statism

U.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force

"Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B. Without much publicity, the State Department has built a bespoke air force since the mid-1980s, one that’s stacked with helicopters and heavily reliant on contractors. From its headquarters at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base, the State Department directs 51,000 annual hours worth of air operations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force

Not So Merry Christmas Drug Busts

"Local news reports 16 arrests for marijuana possession in nearby Jamestown. The Department of Homeland Security participated in these arrests. This is so bad, so bad. Every week this happens. Think of the huge amounts of taxes being wasted on hunting these people down, arresting them, holding them in detention centers and jails, putting them through the judicial system, and putting some in prison. It's incredible that this goes on. And for what? Now get this. In this state, New York State, a poll shows that 71 percent of voters favor medical marijuana." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNot So Merry Christmas Drug Busts

Keep Families Together: An Anarchist Christmas Message

"Mass incarceration and mass deportation are not separate policies that both happen to destroy families. Rather, they are two different facets of the prison industrial complex. The same corporations that operate prisons for profit also profit by running immigration detention centers. These companies back politicians that support authoritarian laws on both immigration and criminal justice issues. When people of color have their families violently broken apart by the state, the prison industrial complex profits. This Christmas, I urge you to organize against the prison industrial complex and the state apparatus that have broken so many families apart." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKeep Families Together: An Anarchist Christmas Message

Deportations of illegal immigrants in 2012 reach new US record

"The United States deported more than 400,000 illegal immigrants in 2012, the most of any year in the nation’s history, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports. In four years, the Obama administration has deported three-quarters of the number of people that President George W. Bush’s administration did in eight. And unlike Mr. Bush, Obama made no concerted effort to reform the US immigration system – a history that’s not lost on the president’s Latino supporters. Representative Gutierrez said some 90,000 undocumented parents of American-born children continue to be deported each year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDeportations of illegal immigrants in 2012 reach new US record

Michigan immigrants sue for access to driver’s licenses

"The ACLU filed a lawsuit on Wednesday demanding the state of Michigan grant access to driver’s licenses for young undocumented immigrants enrolled in the new federal deferred-deportation program. One of the students, Resilda Karafili, told The Raw Story getting a license will be critical for her as she seeks a job upon finishing her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan. 'It’s not reasonable to think that people can get a job without being able to drive,' said Karafili, who emigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was 10 years old. 'It looks unprofessional from the start. Employers don’t want to hire people who don’t have reliable transportation.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichigan immigrants sue for access to driver’s licenses

8-child family defies China’s one-child policy

"China’s one-child rule has numerous critics, but perhaps none have so emphatically defied the policy as a couple who have accumulated four boys and four girls — some born to two surrogate mothers. Authorities are calculating how high a fine to impose on the family, described as 'rich merchants' in the southern province of Guangdong, estimating that it could reach 10 times their annual income. While the triplets born to the mother via artificial insemination were deemed legal, they were delivered in Hong Kong — a popular option for wealthy Chinese who want to secure residency there for their children and evade the mainland China quota." Continue reading →

Continue Reading8-child family defies China’s one-child policy

Housing Up, Home Ownership Down: The Mysterious New Housing Bubble

"If the number of people who actually bought a home and moved in dropped by 175,000, then what we’re seeing is industrial-scale investment by Wall Street speculators who are getting lavish financing perks from the banks to buy distressed properties that, if they had been sold on the MLS or via bank auctions, would have driven prices down even further pushing bank balance sheets deeper into the red. In other words, the Obama administration, the banks, the Fed and the behemoth private equity firms are all in bed together to reward the people who blew up the financial system with another backdoor bailout." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHousing Up, Home Ownership Down: The Mysterious New Housing Bubble

California School District Owes $1 Billion On $100 Million Loan

"In 2010, officials at the West Contra Costa School District, just east of San Francisco, were in a bind. The district needed $2.5 million to help secure a federally subsidized $25 million loan to build a badly needed elementary school. Charles Ramsey, president of the school board, says he needed that $2.5 million upfront, but the district didn't have it. 'Why would you leave $25 million on the table? You would never leave $25 million on the table.' In the West Contra Costa Schools' case, that $2.5 million bond will cost the district a whopping $34 million to repay." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCalifornia School District Owes $1 Billion On $100 Million Loan

Chained CPI: Diet COLA for Social Security

"Before we discuss the nuances of the different measures of the CPI, it is important to keep in mind that millions of Americans rely on Social Security benefits for income protection. In fact, 65% of all beneficiaries rely on Social Security to provide 50% or more of their incomes, while 36% rely on benefits for 90% or more of their incomes. For non-married beneficiaries, including widows, the reliance is higher with 74% relying on benefits for 50% or more of their incomes and 46% relying for 90% or more of their incomes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChained CPI: Diet COLA for Social Security

Georgia rebuilds Stalin monuments

"A Joseph Stalin statue went back up in the Georgian village of Alvani on Friday in a sign of the slipping authority of President Mikheil Saakashvili, who had ordered its removal. The pro-Western president is serving out what some are calling a lame-duck term ahead of elections next year from which he is barred on account of the end of his 10-year constitutional mandate. Saakashvili, whose forces fought a five-day war with Russia in 2008 and who has always sought to ally Georgia with the United States, had spearheaded a furious de-Stalinisation campaign." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGeorgia rebuilds Stalin monuments