A headline, in today’s Digest, The Trump Administration Has All But Given Up Fighting the Pandemic, overlooks the basic fact that is expose by the headline. Since Blacks, other minorities, elderly, uninsured, underinsured, and poor people, are the majority of the people who die from the coronavirus and the 1% don’t die; proves that They Don’t Care About Us! That fact is proven by the bipartisan Pandemic Bailout of the 1%. To the 1%, we, the 99%, are viewed as just cannon fodder in the Coronavirus ‘War’.
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!
“Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” — History is Important
From the “Preface to The Sixth Edition (2001)” of the The Media Monopoly. By Ben Bagdikian: The impact on the national political agenda has been devastating, For years, the mainstream news has over dramatized its reporting of congressional and White House debate on the national debt and deficit beyond their intrinsic importance. Politicians raised the issue, but it was seized upon and overblown by the major media — media that politicians use as a bellwether on what issues will get them the most public attention and partisan advantage. During these crucial years, the American economy was undergoing an astonishing phenomenon that the mainstream news left largely unreported or actually glamorized in its infrequent references: the largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country’s wealthiest families.
Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development who led the US government’s response to international disasters between 2013 and 2017, said that stark contrasts in outcomes between different countries in terms of illness and death have been determined not by Covid-19 itself, but by how seriously each government took the risk and how early they acted. “On that score we failed badly,” he said. “You can have the best system in the world, but if you give the virus an eight-week head start it will eat you alive.” — How Science Finally Caught Up With Trump’s Playbook — With Millions of Lives At Stake
Unfortunately for Wall Street, the first major crack in that p.r. campaign has now occurred. Former Wall Street veteran turned law professor, Frank Partnoy, has penned an article for The Atlantic, titled: “The Looming Bank Collapse.” In the article Partnoy reveals the big lie that these banks are “well capitalized” and exposes how the banks are back to their same old dirty tricks with the same complex instruments that blew up the financial system the last time around. — The Federal Reserve Has Its Own Police and Is Part of a Vast Surveillance Center – Should You Worry?
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 tothe Rich.
The Twin Plagues of Scientific Indifference and Depraved Indiference Are Upon Us!: The Trump Administration Has All But Given Up Fighting the Pandemic “It’s going to disappear,” President Trumpsaid about the novel coronavirus at the end of February, before the first American was believed to have died from covid-19. “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” It never did — to date, more than 2 million Americans have been infected with the virus and more than 112,000 have died — but Trump’s administration is now acting as though the miracle already came. In fact, it’s hardly an exaggeration to say that the president and his administration have all but given up fighting the pandemic. The task force, led by Vice President Pence, to coordinate the government’s actions, has scaled back its work, only meeting occasionally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly “remains largely demoralized and often sidelined” in fighting the virus. By Paul Waldman
Police Killings are a Political Tactic As the spark that lit a fire, the murder of George Floyd was horrifyingly, sickeningly ordinary. According to the scant data on police killing of citizens that is available, about three people are killed by the police in the U.S. every day. And despite the protest movements Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, this number has remained about constant in recent years through Democratic and Republican administrations. This persistence stands in contrast to the political ‘branding’ of the mainstream political parties where difference is claimed, but little is evident. By Rob Urie
The Military Must be De-Funded Along with the Police The fascist tactics used by our Western governments in the Global South will inevitably be brought home to be used against us. In the case of the US, these tactics have surely been introduced here, and we are now seeing this clearly as our police, sometimes backed by the military itself, are battling protestors in the streets in the same manner that a military force does as a foreign occupying power. By Dan Kovalik
It Appears That The New Gerneration Has Learned From the History of ‘Lesser Evilism’: New Generation of Activists, Deeply Skeptical of Democratic Party, Resists Calls to Channel Energy Into the 2020 Campaign Hundreds of young activists were massing on the streets below the downtown waterfront skyscrapers here this month for a silent “die-in” to call for change in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd when the city’s mayor, a Democrat who has voiced support for the movement, rose and asked to address the crowd. But before Jane Castor could speak, she was greeted by an organizer brandishing a bullhorn.”Go home Jane!” yelled Bernice Lauredan, 28, an activist with Tampa Dream Defenders. “You are not welcome here.” By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Fight for Equitable Access to Water and Electricity Has Never Been More Urgent In the midst of a pandemic, NRDC advocates are stepping up their work to prevent the risk of mass utility shutoffs, now and for the long-term. Back in March, when U.S. public health officials began advising handwashing as the first line of defense against COVID-19, they likely weren’t picturing the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who lacked running water. And when they encouraged social distancing and transitioning to online school, they may not have thought of families living in homes where electricity had been shut off.“These affordability issues were already simmering in the background…and then COVID hit,” says Mae Wu, who has advocated for access to safe and affordable drinking water at NRDC for 13 years. Now, with one in five American workers filing for unemployment since mid-March, the risk of mass utility shutoffs has skyrocketed—just as residents need these basic services the most. By Courtney Lindwall
