive, extremely unequal, and globally isolated version of American capitalism that's going to follow the country's era as a hegemonic power.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
If you appreciate my work, I hope you become a one-time or regular donor to my Patreon account. Like most of us, I'm feeling the economic pinch during late-stage capitalism, and I need money to keep fighting for a new system that works for all of us. Go to my Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11988744


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-04-29--To Finally Kill The Nuclear Deal With Iran The U.S. Will Try To Rejoin It

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible .
Share with kin , friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise .
DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA , BY `` B '' This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear accord that President Trump has renounced , part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
...
In an effort to force the issue , Mr. Pompeo has approved a plan , bound to be opposed by many of Washington ’ s European allies , under which the United States would , in essence , claim it legally remains a “ participant state ” in the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump has denounced — but only for the purposes of invoking a “ snapback ” that would restore the U.N. sanctions on Iran that were in place before the accord .
If the arms embargo is not renewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right as an original member of the agreement .
That step would force a restoration of the wide array of the sanctions that prohibited oil sales and banking arrangements before the adoption of the agreement in 2015 .
Enforcing those older sanctions would , in theory , be binding on all members of the United Nations .
n May 8 2018 the U.S. ceased its participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA ) or nuclear deal with Iran .
The New York Times now reports that the U.S. wants to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : The real aim of the Trump administration is of course much wider : The idea is idiotic and it will not work .
There will be no 'snapback ' sanctions and Iran will stick to the deal .
The snapback option is part of the Dispute Resolution Mechanism that is laid out in article 36 and 37 of the JCPOA deal .
UN Dispatch has a short description of what it means : The deal signed this morning creates an eight member panel , called the “ Joint Commission ” to serve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members of the panel are the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council , plus Germany , Iran and the European Union .
There are eight members total .
If a majority ( 5 ) finds Iran to be cheating , the issue is referred to the Security Council .
No single country has a veto .
And here is where things get interesting .
The language of the nuclear deal says that the vote in the Security Council would not be to reimpose sanctions .
Rather , the Security Council must decide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanctions .
And if they fail to do so , the old sanctions are snapped back into place .
This framing obviates the prospect of a Russian veto , and it all but assures that if the Western countries believe that Iran is cheating , sanctions will automatically be re-imposed .
The U.S. is no longer a participant in the 'Joint Commission ' and can thereby not trigger the process .
There will also be no majority which would then have to refer a dispute to the UN Security Council .
In its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set out that only JCPOA participants can trigger a snapback process : That the U.S. will now claim to be still a participant state in the JCPOA will be seen as a joke by everyone who considers previous remarks the Trump administration made about ceasing its participation .
On May 8 2018 The White House published a 'Presidential Memoranda ' which was headlined : Ceasing U.S .
Participation in the JCPOA and Taking Additional Action to Counter Iran ’ s Malign Influence and Deny Iran All Paths to a Nuclear Weapon .
During @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Security Advisor John Bolton emphasized that the U.S. had left the deal and could therefore no longer trigger the 'snapback ' provision of UNSCR 2231 .
Talking about a sanctions detail he said : AMBASSADOR BOLTON : [ ... ] This contingency has been posted on the Treasury Department website since 2015 because of the potential for the use of the provisions of Resolution 2231 , which we ’ re not using because we ’ re out of the deal .
[ ... ] Q But that won ’ t be negotiated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — AMBASSADOR BOLTON : We ’ re out of the deal .
AMBASSADOR BOLTON : We ’ re out of the deal .
We ’ re out of the deal .
Q Are we out of the deal ?
AMBASSADOR BOLTON : You got it .
The next day the Washington Post published an op-ed by Bolton .
Its opening sentence is : The August 6 2018 Executive Order 13846 which reintroduced U.S. sanctions on Iran says : Just six weeks ago the U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook reconfirmed that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can therefore not trigger the snapback : After all these declarations and confirmations that the U.S. is no longer a participant in the JCPOA the other parties of the deal will certainly not agree with any U.S. argument that claims it is still in : But the author of the NY Times piece , David Sanger , claims that the strategy could work anyway : No , it can not work .
