Some updates.

capitalism_doesnt_work.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". In the US, the most developed Capitalist country, the richest country in the history of the world:
 
-- [1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/), despite having enough food to feed [10 billion people.](https://www.oxfam.ca/there-enough-food-feed-world) Half of all food produced is [thrown away by retailers.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect) [Food waste in 2018 enough to feed world's hungry 4 times over.](https://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-waste-enough-feed-world-s-hungry-four-times-over)
+- [1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/), despite having enough food to feed [10 billion people.](https://www.oxfam.ca/there-enough-food-feed-world) Half of all food produced is [thrown away by retailers.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect) [Food waste in 2018 enough to feed world's hungry 4 times over.](https://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-waste-enough-feed-world-s-hungry-four-times-over) [An analysis by the Brookings Institution conducted the summer of 2021 found that, 27.5% of households with children were food insecure — meaning some 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity. A separate analysis by researchers at Northwestern found insecurity has more than tripled among households with children to 29.5% in late 2020.](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers)
 - [UNICEF](http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc06_chap1.pdf), [RESULTS](https://web.archive.org/web/20080527011602/http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=241), and [Bread for the World](http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/facts.html) estimate that **15 million** people worldwide die **each year** from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are **children under the age of five**. [2](http://archive.is/2CvOW). 
 - In the US alone, [20-40k deaths every year](http://obamacarefacts.com/facts-on-deaths-due-to-lack-of-health-insurance-in-us/) because of lack of health insurance / care. On average, that's 300k over the last decade.
 - [Empty homes outnumber the homeless by 6 to 1](http://archive.today/2014.05.23-032153/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html). Bank foreclosures and housing speculators have left 18.9 million empty homes. [2.5 million **homeless children**, or ~1 / 30](https://www.newsweek.com/child-homelessness-us-reaches-historic-high-report-says-285052). In the UK, [there are 10x more empty houses than homeless families](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/housing-crisis-10-empty-homes-5008151). In [Christmas, 2019, more than half a million homeless people across the US.](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/24/pers-d24.html) [In 2019 in Los Angeles,  ~60k people are homeless on any given night.](http://www.laalmanac.com/social/so14.php)

socialism_faq.md

@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@
 - [History and human nature.](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/crash_course_socialism.md#history-and-human-nature)
 - [What about human nature?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2yk3xl/what_about_human_nature_answer_but_add_yours_too/)
 - [Doesn't socialism go against human nature?](http://newdemocracyworld.org/culture/human_nature.html)
+- [Advertising is a cancer](http://jacek.zlydach.pl/blog/2019-07-31-ads-as-cancer.html)
 
 ## Schools of thought
 
@@ -134,6 +135,7 @@
 * [Comrade Hakim - On the difference betweeen "liberatarian" and "authoritarian" socialism.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GM893c1X8s)
 * [Huey P. Newton on the faults of western anarchism.](https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bpp/bpp161168.htm)
 * [What is the communist response to a lot of Anarchist criticisms? A Megathread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/cewriu/masterpost_for_defending_socialism_against/)
+* [The tyranny of structurelessness - The failure of anarchist-style organizing in the womens movement.](https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm)
 * [What are Mao's contributions to Marxism? (MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
 * [What is Stalinism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/15g4xo/what_is_stalinism/)
 * [Looking for reference to types of communism.](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1fcc6o/looking_for_reference_to_types_of_communism/)
@@ -151,10 +153,12 @@
 * What about the USSR, wasn't it authoritarian? Watch this [brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be), or read his article, [Left anticommunism, the unkindest cut](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/), [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51KSe96VCuI)
 * [Why do most Marxists dislike ultra-lefts / left-communists (the "not real socialism" crowd) ?](https://medium.com/@leohezhao/left-communists-and-ultra-leftists-are-reactionaries-2d2fca4c991a)
 * [Hakim - Why the USSR was socialist - A critique of left-communism.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKggZ22izDs)
+* [Cockshott - In what sense was the USSR socialist?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu85byBBddY)
 * [Cockshott - Socialism and surplus - Why the USSR was socialist.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-T-Fr6DvFw)
 * [Where are communists on the political compass?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/f4a9w9/where_do_communists_fall_on_the_political_spectrum/fhozyg4/)
 * [Lenin - "Left-Wing" Communism: An infantile disorder.](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/) [Audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjob1T8DTNDG7EQaN18eSJ97m)
 * [Western Marxism's martyrdom / purity complex.](https://blackagendareport.com/western-marxism-loves-purity-and-martyrdom-not-real-revolution)
+- [The CIA reads french postmodernist theory: how the CIA pushed "post-Marxist" theory to build support for imperialism.](https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-cia-reads-french-theory-on-the-intellectual-labor-of-dismantling-the-cultural-left/)
 
