/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

'Beautiful': Minnesota Becomes 4th State to Provide Free School Meals to All Kids
The move to make Minnesota the fourth U.S. state to guarantee universal free school meals—joining California, Maine, and Colorado—elicited praise from progressives. "Beautiful," tweeted Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/minnesota-universal-free-school-meals

Black lung is back: Disease’s deadliest form sees ten-fold increase among Appalachian miners
The numbers have climbed precipitously as mining techniques have evolved to extract increasingly hard-to-reach coal reserves. After a career in the mines, Michael Williams, 62, now lives with an advanced stage of black lung. Williams, a resident of the small town of McRoberts, Ky., is among a growing number of people diagnosed with the disease in central Appalachia, a region primarily comprising West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southwestern Virginia.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/black-lung-is-back-diseases-deadliest-form-sees-ten-fold-increase-among-appalachian-miners/

California, drugmaker partner to produce affordable insulin
The state of California and a generic drug manufacturer announced a 10-year partnership Saturday to produce affordable, state-branded insulin that they hope will rival longtime producers and push down prices for a medication used by millions of Americans. The product is not expected on store shelves until at least next year, and it was difficult to predict what effect it would have on a market already shaken by change. Earlier this week another major insulin maker promised steep price cuts as pressure builds on drugmakers and insurers to slash the cost of the drug.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gavin-newsom-ap-california-americans-novo-nordisk-b2303713.html

Supervisor in Tyre Nichols’ death retired before firing
The Memphis police supervisor on scene when Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by officers retired with his benefits the day before a hearing to fire him, according to documents filed to revoke his law enforcement certification. Lt. DeWayne Smith was identified Friday in records obtained by media outlets as the officer that officials said earlier this month had retired before his termination hearing.
https://apnews.com/article/tyre-nichols-beating-police-supervisor-retired-0c1d1ca671457c68a99ba4ed80f82fb3

A Black Family Was Reportedly Stopped for Tinted Windows. Then CPS Took Their Kids.
Two Black parents from Georgia are reportedly fighting to get their five children back from the state of Tennessee, a saga that began when they were pulled over more than a month ago for tinted windows and arrested for possession of a small amount of cannabis.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3yv9/tennessee-bianca-clayborne-dcs-traffic-stop
https://archive.ph/cUoLd

LAUSD strike looms as resolution fails to be reached
A potentially crippling strike by service workers that would shut down Los Angeles Unified School District campuses for three days was looming large Friday, with little hope of any resolution being reached before the planned Tuesday walkout.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/lausd-strike-looms-as-resolution-fails-to-be-reached/

Biden administration quietly resumes deportations to Russia
The Biden administration has quietly resumed deportations to Russia, an apparent reversal of the position adopted after Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, when such removals were suspended, the Guardian has learned. Immigration advocates were taken by surprise when a young Russian man, who came to the US fleeing Vladimir Putin’s efforts to mobilize citizens to fight in Ukraine, was abruptly deported at the weekend from the US back to Russia.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/18/biden-administration-russia-deportations

Idaho hospital to stop labor and delivery services citing "political climate" and doctor shortages
In addition to Idaho's legal and political climate, Bonner General also cited " the emotional and difficult decision" to stop labor and delivery services because of staffing shortages and changing demographics. Since 2005, at least 190 rural hospitals have closed or converted their operations, according to numbers compiled by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/idaho-hospital-bonner-general-stops-labor-delivery-services-citing-political-climate-doctor-shortages/

Dollar Tree has reportedly stopped selling eggs, pointing to 'very high' prices
Shoppers saw an average cost of $4.21 a carton for Grade A eggs in February, down from $4.82 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In contrast, Grade A eggs cost about $2 a carton in February 2022. Dollar Tree – which advertises a primary price point to $1.25 for most of its products, as well as some $3 and $5 items – told CNN that it can't afford to sell eggs amid these prices.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/03/18/egg-prices-dollar-tree-stops-sales/11499157002/
https://archive.ph/5yeKa

Shrinking savings and rising debt leave consumers on shaky financial footing
U.S. households have been whittling down their savings and taking on increasing amounts of debt, putting many in a weaker position to weather an economic downturn that has grown all the more likely following recent turmoil in the banking industry. Fears of a slowing economy were renewed this week when U.S. regulators took over Silicon Valley Bank, Swiss officials stepped in to shore up the finances of Credit Suisse, and a group of Wall Street firms threw a lifeline to First Republic Bank.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/shrinking-savings-rising-debt-leave-consumers-shaky-financial-footing-rcna75389

