Capitalist condemns young workers turning to communism
NY Times, 11/12–...In the wake of the financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party and Thomas Piketty, it seemed the country was preoccupied with the matter of the haves and the have-nots…The simplest conventional measure of inequality, called the Gini index, is higher today than at any point in modern American history except for a peak in 2018-19 …As the great American anti-egalitarian Peter Thiel put it last week, reflecting on the election results, “If you proletarianize the young people, you shouldn’t be surprised if they eventually become communist.”
Border Patrol expands surveillance of U.S. driver
AP, 11/20–The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious…The Border Patrol’s predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement…Once limited to policing the nation’s boundaries, the Border Patrol’s surveillance system stretches into the country’s interior and monitors ordinary Americans’ daily actions…
ICE detainees turning up dead
Newsweek, 11/18–A Chinese immigrant was found dead in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, with his hands and feet tied behind him, an attorney has alleged. Chaofeng Ge died four days after entering ICE custody in Pennsylvania …he was found by agents with “a cloth ligature around his neck”...As detention numbers have spiked within ICE facilities under the Trump administration, deaths have also begun to rise. At least 15 immigrants died within ICE facilities, or while under their care, under this administration, compared to 12 for the entire fiscal year 2024…
Hungary and U.S. ok Nazis and chase antifascists
The Intercept, 11/15–Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government launched a continentwide manhunt when a group of European antifascists attacked a neo-Nazi rally three years ago. Orbán, though, showed no such appetite for cracking down on the annual fascist rally, which this February drew attendees sporting SS patches, swastikas, and the “Totenkopf” death’s head symbol — all under the watchful eye of Hungarian police. The aggressive response to antifascist activists, compared to the kid-gloves treatment of neo-Nazi demonstrators, has roiled European politics for years…Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the fray, inserting the U.S. into the debate by declaring the antifascist group that attacked the 2023 rally a terrorist organization.
Liberals and Trump united on desiring war
Foreign Affairs, 11/20–...CBS’s 60 Minutes asked U.S. President Donald Trump about his policy on Venezuela and his thoughts about that country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. “Are Maduro’s days as president numbered?”...“I would say yeah,” Trump replied. “I think so, yeah”...The use of American military force to overthrow Maduro would not be without risk. It could fail to end the Maduro regime and could incite demonstrations against the United States. But regime change would not require any ground deployments of U.S. forces except, at most, Special Forces raids against regime figures who have already been indicted for narcoterrorism by U.S. law enforcement. The potential gain for the United States from the collapse of the Maduro regime far outweighs the risk…
Despite German workers’ disgust, bosses restart weapons shipments to Israel
Al Jazeera, 11/24– Amnesty International has decried the German government’s decision to lift a partial arms embargo on Israel, calling the move “reckless” and “unlawful”. Germany responded to mounting domestic pressure in August to ban nearly all arms sales to Israel. That came as Israeli forces moved ahead with a controversial ground operation in Gaza City…Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International…said “now is absolutely not the time to ease this pressure”. “Germany’s decision to lift its partial suspension of weapons shipments to Israel is reckless, unlawful and sends entirely the wrong message to Israel: that it can continue committing genocide, war crimes, and apartheid against Palestinians…”
