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Monthly Archives: March 2022
FG to TikTok: Suspend accounts of Nigerians using your platform to promote ritual, fake news – Tribune Online
Posted: March 17, 2022 at 2:35 am
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, has called for the need to entrench transparency, laws, and regulations in social media usage to ensure a safer digital space, devoid of illegalities and promoters of fake news.
The Minister who was represented by the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, said this while hosting a Delegation of video-focused social networking service, TikTok, in his office.
Kashifu Inuwa raised concerns bordering on security, tax payment, direct contact with TikTok and general content hygiene.
There is a need for you to be more transparent on what you do with the data, experience you take and your algorithm design; because most algorithms are designed to promote hate speech.
According to him technology can be used as a weapon, or a tool, which he noted depends on the users intent.
Inuwa therefore, emphasised that there should be consequences for anyone who uses social media to commit a crime and maintained that anything that is illegal offline should also be illegal online.
In Nigeria, people are using TikTok for so many things; some use it to promote rituals and domestic violence while others use it for hate speech; So, we cannot continue to have people put out random contents without appropriate checks/verifications.
The NITDA Boss who recalled the issues that ensued between the Federal Government and Twitter which led to the suspension of the platforms operations in Nigeria said the microblogging and social networking service had to agree and meet certain conditions upon which its ban was lifted.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
The conditions, the DG explained, are to be extended to other social media platforms, including TikTok.
We are working on drafting Code of Practice which we are going to share with you soon; get your feedback and see how we can make it better.
Inuwa reiterated the need for direct contact with the company to agree on the timeline to either delete erring content or suspend accounts that violate rules.
He encouraged TIKTOK to register and have an Office in the Country to enable prompt Communications for subsequent engagements.
The leader of the TikTok Delegation & Head of Government Relations and Public Policy, TikTok- Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan, Farah Tukan, said the team intends to host a series of workshops in Abuja and Lagos with the aim of enlightening Nigerians on how the platform works; taking a deep dive into how contents are moderated; developed and how policies are enforced.
We are committed to providing opportunities for Nigerians to earn a living through their creativity and expression, and as a global platform that thrives on creativity, it is essential that our users feel safe and comfortable online.
Our user policies and tools are developed to promote a positive and safe environment for our community, and we trust that users will respect and utilise these measures to keep TikTok fun and welcoming for everyone.
She confirmed TikToks readiness to explore more areas of collaboration with the agency to continue to contribute to keeping Nigerian users safe on its platform as well as promote the creative industries in Nigeria.
We take misinformation and fake news very seriously, and its actually against our community guidelines; we have policies that address misinformation, we also have a system (the human elements as well) that looks into this issue as well.
The team leader also affirmed that the Company is open to conversations with the Nigerian Government regarding updating its rules and regulations to ensure a more excellent user experience.
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FG to TikTok: Suspend accounts of Nigerians using your platform to promote ritual, fake news
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FG to TikTok: Suspend accounts of Nigerians using your platform to promote ritual, fake news
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Im on the frontline in Mariupol: the Chinese reporter embedded with Russian troops – The Guardian
Posted: at 2:35 am
In a flak jacket and helmet, the Chinese reporter Lu Yuguang stands on the side of a road as a Russian tank roars past. Im on the frontline in Mariupol, he says into the microphone. He then interviews a Russian soldier who says hes not nervous as hes been fighting for eight years. In another shot, Lu talks with a group of Russian soldiers in the back of a military vehicle.
The dispatches are unusual for their extraordinary access Lu, a veteran war reporter for a Chinese news outlet, Phoenix TV, is perhaps the only foreign correspondent embedded with Russian troops as they continue the brutal invasion of Ukraine.
He has filed reports from cities under Russian attack since the invasion began almost three weeks ago, including in Mariupol where local authorities say thousands of people have been killed.
Lu appears to have gained exclusive access to Russias side of the conflict. In one report on 2 March, he interviewed the leader of the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin. Lu said the Donetsk militia cannot compare to Ukrainian forces, but with the help of Russian forces, eastern Ukraine militia have liberated 40 residential areas within the administrative line. The victory keeps expanding.
The Guardian is not aware of any other foreign journalists reporting from such close quarters on the Russian side of the invasion. A long-running Russian government campaign against independent media has intensified since the war began, with foreign outlets among those forced to end operations after Vladimir Putin signed a law carrying 15-year prison terms for what the Kremlin considers fake news. As such, Lus unusual access to the Russian military stands in stark contrast to that of other reporters. It has also fuelled questions about the extent of cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.
Since the two governments signed an unlimited partnership shortly before Russia went to war in Ukraine, Beijing has struggled to balance its support for Moscow with the global condemnation of the invasion and swaths of international sanctions. It has outwardly sought to maintain a neutral position in the conflict but refuses to label Russias act as an invasion or the fighting as a war, and has amplified anti-western narratives, blaming the US and Nato for the conflict.
Beijing has also pushed Russian disinformation and conspiracy theories, including un-evidenced accusations that US-funded labs in Ukraine were secretly producing chemical weapons, and early claims by Russian state media that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had fled Kyiv.
