"On Nov. 16, the FBI released its annual report on hate crimes in the United States. According to the report, in 2019, hate crimes rose to the highest level in more than a decade. Killings motivated by hate reached their highest annual total since the FBI began reporting bias-motivated incidents in the 1990s.
The rise in bias-motivated murders—51 in 2019—was driven largely by the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that targeted Hispanics and killed 22 people.
The report tallies a total of 7,314 incidents involving 8,552 victims, a nearly three percent increase in total incidents from 2018. Roughly 58 percent of all victims were targets of what the Bureau considers “race/ethnicity/ancestry” bias, roughly 20 percent of religious bias, roughly 17 percent of sexual orientation bias and around six percent victims of gender identity, disability or gender bias.
[...] Notably, the data shows a significant increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, which rose 14 percent from 835 incidents in 2018 to 953 incidents in 2019. Hate crimes targeting Hispanics and Latinos increased almost nine percent from 2018. "
https://www.lawfareblog.com/fbi-releases-2019-hate-crimes-report
The rise in bias-motivated murders—51 in 2019—was driven largely by the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that targeted Hispanics and killed 22 people.
The report tallies a total of 7,314 incidents involving 8,552 victims, a nearly three percent increase in total incidents from 2018. Roughly 58 percent of all victims were targets of what the Bureau considers “race/ethnicity/ancestry” bias, roughly 20 percent of religious bias, roughly 17 percent of sexual orientation bias and around six percent victims of gender identity, disability or gender bias.
[...] Notably, the data shows a significant increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, which rose 14 percent from 835 incidents in 2018 to 953 incidents in 2019. Hate crimes targeting Hispanics and Latinos increased almost nine percent from 2018. "
https://www.lawfareblog.com/fbi-releases-2019-hate-crimes-report
Lawfare
FBI Releases 2019 Hate Crimes Report
Hate crimes rose to the highest level in more than a decade and hate-motivated killings reached a record high since reporting began in the 1990s.Hate crimes rose to the highest level in more than a
"Instead of the usual neoliberal assault on Social Security, the new budget increases public spending and boosts central parts of the welfare system such as child and elderly care, education, and health. The act also brings a sizable stimulus package in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — and historically high levels of investment in climate action and defending biodiversity."
"On the suggestion of the Red–Green Alliance, the act establishes an “expert working group” to promote democratic ownership and workplace democracy. If successful, this promises to put local communities and working people in charge of their own fate — the first time in decades that there’s an alternative to the privatization juggernaut."
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/denmark-democratic-ownership-finance-act-social-democrats-red-green-alliance/
"On the suggestion of the Red–Green Alliance, the act establishes an “expert working group” to promote democratic ownership and workplace democracy. If successful, this promises to put local communities and working people in charge of their own fate — the first time in decades that there’s an alternative to the privatization juggernaut."
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/denmark-democratic-ownership-finance-act-social-democrats-red-green-alliance/
Jacobinmag
Denmark’s “Democratic Ownership” Agenda Shows We Can Run Our Own Lives
Denmark's new budget promises more state investment and welfare spending, but also a commission on helping workers take control of their workplaces. Marking a break with decades of pro-privatization dogma, the bill is a small step toward an economy that serves…
"this is the likely place to look for the third leg of the pandemic slump – a credit crunch and financial crash when companies, particularly small to medium firms, go bust as government support evaporates, sales revenues remain weak and debt and wage costs rise."
"So even if there is no debt tsunami and a financial crash caused by a wave of corporate bankruptcies, the recovery in most capitalist economies is likely to be very weak. The OECD in its latest forecast for the world economy talks about a “brighter future” in 2021 as the COVID vaccines are distributed. But its forecast still expects most economies in the world will not recover the output losses suffered in 2020. By end 2021, only a few economies will have experienced some real GDP growth over the two years since end-2019."
thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/a-credit-crash-ahead/
"So even if there is no debt tsunami and a financial crash caused by a wave of corporate bankruptcies, the recovery in most capitalist economies is likely to be very weak. The OECD in its latest forecast for the world economy talks about a “brighter future” in 2021 as the COVID vaccines are distributed. But its forecast still expects most economies in the world will not recover the output losses suffered in 2020. By end 2021, only a few economies will have experienced some real GDP growth over the two years since end-2019."
thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/a-credit-crash-ahead/
"Have you ever heard of “paltering”? It means lying with facts. That is: no fact you have presented is false, but you are still lying"
currentaffairs.org/2020/12/the-sophist-and-the-magician/
currentaffairs.org/2020/12/the-sophist-and-the-magician/
Current Affairs
The Sophist and The Magician ❧ Current Affairs
<p>Understanding how we can be manipulated helps us pull back the curtain on charlatans and can even protect democracy. </p>
even remedies of change.
