Always Remember That Obama Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature, Established, in writing, the United States Capitalist Austerity Program — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%: Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico. Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!
Since the early days of modern socialism, the movement has been concerned with how to use bourgeois elections in service of the working class. The starting point of socialist electoral strategy has been the need to forge class independence. Early revolutionary leaders such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels clearly understood that the working class movement would be easily constricted and coopted so long as it didn’t have a political vehicle of its own. As Marx wrote in the 1871 position piece “Resolution of the London Conference on Working Class Political Action”
The largest amounts of the $29 trillion did not go to commercial banks to shore up the U.S. economy through consumer loan relief or business loans. It went to three of the largest trading houses on Wall Street. Citigroup received $2.65 trillion; Merrill Lynch received $2.43 trillion; and Morgan Stanley received $2.27 trillion. (See page 33 at this link.) The fourth largest was not even a bank or Wall Street firm. It was AIG, a large insurance company that Wall Street’s trading houses had buried as the counterparty to their derivative bets. AIG got a cool $1 trillion in loans from the Fed.— New York Fed Plans to Throw $2.93 Trillion at Wall Street’s Trading Houses Over Next Month as New York Times Remains Silent
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.
The Inspector General’s Report on 2016 FBI Spying Reveals a Scandal of Historic Magnitude: Not Only for the FBI but Also the U.S. Media Just as was true when the Mueller investigation closed without a single American being charged with criminally conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election, Wednesday’s issuance of the long-waited report from the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reveals that years of major claims and narratives from the U.S. media were utter frauds. Before evaluating the media component of this scandal, the FBI’s gross abuse of its power – its serial deceit – is so grave and manifest that it requires little effort to demonstrate it. In sum, the IG Report documents multiple instances in which the FBI – in order to convince a FISA court to allow it spy on former Trump campaign operative Carter Page during the 2016 election – manipulated documents, concealed crucial exonerating evidence, and touted what it knew were unreliable if not outright false claims. If you don’t consider FBI lying, concealment of evidence, and manipulation of documents in order to spy on a U.S. citizen in the middle of a presidential campaign to be a major scandal, what is? But none of this is aberrational: the FBI still has its headquarters in a building named after J. Edgar Hoover – who constantly blackmailed elected officials with dossiers and tried to blackmail Martin Luther King into killing himself – because that’s what these security state agencies are. They are out-of-control, virtually unlimited police state factions that lie, abuse their spying and law enforcement powers, and subvert democracy and civic and political freedoms as a matter of course. By Glenn Greenwald
Amazon, Chevron, and Starbucks Among 91 Fortune 500 Corporations That Paid $0 in Federal Income Taxes in 2018: Report “The key takeaway from this study is that the 2017 tax law is working out well for profitable corporations.” —Matthew Gardner, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy More than 90 large, profitable corporations on the Fortune 500 list effectively did not pay a penny in federal income taxes in 2018, according to a new reportpublished Monday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. examined financial filings from 379 Fortune 500 companies that reported a profit in 2018, the first year President Donald Trump’s tax cuts took effect. The Republican tax law slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. By Jake JohnsonEnvironment:
World Capitalists Have Just Openly Declared That Profits Are More Important Than The Survival Of Humaity!: US Denounced as ‘Threat to Humanity’ as COP25 Ends Without Deal on Big Polluters’ Responsibility to Frontline Nations Climate action advocates who had spent two weeks demanding strong commitments from the COP 25 climate summit emerged from the onference Sunday stunned and angry over its conclusion, which was deemed a “lost opportunity” by the United Nations secretary-general. Because of the refusal of some of the world’s wealthiest countries to commit to more ambitious targets to reduce their climate-warming carbon emissions, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation, and finance to tackle the climate crisis.” By Julia Conley‘Like A Furnace’: Australia Set To See Hottest Day Ever With 50C Forecast As Devastating Bushfires Rage A “once in a lifetime” heatwave is set to sweep across Australia over the coming days, making almost the entire country “like a furnace” with temperatures on course to break records. Highs of over 50C are expected, with meteorologists warning the heat could break the country’s existing record of 50.7C measured at Oodnadatta, South Australia, in 1960.Prime minister Scott Morrison accused of ‘deafening silence’ over climate crisis as dangerous temperatures affect almost entire continent By Harry CockburnClimate: From Catastrophe to Cataclysm Please watch the 23 minute video, linked below, to completion. It shows an interview of Dr. Peter Carter (Director Climate Emergency Institute, IPCC expert reviewer, Co-author in 2018 of Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival). This interview was conducted at COPS25 (“this is set up to fail”) currently underway in Madrid, Spain, on 10 December 2019. Peter Carter gives a vividly clear, trenchantly concise summary of the state of Earth’s climate; the increasing acceleration of all the phenomena that drive global warming climate change (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions); the obdurate denial of the climate emergency, and the opposition to any action in response to it by the high carbon-emitting fossil fuel-loving nations: the United States, Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, at the very least. I would venture to guess that Australia, under its current reactionary Morrison Administration, would also join the objecting ‘carbonaholics’ despite it currently experiencing a mega-drought with massive and uncontrolled wildfires. By Manuel García, Jr.
