Tag: Poverty

Crosspost: The Unpretty Souls

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Credit: Darkmoon_Art on Pixabay

Unpretty people, heartless and cold,
Their greed for profit, a story oft told.
No sympathy flows for the downtrodden’s plight,
Their eyes see only gold, no wrong or right.

Dollar signs gleam where their hearts should be,
Their profit motive blinds morality.
They’ve sold their souls for a sixpence’s gain,
A bargain with darkness, a life of disdain.

Once in the temple, tables were turned,
By He who saw greed and with anger burned.
“A den of robbers!” His voice did declare,
For prayer and peace, no room was there.

“A camel through a needle’s eye,” He said,
“Is simpler than riches leading souls to dread.
For wealth may chain what the spirit should free,
And bar the way to eternity.”

If there’s a God, justice will reign,
And the money changers will meet their pain.
Yet fear remains, will justice be served?
Or will greed’s legacy go undisturbed?

Unpretty souls, with hearts of stone,
May they find grace before the throne.
For wealth is fleeting, but love endures,
And only kindness truly cures.

by Tina Antonis

How to DOGE USAID: The Wall Street Consensus under Trump

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How to DOGE USAID: The Wall Street Consensus under Trump

We often hear that the new Trump administration inaugurates the age of technofeudalism. Just look at Elon Musk, pontificating about so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) democracy from the Oval Office while undemocratically occupying the US Treasury payment system. But is the administration simply using bullying as a mode of power, as Adam Tooze recently diagnosed it, destroying institutions without measure or plan?

Read More »

Elon Musk’s Cruel Cuts Expose What MAGA Really Thinks of Veterans

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Elon Musk’s Cruel Cuts Expose What MAGA Really Thinks of Veterans

Key takeaways:

  • 60 percent of the 16 million Americans who have served in the military supported Donald Trump, and 55 percent believed his policies would benefit veterans, but many veterans have been fired due to massive cuts by Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
  • Nearly 6,000 veterans have already lost their jobs due to the cuts, and an estimated 100,000 veterans could be out of work when all is said and done, with around 36,000 disabled veterans facing unemployment and difficulty in finding private-sector jobs.
  • The federal government plays a critical role for veterans, providing professional opportunities and support for those transitioning from military to civilian life, but the mass firing of federal workers, including many veterans, will have devastating effects on communities and individuals across the country.

Donald Trump’s Next Diversity Target: People With Disabilities

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

President Trump’s suggestion last month that the tragic Potomac air crash was somehow the fault of disabled federal air traffic controllers was appalling—but it should have come as no surprise. Trump’s contempt for people with disabilities has been well documented, and it’s that animus, combined with the accelerating MAGA assault on diversity throughout the United States, that has disability rights advocates preparing to defend decades worth of hard-won protections.

One month into his presidency, Trump has unleashed a government-wide attack on people with disabilities, from anti-diversity executive orders to proposed special-education rollbacks to threats to slash programs like Medicaid that are lifelines for disabled people across the country. If successful, these actions could have catastrophic consequences for millions of Americans, according to disability rights experts.

Donald Trump’s Next Diversity Target: People With Disabilities

Related:

In the video below, Rep. Jahana Hayes mentions how Trump’s DEIA order is already affecting special education.

If Trump Dismantles the Dept. of Education, Who Will Pay the Biggest Price?

DEI (A?) – The Effect of Donald Trump’s DEI Executive Order on Accessibility

On President Trump’s first day in office, he immediately issued a new Executive Order declaring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) efforts “illegal.” With this new order in effect, previous mandates that implemented DEI efforts both in the federal government and among federal contractors were revoked.

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While the primary focus is on race- and sex-based affirmative action, the Order lumps together “DEI” and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (“DEIA”) efforts. So, disability inclusion efforts may now be under scrutiny as well.

Trump Admin Is Misleading Public About Venezuelans at Guantánamo, Attorneys Say

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

After Kristi Noem, the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), traveled to Guantánamo Bay earlier this week, she told CNN the Venezuelan migrants being transferred to the notorious U.S. naval base and military prison are “the worst of the worst that we’ve pulled off our streets.”

Immigration attorneys say the facts on the ground do not support Noem’s official narrative about what’s going on at Guantánamo Bay, where President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a tent city in order to detain up to 30,000 migrants, regardless of the site’s capacity, including asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty. For civil rights groups, the transfer is only the latest in a series of legally dubious efforts by the federal government to dodge constitutional requirements by incarcerating people at the notorious offshore facility.

Trump Admin Is Misleading Public About Venezuelans at Guantánamo, Attorneys Say

Nothing about the previous attempts by the US government to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Truthout’s funding:

Support for Truthout comes from assorted left-leaning foundations and individual contributors. Major foundation donors include the Schumann Media Center, the Lannan Foundation, and the Cloud Mountain Foundation. Other donors include former militant extremist and academic William Ayers. Another donor is the Park Foundation, an environmentalist grantmaking group focused on opposing fracking, or drilling for natural gas. 

Previously:

Venezuelan president blames opponent for post-election violence + More

As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas

How the U.S. Drove Venezuelans North

When they request asylum in the United States, migrants have to say something against their government. But everyone in the Venezuelan community knows that it’s a lie. Venezuelan comedians in Florida, like George Harris, joke about the Venezuelans lying to the migration people just in order to receive asylum.

Tag: 2024 Venezuelan Presidential election

María Corina Machado is the female Javier Milei (aka US Puppet)

Leopoldo López (Venezuela)

A Socialist, Feminist, and Transgender Analysis of “Sex Work” (2020)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The question of women’s liberation is central to any revolutionary project, and thus so is the question of “sex work.” Esperanza Fonseca’s contribution, although coming from a Maoist political orientation with which we often have differences, [1] makes the stakes of this debate crystal clear, as she combines personal experience, public policy research, and historical materialism to argue that Marxists cannot uphold what she calls “sex-trade-expansionary feminism.”

Content Warning: Descriptions of rape.

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The right of the subordinated classes of men to buy access to women’s bodies has been used historically to break class solidarity in order to maintain the dominant social relations of the time. This was true in feudal Europe and remains true today: when proletarian and petit bourgeois men get to buy women too, they develop a false consciousness and build solidarity with bourgeois men of their own gender rather than aligning with women of their own class. And because the overthrow of capitalism is only possible by the overthrowing of the bourgeoisie, prostitution serves two great purposes: (1) allows bourgeois men access to a reserve army of women for their pleasure, and (2) prevent class consciousness and thus helps stop the proletariat from organizing as a class.

A Socialist, Feminist, and Transgender Analysis of “Sex Work” (2020)