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This evening's music features New Orleans clarinetist Johnny Dodds. Enjoy!

"Better to starve fighting than to starve working."

-- slogan of the "Bread and Roses" strike of 1912

News and Opinion

US workers go on strike in 15 cities to demand $15-an-hour minimum wage

Workers at fast-food restaurant chains in 15 cities around the US went on strike on Tuesday demanding a raise in their minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The workers at McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s, joined by home care and nursing home workers, took action as the Biden administration is attempting to push through an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25, in what would be the first increase in since 2009.

Strikes occurred in Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; Flint and Detroit, Michigan; Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina; Houston; Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida; St. Louis; Oakland, Sacramento, and San Jose, California; and Milwaukee. ...

Based on a recent analysis by the Brookings Institution, 47% of essential workers are in occupations where the median wage is currently less than $15 an hour. Gradually raising it to $15 an hour would increase pay for 32 million workers in the US, including 59% of workers with a total family income below the poverty line. With the federal minimum wage increase, 31% of Black workers and 26% of Latino workers in the US would receive a raise.

"Work Won't Love You Back": Sarah Jaffe on Toxic U.S. Work Culture & the Fight Against Inequality

'Sounds Like a Passing Grade': CBO Says $15 Wage Would Have Bigger Budget Impact Than GOP Tax Cut Provisions

The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would have a significantly broader budgetary impact than two provisions of the 2017 Republican tax cut legislation that passed through reconciliation, a finding that provides another boost to Sen. Bernie Sanders' effort to include the pay increase in the Senate coronavirus relief package.

In response to a request by Sanders—the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee—for a comparison of the budgetary effect of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 with that of the GOP tax bill's zeroing out of Obamacare's individual mandate penalty and the measure's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) drilling provision, the CBO found that the $15 minimum wage legislation would have a more sweeping impact.

"The analysis of the Raise the Wage Act encompasses a much broader range of behavioral effects than that of the 2017 tax act, and the increased minimum wage would in turn affect a broader range of budget functions than CBO estimated that the change in the mandate penalty would," the budget office noted in a letter (pdf) to Sanders. "Increasing the minimum wage would affect more budget functions than CBO estimated that the ANWR provisions would."

Under the Senate's so-called Byrd Rule, each provision of a reconciliation bill must have a direct—not "merely incidental"—impact on the federal spending and revenue. The CBO's latest analysis—which comes a week after the budget office found the wage hike would add $54 billion to the deficit over ten years—was viewed as additional confirmation that the wage increase should qualify under reconciliation.

"Sounds like a passing grade to me, folks," said Elizabeth Pancotti, policy director at Employ America, in response to the CBO analysis.

Warren Gunnels, Sanders' staff director, also welcomed the CBO's new findings in a tweet late Monday.

"Raising the minimum wage to $15 would have a much bigger impact on the federal budget than oil drilling in the Arctic and the repeal of individual mandate penalties," Gunnels noted. "Both of those provisions were deemed permissible under reconciliation. Let's go."

'I'm Speaking to You, Senator Manchin': West Virginians Blast Democrat for Opposing $15 Minimum Wage

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is under sustained fire—including from low-paid workers in his own state—for his resistance to a provision in the Senate's coronavirus rescue package that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"I'm speaking to you, Senator Manchin," Jean Evansmore of the West Virginia Poor People's Campaign said at an online event Monday. "You know that in West Virginia the minimum wage needs to be $23 in order for people to live, not wonder where their next meal is coming from."

"Enough's enough," added Pam Garrison, also with the West Virginia Poor People's Campaign. "When will you give us a living wage?"

Evansmore and Garrison's comments came during an online Moral Monday event organized by the campaign. The event highlighted voices of those impacted by low wages and the campaign's suite of policy priorities for the White House and new Congress, including lifting the minimum wage to $15—a change they group frames as a way to "lift from the bottom and take seriously the costs of inequality."

Manchin and fellow Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have publicly announced their opposition to the popular wage hike proposal.

The bill in question, the House-passed Raise the Wage Act, would incrementally raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour by 2025.

West Virginia's minimum wage is currently $8.75 an hour, and while that's higher than the federal wage floor, it's far below the $24 an hour the wage would be now if it kept pace with productivity growth, and well below the $28.70 an hour rate MIT estimates to be a "living wage" for an adult with one child working full time.