Lu is a well-known journalist in China, and his career and background have been reported on by Tencent, Sohu and Sina.
His reports from Ukraine have included Russian disinformation such as claims of more than 1,000 people held hostage as human shields by Ukrainian militants. However, his interviews with Ukrainian civilian victims, and criticism of Chinese internet users objectifying Ukrainian women, have also drawn nationalistic and pro-Russia trolling, accusing him of creating pro-Ukraine rumours and being crooked assed, an internet slang term for having bias or lacking objectivity.
According to profiles on Phoenix TVs website and news articles about Lu, the correspondent is a former navy officer in the Peoples Liberation Army, who lived in Moscow for several decades and covered events including the Chechen war, where he reportedly had Russian military protection. He has received multiple awards from the Russian government and military for his reporting. He has previously said that his outlet has good relations with intelligence figures in Russia.
ProfSteve Tsang, the director of the Soas China Institute, said Lu could have gained access through his personal connection to Russia, or because of Chinas general support for its government.
They are not mutually exclusive. The only thing I think we know for sure is that Russia will not allow any foreign journalist to be embedded with Russian forces unless it is certain that the embedded foreign journalist will portray Russian forces and efforts in a positive light. The fact that Lu is embedded should show that the Russian authorities know him well enough to be certain he would not write negatively about the Russian war efforts.
Phoenix TV did not respond to questions about how Lu was able to embed with Russian troops.
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Im on the frontline in Mariupol: the Chinese reporter embedded with Russian troops - The Guardian
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Fmr. Treasury Secretary: Inflation is big business’ answer to take back wage increases. – Daily Kos
Posted: at 2:34 am
Attribution:
Fmr. Treasury Secretary: Inflation is big business answer to take back wage increases.
In his interview with Lawrence ODonnell, Larry Summers exposed the inconvenient truth about inflation and much more; It is shameful.
Watch Politics Done Right T.V. here.
The main engine of our form of capitalism is essentially neoliberalism. This exchange betweenLawrence ODonnelland former Treasury SecretaryLarry Summersexposes its draconian nature. But you must read between the lines. They are experts at shrowding its implementation of antiseptic slavery in terms that seem like a matter-of-fact of how the system must operate.
Here is a relevant part of the exchange below. Please watch the entire video because one sees how one can seem benevolent yet authoritative in presenting evil on the working and middle-class.
Lawrence ODonnell:What is happening to purchasing power this year. We know inflation, and you gave an early warning on inflation. You gave us an early warning on it. But what has happened to purchasing power and incomes along with inflation?
Larry Summers:Wages have come down. Thats the usual experience, [1]the usual experiences that past a certain point when you start seeing wage increases running above four and a half or 5%. It actually goes with decreasing real wages, decreasing purchasing power for workers. Thats why [2]its so unfortunate that the economy was overstimulated last year. Thats why its important that the Fed act strongly to bring down inflation. Now, weve caught a very bad break coming on top of the seven and a half percent inflation. We we have. [3]We now have extra inflationary pressure coming from oil prices and coming from wheat. And its something were going to need to really go after with policy.[4]That means strong monetary policy. And that means [5]sensible supply side policies where the government concentrates on procuring as inexpensively as possible, where we open up shipping to whoever the cheapest shipper is, rather than require that it be an American shipper. Carrying oil, for example, from Houston to the east coast of the United States, that we yes, absolutely. Look after child care, but we [6]focus on making sure that were doing as much as we can for children, not for child care providers.We can contain inflation, but it requires focusing on containing inflation.
The statements that I bolded and numbered above are crucial to understanding the evil nature of neoliberalism. The aggregate codifies working Americans as antiseptic slaves in our economic system.
Please do not believe the word salads from these quacks who continue to find ways for us to pay for their well-being. They are a type of parasite that attempts to justify their method.
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Fmr. Treasury Secretary: Inflation is big business' answer to take back wage increases. - Daily Kos
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The Poor Peoples Campaign rallies in Cleveland for better wages and a fairer economy – cleveland.com
Posted: at 2:34 am
CLEVELAND, Ohio The Poor Peoples Campaign continued its quest toward a mass June rally in Washington on Monday night by demonstrating in downtown Cleveland, part of a broader initiative of 10 rallies aimed on publicizing its agenda.
The rally, organized by local advocates and national co-chairs Bishop William Barber and the Rev. Liz Theoharris led demonstrators from U.S. Bank Plaza to Trinity Cathedral, where they held the rally to focus on the struggles and policy needs of the impoverished and low-wage workers.
In an interview, Barber said the goal was to set about a third reconstruction for the American public the first reconstruction being the reset of the country during the end of slavery and the second during the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights movement.
We live in a country that, to this day, has not raised the minimum wage in over nine years. And we know a living minimum wage would be well over $15 an hour, Barber said. We also deal with ecological devastation. Eighty-seven million people in this country prior to COVID were either uninsured or underinsured. We have a war economy. A national budget of over $700 billion for the war economy and $700 billion for everything else.