Only participants of the deal can trigger the snapback process .
The U.S. is no longer recognized as such a participant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are actually formal processes in the 'Joint Commission ' and in the UNSC which must be followed .
Those processes will not happen because the other JCPOA and UNSC members will simply ignore a U.S. attempt to trigger them .
Other members of the deal could still do that though .
But the Europeans are unlikely to take the U.S. side on this issue .
In January they made noise that they would trigger the Dispute Resolution Mechanism of the JCPAO that ends with sanction snapback because Iran had exceeded some formal limits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that with arguing that it was still within the deal limits and then threatened to leave the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty should the Europeans follow through .
The Europeans did not want to risk that and have since shut up .
The clown that leads the State Department will have to come up with some better ideas .
Posted by b on April 27 , 2020 at 15:38 UTC | Permalink '' b '' is Moon of Alabama 's founding ( and chief ) editor .
This site 's purpose is to discuss politics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Whiskey Bar writings .
Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent , open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community .
Bernhard ) '' b '' ) started and still runs the site .
Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators .
You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA @ aol.com .
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear accord that President Trump has renounced, part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far more stringent sanctions reimposed on the country.
...
In an effort to force the issue, Mr. Pompeo has approved a plan, bound to be opposed by many of Washington’s European allies, under which the United States would, in essence, claim it legally remains a “participant state” in the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump has denounced — but only for the purposes of invoking a “snapback” that would restore the U.N. sanctions on Iran that were in place before the accord. If the arms embargo is not renewed, the United States would exercise that right as an original member of the agreement. That step would force a restoration of the wide array of the sanctions that prohibited oil sales and banking arrangements before the adoption of the agreement in 2015. Enforcing those older sanctions would, in theory, be binding on all members of the United Nations.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n May 8 2018 the U.S. ceased its participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or nuclear deal with Iran. The New York Times now reports that the U.S. wants to be back in for some nefarious reason:
The real aim of the Trump administration is of course much wider:
Political calculations aside, the administration’s larger plan may go beyond imposing harsher sanctions on Iran. It is also to force Tehran to give up any pretense of preserving the Obama-era agreement. Only by shattering it, many senior administration officials say, will Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani be forced to negotiate an entirely new agreement more to Mr. Trump’s liking.
The idea is idiotic and it will not work. There will be no 'snapback' sanctions and Iran will stick to the deal.
The snapback option is part of the Dispute Resolution Mechanism that is laid out in article 36 and 37 of the JCPOA deal. UN Dispatch has a short description of what it means:
The deal signed this morning creates an eight member panel, called the “Joint Commission” to serve as a dispute resolution mechanism. The members of the panel are the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, plus Germany, Iran and the European Union. There are eight members total. If a majority (5) finds Iran to be cheating, the issue is referred to the Security Council. No single country has a veto. And here is where things get interesting. The language of the nuclear deal says that the vote in the Security Council would not be to reimpose sanctions. Rather, the Security Council must decide whether or not to continue lifting the sanctions. And if they fail to do so, the old sanctions are snapped back into place. This framing obviates the prospect of a Russian veto, and it all but assures that if the Western countries believe that Iran is cheating, sanctions will automatically be re-imposed.
The U.S. is no longer a participant in the 'Joint Commission' and can thereby not trigger the process. There will also be no majority which would then have to refer a dispute to the UN Security Council. In its Resolution 2231 the UN Security Council also set out that only JCPOA participants can trigger a snapback process:
11. Decides, acting under Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations, that, within 30 days of receiving a notification by a JCPOA participant State of an issue that the JCPOA participant State believes constitutes significant non-performance of commitments under the JCPOA, it shall vote on a draft resolution to continue in effect the terminations in paragraph 7 (a) of this resolution [...]