Amid the progressive push for better wages, the Poor People’s Campaign said Monday that Manchin requested a meeting with the campaign—a meeting the anti-poverty group said was agreeable dependent upon the inclusion of "a diverse group of low-wage workers and moral leaders from the West Virginia Poor People's Campaign."

"David vs. Goliath": Warehouse Workers in Alabama Fight Amazon for the Right to Unionize

Is Biden Ignoring Science On School Re-Opening?

Biden vows to make 600m vaccine doses available by end of July

Joe Biden laid out his plans for fighting the next stage of the coronavirus pandemic in a primetime town hall on Tuesday, pledging to make 600m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine available by the end of July, saying teachers should be moved “up the hierarchy” of the vaccine queue, and predicting most elementary schools would reopen by the end of his first 100 days in office. ... The event began with the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who hosted the event, asking when ordinary Americans could expect to receive the vaccine, to which Biden replied: “By the end of July we will have 600m doses, enough to vaccinate every single American.”

“Do you mean they will be available, or that people will have been able to actually get them?” Cooper asked, briefly referencing Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, who had said earlier in the day that it may “take until June, July and August to finally get everyone vaccinated”. Biden said he meant they would “be available” by the end of July.

Asked later by Cooper when life would “get back to normal”, Biden offered a tentative but hopeful assessment. “By next Christmas, we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.” He said a year from now there would be significantly fewer people needing to socially distance and wear masks, but he added that experts advised him not to try to make predictions with certainty: “I don’t want to overpromise.” ...

The town hall came as Biden is working to get a $1.9tn coronavirus aid package through Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the measure next week.

Teacher Unions: We Want to Reopen Schools as Well, But We Need Vaccines & Resources to Do It Safely

Israel blocked Covid vaccines from entering Gaza, say Palestinians

Palestinian officials have accused Israel of preventing a vital first shipment of 2,000 coronavirus vaccines intended for frontline health workers from entering the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority said a planned transfer of Russian Sputnik V vaccine doses to the coastal enclave, which is geographically disconnected from the West Bank where the authority is headquartered, was blocked on Monday at an Israeli checkpoint.

“[T]he occupation authorities prevented their entry,” the authority’s health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said in a statement. “These doses were intended for medical staff working in intensive care rooms designated for Covid-19 patients, and for staff working in emergency departments.”

An Israeli security source told the Guardian the authority had previously made a request to the national security council, a body that belongs to the Israeli prime minister’s office, to send vaccines to Gaza, but that it had not made a decision.

The source said representatives from the authority had turned up at a West Bank crossing south of Ramallah with the vaccines on Monday but were not allowed to pass as the “request is still being processed”.

'Is Our Blood Worth Less?' Afghan Anguish After European Court Sides With Germany Over Airstrike That Killed 90 Civilians

Afghans and human rights advocates around the world expressed deep disappointment Tuesday after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Germany in a case brought by victims of a 2009 NATO airstrike that killed as many as 90 civilians.

The New York Times reports a 17-judge panel of the ECHR ruled unanimously that the German government adequately investigated a September 3, 2009 airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunduz province that targeted two fuel tankers stolen by Taliban fighters. Believing the militants might use the trucks as a mobile bombs, Col. Georg Klein, the German commanding officer of a nearby NATO base, ordered U.S. warplanes to destroy the vehicles.

According to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, prosecutors said Klein made several calls to an informant to ensure there were no civilians present before the strike. However, scores of Afghan civilians including children flocked to the trucks—which were stuck on a sandbank in the Kunduz River—to siphon off fuel at the Taliban's invitation.

A German military investigation later found that as many as 90 civilians died in the massive explosion caused by the strike. The probe concluded that no charges should be brought against Klein. ...

The court also found there was "no violation" of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, that it "had no reason to doubt" Germany's assertion that it thoroughly investigated the airstrike as required under the charter, and that Klein had "not acted with the intent to cause excessive civilian casualties."

The court's findings gave no comfort to plaintiff Abdul Hanan, a farmer whose sons Abdul Bayan and Nesarullah—ages 12 and eight, respectively—were killed in the strike.

"They martyred a hundred people, they bombed us unjustly, so how can they come to this unjust decision?" Hanan told the Times after the ECHR ruling. "Is our blood worth less than the blood of a German?"