Barber said Ohio was indicative of the challenges poor people face across the nation, including voter suppression and politicians both Democrat and Republican who refuse to address wages.
Its tragic that in Ohio a person has to work 74 hours at a minimum wage job -- 74 hours a week -- just to afford a basic two-bedroom apartment, he said.
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The Poor Peoples Campaign rallies in Cleveland for better wages and a fairer economy - cleveland.com
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Imran Khan is not going to allow Pakistan to be anyone’s slave – Pakistan Today
Posted: at 2:34 am
Are we the slaves of the West? If not, why the hue and cry when the truth is told that we are not your slaves?
Are we the slaves of the West? If not, then why do they lament that we should not utter our souls and minds are free?
For indeed we are free, and should be free from our colonial past, those dark days of bowing down subordinate to our masters.
We live in a free world we are told. We are not your slaves.
We have the right to think independently. We are not your slaves.
We have the right to run our own country and our own foreign policy. We are not your slaves.
We have the right to make our economy prosper and make trade deals. We are not your slaves.
We have the right to defend our land against aggressors, who throw bombs our way and then claim it was a technical malfunction. We are not your slaves and we are no fools.
We have the right not to be dragged into wars where there can be no resolution, just turn and look at Afghanistan. We are no longer your slaves.
Pakistan is a sovereign country with independent foreign policy, which as Ayub Khan put it once about the superpowers, they are our Friends not Masters.
We endured slavery for 300 years under the British and today when a leader has come along and raised his voice, all the opposition parties cowardly sang from the same hymn sheet, pleading with the international forces that they are innocent. Please dont punish us. Please dont sanction our foreign properties, they cry in mitigation. Please dont freeze our foreign accounts. We will do whatever you desire just get Imran khan out of the way.
History reminds us when Oliver Cromwell took up and disbanded the British Parliament, the same noises were made in the UK too by the blood-sucking corrupt politicians.
But then again it doesnt take a group of politicians but one man to lead his country towards triumph and sovereignty.
When PTI formed the government, records came to light that revealed that the previous rulers had literally left the country on the verge of bankruptcy. The PTI government had to borrow firstly to service the previous loans and at the same time keep the economy afloat.
In the circumstances which he inherited, Imran Khan managed an incredible turnaround of the economy. Three years is not sufficient time for the economy to prosper fully. Yet, during PTI governance our foreign exchange reserves have increased substantially.
The Ehsas program is operating very successfully and helping the neediest. Kamyab Programme is lifting the youth and at the same time helping the unemployed graduates. Sehat programme, even in developed countries hard to find, is providing up to Rs1 million towards medical treatment costs. Foreign remittances are record high. Exports are a record high. The construction industry is booming. Overseas Pakistanis are being given 100% tax exemption on their investment. 100% tax exemption is being given to IT companies. Small Dams are being built all over the country which would benefit generations to come. What PM Khan had achieved through his courageous policies, no other person could have matched him in the same period.
There is a Lion in Pakistan and he roars fiercely and proudly, wrapped in our green flag with the stars and moon shining upon him. Let him wrap you Pakistanis, in this flag of hope, pride and victory, to never again be subordinate, never again be weak, never again be beggars, to rise and be bold. You see, we are not your slaves.
Why the disquiet? Why the fear? Why are the cowardly shrinking back into the colonial mindset of thinking they must acquiesce and appease their old rulers? The same rulers who tore up and divided and mismanaged a shoddy break up of lands, where Kashmir still bleeds from their inequitable meddling.
Why be afraid when Imran Khan, alone amongst all the recent leaders of this great Country, the only one brave enough to tell the truth and stand tall when he proclaims Pakistan will not be anyones slave? He tells a truth and tells it boldly and fiercely, those steely eyes as determined as to when he led Pakistan to its cricketing victory in 1992.
The world order is changing. Alliances are changing. There may be difficult times ahead, but who else will be able to meet these challenges with the noble dignity of our leader? The previous looters, who hide away in foreign lands, shielding their ill-gotten gains? Or perhaps their prodigy, fuelled by nothing other than revenge and greed in their broken Urdu or Hermes bags and Gucci shoes?
Is a diesel mullah who would call on his followers to wreak havoc and disturb this land, the man to lead Pakistan? Or those in opposition showing up at the police stations when no one had even bothered to arrest them? Are these the jokers you think will lead Pakistan to its great height?
There is something rotten in the state of Denmark said Hamlet, yet he could have been referring to the rotten core of the opposition establishment. Those who are scared of progress. Those who fear to uplift the poor and needy. Those who shy away from our great religion. Those who are apologists and lack the vision to make Pakistan a great country. We need to lead, not follow.
The biggest disservice PML(N) & PPP bestowed upon Pakistan was to keep the masses uneducated so that the common man who never have the knowledge nor courage to oppose the looting of the National wealth for over three decades. Despite the time when they were in power, they were incompetent to provide education to all young children, yet, out of power living in exile they were strong enough to send their own children to top schools and universities. Shame on such ruthless rulers who left the nation crippled, hands and legs chopped and their mindset hijacked.
