“Policy experts in the US and Middle East on Tuesday were among those responding to an “astonishing” new investigation from Haaretz, which detailed how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was alerted weeks before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack that a ‘major event’ was being planned by the Palestinian group – an assault that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and which Israel has responded to by slaughtering more than 73,000 Palestinians so far in Gaza. Highlighting revelations contained in an upcoming book called Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment, by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, the Israeli newspaper reported that Netanayahu dismissed a warning about the attack from United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, which came in a phone call in September 2023.” (09/08/26)
“Brazilian Supreme Court Justice André Mendonca on Tuesday removed the head of the country’s federal police and its intelligence chief from their posts, deepening a crisis at the top court and drawing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government into the turmoil ahead of October national elections. Mendonca, an appointee of former President Jair Bolsonaro, said in his ruling that federal police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, a Lula nominee, and the intelligence director of the force, Leandro Almada, headed an organization that allegedly produced six illegal reports on the justice’s activities through the end of August. Mendonca currently chairs two politically sensitive investigations: one into the collapse of Banco Master, which has ensnared several politicians, and another into alleged frauds in Brazil’s pension system. The first has hit mostly figures of the country’s opposition, while the latter has raised questions of wrongdoing by one of Lula’s sons.” (09/08/26)
“The Detroit–Windsor, Ontario region was poised for an economic and psychic boost courtesy of the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge this summer. Travelers would save time transiting the border, tolls would be cheaper, and even cyclists and pedestrians could make the trip. But the White House had so poisoned the atmosphere surrounding the bridge—demanding and securing new concessions on revenues, even though Canada fronted all the costs—that Michigan and Ontario ended up holding separate celebrations. Ontario Premier Doug Ford headlined the Canadian ribbon-cutting, featuring various provincial and national dignitaries and members of Gordie Howe’s family. Michiganders had Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) cruising across the span a couple of days later in a Michigan-made Mustang convertible.” (09/08/26)
“Labor Day arrives each year as summer begins to loosen its grip. Families gather, grills are lit, and millions of Americans enjoy a well-earned day of rest. Yet the holiday should mean more than a long weekend. It should remind us of the dignity of work, the sacrifices of those who built this nation, and our obligation to ensure that honest labor still leads to opportunity. America was not built by government alone, nor by the celebrated names recorded in history books. It was built by farmers who rose before sunrise, factory workers who stood for hours beside assembly lines, miners who descended into darkness, teachers who opened young minds, and entrepreneurs who risked everything they owned on an idea. It is sustained today by nurses, truck drivers, mechanics, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers, construction crews, caregivers and countless others whose names will never become famous.” (09/07/26)
“A familiar spectre is haunting the nation: communism. Or so one might conclude from the Republican Party’s increasingly frantic rhetoric. Following a string of wins by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in congressional primaries from New York to Colorado to Michigan, even reaching as far as Florida, the GOP is dusting off an old refrain. ‘Communism is on the ballot this November,’ warned House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) at a press conference. President Donald Trump has gone further still, calling communism ‘the biggest threat to our nation there is, maybe since our founding.’ At first glance, this reads like little more than election-year theatrics. The candidates provoking such alarm are, on the whole, hardly the revolutionaries their critics imagine. Many of the policies promoted by today’s Democratic Socialists fall comfortably within the lineage of the New Deal …” (09/07/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Remember how we were always hearing that the official death toll in Gaza is an undercount because there are thousands of bodies trapped under the rubble? Well, it looks like Israel has been moving those remains along with the rubble, conveniently destroying evidence of genocide. Last month, a report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that ‘at least 10 million tonnes of rubble have been removed, crushed, or moved from their original sites within the areas under Israel’s unlawful military control.’ ‘In recent weeks, Euro-Med Monitor tracked nearly 100 Israeli trucks daily leaving the Gaza Strip with debris,’ the report reads. ‘These trucks carry rubble to undisclosed sites within Israel and further south of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli authorities have not provided details on the quantities removed, the routes taken, the destination sites, or how the material is utilised.'” (09/07/26)
“Our economic model is plagued with a history of periodic recessions and depressions. That history is recorded by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Recessions and depressions are clinically presented as normal components of the ‘business cycle’. The NBER does not report the chronic instability and destruction of communities and working people’s lives by this ‘business cycle’. Political democracy demands economic democracy. We have statutes, laws, regulations, and rules to protect the common good. Why not apply the same principles to the relations of production? Many economists, psychologists, and journalists have attempted to rationalize the chronic crisis in our economic model. These fanciful assertions are thoroughly inadequate. As Leo Huberman chronicled in Man’s Worldly Goods, some experts actually attributed the chronic crises to radiation from the sun or the path of the planet Venus.” (09/07/26)
“‘I hope that guy can sleep well at night.’ Those words from Kevin Reddington on the steps of the Plymouth, Massachusetts Courthouse were part of a diatribe against the ‘guy’ who was reportedly the sole holdout in the Lindsay Clancy trial. The scene was a fitting end to a visceral trial, but it added a vindictive element that should prompt Judge William Sullivan to call out the seasoned defense attorney. After declaring that the 11-1 mistrial was ‘no time to gloat’, Reddington bragged repeatedly about ‘crushing’ District Attorney Tim Cruz, whom he also attacked. He insisted that, in the trial, no one said a single negative thing about his client as a mother — ignoring that little matter of the three young children whom she had strangled to death, one by one. But it was his attack on the holdout juror that was a breathtaking abandonment of restraint and decency.” (09/07/26)
“My mom worked harder than anyone I know. She wanted a good life for us. It was a hard life — I remember the Christmas she had to pawn our gifts to pay the light bill — but she made it special for us. Now I have two kids of my own, and I want them to have every opportunity that other children have. The landscape is tough out there. Like many Americans, I can’t afford childcare, and finding work that accommodates my need to care for my young children is hard. With inflation, the little income I have doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to. I’m grateful to have assistance with food, housing, and healthcare through our social safety net programs. Food programs like SNAP (aka ‘food stamps’) and WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) have literally saved our lives when we’ve been hungry.” (09/07/26)
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has established the Office of Worker Power, a first-in-the-nation initiative to connect workers with education, resources, and organizations to help them form a union or demand better working conditions on the job. The office will also allow workers more input into city labor policies and assist them in reporting violations by their employers, Mamdani wrote in an executive order. Julie Su, the deputy mayor for economic justice and a former acting U.S. labor secretary, will coordinate efforts on the office, and Tony Perlstein, a longtime union organizer most recently with the United Auto Workers, will become its first executive director. The staff head count of the office and its budget have yet to be determined. Mamdani signed the executive order in front of workers in the construction, hotel, caregiving, and food service industries.” (09/07/26)