Remedy No. 1:
The Value of Labor in every product must be recognized and the laborer as part of that product must receive a Labor Dividend as compensation for that product outside of wages. Further, loss of the Labor Dividend caused by the moving of industry abroad must be compensated.
Remedy no. 2:
The definition of ownership and property must encompass in this regard the laborer’s interest in the product produced, and the income due each worker adjusted accordingly.
Remedy no. 3:
The over-concentration of wealth can be put to use ensuring a quality life for all, not just a few.
Remedy no. 4:
The courts must reassess the economic barriers of relief and create an Industrial Worker’s Constructive Trust when workers are not compensated for the Labor Dividend in the product produced.
Remedy no. 5:
Men and women should join a “Great American Walk Out” signaling that people have had enough economic manipulation and calling for honest economic reform.
Remedy no. 6:
Men and women should join the One Big Union to be able to protect and defend the rights people have earned through the sweat of their brow.
Remedy no 7:
Industrial democracy and decentralized decision making by the workers in a self-governing work environment must be enhanced in our economic and corporate conversation, or democracy itself is threatened.
https://industrialworker.org/the-value-of-labor/
Remedy No. 1:
The Value of Labor in every product must be recognized and the laborer as part of that product must receive a Labor Dividend as compensation for that product outside of wages. Further, loss of the Labor Dividend caused by the moving of industry abroad must be compensated.
Remedy no. 2:
The definition of ownership and property must encompass in this regard the laborer’s interest in the product produced, and the income due each worker adjusted accordingly.
Remedy no. 3:
The over-concentration of wealth can be put to use ensuring a quality life for all, not just a few.
Remedy no. 4:
The courts must reassess the economic barriers of relief and create an Industrial Worker’s Constructive Trust when workers are not compensated for the Labor Dividend in the product produced.
Remedy no. 5:
Men and women should join a “Great American Walk Out” signaling that people have had enough economic manipulation and calling for honest economic reform.
Remedy no. 6:
Men and women should join the One Big Union to be able to protect and defend the rights people have earned through the sweat of their brow.
Remedy no 7:
Industrial democracy and decentralized decision making by the workers in a self-governing work environment must be enhanced in our economic and corporate conversation, or democracy itself is threatened.
https://industrialworker.org/the-value-of-labor/
Industrial Worker
The Value of Labor
One of the major long-term threats to our nation is income and wealth disparity. The maintenance of long outmoded understandings of capitalism and property rights have only exacerbated a growing disp
"from a strategic point of view, the human rights community needs to invest in a new global human rights instrument and innovative national legislation focusing on a broader notion of exploitation. In this direction, three topics should be prioritised:
Prevention as a strategic approach to labour exploitation. This implies effective action by governments and businesses based on a mix of voluntary schemes and binding provisions. Such provisions would impose specific obligations on parent companies to identify risks in their supply chains, establish plans to address them, and put in place viable solutions for workers losing their jobs when severe exploitation is identified. National legislation should furthermore establish corporate liability for parent companies not complying with such obligations, as well as tackle recruitment and intermediation practices while also strengthening labour inspections. In all of this a clear firewall between labour checks and immigration controls must be maintained at all times.
Effective remedies for exploited persons. The entire range of remedies for human rights violations must be made available, including restitution, restoration, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantee of non-repetition. Such remedy should not hinge solely on the outcome of criminal proceedings, but could also come through judicial and non-judicial complaint mechanisms as well. Importantly, such remedies include not only financial redress but also regularisation of migration status, family reunification, and restoration of employment. Access to remedies is a right of any exploited person, as well as a powerful means to ensure their empowerment and full social inclusion.
Early support to exploited persons or people at risk of exploitation, especially among the migrant population. This will not only prevent their further exploitation and promote their social inclusion, but it will also allow them to access help irrespective of their formal identification as victims of crime. Civil society organisations should be funded to provide counselling, healthcare, and other necessary assistance measures for such vulnerable persons."
