Four-decade high inflation has prompted the Federal Reserve to keep raising its key interest rate, which is currently in a range of 3% to 3.25%. A little more than six months ago, that rate was near zero. The sharp rate hikes have pushed mortgage rates up to 15-year highs, and made other borrowing costlier. The Fed hopes that higher interest rates will slow borrowing and spending and push inflation closer to its traditional 2% target.
Fed officials have warned that the unemployment rate will likely have to rise as part of their fight against rising prices, and last week's jobs report likely snuffed out any hope that the Fed would pause rate increases when it meets in early November.
Ingredients
- 1 package (16 ounces) uncooked spaghetti
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large green pepper, chopped
- 1 can (14 ounces) stewed tomatoes
- 1 can (10-1/2 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
- 1 can (10-1/2 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
- 1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes and green chiles
- 2 teaspoons sugar, optional
- 1 package (16 ounces) Velveeta, cubed
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
- Minced fresh parsley, optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add onion and pepper. Cook and stir until tender, 5-7 minutes. Drain stewed tomatoes, reserving the liquid, and chop tomatoes. Stir in soups, tomatoes and sugar if desired.
- Drain spaghetti; add to sauce mixture with Velveeta and chicken and if desired, reserved liquid. Transfer to a greased 13x9x2-in. baking dish. Cover and bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until bubbly, 5-10 minutes longer. If desired, sprinkle with parsley.
Dear brothers and sisters,
In less than one week, you will begin receiving ballots in the mail for the UAW elections. I have included information on how to vote and how to obtain a ballot if you don’t get one on my website. I urge all of you to vote, and to vote for me, Will Lehman, for UAW president. I am campaigning to build rank-and-file power on the shop floor in opposition to the entire UAW apparatus.
I am writing to you today, however, on another matter that is critical to the interests of all workers, in the US and throughout the world. That is the case of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Assange is currently imprisoned in the United Kingdom and faces extradition to the US, where he would be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. He could receive a 175-year sentence or even be executed.
Julian Assange (Photo by David G. Silvers, Cancillería del Ecuador / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Assange is being persecuted for one reason and one reason alone: He revealed the truth about the actions of the American government abroad, the same government that represents the corporations that exploit us here in the United States.
One of the most significant initial exposures by WikiLeaks was a video, released in 2010, depicting the US Army killing unarmed civilians and journalists in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The footage was filmed three years earlier, in 2007, in the early years of the US occupation of Iraq. I urge all of you to watch this video, which is titled “Collateral Murder.”
The video was followed by the release of the Iraq and Afghan war logs in 2010 and the Guantanamo files in 2011. These documents, which were made available to the public thanks to the heroic actions of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, exposed a lie that is central to the propaganda of the US government, Democrat and Republican alike: that the wars abroad are about defending democracy.
For this reason, Assange has been subjected to more than a decade of vicious and uninterrupted persecution. He is currently in London’s Belmarsh maximum-security prison, where he recently contracted COVID-19. The UK High Court ruled late last year that he could be extradited to the US, even though the trial itself revealed that the CIA had plotted to kidnap and murder him.
Beyond his personal fate, there are two critical issues for workers in the defense of Assange.
First, the persecution of Assange is an attack on basic democratic rights, including the First Amendment right to free speech and a free press. Assange is guilty of telling us the truth, of exposing lies that the government does not want exposed.
The corporations and the wealthy in this country depend on a bought-and-paid-for media, which parrots whatever the government tells them. We experience this every day, when workers are denounced in the media for our efforts to secure a decent wage and a future for ourselves and our families. If an individual can be jailed and prosecuted for revealing true information, it sets a dangerous precedent that will be used against any worker who speaks out and opposes the demands of the corporations, aided and abetted by the union apparatus.
Second, Assange has helped to expose the reality of American militarism. How much money has been spent and how many lives lost, including of US soldiers, to wage endless war abroad? And for what? They throw around words like “democracy” and “freedom” to convince workers that these wars are worth the cost, but the reality is that they are about securing the domination of American corporations over the entire globe. More than 1 million Iraqis and Afghans have died to achieve this end.