 ## Did economic planning work?
 
@@ -189,6 +193,7 @@
 - [Halim Alrah - Why liberal democracies are a sham. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYodY6o172A)
 - [What about social democracy / democratic socialism / the Nordic model? Isn't Sweden socialist?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd03a8Pm1hs )
 - [Why can't you acheive socialism through voting in our current democracies?](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/a9tgff/lsc_insulted_some_democrats/ecmjyjs/)
+- [Paul Cockshott - On Socialism and Democracy.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHN0foV4Ntk) [2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98lvNhNfse4&t=1518s) [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjKYVQd4r9E)
 - [Comrade Hakim - Why electoralism always fails.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXbaZXQAbuU)
 - [Why not just vote leftists into office: what's wrong with democratic socialism?](https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/duk2yy/the_problem_with_democratic_socialism_in_related/)
 - [W.E.B. Dubois - Why I don't vote](http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/298.html)
@@ -200,6 +205,7 @@
 - [How the capitalist democratic party sabotaged the Sanders campaign.](https://medium.com/@rainershea612/the-democratic-party-is-fully-prepared-to-steal-the-primary-from-sanders-again-51b7b1130a8d)
 - [Why Sanders is not a socialist - Anticonquista ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbcrJT485r8)
 - [Paying one half of the poor to kill the other half: Why Marxists should not support Sanders.](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/f7g3dj/paying_one_half_of_the_poor_to_kill_the_other/)
+- [The propaganda multiplier: How the wests propaganda machine functions.](https://swprs.org/the-propaganda-multiplier/)
 
 ## Pacifism and Violence
 
@@ -316,6 +322,7 @@
   - [Can't we change the democrats from within?](https://socialistworker.org/2005-1/533/533_13_TwoParties.php) 
   - [What about "moderates" like Jimmy Carter? Can't we push them to change?](https://socialistworker.org/2006-1/572/572_09_Carter.php)
   - [Can't we use voting to solve our problem? Is violence really necessary? What about Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi?](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxrO7p-6w_k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZ5IIhnzFBOImzySh827FyK)
+- [Malcolm X on liberals.](https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1349144127615676418?s=20)
 
 ## On Leninism
 
@@ -473,8 +480,11 @@
 * [Debastardising Mao.](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1ecf32/debastardising_mao/)
 * [Deng on why Mao's legacy must be upheld.](http://cpcchina.chinadaily.com.cn/fastfacts/2010-10/18/content_11425373.htm)
 * [What about Tibet? (95% of the population were slaves or feudal serfs before China invaded in 1959)](http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZjKom_Qj0jcDReaMb_r52z)
+* [Tibet, China, and the Violent reaction of a wealthy elite.](https://historicly.substack.com/p/tibet-china-and-the-violent-reaction)
 * [Mao's liberation of Tibet](https://stalinsmoustache.org/2018/09/19/maos-liberation-of-tibet/)
+* [Dalai Lama - Forgive Pinochet](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/forgive-pinochet-says-dalai-lama-1.187150)
 * [Dalai Lama admits his organization recieved millions from the CIA yearly](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/02/world/world-news-briefs-dalai-lama-group-says-it-got-money-from-cia.html).
+* [Dalai Lama - If the next Dalai Lama is a female, her face must be attractive, otherwise its not much use... she should use makeup.](https://twitter.com/DanielDumbrill/status/1345465786907774976?s=20)
 * [Did China really try to save the GDR?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/dsvsf9/newly_declassified_documents_released_by_german/)
 * [Didn't China cause the Coronavirus? A Megathread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/fi390n/china_and_the_coronavirus/)
 * [What about China's corono-virus response? Is there really any sinophobia?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/evwls8/megathread_addressing_sinophobia_and_chinas/) [2](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/canada-chinese-community-battles-racist-backlash-amid-coronavirus-outbreak?__twitter_impression=true) [3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GasWB8s-tqs&feature=youtu.be)
@@ -573,6 +583,7 @@
 - [“Over 900,000 real name signatures in "Protecting justice & supporting extradition" petition. Reasons listed: HK criminal committed murder in TW; HK current extradition law has flaws & needs amendment asap; HK shouldn't be fugitive heaven, extradition amendment has many safeguards”](https://mobile.twitter.com/redniangzijun/status/1139177921631965189).
 - [Hong Kong - British vs Chinese Perspective.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/dg0zpn/imagine_being_china_for_a_moment_and_having_to/)
 - [How the US seeded a color revolution in Hong Kong.](https://medium.com/@italian4hk/agents-of-chaos-how-the-u-s-seeded-a-colour-revolution-in-hong-kong-2b5050b5ba0f)
+- [@CatContentOnly - A thread on how nearly every anti-China op-ed writer, is funded by US weapons contractors.](https://twitter.com/catcontentonly/status/1343282499833765890?s=20)
 