That the U.S. will now claim to be still a participant state in the JCPOA will be seen as a joke by everyone who considers previous remarks the Trump administration made about ceasing its participation.
On May 8 2018 The White House published a 'Presidential Memoranda' which was headlined:
Ceasing U.S. Participation in the JCPOA and Taking Additional Action to Counter Iran’s Malign Influence and Deny Iran All Paths to a Nuclear Weapon.
In section 2 the memorandum orders:
The Secretary of State shall, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Energy, take all appropriate steps to cease the participation of the United States in the JCPOA.
During the press briefing on that day then National Security Advisor John Bolton emphasized that the U.S. had left the deal and could therefore no longer trigger the 'snapback' provision of UNSCR 2231. Talking about a sanctions detail he said:
AMBASSADOR BOLTON: [...] This contingency has been posted on the Treasury Department website since 2015 because of the potential for the use of the provisions of Resolution 2231, which we’re not using because we’re out of the deal. [...] Q But that won’t be negotiated away during that — for those existing — AMBASSADOR BOLTON: We’re out of the deal. Q We’re out. AMBASSADOR BOLTON: We’re out of the deal. We’re out of the deal. Q Are we out of the deal? AMBASSADOR BOLTON: You got it.
The next day the Washington Post published an op-ed by Bolton. Its opening sentence is:
On Tuesday, President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the failed Iran nuclear deal.
The August 6 2018 Executive Order 13846 which reintroduced U.S. sanctions on Iran says:
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, in light of my decision on May 8, 2018, to cease the participation of the United States in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of July 14, 2015 (JCPOA), [...] hereby order: [...]
Just six weeks ago the U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook reconfirmed that the U.S. is outside of the deal and can therefore not trigger the snapback:
Hook appeared, for now at least, to put to rest any speculation that the U.S. could try to step back into the deal, claiming participation despite the pullout, to trigger the snapback. "We're out of the deal," he said when asked, "and so the countries that are in the deal will make decisions that are in their sovereign capacity."
After all these declarations and confirmations that the U.S. is no longer a participant in the JCPOA the other parties of the deal will certainly not agree with any U.S. argument that claims it is still in:
A senior European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, dismissed the strategy as pushing the words of the agreement far beyond their logical context.
But the author of the NY Times piece, David Sanger, claims that the strategy could work anyway:
But the administration’s strategy could well work, even if other members of the United Nations ignored the move. At that point, on paper at least, the United Nations would be back to all the sanctions on Iran that existed before Mr. Obama reached the accord with Tehran.
No, it can not work. Only participants of the deal can trigger the snapback process. The U.S. is no longer recognized as such a participant.
Before a snapback can occur there are actually formal processes in the 'Joint Commission' and in the UNSC which must be followed. Those processes will not happen because the other JCPOA and UNSC members will simply ignore a U.S. attempt to trigger them.
Other members of the deal could still do that though. But the Europeans are unlikely to take the U.S. side on this issue. In January they made noise that they would trigger the Dispute Resolution Mechanism of the JCPAO that ends with sanction snapback because Iran had exceeded some formal limits of the deal. But Iran countered that with arguing that it was still within the deal limits and then threatened to leave the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty should the Europeans follow through.
The Europeans did not want to risk that and have since shut up.
The clown that leads the State Department will have to come up with some better ideas.
Posted by b on April 27, 2020 at 15:38 UTC | Permalink
Comments Sampler
NOTE ^1000Careerist lackeys serving the elites control the American press. Ever pushing for war and inequality, covering up the oligarchy's crimes... They are in reality shameless disinformers. No wonder the world is in such terrible disarray.
About the author(s) "b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com.
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thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-04-30--Michael Jordan’s Sad Legacy as the Plutocrats’ Champ, and the Anti-Ali

ive years ago on a bitterly cold day in February , I walked into a Bohemian coffee bar on Chicago 's Westside to interview Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn , the husband-and-wife couple who helped found the Leftist organization of young white militants known as the Weather Underground .
