Bits and pieces - 12-30-22 - Have a Happy New Year

A new model for democracy?

The new government in Israel is already pursuing plans to restrict the rights of minorities, alter the system of governmental checks and balances, hollow out the judiciary, exert influence over the army and security forces, and allow harsher treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.

“This is not the end of democracy; it is the essence of democracy!” Netanyahu said at his inauguration event at the Knesset.

 Looks like we have a new iteration of democracy. Should we call it neodemocacy? And will the US government continue to pour billions of dollars of our taxpayer money into neodemocracies as well as traditional autocracies like Saudi Arabia?  

Exxon to the EU – You can’t tax me!

Fresh off posting the highest quarterly profit in its history, the U.S.-based fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil sued the European Union on Wednesday in an attempt to stop the bloc from imposing its recently approved windfall tax targeting major oil and gas companies.

The Financial Times, which first reported the new lawsuit, noted that the challenge takes aim at the European Council’s “legal authority to impose the new tax—a power historically reserved for sovereign countries—and its use of emergency powers to secure member states’ approval for the measure.”

“The new tax is due to take effect from December 31 and will apply a levy of at least 33% on any taxable profits in 2022-23 that are 20% or more above average profits between 2018 and 2021,” the newspaper explained.

In a statement, Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton insisted the company recognizes that sky-high energy costs are “weighing heavily on families and businesses” but claimed the tax would “undermine investor confidence, discourage investment, and increase reliance on imported energy.” From Nation of Change

Capitalist planning

One thing you can say for capitalists, they spend a good deal of time and money planning for the future. Not the future of the economy and the welfare of the country, but the future of their wealth, all of which, under current tax laws, they can pass down to their progeny. Take Southwest Airlines – well, maybe not over the holidays.

 As travelers and airline workers reel from mass flight cancellations, a corporate watchdog noted Wednesday that Southwest spent nearly $6 billion on stock buybacks in the years ahead of the coronavirus pandemic instead of devoting those resources to technological improvements that unions have been demanding for years. – from Common Dreams, 12/29/22

Railroad merger = diminished service, higher prices and more trucks on the road

After a victory against workers demanding sick days as part of recent contract negotiations, two major railroads are pursuing a merger.

“On Wednesday, a coalition of 10 organizations sent a letter to the Surface Transportation Board urging it to reject the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern on a number of different grounds, warning that further consolidation would lead to diminished service, higher prices, and more trucks on the road, despite rosy promises from the carriers to the contrary. Concentrated and brittle supply chains, they argue, have already helped drive inflation amid the pandemic.” – from The Intercept, 12/22/22

The one thing they failed to note is that the merger will undoubtedly result in big payouts to the stockholders.

School Resource Officers (SRO): Who or what do cops in schools protect?

Obviously not black students.

From an article by Maya Brown, NBC News:

The presence of police in schools actively jeopardizes the safety of Black students compared to their counterparts of other races, according to a report published this month. 

Black students were subjected to more than 80% of the incidents of police violence accounted for in the survey, which analyzed more than 285 incidents over a decade. At least 60% of police assaults on students resulted in serious injury to the students, including broken bones, concussions and hospitalizations. The report also cited 24 cases of sexual assault on students and five student deaths as a result of police force in schools. It was published by the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, and the Alliance for Educational Justice, a coalition of groups working toward equity in public schools.

“It’s not just the fact that school policing is ineffective and a major waste of public funds. It is also harmful to the physical and emotional safety and health of students of color throughout the United States,” said Tyler Whittenberg, the deputy director at the Advancement Project. 

For those of us who have had any relationship with public schools in this country and are reasonably cognizant of the world around us, this is NOT news. Maybe if the “nice white parents”, who are so concerned that their “nice white children” will feel guilty if taught the truth about racism in this country, had one ounce of empathy for the Black students, whose history they want to whitewash, and who just might be made to feel bad by being excluded from the history of their country (a good proportion of Blacks can trace their heritage in the US a lot further back than can the white descendants of the immigrant wave of the late 1800s and early 1900s), we could work together to make the changes necessary to ensure that ALL students in our schools got the sound, basic education that they deserve.

To those who cannot or will not see this, I want to say that it is you who should feel guilty, because IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.