Noise and Occupational Medicine Common Practice Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) represents the second most com-mon occupational disease in the United States. Although the Occu-pational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has pro-mulgated an occupational noise exposure standard and associated recordkeeping requirements, OSHAinspections increasingly document practices that violate both the noise standard and recordkeeping regulation. This article describes five deviations from good clinical practices masking the true societal costs of NIHL, leading to missed prevention opportunities, and creating burdens for individuals and society. These include attributing NIHL to nonoccupational sources, exculpating the workplace because of audiogram patterns without careful documentation, ignoring sym-ptoms or physical examination findings, and simply denying work-relatedness, leading to employers inappropriately lining out cases from the OSHA 300 log. The practices identified by OSHA suggest that many individuals are not following widely recognized and accepted practices when administering hearing conservation programs. By Phillips, Andrew MD; Cooney, Ryan BS; Harris, Zachary BS; Myrtil, Daphne MD; Hodgson, and Michael MD
Environment Classism/Racism:
‘Turn Off the ‘Sunshine’: Why Shade Is a Mark of Privilege in Los Angeles Shade in Los Angeles sits at the intersection of two crises: climate change and income inequality. City officials are rushing to deploy cover to hundreds of bus stops and plant 90,000 trees. There is no end to the glittering emblems of privilege in this city. Teslas clog the freeways. Affluent families scramble for coveted spots in fancy kindergartens. And up in the hills of Bel-Air, where a sprawling estate just hit the market for a record $225 million, lush trees line the streets, providing welcome relief from punishing heat. They say the sun has always been the draw of Los Angeles, but these days, shade is increasingly seen as a precious commodity, as the crises of climate change and inequality converge. By Tim ArangoCivil Rights/Black Liberation:
Pending Retail Payroll Revisions Show an Unfolding Recession; November Real Retail Sales Suggested a Fourth-Quarter 2019 Contraction, Signaling a Second Consecutive Troubled Holiday Shopping Season
November Monthly Growth in Real Average Weekly Earnings for All Employees Held Unchanged at 0.0% for the Third Straight Month
The Fed Knows There Is No Sustainable, Moderate U.S. Economic Growth, Contrary to Its Happy Hype, Yet the FOMC Is Unable to Cut Interest Rates
FOMC Will Continue to Meet Any Unexpected Funding Needs (QE) of Its Parent Banking System, to Maintain Systemic and Market Stability and Liquidity
Where the FOMC Fully Understands the Problems In the Overnight Funding Markets, It Does Not Want to Go Public with Them
FOMC Has Not Been Open About the Major Conflicts and Issues It Faces, Suggesting Significant Systemic, Financial and Economic Crises May Be at Hand
Federal Reserve 2008 Bailout of the Failed Banking System Appears Only to Have Bought Time; Not to Have Restored a Workable, Stable Financial System, and Not to Have Allowed a Full, Sustainable Economic Recovery for Main Street, U.S.A.
Week Ahead: Some Headline Numbers Will Benefit from the End of the GM Strike
New York Fed Plans to Throw $2.93 Trillion at Wall Street’s Trading Houses Over Next Month as New York Times Remains Silent One has to wonder how much money it would take for the New York Fed to throw at Wall Street before the New York Times reports to its readers on the biggest Wall Street bailout by the Fed since the financial crisis. Last Thursday, December 12, the New York Fed announced that over the next month it would shower the trading houses (primary dealers) on Wall Street with a total of $2.93 trillion in short-term loans. The money is for a Wall Street liquidity crisis that has yet to be explained in credible terms to the American people and yet the New York Times does not appear to have an investigative reporter assigned to investigate what’s really going on just 11 years after those same trading houses blew themselves up in the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression and took the U.S. economy along for the ride. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
For four years, Jeremy Corbyn was smeared in a relentless and savage campaign of vilification and outrageous slander by the British press, much of it orchestrated by liberal outlets like The Guardian (and the New York Times), using a kind of berserker Zionism as truncheon. And so, the dreadful result was predictable: the worst showing of Labour since 1935. But it’s the poor and the immigrant communities that will bear the brunt of what they have wrought.