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/are-our-laws-cut-out-addressing-systemic-exploitation/
Prevention as a strategic approach to labour exploitation. This implies effective action by governments and businesses based on a mix of voluntary schemes and binding provisions. Such provisions would impose specific obligations on parent companies to identify risks in their supply chains, establish plans to address them, and put in place viable solutions for workers losing their jobs when severe exploitation is identified. National legislation should furthermore establish corporate liability for parent companies not complying with such obligations, as well as tackle recruitment and intermediation practices while also strengthening labour inspections. In all of this a clear firewall between labour checks and immigration controls must be maintained at all times.
Effective remedies for exploited persons. The entire range of remedies for human rights violations must be made available, including restitution, restoration, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantee of non-repetition. Such remedy should not hinge solely on the outcome of criminal proceedings, but could also come through judicial and non-judicial complaint mechanisms as well. Importantly, such remedies include not only financial redress but also regularisation of migration status, family reunification, and restoration of employment. Access to remedies is a right of any exploited person, as well as a powerful means to ensure their empowerment and full social inclusion.
Early support to exploited persons or people at risk of exploitation, especially among the migrant population. This will not only prevent their further exploitation and promote their social inclusion, but it will also allow them to access help irrespective of their formal identification as victims of crime. Civil society organisations should be funded to provide counselling, healthcare, and other necessary assistance measures for such vulnerable persons."
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/are-our-laws-cut-out-addressing-systemic-exploitation/
openDemocracy
Are our laws cut out for addressing systemic exploitation?
As a matter of political tactics, implementation of existing legislation should be re-oriented according to human rights. But in terms of strategic thinking, we need to stop focusing on criminal law and adopt a social justice approach.
Thatcher’s policies in fact had a disastrous effect on the UK’s economy and its workers, both then and to this day.
1. economic growth slowed under Thatcher. Annual real GDP growth per capita in the UK fell to 2.09 percent during the 1980s and early ’90s. Since Thatcher’s rule, each subsequent government has underperformed its predecessor in terms of growth.
2. Household debt increased from 37 percent to 70 percent of GDP. Unemployment hit 9.5 percent by April 1984
3. Thatcher’s policies also helped to wipe out 15 percent of the UK’s industrial base in just a few years. In Thatcher’s first two years in power, Scotland lost a staggering 20 percent of its workforce. De-industrialization disproportionately hit the North, the Midlands, and the home nations other than England — places that the prime minister then failed to invest in or support to develop new industries.
4. Thatcherite policy caused a huge rise in inequality. In 1979, Britain was at a postwar peak of economic equality, with just 21 percent of total income going to the top 10 percent of earners. By 1991, the gap between the richest and poorest had hit a record high.
5. under Thatcher incomes soared for the wealthiest and fell for the poorest
6. Thatcher also undercut trade unions with an array of laws that made it harder for workers to strike, restricted where they could picket, and limited the ability to strike in solidarity with others. This had an obvious and disastrous impact on workers’ rights and welfare
7. the “Iron Lady” presided over a huge wave of privatization
8. Thatcher’s government brought in the Right to Buy scheme in 1980, which allowed council housing tenants to buy their properties from their local authority. While the scheme led to a short-term financial boost, it also dried up the government’s supply of social housing. [...] 40 percent of young adults are now too poor to afford the deposit to buy even the cheapest homes in their area. Meanwhile, almost half of the homes sold under Right to Buy have been turned into private lets.
"Thatcher created a weaker, more unequal economy. Whole regions were “left behind” when their industries were battered, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest soared, and government support for the worst-off was decimated. More than that, wages fell, growth fell, housing became less accessible, and spending was mismanaged. Future generations were left to deal with the fallout. Instead of funding government support or economic investments, Thatcher halved income taxes for the country’s wealthiest."
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/margaret-thatcher-british-economy-tories-austerity
1. economic growth slowed under Thatcher. Annual real GDP growth per capita in the UK fell to 2.09 percent during the 1980s and early ’90s. Since Thatcher’s rule, each subsequent government has underperformed its predecessor in terms of growth.
