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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!
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!
Images of the Day:
In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls! — Lenny Bruce
The head of the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, helped plan the January 6 event that culminated in a storming of the Capitol, according to Ali Alexander, a lead organizer of the gathering. Alexander, a pro-Trump personality, was an early founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement and helped bring together various right-wing factions around a mass event on January 6, aimed to coincide with objections to the counting of Electoral College votes. Alexander made his claim in three separate livestreams in late December, adding that Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama were also involved. “We’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event,” Alexander said. On December 8, the Arizona Republican Party boosted Alexander, asking supporters if they were willing to give their lives in the fight over the results of the presidential election. His claim is also buttressed by a fourth video from a December 19 rally at the Arizona State Capitol, at which Alexander played a video that Biggs had supplied. In the video, Biggs mentions Brooks as his ally in the fight. Gosar spoke in person at the event. — Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says
Videos of the Day:
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. Rax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay
While Zabinski discusses the supposed second Green Revolution — the use of biotechnology to increase yields — she tends to see it solely in the context of food. She focuses on the genetics and the technology at the expense of exploring the social, economic and political consequences of the science. While she acknowledges that corporations “don’t necessarily hold the best interests of humanity” at heart, her key question is whether GR 2.0 can increase food production. This is unsatisfying, because it treats questions of food and hunger as issues of agricultural science, rather than consequences of the way capitalism prioritizes profits over feeding people. Zabinski’ shows how humans have helped transform wheat into the highly important crop it is now, but she tends to see modern biotechnology as a continuation of this process. Biotech companies’ reasons for trying to make seeds more resistant to pests are very different to the motives of a farmer 10,000 years ago trying to increase yields. I am skeptical about genetically modified foods under the current economic system because I do not trust their safety when controlled by multinationals. However, I am also skeptical because I do not think we can solve social issues through genetics, whether bioengineering or more traditional breeding methods. — Martin Empson, Book Review: Amber Waves
Hazardous Homes: Thousands of U.S. Public Housing Residents Live in the Country’s Most Polluted Places An EPA analysis obtained by APM Reports and The Intercept found that more than 9,000 federally subsidized properties — many with hundreds of apartments or townhouses — sit within a mile of Superfund sites. Those properties are in 480 cities in 49 states and territories. But even that is an undercount. The list of 9,000 properties doesn’t include several subsidized-housing complexes within a mile of Superfund sites. In most cases, the federal government has chosen not to relocate housing complexes near Superfund sites and made only piecemeal attempts to address the health threats. Housing officials often don’t inform people who move into these housing complexes that a Superfund site is nearby. Neither the EPA nor the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the two federal agencies primarily responsible for protecting residents, regularly monitor the potential health threats to residents from nearby environmental pollution. In fact, some housing complexes near Superfund sites haven’t been tested for contamination in years, according to the APM Reports and Intercept investigation. Even when testing is conducted and dangerous contamination is found, the pollution isn’t always cleaned up. By Angela Caputo and Sharon Lerner
Unfortunately, during this tumultuous time, it doesn’t seem that beating, killing, or poisoning of poor, black, or brown bodies is a crime in the eyes of the law, and these wealthy, white politicians literally get away with murder.”—Melissa Mays, Flint resident, — ‘That Is Not Justice!’ Outrage as Snyder Hit With Just Two Misdemeanor Counts Over Role in Flint Water Crisis
Reaching The ‘Tipping Point’: Earth Is Now Committed to a 2°C Hotter Future We Earthlings are now unmistakably on our way to the global climate we promised barely six years ago we’d never reach − a 2°C hotter future. Some time this year, thanks to fossil fuel combustion and the destruction of natural ecosystems, the levels of carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere will be half as high again as the average for most of human history. That is, they will be more than half-way to doubling. And the warming already driven by this extra charge of greenhouse gas has reached new heights: 2020, according to one calculation, shares with 2016 the grim accolade of the hottest year in history, at the end of the hottest decade since systematic records began. By Tim Radford
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Systemic Racism:
Congress Insurrection — Law Enforcement Officers Played a Leadership Role: ‘Law and Order’ Attorney Generals: The Untold Story of How the Republican Attorneys General Association, Funded with Large Sums from Corporate Felons, Including OxyContin Drug Pusher Purdue, Participated in Recruiting the Mob that Attacked the Capitol If there was ever a DEFCON 1 warning to Americans that campaign finance reform must be a top priority of the incoming President Biden administration, it is the cautionary tale of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and their recruitment efforts of the mob that descended on the Capitol of the United States on January 6. Five people are now dead from that siege, including a Capitol Police officer, and dozens injured. The U.S. Attorneys office for Washington, D.C. has also confirmed that two live pipe bombs with timers were found in front of the Republican National Committee and Democrat National Committee, both located near the Capitol. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
At Least 28 Cops Were Attendees at Pro-Trump Rally Preceding Attack on Capitol At least 28 law enforcement officers from 12 states have been identified as attendees of the so-called “Save America” rally in support of Donald Trump that sparked the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, according to news reports that are being compiled by The Appeal. While several officers have been confirmed as forcing their way into the Capitol building, the exact number is still an open question.