I met Imran Khan in 1971 at Lords Cricket ground nets. That we had dinner together. I had an MG sports car and we drove around London. He was a young handsome man. From that day onwards, Alhamdulillah, I have had the great privilege and honour to have always walked side by side with him under his shadows, for the last 50 years. There is so much that I have learned in life from him. His influence on me has been significant. He guided me towards Islam, charity & humanity. I have travelled the world with him in connection with his charitable causes and witnessed first-hand that no human I have seen that is so massively respected and loved worldwide. The only man who has remained the national hero of Pakistan for over 45 years. He is caring & compassionate. He could not see the suffering of his people at the hands of rulers who were corrupt. Therefore 25 years ago he started to wage a war of freedom to untie his people from the shackles of the bondage of slavery. When Imran khan used the sentence Absolutely Not every single Pakistani politician went into hiding. Fearing the worst. Wondering if their looted foreign accounts will be frozen.
We are not your slaves. Pakistan is a sovereign country which has an independent foreign policy and the government will make decisions which are beneficial to us and safeguard our interests. Imran khan is a courageous leader. He did not mince his words. He simply stated the truth.
There is only one statesman. There is only one leader. There is only one Lion. Allah has bestowed a favour on Pakistan, so let the people open their eyes and lend their full support, for victory is achieved together. Let there be unity and peace in our blessed land and let the soil of Pakistan shoot its green foliage, so that we stand tall and proud as a nation, for we are not your slaves. Imran Khan spoke the truth and he spoke it courageously. This country needs him for he is irreplaceable.
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An unoriginal hagiography of the Democratic Party: Michael Kazin’s What it Took to Win – WSWS
Posted: at 2:34 am
Michael Kazin, What it Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party . Straus and Giroux, 2022. ISBN 9780374200237
It is not only a poetic coincidence that the Democratic Party was founded when the period known as The Era of Good Feelings came to an end. The circumstances of the partys birth and early years characterize its enduring political mission.
At the time of the partys founding in 1828, the democratic and egalitarian aspirations of the population, which had been unleashed by the power of the Revolution of 1776, were coming face-to-face with the hard reality of northern capitalist production and southern slave-mercantilism. In the teeming cities of the North and on the brutal slave plantations of the South, there was much to life that seemed to contradict the still-popular promise that all men are created equal. But while explosive economic growth greatly enriched the elites both North and South, it also gave birth to a new social forcethe working class, drawing its rank-and-file from the farms of America and the famine-stricken countryside of Europe.
The emergence of the Democratic Party was a historical necessity. What was necessary was a political party that could capture and confuse the democratic sentiment of this growing working population so that no threat to the accumulation of private wealth would arise in either North or South. What was necessary was a party that could exploit the vast American continent, and weaker neighbors such as Mexico, both to enrich financial speculators and to project outward domestic social tensions. What was necessary was a party that could transform the unprecedented racial and ethnic diversity of the American population into a tool of division in the hands of the oppressors.
Much has changed in 200 years, but these essential features of the Democratic Party have remained the same. Then as now, the Democratic Party is built on a lie: that it speaks for working class people.
Michael Kazins book What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party is an effort to disguise the Democratic Partys past in the hope that it might be able to continue to serve its longstanding role by promoting reform from within. This is a harder and harder case to make. The books publication comes as the Democratic Party has broken with all past social reforms and has become the preferred party of finance capital.
The possibility of transforming the Democratic Party into a popular party is shown, Kazin says, by the partys longtime commitment to promoting moral capitalism, a system that mixes entrepreneurial freedom with the welfare of workers.
But Kazin never explains precisely how Democrats have made capitalism work morally for both capitalists and workers, an explanation that would be akin to trying to explain how one might make slavery right for both slave and owner, or feudalism equally beneficial to both lord and serf. Instead, he recapitulates the argument Arthur Schlesinger made with greater diligence and more imagination some sixty years ago. The argument goes: Despite the Democratic Partys roots as a party of slavery and for all its contemporary shortcomings, the people can once again pressure it to pick up the thread of economic populism that runs from Jefferson and Jackson through William Jennings Bryan and Franklin Roosevelt.
To accomplish this task, Kazins review of the history of the Democratic Party must be highly selective. He must treat indications of the partys economic progressivism with far greater prominence than the partys long rap sheet of social crimes.
For example, Kazin makes only passing references to the Democrats forced removal of the Native Americans in the 1820s and to the war to rob Mexico of half its territory, writing that events hurled the US into war in 1846 when in reality the Democratic administration of James K. Polk invaded Mexico on a made-up pretext to make way for the expansion of the slave-based cotton plantation system.
