(2023-05-18). Breaking barriers: Helping Native Americans in need get the gift of life. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Robert Monroe and Jackie Johnson stand near their home on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona For many American Indians and Alaska Natives, living on an Indian reservation provides a sense of pride, independence, and the ability to maintain cultural and social traditions important to their heritage. Life on the Indian reservation can also mean high rates of poverty, lack of access to food, transportation, communication and health care. Complex medical procedures like an organ…
(2023-05-17). 'We Are Not Taxing The Very Wealthy Enough': Runaway Inequality About To Get Worse. progressivehub.net JAKE JOHNSON | COMMON DREAMS…
(2023-05-18). French rail workers mobilize to save rail freight operator Fret SNCF. peoplesdispatch.org Earlier this year, the European Commission opened an investigation into support measures including capital injection and debt cancellation taken to help Fret SNCF. These steps allegedly do not comply with European state aid rules. Workers feat that is if the rail company is penalized, its operations will be affected and jobs will be lost…
(2023-05-18). Railroaders face cuts in unemployment and sickness benefits due to debt ceiling, end of federal COVID emergency. wsws.org The federally administered benefits had been exempted budget sequestration until President Biden ended the pandemic national emergency declaration last month.
(2023-05-17). CovertAction Bulletin: The Debt Ceiling is Political Theater. covertactionmagazine.com The "debt ceiling" crisis playing out between President Biden and Congressional Republicans is manufactured by capitalism to justify spending cuts to critical social programs while continuing to bail out big businesses and fund the Pentagon's endless war drive…
(2023-05-17). "The Budget Farce": Robert Kuttner on Why Biden Admin Can't Give In to GOP Demands to Gut Safety Net. democracynow.org 
With the United States just two weeks away from a possible default on its debt for the first time ever, President Joe Biden has cut short a trip to Asia to continue negotiations with congressional leaders in Washington over lifting the federal government's debt ceiling. Republicans are seeking major budget cuts, as well as new work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, but prominent Democrats are pushing the White House to stand firm. For more, we speak with The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner, who says the debt ceiling…
(2023-05-17). Headlines for May 17, 2023. democracynow.org North Carolina Bans Abortion After 12 Weeks as GOP Lawmakers Override Governor's Veto, Nebraska Lawmakers Advance Bill to Ban Abortion & Ban Gender-Affirming Medical Care, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Florida Hold Elections, Talks over Debt Ceiling Remain Stalled as GOP Pushes Sweeping Cuts, Biden to Head to Hiroshima for G7 Summit But Cuts Rest of Asia Trip Short, Chinese Special Envoy Arrives in Ukraine to Push for War to End, Costs of War Project: Post-9/11 Wars Have Resulted in 4.5 Million Deaths, Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso Dissolves National Assembly to Block Impeachment Push, Biden Administration Grants K…
(2023-05-17). Business As Usual: Shutdown or Not, the Police State Will Continue to Flourish. dissidentvoice.org 
There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. —Ludwig von Mises Once again, the police state is up to its old tricks, stoking tensions over whether or not the government is forced to shut down, even partially, due to a default on the national debt. Yet …
(2023-05-17). Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF. libya360.wordpress.com Ann Garrison In 1987, at the Organization for African Unity, Thomas Sankara said, "Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa." Ethiopia might actually be better off if the US keeps the IMF from signing off on its latest loan request. The US is holding up Ethiopia's request for a $2 billion loan from the International…
(2023-05-17). America Is On Pace To Default On Debt Obligations As Soon As June 1. moguldom.com The U.S. could run out of money to fulfill its debt obligations as soon as June 1 if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit, and waiting until the last minute could hurt Americans, the Treasury Department warned Congress. President Joe Biden spent months refusing to negotiate with Republican lawmakers, citing a bipartisan …
(2023-05-17). Kenya's 'anti-people' Finance Bill met with widespread opposition as cost of living soars. peoplesdispatch.org Amid rising debt payments the Kenyan government has proposed new tax and levy regimes in the Finance Bill 2023. Unions and left forces, especially the Communist Party of Kenya, have argued that the measures will further burden workers while they are already struggling under an economic crisis…
(2023-05-17). Smart Ass Cripple: The Medicaid Work Requirement Horrors in the Debt Ceiling Deal. progressive.org Republicans want to resurrect a Trump-era Medicaid measure that cut coverage for thousands of people.
(2023-05-17). Republicans use sham 'debt crisis' to force cuts, set Biden up for blame. peoplesworld.org 
The Republican House Majority has manufactured a "debt crisis" to force President Joe Biden and the Democratic Senate Majority to agree to draconian cuts to the federal budget. Negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling remained at an impasse following May 16 talks between Biden and Congressional leaders. The federal government could default on June …
(2023-05-17). White House debt limit talks: A manufactured, bipartisan conspiracy to make workers pay for war. wsws.org The Biden administration and both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are united in their determination to use the manufactured debt ceiling crisis to implement brutal attacks on social programs.