"I wanted the court to provide justice, to have mercy on us," Hanan added.

In the aftermath of the mass killing, Germany offered $5,000 payments to families of civilians who died or were seriously injured in the strike. Hanan sought additional damages, as well as an admission by German officials that they failed to protect civilians. The German government argued that it was not legally responsible for the deaths since the airstrike was executed on behalf of the United Nations.

A highly irregular procedure from the sound of it, one wonders whether Aung San Suu Kyi's prosecution will meet the same high standards of injustice that Julian Assange's has.

Aung San Suu Kyi trial in Myanmar begins in secret amid warning of fresh protests

The trial in Myanmar of Aung San Suu Kyi appears to have secretly begun a day early, without the knowledge or presence of her lawyer, shortly after the military regime filed a new charge against the deposed leader. The UN’s special rapporteur Tom Andrews said he understood a “secretive trial” had already started and that a combination of expected mass protests on Wednesday and reports of large troop movements meant the military “could be on the precipice of … committing even greater crimes against the people of Myanmar”.

Judge Nan Aye Mya Thiri said outside court in Naypyitaw that police decided to bring the case against Aung San Suu Kyi and the ousted president Win Myint on Tuesday despite the pair being remanded until Wednesday, Myanmar Now reported. They appeared in court via video link and appeared to be in good health, the judge added.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, who has been barred from seeing either of them since their detention during the coup more than two weeks ago told reporters that he only arrived after an unexpected videoconference the judge said had been held with the ousted leader. He said he had been told the trial could last for six months to a year, according to the New York Times.

Aung San Suu Kyi has already been charged with importing walkie talkies, but now faces a second charge of violating a national disaster law by breaching Covid regulations during last year’s election. Win Myint already faces the same charge.

Angry protests as Spanish riot police arrest rapper at centre of free-speech debate

Riot police entered a university in the north-eastern Spanish city of Lleida on Tuesday to arrest a rapper who had barricaded himself inside the building to avoid serving a prison sentence for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty and the police in his lyrics and on social media.

The arrest of Pablo Rivadulla, known as Pablo Hasél, triggered angry protests and clashes with police in several Spanish cities on Tuesday night, including Lleida, Barcelona, Girona and Valencia. Rubbish bins were set on fire and a young woman in Barcelona was reported to have suffered an eye injury after police shot foam rounds into the crowd. ...

In 2018, Hasél was given a two-year jail sentence and a fine of almost €30,000 (£26,000) after Spain’s highest criminal court ruled that his lyrics and comments went beyond the limits of free speech and were instead expressions of “hatred and attacks on honour”.

The court noted that Hasél had referred to the former Spanish king Juan Carlos as a “drunken tyrant” and a “mafia capo”, praised Eta and other terrorist groups, called the national police “murderers” and accused the Guardia Civil of torturing and murdering migrants.

The sentence was reduced on appeal to nine months, and Hasél was ordered to report to prison at the end of January. But on Monday, the rapper sought refuge in the university, saying he wanted “to make things as difficult as possible for the police” and to highlight “a hugely serious attack” on freedom.

Briahna Joy Gray DISMANTLES Bad Faith Student Debt Arguments

Democrats urge Biden to fire USPS chief Trump ally who decimated mail service

Even in a drama-filled election unlike any other, the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, and his assault on the postal service stood out. After Trump appointed the businessman to run the agency, DeJoy largely failed in his mission to help the former president discourage voters from casting ballots by mail, but evidence suggests his policies and the pandemic have decimated the postal service. Now many, including Democratic lawmakers, are calling on Biden to act swiftly to remove him and the Trump-majority UnitedStates Postal Service board of governors. ...

Representative Tim Ryan, who in January sent a letter to Biden calling on him to “clean house”, stressed that late bill payments, late checks and delayed medication deliveries cause problems for many Americans and underscored the urgency. Though DeJoy has refused to release 2021 on-time delivery data, December numbers made public in lawsuits shows that only about 40% of first class mail was arriving on time – down from about 92% the year before.

Those who spoke with the Guardian agreed that the delays affect Americans’ daily lives more than sub-cabinet appointments at a federal agency like the Department of Commerce. “We’ve got to hit the reset button because there’s no confidence in DeJoy and the board of governors who obviously have lost all control, and that’s inflicting pain on working-class people in places like Ohio,” Ryan said.

