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Images Of the Day:
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!
Quotes of the Day:
To improve its Image to the World, After World War II, and the Nuclear Bombings of Hiromshima and Nagasaki , When the United States Established Itself as the Supreme Imperial Power. The War Department Became the Defense Department of That Imperial Power!: “The War Department existed from August 7, 1789[1] until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force and joined the Department of the Navy as part of the new joint National Military Establishment (NME), renamed the United States Department of Defense in 1949.” — The United States Department of War
The Environmental Protection Agency Has Become the CPA (Corporate Protection Agency
This heat wave was a perfect storm long in the making. After centuries of fossil fuel burning and decades of warnings from scientists, it’s time to say it: we are in a climate emergency. It’s the mountains of the Pacific coast that have had an essential and unique role in making this particular heat wave possible. Climate change is not just warming the surface of the planet, it’s warming Earth’s entire troposphere – the lowest layer of the atmosphere where all our weather occurs. That’s particularly true in mountainous areas, where temperatures are rising even faster than elsewhere. When snow and ice recedes or even disappears from mountains, the bare soil beneath can warm unimpeded. A 2015 study found that mountainous areas above 2,000 meters (6,500ft) are warming about 75% faster than places at lower elevations. — How Did a Small Town in Canada Become One of The Hottest Places On Earth?
If we dedicate war memorials to the memory of men and women, who are cut down before their time, these (Workplaces) are war memorials. . . . — Homer Seguin, Video: Before Their Time” Cancer & Health And Safety On Our Jobs. Cancer & Health And Safety On Our Jobs (Video)
As long as the means of production are privately owned there will always be the tendency to minimize spending on safety. We must struggle for better protections, but in long run, for real safety, we need workers’ control and ownership of the means of production. Only workers themselves know what’s best for workers! — Roland Sheppard, The War at the Point of Production: The ‘Killing Fields’ of the United States
Videos of the Day:
Holder, Barr, DOJ and FBI Outed in Slimy Plot Against Assange A careful read of this stunning investigative piece in Iceland’s Stundin newspaper reveals that in June 2011 Eric Holder (no doubt with Obama’s enthusiastic approval) initiated a disgraceful FBI frame-up of Julian Assange. Displaying their usual incompetence, the FBI thoroughly screwed up the Holder framing assignment by coming up with a child-molesting embezzler and sociopath as their spy and agent provocateur within the Icelandic branch of Wikileaks, thereby creating such a mess that the Minister of the Interior had our federal gumshoes thrown out of Iceland. By Pierre Sprey
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 ownershipof the Reublicrats, who profit from war and the war budget, voted 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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay!
The Government Protects Monsanto — Not Your Right to Life! L ast Night, I watched the PBs Independent Lens Documentary The People vs Agent Arms Video: People Vs, Agent Orange The People vs. Agent Orange closely follows two activists as they take on the chemical industry, and demand accountability for the pernicious legacy caused by the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.
One Review: ‘The People vs. Agent Orange’ Documentary Chronicles the Ongoing Fight The Vietnam War ended, but the fight against the use of the chemical compound Agent Orange is far from over. Two women from opposite ends of the globe are united in their battle to hold the manufacturers of the toxic defoliant accountable. The name Agent Orange has become synonymous with the destructive legacy of the Vietnam War. The U.S. military’s use (12 million gallons) of the toxic herbicide not only did lasting ecological damage to a nation’s jungles and crops, but it left human victims on both sides with corrosive health effects that have been passed on to subsequent generations. Accountability for its deployment — by our government and the chemical companies (Dow, Monsanto) that continue to spray one of Agent Orange’s key, still-dangerous components as an approved defoliant in U.S. parks and forests — is the animating thrust of the investigative documentary “The People vs. Agent Orange,” from filmmakers Alan Adelson and Kate Taverna.
I would add to that review: The Monsanto and the government uses legal and illegal methods, shown by the documentary, to counter science and our right to know and our right to Life!