(2023-05-18). From Waterboarding to Rape, Abu Zubaydah Depicts Torture at Black Sites & Gitmo in Graphic Sketches. democracynow.org 
The Center for Policy and Research has just published a new report titled "American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantánamo," which compiles a series of 40 drawings by Guantánamo Bay prisoner Abu Zubaydah that chronicle the horrific torture he endured since 2002 in CIA dark sites and at Guantánamo Bay, where he has been detained without charge since 2006. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a new call for the United States to release him immediately. We speak with one of his attorneys, Mark Denbeaux, and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the…
(2023-05-18). Goodbye to the American Century. tomdispatch.com Not so long ago, political analysts were speaking of the "G-2" — that is, of a potential working alliance between the United States and China aimed at managing global problems for their mutual benefit. Such a collaborative twosome was seen as potentially even more powerful than the G-7 group of leading Western economies. As former Undersecretary of the Treasury C. Fred Bergsten, who originally imagined such a partnership, wrote in 2008, "The basic idea would be to develop a G-2 between the United States and China to steer the global governance process." That notion would become the basis for the Obama admin…
(2023-05-18). China Is Governed in the Interests of Working People, the US in the Interests of Capital (Interview). orinocotribune.com In this interview with The very concept of shared future and cooperation has a profound impact. It's not threatening to other countries, and it has the win-win idea, meaning if your e…
(2023-05-18). Russia and Cuba complete work on 10 investment projects. plenglish.com Havana, May 18 (Prensa Latina) Russia and Cuba are working on 10 investment projects and seek to deepen mutually advantageous cooperation in the scientific-technical sphere, Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said today.
(2023-05-17). Republicans use sham 'debt crisis' to force cuts, set Biden up for blame. peoplesworld.org The Republican House Majority has manufactured a "debt crisis" to force President Joe Biden and the Democratic Senate Majority to agree to draconian cuts to the federal budget. Negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling remained at an impasse following May 16 talks between Biden and Congressional leaders. The federal government could default on June …
(2023-05-17). White House debt limit talks: A manufactured, bipartisan conspiracy to make workers pay for war. wsws.org The Biden administration and both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are united in their determination to use the manufactured debt ceiling crisis to implement brutal attacks on social programs.
(2023-05-18). From Waterboarding to Rape, Abu Zubaydah Depicts Torture at Black Sites & Gitmo in Graphic Sketches. democracynow.org The Center for Policy and Research has just published a new report titled "American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantánamo," which compiles a series of 40 drawings by Guantánamo Bay prisoner Abu Zubaydah that chronicle the horrific torture he endured since 2002 in CIA dark sites and at Guantánamo Bay, where he has been detained without charge since 2006. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a new call for the United States to release him immediately. We speak with one of his attorneys, Mark Denbeaux, and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the…
(2023-05-18). Goodbye to the American Century. tomdispatch.com Not so long ago, political analysts were speaking of the "G-2" — that is, of a potential working alliance between the United States and China aimed at managing global problems for their mutual benefit. Such a collaborative twosome was seen as potentially even more powerful than the G-7 group of leading Western economies. As former Undersecretary of the Treasury C. Fred Bergsten, who originally imagined such a partnership, wrote in 2008, "The basic idea would be to develop a G-2 between the United States and China to steer the global governance process." That notion would become the basis for the Obama admin…
(2023-05-18). China Is Governed in the Interests of Working People, the US in the Interests of Capital (Interview). orinocotribune.com In this interview with The very concept of shared future and cooperation has a profound impact. It's not threatening to other countries, and it has the win-win idea, meaning if your e…
(2023-05-18). Russia and Cuba complete work on 10 investment projects. plenglish.com Havana, May 18 (Prensa Latina) Russia and Cuba are working on 10 investment projects and seek to deepen mutually advantageous cooperation in the scientific-technical sphere, Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said today.
(2023-05-18). Sri Lankan ruling party demonises last year's mass uprising. wsws.org The Wickremesinghe government's denigration of last year's mass movement that forced out President Gotabhaya Rajapakse is in preparation for state repression against the working class and rural masses.
(2023-05-18). TWU keeps New York City transit workers on the job as contract expires. wsws.org While the union and transit agency attempt to drag out negotiations, anger over intolerable working conditions continues to build.
(2023-05-18). The Two Decades That Created Our World's First Mass Middle Class. inequality.org
(2023-05-18). A Tale of Two Retirements: CEOs Versus the Rest of Us. inequality.org
(2023-05-18). Ukraine: How Western Nations Pushed for Privatization of Agriculture and the Devastating Consequences. libya360.wordpress.com Peter Korotaev A farmer on his farmland in Western Ukraine. Image credit: CGTN. Part I: Ukraine's Privatized Agriculture: A Hungry Guarantor of Global Food Security Former Canadian ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk said Ukraine is a country where the IMF does 'economic experiments'. Ukraine is a laboratory for testing radical neo-liberal policies, irrespective of the…