The consequences of these wars are felt by all of us. More than $1 trillion is expended on the US military every year, while they claim that no money is available to provide decent living conditions for workers. One veteran kills him or herself every 80 minutes in the US, the consequence of post-traumatic stress disorder from what they saw and experienced at war. As soon as their bodies are no longer useful to the ruling class, veterans are essentially discarded by the government.
Now, the Biden administration is escalating a conflict with Russia that Biden himself said last week could lead to “Armageddon”—that is, the annihilation of the entire planet in nuclear war. And what is this all about? The government of Vladimir Putin represents the oligarchs in Russia, and the invasion of Ukraine must be opposed by all workers. However, this invasion was a response to the expansion of the US-led NATO military alliance up to Russia’s borders and the massive armament of Ukraine by the US.
Everything that the media tells us about this war is a lie. It is not a war about “democracy.” Ukraine’s government is comprised of neo-Nazis who praise people who helped carry out the Holocaust during World War Two. The oligarchs who run Ukraine recently passed a labor law eliminating the right of millions of workers to collectively bargain. You won’t hear that on the nightly news.
The same military-industrial complex that provoked the war in Iraq is escalating war against Russia today, but on an even larger and more dangerous scale. The US banks and corporations are fighting to control Eastern Europe at the expense of their Russian rivals. The US ruling elite is prepared to make the working class suffer greatly, and even sacrifice millions of lives, to expand the domination of American corporations.
Workers in the US and throughout the world have no interest in the war. We have the same interests as workers in Russia, Ukraine and in every country. We are exploited by the same corporations. We confront the same problems. We will suffer the same consequences if the catastrophe of nuclear war is not prevented.
Workers should know that the labor movement has a long and proud tradition of defending democratic rights, as these rights are critical for all workers. It should also be recalled that the UAW withdrew from the AFL-CIO in 1968 in opposition to the Vietnam War. The fact that the trade unions no longer even raise these critical issues is part of the same process that has led to their domination by a privileged apparatus that serves the interests of the companies.
For these reasons, it is critical that all workers take a stand in defense of Julian Assange. It will not be through appeals to the ruling elite and their politicians that his freedom will be secured, but only through our intervention. We must connect the fight to defend our interests with the defense of Assange, the defense of democratic rights, and opposition to war.
Sincerely,
Will Lehman
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Thursday:
Thursday, October 13, 2022. No president named in Iraq as yet, we look at fake ass Tulsi Gabbard and the stupidity of referring to her as 'anti-war,' we look at the sexist nature of some people and explain why it's not a feminist's job to defend women under attack when these women promote a pedophile.
I've noted this before but there's an issue in the e-mails -- both the public and the private accounts -- so let me repeat: Posting doesn't mean I agree with something. It doesn't even mean, if it's a video, that I've streamed it. There are all sorts of opinions in the world and not everyone has to agree with me. "BJG Calls Out Tulsi Gabbard on The Hill’s Rising / Michael Tracy vs Fiorella Isabel (Twitter Beef!)" has a video by THE VANGUARD that's bothered a few people. I can tell you it was posted because of the BJG aspect. I don't think Bri's right. THE VANGUARD does and I was planning on addressing BJG and Tulsi Gabbard today and thought I'd offer their take. We'd already posted Bri's take and I'll probably include in this snapshot as well.
I didn't stream the video. I've seen it this morning -- the second part which is the part that's upset people. THE VANGUARD are two males, they are both Anglo-White and they are proof that so-called 'identity politics' are needed and necessary.
They're tickled pink by Michael Tracy's latest sexist attacks. They're not aware enough to grasp that these are sexist attacks. He's attacked this go round Tara Reade and Fiorella Isabella. And they're chuckling and they're laughing at it and they make asses of themselves in the process and flaunt their stupidity.
