December 10, 2021

Hey comrades, we know the alleged flood of charitable donations at the end of each year doesn’t necessarily emanate from the modestly compensated workers who make up the most of our MDC DSA ranks. And if you do have a few spare bucks, we hope first of all you will donate to our local chapter, or buy MDC DSA swag for those on your holiday gift list.

But you have probably noticed that many of our Good Reads are published by nonprofits that are perennially struggling to stay afloat. So we info types in the Pubs WG want to remind you that Common Dreams, TruthOut, Independent Media Institute as well as Portside, which aggregates many such efforts, all help to keep us unbefuddled by the MSM and deserve our support. Looking for a favorite source? Browse Portside offerings.

New Study Finds The US Military Is Spreading Disease Around The World — Dr. Margaret Flowers in the Popular Resistance newsletter analyzes a new study out of York University in Toronto, showing the US military plays a large role in the spread of diseases globally, including past and present pandemics. Important factors in the spread of disease are Status Agreements that the US military makes with local and national governments that exempt members of the military from being required to follow public health measures, as well as a culture of impunity within the military.

A tandem primer on the new German governing coalition — The American Prospect’s Bob Kuttner on how Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden share coalition-navigation problems; and a sharply-conceived NYT inquiry into how Scholz hopes to reconstitute his SPD in a way that brings back its wandering working-class base.

Rage-induced policing in DC: hacked documents reveal that the DC Police Department attempted to suppress robberies in 2012 and 2013 by targeting and surveilling residents of black neighborhoods. In worker-run outlet The Appeal.

This week, Kellogg’s announced its intention to replace the 1,400 workers currently on strike after the striking workers rejected management’s contract offer. In Rolling Stone, a recap of why strikers are refusing to concede to the cereal giant: “The workers? They’ve time-traveled to William Blake’s dark-satanic-mills era of factory work, where a purposely understaffed labor force­ endures, according to union workers, 72- to 84-hour work weeks — not a typo — that includes mandated overtime and a point system that dings you if you dare beg off to go watch your son’s Little League game.”  

Financial industry watchdogs are asking federal officials to attempt to stop the cryptocurrency pilot program launched by Facebook, noting that the US government has the power to criminally prosecute executives for operating the venture. Our local comrade Sam Knight has the story in TruthOut.

An on-the-ground report on the election victory of Xiomara Castro, the first woman to become president of Honduras, courtesy of the Progressive International Observatory. “Nearly 70% of the country turned out to vote … delivering a crushing defeat for the ruling National Party — and, by extension, the militarization of Honduran society that the United States government had financed.” More on Castro’s victory and the road ahead in The Nation: “Honduras Elects a Socialist—but Will She be Allowed to Govern?” 

What “cancel culture” really looks like: a capable woman at the top of her field is slandered as a communist. In Financial Times, Biden’s strong pick to lead a big US bank regulator steps down following nativist smears and red-baiting from GOP creeps.