When they take the knives out of Corbyn’s back, how many blades will have Tony Blair’s fingerprints on them?
Recall that it was the CIA’s resident paranoid James Jesus Angleton who planted the false slur that Labour PM Harold Wilson was a Soviet agent. The Agency has almost certainly been up to its old tricks with Corbyn, though the Blairites were more than willing to do all the dirty work themselves. ReadMore By Jeffrey St. Clair
“Staff Only,” Chinatown, Portland. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
Education, Health, Science, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘govern’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare
Pharma & Insurance Gave $36M to the 33 Senate Democrats Not Backing Medicare Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) recently rolled out his official Medicare for All bill that would establish a single-payer healthcare system in the U.S., and with the support of more than a dozen of his Senate colleagues. However, 33 of his fellow Senate Democrats (including one independent who caucuses with Democrats) are not yet on board as co-sponsors of the legislation. In order to even have a chance of even getting a filibuster-proof floor vote (invoking cloture) under the Senate’s strict rules, the bill needs 60 votes, meaning the legislation is essentially dead-on-arrival even if all Senate Democrats (and even a few Republicans) supported it. By: Carl Gibson530,000 Families Turn To Bankruptcy Each Year Because Of Medical Issues And Bills: This Is The Real Reason Most Americans File For Bankruptcy 1.Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall. 2. While the high cost of health care has historically been a trigger for bankruptcy filings, the research shows that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has not improved things. 3.What most people do not realize, according to one researcher, is that their health insurance may not be enough to protect them. Filing for bankruptcy is often considered a worst-case scenario. And for many Americans who do pursue that last-ditch effort to rescue their finances, it is because of one reason: health-care costs. A new study from academic researchers found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues —either because of high costs for care or time out of work. An estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills, the research found. By Lorie Konish
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: (1) Austerity, (2) Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and (3) The Iron Heel
Quotes of the Day:
Environment:
‘Like A Furnace’: Australia Set To See Hottest Day Ever With 50C Forecast As Devastating Bushfires Rage A “once in a lifetime” heatwave is set to sweep across Australia over the coming days, making almost the entire country “like a furnace” with temperatures on course to break records. Highs of over 50C are expected, with meteorologists warning the heat could break the country’s existing record of 50.7C measured at Oodnadatta, South Australia, in 1960.Prime minister Scott Morrison accused of ‘deafening silence’ over climate crisis as dangerous temperatures affect almost entire continent By Harry Cockburn 
Climate: From Catastrophe to Cataclysm Please watch the 23 minute video, linked below, to completion. It shows an interview of Dr. Peter Carter (Director Climate Emergency Institute, IPCC expert reviewer, Co-author in 2018 of Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival). This interview was conducted at COPS25 (“this is set up to fail”) currently underway in Madrid, Spain, on 10 December 2019. Peter Carter gives a vividly clear, trenchantly concise summary of the state of Earth’s climate; the increasing acceleration of all the phenomena that drive global warming climate change (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions); the obdurate denial of the climate emergency, and the opposition to any action in response to it by the high carbon-emitting fossil fuel-loving nations: the United States, Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, at the very least. I would venture to guess that Australia, under its current reactionary Morrison Administration, would also join the objecting ‘carbonaholics’ despite it currently experiencing a mega-drought with massive and uncontrolled wildfires. By Manuel García, Jr.
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Shadow Government Statistica Bullet Edition Number 16 FOMC Issues and Distortions, Higher Inflation, Deteriorating
New York Fed Plans to Throw $2.93 Trillion at Wall Street’s Trading Houses Over Next Month as New York Times Remains Silent One has to wonder how much money it would take for the New York Fed to throw at Wall Street before the New York Times reports to its readers on the biggest Wall Street bailout by the Fed since the financial crisis. Last Thursday, December 12, the New York Fed announced that over the next month it would shower the trading houses (primary dealers) on Wall Street with a total of $2.93 trillion in short-term loans. The money is for a Wall Street liquidity crisis that has yet to be explained in credible terms to the American people and yet the New York Times does not appear to have an investigative reporter assigned to investigate what’s really going on just 11 years after those same trading houses blew themselves up in the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression and took the U.S. economy along for the ride. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