When you're a White male, you can be stupid with regards to Michael Tracey because it doesn't effect you. So they're like ''damn, son." And just tickled by what he's done.
Why do we need identity politics? So that everyone's included.
2006 isn't that long ago. There is no reason in the world that I should have been the only one calling out THE NEW YORK TIMES for the way they . . . buried Coretta Scott King. She was a legend, she was the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King. Instead of her getting her due, the paper went on board with Gail Collins' friend -- a bad writer popular with post-menapausal women.
Now I never liked what Wendy Wasserman tried to pretend were plays. But I had no need to say it. She was unimportant and, in the years since, she's proven to be unimportant. Jamie Lee Curtis loves Wendy. Loves her so much she couldn't stop talking about Wendy's death. The unimportant dead playwright had nothing on Coretta -- yes, Coretta was a friend. But Coretta was also a historical person, a legend.
Yet piece after piece, column after column was done on Wendy. Even an editorial was done on Wendy.
It was everything that people mean when they talk about 'White feminism.'
I had to scream, beg and guilt trip to get Coretta mentioned in a column -- and that was weeks after she died and that was a mention -- not even the focus of the whole column.
In what world is this White writer as significant as Coretta?
In no such world.
By the way, long before Oliver Stone concluded Sy Hersh wasn't trustworthy, Coretta and I already came to that conclusion and purposely dropped out of an action because he was spying on it. Oliver jokes -- or maybe he's serious -- that Seymour is CIA. We didn't think that. We thought it was a whorish reporter who would go back to his CIA sources with anything in the hopes that they would feed him something in exchange that he could write up. Sy's going to pop back in, give it a minute or two.
But that's why identity politics matter. It is not an equal playing field. Some failed writer who had no success outside of NYC is applauded by Gail Collins who misuses her position at the paper and Coretta is ignored.
And we shouldn't have to be the only site calling it out but drop back to that week of coverage and you'll see we were the only ones to say something -- and we did so daily.
The two hosts of THE VANGUARD are not idiots. But they have failed repeatedly to overcome their limited scope and to see the world beyond themselves.
Michael Tracey is a sexist pig. We noted that here and, since the math is always trusted, we made it clear when we noted how he tore apart Kamala Harris when she dropped out of the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
What Michael did to Tara Reade was a sexist attack and so was what he did to Fiorella.
Bob Somerby's learned -- after years of critiques here -- that he will be held accountable. He does -- He did the same thing Tracey does -- he critiques men and he rips apart women.
I'm not the tone police. I own no pearls to clutch. You want to go to town on Kamala, I'm not going to be bothered unless I start noticing that you use kid gloves when it comes to men. Bob loved to go after Kit, for example. And she wasn't the only one. And he'd tear them apart. Men who did the same things he accused the women of? They would get a pass and they could be redeemed.
You started to grasp, if you paid attention, that something more was going on.
And it's the same with Tracey.
Some people e-mailing -- even some community members -- argued that it's my role to defend Tara and Fiorealla.
Hell, no, it's not.
Let's note this from Matt Bai's "Scott Ritter's Other War" (THE NEW YORK TIMES):
When prosecutors were successful in moving to unseal his New York files and presented evidence from those arrests too, Ritter steadfastly maintained that he was aware, in both instances, that he was talking to undercover cops. He knew his online activities needed to be stopped, Ritter said, so he arranged to meet the officers involved, playing along with the notion that they were teenage girls, so that he could get himself arrested and be forced to face his demons. This would have been a more persuasive defense, perhaps, had one of the arresting detectives not testified that Ritter, upon seeing the police lying in wait for him, tried to evade capture by slamming down the gas pedal and jumping a curb, T.J. Hooker-style.
I love that story, don't you?