Ryan said the Biden administration didn’t respond to his letter, and he suspects that it may fear that immediate action would “create a lot of chaos”.

LAPD Sought Ring Home Security Video Related to Black Lives Matter Protests

Emails obtained from the Los Angeles Police Department show that the department sought protest-related footage from Amazon’s Ring home camera systems in the wake of George Floyd’s killing last year, lending credence to years of warnings that pervasive private surveillance networks will enable questionable police practices.

On July 16, 2020, the footage was sought by a detective assigned to an LAPD task force dedicated to investigating “significant crimes committed during the protests and demonstrations,” according to emails obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation via public records request and shared with The Intercept. It’s unclear if the police request, relayed to customers through Amazon’s Ring subsidiary, was directed to a single camera owner or many; contemporaneous emails released by the department show that Ring’s in-house law enforcement liaisons were helping officers use an interface that would allow them to send bulk video requests to specific neighborhoods or broader geographic areas.

“The LAPD ‘Safe L.A. Task Force’ is asking for your help,” reads the message, from detective Gerry Chamberlain. “During recent protests, individuals were injured & property was looted, damaged, and destroyed. In an effort to identify those responsible, we are asking you to submit copies of any video(s) you may have for [redacted].” The request appears to have made no mention of what exactly the LAPD was pursuing; no crime, proven or alleged, is described in the unredacted portion of the request, only that the police wanted footage of an unspecified “incident” related to a protest. The redacted portion of the request does not appear to contain any substantive further description.

The records obtained by the EFF show that LAPD detectives sent video requests to Ring owners on several other occasions coinciding with large street protests in Los Angeles, but the details of those messages were fully redacted, making it impossible to determine what exactly police were after.

In October, the Los Angeles Times cited LAPD data showing that the “vast majority” of the city’s Black Lives Matter rallies, part of a national wave of outraged mobilization following the police killing of Floyd, were peaceful, with only “between 6% and 7%” of protests resulting in any violence, including violence perpetrated by the LAPD itself. It’s unclear what data, if any, was turned over to the task force as a result of the protest related Ring request, but the EFF says that it believes the message is the first evidence of police using Ring’s increasingly ubiquitous camera network to surveil last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.

Biden Will Shut Down Left Voices w/Chris Hedges

Trump and Giuliani sued by Democratic congressman over Capitol riot

Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, have been accused of conspiring to incite the violent riot at the US Capitol, in a legal action filed under a historic law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The lawsuit was brought on Tuesday by the Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and the eminent civil rights organisation the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). ...

The suit alleges that Trump, Giuliani and the extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers conspired to incite the attack on the Capitol with the goal of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election. It argues that they therefore violated a law often referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed in 1871 in response to Klan violence and intimidation preventing members of Congress in the Reconstruction south from carrying out their constitutional duties. The NAACP, founded in 1909, says the statute was designed to protect against conspiracies. ...

Filed on Tuesday in federal district court in Washington, the suit charts an expansive effort by Trump and Giuliani to undermine the election result despite state officials and courts rejecting their false allegations of fraud. The two men portrayed the election as stolen while Trump “endorsed rather than discouraged” threats of violence from his supporters leading up to the attack on the Capitol, the suit says.

“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence,” it continues. “It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”

Presidents are typically shielded from the courts for actions carried out in office but this one focuses on Trump in his personal rather than official capacity. Seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, it alleges that none of the conduct at issue is related to Trump’s responsibilities as president.

America Needs Third Parties w/Professor Richard Wolff

Oh man, long Trump statement going after Mitch McConnell pic.twitter.com/houXKQzymT

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) February 16, 2021

Will Americans RISE UP? w/Chris Hedges

Looky, the U.S. government works for Monsanto. See article for more, damning details:

Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban

Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkillers.

The moves to protect glyphosate shipments to Mexico have played out over the last 18 months, a period in which Bayer was negotiating an $11bn settlement of legal claims brought by people in the US who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma due to exposure to the company’s glyphosate-based products.

The pressure on Mexico is similar to actions Bayer and chemical industry lobbyists took to kill a glyphosate ban planned by Thailand in 2019. Thailand officials had also cited concerns for public health in seeking to ban the weedkiller, but reversed course after US threats about trade disruption.