 ### What about China spying on its own people?
 
@@ -627,13 +638,16 @@
 
 ### What about the Tiananmen square massacre?
 
-- [Tiananmen Square "Massacre", A Propaganda Hoax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6RT_s1T050).
-- [The truth about the Tiananmen square protests](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPI8xlnrwg)
-- [It wasn't a massacre of peaceful students, but a skirmish between PLA soldiers and armed detachments from the pro-capitalist / free market reform movement.]( https://www.liberationnews.org/tiananmen-the-massacre-that-wasnt/) The protest movement, as evidenced by their own accounts, called for market liberalisation, and free market reforms, rallying around a replica of the statue of liberty. After the movement had been building in the square for seven weeks, unarmed soldiers were sent in to disperse the protesters, after which many soldiers were beaten to death, torched, and lynched. The New York Times death count went from 2600, to many thousands, to 8000, to tens of thousands. In reality only around ~200 (including soldiers) were killed or trampled, in smaller clashes outside the square. The on-scene New York Times reporter disavowed the article, especially about machine-gunning of protesters. [A wikileaks cable](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html) from a US ambassador to the US state department, confirmed that no killings or machine-gunnings took place in the square.
-- [A British Lie]( https://www.globalresearch.ca/tiananmen-square-massacre-is-a-myth-all-were-remembering-are-british-lies/5386080).
-- [Deng XiaoPing was ill at the time, and the CIA had an inside man inside the party, Zhao Ziyang, dubbed China's Gorbachev, who promised to open the door to market liberalisation if the protest movement had succeeded, like those of Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Georgia, and the USSR.](https://medium.com/@leohezhao/notes-for-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-incident-f098ef6efbc2)
+- [Notes for the 30th anniversary of the Tiannment incident.](https://medium.com/@leohezhao/notes-for-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-incident-f098ef6efbc2)
+- [It wasn't a massacre of peaceful students, but a skirmish between PLA soldiers and armed detachments from the pro-capitalist / free market reform movement.](https://www.liberationnews.org/tiananmen-the-massacre-that-wasnt/) The protest movement, as evidenced by their own accounts, called for market liberalisation, and free market reforms, rallying around a replica of the statue of liberty. After the movement had been building in the square for seven weeks, unarmed soldiers were sent in to disperse the protesters, after which many soldiers were beaten to death, torched, and lynched. The New York Times death count went from 2600, to many thousands, to 8000, to tens of thousands. In reality only around ~200 (including soldiers) were killed or trampled, in smaller clashes outside the square. The on-scene New York Times reporter disavowed the article, especially about machine-gunning of protesters. [A wikileaks cable](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html) from a US ambassador to the US state department, confirmed that no killings or machine-gunnings took place in the square.
+- [Latin American diplomat eyewitness account of June 3-4 events on Tiananmen Square wikileaks (PDF)](https://peds-ansichten.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1989-07-12_Lilley_Gallo_Tiananmen_WikiLeaks.pdf)
+- [There was a Spanish television crew that covered the entire Tiananmen Square incident as it unfolded. Their footage showed that there was no massacre. A few things worthy of pointing out - Liu Xiaobo and Hou Dejian, both student leaders of the Tiananmen protests, have been recorded as saying that they never saw anyone killed at the protests.](https://vimeo.com/448970787)
 - [The protest movement followed the line of "color revolutions", in which the US tried to destabilize and create counter-revolutions in eastern Europe and Latin America after the fall of the USSR. The strategy was to stir division within and without, by inundating the media with news of massacres of "peaceful", pro-capitalist / market reformers.](http://www.fightbacknews.org/2019/6/4/reflections-tiananmen-square-and-attempt-end-chinese-socialism) 
 - [The defeat of a counter revolution in China](https://frso.org/main-documents/looking-back-at-tiananmen-square-the-defeat-of-counter-revolution-in-china/).
+- [Interviews from some of the student leaders.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu3zmbFGwQA)
+- [An account from a resident.](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAChinese/comments/grdaqv/thoughts_on_tiananmen_square_massacre/g45hnv0)
+- [Tiananmen Square "Massacre", A Propaganda Hoax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6RT_s1T050).
+- [The truth about the Tiananmen square protests](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPI8xlnrwg)
 