Kazin does not ignore the Democrats role under slavery, nor does he deny the partys visceral racism. But he presents this racism less as an ideology used to dupe workers and poor farmers, both North and South, and more as the reflection of a racism of white workers that seems to exist naturally among them. In one typical passage Kazin writes, The doctrine of racial supremacy also helped the party win over those white small farmers and wage earners who feared competition from Blacks, and later Chinese immigrants, too. In this upside-down presentation, the Democratic Party is the hapless victim of the ingrained racism of white workers, rather than the vehicle through which racist politics were promoted, North and South.
Kazins description of the Democratic Party in the Civil War is filled with half-truths. The Democrats faced a quandary during this time, Kazin writesan odd word to describe the political organization that launched secession, triggered the war, ruled the Confederacy as a one-party state, and many of whose partisans in the North opposed the war effort. Of the 1863 anti-draft race riots, Kazin writes that Democrats could not control the actions of plebian city dwellers but fails to explain that the riots took place in the context of longstanding demagogic agitation by Democratic leaders (including New York City Democratic Congressman Fernando Wood) against the war and Black Republicanism.
Kazin also offers no explanation for the rotten Compromise of 1877 by which the Democratic Party traded the presidency for ending Reconstruction. In a sin of omission, Kazin acknowledges only that the Democrats made no protest against the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, not only did Democrats make no protest, the Ku Klux Klan served as the Democratic Partys paramilitary in the South, targeting Republican workers and farmers, black as well as white.
The Democratic Party was also chiefly responsible for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883, but Kazin musters only one sentence on this shameful episode.
Kazin argues that the pre-FDR Democratic Party was horrible, but asserts that it became more progressive in the early decades of the 20th century. He has in mind the modest social reformism of Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal. These reforms were made possible by the wealth of American capitalism, which had been accumulated through technical developments such as the assembly line, and, in no small part, by its exploitation of the semi-colonial masses in Latin America and Asia. This, in turn, hinged on Americas emergence as the leading imperialist power and all the crimes that that entailed.
Kazin would prefer readers not dwell on such things. After noting Woodrow Wilsons betrayal of his promise to keep us out of war, he apologizes for congressional Democrats who voted for the war declaration: Most voted aye more to show resolve in the face of renewed German U-boat attacks on American merchant ships than to signal support for warcold comfort to the 117,000 US soldiers who would be killed, or the many victims of the xenophobic 100% Americanism that the war unloosed. As for World War II, the words Japanese Internment, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, do not appear, though it was Democratic president Franklin Roosevelt who ordered the rounding up of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property in 1942; and it was Democrat Harry Truman who ordered the incineration of the civilian populations of Japanese cities with no strategic value at the end of WWII, in a coldblooded demonstration that he was ready to use the atomic bomb for strategic ends.
As Kazin approaches the present, his own views more and more blot out historical reality. He acknowledges the right-wing shift carried out under the Clinton administration but, implausibly, presents the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the beginning of a re-birth of Democratic progressivism.
Kazin explains that he organized a group called Historians for Obama in 2008 and concludes by claiming that at the end of the Obama administration, the political left was again resurgent within the Democratic Party: It was [the progressive left] and not their centrist adversaries who were largely calling the partys ideological tune such that by 2020, the combined effort of these movements had nudged the policies of the party further to the left than at any time in the last half century.
This raises a puzzling question: What does Kazin mean by left? In 2009, Obama oversaw the largest transfer of wealth in history from the working class to the rich in the form of the bailout of Wall Street. Social conditions, wages, even life expectancy, stagnated and declined under Obama. Much else must be left out. Kazin fails to include the words drone, torture, Libya, Somalia, Syria, NSA, Assange, Snowden, bailout, deportation, or Guantanamo.
It will come as no surprise that Kazin crowns Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic Socialists of America as the modern torchbearers of progressivisms long history of leading social opposition back into the Democratic Party. Referring to the DSA, Kazin writes, The wisest decision these freshly minted socialist politicians made was to run as DemocratsAbandoning the quixotic dream of a consequential third party made it possible to achieve something of unprecedented significance: to embed a dynamic social democratic movement inside the heart of one of the two major parties. Kazins claim that the Democratic Party can lead America back down the yellow brick road of New Deal social reform is just as much a dream as Dorothys visit to the Land of Oz. That brief period of reform was made possible only by Americas now-lost position as global hegemon. And it was motivated by ruling class fear of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which lived in recent memory. Under these very exceptional circumstance, for a brief window lasting from the 1930s through the 1960s, the Democratic Party arranged for certain limited social programs while tasking its lieutenants in the labor bureaucracy with overseeing the suppression of the class struggle.
In referencing Americas rising predominance as a major world superpower, Leon Trotsky wrote in May 1940, America is fat. This fat from the past permits Roosevelt his experiments, but this is only for a time. In the period of its decline as world hegemon, Trotsky wrote, American imperialism will no longer have room for either restraint in foreign policy or experiments in domestic social reform. In his critique of the draft program of the Sixth Congress of the Communist International, Trotsky explained, In the period of crisis the hegemony of the United States will operate more completely, more openly, and more ruthlessly than in the period of boom.
