Payroll Taxes Are the Achilles Heel of Social Security, by Jim Kavanagh

to the order of me

Image by frankieleon via Flickr

by Jim Kavanagh
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Polemicist
August 21, 2020

On August 8th, Donald Trump took four executive actions on coronavirus relief. One was a memorandum deferring, to the end of the year, payment of the employee portion of the payroll tax for employees making less than $4000 biweekly. (Employer payments had already been deferred in the CARES act.)

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Chris Hedges: The Importance of Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Originally published Jan. 25, 2020

with Chris Hedges and Howard Zinn

RT America on Jan 25, 2020

On the show this week Chris Hedges discusses the importance of historian, Howard Zinn, for a fuller understanding of American history, with author and journalist, Ray Suarez.

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Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley: Why Trump Can Still Win and Why We Must Oppose U.S.’ New Cold War Against China

China Industry

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Black Agenda Report Presents: The Left Lens on Aug 17, 2020

In the fourth of the Left Lens, co-hosts, Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley discuss why Donald Trump’s re-election is not as unlikely as the Biden/Democratic Party let on. Also, Danny and Margaret discuss just some of the reasons we should oppose the U.S.’ New Cold War against China.

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US Snapback From Humiliation, by Finian Cunningham

No War On Iran NYC March

Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Sputnik, Aug. 17, 2020
August 18, 2020

American President Donald Trump has darkly warned of something big this week, vowing to apply “snapback” international sanctions on Iran. It would be a drastic move and likely to further isolate Washington in the eyes of the world.

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The Declining U.S. Empire Is Resorting To Desperate Acts + The New Cold War Is Motivated By Fears Of Capitalist Collapse, by Rainer Shea

On the walls of the former American embassy

Image by Babak Fakhamzadeh via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Aug. 12, 2020
August 17, 2020

As Washington’s global influence rapidly diminishes, I’m picking up on a trend in how the U.S. imperialists operate: sporadically attempting to snatch up resources from other countries in desperate efforts at regaining what the empire has lost. This contrasts with the way that the U.S.-centered corporatocracy very smoothly exploited other countries when the empire was at its peak around the mid-20th century. In many cases, it was as easy and concealable as pressuring a poor country into becoming part of the corporatocracy’s business circle through some aggressive business deals.

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John Pilger: The Dirty War on the NHS

SAVE OUR NHS march at Conservative Party Conference 2013

Image by Trades Union Congress via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with John Pilger

John Pilger on Aug 11, 2020

Britain’s National Health Service, the NHS, was the world’s first universal public health service. Designed to give millions of people “freedom from fear”, the NHS today is under threat of being sold off and converted to a free market model inspired by America’s disastrous health insurance system, which results in the death every year of an estimated 45,000 people. Now President Trump says the NHS is “on the table” in any future trade deal with America.

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Chris Hedges: The Truth About War Always Comes Out Too Late

No War

Image by Jeremy Castillo via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Aug 15, 2020

On the show this week, Chris Hedges discusses Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge with Danny Sjursen, a combat veteran and West Point graduate.

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Chile’s Mapuche Conflict, by Yanis Iqbal

Marcha mapuche

Image by Tomás Flores Saavedra via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
August 14, 2020

On 1 August, 2020, a group of civilians, in complicity with the Chilean national police force or the carabineros and right-wing hoodlums, violently attacked Mapuche community members who were on a hunger strike in front of the Municipality of Victoria, in Araucania. The attack was strategic, organized and preplanned with the occupied town halls of Ercilla and Traiguén also being attacked, Mapuche women and children being beaten and vehicles being set on fire.

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John Pilger: What Is Going On In The World Is The Struggle For True Freedom

End of Democracy in Detroit

Image by Joe Brusky via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with John Pilger

goingundergroundRT on Aug 12, 2020

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to legendary journalist and filmmaker John Pilger.