War is ‘Defense’/War is Peace: Biden’s bombing of Iraq and Syria: The Normalization of War Washington ordered airstrikes against two nations simultaneously Sunday night, using F-15 and F-16 warplanes to rain an assortment of precision-guided munitions on two targets in Syria and one in Iraq By Bill Van Auken
Miami Building Collapse Shows Tragic Costs of Neoliberal Deregulation With more robust regulation, prioritizing human life over property and profit, these deadly events could have been mitigated. From London’s Grenfell fire to Miami’s Champlain Towers South, politicians need to be held to account for gutting regulations that could mitigate disasters. By Natasha Lennard
Gonzo Governance We are living in fantastic times. These are media times. Donald Trump arose from a fantasy—aka Reality TV—then transmuted real democratic institutions through what I call Gonzo Governanc The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016 and his defeat in 2020 launched destructive acts against democracy and civility. The former President followed a mediated self-aggrandizing script and narrative of destruction and salvation: He damaged the role and institution of a democratically elected president with Media Logic and the politics of fear and promoted himself as the salvation for the country. Gonzo Governance has continued as his claims, threats, destructive policies, and institutional changes in voting, managing elections, and the civic culture were adopted by members of Congress and state and local officials. By David Altheide
Holder, Barr, DOJ and FBI Outed in Slimy Plot Against Assange A careful read of this stunning investigative piece in Iceland’s Stundin newspaper reveals that in June 2011 Eric Holder (no doubt with Obama’s enthusiastic approval) initiated a disgraceful FBI frame-up of Julian Assange. Displaying their usual incompetence, the FBI thoroughly screwed up the Holder framing assignment by coming up with a child-molesting embezzler and sociopath as their spy and agent provocateur within the Icelandic branch of Wikileaks, thereby creating such a mess that the Minister of the Interior had our federal gumshoes thrown out of Iceland. By Pierre Spre
America’s Nearly $1.3 Trillion National Security Budget Isn’t Making Us Any Safer Washington’s national security spending follies. President Biden’s first Pentagon budget, released late last month, is staggering by any reasonable standard. At more than $750 billion for the Defense Department and related work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy, it represents one of the highest levels of spending since World War II—far higher than the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or President Ronald Reagan’s military buildup of the 1980s, and roughly three times what China spends on its military. By Mandy Smithberger and William Hartung
Biden EPA Lining Up With Chemical Industry Against Push to Curb Microplastics: Greenpeace A Greenpeace investigation revealed Monday that the Biden administration appears sympathetic to oil and chemical industry giants—not the public, scientists, and public health advocates—regarding a push in Europe to curb the use of microplastics in everyday products. By Julia Conley
Imperial Roots of the Global Food System ‘Diet for a Large Planet’ – how Britain fed itself by plundering the world Why do we eat what we do? This is the question Chris Otter seeks to answer in Diet for a Large Planet. It is very timely. In recent years there has been growing anger and horror at a food system that delivers both unhealthy and environmentally destructive diets. Food has become deeply politicized. Reviewed by Amy Leather 
This Is the Climate Emergency’: Dozens of Sudden Deaths Reported as Canada Heat Hits Record 121°F “This is not the new normal. Normal is going to keep changing until we stop emitting greenhouse gas.” Dozens of sudden-death calls that Vancouver authorities have received this week are believed to be tied to the dangerous heatwave currently scorching Canada and pushing temperatures to record levels, an event experts say is a direct result of the human-caused climate emergency. By Jake Johson
Why Industrial Animal Farms are Breeder Grounds for Epidemics/Pandemics: Industrial Farm Animals in USA Consume About 80% of Antibiotics In 2008 the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (PCIFAP) released a ground breaking report analyzing the negative impacts of the USA factory farm system on public health, environment, animal welfare and rural communities. The report published in April of 2008 called Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America also highlighted that about 80% of the antibiotics found in the country is fed to animals in these farms. This has a very negative effect on the animals as well as the humans who consume their meat. 