Sheriff’s Lieutenant Roxanne Mathai in Bexar County, Texas, who has 70 to 80 employees under her command per shift, posted a video to social media showing her walking up the steps of the Capitol, while saying, “We’re going in. Tear gas and all. Tear gas don’t bother me.” In another post, Mathai described the mob attack on the Capitol as “the best day of my life.” By Ella Fassler and Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor: White Settler Uprising at the Capitol Last week’s assault on the Capitol was essentially a race riot, the product of white racial grievance.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist: Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
There needs to be soul searching and truth telling about invasions, interventions, coups and sanctions that are far more destructive than the Trump lovers could ever be.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review: Black Citizenship Forum: Black Intellectuals and the Violence of Citizenship
Not just in the White Settler States, but throughout the Black world the very possibility of Black citizenship has been gutted.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor: Max Blumenthal: Breach of Capitol Security Was Like a Military Operation The Grayzone founder notes that “such a disproportionate percentage” of the Capitol building attackers were former military, former law enforcement, or current law enforcement that began rappelling up the sides of the Capitol with ropes.”
BAP Coordinating Committee: White Rightwing Chickens Roost Violently at Capitol The Democrat-aligned oligarchy will try to use last week’s racist violence as an excuse to impose a corporate brand of fascism.
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor: The Obama-fication of “The Squad” Strengthens the Right at the Expense of the Left
The so-called ‘progressive” model would have us wait half a dozen election cycles before taking real action on the demand for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
This is what hypocrisy looks like… By Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The blood’s mopped up— “This is not who we are…”
“We’re better than this…” the bleeding continues—
“This is not who we are…” the body count mounts—
“We’re better than this…
Anthony Monteiro, BAR editor and columnist: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Paths to Communism: A Review
Du Bois, the father of Pan Africanism and the towering theorist of race, was – just as importantly — one of the great theorists of communism.
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor: BAR Book Forum: Zakiya Luna’s “Reproductive Rights as Human Rights”
This book is a story about a group of (mostly) women who wanted to make change and understood that liberation is an inside job.
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor:
BAR Book Forum: Chris A. Barcelos’ “Distributing Condoms and Hope” Replacing cops with social workers could “reproduce the same kinds of harm,” as this author explains.
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III: Coup d’état or Insurrection – What’s Good for the Goose… Under what authority does the American government have the right to instigate and execute coup’s against democratically elected governments in other countries?
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics 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
World:
Presidential Robber Barons: Robber Barron Foundation
Haiti Earthquake Protest Against Clinton Foundation “The media coverage of the superrich plutocrats would have you believe that these callous and greedy Wall Street warmongers, high-tech money launderers and profiteers are the world’s best charity workers and humanitarians.” — Èzili Dantò of HLLN/Free Haiti
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 pass universal healthcare for themselves, but 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
War of the (Financial) Worlds Sometimes things only make sense when seen through a magnifying lens. As it happens, I’m thinking about reality, the very American and global reality clearly repeating itself as 2021 begins. We all know, of course, that we’re living through a once-in-a-century-style pandemic; that millions of people have lost their jobs, a portion of which will never return; that the poorest among us, who can withstand such acute economic hardship the least, have been slammed the hardest; and that the global economy has been kneecapped, thanks to a battery of lockdowns, shutdowns, restrictions of various sorts, and health-related concerns. More sobering than all of this: more than 360,000 Americans (and counting) have already lost their lives as a result of Covid-19 with, according to public health experts, far more to come. By Nomi Prins
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
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! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!
Mike Luckovich: Last stop? 
Quotes 0f the Day:
Environment:
Labor: