Tuesday, February 26, 2019

POVERTY, HOMELESS, HOUSING CRISIS AND UNEMPLOYMENT FOR LEGALS - AMERICA CAN'T FIX ITS OWN PROBLEMS BUT WAGES ANOTHER WAR IN VENEZUELA

Bush Center to White House: Open Borders for Business Hiring

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/02/26/bush-center-to-white-house-open-borders-for-business-hiring/


US-Mexico Open Border Wall
Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images
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The George W. Bush Presidential Center is helping to develop a White House immigration policy, as it is urging the government to help CEOs and investors hire an unlimited number of foreigners in place of white-collar and blue-collar Americans.

Employers should be allowed to freely hire foreign graduates for middle-class jobs, said the center’s recommendations. “Congress and the Administration should eliminate, or at least increase, the visa cap” for foreign college graduates, says the center’srecommendations on immigration.
“Industries like agriculture, construction, landscaping, and hospitality rely on low-skilled foreign workers to fill vacant jobs … A higher cap [on the inflow of workers] tied to labor market demand would better serve the needs of American businesses,” said the recommendations, which would eliminate any future wage-raising labor shortages.
If Americans’ wages and salaries begin to rise, the imported labor will rush in to end the labor shortage, the recommendations suggest. The extra imported labor would spread through the economy when rising “wage levels signal where the most pressing labor needs exist,” the recommendations say.
In sharp contrast, voters’ wages rose by three percent nationwide during 2018 because of Trump’s “Hire American” low-immigration policy. Wages rose by 4.6 percent for people who switched jobs and by 5.2 percent in Minnesota where migrants have increased the labor force by only ten percent. Wages barely climbed during 2018 in states that have a large percentage of imported labor.
The institute’s wage-cutting, open border recommendations are important because the institute has been invited by White House officials to help develop a pro-business immigration policy that would effectively end President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day promise of “Hire American.”
The White House process was sketched out by the McClatchy news service:
“What we want to do is kind of figure out what are the things that everyone agrees on,” the official said. “Where are the areas where there is disagreement and then what we can do is take all that to the president and then let him and the vice president, let them make decisions on what our policy will be.”
According to meeting agendas obtained by McClatchy, those invited to sessions with Kushner come from some of Trump’s core constituencies in the worlds of religion, law enforcement, agriculture and business. They include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, Association of Builders and Contractors, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Council on National Policy, George W. Bush Center and Select Milk Producers.
One participant described [Trump son-in-law Jared] Kushner as listening a lot and encouraging others to speak. He is less interested in the finer details of immigration policy and focused on reaching a consensus, that participant said. Two people involved said Kushner asks people to talk about what they want instead of what they oppose.
The Bush center’s recommendations do not mention the concerns of Trump’s 2016 voters, such as stagnant wages, the rising student debt owed by American graduates, the rising real estate costs and healthcare bills which Americans must pay, nor the decade-long freeze on Americans’ salaries since legal immigration was tripled by President Geoge H.W. Bush’s 1990 immigration expansion bill.
In fact, the Bush center says immigration policy should be designed to grow the economy first, not salaries or wages. The center’s focus on growth via the importation of consumers, renters, and workers would help investors, real estate owners, employers, and immigrants and undermine Americans who are seeking to raise their wages and to build a better and wealthier society for themselves and their children. The recommendations say:
The objective of immigration policy should be to affirm America as the land of opportunity — where people of any background can work hard, develop ideas, and benefit from the fruits of their labor.
The focus on immigrants echoes the progressives’ claim that America is a “land of immigrants,” not a land of Americans.
The Bush report also suggests that immigrants are more valuable than Americans and their children. “America’s greatest advantage has always been its ability to attract diverse people from all corners of the globe and bring them together to build the American dream,” the report says, ignoring Americans’ world-changing history of solidarity, trust, cooperation, inventiveness, and hard work.
The center also calls for an amnesty of illegals, while noting that deportation of illegals will reduce the labor supply. “Removing all unauthorized immigrants would cause the labor force to shrink by around 4.5 percent and could lead to reductions of GDP up to $4.7 trillion over ten years.”
Any reduction of the labor supply would force investors and employers to raise Americans’ wages if they wanted to keep their existing employees or hire new employees. “A pathway to citizenship is the most reasonable solution,” says the Bush center.
The center’s business-first, society-second, approach is made clear at the center’s web page. “At the George W. Bush Institute, we believe immigration policy should be used as a tool for economic growth and prosperity.”

A Nation Built by Immigrants | Bush Center



The center declined to answer questions from Breitbart News.
The center’s open border for business plan echoes the repeated efforts by President George W. Bush to enact a pro-investor “any willing worker” law which would allow employers to hire anyone from around the world. Bush’s “any willing worker” plan was blocked in 2001, so he backed amnesties in Congress in 2006 and 2007 which created the open-ended “Probationary Z Visa.” The Z visa plan offered work permits to all migrants who reached the United States within one year — and gave border officials just 24 hours to prove the migrants’ documents were fakes. The ambitious proposal quickly failed.
In 2013, Bush also backed the huge “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill which sought to flood the middle-class labor market by offering two ways to provide green cards to an unlimited number of foreign graduates. The amnesty bill so skewed the labor market towards investors that the Congressional Budget Office reported, “the rate of return on capital would be higher [than on labor] under the legislation than under current law throughout the next two decades.”
In 1990, Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, signed an immigration deal that roughly tripled the legal immigration rate, shifted wealth from wage earners to investors, and spiked stock market values.
The 2006 and 2007 amnesty plans were so unpopular among voters that Bush’s poll ratings sank from roughly 45 percent at the start of 2006 down to roughly 35 percent at the end of 2007, and then-Sen. Barack Obama used his opposition to build his 2008 outsider campaign. After the 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty was approved by the Senate, the Senate Democrats lost nine seats, so allowing Trump to have a Senate majority in 2017.
Business groups and Democrats tout skewed polls that prod Americans to declare support for migrants and for the claim that the United States is an economy-expanding “Nation of Immigrants,” not a nation of Americans.
The alternative “priority or fairness” polls — as well as the 2016 election — show that voters put a much higher priority on helping their families, neighbors, and fellow nationals get decent jobs in a globalized, high-immigration economy.