How many times has Scott Ritter been arrested now for seeking out girls, not women, online for sex? When Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House, Pig Ritter would insist those arrests (plural) were political targeting because he spoke out against the Iraq War and that there was nothing to them. There was everything to them because they were true. Barack Obama becomes president and Pig Ritter loses his excuse when he's busted yet again and this time they don't do a slap on the wrist as they did more than once previously. This time he has to go court. And he's convicted. And he serves time in prison.
Somehow, he's being propped up now by members of the left and 'left.'
Not by me. I called that piece of garbage out and pointed out that if you were promoting him, you were promoting assaults on girls. I pointed out that his lies were lies and, if Amy Goodman continued to promote him, she should accept any blame the next time he was arrested. Now Goodman grasped that and Ritter no longer appeared on her show. That was before his last known arrest on this -- the one that sent him to prison.
I have no sympathy for Jimmy Dore, Danny Haiphong, et al, who think you put a pedophile on your show, you applaud him and talk about how great he is, and never let you audience know that he is a convicted pedophile, that's he has had to register as a sex offender. I have no sympathy for them.
In their limited scope, they don't think about what happens if some young girl watches their show and is led to believe that Pig Ritter is a great guy and then she becomes the target of his pervy desires.
Fiorella put him on. I believe my response to that was to post that video with a note that he was a registered sex offender, a convicted pedophile and that if you were going to have him on your show then you needed to note that. None of them do.
After that, when he came back on CONVO COUCH, we never noted it again.
I'm not here to promote a man who is danger to young girls -- such a danger that he was sent to prison for it.
Sy Hersh, I told you we'd be coming back, destroyed his own reputation He went around the country with Pig Boy. That's why THE NEW YORKER lost interest in publishing Sy. I was corrected on that when I was questioning why he had to publish in THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. It was because Sy had joined at the hip with Scott Ritter and THE NEW YORKER had warned him against that. Then Pig Boy got convicted and sent to prison. That's why THE NEW YORKER lost interest in Sy -- and he was told that but he didn't tell the world that, did he?
It ruined his repuation.
What's the guy's name? Seth Rich? Is that his name? Sy thought he had some story there -- all he had was the closing shot of his career. He's seen as nuts now and I don't shed a tear for him. He chose to promote a pedophile, he can live with the damage.
And Fiorella did as well. I'm not shedding tears for her. Tara likes to pretend she's all about defending women and girls but Tara has never called out a convicted pedophile named Scott Ritter.
It is not my job to defend every woman. Being a feminist does not mean that I have to. It especially does not require me to defend them when they are enabling someone like Scott Ritter.
They are on their own.
Now Briahna Joy Gray.
Everything Bri says may be true. That's not my problem with her statements. My problem is she doesn't say enough. Tulsi Gabbard announced this week that she was leaving the Democratic Party. Bri is appalled because Tulsi's statements may make it seem that the GOP is the party of anti-war because of Tulsi's brave stand because of --
Cut the crap. It is appalling that men like Jimmy Dore lie to their viewers and insist Tulsi was some great anti-war voice.
She wasn't. She had no concern for the Iraqi people -- a fact evident in her 2020 campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Now she wants to call Joe Biden all these things.
And I'm not having it from fake ass Tulsi.
In the final debate that candidate Tulsi made the stage for, we were all expecting the big showdown. This was anti-war Tulsi. She'd played that anti-war arm chair zealot over and over. And the war, she'd tell voters over and over, was her biggest issue. It effected everything -- including how much money we had to spend on other issues -- needed issues.
Bill de Blasio and others had confronted Joe Biden during the debates of the candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Tulsi hadn't. And she had an excuse, she wasn't on the stage with him. The field was so crowded back then that they had to divide them up into groups.
So she'd go on MSNBC, for example, on June 26, 2019 and slam Joe for his actions regarding Iraq but she wasn't on stage with him.
Joe Biden incorrectly described himself as the father of a man who "lost his life in Iraq" at a speech in Colorado on Wednesday.
Speaking near the town of Vail, Biden designated Camp Hale, a 436-square-mile site where the 10th Mountain Division were trained during World War II, as a national monument.