For the two-and-a half hours that followed , I sat in rapt astonishment while these two regaled me with stories of their days on-the-run , of the Black Panthers and Emmet Till and their thoughts on everything from Ferguson to Occupy and immigrants ’ rights .
About halfway through , Bernardine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the movement as a young law student helping to organize rent strikes in black neighborhoods on Chicago ’ s Southside .
Of the dozens of boycotts she helped arrange , only one , she recalled proudly , resulted in an eviction , and on the morning Cook County sheriff ’ s deputies executed the order , throngs of restive black volunteers gathered outside the apartment to load the family ’ s furniture onto a moving van .
Bernardine was at the front of the crowd , and when the doors to the apartment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and surge like a volcano preparing to vomit .
Dohrn could sense one of the black men towering behind her and as he rushed past he handed her his sports coat for safekeeping .
Handling the jacket , Dohrn couldn ’ t help but notice that the material was fine and expensive , and not usually what you ’ d expect to see worn by a member of Chicago ’ s black working class .
It was only when he came to retrieve the jacket that she recognized its owner as one Muhammad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got her start in the movement.
” Thirty years later , a throng of reporters assembled around the locker of another resplendent Chicago athlete by the name of Michael Jeffrey Jordan to ask his thoughts about Nike ’ s exploitation of child workers in southeast Asian sweatshops `` I think that 's Nike 's decision to do what they can to make sure everything is correctly done , '' he said .
`` I do n't know the complete situation .
Why should I ?
I 'm trying to do my job .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing , whatever that might be . ''
Two transcendent black athletes , two polar opposite responses to suffering , with Ali -- the People ’ s Champ -- hurtling into the breach to come to the aid of his community and Jordan doing all he could to distance himself from an exploited class of darker-skinned people who were literally manufacturing much of his wealth .
Netflix last week debuted a 10-part documentary , , that examines in sharp relief Jordan ’ s final championship season with the Chicago Bulls .
Less than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pundits are mostly engorged with praise for Jordan ’ s athleticism and myopic commitment to winning at all costs .
And to be sure , Jordan , the basketball player , was a revelation .
When he was on the court you simply couldn ’ t take your eyes off of him .
I remember as a young man trying to chat up women at bars and becoming so engrossed in watching Jordan on the television screen that I simply lost interest in my date .
But there is also this : as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failure , who as a rule turned his back on his tribe , his community and the working class into which he was born , and , from all evidence , passed up every opportunity to ease the suffering of other human beings .
He famously refused his mother ’ s entreaties to support the black , liberal Democrat , Harvey Gantt , in a closely contested 1990 U.S. Senate race against North Carolina ’ s cartoonish segregationist , Jesse Helms , reportedly responding that “ Republicans buy shoes too ” referencing his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declined to attend or support the 1995 Million Man March because , he told former New York Times columnist , William Rhoden , “ I take care of my kids.
” Charles Barkley once told Oprah Winfrey that Jordan is the cheapest man he knew , routinely telling panhandlers to go get a job at Mcdonalds , and the rapper , Chamillionaire , says Jordan humiliated him for asking for a photograph with the then-retired baller .
But the piece de resistance occurred before the 1991 NBA finals between the Chicago Bulls and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Craig Hodges approached Jordan and Lakers superstar Magic Johnson about boycotting the opening game to protest state terror against blacks as exemplified by the Los Angeles Police Department ’ s videotaped beating of an unarmed motorist , Rodney King , three months earlier .
As Hodges recalled the incident for reporters years later , he proposed standing “ in solidarity with the black community while calling out racism and economic inequality in the NBA , where there were no black owners and almost no black coaches despite the fact that 75 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American.
” The financial calamities confronting the U.S. today did not begin with the onset of a global pandemic three months ago but a social scourge that first began to infect the American body politic following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. who before his death prophesied that racial integration would subsume African Americans “ into a burning house.