George W. Bush's aide slams Trump's reform to help Americans graduates. The reform ends Obama's bonus work-permits for 100,000 spouses of cheap H-1B visa workers who hold college-grad jobs in US. Biz hates plan b/c cheap visa workers = higher stock values http://bit.ly/2GFH2g3 

George W. Bush Center Slams Trump Plan to Shift Jobs to U.S. Graduates



The federal policy of using legal and illegal migration to boost economic growth shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors by flooding the market with cheap white-collar and blue-collar foreign labor.
That annual inflow of roughly one million legal immigrants — as well as the population of two million visa workers and eight million working illegal immigrants — spikes profits and Wall Street values by shrinking salaries for 150 million blue-collar and white-collar employees, especially the wages earned by the four million young Americans who join the labor force each year.
The federal government’s cheap labor policy widens wealth gaps, reduces high tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions.
Immigration also steers investment and wealth away from towns in Heartland states because coastal investors can more easily hire and supervise the large immigrant populations who prefer to live in coastal cities. In turn, that coastal investment flow drives up coastal real estate prices and pushes poor Americans, including Latinos and blacks, out of prosperous cities such as Berkeley and Oakland.

Jared Kushner has invited biz groups & fronts to hash out a cheap-labor immigration plan for Trump to approve. But there is no evidence that Trump's 2016 MAGA voters will cheer & vote for a Jeb! 2020 plan which cuts their wages & raises their housing costs http://bit.ly/2E5unzk 

McClatchy: Jared Kushner Asks Business for Immigration Plan



Pence threatens war in Venezuela at Colombia summit: “There is no turning back”

US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a bellicose speech before representatives of 14 Latin American countries at a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogotá, Colombia, yesterday. The remarks were timed to coincide with the US-orchestrated provocations at the Venezuelan border over the weekend, resulting in clashes that left several people dead.
Pence rehashed phrases plagiarized from speeches given by George W. Bush in the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combining them with denunciations of socialism.
“There is no turning back,” Pence said. “All options are on the table.”
“A new day is coming in Latin America,” he continued. “In Venezuela and across the Western hemisphere, socialism is dying and liberty, prosperity and democracy are being reborn before our eyes.” Pence issued an ultimatum to the Venezuelan military, threatening that if it did not overthrow Maduro, “You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit, no way out. You will lose everything.”
Pence announced that the US would place added sanctions on officials in the Venezuelan government and called on the right-wing governments of Latin America to “transfer ownership of Venezuelan assets in your country” to the government of US puppet Juan Guaidó.
In other words, the US is conducting cross-hemispheric highway robbery.
In his speech, Pence gave several justifications for intensifying US war threats against Venezuela. Venezuela exploits indigenous tribes, damages the environment through oil exploration and impoverishes its population, Pence said.
These claims would be laughable were it not for the seriousness of the threats. The United States is the world’s worst offender in each of these departments.
Particularly disgusting was Pence’s attack on Venezuela for refusing “shelter for those displaced” immigrants along its border.
The Washington Post wrote that Pence “embraced a sobbing elderly man,” an immigrant waiting to enter Venezuela. The Post reporters, tears welling in their eyes, wrote that Pence “told the man in English, ‘We are with you.’”
The Post report made no mention of the thousands of immigrants currently sleeping on the streets in Mexican cities along the US-Mexico border after the US barred them from entering the country to apply for asylum.
Simultaneous with this weekend’s planned confrontation, the US military escalated its war plans. CNN reported that “the US military has flown an increased number of reconnaissance flights in international airspace off the coast of Venezuela during the last several days to gather classified intelligence” in possible preparation for a military intervention.
On Saturday, Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló reported that the Venezuelan military threatened to “open fire” on an American ship that entered Venezuelan territorial waters without permission. Though the ship was registered in Vanuatu, it was flying under a US flag in violation of international maritime law. US officials claim the ship was carrying 200 tons of “humanitarian aid.”
Venezuelan officials allege that US “humanitarian aid” includes weapons shipments to Colombia. Last Wednesday, Colombian armed forces leader Maj. Gen. Luis Navarro Jiménez traveled to Florida, where he met with leaders of US Southern Command.
The Washington Post wrote yesterday that behind the scenes in Bogotá, Guaidó “sought assurances that the United States could use force if necessary.” Venezuelan right-wing opposition leader Julio Borges tweeted Sunday that the opposition “will urge for an escalation of diplomatic pressure and the use of force against the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.”
President Trump has long privately expressed his interest in waging war on Venezuela. In his recently published book, former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe reports that Trump once brought up Venezuela in his presence, saying, “That’s the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”
The bellicose mood in Washington was exemplified by a reckless Washington Post opinion article published yesterday by Francisco Toro, who leads the think tank “Group of 50,” founded by a former World Bank official with the backing of the imperialist Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Despite the article’s title, “With US military action, Venezuela could become the Libya of the Caribbean,” Toro makes the case for pushing the region to the brink of war. Last weekend’s border confrontation “moved military action to dislodge the Venezuelan regime from fringe speculation to serious policy discussion,” Toro writes.
The Venezuelan military, he continues, is “unlikely to rebel against Maduro unless they calculate US military action is genuinely imminent… The best solution now, then, is a strategy designed to convince Venezuela’s generals that, unless they topple Maduro in short order, they’ll be bombed out of existence—a message that should be delivered by people who understand actually bombing them out of existence would be a disaster. What the United States needs to do, in other words, is bluff, by taking further steps that raise Venezuelan generals’ perception of a threat.”
The article concludes: “God help us all.”
This incendiary strategy has the bipartisan support of the US political establishment. As former Bush administration official José Cárdenas wrote in Foreign Policy :
“US policy toward Venezuela has enjoyed a bipartisan consensus in Congress through successive administrations. Democrats such as Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have been active critics of the breakdown in Venezuelan democracy over the years.”
It is not certain, however, that the US will be able to line up its allies behind its threats of military intervention. The increased threats of war have deepened divisions between Washington and its allies in the region and in Europe.
While the Lima Group declaration called for the immediate resignation of Maduro, it also noted that “the transition to democracy should be conducted by the Venezuelans themselves peacefully… by political and diplomatic means, without the use of force.”
Brazil’s vice president, Hamilton Mourão, said Monday from Bogotá that “a military option was never an option” for Brazil, and that “we advocate for no intervention.” The foreign minister of Spain, Josep Borrell, told the Efe news agency on Sunday, “We have clearly warned that we would not support—and would roundly condemn—any foreign military intervention.”
Despite support from the governments of the region and in Europe for the US regime-change operation, these statements reflect concerns that the US is proceeding with a degree of recklessness that risks throwing the entire hemisphere into an unprecedented level of chaos.
The Trump administration has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, now scheduled for Tuesday. The US will likely use the opportunity to denounce Russia and China, which are likely to exercise their veto power as permanent members to block a pseudo-legal international fig leaf to US imperialism’s machinations in South America.

