DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
True Left
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: News
*****************************************************
#Post#: 1306--------------------------------------------------
American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: September 27, 2020, 7:59 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse. Chris
Hedges Joins
[quote]Julianna welcomes back Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and best-selling author, Chris Hedges, to discuss how in his
current book, America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges takes a close
look at the array of pathologies that have arisen out of a
profound malaise of hopelessness as the society disintegrates
due to the "slow moving [corporate] Coup d'état" instituted by
the ruling classes in the '70s in reaction to the activist
movements and reforms of the '60s. And how this disintegration
has resulted in an epidemic of diseases, despair, and a civil
society that has ceased to function.
You may know Chris from reading one of his best-selling books
including American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On
America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph
of Spectacle, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Days of
Destruction, Days of Revolt, Death of the Liberal Class. Or his
weekly interview show On Contact where he interviews “dissident
voices” currently missing from the mainstream media, the black
sheep of the establishment, leading to discussions that are not
easy to find.
Chris is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times
best-selling author, a professor in the college degree program
offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers University, and
an ordained Presbyterian minister. He has written 12 books,
including the New York Times best-seller “Days of Destruction,
Days of Revolt” which he co-authored with the cartoonist Joe
Sacco. His latest book is "America: The Farewell Tour"
(2018).[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2aWT2T4E0
The Collapse of the American Empire?
[quote]The Agenda welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Chris Hedges, who over the past decade and a half has made his
name as a columnist, activist and author. He's been a vociferous
public critic of presidents on both sides of the American
political spectrum, and his latest book, 'America, the Farewell
Tour,' is nothing short of a full-throated throttling of the
political, social, and cultural state of his country.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPk9HSLagVg
#Post#: 1549--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?) Ch
ris Hedges Joins
By: guest5 Date: October 15, 2020, 11:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Rising U.S. weekly jobless claims cast shadow on economic
recovery
[quote]The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless
benefits unexpectedly increased last week, heightening fears the
COVID-19 pandemic was inflicting lasting damage to the labor
market.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyZlRodhR0A
Trump Brags About Jobs As 8 MILLION Just Fell Into Poverty
[quote]The Young Turks’ Emma Vigeland
(
HTML https://Twitter.com/EmmaVigeland)
breaks down the infuriating
disconnect between Trump's narrative about the economy and the
actual reality of mass poverty for Americans.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvObDjll-M
#Post#: 1598--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 17, 2020, 3:42 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
'I'm Still Unemployed': Millions In Dire Situation As Savings
Start To Run Out
[quote]When the coronavirus pandemic hit this spring, government
relief payments provided a life raft to millions of people who
had been thrown out of work.
That life raft, however, is now losing air, threatening to leave
the unemployed in a perilous situation just as Washington
leaders struggle to clinch a new package of aid ahead of the
November election.
New research from JPMorgan Chase Institute and the University of
Chicago focused on 80,000 unemployed people shows savings built
up when the government provided aid is now rapidly running out,
leaving people like chemist Kate McAfee fretting about their
futures.
"I'm still unemployed," said McAfee, who was laid off from her
job outside Cleveland back in April. "I've now exhausted my 26
weeks of unemployment here in Ohio and have moved on to the
additional 13 weeks of extended benefits from the federal
government."
Millions of Americans are in a similar situation as the pandemic
downturn drags on.
The downtown Denver coffee shop where Terrah Burton used to work
tried to reopen during summer, but with little foot traffic from
vacant offices nearby, it temporarily closed its doors again.
"I hang onto that word, 'temporarily,' " Burton said. "To see so
much slipping through our fingers in this community is hard."
Throughout the spring and early summer, Burton and her partner
got by financially, thanks in part to the extra $600 a week in
jobless benefits that Congress approved back in March.
Burton recalled her surprise when she received her first
unemployment check. It was almost twice as much as she'd been
making at the coffee shop.
"I'll accept it because I've worked hard all my life," Burton
said "We were able to put a little bit extra in savings and pay
off a couple of low bills. Our going out budget was zero. Our
going-to-the-bar budget was zero."
But for the unemployed, the picture changed abruptly once the
extra $600 a week ran out at the end of July.
McAfee, the Cleveland-area chemist, saw her jobless benefits cut
by more than half, putting a strain on her husband and their two
kids.
"We're slowly eating away at our savings that we have from the
good times of earlier this year and it's getting challenging
now," McAfee said.
Researchers at JPMorgan Chase Institute, in collaboration with
the University of Chicago, found many of the unemployed managed
to sock away extra money between March and July while the
government was spending freely to cushion the downturn. Median
family savings roughly doubled during that period.