2. Household debt increased from 37 percent to 70 percent of GDP. Unemployment hit 9.5 percent by April 1984
3. Thatcher’s policies also helped to wipe out 15 percent of the UK’s industrial base in just a few years. In Thatcher’s first two years in power, Scotland lost a staggering 20 percent of its workforce. De-industrialization disproportionately hit the North, the Midlands, and the home nations other than England — places that the prime minister then failed to invest in or support to develop new industries.
4. Thatcherite policy caused a huge rise in inequality. In 1979, Britain was at a postwar peak of economic equality, with just 21 percent of total income going to the top 10 percent of earners. By 1991, the gap between the richest and poorest had hit a record high.
5. under Thatcher incomes soared for the wealthiest and fell for the poorest
6. Thatcher also undercut trade unions with an array of laws that made it harder for workers to strike, restricted where they could picket, and limited the ability to strike in solidarity with others. This had an obvious and disastrous impact on workers’ rights and welfare
7. the “Iron Lady” presided over a huge wave of privatization
8. Thatcher’s government brought in the Right to Buy scheme in 1980, which allowed council housing tenants to buy their properties from their local authority. While the scheme led to a short-term financial boost, it also dried up the government’s supply of social housing. [...] 40 percent of young adults are now too poor to afford the deposit to buy even the cheapest homes in their area. Meanwhile, almost half of the homes sold under Right to Buy have been turned into private lets.
"Thatcher created a weaker, more unequal economy. Whole regions were “left behind” when their industries were battered, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest soared, and government support for the worst-off was decimated. More than that, wages fell, growth fell, housing became less accessible, and spending was mismanaged. Future generations were left to deal with the fallout. Instead of funding government support or economic investments, Thatcher halved income taxes for the country’s wealthiest."
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/12/margaret-thatcher-british-economy-tories-austerity
Jacobinmag
No, Margaret Thatcher Didn’t Save the British Economy
People often say that Margaret Thatcher's austerity policies were a
"In Dubai, then, we have a perfected performance of modernity embellished by the tokens of neoliberalism. The malls, the shops, the endless caverns of duty-free enterprises all pay homage to homo economicus. The buying and selling are all interpreted as a commitment to freedom, where freedom means precisely the freedom to partake of frenzied economic activity. Aesthetics add further credibility, the much-touted wonder of Dubai’s metropolitan skyline offered up as the ultimate homage to technological achievement. That all of it is hollow, that beneath it all lie the bodies of enslaved workers who toiled unto their death, that an obstinate government provides these foreign workers no social services or path to citizenship, are the details in small print that nobody cares to read.
Dubai is not just the case of a shady and ruthless city kingdom given to fraud. It is instead a dark but accurate depiction of the post-liberal order, where capitalism savagely exacts profit and tramples the weak, and there is no way to rescue those it condemns as the detritus of its transactions. Dubai, this post-liberal necropolis, imposes its cruelties on hundreds of thousands because its rulers are aware that the values of human rights, of economic and gender equality, have all been reduced to nice words and policy briefs to be produced at regular intervals by front NGOs. The future, even the post-Trumpian future, promises many more Dubais."
thebaffler.com/alienated/performing-modernity-zakaria
Dubai is not just the case of a shady and ruthless city kingdom given to fraud. It is instead a dark but accurate depiction of the post-liberal order, where capitalism savagely exacts profit and tramples the weak, and there is no way to rescue those it condemns as the detritus of its transactions. Dubai, this post-liberal necropolis, imposes its cruelties on hundreds of thousands because its rulers are aware that the values of human rights, of economic and gender equality, have all been reduced to nice words and policy briefs to be produced at regular intervals by front NGOs. The future, even the post-Trumpian future, promises many more Dubais."
thebaffler.com/alienated/performing-modernity-zakaria
The Baffler
Performing Modernity
Dubai is the glistening modern city of capitalist abundance. But you don’t have to look far to see the dark side.
"The carceral state itself has a massive social base. Large numbers work directly for the system: over one million police, sheriff’s officers, and prison guards; the twenty thousand who work for ICE and the twenty thousand who work who for the border patrol. As employees they retain significant industrial organization, and as their job functions have become increasingly politicized over recent years the militancy of their unions has grown. They also maintain other kinds of organization: forms of charitable association, for example, often with an edge of coercion. (Hence the stickers police associations give donors to put on their cars.) As the movements to abolish ICE and defund the police have grown, we have occasionally gotten glimpses behind the curtain into the online social worlds of enforcement agents, revealing a running dialogue of racist spite and violent fantasy. Entire departments are known to be saturated with white supremacist gang organizations. The appearance in the physical world of Blue Lives Matter paraphernalia and Punisher symbols are the visible trace of the closest thing we’ve ever had in this country to a Freikorps. Their job, collectively, is the violent maintenance of the racialized social order through a program of mass internment, expulsion, and abuse."