THE ECONOMIST:
America’s drift to war and economic collapse

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"    PAT BUCHANAN


“It notes in passing that for the American government, which already runs annual budget deficits approaching $700 billion, “finding the money will be another problem.”

THE INVADING CRIMINALS:

A county by county chart:       


According to the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies, the deportations occurred between October 2008 and February 2015. The three counties with the most deportations during this period were Los Angeles County, Calif.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Harris County, Texas.

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Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. 
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ILLEGALS CLIMBING CALIFORNIA’S BORDERS FOR JOBS AND WELFARE: SAN DIEGO … Mexicans (unregistered democrat anchor baby breeders (1,877).
In just the month of October 2017 CBP Border Patrol San Diego border sector reported apprehension of individuals from Bangladesh (12), Brazil (1), Camaroon (3), Chad (1), China (16), El Salvador (76), Eritrea (7), Gambia (4), Guatemala (178), Honduras (54), India (101), Iran (1), Mexico (1,877), Nepal (31), Nicaragua (1), Pakistan (13), Peru (1), Somalia (1), and “Unknown” (1) — a total of 2,379 individuals. These numbers are similar to volumes seen in this sector for October since 2012. MICHELLE MOONS

AMERICA’S ROAD TO REVOLUTION will march down Wall Street first:

THE BANKSTER REGIME WILL BE TOPPLED AND MEXICO PUSHED 

OUT OF AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS!


 "The report was drafted in conjunction with a survey conducted among nearly 1,000 banking and business executives, government officials and academics, which found that 93 percent of them feared a worsening of confrontations between the major powers in 2018. Fully 79 percent foresaw a heightened threat of a major “state-on-state” military conflict."

"One of the premier institutions of big business, JP Morgan Chase, issued an internal report on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, which warned that another “great liquidity crisis” was possible, and that a government 

bailout on the scale of that effected by Bush and Obama will produce social unrest, “in light of the potential impact of central bank actions in driving inequality between asset owners and labor."

STARING IN THE FACE of AMERICA’S UNRAVELING and the ROAD TO REVOLUTION
It will more likely come on the heels of economic dislocation and dwindling wealth to redistribute.”
"The kind of people needed for violent change these days are living in off-the-grid rural compounds, or the “gangster paradise” where the businesses of drugs, guns, and prostitution are much more lucrative than “transforming” America along  Cuban lines." BRUCE THORNTON

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There can be no resolution to any social problem confronting the population in the United States and internationally outside of a frontal assault on the wealth of the financial elite. 
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 The political system is controlled by this social layer, which uses a portion of its economic plunder to bribe politicians and government officials, whether Democratic or Republican.


CALIFORNIA IN MELTDOWN:
WORST LOWER EDUCATION SCHOOLS IN THE NATION
"The public schools indoctrinate their young charges to hate this country and the rule of law. Illegal aliens continue overwhelming the state, draining California’s already depleted public services while endangering our lives, the rule of law, and public safety for all citizens."
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Least-Educated State: California No. 1 in Percentage of Residents 25 and Older Who Never Finished 9th Grade; No. 50 in High School Graduates TERENCE P. JEFFREY

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California’s public education system, once the envy of the world, now ranks 49th in the nation.  ROBERT J. CRISTANO

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Pollak: Educating Illegal Aliens and Their Children Costs L.A. Schools 

Hundreds of Millions Per Year. Steven A. Camarota, director of research, at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart News on Friday that “between one-fifth and one-fourth of the students in LAUSD are the children of illegal immigrants — though most of those were born in the U.S.” He said that a smaller percentage of the students (“in the single digits”) are illegal immigrants themselves. Robyn Beck 



LOS ANGELES: Mexico’s second largest city, anchor baby welfare center of America and gateway for the LA RAZA heroin cartels.

 

 

AMERICA: ONE PAYCHECK AND ONE HUNDRED ILLEGALS AWAY FROM HOMELESSNESS!

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/12/rick-moran-los-angeles-mexicos-second.html

 

A dashcam video of downtown Los Angeles on Christmas day reveals a stunning sight: hundreds of tents and lean-tos on the sidewalks that serve as shelter for the homeless. The scene is reminiscent of a third-world country. RICK MORAN / AMERICANTHINKER com

 

 

HOMELESS CRISIS IN LOS ANGELES, MEXICO’S SECOND LARGEST

 

CITY WORSENS BY THE DAY…. Approximates the great depression

 

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/11/homeless-crisis-in-mexicos-second.html

 

  

 

HOMELESS AMERICA’S HOUSING CRISIS as 40 million illegals have climbed U.S. open borders.

 

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/12/homeless-in-america-hundreds-of.html

 

EVERY AMERICAN (Legal) only one paycheck and one hundred illegals away from living in their cars.

