How Aristocracies Work: The American Class Divide: Matthew Stewart

Republicans rigged our democracy. Here's how Democrats can fight back Donald Trump wasn’t elected because Democrats lost a policy fight in 2016. What Democrats did was lose a procedural fight that has been going on since the early 1990s, when Republicans began waging a relentless, brutal, and completely one-sided war, systematically using their lawmaking power to disadvantage their adversaries in elections and political mobilization. Gerrymandering, the Citizens United atrocity that declared money is speech, blocking US supreme court nominations and obstructing legislation are some of the Republican party’s tactics.

THE THOMAS NOMINATION: The Senate and Sexism; Panel's Handling of Harassment Allegation Renews Questions About an All-Male Club "They are men, they can't possibly know what it's like to receive verbal harassment, harassment that is fleeting to the man and lasting and demeaning to the woman," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. "These allegations may not be true. But women in America have to speak up for themselves and say we want to remove all doubt that the person who goes to the Supreme Court has unquestioned respect for women. "What's the rush? We need a little more time to follow up on allegations so that we can send a signal to women in America that we take sexual harassment seriously."

The policing of black Americans is racial harassment funded by the state The rap group Public Enemy famously stated that “911 is a joke”. But that was in 1990. These days 911 is dead serious. The trouble with charitable billionaires In February 2017, Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in the headlines for his charitable activities. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by the tech billionaire and his wife, Priscilla Chan, handed out over $3m in grants to aid the housing crisis in the Silicon Valley area. David Plouffe, the Initiative’s president of policy and advocacy, stated that the grants were intended to “support those working to help families in immediate crisis while supporting research into new ideas to find a long-term solution – a two-step strategy that will guide much of our policy and advocacy work moving forward”. This is but one small part of Zuckerberg’s charity empire. The Initiative has committed billions of dollars to philanthropic projects designed to address social problems, with a special focus on solutions driven by science, medical research and education.

60 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump 1. Revoked Obama-era flood standards for federal infrastructure projects This Obama-era rule, revoked by Mr. Some States Spend Billions on Economic Tax Incentives for Little or No Return By one estimate, state and local governments spend at least $45 billion a year on tax breaks and other incentives to lure or keep job-producing businesses and plants in their jurisdictions. New York, for example, plows billions of dollars into the Empire State Development Corp. and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature Start-Up NY program. For more than three decades, Florida has offered an array of tax incentives to businesses that locate, invest, and hire in the state’s distressed areas through an initiative called the Enterprise Zone Program. Related: The Growing Funding Gap for State Pensions Puts Millions at Risk

Fire Bombing of Tokyo The bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted as part of the air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber entered service, first deployed from China and thereafter the Mariana Islands. B-29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944 and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day Japan capitulated.[1] The Operation Meetinghouse air raid of 9–10 March 1945 was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in history.[2] Doolittle Raid Edit

'They Choose a Name For Themselves' - Surnames in Slavery and Freedom In Western culture, our surnames are traditionally handed down along a patrimonial line. If Your father was a Smith, you are a Smith – if you are male, then your children will also be Smiths. While this was how it worked for most of European society, it was not allowed to cross over to the slaves held by that society. And yet, former slaves such as Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman all had surnames. In fact, nearly every slave freed, whether by pre-war emancipation or the Fourteenth Amendment, had one. But if slaves were not given surnames by their masters, how did this come about?

Trump will personally save up to $15m under tax bill, analysis finds Donald Trump and six members of his inner circle will be big winners of the Republicans’ vast tax overhaul, with the president personally benefiting from a tax cut of up to $15m a year, research shows. The US president chalked up his first big legislative win on Wednesday with the $1.5tn bill, the most sweeping revamp of the tax code in three decades, slashing taxes for corporations and the wealthy and dealing the heaviest blow yet to Obamacare. But analysis by a leading Washington thinktank, the Center for American Progress (CAP), finds that changes to business rules will save Trump roughly $11m to $15m per year, while an amendment to the estate tax – the tax on the transfer of an estate of a deceased person – would potentially save his heirs $4.5m. Under current law, the first $11.2m of a couple’s estate’s value is excluded from taxation, and any amount above this is taxed at a 40% rate. The new bill doubles the exemption to $22.4m. … we have a small favour to ask.

The shutdown has exposed Trumponomics for what it is: a disaster One of the least talked-about consequences of the partial shutdown of the US government – courtesy of Donald “I’m proud to shut down the government” Trump – is its negative effect on the US economy. Federal spending accounts for just over 20% of the total economy. When that spigot is turned halfway off, as it is now, demand for goods and services necessarily drops. The result is less investment and slower growth. Right now some 800,000 government employees aren’t collecting paychecks. New Mexico does not give EBT cards to immigrants in U.S. illegally as they wait to see a judge A man driving efforts to privately fund and build a wall at the southern border claims that New Mexico is giving public benefits to immigrants in the country illegally. Brian Kolfage, president and founder of Build the Wall, Inc., called out New Mexico in a series of tweets this month. "Did u know the state of New Mexico gives all illegals emergency welfare, no process like Americans go through. Handed an EBT Loaded with $1000, + $200 per child paid every month until their court date 5-6 years later. The Governor @GovMLG has a crisis and it’s costing Americans," Kolfage tweeted June 9. "🚨 ALERT 🚨 New Mexico and maybe other states illegals are issued emergency welfare EBT cards with $1k a month +$200 for each child, for at least 5+ years until they see a judge.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Was More Radical Than You Think - by Ben Passmore On the 50th anniversary of his death, it’s time to remember who he really was by Ben Passmore Posted April 4th, 2018 US history explains that white fear of black people is just another tool to enforce racial segregation University students often keep late hours—so it’s unsurprising to see them asleep amidst books and papers in libraries and common rooms. And yet, when a white Yale student saw Lolade Siyonbola, a black graduate student, had drifted off while writing a paper in their dorm’s common room, she assumed something was wrong—and called the police. The incident, which took place in the early morning hours of May 8, is one of several recent encounters to shine a spotlight on the daily realities of being black in a shared space. In Oakland, California, a white person called the police on black people barbecuing. In Rialto, California, a white neighbor called the police on a group of black women checking out of their Airbnb rental because they hadn’t waved at her. In Memphis, Tennessee, a white woman called the police on a black real-estate investor.

The US is stingier with child care and maternity leave than the rest of the world In most American families led by couples, both parents are in the workforce. At the same time, nearly 1 in 4 U.S. children are being raised by single moms. Yet child care is generally unaffordable and paid leave is not available to most U.S. parents. Around the world, however, most employed women automatically get paid maternity leave. And in most wealthy countries, they also have access to affordable child care. These holes in the national safety net are a problem for many reasons, including one I’ve been researching with my colleagues for years: Paid parental leave and child care help women stay in the workforce and earn higher wages over time.