 ### What is Radio Free Asia?    
 
@@ -804,6 +818,7 @@
 - His books Animal Farm and 1984 are used widely as anti-communist propaganda in schools in the US and UK. So much so that [his animated animal farm film was funded by the CIA](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/how-cia-brought-animal-farm-to-the-screen/).  There's a reason they teach George Orwell in schools and not Franz Fanon, Che, Huey P Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, CLR James, etc. 
 - [Orwell, anti-communist: A criticism of Orwell and his Work - By Isaac Asimov.](http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm)
 - [Orwell - "I have never really disliked Hitler."](https://twitter.com/SarahTheHaider/status/1300360063845126144?s=20)
+- [He attempted to rape one of his first courtships: "Previously the young couple had kissed, but now, during a late summer walk, he had wanted more. At only five feet to his six feet and four inches, Jacintha had shouted, screamed and kicked before running home with a torn skirt and bruised hip. It was "this" rather than any gradual parting of the ways that explains why Jacintha broke off all contact with her childhood friend, never to learn that he had transformed himself into George Orwell."](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/17/georgeorwell.biography)
 - [Rainer Shea - Orwells 1984 - Anti-communist propaganda.](https://medium.com/@rainershea612/orwells-1984-is-a-deeply-paranoid-piece-of-anti-communist-propaganda-15a741c85d9a)
 - [Orwell worked as a British imperial cop in Burma for 5 years](http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5e/entry-3083.html). His short story, [Shooting an Elephant](http://www.denisedrespling.com/review-shooting-elephant-george-orwell/), uses ethnic slurs and denigrates burmese people. 
 - [A reddit thread on George Orwell](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/797lnl/as_a_communist_how_do_you_feel_the_works_of/), [Thread #2](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/7dhx99/for_those_on_the_right_who_think_orwell_wrote/dpy4zik/).
@@ -828,6 +843,7 @@
 ### Noam Chomsky
 