In an earlier period, the global position of American imperialism afforded the Democratic Party the space to experiment with social reform. This time has passed. In an earlier period, the Democratic Party also experimented with more serious appraisals of its own role in American history. Kazins poor book shows that this time has also passed.
from Mehring Books
The New York Times 1619 Project and the Racialist Falsification of History
A left-wing, socialist critique of the 1619 Project with essays, lectures, and interviews with leading historians of American history. *Now available as an audio book from Audible!*
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An unoriginal hagiography of the Democratic Party: Michael Kazin's What it Took to Win - WSWS
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Bill Would Give DC Domestic Workers Legal Rights and Protections. – Washington City Paper
Posted: at 2:34 am
For years, D.C.s nannies, home care workers, housecleaners, and others who work in home settings have taken to the streets and councilmembers homes and offices to demand basic rights like protections against workplace discrimination and exploitation. Early last year, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman vowed to introduce a D.C. Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. In December, when domestic workers and advocates called in her promise, Silverman said via email that her labor committee was working on the bill to introduce next year. Yesterday, the councilmember kept her word.
Silverman announced the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022 during a Tuesday press conference outside the John A. Wilson Building. At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who had lost his voice, also addressed a crowd of ecstatic, sign-carrying members of the D.C. chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. With five additional co-introducers, the bill enjoys enough early support to pass the full Council.
The bill would require anyone in the District who hires a domestic worker for more than five hours per month to provide a written contract that sets standards for work hours, pay, and responsibilities. Antonia Surco, who has worked for 18 years as a nanny and senior caregiver in the District, tells City Paper she was paid $20 for a full days work when she first arrived from Peru in 2004. She didnt realize until later that she, and other domestic workers who were paid even less, were being exploited.
Its not uncommon for employers to take advantage of recently arrived immigrants, particularly those lacking documentation. Verbal agreements are subject to change at any moment and go unchecked by employment law, leaving domestic workers subject to wage theft and piled-on responsibilities to which they never consented. Sucel Merida says she has heard that employers of domestic workers ask them to stay longer than their shifts without compensation.
Surco has had employers suddenly ask her to do cooking, cleaning, and laundrytasks squarely outside her role as nannywhile the children sleep. The requests come without additional compensation and put her and the children at risk, she says. Focusing on other tasks could mean she might not notice if something happens to a young child in the middle of the night.
Altagracia Kubinyi says when she arrived in the District in 2020 she believed this type of exploitation only happened in places similar to her home country, the Dominican Republic, where she once bussed to the city to work long days, only to have her employer pay her with a single meal.
When I came and encountered this realitythat we dont have basic employment guarantees, [or] protections in Washington, the seat of power in this countryI couldnt believe it, Kubinyi says.
She has heard horror stories from other child care workers of employers hiring someone to secretly follow them on the job for days. Kubinyi is fortunate to work for a family who treats her well, she says. But she still hasnt secured an employment contract, which causes uncomfortable moments when she has to remind her employers of verbally agreed-upon benefits like paid vacation and time off for federal holidays.
It feels like employers are doing us a huge favor instead of honoring our agreements, Kubinyi says. Like were at the mercy of their compassion instead of respect for the agreements weve made.
The bill would also reverse the exclusion of domestic workers in two critical employment laws: the D.C. Human Rights Act, which protects against workplace discrimination, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which would apply workplace safety provisions. The Districts estimated 9,000 domestic workers, mostly Black and Brown women, have been excluded from federal and local labor protections, a legacy of slavery in the U.S., Silverman says.
This bill would also make the city responsible for community outreach and public education and guidance around domestic workers rights and for supplying template agreements.
Merida, who had extensive experience in child care before immigrating to the District from Guatemala, got her Child Development Associate accreditation in D.C. years ago and has educated herself on rights of domestic workers. But she says this isnt the case for many. She teaches a course on domestic worker rights through NDWA and tends to be the go-to person among her circles of child care workers for questions about rights and resources. This bill, if passed, would shift some of that onus onto the city and employers of D.C.s domestic workers.
Ambar Castillo (tips? acastillo@washingtoncitypaper.com)
By Ambar Castillo (tips? acastillo@washingtoncitypaper.com)
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Eight things to know before moving to Mississippi – WJTV
Posted: at 2:34 am
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) You may have told someone youll be relocating to Mississippi, and you were met with, Why are moving there out of all places?! Or Theres nothing to do there!
Well, coming from a Mississippian, youre not crazy for deciding to breathe in the southern hospitality or to immerse yourself into a vastly different cultural experience, or to start a new chapter in your career, education, family or retiring.
Heres eight things to consider before packing your U-Haul to make Mississippi your new home:
CHA-CHING Mississippi has the lowest cost out of living of all 50 states! According to Business Insider, the median necessary living wage across the entire US is $67,690. The state with the lowest annual living wage is Mississippi, with$58,321. So as youre considering your move, know where you fall on the spectrum of affordability and how that aligns with your way of living.
Catfish is the leading aquaculture industry in the United States and guess what state is the top producer? MISSISSIPPI. According to the Mississippi State University Extension Services,the Delta region accounts for the majority of the total land area devoted to catfish in Mississippi. FUN FACT: There are a total of 205 catfish farms in the state.