” Along with Oprah and Obama and Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and thousands of other black professionals who are , in effect , defectors , Jordan embodies the immolation of an African-American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ modernized the state , and exalted the individual only inasmuch as he or she helped to lift up the people who produced them .
With athletes and politicians like Ali , and King and Curt Flood and Paul Robeson and Tommie Smith and John Carlos helping shoulder some of the load , the American working class , generally , and blacks , specifically , were demanding a fairer return on their labor .
By 1973 , wages , household savings , and the number of workers belonging to labor unions were at an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in poverty than ever before or since .
In 1973 , there were 317 work stoppages involving at least 1,000 employees , and 424 the following year , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
“ Jordan embodies the immolation of an African-American dialectic.
” Today , even before anyone heard of the coronavirus , wages , savings and the percentage of unionized employees had plummeted to historic lows , the national poverty rate has soared to historic highs , and there were seven work stoppages in 2017 , the last year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not an accident .
With the workers raising their flag in one battle after another beginning in the depths of the Great Depression , the wealthiest one percent and their vassals in government began to regroup in the early 1970s , and gather momentum with Ronald Reagan ’ s election .
Critical to this bipartisan counterrevolution was using the news and entertainment media , the academy , nonprofits and political parties to marginalize and silence the African American voices that were often loudest in articulating proletarian demands on capital .
Jordan was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ depoliticize athletes , and effectively weaponize sports as an entertaining distraction from the class struggle , similar to plantation owners pitting slaves against each other in the boxing ring , or fielding baseball teams to allow exploited Central American farmworkers to let off steam .
“ Our generation dropped the ball as a lot of us were more concerned with our own economic gain , ” Hodges said .
“ We were at that point where branding was just beginning and we got caught up in individual branding rather than a unified movement.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carmelo Anthony and Eric Reid and the Bennett brothers and a generation of professional athletes who came of age in the 1990s when Cliff Huxtable was no longer on the air , Jordan was winning championships , and jobs in the American inner-city were disappearing , are more likely to speak out on behalf of the black community .
Seemingly conscious of his shameful legacy , Jordan has belatedly begun to speak out against police violence , and contribute to charitable causes although he continues to underwhelm with his political and racial consciousness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carolina where a cabal of white supremacists in 1898 organized a pogrom which murdered as many as 300 African Americans , Jordan told a book author in 2014 that he threw a soda at a white high school classmate who called him the N-word .
The moral of Jordan ’ s story ?
He was guilty of reverse racism .
“ Seemingly conscious of his shameful legacy , Jordan has belatedly begun to speak out.
” More recently , Jordan has defended his apolitical stance during his playing career as part of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough , harkens back to arguments used to defend savage racist coaches like Adolph Rupp , Bear Bryant and Bobby Knight .
Jordan ’ s reputation among poor and working-class African Americans is strikingly similar to Pele ’ s with impoverished black Brazilians , who resent the soccer legend ’ s cozy relationship with the military junta that ruled Brazil for a generation .
“ When I was playing , my vision – my tunnel vision – was my craft , ” Jordan said recently .
“ Now I have more time to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just doesn ’ t fly if you are profiting from the exploitation of Vietnamese girls as young as 12 .
And The Last Dance depicts Jordan as even indifferent to the contract struggle of his Bulls ’ teammate , Scottie Pippen .
As we stare down a pandemic that threatens to finish off the American working class , perhaps we should refrain from debates of whether Jordan is the GOAT , or greatest of all-time , and instead keep in mind the words of another Chicagoan who , as legend has it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Mets , but gave his life to the people instead .
