The endorsement of Congresswoman Shontel Brown against Turner in their upcoming May 3 rematch came just five months after Brown took office following last year's special election in a Cleveland area district. In last August's Democratic primary, Brown defeated Turner with the help of funding from big corporate, Republican and hawkishly pro-Israel donors—as well as support from Republicans who voted for Brown in Ohio's open primary. (Brown's two most notable national endorsers were Hillary Clinton and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
Brown is such an establishment politician that she didn't just join the Progressive Caucus—she also quickly joined the rival New Democrat Coalition, an alliance of the most corporate Democrats in the House. By siding with Brown against Turner, the Progressive Caucus appears to be operating like much of official Washington does—as an incumbent protection racket."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/04/27/what-cpcs-failure-endorse-nina-turner-tells-us
-->What a shame that establishment (read corporate funded) Democrats will end up destroying any hope of defeating the Republicans this fall. Oh, but didn't those Democrats pony up for tens of billions for Ukraine? Nothing for working people, everything for the ridiculously rich weapons makers. That's what the Democrats are offering?
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Economic Policy Institute:
"The inflation spike of 2021 and 2022 has presented real policy challenges. In order to better understand this policy debate, it is imperative to look at prices and how they are being affected.
The price of just about everything in the U.S. economy can be broken down into the three main components of cost. These include labor costs, nonlabor inputs, and the “mark-up” of profits over the first two components. Good data on these separate cost components exist for the nonfinancial corporate (NFC) sector—those companies that produce goods and services—of the economy, which makes up roughly 75% of the entire private sector.
Since the trough of the COVID-19 recession in the second quarter of 2020, overall prices in the NFC sector have risen at an annualized rate of 6.1%—a pronounced acceleration over the 1.8% price growth that characterized the pre-pandemic business cycle of 2007–2019. Strikingly, over half of this increase (53.9%) can be attributed to fatter profit margins, with labor costs contributing less than 8% of this increase. This is not normal. From 1979 to 2019, profits only contributed about 11% to price growth and labor costs over 60%
-->An interesting study showing that corporate profits are driving the inflation. But the story didn't get picked up by that most corporate of all newspapers, the NYT.
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Global Times:
"In the run-up to the current conflict in Ukraine, the US and its allies insisted on the 'principle' that sovereign countries had the right to freely join any military alliances they chose, and their neighbors would not have veto power over that. As it very quickly turned out, that was not a principle at all, just something they made up to suit the circumstances at the moment. This was just demonstrated beyond all doubt by the US and its allies - Australia in this instance - in the case of the Solomon Islands.
Whereas Ukraine is literally right on the border with Russia, the Solomons are an island chain some 1,800 kilometers northeast of Australia. Yet the reaction from Canberra and Washington to the government in Honiara contemplating a security pact with China was far more hysterical than anything coming out of the Kremlin regarding Kiev - up until February 24, anyway.
According to documents leaked by the Australian intelligence, Beijing would be able to send police and even troops to the island nation 'to assist in maintaining social order,' while Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy warships could dock in the local ports - something Canberra fears would lead to China building a permanent military base there."
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1260572.shtml
-->Readers will have to go to a Chinese publication to expose the gross hypocrisy of the US and Australia when it comes to the Solomon Islands. The US has 800 military bases all over the world. China can't have one in the tiny Solomon Islands? The US is even hinting at military action against the Solomons. Isn't that just like Russia invading Ukraine? One has to stop thinking to be a patriot of the American Empire!
