Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World! And Now the Total Caronavirs Deaths in the United States are Over 20% of the Total Death in the Entire World!
Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
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! Always Remember: That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he 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, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled what the White House described as a “blueprint” for nationwide Covid-19 testing that public health experts say falls far short of the robust federal strategy needed to track and contain the deadly virus before states can safely begin reopening their economies. A senior Trump administration official told the Wall Street Journal that the White House testing plan would provide all 50 states in the U.S. with enough equipment to test at least 2% of their residents. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said that number is nowhere close to adequate. “It’s about 6 to 7 million [tests],” said Jha, “and if that’s one-time, that doesn’t do anything.”— “That Doesn’t Do Anything”: Experts Warn Trump Plan for States to Test Just 2% of Residents Is Completely Inadequate
How the Us Makes Countries Pay For Its Wars: Economics of American Imperialism With Michael Hudson The World Bank has one primary aim, and that’s to make other countries dependent on American agriculture. This is built into its articles of agreement. It can only make foreign-currency loans, so it will only make loans to countries for agricultural development, roads, if it is to promote exports.United States:
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 Reublicrats 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.
COVID Deaths in US Will Soon Surpass Number of Americans Killed in Vietnam War Before the weekend, known U.S. COVID deaths will surpass 58,000 — the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam War. Before the weekend comes, the number of known deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. will surpass roughly 58,000. This is the same number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War. It took five presidents — Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford — and more than 20 years to amass that body count overseas. By William Rivers PittDonald J. Trump is the Jim Jones of the U.S. Government, Leader of the Coronavirus Death Cult I recall the time I was 10 years old and watched the horrific TV footage of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. Jim Jones, a demented, unhinged and heavily medicated cult leader, presided over the murder-suicide of more than 900 people in the jungles of Guyana. Jones’ followers drank the Kool-aid, so to speak, a deadly cocktail of cyanide and drink mix. And those who were unwilling participants, including children, were forced to drink it as some perverted, demented act of “revolutionary suicide” or liberation through death. Who could have imagined that Jim Jones would rise from the dead and be reincarnated four decades later as Donald J. Trump, president of the United States? This time around, the cult leader peddles orange Kool-aid for his red state base of followers, a snake-oil elixir known as hydroxychloroquine which he touts as a cure for coronavirus, albeit a fake cure.
The Corporate Food System is Making the Coronavirus Crisis Worse The global food system has been very much front and center in the COVID-19 story. Everyone, of course, is aware that hunger is closely tracking the virus as its wreaks havoc in both the global North and global South. Indeed, one can say that, unlike in East Asia, Europe, and the U.S., in South Asia, the food calamity preceded the actual invasion by the virus, with relatively few infections registered in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as of late March of 2020 — but with millions already displaced by the lockdowns and other draconian measures taken by the region’s governments. By Walden Bello
USA: food scarcity and the “efficiency of the market” In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions tried to prepare for social isolation like they would for a blizzard—stocking up not just on toilet paper and sanitizer, but also on pantry basics like milk, eggs, flour, and beans. Faced with this sudden surge in demand, grocery stores across the country were completely overwhelmed. Not just shelves but entire stores were cleared out, so “one-per-customer” rules were established on select items and notices were posted detailing which were out of stock. As we have written elsewhere, the capitalists can’t efficiently sustain supply chains through a crisis such as this. By Erika Roedl
Environment:
Sweden Shuts Down Its Last Coal Plant Two Years Early The last coal-fired plant in Sweden shut down two years early this month, bringing the tally of coal-free European countries up to three. Swedish utility Stockholm Exergi announced the closure April 16, a day before Austria also closed its last remaining coal plant, PV Magazine reported.
Group Demands Louisiana Prisons Be “Evacuated”“The coronavirus is a death sentence on Black people,” who make up two-thirds of Louisiana’s prisoners, said Belinda Parker Brown, head of Louisiana United International. In a Black Is Back Coalition zoom conference, Attorney Zena Crenshaw-Logalcalled for the “evacuation” of prisons in the state, which holds the distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any place else in the world. The first Louisiana inmate to die from Covid-19 “was a young man who was only in jail for a parole violation,” said Crenshaw-Logal.