Christian Datoc (WASHINGTON EXAMINER) reports:
"American soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division scaled that 1800-foot cliff, at night, caught the Germans by surprise, captured key positions, and broke through the Germans' defensive line at a pivotal point in the war," the president stated before mentioning Beau. "Just imagine — I mean it sincerely — I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice — genuine sacrifice they all made."
The White House did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Biden was slammed for claiming that his son, who died aged 46 of brain cancer, lost his life in Iraq. The president made the remark while announcing the Camp Hale Continental Divide a national monument, Washington Examiner reported.
Thanks, Tulsi. It could have been Bernie, it could have been anyone. Generic Democrat could have carried the 2020 election.
In Iraq today, there is hope that the Parliament might be able to finally name a president. But there are, at best, distractions. REUTERS notes, "Nine rockets landed on Thursday around the Iraqi capital's Green Zone, home to government buildings and foreign missions, the military said, shortly before parliament began a session to elect a new president amid a protracted political deadlock."
We'll wind down with this from Black Alliance for Peace:
For Immediate Release
Media Contact
info@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136
OCTOBER 7, 2022 — The Haitian people have been protesting for months against ongoing foreign occupation and U.S. support for a corrupt government that was not elected by a popular vote or mandate. In the last weeks, popular protests and uprisings have intensified, but the U.S. and its allies have responded by claiming all the disruption in the country amounts to “gang violence” that needs to be quelled with increased foreign intervention, on top of the ongoing BINUH occupation. In addition to the ongoing UN occupation, nine thousand Dominican soldiers are stationed on the border with Haiti and videos have recently surfaced of Dominican military forces entering Haitian territory. Given the Dominican Republic’s history of anti-Haitian sentiment and violence, this is particularly concerning.
Responding to these circumstances, on September 30, The Black Alliance for Peace delivered an open letter to CARICOM (the Caribbean Community), urging the 11-nation group to support Haitian sovereignty and oppose further calls for foreign intervention. BAP reminded the leaders of CARICOM that the situation in Haiti could not be reduced to a sensationalist assertion that so-called gangs were behind the popular uprisings on the island:
"...the latest demonstrations are a direct result of two factors. First, they are a response to the everyday economic misery caused by rising inflation, especially through the staggering increase in the price of fuel. Second, they are part of a long history of demands for the end of foreign meddling in Haitian affairs, especially via the installation and maintenance of an unelected and illegitimate government by the Core Group, of which the United Nations is a part."
BAP member Netfa Freeman delivering open letter to CARICOM to the Embassy of the Republic of Suriname
BAP member Rebecca Bonhomme delivering open letter to CARICOM to the embassy of Antigua and Barbuda
BAP urges popular mobilization against continued U.S. intervention in Haiti and in support of Haitian sovereignty. This Sunday, October 9 at 4pm EST in Washington, DC, leaders from 87+ Haitian-American, faith, and human rights organizations will convene at Black Lives Matter Plaza and march to the White House “to demand the Biden Administration stop propping up a corrupt regime that has plunged Haiti into chaos, and to let Haitians decide their own future, including creating a legitimate Haitian-led transition back to democracy and security”. We encourage all who can to show up and support the Haitian people to decide their own future.
The Black Alliance for Peace has been consistent. The crisis of Haitian democracy is the result of the colonialist interventions of the U.S. and other Western powers. As we said in our communication with CARICOM:
"BAP absolutely stands against any foreign armed intervention in Haiti, and continues to demand an end to the unending meddling in Haitian affairs by the United States and Western powers. We call for the dissolution of the imperialist Core Group, an end to Western support for the unelected and unaccountable puppet government of Ariel Henry, and for the respect of Haitian sovereignty."
We say No to Occupation. Yes to Self-Determination.
Banner photo: Canada Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, U.S. Sec of State Anthony Blinken, and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro in a meeting regarding Haiti. (courtesy of @Almagro_OEA2015 on Twitter)
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