 

“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER


'2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since the Civil War': Steve Bannon issues a stark warning for the nation ahead of what he predicts will be a tumultuous 12 months for Trump


  • Former White House counselor Steve Bannon cited the multiple investigations into President Trump as one of the reasons 2019 will be full of vitriol 
  • Trump is facing probes from the special counsel's office, the Southern District of New York, and House Democrats 
  • 'I think that 2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since before the Civil War,' Bannon told CBS News
  • He said House Democrats could use the probes as a weapon against Trump
  •  He also predicted Trump would run for reelection and win 
  • 'I happen to think now, the president is going to run again in 2020 and I think he'll win. I think he'll win bigger than he won in 2016,' Bannon said 

Former White House counselor Steve Bannon predicted this year will be 'the most vitriolic year in American politics since the Civil War' because of the investigations into President Donald Trump.
Bannon cited the upcoming release of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russiaprobe, the investigation of Trump's businesses from the Southern District of New York attorney's office, and House Democrats' plans for probes of the administration as the reason for the forthcoming chaos.
'I think that 2019 is going to be the most vitriolic year in American politics since before the Civil War,' Bannon told CBS News in an interview that aired Sunday. 'And I include Vietnam in that. I think we're in, I think we're in for a very nasty 2019.'  
Former White House counselor Steve Bannon cited the multiple investigations into President Trump as one of the reasons 2019 will be full of vitriol
Former White House counselor Steve Bannon cited the multiple investigations into President Trump as one of the reasons 2019 will be full of vitriol
President Trump is the focus of three federal probes plus investigations from House Democrats
President Trump is the focus of three federal probes plus investigations from House Democrats
Bannon, who served as chief strategist for the Trump White House before then-chief of staff John Kelly forced him out, predicted a tough few months ahead for the president with the pressure of the investigations increasing on him and his administration.
'I think the next 90 days to four months is going to be a real meat grinder,' he said. 'I mean, the pressure on the president is coming from many different angles.' 
President Trump indicated the investigations were on his mind Sunday morning when tweeted on the matter - one of his favorite subject to rage about on social media. 
'The only Collusion with the Russians was with Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee...And, where’s the Server that the DNC refused to give to the FBI? Where are the new Texts between Agent Lisa Page and her Agent lover, Peter S? We want them now!,' he wrote.
It's unclear what the president meant by new texts between FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. The two agents - who were working on the Russia investigation and having an affair - had texted of their hopes Trump would lose the election.
Trump previously has accused the bureau - without proof - of deleting messages between the two.  
However, the Justice Department's inspector general, in a report released Thursday, found no evidence the FBI intentionally destroyed text messages between Strzok and Page. 
The IG could not recover any texts from the phones assigned to the two agents because, by the time investigators requested the devices, they had been reset for others to use the
The inspector general faulted an FBI-wide software failure that resulted in large portions of FBI text messages not being archived, the Associated Press fact checker found.
The president has previously accused Clinton and the DNC of collusion with Russia, again without proof.
He is believed to be referring to the unverified Steele dossier.
The dossier, put together by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by a research firm that also did work for the Democratic National Committee, offered unverified allegations Trump was vulnerable to blackmail from Russia and had engaged with 'golden showers' with prostitutes during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.  
Meanwhile, President Trump is the focus of three federal investigations: Mueller's probe of whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election and two investigations being run out of the Southern District of New York: one focusing on the hush money payments made or arranged by then-Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, and another examining the flow of foreign money to the Trump inaugural committee. 
Mueller is expected to wrap up his report in the coming months, Cohen is reported to be giving additional information to New York prosecutors in regards to Trump business dealings and House Democrats have opened multiple probes into the administration - not just Russian interference with the 2016 election but also the president's immigration policy security clearances for administration staff, and possible conflicts of interest.
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Bannon also predicted Democrats would 'weaponize' any and all of investigations against the president.
'I think you've already seen it from what the Democrats, some of these reports they've been dropping here without telling anybody. I think that now they control the House they can weaponize this, they could weaponize the Mueller report,' he said.
House Democrats have said they want Mueller's report to be made public. The special counsel's only obligation is to file his findings with the Justice Department, which decides what to with it from there.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday vowed to subpoena the report, bring Mueller in to testify before Congress and take the Trump administration to court if the findings aren't made public.
'We are going to get to the bottom of this,' Schiff said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'We are going to share this information with the public. And if the president is serious about all his claims of exoneration, then he should welcome the publication of the report.'
Trump showed the investigations were on his mind with a tweet on Sunday
Trump showed the investigations were on his mind with a tweet on Sunday
Robert Mueller
Jerry Nadler
Trump is the focus of multiple investigations including special counsel Robert Mueller's (left) Russia probe, the Southern District of New York and from House Democrats, including Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (right)
'I never worked for Russia!' Trump fury over collusion question

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Despite his predictions of a tough 2019 for Trump, Bannon, who served as chief executive of Trump's 2016 campaign, said he has 'zero' doubt the president will seek reelection.
'I happen to think now, the president is going to run again in 2020 and I think he'll win. I think he'll win bigger than he won in 2016,' Bannon said.  
Bannon did say expects President Trump will face a 2020 primary challenge from some moderate Republicans.   
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich have mulled about making such a move although there has been no official announcement.   

AMERICA'S ROAD TO REVOLUTION

"This dangerous power vacuum has fueled frustration and created an entirely new breed of disenfranchised voters who are fed up with the status quo. These are real people, their anger is palpable, and it’s not going away anytime soon."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … enemy of borders, laws and American values


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"Ocasio-Cortez ran on an explicit promise to abolish the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, as well as to nationalize health care."



"The DSA is not fighting for socialism, but to strengthen the Democratic Party, one of the two main capitalist parties in the United States, which shares responsibility with the Republican Party for all the crimes committed by American imperialism around the world and against the working class at home."