Climate Heat is Changing Earth’s Water Cycle Humans have begun to alter Earth’s water cycle, and not in a good way: expect later monsoon rains and thirstier farmlands. Prepare for a hotter, drier world, even in monsoon country. As global temperatures rise, in response to greenhouse gas emissions, the northern hemisphere rainy seasons are likely to arrive ever later as Earth’s water cycle reacts. And even though more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more fertility and more moisture in the atmosphere, in the last 30 years the world’s green canopy has become more and more water-stressed, according to an entirely separate study. By Tim Radford
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Labor:
Biden and Trump: No COVID-19 Safety Protocols for Workers During his campaign for the Presidency, Joe Biden called on President Donald Trump to: “Establish and enforce health and safety standards for workplaces… The Trump Administration should immediately release and enforce an Emergency Temporary Standard… to give employers and frontline employees specific, enforceable guidance on what to do to reduce the spread of COVID.” Biden became president on January 20, 2021. On January 21, Biden ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create emergency COVID safety standards for workplaces by mid-March. And then… nothing, for months. Finally, in June, Biden’s OSHA announced that the agency would issue an emergency COVID workplace safety standard, but only for healthcare workers. Other workers? Nothing. By Marc Norton
Economy:
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MONEY SUPPLY SURGE ACCELERATED — May 2021 “Basic M1” Money Supply Growth Jumped to a Record 81.0% Above Its Pre-Pandemic Trough, with May M2, M3 and the Mid-June Monetary Base All at Record Levels of Activity; Money Supply Details Are Posted on the ALTERNATE DATA TAB (Above) and in the MONEY SUPPLY Paragraph (SYSTEMIC RISK) • Fed Chairman Powell Acknowledged Some “Temporary” Near-Term Inflation Issues, as Headline Inflation Surged Amidst Faltering Economic Activity • Both CPI and PPI Annual Inflation Continued to Set New Multi-Decade or Record Highs in May 2021 • Evolving Numbers Confirm an FOMC-Induced “Unrecognized” Recession Hit in August 2018 and Still Was Deepening at the Time of the March 2020 Pandemic Shutdown • Specifically, Annual Benchmarkings Revised 2020 Industrial Production Activity Lower by 4.8% (-4.8%) and Deepened the 2020 Real Trade Deficit by 1.4% (-1.4%), on Top of Earlier, Negative Revisions to Payrolls and Retail Sales • These Foreshadow a Downside GDP Benchmark Revision and Confirm a Slowdown Was in Place, Leading Into the Pandemic Shutdown • May 2021 Employment Numbers Confirm the U.S. Economy Remains Far From Recovery
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Third Estimate of First-Quarter GDP Was Unrevised, with Some Upside Revisions to the GDI and GNP, All in Advance of a Potentially Major Downside Benchmarking on July 29th • May 2021 Durable Goods Orders Gained 2.3% in the Month Amidst Surging Commercial Aircraft Orders • May 2021 Building Permits, Housing Starts and Home Sales All Are Trending Towards Second-Quarter 2021 Quarterly Contractions • May 2021 Industrial Production Gained 0.8% in the Month, but Held Shy Respectively by 1.4% (-1.4%) and 4.1% (-4.1%) of Recovering Its Pre-Pandemic and Pre-Recession Peak Levels • May 2021 Real Retail Sales Declined 2.0% (-2.0%) Month-to-Month but Held at 13.7% Above Its Pre-Pandemic Peak • May 2021 Cass Freight Index® Jumped 5.9% in the Month, With Unusual Twists • May 2021 Annual PPI Inflation Jumped to 6.56% from 6.17% in April 2021, with CPI-U Inflation Surging to 4.99%, from 4.16% in the Same Timeframe • April 2021 Trade Deficit Narrowed in the Month, on Top of Sharply Negative Revisions to First-Quarter 2021 and Annual 2020 Deficits • Down 5.0% (-5.0%) from the February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak, May 2021 Payroll Jobs Growth Was Weakest of the Post-World War II Era (Outside of the Pandemic), With Headline Unemployment Easing to 5.9% from 6.1% — But That Was Worse Than Headlined, Against a Disappearing Labor Force • Real Construction Spending on Early Track for 2q2021 Contraction • Inflation and Business Activity Numbers Confirm a Still-Faltering, Pandemic-Collapsed Economy, Amidst Surging Broad Inflation [See the Headlined Paragraphs in the LATEST NUMBERS section]
