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#books

"In capitalist society, providing it develops under the most favourable conditions, we have a more or less complete democracy in the democratic republic. But this democracy is always hemmed in by the narrow limits set by capitalist exploitation, and consequently always remains, in effect, a democracy for the minority, only for the propertied classes, only for the rich. Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners. Owing to the conditions of capitalist exploitation, the modern wage slaves are so crushed by want and poverty that "they cannot be bothered with democracy", "cannot be bothered with politics"; in the ordinary, peaceful course of events, the majority of the population is debarred from participation in public and political life." Lenin, State and Revolution

"between 2011 and 2013, $381 billion in taxes went unpaid every single year. Couple that data with recent Harvard University research showing that the top 1 percent of income earners are responsible for 70 percent of the tax gap, and you see the full picture: The wealthiest sliver of the population is depriving the American public of about $266 billion of owed tax revenue every year."

"the Tax Justice Network released a separate study showing that newly released international data prove “that instead of declaring profits in the countries where they were generated, multinational firms operating around the world are shifting over $1 trillion in profits every year to corporate tax havens”"

source

This essay connects police brutality to the brutality of capitalism. Capitalism has long promised a better life for people, a promise that was begrudgingly accepted by elites in the post-WWII age. With the downturn of the 1970s, elites introduced a replacement, neoliberalism, that, once dominant, made possible three developments: 1) endless war abroad and police militarization at home; 2) predatory capitalism, at home and abroad; and 3), the promotion of meritocracy to pacify citizens. Two decades into the twenty-first century, exploited citizens do not accept blame for their immiseration.

mronline.org/2020/07/06/the-brutality-of-capitalism/

"Central to his report are the institutional failings of the World Bank in getting to grips with the scale of global poverty, which it persistently underplays using the flawed measurement tool of an international poverty line, or IPL. The IPL, argues Alston, sets the poverty benchmark at way too low a level to support a life of dignity consistent with basic human rights"

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/poverty-political-choice/

No
by Dana Levin

Hoping to just live quietly unnoticed—holed up
smoking pot and listening to old music
after work, trying to wait out
the regime—dreaming of tyrants in exhausted
sleep, sick
of having to think—
Trying the long view—in which years breathe
and the Great Wheel always turns, but
so much damage done as ash and seed
change places, as they always do—was that
still true? When you could
see the fires of ending spreading, would you
get to live—in greater days when No
would blossom into Yes and Closed
pried—open-hearted -throated -minded, would you
get to live—as you thought you once
did—

#poetry - source

Last call, I promise! 😅

We have entered a brave new world in which those waving the banner of “Free Speech” accuse their opponents of being unable to take criticism while waging a histrionic campaign against anyone who dares to criticize them. Accusing your opponents of doing exactly what you are yourself guilty of is a classic propaganda technique. It works well, unfortunately.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/22648/free-speech-labor-journalism-harpers-coddling-elites/

A good read about being conscious of one's own community/relationship culture.
Check this out if you care about humans:
https://josephg.com/blog/war-over-being-nice/

#podcast

https://roarmag.org/2020/07/07/david-harveys-anti-capitalist-chronicles-race-and-class/