The Black “Progress Narrative” is Self-Defeating“When we think we’ve made progress, we are blinded to the ways we have not,” and wind up affirming our slave-like relationship to power, said Boston College Law School ProfessorAnthony Farley, author of a recent article titled “Perfecting Slavery.” Blacks must make demands, not requests, when confronting Power. “Requests requires you to recognize the authority of the person you are making the request of,” as if he is your legitimate master, said Farley. Demands affirm one’s dignity and determination to prevail.
New Mexico Exalts “Three Peoples” – and Leaves Blacks Out Entirely In a recent article, Dr Natasha Howard, a lecturer in Africana Studies at the University of New Mexico, cited the campus’s “Three Peoples” mural as exemplifying the state’s historical exclusion of Blacks. The mural celebrates Anglo whites, Hispanics, and Native Americans, but rejects Black people as components of the “Tricultural State.” At one point, said Dr. Howard, Hispanic elites, who once enslaved Native Americans, supported taking New Mexico into the Union as a slave state so that Blacks would constitute an “absolute bottom” beneath which no other group could fall.
Labor:
Let Cruise Workers Off the Death Ships Now! Crews Held Hostage as Virus Rages – Unionize Seafaring Workers! Solidarity with the Trapped Seamen: We Demand Testing, Treatment, Housing, Union-Scale Wages and the Right to Repatriation! The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit frontline workers around the world. First and foremost, many health and hospital workers who have heroically been treating patients with COVID-19 have themselves been stricken and more than 500 have died (Medscape, 21 April). Maritime workers, who are a key logistical link in the global capitalist economy, including the 1.2 million seamen in the shipping industry, as well as port workers, have also been hit hard. By Jack Heyman – Jan Norden
Economy:
Gundlach: Fed’s Corporate Bond Buying Program Is Illegal; Fed Says Program Isn’t Operational “The Fed has, effectively, become a hedge fund in drag as a central bank.” When the Fed published its weekly H.4.1 data last Thursday, there was no mention of its two, highly controversial, corporate bond buying programs: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (PMCCF) and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF). We sent an email to the New York Fed to find out if the two programs are operational and if they will be consolidated on the Fed’s balance sheet. A spokesman for the New York Fed replied that “the PMCCF and SMCCF are not yet operational. And, as we note on the websites for each, additional information will be published before the facilities are launched.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Outside the New York Federal Reserve, September 17, 2012. The chant was: “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.”
World:
Health, Science, Education, 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 ‘governn’, 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 to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare!
Public Health and Private Profits Under COVID-19 Pandemic During an interview with Jonas Salk, the creator of the polio vaccine, CBS newsman Edward R. Morrow asked who owned the patent for the vaccine. “Well, the people, I would say,” said Salk. “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” This is what drives science and scientists like Salk: that science must be for the public good and not the private profit of companies. By Prabir Purkayastha
Quotes of the Day:
United States:
Donald J. Trump is the Jim Jones of the U.S. Government, Leader of the Coronavirus Death Cult I recall the time I was 10 years old and watched the horrific TV footage of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. Jim Jones, a demented, unhinged and heavily medicated cult leader, presided over the murder-suicide of more than 900 people in the jungles of Guyana. Jones’ followers drank the Kool-aid, so to speak, a deadly cocktail of cyanide and drink mix. And those who were unwilling participants, including children, were forced to drink it as some perverted, demented act of “revolutionary suicide” or liberation through death. Who could have imagined that Jim Jones would rise from the dead and be reincarnated four decades later as Donald J. Trump, president of the United States? This time around, the cult leader peddles orange Kool-aid for his red state base of followers, a snake-oil elixir known as hydroxychloroquine which he touts as a cure for coronavirus, albeit a fake cure.