PHONY BILLIONAIRE SWAMP KEEPER TRUMP VOWS HE WILL BEND OVER FOR THE KOCH BROTHERS AND KEEP AMERICA FLOODED WITH FOREIGNERS SUCKING UP JOBS AND WELFARE.
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The Kochs and their network of donors have opposed any reductions to legal immigration to raise American workers’ wages; reforms to save U.S. taxpayers billions by ending welfare-dependent legal immigration; and an end to the country’s birthright citizenship policy that rewards illegal aliens’ U.S.-born children with American citizenship. 
The Washington, DC-imposed mass legal immigration policy is a boon to corporate executives, Wall Street, big business, and multinational conglomerates, as America’s working and middle class have their wealth redistributed to the country’s top earners through wage stagnation.

 JOHN BINDER
The border emergency is about 2020, not the courts




It won't be long before some judge stops the president's border emergency order.  My money is on the judge writing the first opinion from San Francisco, Seattle, or Hawaii.
What happens in the courts?  It will go back and forth and head to the Supreme Court.  My guess is that President Trump will get five votes and win.
No matter what happens in the courts, this is all about 2020.  President Trump has successfully painted the Democrats as a party that does not believe there is a crisis on the border.  Some Democrats, like former representative O'Rourke, are even willing to eliminate existing barriers.  How crazy is that?
So the sides have been chosen.  On one side, President Trump and the GOP see a crisis.  On the other side, the Democrats think it's all manufactured.
The Democrats' "we need to say no to Trump" position is stupid and an electoral train wreck about to happen.
Of course there is a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.  I agree with this IBD editorial:
As we continue to face wave after wave of illegal immigrant [sic] "caravans" egged on by Democrats and open-borders advocates — and the possibility of drug dealers, terrorists and criminals crossing into our country unhindered — Trump's declaration became an imperative. 
As we've said for years, a nation that doesn't control its borders ceases to exist.  Period.
Exactly night.  No border, no nation.  My guess is that most Americans get that a nation has to have borders, or it will lose its sovereignty.
As we walk to 2020, a year away, President Trump will force Democrats to defend the nonsense that there is no border crisis.  My good guess is that a lot of Democrats will start to break from leadership and distance themselves from this utter nonsense of denying a crisis on the border.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.











THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THE WASTELAND OF AMERICAN CITIES THEY CONTROL AND SURRENDER TO LA RAZA
study by Tom Wong of the University of California at San Diego discovered that more than 25 percent of DACA-enrolled illegal aliens in the program have anchor babies. That totals about 200,000 anchor babies who are the children of DACA-enrolled illegal aliens. This does not include the anchor babies of DACA-qualified illegal aliens. JOHN BINDER
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-nation-unravels-democrat-partys.html
“The Democrats had abandoned their working-class base to chase what they pretended was a racial group when what they were actually chasing was the momentum of unlimited migration”.  DANIEL GREENFIELD / FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE 
"It extends to each issue the Democrats embrace. Every city that has come under Democrat control is proof positive that instead of raising the standard of living for the occupants, the city falls to crime, gangs, and drugs.  In fact, "America is awash with troubled, dysfunctional cities that have been electing Democrat Party mayors for decades." EILEEN F TOPLANSKY

POSTED! NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!!!


WEST HOLLYWOOD WELCOME MAT FOR ILLEGALS...

Not a single employer of illegals ever prosecuted in this LA RAZA SANCTUARY CITY where they print voting ballots in Spanish so illegals can vote for more!

Wealth concentration increases in US.


American middle class is officially declared dead and buried!

The latest research on wealth inequality by University of California economics professor Gabriel Zucman underscores one of the key social and economic trends since the global financial crisis of 2008. Those at the very top of society, who benefited directly from the orgy of speculation that led to the crash, have seen their wealth accumulate at an even faster rate, while the mass of the population has suffered a major decline.
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The past 40 years have seen the consolidation of a plutocratic elite, which has subordinated every aspect of American society to a single goal: amassing ever more colossal amounts of personal wealth. The top one percent have captured all of the increase in national income over the past two decades, and all of the increase in national wealth since the 2008 crash.
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER
KAMALA HARRIS PROMISES ILLEGALS A VASTLY EXPANDED BORDER TO OPEN BORDER LA RAZA WELFARE STATE FOR ALL ILLEGALS WHO VOTE FOR HER.
Kamala Harris’s career received a boost from a patronage job in dubious circumstances. 
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Kamala Harris barely won her first race for California Attorney General in 2010. 
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 Kamala Harris was accused of using her state office to attack political enemies and reward friends. 
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 Kamala Harris was criticized for financial mismanagement during her 2016 U.S. Senate campaign.
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 Kamala Harris has been the star of viral video confrontations but has done little else in Washington.
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Kamala Harris faces new questions about a close aide who settled a $400,000 harassment lawsuit. ---- Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News

WHO BUT THE RICH WANT AMNESTY and WIDER OPEN BORDERS?
Well, the Globalist Democrat Party, Mexico, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and employers of illegals!
"Johnson tried to push the 213 “Gang of Eight” amnesty through the House during 2014. If it had passed, the amnesty would have shifted more wealth from ordinary Americans to investors, according to the Congressional Budget Office."
The cheap labor policy widens wealth gaps, reduces high tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high tech careers, and sidelines at least five million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions.
THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” INVADERS:

AMERICA vs MEXICO: CLASHING CULTURES
By Frosty Wooldridge
Illegals cheat, distribute drugs, lie, forge documents, steal and k ill as if it’s a normal way of life. For them, it is. Mexico’s civilization stands diametrically opposed to America’s culture.
The legal age of sexual consent in Mexico is 12 years old. S ex with children at this age and younger is socially acceptable in Mexico. For example: A Mexican Lopez-Mendez pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl in West Virginia.

MEXICO’S INVASION, OCCUPTION and LOOTING OF AMERICA by INVITATION OF THE LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEMOCRAT PARTY
"Fox’s Tucker Carlson noted Thursday that Obrador has previously proposed ranting AMNESTY TO MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS. “America is now Mexico’s social safety net, and that’s a very good deal for the Mexican ruling class,” Carlson added."