 - [Is Chomsky right about Marxist-Leninists being evil?](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/4394rt/how_do_you_guys_feel_about_chomskys_views_on/czgj95w/)
+- [Roderic Day - On Chomsky](https://redsails.org/on-chomsky/)
 - [Awful chomsky takes.](https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1245340127968333829?s=20)
 - [Gowans - The US has produced very few anti-imperialists: Chomsky isn't among them.](https://gowans.blog/2019/11/03/the-united-states-has-produced-very-few-anti-imperialists-noam-chomsky-isnt-among-them/)
 - https://archive.li/YVNk3
@@ -872,6 +888,7 @@
   - [Says her policies are more reminiscent of Norway than Caracas, repeating the right wing myth of socialism destroying Venezuela, and wrongly conflating nordic social democracy with socialism.](https://i.imgur.com/fTJfV2k.png)
   - [Says its possible to be both a "democratic socialist" and a Capitalist. ](https://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/aoc-can-you-be-a-democratic-socialist-and-a-capitalist-it-s-possible-1439125059571?fbclid=IwAR1PmnyrP28stOyVqNP5Bf4vjqEtV5S4MXQIY4sDgcv-XWgEn1u5Z0ne3J8)
   - [Thinks the US military is socialist. Thinks social services like schools and libraries are socialist.](https://i.imgur.com/JHOZDlg.png)
+  - [After the 2021 capitol riots, AOC defends law and order, and calls the republicans cowards for not supporting the police.](https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1349405734128250885)
   - [AOC selling "law and order" and "family values" and not being "weak on crime" as socialist values. ](https://i.imgur.com/VRKjkXV.jpg)
   - [Defends the NYPD during the George Floyd protests, since there are women, black, latino and asian american cops.](https://i.imgur.com/FT8GMTf.png)
   - [AOC wants abolish ICE, only to replace it with a resurrected INS, yet another agency whose goal was breaking up families. ](https://i.imgur.com/ficPkrO.jpg)
@@ -978,6 +995,7 @@
 - [Helped work to overthrow Yugoslavia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_for_the_Defence_of_Human_Rights)
 - [He's anti-USSR, anti bolivarian revolution, supported the coups in Ukraine and Libya](https://alphonsevanworden.tumblr.com/post/146430343445/the-protocols-of-the-learned-lacanian-of)
 - [Thinks socialism died a long time ago in Cuba, that everyone lives there because of a misguided devotion to Castro, and thinks the bolivarian revolution will soon fail.](https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-left-fidelity-castration-slavoj-zizek-fidel-castro-cuba-che-communism)
+- [Defines Marxism: "Marx wanted a return to traditional values."](https://youtu.be/YTCiVDwmZ6U?t=147)
 - [More here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marxism/comments/dlz8me/zizek_criticizes_european_leftists_who_reject/f4yl11f/)
 
 ### What's wrong with Barack Obama?

us_atrocities.md

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ Notes :
 
