Several
progressives expressed their enthusiasm about Bernie's new ad.
However, if we examine it closely, we will find that it is quite far
from describing an effective progressive strategy that Bernie Sanders
should follow.
The
ad successfully highlights the complete failure of Donald Trump to
secure the jobs of the American workers, and more specifically, his
evident unwillingness to fight against the corporate beasts in order
to protect workers' jobs and interests.
At
the end of the ad Bernie tries to send a clear message to the
corporations: “If
you are not a good and responsible corporate citizen, do not think
that you will get Federal contracts.”
What's
wrong here?
First
of all, only through a miracle we could see the parasitic corporate
beasts behave responsively. We know, and Bernie knows, that they
don't care about workers' rights and working conditions. They don't
care about giving decent
wages. They only care about maximizing profits even by cutting
thousands of jobs and replacing workers with hyper-automated
machines.
So,
at this point, Bernie should go one step further, which is
fundamental. He should state that the country should not rely on the
willing of the greedy corporations to create jobs. This means that
the Federal government should become the key factor on boosting the
economy by creating millions of jobs through various programs, just
like
FDR did after the 1929 meltdown.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt implemented
an aggressive policy of state investments in order to restart the
economy and fight unemployment which had reached at nightmarish
levels after the Great Crash of 29. Moreover, new infrastructures
created, to benefit in many ways the American society. One example is
the state company Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), created in May
1933, to construct , among other things, flood control projects and
dams producing electricity and boost the economic development of the
Tennessee Valley, a region which was particularly affected by the
economic crisis. Private companies were particularly dissatisfied, as
were excluded from the program and lost the chance for big profits.
Despite
its imperfections, Roosevelt's "New Deal" created millions
of new jobs and new infrastructure for the benefit of all American
citizens, boosted some sectors such as agriculture, strengthened
social security and boosted the economy in general.
So,
instead of showing that the jobs and the economy in general depend on
the greedy corporations, directly or indirectly, Bernie should state
that a progressive government doesn't need them. It will do it like
FDR did it back then.
DiEM25 Two years since October 7, Katie Halper (@TheKatieHalperShow) and Yanis Varoufakis join host Mehran Khalili to break down Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the latest on the flotilla, Israel’s influencer PR push, and the “peace plan”.
Geopolitical Economy Report Leaders from dozens of countries condemned the USA and Israel in their speeches at the UN General Assembly, demanding international intervention to save Gaza. Diplomats staged a mass walkout to protest Netanyahu's speech. Ben Norton shows how Latin American governments are standing in solidarity with Palestine.
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel Whitney Webb traces the Thielverse’s rise and the construction of the bipartisan modern surveillance state that Trump and his benefactors are deploying against dissidents and immigrants today.
Yanis Varoufakis On 23rd October, Yanis Varoufakis testified in front of the Jury of Conscience in the context of the Gaza Tribunal. His speech focused on the economic forces underpinning the genocide of the Palestinian people. In particular, he spoke on the manner in which capitalist dynamics have historically fuelled the white settler colonial project and, more recently, how the accumulation of a new form of capital - which he calls cloud capital - has accelerated, deepened and amplified the economic forces powering and propelling the machinery of genocide.
The latest Wikileaks Vault7 release reveals details of the CIA’s alleged Cherry Blossom project, a scheme that uses wireless devices to access users’ internet activity. globinfo freexchange As cyber security expert John McAfee told to RT and Natasha Sweatte: Virtually, every router that's in use in the American home are accessible to hackers, to the CIA, that they can take over the control of the router, they can monitor all of the traffic, and worse, they can download malware into any device that is connected to that router. I personally, never connect to any Wi-Fi system, I use the LTE on my phone. That's the only way that I can be secure because every router in America has been compromised. We've been warning about it for years, nobody pays attention until something like WikiLeaks comes up and says 'look, this is what's happening'. And it is devastating in terms of the impact on American privacy because once the router...
globinfo freexchange As we wrote in our previous article, after almost eight years, the US imperialists and the NATO criminals got what they wanted. They finally managed to drag Russia into a war with Ukraine. We now have indisputable evidence for that, through a document by the top US think tank, RAND Corporation. In the preface of a 2019 report under the title Extending Russia, Competing from Advantageous Ground we read: [emphasis added] The purpose of the project was to examine a range of possible means to extend Russia. By this, we mean nonviolent measures that could stress Russia’s military or economy or the regime’s political standing at home and abroad. The steps we posit would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose, although they might contribute to both. Rather, these steps ar...
by system failure Connecting the dots one can discover the most nightmarish scenarios. Destructive capitalism's next phase is the total substitution of the human labor force with robotic machines, or in other words, the hyper-automatization. There is a process taking place right now, and no one (or nearly no one) knows what would happen after its completion. The true picture behind unemployment From a latest article in PressTV: “ Did you know that there are nearly 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now? And 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed. So how in the world can the government claim that the unemployment rate has “dropped” to '6.3 percent'?” “ Well, it all comes down to how you define who is 'unemployed'. For example, last month the government moved another 988,000 Americans into the 'not in the labor force' category.” http://www.presstv.ir/detail...
There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...
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