"The man likely to be the next president of Mexico just called for mass migration to the US" RICK MORAN

 

“And soon, very soon — after the victory of our movement — we will defend all the migrants in the American continent and all the migrants in the world,” Obrador said, adding that immigrants “must leave their towns and find a life in the United States.” RICK MORAN
FACTS ON THE “REAL LATINO AMERICA” OF MEXICAN OCCUPIED LOS ANGELES:

(these are highly DATED stats on Mexico’s second largest city)

This is another "fact" spun from the 2004 op-ed by Heather Mac Donald, whose article refers to a single Los Angeles gang and the conjecture of an unnamed federal prosecutor.


1.      "40% of all workers in L.A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes. . . . This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card." The Mexican tax-free economy in Los Angeles County is estimated to be in excess of $2 billion dollars a year.

2.     "95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens . . . "


3.     "75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens."

4.    "Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers." The County of Los Angeles hands Mexico’s anchor baby breeders more than a BILLION DOLLARS a year in welfare.


5.     "Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally." California has the largest and most expensive prison system in the country. Half the inmates are now Mexicans. Half the murders in California are by Mexican gangs.

6.    Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.


7. "The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border."

8. "Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal."
immigrants.

9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.

10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish.



Make E-Verify the Norm, Not the Exception

Donald Trump has recently issued his most influential executive order on immigration to date. Unfortunately, his order didn't come from the executive branch -- or anywhere in the federal government, for that matter. Instead, it came from the Trump Organization, the president's private company.
 The firm recently announced that its hotels, resorts, and golf clubs would adopt E-Verify  -- the free, online federal program which allows employers to check the legal status of prospective workers.  Although Trump deserves credit for embracing the program, the vast majority of the nation's employers have yet to follow suit. This widespread refusal to adopt E-Verify has led to an economy that exploits undocumented workers at enormous costs to both native-born Americans and legal immigrants. Making E-Verify mandatory would hold employers accountable for their unlawful hiring practices, while humanely reducing the incentive for workers to make the dangerous trip to come here illegally.
E-Verify has existed in some form since 1996, and it's remarkably easy to use. Enrolled companies simply enter the name, birthdate, and Social Security number from a new hire's I-9 form (which itself is highly subject to fraud) into the online system, and they're quickly told whether or not the employee is legally eligible to work. 
Nearly 99 percent of new hires are verified as eligible within 24-hours. Most of the remaining 1 percent are eventually found to be illegal immigrants.  
E-Verify is free and available to every employer in the country. My employer, Clemson University, has been using E-Verify for years now, and I've never heard of a legal immigrant having a problem.
Unfortunately, most businesses have stayed away from E-Verify, with just 10 percent of employers currently using the program. Why? Because they are lowering operating costs, so they either don't care or don't want to know if they are hiring illegal workers. For example, in a recent survey, 37 percent of illegals in America's three largest cities reported being paid less than the minimum wage, and 85 percent of them received no overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week. 
Of course, these exploitative practices carry significant financial benefits for businesses. According to Harvard University economist and immigration expert George Borjas, illegals generate as much as $128 billion in added value for their employers each year. How ironic that such a perverse plan of income redistribution from the less to the more fortunate now has almost fanatical support from a significant percentage of politicians – with this support being driven by their goal of importing more potential voters into the country. 
American workers -- both native-born and legal immigrants -- suffer as a result. After all, if businesses have access to a pool of illegal labor willing to work for less than the minimum wage, why pay legal employees fairly -- or to hire them in the first place? The result, according to Borjas, is that illegal immigrants lower the wages of native-born Americans by between $99 and $118 billion a year. 
Mandatory E-Verify would ameliorate many of the problems arising from illegal immigration. As job opportunities for unauthorized workers dried up, the incentive to enter the country unlawfully would plummet, wall or no wall, barrier or no barrier. Overall rates of illegal immigration would plunge, like they did when Trump was first elected – but this time they would stay low. Businesses accustomed to exploiting cheap illegal workers would finally have to pay fair wages to American workers. And Molly Tibbetts, a 20-year old and fellow jogger murdered by an illegal alien whose company didn't use E-Verify, might still be with us.

THE SECRET REPORT ON TRUMP AND HIS PARASITIC FAMILY’S DESIGNS TO FLOOD AMERICA WITH CHEAP LABOR
TRUMP HOWLS ABOUT HAVING TO PAY LEGALS A LIVING WAGE AT SWAMP PALACE MAR-A-STOLEN.

“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER

STARING IN THE FACE of AMERICA’S UNRAVELING and the ROAD TO REVOLUTION
It will more likely come on the heels of economic dislocation and dwindling wealth to redistribute.”
 “Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” -- Karen McQuillan  THEAMERICAN THINKER.com

"The kind of people needed for violent change these days are living in off-the-grid rural compounds, or the “gangster paradise” where the businesses of drugs, guns, and prostitution are much more lucrative than “transforming” America along Cuban lines." BRUCE THORNTON
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There can be no resolution to any social problem confronting the population in the United States and internationally outside of a frontal assault on the wealth of the financial elite. 
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 The political system is controlled by this social layer, which uses a portion of its economic plunder to bribe politicians and government officials, whether Democratic or Republican.

Why do all global billionaires want wider open borders, amnesty and no E-VERIFY?
AMERICA: THE ECONOMY IS RIGGED BY COGRESS SO THE RICH BECOME SUPER RICH.
The American middle class gets the tax bills for Wall Street’s crimes and bottomeless bailouts!

Wealth concentration increases in US.