“ If you walk through life and do n't help anybody , you have n't had much of a life ” Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report 's Facebook page at http : //facebook.com/blackagendareport Or , you can comment by emailing us at comments @ blackagendareport.com

F
ive years ago on a bitterly cold day in February, I walked into a Bohemian coffee bar on Chicago's Westside to interview Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the husband-and-wife couple who helped found the Leftist organization of young white militants known as the Weather Underground. For the two-and-a half hours that followed, I sat in rapt astonishment while these two regaled me with stories of their days on-the-run, of the Black Panthers and Emmet Till and their thoughts on everything from Ferguson to Occupy and immigrants’ rights. About halfway through, Bernardine recalled how she got her start in the movement as a young law student helping to organize rent strikes in black neighborhoods on Chicago’s Southside.
Of the dozens of boycotts she helped arrange, only one, she recalled proudly, resulted in an eviction, and on the morning Cook County sheriff’s deputies executed the order, throngs of restive black volunteers gathered outside the apartment to load the family’s furniture onto a moving van. Bernardine was at the front of the crowd, and when the doors to the apartment opened, the neighbors began to heave and surge like a volcano preparing to vomit. Dohrn could sense one of the black men towering behind her and as he rushed past he handed her his sports coat for safekeeping. Handling the jacket, Dohrn couldn’t help but notice that the material was fine and expensive, and not usually what you’d expect to see worn by a member of Chicago’s black working class. It was only when he came to retrieve the jacket that she recognized its owner as one Muhammad Ali.
“Dorn recalled how she got her start in the movement.”
Thirty years later, a throng of reporters assembled around the locker of another resplendent Chicago athlete by the name of Michael Jeffrey Jordan to ask his thoughts about Nike’s exploitation of child workers in southeast Asian sweatshops "I think that's Nike's decision to do what they can to make sure everything is correctly done," he said. "I don't know the complete situation. Why should I? I'm trying to do my job. Hopefully, Nike will do the right thing, whatever that might be."
Two transcendent black athletes, two polar opposite responses to suffering, with Ali -- the People’s Champ -- hurtling into the breach to come to the aid of his community and Jordan doing all he could to distance himself from an exploited class of darker-skinned people who were literally manufacturing much of his wealth.
Netflix last week debuted a 10-part documentary, , that examines in sharp relief Jordan’s final championship season with the Chicago Bulls. Less than halfway through the mini-series, quarantined sports pundits are mostly engorged with praise for Jordan’s athleticism and myopic commitment to winning at all costs. And to be sure, Jordan, the basketball player, was a revelation. When he was on the court you simply couldn’t take your eyes off of him. I remember as a young man trying to chat up women at bars and becoming so engrossed in watching Jordan on the television screen that I simply lost interest in my date.
But there is also this: as a man, Jordan was an abject failure, who as a rule turned his back on his tribe, his community and the working class into which he was born, and, from all evidence, passed up every opportunity to ease the suffering of other human beings. He famously refused his mother’s entreaties to support the black, liberal Democrat, Harvey Gantt, in a closely contested 1990 U.S. Senate race against North Carolina’s cartoonish segregationist, Jesse Helms, reportedly responding that “Republicans buy shoes too” referencing his lucrative endorsement deal with Nike. He declined to attend or support the 1995 Million Man March because, he told former New York Times columnist, William Rhoden, “I take care of my kids.” Charles Barkley once told Oprah Winfrey that Jordan is the cheapest man he knew, routinely telling panhandlers to go get a job at Mcdonalds, and the rapper, Chamillionaire, says Jordan humiliated him for asking for a photograph with the then-retired baller .
“As a man, Jordan was an abject failure.”
But the piece de resistance occurred before the 1991 NBA finals between the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers when Bulls’ guard Craig Hodges approached Jordan and Lakers superstar Magic Johnson about boycotting the opening game to protest state terror against blacks as exemplified by the Los Angeles Police Department’s videotaped beating of an unarmed motorist, Rodney King, three months earlier. As Hodges recalled the incident for reporters years later, he proposed standing “in solidarity with the black community while calling out racism and economic inequality in the NBA, where there were no black owners and almost no black coaches despite the fact that 75 percent of the players in the league were African American.”
Jordan gaslit Hodges as “crazy.”