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Fed Chairman Powell (June 16th): “Inflation Could Be Higher Than We Predicted and More Than Expected” • Money Supply and Monetary Base Growth Continue to Explode • U.S. Government’s Financial Condition Deteriorated Sharply in 2020 [See the Headlined Paragraphs and Monetary Base in the SYSTEMIC RISK Section]
JPMorgan Chase Has Exited 15.7 Million Square Feet of U.S. Office Space Since the Crash of 2008 But Somehow Managed to Grow its Assets by 62.9 Percent Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has found a new magic hat trick: how to shrink and grow at the same time. Between March 31, 2009 and December 31, 2020, the assets at JPMorgan Chase’s bank holding company grew by an astonishing $1.3 trillion or 62.9 percent according to data archived at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). That stands in striking contrast to the next largest bank holding company in the U.S., Bank of America, whose assets grew by just $496.2 billion or 21 percent over the same period. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Britain: Hancock Goes – Now Give All the Tories the Boot! Health secretary Matt Hancock has resigned after being embroiled in another government scandal. But his replacement, Sajid Javid, offers more of the same corruption and privatisation. We need to kick out all the Tories and fight for socialism. Matt Hancock has stepped down from his role as health secretary, after leaked videos and pictures emerged showing the Tory MP breaking social distancing rules whilst cavorting with an advisor in his Whitehall office earlier this year. By Adam Booth
Strike Wave of Oil and Gas Workers Sweeps Iran In 20 June, contracted oil and gas workers in Assaluyeh went on strike. Since then, more oil and gas workers across Iran have joined the strikes, with over a hundred strikes now ongoing, with the strike continuing to grow. The workers are demanding: 10 days off after 20 days of work (10-20 scheme), a minimum wage across the sector of 12 million tomans, and trade union rights. These demands have found widespread support in the entire hydrocarbon sector and in the working class at large. Inspired by the oil and gas workers, strikes are breaking out among railway construction workers, truck drivers and steelworkers. All the while, protests by pensioners, teachers, medical staff and farmers are ongoing. By Esaias Yavari
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!
Smaller Class Sizes = Better Learning and Covid Safety: Leonie Haimson: Why Does Mayor Bill DeBlasio Refuse to Reduce Class Size? Leonie Haimson remembers that Bill DeBlasio promised to reduce class sizes when he first ran for mayor of New York City in 2013. She is executive director of Class Size Matters. He even signed his promise. But when he got extra money, he spent it on universal pre-K. Now more new money is arriving for th e schools, and he is resisting using it to reduce class size, despite the obvious benefits to the neediest children, those who would be helped by extra attention. She writes: After he was elected, de Blasio never followed through and focused on expanding preK and 3K instead. Still, when parents pressed him about the need for smaller classes, he repeatedly said that he would do this when he finally received the full funding from the state from the CFE lawsuit. Now that our schools are receiving that additional CFE funding of $530M next year, rising to $1.3B annually over the next three years, not to mention $7B in additional federal aid to our schools, he no longer has this or any excuse to deny NYC children their right to smaller classes. By Diane Ravitch
Liberals and Congress Retreat Rather Than Fight for National Single Payer Medicare for All The last few years have seen “Medicare for All” go from a pipedream to a household phrase. Yet now, the movement is floundering with lack of clear leadership, with self-appointed spokespeople in Congress and activist groups pushing a puzzling state-based approach. Decades of a movement based on educating the public about the merits of a national health insurance program (like Canada and many other developed countries) achieved a remarkable feat: the majority of Americans now favor Medicare for All. At a Bernie Sanders healthcare town hall last year, Rep. Pramila Jayapal glibly stated that the problem to enacting Medicare for All was not more education of the public, but a question of “political will” necessary to actually push it forward. By Ed Grystar
Carlos Latuff: Cuban Banks No Longer Accepting US Dollars
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!