*
*
The latest research on wealth inequality by University of California economics professor Gabriel Zucman underscores one of the key social and economic trends since the global financial crisis of 2008. Those at the very top of society, who benefited directly from the orgy of speculation that led to the crash, have seen their wealth accumulate at an even faster rate, while the mass of the population has suffered a major decline.
*
The past 40 years have seen the consolidation of a plutocratic elite, which has subordinated every aspect of American society to a single goal: amassing ever more colossal amounts of personal wealth. The top one percent have captured all of the increase in national income over the past two decades, and all of the increase in national wealth since the 2008 crash.
*

“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes.  This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER


Sanders throws his support behind US propaganda campaign over Venezuela

Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took to Twitter on Saturday to voice his support for the staged “humanitarian aid” provocation in Venezuela.
“The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis,” Sanders tweeted on Saturday. “The Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against protesters.”
The tweet is in reference to this weekend’s attempt by the US to deliver “humanitarian aid” to Venezuela. Operating under the direction of the Trump administration, the right-wing Colombian and Brazilian governments attempted to move trucks into the country ostensibly carrying food and medical supplies. The US and its allies in the region used the occasion to stage orchestrated clashes between supporters of self-declared Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan government.
The incident is being used to whip up support for regime change and prepare a possible military intervention by the US on the part of Guaidó and his far-right Popular Will party.
Sanders’ tweet entirely accepts the “humanitarian” pretenses of the action carried out by the Trump administration against the Maduro government, which is seen as an obstacle to US domination of Venezuelan oil resources and overall domination of the continent. There is no reference to the fact that the “humanitarian crisis” to which Sanders refers has been severely compounded by US policies, including crippling economic sanctions, combined with the pro-capitalist policies of the Maduro regime.
As for “allowing humanitarian aid,” it is worth noting that the Red Cross opposed the US “aid” operation due to its transparently political purpose.
Sanders is quickly falling into line behind the Democratic Party, which backs the Trump administration operation in Venezuela. Sanders was criticized late last week after comments in an interview with Univision, in which he would not say that he recognized Guaidó as the legitimate president of the country. Asked whether he considered Maduro to be a dictator, Sanders refused to say yes or no.
Sanders’ earlier comments set off a flurry of denunciations from leading Democrats. Politico ran an article Thursday titled: “‘He is not going to be the nominee’: Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance.” The article noted high profile Democrats such as Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and former Vice President Joe Biden, who have stated their support for Guaidó.
The Washington Post coverage quoted Christian Ulvert, a Florida Democratic strategist, saying, “They are clearly ignorant comments, and someone who’s running for president of the United States should be better briefed and knowledgeable about this crisis in Venezuela and how it impacts the Florida political landscape.”
Sanders’ tweet on Saturday was a message to the Democratic Party leadership that he will toe the line.
Following Sanders’ comments, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), also weighed in, declaring in a video streamed on Twitter that “people want to make this about an ideology. Oh this is about socialism this is about capitalism this is about this that and the other. And what people don’t understand that this is really kind of an issue of authoritarianism versus democracy,” that is, that Maduro represents authoritarianism and Guaidó, “democracy.”
Going further to distance herself from socialism, she added, “People want to say my ideology is this my ideology is that, what I believe in above all else is a true democracy.”
Ocasio-Cortez is clearly taking her talking points from the same play book as Sanders. The Vermont Senator has a long history of framing foreign policy issues, to the extent they are addressed at all, around the struggle of “democracy versus authoritarianism,” in which the US ostensibly represents democracy, going as far back as his endorsement of the NATO war in the Balkans in the 1990s.
More recently, he has backed the US-orchestrated civil war in Syria, denouncing “Russian and Iranian support for Bashar al-Assad’s slaughter in Syria,” while criticizing the UN for being “too slow or unwilling to act.”
Sanders voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution in 2001, which was used as the basis for the invasion of Afghanistan and has since been cited as the legal basis for military attacks, drone assassinations, torture and other crimes overseas.
The uncritical acceptance of the propaganda campaign by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez is not surprising. It flows from the character of Democratic Party politics and their own role in providing the right-wing Democratic Party with a pseudo-left veneer.
What makes these developments all the more significant is the political context in which they take place.
President Donald Trump has spent the last month launching a globalcrusade against socialism, which began at the State of the Union address in which he pledged to “renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” These denunciations came alongside appeals to nationalism and anti-immigrant racism.
Shortly following the State of the Union, the Trump administration declared a state of emergency in an attempt to usurp the prerogative of Congress to decide how public funds are to be spent to build his border wall. Then on February 18 in Miami, Trump doubled down on his anti-socialist crusade, delivering in a fascistic speech, “The twilight of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere.”
Trump’s diatribes serve a dual purpose. They are directed at creating the framework for aggression against the Venezuelan government, which is falsely identified as socialist, and subjugating all of Latin American to the dictates of US corporations. They are also directed at the working class in the US and creating the framework for mass repression at home. The Democratic Party’s response to Trump’s increasingly fascist tirades is to adapt to them.
The Democrats are gearing up for an extremely right-wing campaign in the 2020 election. Over the course of the past two years, the Democrats have concentrated their opposition to Trump on the anti-Russia campaign and the McCarthyite style #MeToo witch hunt.
Figures such as Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez play an important role. While occasionally spouting left and socialist phraseology, both have signed onto the right-wing policies and campaigns of the Democrats. Both have pledged their support for “border security.” Weeks after being elected, Ocasio-Cortez stood beside Bernie Sanders, nodding in agreement, as the Vermont senator endorsed the Democrats’ anti-Russia campaign.
A few weeks later, Ocasio-Cortez joined Sanders in the chorus of praise for Senator John McCain, utilizing the death of McCain as an opportunity to shift public opinion in favor of war and political reaction.
Now, both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are lending their support to the operation in Venezuela.
All this is proof once again that there can be no struggle against war except in the fight against capitalism, and there can be no fight against capitalism without a fight against war. In the case of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and all the organizations that promote them—they oppose neither war nor capitalism.