But the researchers found that the jobless started to drain
their savings in August, burning through roughly two-thirds of
the money they'd squirreled away during the four previous
months.
"The cushion has worn thin, and we haven't yet regained all the
jobs that we lost," said Fiona Greig, director of consumer
research for the JPMorgan Chase Institute. "This is a critical
time for jobless workers."
Job growth has slowed in each of the last three months. And with
layoffs continuing, almost 1.3 million people filed new claims
for unemployment last week.
Jobless workers are spending less now than they were early in
the summer. And their spending is likely to fall further as
their newfound savings are exhausted.
Kelly Griffin, an IT worker in Massachusetts, saw her income
drop by about two-thirds once the extra $600 a week benefit ran
out.
"It was hard," Griffin said. "You don't go out to eat. You don't
spend things unnecessarily. I scrimped and saved and started to
panic. 'Am I ever going to get a job again?'"
Fortunately, Griffin did get a job offer, and she's set to start
next week. But many others have not been as lucky.
"I hate it when people say the extra $600 was keeping us from
working," McAfee said. "It was never keeping me from working. I
want to be back to work and I would love to have a job again."
McAfee has been trying to earn some extra money sewing
facemasks. But it's no substitute for a regular paycheck.
"It's not a situation I would wish on anybody, to be constantly
stuck in this with no foreseeable end to it," she said. "I don't
know when I'm going to get a job again. Hopefully it will be
soon. But until then it's just constant stress for everybody."
[/quote]
HTML https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924682991/i-m-still-unemployed-millions-in-dire-situation-as-savings-start-to-run-out
#Post#: 1617--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 18, 2020, 9:32 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
America's Infrastructure Is Crumbling
[quote]America’s infrastructure is in desperate need of more
than $4 trillion in upgrades and improvements. President Trump
campaigned heavily on overhauling the country's crumbling
infrastructure and promised to invest big to fix it. VICE
correspondent Thomas Morton explores the most vital bridges,
tunnels, and waterways in the U.S. to see how much the situation
has deteriorated and to find out if the Trump Administration's
promise is being kept.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdvJSGc14xA
America's Public Defense System Is in Crisis
[quote]Public Defenders are facing soaring caseloads, and
flatlining budgets, and with 80% of all criminal defendants in
the US unable to afford a lawyer, the system is collapsing. With
the Constitutional right to fair representation in a court of
law in jeopardy, VICE's Cord Jefferson heads to one of the
worst-hit states to see how overworked and underpaid public
defenders are grinding the legal system to a halt.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqLE4ryWMX4
A House Divided: The Dis-United States of America
[quote]Today parts of America feel like they’re at war again, as
this powerful country battles disease and division under its
polarising and unpredictable President.
As the nation gears up for the presidential election, the ABC’s
US Bureau Chief David Lipson takes us on a road trip through the
northeast swing states to talk to ordinary people about the
coming contest.
Trump’s re-election looked like a certainty before the pandemic.
Now, with the economy buckling under more lockdowns, COVID cases
rising and civil unrest running in the streets, his grip on
power looks more tenuous.
As fringe groups arm themselves for conflict, will this
fractured country survive the ultimate democratic stress-test?
David meets Phil from the Michigan Liberty Militia who’s angry
about his state’s lockdown orders describing them as ‘a stomp on
our constitutional rights’. In protest, the Michigan Patriots
Militia took control of the State parliament in April. Now Phil
warns a Trump defeat could get ugly.
‘There's a lot people out there that would not be able to handle
that… there is people… that just think Trump is…like a God.”
‘Bikers for Trump’ member Londa has kept her faith in Trump and
is banking on him to deliver the prosperity America used to
enjoy.
‘He doesn’t care what anybody thinks. He’s doing what’s best for
the country.’
In middle-class Ohio, a professional soccer mum with six
children says she’s changed her mind about Trump because he’s
‘unkind’.
‘It's just not the way that I would want my kids to be treating
anybody ”.
In Detroit, once the engine of America’s car industry, Dave
meets African American woman Desha. She watched her husband die
a painful death from COVID-19 and is now urging African
Americans to come out and vote on election day.
“Gotta do it. Like we have to, you have to, it is so much more
important, you know, now than ever before.”[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqY3baNuImA
#Post#: 1702--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 22, 2020, 10:41 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
How America could lose its allies | 2020 Election
[quote]For 150 years, the US avoided formal alliances. It
occasionally went to war -- fighting the War of 1812, the
Spanish-American War, and World War I -- but did so without
entangling itself in promises to other countries. Then, after
World War II, it abruptly changed course, and began to build a
network of alliances unlike anything that had come before.
