Sandra Bland

Was Sandra Bland murdered by the police in Texas before they took her mugshot?


Is her jailhouse "mugshot" the photo of a dead corpse being passed off as her being alive that was really a photograph of her dead body laying on the jailhouse floor rather than Sandra Bland standing against the jailhouse wall?


What color is the jailhouse floor?

What color is the jailhouse wall?


Once again we get a bunch of racist, crooked and corrupt cops in Texas getting off the hook for murder without having to answer the pertinent questions.


We are being fed a line of shit just like with everything else we are told in this country where lies are systematically passed off through government institutions and the media as the truth.


Racist police murders and beatings and harassment are at an all time high in this country with no let up in sight which could, taken together with calls for internment camps by military brass, be placing our country dangerously close to fascism.


The cops have become nothing but brutal racist bullies who think they are immune from prosecution.


In every single one of these cases these cops are applauded by the KKK... this should tell us something.

Living Wage

Politicians, media pundits and just about everyone is talking about a "living wage."


But, what is a living wage?


How is a living wage defined?

I find it interesting Bernie Sanders refuses to define and articulate what a living wage is.


Isn't it kind of strange so many people would be talking about something they refuse to explicitly define?


One definition is:


liv·ing wage
noun
noun: living wage; plural noun: living wages
a wage that is high enough to maintain a normal standard of living.


We Marxists define a living wage as a wage which is in line with the actual and real cost-of-living which would provide working class families with a decent standard of living as articulated by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


We need to get specific in defining what a living wage is otherwise the issue of the living wage just becomes an election gimmick with working class families trapped and unable to escape this cost-of-living crisis no politician, party hack or pundit wants to talk about.


* Minimum Wage.


* Living Wage.


* Cost-of-living.


* Standard-of-living.


* Decent standard of living.


* Cost-of-living crisis.


We can not have any meaningful discussion of the Minimum Wage becoming a real living wage until cost-of-living is brought front and center to this conversation.


Judge every speech, article or book written about wages and the living wage using these six points.


These should be our talking points when it comes to a living wage.

Liberal. Progressive, Left electoral unity

Liberals, progressives and leftists can only win in the electoral arena and break free from the two-party trap working together in a cooperative team effort.
For all practical purposes this would mean we would suggest to all the candidates we might want to support that they join together.
Maybe a Bernie Sanders/Jill Stein ticket?
Perhaps a Bernie Sanders/Rocky Anderson ticket?
Or, what about a Bernie Sanders/Cynthia McKinney ticket?
Backed up by a whole slate of Congressional candidates.
In the 2012 Election we tried to get Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson to work together. Both were too stubborn and selfish to see the logic in this.
This narrow-minded mindset has to change and it is up to grassroots activists to push such a unity slate.
Personally, I'm not willing to do any more than invest my vote until we can all learn, grassroots activists and supporters of these candidates and the candidates themselves to work in a cooperative manner in challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.


Since we are being asked for our support, endorsements, money and our votes by these candidates and their parties and/or campaign organizations, we have a right--- and responsibility--- to make our views on united action at the ballot box heard.


It would seem to me it would be quite simple to merge the Green Party's declared agenda with that of Bernie Sander's Twelve Point Program and the result would be pretty much acceptable to any liberal, progressive or left thinking person.


Bernie Sanders is not going to win the Democratic Party Primary in spite of a lot of wishful thinking.
Bernie has earned the right--- and has a responsibility as a declared socialist--- to run heading up such a ticket helping us to break free from this Democratic and Republican stranglehold that is crippling democracy here in this country.


If the Canadians, with their socialist oriented New Democratic Party, can make a credible challenge to Wall Street's junior partner, Bay Street, don't we have the responsibility to bring forward such a challenge to Wall Street right here in the United States?


Our standard of living, democracy and most especially world peace demand we make such a united challenge to Wall Street for political and economic power.


The working class is demonstrating through its support for Bernie Sanders that it is ready to move forward in breaking free from the confines of the Democratic Party.


More and more people are realizing we need some kind of anti-monopoly/anti-imperialist party.


Now is the time to begin pushing for and promoting this kind of unity in action in the electoral arena.


Those who oppose such thinking are no friends of the working class and our movements for peace, an end to racism and for full equality.


Just my two cents for whatever it's worth.


Perhaps a large group of us with fairly diverse views from the liberal, progressive and left constituencies should come together and draft some kind of open letter to these politicians all claiming to be people's politicians to one degree or another.

Greece: Debt cancellation not repayment

Regarding Greece, Robert Reich has chimed in, pretending he is opposed to the austerity measures; yet he writes:


"Debt restructuring must be part of any solution for economic reforms in Greece."


Why must "debt restructuring" be part of economic reforms when the only real reform that would alleviate the problem is DEBT CANCELLATION?

Reich is trying to draw liberals, progressives and the left into supporting what is in the interests of the bankers and international financiers when we should be struggling in solidarity with the Greek people in seeking working class solutions to this grave economic crisis.


The fact is, the Greek people have paid these loansharks in high-priced suits talking their slick talk over and over again which is why they are in this economic mess.


The debt should be cancelled and, if anything, the Greek people should be paid back all the profits these parasites have pocketed in profits from the original loans.


Make the bankers pay to solve the problem because they are the source of the problem. These bankers knew full well they were loaning money to a country and a people still suffering years of fascist dictatorships and unbridled capitalist exploitation where international capital had been squeezing super-profits from the working class through government imposed, and government subsidized, low wages.
And now Obama and the Wall Street crowd together with their junior partners want to impose further profit gouging austerity on the Greek people through the enforcement of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the TTIP which compliments the TPP for the multi-national and transnational corporate crowd which Robert Reich has conveniently refused to mention.


What happened to the concept of Jubilee and debt cancellation for countries being suffocated with debt?


It's time for a candid dialogue on one of he most controversial of all subjects: debt forgiveness.
Only debt forgiveness will enable the Greek people to get on the road to economic recovery.


Solidarity with the Greek people requires a call for debt forgiveness in line with the religious concept of Jubilee.


Don't buy into the snake-oil solutions from Robert Reich and these phony liberal economists who in reality are fronting for the neoliberal Wall Street agenda.


Speak up and speak out.