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
King had gotten a lot right, Carmichael said, but in betting on nonviolence, “he only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent has to have a conscience. The United States has no conscience.” — Stokely Carmichael, A Philosopher Behind The Black Power Movement
During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks and her husband slept with firearms at the ready. To justify guns for protection, Ella Baker of the Southern Non-Violent Coordinating Committee invoked the Second Amendment, as did Malcolm X. The Deacons for the Defense provided armed protection for Martin Luther King’s rallies. — Civil Rights and the Right to Self-Defense Go Hand-in-Hand
We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for self- defense. — Black Panther Party The Ten-Point Program
Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes to Replace Police With Community-Led Model The Minneapolis City Council on Friday, 18 days after the death of George Floyd, unanimously passed a resolution to replace the police department with a community-led public safety system. The Minneapolis City Council on Friday, 18 days after the death of George Floyd, unanimously passed a resolution to replace the police department with a community-led public safety system. By Tommy Beer
Contagion Nation 2020: United States Still the Only Wealthy Nation without Paid Sick Leave The current global pandemic highlights the importance of paid leave for workers who are unable to work because of an illness or temporary disability, or because they need to care for a person with an illness or temporary disability. In a 2009 report, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reviewed paid sick leave policies in 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development. We found that the United States was the only country that did not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Since then, several other countries included in our initial report have strengthened their standards for paid leave, including for self-employed workers, while the United States remains the outlier that provides no national guarantee. By Hye Jin Rho, Shawn Fremstad, and Jared Gaby-Biegel
Economy:
The Federal Reserve Has Its Own Police and Is Part of a Vast Surveillance Center – Should You Worry? Without any Congressional hearings on the matter, the USA Patriot Act in 2001 bestowed on the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks domestic policing powers. While the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. is deemed an “independent federal agency,” with its Chair and Governors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the 12 regional Fed banks are private corporations owned by the member banks in their region. As settled law under John L. Lewis v. United States confirms: “Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly Inside the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center
World:
The Struggle Against Police Is International. Our Solidarity Must Be Global. The current uprising against racist police violence first erupted in the U.S., but it has now become an international movement. Thousands of people in more than 40 countries have taken to the streets in a show of solidarity with Black Americans protesting in the U.S. following the vigilante and police murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Since these killings, young communists in Greece marched to the U.S. embassy in Athens to protest Floyd’s murder. In Rome, members of the Migrant Women and Daughters Network stood in front of a war memorial and held signs that said “I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter: Justice for George Floyd.” In Amsterdam, thousands packed into Dam Square. ByAustin C. McCoyLebanon Protesters Call On Government To Resign Amid Crisis The country’s unparalleled economic and financial crises are proving a major challenge to the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab. Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities Saturday in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress. The protests come after two days of rallies spurred by a dramatic collapse of the local currency against the dollar. Those rallies degenerated into violence, including attacks on private banks and shops. By Sarah El Deeb
The argument against equal funding for school children in the state of Pennsylvania often goes something like, “Money doesn’t guarantee a good education.” Maybe, but when rich people put their kids in the “best” private schools, they now pay around $40,000 a year for high school: $39,250 for Agnes Irwin; $40,350 for Germantown Friends School; $37,600 for Episcopal Academy, a bargain. All of those tuitions are well over twice what is spent on a kid in Philadelphia public schools ($15,562 per student, according to the PA Dept. of Education’s annual financial report). I guess rich kids are just harder to educate.
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
Environment:
Authorities Investigate Hanging Death Of Black Man; Second In Region In 2 Weeks The bodies of Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch were found hanging in trees in two Southern California cities about 50 miles apart. Authorities in the Southern California city of Palmdale are investigating the death of a 24-year-old black man found hanging from a tree near City Hall, which they originally described as an apparent suicide, prompting outrage in the community
Labor:
Lebanon Protesters Call On Government To Resign Amid Crisis The country’s unparalleled economic and financial crises are proving a major challenge to the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab. Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities Saturday in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress. The protests come after two days of rallies spurred by a dramatic collapse of the local currency against the dollar. Those rallies degenerated into violence, including attacks on private banks and shops. By Sarah El Deeb