Over the next few decades, the US used those alliances to keep
countries around the world close, and to fight Soviet expansion,
by making a promise that it would go to war if any of its allies
were ever attacked. After the Soviet Union fell, the initial
purpose of those alliances was gone, but the US recommitted to
them, signaling again and again that the central promise of
those relationships was still in effect. It kept doing so for
the next 25 years.
Then the US elected a leader who took America’s global
relationships in a new direction. President Trump was skeptical
that America’s network of alliances was still beneficial to the
US. He began to distance the US from those alliances, raising
doubts about whether America would actually follow through on
the promise at the core of them if provoked. Some allies moved
closer to Russia or China, both of whom had attempted to
undermine America’s alliances.
Today, the future of those alliances is on the ballot in the US.
One of the major presidential candidates in the 2020 election
wants to return the US to its former status with its allies; the
other finds its decades-old alliances costly and cumbersome. The
world is waiting to see which vision Americans prefer.
This video is the sixth in our series on the 2020 election. We
aren’t covering the horse race; instead, we want to explain the
stakes of the election through the issues that matter the most
to you. To do that, we want to know what you think the US
presidential candidates should be talking about. [/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5LrQv496Iw
#Post#: 1724--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 23, 2020, 11:04 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
How America Got Hooked on Opioids | The War on Drugs
[quote]In The War On Drugs Show, we examine the social
implications of prohibition worldwide.
Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin,
cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain
of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of
death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and
inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird
kind of way, the drugs themselves.
Around 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War. But in
2017 alone, 70,237 Americans died of drug overdoses; the War on
Drugs is like a Vietnam War every year.
This is the story of the North America Opioid Crisis – how an
oversupply of the prescription drug oxycodone collided with
fifty years of drug prohibition to create an epidemic every bit
as serious as COVID-19.
This terrifying crisis reaches every corner of American life,
far beyond the clichés of the 'inner-city drug user'.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJc-YI7OWfY
#Post#: 1741--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 24, 2020, 1:43 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
America's Unemployment Problem
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUbiGS7_oqM
[quote]
Diceman82
1 day ago
Made worse by the media generation baiting all the old into
thinking us "Millennials" are just lazy. "I could afford a
house, education car and kids when I was 19!" yeah and when you
were 19 your 5$ an hour factory job is the equivalent of making
52$ today. In Ohio the minimum wage is 8.30 which assuming full
time(HA) is 1155$ or so after taxes.Average rent for a 1 bedroom
in all but the worst roach ridden, crime infested ghettos is
about 600$ for a 2 bedroom on the low end.
The only way to make minimum wage work would be living in a
friggin van down by the river. [/quote]
[quote]lmfao
1 day ago
Why aren't stuff like paid vacations, days off, maternity leave,
pensions etc. included in most US jobs? That's literally
standard here in Europe. Kinda shocked to hear about this for
the first time considering in Ireland every employee is given
minimum 4 weeks annual leave.[/quote]
[quote]Haebris
1 day ago
An important thing you did not mention is that people cannot
afford to upskill, because they can't afford to take
qualifications. It means that people truly cannot escape from
being a wage slave. It's the same in the UK, but not quite as
extreme. [/quote]
[quote]Question Everything — Thought Provoking Ideas
1 day ago
"Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely
expensive it is to be poor"
--James Baldwin [/quote]
America's Overwork Obsession
[quote]Work hard, make money, send your kids to college, retire
to Florida. it sounds nice in theory, but the reality of work in
America is dramatically different from the American Dream we've
all been taught to believe in.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejoAG5n19iE
#Post#: 1742--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 24, 2020, 1:53 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Capitalism And Monopolies: How Five Companies Control All US
Media
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1_lCe3vyyc
#Post#: 1748--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: October 24, 2020, 3:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Why American public transit is so bad | 2020 Election
[quote]Most Americans have no choice but to drive. How do we
change that?[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZDZtBRTyeI
#Post#: 1913--------------------------------------------------
Re: American Empire Collapse: It's About To Get Much Worse(?)
By: guest5 Date: November 1, 2020, 12:57 am
---------------------------------------------------------
America Compared: Why Other Countries Treat Their People So Much
Better
[quote]We're taught to believe that America is the greatest
country on earth and that it couldn't possibly get any better.
Let's put that claim to the test. In this episode, we'll compare
the US to other wealthy nations using several key metrics:
"low-skilled" job compensation, vacation time, length of the
work week, and paid parental leave. The results may surprise
you. [/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhBkeAo2Hlg
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page