Get your stomach and tastebuds ready to eat (and keep your running shoes near.).
Check out the top 10 Best Catfish Restaurants in Jackson. Curated by YELP
When you step foot in Mississippi, youll be greeted with a stare, a smile and a Hey, how are you? Now, any many areas of the country greeting strangers or having a conversation with a stranger is considered weird, but in Mississippi, its an act of courtesy. No matter who you are, youre going to receive a comforting smile and hello hence why the states nickname is The Hospitality State.
So, if youre spoken to, try not to cringe and return the kind gesture
From Black History to Native History to Mississippi History to Present Day History, Mississippi has a wide range of interesting history for all to learn. Though you may have heard more negative stories involving racism, slavery, crime rates and poverty, Mississippi comes with positive attributes, too. Just like anything, you have to try for yourself.
There are several historic places across the state that will allow you to learn about the past and present of Mississippi. Cities such as Jackson, Vicksburg, Meridian, Biloxi, and more.
To view an interactive map of the must-visit historical sites in Mississippi, click here.
After years of controversy surrounding Mississippis old state flag with the Confederate battle emblem, Governor Tate Reeves signed a new state flag in January 2021. Following several design revisions and votes from Mississippians and state lawmakers to replace the former flag, the new one features a magnolia and the phrase, In God We Trust.
Critics had long said the flag adopted in 1894 was a racist symbol that failed to represent a state with the largest percentage of Black residents in the nation.
Now, at every state building, public institutions, businesses (by choice), a Mississippi state flag can be seen waving in the southern breeze.
*Mississippians love all sports, but their favorite is football.
Three words. MISSISSIPPI. LOVES. FOOTBALL. Since theres no NFL team to claim in the state, Mississippians love on college football even more. Stadiums are filled with hardcore fans dipped in paint or dressed with their college paraphernalia. Tailgates on gameday are a must to experience. The parking lot is flooded with fans. Seasoning and spices, smoked ribs, pork, grilled chicken, and seafood are all smells that linger in the air. Dont ask a Mississippian who has the best tailgate, youll get a biased answer, just see for yourself.
Mississippi is home to 23 college football teams.
Mississippi is home to some of the nations most notable figures in the music industry. From pop to rap to jazz to Blues and all genres in between. Artists hailing from birthplace of Americas music include the King of Rock and Roll a.k.a Elvis Presley; the Father of Country Music a.k.a Jimmie Rodgers; the King of the Blues aka B.B. King; the Princess of Pop a.k.a Britney Spears. Keep in mind, these names are only a small portion of artists from Mississippi.
Other famous natives consists of Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke, Tammy Wynette, Snoop Dogg, Brandy Norwood, David Banner, Muddy Waters, Faith Hill, Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Rae Sremmurd, and more.
Lets play Truth or Myth?
Theres nothing to do in Mississippi. MYTH!
While there may not be A LOT to do in Mississippi compared to other states, you can still make memories and have fun! Mississippians are living proof of the quote, Its the simple things, because it doesnt take much to have a good time. If youre a nature lover, gamer, history bug, or enjoy entertainment, the top attractions are listed by genre below:
Now, breathe, smile and enjoy the journey to the Magnolia State! *Clings glass of sweet tea*
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SpaceX unveils epic highlight reel for its 20th birthday (video) – Space.com
Posted: at 2:31 am
SpaceX celebrated its 20th anniversary Monday (March 14) with a short video showcasing Starman, Starship and company innovations in orbit and beyond.
"Today we celebrate the founding of SpaceX and 20 years of accomplishments by this incredible team heres to creating a future that we can all get excited about," the California-based company tweeted today in a post highlighting the new 98-second video.
In between footage of Falcon 9 launches and excited astronauts riding Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, the video offers a glimpse of what SpaceX hopes to do in the near future: send one its Starship Mars rockets to orbit for the first time.
The end of the video shows a Starship spacecraft poised upon its giant first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy. The duo are scheduled to launch on an orbital test flight, but that can't happen until the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration wraps up an environmental assessment of Starship launch activities. That review has been delayed several times and is now expected to be complete by March 28.
Related: The 20 most memorable SpaceX missions from its 1st 20 years in photos
The video opens by showing a (much younger) Elon Musk celebrating the first few successful launches of the young company, which he founded on March 14, 2002 with a dream of eventually taking people to Mars.
While that dream is not yet realized, the video shows some of the steps Musk has taken to mature SpaceX and its capabilities. The company's Dragon capsule, for example, is the first commercial crewed vehicle to reach the space station. Slow-motion shots of the Falcon 9 showcase the workhorse rocket that launches Dragon as well as satellites for industry and the military, not to mention SpaceX's huge Starlink broadband constellation.
Self-landing rockets? We see a few, including the iconic booster landings that happened after the launch of Starman. That was the debut launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, which saw the Tesla-driving mannequin lofted into orbit around the sun.
