/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Requests for US legal aid linked to Palestine activism far surpass pre-2023 levels
Palestine Legal also saw a spike in immigration-related requests after Trump returned to office and signed an executive order to target pro-Palestine student activists, leading to “a cascade of unlawful and cruel state-mandated kidnappings intended to intimidate and silence the growing student movement for Palestinian rights”, the group noted.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/21/us-legal-aid-palestine

Citing Child Cancer Risk, Lawsuit Targets Trump EPA Over Glyphosate =
Just days before the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments related to glyphosate’s health risks, the Environmental Working Group on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for unlawfully delaying its response to an EWG petition seeking stronger restrictions on “the most widely used herbicide in the United States and globally.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/glyphosate

US military service members will no longer be required to get annual flu shot
In a video statement posted to social media, Hegseth described the mandate as “overly broad” and “not rational” and the decision to drop the vaccine requirement as “seizing this moment to discard any absurd overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/21/military-flu-shot-requirement-pete-hegseth

Southern Poverty Law Center charged with defrauding donors with payments to extremist informants
The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific examples. “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
https://apnews.com/article/southern-poverty-law-center-criminal-investigation-db7fdcf9baa0d1b24b8f1e1f2cebc0be

Dems call for details on Trump drug price deals
The "most favored nation" deals with 16 pharmaceutical companies are a signature health policy accomplishment the administration is already touting ahead of the midterm elections. But polling indicates most of the public is skeptical Trump will deliver and lower drug costs for people like them.
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/21/trump-drug-price-deals-senate-democrats
https://archive.ph/Sytlt

Georgia troopers fired over alleged practice of seeking insurance payouts after chases
The three troopers and their supervisor were fired for violating Georgia Department of Public Safety policy and ethical standards, the agency said in a news release. The investigation began in January after another trooper said he heard comments and jokes about which recent chases would qualify for a “check” and told his supervisor. After using their patrol vehicles to stop a chase — including a “precision immobilization technique,” or PIT maneuver — the troopers would send crash reports to a specific private attorney who would file a personal injury claim, the department said. Then the troopers would receive money when an insurance company settled out of court.
https://apnews.com/article/georgia-troopers-injury-claims-pursuits-4cfc2b673c46df82d26da9989dc88100

Erik Houdini: What is Praxis?: Becoming Activated
“Man can affect his own development and that of his surroundings only so far as he has a clear view of what the possibilities of action are open to him. To do this he has to understand the historical situation in which he finds himself: and once he does this, then he can play an active part in modifying that situation. The man of action is the true philosopher: and the philosopher must of necessity be a man of action.” — Antonio Gramsci
What's praxis? Like, for real though—be for real. What is this nebulous concept? Praxis is when your friend says, Hey, we want to do some kind of anti-American event for 4th of July, and you pivot to, Yeah, let's give the money to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and a local immigration organization. And let's tie the struggles back to the Global South and the imperial core because we're all ultimately oppressed by the same oppressors: the capitalists. That's praxis. Praxis is the connections we make between people on individual levels as working-class individuals. It's staying back after the show is over and asking, Hey, does anyone need any help cleaning? Praxis is mutual aid in action. It's when you find out one of the homies hasn't been eating. You don't just say damn, that's rough. You start asking around. Can we get him on food stamps? Can someone help him navigate the Medicaid website? Can someone front groceries until we get it figured out? It's collectivized survival. It's pulling together the fragments of a busted welfare state and patching it up with your own labor and time. It's when the plaza gets skate-stopped, so you grab a crowbar, a bag of Quickrete, and the homies to tear that shit out at 3 AM. It's when you say, Yeah, we're taking $5 off the $15 show if you bring two cans of food. They've got to be good cans of food, no scum shit. And then all that money goes back to a local pantry. That's real mutual aid. That's real praxis.
https://houdinimagazine.com/articles/2026-04-09-erik-houdini-what-is-praxis

Slavery reparations are just, but who exactly owes whom?
The contemporary framing of the reparations debate is seductive in its simplicity: Europeans arrived in Africa, Africans were enslaved, Europeans grew rich, and Africans became impoverished. Therefore, Europe owes Africa. This narrative carries moral force, but it risks flattening the complex history of European engagement with the continent. While European actors undeniably drove the demand for enslaved labour, African political and economic elites were not passive victims. They played a significant role in capturing, transporting and selling enslaved people to European traders. In some cases, African states, seeking to expand their treasuries and consolidate territorial power, preyed on neighbouring communities, condemning them to enslavement for profit. The Oyo Empire, a powerful Yoruba state in what is now south-western Nigeria, expanded significantly in the eighteenth century through its participation in this commerce. Across the region, African elites who had the means sustained the system by exchanging enslaved people for European goods such as alcohol, textiles and other manufactured commodities. None of this diminishes European culpability in the slave trade. The demand was European. The ships were European. The plantation system was European. The racialised ideology constructed to justify slavery was European. But it does complicate the story.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/4/18/slavery-reparations-are-just-but-who-exactly-owes-whom
https://archive.ph/rh32q

The hypocrisy of the “no to war” stance at the Barcelona ‘Global Progressive Mobilisation’
Convened under the auspices of the ‘Global Progressive Mobilisation’ and under the leadership of the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the fourth ‘In Defence of Democracy’ meeting was held in Barcelona from 17-19 April. The meeting was chaired by Sánchez, and featured prominent national leaders such as Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, and Brazil’s Lula da Silva, amongst others. This summit produced bombastic statements and grand-sounding speeches against the war in Iran, against the blockade on Cuba, in defence of democracy, and for a multipolar world. The meeting was conceived as a forum of opposition to Trump, his foreign policy and ‘conservative and far-right forces’. But is there any substance to these calls, and what do they really represent?
https://marxist.com/the-hypocrisy-of-the-no-to-war-stance-at-the-barcelona-global-progressive-mobilisation.htm

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