Friendly fire caused the death of US Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie and the wounding of a fellow agent near the Arizona-Mexico border this week. Three agents were patrolling a remote sector about five miles north of the border where sensors indicated the presence of smugglers, when two agents mistakenly opened fire on the third, authorities now say. Ivie himself is now said to have fired first. The clarification came after nearly a week of speculation that Mexican smugglers shot the agents. Yet, in a little-noticed contradiction to what is now the official story, Mexican police arrested two suspects within days of the shootings—raising the possibility that the arrests were a politically motivated response to US pressure. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was quick to politicize the death of the agent, claiming possible links to the "Fast and Furious" weapons scandal. Since Ivie was apparently killed by another US agent—using a service weapon, according to ballistic reports—Grassley may have to rescind his statement. (Mexico Solidarity Network, Oct. 8; AP, Oct. 7)

A general strike in Athens turned violent Sept. 26 as a demonstration of some 50,000 outside of Parliament ended with black-clad youth throwing rocks and petrol bombs at riot police guarding the building, who responded with tear-gas. Police charged the protesters, chasing them through Syntagma Square in front of the parliament building as helicopters swooped in overhead. The one-day strike is the first union–led action since a conservative government came to power in June. Rail services and most public transportation have been halted by the action, which was called by the two biggest union federations,  the General Confederation of Greek workers (GSEE) and the Union of Civil Servants (ADEDY), and also supported by the Greek Communist Party (KKE). Protesters oppose planned spending cuts of $15 billion, which are being mandated by the "troika" of Greece's foreign lenders—the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Protesters marching on parliament chanted "We won't submit to the troika " and "EU, IMF Out!" KKE militants occupied the Parthenon, hanging huge banners from its walls reading "PEOPLES OF EUROPE RISE UP." (Ekathimerini, Sky News, The Guardian, BBC News, Sept. 26; EurActiv, Sept. 24)

Global domination and corporate power are obviously inextricably linked to white supremacy, and certainly the prior two rose along with the last. But the three no longer form the seamless unity they did even a generation ago. This is what those on the left who repeat like a mantra that there is "no difference" between Romney and Obama don't seem to get. We have pointed out before Mitt Romney's use of coded messages to play to the racist vote while still maintaining  a veil (however diaphanous) of plausible deniability. Among his supporters at the GOP convention in Tampa last month, the veil was sometimes not there at all. Note this enlightening litany from the Washington Post, Aug. 29:

British Petroleum (BP) announced Aug. 24 that it expects to move ahead next year with deep-sea drilling work off the coast of Libya—resuming its $2 billion exploration program halted by the revolution against Moammar Qaddafi's regime last year. The oil major, which in May lifted a freeze on its activities in the North African country, will shortly resume preliminary work on the project, with drilling itself set to start some time in 2013. BP is currently choosing contractors for underwater geological surveying, a tender invitation posted on the Libyan National Oil Company website indicates. Under the deal signed with the Qaddafi government in 2007, BP will explore in the Sirt basin, more than ten times the size of its deep-water blocks off Angola. Under the 2007 contract, BP acquired 31,000 square kilometers of three-dimensional seismic data both offshore and onshore, with explorations in the Ghadames basin of Libya's western desert. (MarketWatch, Aug. 24)

Police agents stopped a group of Dominican youths of Haitian descent from marching on Aug. 13 in Monte Plata, in the central province of the same name, to demand that the government respect their rights as citizens. The protesters, members of the youth movement Reconoci.do, were trying to march from the city's central part to the local Civil Status office, the registry for identification documents. According to the group's spokesperson, Ana María Belique, the protesters applied for a permit from the Monte Plata government but were turned down on the grounds that they weren't Dominicans and had no right to demonstrate. When they attempted to march without a permit, a police contingent commanded by a Col. Antígua dispersed them with tear gas, arresting eight protesters. Three of those arrested were beaten by an agent from the robbery unit identified only as "Papo," who told them to hold their demonstrations in "their country."

Arizona's Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order on Aug. 15 that instructs state agencies not to provide driver's licenses and other public benefits to undocumented immigrants who have gained the right to work under a new federal program known as Deferred Action. Brewer's executive order rebuffs the Deferred Action program, a recent Obama administration policy that allows undocumented immigrants who served in the armed forces or have graduated high school, came to the US at a young age and are under 30 not to be deported. In her executive order, Brewer argued that the Deferred Action program does not grant legal status to undocumented immigrants and that she is enforcing current state law that denies public benefits to these immigrants: