It’s that time of year again, when we’re encouraged to celebrate Black and soon it’ll be women’s history month; the time when people like me ask, what about the rest of the year?  

This season, Black history month’s coinciding with the start of the presidential candidate primaries. On the Democratic side, we’re already seeing journalists stretching for their pencils to divvy the candidates up. So far, the main divides they've identified seem to stem from which of the contenders lead with race and gender justice, and which want to sock it to the corporations.    

But those social vs economic distinctions aren’t going to hold up for long when every last Democrat, for all their faults, is a civil rights paragon in contrast to the Klan endorsed guy in the White House.  

No,this primary campaign is not going to be about where Democrats stand on things like abortion and marriage and voting rights, but rather on where they stand on property rights and public ownership and workplace democracy and taxes. Much as they’re out of practice, journalists are going to have to grapple with economics. 

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When French protestors hit the streets in opposition to their President Macron, the Wall Street Journal called it a Global Carbon Tax Revolt, and sounded broadly sympathetic.

“Nothing reveals the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class more than carbon taxation,” wrote the editors.
Rupert Murdoch’s Journal wasn’t the only money media to find in the French a protest movement to get excited about.

Especially when those actions turned violent, the very same US media that are loathe to cover protests here, and that are beyond skimpy in their reporting of everywhere else, were all over the so called yellow vest rebellion. And no wonder—along with the close-ups on the graffiti at the Arc de Triomphe and the burning cars on the Champs Elysee, the reporters were able to tot up the damage to people and property and the French Presidency for taking action on climate change, and to make their real point: namely the lessons for Democrats.

“France ‘yellow vest’ protests should be a lesson for green activists in the US,” Fox News declared bluntly. Better think twice, they and others intoned, before acting on climate demands if you’re the leadership of the new House.

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They call it Giving Tuesday and we’ve just marked the seventh annual this week. It’s supposed to kick off a season of charitable giving, but the way some corporate robber barons use it for public relations is enough to turn your stomach. 

So let’s rename it Stomach-Turning Tuesday. This year’s prime stomach turner was Amazon, of course. The corporate megastore that would sell everything to everybody and put all competition out of business, publicizes its December-long #DeliveringSmiles program that supposedly gives away toys to kids. This year they announced they’ll give half a million dollars away in toys and throw in an additional $1 for every mile their #DeliveringSmiles trucks drove on #GivingTuesday. 

Who will Amazon give those extra dollars-on-the mile to? The National Alliance to End Homelessness. That’s rich. 

This is the same trillion dollar corporation that just extracted billions of taxpayer dollars in what amount to bribes from two cash-strapped states, Virginia and New York.  Those public billions could have gone to public housing, or transit or other public services. Instead they’ll go to Amazon, one of the world's richest companies - to defray their costs for doing business. 

What’s in store for local residents? Well, Amazon’s first home, the city of Seattle is now the third most expensive housing market in the country. When Amazon arrived it wasn’t even close. According to the real estate site, Zillow, home prices in Seattle rose 73% in the last five years and rents another 31% .  

Call me cynical but I’d bet those Giving Tuesday dollars that Amazon’s giving to fight homelessness will come as cold comfort to those in Long Island City and Crystal City who are about to be made homeless.  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for giving. But this isn’t charity, it’s feudalism. Aristocratic Amazon is tossing crumbs to peasants. And don’t forget  — for all those so-called charitable gifts, the company gets to claim a tax break. That picks yet more money out of public pockets and puts it back in the corporation’s. If only it happened just one day a year, instead of every Robber Baron week.  

Watch the Laura Flanders Show - which is donor supported - and learn about ways that people are shifting power from the few to the many right here right now, and all around the planet. Every week, on LinkTV, FreeSpeechTV, CUNYTv and online at www.LauraFlanders.org. And contribute to keep us Amazon-free. Thanks. 

2016 was bad. 2018 was worse. While fifty-two percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence in 2016. In 2018, 76 percent of white women voted for Brian Kemp.

This Tuesday, 76 percent of white female voters in Georgia cast their ballots against Stacey Abrams becoming this nation’s first black female governor. 59 percent in Texas voted for Republican Ted Cruz against latino Democrat Beto O’Rourke. Fifty-one percent opposed Andrew Gillum becoming the first African American Governor of the Sunshine state.

White women rained all over that new day dawning. Did they vote on the issues? Statistically, there aren’t enough anti-choice, anti-healthcare, anti-minimum wage, gun-mad voters out there to blame just conservative women. 

So white women are either stupid or spoiled. I say spoiled. 

We reap plenty of spoils from white supremacy. To name a few: we get to be race-less, sexy, vulnerable and at least relatively safe. 

Structurally, the system’s set up such that white women earn more, own more, and live significantly longer than anyone else (except for our brothers and fathers and husbands and sons.) 

We’re more likely to be cared-for than killed when we’re having a mental health crisis and cops come to our door.

We’re more likely to be counseled than kicked-out when we act up in school. 

We’re way more likely to be hired, and way, way less likely to be incarcerated. That’s in no small part because we’re more likely to be seen as beautiful and loved (in advertising, magazines, and Hollywood), and far less likely to be seen as scary or a threat.

Listen to this post as a weekly commentary from Laura here.

 

Hate Speech Scrawled on Plaque at African Burial Ground National Monument 

 

Someone scrawled “KILL N------” on the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York this week, thirty five feet from the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and the FBI.

The racist graffiti showed up shortly before noon, Thursday, on the burial ground of 15,000 free and enslaved Africans.

The burial ground sits directly across from 26 Federal Plaza, a block away from the federal court house and a stone’s throw from City Hall. The street is closed to traffic by checkpoints and crash barriers and patrolled around the clock by federal police, as well as the NYPD, the Parks Department and private guards.

A bare expanse of grass with just a few explanatory signs, the Burial Ground attracts passers-by and Thursday was a glorious day.

Which is to say, someone, most likely in broad daylight, beneath half a dozen surveillance cameras, felt confident enough to write KIlLL N------- perfectly clearly on what has got to be one of the most highly policed blocks in the world.

Who?

Will we ever know? A picture of the defaced plaque was sent to the Public Advocate’s office and to a City Councillor. A call was made to the Hate Crimes Task Force, which transferred the caller to the NYPD. The federal police are aware of the situation, I was told.