The financial calamities confronting the U.S. today did not begin with the onset of a global pandemic three months ago but a social scourge that first began to infect the American body politic following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. who before his death prophesied that racial integration would subsume African Americans “into a burning house.” Along with Oprah and Obama and Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and thousands of other black professionals who are, in effect, defectors, Jordan embodies the immolation of an African-American dialectic that married commerce and community, modernized the state, and exalted the individual only inasmuch as he or she helped to lift up the people who produced them.
With athletes and politicians like Ali, and King and Curt Flood and Paul Robeson and Tommie Smith and John Carlos helping shoulder some of the load, the American working class, generally, and blacks, specifically, were demanding a fairer return on their labor. By 1973, wages, household savings, and the number of workers belonging to labor unions were at an all-time high, while fewer Americans lived in poverty than ever before or since. In 1973, there were 317 work stoppages involving at least 1,000 employees, and 424 the following year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Jordan embodies the immolation of an African-American dialectic.”
Today, even before anyone heard of the coronavirus, wages, savings and the percentage of unionized employees had plummeted to historic lows, the national poverty rate has soared to historic highs, and there were seven work stoppages in 2017, the last year for which figures are available.
This was not an accident. With the workers raising their flag in one battle after another beginning in the depths of the Great Depression, the wealthiest one percent and their vassals in government began to regroup in the early 1970s, and gather momentum with Ronald Reagan’s election. Critical to this bipartisan counterrevolution was using the news and entertainment media, the academy, nonprofits and political parties to marginalize and silence the African American voices that were often loudest in articulating proletarian demands on capital. Jordan was merely a cog in that effort to depoliticize athletes, and effectively weaponize sports as an entertaining distraction from the class struggle, similar to plantation owners pitting slaves against each other in the boxing ring, or fielding baseball teams to allow exploited Central American farmworkers to let off steam.
“Our generation dropped the ball as a lot of us were more concerned with our own economic gain,” Hodges said. “We were at that point where branding was just beginning and we got caught up in individual branding rather than a unified movement.”
LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick and Carmelo Anthony and Eric Reid and the Bennett brothers and a generation of professional athletes who came of age in the 1990s when Cliff Huxtable was no longer on the air, Jordan was winning championships, and jobs in the American inner-city were disappearing, are more likely to speak out on behalf of the black community. Seemingly conscious of his shameful legacy, Jordan has belatedly begun to speak out against police violence, and contribute to charitable causes although he continues to underwhelm with his political and racial consciousness. Growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina where a cabal of white supremacists in 1898 organized a pogrom which murdered as many as 300 African Americans, Jordan told a book author in 2014 that he threw a soda at a white high school classmate who called him the N-word . The moral of Jordan’s story? He was guilty of reverse racism.
“Seemingly conscious of his shameful legacy, Jordan has belatedly begun to speak out.”
More recently, Jordan has defended his apolitical stance during his playing career as part of his commitment to winning, which, ironically enough, harkens back to arguments used to defend savage racist coaches like Adolph Rupp, Bear Bryant and Bobby Knight. Jordan’s reputation among poor and working-class African Americans is strikingly similar to Pele’s with impoverished black Brazilians, who resent the soccer legend’s cozy relationship with the military junta that ruled Brazil for a generation.
“When I was playing, my vision – my tunnel vision – was my craft,” Jordan said recently. “Now I have more time to understand things around me.”
But that just doesn’t fly if you are profiting from the exploitation of Vietnamese girls as young as 12. And The Last Dance depicts Jordan as even indifferent to the contract struggle of his Bulls’ teammate, Scottie Pippen. As we stare down a pandemic that threatens to finish off the American working class, perhaps we should refrain from debates of whether Jordan is the GOAT, or greatest of all-time, and instead keep in mind the words of another Chicagoan who, as legend has it, dreamt of playing center field for the New York Mets, but gave his life to the people instead.
Here’s Fred Hampton:
“If you walk through life and don't help anybody, you haven't had much of a life”
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