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Those Least Responsible For Global Warming Will Pay The Highest Price For It, by Pete Dolack

Earth on Fire

Image by Cristian Ibarra Santillan via Flickr

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder
August 12, 2020

Is it already too late to stop global warming? That question is not asked with thoughts of throwing up hands in despair and giving up. Rather, that question must be asked in the context of mitigating future damage to whatever degree might yet be possible.

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MFTN: Disrupt! Interrupt! The Ground of Resistance is Ours

Trouble Maker w Sign

Image by Lynn Friedman via Flickr

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published November 18, 2016
August 11, 2020

A smoothly functioning society is created and maintained by the people. Children go to school, workers show up at their jobs, shipments are made, groceries and purchases are bought, bills are paid, goods and services are delivered; and so on. In times of justice, when the workings of society are fair, respectful, and uphold the rights and dignity of humanity, then the people have every reason to collectively maintain functional workplaces, schools, roads, social events, and so on.

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The Growing Disparity In Living Conditions and Its Consequences, by Rainer Shea

Tenting

Image by Russ Allison Loar via Flickr

by Rainer Shea
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rainer Shea: Anti-Imperialist Journalist, Aug. 9, 2020
August 10, 2020

The high-tech sector, along with the U.S. national security state that it partners with, have lately been pushing the idea of upgrading society into a futuristic technological structure that makes life far more convenient. Last year the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, an organization created in 2018 to further the partnership between U.S. intelligence agencies and tech plutocrats, articulated this vision in a document. It called for a near future where the country’s “legacy systems” are replaced with a new paradigm of infrastructure, one that allows for self-driving cars, total home delivery in alternative to retail, and home appliances that can connect to an “internet of things.”

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Covid-19 and the Health Crisis in Latin America, by Yanis Iqbal

Coronavirus graffiti, Leake Street

Image by duncan c via Flickr

by Yanis Iqbal
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Aligarh, India
August 9, 2020

Latin America has surpassed more than 5 million Covid-19 cases to overtake North America, with 4.8 million Covid-19 cases, as the region worst-hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. This astronomic increase in Covid-19 cases has been accompanied by a corresponding economic catastrophe of great magnitude. According to a United Nations Policy Brief entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Latin America and the Caribbean”, “Parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have become hotspots of the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, exacerbated by weak social protection, fragmented health systems and profound inequalities. COVID-19 will result in the worst recession in the region in a century, causing a 9.1% contraction in regional GDP in 2020…This could push the number of poor up by 45 million (to a total of 230 million) and the number of extremely poor by 28 million (to 96 million in total), putting them at risk of undernutrition.” The Policy Brief further states that “The sharp drop in economic activity is expected to lift the unemployment rate from 8.1% in 2019 to 13.5% in 2020. The poverty rate is expected to rise by 7.0 percentage points in 2020, to 37.2%, while extreme poverty is expected to rise by 4.5 percentage points, from 11.0% to 15.5%, which represents an increase of 28 million people.”

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Chris Hedges and Greg Palast: Stealing Elections

Voter Suppression is Violence

Image by cool revolution via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges and Greg Palast

RT America on Aug 8, 2020

On the show today, Chris Hedges discusses the potential for voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election with investigative journalist, Greg Palast.

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Part 3: Freedom from Socioeconomic Oppression, by W.R. Zammichiéli

an injury to one is an injury to all

Image by Tim Pierce via Flickr

by W.R. Zammichiéli
Writer, Dandelion Salad
August 7, 2020

(Part Three of an Ongoing Series: The Four Fundamental Freedoms of Libertarian Socialism) [Part 1, Part 2]

Throughout the course of human history, there have been countless individuals inhabiting countless communities who have been directly and indirectly participatory in various movements dedicated to the elimination of specific hierarchical structures present within a given society that exist for the sole purposes of ensuring the systemic oppression of a unique portion of the population. Be it upon the basis of biological factors, or be it upon the basis of cultural characteristics, or be it upon the basis of economic positioning, there have been numerous systems of oppression designated to specifically subjugate an entire portion of the population predicated upon the principle of maintaining the embedded structures of power within a particular society.

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