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/we-live-in-a-society/
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/we-live-in-a-society/
n+1
We Live in a Society
Political speech does not find individuals as points on an economic grid, directing them toward the party or politician whose platform matches their abstract preferences. It finds them, instead, embedded in particular lifeworlds. And if class processes form…
Trump leaves several dangerous legacies for democracy behind him in the United States and the rest of the world.
1) he has shown that its possible to come to power by democratic electoral means and then subvert the state from within. At the same time, he has demonstrated that in order to remain in power, elections can be delegitimized through lies, fake news, the uses of loyal social networks, while blaming mainstream journalism for bias, and mobilizing paramilitary forces on the streets.
2) he has promoted the idea that in order to succeed economically (following his example), all state regulations must be eliminated, and those that exist sidestepped, going so far in fact as to decriminalize corruption.
3) Trumpism has normalized racism, sexism, and contempt for the left, environmental defenders and all those who represent the liberal agenda of diversity and human rights that has developed since the 1960s. It has articulated in public the rejection of immigrants and refugee claimants that people previously refrained from expressing. Trump spoke out and denigrated these claimants openly. As George Packer wrote, “not because he couldn’t control his impulses, but intentionally, even systematically, in order to demolish the norms that would otherwise have constrained his power. To his supporters, his shamelessness became a badge of honesty and strength”.
4) it has reaffirmed the legitimacy of pro-Nazi groups, extremist militias, and conspiratorial groups armed and organized against the state. His adherence to conspiracy theories further fueled these groups in their fervor for rising up in arms to defend their idea of ​​America.
5) Trump has consistently discredited science, promoting instead conspiratorial and dangerously superstitious interpretations.
6) Trumpism captures the idea of ​​the nation for sectarian, anti-democratic and exclusive purposes.
7) Trump has promoted a political and nationalist conception of religion, through his alliance with evangelicals.
8) he has indicated that in foreign policy each country must defend its interests with transactional methods, moving away from any cooperative policy
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trumpism-ideology-extreme-far-right-globally/
1) he has shown that its possible to come to power by democratic electoral means and then subvert the state from within. At the same time, he has demonstrated that in order to remain in power, elections can be delegitimized through lies, fake news, the uses of loyal social networks, while blaming mainstream journalism for bias, and mobilizing paramilitary forces on the streets.
2) he has promoted the idea that in order to succeed economically (following his example), all state regulations must be eliminated, and those that exist sidestepped, going so far in fact as to decriminalize corruption.
3) Trumpism has normalized racism, sexism, and contempt for the left, environmental defenders and all those who represent the liberal agenda of diversity and human rights that has developed since the 1960s. It has articulated in public the rejection of immigrants and refugee claimants that people previously refrained from expressing. Trump spoke out and denigrated these claimants openly. As George Packer wrote, “not because he couldn’t control his impulses, but intentionally, even systematically, in order to demolish the norms that would otherwise have constrained his power. To his supporters, his shamelessness became a badge of honesty and strength”.
4) it has reaffirmed the legitimacy of pro-Nazi groups, extremist militias, and conspiratorial groups armed and organized against the state. His adherence to conspiracy theories further fueled these groups in their fervor for rising up in arms to defend their idea of ​​America.
5) Trump has consistently discredited science, promoting instead conspiratorial and dangerously superstitious interpretations.
6) Trumpism captures the idea of ​​the nation for sectarian, anti-democratic and exclusive purposes.
7) Trump has promoted a political and nationalist conception of religion, through his alliance with evangelicals.
8) he has indicated that in foreign policy each country must defend its interests with transactional methods, moving away from any cooperative policy
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trumpism-ideology-extreme-far-right-globally/
openDemocracy
Trumpism, an ideology for the extreme far-right globally
Trumpism is the extreme far-right ideology that attacks democracy and normalizes violence against progressive agendas and liberal cultures, while promoting full market deregulation.