 ### Middle East
 
+- On November 27th, 2020, Israel [assassinated Iranian nuclear physicist Moshen Fakhrizadeh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohsen_Fakhrizadeh) via a satellite controlled vehicle-mounted machine gun, which then self-detonated after killing him. The attack was likely commited by Israel with US help and foreknowledge.
 - On January 2nd, 2020, [President Donald Trump ordered the drone assassination](https://i.imgur.com/EJYI44G.jpg) of [Iranian General Qassem Soleimani](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/iraq-3-katyusha-rockets-fired-baghdad-airport-200102232817666.html) [2](https://apnews.com/5597ff0f046a67805cc233d5933a53ed), in a blatant act of war against Iran. Soleimani was a beloved figure to the Iranian people, his death sending shockwaves among residents, and a 3-day national mourning period was declared. Hillary Mann Leverett, a former White House National Security official, said the killing of Soleimani was a "declaration of war" on Iran, and is "equivalent to the Iranians assassinating the US defence secretary". The drone attack was part of several targeted [US airstrikes](https://www.fort-russ.com/2020/01/breaking-iranian-general-soleimani-killed-in-illegal-us-airstrikes-on-baghdad/), and comes in the wake of turmoil following [another series of US airstrikes](https://www.axios.com/pentagon-airstrikes-syria-iraq-hezbollah-5f9800dd-b668-4ff7-a3d7-d987f031a1aa.html) in Iraq and Syria [which killed 25 members of the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50951742), after which [outraged Iraqi protesters surrounded the US embassy in Baghdad](https://www.axios.com/us-embassy-baghdad-iraq-attacked-protestors-iran-6e700ad0-d9cc-49cb-868b-3225dc070bd4.html). In response, the US blamed "Iranian infiltrators" for the embassy attack, and [deployed an additional 750 troops](https://www.axios.com/us-embassy-attack-750-troops-deployed-iraq-2ecf4632-2143-4531-bc1a-936cfd5e6553.html), bolstering the 14k troops currently stationed in  [~20 military bases surrounding Iran](https://i.imgur.com/dlyDNr6.jpg). Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia commander, was also killed in a pre-dawn raid on the same day. That evening, another US airstrike in Iraq [killed 6 people.](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Air-Strikes-Targeting-Iraqi-Militia-Kill-Six-Army-Source-20200103-0012.html)
 - In September 2019, the [US killed at least 30 pine nut farmers, and injured 40 others via a drone attack](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/afghanistan-dozens-civilians-killed-drone-attack-190919072728303.html) in the nangarhar province in Afghanistan. Malik Rahat Gul, a tribal elder in Wazir Tangi, said the air raid happened at a time when tired workers, mainly daily wage earners, had gathered near their tent after harvesting pine nuts in a field nearby. "The workers had lit a bonfire and were sitting together when a drone targeted them". This marks the 18th year of war in Afghanistan. 
 - In early 2018, US Navy Seal [Eddie Gallagher stabbed a defenseless teenage captive to death in Iraq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gallagher_\(Navy_SEAL\)). According to two SEAL witnesses, Gallagher said over the radio "he's mine" and walked up to the medic and prisoner, and without saying a word, killed the prisoner by stabbing him repeatedly with his hunting knife. Gallagher and his commanding officer, Lieutenant Jake Portier, then posed for photographs of them standing over the body with some other nearby SEALs. Gallagher then text messaged a friend in California a picture himself holding the dead captive's head by the hair with the explanation "Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.” After he was imprisoned, [Gallagher's other crimes came to light](http://archive.is/9b2fR): fellow soldiers said they witnessed Gallagher shooting and killing an unarmed old man in a white robe, as well as a young girl walking with other girls. Gallagher boasted that he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women. In video interviews with investigators, multiple SEALs described how he would go on solo “gun runs,” emptying loads of heavy machine gun fire into neighborhoods with no apparent targets. “I think he just wants to kill anybody he can,” Corey Scott, a medic from the platoon, told Navy investigators. After his case went public, it became a conservative rallying cry: A website soliciting donations for his defense raised > $375k, and a prominent veterans’ apparel maker sold “Free Eddie” T-shirts. Spurred on by his family, 40 Republican members of Congress signed a letter in March calling for the Navy to free him, and soon after, US President Trump had him released from prison to house arrest. In July, 2019, he was acquitted of all charges. Gallagher was one of three military personnel accused or convicted of war crimes on whose behalf Trump had intervened to pardon or promote. Trump told a rally audience days after his intervention, "I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state." [Gallagher has now started a chain of companies selling clothing and nutritional supplements.](http://archive.is/hgUQC)
@@ -371,6 +372,7 @@ Notes :
 