CPP: The Philippines Is Becoming A Battleground Amid Heightened Rivalry Between China And USA
Superpower fbi.gov between the US and China continues to rise and the Philippines is increasingly being drawn into the growing vortex of their conflict. Both powers profess to be friends of the Filipino people, but in fact have complete contempt of Philippine sovereignty. Instead of asserting the country’s independence, the Marcos regime has adopted the policy of “no one’s enemy” to justify the plan to allow the US to construct more military bases in the the country, and its servility to China’s expanding claim of economic and military dominion in areas within the West Philippine Sea. As a result, the possibility of the country again becoming a battleground of inter-imperialist conflict continues to rise. The US government’s rush to construct four or five more military facilities within camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are clearly part of its war theater preparations and aim to provoke China and raise the level of armed tensions. This is further exacerbated by plans to carry out a series of joint war exercises, including the planned deployment of at least 12,000 American troops for the Balikatan exercises, on the pretext of preparing to “defend the archipelago.”
https://www.redspark.nu/en/imperialist-states/cpp-the-philippines-is-becoming-a-battleground-amid-heightened-rivalry-between-china-and-usa/

Rising National Income But Declining Welfare of People
INDIA’S per capita income, representing the average income of an Indian citizen, has risen from INR 79,000 in 2013–14 to INR 1,71,000 in 2022–23 — an increase of 116 percent. Therefore, some claim that incomes have more than doubled in India since the present ruling dispensation took office. The catch is that: a) this includes the price increase during the period and hence does not represent the real increase in incomes, and b) the data for 2022–23 and two earlier years is provisional and subject to revision. The real increase in per capita income, subject to the above caveat, is from INR 68,600 to INR 96,500 during the period, which is an increase of 40.8 percent. This is not bad. However, since these days everything is compared to the earlier United Progressive Alliance (UPA) period from 2004–05 to 2013–14, the numbers are not flattering. Including inflation, the increase during the UPA years was 204.5 percent, while the real increase was 50.3 percent. These are official figures from the Economic Survey, based on the data released by the National Statistical Office — the official agency that estimates and publishes data on national income and related macroeconomic variables.
https://www.newsclick.in/rising-national-income-declining-welfare-people

Stephen Naft: The Social General Strike
THERE were two especial reasons that prompted the publication of this translation of Arnold Roller’s pamphlet “The Social General Strike” (written and published in German, it treats the subject from the View of existing European social conditions). It seemed desirable to make the American workingmen acquainted with the methods and aims of the most advanced part of the European working classes. Then the publishers wish and believe, that the views expressed in the essay will lead the American workingmen to think, whether the struggle carried on at present between capital and labor is not entirely out of date, whether it is not totally ineffective and leading astray. The evolution of the methods of the organized American workingmen has not kept pace with the evolution in the camp of the enemy, American capitalism, which is the most greedy and brutal on earth. In order to frustrate the endeavors of the workers for a higher standard of life and freedom, capitalism controls the political institutions of subjugation—government, justice, police, and militia. Only ignorance or hypocrisy would suggest that there is a harmony established between capital and labor. The brutal means which are employed against organized labor by the mentioned institutions—devoted to money power—illustrates best this “harmony.” The irreconcilable difference between capital and labor reaches its greatest determined expressions in the United States. The shooting down and clubbing of striking workers belong to everyday events and “the black Fridays” of the American working people have steadily increased in number since November 1887. Homestead, Pullman, Cour de Alene, Verden, up to the last strike events in Colorado and Chicago are the bloodmarks of capitalistic terrorism. Up to this day the rich profit-making classes still consider the protest of Gov. Altgeld against the intended butchery of Pullman strikers by federal troops, his greatest crime against the greediness of the profit-makers. They howl: law above all—yet themselves care a snap for it, and drag it into the mire when it stands in the way of brutalizing and enslaving labor. For instance in Colorado for many months no other laws prevailed than the baseness and brutality of the property owners and their tools. Much less selfconscious and determined are the working people of the United States. On the one hand a pernicious over-estimation of political affairs leads the people again and again astray and makes them dupes of the greedy, corrupt political lackies of the money kings. It is so simple and yet it seems they can’t understand that as long as the capitalistic system rules economically, it is evident that legislation and government will remain the servants of the large property owners.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/arnold-roller-the-social-general-strike

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