So far the collaborative campaign to get the Mexican government to reverse its policy does not appear to be working.

The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has given farmers until 2024 to stop using glyphosate. On 31 December, the country published a “final decree” calling not only for the end of the use of glyphosate but also a phase-out of the planting and consumption of genetically engineered corn, which farmers often spray with glyphosate, a practice that often leaves residues of the pesticide in finished food products.

Deb Haaland Faces GOP Backlash Over Role in Pipeline Protests

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Monday highlighted a Wall Street Journal story on Deb Haaland—President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior—with a tweet accurately stating: "Interior secretary nominee has joined pipeline protests and opposed fracking."

While Cornyn intended the message to be a criticism of Haaland—who, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary—progressives said the New Mexico congresswoman's steadfast opposition to fracking and destructive fossil fuel infrastructure projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline are precisely what make her the most qualified candidate for a role tasked with protecting federal lands and overseeing the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"Thank God," Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) said in response to Cornyn's tweet. "Confirm her immediately."

Climate scientist Michael Mann tweeted at the Texas Republican, "You make a compelling argument for approving the nominee, senator."

As the Journal reported, Haaland in recent years "has joined with pipeline protesters, supported the Green New Deal, and opposed fracking on public lands. For a cabinet post that oversees the government's longstanding, multibillion-dollar partnership with drillers on federal lands, Ms. Haaland's environmental politics are in contrast to those of her predecessors." If confirmed, Haaland would succeed former oil and gas lobbyist David Bernhardt.

The Journal goes on to quote from a 2017 Medium post in which Haaland, then a congressional candidate, wrote, "Fracking is a danger to the air we breathe and water we drink."

"The auctioning off of our land for fracking and drilling serves only to drive profits to the few," Haaland continued. "We must not destroy protected Native ancestral lands and important cultural and heritage sites for the sake of a relatively short-term oil and gas fix, especially when it results in the degradation of sacred sites, land, water, and air."

Deep freeze in Texas: Millions without power, 21 dead in historic snowstorms

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Glenn Greenwald: The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

Krystal Ball: Pelosi’s 9/11 Style Commission Is A DANGEROUS Power Grab

Prosecutors announce new charges against Proud Boys in connection with January 6 assault on US Capitol

John Brown, Violent Crusader, Blazed Lincoln’s Moral Path

U.S. Focus On Narratives Will Let It Collide With Reality

'A Failed State': Power Outages Amid Freezing Weather in Texas Threaten Lives and Covid Vaccines

The Taliban Could Launch Major Offensive Against US if Biden Stays in Afghanistan

Weapons biz bankrolls experts pushing to extend Afghan War

Israel Will Not Engage With US on Iran if Nuclear Deal Is Revived

Ignoring Repression and Dirty Tricks in Coverage of Ecuador’s Election

'Step Off, United States': Progressive International Voices Solidarity With Haitians Rising Up Against Dictatorship

Rep. Ro Khanna Agrees to Public Conversation With UAE Ambassador if Detained Journalist Is Released

Caitlin Johnstone: The Empire Attacks BDS For The Same Reason Nixon Started The Drug War

The life-altering effects heat is having on American children

Rising: Is Wind Power REALLY To Blame For Texas Power Failures?

Krystal and Saagar: Cotton, Romney Propose RAISING Minimum Wage, Breaking GOP Orthodoxy

PA Lt. Gov John Fetterman: ‘I Would Die On That Hill’ For $15 Minimum Wage In COVID Relief Bill

A Little Night Music

Johnny Dodds Washboard Band - Bull Fiddle Blues and or Bucktown Stomp

Johnny Dodds' Black Bottom Stompers - Wild Man Blues

Johnny Dodds - Come on and Stomp, Stomp, Stomp

Johnny Dodds - After You've Gone

Johnny Dodds Hot Six - Goober Dance

Johnny Dodds w/New Orleans Bootblacks - Flat Foot

Johnny Dodds Orchestra - When Erastus plays his old kazoo

Johnny Dodds & Blind Blake - South Bound Rag

Johnny Dodds - Pencil Papa

New Orleans Wanderers - Too Tight

Johnny Dodds and his Beale Street Washboard Band - Piggly Wiggly