/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

GOP lawmaker pulls measure to allow Marco Rubio to revoke US passports
A committee spokesperson did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on Mast’s decision to remove the provision. Among other provisions, the bill package also includes a proposal to create a new “state sponsor of unlawful or wrongful detention” designation to penalize foreign governments that detain US nationals and require stronger accountability measures in those cases.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/brian-mast-marco-rubio-revoke-passport-measure

A Black student was found hanging from a tree. Police say no sign of foul play
Police on Tuesday were investigating the death of a Black college student found hanging from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Mississippi, stirring online rumors that evoked the state's history of Jim Crow-era racist violence even as authorities said there was no initial evidence of a crime. The campus police chief said there are no signs of foul play in the death of the 21-year-old student, whose body was discovered by a staff member early Monday near the campus pickleball courts.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/black-student-found-hanging-tree-police-sign-foul-125638449

ICE increases use of ankle monitors on immigrants with cases under review
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has intensified its use of electronic ankle bracelets in recent weeks to target thousands of immigrants with pending cases. The latest data released by the federal agency indicates that 29,089 migrants nationwide are currently wearing a device on their ankles. The Trump administration’s intention is to maintain intense monitoring of both detained migrants—58,766 as of the first week of September—and those who remain at large.
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-09-16/ice-increases-use-of-ankle-monitors-on-immigrants-with-cases-under-review.html
https://archive.ph/Rf3NZ

California nurses decry Ice presence at hospitals: ‘Interfering with patient care’
The nurse said that the Ice agent – wearing a mask, sunglasses and hat without any clear identification – brought a woman already in custody to the hospital. The patient was screaming and trying to get off the gurney, and when Sposito tried to assess her, the agent blocked her and told her not to touch the patient.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/california-ice-hospitals-patient-care

Trump administration sued over actions against University of California
The government has launched probes into universities' handling of alleged antisemitism during student protests against Israel's assault on Gaza, and has frozen funds over that and other issues, including climate initiatives and DEI programs. Civil rights advocates say the Trump administration is attempting to make universities more aligned with his political agenda, while critics also see such attempts as threatening free speech and academic freedom.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-sued-over-actions-against-university-california-2025-09-16/

New York judge tosses terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, lets murder count stand
The ruling eliminated the top two charges in Mangione’s state case, sparing him the possibility of a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate is also facing a parallel federal death penalty prosecution. Carro said the defense’s argument that the dueling prosecutors amounted to double jeopardy was premature.
https://apnews.com/article/unitedhealthcare-ceo-killing-luigi-mangione-nyc-8989b2a82558643f1099523e21611afc

Venezuela communists condemn US military incursion, call for people's mobilization
"The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) condemns the U.S. military incursion in the Caribbean, presented under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, but really aimed at threatening and militarily pressuring Venezuela. In this context, the PCV denounces the attacks against two boats in Caribbean waters, which so far have resulted in 14 deaths, carried out by summary execution and without evidence supporting their supposed association with drug trafficking networks. These extrajudicial and extraterritorial executions represent a crime against humanity that must be investigated urgently. This aggression, initially irresponsibly denied by spokespeople of the government leadership, represents a dangerous provocation and an open violation of international law. Added to this are espionage flights over Venezuelan territory, part of the intimidation and military control strategy deployed by the United States in the region. The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean have historically been victims of U.S. interference under the “Monroe Doctrine.” Washington has considered the region its “backyard,” with the objective of seizing its resources and maintaining geostrategic control, at the expense of the sovereignty, unity, and development of our peoples.
https://www.idcommunism.com/2025/09/venezuela-communists-condemn-us-military-incursion-call-for-peoples-mobiliza.html

Zillow and Redfin May Be Steering Homebuyers Into Bad Deals
Log on to real estate sites like Zillow or Redfin, and you’ll discover the era of one-click homebuying has arrived. You can search real estate listings, determine property values, and even buy or sell homes directly on the platforms. Now even the task of securing a mortgage, which used to take weeks of paperwork and phone calls, can be completed on the site just as easily as scrolling through a property’s photo gallery. But experts warn this apparent efficiency is masking a system designed to steer homebuyers to the platforms’ own mortgage lenders, squeezing out competition and discouraging buyers from finding cheaper options. It’s part of massive consolidation and restructuring efforts by Zillow and Redfin’s corporate owners to corner the trillion-dollar mortgage market, which is already driving up housing costs and could heighten the risk of a financial crisis. Regulators have even accused Zillow and Redfin’s parent companies of illegally rewarding real estate agents for directing buyers to their in-house mortgage lenders — something that the top consumer financial watchdog under President Joe Biden called a “kickback scheme.” However, since then, President Donald Trump has blocked regulators’ attempts to crack down on these practices — allowing the corporations to continue edging out smaller mortgage lenders and limiting loan options for homebuyers. Unbeknownst to many consumers, shopping around for a home loan can save homebuyers an average of more than $80,000 over a thirty-year mortgage. In states like California, Hawaii, and Washington, lifetime savings can reach more than $100,000. Consumers who use real estate companies’ in-house lenders may also be forced to pay higher fees and interest charges than those who use alternative options. There is a significant financial incentive for big lenders to limit competition in the space: 80 percent of all homes purchased in the United States are financed with a mortgage, 40 percent of consumers begin their home-buying process by shopping for a mortgage, and 80 percent of those buyers don’t yet have an agent, according to Zillow’s 2024 annual report.
https://jacobin.com/2025/09/zillow-redfin-mortgage-lending-competition

Antonio Gramsci: Neither Fascism nor Liberalism: Sovietism!
In the political crisis of the liquidation of fascism the opposition bloc increasingly appears to be a factor of a secondary order. Its heterogeneous social composition, its hesitations, and its aversion for a struggle of the popular masses against the Fascist regime reduce its actions to a journalistic campaign and parliamentary intrigues, which impotently run up against the armed militia of the Fascist party. In the opposition movement to fascism the most important part has passed to the Liberal Party because the bloc has no other program to oppose to fascism than the old Liberal program of parliamentary bourgeois democracy, the return to the constitution, to legality, to democracy. In the discussion concerning the succession to fascism, according to the congress of the Liberal Party the Italian people is placed by the opposition before a choice: either fascism or liberalism; either a ᴉuᴉlossnW government of bloody dictatorship or a Slandri, Gioliotti, Amendola, Turati, don Sturzo, or Vella government tending towards the reestablishment of the good old liberal Italian democracy, under whose mask the bourgeoisie will continue to exercise its exploitative rule. The worker, the peasant, who for years has hated the fascism that oppresses him believes it necessary, in order to bring it down, to ally himself with the liberal bourgeoisie, to support those who in the past, when they were in power, supported and armed fascism against the workers and peasants, and who just a few months ago formed a sole bloc with fascism and shared in the responsibility for its crimes. And this is how the question of the liquidation of fascism is posed? No! The liquidation of fascism must be the liquidation of the bourgeoisie that created it. In putting forth its slogan our party didn’t intend to replace failing fascism with the old liberalism, whose opprobrious failure and definitive liquidation the March on Rome had signaled. The Communist Party, from the beginning of the crisis of fascism, affirmed that the working class and the peasants must be the gravediggers and the successors of those in power.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/1924/10/fascism-liberalism.htm