 ### Workers and the Poor
 
+- [1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/), despite having enough food to feed [10 billion people.](https://www.oxfam.ca/there-enough-food-feed-world) Half of all food produced is [thrown away by retailers.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect) [Food waste in 2018 enough to feed world's hungry 4 times over.](https://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-waste-enough-feed-world-s-hungry-four-times-over) [An analysis by the Brookings Institution conducted the summer of 2021 found that, 27.5% of households with children were food insecure — meaning some 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity. A separate analysis by researchers at Northwestern found insecurity has more than tripled among households with children to 29.5% in late 2020.](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers)
 - An analysis of 2016 data showed that [8 men control as much wealth as half of the world's population](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/15/news/economy/oxfam-income-inequality-men/). Those 8 men are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega, Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg, and are collectively worth $426 billion. [1](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/15/news/economy/oxfam-income-inequality-men/)
 - US authorities have a [long history of murdering striking workers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes) fighting for better conditions, dating back to the 1800s, up to the present day. According to a study in 1969, the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world, and there have been few industries which have been immune.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes#cite_note-1) A long list of these deaths and disputes can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes), and [this article on the Labor History of the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#Organized_labor_1929.E2.80.931955). 
 - US conservatives and authorities have systematically dismantled labor unions over the past few decades, and by 2011 fewer than 7% of employees in the private sector belong to unions. The number of major work stoppages fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010.[129](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-129), [130](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-130) The accumulating weaknesses were exposed when President Ronald Reagan—a former union president—broke the [Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29) strike in 1981, dealing a major blow to unions.[131](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-round-131) Union membership among workers in private industry shrank dramatically, though after 1970 there was growth in employees unions of federal, state and local governments.[132](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-132),[133](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-133) The intellectual mood in the 1970s and 1980s favored deregulation and free competition.[134](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-Derthick218-134) Numerous industries were deregulated, including airlines, trucking, railroads and telephones, over the objections of the unions involved.[135](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-135) Republicans, using conservative [think tanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank) as idea farms, began to push through legislative blueprints to curb the power of public employee unions as well as eliminate business regulations.[128](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-Carter_A._Wilson_2013_256.E2.80.9357-128),[136](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-136) Union weakness in the [Southern United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States) undermined unionization and social reform throughout the nation, and such weakness is largely responsible for the anaemic U.S. [welfare state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state).[137](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-137),[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#Unions_since_1955)
@@ -383,6 +385,7 @@ Notes :
 ---
 - On December 5th, 2019, [police opened fire on a busy highway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Miramar_shootout) in Miramar Florida, while in pursuit of 2 jewel thieves who stole $3k of jewelry, killing the kidnapped UPS driver, the two thieves, and an innocent 70-year-old bystander in traffic. [The graphic video](https://twitter.com/rklueber28/status/1202722185690914817) shows complete negligence for the hostage, and surrounding drivers, all to recover some stolen jewelry. On a GoFundMe page that had raised more than $100,000 by Friday evening, Roy Ordonez wrote that his brother, the UPS driver, had been gunned “down like a criminal by the Florida police.” He asked people to share the fundraising page to “make people aware of trigger-happy police officers.”  “They could have killed many more people, could have been one of your loved ones,” Roy Ordonez wrote. “Please don’t let my brother’s death be for nothing. Police need to be held accountable.” 
 - In February 2019, an [11 year old was arrested by police after refusing to say the pledge of allegiance.](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/florida-student-arrested-pledge-of-allegiance.amp)  The teacher then asked “Why if it was so bad here he did not go to another place to live,” “They brought me here,” the boy replied. Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy insisted the 11-year-old “was arrested after becoming disruptive and refusing to follow repeated instructions by school staff and law enforcement.” The sixth grader was then taken to a juvenile detention center, charged with disrupting a school function and resisting arrest without violence. 
+- In 2020, the state of Michigan implemented a policy of [locking up children for non-criminal offenses.](https://www.propublica.org/article/judges-are-locking-up-children-for-noncriminal-offenses-like-repeatedly-disobeying-their-parents-and-skipping-school#1019503) This follows the trend of increasing police-presence within US schools, which have massively increased the number of students arrested for non-violent offenses.
 - In 2019, a Phoenix Arizona resident, Jim Stauffer, learned that the body of his deceased mother, Doris, who died in 2014, was one of [many bodies sold to the US army used for "blast testing".](https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/valley-man-learns-moms-body-was-sold-for-blast-testing) He had checked "no" on the paperwork for medical tests involving explosions. “She was then supposedly strapped in a chair on some sort of apparatus, and a detonation took place underneath her to basically kind of get an idea of what the human body goes through when a vehicle is hit by an IED.” Stauffer is one of many plaintiffs named in the suit against [Biologic Resource Center and its owner Stephen Gore.](https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/fbi-shines-light-on-now-shut-down-human-chop-shop-in-phoenix) Gore pleaded guilty to running an illegal enterprise in 2015, but was sentenced to serve probation. 
 - In January 2018 in Camden New Jersey, [a 33 year old police Detective Rafael Martinez Jr raped and impregnated a 15-year old girl.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5645553/Former-New-Jersey-police-officer-33-given-five-years-probation.html).  He negotiated a plea deal in which he only serves 5 months of probation, with no prison time. [1](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5645553/Former-New-Jersey-police-officer-33-given-five-years-probation.html)
 - On December 28th, 2017, Police in Wichita Kansas [murdered an innocent man, 28-year-old Andrew Finch](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html) who was the recipient of "swatting" (where someone falsely reports an emergency to draw police to an address). The [bodycam footage](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html) shows that the killing was entirely unjustified. The "swatter", [Tyler Rai Bariss](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-tyler-barriss-swatting-20180106-story.html), has a long history of such pranks, [1](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html),[2](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-tyler-barriss-swatting-20180106-story.html)