For the working class, reality is quite different from the media mythology. No matter who wins, no matter who occupies the White House, the situation for the working class will be the same :
Our sons and daughters will be called upon to shed their blood for American imperialism, which will be forced to resort to more and more military interventions throughout the world.
The economic crisis will continue unabated attacking our wages, our standard of living, our health care, our pensions, our housing conditions, social services.
The social divisions that exist in the U.S. will continue to worsen; the rich will get richer and the poor poorer. Unemployment will continue to grow.
Consciously or unconsciously, when the bourgeois start to worrying about “outsiders” interfering in their system, what they actually express is the fear of the working class taking an interest in the way society is run, and interfering in their affairs. When the next global downturn arrives, the period between that crisis and 2008 will mark a watershed period in the history of the capitalist system. It will be characterised as one in which the system, far from developing, burned away many of the reserve layers at its disposal, economically, socially and politically, which had acted as “cushioning” in 2008. This will give the class struggles of the not-too distant future a far sharper character. The struggle on the part of the bourgeois will be far more desperate. The struggle on the part of the working class will take place after a period in which sick and enfeebled capitalism has been able to do nothing to solve its fundamental problems. Illusions that previously existed have been burned away, many defenders of the old system discredited. This is something we must prepare for, and intervene in, to build the forces of Marxism. — Capitalism’s depleted reserves
. . .The final stages of capitalism, Marx wrote, would be marked by developments that are intimately familiar to most of us. Unable to expand and generate profits at past levels, the capitalist system would begin to consume the structures that sustained it. It would prey upon, in the name of austerity, the working class and the poor, driving them ever deeper into debt and poverty and diminishing the capacity of the state to serve the needs of ordinary citizens. It would, as it has, increasingly relocate jobs, including both manufacturing and professional positions, to countries with cheap pools of laborers. Industries would mechanize their workplaces. This would trigger an economic assault on not only the working class but the middle class—the bulwark of a capitalist system—that would be disguised by the imposition of massive personal debt as incomes declined or remained stagnant. Politics would in the late stages of capitalism become subordinate to economics, leading to political parties hollowed out of any real political content and abjectly subservient to the dictates and money of global capitalism. . . . — Chris Hedges
Capitalism’s depleted reserves: The capitalist crisis of 2008 was rescued by an enormous transfusion of public money into the banks. The system has been on life-support ever since. by Ben Peck
Alternate Inflation Charts: The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.Consumer DebtThe Fed Sends a Frightening Letter to JPMorgan and Corporate Media Yawns: Yesterday the Federal Reserve released a 19-page letter that it and the FDIC had issued to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on April 12 as a result of its failure to present a credible plan for winding itself down if the bank failed. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
The 1%’s Government!
Quotes of the Day:
Disenfranchised by Debt by Kathy Mulady
Free From Jail, Imprisoned by Debt: People in at least 30 states are barred from voting because they’re unable to pay their court fines. By Libero Della Piana
This Election, We Can’t Afford to Ignore the Climate: As the seas rise, presidential candidates are arguing over whose wife is hotter. By Aaron Mair
Environment: 
Monsanto Stunned – California Confirms ‘Roundup’ Will Be Labeled “Cancer Causing”
Ongoing/Big Energy Disasters!:
(Late Edition)
Consumer Debt
The Fed Sends a Frightening Letter to JPMorgan and Corporate Media Yawns: Yesterday the Federal Reserve released a 19-page letter that it and the FDIC had issued to Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on April 12 as a result of its failure to present a credible plan for winding itself down if the bank failed. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Chicago Teachers Union: Our Students’ Families Deserve Adequate Pay and Permanent Jobs