“Deaths of despair” continue to soar

US deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide at all-time high

By Kate Randall 
8 March 2019
More than 150,000 Americans died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicide in 2017. This is more than twice as many as in 1999 and the highest number since recordkeeping began in that year. This skyrocketing rate of so-called deaths of despair was confirmed in a new analysis released this week by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT).
TFAH and WBT analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2016 and 2017 and found that the national rate for deaths due to alcohol, drugs and suicide increased 6 percent over that year, from 43.9 deaths per 100,000 to 46.6 deaths per 100,000. While the rate of increase is lower than in the previous two years, it is still higher than the 4 percent average annual increase since 1999.
The new analysis provides insight into the CDC’s findings last years that showed a drop in life expectancy from 78.7 years to 78.6 years, the third consecutive year-on-year decline. In the years since the 2008 financial crisis many workers and their families have confronted an unprecedented crisis of social misery, which is literally cutting life out from under them.
Certain groups of Americans have been hardest hit by the “deaths of despair” examined in the new analysis:
• Ages 35–54: The rate of death from alcohol, drugs and suicide was 72.4 per 100,000. This was a 35 percent increase over 2007 figures.
• Males of all ages: A death rate of 68.2 deaths per 100,000 was found among men.
• Regional disparities: West Virginia, with 81 deaths per 100,000, and New Mexico, with 77, had the highest rates of “deaths of despair” among the 50 US states.

Death by suicide

The suicide rate in 2017 was 4 percent higher than in 2016, rising from 13.9 deaths per 100,000 to 14.5 deaths per 100,000. In 2017, 47,200 Americans died as a result of suicide. Deaths by suicide were particularly high among males (22.9 per 100,000), whites (16.6 per 100,000) and people living in rural areas (19.4 per 100,000)
Over the past decade suicide rates increased by 22 percent. Suffocation and hanging suicides have risen by 42 percent since 2008, while firearm suicides saw a 22 percent increase. These methods are often chosen by suicide victims over less violent means because they are more likely to result in death.
One of the most disturbing trends over the last decade has been the rise is deaths by children ages 1–17. Although suicide deaths in 2017 were still lower than for other age groups, at 2.4 per 100,000, they have risen by 16 percent since 2016. Over the last decade, 12,660 youth under the age of 17 took their own lives, according to the CDC.
Suicide rates over the past decade have also increased proportionally more among blacks (30 percent rise) and Latinos (36 percent) than among other racial and ethnic groups.
Research published by the CDC last year showed that the overall suicide rate increased by 25 percent across the US over the two decades ending in 2016. These figures paint a picture of a social crisis driving increasing numbers of people, both young and old, to take their own lives in the face of personal crises, mental health issues, substance abuse and economic despair.
In 2017, 35,800 Americans died of alcohol-induced causes. The TFAH/WBT report included deaths from alcohol induced causes, including alcohol poisoning, liver and other diseases. It did not include alcohol-related vehicle accidents, violence or accidental fatalities.
Alcohol-induced deaths rose 2 percent in 2017 over 2016, the smallest increase since 2008–2009. The alcohol death rate has increase by 38 percent since 2008. Alcohol-related deaths were highest among males (16.2 per 100,000), whites (12.2 per 100,000), adults ages 55–74 (26.4 per 100,000) and in rural areas (13 per 100,000).
People 55–74, who should be enjoying their retirement, instead are abusing alcohol in record numbers. Those 18–34—who should be gainfully employed, studying or embarking on new careers—have seen a 69 percent rise in alcohol-related deaths over the past decade, as they suffer through unemployment, layoffs and drown in college debt.

Drug deaths

The synthetic opioids fentanyl and carfentanil are 50 to 100 times and 10,000 times more potent than morphine, respectively. Natural/semisynthetic opioids include hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and heroin.
Two decades ago, synthetic opioids were responsible for less than 10 percent of all drug deaths in the US. In 2017, they accounted for 38 percent of all drug deaths, with an average of 547 Americans succumbing to opioid overdose deaths every week .
The synthetic opioid crisis has taken its toll on every segment of American society, but has especially hit males (with 12.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2017), blacks (8.6 deaths per 100,000), whites (9.5 deaths per 100,000), adults ages 18–54 (15.2 deaths per 100,000) and those living in metropolitan areas.
A recent study showed that opioid overdose death rates among US teens and children have tripled over the past 17 years. The study, published online in JAMA Network Open, found that young children died from either accidentally ingesting narcotics or from intentional poisoning. Teens more often died from unintentional overdoses, using prescription painkillers found in their homes or drugs bought on the streets.
The Northeast region had the highest opioid mortality rate in 2017 (15.7 deaths per 100,000), followed by the Midwest (12.1 deaths per 100,000). Drug deaths in the Midwest, which includes the Rust Belt ravaged by industrial decline, saw a 122 percent increase in all drug deaths from 2007 to 2017.
The surge in synthetic drug deaths must be laid at the feet of the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies, who have flooded neighborhoods with these potent opioids. Drug companies have pushed prescription narcotics through bribing doctors to prescribe the addictive substances, and by secretly and deliberately increasing their addictive properties.
While politicians of both big business parties have feigned outrage at such practices, they are on the payroll of Big Pharma, receiving millions of dollars from drug company lobbyists. In 2018 alone, the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent a record $280 million on their lobbying efforts.
The war against the health and lives of American workers has been a bipartisan conspiracy conducted over decades as part of a conscious strategy to claw back the gains of the working class begun over a century ago.
For the 150,000 Americans who died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicides in 2017, millions more have been affected—family, friends, co-workers. But for politicians in Congress and pharmaceutical CEOs this devastating toll is seen as the “cost of doing business.”
The US health care crisis—exemplified by these “deaths of despair” and falling life-expectancy—is a true national emergency, in contrast to the “national emergency” on the Southern US border fabricated by Donald Trump and his fascistic advisers.
The epidemic of alcohol-, drug- and suicide-related deaths is a social crisis that requires a socialist response. Such social misery cannot be battled under conditions where the health and welfare of the vast majority is subjugated to the private wealth of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies and giant healthcare chains. These capitalist enterprises must be expropriated, transformed into public utilities and run on the basis of social need, not profit.

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