Toward the video's end, we get to see where SpaceX is today. It is regularly taking astronauts to orbit using Dragon, for example, and of course there are views of Starship under development.
The video doesn't touch upon some controversies that have cropped up with SpaceX's growth for instance, its plans to expand Starlink considerably. NASA is among the entities worried about the constellation's potential impact on astronomy and space traffic management.
But the video does give a nice, concise look at SpaceX's perseverance and growth from just another space startup to one of the top players in the industry, across sectors ranging from moon missions (yes, Starship will go there, too) to Earth orbit to satellite communications. For example, Musk has been helping out Ukraine in recent weeks with shipments of Starlink terminals and other equipment to the besieged nation.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcomor onFacebook.
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SpaceX unveils epic highlight reel for its 20th birthday (video) - Space.com
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SpaceX rapidly stacks Starship and Super Heavy with Mechazilla – Teslarati
Posted: at 2:31 am
For the second time ever, SpaceX has used Starbases Mechazilla tower and arms to stack a Starship upper stage on top of a Super Heavy booster.
This time around, though, SpaceX clearly learned a great deal from its second February 9th Starship stack and was able to complete the stacking process several times faster on March 15th. During the second attempt, depending on how one measures it, it took SpaceX around three and a half hours from the start of the lift to Starship fully resting on Super Heavy. With Stack #3, however, SpaceX was able to lift, translate, lower, and attach Starship to Super Heavy in just over an hour.
Oddly, SpaceX managed that feat without a claw-like device meant to grab and stabilize Super Heavy during stacking operations. For Stack #2, all three arms were fully in play. First, a pair of chopsticks giant arms meant to grab, lift, and even recover Starships and boosters grabbed Ship 20, lifted it close to 100 meters (~300 ft) above the ground, rotated it over top of Super Heavy, and briefly paused. A third arm known as the ship quick-disconnect or umbilical arm swung in and extended its claw to grab onto hardpoints located near the top of Super Heavy. Once the booster was secured, the chopsticks slowly lowered Ship 20 onto Booster 4s interstage and six clamps joined the two stages together.
A few hours after the two were clamped together, an umbilical device located on the swing arm extended and connected to Ship 20. Its unclear if the panel was actually used in any way but the umbilical is designed to connect Starship to ground systems to supply propellant, power, communications, and other consumables. Regardless, the device did appear to connect to Starship. Prior to Stack #3, however, SpaceX removed both of the swing arms claws, meaning that it had no way to grab onto Super Heavy. That diminished capability clearly appeared to have zero impact on the ease or speed of the stacking process given that it was completed a full three times faster than Stack #2.
That could imply that the claw is either completely unnecessary or only needed when attempting stacking operations in extreme winds. What is clear is that the claw removal likely only shaved a handful of minutes off of the full stacking process. What really saved time on Stack #3 was a faster lift and fewer pauses throughout especially while lowering Starship the last several meters onto Super Heavy. During Stack #2, SpaceX took close to an hour and a half to fully lower Ship 20. The same sequence took just ~20 minutes during Stack #3.
Still, after the impressively rapid one-hour stack, it then took SpaceX close to two hours to connect the swing arms umbilical to Starship, leaving plenty of room for improvement. Ultimately, assuming SpaceX can speed up the start of the stacking process and replicate its Starship success with Super Heavy, which will also need to be grabbed and installed on an even more complex launch mount, its possible that Starbases orbital launch integration system is already capable of supporting multiple Starship launches per day. Of course, SpaceX has yet to demonstrate that the orbital launch site can be turned around in a matter of hours after being subjected to the violence and stresses of a Starship launch.
More significantly, SpaceX has never even attempted an orbital Starship launch, recovery, or reuse. That leaves the company in the unusual position of building and testing expensive, specialized support equipment before it actually knows that the rocket that equipment is designed to support is in any way capable of taking advantage of it. For an orbital spacecraft the size of Starship, only the Space Shuttle comes anywhere close and NASAs all-time record for orbiter turnaround was 54 days. SpaceX has technically flown two Falcon 9 boosters twice in 27 days but no matter how impressive that feat is, reusing a far smaller suborbital booster is vastly easier than reusing a massive orbital spacecraft.
At the end of the day, its not really SpaceXs fault that its still waiting for permission to attempt orbital test flights. Nonetheless, the growing gap in maturity between Starship and Super Heavy and the orbital launch site designed to support them continuously raises the risk that SpaceX will have to extensively redesign the rocket, its support equipment, or both if significant problems arise during orbital test flights.
Up next, theres a chance that SpaceX could attempt to cryoproof Starship while on top of Super Heavy or perhaps both stages at once. While SpaceX has performed more than half a dozen cryoproofs of Ship 20 and Booster 4 using the orbital launch sites propellant storage and distribution system, it hasnt fully tested the hardware needed to route hundreds of tons of propellant hundreds of feet into the air essential for full-stack testing and launch operations.
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SpaceX rapidly stacks Starship and Super Heavy with Mechazilla - Teslarati
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